#fyrewriting

“Thanks for agreeing to accompany me tonight, Cin” you gave your date a gentle smile

“If I didn’t, you would make some excuse to leave early. What of our potential investors and buyers?”

You laugh as you fix your collar while looking at the rearview mirror “It’s always about business with you.”

“Here let me help” Cinder offers and reaches over to fix the collar laying it out then flattens out the suit jacket. Your cheeks slightly blush of the close proximity. Cinder slowly looks up and meets your eyes.

You clear your throat as you straighten up “thanks”

She gives you a warm smile as she sits back into her seat and puts on her seatbelt “don’t mention it. Let’s go”

Asami was invited to attend a state dinner in Republic City as she has been coming up with plans on modernizing Republic City's Central City Station. Asami had a stroke of inspiration on the tram designs and wanted to work on the ramifications. So she couldn’t attend so you offered to go as a representative for Future Industries. Rather than attend this dinner by yourself, you decide to take Cinder.  The Head of Automotive Interiors for the Satomobile. You and Cinder, a firebender, have become friends in the past six months after going through a bad breakup. You decided it would be a good idea to bring a fellow designer to talk up the next line of Satomobiles while you talked about the business.

Walking up the steps into the government building where the state dinner was being held. You smoothed down your suit jacket and let out a deep exhale. “You good?” Cinder looped her arm around yours giving your hand a gentle tap. Looking over you nodded your head “yeah, all good.” you reassured her and gave her a smile before walking the both of you toward the doors giving the guard your invitation.

“There’s president Raiko, we should introduce ourselves” Cinder looks at you and she starts walking both of you towards his direction. “Mr. President” Cinder approached and Raiko’s brows raised as he saw you giving you a big smile, “Captain y/n! So nice to see you here!” he extended his arms.

You smiled politely before gently correcting him “that’s former Captain, Sir. I no longer hold that position, remember? I’m now working along with Ms. Sato at Future Industries as partner and Head Designer.”

You and Raiko grab each other’s forearms in greeting as you give a firm shake “Right, sorry Ms. y/n, but is it okay if I call you Captain still? Despite the trouble in the city you held that position well. Wonder what happened.” He spoke as his security team covered him, keeping him safe while the perimeter was protected with RCPD’s finest. He took out his metal cigar canister taking one out.

“Uh...sure I guess although I’m not sure how the current Captain will take it” you looked around before looking back at Raiko as he is looking for a lighter “oh allow me Sir. If I may of course”

Raiko looks back at you and gives you a nod and you flick your finger, a flame coming out. An officer approaches to stop you but Raiko puts his hand up to prevent him as you continue lighting the cigar for him. “Thank you, Cap”

“Anytime, President Raiko.”

Cinder nudges you and fakes a cough giving you a cue “oh right so sorry” you apologized and turned dropping your arm down as you direct the attention to your date. “Mr. President, I would like to introduce you to Cinder, our brilliant Head of Automotive Interior of our successful satomobiles. She has been working diligently with our creative team on creating a beautiful car in the next season.”

Raiko gently shakes Cinder’s hand as she gives him a smile and respectfully bows “Mr. President, pleasure to meet you.”

“Oh no the pleasure is all mine. Are you two?” he eyes and points at the two of you. Your cheeks slightly blush “no no, sir. Purely business associates. We’re friends of course but just colleagues.” you clear your throat trying to bring down the head to your face.

“My apologizes”

“It’s okay, I understand with my arm around hers and our clothes slightly matching. I’m also from the Fire Nation.” Cinder tries explaining and you gently put your hand on her back and whisper in her ear “I think that’s good Cin.” you smile at President Raiko as he nods understanding “I don’t judge.” there’s an awkward silence before Raiko’s assistant comes up and whispers in his ear. Raiko speaks up, turning back to the both of you “Well I hope you enjoy the state dinner.”

You and Cinder bowed to the president before Cinder rubs her eyes “I blew it didn’t I?” she whispered. “Noooooo not at all.” you tried to assure her when she glares up at you and you laugh softly “it’s okay. He’s going to forget about it by the end of the night.”

A waiter with a tray of drinks comes by and you grab two glasses handing one to Cinder “Here this should take the edge off” you pass her a glass and watch as she downs it quick then grabs the one that you intended for yourself and downed it as well.

“Uh...that was for me…” you looked at Cinder then down at the two glasses in your hands

“Crap, I’m sorry”

“No worries, this isn’t my kind of drink anyways. Feeling better?” another waiter comes by and you set the two empty glasses on the passing tray. Cinder gives you a wide smile and nods “loads better. We should be meeting with these important officials on transporting vehicles for sales.” Cinder grabs your hand and tugs you along, but you stop. “Woah, how about you speak with Ambassador Zeng from the Earth Kingdom while I grab myself a drink from the bar.”

“Seeing as I took your glass back there. Fine. See you soon” Cinder gives you a smile before she heads over and approaches Ambassador Zeng.

You sigh as you near the outdoor bar unbuttoning your suit jacket as you wave a hand at the bartender, “a Pegu Club please” you order and the bartender nods as she starts pouring some gin, curaçao, lime juice, and bitters into the shaker with crushed iced. She starts giving it a good shake before pulling out a chilled cocktail glass and pouring the drink in it, finishing it off with a twisted lime and hands it to you. You gave her a nod and raised the drink in appreciation before taking a sip. Once you savored the alcohol you felt your shoulders relax.

“New haircut? Surprised to see you here”, it’s been a while since you heard that voice. It still gave you an effect as you felt the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You inhaled before turning around and placing a smile on your face, “Chief Beifong, I’m sorry I can’t say the same. Figured I’d run into you sometime throughout the night, but it seems like you ran into me.” you calmly spoke as you took another sip from your drink.  

“Pegu Club?” she eyes the glass then up at you as a little bit of your facade escapes but you try regaining it and look away. “Yes, it is” you tap on the glass.

“At least some things never change...” She looks away at the surrounding scene, before her eyes look back at you. Noticing your physical changes, for once you’re dressed in a fire nation suit and your hair once long in length has been cut short. It looks nice on you, Lin thinks. Though the thing she couldn’t stop looking at were those eyes she missed. The bright amber eyes that seem to look like glowing embers from a fire. Sometimes it brought a shiver down her spine in the way you looked at her at night.

“It’s a favorite-” your voice brings her back from her thoughts and she looks back at you.

“I know….” a sudden softness slips from her voice, causes you to look up and meet those jade eyes. It causes you to lose your breath for a second that you need to take another sip to regain some control. Pegu Club was one of your go to drinks and Lin would often order it for you at restaurants and even tried to prepare it for you at home. Home.

“It’s good to see you Lin-I mean- Chief Beifong. I should get going. I left my partner alone long enough.” you stepped forward and started walking when Lin grabbed your arm to stop you “that Fire Nation girl you gallivanted in with? You sure have a sweet spot for fire nation don’t you?” she looked at you talking under her breath.

“What are you insinuating?” you looked down at her then darted your eyes around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Lin doing the same. “Say it”

“Don’t act daft. First Iris and now her.” Lin put an extra emphasis on the word and you arch your brow up. Lin thinks you and Cinder are together. Is she jealous?

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Lin. Please let go.” you mutter back and Lin’s grip loosens as you smooth the sleeve and button it up. “Now, if you excuse me, Chief. I have business to attend to” you bowed your head and walked away. Lin watched you go and pinched the bridge of her nose as she cursed herself for acting like this.

-/-

After talking to various ambassadors and important officials at the dinner making influences and possible deals with the neighboring cities and nations. Cinder and you decided to leave a couple of hours early before the festivities were to end.

“If you wanted to stay, I could have left you the car and I could’ve called a cap” you smiled as you walked Cinder down the steps to the valet. “Nonsense, what fun would I have with you gone.” she nudges you and you laugh nudging her back.

“I’m glad you came. I needed a friend tonight and glad you helped with the pitches. Hopefully we’ll hear from the assistants tomorrow morning on scheduling test runs and meetings.” you talked as the valet driver handed you the keys and you opened the door for Cinder. Cinder smiles and gives you a kiss on the cheek before squeezing it “look at you opening doors for me. So cute, but I could’ve done that myself” you laugh as you rub your cheek “I know, but let me do something nice.”

Cinder rolls her eyes and gets in the car as you close the door for her and starts walking around to the driver’s side. You open the door before looking up and see Lin talking to one of her officers and she turns her head and looks at you.

You sigh and tilt your head down on the roof of the car before you run your hand through your hair, “I’ll be right back, I forgot something” you told Cinder before you stepped back and walked over toward the Chief of Police as she orders the officer back to their post, “leaving so soon?” she folds her arms as you exhale “uh.. Yeah busy morning at work” you slide your hands in your slack pockets. Lin looks over your shoulder then back at you “is that what you’re calling it?”

You roll your eyes and look away “you can just say it Lin”

“Say what?”

“That you’re jealous for starters.” you smirk a bit as Lin rolls her eyes and shrugs “I’m not.”

“Sure, so you insinuating falsely over the relationship between my colleague and I twice in one night has nothing to do with you being jealous.” you pulled your arms out and folded your arms looking at the chief of police. The night late and a sudden chill with a couple party goers starting to leave and head to the valet.

“I have work to do” Lin snarls as she drops her arms and starts to turn. You step forward and touch her arm but quickly retract it “If you want to talk, really talk. I’m going to head back to my office after dropping Cinder off”

“Cinder?” Lin pursed her lips and you sighed getting the car keys from your pocket “office”. You sternly looked at her before you turned and walked back to the car. Getting in the car and starting it up “everything okay with the Chief?” Cinder looks at you as you slowly let go of the clutch and apply equal pressure to the gas, driving out of the area “yeah, just wanted to check up on former bosses. It was nice to see the chief” you look straight down the road as you drive away from downtown. “That lady scares me. She’s so intimidating.” Cinder taps on the window then decides to roll down the window as you let out a chuckle “yeah, she can be, but once you get to know her she isn’t all that bad” you turn a street and drive down the bridge until you reached Shassa Village. “You had to live in one of the fire nation neighborhoods.” a light chuckle as you looked at the street signs. “Well do I need to remind you that I am a fire nation lady” she ends in a sing-song tone.

“Yeah, but just because you’re from the fire nation doesn’t mean you have to stay in a fire nation borough.”

Cinder shrugs and smiles “it reminds me of home. Is that a problem?”

“No, of course not” you smile back as you pull up to Cinder’s townhome “alright, here we are.” you shift the gear stick in park, “thanks for the ride and for tonight”. Cinder gets out of the car and closes the door “See you bright and early tomorrow morning” she taps your car roof then walks up the steps and opens her door to give you a wave and you wave back, driving off.

-/-

Rubbing the back of your neck as you stare at your drafting table looking over the sketches you drew in the past two hours. Drinking the glass of whiskey you’re holding then rubs your eyes. It’s been the third straight night that you’ve snuck back to your office to work. Stifling a yawn then quickly blink as you set your glass down and grab your brush and softly brush off the eraser shavings from your drafting papers and get your pencil and compass to work on the new satomobile’s curves. You were planning on presenting a new line of satomobile, a luxury line. This new car would be sleeker with curves, integration of phones into the cars into the Public Switched Telephone Network of Republic City, and a better radio system.

-/-

Lin was able to secure and made sure everyone left the area safe and sound while her men checked surrounding areas. Saikhan approached the chief “I saw the state dinner was a success.”

“It seems it had” Lin gruffed back as she watched her men work

“Were my eyes deceiving me or did I catch Cap in the night? Did you request them to help us with the security intel?” He looked at the metalbending officers packing up the squad cars before looking at the chief.

“No, former captain y/n was here as a guest. It appears Ms. Sato couldn’t make it so y/n had to come as a representative for Future Industries.”

“Some snazzy date they had” he commented and Lin glared at Saikhan “apparently they’re just colleagues” she muttered and Saikhan nodded “So you two talked?”

“We ran into each other at the bar earlier in the night”

“Did y/n want their job back? As much as I hate to admit it, they were a damn good detective and leader” he gruffed as he folded his arms.

“No, let’s head back to headquarters. I don’t want to hear a word from your wife about how late I’ve kept you. All because you wanted to gossip.” Lin dropped her arms and started walking away, thinking back to her interactions with you throughout the night. Never forgetting how you looked and worked around the room.

-/-

You looked up at the clock and noticed it was nearing 2 in the morning. “I should leave now and get some sleep on an actual bed”, you muttered to yourself as you stood up from your drafting table and walked over to your desk to grab your jacket. You turned around to look out your office window as you fixed your sleeves and collar. A part of you was upset that a certain chief of police didn’t show up, although you understood. She had a job to do tonight and she most likely had better more important things to do. You sighed then finished off the whiskey left in your glass before setting it down on your counter. As you’re cleaning up your desk you hear the door open across from you “I’m sorry Jed. I know I promised to leave sooner, but-” you shuffle some papers into your portfolio.

“If you’re going to keep Jed up this late. He should get a raise or at least buy the poor boy a coffee. He was practically asleep when I saw him”

Your eyes widened as you placed your palms on the desk and slowly looked up. Lin standing across from you. Slowly stand up straight and walk around your desk “We provide our security with the amenities. I would have to check up on that later.”

For a second there was silence between the two of you and you were unsure of what to say “I wasn’t sure you would show up...”