"Head's up!"

Lin jumped and felt her fingers brush against the ball. Unfortunately she was just short enough that she was unable to get a firm hold on it, and the ball sailed into the net behind her.

"Darn it," she said, kicking at the dirt.

"Ya gotta be quicker if you want to win, Linny," Bumi said. The teen gave her a friendly grin as he walked over to the net.

Lin tried to hide a smile as he picked the ball out of the net and walked back to his spot. Her mother was busy with work today (big surprise) and Tenzin and Kya were training with their parents, so Bumi had decided it was time that he and Lin spent some 'hung out' as he put it. So, they had left Suyin to be watched by an Acolyte and headed for the park.

Truth be told, Lin couldn't think of anything she'd rather be doing. At ten-years-old she was becoming a very proficient earthbender, and was thrilled that she would be able to show-off in front of Bumi.

"Remember," he called to her. "The point of the game is for you to use any advantage you have to get the ball into the net." He gestured with his thumb and finger to the nets behind him and her respectively. "So don't be afraid to bust a couple of bending moves."

"Oh, I'm not afraid," she called back. "I was trying to give you a head-start!"

Bumi's eyes narrowed and he yelled, "Them there's fighting words, little missy!"

"How about you quit talking and start balling?"

"Can do!"

Then in the blink of an eye, he was practically flying at her, dribbling the ball out in front and switching hands as he went. Lin grounded her feet and quickly estimated the time it would take for him to reach her. Once she was sure, she raised her foot and brought it down, hard. The ground beneath Bumi's feet instantly became cracked and uneven, and it sent the non-bender tripping. This gave Lin the opportunity to snatch the ball and run for the other end of the court.

The net was in her sights and to her joy it looked as if she would be able to have an easy score.

"Not so fast!"

Lin's eyes widened and she tried to skid to a halt when she Bumi was suddenly right in front of her. He'd leaped over her and land in a hand-stand to try to block her. Unfortunately for both, he'd landed too close and Lin didn't have time to stop. She ran into him with a resound SMACK and the two fell to the ground, groaning.

Lin opened her eyes and realized her face was buried in Bumi's stomach. She scooted forward and sat up on his chest before turning her head to look at him. The two stared at each for a moment before they burst out laughing.

"What were you thinking?" she giggled.

"What can I say? I got desperate. I just didn't want to let you win."

The earthbender crawled off of her friend and the two sat on the ground for a while, casually talking while rolling the ball back and forth.

"Thanks for bringing me here today," she said.

"No problem, Linny," he replied. "You know I love hanging out with you."

She looked down as he rolled the ball back to her.

"Bumi," she said while picking at the ball, "do you think I'll ever be as good an earthbender as my mom?"

The teenager thought about this question for a moment. Lin rolled the ball back to him and he answered, "Well Lin, most people say that if you work hard enough you can do anything you put your mind to. But what they fail to mention is that sometimes you have to be born with a certain amount of skill to go with it."

Unsure about how that answered the question, Lin just muttered, "Um...Okay."

"But," Bumi said, rolling the ball to her again, "you don't need to worry about that. You're a great earthbender already. And we both know that you're gonna work your hardest to be as good as you can possibly be. So yeah; I think one of these days old Mother Bei Fong might just have some competition."

Then he flashed her that smile. It was the one where he showed all of his teeth and his light blue eyes lit up. As always, it made her insides feel funny and she looked down trying to hide her blush. Somehow Bumi's compliments always hit the target.

"Hey," he said, interrupting her struggling embarrassment, "I'm gonna go get some water, alright? Just wait for me here."

"Okay," she said. She watched as he got up and jogged off in search of a water fountain. She pulled the ball in and wrapped her limbs around it, sighing. Why couldn't she be cool like him?

Bumi wandered a bit before finally spotting a fountain. He walked over and started drinking. As he gulped down the stream of water, he heard footsteps behind him.

"Hey," a voice behind him said, "hurry up already!"

He recognized the voice and slowly, turned off the water wiped his mouth and turned to face a trio of poorly dressed teenagers. The two standing a ways back were about his age, while the one in the center was a few years younger. Once he'd turned around they recognized Bumi as well.

"Well, if it isn't the Avatar's kid," the one standing in the middle, the leader, said. "What brings you to the park on this fine day?"

"Lay off, Zolt," Bumi huffed. He tried to walk away but one of Zolt's friends, an earthbender, pushed him back into place.

"I asked you a question, scruffy."

"Minding my business. You might try it some time."

This time Bumi shoved the earthbender out of his way and headed back for the court. Once he'd reached it he realized that the trio had followed him. He turned around to see Zolt smirking at him.

"What do you want?" Bumi grunted.

"Cool it there, big Boomer. Me and my buddies just want to use the court to practice some bending. So, if you don't mind, we'd like you to clear out."

"Well, if you don't mind, I was here first, and I'm not done using it just yet. Could you maybe wait for a few minutes?"

The three looked at each other and then back at Bumi and started laughing. Bumi glared at them.

"I don't know what you're laughing at," he said, even though he knew full well.

"Did you hear that boys?" Zolt said in between laughs. "The non-bender wants to use the practice court. What are you gonna do, huh? Wave your arms around for a while and call it practice?"

"That's about all non-benders do," one of Zolt's cronies muttered.

Bumi growled, "You're wrong. Non-benders are capable of doing just as much as benders."

"Oh yeah?" Zolt asked. "Well, tell me buddy, can you do this?" With a flare, Zolt whipped out his hand and sent a huge fireblast straight for Bumi's feet. The non-bender had to jump out of the way to avoid being burned, something Zolt's friends found hilarious.

"Yous don't seem so capable to me," the firebender said with a smirk.

At this point Bumi was seething. He jabbed a finger in Zolt's face and said, "If benders are so great, then why are you and your gang stuck with stealing for every meal you eat while I live in Temple?"

That didn't go over well with the trio.

"I'll tell you why," Bumi continued, still angry. "Because it's not whether you can or can't bend; it's whether-

He didn't get the chance to finish. In the middle of his speech, Zolt's friend slammed his foot down and huge chunk of rock flew up and smacked Bumi in the jaw. The teen fell back and a hand flew to his face. He tasted blood.

"Not so tough when you're down, huh non-bender?" Zolt spat.

Bumi felt himself being lifted to his feet. Blearily he opened his eyes to see that the cronies were holding each of his arms while Zolt himself was standing in front of him, murder in his gaze.

"You're gonna regret insulting us," Zolt whispered. "I don't care if you are the Avatar's son; no non-bender is gonna talk to me that way!"

Zolt raised his fist and swung it at Bumi. Before the hit, Bumi shut his eyes praying for a miracle.

Then one came. Just before Zolt's fist made contact, a large rock flew in out of nowhere and hit the young thug in the chest, full force. With a loud grunt, Zolt hit the ground and his buddies turned to see where the rock had come from.

There stood Lin, holding a perfect stance saying, "I'm not a non-bender! Ya mind if I talk to you that way?"

For a second the three thugs just stared at Lin, which was just long enough for Bumi to slip his arms out of their grips, jam his elbows into their stomachs and run over to Lin.

"Come on Linny," he said, grabbing her hand. But Lin refused to move, her eyes still fixed on the trio of bullies, all of them now on the ground holding injuries and glaring at the two of them.

"No," she said. "They can't talk to you that way."

And before Bumi could say another word to stop her, Lin had sent two more rocks hurdling at the assailants, while the third one was shot in the air. They landed in a heap, and Zolt was steaming. Before the firebender could get up, Lin bent a rocky barrier to encase them in. It wouldn't hold forever, but it was enough that she could march over to them, put her hands on her hips and tell them off.

"You three are just jerks! You don't use your bending to your advantage; you just use it to bully people. Good people who are good at a lot of things without having to use bending. Bumi is a better fighter and a better friend then you'll ever be!"

"Okay Lin," Bumi said nervously, watching the expression on Zolt's face as it grew angrier by the second. "I think they get the point."

He snatched their ball from nearby and grabbed her hand. As he was pulling her away she continued to rant, "And I'm a better bender than any of you will ever be! One day I'm gonna be a cop and throw you all in jail! Then you'll see!"

Bumi couldn't get her out of the park fast enough. When they hit the streets he said, "I think we should probably go tell your mom about this. I might need police protection after what just happened."

"Aw, they won't mess with you anymore, now that they know I'm looking out for you!"

"Oh yeah, speaking of which, WHAT THE HELL?"

Bumi stopped in the middle of the street to stare at Lin whose arm he was still gripping. "What were you thinking? Those guys could've killed us!"

"But you said I could do it."

"When did I say that?"

"You said that I could be a great earthbender some day if I work hard."

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean you can just beat up some thugs! That's how people get hurt: they get overconfident and overestimate their limits."

Lin scuffed her toe on the ground. "Oh. Sorry."

The two walked in silence for a moment as they headed for Police Headquarters, Bumi catching his breath after what they'd been through. Finally, he asked, "Why did you do that anyway?"

Lin shrugged, still looking down as she walked. "I just didn't want them to hurt you. And they made me mad, talking to you that way. You're one of my favorite people and you don't deserve that. And…"

"And what?"

"And I just didn't want them to win."

Bumi stopped again, but this time he didn't yell when he turned to Lin. This time he slowly smiled at her.

"You're the best, you know that, Linny?"

"Yeah, I know."

They started walking again and Bumi said, "Yep. You know I'm still mad at you for doing that right?"

"Yep."

"And that I'm gonna have to tell everyone about it?"

"Yep."

"And that I totally beat you at our game?"

"Hey, no you didn't! We never even got to finish."

"Well, I was ahead, so I win by default!"

"Bumi!"

"Lin!"

The two bickered playfully all the way to the Police Headquarters. Lin was reprimanded, naturally. But the look of gratitude and respect in Bumi's eyes after the incident would make her always feel it was worth the punishment. "After all," he would later say after he ran Tenzin off after an argument, as part of his repayment, "what are friends for?"

For anyone who didn't catch it, Zolt is the leader of the Triple Threat Triad who got his bending taken in The Revelation. Since they're around the same age, it's my headcanon that he used to know Bumi and would push him around some.

To Atarah Derek: I agree; Lin's growth is great, especially since she wasn't focused on nearly enough in Season 2. It should make her a little easier to write too, now that's she not quite as gruff.

To Duskdog: About what you said about Bumi not being "adopted" yet, I agree, and that's another part of why I decided to start these. I got tired of only finding fics about him from before he actually became a character in Season 2. Just because he's not quite what we expected doesn't make him any less awesome. I'm happy to know that you and others think I'm portraying him well; that makes me so relieved!

To Carol: Maybe, if it's just the before and after. I can read (in the words of Duskdog) "overtly sexual" stuff, but the idea of writing and posting it makes me squeamish. But yeah, I can probably do some "cuteness and love". ;)

Yeah, so, THE NEW EPS WERE GREAT. And now that there are no more leaked episodes available, everyone's in the same boat now. So, let us sail to Friday! (Sorry this was kind of choppy. I wrote this late. )