I didn't really care for this prompt, but it got me thinking about how Bolin really did used to be caught up in illegal business. I saw this as someone's headcanon a while back, but I'm sorry, I just can't remember where it was _
Korra had thought for a while that Bolin seemed strangely reluctant to take off his shirt. When things were getting heated between them, his hands regularly ended up her shirt, and she was eager to take off his and feel the muscles shifting under his bare skin. But when she reached for the edge of his shirt, he would grab her wrists and move her hands elsewhere. She was confused and a little hurt, but she tried not to press the issue. Finally, the mystery had bothered her enough that she squared her shoulders and simply asked him about it. He'd been taken completely by surprise. He was stammering as he tried to explain, but she gathered that it wasn't that he didn't want her to touch him, it was just he thought she might be worried... Finally, he stopped trying to put it into words, and just took off his shirt and turned around.
She hadn't known what to expect, but her hand pressed to her mouth as she looked. His back was crisscrossed with old scars, some faded and some still an angry red. She ran careful fingers down a wide scar that stretched from a shoulder to the opposite hip. He was craning his head around to see her face, and when he saw the look in her eyes he turned around and caught her hands in his. It wasn't anything serious. It was all old, just part of life on the street and running with the triads. She hadn't ever realized, really realized that anyone would willingly do that to another person, especially a child. He folded her into a big bear hug as she cried, and she wrapped her arms around him as she buried her face in his chest.