Who the F*** is Kanto?

Chapter 15 - Guardian

Okay, so I don't think I've explained it in this story, but the chapter titles are supposed to be like roles Kanto takes on... The first four are "who he is to Lin at that point", while the other ones are "who he thinks he is at that point"

Anyway, enjoy... This one is a little longer than I expected.

oooooooooo

8 years after Lin's born

Every criminal in Republic City knew sneaking into Toph Beifong's house was impossible. Luckily for Kanto that wasn't what he was up to. He needed to talk to her, and there was no time for messengers or secret codes. Instead he just tumbled into one of the rooms through the window, and remained there, lying on the floor, bleeding out slowly.

She had to feel him there. Before entering, he checked. He could sense her form upstairs, together with one smaller form and one really small form.

The door to the room opened and closed. Now that he looked around it was probably the radio room.

"You have three seconds to explain yourself." He could've sworn then her voice had healing properties, since as soon as he heard her again, his breathing got clearer, his vision less blurry and all that pain wasn't too much anymore.

"Emergency."

"More."

"I think you might know a crime lord by the name of Yakone." He broke into a bad sounding cough.

"I know a crime lord by the name of Kanto." She crossed her hands, distracted for a second. "Your heart is going insane. What's wrong with you?"

"Yakone's a bloodbender, Toph. You have to find Aang and you two have to bust him." He tried to stand, slowly.

"You're welcome to testify against him... All I'm getting are fake witnesses who don't even know how bloodbending works. I personally thought it was all bullshit. But that's beside the point, Kanto, you can't just break in here whenever you have a problem. Me and you aren't... anything, anymore and—"

He collapsed then. He was sure his consciousness didn't escape him even for a second, his legs just gave out for a moment.

"Kanto, what the fuck?" She helped him up, then let him lean on the wall. "You're bleeding."

She felt it collecting on his chin, then used her sleeve to wipe it from one side of his face. It's not that the act of kindness wasn't wanted, it was just the opposite, it was so welcome that Kanto felt bad letting her come that close again. Her face was wrinkled with concern. He never needed her truthseeing power to know what she was thinking, it was all so plain on her face.

"I think it'd be a good idea to seduce a doctor next." She wiped the other side of his face too, trying and failing to find a wound. "Or at the rate you're going, maybe a coroner."

He found the strength to grab her arm and pull it from his face. He had to focus. "Yakone and I had a little disagreement earlier."

"Did you now?"

"He suggested I answer to him from now on, and I offered a counter proposal which consisted of him kissing my ass and fucking off."

"So you were asking for it?"

"How the fuck was I supposed to know he could bloodbend?"

"Wait, you're saying this was today? It's not a full moon, it's barely afternoon. How would—" Toph shut up abruptly, then made a swift motion with her feet, bending an earth wall separating Kanto from the rest of the room. In a few moments he found out why, when he sensed light footsteps come to the door of the radio room.