Chapter Text
Lin Beifong was having a Bad Day. Mako had left with Korra several weeks ago, despite a dressing down from Lin about it. She’d promised him he’d still have a job when he got back but she was feeling the loss. She’d become too used to relying on the junior detective now, not just for his bending skills and good instinct, but his insights into the workings of the gangs of Republic City. The information he retained from his past had contributed to his arrest rate as a beat cop and were invaluable when organising raids.
Admittedly, Korra leaving meant Lin had one less headache to deal with in the form of the daily arguments the Avatar seemed to have, but her city was still overrun with vines and the President was still bawling in her ear about it. Maybe he’d heard about the swamp benders being able to manipulate vines and thought she could organise something with the fire department Waterbenders. Apparently he hadn't learnt from Korra's abortive attempt. But Lin had had enough forays into the Spirit world with Aang and Kya in her youth that she was not about to start messing with spirits. She'd been taught to be respectful and also knew that not all spirits were benevolent. The vines would just have to stay.
She was contemplating meditating into the spirit world to avoid dealing with the part of being Police Chief she hated the most: the endless paperwork. The badly spelt reports, the wage slips, her own reports. From the big, mainly on various gang activities and protests and the small, a funds request for new training equipment. She pinched her nose, debating whether she should give in and get reading glasses for the hours spent staring at words. She wondered whether her mother had ever had a similar problem with braille. Did the raised dots just blend into one another after a while? There was a knock on the door, and she slammed the open folder on the desk with a loud thump, sending half the contents scattering out.
“What is it?” she said sharply. That was another area where Mako was useful, fending off the time wasters and dealing with the problems that didn’t require the Chief, but for some reason people thought needed her personal attention.
“Um. There’s someone to see you. She says it’s vital she speaks to you immediately otherwise something terrible will happen to what she’s got in her bag.”
Lin frowned. It sounded a little amateurish and frankly weird for a bomb threat. But still, better that she dealt with it. “Let her in!” she called back and shuffled the papers back into the folder, before turning to glower at whoever was interrupting her non-existent lunch break. Her chair creaked as she leant back in surprise. “Kya?”
The waterbender closed the door behind her and walked over to the desk, depositing a paper bag on it.
Lin stared it for a moment. “So what’s the terrible thing that’s going to happen? I’m going to have to eat your cooking?”
Kya scowled at her. “The terrible thing that will happen is it will get cold if you don’t eat it right away.”
Lin grunted. “I’m not hungry.”
“The other terrible thing that will happen, is that I’ll freeze the lock on your door shut until you eat it.”
“I can rappel out the window.” Lin pointed out. She really should look into glasses; they’d be excellent to stare at people over when they interrupted her like this. Not that it would work on Kya because she was pointing a finger at Lin, coating the tip of it in frost. “Fine. Fine.” She relented and opened up the bag. It wasn’t that Kya was a bad cook, Lin admitted as she took out the glass pot filled with some sort of stew, it was just that she liked to be inventive sometimes and had a peculiar sense of what tasted good. But this particular concoction smelt good at least, Lin admitted to herself as she took the lid off and bent two spoons out of some of her wire.
“Lin! That’s disgusting.” Kya snatched them out of her hand and bent some water round them to clean them.
“I’ll have you know I take very good care of my wires. I hope your water’s fresh.”
“Always,” Kya said primly, handing one of the spoons back as she sat down to the side of Lin. “Are you going to make bowls too? I didn’t think I’d get this far so I didn’t bother bringing any.”
“I can eat it out the dish.” Lin shuffled her chair along and placed the pot where they could both easily reach it.
Kya bent the stew onto her spoon, watching Lin with interest as Lin ate almost mechanically. “Is it good?”
Lin gave a non-committal shrug. “I’m eating it.”
“High praise.” Kya rolled her eyes.
Lin paused at the mildly acerbic tone and looked up. “It is. I don’t normally eat lunch. Thanks for bringing me some.” She gave an awkward smile.
“Well it’s a chance to catch up too, seeing as I’m staying on Air Temple Island at the moment. I hear from Pema you and Tenzin are getting along a lot better these days?”
Lin grunted and bent over the stew once more.
“What? I think it’s good. You always were such good friends as kids, always flying about on Oogi together. I would’ve thought you missed that.”
In the silence that followed, the long distance radio in the corner of Lin’s office went off. Kya sighed as Lin abandoned her lunch and got up to answer it.
“From Zuko?... what?... slow down! What do you… The Avatar isn’t here… no. Don’t. I’ll go myself. You focus on finding them.” Lin slammed the receiver down and switched the radio back off.
“Bad news?”
“Just about the worst.” Lin had reached the door before she remembered. “Sorry Kya. It’s Zaheer and his lot. They’ve escaped. I have to go find Korra immediately.”
Kya’s eyes went wide. “Of course. Go.”
Lin hesitated as she was about leave and turned back. “It tasted great,” she said and then disappeared through the door before Kya could reply.