Alright, so... This story has absolutely NOTHING to do with anything I wrote before. I have a different version of Kanto there, one I wasn't particularly happy with, so I decided to redo the whole story of what happened that caused Lin to happen.
This is just a cute(debatable), little(hardly) story about how Lin's mother met Lin's father and also about who the fuck he is, cause they just sprung him on us in LoK.
Happy reading :)
And the rating is JUST for the SWEARING, as always nothing graphic will be described, since I am a firm believer in "fade to black".
oooooooooo
Week 1
"Republic City Police! Open up!" Toph banged on a door.
"Oh, shit." She could barely hear someone from inside say. She kicked down the door.
"What're you waiting for?! Grab 'em, cuff 'em and write the bastards up! I've got dinner plans!"
A group of policemen poured into the room before Toph and used their cables to detain the men inside, who were, until a few seconds ago, preoccupied with shoving money into bags.
"And where're you going?" Toph jerked her hand and caught one of the men with earth just as he was about to exit through the window.
"I'd say, he's going to jail!" a young officer announced, making his coworkers chuckle or at least shake their heads.
"Officer Fei, nice work with those cables," Toph said. "Now just learn some cool lines. What are they teaching at the academy these days anyway?"
"We got all five, Chief." Another officer walked to her. "Now how about the usual terms?"
"I would... But at this point, I feel bad taking your money, Kun."
The other officers laughed and whistled.
"No, I have a good feeling about this. We're in." Officer Huang stepped up next to Kun.
"Fine..." Toph stretched and sat down at the table.
"No touching."
"I know, Mom..." She took in a deep breath and raised her right hand to count on her fingers. "I smell alcohol, beer I'd say, then cigarettes, real cheap ones, pie, meat pie. Next are drugs, of course..."
"You think we're amateurs? What kind of drugs?" Kun asked.
"That sour stench? That's gotta be Spirit Dust." Toph gave them a few moments to disagree with her, but it seemed she'd gotten everything on the table right up until that point. The game was good for honing her senses other than the seismic one, plus she was good at it and it showed her officers who's boss. "Then there has to be money and judging by the position of the furniture I bet they were playing cards."
"Cards for what game?" Huang asked and Kun elbowed him.
"Don't be a jackass."
"No, no... Blind Girl can handle herself," Toph said. Where her senses failed her a little police deduction should do. "There were five guys playing, all or most Earth Kingdom, so the most popular game I know from there that can be played with five people is... Yamin. They're Yamin cards. And the Beifong fortune keeps on growing..."
"Actually, Chief... They're Chait cards." Huang corrected her.
"What? That makes no sense. You can't play that with less than six people." It took her a second to get it. She slammed her foot into the floor with force and listened to what the ground was telling her.
Oh.
"I must be wrong, let's get out of here." She jumped to her feet and walked across the room, sort of towards the exit, but not directly.
"Chief? Shouldn't we-" Fei started, but shut up when Toph put a finger to her lips.
All the officers' eyes were on her at once. She took a deep breath and pulled open the door to the closet in the corner of the room.
Being very focused on making it as sudden and unexpected as possible, she failed to prepare herself for the person inside hitting first. And that he did, launching himself feet first into her and knocking her to the ground.
How could she've been that reckless? He'd been supporting himself by the closet's frame inside, so the wood muffled his image, but she still should've realized someone was there. She would've if she'd been focused. Maybe Monk Supreme was right, maybe these games had no place during work hours... No, that wasn't it.
The man got himself up and running before she did, but not by much. She was just after him and out of the building in no more than a few seconds.
"Fuck him up, Chief!" Huang shouted after her.
Oh, she intended to.
Under her feet the street formed a wave, which traveled straight for the running criminal with impressive speed. He stopped it just as it was about to crash into him.
So an earthbender...
The weirdly shaped concrete formed a nice bit of cover for him, so he didn't seem bothered by the rocks Toph was throwing his way. However, the second she stopped he threw some projectiles back at her, or course, having no effect either.
It looked like neither of them was really getting anywhere in that fight but Toph was closer and closer to him with every move and soon he'd be in the range of her cables. As a last, desperate measure, he threw what was probably a bench in her direction, but she dodged it with ease, gaining an opening that allowed her to punch him square in the face.
He fell to the ground and before he could get his senses back, she had him enveloped in metal.
"That was wood, you couldn't have seen it coming!"
"So you're saying I'm faking this?" Toph crouched down so he could see her face, and her eyes, then waved a hand in front of them.
"I'm saying it's impossible!"
"No... Running away from me, that's impossible."
oooooooooo
"How's that ice serving ya?" Toph asked once they got the criminal into one of their interrogation rooms. She'd instructed Fei to run and get him some ice, since her officers informed her the punch was swelling up the guy's eye.
"Better than that file will serve you, I'm sure..." He was referring to his record in her hand.
"Don't worry, I know everything that's here, I don't need to read. I was briefed." She slammed the bunch of papers on the table. She specifically paid attention with her feet to see if he'd flinch. He didn't. "First name, Kanto. Last name, unknown or non-existent."
"Non-existent."
"Great." She turned from him to the door. "Somebody back there write that the fuck down!"
"Yeah, Chief!" she heard back.
"Criminal record." She sat down opposite Kanto. "Pickpocketing at fifteen, shoplifting. Possession and arson at sixteen, more pickpocketing. A robbery allegation at seventeen and that's when it stops... What happened, Kanto? You finally get good at what you do?"
"I cleaned up." She wouldn't have bought his story anyway, but the unbelievable smugness this man's voice had, made her just want to... "Got off the streets, got an honest job, became an honest man."
"And what was an honest man doing in a triad den in the bad part of town today?"
"As I told your associates earlier, I deliver pies for a living." She sensed him lean back in his chair, not a care in the world. "These gentlemen I was found with, they ordered a pie and I delivered it. I had no knowledge of any illegal activities prior to my arrival there. Once I'd witnessed these illegal activities, I promptly threatened to call the police and report them, at which point the gentlemen overpowered me and stuffed me in the closet where I was found. Once you opened the door I was overcome with fear after the trauma I've suffered. That was the only reason I ran and fought back."
"How lucky that we showed up to save you..." Toph said as sarcastically as she could.
"Yes, I am most grateful for your service, Chief Beifong. You are a treasure to this city."
"There's just one thing I don't get." Then his heart jumped. It had been still this whole time, Toph was very carefully monitoring it, even though he was deliberately obvious in his lies. "We checked with your employer and found out an order for that pie was placed two hours before we found you."
"Yes, I was trapped in the closet for that time."
"Were you?" She smirked. "Then how do you explain the restaurant's log which says you delivered yet another pie in that span of time?"
"I know how you did it now." Kanto moved to rest his elbows on the table between them. "I threw something wooden at you, so you couldn't sense it, but you could sense how I moved to throw it. That's pretty impressive."
"I'm pretty impressive... Now answer the question."
"A mistake in the log, likely. Between you and me, the guys who run the log aren't really our best and brightest. Probably just put down someone else's delivery as mine."
The job was obviously a front for what he really did for the triad. Somewhere out there, there was a ten-year-old future triad member delivering pies as a cover for this smug bastard.
"Probably..."
His heart gave him away this time, even though his words were just as smooth as ever. Toph was so furious her heart reading wasn't admissible as evidence. She'd have this guy, dead to rights. He could control himself when he had a planned story, but when he improvised, he was just like anybody else. She was scared for a second she was dealing with another Princess Azula type character, but no. Just an above average liar.
"So when can I walk out of here?"
"What makes you so sure you're walking out of here today?"
"The look on your face."
oooooooooo
Toph had to let him go. That didn't mean she had to feel good about it, though. She did get five of his triad buddies so she should have actually been feeling pretty good as she walked home that day. Only she didn't.
She'd been doing this for a while at this point and she knew how it worked. Some of the bastards always got away. That's why no matter how hard she worked the Shades kept growing. The bad part of town, people called it. The Shades were a couple of neighborhoods where she couldn't send police officers anymore because they didn't come back. It was an old part of the city that was now completely under the triads' control.
But everything worth stealing tended to be outside those neighborhoods, so people like Kanto and the other idiots tended to slither out of the Shades often and try to drag some of it inside after them. At least she could still stop that.
And she was never afraid of entering that part of the city. They all knew she was off-limits. That's why she walked the unofficial border to the Shades every night on her way from work. It wasn't on her way at all, it was a message. It might be their neighborhood, but it was her city. And one day, one day she'd...
"Heya there, Chief." A man whose voice she recognized emerged out of an alley and started matching her pace.
"Here to turn yourself in, Kanto?"
"You wound me... Truly. I am a free man by the very law you uphold every day, Toph. You mind if I call you Toph?"
"Very much."
"Chief Beifong, then. Can we talk?"
"I thought we were." Toph picked up the pace.
"You were right." He caught up with her, then lowered his voice. "I am a Terra Triad member."
"And I'm blind. Both are pretty obvious." She stopped then and turned to him. He didn't quite expect it, so he ran into her side before stopping as well.
"I have to talk to you. Believe me, you'll want to hear this."
"I'll tell you what... You have something to report, you come to the station like everybody else." She started crossing the street, getting further away from the Shades with every step. It was safer like that if there was an ambush, he was trying to lure her into. It that was their plan it was a shitty one, maybe that was why she found herself kind of believing Kanto. His heart said he was telling the truth, but she already knew he could fake it for a plan. She didn't quite believe him, but she was... Intrigued?
"You're seriously not even a little bit interested?" He crossed the street after her. "Or do you just hate me?"
"I don't hate you. I don't even dislike you. Those are feelings... I nothing you, Kanto." That was a blatant lie. She was lucky he wasn't able to read lies, because she did strongly dislike him, in particular. A lot of crooks got away from her on the first try, that was true, but none of them were this cocky about it.
"See, if that were true, you'd meet with me..."
"No, I wouldn't! You know why?" She stopped dead in her tacks again. "Because it's so obviously a trap! And of course, I'd kick the collective ass of whoever you had waiting for me, but what's the point? What's the point when I could just kick your ass now?"
"Hey, easy!" His heart jumped. "I'm a regular citizen in the eyes of the law."
"You're a pest. Don't look for me again." She started walking way and he didn't follow her.
"The Toph Beifong from the stories would come hear me out!" He yelled after her, but she didn't mind him. "Because she's not scared of anything! She'd check her right pocket... And come tomorrow at this time to do her job."
What was he on about?
Toph suddenly became aware of a weight in her right pocket. When did he have time to...
It was one of those metal, miniature maps of the city. Of part of the city, actually. Tourists loved that shit... You could buy them at every corner. This one however had one of the houses marked with a carving of an X. That's where Kanto would be waiting tomorrow at this time...
Or him and his twenty armed friends! It was madness to go. Downright stupid... And Toph wasn't stupid. She didn't need anything from that buffoon. Nothing at all. She wouldn't go. She decided not to go.
oooooooooo
So obviously she went.
Tomorrow at that same exact time, Toph was climbing up the stairwell of one of the old buildings just at the border of Shades. Many such buildings were empty and abandoned, but not this one, it would seem. She could hear people running around on the floor above her as she reached a particular apartment door.
Of course, he couldn't specify an apartment number on that little map he left her, not that she'd be able to read the numbers on the doors anyway. Instead, this apartment was the only one where she could feel a substantial amount of metal on the other side of the door. She could also feel a single person inside, sitting almost perfectly still. This had to be it.
She opened the door, effortlessly bending the scraps of metal down to the floor. Despite the mess, she entered relatively quietly.
"You came, Chief," Kanto said from the table in the middle of the room. "I'm touched. I might cry..."
"Zip it. You're lucky I was bored." Toph walked to the table too, but took a moment before sitting. She was positive now there wasn't anyone else in the apartment. And the place itself... It couldn't be his. No one's that stupid. However, it wasn't a dump. It smelled clean. But in a way that meant no one had been living there for a while. It smelled old clean.
"What is this place?" she asked, finally sitting down opposite him. Despite that, her she kept her guard up, her sense listening to the earth waiting for people to come charge this place. They didn't.
"It's safe, don't worry. Rent paid for a year, no-questions-asked landlord, not close to any active triad hangouts. Trust me, one of the things I do for the Terra Triad is find safehouses like this one for them to use on jobs."
"So it's private, and I wasn't ambushed... What do you wanna say to me?"
"Yeah, so..." He coughed and straightened in his chair. "It's like this. I have a little brother, his name-"
"Look, I'm not here for sob stories, cut it short."
"It's not a sob story, it's my life. Can you just for once get over yourself and listen?"
"Alright..." She deliberately had a tone as she said that.
"My brother's name is Ling, he's eleven and it's been just us for a long time. I've been earning money, well, you know how... But it's been enough. It's still enough, but recently-"
"Mr. Big Earner..."
"Do you have to?"
"Afraid so... Your story's bumming me out." She gave him an awkward half-smile thing at that, hoping he'd get it. She got that no everyone had a choice in joining the triads. It was just easy to forget sometimes. They were the enemy and she was... Well, she'd forget again, she was sure of it. Next time one of her officers didn't come back and she had to call up their family and explain, they become the enemy again.
"So one day, the triad says Ling's old enough, he has to join. I say, Fuck you, no. But they say It wasn't a question, bitch. And I'm not whining about my own life, it's alright. But I don't want it for my little bro. The triad used to help me give him a somewhat normal life, now it's preventing me. What I'm trying to say is, I'm ready to snitch."
"That's why you called me here? You want to be an informant?"
"Yeah... I figured we'd meet here once a week, I'd tell you what they tell me and if you need, I could tell them what you ask me to tell them. But I'd need stuff in return. I'd do it until you said it was enough, but in exchange I want a better future for me and my brother, which means: pardons for our crimes, a place to live away from the Shades, somewhere with good schools and smart kids, and also a job for me, a legit one."
"Is that all?"
"Just one more thing, actually. This would have to stay between us. You can't tell any other officers, because everyone knows Boss Man has some of your people on his payroll."
The implication got her stomach in knots. Her truthseer powers were very powerful, so any man who could slip through that was indeed a real piece of work.
"That it?"
"Yeah."
"No."
"You're telling me no?" His usually low and husky voice came out all wobbly.
"You heard me, didn't you?" Toph stood up to leave. This was a fucking waste of time. For both of them... "It's too much of a risk. Consider yourself lucky. The way most informants end up... Let's just say it ain't happily ever after."
"No, wait." He jumped to his feet and made a step to follow her. "You have to understand, I wouldn't even be asking you this if you were any other cop, but you're Toph. Freaking. Beifong. For you I can be sure you're not taking bribes, or planning on screwing me over... You're my last chance of saving my brother. We can help each other. Use that truth thing you have... What does it say about me? Am I telling the truth?"
He was. She almost didn't need her bending to make the call. It was all in his voice.
"Sorry, Kanto." She continued her way to the door. His heart was going crazy, he had to be so panicked... She shut it out.
Don't fucking listen to it...
"You just don't understand what it's like to have someone depending on you!"
In the span of two second from when she heard him say it, she was already screaming inches from his face.
"Oh, boo hoo, tough guy! You have one person to take care of besides yourself! One!" She poked her index finger into his chest. "I've got a whole police force full of officers who get killed if I make stupid decisions! They sometimes die even if I make smart decisions!" She could feel him back away slightly, but she kept going, following him until he was pinned by the table. "And that's not even mentioning all the innocent people of this city I'm responsible for! A kid's bike gets stolen – my fault! A husband slaps his wife – my fault! Someone selling drugs – my fault! I trust a no-good, lying criminal who betrays me when he makes up with his buddies and someone gets hurt – my fault!"
She realized then her temper got away from her again. She didn't usually do this. Not at criminals, not with her closest friends, not even when she was alone. It did appear to be something that was bothering her, since she obviously needed an outlet somewhere. But why did this guy always drag out that part of her so quickly?
"It's not, you know..." He paused as he sat back down. "And it's not gonna be like that. I'll keep my word and it'll be more like, half the triad behind bars – thanks to you. Less drugs on the street – thanks to you. And a little boy has a future – thanks to you."
Toph gave herself a few seconds to process that.
"Spirits, damn you... Fine!" She hit his shoulder. "Let's see what you got."
"You won't regret this. I won't ask for anything until I show results and-"
"Good, cause you're not getting anything until I see something good come out of this for me."
"Deal. And I know I'm only at second ring, but I'll work hard to go higher. For this."
"Second ring?"
"You really don't know?" How could he have that smugness of his back so quickly? "Terra Triad members are ranked into five rings, you know, like Ba Sing Se had three."
"So you being a two isn't really impressive." She grinned.
"Maybe not, but I can show you how to determine how high up someone is when you catch him." He shifted his sleeve up on his right hand. "We have our earned rings tattooed on our forearm. Give me your hand and I'll show you where they're supposed to be."
He got to his feet again and put out his hand, waiting for hers. She didn't give it. But he waited quietly, and the silence stretched on for so long she simply gave up and gave him her hand. He traced a circle around his elbow with her fingers, slowly so she could remember to show her officers what to look for.
"That's where the first one goes. We don't tell those about the five-ring system yet. They're not trustworthy enough."
Toph couldn't feel anything but skin under her fingers. The tattoo didn't stand out from the rest of his hand. She hated this. Hated when there was something in her job, she was simply useless for.
"That's why we didn't know about it," she said, and he moved to tracing the second ring.
"Now, at the second ring, people usually have some random tattoo done over it, so it's not that obvious that it's a symbol. It's been working pretty well for us until now."
"So you're not completely useless... That's good to know." She pulled her hand back.
"That's it then? Let's just say we'll meet back here in a week."
"No, Sneaky. You're an informant now, you have to be more careful about covering your tracks."
"I've been a criminal since I was a kid, Chief. I know plenty about covering my tracks."
"It's not the same. If the police catch you, you go to prison, but if your buddies catch on to what you're doing, you're a dead man. You need to get that into your head if you want this to work."
"Alright." He sighed. "So when do we meet then?"
"They can't pick up on your patterns if you don't have any. We'll need a random way of determining the day and time of our next meeting. Do you maybe have a coin we could flip or-"
"Will this do?" He took something out of his pocket.
"If I could see it, I'd be giving you an answer right now."
"They're Yamin dice."
"Perfect." She took them from him. "Is your gambling gonna be a problem?"
"No more than your unwarranted distrust of me."
"It's called healthy skepticism. And we'll see if it was unwarranted." Toph threw the dice, then felt for the numbers with her fingers.
"This is actually brilliant. You do this thing a lot?" he asked, and she nodded. "We don't give you cops enough credit. Or you, Chief. All that talk about you and big words isn't even true..."
"What about big words?"
"In the triad..." Kanto shifted uncomfortably. "They tell people that if they're ever interrogated by Toph, to use as many big words as possible, that it makes you mad so you're easier to fool."
"Big words?"
"Or just like, fancy talk. That you don't like proper talking people."
"Just because I can't read, doesn't mean I'm stupid." It was a ridiculous idea, but she was slowly realizing a lot of criminals she'd interrogated lately used words like elicit or fraternize.
"I know, it's just what people say..."
"Tuesday, six o'clock." She walked to the door. She'd never had an informant in a triad so important before. She was a bit excited about this. "Have something for me, Kanto."
"Besides my charming personality?"
"Instead."
oooooooooo
Anyway, this is just something I tried while working on some other stuff. I know it isn't groundbreaking ;) but if you can't tell, I'm having way too much fun with it. And as always feel free to share your opinion.
One thing I'm having particular difficulty with is getting the amount of teasing right... Cause it has to be in there cause Toph is there, but too much just comes off cringy and dumb, so I tried to balance it but probably failed.
Also, I apologize for the entire story, the whole thing will be from Toph's perspective and I TRIED to not describe things she couldn't sense with her seismic stuff, and I TRIED to not use verbs like saw, looked, stared, but I just KNOW a couple of those bastards are in there somewhere, so I'm sorry. And it is so unclear what she can actually "see", so I took some liberties and imagined she can sense something like where a person's head is pointed at and details like that, but seriously, my girl can sense ants! I think it checks out...
I'll try to post every few days :)