Book 2 Chapter 5
The Start of Something New
"Rise and shine sleepy head. You have to get up early today. Don't want to miss your first day of school" Mako sat down on the side of Bolin's bed and rubbed his back.
"Huhh.." Bolin sat up and yawned.
"So you still excited?" Mako smiled at his brother.
"Yea, I am, but I'm also a little nervous. What if I don't get it right away? What if I can't do it?" Bolin looked at Mako for reassurance.
"Hey, you can do it alright. You're an amazing earth bender, mom and dad would be so proud of you" Mako leaned in and gave Bolin a hug,
"I'll make you a big breakfast, now go get ready!" Mako made his way out and decided to stop by Korra's room on the way to the kitchen.
He opened her room door and walked up next to her bed as she slept, "Hey Korra..." Mako whispered as he combed his fingers through her soft brown hair "I know it's early, but today is Bolin's first day of school and I was wondering if you wanted to get up and give him some support before he left. Neither one of us has ever been to school before, so it's a really big deal for us." Mako stopped talking and Korra slowly comprehended what he was saying.
"Uh.. sure.. I'll be up and ready in a few" she said stretching her limbs while yawning
"Thanks, that'll mean a lot to him, and it means a lot to me too. Love you" Mako smiled. He gave her a quick peck on her cheek and hurried off to go make Bolin a hearty breakfast for his big day.
Bolin made his way to the kitchen, letting the scent of food guide him. Mako walked out with a plate full of food, "Now eat up, I made your favorite" Mako said as he put the plates down on the table.
Korra walked in and took a seat near Bolin. "Good morning Bolin!" she greeted.
"Korra! Good morning to you too" Bolin always enjoyed Korra's company. It definitely cheered him up seeing her.
"I'm really excited for you Bolin, I'm sure Lin will have you metal bending in no time! Hey, maybe I should join too.." Korra began to contemplate.
"You should totally ask Lin!" Bolin said joyfully knowing that he would feel less nervous if Korra were there with him.
"You know what, I will! It'll be awesome!" Korra put both her hands in the air.
"What'll be awesome?" Mako asked as he brought two more plates out, one for him and one for Korra.
"Oh, Korra decided to join Lin's school as well. Then we'll both know metal bending" Bolin told his brother.
"That actually may not be such a bad idea. You are the Avatar, it only makes sense that you learn to metal bend as well" Mako said staring at Korra. Korra glanced at the soon to be metal bender,
"Then it's settled. Hurry up and eat Bolin, so we can head over to Bei Fong Academy."
It was a bright beautiful day in Republic City. Shop keepers were opening up their shops and getting ready for the morning rush. Bolin and Korra made their way to the Academy located near city hall. A giant statue of Toph Bei Fong stood outside the building in the courtyard. As the two entered the school they saw dozens of young earth benders, wearing special uniforms standing in line waiting for Lin's instructions.
"Bolin glad you could join us" Lin said approaching the two, "Korra, nice to see you as well. Come to drop Bolin off?" Lin inquired.
"Actually, I was thinking about joining too, if that's alright with you" Korra began feeling a little nervous anticipating Lin's answer.
"Absolutely Korra, I wouldn't be able to do any of this if you hadn't restored my bending" Lin remembered back to the day Amon took her bending. Instead of thinking about never being able to earth bend again, when she closed her eyes in that moment she thought of her mother. Lin turned away from Bolin and Korra to gather two training uniforms to hand to the both of them.
"Go change, we'll begin shortly" Lin said walking away not wanting to be caught in such an emotional state. Toph taught Lin to be strong and remembered when her mother would call her a wuss for crying if she got hit too hard when training. She shook off that feeling and continued on.
"Yes! This is gonna be awesome! I'm really glad you're here with me Korra" Bolin hugged Korra tight.
"I'm so excited! This will be a piece of cake!" Korra smirked as the two headed off to go change.
Mako steadily walked back to his room, hands in his pockets. He walked past Iroh's room when he heard a girl laughing. Mako's eyebrow rose. "Iroh?" Mako walked up to Iroh's room and pushed his ear against the door.
"Haha you should have seen the look on my grandfather's face." Asami would spend time with Iroh around noon for tea in his room while listening to stories about his childhood. She enjoyed this time with Iroh because she would learn so much about him and found his voice to be quite soothing, not to mention he's fairly easy on the eyes as well.
"I didn't know you were such a trouble maker when you were a kid" Asami began giggling.
"Yeah, I was a handful for my mom for sure. Ya know, I think if you ever met her, you two would get a long great" Iroh said taking a sip of his tea without taking his eyes off the beautiful girl he's come to adore sitting in front of him.
"Oh really, what makes you say that?" Asami grinned. "Well I like you, I'm sure she would too" Iroh smiled. Asami's heart skipped a beat when he said that he liked her,
"I-I like you too" she smiled back. Mako took his ear off the door, and stood back. He felt a little weird about Asami and Iroh, yet relieved that he knows she's happy. He walked the rest of his way back to his room to wait for Korra to get back home.
Back at the academy,
"oomff..." Bolin landed flat on his face after getting hit with a giant boulder.
"You need to sense it coming" Lin spoke firmly.
"ughh.. I didn't know I was signing up for all this" Bolin grunted taking his blindfold off and limping towards Korra.
"Korra, you're next" Lin eyed the avatar lying on the ground.
"Ugh" Korra got up slowly and Bolin passed the blindfold to her. She looked at the blindfold with displeasure and put it on. "Feel the rock move against the earth Korra, you must sense my every attack in order to evade it in time" Lin said getting ready to test the avatar.
Korra listened intently as Lin spoke, then got into a firm earth bending stance. "Easy for you to say" Korra mumbled.
Lin sent a giant boulder hurling toward her. Korra tensed up, she knew it was coming but couldn't tell from where, and that's when it hit her.
"Ughhnnn.." The boulder knocked her to her feet and she landed on her back.
"ooooooooooo..." the rest of the class and Bolin flinched and said in unison.
"hmmmm.." Lin closed her eyes and shook her head. "Alright that's enough for today. Metal bending won't come easy, and will take time to master. Everything you're doing right now is exactly what I did in order to learn, so don't feel like I'm making you do this for nothing. Class will begin at 8am sharp, anyone who is late will have to stay late for extra drills. You're dismissed."
A sigh of relief was heard from the class. The students half walked and half limped out the room. Bolin knelt down to help Korra up, "I thought you said this would be a piece of cake."
Korra took her blindfold off, "Boy am I glad that's over, let's go home Bo... I need to take a healing bath..." Korra put one arm around Bolin and the two walked slowly out the academy.
They reached Air Temple Island shortly after they left the school. Mako looked out his bedroom window and saw the ferry pull up to the island. He left his room in a hurry, excited to know how their training went. The two were walking up to the house when Mako ran out towards them,
"Korra! I missed you" he embraced his girlfriend.
"Owww owww" Korra pushed Mako away, "sorry, rough day at school..." Korra said rubbing her back.
"School!? That was torture!" Bolin yelled.
"Wow, was it that bad? Hey come on Korra, let's get you inside" Mako gently picked her up and carried her in.
"Sooo, you're gonna come back and carry me inside too right? No? Ok..." Bolin sighed and slowly followed his brother.
Mako brought Korra to her room and sat her on her bed. "Are you going to be alright?" He said rubbing her back softly.
"Yea, I'll be fine. Definitely going to be sore in the morning though... can't believe I'm going to have to go through this again tomorrow."
Korra lied down on her stomach resting her head on the pillow while Mako began to massage her back.
"You're not going to learn metal bending in a day, stick with it and it'll pay off in the end" he leaned over to give Korra a kiss on her cheek and saw how exhausted she looked.
"Hey Korra, take off your shirt" Mako nudged the back of her collar.
"What?!" she opened her eyes and looked at the fire bending boy sitting on the edge of her bed.
"Take off your shirt, trust me, you'll like what I do" Mako gave her a smirk.
"A-Alright" she sat up and slowly pulled her shirt up and over her head revealing her soft glowing skin and her light blue bra. Wow she's beautiful, Mako thought to himself. She lied back down on her stomach as Mako ran his fingers up her spine.
He could see small bruises on her back that weren't too noticeable, but he still didn't like the fact that she was hurt. He used his fire bending to warm his hands and placed them on Korra's cold back and began to massage her. He could hear small sighs of pleasure coming from Korra. He worked his way from her shoulders down. She had a very strong back, and her muscles were so firm.
"You're right, I do like this" she giggled. He stayed with her until she began to doze off. As soon as he stopped and got up, Korra's eyes opened.
"Go back to sleep Korra" Mako whispered.
"I will if you stay" Korra glanced up at him. "Hmm... alright" Mako took of his scarf, jacket, and shoes, and slid into bed next to her. He wrapped his arms around her as she rested her head and one hand on his chest.
"I love you" Korra mumbled feeling very tired.
"Love you too" Mako said giving Korra one final kiss on top of her head as she drifted off quickly to sleep.