Summary: Bolin spends time with the air nomad family before continuing the investigation into Hiroshi Sato.

Bolin was stirred from his slumber by the feeling of something bouncing on his mattress. He let out something between a groan and a yawn, and groggily opened his eyes to see the cause of the disturbance was a small boy with a shaved head jumping up and down on his bed.

"Finally, you're awake", the little boy exclaimed.

"Thanks to you", Bolin responded with no bitterness while running a hand through his hair.

"Mommy and Daddy told me to get you up for breakfast, but they said I couldn't use airbending. They also wanted to give you those", the child said, pointing to the dresser that had a pair of folded air acolyte clothes next to a sleeping Pabu.

"Thanks", Bolin said, for both the robes and the restraint shown by the kid. "Meelo, right?"

"How did you know that?", he questioned with a face that showed confusion and amazement.

"I saw you at that big fancy party for Korra a while ago."

"Oh yeah. Daddy said I don't have to go to those anymore". Meelo let out a giggle while saying that, while Bolin chuckled, both reliving the memory of the boy's infamous mistake of thinking a punch bowl was actually a toilet.

Bolin then pushed himself out of bed and walked over to the dresser. He picked up the outfit with one hand while giving Pabu a little head petting with the other to wake the fire ferret up. He glanced downward to notice the kid staring back up at him, and he couldn't help but wonder if that was how he looked to Mako when they were younger. He appreciated the attention, but he still wanted to get dressed.

"Uh, just need to get changed, could you give me a minute?"

"Oh sure, sorry", Meelo exclaimed, quickly heading towards the door.

"No problem. Pabu, please keep him company". His buddy gave a chirp that seemed to be agreement, and he hopped off the dresser to follow the kid.

Once Meelo was behind the now closed door, he continued the conversation. "It's good to finally have another boy here".

"You have your dad, don't you? Besides, what's wrong with your sisters?"

"Daddy doesn't count, he's too old", he responded with a bit of annoyance. "And Jinora and Ikki don't ever wanna do anything I wanna do."

"Well, what do you kids like to do for fun?", Bolin asked, thinking it couldn't hurt to get on the good side of the children.

"Jinora just wants to read books, all Ikki cares about is boys and kissing, and neither of them want to try new airbending stuff with me", Meelo responded with clear disappointment.

"Well I may just be a humble earthbender, but I'd love to see your bending moves if I can show you mine", Bolin offered while putting on the top part of the robe.

"Awesome!"

Bolin felt cheery at the boy's excitement, and was about to leave the room when he noticed in a mirror that his hair was an absolute mess. Not wanting to delay meeting the family any further, he merely took the time to make himself presentable instead of giving himself his usual look.

When he finally left the room, he saw Pabu curled up on top of Meelo's, as if to imitate a hat or a full head of hair. The three then went down the hallway that led to a room that contained Korra, a large table filled with food, and four other people wearing the same outfits as the two boys.

Almost immediately after entering, Bolin was accosted by the younger of the two girls. "Hi. Nice to meet you. I'm Ikki. That's Jinora, she has a crush on you", she said while pointing at her sister who had her face buried in a book before immediately returning her attention to him. "You're Bolin right? Korra's boyfriend? Mako's little brother? How old are you? You earthbend right? Can you metalbend?"

"Ikki...", said Tenzin and another woman he assumed was the girl's mother, preparing to chastise their daughter, but Bolin quickly reassured them. "It's ok. Yes, yes, yes, sixteen, yes, and not yet.

The girl stared in wonder at his rapid answers before they were encouraged to sit down to eat.

"So, Bolin", Tenzin started. "My wife and I would like to know what kind of boy we're having live in our home". He felt himself tense at the man's tone, and it must have been noticeable since Korra looked like she was about to reprimand Tenzin until his wife stepped in.

"Relax, sweetheart. We just want to get to know you a little. And my name is Pema". She said that last part with a sly look toward her husband, who looked away in slight embarrassment.

"Oh. Alright ma'am."

"You can call me Pema, it's fine."

"I'll work on that, ma'am", and Bolin gave an awkward smile at that slipup, while Tenzin seemed a little less stern, and continued the conversation. "So Korra said she met you through pro bending. How long have you been doing that?"

"About three years. It started when I was thirteen and Mako was fifteen. We were doing a job taking bets for a match when we saw the guy we were working for paying off one of the team's earthbenders, Toza, to lose the fight on purpose. This guy's one of my favorites, so go up to him later and beg him not to throw the fight, but he said he was all kinds of broke. He ended up listening to me though, because he ended up winning by himself with a knockout! But the guys Mako and I were working for found out I told him not to throw the fight, so they got mad, but Toza protected us, gave them the money back, and said he'd show us how to be probenders and help us find a place to live".

Bolin had to take a breath after letting all that out, noting that it was probably for the best that he hadn't given the family all the details. He wasn't sure if Korra had told Pema and Tenzin the full story of his childhood, but Bolin figured it was best not to mention the people he and Mako had been working for were actually Triple Triad members, at least not in front of the children without really being able to understand their situation.

It wasn't something he was ashamed of, considering their lack of options, but explaining why they had ended up so desperate would probably mean talking about what happened to their parents, and that was a much tougher subject, certainly not appropriate for the current situation. Bolin then just realized he wasn't really prepared to handle follow up questions from the kids, but fortunately Korra spoke up before they were able to ask him anything.

"Hang on...Toza...was that the guy that caught me sneaking into the arena?"

"Yeah, he's actually the gym manager now", he said with enthusiasm and a bit of relief he hoped wasn't noticeable, before turning to face everyone else at the table. "That's how we first met actually. I was getting ready for a match and walking towards the ring entrance when I noticed the two of them talking. She was saying she was 'looking for the bathroom', but Toza didn't believe her and was about to call security when I stepped in and said she was with me, and then I showed her where she could watch us play from".

"But, I had to clarify we were just friends first."

Korra said it with a smile, but for some reason he felt the need to defend himself again. "I honestly wasn't implying anything, I was just trying to annoy Toza enough to leave you alone. Which it did, so you're welcome". He wasn't looking towards her when he said that, but Bolin could tell she was rolling her eyes.

Then the older of the two girls, Jinora, asked a question. "So how did Korra end up on your pro bending team?"

"The waterbender that was on our team before didn't show up for our match, so Korra filled in at the last minute. She helped us get in the tournament so we offered her a spot on the fire ferrets."

The two girls must have been hoping for a longer story, because almost right after he finished Ikki had a follow up. "So when did you ask out Korra?"

That took Bolin by surprise. "Oh, um, well...I-"

Pema then fortunately came to his rescue. "It's ok, you don't have to share anything you don't feel comfortable talking about".

"It's not like they haven't heard about it anyway", Korra muttered under her breath.

"Wait, what?"

"Never mind", she quickly said to brush off his concern.

(-)

After Bolin had finished sharing stories, the group dug into the meal that had been prepared. He was full of praise for Pema's cooking, even offering to help her out in the kitchen when she needed help, saying he was hoping to learn a few things himself. Even Pabu seemed to agree, enjoying the attention from the children as they snuck him food under the table.

However, when the sounds in the room were only of people chewing, Korra noticed that Bolin's face would get a bit sad, not really looking up from his food. But if she tried to reassure him in any way, he would put on a happy face and look at her as if nothing was wrong. So when he volunteered to do the dishes as thanks for letting him stay, Korra offered to help, saying it would go faster with her waterbending, while privately hoping it would be a chance to figure out what was wrong.

After the two of them got started and everyone else left the room, Korra began inquiring about what she thought might be bothering him. "By the way, sorry about Tenzin doing that whole interrogation stuff before. I think he's just trying to make sure Jinora and Ikki don't get any ideas about bringing boys over when they get older."

"No big deal, thought it might be something like that". That should have been encouraging to her, but Bolin said it with a tone that she wasn't used to hearing from him. So Korra brought up another topic that it could be about. "Jinora and Ikki weren't too annoying, right? Just a heads up, they're probably gonna be asking you a lot about our dating life."

"They were fine, nothing to worry about. Are you doing okay?"

Monkeyfeathers, he caught on. Since he knew something was up, Korra thought she might as well be direct now. "I'm fine, I was just worried about you, cause you seemed a little down during breakfast".

"Oh. Well, I was having such a good time with you and everyone else, but I realized I hadn't had a family meal like that since...anyway, this whole morning kind of made me think about them."

Bolin didn't say it directly, but it was a safe assumption that the "them" he was referring to was his parents, now recognizing the way he was speaking was similar to when he told her that they passed away. "Do you want to talk about it? I mean, if you don't, I completely understand, I just thought maybe...".

"It's okay, I know you're trying to help. Anyway, it's not like I can't stand the idea of talking about them, that's more Mako's thing". His expression showed frustration, and although he hadn't shown it before when he offered to help yesterday, Korra was wondering if having time to think on what had happened left Bolin feeling anger toward his brother, but he quickly offered an explanation for his older sibling. "Maybe it's because he's older, has more memories or something like that".

"What do you remember? Only if you're okay with it."

Bolin took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "I think their names were San and Naoki. Feels weird to remember that for some reason. Mako got his looks from our mom, but I look more like our dad. Neither of them could bend, so it was a pretty big surprise when the two of us started doing it. I mentioned it before, but we all loved probending. Our Mom's favorite team was the Dragons, but Dad loved the Badgermoles. The only time they would ever argue is when they played against each other", he said with a sad laugh. "For one of our birthdays they had actually gotten tickets for all of us to go see a match. We didn't have much growing up, so they weren't great seats, but we didn't care. We usually listened on the radio, and that was probably the only time it wasn't playing music".

"Really", asked Korra, trying to take in what he just said.

"Yeah, our mom loved music. I think she might have been a musician or something. It was playing all the time, she loved to dance and cook with my dad. She also had this pipa that she used to play for me and Mako before we went to sleep. I always wanted to get one and teach myself how to play so I could panhandle for money when I was old enough, but it wasn't really something we could ever afford to get."

"Do you remember anything else?"

"A few stories, I'll tell you about them some other time. We should probably finish these dishes soon before we end up getting an earful from Tenzin".

Bolin did seem a little more cheerful, but she would still see a little pain in his eyes. "I'm sorry", Korra said with a dejected tone. "I didn't mean to push you or anything like that."

He looked back at her in surprise. "What? No no no!" He said this while putting her into a tight hug, with both of his arms wrapped around her, one hand on her waist and the other moving up and down her back. After a few moments, he explained. "It kind of sucks now, but it's better to think about the happy stuff with them".

Unlike the hug Bolin had given her after the semifinals, Korra reciprocated his act right away, putting her arms around him so her hands were connected behind his back, while resting her head on his shoulder. While she didn't have any romantic thoughts during their embrace, she did enjoy the comfort of the moment, except that they were both hugging each other with wet hands.

"Thanks", he said a few seconds later. "For listening".

"Anytime."

"You know that goes for you too, right?", Bolin questioned.

"Appreciate it". Korra then took a glance over to the sink. "We should get back to working on that".

"Not quite yet."

"But you just said th-". She cut herself off, not really wanting the moment between them to end either.

(-)

"If we're wrong about this...".

"I know, I'm fired. But the priority is protecting Republic city. We can't allow Amon to get his hands on another weapon".

Bolin decided it was best not to join in on the conversation with Tenzin and the chief, instead just silently agreeing about the risk. He'd accepted there'd be fallout between him and Mako when he'd decided to help Korra with her investigation, but he felt they'd be able to work that out, if for no other reason than they each were the only family they had left.

But raiding the Sato mansion based on information they had no way of knowing was true was a bigger risk than he'd anticipated. Lin having to resign would be a problem, but he also wondered how it would look to people if they didn't find anything to incriminate Mr. Sato, and how the equalists would probably use it as evidence of the "persecution" of non benders.

When they entered the estate and explained their reasons for being there, Asami's skepticism wasn't a big surprise to him. Bolin did notice that Mako was unusually quiet, probably because he and Korra had shown up with the police instead of an apology.

Asami then led them to the workshop she said her dad was in, only to find it unoccupied. After one the officers explained they hadn't seen anyone leave while observing the building, the chief theorized that he didn't leave where they would see him leaving. She then metalbent her suit to expose her foot, which she used to discover a secret tunnel that headed into the mountainside.

"I don't understand", Asami said, confusion clear in her voice. "There must be an explanation for all of this". Bolin wanted to comfort her somehow, but he couldn't find the words.

Korra spoke up."Maybe you don't know everything about your father. I'm sorry", she added with sympathy.

Lin then directed her officers into the tunnel, but stopped him, Mako, and Asami. "Uh-uh, you three stay up here".

"Wait, what?", Bolin asked with frustration. She hadn't had a problem with him tagging along before, but all of a sudden it was too dangerous?

Chief Beifong didn't even acknowledge him. "Officer Song, keep an eye on those three".

Korra looked up at them with sadness in her eyes, but Bolin couldn't tell who it was directed towards. Then he tensed up, feeling familiar eyes looking at him.

He turned away. "Don't, Mako", he said with a voice not much louder than a whisper.

"Bo, I-"

"I said don't", he snapped, and that seemed to get the message across. Bolin was angry with his brother, sure, but there was more to the outburst than just that. He hated the feeling he had right now. That he needed to be coddled and protected. That he wasn't good enough. That he needed to be kept out of things for his own safety.

After hearing a loud noise, uncertainty and anxiety got the better of both him and Mako. They wanted to go down and find out, but the officer staying with them refused to budge. Bolin was able to tell Mako an idea he had to take care of the cop with a loud sniff and rubbing his nose while maintaining eye contact, and his brother fortunately caught on.

Following a flaming sneeze and a trip over a rock sticking out of the floor, the two were able to subdue the man with the trick that had worked well in several other tight spots. "Sorry sir", Mako offered. "We know you were just doing your job."

"Yeah, just stay put until the chief comes back. That sounds very familiar doesn't it, why? Because that's what you said", Bolin added while trying to rub in the irony.

The two went down into the tunnel, but not before Mako stopped Asami, telling her that he would "go find the truth for her", which caused his younger brother to look back at the girl in understanding, now that she was in a position he was familiar with.

When Bolin created an entrance through the floor of the closed off area, what he and Mako saw made them horrified. Korra, Tenzin, and Chief Beifong were all unconscious, while the police there to search the mansion were being loaded into trucks.

"You two were right", Mako murmured. "We gotta do something now".

"Well, duh", Bolin thought to himself as he untied Korra and hoisted her onto his back, while Mako did the same with Tenzin. They both had a hand on Lin to carry her out when they were stopped by Mr. Sato and that weird-mustached guy again.

When Mako figured the man's true intentions out loud about how his generosity was actually a cover, the businessman made no denials, adding insult by saying the only difficult part was having his daughter spend time with bending street rats. Bolin saw a metal glove on the man's hand glow with electricity and braced himself for the pain when he heard Asami's voice cry out to stop.

As Hiroshi tried to explain his actions to his daughter and his motivations for doing them, Bolin felt Korra wake up on his back, which provided him some relief. But that went away when he saw Mr. Sato offer Asami a glove and an offer to work by his side.

The look on her face portrayed her feelings. She was overwhelmed and terrified. Whatever decision she made next, Bolin couldn't really blame her for it. But as she took the glove while trembling, it was hard not to assume the worst was about to happen.

"I love you, Dad"

Then she electrocuted him. Until he passed out. Then she took out the mustache guy really easily. He and everyone else were ironically stunned, but they snapped out of it when Lin woke up and told them all to get moving.

Back on the airship, Korra filled him in on what happened. How the informant had actually been a setup by Hiroshi, and how the "mecha tanks" he had created were able to defeat them rather easily. Then they heard Lin talking to Tenzin. How she had failed, that her men were being taken to Amon because she failed to realize a trap, and that she was going to resign so that she would be able to find her officers without the law's restrictions. Spirits help whoever got in her way.

Then Mako walked toward them, and Bolin excused himself so they could talk in private. However, he was able to stay within earshot while staring out the window to give himself cover. He heard his brother apologize, saying it was difficult to believe that Asami's dad was an equalist. That seemed to be enough for Korra, as she said her offer to live on Air temple island was still available, but Bolin wasn't feeling as forgiving. To smooth things over between them, he felt that at the very least Mako should own up to what he had said to Korra after searching the Future industries factories.

After Mako left to go comfort Asami, Bolin returned to Korra's side, both looking at the heiress with sympathy and gratitude.

Notes: In this story I plan for Bolin to bond a lot with Tenzin, Pema, and the air kids. Sort of take on the role of an older brother like Mako was to him, although a much more fun one. Also wanted to give more background on how things were with Mako and Bolin before they lost their parents, since the show never really touched on that much.

I know Bolin being mad at Mako is kinda out of character, but I have ideas for how it can end up changing Bolin and their dynamic a bit.