Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Korra, or any of the characters used in this fic. They all belong to Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. I only own any of my original characters that I choose to include, as well as any of my own original plot ideas.
Big Brother, Little Brother
A/N: Pre-series; my take on the brothers' first steps as orphans.
Mako nudged the smaller boy as the city lights died out, watching as he curled his little fingers into his sleeves, knees coming up into his chest. Probably to shoo away the biting chill of morning.
"Time to wake up, Bo," he said, breath coming out in puffs. "We gotta get out of here before the patrolman finds us."
But Bolin didn't move, just stayed huddled in a little ball on the ground. "I'm not going, and you can't make me."
The older boy frowned, standing and giving his brother a bump with his shoe. "Come on, Bolin! Do you want to end up in jail? You know that crazy old man's not beyond putting kids away. You know as well as I do that he'll do it just because he can. Now let's go!"
Bolin promptly sat up, his little round face red and chafing. Again, he must have spent half the night sobbing quietly to himself, trying to rub the tears away with a sleeve. Mako knelt beside him, tugging his shaking brother into his arms.
"Crying won't do anything, Bolin," he whispered, keeping an eye out for the park's patrolman. "So why do you bother? It's not gonna bring them back."
Bolin hung onto Mako's sleeves, shaking. "I know I'm not supposed to... Maybe Dad would think I'm weak, but I can't help it. I can't..."
When he had been asked, Mako had told his brother that he wouldn't cry because their parents wouldn't want him to wallow in his losses, because he knew he had to be a strong man like their father. So Bolin had decided to cry for the both of them, just so long as he could hide it. He wanted to be strong, too.
"It's okay to cry, Bolin." He shouldn't have said those things, made his brother think that he was less of a man than their father because he actually had the guts to shed tears. Guts that Mako knew he'd never have.
"But you said that real men don't cry." Bolin looked up at him with wide eyes. "You weren't lying, were you, Mako?"
He shook his head, patting his brother's head. "I was just wrong. It's okay to cry. It takes a real man to give in and admit that something hurts." He smiled. "You're gonna be a great man, Bolin. You're gonna make Dad real proud."