A cold breeze wafted through the air, sending a shiver down Kohun's spine as he stepped out of the Satomobile and headed out towards the graveyard. It was his first day in Republic City since his pardoning of crimes, and he had made a point to come to this mournful location first.

He sighed in apprehension, the General appearing to be unsure of himself for once in his life. He stood at the gates of the cemetery for a few minutes before finally mustering the courage to pass through them. He walked slowly, looking over the graves as he searched for a certain one in particular, cradling a small box under his arm.

It seemed like an eternity, but eventually he found the grave marker that he was searching for.

Kyatiah

127 ASC - 153 ASC

Died abroad, in search of her love.

The footnote on the tombstone cut away at his guilty conscience like a rusted blade. It only hurt him more as he saw the much smaller, unmarked gravestone that sat next to the larger one so close that it resembled a child holding near to its mother. He stood in front of the stones so long that he lost all track of time. All that existed was him, the graves, and the chilly air holding a silent pause that was deafening to Kohun's grieving soul.

Finally collecting himself after a lengthy pause, he knelt down and opened the box that he had brought with him. He pulled out a small bowl of incense and lit it with a spark from his finger, placing the small basin down in between the two gravestones. He pulled his hat from his head, plucking one of the two photos he kept out of the lining. It was a picture of a beautiful Water Tribe woman with flowing hair and a smile that held more warmth than a fire in winter. Kohun smiled down at the small photograph and set it down in front of the incense.

"Hey." He finally spoke, his voice a little louder than a whisper. "I'm sorry I haven't gotten to come visit you sooner. I've been…caught up, so to speak." He remembered how he had tried to come there seven years earlier. By coincidence the same day had been chosen by Amon as the day that the Equalists would change their leaders. Kohun had never even arrived at the cemetery before being stopped by his betrayers and handed over to the police.

He looked down at the ground, a little unsure of exactly what to say. "Senna told me you'd be here." He sighed, with more guilt than ever. "She told me how you followed me to Republic City seventeen years ago and looked for me."

He stopped and looked down at the ground, the great weight on his very soul increasing with every remembered pain. "You two were in the same neighborhood when you…" He stopped again, his throat closing around the words as if he was cursed to never utter them. "You two were the only thing I did right in this world and I abandoned you for my nightmare." The Equalist Party had once been his dream and his paradise, but it had turned into a monster that stole everything from him. The worst part was that he gladly gave everything for it.

He took a deep breath, letting it out in a sigh of exhaustion. He had work to do and his rest was not yet at hand, but when he looked down at the tombstones of his wife and infant daughter he felt the great temptation to just…time-out. He let out a few coughs as the chill went through the air once again, his chest heaving.

When he regained his breath, he looked back to the picture on the ground. "I'm sorry Kiah. I'm sorry for being the stupid man that I am." He turned to the smaller stone for a moment, his eyes stinging a little. He tried to imagine the face of Kira, the daughter that he had never even had the chance to see grow up. Her face was both fuzzy in his mind and at the same time, perfectly clear-cut. He knew who she was, who she would have been. And it filled Kohun with the deepest sorrow any man could know.

"I'm sorry." He said to the wind. "…for everything." He kept trying to find a way to describe his regret, but the words did not exist in any human tongue. All that he could hope for was that somehow, wherever she was, she could hear him and understand what he felt in his soul.

"I've made mistakes, my love, many mistakes. And I'm sorry for them all. I'm going to set things right, though. I just hope that you can forgive me for what I've done….and what I'm about to do."

The incense had burned down almost all the way, small tendrils of smoke being whipped about by the chilling breeze. Kohun took the photograph in his hand, looking her soft gaze once more before tucking it back into its place in the lining of his old hat. Another soft gust of wind caressed the side of his face, but this breeze was warm and compassionate, not cold and mourning. It reminded him of her hand on his cheek, reassuring him of the man of honor that he had once been, that he could still be. He finally knew that she forgave him for everything that he had done.

And everything he was planning to do.

The setting sun was always a sight to behold in Republic City. Kohun had always enjoyed watching it. Korra found him sitting in the gazebo on Air Temple Island watching the sunset when she offered to show him around town. Much to her amusement, her uncle knew of more places around the city than she did. As dinnertime drew near, the two decided to get a dose of home and headed for Narook's, which they had discovered to be a mutual favorite location. To Korra's delight, Mako and Bolin apparently had the same idea, already half way through their meals when Naga came trotting up to the door of the restaurant.

"What's with the hot flakes?" Bolin asked the General after the two new table members had received their orders.

Kohun looked down at his noodles, which he had practically smothered in spicy toppings. "Water Tribe noodles are great," he said, stirring the noodles with his chopsticks. "But there's not enough kick in them."

Mako pushed his noodles around in the bowl, his stone-faced expression revealing a slight hesitance. "Yeah, I never much liked Water Tribe noodles."

"Then why did you order them?" Korra asked, her cheeks stuffed with her homeland's food.

"'Cause you like them." Mako smiled, looking across the table at his girlfriend.

Korra smiled her mouth still full. "Awww."

Kohun and Bolin, also known as the Third and Fourth Wheel, exchanged slightly awkward glances, unsure whether or not to remark on the gag-worthy "cutesiness" of the other two. Kohun couldn't keep himself from a poorly suppressed chuckle as Mako and Korra rubbed their noses together. Korra punched her uncle in the arm. He shot her a playful warning glance, telling her that he would repay that blow in practice tomorrow.

"So, Bolin." Kohun began, momentarily ceasing his teasing of Korra. "I hear you're training to become a police officer."

Bolin looked up from his noodles, an expression of guilt appearing just for a moment on his face. "Uh, yeah. I mean…"

"Training?" Korra interrupted Bolin. "He's practically already the best there is."

Mako nodded in agreement, putting an arm around his little brother. "Definitely. Speaking of which, I have some news. I…"

"I flunked out!" Bolin shouted, cutting off the excited praise of his friends.

A momentary silence filled their table, not even the ambience of the restaurant disturbing what seemed to be a complete absence of sound. "What?"

Bolin looked into his bowl of noodles, as if he would find the courage hidden in his food. "I failed the written tests, okay. I didn't want to tell anybody, but I guess you had to find out eventually." Now that everyone knew, Bolin was actually already getting over it. It was an amazing quality of his. No matter what it was, Bolin rarely seemed to let a setback keep him down for very long.

Mako was the first to speak up. "I'm sorry, Bo."

"For what?" Bolin already seemed to have shrugged it off, his casual attitude returning with a renewed vigor of someone who didn't have to hide anything anymore. "You didn't do anything."

His brother played with his fingers a bit. "Actually, I did."

It was now everyone's turn to look at Mako with a curious glance.

Mako gave an awkward smile. "I sort of applied to the Police Academy a few days ago." It was originally meant to be a way for the brothers to work together as cops, so that he could look out for Bolin in his new job. Now that Bolin had flunked out though, it was going to look like his brother was just proving that he could do what Bolin couldn't.

Another awkward silence.

Bolin scooted his bowl of noodles away from him, folding his hands and nervously twiddling his thumbs. This setback didn't seem to be one that Bolin could easily shrug off for some reason. It seemed to strike a chord with him. "Oh…well. That's, uh, nice. Good for you, bro."

Bolin stood up after a moment, stretching a bit and walking towards the exit of Narook's. "I left Pabu running around outside." He said, explaining himself. "I'm gonna go find him."

Mako merely sat there and gave a nod of acknowledgement to his brother. It nagged in the back of his mind that he had somehow hurt Bolin, but since he didn't have the slightest notion of how to handle it, he just ignored it. Bolin could get over anything, he'd be fine.

Korra got up and followed Bolin. "I'll go help him." Before Mako could get up to follow her, she was already gone.

The General, who had just sat there watching the entire uncomfortable event, now sat alone at the table with Mako.

"So…" Mako tried to look for a conversational topic, not wanting to produce a THIRD awkward pause. "What exactly will you be teaching me? You know, since I'm your student as of yesterday."

Kohun paused a moment to finish chewing his noodles, as well as giving him a chance to think of exactly how to describe it. "Technically." Kohun began. "I'll teach you how to indirectly incinerate atmospheric air through ultra-compression of energy."

Mako sat there, not really sure what that meant. "I'm sorry…"

"Boom!" Kohun said, holding his hands apart and making it painfully simple to the other firebender what he meant. "I'll show you how to make things go boom."

An expression of understanding, and hesitant curiosity washed over Mako's face.

"And while we're on that subject." Kohun said. "From now on you will address me as General, Sir. Is that understood?"

Mako looked slightly taken aback. As a street rat he never really felt an obligation to respect authority. "You don't make Bolin or Korra do that?"

Kohun gave Mako a smirk. "I'm not training your brother. And in case you haven't noticed Korra does address me with respect whenever we practice."

"So I only have to do it during training?" Mako asked, looking for a loophole. He wouldn't even dare to entertain such a submissive act if this man wasn't in Korra's family.

The General gave Mako a glare that dared him to find out. Mako, rolling his eyes, conceited and turned back to his noodles. He grimaced at the pungent Water Tribe flavor, not sure how he was going to stomach the meal. The General slid the hot flakes across the table towards Mako.

Mako decided to trust the gesture, sprinkling the topping over his noodles and in the process making them far more palatable, even tasty.

"Thanks," He said, slightly annoyed as he remembered the proper response. "General, Sir."

Meanwhile, outside, Korra found Bolin sitting on the sidewalk making Pabu do circus tricks. Naga sat behind him, offering him something to lean back against.

"Hey." Korra said, sitting down next to Bolin. "It's not like Mako did that on purpose. Just bad timing."

Bolin rolled his eyes, sighing heavily. "I know." Pabu, sensing his master's distress, crawled up Bolin's arm and rested around his shoulders, the little fire ferret nuzzling Bolin's cheek. "It's not like Mako's going to fail like I did. He's just going to succeed where I couldn't."

Korra remembered that night in the South Pole several weeks ago, right after Bolin's birthday. He had come to see her, telling her that he was leaving with Chief Beifong and joining the police force. He hadn't even told his brother. Only Korra knew exactly why he left.

Bolin was trying to be his own person. All of his life, his brother had defined who he was. In introductions Bolin's name was almost always followed by the phrase: "Mako's little brother".

"Bolin," Korra said, her caring and reassuring tone always able to reach out to the earthbender. "Trust me. You're your own person. You don't have to prove it."

The earthbender looked over at Korra and green met blue as they exchanged glances. His face was sad, a rare emotion for Bolin to openly exhibit. Korra knew that she was one of the few people that Bolin could completely open up to and she made sure not to neglect that fact.

"Sadly," Bolin replied. "I do have to prove myself." He looked back at the street, watching as the Satomobiles drove past. "When we were growing up on the streets, Mako almost never let me come with him on jobs. I had to hide in a safe place while he went out and provided for both of us. If I was picked on, Mako drove the bullies away. Whenever we had food, he gave me more. All because I'm helpless dependent little Bo. Don't get me wrong, I love my brother and I know he was helping me, but that doesn't mean that I want everything handed to me and done for me."

He paused, only continuing when he saw that Korra was about to speak. "I've never had a chance to just do something on my own. I never even got the chance to fail on my own. Mako was always there, claiming success or failure as being completely him. I was always defined by what he did. I've never gotten to be a person on my own. Whenever I tried to do something on my own, he would step in and do it better than I could. To be honest, Korra, I got over what happened between you and me pretty fast. The main reason that it hurt so much was that, in the end, all it came down to was Mako just proving himself the better man…again." He sighed a little angrily, taking a moment to breathe.

"You don't seem to be over it." Korra replied.

"I said I was over what happened." Bolin clarified. "Not necessarily over you. Korra, you're a great girl and I can accept rejection. Really, I can. I'm content to just be your friend. Because that means that I can at least be around you. If you're happy being with someone else, I'm happy. The only real problem with my brother is that, well, like I said, just more proof that he's better than me."

Korra gave a small giggle. "Bo." She said, finally getting him to meet her gaze once more. "To be perfectly honest, Mako isn't as funny as you. I've never seen Mako eat as many bowls of noodles as you, or belch as loud for that matter. Naga practically worships the ground you walk on." The polar bear-dog's ears perked up as she heard her name being said. Bolin patted the animal's side and smiled, looking a little better. Korra made a point to mention that as well. "See, you're already feeling better. You're the rock, Bolin. Whenever anyone feels bad, you're there. You've always made me feel better and I know for a fact that Mako is actually jealous of your sense of humor. Just don't tell him I told you that."

Bolin shrugged, still not fully committing to her argument. "But when you compare…"

"Comparing you to your brother is like comparing Pabu and Naga." She stated with a bit of an amused grin. "You're both completely different, but still obviously great in your own ways. Trust me, Bo. You're just as much your own person as your brother is."

Bolin, finally starting to act like his old lighthearted self, leaned back onto Naga and put his hands behind his head. "I'll give it to you. You certainly know how to feed a man's ego. I still have to find a job, though."

Korra laughed and sat back against Naga and Bolin. "Trust me. Having a job is just as bad as not having one."

Although she couldn't see it, she knew that the carefree earthbender next to her was smiling. "You're just jealous because I have a choice in careers."

The two earthbenders shared a laugh, happy to have one another to lean on.