#nap!

"Honey, where's daddy?"

Rohan pulled again and dramatically shook his head. "No dada! Mommalin. Sleepy!"

Pema raised an eyebrow at her toddler and wiped her hands clean of the starchy mess from peeling and chopping potatoes. As far as she knew, Lin wasn't even on the island, and either Tenzin or Jinora had offered to watch Rohan so dinner could get made.

Or, she thought it was Tenzin or Jinora who had offered to take him as she climbed up the last of thousand steps with arms full of groceries and paper bags blocking her vision… Tenzin… or Jinora… or maybe even Bolin or Asami?

Whoever offered, whoever it was, the point was that the voice was familiar. Pema hadn't thought twice about it and went off to the kitchen without breaking stride.

"How sleepy?"

Rohan put his hands under his tilted head and closed his eyes to pretend like he was sleeping and made a very exaggerated honk-shoo noise that she could only assume he learned from hearing his own father snore. This tickled Pema's mood and curiosity. She smirked and ruffled the tuft of hair that grew wildly out of the top of his head. If mommalin was honk-shoo while she was supposed to be babysitting, then Pema was going to see mommalin honk-shoo, and wake her up.

"Show mommy."

Rohan beamed up at her and then promptly took off in as fast of a sprint as his little chubby legs and plump diaper could take him. He led her through the dining room and down the hall to the sitting room where she could see blue ink on a large bald head moving around over the back of the couch. She cleared her throat to make sure she wasn't interrupting anything.

Tenzin glanced over his shoulder long enough to catch her eyes and looked back down. As she came into the room and around the couch, she saw him kneeling on a mass of blankets—possibly every blanket on this side of the island—nested around a single form in black, gray, and details of gold.

The figure was on her side with one arm stretched up for her head of silver hair to rest on, with the other extending out to rest atop the blankets like it was waiting for something to hold on to. Tenzin was behind her back trying to flip the latches on her shoulders that were part of the release for her police uniform. A back brace of coiled wire sat off to the side. Rohan started giggling like a little mad man, clapping his hands together disorderly and wiggling similar to how Bumi would dance when he had a few too many drinks.

"I give blankies."

"You did," Pema praised and gave his rosy cheek a little pinch. "Can you get a pillow?"

"No!" Rohan stomped his foot. "I nap!" He pointed at Lin in the blanket nest. "Mommalin!"

Pema put her finger up over her own lips to shush him. "Naps need pillows. Will you go get mommalin her pillow?"

Rohan contemplated this request for a long moment while Lin's body idly shifted back and forth from Tenzin's struggle to get her armor off, and then he took off in another sprint down the hall towards the bedrooms. Pema watched him disappear and heard his thudding feet get farther away.

"You know you'd be able to do that easier if you didn't bite your nails," she said as she got on her knees next to her husband and reached for the little latches that he was struggling with on Lin's flank.

Tenzin sighed and leaned back to let her at it. He turned his hand around to look at his nails that hardly showed any white. "I swear I had nails a week ago…"

"And you bit them all off."

Lin's chest plate popped open with the last latch giving way under Pema's nails. She shivered and curled in on herself, taking a few blankets up into her arms with her. The smell of sweat and metal wafted up into the air. New and old bruises poking out from her white tank top made Pema click her tongue. There was a story there, a fight or a fall, that Lin hadn't shared with them yet.

Tenzin slid the back plate of her armor off her and put it by the housing of coiled of wires, and then stood to go around her front to start pulling at the disconnected arms of her uniform. Pema reached around to undo her utility belt and started tugging it out from underneath. Tenzin had gotten both sleeves and the breast plate off before she stirred.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Language." Tenzin turned to her lower half and started on her boots.

"Don't 'language' me," she growled halfheartedly.

"Tired?" Pema leaned forward to get her attention.

Lin looked at her from the corner of her eye. "I was just resting my eyes."

Pema resisted the urge to laugh. 'Resting my eyes' was the same old man excuse Tenzin gave to take naps in the middle of the day while sitting upright in his office chair. "You fell asleep."

A small grunt came from Lin's closed mouth. She closed her eyes and let Tenzin take her armored boots off manually instead of assisting him with her bending. "Where's the kid?"

"Getting you a pillow."

Another grunt. "I'll get up."

"Don't bother." Pema reached forward to push some wayward hair off Lin's face, which was tangled and a little greasy. "Dinner will be a while."

Lin's nose scrunched up. "I smell potatoes."

Pema quickly retracted her hand. Tenzin snickered off to the side.

"Rohan wants to nap with you. I'm not missing this opportunity to get him down for a little while."

"Fine. Bring him in." Lin wiggled her toes once they were freed from her boots and arched her back to stretch like some kind of feline.

"I was only gone for ten minutes and this is what I get," Tenzin grumbled as he picked up the boots and started carting the heavy-duty armor away from the cyclone of blankets.

Little footsteps thudded in their direction down the hall, this time slower.

"Should I pat you down for knives, or are you disarmed now?" Tenzin asked.

Lin hummed and moved around a little in the blankets like she was trying to remember where all her limbs were. "I'm clean, but you can pat me down anyway."

Tenzin's cheeks and ears turned an adorable shade of pink as Rohan came barreling back into the room dragging two pillows that were roughly the size of him.

"Piwwows!" He stormed up into the mess of blankets.

Pema and Tenzin stopped him from stomping all over Lin and managed to get a pillow under each of their heads and a few blankets resting over them. Lin wrapped Rohan up in her arms and pulled him close. He giggled and wiggled and turned his bright face up at his parents.

"Nap!"

They nodded and agreed, "nap."

Chubby hands and fingers reached for the nearer parent, Tenzin. "Dadda nap!"

Tenzin shook his head. "Nap with mommalin."

Rohan's face turned down like he was about to cry. "Dadda nap!!"

"Its okay, honey." Pema caught Tenzin's slightly guilty expression. "I was planning on making dinner myself anyway."

"Are you sure?"

"Dadda! Dadda nap!"

"I'm sure." Pema leaned across Lin and Rohan to pull Tenzin in for a brief kiss, but Rohan's hand caught her sash.

"Mommy nap!"

Pema uncurled Rohan's little grip on her clothes and pressed his hand to her mouth to blow raspberries into his palm. This made him cackle and scream in delight. She kept doing it until he tried to escape, then Tenzin went for his bare belly and blew raspberries there. Everyone devolved into a shaking fit of laughter with Rohan squeeing in the middle. Even Lin couldn't pretend to be asleep after it went on for a few minutes. She watched with exhaustion in her eyes as Rohan was thoroughly attacked with wet and airy raspberry kisses. Tenzin slowly lowered himself onto the blanket nest and laid on his side so Rohan was sandwiched between himself and Lin. Rohan looked as content as Pema had ever seen him.

She leaned down to give him a kiss on the forehead. "Nap with daddy and mommalin."

Rohan turned into Tenzin's chest and looked like he was trying to burrow into him. Tenzin pulled a blanket up to cover most of his little body. The burrowing stopped.

Tenzin's clear blue eyes looked up at her. "I'll do the dishes."

Pema patted his face. "Dishes and bedtime."

He nodded. "Dishes and bedtime."

Lin turned her head a little to get a better look at Pema. There was mischief in her stony jade eyes. "Can I do your bedtime?"

Now it was Pema's turn to get a blush to the cheeks, but she wouldn't let Lin get away with comments like that so easily. "If your retirement home lets you stay out that late."

Lin rolled her eyes and groaned. There was some shifting under the blankets. Pema could only assume Lin was trying to get a better grip on Rohan, Tenzin, or both of them. Her head inclined so that her forehead was resting on Tenzin's shoulder. "Just because you were in preschool when I was a junior detective doesn't mean you get to talk to me like that."

"I know." Pema leaned down to give Lin a kiss on the cheek. "Its elder abuse."

Tenzin snorted.

"I'll let you know when dinner is ready, meemaw."

Lin's shoulders rolled. She turned her face into Tenzin's chest much like Rohan had. "That's mommalin to you."