Lin's Wild Time
So...I just have to put Bumi with someone and I think it would be hilarious if he ended up with Lin. At any rate, have patience with this one because it contains a lot of things that may not be familiar to you. See, Bumi's a military officer, and they have a culture/language of their own. Please read the A/N at the end, but if you have other questions, feel free to PM me.
Some Mako hate in here; I try not to go too overboard with it. Sorry, I just can't resist! Irohsami cameo also.
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar. Please don't sue me.
Double Disclaimer: LOTS of sexual humor/innuendos and a few swear words ahead. No lemons, but it is rated M for a reason people.
The cleanup of Republic City had taken longer than expected. The equalists had gone further underground following the disappearance of their leader and Lin and company were still rooting out some of the criminals. After some time, Republic City jail was at full capacity. In addition, many buildings and streets still lay in ruins following the attempted coup; it was more than the city officials could really handle.
The United Republic had come up with the decision to leave some of the military ships in port to assist with the transport of criminals, the reconstruction of the city, and anything else the overwhelmed city might need. Bumi was happy to be in town with his nephews, nieces, and brother. It was rare he got such a long and welcome family visit. The Navy had him slotted there for the next two months.
Bumi and General Iroh had divided up the work between their two flagships. Bumi and his crew would take the south side of the city while Iroh took the north. Bumi's mission was largely to transport some of the criminals to the prison compound Qantmo, which wasn't far from the city.
Bumi reported to the police station around noon on his first day with a crew of 10 personnel in tow. The rest he'd kept at the ship for maintenance and other duties. The metalbending officers were waiting for them, and they handed over the suspects to Bumi's crew after he was sure that they were properly secured in the two trucks.
"Get them to the Brigg and we'll take them to Qantmo in the morning, I just got to talk to Beifong," Bumi shouted at his captain, who flashed him a thumbs-up as he led the small convoy away. He could always get a ride from Tenzin who was just a few blocks away at city hall.
Bumi turned to find Lin to see what she might need. He came upon what he thought was an empty truck until he heard a large BANG emanating from within. Suddenly the load door burst open, and a disheveled man tore from the back of the truck followed by a woman in black armor. Yelping, he scrambled for the road; Lin made sure he found it. With one swift movement she guided her cables about his limbs and then used them to pin him to the asphalt. For a moment he lay there, shivering with shock and fear. When he finally did try to move, Lin's boot between his shoulder blades ensured he didn't.
Bumi swallowed. Was that Bei Fong? Impossible; that couldn't be the girl he used to tease Tenzin about! Still, anything was possible. After all Bumi hadn't seen her since before Jinora was born. The falling out between her and Tenzin after their breakup meant they only communicated when absolutely necessary until just recently.
And the years had been kind. One could tell that she was older, but her porcelain skin looked very healthy. Her hair danced about her head in a soft ballet that contrasted sharply with the robust beat down she delivered to her victim. While her brusque and domineering nature would deter most men, Bumi found it captivating. After some study Bumi concluded that she was a catch: she was an athletic, bad ass chick into heavy metal, and he couldn't believe what he was feeling. Sure he'd flirted a little, had some relationships, a few casual girlfriends here and there, but he hadn't felt like this about a woman in a long time! Not since….he gulped the memory down. He didn't want to think about it.
Lin however, he did want to think about! A woman like her just didn't come around every day! Technically she was personna non-nuckie the minute his brother broke up with her, but Tenzin wouldn't care! With a big grin and a stride that had 'fuck it,' written all over both, he approached the cable wielding beauty.
"Do you uhh...need any help with those handcuffs?" he asked her as Lin fiddled with the sliver locking of her restraints.
She looked up at him through her sweat tousled hair. "I'm good," she huffed. He watched her manhandle the suspect and strangely found himself wishing he was in the guy's place. Yes, Bumi noted, from the cables to the handcuffs, the kinky possibilities with this woman were endless.
Unable to mask his delight, Bumi leered at her with a giant smile and his favorite pick-up line "You know I'm supposed to take that guy off your hands for you. We got a large Brigg. If you come with me I could show you something..."
Lin had just finished securing her suspect. She looked at him quizzically, but hadn't picked up on his intentions yet. It had been a long time since she'd flirted or noticed anyone flirting with her. Needless to say she was out of practice.
Bumi noted the confusion in her eyes. His grin widened, taking on a lecherous quality. He had her attention; he went in for the kill: "I could show you my ship and my sword. Both are pretty big!"
# # # # #
Later that evening, Tenzin heard a deep bellow echoing amidst the tides of dusk. Sigh. Tenzin recognized it, or at least thought he did. Oogie had gotten ahold of the leeche juice again. He followed the cacophonous bellow down to his stables, fully expecting to see a pained bison waving its six legs in the air with its tongue lolling out.
He opened the barn door, and Bumi was hanging there from the rafters, droning out a lovesick ballad. Oogie was fine. "Bumi. Wha, What? Why are you all tied up?"
"I'm in loooovvveee Tenzin! WAAAHOOOOO!"
Oogie bellowed in agreement.
Tenzin's eyes roamed his brother in quick study. He recognized the cables. Oh No. He massaged his temples with a languorous sigh, and then started to destruct Lin's handiwork. As his hands felt for the end of the cable, he heard Bumi go on and on about Lin and how unique and badass she was. Then his questions veered to the inappropriate, asking for details regarding her behavior in the bedroom. "Bumi, I'm not at liberty to divulge that information!" Tenzin bristled.
To which Bumi raised his eyebrow devilishly "That means she's goooood."
Tenzin had found the end of the cable, but it was unraveling too slowly. After some time and a lot more exasperation, Tenzin finally telephoned the station and requested a metalbending officer who came and freed Bumi from his prison.
"Glad they didn't send that Mako kid," Bumi snorted as he was finally freed, "the guy's a real tool I've been told."
Tenzin bristled. "Bumi, Mako's not even a metalbender! Besides, what do you care?"
"Well, Iroh's dating this rich chic who sold him a bunch of airplanes. Well he told me, that she told him, that…"
Tenzin's head blushed. "Bumi that has nothing to do with your situation!"
Bumi waved his hand in dismissal. "Yeah, you're probably right. Hey, you don't mind do you? Me being all hot after Lin and what not? I mean because she is just…" He gestured with his hands to show her curves.
"I don't mind," Tenzin interrupted and sat his brother down, afraid to hear what he would say next, "but, why Lin? You never seemed interested in her before."
"Well I haven't really seen Lin in years. Not until recently did you guys start being friends again. She got HOT! Most women don't do that; they start looking harsh after 50 years; not that girl! I mean she looks older, but a sexy older! You know what I mean! Like a beautiful cheese or a fine aged wine you just want to put your mouth around and…"
"All right, All right, I get it!" Tenzin huffed. "Just, be careful, will you? I have to work with Lin and I don't need her upset at me over something you did."
"I will be a perfect gentleman. I'll even take her a present to apologize!"
# # # # #
Bumi showed up at the station the next day. Lin had just finished an underground sting operation that resulted in the arrest of several equalists. Bumi was supposed to report to her anyway according to his orders, but when he did, he had brought a peace offering.
Lin looked up at him through her eyelashes, one hand on her forehead, her other scrawling something on the parchment stretched across her desk. "I trust Cpt. Zhang helped you out all right," she said without the faintest hint of regret.
"Yeah, he was fine," Bumi agreed. "Hey, I know I came on a little strong yesterday…but I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry and bring you a peace offering."
Lin blinked at him. It had been a long time since any man had taken this much of an interest in her. Mainly she just intimidated them, and she wasn't sure she wanted their attention either. But Bumi, with his big dopey grin and 'please love me back' polar bear puppy dog expression came across as far from intimidated. In fact, he reminded her of his father, Aang just then; she wondered why she hadn't noticed that before.
This made it impossible for Lin to turn down the present he handed her.
She opened it and ran her hands along the smooth wood.
"It's a new nightstick baby! You can use it…for stuff." He smiled wildly at her.
Lin rallied against the instinctive eye roll. "That's so thoughtful of you Bumi," she said, handling the gift and squaring it at him. "Can I try it out on you?"
The grin spread over his entire face and his hands clasped together hopefully. ""YES! Woot!" Bumi cried, "We can play good cop, bad cop later! I bet you're real good at being a real bad cop!"
Lin's eyes widened and she almost dropped the gift on her desk. She didn't think it was possible for her mouth to open any further; she also didn't think it was possible to be rendered speechless. But she was wrong. So. Very. Wrong. Usually she was sharp tongued and unapologetic, but not with him. There was something about his lewd but endearing charm that disarmed her. It was a new experience, one that had her equally flattered and disgusted, with both emotions canceling each other out and rendering her frozen.
Bumi saw her discomfort. "Too much baby?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Ohh, listen, I'm sorry. Trying to talk to a lady like you is new for me. Usually I hit on these military chicks and they're all proper in public but behind the scenes they're just as crude as I am….you gotta forgive me, OK?"
Lin's expression didn't change but she managed a slight nod of the head.
"Thanks baby you're the best! I'll see you later OK! Waaaahooooo!"
And that was only the beginning.
He showed up randomly, finding numerous excuses to do so. Anything from "Yeah, the ship's back (even though it wasn't), we can more of those guys off your hands" to "That Jiggalo Mako was macking on some of my female recruits! You want I should handle him or is there some kind of police punishment you need to do with him?"
And then there were the presents. She found them everywhere, tucked under her desk, in her locker, on her front door, in one of the patrol balloons. They were anything and everything from small bracelets, to flowers, to daggers, to new cables, to little cards with cheap, but heartfelt poetry scribed on the back. They had the station all abuzz and Lin unsure of what to do about it.
One of his more unusual presents was a bouquet of roses wrapped in several layers of official looking paper. When Lin asked him about it Bumi said: "Those are my deployment orders! I'm due to head out in a couple of months. I always do that. It's just to let you know if you decide to be my girl, that you'll only have to put up with me for about three to six months out of the year!" He was scratching the back of his neck again, and Lin couldn't help but think of his sweet-tempered father Aang.
One day he showed up in the middle of Lin's workday with no reason other than he just wanted to see her. She had just sat Mako down for a chat concerning his work performance when Bumi burst through the door.
Bumi didn't usually overreact before knowing all the facts, but there were a few things that set him off, and one of those was Mako. He was sick of peeling him off his female sailors and marines, and then there were the stories Iroh's girlfriend had. At any rate, the dude just made him sick.
"Hey, is this fool bothering you?!" he growled when he saw the youth slumped in his chair.
"Oh, it's you," Mako grumbled, rolling his eyes. The dislike between them was mutual.
Mako's snide comment triggered Bumi's PTSD, and he saw red. Without warning Bumi grabbed Mako by the scruff of his neck and shoved him up against the wall. He pointed an accusatory finger at him, scolding. "You got quite a reputation with the ladies, you two timing piece of Moose Lion crap. One of these days my dad's gonna possess Korra and throttle you, you know that right?! And I hope he does it before you get to second base!"
Lin found the situation amusing, but came to Mako's aid nonetheless."I can handle this fool, I mean employee!" Lin bit out, tugging at Bumi's arms.
At last the trigger happy officer relented, and Mako fell to the floor with a thud. "I bet he'd love it if you handled him. Well I'm here to say 'Get off my leeche juice, motherfucker!'"
Mako was startled. He scrambled to his feet and headed out the door to cool his heels with his metalbending buddies.
"I had the situation under control!" Lin said, though she was struggling to hold back her laughter. "As know he's my employee; I was counseling him."
Bumi blinked as sudden realization dawned on him. "Oh I'm sorry, baby! I didn't mean to interrupt his 'Reasons Why You Suck Speech.''"
"What?"
"The 'Reasons Why You Suck Speech,'"Bumi repeated, undeterred. "We call it an 'Ass Chewing' in the service. He deserves it."
Lin crossed her arms. "Why are you here, Bumi?"
"Oh yeah!" Bumi brightened at the memory, his hair a little wilder. "I wanted to invite you to something!" He produced a formal invitation. "It's the United Republic Marine Corps Birthday Ball! I haven't taken a chick in years. Normally Iroh and I just get plastered and pass out in the cab on the way back to the ship…but this year I thought maybe, well…" He was scratching the back of his neck nervously again, and again Lin saw his sweet father. "You might like to pass out with me!" He smiled wide, showing teeth that glowed white against his tan lips.
Lin sighed as she took the invitation. "Bumi, that's very..impromptu, but I have to check my schedule. I might be working that night."
He wasn't the least bit put off. "Hey I understand. If for some reason you can't make it I'll just take the cab to the office here and pass out in one of these chairs until you get off! Anywho, I better head out. I'll see you later, baby!"
Lin's eye twitched. This guy really didn't know how to take no for an answer. She wasn't even sure no was an option anymore. How had she let it get this far?
Lin didn't know what to do. There was a very annoying quality to Bumi's personality. Still his love for life and his ability to take everything in stride reminded her so much of Aang that she couldn't help but admit this had the potential for something more.
That was what scared her the most. It was possible, but did she really want to complicate her life after so many years without a man in it? Did she want to shake things up when she had her routine, her job, and her life figured out?
She didn't know. Perhaps if she could just get Bumi to go away, then things would return to normal, but Lin didn't want to be outright mean to him. Even though she was more than capable of this, something just wouldn't let her, something she couldn't pinpoint and wasn't sure she even wanted to.
She needed advice. She needed Tenzin.
Lin showed up panting and flustered at 8 pm that night on Air Temple Island, and Pema didn't know what to think.
Her hair was out of place, and her armor didn't look like it had been properly donned; a few of the chinks weren't laying over the others right. "I know it's late," she panted, "but I really need to talk to Tenzin. It's about his brother!"
Thinking it was an emergency, Pema ducked inside and a moment later Tenzin emerged. He took quick note of Lin's dishevelment.
"Tenzin," she breathed, "I need your help! You brother will not leave me alone, and I have no clue what to do about it. I've been rude, cold, short…and he doesn't get it! He keeps bringing me these presents and giving me these bad pick-up lines…lines I haven't heard since I was in high school. I don't want to be mean, but…"
"Take a walk with me Lin," Tenzin interrupted gently. "There's something I need to tell you."
Lin gave a mental shrug and trailed a foot behind her friend. He led her out into the cliff where the waves were kicking up against the rocky shore of the island. He put his hands on the railing that separated them from the harsh beach below.
Lin rested her hands on the railing as well, watching the twisting ocean. "I never told you the story of Bumi's wife," she heard Tenzin say.
Lin shook her head. "I knew he was married once, but…I never heard much about her or what happened to her. We weren't communicating very much around that time."
Tenzin nodded. "Well, I think it's important you know now. She was a Marine. He met her at a bar, and the first thing he said to her was: 'Hey, baby, you wanna know what MARINE stands for?!'"
"He didn't," Lin gasped. The UN Republic Marines had quite a reputation, especially the female ones. They seemed to make up for their physical disadvantages by being extra mean.
"He did," Tenzin countered. "Later that night he found himself hanging upside down from a tree. Several dangerous ladies beat him senseless with soap-filled pillow cases. His wife was among them. Well, she wasn't his wife yet. At any rate he did the same things to her that he's doing to you now: being obnoxious and persistent, leaving little gifts for her. One day, she caved. They were married at sea, and for several years they were very happy. Until…" Tenzin hung his head. His mustache had begun to twitch the way it did when he was uncomfortable or thoughtful.
"What?" Lin nudged.
Tenzin sighed. "They were near Whale Tail Island together on deployment. Their ship hit an ice berg and they were in the engine room together. They took on water very quickly, and she shoved him though the lockout door just as it was closing. He caught a glimpse of her through the glass as she drowned. Bumi had to be dragged out of the hull by his shipmates. He blamed himself for years."
Lin didn't cry easily, but even that story had her eyes misting. "I heard a rumor your brother suffered a tragedy, but Tenzin, we weren't really speaking then and…." Lin didn't finish her train of thought; it was too difficult to squeeze around the lump in her throat.
Tenzin nodded, his eyes empathetic. "Lin, I didn't tell you that story to make you feel guilty for what you did or didn't do at that time; suffice it to say it wasn't your fault. I told you the story because, well, I haven't seen my brother so smitten over a girl since her…until now. That's how I can tell that he really does care about you." He looked at her evenly. "Also Lin, you need to know that my brother and I are very different. He needs an independent woman such as yourself, and I think you should give him a chance." His eyes narrowed, studying her a little. "And deep down, Lin, I think you believe so too."
# # # # #
Lin went home after her talk with Tenzin, and she felt significantly better. He always had a way of putting things in perspective for her; she was glad they had forgiven each other at last.
She fell on her bed that night and looked over at the nightstand where she'd haphazardly tossed the invitation to the United Republic Marine Corps Birthday Ball. She picked it up, read it over, and couldn't help but smile.
The clock read 10:00 pm. Would he still be up? The telephone rang, and Bumi was. His "WOOT!" nearly had Lin going deaf after she told him she'd go with him.
# # # #
A few weeks later, Lin donned a black silk dress that framed her curves and bespoke of elegance. She had gone shopping after realizing she had only her armor to wear. Somehow, armor didn't seem appropriate for this occasion, and she was just as surprised at this conclusion of hers as she was at her reflection in the mirror. Most 50 year olds would kill to look as good as she did. Well, technically she did, just not on a daily basis. A police chief's life was a constant cardiovascular workout, which was in large part the reason for her good looks. Another part of it was diet and skin care; having no one to provide for other than herself, she was able to lavish herself with the best, and it showed.
Lin stepped out of her apartment into the street where a long black car crested with small General flags pulled up. Bumi and General Iroh were in the back. She recognized Iroh's date, Asami, who looked very ravishing in her sequin brown and green cheongsam. She smiled at Lin as she entered the limousine.
Bumi handed her a wine glass.
"Only three to six months out of the year, huh?" Lin asked Bumi as she took a sip from the vessel.
"That's it, baby, I promise!"
Lin supposed she could handle that.
A/N: Beating someone with soap inside of pillow cases is known as a blanket party or hazing. They're frowned upon but still occur a lot amoung young recruits. What MARINE stands for?-No offense to any Marines reading but there are derogatory acronyms associated with the word, which is why Bumi's wife was so upset with him. I'm not going to post them here because I don't want to offend anyone, but if you're really curious, PM me and I will tell you a few. Deployments-they vary among the services. For Navy personnel they vary between 3-9 months; usually they're around 6. The Army tends to do 12 months on, 12 months off. Marines and Air Force I'm not too familiar with, sorry. At any rate, this is why I think he'd be so perfect for Lin. She could have a man but not have to deal with him all the time.
PTSD-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder-it's very rampant in the service these days with all the deployments and its presentation can be as unique as the individual it affects. Sometimes, it can have some very unusual triggers. When Bumi's PTSD kicks in after Mako disrespects him, this is what I call a mild case. PTSD like this is usually undiagnosed because service members develop ways of coping with it and are able to hide it most of the time. I don't go into all of Bumi's military accomplishments, because, well, we don't know them all, but if I had to pick a cause from this piece, it would be his wife's traumatic death. Note how he doesn't have any flashbacks or go completely crazy, but he does loose his cool with Mako.