Ember Island; the place to be when on vacation. The sun was out and the sand was warm. The sounds of waves were crashing on the shore. Lin Bei Fong was sitting in her chair, doing what he brother told her to do; enjoy it. Her sunglasses were on and the wide brimmed hat saved her face from the sun's glare. In her hands was the day's newspaper from Republic City.

"President Raiko Announces Chief Bei Fong's Successor." She snorted, "Of course. Saikhan gets it again. Has no one learned from the last time he took my spot?"

She sighed as she flipped the page, "Avatar Korra Voices Her Disapproval. Thank goodness someone agrees with me."

"Hey," a voice called from behind her. The person walked to Lin's right, "You are supposed to be on vacation."

"I am on vacation." She said as she pulled her sunglasses down to look at the man, "You should be sitting beside me and telling me that I should not be reading this."

Mako let out a short laugh before stealing the newspaper and one-upping the former Chief; he lit the newspaper on fire.

"There. Here's your malt whiskey, Chief. I told the bartender to expect that you will be drinking this and only this all week."

"I'm charmed." She deadpanned before smiling, "Thank you."

Ever since their return from the Southern Water Tribe, Lin had noticed that Mako had been becoming ever more awkward around Korra and Asami, especially the Avatar. Korra had finally decided that she was going to push the social norms and propose to Asami. The Avatar naturally told him first about her idea. Mako was left slightly crushed even if he never mentioned it to her but he began to help her with ideas.

That night as Mako and Korra were doing their radio show get-together, a commercial came on the radio. Actually, somehow Asami got her hands on the station's controls and made a recording. She asked over the radio, in front of the entire city to come down to the street below Mako's apartment. Korra gave the firebender a confused look before they walked down. The detective was trying to hold his emotions in as he was quite aware of what was going on. Then Asami proposed to the Avatar in front of Bolin, Opal and him. She held a dark grey ring up, etched with the four elements. Mako had to catch Korra as she fainted.

The next day left Mako in a brooding mood. So when Lin offered to bring him along for a breather, he quickly agreed.

The firebender sat down on the beach towel besides his former boss. He leaned back as they both settled into a moment of silence. Only the sounds of the beach were heard between them. They both let out a relaxing sigh. Then Mako's eyes followed a young woman from the Fire Nation whom had been looking at him.

"You better go speak with her, son." Lin's eyes followed too as she lowered her sunglasses again, "She has been looking at you all week."

The firebender blushed, "Well... I don't know what to say. I don't really know her. Do I just ask or do I try to be suave like Boli-"

He jumped back in his seat after finding the glaring look from the metalbender.

"Son, if you do not go and speak with her then I will personally launch you back to Republic City with your sour attitude. You do not want to be old and alone like me. Now, flatter this old, retired woman and give her a war story about your arm. Women love scars," Lin then waved her hand, "or so I've been told."

Mako chuckled as he smiled. He got up, shook the sand from his swim suit and went to chase the woman down. The metalbender shook her head before taking a much needed sip of her whiskey.

Retirement was good.

ADH- And that's the end of "In The Shadows." Frankly if I tried to do this on my own, I wouldn't have gotten it finished. But I gotta thank PipTook for all the help and for just being awesome. Was fun to work on, waited till this chapter to give my thoughts. Hope you all enjoyed it. Maybe me and her might collab on another fanfic. Which one?... Hell if I know.

PipTook- It was fun. I was a bit put off on the plot when ADH first PMed me. We talked it out and it turned out that I was interested. I was happy to help write it out and it certainly helped with certain aspects of my own writing (like fight scenes) and editing. We both have different ways of writing so it was lots of work trying to make our styles match.

I know that this one did not get many reviews, but please let us know about what you liked or did not like. This will help us both in the future whether we collaborate again with each other or different writers.