CHAPTER THREE - Caged

Everyone froze. It seemed like entire minutes were ticking by while they all just stood there, stunned.

"Wait...I know your face from somewhere," Asami said, wrinkling her nose in thought. "Do you go to Avatar University too?"

Korra felt goosebumps. Even if she hadn't looked up the house and saw Bolin's picture online, his murder had been all over the news for weeks last summer. They had shown his picture nonstop on every channel, every newspaper, every homepage. The innocent, loveable youth with a bright future, murdered by an unknown gang of thugs in a really good neighborhood. It had been a big deal.

"Hello? What's wrong with you guys?" She waved her hand at them.

Bolin's eyes were wide as saucers. He gaped at Korra and Mako, completely at a loss. It had been a year since anyone but them had spoken to him. A year since anyone had even looked in his direction. Now, probably for the first time in his life, he had no words. This girl was just standing there like everything was normal, making eye contact and asking questions.

They had no answers.

"Um..." Korra cleared her throat. "I...just...you can see him?"

Asami didn't even need to say anything. The quirk in her eyebrows said it all. That was a weird-ass question to ask.

It took a moment for Korra to register that Mako was grabbing at her shoulder. The expression on his face startled her - it had been a very, very long time since the vampire had actually been afraid of something. When you were literally the thing of nightmares, you were generally the one that did the scaring. And yet, there he was, nervously pulling her behind him for safety.

"Who are you?" he snarled.

"What?" Asami asked blankly.

"Ignore him," Korra said quickly, pushing him off and pressing a hand to his chest to calm him. "Mako, would you chill out, please?"

Easier said than done. They had no idea why this stranger could suddenly see and hear Bolin, when literally no one else could, and that made this "normal" human girl the most terrifying thing in a house full of monsters.

Granted, no other vampires or werewolves ever really had the opportunity to come to the house and see or hear Bolin, so their assumption that only supernaturals could see him may have been largely untested. But among the endless parade of passerbys, delivery guys, and other people that loitered around the neighborhood, there was never a single human who noticed him, no matter how much he didn't shut up.

Bolin scampered behind Korra and whispered into her ear.

"Abort! Abort!"

Whatever Asami was, they needed to shut down Operation: Being Human and get her out of the house before she realized what she was actually looking at. A line of freaks.

"This is just Mako's little brother," Korra said hastily. "We told him to stay in Mako's room. We were trying to hide the fact that he, uh, lives here too. He's, um, he's really obnoxious and rude and likes listening to 80s pop really loud in the middle of the night, so…"

For just a second, Bolin managed to stop looking terrified and looked thoroughly insulted

"...it gets super crowded and loud in this house sometimes. Lots of Duran Duran. Sorry, this must not be what you were expecting. We're awful and deceptive, oh well! Let me show you to the door! Sorry for wasting your time!"

Asami stumbled as Korra forcefully tried to usher her out. She was already in the hallway before she managed to whirl around.

"Wait! What's the matter?" she demanded. "I like the room!"

"We have cockroaches," Korra said.

"What?"

"And rats."

"What is going on here?!"

Mako was still seething suspiciously. "Did someone send you here?"

"I saw your ad on Craigslist. I emailed you guys and you said I could come. What is your problem?!" Asami scowled and turned back to Bolin. "And you, why do you look so familiar? You must go the the university too, right?"

"He does!" Korra yelped, at the exact same time Mako said, "He doesn't."

But Asami was ignoring them now, peering at Bolin with her brow knitted in concentration. "Have we met before?"

"Don't answer her," Mako hissed. "Get back in my room, Bo."

Asami suddenly snapped her fingers. " Bo! As in Bolin, right?"

Korra was just about ready to pass out at that point. Mako grew even paler. Asami didn't seem to notice either of their reactions, instead squinting her eyes to scrutinize the poor, speechless ghost.

"Bolin. That's your name, isn't it?" she asked him. "Why do I know your name? Where do I know you from?"

"It's a small campus!" Korra practically yelled. Avatar University was actually the largest university in the United Republic, but she was desperately grasping at straws. There had to be a way out of this. "Everyone knows everyone somehow, right?"

Now it was Asami's turn to be suspicious. "Seriously, what's going on here?"

Bolin swallowed hard, a purely vestigial reflex that he apparently had been saving for this exact appropriate situation.

"I, uh, I should probably go," he squeaked finally, his voice tiny and very un-Bolin. But Korra could see the wheels turning in Asami's head. Slowly, a look of horrified realization dawned on her face, and she knew it was all over. The jig was up.

"Wait a minute... Bolin ...are you…?" she gasped. "You're the boy from the news. Last year, last summer, the boy that was chased into…"

The Slaughterhouse. He looked stricken. She had finally pieced it together.

"A-Asami…" Korra began, although she had no idea what to say after that.

"No way. No fucking way," she whispered. "How can...you're the boy that was murdered!"

"Okay, that's enough. Get out of here, Bo," Mako tried to move his brother away. Unfortunately, his efforts to defuse the situation went south as his arms went right through him. Asami staggered back.

"What the fuck. What the fuck?! "

Korra held up her hands cautiously and slowly inched towards her, as if Asami was a frightened pet and she was just trying to get her back in the carrier so they could go to the vet.

"Okay, wait. Listen, this isn't - I mean, we can explain - "

But she wasn't interested. She bolted down the hallway, towards the stairs from where they came. Mako was, of course, faster. He snagged her by the arm, but to everyone's surprise, she grabbed his hand and crouched over, leaning all her weight forward and sending the mighty vampire toppling over her back and into the staircase. He tumbled to the bottom, stunned by the decorated black belt.

They all took a moment to be somewhat impressed by that.

"Korra, move!"

"Right, right - " She took off after her, but despite her peak fitness and physique, Korra wasn't an all-powerful vampire. Asami had a head start and was already opening the front door.

Bolin, however, was becoming quite a powerful ghost. He teleported in front of the terrified girl and allowed her to pass completely through his body. Korra knew firsthand that for whatever cosmic, supernatural reason, moving through a spirit was unsettling. The only time she'd done it was an accident - she had stumbled in the kitchen and Bolin had instinctively tried to catch her. She fell through him and the entire experience took maybe half a second, but for Korra it had felt much longer. She was just falling through an endless dense fog, unable to see or breathe. At some point she blacked out, and when she woke up feeling like hours had passed, Bolin had to convince her that it had just been a moment, and that she was in fact still in the kitchen with a stew just starting to bubble on the stove.

Asami staggered, falling to the floor in a daze.

"Sorry!" he apologized. He reached down to take her arm, and she just stared blankly, unable to regain her composure. She tried in vain to shove the ghost away, but her arms were just flailing aimlessly. "Sorry, I don't want to hurt you. I - oh, stop trying to hit me. I can't feel it. Stop that!"

He wrapped his arms, suddenly solidified, around her and she cried out in fear.

"Where am I!? What's happening?!"

"Bolin, I've got her," Korra said, quickly subduing the confused girl in a less frightening bear hug.

"What - how did - what is going on!? " she demanded, struggling against her strong arms. Asami may have been crafty, but when it came to brute strength, Korra had the advantage. Gradually, though, she began to come to her senses. She could see her start to remember everything. "Oh my God!"

"Asami, don't - don't freak out!" Korra tried to say softly as Mako joined them. He was the strongest out of all of them, so he took her from Korra and restrained her. She wished he'd be just a little gentler, but the girl was starting to thrash harder. "Just - just, please, calm down…"

"Calm down!?" she shrieked. "Help! Help! "

"The basement!" Mako said quickly. If it could muffle the sounds of an outraged werewolf, it would quiet her screaming enough. Someone would call the police if she was heard, and there was absolutely no way they could explain any of this away.

Mako clamped a hand over her mouth to stop her shouting. She bit him hard and he howled, pulling his hand away. Bolin used his own corporeal hand to replace it. Asami bit again, but Bolin didn't even flinch.

"Mmmmppphh! Mmmph!"

"I told you, I can't feel it," he said. "Just relax, you have to quiet down!"

The three of them dragged her down into the basement and Bolin slammed the door shut behind them.

Korra pulled on Mako's arms. "Okay, let her - let her go! Stop dragging her around!"

He released his grip, but Asami immediately dove for the stairs. Mako grabbed her again, this time time lifting her up off the floor. She bravely punched at his head, shouting at the top of her lungs.

"Get off me, asshole!"

"Get the cage open!" he ordered his brother. Bolin looked reluctant, but did as he was told, throwing aside the tarp they'd used to cover up Korra's cage. Asami's eyes widened.

"We can't just throw her in there!" Korra protested.

"No choice," Mako said harshly, shoving the kicking and scratching girl inside. He locked the door and fell back, still kind of in shock.

"You can't do this!" Asami shouted angrily. "I don't know what kind of gang-related shit I walked into here, but if you don't let me go - !"

"Asami, calm down - " Korra tried again.

"No! Fuck you !" she cried. "You and him and… and-and-and that guy that's supposed to be dead, what the fuck is going on here?!"

"Ummm - "

"No. No! I don't want to fucking know!" she clamped her hands over her ears. "Just...just let me out, and I won't say a word. I swear, I won't tell anyone anything. I don't care about any of this. I don't fucking care, I just wanted to rent a room!"

"What do we do?" Bolin whispered, as if still afraid of Asami hearing him. He had forgotten how to talk to someone that wasn't her or Mako. "Why can she see me?"

"Until we figure that out, we can't let her go," Mako said firmly.

"What?!" Korra yelped. "What do you mean, you want to keep her prisoner!?"

"We don't know who she is. Who she's working for."

"Working for?!" Asami cried. "What the hell are you even…!?"

"What are you talking about, Mako?" Korra demanded. "We know who she is, just some college girl!"

"Do we really know?" Mako glared at her. "How can she see Bolin? She's not like us, not one of us. Her blood smells like regular human blood, I know you can smell it too."

Asami was staring at all of them now, struck silent and her eyes wide. She couldn't have understood. She didn't have that taint of death Korra could smell on vampires, and she didn't have the smell of werewolf blood that turned away vampires. If anything, Korra could see the familiar look of discomfort in Mako's eyes. She saw it whenever they were together on the street or in large crowds. He wanted to bite her, pretty badly. Asami was very, very much human.

"We don't know what this is," Mako said. "It's not safe to just let her run off. Not with all she knows. She's seen Bolin and knows who he is!"

Korra rounded on him. "So we hold her hostage? Are you insane!?"

"Then what do you propose we do?!" Mako demanded. "Let her loose to tell everyone?! Get us on the news? Let her come back with her people to attack us? What if whoever she's working for - "

"I don't know," Korra said, tugging at her hair in exasperation. "But she's not - God, she's working for anyone, Mako! Why do you keep saying that?!"

He fumbled for words. "I'm...I'm just saying, there has to be a reason she can see Bolin! She can't be a normal human. Normal humans don't see ghosts!"

Korra glared at him suspiciously. He was hiding something again, and something was telling her that it had something to with losing his job. Working at the hospital was the only thing he was ever quiet about with them, it was the only part of his life he kept Bolin and Korra from. There had to be a reason for that.

It bothered her that he refused to open up, even more concerning to her than this girl that could see dead people.

"Mako, who would she be working for?"

"No one! I don't know!" He threw up his hands and averted his eyes from her. "We just have to be careful!"

"Careful about what?"

"You don't think it's a little fishy that she's the only one to answer our ad?"

"I think you're being fishy."

As they stared each other down, Bolin walked up to the cage, where Asami had at some point fallen on her ass. She was gaping at all of them with expression of horror, mixed with disbelief and confusion.

"Sorry about all this," he said to her sheepishly. "You're right, I'm Bolin. That Bolin. Mako's brother. I'm dead. I'm a ghost, or, I don't know, like a spirit or something. Um, Mako's dead too. Kind of. Un dead, really. He's a vampire. And Korra's a werewolf. But like, not right now. She only turns into one of those on full moons."

Korra and Mako's argument fell flat as Bolin spoke, for the first time to someone that wasn't them. At least, to someone that actually could hear him. It was strange to witness another person react to his words.

"Vampire." Asami repeated. "Werewolf."

"Yeah. I...you're the first person in a year that can actually see or hear me since I died, other than these two," Bolin explained. "We thought only supernaturals - vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and whatever else is out there - could see me. Forgive them for freaking out a little."

"A little?! I'm in a cage! " She cautiously climbed to her feet.

"Yeah, I know. This isn't our greatest moment," he looked over at us. "I say they let her out."

"No," Mako said firmly.

"Mako!" Korra refused to be as big a dick about all this as he was, but at the same time she did see his point. If she was wrong and Mako was right, they could possibly be in danger. Also, he would never let her hear the end of it.

Still, they couldn't just imprison Asami forever. She was a person, and Korra got absolutely no bad vibes from her to indicate she was lying or hiding anything. She just seemed like a scared and pissed off girl that did not mean to get this in over her head.

Asami bit her lip uncertainly. It seemed she had decided to be more comfortable with Bolin then the rest of them.

"You're...you really got murdered? You're really that guy?"

Bolin nodded. "Yeah, I'm that guy. Or just the ghost of that guy. I'm not sure if there's a difference. It doesn't feel like there is, I still feel like me, but evidence has proven otherwise."

He reached out and swiped a hand clean through the bars of the cage. Asami gasped, stumbling back a little.

"Sorry, I know it's weird."

She shook her head, as if trying to shake the memory out of her brain. "I don't know how you people have me halfway believing this shit, but…God, how did you do that?!"

"Um, I just did it? It's actually harder to not do that." Bolin demonstrated by solidifying his hand and grasping the same bar she was clutching. "Doing this actually expends more energy. Way more. Like, one time I held onto my XBox controller for so long I passed out. At least, I thought I passed out. According to these guys I actually kind of...ceased to exist for a couple hours. Completely disappeared, with no memory of what happened."

Korra bit her lip. She hated thinking about that night. He'd been gone for seven hours, and she and Mako had turned the entire house inside out looking for him. It was the middle of the night and she'd stayed up the entire time until dawn, when he'd reappeared exactly where he had been - in front of the TV. Bolin only remembered feeling very faint. They still had no idea where he'd gone, but forbid him from doing it ever again.

"I always come back, though. The universe won't let me move on. Hence...ghost."

For whatever reason, this seemed to resonate the most with Asami. If only for just a moment, she seemed contemplative. Almost content, as if none of this was actually possible, until Bolin told her about that.

Korra had to give the girl credit, despite everything, Asami seemed to be taking this whole thing a lot better than anyone could be expected to. She still remembered her moment, the moment the world as she knew it ended for her. Years ago, not long after she was first bitten but before her first change, she'd met her first ghost. It was an old man, well-dressed in old fashioned garb that hinted he'd died some time in the 70s. He was her first acquaintance in the supernatural world, though she definitely couldn't have called him a friend. He babbled and raved gibberish, and Korra thought perhaps he was lost, or worse, homeless. But when she tried to touch him, her hands went straight through, and that was when she realized nothing was at all what she thought.

Ghosts were real - harmless and depressing, but very real beings that no one else could see. The angrier spirits she was seeing seemed to sense her fear and tormented her, followed her and howled, pretending to grab her even though none of them really could. Korra could also smell death's touch on some people who were definitely alive and not spirits, but Mako would soon teach her that those were vampires. Actual, real undead creatures that drank blood and killed people to survive. The vampires could sense she was a werewolf as well, though they mostly kept her distance. Having unappetizing werewolf blood kept her safe, but she knew that this was reality, not a creepy urban fantasy. All her life she was surrounded by so-called "evil creatures" of myth and she'd never known. It was all overwhelmingly maddening.

"I'm...sorry," Asami said finally.

Mako's nostrils flared angrily his eyes flashed red. He was going into "vamp mode" as Bolin called it.

"He doesn't need your pity ," He snarled, baring his teeth at her as his fangs descended. That scared her all over again. She jumped back, into what Korra recognized as an impressive martial arts defense stance.

"Hey!" Korra made a point to push him away, to show her that he was all show and wouldn't actually hurt her. His tough guy act was completely unnecessary. "He's just really protective of his brother. Forgive him for being fucking rude ."

She turned and pushed at him again. "Put your face away, asshole."

"We can't let her go. Bo just put all our shit on blast!"

"I feel like having your hand go through him earlier kind of gave us away first, dumbass."

"I knew this was a bad idea. We should've never tried this!"

"Shut up, Mako," Bolin said. He looked at Asami apologetically. "My brother was with me when I was attacked. I was killed by a group of vampires. That's how I was murdered, but they didn't kill him. They turned him into one of them ."

Asami barely looked like she was listening, instead keeping her eyes focused on Mako, who was glaring right back at her with blood-red pupils.

"He doesn't hurt humans, though," Bolin continued, helping Korra push his brother backward. "Right, Mako? You don't hurt humans."

Sometimes when Mako went into "vamp mode" like this, it was harder for him to control his temper. Regular Mako wouldn't hurt a fly - he was a vegetarian for God's sake - but once he got his fangs out, he had a harder time keeping his cool.

"It's been hard for all three of us. So, just please, understand our...aggressive overreaction here. Also, Korra owes the Swear Jar two yuans and Mako owes it one."

"This is not the time for that shit, Bo."

"Two yuans."

Korra frowned. "I thought we decided 'ass' wasn't a swear? We say it too much."

"Ass counts, if only just to stop us from saying it so much. Why do we say it so much?"

"We have an ass problem."

"Maybe you guys have an ass problem. Mine is fantastic, thank you very much."

"Oh my God, you guys, we're going to need another jar."

Asami suddenly cleared her throat.

"And what can you do?"

They all turned to her, startled. Did she seriously just ask them a question as if she were genuinely curious about the insanity of their lives?

"Uh. Huh?" Korra asked eloquently.

"What can you do?" Asami repeated cautiously. "You...turn into a wolf?"

"Uh, not on command," she shrugged nervously. "I can't show you, but that's probably for the best. That cage you're in is actually mine. They lock me up in there every full moon so I don't go running around Republic City eating people."

Asami looked alarmed.

"No, I make them do it!" Korra said quickly. "That's only once a month. I have no control over it, and I'm not conscious of it when I'm changed. Otherwise I'm just me… I mean, I have a really good sense of smell? Like, I know you had chicken fajitas for lunch, with some horchata. From Tu Casa, right? I love that place. And you drink a lot of coffee. I don't, but Mako does, even though it doesn't really serve a purpose for him. He just likes the taste, and I guess caffeine addiction transcends death, huh?"

Korra was babbling, she could hear herself. But this afternoon was becoming a lot more than she had thought it would be. When she couldn't do anything, she said anything.

"Uh, I was bitten by a werewolf freshman year. A couple months before I met Mako, actually. Um, that's a long story."

"I didn't know she was a werewolf," Mako felt the need to add.

"No. And he wasn't a vampire at the time, either."

"Apparently being a werewolf made her feel like she was a danger or something to me, so she broke up with me."

"That's not the only reason - but this is, uh, may be a little too much information for one time," Korra rubbed the back of her neck anxiously. "You know, you can tell me to shut up any time. Why are you people letting me talk?"

Bolin grinned at Asami. "Imagine living with these two. Or, well, I guess you were, for a little while there."

Asami made a weird, incredulous, sardonic "Psh" noise.

"Also, for the record, she's the one into Duran Duran, not me. Hungry Like The Wolf, get it?"

"I like the one song!" Korra said heatedly. "And I only like it ironically!"

"But you see, the reason they freaked out is because no one can know about us. The human world wouldn't be able to handle us. We have to stay a secret."

"So you put out an ad for a roommate on Craigslist!? " she squawked.

"Not my idea," Mako said unhelpfully.

"We needed the money," Korra explained sheepishly, although it was all starting to feel more than a little stupid now. "Bolin has been trapped in this house since the murder. We don't know why or how, but we need to stay here with him until we figure it out. We can't abandon him. But a nice house like this, in this neighborhood? It was only a matter of time before money became an issue."

Asami stared at the three of them for a moment, unbelieving, before turning just to Bolin.

"Look," she said gently. "Just let me out. Let me go home, and I'll leave you guys alone. I won't tell anyone about...whatever is going on here."

"There's nothing going on here," he insisted. "We're just a regular vampire, werewolf, and ghost living together in this house, trying to be normal. That's all."

"Normal? Do you even know what that word means? "

"No," Bolin admitted. "Do you?"

Asami opened her mouth and sputtered, but no actual words came out. Korra didn't know what she was thinking, but her guess was that her life wasn't all that "normal" either.

"That's what I thought. Maybe we're...different. But they're my family and nothing is more normal and human than family. We'd do anything for each other. And we'd do anything to protect each other from people who try to come after us."

He said it in a friendly tone, Bolin didn't have any other kind of tone really, but it was clearly a threat. Mako and Korra shared a look upon hearing it. They didn't even know Bolin was capable of such a thing.

"What are you people even afraid of?" Asami demanded, pointing at each one of us. " You have fangs. You are literally untouchable. And you can turn into a wolf and...eat people or whatever! Why are you scared?!"

Mako's eyes hardened. "Humans are plenty dangerous. There are a lot more of you than there are of us. And you attack what you don't understand."

"What about me? I'm a human that can see ghosts, apparently. I'm something you 'don't understand'." She waved her hands around at the cage they'd locked her in. "What do you call what you're doing to me? "

Korra frowned and nodded. She had a point, they were attacking her. It was admirable, really, how level-headed she was being. They had basically revealed to Asami that all her wildest fears were true. Three living nightmares had just locked her in a cage in their basement. But instead of cowering in the farthest corner and wetting herself, she had gotten to her feet and clutched the steel bars that separated her from them. She wasn't backing down. In fact, she'd pinpointed their exact weakness and she was playing it.

Their humanity. Or whatever was left of it.

"She's got you there, bro," Bolin said, elbowing him.

"I'm not coming after you. And I'm not working for anyone." She cast a glance at Mako, who was still in full vamp mode. "I don't know why I can see you, Bolin, but I don't want to hurt any of you. And I especially don't want you people to hurt me. I just want to go home. Please."

They looked at her for a very long time.

"We let her go," Bolin said, going over to the cage.

"What?!" Mako demanded. "We can't just - Korra, come on, talk to him!"

He was depending on her to make the decision. Bolin was sweet, but often overly naive when it came to people. He trusted everyone. His brother was the complete opposite, seeing an enemy in anyone that so much as looked at them funny. Unfortunately, Korra wouldn't really call herself a middle-of-the-road tiebreaker. On the contrary, Korra was usually quick to fight and brash with her decisions, which put her much more in line with Mako.

But this wasn't a fight. This was a human girl who just had her mind blown and wanted to go home. It wasn't that she didn't bother Korra. There was something too strange about her ability to see Bolin, whether she was clueless about it or not. And there was a small part of her that did want to keep an eye on her, in case something about this weird "talent" spelled anything sinister for them.

That didn't mean they could keep her captive in our basement, though.

"Let's just send her home. We can't keep her here."

Bolin smiled at her appreciatively and undid the lock. He held out a hand to help Asami out, but she kept her arms hugging tightly to herself.

"But what is she? There's something wrong with her!" Mako protested, but made no move to grab her again.

"We're sorry," Korra said sincerely. "Really, we're sorry. I hope you can understand."

Asami said nothing.

"We're...really protective of each other. You frightened us. We believe you when you say you don't want to harm us - "

Mako snorted.

"I believe you," Korra amended, glaring at him,

"Me too!" Bolin added.

She took a deep breath. "I'm going. This is the last you're going to see or hear of me. Okay?

Bolin and Korra nodded. Mako just glowered.

"Don't come back," he snarled.

Asami backed away, not taking her eyes off of them until she reached the stairs. Then, she turned and bolted. They didn't follow, instead just listening to her rushed sprinting above their heads. When they finally came up from the basement, her car was gone.

"Did all that just happen?" Korra sighed.

"Yeah," Bolin said. "But you heard her. That's the last we're going to - "

"I'm going out," Mako said gruffly, snatching his sunglasses off the coffee table and wrapping his scarf around his neck.

"Where are you going?"

"The mall."

He stalked out the door and slammed it shut behind him.

Korra and Bolin looked at each other.

"He's not going to the mall."

"Nope." Bolin shook his head. "You have to go after him."

"Yep."

"Don't forget your helmet!"

"Yep."

Korra ran out the door. She hopped on her bike and began to pedal. In any under circumstance, it would have been ridiculous to tail a pair of cars on a bicycle, but it was just at the beginning of rush hour. She could still see Mako's car making a right turn ahead, despite having had a head start.

"Damn it, Mako," Korra grumbled. Her bruised ribs immediately began to heat up and she clutched at them with one hand. "Pain in the ass."

The traffic on Main Street was absurd, so Korra was able to roll up onto the sidewalk. It wasn't long before she was side-by-side with Mako's old, lumbering Satomobile.

"Mako!" she shouted, banging on the passenger side window. "Mako, open up!"

He gaped at her and rolled down the window.

"Are you insane?!"

"Are you!? "

He slowed the car even more. "Damn it, Korra. Throw your bike in the back."

The traffic was bad enough that she was able to get off the bike and walk by the car's side, but she was having trouble shoving it in the back seat, with her rib injury. Mako groaned and put the car in park. The cars behind him honked their horns angrily and he boldly gave each and every one of them the finger as they passed.

He forced the bike into the backseat and they both climbed back into the car.

"Bolin sent me to stop you," Korra said.

"Okay, but first let me just say that I know that girl isn't sitting right with you, either. You want to believe that she's just some innocent but there's a part of you that's afraid of what her ability to see Bolin means. You're worried about how this might affect our safety, and you want to know a little bit more about her before you'll be able to sleep well at night."

She bit her lip. He wasn't entirely wrong. Not at all, actually.

"Oh, shut up and drive."

Mako smirked and shifted gears.

Author's Note

I wrote a couple chapters ahead already, all in first person. It's been kind of a struggle catching all my pronouns while transitioning all of it into third person, so I apologize for the bits of first person left in the previous chapters. Thanks for pointing them out! I really hope I got them all, or at least most of them.