A/N:

After sitting on this chapter for several weeks, I decided to just swallow my doubt and post what I had. I'm sorry for the long gap, but I was unsure as to what the right method of approach should be.

Some of the material in this chapter was inspired by the wonderful tumblr Fire Ferrets Press Conference, where hilarity and in-character-ness abound. So thanks to the writers of that blog, whoever they might be.

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~o0{}0o~
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"You have to fill yourself with a strong emotion – you know, like anger - and let the...the energy just - move through you. There's a little thing like a well inside me that I tap into. Anyway, then you tell it to flow into your arm, and then your hand, and then your palm, and then you just let it flow out. It's like a little drum beating in your hand, except it's alive."

Bolin recited the exact words his brother had told him, over and over again, and tried to figure out if there was something he'd forgotten. Some little detail that would make it all click and allow him to start firebending miraculously. But each time he repeated it to himself, the nagging feeling that he had missed something grew stronger.

He glared at his palm, as if by sheer force of will he could make flames appear. Frustrated, he grabbed a handful of dry rubble and threw it at the nearest wall.

It was impossible. He couldn't make himself angry at will. The only time he ever made fire was when he knocked two spark stones together, and that was only because, for some reason, Mako had never been able to get them to work.

So maybe he couldn't bend. He might just be a plain old non-bender like both his parents had been.

But I won't be useless, he thought. I'll stick by Mako always. I'll be his rock.

It was nice in this basement. When he made himself forget how freezing, dusty, and bug-infested it was, he could appreciate the ambiance. Quiet, coolness, and under the layer of rubble there was a trove of fine, soft earth. The earth was always there, stable, constant, supporting everyone, supporting all life.

When the silence was this absolute, he sometimes thought he could hear something speaking to him. Something that wasn't a person, something that was a sound that was not a sound. It was a something he had heard many times before but had never been able to unmask the source of. It never came from his ears. In fact, on this occasion, it seemed to be coming from the soles of his feet.

Bolin held himself absolutely still, breathing in small, shallow gasps, and closed his eyes, listening intently. Whatever it was saying, it seemed to be growing stronger. And it wasn't a language of words, but rather of sensations and memories. Memories of what, however, he wasn't sure.

Bolin thought he could hear something for real now, with his ears. A voice was ringing faintly through the warehouse. As it continued to speak, it grew louder, and Bolin could make out what it was saying.

"Bolin! I'm back! I brought some food. Bolin? Where are you?"

"In the cellar!" Bolin called back.

"Well, get out of there! It's cold and filthy - "

Mako stomped down the stairs and into view. He held copies of newspapers that were a few days old, and two bowls of street gruel. With his hair ruffled and his disheveled, dirty clothing, though, he looked like a skinny and fragile little boy, not a recent initiate of a notorious bending gang, or Bolin's big brother and surrogate parent. Mako had joined the Triple Threat Triad recently, a gang with experienced firebenders, and since then his abilities had skyrocketed. Bolin had always known his brother would be a fast learner.

Although Mako would never admit it, Bolin knew he also had nightmares about their parents. He probably experienced them constantly, and his had to be worse than Bolin's, because he had actually seen it happen. On that fateful day almost a year ago, Mako had been fiercely covering Bolin's eyes with his hands while watching their parents struggling to fight and defend themselves, clutching their father's scarf to his chest, and trying to stifle his own sobbing. To save Bolin the pain, he had always refused to detail the incident to him. Even then Mako had been leaving the burden all to himself.

Both battles had turned out to be rather futile.

"Big bro? What happened to your..." Bolin pointed to the left side of Mako's face. The swollen skin around his eye was the color of a plum. Mako opened his mouth, about to speak, but Bolin cut him off, anticipating the answer. "And don't say nothing! You always say 'nothing.'"

Mako looked uncomfortable. "I got into a fight," he said reluctantly.

"Why?"

"The gang leader made me do it. I had to fight another boy for the money I was supposed to get, because I refused to do something for them. "

He turned away and headed towards two rickety stools and the pile of magazines the two of them used as a dining table. Bolin knew it would be useless to press him for any more details, so instead he asked the obvious question: "Did you win?"

Mako held up his bounty of handmade street gruel as an answer.

Bolin's face fell. "Oh."

"Don't worry about me, Bo." He changed the subject. "Hey, look. Can you read any of these words?"

Bolin craned his head over and scanned the headline of the article Mako was holding out.

"Earthbending...South...Avatar..." He scrunched up his face, confused. "People are earthbending the south Avatar?"

Mako laughed. "No, it says, 'Royal Earthbending Master Arrives at South Pole, Avatar Begins Training." He touched each word with his index finger as he read.

"I thought there was only one Avatar."

"There is only one, Bo. She's some Water Tribe girl from the South Pole."

"Oh." Bolin sighed dreamily. "I bet she's really cool. Bending all four elements..." Bolin couldn't even bend one of them.

Mako shook his head. "Cool? I doubt it. She's probably some spoiled brat who's always had everything given to her on a silver platter." It was a phrase that Shady Shin had used to deride the rich girl whom he had stolen from earlier that week. Even if Mako hadn't participated in the theft, he couldn't forget the time when the girl had turned her nose up and sneered at the sight of him; it had been justification enough for him to not be bothered by the crime.

"What does that mean?" Bolin asked.

"Nothing."

"I bet you would like her though. I bet you would like the Avatar."

Mako scoffed his disagreement.

"Anyway, just keep trying," he said, getting back on topic. "I'll teach you as much as I can. You'll get the hang of it eventually."

Bolin pouted. "I know, but, it's so hard."

Mako patted him affectionately on the head and began to set out their lunch. "We have to learn to read," he said firmly. "And add and subtract. It's bad enough we live in an old cellar and have no parents."

He had always been blunt like that. Protective, but blunt, and not willing to sugarcoat things.

"Can you read the whole article?" Bolin asked, referring back to the newspaper.

"Most of it. Enough to understand the message."

As they ate, Mako described his jobs with the Triple T's and the firebending lessons they gave him to supplement his self-teaching. Lightening-bending was the main topic of interest. Shock and awe, he said. It was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen. He couldn't wait unti he could learn the technique, although it would probably be a couple years ahead for him.

"I'm still hungry," Bolin mumbled, once Mako was finished. "This tastes even more yucky than the last one you got me. And the last bowl you brought me made me really sick."

Mako seemed disgruntled. "That's the best I can do right now. Sorry but you'll just have to deal with it."

"Will this one make me sick too?"

"No."

Bolin looked at the tiny heap of flavorless tofu at the bottom of his bowl. He knew they couldn't afford to be picky, but he still hated tofu. "I'm going to look for more food outside. Okay?"

He got up, taking the bowl and the back page of Mako's newspaper with him.

Mako's eyes followed him on his way out. "Do you need me to go with you?" he asked.

"No, it's okay."

"Be careful. Don't talk to anyone. Don't eat anything that looks spoiled or moldy. Don't - "

"Okay, I got it. Bye!"

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~o0{}0o~

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Bolin couldn't find anything. He'd walked out to the back alleys of the nearest residential block, and had been searching for at least twenty minutes, and his stomach was growling even worse now. He looked forlornly at the tofu in his bowl, which was now slightly dry and rough on the surface, and was about to give in and eat it, when he noticed something in his peripheral vision.

Something long, furry, and auburn was sticking out of a fallen trash can. First its head peeked out of the rim of the trash can, followed by its front paws, and then its torso and its back legs.

It was a creature Bolin had never seen before. It was muddy, but underneath the mud Bolin could see that it looked like a miniature red panda, with the size and shape of a squirrel-rat. It leaped and bounced around on all floors, scavenging for food.

"Hey there, little fella," Bolin said.

The creature's ears perked up, and it turned Bolin, studying the huge stranger with an inquisitive tilt to its head.

Bolin picked the chunks of tofu out of his bowl and dropped it into his palm. He approached the little critter slowly, and bent over, offering it the palm.

The creature looked at him curiously, but after some sniffing, took an experimental lick.

"My name's Bolin," he said. "What's yours?"

The creature chattered his indecipherable reply.

"I know! I'll give you a name."

He pulled out the newspaper article he had stuffed into his pants earlier, and picked out two random characters from a caption of a circus photograph. If it was next to a picture of animals, it must contain an animal name, or so his thought process went.

While the creature ate out of his left hand, he used his right hand to copy out the word. Stroke by stroke, he etched the characters into the ground.

The critter slurped up the last of his meal as Bolin put the finishing touches on his work. Sniffing around for more food, the creature climbed up Bolin's arm and onto his shoulders, nearly causing him to ruin his work.

Bolin giggled. "That tickles!" The creature continued to scurry all over him.

By this time it was getting late, and Bolin knew Mako was probably searching for him. Sure enough, after a few minutes he heard footsteps, and a head of messy dark hair poked itself around the next corner.

Bolin stood up and called out to his brother. "Mako! Big bro! Can you come and read something for me?" He bounced up and down with excitement.

"Read something?"

Bolin pointed at the ground. "I wrote it all by myself!"

When he came close enough to, Mako followed the direction of Bolin's fingers and saw the disturbed asphalt. "How did you do that?" he asked, eyes wide.

"Do what?"

"Write that in the ground."

Before Bolin could answer, Mako bent over the engraving and read, "Pah...boo. Pabu?"

Bolin bowed his head, and said to his shoulder, "Pabu! Do you like it?"

Pabu squeaked loudly, poking his head out of Bolin's shirt.

"Okay! Your name is Pabu."

Mako yelped, and backpedaled into a brick wall. "What is that!"

"Huh?"

"Bolin," he began incredulously, "Why do you have a fire ferret in your shirt?"

"A what?"

"You know what I'm talking about! That animal in your shirt!"

"He's called a fire ferret?"

"Yeah, but - that's not the point. Where'd you get it?"

"I found him looking for food around here. He's got no family to take care of him, just like us."

"You can't be saying..."

"Can we keep him?"

"No!"

"Pleeaaase?"

Mako let out a long-suffering groan. "Bolin, we don't need another mouth to feed..."

"Pleeaaase?"

"Bo..."

"I'll take care of him myself! I promise. Pleeaaase can we keep him? Pleeaaase?"

Bolin put on his best wide-eyed begging face. He was afraid Mako would say no, but instead Mako spluttered, "Fine," and made to leave. He spun around at the last second to point a finger at his brother and say, "But if he ever chews on my scarf, I'm feeding him to the Triad's gopherbear!"

That face always worked on Mako.

Bolin cried out in joy and spun the ferret around in a circle, to the creature's own squeaking indignation.

"I promise he won't!"

"Sure," Mako grumbled. "Are you coming back with me?"

"Yeah, okay!" Bolin scooped up his new friend in his arms, and followed behind Mako. Quietly he exclaimed, "Let's build you a fort!"

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~o0{}0o~

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He didn't build Pabu a fort.

He built Pabu a castle.

In a corner of the warehouse's ground level, Bolin pushed a misshapen mound of dirt to the base of one wall. There were sharp bits of rock and glass and other strange things he couldn't put a name to that cut into his hands.

"Stupid dirt," he said.

Mako must have gone to sleep, because once again it was dead silent in their makeshift home, and Bolin could hear those voices through his feet again. He sank his hands into the rubble and listened, trying to make out words.

Will you let me play with you? He asked.

It murmured incoherent sounds and sensations to him in reply.

He kindly requested that it take on the shape of a circle. It responded ever so eloquently to the gestures and movements of his hands and his arms, and he was so absorbed in his play that no suspicion ever crossed his mind.

Bolin had never felt so right before. As he molded the soft, grainy and slightly damp earth with his fingers, his castle began to come into shape. It was crude and simple, with four square 'rooms' surrounding a cylindrical tower, but in his mind it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

Bolin didn't know how much time had passed by the time he was finished, but it had apparently been long enough for Mako to take a nap, because when Bolin stood in front of his completed project with his hands on his hips and a huge grin on his face, Mako was coming up next to him, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

"You made that?" he asked.

"Yep!" Bolin chirped proudly.

"How?" There was no way it could have been done with two bare hands.

"I talked to the earth and it listened!"

"You...what?"

"I told you. The earth listened to me and moved for me."

Mako was wide awake now. "You mean...you bent it? You bent the earth?"

There was a long moment of flabbergasted silence as the two brothers stared at each other.

"You're an earthbender," Mako said, at the same time Bolin said, "I'm an earthbender?"

"Try it! Move that rock over there."

Bolin focused on the ground beneath his feet and tried to reach the rock Mako was pointing to, tried to speak to it.

"I can't do it."

"Try again! Do exactly what you did before."

"Okay, just wait." Bolin kneeled over with his hands planted firmly on the ground, looking for the place where he had been while he was shaping his castle. He thought, up, up, and tried to imagine flying. When he opened his eyes, the stone was levitating at waist height above the ground.

Mako beamed.

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~o0{}0o~

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Bolin and Mako experimented with Bolin's new-found powers for hours, trying to make out its limits. Bolin felt as if a new door - or rather, a door that had always been there unnoticed - had been opened in his mind. Using his bending tired him out easily, though, and between practise sessions, the two brothers rested, watched Pabu jump around his castle, and talked about what this might mean for them: that if Bolin refined his abilities more, he could get a job using them, and earn them some more money. Bolin wanted to join the Triple Threats and work alongside Mako, but that was an argument that would take more than a pout and some begging to win.

"The only thing I can't figure out," Mako said thoughtfully, as they laid on their backs and stared up at the ceiling, "is how you can be an earthbender when neither Mom or Dad were earthbenders."

"But...they weren't firebenders either."

"That's true," he mused. "No, but Grandma was one. Dad told me."

"I think Gramps was an earthbender. He was always picking up rocks from the street and filling his shirt with them. I was really little but I still remember he liked to do that a lot."

"Yeah...I remember that too."

"Mako?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did the spirits decide to give us powers but not Mom and Dad?"

Mako knew what his brother was really thinking: If their parents had been benders, there would be a much greater chance they'd still be alive right now.

"Don't ask me that. I don't believe in that spirits mumbojumbo, Bo."

"Maybe we're supposed to use them for something big. Like helping someone save the world."

Mako shook his head disapprovingly. His brother's naïve idealism could get so overblown sometimes.

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~o0{The End?}0o~

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A/N:

The language of the world of LoK seems to be Chinese, (which makes some sense, given that they live in a sort of AU-steampunk-Shanghai). In the Chinese language – or at least in the Mandarin dialect, I don't know any Cantonese - there is a word, and therefore a character, that sounds like 'pah,' which is fairly close to the 'paw' in Pabu. There is also a word that sounds like 'boo.' I'm no expert, but I think that putting the two together can make a phrase in that means "does not crawl." Hmm.

Well...I'm sorry if it's bad, but I tried. :J See y'all around.

~Vina