The alarm goes off. Mako groans dazedly as he reaches for the digital clock on his head dresser and hits the snooze button before going back to sleep. After five minutes, the alarm goes off again. 'Alright! I'm up.' He groans, hitting the snooze button again, sitting up straight in his bed. What time is it? He thinks, rubbing his one of his eyes and checks the time. It's 7:30 AM.

'Shit!' He quickly throws his blankets off and jumps out of his bed. He keeps cussing as he runs around his room, trying looking for his uniform amongst the heap of clothes that's lying around on the floor. 'This is the last time I stay up all night babysitting the kids knowing that I have work the next day.' He rebukes, as he puts on his uniform, not caring that it's creased.

Once he's fully dressed, he grabs his helmet and goggles, his phone and his apartment keys, and runs down the stairs to where his motorcycle is parked. After starting and reviving the engine and drives at full speed hoping he will make it in time. Unfortunately for him, he stops in the middle of traffic. 'Oh man.' He bemoans, running his hands through his face. 'Beifong is so going to kill me.'

~•~

An hour later, he finally makes it to work. He parks his motorcycle, turns off the engine and removes his helmet. I will have to make sure Lin doesn't catch me or I'll be as a rock when she does, he thinks, entering the building. The atmosphere seems pretty hectic and busy as he enters. People moving from point A to point B with stacks of files and papers in their arms. A few groups of people are lost in their conversations in the corridors. He sees a few others in one of the conference rooms for briefing. This is the usual day to day routine at the Republic City Police Headquarters, after all.

'Mako.' His body suddenly becomes tense, knowing damn well whose voice that belongs to. He slowly turns around, meeting the gaze of an elderly woman in her mid-fifties, who's tapping her fingers on her bicep, giving him an irked look. 'Ma'am.' He answers.

'You're late.'

'I know and I'm sorry.'

She narrows her emerald eyes at him. 'What's your excuse this time?'

'I...had to babysit the kids 'til late last night and slept through my alarm. Got stuck in traffic on my way here.' He explains, looking down and rubbing the nape of his neck.

She lets out an exasperated sigh and she shakes her head. 'This is the thirty-fifth time you've been late this past month, Mako.' She reprimands him like he's her own son who got in trouble in school. 'You're one of the best detectives I have on the force and I expect better from you since most of the rookies look up to you. Please set a good example for them and if you can handle the pressure of solving a case or an investigation, I'm pretty sure you can handle your life outside of work.'

'I know, Ma'am. It won't happen again.'

'Good. I'll let this slide for now since we're basically family and I understand how hard it is babysitting my grandnephews and grandniece. God, those kids are just as bad as Tenzin's kids.' She stifles a sigh. 'But if this happens again, I won't be so generous. Is that clear?'

'Crystal.' He nods.

'Good.' She says. 'You may be late but you're just in time.' She says, getting straight into business. 'In time for what?' He asks, creasing his forehead, affecting confusion.

'Writing evaluation reports for your last case and paperwork of course. There's a huuuuge pile waiting for you in your office.'

'Great.' He mumbles.

'Hop to it!' She turns her heels and starts walking away. 'I expect those reports and paperwork to be done by the end of the day.'

'Yes, ma'am.' He calls before letting out a sigh. From the twelve years he's worked with her, Lin Beifong's known to be one of the strictest if not the most uncompromising individuals when it comes to work given her position and status as the Chief of the Republic City Police Force. But nonetheless, she is good at what she does and takes her job seriously. That's enough to win the respect of everyone in the police force. Including him.

~•~

Liu walks into Mako's office and puts more reports next to the ones he's been working on for the past two hours. 'What are those?' He asks looking up at Liu with a question mark on his face. 'More reports that need evaluation.' He answers curtly with a straight face as Mako opens one of them.

'But these are reports for the homicides that were closed and solved last month.'

'I'm well aware.'

'So, what are they doing here on my desk instead of being taken to the archives?'

'Because they need to be checked before they go to the archives, genius.' Liu replies, with a lot of sarcasm dripping from his tone and folds his arms. 'What?!' Mako explodes. 'But I already have a lot of work as it is!' He waves his hands at the number of files and reports that are crowded on his desk. 'And all this needs to be done by the end of the day. Couldn't you find anyone else to do this?'

'Sorry, muchacho. You must have mistaken me for someone who actually gives a one-million-yuan fuck. I'm just following protocol.' His colleague scoffs before leaving his office. 'Besides there's this thing called free time. You can always make use of it finish them.' He says on his way out.

Mako throws his head on his desk and gives out an exasperated groan. 'Fan-fucking-tastic. This day can't get any worse.' He mutters under his breath. It's bad enough that he almost got Hell from Beifong for showing up late and now that he has more work that needs to be done feels like karma is punishing him for Agni knows what.

'I wouldn't say that if I were you, detective. Last thing you need is jinxing your luck.' Mako looks up and sees his partner, Jak, who has just entered the office they both share. 'I hope you're having a better day than I am because I feel like karma is being unfair to me today.' He answers him in a dull voice. 'Having a hard time managing the work load?' He asks with a sly but knowing smile, as he occupies his desk. 'Yep.' Mako sighs, rubbing his temples. 'First, Beifong gives me a shit tone of reports and paperwork to fill in. Now Liu, being a douche canoe, walks in and gives me more work not caring that I already have enough on my plate as always.'

'Dude, when has Liu ever stopped acting like a douche canoe?' Jak chuckles. 'He can care less whether or not you got work to do. All he wants is the work to be done and the results pronto.'

'Or he genuinely enjoys seeing me suffer.' Mako rolls his eyes. 'I don't get what he has against me. We aren't in the same department nor do we even talk. The only times we do interact is during an investigation or briefing.'

'Well, he is Head of the C.S.I and Forensics Department. It's only natural that he acts that way knowing how he takes his job seriously.' Jak leans back on his office chair and puts his hands behind his head. 'He is one of the best on the force anyway, so we gotta give props to him.'

'Yeah, I guess.' Mako sighs, sadly agreeing with him. 'But how the hell am I supposed to get all of this done?'

'Leave that to me.' Jak takes the reports that are on his desk.

'Wait? You actually want to help?' Mako asks, startled at the gesture. 'Yeah? Is there a problem?' Jak cocks an eyebrow.

'How are you going to do that without making Liu suspicious? He did assign me specifically to look through the reports.'

'Yes, but he didn't say that you should do it by yourself. Did he?' Jak flashes a sly grin at him in which Mako chuckles. 'Jak, you sly and cunning son of a bitch.' Mako grins.

'I know. I'm awesome.' Jak brags, giving himself a pat on the shoulder. 'I gotcha back. Plus, it saves me from hearing you whining like a baby.'

Mako rolls his eyes but nonetheless smiles.

~•~

After a long day at work, Mako heads straight home. He puts his keys on his head dresser before throwing himself on his bed and letting out an exhausted groan. He closes his eyes to take a nap not caring whether he's still in his uniform. All he wants is to sleep and forget about how tiring and hectic his day at work was.

However, before he can even enter into the realm of sleep, his phone starts vibrating in his pocket. He takes it out and checks the caller ID. It's his brother, Bolin requesting for a video call. He was away in Ba Sing Se for a set for his debuting movie and is expected to return to Republic City in a month or so. I'll call him tomorrow. He thinks, tossing it aside until to stops ringing. Within a short space of five seconds, it rings again. What does he want from me? Will it kill him to just wait until tomorrow and let me sleep? He lets out a growl before answering his phone.

'Mako!' Bolin greets him with a grin on his face. 'Shouldn't you be rehearsing your lines for your movie, Bo?' Mako asks groggily.

'I'm already back in the city.' He announces.

'Really?'

'Yeah. Turns out the set didn't really take as long as we thought it and we decided to wrap it up and head home.' He shrugs. 'But I'm really glad that I'm back home to be with my wife and kids. Even though I was gone for three months, it felt like I was gone for three years. You feel me?'

Mako chuckles at his brother's remark. 'What happened to you?' He asks. 'You look like you wrestled a wild platypus bear for three good hours and lost.'

'Not much has changed whilst you were gone.' He shrugs. 'Things have been getting really busy after the last case I solved about a month ago. All I have been doing was writing evaluation reports and filling in some paperwork, that's all.'

'Damn! Lin really is giving you a hard time, ain't she?'

'Well, she always has been quite challenging even before I joined the police force. She's not the type that believes in nepotism either.' Mako says. 'Given her position in the force and the public eye, she can't afford to let her personal feelings cloud her judgement and keep her from doing her job.'

'Ah! I see your point. But at least she's not as bad as she was back when we met her.'

'Hi, Uncle Mako!' A little raven-haired boy pops into the video along with his twin brother and little sister. 'Kane, Nori, Kim.' He smiles at each of them respectively. 'How are you?'

'Great.' Nori says.

'Uncle! You won't believe what happened. Pabu got stuck in a jar.' Kane starts 'Then dad got his hand stuck trying to get Pabu out.' Kim adds. 'Will you let me tell the story, please! All the time.' Kane scolds his sister. Kim sticks out her tongue at him. 'Yes, that's pretty much what happened.'

'You should have seen the struggle daddy went through.' Kim says as they all laugh making their father blush. 'Come on guys. Time for bed.' Bolin announces.

'Aw! Can't we stay a little longer. Please.' They beg.

'Bed. Now.' Bolin says firmly with a stern look on his face. 'Okay,' they sigh as they leave.

'Don't become a parent, bro. Kids are a handful.' Bolin says with a chuckle. 'Now you know how I felt taking care of you when we were younger.' Mako smirks.

'Hey! I wasn't that bad.'

'Bo, you did plenty of stupid things that made me worry about you when we were growing up. Like the time you put a Jacuzzi in our apartment. Or the time you came to me crying like a baby when you were dating Eska.'

'Hey! Firstly, that Jacuzzi was a gift from Varrick. Secondly, in my defence, I had no idea that she was an ice queen and hella creepy.'

'It was pretty obvious from the day we first met her.'

'I was young and naive at the time. Come on! I had no idea what I was getting myself into!'

'For a man who's married and has three kids, you're still act like child and whine like you used to when we were young. Even Korra would agree.'

'Speaking of Korra,' Bolin says, changing the topic. 'I heard that her engagement party is in a few weeks or so. You coming?'

Mako frowns. 'I don't know...with the amount of work piling up, I doubt if I'll be able to make it.' Mako replies, averting his gaze from him. 'Mako, Asami's been busy with her company. I've been busy with my career as an actor.' Bolin reminds him. 'But we're all making an effort to come and celebrate Korra's engagement. Heck, even Lin is making time to come since Korra's marrying her son after all. What's your excuse?'

'Bolin, you know I can't prioritise work with my social life. There are just somethings that are beyond my control.' He reasons. 'Besides, fancy cocktails are not my type of scenery anyway. You know that, right?'

Bolin gives him a long dubious look before saying, 'You're still haven't come to terms with her engagement?' He asks, even though it isn't really a question.

'Bolin...'

'Just answer the question.'

'...I'm happy for her.'

'You hesitated.'

'I'm okay with it, Bo. Really.'

'You sure about that, bro? You seem...what's the softer word for jealous?'

'I'm not jealous, Bolin.'

'I dunno, bro. I can't help but notice the denial in your voice and the way you're avoiding eye contact.'

'Bolin. I. Am not. Jealous.'

'Come on, bro. I've been noticing that vibe ever since she started dating Jae. You weren't exactly fond of him either.' Bolin tells him. 'Now that I think of it, when was the last time you went on a date.'

'That's none of your business, Bo.'

'What? Isn't it kinda odd that I got married before you? You are the oldest between the two of us.'

'I'm not seeing anyone, and I plan to keep it that way. There are better things that are worth my time besides dating.'

'Gosh, Mako! It's always work, work, work with you all the damn time.' Bolin rolls his eyes. 'When are you going take a break find yourself a girl? This city is flooded with good looking honeys and I'm ain't just talking about the gals from the Avenues.'

'Bolin, I don't need a girlfriend to keep my life in check.' Mako tells him. 'There's more for me than dating some girl I might or might not want to settle down and start a life with. Besides I've been single for twelve years and I'm still sane.'

'So, in other words, you're saying that you'd choose to end up a being a bitter loner like Lin over being happy with someone who could possibly give you more than what Korra and Asami gave you?'

'Hey! In Lin's defence, her love life was filled with complications, so she saw it best to be single.'

'That's exactly what made her a bitter loner – no offence to her though. I mean sure her relationships didn't last long for reasons known to her alone, but that doesn't mean you should go down the same path she did. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want you to do the same.' Bolin reasons. 'I dunno, Bo. After how I royally screwed up Korra back then, I don't think I'm cut out to look for romance let alone have a girlfriend.' I sigh. 'Korra was practically the only person who broke down the walls I built round myself for so long and I repay her by being a fucking idiot. What makes you think I won't do the same to the next girl I set eyes on?'

'You're being too hard on yourself, Mako.' Bolin says. 'I get it. You fucked up and ruined whatever chance you had with Korra, but that doesn't mean that you should give up. And the fact that you know you fucked up should give you the motivation to treat next girl better than you did with Korra and Asami.

'Who knows? Maybe this special girl will make you feel things you've never felt with Korra.' He adds. 'At the end of the day, I just want the guy who's had my back ever since mom and dad died to be happy. I wouldn't be where I am now without you. You've done so much for me and it's only fair I return the favour.'

The silence between the brothers takes over the once chatty atmosphere until something catches Bolin's attention. 'Okay, honey. Let me wrap things up with Mako and I'll be there shortly.' He says before turning to Mako with a sad smile. 'Sorry, bro. The missus is calling me, but remember what we talked about, okay?'

'Jeez! Since when did you become the oldest.' Mako jokes. 'The moment that lovely woman downstairs put this ring on my finger six years ago.' He smirks, pointing at his silver wedding ring. 'So, let me not keep her waiting. You how she gets when she waits.'

Mako chuckles. 'Sure, I'll swing by and visit when I get the chance. Tell Opal I said hi.'

'Will do. See ya.'

So, here's the new and revised version of the first chapter. I hope you liked it. More to come in the next chapters. Until then, stay fabulous. PEACE!!!