Borra Week, Day 5: Crime
That night he was late to come home, and by the time he walked up the side street where their house was the sun had already set and the light was fading fast. He paused before he opened the door because something felt... wrong. Korra should have gotten back hours ago and normally she would have been cooking dinner. But he couldn't smell food, only something that seemed alarmingly like smoke. He opened the door quietly, slipping inside as silently as he could.
The lanterns in the front room weren't lit, but there was faint light coming from the back of the house. That wasn't too unusual, but as he inched forward he heard a crunch and looked down to see shards of glass littering the floor. He pressed himself to the wall and tried to peer around the corner to the next room. The carpet was heaped untidily in a corner and glasses and pottery had been knocked off the tables and lay in pieces on the stone floor. At least one lamp had fallen on top of the carpet and he could see a large scorch mark, but fortunately nothing seemed to still be burning. His heart was pounding hard by this point and he decided to risk one careful call.
"Korra? Korra?"
No answer, but he heard something that might have been footsteps from the back of the house. He raised his hands into a fighting stance and moved forward. His mind was racing with thoughts of what could have happened to Korra, but if whoever did this was still here he'd take them on. He couldn't imagine what kind of opponent would have been able to beat her like this, but he was ready for them. He heard those footsteps again as he neared the kitchen and he whipped around the corner, ready to take them by surprise. He was halfway through throwing a punch when his brain caught up to his eyes and registered that the mysterious intruder was Korra.
"Wh- what? You haven't been kidnapped?"
She was completely dumbfounded for a moment, but then her eyes lit up. "Oh, Bolin! I'm sorry, Naga and I were playing inside and things got out of hand. I was just putting her food out back and then I was going to try to clean up. What did you think happened?"
He had to laugh at that. It was as much relief as it was the humor of the situation, but after seeing the carnage in the house it was not at all what he'd been expecting. She laughed too, and they hugged quickly before going into the room to pick up the glass and ceramics that littered the floor. She joked all evening that she should have hidden and jumped him when his back was turned to give him a real scare, and he said that he shouldn't have held that punch back because a real criminal wouldn't have caused as much damage as she did. Even though they laughed long and hard about it, he didn't forget how his pulse had raced when he thought she'd been hurt, and she gave him a thousand little touches through the evening to reassure him she was alright.