Akashi sighed deeply as he scratched his hair. Babysitting Korra while doing his job had reduced his productivity by half, and filling out applications, forms, and managing requests took double the usual time. But on the other hand, he was still more productive than three detectives working together.
The earth kept shaking every now and then.
"Who the hell is bending the building… It's getting annoying." Akashi clenched his jaws.
But then suddenly, he saw the closest thing to a red hulk he had ever seen in a while.
The door of his office was slammed open, sent flying.
For context, the door was made of thick metal.
Akashi raised his eyebrow in amusement, seeing Lin enter angrily.
He didn't expect such a thing to happen.
But it was easy to figure things out. Some people in the department didn't believe that he brought the Avatar with him, and they spread rumors, which she had heard.
"What brings you here, chief?" Akashi said calmly.
Lin Beifong entered the office and walked directly to him, pointing her finger at him.
"You… I've trusted you. And how you repay me. Bringing a whore to my police station." She yelled.
"She's no whore." He leaned backward and smirked.
She clenched her jaws, seeing his smug smile.
At first, she was pissed off.
Now that he was smiling, it was as if he was saying to fuck off.
"So, I don't mean anything to you!" she grabbed him by the collar and brought him closer, making him see a few tears welling up.
"Aren't you a jealous woman? I thought you said we are just buddies…" Akashi turned his head and suppressed his laugh.
For someone who said they were just fuck buddies, she seemed to be so jealous.
And instead of feeling fear, he felt flattered.
Although he should feel afraid not to tease her much, he still had more serious enemies wanting to kill him hiding in the shadows and could be striking at any given moment.
"My, jealous… for a bastard like you." She pointed at Korra and yelled, "Why would I be jealous of a whore like her? Bet she can't last five minutes…. And you broke the law by bringing your girlfriend to the office!"
"Excuse me. I'm not —" Korra raised her hand.
"Shut the hell up, whore. You're lucky we shut down the prostitution department…" she yelled.
Right. When Akashi was working as an undercover cop, he had joined the rituals of the triads. Banging prostitutes was one of them.
'There is a history. Her anger seems to be justified.' Akashi thought.
"You shut the hell up!" Korra replied, furious. "I'm the Avatar!"
"No." Lin turned to Korra. "You're just a man thief…"
Korra turned to Akashi, and she asked, "Isn't she old enough to be your mom?"
"Mommy." Akashi replied, amused, holding back his laugh.
To find a woman fighting for him, he didn't feel the slightest anger for that.
"She's truly the Avatar." Akashi beamed.
"I thought you'd be better at gaslighting than that." She leaned forward. "You think I was born yesterday for such a lie to work on me."
"Lin…"
"It's chief for you."
"She's really," Akashi sighed deeply and exhaled a long breath. "She's really, the fucking Avatar."
"And why is, 'the Avatar,' with you." She said, bumping her hand on his desk, making papers fly.
Akashi clenched his jaw, veins appearing on his face.
He had truly worked his hardest to organize those papers, and now, they were flying everywhere.
The desk that he spent time cleaning got cracked by her fist, making it unusable.
"I don't know. Maybe because she needs to learn airbending. And you just embarrassed me on my first day as a teacher." Akashi slammed his hand back at the table and replied calmly. "And I'm sorry, but Tenzin has said that it's best to follow me around, and I couldn't turn him down."
Lin turned her head slowly to Korra, who then created fire from her hand. And in the next instant, water from a nearby water bottle floated as well.
At that moment, realization struck her.
"What?" Akashi added, "You're going to say it's common to have dual benders and I'm still lying."
"Tsk. You should have explained earlier."
"So, you're not mad about me breaking the rules. You're just jealous because of a bastard like me."
Her face turned so red.
She's probably a person who had never admitted she's been wrong.
"It's your fault for not explaining things better and letting rumors run in the office!" she pointed her finger at his chest.
"So, you're not denying the charges?" he asked.
"Urgh…." She groaned, but her facial expression softened.
"You know, it's easy to apologize for being wrong." Akashi shrugged.
"Don't push your luck too much," she said, looking around. "I'll send someone to clean your office."
"Make sure it's a guy, or else you may get jealous." Akashi said, smiling widely. She'd never admit getting jealous, and he'd nag her about it until it got boring.
Lin stormed out of his office and went up to hers.
He could see her smiling.
"What was that?" Korra asked Akashi.
"Just a jealous girl who says we're nothing but more than friends." He replied, removing the part about benefits.
"Isn't that quite a contradiction?"
"Emotions work mysteriously." Akashi stood up, and looked at the messy desk. "You're in luck, Korra… thanks to the chief's action, I can claim that I'm not mentally capable of working… so, we can do your training."
"You're not angry?" Korra tilted her head. "That woman screams too much."
"Nah, more like flattered. I'm quite a chill guy." Akashi replied. "Anyway, do you want to begin with training or not?"
"I want to." She replied, wanting to forget about what had just happened.
"Good." Akashi nodded.