A/N: I do not own the Legend of Korra. This is set after The Revelation, and is basically the story of what happens when the Bender-brothers get home. This will probably be a two or three-shot. Hope you like, and please review!
Italics= that voice in your head the argues and talks with you! Hey, we all have one, and if it's reality then we're not insane! :) Yeah, keep telling yourself that. (that's what I'm talking about.)
Bolin was reluctantly counting the seconds until they were inside the apartment. He knew the change they would bring in his brother's attitude. Sure Mako had acted suave while they were saying goodbye to Korra, he had even thanked her for her help (Bolin had his own beliefs about Mako's real reasons for this), but he could feel the tension-bomb ticking with every step they took. This strict silence wasn't helping either.
Bolin knew all about Mako's moods, and there was a rigid 'Mako Rule' that stated all repentant brothers must remain mute until Mako officially laid out the 'charges'.
Sometimes, this took months.
But eventually he would explode with whatever strange emotion he had been hiding since 'the incident'. Usually this would result in yelling, a revelation of what had really made Mako mad about said incident, Mako running out anger, and Bolin meekly apologizing. Most people would feel oppressed by this ritual, and truthfully Bolin did have his moments, but he knew that this was just Mako's way of dealing with stuff like this. His brother had always acted like an adult since he could remember, but over time Bo had come to realize that Mako was human just like everyone else, so he had to 'let it out' sometimes too.
So Bolin adjusted accordingly to such situations.
Mako opened their door with scientific precision. As he passed, Bolin glanced at his brother's face; his expression was the mask he always used after a bad match.
Apparently, it was going down tonight, he mused. The slamming of the door accented this assumption.
"The Triple Triad," Mako's voice was hard as he spoke. It was a statement, but at least it cut to the heart of the issue. Bo said nothing. Defending himself would just turn this into a fight between them, and he would do anything to avoid that.
So he continued to wait for his brother to lay out the charges.
"I leave you alone for one day, and you run off with a group of criminals! Do you even understand what could have happened? Do you?" Mako fixed him with his lightning-redirecting look. Still Bolin said nothing. "Then let me enlighten you. You could have been killed. Your bending was almost permanently taken away! If it wasn't for Kora, I might never have seen you again! You might have been tortured or led around as an example of Amon's power for the rest of your life. Not to mention what would have happened had the police caught you! And you risked all this just for money, Bolin. I want to know why." Slowly, the steam evaporated out of Mako's tone, like it does from a tea kettle when you take it off the eye of the stove, into an exhausted, almost pleading one.
This was what he had been waiting for.
Summoning all his strength Bolin met his brother's smoldering gaze. "As long as I can remember, you have been taking care of me. I always appreciated it, but I'm not a little kid anymore, Mako. You still treat me with the same-" he couldn't find a word to say what he needed to convey. He knew his brother wasn't trying to oppress him; it was just that they both had changed but were now unsure how to relate to each other. Still, he needed a word that would express his frustration with being bossed around. Not that that was the word he wanted to use with Mako, of course.
"Bossiness? Is that what you wanted to say?" Mako snapped.
Um…well that went great! Anybody want dumplings?
"No. Not exactly," he jumped in quickly. "I mean- uh –I know you don't mean to, Mako. I get that you kind of had to at first, but-"
"You know what, Bolin? Save it. If you want to leave, fine; the door's open!" Mako hissed in a low growl.
Bo shoved aside the urge to point out that the door was, in fact, not open. Instead he said, "Stop over-reacting! That is not-"
Unfortunately, Big Brother was no longer watching him. The door to their bedroom slammed shut so hard the hinges rattled.
"You could at least let me finish," Bo sighed, officially exasperated.
He sat down on the window ledge, not looking forward to sleeping out here all night while his brother rose to a boil in the next room. Plus, the last time he'd slept out here, he had fallen out the window. The only thing that had saved his life was waking up in time to earth-bend himself a semi-soft 'landing pad'; well, more like a 'face-plant pad', but that was beside the point. Either way it was not an experience he wished to repeat.
What had he done to deserve this?
Hmm. Let me see…you disobeyed you're brother, joined a group of criminals, almost got your bending permanently taken away…do you want me to continue?
No, he really didn't.
Bolin looked out over the water to the Air-temple Island-thingy. Korra was the only person he had met who could control Mako when he got in one of his 'so it's my entire fault' moods.
But maybe she would let him crash for the night on her special island?
That could be a good idea. And maybe while Bo was there he could persuade her to make his brother nice to him again.
Yep. That sounded good. If she had dumplings it'd be even better. He wasn't sure how he was going to get across the water, but he'd 'cross that bridge when he came to it'.
Oh ha, ha, ha, you are the comedian aren't you?
For some reason he sensed a little sarcasm from his alter-ego.
No kidding.
He practiced his 'I am exasperated with the sarcastic voice in my head' frown and headed for Korra's; until the dumpling bag on the couch caught his attention. Bolin instantly paused. Mako had gotten them for him, and he would need lots of energy to get over that water.
He glanced sadly at the bedroom. They would work this out in the morning, he was sure of it. But, it would be a good idea to leave a note; after all he didn't want to do something else to make Mako mad again tonight.
After that was taken care of, Bo grabbed the dumpling bag and tucked-and-rolled out the door.
