Lin stood in the doorway of the Air Temple, watching as Jinora took her first glider flight as a Master Airbender. Below her, the other new Airbenders watched in awe, most likely imagining the day when they'd be able to join the young girl in the skies.

With everyone milling about, talking, rejoicing in the defeat of the Red Lotus (at least for the time) Lin couldn't help but find herself giving a small smile.

"I saw that."

The smile turned into a confused frown as she turned to see Bumi watching her, a smirk stretched across his wizened face.

"Saw what?" She tried to act nonchalant, even narrowed her eyes at him, but he wasn't one to be brushed off easily.

"That little smile of yours."

The metalbender let out a huff and rolled her eyes, turning away from her older friend. "So what? It's nice outside, everyone's happy, and my sister hasn't talked to me in an hour. Why shouldn't I smile?"

"Oh, you can't fool me Beifong," he said as he came to stand beside her. "Su told me about that little 'I love you' you gave her before running off to play Hero."

Lin grumbled, thinking how that was just like her younger sibling.

"Not to mention how nice you've been to Korra lately," the Commander added in a seemingly casual tone. "And you seemed pretty concerned when you found out me and Kya were all banged up." He gestured to the sling that still held his arm.

"So?" She glanced at him quickly before deliberately looking at the crowd out front, filled with humans and spirits alike. "What's your point?"

"My point is," he said slowly, "you're going soft."

That caught her attention. She rounded on him, green eyes piercing and snapped, "WHAT?"

"You heard me," he teased, jabbing a finger in her face, his blue eyes dancing with mirth. "That iron heart of yours is getting softer every day!"

She smacked his hand away, eliciting a yelp from him. He sucked on his knuckle and gave her hurt expression. She gave him a glare in return, one that intensified as he removed his knuckle and snickered at her once more.

"I'm not getting soft," she insisted. "I'm just learning how to get used to people, how to be a little less abrasive, how to…" She stopped when she noticed him raising an eyebrow at her, and realized she wasn't making a very convincing argument. With a groan she crossed her arms over her chest and turned away.

"Aw, but don't worry Linny," he muttered in a tone that was near genuine. "Your secret's safe with me."

She looked at him and saw he was giving her a gentle smile. And after a minute she decided, what the heck? It was Bumi after all. And she smiled in return.

"Ya got a pretty nice smile there, slugger," he said as he made a fist and gave her a friendly tap to the jaw.

"Not bad yourself, wolf man," she snarked.

The two shared a grin, thinking back to old times before things were so complicated, before she had to constantly worry about the image she purveyed.

"Hey Uncle Bumi!" The two looked up to see Meelo waving in their direction. "Wanna come try out the glider?"

Bumi gave Lin a nervous look and said, "Wish me luck!" Lin watched as he hopped down the steps, and thought that maybe he was right. Maybe her heart was getting ready to accept more. And as she observed his clumsy attempt to imitate the other gliders, inciting laughter in his nephew and several of the airbenders, she wondered what her heart would let in next.

Decided to go short and sweet for this one.

To TheEvilMelonLord: Oh my God, THANK YOU. I mean, I can understand fully why people enjoy speedy updates. But for someone to appreciate the fact that I'm trying to take time to put out quality rather than quantity means so much. Granted, tonight's isn't a great example, but that's more because I feel I have a deadline to meet. So thank you. Also, you are right, that was a typo. Sometimes I get to a point where I'm typing so fast I don't see the words anymore and that's one of those errors that Spell Check doesn't pick up. *shrug*

Okay, this might bite me in the butt, but I'm more likely to follow through if I share it with people so here it goes: I make it to Chapter 40 by Friday. Yeah! (Now watch it not happen.)