Chapter 1

Bolin trudged down the road through Republic city with only one place on his mind; Narook's noodlery, the place that he took Korra. No, he was not allowed to even think about that girl any more. She was with Mako and he respected that. Bolin always went to Narook's when he was depressed, and right now he had just realized that he was alone while all his friends had someone to love. Why do people always end up loving Mako? No, no getting jealous would only make everything worse. They were brothers, and brothers could trust each other no matter what. Bolin slumped into his chair by the window and ordered a quick round of water tribe noodles. Pabu got his own bowl of course, and they were both downing the noodles like there was no tomorrow. A pretty girl on the stage in the back was singing some depressing song; this was not helping Bolin at all. He soon passed out face first into his bowl of noodles. When he came to, he was back in his bedroom and Pabu was curled up in the corner of his bed. His head ached from sleeping off the noodles. He looked up and saw that the curtains of his room's one dusty window were thrown open. That was strange, he never opened the curtains. He got up and stumbled over to the window. He looked out of the dusty old window and saw that someone had rubbed a hole in the dust so you could see out. Hmm, stranger and stranger, he never looked out of these windows let alone touched them. As he gazed out across the less glamorous part of the city he thought he saw movement in the reflection of the glass. Oh god, there was someone in his room. Why the hell would someone want to come into his room? Not even he liked coming into his room. The mysterious person in his room obviously noticed his awkward internal struggle because a voice from the doorway suddenly piped up. "Umm, are you okay?" Bolin whipped around and screamed like a girl. The person by the door screamed as well, even more like a girl. Once Bolin had calmed down he realized that, standing by the door, was the girl that was singing in Narook's. She had long black hair and bright green eyes which were strange for someone wearing air bender colors. What the hell was she doing in his room? Bolin tried to come across as cool and suave, but he had ruined that by screaming like a girl, so he just asked

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Good morning to you too sleepy head."

"Yeah, yeah anyway, who are you and why are you here exactly?"

"I'm Mae Lee, the girl from Narook's noodlery, and if it wasn't for me you would be passed out on the floor outside of Narook's right now."

"Oh, sorry I can normally walk myself home."

"Well, obviously not this time, Mr. No, no I can walk *falls face first onto floor*"

"What happened? All I remember is eating a ton of noodles and then waking up here."

Mae proceeded to tell a long story about how she saw Bolin crying into his noodles and felt bad. So she asked him where he lived and he mumbled the address. She then half supported, half dragged him down the road back to his house. When they got there she dumped him on the bed and asked if she could stay over, because the road back to her house was notoriously gang ridden. He said sure, why not and then when he woke up he screamed like a little girl.

"Hey, I was there for the last part, and I will have you my screams are very manly!"

"Sure, you believe what you want to believe, but my 3 year old cousin screams more manly than that."

"Whatever, it's not like I care. Where did you sleep anyway? Oh god, don't tell me you slept in the same bed as me!" Bolin cried, hoping that he would've at least been awake for the first time he shared a bed with someone other than his brother.

"Don't worry; your innocence is still intact. I'm not the kind of person to take advantage of passed out pro-benders, no matter how tempting the offer may be." Mae said looking Bolin up and down. Then she giggled, Bolin looked down and realized he must have changed into his PJ's last night because he was wearing his bright pink boxers with pictures of fire ferrets plastered all over them. He quickly grabbed a pair of pants and ushered Mae out of the room while he changed. Mae laughed from the other side of the door and asked Bolin why he had fire ferret boxers. "Oh, haven't you met Pabu?" He asked. "Oh, that adorable thing was yours? I just thought he looked a lot like Charoo so I let him into your house." She replied. Bolin finished changing and opened the door, wondering who, or what, Charoo was. As soon as the door opened Pabu ran in to the room, but Bolin was sure that Pabu was already sitting loyally on his bed. He wheeled around and saw two fire ferrets sitting on his pillow; they were looking at each other quizzically. "This beautiful little girl is Charoo." Mae said picking up one of the fire ferrets. Charoo had lighter fur than Pabu and had different white markings on her forehead. "My family moved around a lot when I was a kid and I picked her up when we traveled through the fire kingdom." Mae explained giving Charoo a little hug. She put her down on the bed and did a couple of quick stretches.

"Well, I would love to stay and chat but I have a rehearsal to get to."

"Oh, what are you rehearsing for?"

"I'm in a play; i don't do anything big I just hang around in the background."

"That's great! When do you perform?"

"We perform in two days, which is why this rehearsal is really important. I really have to go now. Come on Charoo. See you later Bolin!" Mae called out as she ran out the door, Charoo chasing after her. "See you later Mae." Bolin whispered after she had gone. Wow she was something, Pabu squeaked as if he could hear what Bolin was thinking. "Hey, don't squeak at me in that tone! I saw you sniffing that Charoo." Pabu stuck up his nose and curled up on his pillow. "Okay, enough about girls. Let's go train; ugh a pro-benders work is never done." Pabu jumped on to his shoulder and Bolin wandered out of the house in the direction of the gym.