Another chapter! Yay!

I put in a character you guys will sooo love. Just read, guys!

Chapter 8

"You've got to be kidding. Hahaha, Dad. Nice joke. But seriously, what were the results?" Kuzon asked anxiously.

Tenzin furrowed his brow. "I'm not joking, Kuzon."

"But Kuzon and I can't get married. He's nineteen and I'm eighteen. We're too young for that kind of commitment." Asami said nervously. "Why would we have to get married anyways?"

"You see, you both are just…dating." he said uncomfortably, making a mental note to talk to Kuzon about his love life. "You have more of a chance of breaking up. Lian would be suffering if you did."

Kuzon shook his head. "C'mon Dad! Asami and I have never had a fight. We love Li and we love each other a lot!"

"I'm sorry son." Tenzin said sympathetically. "But this is their final decision."

A long silence filled the room. Kuzon's arm was around Asami's shoulders while she hung her head and struggled not to cry. Tenzin looked down at his robes and then stood up.

"There's something else, Kuzon. It has to do with Pema."

He sighed. "If this is about how much she hates me, I already know."

"No, it's not that. This time. She left."

The earthbender arched an eyebrow. "She left? So she pretty much ditched her kids? Poor little airbenders." he said and cocked his head towards the door. "They probably need you now more than ever."

There was sympathy in his voice, but Tenzin heard the unsaid words. I need to talk to Asami. Alone.

"Good bye Kuzon, Asami. Again, I am very sorry." he said sincerely and shut the door behind him.

_line break_

Asami finally burst into tears. Kuzon held her close. She rested her head against his chest and tried to calm down.

"I can't believe it." she said finally. "This can't be happening."

Kuzon stroked her hair. It felt really comforting. "I know. I wish we could adopt her. But Tenzin said we have to get married. I don't see that happening any time soon."

Asami got an idea. "Hey Kuzon?"

"Yes?"

"If we were engaged, do you think he'd let us adopt Lian?"

Her boyfriend froze. "Uh, I'm not sure."

She sighed. "So what are we going to do?"

"Maybe she can at least be our foster child for now, then we'll see." Kuzon suggested. Asami thought he might've been thinking, If we're married later on we can adopt Lian.

"I wish she could be our daughter." she muttered and closed her eyes.

_line break_

"Korra, I'm here." Mako said as he knocked on the door.

She opened the door with her left hand while the other carried a sleeping Rohan. "Hey Mako. I got zero sleep. Rohan kept waking me up and it was tough getting the kids to go back to sleep. Tenzin didn't help at all. He just sulked in his room for hours." she said and rubbed her eyes.

Mako took Rohan carefully from Korra. "I'll handle it. You get some sleep."

"Thanks Mako." she murmured and went to her room.

He went to the kitchen and began to cook breakfast. It was a little tricky doing it while he carried the baby, but he pulled through. Mako put the finished breakfast plates on the table and knocked on thr airbender kids' bedroom doors.

"C'mon Ikki. Breakfast is ready."

The hyper girl opened the door and yawned. "G' morning, cute firebender boy."

"Hi Ikki. Go to the dining room. I'll get your siblings."

She walked to the dining room in her pajamas.

"Jinora? Wake up."

A muffled response came from the oldest airbender child. "Go away."

Mako sighed. "I'm not going away. Can you help out a bit? Your siblings look up to you. If you're depressed, they're depressed."

There was a long silence. Mako turned to leave but then Jinora opened her bedroom door. She was in her airbending training clothes from yesterday. He could tell because they were wrinkled. Her eyes were red and puffy. Jinora was taking this a lot harder than he thought.

"Okay." Jinora sighed. "I'll eat breakfast."

Getting Meelo out of his bed was easier. Since he wouldn't respond to Mako at all, he just carried the sleeping boy to the table and shook him awake.

"Where am I?" Meelo gasped. "Was I sleep-flying?"

"No, the cute firebender carried you here." Ikki said and smiled at Mako. "Guess what?" "What?" said Mako.

"Uncle Bumi's coming over! He was staying with a friend because he said Daddy's no fun. Did you know Uncle Bumi's the funnest person ever? He has this great yell and his beard's better to tug, according to Meelo, and-"

"Ikki," Mako interrupted. "Eat your breakfast."

The airbending kids were eating in (mostly) silence. Ikki talked the most, Meelo commented on whatever she said, and even Jinora put in a word here and there. Rohan finally woke up so Mako had to feed him and leave the kids to clean up after themselves.

"I'll take him." a gruff voice said. Mako turned and saw Commander Bumi.

He had a grin on his face. "So you're the guy who's dating my dad."

"Wait, what?!"

Bumi laughed. "Kidding kid. Here, I'll take my nephew off your hands."

The firebender gave Bumi the baby and walked off, feeling weird about the commander's joke.

_line break_

"I'll give you five hundred yuans. Just get me out of here."

"Chief Beifong, you can't-"

"One thousand yuans."

He doctor threw his clipboard on the ground. "Chief Beifong! You cannot bribe me into letting you leave."

"How much do they pay you a year, doctor?" Lin asked.

"Three hundred thousand yuans. Why?"

She grinned deviously at him. "I will pay you double for my release."

He gave her his card. "Call me when you get the money. And please get rest. They'd fire me if they knew about this."

Lin smiled. "Thank you." she said and grabbed crutches that were near her hospital bed.

_line break_

"Hey guys, what's up?" Bolin said as he entered Air Temple Island.

Korra, Kuzon, Lian, Mako, and Asami were on the couch looking very tired as a gruff looking man-Tenzin's brother Bumi, he remembered-was trying to calm Meelo down. The boy was bouncing off the walls and screaming, "I want more candy! MORE CANDY!" His sister were sitting down and Ikki was chatting nonstop. Rohan wasn't with them. He was probably being taken care of by an Air Acolyte or someone else.

Tenzin was no where to be seen, but Bolin didn't dwell on it that much.

"Hey Bo." said Mako.

"Hi." said Kuzon flatly as he bounced Lian on his knee.

"I'm tired." Korra mumbled and put her head on Mako's shoulder.

"I'm exhausted. These kids are so much work!" Asami groaned.

Ikki pointed at him. "Hi short earthbender!"

"I'm not short!" Bolin protested.

"You're short compared to my brother." she said. Kuzon just grinned at her. Ikki looked at Lian. "I bet that baby's gonna be taller than you."

"Fifty yuans if she's shorter."

"You have to give me fifty yuans AND an endless supply of lychee juice if she's taller than you."

"We have a deal." Bolin said and they shook hands.

Kuzon shook his head. "You can't bet on Lian. Anyways, you're going to have to wait years to see if she's taller than Bolin or not."

"At least I'll have fifty yuans if I win." he said smugly. "So where's Tenzin?"

Korra sighed disappointedly. "He's in his office doing who-knows-what. The kids tried to talk to him, Bumi tried, and Kuzon tried too, but he didn't put much effort in trying to talk sincerely to him." she said while glaring at the metalbender.

"Hey! I tried."

"You knocked on his bedroom door and told him to get out, then you gave up on talking when he told you to go away." Mako said. "Then you kicked his door down."

"And then Tenzin blew wind in his face and locked himself in his office." finished Asami.

"Slow down, kid!" yelled Bumi at Meelo, who began doing the air scooter around the room. Vases fell and broke when they hit the ground. Pictures fell on the floor. Meelo whizzed by Bolin and laughed crazily.

Bolin trapped Meelo in an earth shell on the wall. He struggled, but couldn't get out of it.

Bumi glared at Kuzon. "You're an earthbender. Couldn't you have done it earlier?"

"It was more amusing this way." he said innocently.

"Wait, who are you anyway?" Bumi asked Kuzon.

Kuzon handed Lian to Asami and stood in front of Bumi, a smile beginning to form on his lips. "I can't believe you don't know me." he said. "Uncle Bumi."

"Uncle Bumi?!" he exclaimed. "Are you Kya's kid or her grandson or what?"

He rolled his eyes. "I'm Tenzin's son! The oldest!"

"Oh. That makes more sense. But how come I've never seen you before?" Bumi asked curiously.

Kuzon was about to say something but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"I'll get it." Bolin volunteered. He opened the door and there was Lin Beifong. She wore a long coat and was only standing because of crutches. But she wasn't supposed to be out of the hospital yet. There were still bandages around her torso. She looked worn out.

"Linny!" Bumi yelled and hugged her, almost knocking her off her feet.

"Get off me Bumi." she growled.

He let go and grinned. "Good to see you again, Linny. You haven't changed a bit!"

"First, don't call me Linny. It's stupid. Second," she hesitated then gave him a quick hug. "It's good to see you too, old friend."

"Wait, shouldn't you still be in the hospital?" asked Korra when she went outside to greet her.

Lin shrugged, a smile on her lips. "The doctor decided to let me out earlier. After a lot of…'convincing'."

"I know you hate hospitals, but this is a new low. You actually bribed him?" said Kuzon.

"Need I remind you that you did the same thing?"

"Good point."

Bumi turned his attention back at Kuzon. "Who is this kid anyway?"

"Oh, he's my son." Lin answered matter-of-factly.

"Wait, WHAT?!" he exclaimed. "He's your kid with-"

"With the airhead, yes." she said and waved it off. "Can someone make me some tea? I'm very tired. Bolin, help me get on the couch."

"Um, sure." Bolin said and carefully helped the chief on the couch. She relaxed and smiled at the airbending kids.

"Hello." she said. "How are you doing kids?"

Jinora looked at her. "We're okay." she said sadly.

Ikki's lower lip trembled and she started to cry. "I really miss my mommy!" she sobbed.

Lin hugged her and rubbed her back in little circles. "I know. I'm really sorry." she told her.

There was something in her voice and the look in her eyes when she was comforting Ikki. Bolin wasn't quite sure what it was though. Sympathy? Guilt? But when he examined Lin even carefully, there was nothing. He was sure he hadn't imagined it though.

"Here's your tea." Mako told her, interrupting Bolin's thoughts. She thanked him warmly and whispered something to Ikki. She only nodded and laid her head on Lin's shoulder.

"Do you need anything else, Mom?" Kuzon asked her.

She shook her head. "No thank you. Wait, why is Meelo on the wall?"

"Hi hero lady! Bolin put me there 'cause I ate so much candy and destroyed the house! Do you have candy?" Meelo asked.

"No. Please get him off the wall." Lin told Kuzon.

"Sure." he said and the earth sunk back into the wall. Meelo was free.

"Yay! I'm free!" Meelo cheered.

Bumi rolled his eyes and grinned goofily at the little airbender. "Do you want to go to the bison stables? I have a way to make riding a sky bison really fun."

"Okay!" he agreed. "C'mon Jinora and Ikki."

Jinora shrugged. "Alright."

Lin looked at Ikki. "Do you want to go with them?"

"Yeah." she said half-heartedly and ran after her siblings.

Korra looked at Asami, who was feeding Lian baby food. "Hey Asami, can you help me clean up? The living room's a mess."

"I'll hold the baby for you." Lin offered.

Asami smiled. "Thanks." she said and handed her the baby and her baby food.

"Wow Lin, You're actually good with children." Bolin said in surprise when Lin made the baby laugh.

She shot him a look. "Well, I had a child. I had to learn to like children."

"Oh yeah. Right. Never mind." Bolin said awkwardly.

Short chapter, sorry. But the next one will be longer.