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Fic: love, left out, gone to vinegar (LoK, Lin & Suyin, all ages)
Title: love, left out, gone to vinegar
Author: LizBee
Rating: all ages
Notes: Set during the Book 1 finale, because apparently I'm never going to be over Lin losing her bending. Title from "The Crow" by Dessa.
Summary: Su visits Republic City in the aftermath of Amon's revolution, and completely fails to learn an important lesson about her sister.
As soon as the newspapers said Republic City was stable, Suyin ordered her airship to be readied. Uncharacteristically, Baatar tried to talk her out of it.
"Stable isn’t the same as safe," he said as she packed a bag.
"You know I can take care of myself."
"There’s a curfew."
"And hotels."
Quietly, he said, "She may not want to see you."
Su paused.
"I know," she admitted, "but I have to try."
*
Airship Control kept them circling for an hour before they were cleared to land. It gave Su a chance to look at the wreckage strewn throughout Yue Bay. Bits of ships – United Forces vessels, Equalist airships, the new aeroplanes – washed up on every beach. Here and there, she caught glimpses of the Republic City Police Department logo.
When they finally landed, customs officials checked Su’s ship and every piece of her luggage. They barely blinked at the name Beifong on her passport.
As they let her proceed through the landing terminal, the senior officer said, "Curfew begins at six."
It was already a quarter to five, but that left plenty of time to get to the house. She dispatched her pilot to his hotel and hired a driver, barely blinking at the amount he quoted for the trip.
She quickly realised that she had miscalculated. Many roads were blocked by debris, and traffic – already compensating for the snow – was further slowed by the police checkpoints stationed every few miles along her routes. At least, they bore the police logo, and there was one or two cops at each, but they were mainly staffed by the United Forces.
It was twenty past six when she finally reached her childhood home. The house was closed up and dark, and she saw her mistake. For all she knew, Lin was sleeping at the police station like the dedicated workaholic she had always threatened to become.
Su ran her hand over the front door’s lock. It was old-fashioned, a mixture of platinum and less refined metals that was challenging to bend. The same design their mother and Sokka had come up with – the very same lock.
Surprised, but not displeased, Su pulled the key from her pocket. She had found it in her jewellery box and brought it on a whim. Better and faster than standing out in the cold, trying to recreate it from memory and a slice of nickel.
Switching the light on, she found the house familiar, yet quite different from her memory. Lin had rearranged the furniture, replaced their mother’s highly textured ornaments with books and paintings. A set of musical instruments had been hung along the east wall. Su recognised the guqin their mother had given Lin when she turned twelve, specially made with strings of steel instead of silk. Beside that was a pipa, and beside that was an empty hook.
The missing instrument was Lin’s guzheng, shoved to the middle of her kitchen table. This, too, had metal strings, and Su ran her fingers over them, not making contact with the steel, but using her bending to create a sound.
The result was discordant, and she grimaced. Lin was the musician in the family, learning traditional instruments with the same dedication she brought to memorising the police code and making Su’s life difficult.
The kitchen smelled strongly of alcohol. Su followed her nose to the sink, where a bottle of baiju lay smashed, the spirits pooled in pieces of glass and remnants of plates.
Lin had come home at some point, she guessed – probably in the last twenty-four hours, judging by the health of the herbs growing in their little glasshouse on the window sill – retrieved the guzheng, poured herself a drink and tried to play. And, without her bending, she had failed, and thrown a tantrum.
Typical.
Su returned the guzheng to its hook and began to tidy up. Throughout the house were signs that Lin had been home recently, and she took that as a positive sign and refused to worry.
But still. It was a little eerie to walk through her childhood home and find all trace of her existence erased. In the wardrobe of her old room, Su finally found her clothes, neatly packed into boxes, along with dancing trophies. Everything else was gone.
Su pushed the box back into the wardrobe and closed the door, and went to inspect the contents of Lin’s icebox.
She was dozing on the couch when a noise woke her. Lin’s car pulling up, she thought, but then came the sound of an animal’s low rumble, and suddenly she was thirteen again, listening to her sister trying to come home quietly. Oogi -- she'd know that growl anywhere -- was landing in the courtyard.
Her heart was pounding. It was nearly thirty years since she had seen her sister in the flesh, and after the reports coming from Republic City in the last few days, she didn’t know what kind of woman she would find. But she could make an educated guess: bitter and furious and ready for a fight.
Tenzin’s voice floated in from outside: "Will we see you tomorrow?"
"Maybe," Lin was saying. "I have an early meeting with General Iroh about assigning more of his troops to police duties."
"It already looks like a military occupation out there."
"It is. You command that army, remember?"
Last time Su had spoken to Tenzin, he told her that he and Lin were barely civil. Now they sounded almost ... comfortable.
They were lingering in the kitchen. Su stood up, knowing she needed to let them know she was there, but suddenly paralysed by nervousness.
"I think Korra is coming to depend on you," Tenzin was saying.
"I'm doing what I can. I can’t baby her and do my job."
"Technically, you don’t have a job."
"Look, if Saikhan were alive—"
Lin was walking into the living area as she spoke. She stopped when she saw Su.
"Hello, Lin," said Su quietly.
Lin looked all right, and she even sounded okay, but her mask dropped just for a second, and Su saw naked panic in her sister’s face.
Then Lin regained control, and fear turned to rage.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded, advancing on Su. "Tenzin?" She rounded on the airbender. "Did you organise this?"
"No," he said, shifting the bundle slung against his chest. It was a baby, Su realised, only a few days old, impossibly tiny, warmly wrapped in orange swaddling cloths. He frowned, unconscious of the absurdity of the image he was presenting. "Suyin, what is the meaning of this?"
Despite herself, Su laughed.
It was a mistake. Lin turned white and advanced on her, fists clenched.
"Give me a reason not to have you arrested," she said.
"It’s Mom’s house."
"I live here," Lin snarled.
"Yes," said Su, "and when I heard what Amon did to you, I came straight here to see if you were okay. So go ahead," and although she could hear the echo of her younger self, she couldn’t stop talking, "arrest me."
"You came to gloat," said Lin.
"I was worried. Is it so unreasonable to be concerned about my big sister?"
"Get out of my house."
"Lin," said Tenzin quietly, "it’s been a difficult week, and if Suyin wants to—"
"Wants to what? Invade my home? Tell me how hard it is for her that I’ve lost my bending?" She turned back to Su. "Get out."
"The curfew, Lin," said Tenzin.
Anger had overwhelmed common sense, and Su found herself saying, "Looks like you're stuck with me. I should have known you'd rather sit and sulk than actually—"
She didn't see the punch coming. One minute Lin was stepping forward, the next, her fist was connecting with Su's face, and Su was reeling backwards.
"Lin!"
Tenzin had grabbed Lin. Su jumped to her feet, instinctively rooting herself in the stone foundations of the house.
"If that's how you want it," she said, summoning a brick from the wall and throwing it at Lin.
Tenzin pulled Lin out of its path and deflected it with a blast of air. Lin looked off-balance and a bit scared, but she was struggling against him, trying to lunge at Su again.
The baby's cries snapped Su out of her rage.
"Sorry," she said, breathing heavily. She touched her face and realised it was already swelling. There was blood on her finger. "Lin, I—"
Lin went limp, and turned to Tenzin.
"Get her out of here," she snarled.
He let her go, and she turned and marched away, vanishing into the room that had once been their mother’s, slamming the door so hard that the baby's cries became louder.
"I didn't mean for it to go like that," said Su weakly.
"Come on," said Tenzin with a sigh. "I'm sure we have room for you on the island."
On their way out, he retrieved some ice from Lin's ice box and wrapped it in a clean cloth. Su held it to her face, although the cold winter air was already turning her face numb and making her eyes water.
Once they on their way, he gave Oogi his head and calmed the fussing baby.
"How old is she?" Su asked.
"He. One week." Tenzin ran his hand over the baby’s cap of dark hair. "His name is Rohan."
"That’s very nice."
"Flying calms him."
"Another airbender."
Tenzin smiled. "I hope so." Then he became serious. "Suyin, what were you thinking?"
This, too, was a familiar line from their youth.
"I was thinking my sister might need me," Su snapped. "Clearly I was wrong. As usual, all she cares about is her ego and her precious grudge."
"You must realise how it seemed to her."
"It's not my fault she's incapable of seeing any perspective but her own." Su lowered the ice. "How's my face?"
"You have a remarkable black eye coming along."
Su sighed. "Do you feel like you revert to childhood every time you deal with your family?"
"Oh yes."
"At least it's not just us."
"Having said that, I've just spent three days with my brother, and violence is yet to break out."
"We Beifongs have strong feelings. And fists, apparently."
Landing, Tenzin said, "Come inside. I'll make you some tea, and we'll see if we can do something for your face."
The blood came from a small cut where Lin's armour had pierced Su's cheek. While Tenzin searched the kitchen for the antiseptic, Su sipped her tea and said, "Why is she still wearing her armour? How does she get out of it?"
"Slowly, I believe," said Tenzin.
Su ran a hand over her heavy necklace, trying to imagine wearing it without her bending. She shuddered.
"It's no excuse," said Tenzin, "but she's having a difficult time right now. More so because she doesn't want Korra to realise she's struggling."
"I'd love to meet the Avatar."
"This isn't a good time."
"No. I see that."
"Here." Tenzin passed the baby to Su. "I'll take care of your face."
The baby was a warm, placid bundle, barely waking up as he was placed in the arms of a stranger.
"Do you think Katara will be able to help them?" Su asked.
"I hope so." Tenzin was sponging the blood from her cheek. "We're going to the South Pole as soon as we can leave the city."
"I can't believe Lin has the nerve to face your mother, let alone ask for a favour. Mom told me what happened."
"Do you see Toph often?"
"Not for a few years, why?"
"Is there any chance she might want to see Lin?"
"Probably none."
"Good."
"Offering comfort isn't exactly one of Mom's strengths. And if that's how Lin reacts to seeing me—"
"The only person she'll want to see less is your mother," Tenzin finished. He fixed a plaster to the cut on Su's cheek and stepped back. "There," he said, "that will hold until you can see a healer. I'm afraid you look like you've been in a bar fight, though."
"It's not the first time," said Su, but she wasn't interested in her injury. She watched Tenzin putting away the first aid kit and said, "Are you having an affair with Lin?"
His head, she was pleased to see, still turned bright red when he was embarrassed or angered.
"Of course not," he snapped. "Why would you even ask that?"
"You're taking her side again. Just like when you were together."
"I am not taking sides," said Tenzin. His huff of outrage made the windows shake. "Lin and I are colleagues and friends, and I'm concerned about her. That is all."
"In any case," came Pema's voice from the doorway, "everyone in the city knows they're both terrible liars. If Tenzin had an affair—"
"Which I wouldn't."
"—which he wouldn’t, the entire world would know within a day." She scooped Rohan out of Su's arms and said, "Did Lin give you that black eye?"
"Who else?"
"I'll talk to her tomorrow."
"Stay out of arm's reach."
"We escaped prison together," said Pema. "Lin's not going to hurt me. Are you staying the night, Su?"
"Apparently."
"Lin usually comes around after lunch. You should probably be off the island by then."
*
She planned to go straight from the port to Zaofu's healer before her family saw her face, but Wing and Wei were filling in for security at the gates.
"Nice shiner, Mom," said Wei.
"What happened? Did an Equalist get a lucky shot?"
"I met your Aunt Lin," said Su. "She wasn't happy to see me."
"Nice," said Wei, and Wing punched him in the shoulder.
"Look at Mom's face!"
"You broke Junior's arm that time."
"That was an accident. Anyway, you were there, too."
"Boys," said Su sharply, and they stopped.
"Yes, Mom?"
"I don't want my family to turn out like Lin and me."
"You mean totally badass?"
"You know exactly what I mean."
Baatar met her at their home, running his hand over her cheek with a rueful smile.
"Don't tell me you told me so," Su warned him.
"I wouldn't dare. I take it she wasn't happy to see you?"
She sank down onto their bed and put her head on her husband's shoulder.
"I think it's time I admitted to myself that Lin's never going to change. She's always going to be self-absorbed and miserable, and there's nothing I can do for her."
end
Author: LizBee
Rating: all ages
Notes: Set during the Book 1 finale, because apparently I'm never going to be over Lin losing her bending. Title from "The Crow" by Dessa.
Summary: Su visits Republic City in the aftermath of Amon's revolution, and completely fails to learn an important lesson about her sister.
As soon as the newspapers said Republic City was stable, Suyin ordered her airship to be readied. Uncharacteristically, Baatar tried to talk her out of it.
"Stable isn’t the same as safe," he said as she packed a bag.
"You know I can take care of myself."
"There’s a curfew."
"And hotels."
Quietly, he said, "She may not want to see you."
Su paused.
"I know," she admitted, "but I have to try."
*
Airship Control kept them circling for an hour before they were cleared to land. It gave Su a chance to look at the wreckage strewn throughout Yue Bay. Bits of ships – United Forces vessels, Equalist airships, the new aeroplanes – washed up on every beach. Here and there, she caught glimpses of the Republic City Police Department logo.
When they finally landed, customs officials checked Su’s ship and every piece of her luggage. They barely blinked at the name Beifong on her passport.
As they let her proceed through the landing terminal, the senior officer said, "Curfew begins at six."
It was already a quarter to five, but that left plenty of time to get to the house. She dispatched her pilot to his hotel and hired a driver, barely blinking at the amount he quoted for the trip.
She quickly realised that she had miscalculated. Many roads were blocked by debris, and traffic – already compensating for the snow – was further slowed by the police checkpoints stationed every few miles along her routes. At least, they bore the police logo, and there was one or two cops at each, but they were mainly staffed by the United Forces.
It was twenty past six when she finally reached her childhood home. The house was closed up and dark, and she saw her mistake. For all she knew, Lin was sleeping at the police station like the dedicated workaholic she had always threatened to become.
Su ran her hand over the front door’s lock. It was old-fashioned, a mixture of platinum and less refined metals that was challenging to bend. The same design their mother and Sokka had come up with – the very same lock.
Surprised, but not displeased, Su pulled the key from her pocket. She had found it in her jewellery box and brought it on a whim. Better and faster than standing out in the cold, trying to recreate it from memory and a slice of nickel.
Switching the light on, she found the house familiar, yet quite different from her memory. Lin had rearranged the furniture, replaced their mother’s highly textured ornaments with books and paintings. A set of musical instruments had been hung along the east wall. Su recognised the guqin their mother had given Lin when she turned twelve, specially made with strings of steel instead of silk. Beside that was a pipa, and beside that was an empty hook.
The missing instrument was Lin’s guzheng, shoved to the middle of her kitchen table. This, too, had metal strings, and Su ran her fingers over them, not making contact with the steel, but using her bending to create a sound.
The result was discordant, and she grimaced. Lin was the musician in the family, learning traditional instruments with the same dedication she brought to memorising the police code and making Su’s life difficult.
The kitchen smelled strongly of alcohol. Su followed her nose to the sink, where a bottle of baiju lay smashed, the spirits pooled in pieces of glass and remnants of plates.
Lin had come home at some point, she guessed – probably in the last twenty-four hours, judging by the health of the herbs growing in their little glasshouse on the window sill – retrieved the guzheng, poured herself a drink and tried to play. And, without her bending, she had failed, and thrown a tantrum.
Typical.
Su returned the guzheng to its hook and began to tidy up. Throughout the house were signs that Lin had been home recently, and she took that as a positive sign and refused to worry.
But still. It was a little eerie to walk through her childhood home and find all trace of her existence erased. In the wardrobe of her old room, Su finally found her clothes, neatly packed into boxes, along with dancing trophies. Everything else was gone.
Su pushed the box back into the wardrobe and closed the door, and went to inspect the contents of Lin’s icebox.
She was dozing on the couch when a noise woke her. Lin’s car pulling up, she thought, but then came the sound of an animal’s low rumble, and suddenly she was thirteen again, listening to her sister trying to come home quietly. Oogi -- she'd know that growl anywhere -- was landing in the courtyard.
Her heart was pounding. It was nearly thirty years since she had seen her sister in the flesh, and after the reports coming from Republic City in the last few days, she didn’t know what kind of woman she would find. But she could make an educated guess: bitter and furious and ready for a fight.
Tenzin’s voice floated in from outside: "Will we see you tomorrow?"
"Maybe," Lin was saying. "I have an early meeting with General Iroh about assigning more of his troops to police duties."
"It already looks like a military occupation out there."
"It is. You command that army, remember?"
Last time Su had spoken to Tenzin, he told her that he and Lin were barely civil. Now they sounded almost ... comfortable.
They were lingering in the kitchen. Su stood up, knowing she needed to let them know she was there, but suddenly paralysed by nervousness.
"I think Korra is coming to depend on you," Tenzin was saying.
"I'm doing what I can. I can’t baby her and do my job."
"Technically, you don’t have a job."
"Look, if Saikhan were alive—"
Lin was walking into the living area as she spoke. She stopped when she saw Su.
"Hello, Lin," said Su quietly.
Lin looked all right, and she even sounded okay, but her mask dropped just for a second, and Su saw naked panic in her sister’s face.
Then Lin regained control, and fear turned to rage.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded, advancing on Su. "Tenzin?" She rounded on the airbender. "Did you organise this?"
"No," he said, shifting the bundle slung against his chest. It was a baby, Su realised, only a few days old, impossibly tiny, warmly wrapped in orange swaddling cloths. He frowned, unconscious of the absurdity of the image he was presenting. "Suyin, what is the meaning of this?"
Despite herself, Su laughed.
It was a mistake. Lin turned white and advanced on her, fists clenched.
"Give me a reason not to have you arrested," she said.
"It’s Mom’s house."
"I live here," Lin snarled.
"Yes," said Su, "and when I heard what Amon did to you, I came straight here to see if you were okay. So go ahead," and although she could hear the echo of her younger self, she couldn’t stop talking, "arrest me."
"You came to gloat," said Lin.
"I was worried. Is it so unreasonable to be concerned about my big sister?"
"Get out of my house."
"Lin," said Tenzin quietly, "it’s been a difficult week, and if Suyin wants to—"
"Wants to what? Invade my home? Tell me how hard it is for her that I’ve lost my bending?" She turned back to Su. "Get out."
"The curfew, Lin," said Tenzin.
Anger had overwhelmed common sense, and Su found herself saying, "Looks like you're stuck with me. I should have known you'd rather sit and sulk than actually—"
She didn't see the punch coming. One minute Lin was stepping forward, the next, her fist was connecting with Su's face, and Su was reeling backwards.
"Lin!"
Tenzin had grabbed Lin. Su jumped to her feet, instinctively rooting herself in the stone foundations of the house.
"If that's how you want it," she said, summoning a brick from the wall and throwing it at Lin.
Tenzin pulled Lin out of its path and deflected it with a blast of air. Lin looked off-balance and a bit scared, but she was struggling against him, trying to lunge at Su again.
The baby's cries snapped Su out of her rage.
"Sorry," she said, breathing heavily. She touched her face and realised it was already swelling. There was blood on her finger. "Lin, I—"
Lin went limp, and turned to Tenzin.
"Get her out of here," she snarled.
He let her go, and she turned and marched away, vanishing into the room that had once been their mother’s, slamming the door so hard that the baby's cries became louder.
"I didn't mean for it to go like that," said Su weakly.
"Come on," said Tenzin with a sigh. "I'm sure we have room for you on the island."
On their way out, he retrieved some ice from Lin's ice box and wrapped it in a clean cloth. Su held it to her face, although the cold winter air was already turning her face numb and making her eyes water.
Once they on their way, he gave Oogi his head and calmed the fussing baby.
"How old is she?" Su asked.
"He. One week." Tenzin ran his hand over the baby’s cap of dark hair. "His name is Rohan."
"That’s very nice."
"Flying calms him."
"Another airbender."
Tenzin smiled. "I hope so." Then he became serious. "Suyin, what were you thinking?"
This, too, was a familiar line from their youth.
"I was thinking my sister might need me," Su snapped. "Clearly I was wrong. As usual, all she cares about is her ego and her precious grudge."
"You must realise how it seemed to her."
"It's not my fault she's incapable of seeing any perspective but her own." Su lowered the ice. "How's my face?"
"You have a remarkable black eye coming along."
Su sighed. "Do you feel like you revert to childhood every time you deal with your family?"
"Oh yes."
"At least it's not just us."
"Having said that, I've just spent three days with my brother, and violence is yet to break out."
"We Beifongs have strong feelings. And fists, apparently."
Landing, Tenzin said, "Come inside. I'll make you some tea, and we'll see if we can do something for your face."
The blood came from a small cut where Lin's armour had pierced Su's cheek. While Tenzin searched the kitchen for the antiseptic, Su sipped her tea and said, "Why is she still wearing her armour? How does she get out of it?"
"Slowly, I believe," said Tenzin.
Su ran a hand over her heavy necklace, trying to imagine wearing it without her bending. She shuddered.
"It's no excuse," said Tenzin, "but she's having a difficult time right now. More so because she doesn't want Korra to realise she's struggling."
"I'd love to meet the Avatar."
"This isn't a good time."
"No. I see that."
"Here." Tenzin passed the baby to Su. "I'll take care of your face."
The baby was a warm, placid bundle, barely waking up as he was placed in the arms of a stranger.
"Do you think Katara will be able to help them?" Su asked.
"I hope so." Tenzin was sponging the blood from her cheek. "We're going to the South Pole as soon as we can leave the city."
"I can't believe Lin has the nerve to face your mother, let alone ask for a favour. Mom told me what happened."
"Do you see Toph often?"
"Not for a few years, why?"
"Is there any chance she might want to see Lin?"
"Probably none."
"Good."
"Offering comfort isn't exactly one of Mom's strengths. And if that's how Lin reacts to seeing me—"
"The only person she'll want to see less is your mother," Tenzin finished. He fixed a plaster to the cut on Su's cheek and stepped back. "There," he said, "that will hold until you can see a healer. I'm afraid you look like you've been in a bar fight, though."
"It's not the first time," said Su, but she wasn't interested in her injury. She watched Tenzin putting away the first aid kit and said, "Are you having an affair with Lin?"
His head, she was pleased to see, still turned bright red when he was embarrassed or angered.
"Of course not," he snapped. "Why would you even ask that?"
"You're taking her side again. Just like when you were together."
"I am not taking sides," said Tenzin. His huff of outrage made the windows shake. "Lin and I are colleagues and friends, and I'm concerned about her. That is all."
"In any case," came Pema's voice from the doorway, "everyone in the city knows they're both terrible liars. If Tenzin had an affair—"
"Which I wouldn't."
"—which he wouldn’t, the entire world would know within a day." She scooped Rohan out of Su's arms and said, "Did Lin give you that black eye?"
"Who else?"
"I'll talk to her tomorrow."
"Stay out of arm's reach."
"We escaped prison together," said Pema. "Lin's not going to hurt me. Are you staying the night, Su?"
"Apparently."
"Lin usually comes around after lunch. You should probably be off the island by then."
*
She planned to go straight from the port to Zaofu's healer before her family saw her face, but Wing and Wei were filling in for security at the gates.
"Nice shiner, Mom," said Wei.
"What happened? Did an Equalist get a lucky shot?"
"I met your Aunt Lin," said Su. "She wasn't happy to see me."
"Nice," said Wei, and Wing punched him in the shoulder.
"Look at Mom's face!"
"You broke Junior's arm that time."
"That was an accident. Anyway, you were there, too."
"Boys," said Su sharply, and they stopped.
"Yes, Mom?"
"I don't want my family to turn out like Lin and me."
"You mean totally badass?"
"You know exactly what I mean."
Baatar met her at their home, running his hand over her cheek with a rueful smile.
"Don't tell me you told me so," Su warned him.
"I wouldn't dare. I take it she wasn't happy to see you?"
She sank down onto their bed and put her head on her husband's shoulder.
"I think it's time I admitted to myself that Lin's never going to change. She's always going to be self-absorbed and miserable, and there's nothing I can do for her."
end
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(And I strongly suspect that it's the latter that has tainted every single aspect of their relationship before and after, even if Lin can't see that. Toph's actions there are the sorts of things that destroy whole police departments in functional societies.)
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