You knock on the door to Bolin's apartment and wait. You hear a shuffle from inside and then silence, like someone's trying to hide from you.
"Bolin, I know you're in there," you call.
"No, I'm not!" he replies, his voice muffled. Honestly, you question this boy's mental maturity sometimes.
"You can't hole yourself up in there forever, you know."
"Yes, I can!"
You start to become concerned. Clearly, you're not getting in that apartment. At least, not through the front door. You step outside the apartment complex and walk around it, trying to find an opening. At the back of the place you see a window opened the smallest crack, with a certain fire ferret snoozing against the glass. You grin. If this is the only luck you'll get today, it'll be the only luck you need. Now you just have to figure out how to raise yourself two storeys using waterbending.
Your eyes wander over the completely dry landscape until it lands on a large tree with heavy branches just a few feet away from the side of the house. This just keeps getting better and better. You've heard the legend of the swamp benders, who could control plants by bending the water inside of them.
How hard can it be? I mean, I've lived on my waterbending alone.
So you close your eyes, hold out your hands and concentrate on the tree. You think deep beneath the rough bark and see thousands of veins, passages that carry water, the lifeblood of the tree. You hear a loud creak and open your eyes to see a small branch slowly begin to bend down. You approach it, and once it's low enough, step onto it, feeling a thrill of adrenaline as you raise it back up and use waterbending to get onto the next branches.
It becomes harder and harder for you to bend the larger branches, but you can just barely jump onto them and climb without your bending. As you climb onto the final branch that's closest to his window, you're sweating like crazy.
The things I do for you...
You grit your teeth and slide across until the thin end of the branch begins to creak dangerously under your weight. You stop, and clinging on for dear life with one hand, pull the water from the skin you always carry. Turning it into ice, you reach out and wedge it under the glass. Pabu leaps a safe distance from the window and chitters in interest as you pull it up all the way.
"What the...?" you hear Bolin's voice say faintly.
Quickly, you melt the ice and swirl it back into your water skin, before using all your strength to hold the thin part of the branch out straight so it just barely holds your weight. It's a bizarre experience, holding yourself up. I need to start working out.
You tumble through the window successfully, but not too gracefully as the branch snaps back into place like it's relieved it won't be carrying you anymore. You come eye-to-toe with a pair of feet and raise your head to see Bolin's shocked expression.
"Ta-daaa!" you say, out of breath as struggle to your feet and flourish your arms.
"What? How did you...? The place is completely void of water!" he says helplessly, craning his neck to see how you could have possibly gotten through that window.
"You should probably cut down that tree," you say, shrugging.
His eyes bug out of his head. "There's no way you climbed that. What if I was changing my clothes?" he wails.
"You weren't, so it's all good. But if you were I probably would just let that branch fling me into the north pole."
He scowls, his ego bruised, as you brush past him and stop dead in your tracks, eyes wide.
"Mother of Wan," you say blankly.
The room is the worst mess you've ever seen, and you've waited on a group of twenty teenagers. Used tissues overflow from the trash can and litter the sofa. Clothes are scattered over the floor and the radio blares loudly on the table. You step closer and see that the kitchen is absolutely trashed. Cups of instant ramen are all over the counter. The floor looks like it hasn't been scrubbed in months and dirty dishes are piling up in the sink.
"Uh...I wasn't expecting anyone," Bolin says sheepishly from behind you.
"Obviously not," you say, turning to face him with your hands on your hips. You notice that his eyes have deep bags underneath them and that he's dressed in a singlet and shorts. "Where's Mako?"
"Away on police business."
You close your eyes in disbelief. "Raava give me strength. So you've been living like a farm animal this whole time? Have you even gone out to go shopping?"
"No." Bolin rubs the back of his head and averts his eyes.
"Is this because of the Opal incident?" you exclaim in frustration. "You've been moping over one girl to the point where you can't even take care of yourself anymore?"
"Please don't be mad," he says, attempting to puppy-eye you into submission. "I can't handle you hating my guts too."
You grit your teeth, refusing to fall for it, when you notice his sickly complexion. You stride over and place the back of your hand on his forehead. It's burning hot.
"No wonder," you mutter. "You've literally worried yourself sick."
You sigh. The situation is worse than you thought.
"Get to bed. Unless that's so cluttered that you can't sleep in that either."
"No, that's...that's pretty clean," Bolin says, going meekly into his room. Has he been living on his couch?
You survey the mess around you and decide that can wait. You go into the kitchen and collect a cupful of water before rummaging through his cupboards to find a rag. When you eventually find one, you go to his room, which is actually clean, thank the spirits, and sit down next to him on the bed.
"What are you doing to yourself?" you murmur sadly, soaking and cooling the rag before placing it on his forehead. His face relaxes as you hold the cup of water out to him.
"Drink up before you dehydrate."
He obliges and drinks the whole thing like a thirsty camel yak before putting his head back on the pillow.
"I wonder what would have happened if I didn't decide to come check on you," you muse. "Do you have anything other than instant ramen in your kitchen?"
"No..."
"I guess we'll have to work with that, then."
You go back to the kitchen to heat up the soupy ramen before giving it to Bolin, who wolfs it down.
"Thanks, Toki," he says gratefully as you flip the rag to the colder side.
"Please. Don't mention it," you reply dryly.
There's a silence only interrupted by Bolin's loud ramen slurping.
"So, quite a few interesting things happened today," you say casually. "I talked to Opal."
He almost chokes and looks up at you incredulously. "You talked to Opal?"
"Yeah, she...wanted to apologise for acting like a jerk." You decide not to tell him any of the other weird things she said.
"And?" he presses. "Did she say anything else?"
"Well, she did apologise about a million times after accidentally getting me fired."
"Fired?" he parrots, looking stunned.
"Are you hard of hearing today?" you snap uncharacteristically. "Yes, my stupid manager decided I was too friendly with the customers and gave me the boot."
Bolin jumps a little at your outburst and scrutinises you closely. "Is that why you're acting like an angry moose-lion? Because you were fired?"
You look down and pick at your nails. "Among...other things."
"Like what?"
"Well, for starters, how about the fact that you just refuse to get over your ex girlfriend? I come to check on you, you make me waterbend my way up a tree to get to your window, and I find you wallowing in your own snot, self-pity and ramen cups!" you shout.
Bolin's eyes are the size of saucers as he looks at you. He's never seen you like this before. A hot feeling you can't comprehend rises in your chest as you look away.
"Tokiko, I can't get over Opal that fast."
"It's not that you can't, it's that you don't want to!" you continue. "You don't want to move on, so you sit here in the dirtiest apartment in the city and get yourself sick with pining over someone who literally broke up with you because even she knew that she wasn't right for you. And as for time, it's been weeks. I know I was back on my feet after you and Mako left me in that time."
Bolin is silent, his mind churning and processing your words.
"You know, you don't have to take care of me if that's how you feel," he says quietly at last.
"Don't be ridiculous," you mutter, dipping his rag into cool water and laying it across his forehead again. "I can't make my merry way home knowing you're this much of a mess."
You finally realise what that feeling burning in your stomach is. It's jealousy.
Maybe Opal Beifong isn't as crazy as you thought.