When Mako and Bolin get back to the apartment, they relax on the couch. Finally looking satisfied, Mako puts Min down next to him so she can eat her water downed rice. He breathes out a sigh of relief when she continues eating, with no sign of her going to cry. "Honestly Bo, I just want to relax for the rest of the day."
"Me too. After all the training I've been doing with the rookies, has gotten me tired lately."
"Speaking of that, how are you with your training? Need any help?" Mako offers his younger brother.
Bolin shakes his head, "Nah, the season is almost over any way, thanks though. But other than that, it's going a lot better than from when we first started. At least the Fire Ferrets aren't the worst team anymore." He sighs.
Mako smiles sadly at his brother, he knew how stressed he was with his new team captain status. He wasn't acting immature like he usually did; maybe he was finally growing up, "I hope so, I miss the old you."
"Hey," Bolin protests, "I'm still the brother that you know and love!"
Mako laughs at Bo's offensive side, "I meant the part of you that used to crack jokes all the time and make everyone laugh. You being so serious just isn't like you; I didn't mean it in a bad way." He pauses for a moment before adding jokingly, "Besides I'm supposed to be the serious brooding one."
Bolin lets out a laugh, "I'll try my best to get back to my 'old me' soon. We both know that you're not like that all the time." He smiles down to Min who was now flinging her rice everywhere, "Hey Mako…" He points down to his niece.
When Mako looks down his eyes widen and he immediately stops Min, "No," He gently tells her, "Rice is meant for eating, not a toy." He couldn't believe Bo and himself didn't notice her throwing rice all over the hard wood floor and furniture. And what made matters worse was that some of the grains were smashed into the rug; he was going to have a great time cleaning this up.
Suddenly, the only sound that filled his ears was Min's screaming. He looked down to his daughter who had tears going down her face. Mako immediately tried gently bouncing her up and down and shushing to her quietly, but it only made her cry even more. "I wasn't yelling at you, shhh."
Mako sighs in frustration, "Bo, can you please try calming her down while I clean this up?"
"Sure thing big bro," Bolin gets up from the couch to hold Min while Mako goes into the kitchen for the broom, and dustpan. "C'mon, your dad wasn't trying to be mean. Well, I kind of wish he was so that you would come running to me and I would be your favorite."
Mako snickers, "Maybe check her diaper?"
Bolin hesitates at first; he wasn't too fond of changing diapers, it wasn't exactly his expertise. He stretches the back of Min's diaper and peeks in to see if she left anything in there, but, it was clean. He sighs, relieved, "Nope."
"Give her one of her bottles, it's on the counter. It's already warmed up so don't worry about it. If that doesn't work try giving her the pacifier," Mako instructs Bolin as he focuses picking up the grains of rice off of the rug.
Bo rushes over to the counter for the bottle; once she has the teat in her mouth, she finally stops crying and starts drinking its warm liquid goodness. "Thank you," he mutters to himself. He continues bouncing her gently and holding the bottle.
The bottle finally becomes empty and that's when she starts crying again, "Mako!" Bolin cries out desperately, "What do I do?"
"Give her the pacifier," Mako replies as he sweeps up the rice to the best of his abilities. "Don't worry Bo, I'm almost done."
Bolin reaches over on the counter and grabs Min's blue water tribe pacifier that her grandparents gave her. "Here ya go," Bolin murmurs as he pops it into her mouth. His face falls when his niece spits it out. The pacifier falls to the floor with a soft clatter. She wails louder than before and her tears become more frequent.
"Alright," Bolin says cautiously. But then he thinks of something that might make her laugh, "Maybe this will help." He covers his face with both of his hands, his palms facing his face, "Where am I?" He waits a second before he suddenly removes his hands off of his face, "Here I am!"
The toddler stares at her uncle for a minute in silence. Once she sees what he was trying to do, she cries even harder in protest. "Don't scare her," Mako warns Bolin.
"I wasn't trying to but I guess I did." He continues bouncing her up and down, "I'm sorry," he talks to Min, "I didn't mean to scare you." 'If only Pabu was here to keep her company, I'm sure she would love him.' He thinks to himself.
He finally thinks to do the thing that most kids loved, playing with their toys. Bolin rushes over to the crate full of dolls and other various toys. He reaches in with one arm and holding the doll up to her, "Is this what you?" He asks the little girl.
Eventually, she takes it out of her uncle's hands. But she doesn't play with the doll like he expected, instead, she throws it across the room and continues screaming her head off.
Mako finally finishes his clean up of the thrown rice, well, of what he could manage to clean at least. "Here, let me try calming her down." He reaches for his daughter and Bolin hands her over willingly. To Bolin's surprise, she continues crying.
"Maybe she's on my side after all," Bolin says with a smug grin on his face.
"Ha. Ha. Very funny Bolin," Mako retorts sarcastically, he sighs, and "Usually she just stops her fussing when I hold her; she must be mad at me now from stopping her with the rice disaster."
"We have to do something. She's been crying for the past hour," Bolin whines, "Let's go out of the house and go to the park or something. She can play with other girls her age."
"Bo," Mako warns, "I told you before, Korra doesn't like having her go out of the apartment." Just then, something occurred to him, he remembered the lullaby his mother used to sing to him and Bolin when they were younger. He used to hum it to Min to get her to sleep when she was just a baby. She didn't need the lullaby anymore; she got to sleep fine lately. "Why don't we both just hum the song mom used to sing to us?" Mako smiles up to his brother.
"That could work!" Bolin exclaims. He clears his throat and with that, they start humming the sweet melody in unison. After a minute of her clearly not calming down, they give up. They both breathe a sigh as they plop on Mako's couch. "What are we going to do now? We tried everything."
Mako finally gives in, contemplating Bolin's request earlier, "You know what? Let's go to the park."
"It's about time you listened to me!" Bolin shouts as they get their coats on, "She'll love it there… I hope." With that, they finally leave the apartment in hopes of Mako's little girl will be happy when they do so.
Sorry for the long delay, I was busy with other stuff but I promise Part 3 will be up within a week! Thank you for all of the kind reviews :) They are most appreciated :D P.S. Part 3 will be the final chapter in this story.