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A young, strapping thirteen-year-old Bolin arched his back and opened his mouth in a wide yawn. It was nearing dinner-time now, and he was currently taxed with the duty of finding something to eat for him and Mako. It was around this time that some of the restaurants threw away the unfinished or unused food from lunch to make way for dinner, which meant it was prime time for “shopping.”
“Bolin!” The boy in question turned around from the garbage can he was about to peruse through, and saw a brown-haired girl rushing toward him. It wasn’t until she was crouched over panting right in front of him that he realized who she was.
“Lanai!” He moved forward and placed a hand on her shoulders. “What is it?” She lifted her head slightly to look at him while she struggled to catch her breath, and Bolin’s own breath caught in his throat at the sight of her.
“What happened to you? Who did this?”
Lanai was one of the few friends he and Mako had made on the streets, and was just one year younger than Bolin. She was a non-bender but an orphan like them. She had a job in one of the workhouses, laundering clothes that richer citizens brought in so they didn’t have to do it themselves. Because of this, Lanai would help get the brothers new clothing when theirs got ruined, using the scraps that were left over from customers. In return, Bolin and Mako made sure to look out for her. However, judging by her torn shirt, bloody lip, and black eye, they had failed in that regard today. And given that she always had a more sickly disposition it made her injuries look all the worse.
“F-forget about me, you need … it’s—” She covered her mouth as she choked back a sob and tears started streaming down her face. Bolin quickly took out a rag from underneath his shirt and started dabbing at her eyes. She gave a half-sob, half-grunt of appreciation before blurting out, “—it’s Mako!”
Bolin froze and the rag fell from his hand to the dirt floor, a million possibilities rushing through his mind, and none of them good.
“Wha-what happened?” He grasped Lanai’s shoulder. “Where is he?”
Lanai took a deep, shuddering breath and began. “I-I was just walking a-and two Agni Kai members threw me against the wall and … and—”
Despite Bolin’s worry for his brother, he pulled Lanai in for a smothering hug. Being poor street kids was bad enough, but it was even worse for the girls. Bolin had seen more pregnant girls his and Mako’s age than he ever cared to (all thanks to the bending gangs) and most of them didn’t live long enough to give birth. If they did, it would always kill both children. Out here, innocence was a luxury you couldn’t afford.
“Mako s-saved me before they did anything,” she said, her voice slightly muffled by his shirt. Lanai then pulled away and looked directly at Bolin with a mixture of guilt and pain. “H-he told me to run, and I heard them say they’d take … they’d take him to the cooler.”
Bolin’s breath hitched as he looked at Lanai in horror. The cooler was a type of torture device specifically designed for firebenders, since they had a natural tendency to be more susceptible to the cold. It was because of this that Bolin always made sure to snuggle up close to Mako at night so his stubborn ostrich horse of a brother wouldn’t have to ask.
The Agni Kai’s would beat their prisoner until they passed out before tossing them in the cooler, so by the time they were woken up, their internal body heat would be too weak to make any sort of fire. Not only that, but the gangsters woke up their captives by dousing them with ice cold water, completely eliminating all hopes of getting any sort of warmth.
Then the Agni Kai Triad would repeat the process of splashing cold water on them every so often until frostbite covered nearly every inch of the person’s body, then they’d dump them at the docks. The chance of survival was minimal and even those who did were better off dead anyway.
And so now the thought of his brother undergoing that sort of torture—
“I’m so sorry!” Lanai cried. It wasn’t until Bolin saw her bite her lip that he realized in his anger he was gripping her shoulders very tightly. He immediately let go and pulled her in for another hug, sputtering apologies. A pang of guilt coursed through him as he realized her shoulders would most likely have large finger-shaped bruises for a while.
To her credit, Lanai easily accepted his apologies and extracted herself from his grip. “It’s b-been a little less than an hour since they took him—it took me forever to find you, so go!” She gave his a quick shove and Bolin took off, not needing to be told twice.
“Find blankets or even get a bath ready if you can!” Bolin yelled over his shoulder. “And thanks!”
—
Bolin tore through the alleyways, oblivious to the bending-enhanced footprints he was leaving in the dirt. The earthbender had a very uncharacteristic snarl on his maturing face and was having a hard time deciding whether he should be more concerned for Mako or furious that he was being tortured. Bolin decided on a mixture of both.
Now, as a principle Bolin tried to be a more upbeat kind of person. Anyone could be negative and moody, but it took talent to find happiness during the more dreary situations of life. It was a skill Bolin was proud of having. What point was there to living your entire life in misery when just a little extra work made it all more bearable? The young earthbender did his best to impart his philosophy on his older brother, and while he got Mako to smile fairly often, it was only really around him, but one had to start somewhere.
Anyway, the point of the matter was that Bolin tried to avoid unhealthy and violent anger whenever possible. But in this instance …
He was here. Bolin remembered the place easily because after learning about it from another street kid, Mako had made Bolin memorize the location, out of fear of Bolin accidentally stumbling upon it by mistake.
There was no mistake this time though. Bolin heard laughter and got closer to the actual cooler itself, where it was hidden a little further in the unused warehouse to keep from outside prying eyes.
Two men (two teens, actually—which explained a lot about how this had gotten out of hand so quickly) closed the cooler door behind them and briefly shuddered from the cold. One had an empty bucket in his hand.
There was no time to waste. “Give me back my brother!” Bolin yelled.
The two Triad members glanced up sharply at the unexpected noise, but upon seeing the small boy standing before them, erupted into laughter.
“Oh that’s rich, kid, real rich!” the guy with curly black hair said. “Look, I’ll commend ya on havin’ the guts to challenge us, but ya’ve got no idea who ya messin’ wit’.” He rotated his wrist and when it came palm up a small fire appeared.
“Best for you to run home to your mommy and just wait for your brother to come home when we’re done with ’im,” the other Triad member said. “If he’s strong enough to last the evening!”
The two benders laughed and Bolin bowed his head to hide a bitter smirk. If they thought a display of firebending would frighten him off they were wrong. Bolin knew Mako would be furious with him for picking a fight with two firebenders, but he had trained enough with Mako to know the trick about getting the upper hand against them.
Firebenders needed proper breath control and to keep their emotions in check. Mess that up, and you got a chance for an opening. If Bolin could figure out how, it would make his job a lot easier.
“Aww, ya gonna cry, kid?” the first firebender jeered.
“Maybe if you be a big boy we’ll let ya say good-bye to your brother.”
The other one laughed darkly. “Or we can toss ya in wit’ ’im.”
…They would receive no mercy.
Bolin snapped his head up, settled into a combative stance, and let out a nonverbal cry. To the two Agni Kai’s shock and slight horror, the earth around Bolin cracked and splintered off in random directions, with their central point being the young boy. Not only that, but the nearby wall seemed to groan with his cry and a large crack ran up it.
While the Triad members were thrown off by his rather emotional display of bending, Bolin used the opportunity to thrust his hands out and caused two pillars to rush up out of the ground. The two teens were unable to dodge, and so collapsed into the force of the blow that dug into their chests and were sent flying backward. Their backs slammed against the cooler door and they crashed on the ground, winded.
Knowing he had no time to lose, Bolin rushed over to the firebenders, but the first guy was quicker. He kicked his foot out and sent a stream of fire in Bolin’s path. Bolin curled his arms up and brought up a wall to take on the force of the blast. Not only that, but he made the wall at a sort of slant so he could run up it without his opponents noticing until it was too late.
When he reached the top, Bolin swept his foot out and over in a wide arch, causing a large, boulder-sized section of the ground to fly toward the firebenders. With a yell, the two firebenders shot a succession of fireballs at the boulder to destroy it. Bolin took advantage of their distraction and once again rammed a pillar of earth into their chest, but this time followed through with a disc-shaped section of dirt that swung around and slammed the two of them into the wall Bolin had created earlier. Bolin landed on the ground in front of them and clenched his fists to merge the earth into a sort of restraint. Finally, Bolin slammed the two older boys’ heads together, effectively knocking them unconscious.
Were the situations different, Bolin would probably feel guilty for such violence, but if he were honest with himself he didn’t feel guilty at all. In fact—he felt rather proud at his work and wished Mako would be able to see it.
Speaking of his brother—Bolin spun around and wrenched the cooler doors open. “Mako!”
Bolin froze where he stood and stared in horror at the sight of his brother, slumped against the ground, unmoving. He rushed to Mako’s side and carefully turned him on his back. Mako’s eyes were half-lidded and his skin was terribly cold to the touch with an unhealthy blue hue to it. He wasn’t shivering at all, and Bolin knew that had to mean something bad because his brother would always shiver when he was cold. Bolin placed both palms against his brother’s face. His heart sank when Mako whimpered and shied away from the touch; sounding not at all like the strong, brave brother Bolin knew him to be.
“D-don’t worry, Mako!” he cried, more for himself than anything. “I’m gonna get you some help, okay? Just—just hang in there!” Bolin swept his brother-turned-icicle into his arms and rushed out of the cooler.
He headed in the direction of their home as of the past few days, and was intercepted by Lanai. She had gone and talked to Shima, who was willing to help them with Mako. Shima was a waterbender and practicing healer. She was in her mid-twenties and lived in a small apartment close to the hospital in the district Mako and Bolin lived in, and was known by most of the street kids. In exchange for some help with chores (since she was also studying classes at the university nearby and needed the extra help) Shima was willing to heal all the children who came to her for free.
Mako had been deeply distrustful and cautious around her at the beginning, because who could be that selflessly kind? His hesitation vanished when she kept Bolin from dying from a bad cold, and she became one of the few adults he actually trusted.
When Bolin arrived at her apartment, Shima had him strip Mako completely and place him in a warm bath she had already prepared (Lanai was in the corner of the room, bright-faced and looking everywhere but at them). Bolin held his brother’s limp body by the armpits and patiently waited as Shima bended the glowing water in circular motions all over Mako’s body.
It felt like hours, but eventually Mako’s skin no longer had a blue tinge to it, he was breathing easier, and his skin was now warm to the touch. Shima left Bolin and Lanai with instructions to get Mako to drink as much water as he could whenever he awoke and retreated to bed, thoroughly exhausted from the long healing session and whatever she had done during the day. Bolin was already thinking of things he could do for her to show his gratitude.
Now all he had to do was wait. Bolin kept a silent vigil at Mako’s bedside for the next few hours, with both his hands clasped around Mako’s still one. He felt no desire to sleep—couldn’t sleep until he heard Mako’s voice. Lanai had succumbed to sleep nearly two hours ago, and she was snuggled up next to Bolin with her back against his folded leg.
He had tried to offer her an escort home since she also had to start work early in the morning, but she was insistent on waiting out the night with him. Bolin figured her determination partially stemmed from her understanding that Bolin really didn’t want to leave his brother’s side for even an instant, as well as guilt that Mako was injured because he was protecting her in the first place. Either way, Bolin appreciated her company.
But if only Mako would wake up! Bolin stifled a sob and rested his forehead on the knuckles of Mako’s hand. “Wake up please, brother,” he whispered. “You can’t leave me here all alone.” He clenched Mako’s hand tighter and bowed his head even lower, his muscles taught with tension as the night brought out his worst fears.
“You can’t go, Mako—not yet. First we have to get enough money for a place to live. Then we’re gonna get on a pro-bending team, and become the m-most famous ones ever! A-and then … and then we’re gonna get a b-big house and … a-and you’re gonna let me have all the pets I want and then I promise to stop teasing you about acting like a girl sometimes—”
“F-fat … chance.”
Bolin’s head snapped up and his watery green eyes met Mako’s half-lidded ones. “M-Mako?” he breathed.
Mako gave a weak chuckle. “Wh-who … think ’t is?” he said, his raspy voice barely audible. “Pabu?”
Resisting the powerful urge to pounce on his brother, Bolin unfolded his legs, scrambled to his knees, and moved closer so he could pull Mako into his lap. His enthusiasm faltered for a moment as he held Mako’s limp body—the firebender’s inability to voluntarily move any part of his body served as a testament to how close to death he had been. But when Mako’s head ever so briefly leaned toward Bolin’s chest (the only part of his body he could move aside from his jaw), the young boy realized none of that mattered.
What mattered was that Mako was here now and alive. All the rest were just details. Bolin spared a few moments to scoot back toward the wall he had been leaning against earlier, and adjusted Mako in his arms, to the point where he was essentially cradling his elder brother like one would an infant. Bolin’s left arm cushioned Marko’s head, shoulders, and upper back, while his right hand came to rest at the top of Mako’s chest. Remembering Shima’s instructions, Bolin spent a few minutes helping Mako drink as much water as he could.
When Mako was unable to drink anymore, Bolin simply stared at his brother’s face through tear-stained eyes while Mako looked up at him with the same.
“Th—thanks … for sav’n … m-me,” Mako said, his voice no longer as raspy as before but still just as weak. “Th-thought w’s … gon’r.”
“S-silly Mako,” Bolin said, trying to keep his voice steady but failing miserably. “Y-you’ve … you’ve got me, soon to be the gr-greatest earthbender in the world to save you! You’re not … I wouldn’t let—” Bolin rested his forehead against Mako’s and succumbed to his sobs, the day’s stress finally getting to him.
The two of them stayed like that for a while, clinging to the comfort that only they could give each other, the reminder that this life was still worth living. After a while with considerable effort, Mako was able to lift his arm and grasp Bolin’s hand, interlocking their fingers.
“I love you, Bo,” he said as he drifted off to sleep. “I’ll never leave you.”