A small crowd was gathering around Bolin's apartment as Oogi touched down, but it scattered when Lin dismounted and they saw the uniform she was wearing.

"I'll keep him airborne while we're inside in case anybody gets any ideas," Tenzin said, referring to his bison while helping Pema down.

"Heh."

He couldn't believe he'd heard a laugh, and from Lin, of all people. "What's so funny?"

"Remember when those idiots snuck onto Air temple island and tried to ride Appa?"

Tenzin thought back, then it clicked together. "That must have been almost thirty years ago."

"They were climbing on his tail when he flung them off", Lin continued, setting Bolin down. "They must've flown, what, a hundred feet before they landed in the Bay?"

"At least", Tenzin chuckled. "Heard them screaming the whole time."

"Then your Mom fished them out, and thought they were trying to steal Appa. I've never seen her so mad."

"Good thing your mom was there to tell if they were lying or not. But she thought it was as funny as the rest of us did. Dad actually offered to give them a ride afterwards, but they were too terrified to go anywhere near Appa."

"I don't think I've ever heard you tell that story before", Pema mused to her husband.

"I'd almost forgotten about it myself", Tenzin explained as they walked inside. "It happened so long ago."

He looked over to Lin, and he could see the barb she had on the tip of her tongue: You weren't even born yet, but she kept it to herself. "This is the place. Room 166."

Tenzin unlocked the door with the key he'd been given earlier, and braced himself for how the apartment would look, and unfortunately it met expectations.

It was about the same size as Lin's old apartment, but she acted like a minimalist with the place, not bothering to decorate at all. Even then, it was only her that occupied the place, instead of a family of four.

He looked down at Bolin, who perfectly encapsulated the word "uncertain". This had been his home, but now he was here with people he hadn't even known a full day instead of his family.

"Do you want to look around yourself?", Pema asked. "Or do you want us to do it with you?"

"I..."

"I'll be right here", she offered. "Just tell me if you want to be alone."

There wasn't much to check over in the main living area. A worn couch with a coffee table that held nothing but an old radio, but Bolin was fixated on it.

"Dad got this for us a few months ago so we could listen to probending matches," he explained, to noone in particular. "But sometimes it'd make a weird hissing noise so he'd have to whack it so it would work right.

Tenzin never had a fondness for the sport, but he remembered Dad taking Bumi and Kya to matches when he had the chance. "Do you want to take this with you?"

"...Maybe?"

"You don't have to be picky. We can take whatever you want back to the island with us."

"Then...okay." There weren't any keepsakes worth keeping in the kitchen, but Tenzin felt like checking out the cupboards just for the sake of thoroughness. Nothing of note except a bunch of cups of instant noodles.

Next, Bolin's bedroom. Well, the bedroom he and his brother must have shared, given that there were two beds inside, unmade, with toys strewn over the floor.

The child picked up three toys that appeared handmade, but they were all of figures Tenzin recognized: His father, Uncle Zuko, and Avatar Kyoshi. "I used to run around with the Aang or Kyoshi doll...and Mako would chase me with the Zuko doll so we'd play 'Capture the Avatar'."

Tenzin gave an amused sniff, but he knew his mother wouldn't approve of the game. Either way, Bolin didn't seem conflicted on whether to take these along with him to the Island. "You can leave those on the table with the radio," Pema instructed gently.

"Perhaps we should check to see if there are any clothes he wants to bring", Tenzin suggested as Bolin walked away. Lin seemed to share the idea, but she closed the closet doors after a brief glance.

"Nope, he's getting new ones."

"But I like my clothes!," Bolin yelled from the other room

"Too bad."

Pema wanted to offer a second opinion, but it didn't differ from the first one. "Well, maybe we can...oh no, he can't wear these."

Tenzin peered into the closet too, and he couldn't bring himself to differ from his opinion of the two women. The clothes weren't in any better shape than the one's he'd seen him in last night. All of them had either a patched hole or stains of some sort.

"It might help his transition if we bring these with him, though," Tenzin pondered quietly.

"...Fine. But we're taking him shopping after this is done." He and Pema looked back in surprise, but her expression wasn't different from her usual one.

"Don't worry," She told them with her eyes rolled. "I'll pay for it with my worldly possession of money."

"Thank you."

"Not doing it for you," she clarified as Bolin came back into the room. "Anything else you want to take from here?"

Bolin took some glances around his room. "Not really. I guess we can go now."

"Don't you want to check your parents room too?"

He visibly tensed at Pema's suggestion. "I..."

"Were you allowed to be in there before?," Tenzin asked.

"Yes...well, they made us knock at night, but..."

"I'm sure they would be okay with you going in right now...if you wanted to."

Bolin acknowledged the verbal encouragement, taking tiny steps towards the closed door, but when he finished his approach, it appeared like he was staring up at the walls of Ba Sing Se. For the rest of them it felt like an eternity before he actually turned the knob, but they knew to let him go at his own pace.

The room was expectedly tidier, considering it belonged to two adults instead of two children. There were a couple of interesting items, but what captured Bolin's focus was a red scarf at the foot of the bed.

"Dad's lucky scarf," he murmured while holding it, staring at the fabric as if it had a secret message written on it. Pema put a hand on his shoulder, but he didn't acknowledge the contact, instead deciding to put it on while Pabu hopped to the bed.

It crawled across the blankets to a small pipa leaning against the nightstand. It didn't look new at all, but appeared to have been taken care of well, perhaps it was a family heirloom. The pet gave some curious sniffs before chirruping loud enough to get Bolin's attention.

"Mom used to play this for us all the time." His voice was still barely above a whisper, running his fingers over the strings, soft sound filling the room.

Tenzin turned to the other nightstand, which held only a small lamp and a framed photo. He noticed Bolin in the picture, though in much nicer clothes than he'd seen in the apartment. They must have been rented for the occasion. "Is this your family?"

"We did that for Dad's birthday a few weeks ago." Bolin wasn't facing him before he asked, but his back was to Tenzin now.

He could definitely see the resemblance in the picture. The boy was in his father's lap, not looking into the camera, and he had more of his father's features than his mother's, who appeared to have fire nation ancestry, sitting behind...her other son.

"Do you want to take this-"

"No."

"Why?", Lin asked.

"I don't want to look at them!"

Of course. He probably couldn't see what they looked like then without seeing what they looked like last night. "I understand,'' Tenzin began. "...but I think you'll want to have this when you're older." Not wanting to see them now was one thing, but if he didn't have this picture, he might forget what they looked like altogether.

"If I say yes can we go?"

"You don't want to check for anything else?" Pema spoke gently to Bolin, but it didn't seem to matter.

"No! There's nothing else left!"

"Bolin..."

"I don't wanna be here anymore! Please!"

"Okay..." Tenzin conceded. "We can go." Then he leaned in and whispered in his wife's ear. "Take him outside and put him on Oogi," he told her while handing Pema his bison whistle. "I'll make sure everything's in order for the acolytes."

"Alright. Come on, sweetie." She took Bolin's visibly shaking hand and led him out of the apartment with Lin. Tenzin took the pipa and photo to the table where everything else had been gathered, and for the boy's sake, had another look around the apartment for any keepsakes.

But he'd been right. There wasn't anything else worth taking back to the island. He deserves better, Tenzin thought to himself as he turned off the apartment light and closed the door. In so many ways.

When he got outside, Oogi was on the ground, while Bolin held onto his leg, face buried in his fur, while Pema and Lin stood nearby.

"I'm sorry I yelled," Bolin told Tenzin as he came up behind him, with his voice a little muffled.

"You don't have to apologize. I understand why it was upsetting for you to be in there."

"I shouldn't have hugged your bison either," he added, finally letting go. "He belongs to you, not me."

"Oogi doesn't mind. Would...you like to meet him?"

"Really?" The boy had an infectious smile.

"Of course. Come on." They walked together to be face to face with Tenzin's companion. "Bolin, this is Oogi. Oogi, this is Bolin."

"H-hi." Bolin stepped forward nervously as he was examined, sniffed by a nose as large as his face, followed immediately with a giant tongue being dragged over his entire body.

"Eeeeeeewwwww!", Bolin giggled.

"That means he likes you," Tenzin explained. "He doesn't do that to people often."

"I like him too!," Bolin laughed as he stepped back.

"Great," Lin griped. "Now we have to take him clothes shopping smelling like he got swallowed by a sky bison."

"No you don't," the boy pleaded. "You don't have to take me clothes shopping."

"Yes we do," she responded flatly.

"It won't take too long," Pema encouraged. "Then we can get something to eat afterwards, okay?"

"Mmmmmmmgh. Fine."

There was a clothing store nearby that served their needs, but Bolin still wasn't happy with the situation. "Why do I have to try on all of these if they're the same size?," he whined.

"Just because they're the same size doesn't mean they'll fit the same," Pema explained. "Now come on out, show us how it looks."

He left the changing room wearing a gray shirt that had a green tint, with much lighter green around the sleeves and collar. "That looks wonderful on you! Do you like it?"

"I do." It looked like an understatement considering how enamored he was, but his eyes widened and his smile disappeared when he looked at the price tag on the left sleeve. "But it costs-."

"If you like it, we'll get it for you," Pema reassured. "You don't have to worry about things like that again, okay?"

He ended up wearing the shirt while they left the store. Lin was true to her word about paying for the clothes, but Tenzin had his own funds, and after a short conversation, they settled on splitting the cost fifty-fifty.

The adults decided to go to Narook's for dinner, since it was relatively close by and had plenty of vegetarian options with its theme of Southern Water Tribe cuisine. But there was still some leftover awkwardness that had been there in the morning, because Tenzin had frequented it multiple times while he'd been dating Lin.

The meal was quiet, save for the sounds of eating and conversations from other tables. Tenzin really couldn't think of a group less inclined for small talk.

Bolin didn't seem to pick up on any tension, though. He appeared to have found a new favorite food in seaweed noodles, considering he'd had three bowls, far different from his slow eating he'd done during breakfast. Most of the talking they did was to remind him of proper table manners, but it was good to see him enjoying his meal, even though he tried to feed noodles to his ferret multiple times.

It was dark out when they left, and they decided to call it a night. Lin opted to go home on her own instead of getting a ride from Oogi to her apartment, and Tenzin took Tenzin noticed Bolin was a little disappointed that she wasn't coming with them, so he made sure the ride back to Air temple island was a little bit longer so the boy could enjoy the view of the city at night again.

"Alright," Tenzin said as they landed by the sky bison pen. "Let's-"

"Shhhhh."

"What?"

"He's sleeping," Pema whispered.

"For how long?," he asked with a hushed voice.

"About ten minutes ago."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't want to wake him up. Besides, it's been a while since I've seen that view."

Tenzin gave her a tired smile, and carefully moved from Oogi's reigns to his saddle, looking at Bolin lying on his side, curled up next to Pema. He knelt down and carefully lifted the boy so he wouldn't wake up, and carried him off his bison and back to the guest room.

When he placed Bolin in the bed, Pema finished tucking him in by pulling the covers over him, and Pabu hopped off her shoulder and wiggled under the blanket while the adults quietly closed the door behind.

"That was a nice way to end the day," Pema thought aloud as they entered their own bedroom.

"It was," Tenzin agreed. "But..."

"What?"

"Tomorrow's going to be hard for him." He knew what an oversimplification that must've sounded like, but she didn't point it out, instead she just sat down next to him and started undoing her hair. "Back at the apartment, when I had that photo...I think he's trying not to think about what happened."

"I can't really blame him."

"Of course. But what's going to happen tomorrow when there's the funeral happening and he sees...if we can even still get him to go. I'm worried he might try to change his mind, and I have no idea what to say if he does."

"It's okay if you don't have all the answers," Pema reassured.

"But I should. I'm about to be a father, for spirits sake. How am I going to be able to raise my own child if I can't even figure out how to talk to him?"

"I don't think being a parent means knowing the perfect thing to do every time," Pema reasoned. "I mean, it's not like you become a different person once you have a baby. I wouldn't have wanted to start a family with you if I didn't think you'd be a good father. And Bolin...I'm not sure what to say either, but no matter what he wants to do, we have to be there for him. Us and Lin are all he has."

"That's not enough."

"No, it isn't," she admitted. "But I know any child would be lucky to have you in their life."

"...Not as lucky as I am to have you in mine," Tenzin told her as he kissed her goodnight, before trying his best to get some sleep.

Notes: Kind of a repeat from writing the last chapter in that I was planning to include more in this, but it would've led to this chapter being too long, and the next one being too short.