"Mama!" Su heard her youngest boys yell simultaneously. Her motherly instincts kicked in at once. She leaped right out of her chair, ran out of her office and straight to the boys' room.
"What's wrong?!" She asked as she flung the door open. Neither boy appeared to be harmed, but the room which they were supposed to be cleaning was in ruin. Bits of stone were missing from the floor and scattered around the room, things laid broken on the floor from where the child-fist size rocks hit them. Classic signs of an earthbender temper tantrum.
"Who did this?" She asked evenly as she surveyed the damage. Both boys pointed at the other and immediately started playing the blame game, making it impossible for her to tell which of her sons was the new bender. So she stomped her foot, bringing up two little, perfectly round balls of rock, "Hold out your hands, boys."
They looked at her skeptically, like they knew they were about to be punished, they just weren't quite sure how. Four shaking hands turned over and formed two bowls. She put a rock in each and told them to squeeze as hard as they could. Their little faces twisted in concentration and they both squeezed as hard as their muscles would allow. When Su took the rocks, each had finger indents. Two more little Beifong earthbenders, discovered on the same day...spirits, be with her.
The mother deduced that the boys had gotten into a fight and bended the room apart together, so first, damage repair, and since they were fighting and lied to her they would get to help as part of their punishment. She stood there while they gathered every little spec of misplaced stone and piled it up. With a few wrist movements, the floor was as good as new. Secondly, a time out in separate corners, that hurt them the most, they stood there crying in the hopes that she'd feel sorry for them. But she'd seen that trick too many times to be effected by it now. Thirdly, she had to tell Baatar the news.
"Dear? What's wrong?" Her husband asked as she came into his office with two little boys with tear stained cheeks. The other two men kept to themselves, one because it wasn't any of his business, the other because he had no opinion regarding what trouble his little brothers caused.
"Oh, just a little spat, nothing to worry about. But I just wanted to let you know that we're going to be late for dinner. I got to give these two badgermoles their first earthbending lesson."
"Wow, both of you?" Baatar got on one knee to hug them each in turn, "Well, how about you show me what you can do tomorrow after breakfast?" Both of his sons quickly agreed. He ruffled their hair and turned to his wife with a smile while whispering, "Hei Bai help us." Su nodded knowingly, but put on a brave smile. This was actually wonderful news, it's just that the next few months might be a bit of a pain. They might need to put the twins in separate rooms to keep them from hurting each other.
"Well, we better be off, we have to send a telegram to their aunt and let them know the good news and then we got to practice."
"Su. Your sister might be...busy." He never did agree with her idea to keep Lin informed, so every time he tried to stop her even though he knew she'd never listen.
"Oh, she can take the time to read a telegram." Su didn't want to do this, she needed to. Yes, she made some mistakes in the past, big ones admittedly, but Su and her family were the only relatives Lin had left. And since the eldest sibling was too stubborn to leave the past behind, the youngest would let her know what she was missing out on.
"Will she come see us now?" Wing asked. And that's why Baatar always tried to stop her. And that's why Su instantly regretted mentioning the telegram to their aunt in front of them. She told all of them about her big sister, the one that stood up to bullies and told her stories and helped her get ready for school, and they all wanted to meet her. But she just didn't have the heart to tell them the truth of the matter, so her sons would wait anxiously for her arrival until they were old enough to realize that their aunt wanted nothing to do with them.
"No, sweetheart. She's too busy to visit, but I'm sure she'll be happy to know you're benders." She went to assure them. Wing sighed and his brother shuffled until she put a hand on each back and lead them out of the room.
"I don't think we really have an aunt." Wei whispered to his twin, or at least tried to, the boy couldn't whisper to save his life.
"Yes you do, and you know what?" she bent down and pulled them close as if she was going to tell them a secret, "She's there in her city, missing out on the greatest family in the world."
It was a typical family dinner at Air Temple Island. Ikki was prattling on a mile a minute, Meelo was playing with his food, Jinora was pouting because her parents took the book she was trying to read while eating. Tenzin and Pema were eating in silence, pretending to listen to their youngest daughter. All normal, but then the extended family came into play.
Mako and Asami, who were still 'on probation' as Bolin put it, were forced to sit on opposite sides of the table and spent half the time staring at each other. Bolin and Korra were on opposite sides of the table as well, thanks to the Beifong Matriarch. Korra chose to glare at Lin, who was more than willing to participate a glowering contest with the avatar, Bolin tried unsuccessfully to tease his brother and get on his mom's good side. This lead to awkwardness, and Bumi didn't do 'awkwardness'.
"How 'bout a story to ease the tension?"
"Yeah!" Meelo shouted, raising his fists in the air.
"I'll tell you about the time me, your dad, and Aunts Kya and Lin were in the forest near Ba Sing Se." He decided with a roguish smile, "We had to go to a fiftieth peace anniversary banquet. But it was boring, so we crawled out of a third floor window and escaped the city. Then suddenly," he banged on the table, "we found ourselves surrounded by thirty bandits."
"Fifteen." Lin corrected causally. Bumi cleared his throat to display his irritation about being interrupted,
"All of them were master metalbenders."
"Fourteen earthbenders. One metalbender novice." She broken in again while Tenzin gave his best 'humph'. All the teenagers shared a knowing grin, the tension officially left the room and the normal insanity took it's place.
"We knew we had but one choice, and that was to fight." He put up his dukes to emphasize his point, "So I fashioned a weapon from the few things I had at my disposal-"
"He grabbed a stick."
"It was a branch! And I took out ten-"
"Two." Tenzin finally joined in with a vain showing.
"Hey!" Bumi's concentration finally broke, now he had to defend his honor, "I took out more than that! You two just knocked them out as they were getting on their knees to surrender!"
"They were going to make an earthquake, you numbskull."
"It was twenty years ago, who knows what happened?!"
"We do."
"Could you hand me the tea, Uncle Tenzin?" Asami blinked. Tenzin's new title didn't go unnoticed, but the surprise only lasted a split second.
"Here you are."
"Thank you."
"Aw, and I'm not 'Uncle Bumi'?" The madman gave an over exaggerated pout, not willing to follow the rest of the family's example and just letting it go without mention, "That's not fair."
"Of course you're 'Uncle Bumi'." Asami played along to save herself from what embarrassment she could, "You're the crazy uncle I never had." Though that wasn't something she ever dreamed of having. Still, she never had aunts or uncles growing up, having two of the latter would be nice.
"Ours too." Bolin spoke for him and his brother.
"Which none of us ever wants to admit in public." Mako deadpanned, earning a smirk from Lin.
"Hey, I tell people about him all the time." The teenaged earthbender disproved his brother's claim, "Every family's supposed to have a crazy uncle."
"Thank you, Bolin." The crazy uncle said after stick out his tongue at Mako, "At least most of my nephews love me." An unexpected knock at the door took everyone's attention from the family banter. Meelo leaped up to answer it before Lin caught him by the collar. Maybe she was still a little tense since the equalist movement, but she didn't want him answering the door.
"Chief!" her officer saluted, "Telegram marked as urgent."
Lin.
The twins are earthbenders. They want to see you. They're your family. Don't turn your back on them.
Suyin Beifong.
Not for the first time Lin thought about replying. Something along the lines of 'Stop contacting me, I don't care'. But that would technically be speaking to the woman...she'd spoken to her once in the last twenty years and that was enough. She waved the officer off and headed back to the dinning room where she handed Mako a folded piece of paper and told him to burn it immediately. Everyone wondered what was in that message to put her into such a fowl mood, a couple of them asked, but she just told them it was none of their business.
Eighteen, and freshly out of a jail cell, Lin was beyond furious. 'This is the last straw', the judge had said, 'You have two options,' he said, 'prison for three years, or a police officer for eight'. Though choice. Especially considering that she was Chief Beifong's daughter, she'd be like bloody meat to a pack of starving wolfbats in prison.
"This one shouldn't count," she went to her father figure with her problems, he was a high ranking city official, he could help, "it was self defense!"
"Lin, you started a fight in front of a school. And you threw the first punch."
"I threw the second one too." she growled. Her mom had called her, asking her to pick up Su from school, but wasn't able to get there on time. When she did arrive, one of the fathers of the other students was calling her names and making fun of her. At first, she hadn't believed what she was seeing, the man was an adult for spirits' sake. But then it started to sink in that she was really watching a full grown man bulling her little sister and her blood began to boil. Next thing she knew, she was in handcuffs, "He was insulting Su, she was in tears-"
"I was not!" her seven-year-old sister shouted from the hallway. Su was a Beifong, and Beifong's didn't cry.
"Whatever, brat!" she called back, "I had to deck him, Sokka! Are you going to help me or not?"
"Not." he threw up his hands in a surrender motion before she could say a word, "I can't, it's done. Look, Lin. You never wanted special treatment, me and Toph made sure you never got it." Unfortunately for Lin, that agreement worked to her disadvantage as well. Sure, she made her own way, but she could never get out of trouble either despite the fact that Lin's growing record was hurting Toph's reputation. When a particular official had even made note of it 'But, Chief, you can't have a daughter in jail'. Her mom did her best to look them in the eye and said, 'Fire me. Family comes first'.
"Fine." She made a point of slamming his office door on the way out. Then she grabbed Su's hand and made her way out of the building.
"Lin. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it, Tyke." She tried to soften her voice, but she was just too mad and it came out as a growl, "We're family. We can't turn each other in and we can't-"
"Turn our backs on each other." Su finished.
"Right. I did what I had to do and I'd do it again."
That damn family oath, she'd honored it many times, she got arrested because of it more than once. But this time, like every other time Su tried using it against her in the last twenty years, she would be turning her back. Su belonged there in Zaofu, where she could do whatever she damn well pleased without effecting her half-sister in any way. And she belonged here in Republic City, where she could keep her kids far out of her half-sister's sight and seismic range.