"And you want to come on my patrol why exactly?" His brother's voice was filled with enough skepticism to make him flinch, but Bolin kept his signature goofy grin plastered on his face. It wasn't too hard, considering his normal disposition included cracking jokes at the most serious of situations. This time, however, he had to convince his brother that he had no ulterior motives in joining his police patrol, and that would be trickier.
Bolin wasn't under any illusions, he knew he couldn't lie his way out of a paper bag. But after years of living with Mako, he had perfected the technique of half truths and lying by omission. Sometimes, that was the only way he could get the older boy to let him out of the house.
"Because I want to help you catch the bad guys too!" The answer was rubbish and they both knew it, so Bolin spread his arms and twisted his mouth into a sheepish smile. "Plus, it's getting boring up here. If I want to be in shape by the time pro-bending starts, I need to practice."
Mako raised a jagged eyebrow that signalled he didn't quite buy his brother's story, but jerked his head towards the door in a silent affirmation anyway.
Bolin couldn't exactly blame him. While his excuses were true-it really was getting boring with Korra busy and Asami working and Mako patrolling-his real aim in joining the police patrol was to try and find any information he could about the remaining Equalist groups. And to do that, Mako was his best bet.
But telling his brother the truth was completely out of the question. If he thought Bolin's normal plans were absurd, this would rank up with the top-ten-stupidest-things-you've-ever-done in Mako's book. Right up there with taking obscene amounts of money from the triads to try and make money for the championship pot, and getting captured by Equalists as a result.
Even Bolin wasn't sure what was stupider. Helping the triads with some "security work," or scouring the streets for masked threats, hoping to find the one girl he knew by face but not by name, who he still wasn't sure wouldn't attack him on sight.
Who would be under a mask. So he wouldn't even be able to see her face. Right.
"Really Bo, there are better ways to practice," Mako said, two hours and no bad guys later. "You don't even really use bending in this job, unless somebody gives chase." He swung a pair of dark metal handcuffs around his right index finger as they ambled down the streets of the park district. Their old stomping ground. "Sometimes I'm not sure why I took this job."
Bolin blew a persistent curl out of his face. "Please, I'm not completely unaware of the perks of being a uniformed officer."
Mako spared him a quick glance. "Really," he replied, voice flat. "Then please, inform me."
Bolin could think of many-food, a steady paycheck, the feeling of doing something worthwhile. But his brother's skepticism, paired with his constant overprotectiveness, was grating on his nerves.
So instead, he gave a pointed look at the handcuffs, still dangling from his brother's finger, before turning his eyes back up to meet his gaze. Bolin smirked. "Well, I know for a fact that you and Korra use those handcuffs for far more than apprehending criminals."
Mako sputtered, dropping the offending item and turning around quickly before Bolin could laugh at the crimson blush spreading across his entire face. Not like that stopped the younger bender-it wasn't often that he was able to chip at his brother's stoic persona.
He slowed his pace slightly to let the older boy regain his composure, looking around at the houses lining the busy street. Tall, modern structures built with the idea that all people could live together, survive off each other, and coexist in harmony. Bolin sighed, hoping that maybe sometime during his lifetime Republic City would actually reach that goal.
Up ahead, he heard Mako give out a shout.
Bolin snapped his attention forward, watching as his brother turned into a shadowed attacker to send out two blazes of fire in controlled bursts. The figure dodged easily, running forward closer towards the square, Mako hot in pursuit.
He sprinted forward to catch up to Mako, but the familiar sight of an Equalist motorbike had him stopping short. He noticed two shadows pass quickly over him-Equalists running on the rooftops. He could feel the subtle vibrations from their feet; they were running fast, but not fast enough to reach his brother.
The soft crunch and shift of earth behind him brought Bolin to a chilling realization. They weren't trying to go after Mako, but they could easily corner him.
Bolin's grasp on seismic sensing was tenuous at best-after all, Chief Bei Fong had just begun teaching him-but even his unrefined ability to sense the Equalists' position gave him an advantage that they didn't know he had. And he planned to use that as best he could.
Bolin quickly surveyed his surroundings, spotting two dark shadows crouching on the rooftops near the end of the road. His two tails were subtly picking up their pace, but the small alleyway to his left was empty.
He turned into the alleyway as quickly and suddenly as he could without losing his footing, sprinting forward down the darkened pathway. The Equalists behind him abandoned all attempts at being quiet and started chasing after him, and Bolin smirked. He knew these streets just as well as they did, and if he just kept going with a turn to the left and then another to the right he'd be right out in the open at the square, all he had to do was make it around this corner...
But a low rumbling feeling in his gut made him stop just before turning past the last row of packed houses. Flattening himself against the wall, he peered around the bend to see no fewer than ten Equalists scaling the fire escapes and walls of houses lining the last stretch of alleyway before the open square. He watched as the Equalists began slowly moving forwards, clustering together and blocking out the faint light at the end of the street that was his chance at escape.
Behind him, he could feel the footsteps of at least five attackers. Possibly more. He shook his head, trying to stop himself from panicking and assess his options. He was an earthbender. He could vault himself up over the rooftops, but they would surely see him then. And Equalists were infamously good at using the city terrain to their advantage, he likely wouldn't get too far.
He could fight, but by himself that would be near suicide. The line of houses was solid, he would need to blow a hole entirely through one of them to get out of the alleyway.
His best bet was to burrow. ("Just like a badgermole, the first earthbenders practiced tunneling into the ground," Chief Bei Fong said at their last lesson. Bolin had been still wary of tunnels after being captured.) Perhaps if he could be quiet and quick about it, they wouldn't be able to use their tools or weapons to find him.
Bolin set his feet flat on the ground in a bending stance and lifted his hands, palms facing down towards the ground. He took a deep breath and lifted his foot, preparing to deliver a sharp blow down to the ground to effectively bury himself, when he felt a body attack him from behind and pin both his arms behind him. He thrashed violently to try and free himself, but the Equalist simply strengthened their hold and pressed a quick chi-block on his right arm, eliminating any chance he had at earthbending. Bolin could only watch helplessly as the Equalist pulled him back against the wall, shifted an arm under his shoulders, and then spun so they were looking upwards.
And then, suddenly, they were airborne.
He nearly yelped, but any noise was stifled when his attacker held a gloved hand against his mouth. His chi-blocked arm flapped uselessly in the wind as they rose one story, two stories, up among the tightly packed town houses. Bolin gulped as he watched the ground get smaller and smaller, and decided that looking down was not a very good idea after all.
They slowed to a stop and his attacker pulled them both back onto a hidden fire escape, obscured from view by a tattered curtain taped carefully to the overhang above them. The windows on the house behind them were boarded up, nails sticking out at odd jagged angles. Bolin could see only a small line of sunlight reaching their feet, the fabric doing a good job at keeping out the sun. The Equalist yanked on a large spiked object, which looked suspiciously like a Future Industries automatic grappling hook.
Bolin raised his left arm to level a punch at the bronze helmet, aiming for the weak spot on the connection between the neck and the rest of their armor. The Equalist deflected the punch, using Bolin's own momentum to push him downwards and back against the wall, pinning him in place with two gloved hands.
"Stop that!" A muffled voice came from behind the mask, and the arms holding him in place faltered. Bolin kept thrashing-it was only a matter of seconds before he knew he'd regain strength in his arms, and then he would be able to push them off.
He heard the Equalist mutter a low curse before reaching up and ripping the helmet off. Flashing brown eyes glared back at him, framed by light brown hair tied back in a messy band that reminded him a little of Korra's wolftail. Still preoccupied with the fight, it took him a second to recognize her as the girl from the warehouse.
Oh. Well, that explained it.
"What are you doing here?" She hissed, keeping her hold on his arms and digging her thumbs into a pressure point near his shoulder to make it painful to move. "Do you have any idea how dangerous this is?"
"Hey, you don't have to tell me!" Bolin had the nagging feeling that they had already had this argument. "I was just trying to catch up with my brother, and then suddenly there were a million Equalists swarming me!"
The girl shook her head, causing a few stray hands of hair to fall in front of her eyes. "You're crazy. What were you doing out here without backup?"
"I was with my brother." Bolin felt like a petulant child for it, but if she wasn't pinning them to the wall he would have folded his arms across his chest. "And I used to live out here, thank you very much!"
"Really," her voice was dry. "Which one was your house?"
"We didn't have one."
That response caused her to shut her mouth with an audible click. She glanced sideways towards the alleyway that the tapestry was covering, eyes narrowing at the low murmur of voices that could be heard below. "Were you following me?"
Bolin gritted his teeth and refused to answer. Not for the first time, he desperately wished for the capability to lie.
"Were you?" Her voice was insistent.
"Yes."
"You can't. You can't keep following me, it's not safe." The side of her mouth tugged downwards and he saw the beginning of a worry crease between her eyebrows. Despite himself, Bolin felt his lips curling into a smile.
"You don't want me to get hurt. You're protecting me." His mouth split into a wide grin, even as they stood hiding from at least a dozen Equalists. His rational side warned him that it was perhaps not wise to tease the girl who could throw him to the wolves, but Bolin was more than used to silencing his sense of reason.
"You saved me!" He said instead, shooting her what he hoped was an award winning, swoon-worthy smile. She glared. Perhaps he needed to work on the smile, after all.
"You kept me from being arrested, and I don't like being indebted to people." Her mouth was a hard, flat line.
"Don't deny it, you don't want to see me hurt." Bolin plowed on recklessly, despite her angry expression. "You know I'm not a bad guy, and I know you don't really want to see benders hurt and killed. We can work together you know, think of all the good we can do!"
She gave him a half humorous, half skeptical look. "You're crazy."
"But you like me. Admit it." Bolin's smile was triumphant, and her face was close enough that he could see the changing emotions in her eyes. Surprise, intrigue, confusion.
And anger. That one definitely looked like anger.
"I don't want anything to do with you." Her tone left no room for argument. Bolin swallowed. "I didn't want your blood on my hands when you saved my life. Now I have returned the favor, and we can go our separate ways."
She released him and stepped back. The sudden rush of blood into his arms had Bolin gasping as he sunk down to a crouch, his eyes still trained on the girl in front of him. "Please, just talk to me about this," he implored, willing her to stay just a bit longer. "I don't want to fight you, and I think we're going after the same goal if we could just listen to each other."
Her eyes narrowed, brown eyes looking almost black in the shadows. "Why do you want to help me?"
Bolin shrugged. "I don't like fighting people. Or violence. At least not when it's outside the probending arena. I think together we have a chance to actually build something great, like Avatar Aang dreamed of when he first built this city."
When she didn't immediately leave, he felt his courage growing. "Meet me tonight. No Equalists, no cops, just you and me talking about why we're on different sides of this war. Midnight, in the alley behind the Arena. If I can't convince you, then I promise I'll leave you alone."
Bolin hoped it was the promise of meeting him later, and not the promise of him leaving her alone that had the other girl pause in her exit.
"I'll think about it."
It wasn't a promise. It wasn't anything close to an affirmative. But it was still enough to make Bolin's heart swell.
She turned to leave, and he held up a still-numb arm. "Wait!" She froze, fingers curled around the curtain, and looked over her shoulder, her questioning gaze settling on him. "At least tell me your name."
He couldn't quite be sure, but he could have sworn that he saw her lips curl up into a smile before she stepped out of the obscured enclave.
"Kaiyo. My name's Kaiyo." The breeze shifted the makeshift curtain to the side, obscuring her briefly from his vision. When the fabric settled, she was nowhere to be seen.
Bolin sighed, cradling his chi-blocked arm and rubbing the feeling back into it. "That's going to get old really fast, isn't it."
A/N: Writing Bolin has become my new favorite pastime. He's just so lovable and goofy, and his internal monologues are fantastically fun to write.
Kaiyo is a traditionally Japanese name, and means "forgiveness."
Thanks all for the reviews! I hope you enjoyed the second chapter, and look for the third one coming out within the next week :)