Chapter Text
Mako’s mother had grown up in a village by the water smaller than the eye of a needle. Though she’d never even seen the Caldera, she kept a framed newspaper clipping of Princess Izumi on her wedding day next to the family photos.
His father had made fun of it, saying she was just like his mother in Ba Sing Se, obsessed with royals who didn’t care if their people lived or died. But his mother had persisted in her royalist ways, lighting candles around the house on the anniversary of Fire Lord Zuko’s ascension to the throne and turning the radio on to Princess Izumi’s Summer Solstice Festival address every year.
So if she could see him now, dining at the Fire Lord’s table, watching her pull hot chili oil out of her purse because the food wasn’t spicy enough, Mako knew that she would faint.
“Would you like some of this, Mako?” she asked, passing over the glass jar. “Lin mentioned you love fire noodles.”
“Uh..thank you, your eminence,” he said, while his brain quietly short-circuited at the thought of the actual Fire Lord knowing what he liked to eat.
“How long have you and Lin been friends?” Bolin asked, as casual as if he were talking to one of their mom’s customers back at the hair salon.
“Oh, since we were kids. Our parents were family friends. I was even there the night those two met,” the Fire Lord said with a smile as she gestured to Lin and Zoltan.
“How’d they meet, anyway?” Bolin asked.
“I’ve always wondered that, too,” said Commander Bumi of the United Forces, who sat to the Fire Lord’s left. “But no one ever had the gall to ask.”
“No need to get into all of that now,” Lin said, but Fire Lord Izumi was already glancing around the table, her features animated as she prepared to tell her tale.
“Lin had just graduated from the police academy, and Kya and I wanted to take her out to celebrate,” she said, then paused to take a sip of her drink. “We had to twist her arm just to get her out of the house and away from her RCPD officer handbook. But then we get there. I turn my back for five seconds to order a drink, and the next thing you know this one’s in the corner tonguing down some firebender.”
“I think you’re skipping a few steps there,” Lin said, her face faintly flushed.
“Sounds accurate to me,” Zolt said and kissed her cheek.
“So was this before or after Tenzin?” Bumi asked. “Or, you know, during? No judgment either way, obviously.”
“Nothing happened during,” Lin said sharply. “This was before.”
“Way before,” Izumi confirmed. “When Kya and I took her out we didn’t even think she’d had her first kiss yet, so imagine our surprise when we found her there with her tongue halfway down some stranger’s throat.”
“Not in front of the kids,” Lin said, her face now as red as Zolt’s jacket.
The Fire Lord shot her an incredulous look. “I venture they’ve seen worse living with the two of you.”
“They do kiss a lot,” Bolin confirmed.
“I see some things never change.”
“So where’s Iroh tonight?” Lin asked, once she’d recovered.
“At home with his father,” Fire Lord Izumi said. “But you should bring the boys over to meet him sometime. He’s only a few years older than Mako. Maybe we can take a boat over to Ember Island this summer.”
“Oh, come on, Izumi." A new voice sounded just then. “We both know Lin will be childless and unbothered again before the spring.”
Mako immediately noticed the way Lin tensed at the sound of her voice, and he sized the woman up for any sign of a threat. He noted the metal chevrons running up her forearms that could be easily bent into weapons. She was dangerous, clearly, and wanted people to know it.
“Hello, Suyin,” the Fire Lord said. “You look well.”
“As do you. Ruling seems to agree with us both,” Suyin replied, and then turned to Lin. “Lin, it’s been ages. You really must get out to Zaofu sometime. You might even run into mom; you know how she loves it there.”
“Oh, I’d hate to impose,” Lin said and took a sip of her drink.
“Nonsense! Baatar and I love visitors. Just the other weekend, we hosted the King of Omashu and a group of scholars from Ba Sing Se University. The conversations were just riveting.”
“I’m sure,” Lin said, and Mako could detect a hint of sarcasm in her tone.
“So you’ll come out?” Suyin asked.
“I’m honestly too busy with work,” Lin said.
“But not too busy to romp around the Fire Islands with your gangster?” the woman asked with a raised eyebrow.
Lin’s eyes narrowed in a way Mako had never seen before. She opened her mouth to respond, but her husband beat her to it.
“We’ll keep the offer in mind, Su,” Zoltan said as he wrapped an arm around Lin’s waist. “You might want to find a table before the dinner service is done.”
“And I was so hoping we could all sit together,” the woman said, shaking her head. “So are these the two street children you took in?”
Lin’s face once again took on that scary expression, and Mako was convinced not even Zoltan would be able to stop her this time. But once again, she was interrupted.
“Hey, I’m Bolin!” Mako’s brother said, oblivious as ever to the insult she’d just lobbed at them. “Who are you?”
“I’m Suyin Beifong, Matriarch of the Metal Clan and founder of Zaofu. I’m also Lin’s sister.”
“Really? She’s never mentioned you.”
Lin, Zolt, Izumi and Bumi all exchanged a glance, and Mako knew if one of the adults started laughing, none of them would be able to keep it together.
“I think Aiwei found us a place near Tenzin’s family,” Suyin said and squeezed her sister’s arm. “Talk more later, Lin.”
Once she was gone, Lin buried her face in her husband’s arm, snickering.
“When did she get like that?” Fire Lord Izumi whispered, glancing towards the table where Suyin and her family sat. “And what are those outfits?”
“The latest fashion in Zaofu, I guess,” Bumi said. “Looks comfortable, at least.”
“But here?” the Fire Lord said, her disbelief plain as day on her face. “At a formal event?”
“I mean, did she start a city or a cult?” Zoltan asked, bringing on a fit of laughter from the adults at the table.
“At least a cult would’ve stayed home,” Lin said.
Mako shook his head at the lot of them, and sipped his lychee juice.