"Okay okay okay….So then! I got up! And it turned out he was standing right behind me!"

"And you're still alive?"

"Yep! The admiral thought I was a riot! He ended up paying me to do impersonations at the next event thingy we had."

Lin shook her head. "If it were me I would have thrown you overboard."

"Which is why I feel bad for your officers," Bumi laughed. He took another sip from his cup. Once he' set it down he gave Lin one of his friendly lopsided grins, made even more friendly by the blush that had risen on his cheeks from all the alcohol he'd consumed over the past few hours. He hiccupped.

"Do you think we're drunk?" he asked.

Lin pushed some sweat from her brow and ran her fingers through her iron-gray hair. The tavern they were in was jam-packed, which didn't help with the summer night's heat. At least she could be thankful they'd found a table in the corner, and not in the center of the floor where a pai sho game was getting pretty heated.

"I don't know," she said. "Let's keep drinking and see."

The chief looked around at all the wrestlers, sailors, and broken-hearted boozers that one would expect to see in a place like this and wondered how she'd ended up here. It was a good question. She decided to voice it.

"Bumi?" she asked.

"Hm?" he hummed from inside his cup.

"How did we end up here?"

"I asked you out for a drink and you said yes. It's not my fault the nice places were closed."

"No, not that. How did we go from two kids play-fighting on Air Temple Island with our friends and siblings, to two lonely drunk adults biding their time in a tavern before they have to go home to empty beds?"

"Just lucky I guess."

She grimaced and whacked him on the arm, just hard enough to cause the commander to choke and finally set his cup down. He wiped a bit of the brew from his beard and grimaced saying, "What was that for?"

"I'm trying to be serious and you're making a joke of it."

"Well there's your answer," he said, pointing an accusing finger at her. "You're always trying to be serious!"

"And you're always trying not to be."

Bumi sighed, finally letting Lin's dejected mood get to him. "Yeah, you're right. Opposite extremes, same problem. Not to mention you're really focused on work."

"And spending half a lifetime in the United Forces isn't being really focused on work, Commander Bumi?"

"Fair point. Hopping from port to port doesn't really allow time to settle down."

"Not to mention that our love lives are-

"Awful," he finished for her. "Pure cooked awful, with a side of misery sauce."

"Clever wording."

"Thank you." He pushed their cups away and looked at her, only a hint of his former amusement still lingering in his light blue eyes.

"Look Lin," he said seriously. "I know things seem bad now; but we're not that pathetic. We've been pretty successful so far in life!" He grinned again. "Who says any of that has to end just 'cause we're getting older?"

"Sure we've been successful: at our jobs. But you're retired now. And I… Well, I can't be Chief forever," she sighed.

Bumi's eyes widened. "What are you saying?" he said with mock horror. "That someone besides a Bei Fong will be Chief of the police force? Poppy-cock! Republic City would fall!"

She managed a tiny smile. Then she sighed, pushing it away. "I mean it Bumi. I don't know what I'm going to do."

Bumi scratched at his thick brown mane in thought. "Well, the way I see it, life is what you make it. You just have to find something to do. Take me for example: I didn't want to be lonely, so I moved in with Tenzin. Now I have him, Kya, Pema and the kids, and Bum Ju all there on the island. Korra and her friends are always doing some crazy thing. The Acolytes are always good for a laugh. And I can drop everything and go to visit Mom whenever I want."

Lin sipped from her own cup. "Family," she muttered. She didn't need to say anything else. Bumi knew full well what family meant to Lin. Family meant relatives that fought and blamed one another for their problems. A twinge of pity for the lonely Earth bender hit him.

Then he shook his head. No, not Lin. He wouldn't do that to her; feeling pity for Lin would be saying that she was worthy of it, that she was just as pathetic as she felt now. And as overly serious and pushy as she could get, no one could ever call her pathetic.

A smile crept across his lips. He'd always liked Lin. As kids she was the toughest person in their group of friends, always ready to show that she could beat him, Kya, Tenzin, or anyone else at a moment's notice, despite being the youngest one in the group. As she got older they'd named her the 'Iron Maiden'. (The fact that she was a metal bender was a happy coincidence.) But, as much as he'd always like her strong side, seeing her here, acting vulnerable, human even, made him care about her just a bit more.

Maybe that was because this was when she needed it most.

"Listen," he slurred, throwing an arm around her shoulder, ignoring the face she made at the physical contact. "I know you like to think that the whole you and Tenzin thing ruined you for us, but the fact is that you're still part of the group. Always will be."

She looked at him, and the tiny smile came back. "Thanks Bumi." She relaxed into his one-armed hug.

"Hey," he said, looking out across the bar. The pai sho game had calmed down and descended into friendly laughter. "You know what?"

"What?"

"When I mentioned the good parts of living on the island, I forgot one."

"And what is that, Commander?" she asked, resting her tired, drunken head on his shoulder.

"Knowing that good old Chief Bei Fong is right across the bay."

Well here's the first one. All following drabbles will not connect to one another unless stated as such.

So read and review!

And I obviously don't own the characters.

EDIT: COVER ART BELONGS TO zeldadweeb, who can be found on here, tumblr, and deviantart. (LOOK AT THE ART IT'S SO CUTE)