Who the F*** is Kanto?

Chapter 16 - Some Kind of Dad

"Our accommodations suit your needs?" Lin appeared by the bars of his cell somehow. Of course, she could sneak up to him, anyone could now that he couldn't use his seismic sense. Toph would be laughing in his face right about now, if she were here. Fuck, he was sure there was a chance she'd come back from wherever she was just to rub it in.

"Yeah. Thanks, Chief." Immediately after his arrest Kanto was stripped of his bending and transferred to a special part of the prison away from the general population. It was a place reserved for prisoners the others wanted to kill really badly and was also where he found and executed his former boss. That was a cosmic joke if he ever heard one...

At least his daughter was here. The new, and, whether anyone dared admit it or not, more effective Chief Beifong, stood in front of his cell sipping coffee and staring at him intently.

"I always wondered... Does it hurt when the Avatar takes it away?"

"If I say Yes, are you going to say Good?"

She frowned. Why? Why was his first instinct these days to be an ass?

"Sorry." He got to his feet and took a few steps to the bars so that he was directly facing her. "No, it doesn't. It just feels... Empty, I guess."

He realized then that she didn't need to be there, the Chief didn't at least. So then it must be that she was there as Lin, as his daughter...

"I'll live." He added, seeing her struggling to find the right words. It didn't help her find them.

And he couldn't blame her. It was awkward. It was weird. It was upsetting. It hurt to talk to each other but there was also some pull that made them want to try.

He smiled then, because he realized her face was just as genuinely expressive as her mother's. And at that moment, Lin's was saying I'm sorry I had to do this to you, even though her job and her pride would never let her form the words.

"Why'd you do it, Kanto?" she said instead.

"I promised you I would if you cleaned up the Shades. Which you did."

"Don't give me that... If this is part of some scheme to—"

Kanto interrupted her with a chuckle.

"Believe me, I wish I was half the criminal mastermind you and your mother think I am. It'd make things easier for me." He sighed. "You want to know why I turned myself in? I'm tired of fighting, Lin."

"I didn't think we were—"

"Not with you, just... In general. I'm so tired of fighting, I've been doing it since I was a kid and I haven't stopped once. I'm tired, and I'm old, and I wanna spent the time I have left close to my daughter."

That left her quiet again for a little while. He let her think and didn't speak.

"And for that, you gave up your earthbending? For a slim chance that I— That your daughter would even wanna talk to you despite everything?" She took another sip. "That's stupid."

"Yeah, see, not a mastermind. I am stupid. Stupid for not doing it sooner." This seemed to surprise her, yet it was a hundred percent genuine. When he found out he had a daughter he had a year of leading the triad to answer for, but the worst he could've gotten for that was... What? 20 years... That seemed so much then, an eternity, yet by not turning himself in, he sentenced himself to 32 years of violence, failure and being alone.

"I have to inspect the prison." She blurted after a few awkward moments of silence passed.

"Of course, Chief, I get it. Nice seeing you, though." Kanto's throat tightened at the thought that after she walked through that door and left this place, there was a very good chance he'd never see her again. And there was absolutely no chance he'd ever see Toph again.