#to me hes like alternate universe buzz grunt where he was actually a good father 😭

[grandvampiress]

im gonna be honest ive been playing stardew valley nonstop for an entire 2 weeks now and everytime i see kent i just go 🫵🫵 blonde buzz grunt

[middleofnowhere92]

Once Upon a December (Chapter 2)

Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Ty Lee & Zuko (Avatar) Additional Tags: Thriller, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Modern Era

Read on ao3 or below the cut

I pulled up to the station as the night shift pulled in. The morning shift would be here soon. I walked up the steps of the station, the snow crunching under my boots, to see Suki leaned against the building. I nodded, “Mornin’.” She trailed behind me as I unlocked the front door. I turned the coffee pot on and said, “I take it Ty Lee didn’t come home yesterday.”

Her voice was hoarse, “She did not.” She paused biting her lip, “You don’t think she’s really missing, do you? People just don’t disappear...”  I poured us each a cup. No, people usually didn’t just disappear, but how could I comfort her when I knew the homocide statistics for Ba Sing Se?

We walked into my office and even though we were both exhausted I had her tell me everything she could about Ty Lee- what her schedule was, who she hung out with, who she dated, her lack of familial connections. To Suki’s credit she never flinched. She answered each progressively invasive question as openly as she could. I made plans with her for a few detectives to stop by the sorority house later that day and then I sent her out. Hopefully she could get some sleep before her classes started.

Knowing I should, but dreading it, I contacted the family. Granted it was super early in the morning, so I wasn’t too surprised to hear Ty Lin’s voice mail greeting. I left a message just asking her to call me back. Maybe by the time she actually contacted me I would have some good news to give her, instead of what I had now- which was nothing. Even though I got the impression that this lady could care less about her sister.

I was rubbing my temple when Aang suddenly poked his head in my office startling me. He greeted too cheerily,”Mornin’ Chief Hotman!” I crossed my arms, “Anything useful come up last night?” Aang paused and then replied, “Define useful.” I brushed him off, “Get out of my office.” I followed him out and mentally prepared myself to deal with the press before the 7am news.

I braced myself and stood on the steps of the police station to debrief the press. I gripped the podium and gave them the information I had- Ty Lee Ping, 21 years old, last seen fifteen hours ago. I knew this story was going to get a ton of traction. A pretty girl was missing for fuck’s sake. It would send the media into a frenzy. Hopefully, the attention would translate into someone actually finding her.

Toph and Sokka finally dragged themselves into the station as the press conference wrapped up. I hauled them into the conference room so we could make a game plan. I filled them in on everything I learned from Suki. Sokka put the most relevant points on the white board. I glared at Toph as she put her boots on the table and criticized most of the ideas Sokka came up with it.   We finally decided Sokka would take a few officers to the sorority house and do interviews with the girls and also go through Ty Lee’s things to find any leads. Toph and I would head to the mall, where Ty Lee had last been seen.

I let out a breath. I felt slightly better now that we had a plan. I still had that nagging feeling gnawing at my stomach, but there was nothing I could do about it. I went to greet the morning shift. I stood in front of my officers, briefing them on their assignments for the day. They took it as any other day and it settled my nerves enough. It was just a missing girl. She hadn’t even been missing that long. I had dealt with worse before, but that those things didn’t leave a sinking feeling in my gut like this situation inexplicably did.

I corralled Toph to my Tahoe and hit the sirens. It wasn’t technically an emergency, but neither of us had the patience for Ba Sing Se traffic. We pulled into the mall seven minutes later and I parked obnoxiously up on the curb.

My phone started buzzing. I recognized the number as Ty Lin’s. I hit the answer button on the Tahoe’s screen. A sultry voice responded, “Hi Officer. How are you?” I saw Toph about to speak, so I put my hand over her mouth. I cleared my throat, “Hi ma’am. I’m fine. I was just calling to check in with you regarding your sister.”

Toph bit my hand and I grimaced, but still kept my grip firm. Ty Lin’s voice dropped at the mention of her sister, “Oh, her,” It took all my effort not to snap at her. Maybe Ty Lin had done something to Ty Lee. This lady seriously seemed to hate her, her own sister. I would have Sokka add it to the idea board later. I took a deep breath and then responded, “Yes, ma’am. Your sister still has not been located at this time-” “Okay, well I have a hair appointment, so talk later, yeah?”

And just like that the call was over. Toph wrestled out of my hand. I asked her, “That was weird right? That’s not a normal sibling relationship right?” She shrugged, “Fuck if I know. Did you have phone sex when you informed you yesterday. You two seemed real familiar-” I ignored her and hopped out of the truck.

Toph, Sokka and I had all started at the BSS police department right out of academy, each of us working our way up to our current positions. Over the years, I had become more familiar with the mall than I wanted to be- from shoplifting to indecent exposure calls, the mall was one of our frequent stops.

My boot tapped impatiently on the linoleum tile as we waited for our boba, which Toph had insisted we get. We finally grabbed our cups and headed towards the security office. We popped in through one of the doors that led into the interior hallways.

Toph brusquely opened the door and the older security guard in the corner looked terrified. “Mornin’ Chief Hotman!” Teo greeted me. Toph sniggered and I seriously considered firing them both. Instead I asked, “How’s it going?” I stood behind Teo looking at the dozen or so screens in front of him.

He answered, “I’m almost done copying all the video we need. She worked a four hour shift and then shopped for two, but I just copied everything from yesterday.” I nodded, “How long is it gonna take to go through.” He ran his hand through his messy hair, “Uh, well. There’s sixty four cameras- twenty four hours of footage from each cameras…”

Fuck. Toph made a chair appear and kicked her feet up on the desk, “Let’s just focus on the entry and exit points when she was actually here to start.” That sounded better. I added, “Focus on the store she was at too.” Teo still seemed overwhelmed. I pulled up my walkie, but Toph beat me to the punch. She hit the mall intercom button and said, “Haru and the Duke, paging Haru and the Duke, your father is waiting for you at the security office. Lost children, Haru and the Duke your father is waiting for you at security. I glared at her, “We’re supposed to be a little professional, you know.”

They showed up a few minutes later. I took a sip of boba, “Get anything from the store?” The Duke nodded, his too big police hat almost falling off his head, “Sure did, Chief. Uh, apparently there’s a group of guys that just leer at the Victoria’s secret. They watch the workers, the women shopping, they just stand across from it for hours on end.” Toph wrinkled her nose, “Gross.”

Haru rubbed his boot on the floor, “Yeah, but the manager June confirmed that Ty Lee had plans to Christmas shop after work and she also confirmed that Ty Lee is always on time. Said she has too many commitments to just disappear.” I nodded, “Good job guys. Ru, help Teo out with going through all this stuff. The Duke, get those notes typed up asap and send them to me. Toph, let’s go see what’s up with these weirdos.” “Sir, yes sir,” the three of them answered, giving mocking salutes. I rolled my eyes and headed back out into the mall.

Sure enough, when we got to the Victoria’s Secret, there was a group of dudes just leaning against the opposite wall. We were at the mall all the goddamn time. How had none of us noticed this? They started dispersing when they saw us approaching. I shoved my hands in my pockets, “We either do this here or at the station, up to you all.” They grumbled, but stayed where they were.

I let Toph take the lead, even though I didn’t have much of a choice. She gestured in their general direction, “So you fucktards just come here and perv on women while they shop?” One of the guys grunted, “Look lady, there’s no law that says we can’t stand here.”  I pulled Ty lee’s picture out of my wallet, “You guys ever see her?”

They stared at the picture just a little too long. I stuffed it back into the safety of my wallet. The same guy answered, “So what if we have?” Toph chimed in, “You obviously haven’t been watching the news.” She pointed to a TV in a storefront that was running the story. I forgot how good her hearing was sometimes. She continued, “She's missing and you creeps seem like prime suspects, don’t cha?” The guy huffed, “You can’t arrest us.” She swung her handcuffs on her finger, “Nope, not yet, but might be a good idea to break up this creep fest.”

We turned and left. We didn’t exactly get anything helpful from that.

How long had she been missing now? Nineteen hours. Fuck.

We climbed in the truck and I called Jet. He sounded like he was half asleep when he answered, “Sup.” I rested my head against the headrest, “New assignment for you. At the mall there’s a group of guys that just kind of loiter across from Victoria’s secret. Go post up and see if you overhear anything about the girl. I’ll have The Duke send you everything we have on the case so far.” Jet just responded, “Over and out,” and the line went dead. Without me telling her, Toph sent a voice memo to The Duke asking him to catch Jet up on the case.

I pulled off the curb, hit the sirens and started driving across town to BSSU to see what Sokka had found, if anything. The clock on the dashboard seemed to be mocking me as each minute went by, it reminded me that time was not on our side.