This fic is also on my tumblr blog where my username is Kuno-chan and my blog name is Dragoness Ramblings.

Disclaimer: Legend of Korra belongs to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko

This fic was co-written by kuno-chan and spiritypowers

Eyes are the windows to the soul. They betray the lips like a light at a house that's supposed to be empty.

The Eyes

It was the strangest thing in the world to watch Kai's mother. You could see the parts of her that she shared with her son, the way her face and features were shaped. Yet, at the same time, they also seemed nothing alike. They were so similar and so different in... well, everything. She walked proud. Like the ground beneath her feet had her name on it. Kai didn't walk like that. He did walk tall though, at least when he was with her it seemed. Like he had something to prove and Jinora detected traces of that in this woman who called herself Hebimi Hema.

Their eyes were of interest as well. Clearly, Kai's eyes must have been from his father's side, Jinora presumed. Or maybe some of his mother's family had it and not her. Either way, the silver grey of her eyes were unnerving, piercing. When she directly looked at you there was just the tiniest shiver down your spine and whatever that meant to you was decided on as a person. For Jinora, it was just nervous energy. For Kai, it was probably straight up scary.

All that being said, Hebimi was polite if not slightly a bit too still. Now, what really surprised Jinora was just how calm he was around his mother... happy even. Part of her wanted to disapprove. This woman didn't deserve his smiles, but here she was soaking it right up.

"So," said Jinora's father over the clanking of the chopsticks. "What brings you bac- er, to Republic City? I mean, besides Kai, of course."

It was a pointed question, but a subtle and brief one. Her father was making conversation and he was going to be slightly snippy about it she supposed. Jinora felt proud of her once Kai-hating father and bit down a too wide smile.

"Oh, my boy is my sole reason for coming to the city," said Hebimi, smiling pretty. "I haven't seen Kai in a long time. I've been looking for him."

Then why didn't she come find him?

It was an obvious question that no one seemed to dare ask. Kai, on the other hand, had barely said a single word. Not even a hello to his mother.

It was like he didn't know what to say, but his mouth was in perpetual attempted smile. The weak curve of his lip was reserved and so uncharacteristic of him. Even when he was nervous, Kai generally had a strong smile. An inviting smile that Jinora loved about him.

But here he was smiling with his fear showing and unable to hide it she knew. He was beside her and she reached for his hand under the table, stroking the back of it with her thumb. Glancing at her, she saw his real smile. Gentle, but still real.

He deserved more. He didn't deserve this fear.

"So, what will you do now?" asked Jinora's mother, a little more pointedly than Jinora's father. Jinora almost glanced at her, eyebrows raised. In a rare display, her mother had a too wide curve on her lips and the clinking of her chopsticks against her bowl were sightly louder than everybody else's. "Now, that you're in the city for Kai that is."

"One step at a time," said Hebimi, smiling serenely back at Jinora's mother. "I'm sure my son isn't that used to me yet."

Jinora's mother nodded stiffly, as did her father and the tension couldn't have been tighter. Kai was going to have to do this with Mako and Bolin next? She was definitely going to offer to join them. He could use all the support in the world right now.

His nerves were going to be so shot by the end of the night alone.

"So, um, Mom..." began Kai weakly. "Where're you staying? Anywhere close or...?"

"The Lion's Den," said Hebimi, taking a sip of tea. "It keeps me in the middle of town where everything's at. I can get a cab for wherever I need to go. So, it's perfect. And the place is lovely on top of that."

"The Lion's Den?" Kai raised his eyebrows at her, genuinely surprised. "That's a nice hotel. Expensive."

"It was a courtesy. A friend owes me a favor and I finally came by to take advantage. I helped them get the job."

"Yeah?"

"Very much so. You're mother is a resourceful woman."

"So," Jinora cut in before she could stop herself. "Where have you been around all this time? If I may ask?"

It was maybe a little sharp and a little bitter, Kai glancing at her when she asked. She didn't want to make this hard for him and part of her regretted asking, but at the same time it was a valid question. How dare she come back after fourteen years? Not a call or a letter. Not one.

Hebimi took a moment to answer Jinora, her expression never faltering, but the smile never reached her eyes. Her lips curved, but her eyes stared with a frost like quality and she spoke slowly. "I've been far away."

Clearly, thought Jinora.

"Well, I actually came here to ask my son something," said Hebimi, putting her chopsticks down. She looked at a cautious, blinking Kai. "I was hoping he might want to have lunch with me. Tomorrow."

"Lunch?" Kai looked at her, almost dumbfounded.

Lunch?

She just got back! Mother or not, she couldn't possibly expect Kai to-

"Of course, yeah!" Kai nodded, grinned even, and Jinora's jaw dropped open just a little. "I can take you to all kinds of places! I mean, you probably know your own way around, but if you want-"

"Yes," Hebimi replied simply, nodding and simpering through those eerie eyes. "I would like that very much."

Jinora wanted to kick Kai underneath the table, but she couldn't bring herself to do that. Not when he seemed so surprised to be happy about this. Not when his mother had just asked him a question it looked as if he'd waited on for almost fifteen years. Even so, he couldn't just dive into this... could he? Of course he could, but didn't he want to think about it first?

But when she exchanged looks with her parents, they only shrugged awkwardly at her.

Apparently, that was a no.

-:-:-:-

Jinora didn't try to stop him when he left the next day early, grinning up and down. It was such a sudden change. Where there used to be pain, there was now a kind of careful excitement in Kai. He didn't talk about it exactly. Rather, he acted as if it were the most normal, wonderful thing in the world that he would get to spend time with his mother.

There wasn't a single mention of how Kai's mother wronged him so severely and, yet, Jinora didn't have the heart to bring it up.

Yes, she was glad he was happy, but... she really didn't like the way he was kind of just sweeping all his hurt feelings under the rug. As if, suddenly, fourteen years of a motherless childhood hadn't been entirely that woman's fault.

Jinora saw him off and he kissed her happily before he left in the extra car her parents were letting him use just for the occasion. When she went inside however, she collapsed into the couch.

"This..." She shook her head. "This can't be healthy. It's like she's just here now and he's totally fine with it."

Her mother nodded, pursing her lips uncomfortably. "It seems that he is. And we can't get in his way. You know that this is something I'm sure he's wanted for a long time, sweetie."

"I know he has, but he still has to think. He's not even questioning why she's been away for so long! Where she went! Why she abandoned him in a park," said Jinora., sitting up now and curling her legs underneath herself. "He should ask... have a real conversation about this. Not just let her almost literally waltz on back into his life after not seeing her since he was four."

"I know it's hard for us to understand, but we're not Kai. Besides, it's possible that she really is here to stay," said her mother albeit more strained than she probably realized.

"You don't like her either, Mom."

"But I have to respect who she is to Kai," said her mother. "Imagine how Mako feels."

Oh.

That was true.

Mako had been in Kai's life for more years than his own mother had been. She wondered how he was dealing with this. Surely, he must have known by now.

-:-:-:-

Kai didn't come home until it was time for he and Jinora to go for dinner at Mako's. She almost said something, but decided against it when she saw the grin on his face and the small trinket his mother had apparently gotten him: a small sketchbook. Nothing special, but it was the first real thing she'd ever given him, Jinora was sure. After that, dinner at Mako's was really no less tense than it had been at her own house although Mako, Korra and Bolin were awfully kind to Hebimi.

Mako less so, but he was always a bit more stiff than most people.

All the while Jinora couldn't shake the sense that liking Hebimi, bringing herself to find the woman charming, would just end up being a mistake. Something. Some sense of self preservation or protective instinct for Kai.

As if Raava was testing her, Hebimi turned to her at dinner with another one of those silver smile, "You know... I haven't heard much from you. How long have you been dating my son?"

My son.

As if she deserved to say that. In fact, Jiora resented her using the phrase at all and didn't fail to notice how Mako's chopsticks stopped moving for just a moment. Because Kai was Mako's son. Not Hebimi's. She may have given birth to him, but he hadn't been her son in a long time.

"About a year," said Jinora, nodding and schooling her face into pleasantness.

"Over a year actually," chirped Kai, proud and, at least, that made Jinora smile honestly. "Can't believe it, but here we are."

"How can you not believe it?" asked Jinora, raising a playful brow, momentarily forgetting about Kai's mother.

"That you'd stick with me for this long." He grinned at her and reaching underneath the table to take her hand, brought it to her lips for a kiss on her fingertips.

"Yeah, well." Her face went hot. "I could say the same thing about you."

And just like that, they were alone in the world. Just for a second. While his mother was an unwelcome edition to his life, in Jinora's opinion, there was one thing she couldn't erase and that was Kai's care for the people who had already been in his life. Jinora was fairly confident that nothing would make Kai turn on her. Not even the mother he'd waited so long for. The look in his eyes told her as much.

She could call herself fatheaded, but he still looked at her like she was the morning star and he was the sky at twilight.

The world began to spin again as his mother cleared her throat. "That's lovely. You must be quite the girl. Your grandfather was Aang Gyatso, wasn't he? And your father used to be on the city council?"

Jinora turned back toward Hebimi, her smile slightly more strained than before. "Why, yes. Yeah, I never met my grandfather, but that would be him."

"Great man," said Hebimi, almost admiringly. "I'd love to hear all about it. I've managed to acquire a couple tickets to the city museum. Would you like to go?"

Jinora's eyebrows went high.

His mother was... inviting her on an outing?

Jinora glanced at Kai who smiled encouragingly at her. He'd known.

"I, uh." He cleared his throat. "I thought it might be good and she seemed to love the idea. Plus, you love museums. Why not?"

"My son talks endlessly about you," said Hebimi, beaming as well though Jinora noted the viper quality of it. "I would like to know this radiant light of his a little more. If you would so permit."

"Of course," said Jinora with no hesitation. She wanted to know Kai's mother a bit more too. More than anything, what she wanted.

-:-:-:-

After dinner, Hebimi apparently was tired and, as such, Kai was a gentlemen enough to drive his mother home. Jinora, however, was not ready to leave. He would come back to pick her up before they went home. That would give her the chance to discuss their situation without him around.

"Did you notice that she hardly talked to any of you?" she asked Mako. "She didn't even say a word to Bolin and she never even thanked you for all you've done for Kai. Did you notice that?"

Mako nodded, looking out the window of his new apartment with Korra. It was a nice place with crème colored walls and plush beige carpet. A cleanliness nightmare for Momko. Jinora crossed her arms over her chest at the view he had from this side of the city. It was lovely and you could see the city lights illuminate the bay. She would appreciate it more if she didn't have a very distinct thorn in her side.

"I didn't expect her to," said Mako, glancing at her. "I can tell just by the way she looks at Kai. And at you."

Jinora had noticed that.

Not a lack of warm, but a glint of mischief. And not the good kind.

Mako went on. "She didn't thank me because she doesn't want to acknowledge me. She's probably trying to separate me from Kai. In a sense. Like in his mind. Kai's kind of blind right now," he said bitterly. "At no fault of his own, but his optimism is kind of getting in the way. You know how he is."

She did. Kai didn't get his hopes up too high very often, but when something like this happened? It was like he didn't know what it was like to have a wish come true. To be this kind of happy. Of course, he loved Mako and Bolin like the parents they'd truly been to him, but that deep-seated wish had always been there and Mako, of course, would have never tried to take that away from him.

"And what do you think?"

Mako scowled. "That my hands are tied."

Having not exactly anticipated that answer, Jinora's arms slowly fell. "You're not even going to talk to her?"

"Oh, I'll talk to her," he said, sighing. "But I won't force her to give up whatever secret she's hiding. Think about it from her point of view. Say, if she has some kind of goal, that I make myself look like the bad guy. Out of instinct, Kai will probably just latch onto her more. I can't just play into her hands like that. It'll be useless."

"So..."

"So, I'll do what I do best."

"And that's...?"

When he didn't answer her back, she knew the conversation was over. She wasn't sure what was on his mind, but she didn't want to push it either. How must he be feeling about all of this? An earlier conversation with Korra had a very telling answer.

"If your son's mother came back into his life suddenly, especially after he'd just moved out," Korra had told her right before dinner, quietly and gently."You know how you would feel, don't you?"

Looking at Mako now, brow furrowed and a worried look in his eyes, she had a good idea. The thing was, for Jinora, everything was just happening so fast. Hebimi was suddenly here, then she was having dinner with her parents, then she was having lunch with Kai, then she was having dinner with Mako and Bolin and Korra. Why? She was just racing through everything with such little effort. Hebimi said little except what she needed to. Her smiles were cold and she almost wondered what it was like when she didn't smile. When she was angry...

What had the four years Kai had spent with her been like? If this was the same woman who'd raised him then she could only see a loveless four years for Kai. Normally, Jinora tried to give everybody a chance, but what inclination did she had to give Hebimi anything?

Perhaps it was unfair, just maybe, but if somebody asked her if she was resentful toward the mother who devastated her own son like that? So, yes, she was very resentful. She could only imagine the holes he'd had to pull himself out of. The periods of times before they were in each others lives and he'd felt damaged beyond repair.

She was resentful because how dare somebody hurt another person that much and then come back without so much as an apology?

These thoughts occupied Jinora more often than not. Constantly even. And they occupied her right before bed when she found herself going toward his room right before midnight, fully expecting him to be awake. She knocked on the door softly and came in, not at all surprised that he was sketching on his laptop. He grinned when he saw her.

"I know I should probably head to bed, but I had this really wicked idea and I just need to get it down right now. Come, look." She smiled back at him as he waved her over and she sat down next to him, nestling her head on his shoulder. He'd been sketching a sorceress design with a grey and purple palette.

"It's lovely," she said, reaching out to point out the silhouette of the dress. "I like this part. It's really sleek."

"Yeah, I kind of wanted to show it to my mom. You think she could get a quick look at it before you guys leave tomorrow?"

Jinora opened her mouth to say something positive, but found no words. She finally sighed. "Kai, we need to talk about her."

Kai frowned, pressing a few buttons on his laptop and putting it aside slowly. "About my mom?"

She nodded.

Kai pursed his lips. "You have a problem with her, don't you?"

Jinora swallowed hard. "Love, I... I know you're happy that she's back and... that's great." She took him by the hand. "But... don't you think you're letting her in too soon? Too fast?"

"I understand you're worried-"

"No, I don't think you do," Jinora pleaded.

She was sure he didn't quite understand just how worried she was for him. Just how deep this fear for him went that it ached in her sleep and prevented her from resting properly. This worry tired her out so much, by Raava, it exhausted her a little bit. If only he could just take a second to really think about his mother's possible reasons for being back besides just wanting to be here.

"Babe," He squeezed her hand in his. "I mean, I know she's done a lot of wrong. I get that. But I just can't turn her away after she's finally come back. You know what I mean? What if I get upset at her and then she just leaves again? I want her to stay and I know it's a little hard for you to kind of be around her... all of you, but if you can just try. Just try. It would mean the world to me."

And that was when every argument Jinora had prepared died. Kai asked for so little. So little in the world. When he looked at her with that one request, how was she supposed to say no? She bit her lip and searched his eyes.

After a moment of silent, she nodded firmly. "I will. I promise, love. I promise I will."

-:-:-:-

Jinora had never felt so tense in a museum before in her life. Museums were places that were always filled with such wonder and history that whenever she'd gotten a chance to go, it left her endlessly excited. But not today. Today she was filled with awkwardness and tense atmosphere. Surely, Hebimi also felt the same way.

"You are afraid of me," said Hebimi, her tone seemed overly sweet, like it was hiding a cold nature.

Jinora swallowed. "No, no..."

"I can tell." Hebimi said patiently. "I'm not stupid. You are all protective of my son."

"Can you blame us?" Jinora almost snapped at the brazen statement. She lowered her voice. "He's been through a lot. As I'm sure you know."

"My son has always been strong."

They passed by a large sculpture of Raava, one of the most beautiful Jinora ever had seen in her life, but she could hardly notice that or the gorgeous paintings on the other side of the sculpture because she was giving Hebimi what could only be a disapproving look.

"He had to." Jinora huffed. She bit her lip.

She promised. She promised. She promised.

"The world will eat him up if he's not. He's always known that."

Raava, be with her. Jinora promised.

"Kai has had a hard life. And he's gotten himself out with Mako's help. Mako's raised him for the better part of a decade."

"It was nice of him," Hebimi said simply. Not once she did ever look at Jinora as they strolled along. Jinora couldn't help but be rather incensed at the lofty tone of voice or the dismissal. She was not going to come in here and make it seem like Mako did some kind of small charity.

I promised, Jinora reminded herself.

But, Raava help her, this woman was making it impossible to keep that promise.

"You left Kai. You left him." Jinora finally said, turning to Hebimi. "And I don't have to say how you left him."

They stopped in front of a bronze painted pair of doors that matched hues of the walls. The floors were glossy, almost showing their reflections and Jinora was sure they looked like two women having a standoff.

"Yet, he is alright," Hebimi said simply, pinning Jinora with those silver eyes. "It's in the past. I don't live in the past as you seem to. Kai did say you love museums. I never cared for them, but he says that you love them. I can see why."

Jinora bit the inside of her cheek. If she said everything she wanted to say to Kai's mother, they would probably have to forcibly remove her from the museum and that just wouldn't do. She didn't need that kind of headache or anxiety.

"You don't even care that you left him."

"Am I not here?"

That was it.

Jinora turned right around and walked out the museum. She completely intended to tell Kai all about how his mother was so cold, but when he called and told him that Hebimi said they had a lovely time, Jinora bit down her horrible words.

"She was quite the company." Jinora tried to grin over the phone. "She made it a visit. Really, she did."

Oh my god, I am so sorry that this took ages to update! I've been busy and working on other fics and since this one is nearly done I think I got carried away with other projects. First of all, thank you for all of you who have been reading this up until now. It really means a whole lot! As for this chapter, it was very transitionary and I knew there was going to be one somewhere around here because of the nature of Hebimi's visit. Everybody's still feeling her out while Kai just really wants his mother to be apart of his life again.

Once again, thank you so much! As always, guys I love it when you drop those reviews! They really keep me motivated and keep me writing! Thank you for reading! Tune in for next chapter!