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The anniversary of the official end of The War, and the ceremonies that marked it brought with them dozens upon dozens of foreign dignitaries to Republic City, and with them they brought mountains of paperwork for the recently promoted Chief Lin Beifong. Even more unfortunate was the fact that, as a Beifong and as the Chief of Police, Lin was actually required to attend some of those ceremonies and their respective after-parties.
This is what led her to her current predicament of being trapped in conversation with two pretentious and boring delegates of the earth kingdom talking about the geography of their respective provinces. It was definitely not what she would like to be doing on a Friday night, and she was not looking forward to doing it again tomorrow or the day after that.
Normally Lin would either be working, sleeping, or, if she was feeling like it, getting laid, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that just wasn’t happening this weekend.
The mingling was well underway after a gruelling six hours of speeches and diplomacy. She could see a whirlwind of different-coloured robes flowing by. This was the Four Seasons hotel’s biggest ballroom, and it was still so closely packed that it obscured her vision.
Idly, Lin retracted the soles of her shoes, making sure no one noticed the movement, and extended her seismic sense to check for danger. You could never be too careful with this many big names in one building.
At first, everything seemed normal; she could feel her officers making rounds and all guests were acting perfectly normal, until she felt the unmistakable metal shape of a knife, several knives in fact all strapped to the same figure.
Lin was immediately on high alert, but she couldn't alert her officers without making it obvious she knew something was wrong. Even worse, she felt the figure making their way towards where she was standing at the edge of the party, just a few feet away from the exit.
She scanned the room diligently, attempting to get a good look at the potential threat while still doing her best to seem interested in the meaningless conversation in front of her. She had managed to identify the armed suspect as an approaching head of brown hair worn in the Fire Nation style when suddenly the head turned and her eyes met with those of whom she had been considering a suspect, and her shoulders immediately relaxed. Lin almost smacked herself when she realised it was Izumi returning her piercing gaze.
For a moment, they just stared at each other, and the widowed Fire Lord looked like she was contemplating something before heading straight towards Lin.
The Chief continued to track the steps of the armed and dangerous Fire Lord until she was close enough to draw the attention of her unfortunate company.
“Excuse me, but I need to borrow Chief Beifong for a moment. I’m sure you don’t mind, right?” She said it in a faux polite tone and hardly gave them a chance to exchange the usual social niceties before grabbing Lin’s arm and leading her out of the ballroom.
She didn’t stop until they were safe in the blissfully empty elevator, and she practically slumped against the closed doors after pressing the button for the eleventh floor.
“Uh, what’s this about?” Lin said in the ensuing silence.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m saving you and myself from having to deal with politicians any longer.” She said it with a chuckle.
“You ought to thank me,” she continued.
Izumi was as introverted as Lin was, though much more socially adept, mostly from having had tutors in the art of ‘playing nice’ since she was ten. Due to their similar natures (and affinity for affectionate violence), however, Lin and Izumi had always gotten along quite well, especially when escaping the chaos of the more extroverted Gaang Kids.
“Thank you?! You almost gave me a heart attack! How many knives are you carrying right now, six? I thought you were some kind of assassin."Lin complained in what Izumi knew to be a half-joking manner and leaned herself against the wall.
Izumi snorted at that, moving to copy Lin’s position before standing and answering her question with quite a bit of pride in her voice.
“Eight, actually, but only six are metal. How many have you got?” She smirked, assuming the answer would be none.
“As many as I need.” Lin answered, giving Izumi a smirk of her own when her eyes went wide at the sight of the massive blade Lin bent out of the hidden cache of metal in her pristine dress uniform.
Izumi let out a nervous laugh as Lin bent the blade back to where it came from, and in the metal box they were ascending in, Izumi was sure her heart’s sudden uptick in speed did not go unnoticed by the attentive earthbender looking back at her, but she couldn’t exactly help it.
It had been years since Izumi had actually seen Lin up close; a lot of things had changed, like her recent ascension to Chief of Police and the prominent set of scars on her cheek, her breakup with Tenzin, and the death of Izumi’s husband. Not that that last part has anything to do with Lin, but it did have a lot to do with Izumi. Izumi was looking at her in that uniform like she was a cold glass of water in the middle of the Si Wong Desert.
Lin was already catching on to where Izumi’s mind was going when the ding of the elevator brought her wandering eyes back up.
“Wanna come have a drink with me?" She asked, stepping out of the elevator and pulling out the key to her suite.
“Only if you want to, you don't have to humour me.” She clarified, tilting her head.
Lin considered her offer and the unsaid offer; she wasn’t sure if she was imagining it or not.
It wasn’t hard to come to a decision.
“Sure, I can’t think of anything better I have to do.” She answered, following Izumi out of the elevator and to her suite, knowing full well that was a lie and she was going to have to suffer through so much late paperwork next week.
Izumi's hands shook as she opened the door, and she had a brief moment of, 'What the flameo are you doing? You haven't had sex with someone in years, and you're doing this with Lin?' before deciding to turn the logical side of her brain off for the night, when after stepping into the room and locking her door, she turned and saw Lin staring at her with her uniform jacket off and the top buttons of her dress shirt undone.
The blush on her cheeks would have embarrassed her if she hadn't been distracted by the view.
So help her; Izumi was getting laid tonight.