"There is a solar eclipse coming at next week, it will be our best time to retake Omashu." Bataar Junior's voice came out of the meeting room.
"What are you doing here?" Ghazan found the young man in Earth Republic Military uniform standing outside the door. "Have you been practicing the moves I taught you?" As the two earthbenders who cannot metalbend in a sea of metalbenders, Bolin and Ghazan quickly bonded with each other. The lavabender saw the potential in the young earthbender and has been teaching him the art of melted earth ever since, "a Major in Suyin's army told me earlier, they're going to attack Omashu at the eclipse. It's only a couple of days away, and right now you're having trouble keeping the earth in a liquified state," he smirked at the young earthbender, as he knew exactly how to motivate his protégé, "Hey, if you want to show off your skills in the next battle, you'd better practice it a lot more often in the next few days."
"I know. I have just finished my practice today," Bolin wasn't lying, "but I want to visit my family in the city, since it'd probably be a long time before I will visit Ba Sing Se again. I want to ask Opal to come with me."
"Major Opal? You've been dating Suyin's daughter? Good for you!" Ghazan was a little bit surprised at first since he obviously didn't notice his friend has been having a crush on the Great Uniter's daughter. Then he realized something, "so it all makes sense now, that's why you joined the Earth Republic's army, huh?"
"Yeah…" the young soldier's face blushed as he scratched the back of his head, "but the problem is, my parents were killed by a firebender when I was six, so I've never met either side of our family, here's all the information I have." Bolin brought out an old photo from his pocket, the colour was already starting to fade. On the photo there was an entire extended family, the old woman in the centre was supposed to be his grandmother. On the back of the photo writes "2119 Jasmine Street". "Ghazan, you've been to Ba Sing Se before, right? Do you recognize this address?"
"Well, not exactly," responded the lavabender, "I've only been here for a few days to slay the tyrant Hou Ting, and that was seven years ago. It was supposed to be somewhere in the Lower Ring, but now with these walls no longer exist… I'm not even sure if they use the same street names anymore."
"Any luck, Bo?" the firebender in business suit approached his brother, he was still working for Varrick, "you know, it's been some twenty-three years since this photo was taken, with so many things have happened in this city during all these years…" Mako found it hard to tell his brother the worst.
"Opal!" the younger brother exclaimed as the Major left the meeting room, he was about to hug her, but his own insecurities prevented that from happening. "you must've been to Ba Sing Se for many times, right? Do you know this address?"
"Yes!" Opal spoke, "it's a very nice furniture shop, all their pieces are hand crafted from wood! Mum bought a couple of chairs from there. They are very sturdy!"
"Great!" the young earthbender said enthusiastically, "let's meet our family!"
…
The tram took them to a quiet neighbourhood; the roads were clean, paved with stone bricks. According to the direction of the address, Mako, Bolin and Opal arrived at a small shop called "Chow's Woodwork", with pieces of furniture: tables, chairs, and closets, displaying outside of the door.
"Hello, my name is Tu, how can I help you today?" a young man with short hair, wearing green headband and sleeveless shirt approached to the brothers. Bolin noticed the Tu had a squared face, thick eyebrows, and a pair of light green eyes, every feature about this man was so similar to him.
"Hi… umm," the earthbender didn't know where to start, "I'm Bolin, and this is my brother Mako," he gestured to the tall man with golden eyes and a slender frame standing beside him. "My dad gave me this when I was six," he shown the photo to the young man, "is this the right address?"
Tu's gasped, "Dad! Grandma! It's our cousins, Bolin and Mako!"
A middle-aged man dressed in green with a similar headband to Tu rushed out of the door, followed by an old woman with emerald eyes; her hair was completely white, loosely tied into a low bun on the back of her head.
"This is your cousin Tu and your uncle Chow," said the old woman, "and I'm your grandma Yin." Then she gave each of the brothers a big hug.
"One, two… five… eleven," Bolin counted as more and more people came out of the building, "This is so great! We've never had a family before, now we have a BIG family!" he exclaimed.
"Look at you!" Yin tapped onto Bolin's shoulders, "you're now a soldier!" she said while admiring his uniforms.
"Mako, how has San been?" the grandmother asked the older brother, she was referring to her son.
For a while, Mako fell into silence, why is he the one who delivers the bad news every time? "Our dad, died when I was eight," he decided to swallow the part where his father was murdered by a firebender, "I'm sorry, grandma."
"No, it's not your fault." Yin's eyes were filled with tears, but she accepted the reality with grace, "you must have been through a lot. This must be your father's scarf." She pointed to the red scarf Mako was wearing.
"Yes."
The whole family fell into silence. It took them a few minutes to recover.
"Grandma, I want to introduce you to my friend," Bolin pointed to a woman with short hair and tanned skin in Earth Republic Military uniforms standing beside him.
"Major…" Yin recognized the insignia located on the centre of her chest.
"Please, just call me Opal," the young officer smiled, offering her hand, "it's nice to meet you, grandma Yin."
(Note: This Chapter is dedicated to Bolin and Mako meeting their paternal side of the family. And a little bit of establishment on the friendship between Ghazan and Bolin, ie. that's how Bolin learns lavabending in this timeline. I also try to establish the relationship between Opal and Bolin but I'm not exactly good at portraying romantic relationships. It's a relatively lighthearted chapter, well mostly. Next chapter back to Korra vs Noatak and the wars.)