not going to lie, first half is pretty weak. when you reach the italics it will then get better. you can read the italics on its own. like always r&r.
"Hey mum, can you and I go shopping today?" Asked Jinora.
"Why just you and I?" Lin countered.
"I just think you and I could use some one on one time"
"Let me get dressed."
Lin moved to bend on her armour, when her daughter moved to pick up the piece. "Why don't you wear a dress."
"When did you become in charge of me?" asked Lin, folding her arms across her chest, a smirk on her face. "Why don't you pick something out for me to wear."
Jinora started fumbling through her mother's wardrobe, when she found pale green dress, with a small flying boar on the chest. "This one." She threw it towards her mother.
Lin let out a sigh "Fine." She out the dress on, looking herself over in the mirror, "how do I look?"
"I love it. Though you could wear a tad of makeup."
Lin gave Jinora a pointed look, "not happening."
"You're no fun… can I wear some makeup? Please, just a little lipstick."
"Alright, lipstick only and I decide what shade."
"Deal!"
Jinora led her mother into the bathroom and began to pull out different kinds of makeup. "What about this one? Or this? Or what about blood red?"
Lin put her hands on Jinora's shoulders, pushing her down onto the chair "I'm choosing, remember?" She pulled out a light pink and started to apply it to her daughter's lips. "There. Let's go."
They started towards the docks, seeing the ferry leave for the other side. They were too late. "We could always take the police boat."
Lin looked down at her daughter, "we tell no one."
"Can I drive?"
"You're pushing your luck kid. Now get in so I can push us off." Lin threw her shoes into the boat. Placing her hands on the bow, she pushed it off from the sand, jumping in as it floated away. The boat flew across the bay, overtaking the ferry with ease.
"I am so buying one of these for personal use," Lin said, letting the boat float onto the sand.
"Dad will kill you" Jinora laughed, getting out of the boat.
"He can try." Lin said, tying off the boat. They started walking to the shopping district, "let's go find a tailor so we can get you some new pants and shirts."
Jinora stoped in her tracks, grabbing her mother's attention, "actually, I was kind of hoping, I could get some traditional teenage clothes, or earth kingdom clothes."
"Why?" Asked Lin, taken aback by the unusual request.
"I just want a change in wardrobe."
Sensing her daughter was lying, she let it slide, thinking her daughter had a valid reason for lying to her. "Your father will have a fit."
"Can you talk to him?"
"I'll try but no guarantees. What would you like to buy first?" Lin asked, following her daughter further into the shopping district.
"Ballet flats. Black ones with little bows on them." She walked into a shoe store and began rummaging through the different shoes the store had to offer. "Found them! And they're in my size!"
"They look nice. What about a pair of black ankle boots"
"Are you okay with paying for all this?" questioned Jinora, looking at the two hundred Yuan price tag.
"I think I can manage." These kids really have no idea how rich we are.
Jinora ran to a clothes store, leaving her mother to foot the bill for the shoes. "Mum aren't these amazing?" She said, holding a pair of green jeans against her legs, "oh and these ones!"
"I've got an idea, I'm going to sit on this nice couch, whilst you pick out anything you want." Said Lin, sitting down on the grey couch.
Jinora spent the next two hours picking out everything a teenage girl wanted. "I think I'm done.
Lin let out a yawn, "About time. Put everything on the counter, then we can get something to eat"
"That will be a thousand Yuans." Said the check out chick, whilst chewing on some gum.
Jinora moved towards the clothes on the counter. "I'll put some of the items back."
Her mother slapped her hand away, handing over the cash. She picked up her daughter's bags leaving Jinora stunned. "Let's go, I'm hungry."
"You do realise, you just spent over a thousand Yuans without blinking right?"
"Yeah, what of it?" shrugged Lin, walking to a food stand. "Now what do you want to eat?"
"A salad please."
Jinora accepted their food from the vender, as her mother led them to a near by park. "Sit. Now tell me why you wanted to buy new clothes."
"I tol-"
"Can it. Are you forgetting I can tell when people lie."
Jinora let out a defeated sigh. "I'll tell you, but you have to answer one of my questions in return." Lin gave her a nod. "Well, I've kinda been getting picked on at school because I'm constantly wearing the same outfit. And I'm over it."
"I understand." Jinora gave her a look that said she didn't believe her. "It's true, you forget I had a blind woman for a mother, I was lucky if I got one left shoe and one right one. When I was your age, she dumped me off at the nearest store with a wad of cash and told me to go nuts."
"What is it with your family and this infinite amount of money?"
"What are you on about? We're Bei Fongs."
"You say that about everything, 'I kicked his ass because I'm a Bei Fong. I'm the best earthbender in the world because I'm a Bei Fong'." She let out a breath she had been holding in.
Lin began laughing at her daughter's impression of her mother. "Jinora, my grandparents owned the flying boar estate. When they died, I inherited it because my mother said she couldn't be stuffed with all the stupid lawyers and she couldn't read the accounting books."
"You mean to tell me, you are the third richest person in the world? Wow."
"It can be a pain in the backside, believe me. Now what did you want to ask?" she said, taking a bite of her chickenduck roll.
"Well, I found a book in the library on the history of the Republic City's police department's uniform and weapons and it said that the file on the current uniform was 'classified'. I asked a few officers about it and they said I had to ask you."
"It's classified for a reason Jinora."
"You promised. And you always say I can ask you anything. Why is this any different?" Jinora asked a bit aggressively.
Lin let out a sigh. "Fine but I don't want you to think anything less of me, or your aunt Su. We're different people now. It was my first assignment as officer in charge-
"Lieutenant Bei Fong, we received intel on a party at dragon flats that's going down tonight. Your objective is to disperse the crowd. Only make arrests if you have to. What plan are you going with?"
"Plan Delta Chief."
"Sounds good. Assemble a team of twenty," Lin turned to leave her mother's office, "and Lin, be careful."
"Will do." she walked onto the deck of the airship to address her team. "Listen up team, tonight we are to disperse a party in dragon flats. We're running plan Delta. You are to wait here while I give the order to the patrons to leave peacefully. Failure to do so, I will give my signal, which as you all know is a shot of metal cables into the air."
"Lieutenant! We're over the drop zone."
"Gentlemen, wait for my order and good luck tonight." They all gave a salute in return.
Lin walked past drunken teens on the lawn, couples making out and others smoking or dancing, when she spotted her younger sister pashing another teen on veranda, which was quickly escalating to something more. She walked over to their position, lifting the boy off her sister's body and throwing him onto the other side of the veranda. She dragged Su to her feet so they stood face to face. "What are you doing?!" she half shouted half whispered.
"Having fun," Su slurred.
Lin took a step back, having smelt her sister's breath. "You're drunk!"
"And you're a good detective." She moved to sit on the boys lap, wanting to go back to her previous actions. Lin took a hold of Su's upper arm in a vicelike grip. "Let go of me!"
"Not happening! I'm here to protect you!"
"You mean like how you protected me against Kydo?" she lowered he voice into a darkened tone. "You're a cold blooded murderer and nothing more." Lin let go in shock, watching as Su disappeared into the large crowd.
Lin shook herself out of her shocked state. She moved to take control of the situation. Grabbing the bullhorn at her hip, she grabbed the attention of the partygoers. "This is the Republic City police! You have a minute to vacate the premises or face the consequences."
People began booing and throwing bottles at her "this is getting out of hand" she said to herself. She raised a hand to the spool at her hip, she shot a metal wire upwards, signalling her fellow officers to move in. officers began flowing in from different directions. She observed the situation, moving in to help when needed. Benders began moving against the officers.
"Check it out! I'm a police officer!"
She turned in the direction of the voice. It was too late. A metal cable now protruded from under her sternum. She started to cough up blood, unsure what was happening. An arm came around her waist, hauling her outside where a healer van was situated.
She could feel a metalbender tearing away at her armour, trying to get to the wound. The last thing she felt on her body was the rush of water.
Lin let out a groan as she woke up. She tried to sit up. Giving up when she felt a hand stronger than she currently was, push down on her chest. She opened her eyes to see her mother standing over her. "Mm where am I?"
"You're in hospital. Do you recall what happened?"
Lin lowered her voice to a whisper. "Yeah, I do." Glancing around the room she found her armour lying in a heap in the corner, bloodied and torn to pieces. "Looks like I'm going to need new armour."
"We're actually in the process of replacing everyone's armour. Metalbenders, waterbenders and firebenders."
"What are you on about?"
"Lin, you proved, in the worst possible way, that our armour isn't as strong as it should be. So we are now using steel, instead of tin. Our defence should be stronger than our attack."
There was a knock at the door, soon followed by the presence of Su. Lin's face turned into a scowl, "get out Su."
"I'm here to see how you're feeling" Su said in disbelief at her sister's request.
"I SAID GET OUT!" Su quickly retreated into the hallway, missing the tear rolling down Lin's face.
"You want to tell me what all that was about?" Asked Toph, confused as to what just occurred between her daughters.
Lin said nothing as tears continued to flow down her face. Toph knew that when Lin avoided a question, something was clearly wrong. She moved to sit on the edge of the bed, reaching a hand out to her daughter's cheek, feeling the dampness of the taught skin. "Lin it's okay to cry around me. You aren't my subordinate right now, you're my daughter. Tell me what's wrong."
Letting out a sob Lin spoke "I ran into Su at the party she called me a murderer. Even after I did it to save her life." Toph quickly, yet careful of her injury, pulled Lin into an embrace, whispering sweet nothings of comfort until she fell asleep.
"So from that one incident led to a new uniform? It must have been serious."
"It was. It showed that we had a hole in our defence."
"Do you still have the scar?"
"Yes, though it has faded quite a bit."
A few moments of silence passed as they finished their lunch. "So being Bei Fongs, does that mean we have access to the Bei Fong university library?"
"Kiddo, if it has our name in it, then you can bet your as that we own it."