A/N: Once again, thank you to everyone who reviewed! Show your love for Bolin and Mako :DDD

Disclaimer: A:TLA and Legend of Korra are property of Nickelodeon. And Bryke ^^

Chapter Four: Circus Craze

Bolin and Mako had grown up with their fair share of parties and festivals. While in recent years birthday celebrations had become limited to a small fruit tart and a chorus of "Happy Birthday", Bolin still remembered walking hand in hand with his mother through a crowd of villagers wearing traditional festival garb, the paper lanterns overhead lighting their path. Mako had always enjoyed the fireworks; Bolin loved the food.

The carnival started late in the afternoon when the sky was growing dark. Because the main tent and sideshow stalls took up so much space, the entire circus was set up outside Shin Ren Town in a clearing a little ways from Chin River. A wooden fence had been set up around the enclosure to bar trespassers and the gate was being guarded by a ticket inspector wearing festive robes in garish tones of yellow and orange.

Bolin and Mako were almost the first ones to arrive, Bolin clutching their tickets tightly in one hand, a punch-drunk grin on his face as he inhaled the colorful carnival atmosphere. Mako, standing beside his brother, gazed curiously at the large tent at the back of the fenced in area which was heavily strung with lights and resembled a pulsating bonfire.

The ticket inspector- who looked very unhappy to be dressed in an oversized costume- rolled up his sleeves as the two brothers approached and punched a hole in each ticket before returning them, grunting a resentful "enjoy yer stay" as they passed.

It was quite lucky for Mako he had such long legs for any regular person would have been hard put to keep up with Bolin who raced from stall to stall at top speed, not wanting to miss anything. Most of the stalls required a fee to play but rewarded winners with special tokens which could then be used in any other stall. For someone short on pocket money, this was a dream come true and Bolin had every intention of taking advantage of it.

"BOLIN!" Mako gasped after barely half an hour. "Slow down!"

They had already visited- or rather, stamped through- five different sideshow stalls where Bolin had managed to sweep some prize or another. Bolin's pockets were tinkling with tokens; his arms, and Mako's for that matter, were laden with stuffed animals, carnival masks, novelty scarves, and bags of candy. Mako, who was trying his best not to trip over the trailing novelty scarf unfurling around his neck, hurried after Bolin who seemed unaware that his older brother was close to a violent respiratory attack.

Mako skidded to halt beside their next stall and sucked in air like an asthmatic pipe smoker. Bolin was leaning over the counter, trying not to drop his prizes as he extracted tokens from his pocket. Through slightly bleary eyes, Mako read the sign overhead which screamed "DEVIL'S ARCHERY" in bold crimson letters.

"So for 3 tokens I can have 5 arrows?" Bolin was asking the stall owner, a freckled youth with course brown hair and rather large front teeth. The youth placed a set of arrows and a wooden bow on the counter then pointed wordlessly at a row of archery targets mounted on a wall behind him.

"Bolin, that's enough!" Mako, shouted, dumping his burden on the stall counter and trying to grab Bolin's wrist. "We can't carry all this stuff home!"

"Sure we can," Bolin replied bracingly as he stuffed the tokens into the stall owner's hands. "We just need something to carry it all in. Look," he pointed to the prize shelf above the targets. "that's what I'm talkin' about."

Mako stared in exasperation at the place Bolin was pointing. Between a deck of collectible cards and a furry cone-shaped hat sat a large side-strap bag with flamboyant illustrations of the circus performers on the front. Regretting the day he was born, Mako sighed and left find a bench to sit on.

Predictably, after about five minutes of misfires and disappointed cursing, Bolin came back with the bag in hand, grinning from ear to ear. Luckily for Mako, the task had turned out to be a little harder than expected and Bolin had exhausted his supply of tokens. Opening the bag, the two brothers proceeded to stuff it with as many prizes as physically possible.

"What're we gonna do with all this?" Bolin asked, gesturing to the pile of carnival candy that no amount of shoving could fit into the overflowing bag.

"Eat it or throw it away," Mako answered matter-of-factly.

"Okay, help me eat it then," Bolin said, opening a bag of toxic-looking green hard candy.

Mako cringed. "No way," he said, pushing the bag away. "That stuff looks poisonous. Just throw it away."

"Aw come on, Mako, just try it," Bolin cajoled him, waving a piece in his face.

Mako tried to fight off his brother but before entering the circus tent in time for the show, Bolin managed to force three pieces of candy into Mako's mouth which the disgruntled firebender begrudgingly swallowed.

The first act was a performance by a mixed group of trapeze artists, acrobats, and stilt-walking jugglers led by a star performer named Bing Su. Everyone- especially Bolin- cheered and clapped as Bing Su swung from trapeze to trapeze, cartwheeled across a tightrope as though on solid ground, and pirouetted atop a trained circus Eagle-pony as it cantered around the ring.

The second act was Bolin's favorite: circus animals. A muscular man with thick, sinewy arms stood on a circular platform in the center of the ring as the most exotic and wild looking creatures were released from their steel cages. The muscular man- whose stage name was Mr. Tamer- wrestled with a snarling Koala-tiger, lassoed and subdued a bucking Tricorn and stuck his entire right arm into the mouth of a snoozing Ostrich-gator.

After the second act was over, there was a scheduled ten minute break in which Mako and Bolin decided to stretch their legs outside. Most of the spectators were families and Mako watched as a small little boy bawled into his father's neck, having been frightened by the freakish circus creatures.

"It wasn't that scary to be honest," Bolin said as they passed the tearful child. "I mean, it was pretty obvious that the Ostrich-gator had been sedated. You could just tell by how the lids weren't fluttering at all. Naturally they flutter to keep stray flies out of their eyes like regular Duck-gators do."

Mako let Bolin ramble on about different types of gators and their various eating habits while his mind wandered off, his eyes observing all the families around them. Small children hung off their parents' arms, a mother and father on each side. They all looked so happy and content; even the weary mothers who looked tired from keeping up with the youngsters.

Suddenly, unbidden, unwanted, a familiar voice spoke in Mako's ear.

"I can tell you're lying... he's not coming back, is he?"

Mako shook his head. He couldn't understand why he kept remembering Mireu's words. But a part of him, one that seemed quite immune to his guilt-consoling reasoning, knew the truth. Mireu, not to mention Min, were growing up without a father even if it was only a two-year absence. It was very different for Mako who'd seen his father's face every day for fifteen years before his departure. For Mireu and Min, the reasons for the absense of one parent hardly mattered for the result was essentially the same; they had no father and that was that. Mako felt sick at the thought.

"It's almost time for the magic show," said Bolin. Seeing his brother's face he added, "You okay, bro?"

"Yeah…" Mako muttered distractedly. "Let's go see that… that magic act."

Once everyone was seated, the silver-haired ringmaster Shadow, who'd introduced all the acts so far, came bouncing back out to tumultuous applause. Shadow performed a couple of cartwheels to the amusement of several children in the front row before grabbing the microphone again.

"Ladies and gentleman, it's the time you've all been waiting for!" Shadow announced. Several people cheered. "Introducing our resident magician, please welcome The Incredible Inferno!"

A sudden plume of golden flames erupted next to Shadow who pretended to squeal and fall over in shock. Where the golden flames had been just moments ago stood a tall lean figure wearing a long crimson cape.

Getting up and dusting off his black suit Shadowed crowed, "The Incredible Inferno, everyone! Let the show begin!"

It was a magic show as Bolin and Mako had never seen it. Inferno performed a series of conjuring tricks which were actually firebending tricks but impressive all the same. From underneath a white handkerchief the magician produced a pair of doves, a trout, and a dragon all made of sparkling fireworks. When all of these had flown through the air and fizzled out, Inferno brought out a trolley with six different cups lined up and, sipping from each, started breathing fire in the most beautiful array of colors.

After a levitation trick involving a volunteer from the audience (Bolin almost cried when he wasn't picked), Shadow came rushing back out, applauding The Incredible Inferno as he did.

"Excellent!" Shadow positively shouted as the applause rained down everywhere. "Most impressive! But we have one more important magic trick left! The Impossible Escape act!"

As people oohed and awed, Mako suddenly felt ill. His gut performing backflips to rival that of Bing Su and Mako got up, feeling ready to hurl. Bolin hardly noticed him leave, so enthralled was he to witness Inferno's last performance.

Mako made it outside just in time. Doubling over, he vomited into a ditch behind the circus tent, emptying his heaving stomach. Wiping his mouth on his sleeve, Mako stepped back feeling light-headed but much better.

Cursing Bolin for making him eat wretched carnival food, Mako buried the pool of sick in dirt and made his way back to the tent. He was just about to make his way down to his seat when he realized that what was happening on stage wasn't an illusion. He watched in utter bemusement as Bolin raced pell-mell toward the ring, knocking over several people as he jumped over the rows of seats. In the center of the ring, a thin rectangular box was chained to the ground, emitting plumes of black smoke as it burned red hot.

In seconds, Mako put two and two together, realizing what "the impossible escape act" was and that Bolin was running to save someone who was apparently being cooked alive.

"BOLIN!" Mako yelled, running down the steps as fast as he could. "BOLIN, STOP! STOP! IT'S NOT REAL! IT'S NOT-"

Bolin had barely reached the flaming box with three circus attendants trying to detain him when the box exploded. Mako was blinded by the bright light as the top of the box was blown off, a flash of crimson burst forth spraying sparks everywhere, and then, to the startled screams of several spectators, The Incredible Inferno, unharmed with the exception of a severely scorched cape, floated gently to the ground, smiling broadly.

Mako ran to Bolin who was lying spread-eagled next to the three attendants who had been knocked unconscious. After several slaps to his face, Bolin came to, bleary eyed and groggy.

"Wha- what happened?" were his first words.

"You idiot!" Mako nearly bellowed over the screams and cheers of the audience. Shadow was saying something about a "close call" but Mako wasn't listening. "What do you think you were doing? You almost got killed!"

"But… Inferno… something was wrong with… the trick…"

"Of course they'd say that!" Mako yelled with unadulterated exasperation. "That's just to build up the tension and scare people into thinking the magic act failed!"

Bolin suddenly righted himself as a shadow fell over Mako's head. He looked up to see the uncharacteriscally angry face of the ringmaster glowering at him through a layer of white make-up, the black diamond clearly painted over his right eyelid.

"You two gentlemen- come with me," Shadow whispered in a dangerously low voice. Mako looked around him. Nearly everyone had exited the tent and someone had carried away the three attendants. "And don't try to run," Shadow added.

Bolin looked at Mako, clearly scared. Mako wanted to hit him but helped him stand instead.

"Whatever job you were after, you pretty much blew it," Mako told his sooty brother.

They followed Shadow across the deserted ring which was littered with fragments of charred wood, melted chains, and blackened bits of crimson cape; the remains of a masterful magic performance and their once enjoyable evening.

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