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Lin takes another bite of whatever it was she grabbed from a passing waiter in that ridiculous Niktik costume. Or was it Nektek? she wonders absently, watching the stars over the remains of Republic City. Most of them were all but invisible when compared to the radiant light of Republic City’s new spirit portal. She wonders how she’ll ever manage to sleep with that light just outside her window. Far below where she’s watching sit Korra and her friend Asami, an exhausted Naga asleep to one side of them.
“Well, they look cozy, don’t they?” Someone says, tapping Lin’s arm lightly.
“I’ll say.” Lin says, turning to see Pema, her hair a little tussled, holding a dirty faced, loudly snoring Rohan on one hip and two dainty sake cups in the other. “Hey, let me help.” Lin says, reaching for the drinks.
“Thanks!” Pema says, shifting her son’s weight towards Lin.
“That’s not- I didn’t- I mean-“ Lin says loudly before awkwardly snatching the cups from Pema’s hand, sloshing most of it over both their hands. Pema just laughs and wipes her hand on her robes as Lin awkwardly shakes her hand off.
“Sorry.” Lin says very quietly, handing Pema the cup with more in it. Pema laughs loudly.
“It was a joke, Lin. And you don’t have to worry about him, he sleeps like the dead, just like his father.”
“I remember.” Lin says before blushing brightly. She expects Pema to be angry but she’s just sipping from her drink and rocking back and forth to the rhythm of the music behind them. “So uh, where is he anyway?” Lin says, clearing her throat.
“Last I heard he was looking for Varrick on the roof.” Pema says resting her cheek against Rohan’s when he snuggles closer. Lin turns and easily spots Zhu Li spinning Varrick on the dance floor.
“Why? Varrick hasn’t left the dance floor all night.”
Pema smiles brightly. “Asami interrupted his conversation with Korra to tell him that Varrick was looking for a glider.”
Lin huffs a laugh. “She’s good. It’d be a lot more believable if his wife wasn’t so smart.”
The next morning, Lin wakes up to a frantic call from Tenzin. “She’s gone and didn’t say where or why or for how long and-“
“Tenzin-“
“I’m so worried for her, what if she-“
“Tenzin!”
“What?” he snaps.
“Who are you talking about?” she asks blinking as she looks around her still mostly trashed apartment.
“Korra! She’s gone and I’m so worried, what if she disappears for another three years?!?”
“Tenzin, she’s a big girl, she’ll be-“
“Don’t you ‘she’ll be fine’ me, Lin Beifong. She can’t just up and vanish again! She can’t do this to me again! Us- I mean she can’t do this us. We need her. The world needs her and what if something happens to her, she’s still…” the line goes weirdly quiet for a second before she hears Tenzin’s voice again. “Rohan what are you- PUT THAT DOWN!” Lin yanks the phone away from her ear as it clatters loudly.
Lin lies back in bed for a few long moments, absently eartbending the crack in her ceiling away. She’s just about to hang up and get dressed when a familiar voice says hello.
“So he didn’t know?” Lin asks Pema. The night before, they had spotted the two girls slipping away from the kitchen with what looked like sleeping bags and several days worth of food as the party roared on unconcerned.
“Completely oblivious.” Pema says happily.
“You gonna tell him?” Lin asks, pulling on a sweater.
“I was planning on saying something somewhere between after he huffs most of breakfast off the table and before he organizes a city wide search party.”
Lin laughs. “He sounds a little closer to the search party at the moment.”
Pema sighs. “Yeah, I’m a little disappointed. I was almost hoping he’d accidentally bend a bowl of rice onto his head again.”
“Well put him on after he wrangles your son, I’ll try to talk him down from search party until after breakfast.”
“Excellent. He’ll be back in a second.”
Lin rolls her shoulders, before combing her hair as she listens to the dim noises from across the line. After she’s finished her hair and has just considered carrying the phone into the kitchen as she makes breakfast she hears the muffled sounds of Rohan’s whining and his father’s exasperating responses. After a short moment he picks up the phone again. “Lin?”
“Tenzin, Korra is a big girl. She will be fine.”
“But what if something happens to her and-“
“Tenzin!” Lin snaps. “She handled herself on her own for 3 years and came back stronger and more mature that we’d ever hoped for.”
“What if something happens to us?” he asks in a quiet, tired voice that she hasn’t heard in a long time.
“She’ll come back. Just like she did this time.”
“But-“
“Tenzin, you should know after how much Jinora harassed you about her tattoos that the more you hold on to her the more she’ll pull away. Neither Korra or Jinora will ever be a match for the hellions that Kya and Bumi were or Su for that matter. And they all turned out fine… eventually. They’ll grow and learn and heal. Let them know you’re there for them and then back off some.”
“That’s…” Lin’s brow furrows and she takes a breath to refute his next response. “… actually completely right, Lin.” She lets out a surprised huff of air.
“I can’t remember the last time you agreed with me.”
“I know. But the world’s changed a lot lately, hasn't it?”
“Sure has.” Lin says smiling.