This next part takes place a bit later. Couple decades maybe…

oooooooooo

Commander Bumi barged into his seventh bar that night and shoved his way to the barkeeper's field of vision.

"Excuse me!" he called, but the man ignored him completely and instead took orders from a group of young girls.

"Excuse me!" Bumi repeated louder, finally getting the man's attention, "Have you see this woman?"

Bumi took a photograph out of his pocket and slammed it on the table. It was a picture of his brother Tenzin with his recently current, currently ex girlfriend, Lin. It wasn't a very up-to-date photo, but he couldn't do much better since this was the only one he could find while in Lin's apartment.

"I ain't sure… Lots of girls come here." the bartender didn't even take his eyes off his work for more than a few seconds.

"Well, take a better look, pal." Bumi shoved the photo close to his face, "Her name is Lin, she's a police chief, really memorable scars, would probably be in uniform."

"Wait, if she's a cop, shouldn't she be coming here asking questions about you, not the other way around?" the man smirked.

"Look, you really don't wanna be pulling my leg today, buddy! Did you or did you not see her today?"

It was only then that the barkeeper noticed Bumi was wearing a suit which really was out of the ordinary for that establishment.

"What happened? Did she run out on you? Leave you at the altar? I can kind of see why…" the man continued with the jokes with the difference that this time a couple of other guests started listening and were laughing too.

Bumi probably would have done something regrettable to that man if at that exact moment he didn't spot the person he was looking for. He was sure that was Lin, sitting a few tables over.

"Never mind. Go back to being useless." he waved off the barkeeper and started walking towards Lin. As expected she didn't look so good. She was at a table alone, her face down, and she was out of her uniform, a rare sight indeed. Her hair and clothes a mess.

"Lin… Come on, I came to take you home." As he came closer he noticed a bunch of empty glasses around her. This couldn't be good.

"Then you came… for nothing!" she lifted her gaze to him and finished the shot she had in front of her. He could now clearly see she'd been crying. A lot.

"Please, come with me." he tried to help her up.

"Stop! Why aren't you there? Huh? Why?!"

"I was at the wedding, but I came to check up on you. I was worried and I can see it wasn't for nothing."

"I am fine. I'm celebrating too! Let's all celebrate!" she stood up and tried to spin around, but ended up falling, "The world is gonna be full of little airbending babies and that's all everyone ever wanted, right? It's all about the airbending… You know what I'm talking about! They hated you because you couldn't do it."

"OK, Lin, that's enough." he crouched down to help her get to her feet, "You're a little tipsy. I was expecting just sad, but this could be fun."

"This isn't right." she stopped walking suddenly, "You should be at Tenzin's wedding to that floozy, not here with me."

"I came for support. Tenzin doesn't need me there. I gave the best man speech, some touchy-feely stuff, some jokes, everyone loved it and I'm done. The hard part was finding you." he was helping Lin walk out of there. She was actually pretty good on her own, but after seeing her fall once, he wasn't gonna allow it twice.

They wobbled like that all the way to her apartment, stopping for food on their way.

"You know, I think you broke the door," he said putting her down on the couch, "You really shouldn't bend while drunk."

"I swear, I'm better now. The food helped." she lied further into the cushions and stared at the celling, "You can go now."

"Don't be silly. You just try to keep it all down while I whip us up some tea." Bumi walked into the kitchen, "I just realized I've never really seen you drunk."

"No one has. Oh, no." she sat up, "I can't say that anymore… I just figured I couldn't feel worse than I felt then, so I gave it a try."

She didn't really wanna share that. Well, tonight she was sharing a lot more than she wanted to.

Bumi just laughed to himself about all the things she blurted out while he was making tea. All of it was funny with the tone she had, but he found the insults to his brother's love-making skills the most hilarious.

"How long did it take you to forget Izumi?" Lin asked when he returned to the living room with the tea.

"Who?"

It took her a second or two, but then she started laughing uncontrollably.

"Alright, you're obviously not back to your old self." he sunk into the couch next to her. Even he didn't think it was that funny, "And I don't think me and the Princess are really a shining example of moving on. If she called me now, I'd come running back without a second thought."

"I thought I was doing OK." Lin started, "I really thought I was moving on finally, but just knowing he's married makes it so… Permanent."

"I know exactly what you mean. I know when I found out Izumi was getting married I kept thinking about how I could have stopped it from happening. What I could have done differently…"

"Maybe not cheat on her." she regretted that as soon as it left her mouth.

"Yeah, yeah, I don't mean that. I meant the times I could have asked her to marry me, but I was too afraid."

"I have that too. Tenzin must have asked me to marry him ten times, at least. And only half of those were a joke…" tears begun forming in Lin's eyes, "I kept saying not now. Well, I got my wish."

"Lin, Tenzin might have moved on, but you're still part of our family. You always were, way before my baby brother asked you out."

"Yeah, right…"

"I'm here, aren't I?"

"Yeah, you are." Lin paused for a second and then moved over on the couch to crash her lips to his. Bumi was surprised by the kiss, but his instincts kicked in fast so he started moving his mouth as well. This was wrong on so many levels! Bumi was never winning any rewards as a brother, but this was unspeakable! But screw Tenzin! This wasn't fair to Lin. She wasn't herself, she wasn't doing this consciously. Not to mention she was like his baby sister. He had to end it.

"Wait, wait, wait…" Bumi pulled away from her mouth to speak. He didn't take long to think, yet Lin was already lying on top of him on the couch and had somehow already bended his zipper open.

"What?"

"We shouldn't do this… This is wrong…" he tried to sit up but she wouldn't let him.

"Do you think Tenzin cares if you do this? Because he doesn't! This is not about him." she started kissing him again, but this time he pulled away with more strength and managed to sit up.

"I get the impulse, trust me. When Izumi left me I did all kinds of stupid things to feel-"

"Oh, so now I'm stupid?" she leaned away from him.

"No, you're not. You're in pain. And I get the impulse to seek out other broken birds like yourself. Maybe we can fix each other, that's what I used to say to girls. But I'm not what you need. Believe me, I only break things, I never make them better."

"So if you say this doesn't work, then what does?"

"If I ever find out I'll let you know…"

oooooooooo

"Bumi. Bumi. Bumi." Lin tried to wake the man sleeping on her couch with as little noise as possible, "Bumi. Get up. Bumi."

"What?! I'm awake!" he jerked into a sitting position.

"Shh…" Lin put her finger to her lips, "Quiet. My head is killing me and I just have a few questions."

"Yeah, sure." he lowered his voice.

"Question number one: what are you doing here?"

"You don't remember?"

"It's all in pieces. I thought you'd be able to fill in the blanks." she sat next to him rubbing her forehead. There were some scenes in her memory she really couldn't explain.

"Alright. I found you at a bar and took you home after you made a scene…" he started.

"Oh, Spirits…"

"Then I got some food in you so you'd sober up enough to follow a conversation. We had a tear-jerking moment over a cup of tea. Then you tried to seduce me. And then we went to sleep."

"Wait… I'm going to need more details on-"

"The tea was jasmine…" As soon as he said that Lin punched him in the shoulder, "Alright. You kissed me, but that was as far as it went."

"I think I remember that… I'm such an idiot! I apologize, Bumi. I really don't know-"

"Yeah, embarrassment is a serious side effect of drinking," he smirked, "This is actually not bad for your first time hitting the bottle. You had a public scene, damage to personal property, tongued someone you shouldn't have and then forgot all about it. You hit all the right notes."

Lin sighed, "Did you say damage to personal property?"

"Well, first there is the door that you not so gently opened with your metalbending…" Bumi started reluctantly, "And the teapot that fell when you jumped me…"

Lin covered her face with her hands and leaned back. She didn't think she'd ever been this embarrassed. Well, not in her adult life, anyway. Stupid.

"I think you should leave now." she said.

"No, not until I take you out to breakfast."

"You're not gonna let up until I agree, are you?"

"Not a chance. What's more, I'll start teasing you about being smitten with me. Very loudly."

Lin gave him a deadly glare, stood up slowly and started dragging her feet to her bedroom to get dressed.

"Moron." she mumbled through her teeth.

"There she is!" he smirked.

oooooooooo

Alright, I have a sort of problem with writing people caring about Lin, but I mean… She deserves it so much! She had a horrible relationship with her family and a romantic relationship that fell apart and I relate to that and… You know what? Friendships are underrated as hell… Having people who consider you family is so valuable, even if it's completely platonic. I'm not stopping.

And as always, remember, your comments give me life…