I'm the Firebender of the Ember Island Eel Hounds and my prompts are: (dialogue)"I was made for this!", (taste) cheese, (quote) "The world does so well without me, that I am moved to wish that I could do equally well without the world" - Roberston Davies. No Mako AU. Word Count:1,262

"So remember, my uncle is coming to this thing too and it's important-" Iroh sighed at the nth time they went over this. He knew he honestly couldn't blame Korra given she was bringing a boy home for the first time, and with the history Iroh had with Korra's family, the tensions are particularly higher than what they should normally be, even for the daughter of the Chief-Deputy of The Southern Water Tribe.

"I am going to get along with your uncle just fine. He was very amicable when things between me and Eska were ended" Iroh said as he placed his hands at either of Korra's shoulders.

"Are you sure? I know he was Ok with the whole 'You two are not marrying' thing but I just think he was just being civil" Korra seemed particularly stressed. An bad omen of what awaited him when they came ashore if Iroh had ever seen one.

"Shouldn't you be worried about yourself, birdie? You ran off with a circus because you couldn't wait for Tenzin to deal with the Equalists" Iroh tried pet names to calm his girlfriend; if there was a way to get to her to calm down it would be through pet names. And sneaking kisses while they could.

"Eh, no." Korra closed in and hugged Iroh, placing her head against his chest and her ear resting near his heart; it's constant, strong thud a tranquilizing force in the sea of dragons that was Korra's mind with all the worries of what awaited them in the South Pole" I talked with him when we came down here to see if Katara could help me get back my bending back and he's proud I made my way to Republic City and through the equalist crisis relatively unscathed"

"Yeah, because you still lost your bending there for a few days" Iroh couldn't really believe it, and he had been there in the thick of it.

"Hey, was that mockery?" Korra nudged him gently "I was made for this! Fighting and beating up bad guys! I'm still getting there on the 'not getting my butt handed to me' but still"

"I would never dare mock you, birdie" Iroh said as he leaned down and kissed Korra, maybe for the last time in a while. The last thing he would risk was Korra's parents catching them making out and it going down so south from there that it could have the potential of starting another war.

-0-

Bolin was nervous as he walked towards his crush's cabin, checking again for any remnants of cheese in his breath after having to revisit his breakfast an hour ago. Satisfied with the lack of any heinous smell, he knocked the door and was told to come in.

"Hey gorgeous face" Bolin chirped into Asami's cabin and found the woman of his dreams lying down in bed, just staring at the ceiling like if it was one of those funny modern art things that were the trend back in Republic City "Mind if I come in?"

"Not at all, Bolin" Asami responded as she sat up and flashed him a smile so radiant that he actually had to blink a little to flashes of light out of his head.

"Why are you all locked up in here when you can be out there watching the Southern Lights?! It's got to be more beautiful than the ceiling" Bolin said as he took a seat in a chair that was in the cabin near a metal desk packed as much as it humanly could with papers.

"I'm just thinking about…stuff" Asami was clearly holding back and Bolin would simply not have that in this team.

'And hey, this could be a chance to get to know each other better' he told himself

"The best way to board your problems is to share them with friends" Bolin started what his mom had denominated 'His cheery pep—talk that was packed with blind optimism'

"The company might go broke and I'm this close to sell it" Asami raised her right hand and with her thumb and index finger made a small space where a hair would be barely able to fit; something that made Bolin flinch a little. Finances and other business-related things were not his forte and whatever help he could bring her could, at best, be moral support.

"That bad? People not buying Satomobiles anymore or something?" Bolin said trying to get to understand the trouble, though it was unlikely that the problem was lack of demand for the most marvelous pieces of technology so far in man's history.

'I may be just being too much of a fan for race cars there' Bolin told himself as he saw Asami prepare to share the problem.

"It's not that. It's that…my dad gave invested almost all our money into Amon's army. The equipment, the food, the training, the facilities. Everything that made the Equalists a well organized and supplied force came out of our pockets" Asami started explaining and Bolin kept quiet to hear the rest of the issue.

"To that add the fact that Future Industries is barely coming out of investigations and the facilities are barely being returned to us after 6 months" Asami took her thumb and index to the birth of her nose and clinched it seemingly hard "In the meanwhile Cabbage Corp has taken almost all of the market, all of the contracts and pretty much a damn marketing victory because people simply don't trust us anymore."

Asami snorted sadly and said "The world does so well without me, that I am moved to wish that I could do equally well without the world" and Bolin just felt devastated right there at the sight of that.

"But you can come back. If I know anyone that can take the company back to the public's good graces, that's got to be you" Bolin cheered her on and got a whole-hearted smile from the gorgeous engineer.

"Were it so easy. I'm going to have to sell some of the factories just to keep us afloat long enough to try and do something. Anything at this point to be honest" Asami sounded that particular sort of despair that sounded neutral, like she was giving up on her inheritance as CEO of Future Industries.

"Wow. Any idea what you'll be doing?" Bolin asked really concerned.

"I'm meeting this guy during the festival, he might be my best chance to get back in the saddle" Bolin chinned up but Asami just covered her face with her hands in despair "But he's a nut-job and who knows how to convince him of anything!"

"How did he got rich?" Bolin asked, if he was that crazy then he certainly had to know something.

"Eh, he started a fishing company and struck gold on this rare kind of fish that was worth a lot. And he took it from there on random investments that sort of paid off at the end" Asami said and her face was just disheartening, something Bolin couldn't really bear.

"Hey, if I can help in anyway, let me know. Maybe my mom could order an extra patrol cars or something" Bolin said and Asami smiled a little.

"Yeah, if the newly elected president wants to deal with me. That would be nice" Asami said to Bolin as she stared to the ceiling and Bolin just felt useless there and took his leave, giving a silent prayer that everything worked out in the end as he left Asami to herself.