Mako walked out of the spirit portal, back into the physical world. He kept on walking until he wasn't standing on the spirit vines anymore and came up to a drain. He took out his beer and turned it upside down, emptying the remainder of it. He waited until every last drop had been poured out, dropped the can and then proceeded to stomp on it.

Mako was crawling out of the trap now. He been stuck in a pit of loneliness and self-isolation for the past eight months. He'd done away with all of his friends, and now his job too. When Hazukk had told him that it was all his fault, Mako had come up with every solution possible to counter that, and that Hazukk had just been playing with him.

But now Mako accepted that he had to take part of the blame for what had happened, and that most of his problems were solvable. He'd always thought of himself as the type of person to keep it real, but he'd done the exact opposite over the last while. Well, he was now going to work as hard as physically possible to make up for his mistakes.

The former commander looked around for the old homeless man, and saw him still sitting on the bench. He walked over to the man, and tapped on his shoulder. The guy turned around with a raised eyebrow.

"Who-" he started, and then recognised Mako. "You again! Wanna talk some more?"

"I'm sorry, I can't stay any longer, I've got to do something I should've taken care of a long time ago," Mako apologised. "But I'm hoping that this will help you somehow." He took out half the yuans he had picked up back at the station, and held them in front of the man. The man's eyes widened.

"There's gotta be nearly fifty yuans in that!" he exclaimed, then looked at Mako pretentiously, as if it was too good to be true. "You're just giving that all to me? I don't mean to insult ya, pal, but don't you think you could use some of that money too?"

"I've got plenty of money," Mako reassured him, and put it on the man's lap. He waited another few seconds, then decided that there was no harm in taking it, and shrugged his shoulders gleefully.

"Thanks, stranger!" he said. "What's your name, if you don't mind? I'm Tu."

"Mako," Mako replied, and held out his hand. Tu joyfully clasped it and they shook for a minute, before Mako broke it. "Thanks, Tu. I know what I need to do now, because of your story. I owe you one."

"No bother!" Tu replied, unsure of what he had done, but happy with the sudden gift. He started to flick through the money, counting every last note, as Mako began walking back home. He didn't look back once, and he made the trip in forty-five minutes. When he arrived back in front of the entrance doors, Mako stopped for a few seconds, his legs aching a bit, then he jogged upstairs. He walked up to his apartment door, and twisted the knob. The door pushed open easily, and no-one had been in there in the few hours Mako had left it unlocked. However, when he walked inside, he was disgusted.

It was no different from the last few months, but with his newfound motivation, Mako couldn't believe that he'd lowered himself to such a pigsty. The kitchen sink was full to the brim with dirty dishes, and empty takeaway bags littered the floor. His furniture was all stained from alcohol, and of course, the table was in bits. The window could use a cleaning too, now that he thought of it. The shards of a whiskey bottle were also in one corner, and there was a horrible smell of vomit coming from the bathroom.

"Gotta clean this hellhole up first," Mako muttered, and shut the door behind him.

First, he opened the window as far as it would go, then got a trash bag. Mako carefully picked up all the shards of glass, then all the small loose pieces of wood from the table. He put the bag in the corner, and went over to his dishes. He filled up a basin with water, heated it using firebending, and cleaned them all over half an hour.

Then, the father of one got a second trash bag, put all the takeaway bags in that, then put the four separate table legs in on top of them. He went downstairs, out the back, and threw the bags in the bins. When he got back in, he noticed that the smell of vomit was mostly gone. He proceeded to scrub the window spotless until he couldn't see any more spots or dust, then went into his room.

Mako got a suitcase and put most of his casual clothes into it, which weren't many. He took out all the money that was hidden under the creaky floorboard, over two thousand yuans, and put it in. He got his cleanest towel, and took a shower. Mako used up as much of the soap bar as he felt like, not intent on coming back for a while. When he got out, the firebender folded the clothes he'd worn that morning neatly in a pile, and put on fresh, clean clothes that he hadn't worn for a while. He got his new electric razor, and shaved his beard off. He looked at his overgrown hair, and frowned, wondering how he was going to go about this.

"Fuck it, I've got more pressing problems than my fashion right now!" he decided, and put the blade on 1. He bent over the toilet and ran it all over his head, waves of hair falling in.

After ten minutes of blindly running it all over his head, Mako looked in the mirror. It was still a little patchy in some parts, but overall, it was a good job. He felt around the back, and there didn't seem to be any clumps of hair there, so he flushed the toilet, satisfied. He blew the hairs out of his razor and neatly put it back in his suitcase. As he began to walk out, Mako took one last look at his apartment.

It was bare, and the furniture still didn't look great, but it was so much better than an hour ago. He allowed himself a smile of appreciation, and then walked out the door. He made sure to bring his keys and lock it this time, and as it rattled shut, he made a vow;

"I can't come back to the comfort of my own home until I've made up with Bolin and secured a future with my daughter!"

With that, Mako turned his back and slowly headed down the stairs. When he got outside, he started to think about what he needed to do. First of all, where was Bolin?

Easy enough, he thought. He's in Zaofu with Opal, probably, and if not, Opal's family will know where they are.

How do you get there? And how to make it up to Bolin?

I'll get on the next train to Zaofu when I get to the station, Mako decided in his head. And it'll take about a day and a half to get down to Zaofu, even with the new high-speed rail, with all the different stops. I'll have more than enough time to think it through there.

Mako waited on the pavement for another four minutes, before a taxi drove by. He held his thumb out and it stopped for him.

"Where to?" the taxi driver asked.

"The train station," Mako replied, and hauled his bag in with him. The conversation on the way over was bleak, but Mako didn't care. He was just already trying to think of ways to talk to Bolin. When they got out, Mako tipped a little extra, and strode into the platforms. He looked at the timetable and saw that there were no immediate trains to Zaofu. He looked at the map of the Earth Kingdom States, and then back at the timetable, and saw that there was a train to Omashu in an hour.

"That'll do," Mako decided. "I can get another train there."

Mako went over to the ticket booth, and bought himself a middle-class ticket to Omashu. It was pricey, but it was common knowledge that the lower-class carriages were always packed. He also had a special passport from escorting Wu, that gave him small discounts when traveling, and could easily get him into places such as the Upper Ring in Ba Sing Sae. He got a strange look from the lady stamping verification on his ticket. He thought it was because he wasn't dressed as fancy as folk who normally had it, but he was wrong.

"Keep that hidden when you get to Omashu," she advised him in a whisper.

"Hidden?" Mako asked. "Why? I'm used to pickpockets, if that's what you're wondering, I'll be fine. Thanks, though."

"Maybe in other states," the lady said, "but I've heard whispers about problems between Omashu and Ba Sing Sae, about a number of things. Keep a document like that hidden at the bottom of your bag, or else you could get yourself into trouble."

"I'll keep that in mind," Mako said, confused. He'd heard snippets about tensions between the new states, but he thought that was old news. He decided to keep the lady's advice in mind anyway, and walked to the platform. He stood there nervously, the anticipation of his encounter with Bolin already starting to hype him up.

I hope it's not like this for the entire ride over, Mako thought.

His train arrived two minutes earlier, and he got on as quickly as he could. He got himself a comfy seat with lots of room, and rapped on the table.

"I shouldn't be dreading it," Mako said aloud to his reflection in the window. He'd already put his suitcase up into one of the containers. "I'm going to be seeing Bolin for the first time in over a year, I should be excited! I'm going to make things up with him!"

"Is something wrong, sir?" a waiter passing by with a trolley asked. "Do you need any refreshments?"

Mako's stomach rumbled, and he realised he hadn't had breakfast yet. "Yes please, if you have any meals, I'd like to see your menu. Also, a couple of sheets of paper and a pen, if that's okay."

"Here's the menu," the waiter said, handing him over a laminated piece of cardboard. "And I'll get you the other things in just a moment."

"That's a big help," Mako thanked, and stared pensively out the window, wondering how to even begin preparing his apology.

5:30pm, The next day

Mako stretched his arms above his head as the train rolled into Zaofu. All of the energy that he'd been hoarding had slowly released itself, and now, he felt like weights had been attached to his shins. He didn't feel like getting up, but forced himself to, and was one of the last people to step off of the train. Mako rolled his shoulders back, and started to walk up to the highest part of Zaofu, where Opal had lived, before she left to be an Air Nomad.

He trudged slowly through the streets, his suitcase rattling loudly on the paved roads, and made his way in between the different districts with ease. He caught a tram from the second highest area, as he only remembered then how steep it was.

When Mako showed up to the final stop, the district where Su Beifong and her family lived, he was stopped and his suitcase thoroughly searched. When they were happy that he didn't have any weapons on him, they still didn't let him past, though.

"What's the matter?" Mako asked, irritated. "You're not searching anyone else leaving, why're you picking on me?"

"You don't have the official pass to enter," the guard told him sternly. "Everyone else has shown theirs. Unless you have an incredibly short memory and still have it hidden somewhere, you'll be heading right back on that tram."

"What, no!" Mako protested. "I didn't come all this way just to be told that I can't come in! You guys saw my passport earlier, didn't you? Isn't that official enough to get me by?"

"No."

"Come on," Mako tried. He nearly added 'don't be so stiff,' but caught himself. "I know the Beifong family, my brother dates Opal Beifong."

"Of course he does. Men, take him back," the guard ordered dismissively, and looked back at Mako. "If we catch you sneaking around here again, we'll assume that it's for the wrong reasons. Understood, pal?"

"You can come with me until I find him!" Mako pleaded as he was dragged back on the tram, but his complaints fell on deaf ears. He was shoved onto a seat, and both of the guards stood in front of him. Mako reluctantly watched the doors close as he ran out of reasons, and the tram started to speed away. He gave in, and waited silently as they travelled back down to the second highest district of Zaofu. He didn't need any instructions when the doors slid open, and he moped out with his suitcase.

Mako sat glumly on the bench as the tram sped away. He put his head in his hands as he contemplated what to do next. He groaned out loud, and heard footsteps as a small group of people sprinted towards the tram. He heard them stop just a few metres away, panting hard.

"I told you we shouldn't have waited! This is exactly why we don't let you make plans, Ling!" one said.

"At least I didn't waste any time with you when we were playing pool, Nel," Ling replied with a laugh, then gave out a little yelp as the other person, Nel, presumably gave Ling a dig.

"Wanna do some bending practice? We haven't done any in a few days," a third voice suggested. "We should probably start saving money around about now too, if we're serious on the idea."

"It's getting a bit dark now, we could get locked out like last time," a fourth voice interjected, and Mako's head shot up. He looked over to the four people standing just beside him. The fourth guy continued; "Besides, if we're going ahead with that, we'll probably have no free time when we get to…" he trailed off as he saw at Mako's face.

"What's the matter?" the guy called Ling asked, then he looked at Mako. "What's wrong? Do you know this guy?"

"Yeah, yeah," the fourth man replied, and then looked at his three friends. "Can you guys go on a walk? Like, a long one. I'll catch up with guys later."

"What do you mean?" the guy called Nel asked, then got a cold look from the fourth guy. He closed his mouth, and gestured to Ling and the third person. They got the message, and started walking back the direction they came. They all looked back curiously, but respected their friend's wish. The fourth guy turned and faced Mako.

"Mako. Why are you here?" he asked coldly.

"I want to make things up with you, Bolin," Mako said, but Bolin just crossed his arms. He had a simple dark green t-shirt and comfy grey trousers on.

"Why? Why now?" Bolin demanded, inhaling and exhaling heavily through his nose. "I know that what I said back then was horribly wrong, and I deserved that punch! But I sent you letter after letter for three months, begging to talk it over, but you never replied to one, so I gave up! Why has it taken you nearly a year to come back to me?"

Mako gulped, and his mind went blank. He tried to think of the first word of the apology he had written out, but it wouldn't come. So he just decided to wing it.

"Can we go somewhere more private?" he asked. "Or even just less out of the way? This is a little too public."

"So what? You can knock me on the floor again?" Bolin jibed. He was a lot different from the Bolin that he had punched, Mako noticed. He was a little bit sterner, or maybe he'd just matured. Either way, he wasn't going to give Mako a easy ride on this one, as Mako had expected.

"Look," Mako said, "it's just better that we don't have everyone passing by listening in on us. Do you know anywhere we can go? Please."

"We can go up on the hills which lead up to the Beifong Estate," Bolin said. "No-one wanders around there, unless they want to be alone."

"Ok, let's go there then," Mako said, and stood up. He started to wheel his suitcase behind him, and Bolin looked at it oddly.

"What's that for?" he asked.

"I'll explain everything when we get there," Mako promised, and Bolin begrudgingly accepted it. They started to walk to the hills in a painfully tense silence.

"So, why didn't you answer any of my letters?" Bolin demanded. They'd walked for about twenty minutes, in silence, and were on a small hill looking out over most of Zaofu. "Don't give me some half-assed excuse, Mako, I want the truth!"

"The letters. I didn't know about them, but that's not the full truth," Mako admitted, sitting down opposite Bolin. "I was angry at you because of the fight we had, and I didn't want to contact you first because I thought you were in the wrong. I never bothered to check my pigeon-hole before, as all my work letters were at my desk in the station. I know it sounds far-fetched, but I haven't gone down into the basement for a letter for about four years." He looked at Bolin dead in the eye, meaning what he said.

"Who doesn't check for any letters for four years?" Bolin asked exasperatedly, throwing his hands up in the air. "That is a fat lie, admit it!"

"Three or four months after you left, it did come to mind," Mako revealed. "But by then, I had other problems as well. Hazukk turned out to be working with the Triple Threats, not a journalist, and he'd duped me the entire time. He made off with all the money in the world from robberies, and I didn't have a shred of evidence to prove that he was guilty."

"Hazukk?" Bolin repeated, a scowl still on his face. "Who's that? Are you going to blame it on a new, convenient friend, that I've never heard of?"

"Hazukk," Mako said. "Remember, the journalist who used to play with us on the Fire Ferrets back when he was really moody?"

"No," Bolin answered bluntly.

"Right before Korra joined," Mako reminded Bolin. "Her very first match was when we were forced to sub her in, when Hazukk didn't show up."

"Korra's first probending match…" Bolin mused, thinking hard. "Oh yeah, the guy who you always used to bicker with? I remember him now. But he wasn't a journalist back then, was he?"

"No," Mako answered. "But long story short, he pretended to be my friend and then he stabbed me in the back. He released a story on Korra bloodbending. Remember that?"

"Do I remember?" Bolin repeated. "The entire city was going crazy about that story, and probably the rest of the world as well, how could I not? I didn't know who wrote it, though."

"After he got his big payday, he didn't need me, but I forced him to leave Republic City after I stumbled on him and a few Triple Threats," Mako explained. "He cut off any ties of friendship we had, and managed to get it into my head that everything that had gone wrong up until that point was my fault. I became a right dickhead, and I pushed all my friends away."

"What about the letters?" Bolin reiterated. "You still haven't still haven't answered that question fully yet."

"I'm getting to that," Mako said. "Anyway, after that, I started drinking heavily, and about month into drinking four times a week on my own, I thought to check the pigeon-hole to see if you had sent anything. Now this next part is going to seem very illogical, but it's honestly what happened." He looked at Bolin softly, begging for him to keep an open mind.

"Go on," Bolin allowed, his arms crossed.

"I was feeling like shit, and I was all the time feeling sorry for myself," Mako started opening up, more than he ever had in the last year. Then he finally said it out loud. "I was depressed, but I didn't say anything! I thought that I could bury it with drinking, and that my rep as a no-nonsense commander would be tarnished if I admitted it, and by that point, all I had left was my job and my reputation. So I kept my mouth shut.

"But part of me - my pride - revelled in the loneliness while I would be huddled up in a corner," Mako went on, "barely able to move while retching horribly. Yes, I had nothing going for me socially, but I was tough, and I could handle it all on my own, so I thought. So when the idea to check for letters came into my head, I denied it, telling myself you would've called. It was idiotic, but at that point all I was trying to do was numb the pain as much as possible, and it helped me feel a little dignity."

"Well…" Bolin said, softening up a tiny bit but then hardening himself again immediately. "No, I don't believe that! You were always ruthless and kept it real when we were younger, no matter how embarrassing or shit it got! You never made decisions based on pride back then, so why would you now, when you're a fully grown adult?"

"I don't know," Mako confessed, hunkered down while Bolin stood up and glared over him. "Maybe because I always had to think about you back then, and I never had the luxury of sitting back. Listen, I am so, so sorry for how much of a prick I've been. Only when I challenged Chief Beifong when she demoted me for slacking so much, did I really step over the line against someone I couldn't ignore it against."

"You disobeyed Beifong? As in Lin Beifong?" Bolin asked in disbelief, his expression changing for a moment.

"Not only that, I put my finger in her face, as if she'd reverse her decision," Mako revealed, and Bolin took a step back, as if Mako would lash out at any moment.

"That's got to be up there with the stupidest things I've ever heard of," Bolin told him. "You really mustn't have thought that one through."

"Not at all," Mako agreed, and began to breath heavily, trying not to let his voice crack. "She slapped and fired me, as you'd expect. After that, only then did it hit me how stupid I'd been in general. But instead of going and trying to fix my mistakes, I just became even more miserable. I hadn't ever seriously considered it before then, but in the hour after that, I was… I was so close to just ending it all and killing myself!"

"That… Spirits," Bolin said quietly, his eyes widening. "I thought that I was down after the fight but… I never could've imagined what you were going through." He sat back down, his anger evaporating slightly.

"I should've said something, anything!" Mako continued, his eyes tearing up, but he forced them back down, not realising he was contradicting what he'd just said by keeping his tears in.

"What about Asami?" Bolin asked. "She's been through a lot, I'm sure she would've been nice. Did you even consider going to her?"

"Ever since her and Korra broke up, she's been shutting herself away," Mako answered. "She didn't answer the vast majority of my calls, and whenever I did speak to her, she was inconsolable."

"Asami and Korra broke up?!" Bolin repeated, taken aback even more. "When? Why?"

"You… of course, you don't know, the men only told Beifong, and she only told me," Mako realised, rubbing the back of his head. "They didn't come with us to the South Pole either, so there's a large chance that they haven't figured it out. No-one mentioned the baby she was holding in any reports, so no-one really had any suspicions about it. It's only me, Korra and her parents, Asami and Beifong that know otherwise. She just said that Kalla was her sister, and everyone was too busy picking themselves up to give it a second thought about the baby."

"The BABY?" Bolin shouted, flabbergasted, figuring it out. "Kuh… kuh… Korra had a baby? A child? That's why her and Asami broke up? Why wasn't I told?"

"It never came to mind," Mako answered, readying himself for the inevitable question. It came a few seconds later.

"Well then, who's the father?!" Bolin asked, leaning closer, forgetting about their differences and Mako's hardships for a minute.

"I spent a long time wondering about that myself," Mako said. "Then she told me right after she swatted away the United Forces. I didn't believe it at first."

"So who was it?" Bolin urged, dying to know the answer.

"I am." Mako confessed, without hesitation, and even he found it a bit weird to hear it, as he had barely said it out loud so far. "Korra and I are Kalla's parents."

"Yuh-yuh-yuh-you?" Bolin asked, his mouth falling open. "You're… a dad?"

"Yep," Mako confirmed, looking Bolin dead in the eye.

"So you... got with Korra while she was with Asami?" Bolin asked, extremely confused. "Just like when Korra got with you while you were dating Asami?"

"We were both drunk," Mako admitted, his guilt catching up with him. "It was completely unintentional, and after it, Korra was so guilt ridden that she didn't tell me before she fled Republic City. Even I didn't believe her at first when she told me, and because of that, we had a fight. She told me not to go near her daughter ever again, or that she'd break ever last bone in my body."

"You didn't accept her?" Bolin asked, mortified, and a look of disgust appeared on his face. "You didn't accept your OWN DAUGHTER!? How could you, after everything we went through as kids?!"

"I genuinely didn't remember!" Mako protested, tears starting to slither down his face. His emotional wall was crumpling down now. "Just let me finish, please, before you judge me!" Bolin was about to say something, then held it back. He nodded stiffly, eyeing Mako down with murderous intent. Mako didn't blame him. He continued:

"I couldn't get what she had said out of my head though, no matter how hard I drank, it always came back. Then, when I was fired yesterday, I was walking around like the miserable sack of shit I was, and I sat down on a bench in front of the spirit portal."

"You only got fired yesterday?" Bolin asked. "Did you really come running here as soon as you got let off. Is that why you're here? To get a job in Zaofu? If so, get the fuck out of my sight right now!" He pointed towards the train track that led into Zaofu from the main railway web.

"It's not!" Mako insisted, more and more tears streaming down his face now. His voice was an octave higher than before. "I need to get to the end of the story! This homeless guy came up and sat on the bench right beside me. He told me how he had gone inside the Tree of Time in the spirit world, and how all his memories came back."

"Ok," Bolin said, ready to give out.

"And I realised that if Kalla really was my daughter, then I would remember getting with Korra," Mako continued. He stopped for a few seconds to catch his breath, then kept going:

"So I mediated in the Tree of Time, and I remembered! I remembered the full night! Then I also got a flashback of us as kids on the streets, shivering and lonely. I stepped out of that tree, and I knew that I had to own up and support my daughter as best as I possibly can, so that she has a much better upbringing than her dad."

"Then why did you come to me?" Bolin posed the question. "I didn't even know about your daughter a minute ago!"

"If I can't even make it up with my lifelong best friend and brother, then how can I ever hope to make amends with the mother of my daughter?" Mako replied. "Please, Bolin, I know I haven't done anything to deserve forgiveness in the past while, but just this one time, please let me off. I'm begging you. I am so, so, so, sorry for what happened between us, and I promise to never let anything like that ever happen again." Mako practically fell down to Bolin's feet and started bawling his eyes out, sobbing.

Bolin looked down at the figure he'd looked up to for all his childhood and teenage years, breaking down at his feet. They'd been through thick and thin with each other. Now that very same person was begging for forgiveness at his feet, the same person who'd always looked out for him after their parents had died.

Against all of that, what was one fight compared to all of the good things Mako had done for him in his life?

"It's okay," Bolin relented, letting all of his anger at Mako flow away. "Get up. I forgive you." Mako looked up at his younger brother, and slowly got to his feet, still sniffling. "But there are-"

Bolin wheezed as Mako squeezed him in a bear hug. The firebender cried uncontrollably into Bolin's shoulder, unable to express in words how grateful he was.

"Just let it all out," Bolin said softly, patting Mako on the back. Other minor issues like what Mako was going to do after tonight popped up in his head, but Bolin just put them in the back of his mind. He kept on reassuring Mako that everything would be ok as the cumulative stress of the last eight months poured out for another few minutes.

"I just realised something," Mako mentioned, looking up, his eyes red. "You're an uncle, Bolin. Congrats." He tried to smile, but more tears just came out.

"I'm… an uncle," Bolin said, and the meaning of it hit him suddenly. "I'm an uncle!" He was about to say more, but then thought against cheering at that very moment and time, as Mako was still crying. Inside though, his heart fluttered.