Here we go, guys. Little Bolin's thoughts are simple now due to his youth and innocence. As he ages, his thoughts and the wording with get more complex. Stay tuned!
Mommy and Daddy are arguing.
"He's only six years old, Naoki!"
"I know, but he just healed Mako with waterbending, San! Earth and now water...I mean..."
"How can this be possible? Avatar Aang died six years ago. But everyone's been searching the Water Tribes...The Avatar is supposed to be Water Tribe..."
"I know. And he's half Fire Nation from my side...How...?"
"Master Tenzin...training..."
He and Mako can only pick out a few words and sentences here and there from down the hall, but it's still really scary because Mommy and Daddy rarely ever fight. He doesn't even know what all their words mean, but it can't be good. He must have done something really bad to make Mommy and Daddy mad, but Mako tells him it's okay, that he was only trying to help.
"Protection... Air Temple Island..."
Their parents come out of the room eventually and have Mako and Bolin sit with them on the couch.
"Bolin, honey, we're not mad at you," Mommy says, pushing his curls back from his forehead, as Bolin wipes at his eyes, "We're just..." She starts, but doesn't seem to know what to say.
"Surprised,"Daddy tries to explain.
"Because I bent water even though I'm an Earthbender, like you, Daddy?" He asks, and his parents nod, slowly. "Okay, well, I promise to just Earthbend from now on." Seeming to think the problem is solved. Simple.
"No, you're supposed to waterbend, too!" Mako tells him with enthusiasm. Mako is always right, so this logic confuses him. "And fire...and air!"
"Mako!"
The warning tone in their voices makes Mako quiet again. "Oh...sorry,"
"Sweetheart, listen," Mommy holds his cheeks in her warm hands, so he's looking right in their faces. "We were just surprised because... only one person can bend all four elements. A very... special person called the 'Avatar.'..."
"Do you remember learning about Avatar Aang and his friends from school? Daddy asks, "Seeing his face with the blue arrow on it from your picture books? And the big statue by Yue Bay?"
Bolin nods. "Mmhmm! Kun says he got frozen in a icicle for a billion years!"
San laughs, "Well, not a 'billion'. More like-"
"San," Naoki elbows him.
"What we mean is...we think you may be special like him, like the Avatar,"
"Oh..." He looks at Mako, who nods.
"It's really cool," His brother goes on, "You can bend all the elements. And go into the Spirit World, and beat bad guys! And go into the Avatar State, too!"
Silence fills the room as Bolin seems to ponder this; his bushy brows furrowing, and his bottom lip jutting out slightly.
"Do you understand what Daddy and I are trying to say, honey?"
"I'm like...the Avatar?"
He's nine the first time it happens, though he'll try to push it to the back of his mind for years to come.
It's a normal childhood occurrence, really; the way kids pick on those they don't like or understand. But Bolin is no normal child, and destiny wants him to know it at an early age.
Mako is playing by by the edge of the playground at recces, trying to show the other kids how to twist their fire into dragons and bagerrmoles and everything you're not supposed to do with your bending at recces when teachers aren't looking.
It happens fast, really. In later years, Mako will tell him it only lasted a few minutes. But to him it will be like hours. The way Mako and another boy cries out as a sharp icicle slices both their legs as it whizzes past; the ice that was meant for the tiny nonbender boy who likes to stick gum under desks, but never makes it that far. (It was meant to get him wet, the big brute of a waterbender boy will say, his dark skin shiny with sweat, not hurt them. I didn't mean to make it sharp and hurt them,)
It didn't matter. The damage was already done.
Mako and Nuan go down, both yelling and grasping their legs. And really, a normal child would have called the teacher over, and gotten the nurse. But all Bolin can see is the blood. Mako's blood streaming down his leg as he clutches his wound, and Nuan is crying and-
He feels the anger first-he remembers that much. Its hot anger accompanied by a numbing, tingling feeling swelling up from his center and spreading up his body until his hands feel like he's touched the surface of the sun and his eyes fill up with something bright and white that hurts but feels like it's coming from inside him-
He blinks, and feels power.
His whole body seizes up as whatever was inside him, explodes outward. He feels his feet lift off the ground, and the wind picks up and swirls around. He's the eyes of the storm, and everyone else is just collateral damage in his path. In the back of his mind, somewhere far away he hears screams. Teachers, students. Everyone.
But he's screaming, too. And he doesn't feel like himself. Like he's hundreds of other people at once. Young, old. Wise, noble. He hears their voices in his head and he feels them combining their energies and knowledge and feelings and souls through his body. He's a thousand years old and a billion people at once.
He's the center of the universe. As he looks around at the world though his yellow-tinted haze he can see all the chi and energy of everything around him. He feels like he could do anything. He feels like he could talk to the dead.
The anger surges through him now, hot and merciless. "You hurt him!" But his voice echoes thousands of ancient beings. The wind swirls around him faster. The ground beneath him shakes to his will.
More screaming from down below. But Bolin has to make them know. He has to make them and everyone understand that no one hurts Mako, or any of his family.
No one.
"You hurt Mako!" The other voices bellow and echo over his own, booming with power. "You'll pay for this!"
The voices tell him to use fire, to use earth. They move his arms up like puppet strings, and fire blasts from his palms. Their chants fill his ears.
He hears it then, a different voice. Not from inside him, but familiar all the same.
"Bolin!"
Mako, it's Mako's voice. He hears it, feels his brother somehow. But he can't see him.
"Bolin! Bolin, it's me, Mako! I'm okay, Bo! Stop!"
He feels the anger lighten, just a bit. The storm at his center calming slightly.
He lowers his arms. The energy of the universe shifts. "Mako...?"
"Yeah, bro, it's me!" the voice yells, "It's okay! Come back, please!"
Somehow, he knows his body is slowly floating downward. He feels the wind weaken.
Mako's voice is still talking to him, still encouraging him, saying he's doing a good job, that he's almost there.
The voices quiet down, and the the sounds of his own name form back in his memory. He registers that he's a single person, as the fibers of his being slowly remember his own existence. Bolin/Bolin/Bolin. Something soft and warm is on his forearm. He sees a blurry figure through his tinted-haze of vision, and is aware that the warm sensation belongs to a hand.
He's feet land on solid purchase just as he's enveloped in a tight embrace. He feels the pulse of the other persons' chi against his own. The tingling sensation begins to melt away.
He reminds himself again that it's Mako. Mako's okay, he's fine, he's okay, okay, okay...
"It's okay, Bo. I'm okay. You can come back now," Mako's is soft, but firm now. He no longer has to yell to be heard.
Bolin blinks, and his vision clears. He head is resting against Mako's shoulder in a tight embrace. The courtyard behind them is a disaster zone.
He has just enough time to moan out his brother's name, before exhaustion seizes his entire body. He sags against Mako like a limp noodle, his eyes rolling to the back of his head.
He's unconscious before he hits the ground.
He wakes up in his own bed.
His eyes flit open, and he groans. The pulsing in his head like thunder cracking across the sky.
Then it all comes back in a rush of colors and sensations; the playground, Mako, the blood, his anger, the brightness in his eyes.
A panicked yelp leaves his mouth before he bolts up in bed, "Gahhhhh!"
"Bolin!"
He will push this memory of what happened to the back of his mind for years to come, only recalling it when the time is right. But for for right now, the pain is fresh. For right now, he remembers all too well.
He turns and sees his parents. His father is resting on a chair to the right, while his mother emerges from the threshold of the door. She hastily puts down a tray on the table before rushing up to him, enveloping him in a hug. Dad comes to sit on the end of the bed with them, wrapping both of them in his stocky arms.
"Oh, baby," mom's breath is hot against his neck as she wraps her arms around his frame, "my baby, I'm here,"
"I-I'm s-sorry!" he squeaks, "I g-got scared and angry and-" his words are broken off by his tears.
Mom and Dad let him cry for a while, letting it all out. The small comforts they tell him do little to ease the horrible feeling in his belly. They tell him it's not his fault, that he didn't know any better. That Mako and everyone are okay.
As he whips his tears away, Dad puts a hand on his shoulder. "Son," he looks at him with his big, green, eyes, "There is someone we want you to meet."
Bolin looks up at his parents faces. "Some nice people close to here, are going to help train you," Mom says, her eyes glistening, "to help you control your powers, and learn bending, and everything it means to be a great Avatar,"
He feels his eyes water again, "You're sending me away?"
"No!" they intermediately reply. "Of course not, honey," Mom brushes his hair back from his forehead.
"We're you're family. We will always be your family," they look at him sternly in the eyes, making sure he understatements this. "You'll be living here, but during the day...you're going to be training with Avatar Aaang's son, Master Tenzin,"
"You remember where he lives, right?" Dad asks.
He nods. "On Air Temple Island," Everyone in the City knows that. He's seen the bald man walking around, his ancient red robes swaying about his feet. He blue arrow looked like the sky and stuck out against his white head.
"Master Tenzin is going to be your new teacher. You'll love him, he's very nice," Mom sighs, "He's going to help you,"
Dad looks away like he's trying not to cry. His eyes look kind of sad, but when he faces Bolin again, his eyes are dry. "Do you have any questions, kiddo?"
He has a billion questions. Like what was wrong with him? What did he do at the playground when he got angry? Who were those voices talking to him? How come he can't bend fire no matter how much he tries? And how come people in the streets have whispered his name, along with the mention of the Water Tribe? How come they think he's supposed to be from the Water Tribes?
"Bolin?" The look at him, lovingly, patient, waiting.
He shakes his had, 'no' and looks down.
"But...Mako's okay?" he asks in a small voice.
"Mako's fine, hon. He's in the other room and wants to see you, but we wanted you to rest until you woke up."
They wait a minute in silence. The gravity of the situation taking hold. Then dad reminds him that he has someone to see.
Bolin takes a deep breath and holds Mommy's hand tight, as he waits for Dad to return to the room.
"Bolin...?"
He peeks his eyes up from his lap, then, slowly. In front of him is the man he's only seen a handful of times walking in the City; heard on the radio; read about in school; heard about in bedtime stories. How many times have he and Mako pretended to be these ancient heroes, running around their room and out in the yard?
It was supposed to be all just pretend.
His arrow is bright blue, and his robes drape around his shoulders with the delicateness and wisdom of centuries past. His beard is dark and long. His dimples deepen when he smiles, and his blue eyes look at him in a warm, loving way no one has ever looked at him before.
"Hello, Bolin," he takes a step closer into the room, and his smile grows, "I've been waiting to meet you for quite some time now..."
So, what do you guys think, really? Is it took cheesy? I mean, he's only nine right now. Shit shall hit the fan soon.
Please let me know what you think! :)