Leia knew things were going to be alright. That's what she kept telling herself the whole time she laid on the hospital bed she was assigned to stay on for two days. She didn't know exactly why she insisted on staying another day when she could easily take care of the post-hospital wound maintenance but she suspected that it was probably because of her innate want to be cared for and coddled especially after being abandoned by the man she'd learned to call brother over the course of five years.

Still, she gathered that things will be alright. Tenzin was a loss, yes, but that was just part of life. She had her friends, Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and San. She had her sister, whose favorite scent of perfune she currently wore (she still had the bottle the girl had given her on the day she left for Republic City and used the fragrance sparingly), and family back at the South. She had Katara and maybe Aang too. Her loss of Tenzin wouldn't start the end of the world.

So, Leia finalized, things were going to be alright. It'll all be okay. It'll all work out someday.

It'll all make sense again.

It didn't mean she wouldn't feel upset and awful, though.

Currently, Leia was working on finishing observing a bunch of skin cell samples of an eel hound placed in bacteria-specific agar dishes. The eel hounds they took samples from lived in a slightly polluted part of a river just outside Republic City. It was one of the drop-off points of the city's sewage system. They were currently quantifying parameters set for monitoring the water quality of the river and trying to find out if wildlife is affected by the presence of certain compounds and organic substrate in the water. In particular, Leia was observing for coliform bacteria. Looking at the dishes, she felt a slight tingle down her back once she recognized a few colonies of coliform had indeed formed in each one of them.  Those things have infested the skin of the eel hounds, Leia shuddered at the thought of being in the situation these animals were in. She'll never take clean water for granted ever again.

"Hey, T," a voice startled Leia from her thoughts. The 21-year old proceeded to look slowly at her friend who just chuckled at her.

This was her first day back in the institute after being hospitalized and diagnosed with anemia. Turns out that the little bone marrow adaptation she had earned over the course of a year under Katara's care slowly went back to normal once she didn't use her little blood bending trick as often. As a result, she was still feeling out of it and tired easily.

"Damn, that wound did a number on you," Jeongyeon remarked both as a teasing and worried comment, seeing Leia's still relatively pale face. "I'm surprised you're able to be up and about after just two days in the hospital."

Leia was able to smile a bit at her. She coughed in an attempt to clear the hoarseness of her voice caused by being asleep for nearly 24 hours. "I'll be fine. As long as I don't do anything strenous for the next couple of days, I'll be in tip-top shape in no time."

Leia's wound on her hand had healed quite nicely over the course of two days. She made sure to at least start on healing it the moment she felt faint due to her late night activities. She still had bandages wrapped around her hand, though. She didn't want to risk getting it infected or having it re-opened. Leia didn't mind having them there. If anything, it made her feel really badass despite her current diagnosis.

"Oh, and I have to take a lot of iron," she added, remembering her doctor's orders. She gave Jeongyeon a cheeky grin. "I don't eat healthy enough so I bought supplements."

Leia had expected Jeongyeon's dolphin like laugh to ring through her ears. She was used to hearing it like hearing an alarm clock every single day.

"Ah, Leia, pabo ya," that's currently Leia's favorite native Earth Kingdom word, "Supplements are supposed to be just exactly that - supplements. At this point, you should alter your diet-"

The conversation was cut short when Leia was suddenly thrown across the room, the sound of snapping metal cables heard through the air. Her back as well as her head came in contact with the wall and she slid down on her knees onto the floor with a grunt. Pain erupted from her butt and shoulders, both parts of her body that took the brunt of the force.

The clanking and scraping of metal against the tiled floor of the laboratory was all that could be heard as a figure clad in armor approached Leia as she fought the urge to remain sat on the floor, feeling weaker by the minute.

"Not so tough now that Tenzin's not around, huh?"

Leia's eyes snap wide open and looked up, letting her eyes readjust and refocus to see none other than Chief Lin Beifong, looking over her with an angry look on her face.

Leia couldn't do anything when the green-eyed woman held her by the collar of both her lab coat and her shirt underneath and started yelling at her face. "You good-for-nothing brat! Ever since you've arrived, not one single thing has looked up for me."

Lin's anger seethed and Leia swore she could feel heat emanating from the Chief's armor. The woman's brilliant green eyes bore into her own, and Leia thought that if the lady had some type of laser-eyes superpowers, her own eyes will have been burnt to a crisp.

Although feeling weak given her current state, seeing as she was just recovering from blood loss and was just thrown into a wall, Leia didn't back down and retorted through gritted teeth, "You blame me for your own misfortune? What are you, ten!?" As she spat out the words, her head started to spin once more. Yikes, I think I might have a concussion.

The older woman's eyes narrowed further, Leia's comment only making her angrier. "Can it! You've got a lot of nerve to talk back at me, man-stealer!" Leia was confused greatly. Lin looked like she was about to hit her when a splash of liquid noticeably flattens the hair of the older woman.

"Yah! You have no right to talk to her like that!" A scream sounded in the room.

It was Jeongyeon.

"You're lucky we didn't use acid."

That was Jihyo.

"We just had a fresh batch of hydrochloric made, we aren't afraid to use it."

San? What were they doing? Were they asking for a death wish?

Growling, Lin snapped her head in the direction of the culprits. The three stood side-by-side, one of them holding a large flask. Did they just throw buffer at her?

"Are you threatening the Chief of Police?" Lin Beifong's powerful voice reverberates throughout the laboratory.

While the chief was distracted, Leia took this as a chance to open her waterskin that she never really had a use for other than drinking. Leia willed herself to think quick. She looked beyond the head of the Chief of Police and took note of the faucets lining the large sink with an equally large counter  surrounding it, serving as a huge rectangular table in center of the room.

The three scientists stood their ground, not budging despite their knowledge that if a fight was to go down, they wouldn't stand a chance. "It's not a threat. It's just a very likely scenario should you make another move on her," San replied, trying to loop a hole in the chief's question. Leia wanted to laugh, cry, and groan at his quip.

Lin growled once more, letting go of her grip on Leia's collars and turning her back on the younger girl. Leia fell on her knees once more, gathering strength for what she was about to do.

"You all think you can outsmart me?And what would you do if I made a move on you?" The Chief of Police snarled and held out her right arm, ready to summon the cables attached in a coil on her back. As she was about to move her arm, something wet had grabbed onto her hand and consequently her wrist.

Lin looked at what was gripping at her hand when she simply saw water. Water was coating around her whole fist and she couldn't move it, as if someone's hand actually had a grip on her wrist. The water came from a source from behind her.

All heads turn to the girl now was in a waterbending stance, her dominant hand coated with water from her pouch, connecting to the water that encased Lin's hand. "You will not touch them," Leia barked out, blue eyes trained on Lin and glaring daggers at her.

Then, Leia retracted the water from Lin's hand, causing the older woman to turn and face her body towards her once again. She did a series of rapid movements with her hands and sent the water flying past Lin's waist, going behind her.  Leia then motioned the water back to her, again passing by Lin's waist but on the opposite side, catching it with both hands. Lin had reacted and had both of her arms crossed over in front of her face. While Lin had her face covered, Leia mouthed to her co-workers, 'remove plugs, cover sockets.' Then, she quickly acted out what a person getting electrocuted would move like. It seemed they got the message and slipped away to obey her orders. Safety first, stupidity last.

When the older woman realized that nothing had happened to her, she let her arms down and saw the waterbender in front of her holding a relatively small ball of water. She smirked at the girl. "What was that? I think you missed."

As if a switched had flipped, Leia now had a mischievous grin on her face instead of the glare she had a moment ago. "Chief Lin Beifong," she chuckled, "I may be rusty, but that wasn't a miss." She gave the chief a very obvious and knowing child-like wink.

Suddenly, the sound of dripping water all at once became so noticeable to the policewoman and next thing she knew, she had been engulfed and dragged out of the laboratory room in a floating orb of water. Once Lin realized that she couldn't breathe, she looked at Leia with wide eyes through the crystal clear water, pleading for some sort of mercy. Of course, Leia was already ahead of her, with no intention of drowning her hostage, already in the process of having just the head of the woman surface at the top of the blob.

Lin started panicking and Leia was already quite worried with the way the woman had her hands on top her mouth and nose. Spirits, please stop panicking! Honestly, I thought you out of all people would have better skills at maintaining a level head in a stressful situation.

Then, the Chief of Police felt a sensation forcing her to go upwards and she let it, resulting in the successful surfacing of just her head above the floating orb of water. She gasped, her lungs feeling the sweet relief of being filled with oxygen, a complete contrast from their previous sensation of burning.

While the green-eyed lady caught her breath, Leia started walking towards a secluded outdoor spot in the compound where she could talk to the woman she held captive. If Leia wasn't too preoccupied with dealing with the Chief of Police, she would have complimented herself on how she handled the situation without much combative methods. She had used the water from her trusty waterskin to flip all the tap switches, resulting in her having enough water to incapacitate her hostage. She thought it was cool that she was still managing to bend despite being weak.

Now suddenly thinking of it, she felt like each step she took was heavier than the last. Her sight started to blur a bit and she noticed her grip on the floating orb of water was starting to falter, the arm she held it up with (her dominant one) trembling in tandem with it. Despite her exhaustion, she willed herself to carry through and soon enough, she was at the back of one if the main buildings of LiuRI.

She heard a few grunts, indicating a struggle and she looked at the woman in the ball of water she surprisingly still held together despite her shaking hands. The Chief of Police was attempting to get out of her grip and when she noticed that the young girl was staring at her, she returned it with a glare. "Let me down, now," Lin demanded in the same voice she used to intimidate Leia's friends.

Leia only looked at her with a frown. She thought for a moment before settling with dropping the ball of water to touch the surface and freezing the woman in it in place, making sure her feet were an inch or two from the ground. Leia felt a big relief as she let go of her hold on the water, feeling like she could just faint then and there. However, she convinced herself that it wasn't the most ideal choice to just loose conciousness in the middle of a confrontation.

Then, Leia had the bright idea of freezing herself right next to the woman in the water just so she could keep herself upright.

"What are you doing?" The green-eyed lady asked as Leia wobbled to her side. Not having the strength to answer, she focused all her last bits of energy to melt the water momentarily and drew a portion of it around herself before freezing it again. Now, she, too, had her head sticking out from the ice.

"Too tired," Leia mumbled through her lips, looking a bit too pale. "Need to keep upright or I'll lose conciousness."

Lin furrowed her brows in confusion, still glaring at the girl. "That little shtick you did made you tired?"

Leia yawned before replying, "Hey, I never had any use for my bending other than healing. That was the first time in a while that I had to use a lot of it," She had to stop talking for a moment to gather herself once more, noticing the black spots staring to form at the corners of her vision. "Also, I just recovered from loosing a lot of blood from two days ago." She looked to the  older woman beside her and gave her a drowsy smile. "If you weren't trying to kill me and if I weren't in such an awful physical state right now, you would've been my first sparring partner outside of Katara's compound."

"Oh, speaking of," the scientist blinked a few times in series just to keep herself awake, "why did you try to kill me? What's all this man-stealing bit you were on about?"

Lin was suddenly seething with anger once more, remembering why she was even still her. "Wouldn't you like to know?" She spat through gritted teeth.

"Uh, yeah?" Leia retorted, her state making her a bit crankier than usual. "That's why I asked?"

Lin stayed silent, staring daggers at her and Leia had a moment to think to herself before she asked, "Wait, are you implying I stole Tenzin from you? Last time I checked, you were still an item." She then muttered in a bitter tone, remembering her last encounter with the man, "I mean, not that I have the intention to check anymore."

At Leia's question, Lin rolled her eyes. This was a waste of time. "Well done, know-it-all, you figured it out."

Leia then mirrored her glare. "I'd like to see you try and keep up with me after you cut yourself, loose nearly two pints of blood, get thrown into a wall, and not have enough oxygen flowing through your brain, detective."

Lin cringed at the details she provided and turned her face away from the girl. "If you're thinking you can trick me into pitying you, you're severely mistaken."

Leia sighed, wanting nothing more than to simply black out and sleep it all off. "I wasn't going to. Now will you please answer my question of why you think I stole your boyfriend?" She just wanted to lay down in bed and dream of koala sheep.

"Tenzin broke up with me."

Thoughts of koala sheep suddenly turned into vicious shirshus and then into terrifying saber-tooth moose lions. Then, they all turned into Tenzin. Tenzin was the bad guy in Leia's thought process now.

Lin turned back to Leia with a deep scowl on her face, "He told me all about how 'there's this girl'-" Leia picked up her emphasis on that part, concluding that if Lin's hands were free, she would have used air quotes.  "-That he confided in all the times we fought. Someone younger. A girl he trusted a lot." She snarled at the young woman, "You."

Leia was utterly dumbfounded. Her? Comforting Tenzin? Sure, she had been some sort of rock to him for the past few years, but they barely even talked in the last one before their argument two days ago.

"Did he say my name?" Leia asked, cringing at how that sounded so wrong out of context, but went through with it because she needed to know. She noticed the way the woman phrased her statements. 'He told me all about how 'there's this girl'...' She wondered if that had been verbatim or just a way to increase the drama surrounding it.

At her question, Lin seemed to be surprised. Leia smirked internally. Her rationality smirked with her. Gotcha. It was verbatim. She tried not to be so smug given Lin's situation.

"He didn't."

"Why are you so sure it's me?" Leia asked her in a tone that sounded like she was hurt. "Tenzin is like, well, only until recently, a brother to me." Lin had her scowl back, thinking her suspicions were correct once more.

"We sort of had a falling out two days ago." Leia immediately added, and green-eyed woman's expression relaxed. The waterbender laughed bitterly, "Told me he was done with all my 'know-it-all' crap and wanted me out of his life."

Leia then sighed, feeling closer to blacking out with each word she spoke, "He was right about me being an insufferable 'know-it-all', of course, but it still hurt." Leia then laughed once more, realizing how stupid this situation was. This time it sounded more genuine. "I guess, in a way, he broke up with me too. I mean it's really quite a stretch, and I now realize isn't as similar as I thought it was in my head, but you know, the thought still stands."

They were both silent for a moment, Leia due to the embarrassment of her last statement, and Lin because she was in thought. Leia also thought that if they weren't arguing, the amount of eye contact they had would have made her red in the face. Somehow, being scrutinized by Lin Beifong's gaze made her incredibly jittery and anxious under normal circumstances. Then again, she was the Chief of Police. Any sane person under the glaring eyes of the chief was sure to feel even just the slightest bit unnerved.

"But you're the only other female I know Tenzin talks to," Lin explained, sounding confused and desperate for an answer.

It was Leia's turn now to contemplate in silence instead of feeling embarassed because of a joke that didn't go through too well. Then, an imaginary lightbulb floated above her head. "Not really."

"What?"

"I mean aside from his mom, we aren't the only women in Tenzin's life as of the moment," Leia revealed, sounding like a child caught lying. She avoided the older woman's stare.

Lin narrowed her eyes at the girl beside her. "You know something," Lin accused. "If it wasn't you, then who is it?"

Leia was caught between wanting to answer and wanting to protect her suspected man-stealer of a friend. She looked away from Lin and quickly tried to come up with a solution.

"Please, Leia, tell me," Lin pleaded, sounding so desperate, angry, and hurt, all at the same time.

Despite wanting to immediately solve the problem at hand, Leia froze upon hearing the words slip through the older woman's lips.

All her life, Leia always had a million thoughts racing through her head. A million thoughts, a million questions, a million theories, a million facts, and a million dreams. Leia was a dreamer but she kept it at bay due to her want to pursue a career in the academe. There was a nearly endless list of things she dreamed about - people she wanted to meet, placed she wanted to go, and things she wanted to learn.

It was never truly quite silent in Leia's little noggin. Always at least a thought or two prancing around, leading to more thoughts in endless trails. She was used to it and would rather have it this way than think of nothing at all. It made things less lonely when she was by herself.

So, one could imagine the absolute shock she felt at that moment when a single thought floated in her mind. It was the thought of her name coming through the mouth of Lin.

Technically, it wasn't one thought. There was her thoughts of the way it sounded, the way Lin's pink lips had moved she said it, the tone she said it in, the endless possible ways of her saying it now that Leia had a reference, and the opinions Leia had of how perfect it had all been. All of these thoughts were present in Leia's head, yes, but it all led back to the general thought of Leia's name slipping through Lin's lips.

For the first time of her five years in Republic City, Leia heard her name called out by Chief Lin Beifong. She was never really addressed directly by Lin, and most of the time she was in her presence, Tenzin was there to mediate and take over the conversation with either one of them, but never both.

"Please," another plea from Lin had Leia snap out from her daze. Leia had to make a compromise. She suspected that Pema probably did something - confessed, most likely. Leia didn't want to entertain all other thoughts of what the acolyte must have done. It made her feel sick to even try to comprehend the situation if that were the case.

Taking a deep breath, Leia let out a warm breathe of air to melt the ice surrounding both of their bodies, one of the most useful techniques she learned from Katara. She then felt her body give up on herself once the support of the ice was gone and fell to the ground, sitting in now slightly muddy water with her eyes closed. She struggled to pry them open.

"Are you okay?" The concerned voice of the Chief of Police now asked.

Leia simply nodded and gave a dismissive wave in the direction of the woman's voice. "Yeah, yeah. Just really exhausted."

Leia made sure all her thoughts were check before proceeding to word vomit. "Look, I get you're angry at the girl Tenzin dumped you for, but don't blame just her. If I were in your shoes, I'd be after Tenzin. If anything, I'd consider hurting him more than I'd consider hurting the woman. He entertained her when he was clearly still in a very much active relationship with you. He had a say in whatever activity he engaged in with the woman, if any." She looked up at Lin who now had a scowl written on her face.

"But please, as much as possible, no one has to get hurt. It won't do you any good and would come back to bite you in the butt. You can maybe trash the island for all I care, but please don't hurt anyone," Leia pleaded before relenting. "Her name's Pema. Air Acolyte, fair-skinned, brown hair, just younger than me by a few months."

Lin's scowl disappeared but her face remained stoic as she took in the state of the girl seated in the muddy puddle, her lab gown now turning a light brown color. She was sweating profusely and several locks of hair had fallen from her ponytail, both due to work from the day and her altercation with the policewoman.

"Also," Leia started, voice starting to falter, "if you do decide to trash the island, please try and avoid the sky bison stables and the garden. Aang wouldn't be too glad about that." She gave Lin a weak smile and finally let herself succumb to exhaustion, her upper torso about to hit the ground if not for Lin running to her side and catching the girl in her arms.

-

Dreams of green eyes that no longer held as much disdain for her are what cushioned Leia as she recovered from the strain put upon her that day. She woke up with sand seemingly finding itself in her throat, giving her a sense of deja vu. Disoriented, Leia confusingly looked around her, seeing empty white beds that were similar to the one she lay on.

Blinking a few times, memories of the day came rushing back to her. In order not get overwhelmed, she willed herself to do a mental recap of the day. Leia cringed upon remembrance of how she fainted in front of the Chief of Police.

Leia looked down and noticed she no longer had her lab coat on, leaving her in her old red university jogging pants and white short-sleeved shirt that was tucked in. She huffed and took a moment to gather herself before attempting to move. She flinched at the ache localized at her bottom, her knees, her back, and her head. She actually was surprised that the pounding in her head went unnoticed before she tried moving. She groaned and squeezed her eyes close. She put an arm on one of her shoulders and started to massage it, trying to ease the pain.

A door opening and closing along with footsteps that approached her were all she could  hear before someone spoke, "Leia, you're awake!"

The waterbender opened her eyes and saw San at the foot of her bed, carrying a bowl. He was still wearing his lab coat from today and his hair looked like he just went through hell.

"What happened to your hair?" Was the first thing Leia asked. She was so used to seeing San's hair, now currently a dark brown close to his original hair color with a few locks of his bangs dyed blonde, so pristine and fixed just the way he liked it.

San smiled at her inquiry. He walked towards her side and put he bowl on the table next to the bed. Leia took a peak and saw that the bowl only had water in it. He responded with a laugh, "It was nothing. Once your little argument with the chief in the lab was settled and you took her away, we had to make sure the floor was dry before we continued on with anything and plugged everything back in their respective sockets. It was a mess."

Leia smiled at the man's story. "You guys are cute. I would've paid to see you all panicking."

San rolled his eyes in response.

"What happened while I was out? And how long?" Leia asked as she tried to sit up. San helped her in doing so and when he was sure she wasn't uncomfortable, he started to report what happened after she lost conciousness.

"About three or four hours. Well, the chief came back in the lab with your body slung over her shoulder and we thought we were done for," San started, looking upwards as he tried to recall everything in detail. "You can't exactly blame us for thinking so. You being carried like that - wow, that woman's strong."

Leia tried not to let her blush of embarassment show much. The thought of being carried like that by Lin made her even more worried about what the woman would think. Great, I just keep inconveniencing her. I guess she was right when she accused me of her misfortune, Leia thought jokingly.

"So she asked where she could put you to lie down and she explained you went out like a light after you were done settling things. Naturally, we accused her of harassment of a citizen, but she growled at us and said that she just needed to know you were safe before she left."

Leia laughed at the idea of her friends being growled at. She would've been angry had she not known that Lin was simply looking out for her, which was a first. Lin never really cared much about her and probably just saw her as an annoying fly that accompanied Tenzin on occasion.

"We led her here," San gestured to the room they were in, "and she was the one to put you on the bed. Before she left, though, she told us specific instructions, like me bringing you this water bowl for healing and us making sure that you got home safely without anything that might've warranted blood loss. Then she just left using her fancy metal wires."

Leia thanked San for looking out for her and for telling her what had happened. He responded that it was no big deal and that their team leader told her that she was allowed to head home and rest for the weekend.  After settling that she was just fine to go home on her own, and reassuring San multiple times that she'd be able to go home without any serious wounds or injuries she wouldn't be able to heal herself, he left her to her own devices.

Calming herself, she then bent water out of the bowl placed on her bedside table and proceeded to first heal her head, letting the water glow and prance around her head. Immediately, the pounding she felt a few moments before disappeared and she moved on to her shoulders, her upper back, her bottom, and then her knees.

Leia decided to take Ms. Kuriyama's advice and gathered her stuff from the lab. She proceeded to the reception area of the compound and signed out.

On the walk home, Leia's brain was up and about with thoughts of today's events. She decided that she needed a little winding down and a good meal before she arrived at her apartment complex. All she had at home were instant food packages that she didn't feel like consuming much.

Leia gathered that she looked like a student who had just been dismissed. As she walked through the city to get to one of her favorite places, she took a hair band and fixed her hair up in a bun. Now she looked exactly like her senior-year self. This was a getup she often wore back when she was a working student and headed off to the diner she worked at, not unlike what she was about to do now, except she didn't work in it anymore. Nothing much had changed in her appearance, Leia thought. She just grew taller, lost the baby fat in her cheeks, and had a lot less acne than she did when she first started out in university (courtesy of her two female friends).

Speaking of school, Leia remembered that she had a class tomorrow, a class she very much needed to attend in order to attain her doctorate. Tomorrow was their supposed presentation of thesis topics and Leia had nothing prepared. The whole reason why she even went to Air Temple Island two days ago was to ask Tenzin if it was alright to do a genealogy study with him and his family as one group of subjects she would consider. She thought that maybe it wasn't completely out the window and she could talk to Aang, but that would entail her having to visit the island and she was not ready for that type of emotional restraint.

She sighed and simply continued walking, wondering if she should go for a simple healthy meal or one that would be absolutely scrumptious and put her at risk of dying early.

In about half an hour, Leia arrived at the diner and smiled once she inhaled the scent of various foods.

"Leia, my girl!" A voice shouted from the counter and Leia was quick to rush over. Leia's former co-worker left the cashier temporarily and hugged the younger girl.

"Jessi, you look well!" Leia complimented, seeing as her co-worker never really seemed to change in the time she had worked here. Jessi always seemed way too young for her actual age.

After pleasantries were exchanged between them, Leia ordered a relatively healthy meal that had a lot of green leaves to compensate for her recent condition. Jessi told her that her meal was her treat and Leia tackled the woman in a hug.

As she walked towards a small table she intended to enjoy her meal at, she noticed a familiar mop of dark pinned-back hair.

She felt a strange ache in her chest that normally only ever happens when she saw her name on the honor roll at the end of each semester, and was a very prominent feeling when she received news that she was graduating as the top of her batch. Weird.

Walking past the green-eyed woman briskly, Leia caught sight of the state the woman was in.

Lin Beifong was staring absentmindedly at nothing in particular. In front of her was an untouched plate of an Earth Kingdom native dish Leia forgot the name of. Her hair that usually would have been pristine looked as if she had undergone some sort of war, but other than that, her physical state was okay. She did have a slouch, though. Lin never slouched.

Leia never really saw Lin wear any expression other than a scowl, an annoyed and/or irritated face, a confused one, or an incredibly tired one. For what seemingly was the first time to Leia, Lin looked sad. It wasn't just the simple type of sad you feel when your favorite ice cream flavor is unavailable, no. This was something much deeper.

Leia knew that face. She'd seen it only one other time before and that was when Jihyo and Jeongyeon had broken up temporarily due to certain complications.

This was the face of a heartbroken person. Predominantly, a person with a broken heart shows an expression of sadness. Looking closer, however, you'd be able to observe how much emotion is actually raging inside that person's mind. It has anger, disappointment (both at the person themself and at the person's significant other), confusion, longing, loneliness, and a variety of other emotions that are too many to list down all in one seating.

Once Leia was situated at her preferred table, she took out a small book she carried with her often and was one of her favorites in the genre she preferred reading (horror). She pretended to read but angled herself in such a way she was able to see Lin from the corner of her eye.

When Jessi arrived with her food, Leia quietly asked, nodding towards Lin's table, "How long has she been here?"

"She was here for almost an hour before you arrived," Jessi answered, eyeing the policewoman's table-booth warily. "Came in looking like she went through hell. You know her?"

Leia nodded. "Yeah. She's kinda a friend of mine. She's going through a breakup," she informed the older lady.

"Ooh," Jessi hissed and cringed, "that's real bad. Should I give her a drink?"

"Maybe," Leia said distractedly. She was contemplating on whether or not she actually wanted to approach the policewoman. Maybe Lin did need a drink. "Not Sorghum, though. I don't think she would appreciate being heartbroken and hungover tomorrow. Maybe 30 or 40 proof?"

"I'll whip her something up," Jessi informed her and gave the younger woman a wink. Leia blushed and started to gobble up her meal in order to conceal it.

Once she was finished with her meal, her former co-worker approached her once more with two glasses of what she knew was an alcoholic beverage. Leia tilted her head in confusion. "Two?"

Jessi threw her a knowing smirk, handing her the two drinks. "Go talk to your lady friend. She could use the company. Drinks are on the house." At that, Leia blushed once more. She's not- She just broke up with someone!!!

"It isn't anything like that," Leia retorted, feeling more flustered under Jessi's teasing smile.  "But thanks for the drinks."

"No problem, T. I got your back." Jessi just sent her another wink before she went back to doing whatever she needed to do.

Leia remained red and gripped onto the two drinks the lady had given her, standing up and starting to wall towards the lady with the pretty green eyes. Given Jessi's food for thought, she never really thought about anyone like that. She was always so busy in whatever current project she had in the time she spent both at the South and in Republic City, there wasn't really room for romance.

She did find certain people attractive but that was it. It's natural to find yourself drawn yourself closer to people who were easy on the eyes as well as people who were easy to get along with. She found her friends attractive. Jihyo had relatively big round eyes that one would immediately notice upon meeting her, alongside her adorable gummy smile. She also had a curvy body that Leia found herself wanting to have as well. Jeongyeon had a rather slim body compared to Jihyo, with her limbs looking fairly long. Leia thought that if Jeongyeon wasn't working as a research scientist, she could have been a model. San was pretty attractive as well. He had such a charismatic smile and the way he wore a bit of makeup to make his eyes stand out was enough to make anyone's heart flutter even just for a second. His build and the way he carried himself when he walked just tied everything else together.

Leia also found herself quite attractive right now. Her face was symmetric, her eyes were also quite round, and she was slim. It wasn't much but she was pleased with herself. Her blue eyes were quite the head-turner as well.

That was only the reach of Leia's thoughts when considering someone's physical appearance. Leia considered the possibility that she may be an aromantic, someone who didn't really consider pursuing romantic feelings. But she didn't know it for sure if she really was.

Lin Beifong was attractive, too, despite being 10 years older than Leia. Leia found herself thinking quite a lot about the woman after their first interaction. She was in her policewoman uniform that she wore when she wasn't wearing her armor. Lin had a lot of sharp features that made her look especially strong. Her scars on her cheek that she refused to talk about (a fact she had learnt from Tenzin, Leia knew that he knew the story behind it, and when she asked about it, he said it wasn't his to tell) added a layer of mystery and coolness to her overall profile. Much like Leia had loved it about herself, it was Lin's eyes that were the cherry on top for her. Paired with her equally expressive brows, Lin's green eyes, though ridiculously far too poetic for Leia's liking, conveyed so much emotion that if you looked close enough, you'd see the years of experience she had gone through. Lin was only 31, but her eyes show that she has gone through more than the average 31-year-old female. Also, Leia just thought they were really pretty.

Leia snapped out her thoughts and noticed that she stopped walking towards the policewoman about halfway to the table-booth. She took a deep breath before continuing her journey, gripping the glasses she held in her hands tighter.

Alright, play it cool. You have no reason to be nervous. Nervous? Why would she be nervous? What was so nerve-wracking about giving an alcoholic drink to your ex-honorary brother's ex-girlfriend who tried to kill you a few hours ago because she thought you were the reason why she got dumped? Leia cringed and pushed forward.

Arriving at the Chief of Police's table-booth, Leia went in for the kill.

"May I sit with you?" Leia's question came out in a higher pitch than she had intended it to be. Lin seemed to snap out of her daze and glanced up to meet the younger girl's eyes. She looked a little surprised to see the blue-eyed girl

She scrunched up her brows for a moment, looking like she was about to give off some mean-sounding reply when she simply returned to her look for sadness. "Knock yourself out," was all she said.

Leia's own brows furrowed and she set one of the glasses in held in front of the green-eyed woman before setting her own glass at her side of the table directly across from Lin.

Lin looked at the glass set in front of her in confusion.

"Drink," Leia simply said, taking a sip from her own glass, relishing in the rare occurence of feeling the familiar burn of alcohol down her throat. It had the sweet taste of apples mixed in with the bitter essence of alcohol. She also knew this was probably a bad idea since she barely had any good red blood cells currently coursing through her veins. "You look like you need it."

Lin glanced at Leia who was looking back at her expectantly. Lin huffed before proceeding to down the drink in one go. Leia looked at the woman in front of her with wide eyes.

After she finished her drinking, Lin slammed the glass back on the table and proceeded to wipe her mouth with the back of her palm. She then looked at Leia who had her drink in hand and pointed at it.

"Are you gonna drink that?"

"I was, but," Leia slid the drink across the table, letting it hit the arm Lin had on the table, "you seem to need it more than I do."

Lin graciously took the glass and downed it all as well, shaking her head slightly and slamming it back down on the table just as she had with the first glass.

Leia just looked at the woman before her in worried silence. The older woman wiped her mouth once more with the back of her hand before looking at Leia once more.

"You don't happen to have something stronger, do you?"

Alright, that's it.

Leia stood up from her seat and walked over to the other side of the table, all the while Lin watched her. Leia took ahold of her wrist and pulled her upward to stand up and go out of the booth.

"What do you think you're doing?" Lin asked with a slight slur, the alcohol starting to take effect.

Leia knew she had only a few minutes before the alcohol actually started to take over her mind so she pulled at Lin's wrist once more while she explained, "Come on, let's get you some place where you can lash out and mope privately. This diner's not the best place to see the Chief of Police so reckless."

This time, Leia's pull was met with little resistance and Lin was pulled up to her feet. "I don't mope," Lin murmured under her breath but the person she was talking to didn't hear. Leia ran back to her table to retrieve her possessions which she left unattended (an act she knew was very careless of her to do). She threw Jessi a quick glance to tell her that she was leaving and the woman only gave her a knowing smirk. Leia rolled her eyes before holding onto Lin's wrist once more and proceeding to drag her out the diner, leaving Lin's untouched plate of food at the table.

Leia knew it wouldn't be much of a problem. Jessi had her back and would probably take care of it. All she was focused on now was trying to give Lin Beifong the post-breakup aftercare she deserved.