Chapter 1
"You're what?"
"Bolin, I know you're not the sharpest tool in the shed, but stop that. Seriously."
"No! You can't just retire on me!"
"Actually, yes I can. Sorry Bolin." Officer Song sighed, placing a hand on the man's shoulder. He smiled sadly, looking down on Bolin, who was peering up at him like a scolded pup. "I can't do this until I drop dead, Bolin. I gotta enjoy my last years. I just don't think I can handle it anymore with my age. I don't think my wife can handle growing any more gray hairs worrying about me either. You'll do fine. Don't worry. You're a talented kid. Well, I hope you can handle yourself. How old are you now?"
"Twenty-six, sir."
"And for the love of God, stop calling me sir! How many- Ugh. Never mind. Look, you've gotta move on. This is going to lead to bigger and better things for you, boy. I believe in you. For me, though, this is the end of the road. I'm happy to retire knowing how well you've turned out since you showed up here, a complete rookie—"
"Most cops die within five years of retirement. Their bodies can't handle the sudden drop of adrenaline."
His smile faded, and he stared flatly at Bolin, who looked dead serious. "…Thanks Bolin. I'll miss you too." Despite himself, he chuckled. He was going to miss the lovable idiot, that was for sure.
Watching sadly as his partner, mentor, and idol gave Cheif Lin Beifong a final good-bye hug and walked out the door, Bolin let out a sigh. What was he going to do now?
"Cheer up, Kid." Lin sauntered over to him, eyebrow raised.
She acts like saying those words makes it happen. Does she actually have feelings? I bet she doesn't.
"I know this is going to be hard for you, but I think you might…"
I heard a rumor that she ran over a puppy with her squad car and didn't even feel bad.
"…So don't worry too much about that. Anyway, I'm sure you're new partner will take your mind off of Song."
Not even a single tear? God, she's terrifying… "Wait, what?" Bolin's attention snapped to Lin, his head cocked slightly, catching just enough of her last sentence to make him interested. "New partner?"
"What, did you think we were just going to make you go out on your own?" She furrowed her brow. He's a good cop, but he can be so slow…
"Well, I am that awesome." Bolin smiled sheepishly, realizing the amount of stupid those last few words contained. Welp, he could try covering his ass by being funny! Seventy percent of the time, it worked every time.
"No, you're not."
But not on Lin.
"Plus, this time you're the mentor. Though I'm not sure how well any rookie you train is going to turn out…So try your hardest not to be a screw-off for a while. The last thing I need is another you running around."
"I get to train someone?" I get to…train someone? I get to be the guy that drives the car and tells a noob what to do? I'm going to be a bad-ass teacher like Song? "Are you serious? That's friggin' awesome!" In that moment, all of Bolin's prior sadness washed away, and he was filled with so much excitement he felt like he was going to explode. His eyes widened, and he could only bring himself to gape stupidly at Lin for a minute. "Oh my god! Oh my god! This is awesome! I'm so excited I could just…Aaah!" He fist pumped the air, beaming. This was probably the best day of his life right now.
"…Are you done?"
"Uuuuh…" Bolin's smiled faded, and he stuck out his lip for a second. "I get to boss someone around for once! This is so exciting I could die! I hope they're awesome, and they like to have fun, and mess around and do awesome stuff!" He let out a loud, excited sigh, and then took a deep breath. "Now I'm done."
Lin rolled her eyes. "Well then, go home and get some rest. They'll be here tomorrow morning." She waved a hand at him dismissingly, pausing for a moment before she entered her office. "Also, I've already met your new partner, and I'm pretty sure they're into all of those things."
"Wait, you've met them? Tell me more!" But Lin had already shut the door, and upon hearing the definitive click of the lock, he knew the conversation was over. That's just cruel!
During the drive home, Bolin drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, occasionally gasping excitedly, just because he couldn't keep quiet in his excitement. After all, nobody was around to see him act like an idiot, so why not? He turned his radio up and sang along to the Pokémon theme song enthusiastically, his mood the best it had been in a long time, which was saying something. Okay, he had to tell someone. He turned the radio down and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, speed-dialing his brother. He waited patiently while it rang.
"Hello?"
"Mako, guess what!?"
On the other end of the line Mako jumped and held the phone arm's length away from his ear. "Hi Bolin." It seemed like this happened every time he got a call from his younger brother… "Uh, what?"
"Song retired, so I'm getting a new partner, and I get to train them! I'm gonna be, like, a boss!"
"That's great Bolin! It's a shame Song retired, but I'm happy for you! Whose you're new partner?"
"Uh, I don't know yet. I was just really excited and I had to tell someone about it." Maybe waiting would have been a good idea. Then I could have sent a picture! Damn!
"Well, with that out of the way, how's life, bro?"
"The same."
Mako's life was, in comparison to Bolin's, rather dull. The younger brother had no idea how Mako managed to sit in an office all day and do…money stuff. How he didn't die of boredom every day, Bolin didn't know. Chasing down criminals and going on high-speed chases was the life Bolin had dreamed of. And now, he was living it. It wasn't all fun and games, though. Occasionally he'd have to respond to serious cases of things like domestic abuse, tragic car accidents, accidents, and occasionally murder. Those days brought him down, but he always remembered that what he was doing was helping other people, and making the city a better place. And that kept him going. When a kid smiled at him and told him they wanted to be a cop someday too, or when a woman hugged him for being the first responder to her child's accident and saved his life, those days are what made it worthwhile. That was what really kept Bolin going, even though some days were hard, and made him lose faith in his fellow man.
"When are you gonna pop the question, Mako?"
"What?"
"You know, propose to Asami?" Bolin grinned. He'd been bothering his brother about this for a few months now. It was obvious to everyone but Mako that Asami wanted a ring on her finger, but he just wouldn't do it. He was worried he was 'rushing things'. "You've been together for six years! I think it's about time you tied the knot."
On the other end of the line, Mako sighed. He was going to propose. He was just waiting for the right moment. He hadn't told anyone, but he had been looking at rings after work. He wanted it to be special, was all. "I will, Bolin. Just not today."
"That's what you've been saying for like, 97 days or somethin'."
"Don't you have important stuff to be doing?" Mako was tired (Bolin didn't really pay attention to the time, and it was already 11 p.m.) and just wanted to sleep.
"Nope!"
"Get a hobby, Bolin. Good night."
"Hey I have plenty of—" Mako hung up. "Well, that was rude." Bolin pouted for a second. Eh, it was his fault. He probably shouldn't call Mako so late anyway. He had to get up early every morning and was crabby as all hell when he was tired.
He pulled into the parking complex of his apartment, suddenly tired. "Being awesome takes a lot of energy." He mumbled to himself as he unlocked the door, yawing as he stepped inside.
His apartment was a little messy, with a few fast food wrappers littering the counter and some laundry on the floor, but it wasn't too bad. Much less than people normally expected from him. Really, why did people have such low expectations of him? He was really a clean, intelligent, and outgoing guy when he chose to be. Although, he usually went with the lazy route; so yeah, he deserved it. He'd pick it up and do his laundry when it started to smell was the general policy, or be intelligent when something was serious.
He lazily kicked off his shoes, not bothering to take off his pants or uniform as he fell onto his bed.
Tomorrow's going to be a good day. He decided, smiling. He'd meet his new partner, they'd be best friends, and go on all kinds of awesome adventures together. It would be the beautiful friendship people wrote stories and shit about. Like a fairy tale, but possibly a little more gay. Well, Bolin was no homo, but he had nothing against bromosexuality.
He sighed happily, snuggling his pillow. Despite being tired, he was too excited to actually fall asleep. So he sat awake for a while, imagining awesome scenarios in his head and planning his welcome speech for tomorrow. Lin said his partner was, in short, awesome. He sighed, and rolled onto his side, thinking of what awesome things they could do in their free time.
Considering that his partner wouldn't want to be besties or even like him was completely out of the question.
He woke up to the sun shining in through his window, momentarily blinding him as he opened his eyes. "Ow ow ow!" He got up on all fours, bending to crack his back and neck. He slid off the bed, and checked the time.7:04 a.m.
"Oh shit!" He only had six minutes to get ready before he had to leave. He flew to the bathroom, shoving his toothbrush in his mouth and throwing off his dirty pants, changing his jacket, putting on clean pants, shaving with one hand, and continuing to brush with other (like a boss). He gave himself an extra spritz of cologne, and he was out the door.
He arrived just a minute late, clocking in and quickly checking his reflection in a window. He ruffled his hair a bit, and looked good to go. Luckily for him, he was one of those guys that could roll out of bed gorgeous. He had to look his best for new partner, after all. First impressions, and all that. He sighed happily, flopping into his spinning office chair, tapping his leg repeatedly with excitement, despite the annoyed glares from the RCPD desk jockeys. He waited, spinning around in his chair lazily. When were they doing to show up? He couldn't handle waiting anymore!
Finally, the door to Lin's office opened, and she stepped out.
This was it, the moment of truth.
"Bolin, I'd like you to meet your new partner," She stepped aside, revealing the woman behind her; a brunette with shining blue eyes, dark skin, and a radiant smile. "Korra."
Bolin hastily sat up, almost knocking his chair over in the process. He approached her, holding out his hand. "Hi Korra!" God, she was pretty. "I'm Bolin!" And her breasts are immaculate. He had never considered his partner might be a girl. It threw off his carefully choreographed welcome speech, but whatever. If there was one thing Bolin was good at (He was amazing at everything, naturally, but...) it was flying by the seat of his pants. He'd improv it and it'd be awesome.
Korra smiled, taking his hand. His green eyes were shining, and he was grinning from ear to ear. He seems so happy! Looking him over, she decided she was really going to like Bolin. He looked like he knew what he was doing, on top of being cheerful and outgoing. She let out a small yelp and she was yanked into an unexpected hug. Once she recovered from the surprise, she laughed, and hugged him back.
"This is so awesome!" Bolin laughed loudly, picking up Korra and spinning around in circles.
"Bolin! Put the poor girl down!" Lin clicked her tongue at him disapprovingly.
"Sorry ma'am!" He kept on grinning, glad to see that Korra was laughing from the experience, not mortified. She clung to his arm, a bit dizzy.
Lin wasn't mad at all, though. When she was talking to Korra earlier, and from her reaction just now, the two were going to get along famously. I hope he doesn't get too attached. "Korra, it's your first day here, so Bolin is going to show you around. Once he's done that, we'll get you your uniform, do some paperwork, and you should be good to go."
"Thanks!" She nodded politely to Lin, waited a second, and then dragged Bolin away by the arm. "C'mon, I wanna see stuff!"
"Wait! …I need to take a picture of us! For science."
Lin rolled her eyes. Yes, they'd get along just fine.
Author's Note: Yay, a new fic! I love LoK, and Borra ship is the best ship.
I found a few spelling errors the first go, so this is my updated, grammar-nazi'd version.
:D
Also, the "cop dying within five years" thing is trufax. Lookit up.
