The streets were crowded with busy citizens desperate to use their lunch breaks to get as far away from their jobs as possible. Jia shuffled along with the rest of them, though with a bit more pep in her step given that she had the day off. And, she had the supreme pleasure of getting to spend part of her day off with Ling. That was worth jostling her way through the crowd for.

Ling had given her directions to the office, so in theory it should've been easy to find. In practice, though…that was another matter. Directions were not her forte. Long as she'd lived in the city, street names still escaped her. It wasn't her fault, though! Walk down any street a decent distance, and every building looked the same. How was she supposed to learn to tell them apart? Landmarks were a much better method of positioning. Telling someone to turn right at Roku Road could trip them up, but telling them to turn right at the honking great statue of Fire Lord Zuko was bound to lead them straight.

Still, she managed to find her way to the Yao Sisters Detective Agency, and knocked on the door. It opened a moment later, revealing Ling's perfect gap-toothed smile. Jia responded with a smile of her own as she stepped inside of the office. She shook her head as Ling excused the office's lack of grandeur. "Don't need anything fancy. Long as you're involved, I'm happy." She winked. "Besides, we can't go to Kwong's all the time; then it won't be special." Not to mention the fact that if they did that, they'd soon be broke. Eating well did not come cheap, as they'd seen on their first date.

Jia leaned in as Ling wrapped an arm around her waist, pressing into the kiss. "See, this is all I need." Her words were faint; the kiss had left her breathless. "I missed you too. Working lunch or not, I'm happy just to be here. I'll try not to distract you too much while you're working. No promises, though."

Jia had a way of looking at you that made you feel like you were the only other person in the room. Which, of course, was actually true at the moment. Ling grinned crookedly, one side of her nose wrinkling up. "You behave," she mock-chided, leading the way to the blanket and gesturing for Jia to sit down.

She pulled out some tin plates and cups from the basket and began serving the food. "It's been so busy, I have to say. I didn't think that a small-time PI agency would wind up having this many clients. But I guess the bigger-named ones are, well, you know." She shrugged. "Expensive. Or... more discerning about their clientele."

With the cups filled with mango juice, Ling moved on to the sandwiches. She took a piece of flat bread and loaded one side with crispy duck skin, some duck meat, and a few vegetables before folding the bread in half. She made a few for Jia, setting them on the plate closest to her, before making a few for herself.

She took a bite and sighed contentedly. Her mother really was a great cook, and she was very glad to know that a little box, hidden away, had all of her recipes written down on thick cardstock.

With her free hand, Ling reached for the first folder on the pile, then fished a pen out of her vest pocket. She scanned the contents of the file, then scribbled a few notes in the margins. "The cases are really piling up, what with the attack on the Temple." She said it softly, half talking to herself. "So many people want to know who was behind the attacks, and since the police seem so disinterested in it they're turning to PIs."

Jia widened her eyes, as big as they would go, pressing a hand to her chest. "Me? I'll have you know, Ms. Yao, that I would never do anything you could call misbehaving. I'm pure as can be." She spoke the words with as straight of a face as she could manage, trying unsuccessfully not to think about the last time they'd been together, when Ling had spent the night at her place and they'd engaged in some…adult activities. It did not help her case that that had been her idea.

But she had not come here to flirt; there was lunch to be had. Jia followed Ling over to the blanket and plopped herself down. "This is cute. When you invited me to your office for lunch, I wasn't expecting all this." Yet another way in which Ling exceeded her expectations. Only their second date—did this count as a date?—and already Ling had established herself as the superior planner. That was not in the least bit surprising—Jia didn't really plan anything in her life—but it was certainly worth noting as an area that needed improvement.

Jia gratefully took the sandwiches Ling placed near her. "Busy is good, right?" She spoke around her first mouthful of sandwich. "Better that than you just sitting here twiddling your thumbs waiting for someone to get paranoid about their spouse's business trips." As she chewed the sandwich, she let out an involuntary noise of pleasure. "This is amazing. Did you make this? Because if you're a great cook, and you've been hiding this skill from me, there's gonna be trouble."

The sandwich really was excellent, and the mango juice washed it down perfectly. As Ling opened the first case file, she glanced over. Then, she leaned forward until she could sort of see what the file contained. "Never could figure out how to read upside-down." She shook her head. "Kai can do it no problem. Give him something with tiny letters, flip it upside-down, write it backwards…no problem for him. No idea how he manages it." She swallowed the bite of sandwich she was chewing. "So, Ms. Detective, who do you think did it?"

Ling shrugged noncommittally. "Busy can be good," she murmured, distracted by her files. "But without Mei-zhen to lighten the load it's a bit more than I can handle." She paused, chewing her duck skin sandwich thoughtfully, before making another notation.

Jia peered at her paper work, and Ling tapped her on the nose. "For shame," she laughed. "These are confidential papers. Client privilege and all that." But Ling didn't really mind, and made no move to actually prevent Jia from seeing the contents of her case files. She doubted that Jia would know any of her clients, and because of Mei-zhen there was no client here that would pose any danger.

She pushed the thoughts of her unsolved murder to the back of her mind.

Jia asked her who she thought did it; Ling laughed. "It was the maid in the kitchen with a candlestick," she joked, making yet another notation. "Actually, this is a fairly boring case. The client is a rich widow who asked us to keep tabs on this young man she has been seeing. She's worried he's after her money, and she's caught him speaking to people that were later revealed to be Equalists. He swore up and down to her he didn't know at the time, but she's suspicious now."

She made a final note, underlining the last word a few times. "We followed him for a couple of weeks and I think there might be a ring of truth to what she's saying. Not about the Equalists, but I've seen him visiting some Love Hotels when he's meant to be working. I've never seen anyone go in after him, or come out after him, so my assumption is that the other person or people are already there by the time he arrives, and leave well after he does. It's a different hotel every time and there doesn't seem to be a pattern of any sort."

Taking another bite, she closed the file and moved onto another one. She frowned, an odd look for her. "This one... a new case. Submitted by one of the volunteers at the Temple. Apparently one of the injured children is an orphan and they need to locate next of kin." Her eyes scanned the report quickly. "The injuries aren't severe, thankfully, but the Monks do not have the resources to keep a child constantly in their care." Ling moved the folder to a different pile. "Unfortunately I don't have the resources to work on a case with so few leads so I'll have to refer them to a colleague."

Ling finished off her first sandwich and began crafting another. "So miss," she grinned, turning her attention to Jia. "How has your work been? Having a busy time down at the docks?"

“You should hire an assistant or something,” Jia suggested as Ling bemoaned the great number of cases she had to handle all on her own. “I mean, I don’t know how all this works, but maybe you could find somebody to just keep track of all the paper so you don’t have to?” She shrugged. This was absolutely nowhere near her area of expertise. All the paperwork at her job was handled by the higher-ups. All she had to do was move what they told her, when they told her. There was great comfort to be found in simplicity.

Jia wrinkled her nose as Ling tapped it. “What, don’t you trust me?” she asked, laughing. “Worried I’m gonna steal your cases, strike out on my own?” She shook her head. “Don’t think I’d cut it as a detective. Never had the head for figuring stuff out like that. I’ll stick to moving boxes.”

“Never can trust maids,” Jia winked as Ling submitted her joke hypothesis. “Anyone who cleans for a living knows how to hide whatever they don’t want found.” She chuckled as she ate some more of her sandwich. The laughter turned into a small coughing fit as a bit of her food went down the wrong pipe. She drank some mango juice to clear the blockage, and the coughing gradually subsided. “Serves me right for trying to multitask, I suppose,” she muttered, her face reddening.

The case Ling was currently considering wasn’t as grand as she might have hoped, but Jia enjoyed hearing about it all the same. “A Love Hotel, huh?” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Scandalous. You should bust in there, see if you can catch him with his pants down.” The mental image of it was hilarious.

It was interesting, watching Ling consider and ultimately pass on a case, especially one as important as an orphaned child. What made a cheating boyfriend a more viable option than a child in need of someone to take care of them? Well, it wasn’t her place to judge. Ling had her reasons for taking on the cases she did, and that was her right.

She nodded at Ling’s question. “We’re never not busy. First there was all the stuff coming in for the New Year, and now with this attack we’re busier than ever. Between the Temples trying to bring medical supplies in, and scared people trying to ship their stuff away from the city so they can leave, it seems like there’s a new load of boxes to move every time I turn around. That’s good though—means I don’t have to worry about job security.”

"A port city is always bustling," Ling said with a laugh, albeit a little absently. She noticed another request from a volunteer at the Temple and put it into the same pile as the first request with a sigh.

"I wish I could help," she murmured, half to herself. Then sharply she looked at Jia. "I hope you don't think I'm being insensitive," she said suddenly, gesturing to the set aside folders, "but I.. I can't risk it."

Turning back to her folders, her fingers flew across the tops, quickly picking out those submitted by the Temple volunteers. "Unlike most people in Republic City," she continued, not looking at her... person? girlfriend? "Our family's Galgori heritage is not so far removed from us. My mother is full blooded Galgori, as were our maternal grandparents. By all accounts, Mei-zhen's very existence is an abomination."

Her expression hardened, lips pulling taught into a thin line. "It's probably nonsense, but there's an old folk tale that the Monks can sense the bending in you, even though their eyes are covered. My mother fled her family home knowing that the child in her belly could be a bender, fearing it would be wrested away from her by the Monks. That was Mei-zhen."

Ling's voice took on a very protective, very cold tone. "I'd die before I let anything happen to her."

“You’ve got that right.” Jia laughed at Ling’s assessment of her job. There were shipments arriving at or leaving the docks at every hour of the day and night, so she never had to worry about not having work to do. It could get pretty exhausting, though; eight straight hours of moving crates took its toll on a girl, even one in decent shape like she was. Still, she enjoyed the job.

She flinched as Ling suddenly looked at her with a pointed gaze. “Hey, that’s your business,” she said, holding up her hands. “I’m not gonna judge you for taking some jobs over others. You’ve got the right to do that.” It was interesting, though, that Ling thought of taking the Temple job as risky. She wondered what that was about.

Soon, she got an answer. She’d never really put much thought into the Galgori. She was pretty sure there was some Galgori ancestry on her father’s side of the family, but that didn’t affect her any, so she didn’t pay it any mind. Clearly it weighed on Ling’s mind, though. She shifted closer to Ling as Ling’s voice grew cold, placing a hand on the other woman’s shoulder. “Hey,” she said, trying to snap Ling out of her grim thoughts. “Worrying about your sister’s great and all—I worry about Kai all the time too—but if anything happens to her, it won’t be because you let it happen, you know? I’ve only met her once, but Mei-Zhen seems like she’s got a good head on her shoulders; I’m sure she’s smart enough to keep out of trouble. It’s good that you’re thinking of her but…just don’t let that be all you’re thinking about. Okay?”

Ling blinked at Jia, then smiled, but it was a little strained. "Yeah, yeah, I know." But there was something in her voice that didn't sound very reassured. "It's just. Well."

She looked down at her food and sighed. She hadn't planned on talking about her past like this but it seemed like it was the right time. "I've already put her and Mama in danger once, when I was younger." She tried to smile again, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "I was young and stupid, and no good with bending. Papa died, and I guess, you know... I figured someone should step up to the plate, earn some money. But I didn't know how to do anything."

The freckled woman tugged nervously on her earlobe. "I fell in with a small-time gang. It wasn't anything really sordid, just pickpocketing the rich and selling the big stuff and bringing home the yuans after splitting the total with the crew. I told myself it was fine, and those fat cats could stand to lose a couple of pounds worth of yuans anyway, kinda like that one story about the guy that lived in the forest, giving to the poor. Well, I was poor, so that was good enough for me."

"But it went wrong one day. I don't even remember who did it, but one of our crew crossed over into one of the Triads' territory — I don't even know which Triad, honestly, but before we knew it they were raiding our safehouse. I was the youngest member, so Boss shoved me out a back door before they could get a good look at everyone and I ran for it."

She looked up at Jia, her grey-blue eyes wide and a little watery. "Pretty stupid, huh?" Her laugh was shaky. "I ran home to Mama. I shouldn't have, I should've cut across alleys and backways until I was sure I wasn't being followed. But like an idiot I ran straight home on the main streets. Thankfully, no one had noticed me slip out. Mama and Mei-zhen were great about it, but it was too close."

Ling looked down at her hands. "Way too close."

Ling smiled, but she definitely didn’t look happy. This was a far cry from the cheerful, devil-may-care persona she’d presented in their previous times together. It was clear that talking about her family was difficult for her. They were on the edge of something. Jia held her breath in anticipation.

Slowly, as though speaking with great difficulty, Ling began her story. Jia scowled at the news that Ling had been in a gang. Several fellow dock workers had been members of the various gangs that prowled the city’s streets—some still were, in fact—and they’d told her stories of how dangerous and unpredictable that life was. At least it sounded like Ling hadn’t been involved in the more…grisly aspects of life as a gang member. She could understand how the idea of redistributing unfairly spread wealth would appeal to a young woman just looking to help her family.

But of course, something outside Ling’s control had gone wrong. Gangs were easily offended, it seemed, and vicious to those who wronged them. It sounded like, though Ling had been stupid, she’d also been incredibly lucky. And so long as her family was still safe…

It wasn’t that simple, though. It was clear that the memory of the incident still affected Ling. Jia’s breath left her when Ling looked at her with tears in her eyes. Immediately, she stood and, heedless of the food or papers in the way, plopped down right next to Ling and pulled her into a hug, their shoulders squashing together. Her arm around Ling, she gently rubbed Ling’s shoulder. “I won’t lie; that was pretty stupid.” She tried to keep her tone light to show that she was teasing. “But you were young and scared, and not thinking straight; that happens. Besides, you said nothing happened afterward, and you’re not in a gang anymore, so it all ended up okay.” She thought for a second, then reached over to poke Ling’s chest. “You’re not in a gang anymore, right? Because if you’re still doing that, we’re gonna have to have a serious talk about your life choices.”

Ling nestled against Jia, chuckling weakly as the darker woman poked her in the chest. "No, I'm not in a gang anymore."

There was a slight hesitation as Ling chewed her lip, struggling with herself. Shi'ren always told her that honesty was the best policy, but it was hard to be honest when a new relationship was on the line. After a few moments, Ling sighed again.

"But the old crew did contact me." She could feel her ears burning. "Not to join the gang again, but as a private investigator. It ... it seems that one of the crew died under mysterious circumstances."

She looked up at Jia, her eyes pleading for understanding. "They've saved my hide when I needed it," she said, her voice hardly more than a whisper. "And I promise, I didn't look into it alone. I had a police officer helping me and everything, and I made sure to provide as many details as I could. But the lead either turned into a dead end, or the cop's forgotten all about it now that, you know." She made a vague gesture in the direction of the Temple of Koh.

"Or," she added as an afterthought, "it was brushed under the rug. The only lead we had took us to High Street Boroughs."

“Good.” Jia’s tone was stern, but still she smiled. “I really like you, and I’d hate to have to call whatever we have off because you’re caught up in some bad stuff. I like an exciting life as much as the next girl, but I have my limits.”

It seemed like Ling was calming back down. Then she sighed again, and Jia was instantly on alert. What was it now?

It took all her self-control not to interrupt as soon as Ling finished her first sentence. She should let Ling finish; maybe by the end, she’d actually start making some sense, spirits willing. So, though staying silent annoyed her, she settled on a reproachful look for now.

It turned out waiting was the right choice. It wasn’t quite as bad as it had seemed at first blush. But it wasn’t great, either. “Ling,” Jia sighed. “I understand wanting to help people who’ve helped you, but you managed to get out of that life. Going back, even just to help out with an investigation…well, you’d know much better than me how dangerous that is.” She put her hand atop Ling’s, rubbing her thumb over Ling’s skin in slow, lazy circles. “Sounds like you got nowhere, though, which is a good thing if you ask me.” She made sure to look Ling in the eye. “You tried your best, I’m sure. If that’s the end of it, I need you to accept that. Tell me you’ll drop it and stay safe.”

Ling chuckled softly, a little ruefully. "I don't make promises I can't keep, Jia."

She moved away a little, so she could look at Jia properly, but kept her hand on the other woman's knee. "I can promise that I won't take any unnecessary risks. I can promise that I'll find another way to keep the police involved. I can promise that I won't try and apprehend anyone myself and I'll immediately turn over any evidence to the proper authorities once an arrest needs to be made. But I can't promise to drop it, not until I've exhausted every possible avenue."

Her lips curved into a small smile, less exuberant than the ones she usually made. "The gang knows that this is it; I haven't been part of the crew in years, and they're turning to me out of desperation. They wouldn't bother me if they weren't at their wit's end. I wanted out, and they gave it to me. Whatever you might hear of the Triads or other, more ruthless gangs, we were like family. Anyone that wanted out could get out. And my crew wasn't involved in this sort of thing, I told you, we were only ever involved in petty thefts from the upper crust."

Rubbing her thumb gently against Jia's knee, Ling's voice grew soft. "They have no one. Do you think they can just go to the police? His body is on a slab in the morgue, with no one to claim him or bury him so his soul won't wander. There's no altar for him, safe in someone's home. The police think he's a vagrant, unworthy of their attention. He'll be dumped into the ocean, or cremated without so much as a word."

"Meanwhile, a murder — or murderers — walk free."

Ling rubbed her eyes. "I can't disclose all of the evidence we found, but I think there's some sort of ... den, of some sorts, that is trying to distribute the substance, or substances, to the upper class for a pretty penny.... using the people of the Dragon Flats District as test subjects for potency. I can't just walk away from this, not until I have something that will make the police sit up and listen."

Ling chuckled, and Jia knew she wasn’t about to get the answer she wanted. Sure enough, Ling refused her. It wasn’t a total rejection, but it was enough of one to make her scowl. To her credit, though, Ling did provide an explanation for her actions and for why she felt the way she did. Even if that didn’t make Jia feel any better about the whole situation, at least it helped her make sense of some things. Clarity didn’t soothe her anxiety, though.

“Ling,” she sighed, shoulders slumping. “I won’t say I understand how you feel, because I really don’t. I’ve never been in a gang or been involved in anything as complicated as this seems to be. But I’ve gotten into trouble before, and I know how hard it can be to get out of a tight spot. If you go down this road, to wherever it leads…are you sure you’ll be able to keep yourself safe? As much as these people mean to you, are you sure you can judge which risks are necessary and which aren’t? You’re talking about going to a drug den, for Spirits’ sake!” Jia did her best to keep her tone level; Ling was an adult, and didn’t need a lecture.

She sighed again, placing her hand atop Ling’s. “I just…bad things happen to everyone, no matter how careful we try to be; I know that. To go out looking for trouble, even to help people…well, I wouldn’t exactly call it a smart move.”

She looked away, swallowing a thousand more words begging to be unleashed. “I can’t stop you, and I won’t try to. I won’t ask for details anymore, because knowing will just make me worry more. Just…” She shifted closer to Ling and leaned forward to plant a kiss on Ling’s nose. “Do what you have to do. But come back in one piece. You hear me?”