Work Text:
One second Lin was asleep and the next adrenalin was spreading in her body as the phone rang, loudly echoing in the apartment. She took a moment to notice that she wasn’t in any immediate danger and let out a sigh.
Next to her Kya groaned loudly, before it turned into a whine. “Please let it be a robbery,” she mumbled.
Lin would chuckle at Kya’s antics if it weren’t three in the morning as her clock informed her a side glance and some blinking later. She slapped her hands over her face.
Can’t this city go without an emergency for one fucking night?
Rationally she knew that the precinct hadn’t called in over two weeks, but irrationally she had just been awoken by the most annoying ringtone there possibly was.
Next, Kya’s hand was rudely pushing her shoulder. “Make it stop,” she groaned and Lin cursed herself for agreeing to the arrangement to always be the one getting up for the phone on weekdays – never mind the fact that more often than not it was the hospital calling for Kya.
Kya pushed her again, whining and Lin forced her legs over the side of the bed. She didn’t take time to let her circulation adjust so she wobbled the first steps out of the bedroom while white blotches filled her vision and blood rushed through her ears.
She had a few more steps to work herself conscious and make herself receptive to the onslaught of information waiting on the other end of the line. She wondered which part of the city she would have to drive to and managed to hope for something close to the station and therefore close to home.
She sighed deeply, clearing her throat before picking up.
“Chief Beifong speaking.”
Silence. If she really were awake, she would hear the panting on the other line, but she was waiting for words and there are none.
“Who is this?” she asked impatiently.
More silence. She was about to hang up when a strained voice answered her.
“I can’t come in to work tomorrow.”
Lin furrowed her brows. “Mako?”
“Bolin-“ there is a pause and some distant coughing, “Bolin has the flu so I can’t leave.”
She was almost fully awake now. She heard Mako shushing someone – probably his brother – and waited for the boy to address her again. He didn’t.
“What do you need?” she implored roughly, cringing a little.
“Nothing chief,” he said, “Sorry. I don’t know why I’m calling. I’m sorry. I’ll just…”
He didn’t finish the sentence leaving a silence to stretch out between them before she heard another rushed sorry chief and then the line went flat.
Another sigh left her lips as she pus the phone down to walk over to the kitchen. She felt her head thrum, remembered she hadn’t drunk enough yesterday so she tried to prevent an actual headache and drank a glass of water.
She looked over at the phone before trotting back into the bedroom.
Kya was lying on her stomach, diagonally stretched out on the bed and Lin wondered where she had fit in this picture before getting up. She lifted the sheets and Kya almost automatically retreated to her side of the bed, letting Lin slip in beside her.
“False alarm?” Kya questioned and Lin hears the plea of please tell me it wasn’t the hospital.
“No emergency,” she groaned lying down on her back, bed creaking in the process. “Mako called.”
Somehow Kya lifted her head to look at her through barely open eyes. “Is he okay?” she whispered.
“Yeah,” she found herself answering, “He just called in sick for tomorrow.”
“He’s sick?”
“No, Bolin is sick.”
Kya raised a brow and Lin almost smiled. “That is what he woke us up for? I swear, these kids have no appreciation for a full night’s sleep…”
Lin shrugged her shoulders.
“Wait did he need something?”
“No.” It did sound very unlike him to bother her with something small like that.
Kya’s head dropped down into the pillows with a grunt. “Wait, that means we can go back to sleep, right?”
This time Lin let a smile tug at her lips. “Yes,” she says, “Go back to sleep.”
Kya groaned and mere moments later went back to the light wheezing that Lin had once dared call snoring. Lin marveled at how quickly Kya was able to from coherent to fast asleep and blamed all the overtime the healer had been working lately. She made a mental note to buy some of those fancy bath oils Kya likes so she could have a relaxing bath on the weekend.
She leaned forward to press a kiss against Kya’s shoulder and then settled back into a comfortable position. Fifteen minutes later she was still trying to find one, having let out about five sighs too many in the past minutes. She squeezed her eyes shut, but Kya’s sleepy words were louder.
Is he okay?
Except Kya’s voice in her head just sounded like her own and maybe she had asked herself the question right after having heard his voice, because now that she has been replaying the conversation in her head for a total of – she checks the clock: twenty minutes – his voice had sounded a little different.
But who was she kidding? It was the middle of the night and Mako had probably been tired, too. Of course his voice had sounded different and how would she even be able to hear the discrepancy anyway. Another hour went by – wondering, trying to sleep, counting, wondering more about why on earth Mako had called her in the middle of the night instead of just calling the front desk in the morning and why was that boy taking care of Bolin anyway? Wasn’t he supposed to be moved in with her niece by now?
She gave herself another while, then at 3:54 she accepted defeat and untangled herself from the sheets, wondering if time ever moved this slowly when she slept. Maybe she could use the time to catch up on some filing before getting ready for work.
She spent until sunrise to take care of some paperwork for an ongoing fraud investigation and wondered if maybe Kya was right, and she shouldn’t bring home so many files. At six, when she had already drunk half a cup of coffee and made herself some breakfast, she began searching through the fridge to prepare something for Kya. Lin was awake and her alarm wouldn’t ring for another thirty minutes, so she decided to surprise her with a favorite. She took cooked some rice, chopped fresh vegetables and scrambled some eggs in a pan so everything would be perfectly mixed with the mild sauce.
Most weekdays Kya preferred just a steamed bun and some fruit but since she’d come home ‘starving’ as she’d said the past few days, Lin thought it would be a good idea to give her something more nutritional. Before she had noticed the time flying by, she was stirring everything together when Kya lazily trotted into the kitchen, hugging her from behind.
“Good morning,” Lin said.
Kya groaned into the side of her neck before planting a few kisses there. Lin smiled when she felt Kya leaning against her. “How long have you been up?” She asked, kissing her cheek.
“Couldn’t sleep after the call,” Lin replied, “Do you want it on a plate or in a bowl?”
“Bowl,” Kya hummed, letting go of Lin so she could set everything up on the table. “Wait, what call?”
Lin sat down opposite of the groggy waterbender. “Mako called tonight letting me know he wouldn’t be coming in to work today.”
“Right,” Kya frowned at her food, “So I didn’t dream that.” She picked up her chopsticks, tasting the steaming breakfast.
Lin’s chest warmed at Kya’s relaxed face once she had taken a few bites. “Good?”
Kya moaned approvingly, mouth full. “Mhm.”
“Long shift today?”
Kya shook her head. “Afternoon off.”
Lin nodded, drinking the last sip of coffee. After a while when Kya was done with her food – smiling happily – and mostly awake, she asked, “So why can’t Mako come in for work?”
Lin chuckled, “You asked that question a few hours ago.”
“Well, I don’t remember your answer.”
“Bolin’s sick. Has the flu.”
Kya’s brows furrowed, “Oh, poor him. This season is no joke. We’ve had some serious cases at the hospital.”
“Yeah, some of my officers have been out sick, too.” Lin groaned, “Great now I’ll have to delegate Mako’s case to someone else. It can’t wait.”
“The break-ins?” Kya asked.
“Yeah,” she clicked her tongue, “And he was so excited about that one.”
Kya chuckled.
“I don’t understand why he has to take care of his brother when they’re not even living together anymore.”
“Opal’s in Zaofu,” Kya commented standing up to wash her bowl.
“Oh.” Lin dropped her eyes to where Kya’s nightgown had dropped of one of her shoulders. “I didn’t know she was visiting Su.”
Kya decided to ignore the bitter undertone in Lin’s voice. “Yeah, she missed her, so she went there for a few days.”
“So that’s why my rookie is playing healer instead of coming in for work,” Lin grumbled.
“If you’re so worried about him you should stop by and see if everything’s alright.”
Lin scoffed, “I’m not worried about him, I’m worried about my cases not being solved by our best detectives, because they or their children or their partners or their brothers are out sick.”
Kya glanced at her over her shoulder at Lin’s defensiveness, “Easy there. It was just a suggestion.”
Lin rolled her eyes. “I should get going it’s almost seven.”
“Lin?”
She looked up and Kya wasgesturing for her to come over, so she did. Kya’s warm arms wrapped around her waist and she drew her in for a hug. Lin could never quite resist those. She drew one of her hands up to tug the strap of Kya’s nightgown back in place, caressing her soft skin and planting a kiss against it.
Kya didn’t make a comment about being irresistible or Lin ‘taking every chance she could get to have her hands all over her’ so Lin reckoned she really was exceptionally exhausted. “Just a few hours and then you’ll be off and able to relax,” she promised.
“Ugh, I know,” Kya grumbled. They stood there together, breathing each other in until Lin decided that if she didn’t leave, she would simply end up hugging Kya back to sleep.
“Sorry,” Kya muttered when Lin loosened the embrace.
“Why does everyone keep apologizing to me?” Lin sighed, beginning to pack some rice into a box for her lunch later. “It felt like Mako’s every other word was ‘sorry’ last night.”
Kya tilted her head to the side, “That boy is way too scared of you.”
Lin frowned. “He’s not scared of me,” she said defensively and quickly pondered why Kya’s statement had struck something inside her while she shoved the box of food into a tote bag. “He’s just…Mako. He’s overly polite and doesn’t want to make a fuss, so he apologizes for everything. It’s just how he is.”
“Then maybe you should check on him on your way to work. Or has he ever called you like that to call in sick?”
Lin rolled her eyes, “I’ll ask him if he’s okay when he comes back to work – whenever that will be. Are you happy now?”
Kya raised a brow at Lin’s increasingly snippy attitude but decided not to comment further. “Anyway, I’m sorry that you cleaned the kitchen and made breakfast and I thank you by complaining about work when you have to stay in way longer than me.”
Lin kissed her shortly. “Don’t worry about that, you haven’t been eating right and you seem way more exhausted than me. I know how much you appreciate some good rice and I was awake already,” she shrugged dismissively.
“Have I told you how much I love you yet?” Kya implored with a tone that resembled her usual light one, lifting some worry off Lin’s heart.
“No,” Lin chuckled, walking off to the bedroom to put on her armor. “You can say it now,” she called out, bending the belt around her waist.
When she came back out, Kya took her hands and planted a firm kiss on her lips. One of the slow ones, that somehow still had Lin evading her eyes afterwards. “I love you, chief,” she hummed and kissed her again, slowly and soundly and Lin felt like this day was going to be great if it started like this.
“I love you, too,” Lin murmured back, pressing their foreheads together.
“We need to spend some time together again,” Kya muttered, “I miss you and I miss touching you.”
“We will,” Lin assured her, kissing her cheek before making her way out the door. “Have fun at work.”
“Don’t get the flu!” Kya tossed back before the door fell shut.
---------------------------------------------
Lin didn’t drop by Mako’s apartment before work because that would be an unnecessary detour and she tried to tell herself that her stomach didn’t twist anytime she took a turn closer to the precinct and away from his apartment, because she was probably just hungry again.
She didn’t even pick up her office phone to call him, because she shouldn’t bother him and besides, she didn’t have the time between the fraud case, assigning open ones to detectives that weren’t out sick and preparing for upcoming meetings.
She definitely didn’t pick up her phone much faster than she usually did just in case Mako was calling again, because why would he call again if he had already sorted everything out? He was probably cooking soup for Bolin or giving him some medication. Does he have the right herbs for that? she wondered while making herself a cup of coffee.
“Hey Lin,” Saikhan greeted, walking up next to her. “You look tired.”
“Couldn’t sleep. Awake since three,” she informed him.
“You’re not getting sick, are you?” He questioned, taking a step away for dramatic effect.
She rolled her eyes, “I don’t get sick.”
“Right. That genetic?”
She huffed a laugh, “Chief almost never got sick. She used to tell me ‘Beifongs don’t get sick’.”
Saikhan whistled, “I’d love that. Sure you don’t wanna get married to someone? I’m sure your girlfriend wouldn’t mind,” he joked dryly and promptly received a glare – its effect marred by Lin’s onset of a smile. He’d never walked on eggshells around her. He’d been there for her when everything with Tenzin had gone down and right then she noticed that he was probably the only one who she’d allow to get away with such a joke.
“I’m sure your wife would love that,” she deadpanned.
They shared a chuckle.
“I’m afraid it’s not a complete guarantee anyway. The Beifong name never stopped Su from getting a cold. Or worse,” she shuddered, remembering some of the times she’d had to take care of her sister when her mother had been busy with work and only able to check in through the phone to make sure Lin had administered the right herbal tea and medication. She yawned as the lack of sleep seemed to catch up with her.
“It’s almost lunch. You should go and lie down for an hour. I can take care of the stupid questions for a while,” Saikhan offered.
She considered his worried face for a moment. “No, I think I’ll just eat. After that I’ll be more awake. Just make sure no one bothers me.”
He nodded with a smug smile, “You’re gonna take a nap in your office, aren’t you?”
“Go back to your desk,” she grumbled when she walked past him.
“I’ll make sure to wake you,” he laughed.
“Desk,” she called over her shoulder with a glare, making her way to her office.
After having eaten she sighed and resigned herself to the fact that she would have no other choice than to sleep a little if she wanted to get through the rest of her paperwork at an acceptable pace.
When Saikhan roughly knocked on her door an hour later she felt surprisingly refreshed and thanked the spirits for apparently slipping into the right sleep phase. She opened the door after making sure her hair hadn’t been disheveled by lying on her couch.
“What?” she asked, hoping he wouldn’t notice.
“Just makin’ sure you’re awake chief,” he said with a shit-eating grin.
“I am.”
“Do you know why your rookie isn’t in? Front desk hasn’t received a call and one of the other officers wondered if everything’s alright.”
He’s been calling Mako her rookie for a while now and at some point, she had just accepted her defeat and technically speaking he was her rookie, because she had encouraged him to join the force after all. Somewhere deep down she knew this was the last reason for why Saikhan called him that (and for why she let him) but she didn’t need to think about that now.
“He’s out sick,” she explained. “He didn’t call?”
Saikhan shook his head, no. “But how’d you know?”
“Brother has the flu,” she deflected.
Saikhan hissed and scrunched up his face. “Alright, I’ll get someone on his case.”
“Didn’t I do that already?” she asked, rubbing her temple. “I thought I’d given it to Zhang.”
“Nope, she’s busy with the warehouse fire.”
She groaned.
“I’ll find someone.”
“Thanks.”
By the time she got off work she was thinking about what she should cook for Kya and if she’d had time to relax. She made a few wrong turns and found herself in front of Mako’s apartment complex. She sighed, looked up there and noticed that all the blinds were shut. This was insane, she told herself and started the satomobile back up.
When she left the street to head home, she told herself that if she checked up on all of her officers when they called in sick – and Mako wasn’t even sick, only Bolin was – then she would not have time to do her job and soon they wouldn’t be her officers anymore, because she’d be out of a job.
By the time she unlocked her apartment door she had realized that even then, Mako would still kind of be her rookie.
She went straight to the kitchen and right when she was looking at the ingredients in the fridge Kya somehow managed to sneak up on her.
“Don’t you wanna say hello?” she asked.
Lin gave her an apologetic smile followed by a quick peck on the cheek, before turning back around.
“And maybe close the fridge? You’ve been staring at it for a while,” Kya said and Lin heard the healer creeping into her voice.
“Stop it, I was just wondering what to make for dinner.” She let Kya plant a kiss on her neck and then asked, “How about I make some soup?”
Kya sighed, “You really are stubborn, aren’t you?”
“Maybe I don’t greet you because you just insult me,” Lin joked and Kya looked at her pointedly to say: you should shut up and listen to me. So Lin did.
“Just go and check on him. I can see the worry in the way you furrow your brow and I’m almost fully relaxed so it can’t be me you’re worried about. You can make some soup for the two and you. I’ve already eaten.”
Lin rolled her eyes and wondered if Mako had some good soup at home for Bolin and himself, because- since when did she worry about soup?
“What did you eat?” was what finally came out of her mouth.
“See,” Kya said, turning her around by the shoulders and closing the fridge, “This handsome earthbender made me some rice this morning and then I just ate the rest of it as soon as I came home, and then I bought some spice cake and ate some of that and that was not that long ago so now I’m not hungry anymore.”
Her brain stopped working after ‘spice cake’ and she glanced behind Kya to see there was some left over for her.
“Well, then I’ll make the soup for myself,” she informed the waterbender.
Kya sighed again but relented moments after. They cut the vegetables together. They talked about Kya’s cases and the flu and about whether more officers than doctors are out sick and they talked about what they would do on the weekend and Kya said she felt like she needed to restart her body and Lin got halfway through thinking she should tell her that she would get her nice oils so she could relax in the tub for a while on Saturday, before Kya asked her again.
“Did you find someone for Mako’s case?”
Lin knew this was Kya’s way of making her think about him again so she would cave and admit that she wanted to check up on her rookie, but she found it didn’t work because while she’d been cutting the vegetables, stirring the soup and then eating it, she had already been thinking about him and if he’d slept at all – she remembered how she hadn’t when Su had been small and she had taken care of her, but Bolin was hardly a toddl- well, sometimes he could be quite childish.
She followed her thoughts and then she put her plate into the sink. When she had cleaned the dishes, Kya had settled in bed with a good book and now it was dark outside so definitely too late to go over to his place anyways. So she went to the bathroom, took a shower. That nagging voice in the back of her head that still kind of wanted to know how he was doing didn’t go away. She scrubbed her body with soap and asked herself if he’d be in for work tomorrow, because he hadn’t called. Would he call again? Should she put the phone closer to their bed, so she wouldn’t have to get up for it?
When she left the bathroom, Kya looked at her from where she was sitting on their bed and it looked like she had known before Lin did, because she watched her for a beat and then another and then she smiled because she saw it on Lin’s face and then they both heard Lin asking, “Can you dry and fix my hair?”
Lin asked because she couldn’t go outside with her hair wet, because she couldn’t catch a cold now. (Who would look after him then?)
Kya dried her hair, put it into a bun and they went into the kitchen where they both assembled what Kya called a care-package. It consisted of the soup she’d made – she only now realized that all the ingredients were as Kya called them ‘immune-boosting’, she asked herself if maybe her subconscious had made the decision earlier than during her shower – then there were also some herbs and Kya’s instructions on how to make those immune-boosting herbs into a tea that was supposed to help Bolin and Mako should probably drink some, too ‘just to boost his immune system’ and she also packed the black hoodie, Kya threw at her when she was on her way out the door.
“Don’t forget about the im-“
“If you say immune-boosting one more time,” she threatened, but her face softened when Kya came closer and wrapped her arms around her.
She kissed her softly.
“You’re being a good mom,” she teased.
Lin grumbled and pushed her away, “Shut up.”
Then Lin left the house, hoping that boy wouldn’t open his door and look at her like she was out of place, hoping that maybe he was stressed enough not to notice just how awkward of a situation she was creating, hoping that he wasn’t awake, asleep finally, because Bolin was suddenly better. She settled on this being the best version of events, that she’d just say Kya was the one who insisted on her bringing over some soup and tea. It was logical. She’d tell him Kya had asked who had called in the middle of the night and then she’d gotten worried. No one would question that. No one ever questioned Kya’s care. (They only caring that was ever questioned was Lin’s – as if it were so out of character.)
She arrived at the apartment. She had been here earlier, but it felt like a week had passed between then and now. She sighed, confirming that this was a good idea, while putting on the black hoodie over her tank top. She steeled herself as she walked up the stairs and then, standing in front of the door, stole herself some more – she ignored how that thing she was feeling was oddly similar to being nervous, but she wouldn’t call it that, because there was no reason to be and no logical explanation either.
After pressing the doorbell and silence being the only echo, she noticed the small ‘out of order’ scribbled on a paper note on top of the button. She knocked, two knocks, strong and loud enough to be heard throughout the whole apartment. She got half a second to wonder how long the bell had been out of order before the door was opened just enough for Mako to peek through.
She locks eyes and his widened instantly. She heard two locks and a chain, then a little bit of shuffling and clacking before Mako opened the door.
She couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder into the apartment, noticing just how messy it i´was and then looked at Mako.
“Chief,” he said.
“Detective.”
She felt the nervous energy radiating off him, could see the bags under his eyes, the glazed over look and the perspiration on his forehead. Oh no, she thought, because Kya had been right and the boy looked like he was about to come down with likely the same thing as Bolin. But that was what the tea was for. Right! The tea.
“Are you going to ask me to come inside?” she demanded and he hesitantly stepped aside, evading her gaze as she walked inside.
“Did I- Did I miss something?” He closed the door, locking it. “Do you need something for the case? I think-“ He coughed once and she felt her heart rate spike with something she was still too awake to call worry. “I think I left all the files at the precinct, but-“
She turned around and the look in her eyes silenced him.
“Sorry,” he muttered and she watched him hold on to a kitchen chair.
Her gaze flicked around and before she could make a comment on how stuffy the air was, she heard a cough ten times worse than Mako’s and then Bolin’s voice sounded, scared and desperate and so, so incredibly hoarse.
“Mako,” he called.
“Just…sit-“ he cleaned the chair closest to her of some food crumbs- “Here. I have to check on him.”
Then he was out of the kitchen and staggering down the hallway.
She held on tighter to her bag, watching his sluggish movements and something told her he was not aware enough to even notice how unprofessional this visit was.
She decided to rummage through the cabinets to find a pot to heat the soup in. She finds none, safe for the few already in the sink. They were all dirty so she quickly decided to clean one, the sound of the water running – trickling, it wasn’t a strong stream – drowned out the noise coming from the back of the bedroom; coughing, crying.
She used a sponge to run over the stove, then filled the soup from her glass container into the pot and tried to figure out which part of the stove wasn’t broken. The one in the right upper corner seemed to work on all five heat levels so she chose that one, then found a semi-bent spoon to stir with. She took a moment to take in the apartment. There were newspapers and take out boxes piling on the kitchen table. She decided to throw the empty ones into a nearly filled trashcan and sighed.
The sink was still full of dishes and one of the cabinet-doors was hanging on to only one hinge. She wondered how much rent Mako paid. She wondered if he’d been eating right. After a close inspection, the fridge was almost empty as well. She took a mental note of the incredibly high number of different spicy sauces and smiled to herself, recognizing one that the precinct’s kitchen had a twin bottle of (she had been using it when no one was looking and had to admit, it was a very good sauce) and now she finally knew who it belonged to. When the soup was starting to boil, she decreased the heat and leaned against the wooden counter.
Bolin was lost in another coughing fit and she started to become impatient. Soon she’d cleaned the kettle, put some hot water into it and prepared the immune-boosting tea (apparently, it was supposed to not only help with the fever but also help with sleep – she wondered if it was medically approved or if only Kya had and used it). While it steeped (having to be in for an unbelievable amount of time), she found herself following after her detective.
She walked across the living room and down the hallway to the only bedroom.
Her heart dropped at the sight. Bolin was shivering on his bed, there was a matte on the floor in the corner of the room where Mako likely slept at night – of course the boy only had one bed, he lived alone.
Mako was by his brother’s bedside, pressing a cloth against Bolin’s forehead. Bolin was tossing and she heard the desperation in Mako’s voice, shushing his brother and telling him to relax. It reminded her too much of the nights when Su had woken up during the night – fever dreams and she had had to forgo her sleep to make sure little Su had felt safe. She swallowed and pushed the now painful memory away. Bolin was whimpering and she knew it was in earnest and not an overreaction if his pale face and visibly weak limbs were anything to go by. He looked like he’d lost some weight. He was shaking like a leaf and she heard him crying. After a minute of Bolin laying still, Mako got up and saw her standing in the hallway, looking into the room.
He looked back at his brother one more time before stepping out of the room and making sure the door wasn’t closed all the way.
When he turned to speak to her she felt like he looked completely drained – she couldn’t blame him.
“He’s been like that for two days now and he’s only getting worse. I just-“ He stopped to look at her, his gaze dropped to the half-zipped hoodie she was wearing and the way her hair was put in the loose bun with a few strands hanging out – thank spirits for Kya’s steady hands.
He looked at her like he was meeting her for the first time until she raised and eyebrow, wondering what was going through his head. He finally talked again. “I have to check on him. Are you here because I wasn’t at work? Do you need me to go over something? I thought I’d put everything in the report…Or did you need the sick note from the healers already? I thought it was fine to bring it when we came back to work.”
She looked at the dark circles under his eyes and the way he somehow had a face that looked older than her own and her heart stung.
She held up her hand and he stopped talking immediately.
“Sorry,” he said and looked away from her like a scolded child.
She sighed. “Listen to me Kid.”
And he looked at her again because that was what you learned at the academy, first thing, someone talks to you, you look at them.
“You’re going to go into the kitchen where you’re going to sit down and you’re going to eat some soup.”
He was blinking.
And trying to imitate Kya’s soft voice, she said, “Now, Mako.”
He looked over his shoulder into Bolin’s room.
“You need to eat Mako.”
“Yes, chief,” he nodded and ducked his head as he walked past her. She glanced at Bolin again and felt her stomach twist at the sight. She told herself the tea would help and followed her rookie into the kitchen.
The tea was indeed done just like the soup. Mako had cleaned another chair and the space in front of him.
“I’m sorry, I had to sit down for a moment – got dizzy. I’ll get the bowls in a moment. Do you want to drink something with your soup?” He turned away when he coughed. “Sorry.”
Lin sighed again. Maybe Kya had been right and he really was scared of her. No.
“All the soup is for you, I’ve already eaten,” she informed him as she searched for and then cleaned a bowl, filling some soup into it and placing it in front of him. He raised his chin and if she didn’t know better, she’d have said he was about to cry. She didn’t get to ask him what was wrong before another cry erupted from the bedroom.
“Mako! Ma-” Then more coughing.
Now Mako’s brows furrowed like he really was about to cry and Lin panicked. “You stay here,” she instructed firmly, leaving no room for discussion, “And eat your soup.”
She walked past him and poured some tea into a cup. “I’ll take care of it,” she reaffirmed, “Just...eat.”
“Yes, chief,” he replied.
Lin cringed at the tired ‘chief’ because he shouldn’t have to worry about making a least-worst impression on his boss when he was in this state. But this was what she got for coming here. It was her who was putting him in that situation.
He followed her orders and moments later she found herself by Bolin’s side, holding him upright.
“Drink this,” she said and he did.
She took the cloth that had slipped and fallen under his shoulder and pressed it against his forehead. He started trembling again and when the tea was gone he had another coughing fit.
After staying with him for a while to press the cloth against his skin, he looked at her.
“Chief?” he rasped.
An affirmative grunt left her mouth. Bolin’s face looked surprisingly awake for a split second and he looked at her, eyes flitting across her face like Mako’s just moments ago.
Was it a symptom of the-
“My mom used to have her hair like that.”
Her brows shot to the top of her head. “Wh- what?”
He was coughing again before she could even think of a response to that, so she made him lay on his back when it passed. It was easier this way, she remembered. She put her hand against his chest and felt his heart racing at a concerning speed.
“Just relax. You’re gonna feel better soon,” she muttered when she let go of him – overwhelmed.
A while later he was back asleep and Lin knew that he wouldn’t be screaming for Mako for a while. Thanking Kya for the knock-out tea, she ordered him to, “Get better, you hear me?” and then left to see if Mako had eaten some soup.
She found him looking at the empty bowl in front of him. “Good,” she muttered as she put it into the sink. She hadn’t expected for him to eat the entire thing. She was pouring him a cup of the tea, hoping it would help prevent him from suffering the same pain his brother was going through at the moment (she didn’t want to see or even imagine him like that). She almost dropped the cup when she heard a choked back sob. She whirled around to see Mako turning his face away from her and hunched over.
“Kid,” she said, alarmed, “What’s wrong?” This time the concern did seep into her voice and with it an urgency to make him feel better right this second.
He wouldn’t look at her and she saw him holding his breath. She knew this. It made her grimace that he was trying so hard not to cry in front of her. She wondered why this felt even worse than before her final exam to become an officer, but she suddenly felt her heart race at a very un-healthy pace as she reached out a shaky hand. One more breath in and she made contact with his shoulder.
That’s when he started crying.
“He’s going to be alright,” she reassured him with a voice she barely recognized as her own, “Bolin is going to be healthy in a few days’ time. You’ll see.”
“He can’t die,” Mako sobbed and she had to remind herself to breathe and not think about all of the shit that this kid has been through, and how she knew how scared he was feeling, just how much she understood not wanting to lose more of his family.
“He’s shaking so much and he’s screaming at night and he’s always crying and asking for- he won’t stop asking for me- and I can’t help him and-“
“He’s not going to die,” she reassured him, because there was no way this flu would kill his brother. He was strong and healthy and young. She felt his back heaving with the sobs. “If he isn’t better tomorrow, I’ll take him to the hospital. Kya will look after him. She’s the best.” At this point she was simply trying to get him to stop crying.
He didn’t react.
“Mako,” she murmured and he turned to look at her – teary and red eyes, damp cheeks, lips quivering.
She never said his name like that. It was always kid, or detective this, rookie that. But it did its job and he was looking at her. It hurt her to see the tears streaming down his face and how his brows twitched from being furrowed so tightly. She knew if he were Kya, she would simply offer a hug, but he wasn’t Kya, he was her rookie, so she couldn’t do that. She opted for a familiar approach: orders.
“Get up and move to the couch, you’re going to drink some tea.”
She helped him to the couch and stopped herself from wiping his tears away, because that would be unprofessional for her to do (or to want to do) because she was his boss – she kept reminding herself as if she’d forgotten.
She took a metal tray with the least number of dents in it, put a few tissues and his cup of now almost lukewarm tea on it, searched for and then added a little bit of sugar because for one, she knew Kya’s ‘amazing’ teas were always bitter and the way Bolin had scrunched up his face while drinking it was reason enough for her to do it. She took another clean bowl and filled it with cold water, glancing over her shoulder to see Mako burying his face in his hands, still crying. When the bowl was filled halfway, she went to the bathroom and opened drawers until she found another one of those cloths. She came back, put it on the tray with everything else and placed it in front of Mako on the coffee table.
He didn’t move, so she stood there, awkwardly waiting for him to take and drink the tea. She got impatient but didn’t want to rush him, so she walked around the couch to crack one of the windows and the blinds. A few street noises and some streetlight found their way inside and she grimaced at how fresh the air was in comparison to what they’d been breathing in. She reminded herself that she was a Beifong and that Beifongs didn’t get sick and there was no way she was going to catch this, then she turned around.
“You have to drink the tea in order for it to help you.”
“I -hic- mh -hic- sorr- sorry,” he choked out and reached for the cup. She watched the tea tremble in his hand and threaten to spill over before she quickly decided to sit down, taking the cup from his hand.
“Stop apologizing,” she pressed, because every time he did, she heard Kya’s words in her head.
He’s scared of you.
No.why it made her feel so angry and hurt, she knew that it did.
She brought the cup to his lips and watched as he swallowed it all.
“Good,” she muttered, focused, and put it back down on the tray. He turned to look at her and as soon as their eyes meet, he was crying again, turning away. She wondered if he was humiliated or if he simply wanted her to leave him alone already.
But he shouldn’t be alone, right? Not when he was like this. She imagined the boy had cried alone more often than not, but that didn’t mean he should be doing it – she knew that from experience.
“Talk to me,” she instructed again and he turned to her. When she tilted her head forward and a little to the side in order to catch his eyes – red and puffy – he turned his body and glanced at her shoulder before immediately turning his gaze towards the coffee table. It had only been a moment long and she wasn’t sure if she’d imagined it, but was this his way of asking a question? She knew it was, she knew him better than most people and he never asked for anything. She also knew she’d done the same once, glanced at her mother’s shoulder and away even if Toph hadn’t been able to see it in the first place.
So she took a breath and hesitantly started rubbing his upper back. She did it slowly despite the urge to rub faster and faster for whatever reason. Slow circles. She handed him a tissue, then another, then a third one. He blew his nose, wiped his tears and she kept rubbing his back.
“You’ve been overexerting yourself, haven’t you?”
“Bolin needs me, I can’t just-“
She interrupted him as soon as she realized he was trying to justify himself. “I know,” she sighed, “It’s not your fault that you’re all he’s got right now.”
He didn’t reply.
She wondered if she had gravely overstepped because it had been impolite to say it, right? Hadn’t it? But he hadn’t shaken her off and screamed at her to get out, so it had to be at least tolerated. Or was it because she was the chief – his chief?
But after a while she noticed his body slowly but surely gravitating towards her and she wanted to tell him to not be scared and just lean against her already. She wouldn’t hurt him, she wouldn’t yell at him. What was this boy so scared of?! Was she really this intimidating to them, to him?
But she let him take his time and soon the side of his head was touching her shoulder. He lifted it away before it had even rested there for a full second, so she gently redirected him back against it.
“It’s okay,” she said, trying to tell him that it really was alright if he staid there. And she wanted to help him, wanted to do more, but he was crying again – so exhausted – and she didn’t know how to make him stop. He was probably overly tired and needed to sleep, but it would take a little until the tea’s effect kicked in.
And before she could think about what Kya would do, because Kya was so much better at all this, she had Mako gathered up in her arms. She was pressing his head to her chest, trying to calm him with some muttered reassurances.
“Don’t,” he sobs, “You’ll get sick.”
And it tugged at her heart that he was still worried about everyone but himself, but she reassured him, “Beifongs don’t get sick.“
And he seemed to believe her, because when had she ever lied to him?
It was weirdly comforting to hold the boy, to think that as long as she had him pressed against her, nothing could happen to him. He was safe when he was with her and she could protect him. It eased what she was finally allowing herself to call worry.
As the cries were less and less frequent and he grew increasingly limb in her arms, she told him to lie down on the couch, he sighed and turned into her for a moment, then leaned back and waited for her to get up, still looking away. The second he left her hold, she instantly felt the need to get him back there, so she simply said, “Mako.”
He looked at her and she pat her lap.
He didn’t understand. Lin pat her lap again and now she was avoiding his eyes, because suddenly, as he was no longer close to her it felt like she was definitely overstepping his boundaries, but she’d been on the other end of someone offering their lap and she knew how scary it could be when you didn’t know if you could bring yourself to trust like that, but she had done it in the end.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered again and she just wanted to know what he was even apologizing for. But now he was all tense again and she tried something when he glanced at her lap. She put her hand on his shoulder and tugged – only lightly, but enough for him to understand, that if he wanted to follow, he could.
And he did.
He let himself be guided to lay his head on her lap, she instructed him to lay on his back, so his neck wouldn’t hurt and then he raised his knees in order to fit his feet onto the couch as well.
“You’re going to feel better once you sleep a little,” she told him and retrieved the brown blanket from the backrest. She draped it over his legs and leaned forward to get the cloth, dunking it into the cold water and wringing it out, before tapping it against his forehead. His eyes were focused (or unfocused) on the ceiling and she sighed when they fell shut.
She looked around the room, then used her metal bending to reach out for the ceiling lamp. She turned it off and then reached out for a lamp standing in the corner, casting a warmer and much, much dimmer light.
“You’re going to feel better soon,” she told him, “And you’re not going to get sick.”
She rested one of her arms on his chest to monitor if his breathing and heartbeat changed, the other hand held the damp cloth in place. Occasionally she had to re-wet it and he stirred every time she moved either hand, but soon he didn’t react much and she knew he had fallen asleep. When she leaned against the backrest after a while, she caught her face in the tray’s reflection. She looked tired and she thought even her concern was visible. Had he seen it, too? Or had he been too occupied with a headache and his brother’s pain?
She felt herself getting tired, too. Her body was catching up to being awake since three in the morning and now she was looking at the clock that was standing and quietly ticking in one of the shelves and she had been awake for almost twenty-four hours now.
She was about to doze off when Mako stirred and soon he was lying on his side, curling into her. The cloth slipped and after a moment of realizing that he really was curling into her, she removed the cloth from her lap before it could form a wet spot. She knew he wouldn’t be comfortable like this for long and decided to take the opportunity to tap the cloth against his neck. She made sure it wasn’t too cold because she didn’t want his muscles there to stiffen up and give him a headache.
“You have to take better care of yourself, Kid,” she mumbled, because she felt the heat radiating off him and knew he had been running himself to the bone. Bolin had likely been sick for longer if he was this bad and that meant he hadn’t gotten much sleep at work.
She felt guilty for giving him a difficult case. He should have talked to her, should have told her that he was busy with his brother, but he hadn’t. Why hadn’t he just talked to her?
He’s scared of you.
No, he’s not, she answered her and was less and less convinced that she was right. But she had to be. Who would lay down in someone’s lap like this? Would let themselves be taken care of like this, touched and talked to like this? He had to trust her. But trust wasn’t a reason not to be scared of someone. She knew that, too.
Mako pulled her out of her thoughts by turning onto his back again.
“That’s better,” she murmured and before she could think about it, her hand was hovering over his cheek. She held it there, didn’t let it touch him. She shouldn’t. This was him trusting her and she wasn’t going to jeopardize that. So she didn’t do it. Didn’t let her palm caress his cheek, because that wasn’t what a chief did, was it? So she restrained herself from doing it with what she determined to be far too much energy. Instead she put the hand back on his chest to watch his vitals.
She heard a whine coming from the bedroom and when Mako immediately stirred at the sound, she hushed him. “Shh, don’t you worry. He’s fine. You don’t have to do anything.” She didn’t know what exactly possessed her to do so, but she added, “I’m here now.”
She swallowed back a lump in her throat when that was what got him to relax again.
“I’m here now, Kid.”
Bolin must not have woken since it was quiet again – well as quiet as it could get with the traffic outside and what seemed to be the neighbors listening to a pro-bending match. She sighed. As long as Mako could sleep like this, there was no need for her to knock on any doors, but she revised the necessary paragraphs in her head that she would be able to throw at the guy’s head if she would end up having to go over there.
She fell asleep over the repetitive task as the strain of the day’s events caught up to her.
She dreamed of Su and of a sick little Su and a little Lin unable to make her fever go away, unable to make her throat stop hurting and limbs stop feeling heavy. She dreamed of guilt and fear and all the things she’d felt back then. She dreamed of loneliness, of calling the precinct and hoping her mom would spare a moment to tell her she was doing a good job helping her sister. She dreamed of Toph coming home and Lin looking at her trying to convey that she really needed to be held and that Toph used to be able to feel it in the earth before (she used to feel when she needed to be held) and how she’d somehow stopped feeling it.
She dreamed of things she wished to have said back then, asking her mother, ‘Do you even remember what it feels like to hug me?’ . It was how dreams worked. They mixed the past the present and the future and older Lin – Chief Lin – didn’t know what it felt like to be hugged by her mother. She couldn’t remember it, so she made dream Lin, young Lin, tired and exhausted Lin ask, because she would never ask. Dream Toph answered that she did remember, that she could never forget what it felt like to hold her big girl and that she was in fact doing a good job.
The dreams mixed with others and soon there was Kya, too and then she was at the station and on Air Temple Island and back in her apartment and when she started questioning the logic of how she was able to get places this fast and why she was twelve years old, she woke.
There is orange sunlight streaming into the room. Morning.
She instinctively reached up to massage her stiff neck and startled when her hand was damp. She looked at it and saw the little wrinkles in her fingertips then she looked down in her lap and remembered the evening before. When had she fallen asleep? What time was it? Seven o’clock. She should be at the precinct. Spirits, she should have been home with Kya. How could she have fallen asleep?
She took a deep breath. Kya knew where she was, the precinct would function for an hour without her, she had enough time to wait a while longer until Mako woke, then she could check on Bolin’s progress and leave for work. Kya could handle a morning by herself.
Mako started stirring, and there was a grimace on his face. She re-wet the cloth and pressed it against his forehead. His face visibly relaxed and before she could quite think about it (because he looked so young and small and helpless in her lap) she reached her hand down to caress his cheek. She couldn’t help but smile a little when he leaned into the touch. His temperature felt like it was almost back to normal and his breathing sounded better already. She made a mental note to thank Kya for the tea. Her thumb stroked the side of his face and his eyes blinked open.
They caught hers, but he didn’t seem fully lucid. “Shh,” she whispered, “Go back to sleep. Everything’s taken care of. Just sleep, Kid.”
He looked at her a little longer and for a moment his lip twitched as though he was about to say something. It didn’t take long and he was back asleep. She almost chuckled. He was good contender for Kya’s title of ‘fastest to go back to sleep’. Instead she waited until his breathing slowed and then wrangled herself out from underneath his head. She took off her hoodie and folded it to form a pillow until she could find a real one.
She stood, cracked her back and made a call to the precinct, letting them know she would be in in an hour. Then she called the hospital. After being connected and re-connected she finally talked to Kya, bringing her up to speed while massaging the stiffness of sleeping on a couch next to a cracked window out of her neck. Kya told her she should pick up some food for the boys when she went shopping again and Lin agreed.
She could hear a groan coming from the couch. “I have to go, he’s waking up, thank you love.”
“Morning,” she said when she sat on the edge of the couch. “How are you feeling?”
“Better,” he rasped, then his eyes started flitting around, “Bolin- I- I have to-“
“No, no, no,” she scolded, “I’ll go check on him, you make sure you can sit up and then stand up without passing out.”
He let himself be pushed back down and nodded. Before she left the room, she turned and cleared her throat, “Do you…do you think I could use the bathroom?”
“Oh, yeah, of course.” He was blushing now and she decided this was the best time to leave him be.
She checked on Bolin, who was still fast asleep, checked his heartrate, checked his breathing, both had improved. She went to the bathroom and when she came back to the living room, Mako was sitting in the kitchen on one of the extremely uncomfortable chairs.
“I take it you’re feeling better?”
He nodded, “Thank you, chief.”
“Don’t mention it,” she dismissed him, starting to put the rest of the soup into a bowl and then the fridge so she could take the container home again. She told him how to prepare the tea and how much to drink before going to sleep (she also told him to add sugar). She told him to take as much time off as he needed and then when he thought he could come back to work, instructed him to take off one more day, because he would need it.
“I have to get back to the station,” she informed him and saw the shadow of disappointment ghosting across his face.
“Of course,” he said.
She walked over to him and pressed the back of her hand against his forehead, then took his wrist to check his pulse again. He let her, watching her assessing gaze.
“I think you managed to avoid the worst, but if you don’t take care of yourself that tea won’t help you either. Got that?”
“Yes, chief.”
She nodded, then crossed her arms and remembered her hoodie. She walked back to the couch and put it back on, before folding the blanket.
Mako got up to take it from her. “You don’t have to, I-“
“I’m folding it,” she stated, leading him to drop his hands.
“Sorry,” he muttered under his breath. He stood there awkwardly and watched as Lin folded a blanket with a time-consuming precision, she had never used to fold a blanket in her life.
When she had smoothed it out so much, she was sure it would never wrinkle again, she stood upright and turned to look at him.
He rubbed his neck and awkwardly said, “Thank you, chief.”
She knew she had to ask, because she didn’t want to be haunted by more unasked questions.
“Mako.”
He didn’t look at her, but for this he had to. So she held up her hand and took his chin between her fingers, gently redirecting him to look her in the eyes. “Are you scared of me?”
With watering eyes he answered, “No.”
It was honest and firm and he meant it. She couldn’t let go of his face yet because she feared he would run if she did.
“Then why do you apologize all the time?” She could hear her own voice wavering and she hoped he couldn’t because he shouldn’t.
“Because I don’t want you to-“
Suddenly she was inexplicably scared. Had she already overstepped?
“To what?” she asked instead because she had to know why he was so…scared around her. What was he afraid of?
“I don’t want you to stop caring.” It was barely above a whisper and he closed his eyes as soon as the words had left his mouth.
“Oh, Kid,” she said and clicked her tongue, “Don’t you worry about that.”
She was no stranger to reading body language and she knew his well enough because he stood just like she used to stand in front of her own mother. For a split second a thought struck her: Does he remember what it’s like to be held by his mother? And she was not Toph, but she was the chief. And because she couldn’t look at him when saying it, she drew him down for another embrace, “You’re my rookie,” she said, as close as she was going to get to ‘I’ll always care’, holding him close. “Do you hear me?”
“Yes,” he replied like he understood and Lin heard his voice crack with emotion.
She held onto him for a moment longer and he didn’t seem to care, nor did he seem to mind the way he had to lean down to let her hug him – it even felt like he was squeezing her a little tighter than before. She sighed, because he was safe when she held him and all she wanted was for him to be safe.
“You’ll get sick,” he murmured into her shoulder.
“Beifongs don’t get sick,” she replied, feeling him relax in her hold, while she already made a list of things to get at the grocery store to fill his fridge with.