a/n: According to Korra Nation, Legend of Korra is going to premiere on the 14th of April, 2012. Avatar nerds, rejoice! Oh, and enjoy this chapter :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender.

Chapter Twenty: Shadow Sneak

For the past few days, Shadow had been engaged in an activity he'd abandoned since a year previously, an activity in which he was nonetheless proficient. The skills required for the activity were ones he had picked up at an early age while performing in the circus and working backstage during magic acts. In no particular order, they consisted of stealth, flexibility and patience.

At the moment, Shadow was growing thin on the last particular skill which he had slowly started losing after the first five minutes of waiting. Whatever he'd been capable of doing a year ago, he had clearly lost some of his stuff. Boredom slowly crept into his brain and he became more and more aware of what he could be doing instead of this. Some called it spying; others called it a tedious waiting game. Shadow full-heartedly agreed with the latter.

Of course, even as he was wondering if his circus staff were properly packing up for departure the following morning, stealth was still going strong, his undiminishing boredom not having contributed to restless leg syndrome as sometimes happened on longer stakeouts. Presently, his body was well hidden among the prickly boughs of a pine tree. Between the minty-scented needles, he had a clear view of a very tall teenager below who had his back turned to Shadow.

The teenager, for whatever reason, had taken it upon himself to contemplate the river flowing idly in front of him for the past half hour or so. Shadow couldn't exactly tell how much time had elapsed since he had quietly positioned himself in the pine tree because he – like an idiot – had left his pocket watch back in his caravan and, at any rate, he didn't want to risk being heard even if he'd brought it. Instead, he tried to gauge time by how low the sun was sinking which was virtually pointless as the sun seemed to have stopped moving, no doubt mocking his painful monotony.

And so he waited. And waited. After what felt like another good thirty minutes, the teenager was still standing immobile over the river. At the beginning of the stakeout, Shadow had wondered whether the boy was waiting for someone or perhaps something. But the teenager, much like Shadow, never appeared to consult the time or even to look around. For a while Shadow debated whether the boy was trying to catch fish but again there was no sign of anticipation, a net or even a stick in hand. At one point, Shadow could've sworn the boy held a mirror – something shiny that reflected the sunlight – up to the sky but whatever it had been had disappeared out sight as quickly as it had appeared.

After that, the stakeout continued without much change, dragging on to the point Shadow thought he heard the boy talking to someone. However, every time he looked down, there was no one else in sight. Clearly the tedium was playing mind tricks on Shadow. He tried not to doze off even though it was a fairly warm day. The birds were twittering a few branches above him, a tuneless song that was nevertheless catchy in weird way.

Shadow let his mind wonder for a bit, scanning the blue patches of sky visible above him. It was a clear, cloudless sky up above, one he had shared with a friend in what felt like another lifetime. Back then, the two had shared a foolish dream, a dream that was soon crushed like an ember beneath a mountain of pitch-black coal.

Quite abruptly, the bird song changed, the notes sounding strangely off-key. Shadow came out of his momentary reverie and looked back down. The boy was kneeling by the river, still staring at the water, his head slightly bowed. Goodness gracious, thought Shadow, did the kid have nothing better to do?

Suddenly, the teenager raised his clasped hands slowly above his head. Curious, Shadow leaned forward ever so slightly, the better to see what was going on. The object he was holding was the same reflective thing he'd help up earlier but now, in a swift blow of realization and acute panic, Shadow realized that it wasn't a mirror at all.

"No!" Shadow cried aloud, nearly toppling headfirst from the tree.

Shadow hastily jumped down, landing hard and nearly breaking his left ankle in the process. Without waiting to examine the pins-and-needles pain shooting up his leg, Shadow sprinted without breath to spare, his eyes trained on the back of the boy who currently had a sharp blade clutched in both hands. As time seemed to slow to a standstill, Shadow watched in sickening terror, as the glinting blade descended upon its owner, an animal-like cry filling the surrounding air.

The sky was darkening as Bolin finished his final delivery. Feeling rather proud, Bolin restrained himself from counting his hard-earned cash in front of his last customer. Overall, the day's earnings were better than expected. Including tips and several last-minute premiums, the money pouch strapped to Bolin's waist felt heavier than it'd ever been. Perhaps, he thought, things were finally turning out for the better.

Although Bolin had planned to check on Mako much earlier that day, his busy schedule had prevented him from doing so. Mako was no doubt still manning the desk at Mr. Noh's print shop even though the place hardly received half a dozen orders in a single day. As Bolin turned a street corner and headed down the marketplace with its food stalls now packed with evening shoppers, he decided a night on the town was in order, the least he could do to cheer his brother up.

The door of the print shop creaked open with a familiarity and Bolin entered to find Mr. Noh dozing off in Mako's usual place, his reading glasses perched on his nose, a sheaf of unchecked papers clutched loosely in his knotted hands.

Gently placing the bicycle up against the wall of the cramped space (he couldn't leave it outside lest someone steal it), Bolin scanned the tiny workspace, half-expecting his brother to pop up behind the stuttering print machine with a screwdriver in hand and oily ink smudging his face. Unfortunately, the shop was clearly empty apart from Mr. Noh and himself, something that in itself wasn't unusual as Mako sometimes ran errands for the old man. Still, it did strike Bolin as odd that anything might come up this late in the day when the print shop usually had so few customers.

"Mr. Noh? It's me, Bolin."

Mr. Noh woke with a start like an exam student who had been caught sleeping during study hall with a book propped up in front of him. Coughing rather wildly as though to cover his momentary surprise, the old man turned to face Bolin who stood there, slightly amused.

"Eh? What's this we have here?" Mr. Noh asked, removing his reading glasses and massaging his eyes with one hand.

"It's me, sir," repeated Bolin. "Mako's younger brother."

"Is that right?" said Mr. Noh, fixing his usual spectacles back on. "Is Mako feeling better?"

"Sorry, sir?" said Bolin, certain he had misheard.

"Well, I can't say I was really surprised. He has been working himself very hard in the last few weeks. And after that dreadful incident I was worried he might not be up to full-time work –"

"I'm sorry, sir," Bolin interrupted as the old man rambled on, "but where's Mako? Did something happen or –"

" – it's just as I say, Bolin, he asked for the day off. Quite suddenly too, I didn't even notice anything wrong until he up and asked me if he could leave. Looked rather troubled too."

There was definitely something wrong about that. Bolin racked his brains for any memory of Mako looking less than healthy that morning. They had both eaten at the table, a rather piteous meal of cold dumplings, but if Mako had exhibited any outward signs of physical illness, Bolin was completely in the dark.

"But where did he go?" asked Bolin, feeling rather uneasy now.

"Well, he said he was going home to take a rest. Said he'd come back if he felt up to it but he hasn't," said Mr. Noh, clearly confused at Bolin's expression. "I wouldn't be too worried, son, it didn't seem to be anything life-threatening by any means. Perhaps a slight headache? But he did seem rather strange, that I remember clearly."

"Like- like he was worried about something?"

Mr. Noh nodded. "Excessively so."

In what felt like hazy dream, Bolin bid the old man goodbye, retrieved his bike and left the print shop. The street outside which minutes ago had felt comfortable and familiar now felt unyielding, daunting and nightmarish. A suffocating fear was pressing over Bolin now who walked like a ghost through the crowd, his bike at his side.

Throughout the entire day, something had nagged at the back of his mind, something Bolin had resolutely ignored while focusing on his job. Though he'd failed to pint-point its source, he now realized that it had been Mako all along. Mako's mood swings signals, which days ago Bolin had been so sensitive to, had suddenly dulled and blurred. Like a broken music from a badly tuned radio, the emotions had come and go without a distinctive pattern. Bolin had felt something – something that had worried him – but he'd decided to ignore it. Like a fool who entrusted his house to a thief, Bolin had decided to disregard his instincts, believing Mako would be all right for the day. But he was wrong; dead wrong.

"Where are you, Mako?" said Bolin aloud, mounting his bicycle and pedaling aimlessly out of the marketplace, down the street and out onto the main road that connected Shin Ren and Toh Sa.

He tried to remember the exact feelings he'd felt through the day, careful to separate them from his own emotions. What had his older brother felt? Fear, sadness, anger. Because Mako seemed to constantly fluctuate between the three emotions as of late, Bolin had thought it almost natural, an ordinary day for his brother after the incident. But there had been something else too. Hatred and regret. And then, as quickly as they'd come, those feelings had been replaced with something completely new. What was it? Despair? Disgust?

No. It had been worse than that – so much worse than anything else because Bolin finally understood the bare bones of what Mako was really thinking.

Resignation. Acceptance. Surrender.

"Mako, please…." Bolin whispered, trying to calm himself though his insides were reeling. "Please…"

Bolin didn't head back home. Mako wouldn't go back to the house to carry out what he was about to do. That place was no longer a home to him, stripped of nearly every family he had and a constant reminder of their entrapment in life. There was only one place Bolin knew of that his brother would seek out at the last minute whether it was just to think or hide from what seemed like a distrustful world. His own secret haven.

Right outside the edge of the woods, Bolin abandoned his bike, no longer caring what became of it. He plowed into the gloomy thicket of trees, kicking off his shoes as he went and allowing his seismic sense to guide him. As he drew nearer and nearer to the river, Bolin closed his eyes, searching blindly, desperately for Mako, his brother.

Thanks for reading~!^^ If you haven't already seen the official Korra site, go check out the character bios for Mako and Bolin :)