The RC Beifong's and Krew have arrived in Zaofu.

A/N: I thought the title for this chapter is fitting for the events that take place. I hope you all also get the song from Mulan in your head, so I don't have to suffer alone lol jks its one of my fav's and I have to say is a nice break from the Encanto soundtrack that has been playing in my head for over a month straight - though that music is also freaking amazing. Thank you for reading, have a great day!


"Opal!"

"Mom!" Opal called out. She used her airbending to bypass the still moving gangway that hadn't finished connecting to the landing dock below. Once in front of her mother, she found herself in her arms, being squeezed in a tight hug.

"Four-and-a-half months is too long!" Suyin said, placing a kiss on Opal's head.

"Mo-oom" Opal whined, but a bright smile was still on her face. Bolin and Korra snickered behind Opal as they made their way down the gangway that had finished connecting.

"Auntie Su-Su!" Haru called out, giving Su only a moment to release her daughter to catch him as he jumped into the air, propelled by his airbending, and slammed his little body into her chest.

She grunted slightly, but she spun him around. "Hello my little darling! How was your trip here?"

Su listened intently to her young nephew, nodding along to his story and offering short comments. When he was finished, she greeted everyone else while still holding him.

"Well let's get headed out. I am sure you are all wanting some rest before dinner." Su said, motioning for everyone to follow her to the platform off to the side.

Lin shifted the diaper bag higher on her shoulder, and ensured Airi was still nice and snug in her sling, before following her sister. The others all grabbed their bags, including a couple guards grabbing the couple extras. Once they were all on the platform, the guards there bent up the metal gate, before bending the platform down.

Haru's eyes lit up in wonder as they descended down. But it was nothing to his excitement at seeing the monorail.

"Train! Look Mama, Daddy! A train!"

"We see buddy. Auntie Su is going to take us on it too." Bumi replied with a wide grin at his son's enthusiasm.

Haru turned to look at his Aunt with wide eyes. "Really?"

Su smiled at the little one in her arms. "Yes, really. Maybe we can even ask Uncle Baatar to take you on another trip later and he can teach you how it works."

"Yay!" Haru squealed out in excitement, clapping his hands.

When they arrived at the final station, they disembarked and were met by Huan.

"Huan, would you be a dear and help your sister with taking care of Korra, Asami, Mako, and Bolin by showing them to their rooms? I am going to help your Aunt and Uncle settle the kids into their rooms."

Su led her sister and brother-in-law away from the others when they arrived at the courtyard.

Lin frowned. "Aren't the guest houses over that way?"

"Yes, but I actually had something different in mind for you." The younger Beifong sister replied, guiding them through an archway into the garden area. They approached a building that looked similar to one of the guest houses, but was a little more isolated than the others. "I had this constructed before Haru was born. I had hoped you could see it as a secondary home of sorts. We would love to have you whenever you would like." Su took a key from her pocket and unlocked the door.

Lin and Bumi shared an astonished look, before heading inside. It opened into a sitting area, with a small kitchen towards the back with a small dining table. There was one door off to the left and three off to the right. The room was light and airy feeling, with hints of green and cream amongst the gleaming silver.

"Su… I don't know what to say." Lin said, glancing around.

"Just promise you will visit more often now that things have settled, and I'll be happy." Su responded, letting Haru down when he noticed a toy area off in the corner. She motioned for the guards that had followed with the family's bags, to set them inside. After they did, they left and Su closed the door.

"This is your room here." She said, leading them to the door on the left. "You have an ensuite here as well." She allowed them a moment to peek into the room, before pulling them excitedly to the other doors. "The middle one here is another bathroom, mainly for when the kids get older, or you have someone visiting here. This room here is for Airi. I have set it up with a crib that will convert to a toddler bed, similar to your house."

The room inside was made up of pastel greens and purples. "Huan helped me put the whole house together. He's really getting into interior design." She then led them to the last door. "And this room is for Haru." The room was a soft blue colour, reminiscent of the sky. There was a mural of an air bison on the wall and lots of toys and books on the shelving in the room.

"Su, this is so awesome!" Bumi exclaimed. "Hey, Haru, come look at the room you get to use."

"And they'll be gone to the world for a few hours now." Lin remarked in dry amusement as Haru excitedly ran into the room and started pulling out toys with his father just as eager.

"Shall I make us some tea?" Su offered.

Lin raised her brow at her sister. "You? Make tea?"

"Oh ha-ha. I did learn to make decent tea during my travels, if you must know." Suyin pouted slightly, as they made their way out of Haru's bedroom and headed to the kitchen.

"Decent tea versus excellent tea… such a tough decision." Lin teased. She grabbed the kettle that sat on the stove top and went to the sink to fill it with water. "I think I will handle the tea."

Su rolled her eyes. "Fine, but don't complain later that I didn't offer."

Lin set the kettle on the stove and lit the burner. Once that was settled, she felt Airi shift a little; a sure sign she was waking up. Stepping away from the stovetop, Lin peered into the wrap and saw Airi peering back up at her. "Hello little badgermole, did your Auntie wake you up with her offer of mediocre tea?"

"Yeah, well, we all couldn't learn from Uncle Iroh you know." Su retorted, the amused twinkle in her eyes belying the offended look on her face.

Lin walked towards the couch, which Su followed. Upon sitting, Lin brought Airi out of the wrap and gave her cheek a kiss. Airi gave her a gummy smile in response, her little legs pumping in the air.

Su sat beside her sister and felt her heart melt at the tender moment she witnessed. She was still thanking the spirits that her life led her back to her older sister, and that she got to bear witness to Lin's journey to motherhood. She was startled from her thoughts by Lin calling her name. She blushed a little at being caught zoning out, but met her sister's amused gaze.

"Would you like to hold her?"

"Would I lik- Do you even need to ask? I would love to hold her." Su had been waiting for this moment since her niece was born. Unfortunately, she and her family had needed to return to Zaofu not long after Lin and Airi had returned home from the hospital. So she had not been able to hold her first niece yet.

Lin leaned over and placed her daughter in her sister's arms.

"Hi Airi. I'm your Aunt Suyin." Su didn't bother to hide her tears as they streamed down her face upon holding her niece for the first time. "You've gotten so big since the last time I saw you." She propped Airi on her legs, supporting her shoulders and head with her hands, so that they could look at each other.

Airi blinked up at the woman above, with a tiny frown marring her face. A small pout on her lips, but she didn't cry. It was almost like she was trying to analyze the woman holding her.

"Oh she looks just like you!" Su snickered. "I mean look at that frown. Oh and those beautiful big eyes. They are definitely turning green. I think you got your mini me, as Bumi got his."

Lin rolled her eyes. "We'll see. Hopefully she doesn't inherit the Beifong temper, or we are doomed." She smirked at her sister, who let out a small laugh. Airi turned her head at hearing her mothers voice and her tiny frown melted as she smiled at seeing her mother. Lin reached out and ran her finger over the baby's round cheeks. "You be good for your Aunt while I get tea ready." Lin got up and went to the kitchenette, where she found a teapot, cups, and tea.

Airi's eyes scanned the spot where her mother had been, not understanding where she went. Her frown came back, along with the pout, though it was much more pronounced.

"Shh, it's okay sweetie. Mama is still in the room." Suyin said in a comforting voice. While Lin was getting the tea ready, Su entertained her niece, finally getting a gummy smile from the infant. Su was startled by the shutter and flash of a camera. She looked up and found Lin standing there with a camera.

"We weren't able to do the pictures as a group, like with Haru. But we've been trying to take pictures whenever someone holds her for the first time." Lin shrugged.

"Ooh! While you are here and everyone is dressed up, we should do family portraits! I'm sure we can even wrangle Mom into it too."

"I don't know Su…"

"Nonsense, it will be nice to have some new pictures of everyone. I can't even remember the last time Mom, you, and I had a picture together."

"I believe you were 8 and I, 14. The last time Mom went with us to Grandmothers for Hanami. So that's about 40 years ago." Lin set the camera down and went back to the teapot, where she removed the tea leaves. "I suppose, since we have no choice now, that it would be good for the kids to look back on." Lin added, as she poured the tea into the two cups, adding their preferred amounts of honey. She then took book cups with her and set them on the table in front of the couch, before sitting back down.

Su shifted Airi to rest in the crook of her arm, facing Lin. The afternoon was spent catching up, drinking tea, and discussing the plans for the next couple weeks.

Eventually, they were able to wrangle Haru and Bumi into leaving the young boy's room, and they attended dinner with the rest of the family. Lin greeted all her nephews, including Baatar Jr. - though that was more a hello and a nod and not the hug the other three got - and also greeted her brother in law.

Lin and Bumi traded off holding Airi and helping Haru with his food, in between eating their own dinner.

"Aunt Lin, do you think you could play Power Disc with us while you are here?" Wing asked, looking at his Aunt with an excited gleam in his eyes.

Lin quirked an eyebrow at him. "You will have to teach me, but I am sure we could give it a go. Speaking of which, do you have a gym here?"

"Awesome!" Wei high fived Wing at her response, before turning back to his Aunt. "Yup, I can show it to you after dinner if you want. We usually go first thing in the morning, if you would like to join us."

Lin cut up Haru's tofu into smaller bits, before nodding. "Sounds good." She turned to Mako, who was on Bumi's other side. "You in, kid? Can't have you slacking off too much, or Saikhan will hand you your a- I mean bottom, when you get back." Lin caught herself just in time, not wanting to be the one to teach Haru that particular word.

"Sure." Mako said, nodding.

"Have room for one more?" Korra asked, after swallowing her mouthful of fish.

"Ooh, ooh! Me too!" Bolin exclaimed, waving his hand in the air.

Lin smirked. "I suppose I can run you all through the trainee workouts. That is, if you are up to it?"

"Bring it!" Wei and Wing said at the same time, while Bolin and Korra gulped a little at the glint in Lin's eyes. But they nodded, along with Mako, who was the only one who had officially gone through Lin's training. Bolin somehow had lucked out when he worked on the triad task force as 1 - Lin was not helping with the training at that moment as she had been pregnant with Airi; 2 - he didn't actually do any physical training, only going through procedural training.

Lin nodded. "Great. I'll see you all bright and early at 6:00 sharp." She didn't even need to add to not be late, they all knew that she would not accept tardiness.

"Don't be too tough on them tomorrow, love." Bumi said.

"I'm sure they will survive. Mako's been through it before, and he's still here." Lin smirked at her husband. "Would you like to join us? I'm sure we can get someone to watch the kids."

"Oh no, I'm good. Have to do my… meditations." Bumi replied.

"Right… your meditations." Lin gave him an amused smile, before taking a few bites of her dinner.


The next morning, Lin slipped out of their little house and jogged to the gym. When the boys had shown it to her the previous night, she had to admit she was impressed. They even had a small obstacle course area. So Lin arrived earlier than the arranged time to set the course to be similar to the one at the academy.

Being active had always helped calm Lin's mind, so she was thankful Kya had cleared her at 6 weeks postpartum like she had after Haru had been born. While things seemed to be taking longer to get back into this time around, she finally was feeling much more like herself. Her emotions seemed to settle better too once she was able to get back to her routine of working out. Once the course was set, Lin allowed herself to take some deep breaths and centre herself; wanting to be ready to show the kids that she still had it.

Mako was first to arrive, followed shortly after by the twins. She had them join her in doing warm up stretches. Finally with only a couple minutes to spare, Bolin and Korra arrived, both yawning but dressed. They quickly joined in the stretching before Lin started them with light training to finish the warm up. She could see Korra and Bolin grow more relaxed as they did the easy push ups and sit ups. Lin held back a smirk she felt tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"Alright, now that we are warmed up, let's do some laps. After that, I set up the obstacle course earlier this morning. I'll run through it first and then we'll do it all together. I'm thinking 20 laps around the gym."

By the end of the training, it was nearing 8 in the morning. All the kids were in varying degrees of exhaustion. The twins and Mako seemed to be doing fairly okay, drinking their water while using towels to wipe their sweat. Korra had collapsed onto the bench, chugging water that Lin had handed her. Bolin, on the other hand, was laid out on the ground, panting heavily.

Lin was doing some warm down stretches, as she didn't bounce back from workouts the same way anymore.

"How are you still moving?" Korra groaned out to Lin once she had finished her water.

"It's called making sure I don't get muscle cramps later. I don't have the same elasticity in my body these days as you four do."

"You'd never know it, the way you wiped the floor with us Aunt Lin." Wei laughed.

"Yeah you totally showed us not to underestimate you." Wing agreed. "We won't be as easy on you in Power Disc as we originally were going to be."

Lin did her final quad stretch, before nodding to them. "I would have been upset if you had." She picked up a clean towel and wiped the sweat from her face, arms, chest and neck. After some water, she looked at the time. "Alright, hit the showers. Can't have you all showing up to breakfast and stinking up the place. I'd never hear the end of it from Su."

After saying goodbye, Lin headed back to the house in the garden. The air was warmer than earlier that morning and the smell of the sakura wafted sweetly through the air. When she arrived home, she found Asami holding Airi on the couch while Haru 'read' a book to them.

"Morning kids." Lin greeted.

"Morning!" Both Asami and Haru greeted her with smiles.

"Figured since you all were at the gym, I could help Bumi with the kiddos. He's just changing I think." Asami said.

"Thank you, Asami. I'm going to head to the shower, I'll be out soon."

Lin found Bumi in the midst of changing into his clothes for the day.

"Oh, hi love. Did you have a good workout?" Bumi asked, greeting her with a tender smile.

"Hmm. Pretty sure Bolin is already ready for bed and Korra is not too far behind. But it felt good to workout with others. Definitely motivates you to go harder and do better than on your own." She said, pulling her sweat slickened tank top off. She then worked on the soaked chest wraps, followed by her sweatpants and underwear.

"Well I had no doubts that you would show them their place." Bumi teased, before walking over to draw her into a heated kiss.

"I'm all sweaty." Lin said breathily, between kisses.

Bumi moved his lips to her neck. "And it is so hot."

"Fuck." Lin moaned, trying to keep it quiet. "Asami… Asami is outside this door with Haru." She managed to pull his face from her neck. "As much as I want to continue, we have breakfast to get to with the family in 20 minutes."

Bumi bit back a groan. He rested his forehead against hers, as he caught his breath. Finally he placed a kiss on her lips, much more chaste, and stepped back. "Go grab your shower. I'll head out there in a moment."

Lin stepped closer to him and pulled him into her own kiss, before sauntering into the bathroom. She may have added a little more swing to her hips than usual and was rewarded with the frustrated groan from her husband.

"Linny." He whined as she shut the door behind her and he himself flopped back onto the bed, trying to think of something other than his naked wife in their shower.


Once Lin was ready to go and had fed Airi, Haru decided he wanted Mama to carry him to breakfast. Bumi tucked Airi against his shoulder, with a light blanket to keep the slight breeze from chilling her.

Asami had left after Lin had gotten out of the shower, as Lin had warned her that Korra may need some help.

When the family of four made it to the dining room, they found most of Suyin's family already there. Opal was tending to Bolin, who had his face planted against the tabletop. Mako was on his brother's other side and was calmly drinking a cup of coffee. Huan was nursing his own cup of coffee, muttering a "Good Morning" to his aunt and uncle. Wei and Wing were entering right behind Lin and Bumi, and seemed to be no worse for wear.

"Good Morning!" Su greeted her sister and family as Lin took a seat beside her.

"Morning Su, Baatar." Lin greeted.

Lin helped Haru cut his pancakes and fruit into smaller pieces, before digging into her breakfast eagerly. Working out and nursing before breakfast had her feeling starved.

Finally, Asami came in with a limping Korra. She slumped into her seat beside Asami and accepted the cup of strong tea her girlfriend handed to her.

"Are you alright, Korra?" Su asked with concern.

"No… How can I be the Avatar, but I get beaten by a retired, middle-aged mom who recently had a baby?" She whined. "It just doesn't make sense. And I have a cramp in my leg." Korra pouted.

"Perhaps because I am used to this style of exercise, and have been doing it consistently for almost 43 years, minus the months I was pregnant of course." Lin said with a shrug.

"Hmm… Mom did have you doing drills with the recruits by age 12." Su agreed.

"And she got upset that I decided to become an officer…" Lin rolled her eyes, before taking another bite of her tamagoyaki.

"I got upset because you were doing what you thought I wanted, instead of exploring what you would like to have done." Toph said as she entered the dining room and settled into a chair on the other side of Korra. She propped her dirty feet up onto the table and rested her hands behind her head.

"Mom! We weren't expecting you till this evening." Su said. "And while it is lovely to see you, could you please get your feet off my table. We are all eating."

Toph rolled her eyes but put her feet down. "Eh, well I was bored and thought I'd come early." She then punched Korra's arm. "Good to see ya Twinkle Toes."

Korra let out a yelp and almost swore if it wasn't for Asami covering her mouth at the last second.

"What's her problem?" Toph quirked her head in the Avatar's direction.

"I introduced her to Beifong style training." Lin replied.

"Ah, I remember the good old days, when I would beat up your past self." Toph smirked. The others snickered as Korra followed Bolin's lead and groaned as she planted her forehead against the table.


"Did you bring it?" He asked.

"Yup, got it right here. Ready for whenever you are ready." The other man responded as he opened a drawer to show the hidden gift.

"Perfect. Now I just need to figure out how to do it."

"I'm sure you will come up with something perfect."

"I hope so… It has to be perfect for her."

The two grinned at each other, before the drawer was shut and locked. Time for some planning.


A/N:

Tamagoyaki - is a Japanese rolled omelet

Let me know what you think!

Who do you think were the ones talking at the end? And what is going to happen?

I have tentative plans for the rest of the fic - still no idea now many chapters are left but we are kinda nearing the end point. But I will keep you updated as I go along.