I'll Take You in My Arms

Another prompt from tumblr, by blackaerin

Pairing: Borra

Rating: K+

Summary: Bolin rescues Korra for a change. From a cooking stove, but rescues her nonetheless.

Welllll….hi there~ ^_^ It's been a little while since my last fic, but here I am! It was unofficial Borra week, like, a month ago, so here's the first of three contributions. Ed Sheeran is my hero. :3

This might not be what the person who gave me the prompt had in mind, but I couldn't think of a real serious situation without sounding ridiculous. Aaand, this takes place a year or two after the finale; yes, Makorra is together. :P

And I couldn't resist with Bolin being Team Captain and Mako running around as a cop. Those spoilers were just too awesome to ignore but everything else is not included, pretty much. Oh and for arguement's sake, let's just say the there are cooking stoves and that the kitchen has earth-y tile. ;3

Disclaimer: I only just realized that oops, I didn't have one of these in any of my previous LoK stories. Then I realized that I didn't need to. Do you really think I own this show? Ease off on the cactus juice, bub.

If someone had told Bolin that he would someday save the freaking Avatar from a haywire cooking stove, he would have laughed in their face and told them to continue telling that joke to people.

But alas, 'twas no joke.

Weeks after Amon's death, Korra had finished her work of returning everyone's bending. It had been exhausting, and definitely boring, for her, and she did nothing but sleep in the moments between her airbending training and her boom-I'm-the-Avatar-here's-your-bending-back to the people. Between earth and metalbending training sessions with Lin, Bolin tried his best to ignore the sense of satisfaction of seeing Mako and Korra not have too much time together. Almost any moment when Korra was free, Mako was busy training with Zuko to improve his firebending. The old firebender, who had arrived shortly after Commander Bumi, had many tricks up his sleeves, and he pushed Mako hard. The results, of course, were amazing; Bolin knew, though, that no matter how much he improved, Mako definitely preferred spending time with Korra. Bolin accepted the fact that they loved each other and he knew that his brother deserved it for all he's had to deal with in his life.

Did not mean Bolin had to enjoy it.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't let go of the feeling in his chest every time Korra would smile or wink or laugh or just be there next to him as they ate ravenously at the dinner table. Pema's cooking was absolutely delicious.

Asami had become his closest confidant, and he hers. After the final confrontation, he was mostly with her and Pabu when neither Korra nor Mako was around. They talked about everything, from Korra and Mako to Future Industries' newest inventions to criticizing the food in the city. In another time and another world, maybe there would have been a chance for more than that but not now. They were simply the best of friends.

However, Asami had her responsibilities what with running the family company now that her father had been arrested, and regretfully left Bolin all by himself on the island. He mostly immersed himself in his training with Chief Bei Fong (because she had been nearly begged to return to her old position) and helped Pema out around the house by keeping the airbabies out of trouble, or at least out of her sight if mischief was caused with his help.

In the aftermath of Amon's death, Bolin had grown up quite a bit.

He could cook his own meal without burning the house down (not with lack of trying, for Pema had had maybe seven different heart attacks on five different nights), bend silverware onto the table (not all at the same time, though he was getting there) and had become Team Captain of the Fire Ferrets as soon as the stadium was up and running once more. Unfortunately, Korra could no longer be a part of the team and Mako had found a job helping out the justice system. However, his new waterbender, Nuo, and firebender, Wei, were amazing at their respective elements and working together in general; he had called them to a few practices out on the island and was very happy with what he saw. He would miss playing with his brother and his best friend, but what's done was done.

Itching to hear the story of Bolin's bravery in saving the distressed Avatar from a possessed cooking stove? Well… it went about a little something like this:

"Oh no….no no no no no no no no no no! Nope. No. This can't be happening. Tenzin! Pema! Somebody," echoed a high pitched voice through the house. She knew that the house was empty, but she cried out in the hopes that someone could hear her. The voice in question belonged to the kick-butt-now-ask-questions-later Avatar Korra. The one who wasn't afraid of anything, one might ask, especially a haywire piece of technology?

The very same.

Luckily, a certain earthbender had been trudging through the empty house, hoping to catch a snooze before Lin would come by to drill his head with more metal, when the disaster was occurring. With a tired, exaggerated sigh, Bolin rolled up his sleeves, straightened out his stance, and walked determinedly towards the kitchen.

The scene before him when he turned the corner would have made a lesser man screech and run away in horror.

Korra stood in the middle of the kitchen trying to calm down the flames before her on the stove. Somehow, the food on the countertop that was already made was untouched by the humongous flames spitting at the Avatar, who for the life of her could not douse the flames. Bolin stood there a moment, raising an eyebrow in utter shock that there was a problem at all as he watched his best friend frantically try to fill a bucket of water up. He had never seen her this…well, this helpless.

Nevertheless, he cleared his throat and spoke, "You seem to have a problem." The girl in front of him paused and whirled around; abandoning the bucket in the sink with the water still running, she looked like she could kiss him. She would, later, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

"Bolin! Oh, thank the spirits that you're here! I made a bet with one of the White Lotus sentries that I could make a full on meal without any bending. Of course this is the night that the cooking stove wants to go on a murder rampage," Korra flailed her arms around for affect, and Bolin couldn't help the chuckle that slipped through his teeth. Korra smacked his arm. "It's not funny! Help me!" She pointed at the now completely burning stove behind her, gesturing wildly when he didn't move immediately.

Bolin rolled his eyes and walked forward before stopping. Taking a quick bending stance, he quickly bended the ground underneath the stove, isolating it to the center of the room where it touched nothing but the ground. He bent the earth to surround it on all sides, leaving an opening on the top. He quickly grabbed the now-full bucket of water and tossed it over the stove, effectively putting out the flames and eliciting more than a few sparks. Little groans of frustration slipped through the earthbender's teeth as he comically dodged all the sparks flying out at them.

After a few moments of jumping away from the sparks that were flying and more than a few muttered – and screamed, from Korra – curses, the flames were officially put out. Bolin took down the walls around the stove and together the pair of them stepped carefully to inspect the now hopelessly ruined sea prunes that had been boiling in sauce. Korra sighed. "Ugh, there go the sea prunes!" She turned towards the counter where the rest of the food remained untouched. "At least I have the rest of this to show for...," she drifted off, frowning. Bolin carefully moved the stove through the room and out the door as Korra made the final preparations on the dinner. Soon, he returned with a sort of smug air around him, smirking at the girl before him.

"Aren't you going to say something, Koooooorrraa," Bolin teased, crossing his arms. "I did just sort of save your life, didn't I?" He stuck his tongue out at her.

"Don't be ridiculous, if my life was in danger I would have just put the flames out you moron," she scoffed, narrowing her eyes at him. She held that expression for a moment before rolling her eyes in defeat when he just raised his eyebrow at her. "But I suppose that yes, you saved my skin. Thank you, Bo." Her voice softened as she finished speaking, her bright blue eyes filled with affection and amusement. Bolin grinned back at her.

"Yes! Someone finally acknowledges how awesome I am," he replied happily, pumping his arm up for effect and laughing. To his surprise however, Korra didn't laugh at all.

"Bo…you do know that you are amazing, right?" Korra asked carefully, stepping towards him until she was a foot away. "Honestly, I didn't lie when I said it before and I'm not right now: you," she pointed at him, poking him in the chest. "Are one of a kind. And don't you dare ever forget that, okay?" She peered at him through her lashes and Bolin would have given anything to kiss her right then, but instead he dipped his head bashfully and flushed.

"Thanks Korra. You don't need little old me to tell you how fantastic you are, though, because everyone knows it. Even though, apparently, cooking stoves hate you." He looked back up at her, eyes earnest, before he suddenly yawned and all the adrenaline left his body in a slump. His posture dropped and he added before she could respond; "Now if you'll excuse me, Miss Avatar, I must go sleep before I die from exhaustion. Ta ta~!" He wiggled his fingers in goodbye before walking slowly out the kitchen, in a very zombie-esque way, and down the hall.

Before he made it too far, though, he felt something warm tingle across his cheek and saw a flash of bright blue eyes and flushed pink skin in the right corner of his eye. The girl in question would quickly disappear in embarrassment, most likely back to the kitchen to wonder what came over her.

As for our lovable earthbender, he wouldn't remember that this little kiss had happened until the next morning when retelling the entertaining tale to his older brother, Mako. Bolin thanked Agni that he had developed a better ability to hide information; otherwise his brother would have gotten it out of him. Then again, it was just a kiss on the cheek. It didn't mean anything, right? She was just grateful for his courageous, half-delirious rescue.

Right?

He'd laugh at himself privately in the years to come, when his wife had the same issues. Without the bending bet, of course; at that point, Korra was just pregnant and did not particularly feel like bending the fire away.

Yeah. It was ridiculous. But so worth it.

Well. That took me too long to finally finish. I started it as soon as I got the prompt, oh, a freaking month ago, but then I crashed into writer's block. I still have two other Borra prompts that were given to me, so expect them within the next month or two. D; I feel super bad. :C I'm just super busy with new job and summer reading and life in general ajsdadknsajdkna.

Well.

You don't want to hear my excuses. xD Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little ficlet, I loved writing it. :D See you next time~

Milly :D