The nightmares were thick and fast, swelling one after another with increasing speed until Bolin couldn't make out where one started and another began. Each of them seemed to morph into one long horror, part dream part panic attack, night after night filled with the terror of Amon and his cohorts. He dreamed of them capturing him, his brother, his friends - Korra. Torturing them, taking away his bending. He would wake in a tangle of sheets and a sheen of fear-sweat, horror leaving him unable to sleep and slowing his days to a dizzy crawl of fatigue.

He knew Korra wasn't much better off. Even before the move to Air Temple Island he could recognize the weary slump of her shoulders and recently he'd heard her screams in the dead of night, echoing as he lay awake shivering in his bunk.

Things had been worse since the Arena had been attacked but tonight the dreams seemed unusually cruel. He woke with damp cheeks, the ghost of blood and broken bodies swimming before his eyes. Mako. Korra.

He glanced over to where Mako slept in his own bed, reassuring himself that none of it was real. Bolin had sometimes talked in his sleep as a child and Mako had long ago learned to sleep through anything short of a bomb going off. Even Bolin's night terrors couldn't disturb him. He slept still and quiet, his chest rising and falling in a soothing swell. Bolin lay watching for a while, staring at his peaceful brother, trying to match his breathing to settle his worries. It seemed to be in vain though, the nervous energy still there, an anxious pounding at the back of his mind telling him to check on Korra. It was ridiculous, but he knew he couldn't settle until he'd seen her breathing and dawn was too far off for him to wait.

The floor was frigid under his bare feet as he crept down the darkened halls of the temple, being careful to avoid the worst of the creaking floorboards. He heard her terrified whimpers before he got to her door and rushed on tiptoes the rest of the way, silently pushing his way inside her room and dropping to a crouch beside her bed. Korra thrashed in the darkness, fighting off invisible enemies in her sleep. She moaned, a desperately broken sound and Bolin frowned as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as she clenched them tightly shut.

"Korra, its okay." Bolin soothed her brow with a thumb. "Its just a dream. C'mon sweet, wake up for your buddy Bo huh?"

She gave one last pitiful whimper before finally responding to his caress, her eyes groggily fluttering open to gaze up at him in confusion. He smiled gently and then almost lost his balance as she launched herself at him, burying her face in his chest, her body trembling. He held her close, sitting them both down on the bed, soothing her with countless whispered comforts. Finally she sniffed and lifted her head to gaze up at him.

"I dreamt you were…" The words stuck in her throat and she trailed off, her eyes watery and frightened.

"Me too. Its ok now, it was just a dream."

She settled into the curve between his neck and shoulder with a sigh. "I've never been so scared."

Bolin rubbed circles into her back with one hand, unable to come up with a reply to that. He was scared too, and tired. Achingly tired. He remembered back to when he and Mako were children, both too frightened to sleep alone during thunderstorms, cuddling together for comfort under the covers before finally finding rest. Maybe that would work this time too. Perhaps together he and Korra could catch a few hours of much-needed sleep, at least until Bolin would have to try and sneak back to his own room. He had no wish to awaken Tenzin's rage by being found in bed with a half-naked Avatar. Suddenly it seemed like too much effort to stay sitting, and he gently gathered Korra to him and lay them both down on the sheets. Korra sighed again, calmer now, ghosting her fingers over the bare skin at his collar. He shivered, a reaction that had nothing to do with being cold as her fingertips continued their dance over his thin cotton tank top, toying with the fabric as she seemingly drifted in and out of a light doze beside him.

"I feel safer with you here," She whispered, setting off goose bumps across his skin. It felt as if suddenly all the sleepy, comfortable cuddles in the world couldn't distract him from the awareness of just how exposed they both were. She was dressed in a little tank top and shorts, not unlike his own baggier sleepwear and, glancing down, he could see just how tightly her breasts were smooshed against his chest. Only two thin pieces of fabric separated them. A blush burned on his cheeks and he guiltily averted his gaze. Too late, however, as a shivering heat had started up in his skin, setting off a whole new type of nervous energy.

Korra slipped one slender leg between his, hooking her calf around the back of his knee and inadvertently bringing their hips closer together. Bolin gulped and shifted and set to counting fire ferrets in his head, nightmares long forgotten. He was just starting to let himself drift into a comfortable doze when Korra pressed her lips to his neck, sweet little kisses that chased away the last of his fatigue and set his heart hammering against his ribs.

"Uh… Korra?" He wiggled back a little to look her in the eye.

She smiled up at him innocently, all blue eyes and fluttering eyelashes. "Help me sleep?"

"What do you- " Bolin lost the power of speech and gasped as she deftly slipped a hand into his shorts, her grin turning into something a little less innocent, a little warmer. He tried to protest but she was already wrapping her fingers around his swelling cock and pulling just so and-

"Ooh."

Her lips were on his then, hot and tasting faintly of salt and something fruity and he tried desperately to catch up, still caught halfway between shock and burning arousal. He'd dreamt of this before, of course. Wanted her this way. Thought of what she would feel like pressed against him, desperate and begging, touching, having… The reality was perfect and not enough and too much all at once and he moaned brokenly into her mouth, pushing her hands away from his cock (too much). He rolled them so that he was above her, grinding between her legs raggedly as their tongues duelled (not enough) and she groaned happily, the sound vibrating against his ribs (Perfect).

Korra shoved roughly at his top and he pulled it off obediently, tugging shyly at hers when he was done until she lifted it over her head, pulling his hands down eagerly to cover her breasts. He chased a perfect nipple with his mouth while she squirmed and dug her nails into his ass and pulled him impossibly closer. They were already mashed together as tightly as could be, but in the initial haze of desire Korra seemed determined to fuck him through their clothes. Bolin grunted happily and let her direct his movements, urging him on. Her hands were everywhere, her mouth on his skin and the heat of her was sending pulses of pleasure shooting down his spine to pool in his groin. He nibbled and sucked at her nipples enthusiastically, muscles tightening as he felt her hands shove at his boxer shorts. He was pinning her to the bed with his shallow thrusts though, and Korra couldn't escape his fervent attentions long enough to get them past his hips. Eventually, frustration outweighed lust.

"Bolin, please!" She huffed impatiently, pulling his face from her chest to get his attention. "Shorts. Off. Now."

He nodded in a daze, drawing back just enough to shove his underwear impatiently down his legs, kicking them off the bed before slipping his fingers beneath the waistband of Korra's shorts and sliding them more carefully down the smooth length of her thighs. Naked now, he felt her legs around his hips and suddenly Bolin was on his back, Korra straddling him, her hands wrapped around his cock. He involuntarily rolled his hips up into her palm. He feels as if he was on fire, totally blind to anything other than Korra's body, Korra's hands, Korra pulling his soul out with every firm stroke on his erection. He wasn't going to last. He tried to tell her to slow down but it came out as a desperate, jagged moan.

"Shhh," She soothed, pressing her lips against his in a sloppy kiss. He felt her shift, and suddenly she sat back against him, on him, and he was inside. If he thought he had been burning up before it was nothing compared to this.

"Oh, oh fuck!"

She squeezed her eyes tight shut as she began to move, lifting herself up and almost off him before slamming back down, each movement punctuated with a shuddery sigh; a keening moan; a gasp of pleasure. Bolin lay back, pushing up into her heat, clinging to what felt like the edge of his sanity. Above him Korra writhed in a way that would fuel his masturbatory fantasies for months. Her brown skin was covered in a sheen of sweat, her nipples swollen and kiss-bruised, her face the very picture of ecstasy as she rode him. Every time she pushed back onto his cock he thrust up to meet her, trying to push deeper into her slick heat even when deeper wasn't possible and he spread his hands out on her flushed skin, trying to anchor himself to her. She pushed his hands lower, his fingers obediently dipping between her legs to clumsily rub at her clit as she perceptibly tightened around him. It was too much.

"Oh… I'm gonna… Please."

She collapsed against his chest as he began to pound into her from below, her legs giving out against the onslaught of impending bliss. The first shudders of her orgasm sent him over the edge and he groaned between heaving gulps of air, pouring himself into her, feeling her pulse around him. Her cries of pleasure only spurred on his own gratification and when he had nothing left to give he melted underneath her, frayed nerve endings sending shimmering aftershocks through his satiated body. Korra moaned as she arched and pulled herself from him, flopping into the sheets beside him breathless and boneless. Bolin wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into him, curling around her back and nuzzling into her neck as his heartbeat slowed and the burn in his skin abated.

"Thank you."

"Anytime," he panted.

"Sleep now," she whispered, already halfway gone into dreamland.

That suddenly sounded like the best idea ever, Bolin's previous weariness returning with a vengeance. He settled beside her, knowing they would have to have a talk later, ( and that his staying would probably result in Tenzin kicking his ass into next week,) but for now it could wait. He absently pulled a sheet over their cooling bodies and let himself drift into the most comfortable sleep he'd had in weeks. For once there were no more nightmares to be had.