She slowly opens her eyes, blinking against the dawn light spilling through the window and onto her face. She groans and tries to sit up, her body weak with fatigue.
The setting wasn't familiar to her. How did she get here? Whose bed was she in?
"You're up! That's great!" She turned her head to see the boy walking towards her with a plate of food. She frowned and suddenly felt...shy.
"Um,"
"Yeah. You must be feeling awkward in my bed but it's the nearest thing I could get to because it was a pretty long walk from where you passed out to my home." He said, green eyes smiling happily as he pulled up a chair and sat down next to her.
She panicked slightly, wondering what happened after she passed out, her body vulnerable to the moon's power. Did anything happen to her? Did he see anything?
She couldn't just blurt out saying, 'Hey, by any chance did you see my eyes glow and watch me become possessed by the spirit of the moon and whatnot?'
Yeah, he'd probably think she was crazy. She was but that didn't mean that everyone else had to know.
"I'm Bolin by the way." He said smiling at her, causing something to flutter in her stomach. "But you can call me Bo. Or Lin. Or Bo...Lin."
She giggled.
"Aylin." She whispered, feeling exposed. She was covered in her clothes from last night and the last thing she remembered was Nyla.
Her eyes widened.
"Nyla..."
"Who?"
She turned to look at him, feeling heat grow in her cheeks from his confused yet childlike eyes. "My polar-bear dog. She was with me. Where-?"
"Oh, her. She's fine. She's outside actually. I think. Maybe. She should be at least." He said flustered, looking away from her and to the window.
A small smile touched her lips at his fumbling. He turned to her and smiled widely at her. "I bought you some fire noodles. It's spicy since my brother, Mako, likes his food spicy."
She reached for the plate and slowly ate it, enjoying the way the food slid down and warmed her from the inside out.
He talked to her animatedly as she ate, explaining who he was, who his brother was and the Avatar was and Mako's girlfriend. She kept finding herself smiling at him. He had a good sense of humor, was high-spirited and very enthusiastic.
But something was bothering her. What happened after she passed out and Bolin carried her home? She had to know but she couldn't outright say it. Maybe she could ease into it.
"Bolin?"
"Yeah?"
"Did something...happen when I passed out?" He frowned, confusion written across his face.
"Like?"
She sighed and closed her eyes before opening them again. "Did anything weird happen?"
He seemed to be thinking for a moment, a finger on his chin, tapping away causing that weird feeling in her stomach to pick up again.
"No. I don't think so. What was weird though..." Her heart began to race in a panic. He did see something. "That there was no one out in the streets. Like no one at all. Creepy huh?" He said, nudging her shoulder playfully which caused a spark to erupt in her body from his touch.
Her body eased away in relief. He didn't see anything. That was good.
Suddenly, a fire ferret jumped on Bolin and wrapped itself around his shoulders."Pabu! Where have you been? We have a guest here. Pabu, meet Aylin. Aylin meet Pabu, the most awesomest fire ferret in the world!"
She giggled softly and carefully reached out her hand, palm up so the fire ferret could smell her. Pabu smelled at her before crawling on her arm and onto her shoulders, licking her cheek before running away back to Bolin.
"He's cute."
"You're cute."
"What?"
"Uh, I meant...I mean...Not that...Um...Oh wow! Pabu needs his bath!" Bolin said fumbling with his words as he averted his gaze away from her. She thought she saw a very faint pink line on his cheeks but probably thought it was her imagination.
"Thank you, Bolin for everything. But I kinda need to get going." And away from this fluttering feeling that keeps growing in my stomach that longer I'm here.
He looked oddly disappointed before brightening up again and jumping up to stand on his feet. "Now? I kinda wanted to show you around the arena."
She hesitated slightly. She never had a close friend or anything because of what she could do, of who she was. She preferred to be alone, that was the only way she could protect the people.
"I don't know..."
"Come on, it'll be fun. What else are you going to do?" He said imploringly. "Please?" He clapped his hands together as if in prayer.
She couldn't help but smile at his comical face. "Okay, but only for a little bit."
"Yes!" He jumped in the air, pumping his arm in the air, causing Pabu to jump away from his enthusiastic owner.
She shook her head and smiled.
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