Well, his family made it into the newspapers again. That was nothing out of the ordinary. His family was in the paper for being caught drunk at a tavern. Again, not unheard of, though Bolin often wondered how the newspaper reporters always knew where they were. But being on the front page because you drunkenly stole a kiss from the avatar... that was new.

Republic City's Newest Celebrity Couple?

He hadn't even intended on getting drunk last night. His uncle invited him and most of the family including his mom, Tenzin, Korra, Asami and Mako (along with a lot of sailors and cops) out for drinks saying that he had an announcement to make. Apparently 'Commander Bumi' was about to become 'Retired-man Bumi', and so, toasts were in order. Many toasts, which Bumi seemed to get offended when he tried to back out of. Along with the toasts, a good retirement party apparently required drinking games, dancing, and stupid stunts. Which for Bolin meant jumping on the the tables and suggesting five minute practice dating (whatever that was), telling numerous people that he loved them, telling Mako he should propose already because his little brother was tired of having Asami as a girlfriend-in-law. And between all that, he obviously found time to put the moves on Korra.

"Republic City's new couple?" He grumbled as started to make coffee while Mako took care of breakfast, "It's obvious I was drunk, she deserves to slap me, not date me. A strong backhand, right across the face. Whack!" he did sound effects for good measure, though his ears were feeling a bit sensitive at the moment, "Wait. Did she slap me?"

"No." His brother answered, not turning his attention from the skillet. Bolin's eyes went wide, and he just couldn't help but to ask,

"Why?"

"She decked you." Oh, that explained it. Where was the damage? He reached up with both hands to touch his face, feeling for the inevitable bruise. It was on his left eye, "Ow! Alright, fair enough. I got fresh and she decked me." He'd look for something to put on the eye after breakfast, "Though you could have told the barkeep to cut me off before I got that," for lack of better word, "loving, Bro."

"I was...busy."

"Busy?" he could swear he heard spidercrickets, "Doing what?"

"Just busy." Mako snapped, "Look I gotta go to class, you finish this." He left the stove, storming over to grab his uniform shirt and leaving their apartment.

"At least I'm not the only one having a bad morning, right Pabu?" His pet fire ferret jumped onto his shoulder, "So how come you didn't stop me, huh? We're supposed to buddies." With a pounding headache, Bolin decided to finish his breakfast and get to Headquarters early and see if any of the waterbending medics could fix him up. A decision that he would soon regret, because as soon as he stepped into the squad room he was greeted by whistles, applause and relationship advice.

Lin was in her office for another early morning, getting as much paperwork done as possible so that she could work more hands on with her officers during the day. She hadn't had too many drinks last night at the retirement party, but her head was pounding none the less. This was partly because two out of three of her brats decided they were going to be stupid last night, she caught them sneaking off to the supply closet in the back. The damn supply closet of all places, and that alone surprised Lin, she really thought that Asami had a little too much dignity for a back room.

'But we weren't going to do that', they kept telling her. Yeah right. They can tell that to her and themselves, but Lin had been there and done that. Common sense was often lost to raging hormones, make out sessions lead to other things the next thing you know, she'd have a little dragon named Sato running around calling her 'grammy'. In an attempt to save them and herself from that dark fate, Lin grabbed them both by the ears and pulled them into that closet to put the fear of Kyoshi into them, for all the good it'd do.

The second reason for this headache damn newspaper reporters she saw at the tavern with their damn camera men and she didn't have the authority to tell them to sod off. Now it was just a question of which drunken moron did something stupid enough to make the headlines. When the morning paper arrived, her prediction was proven, but not in the way she'd thought.

Republic City's Newest Celebrity Couple?

She really hoped Mako liked the idea of being an only child, because when she got off duty and away from her officers, he was going to be.

"Look Korra, I'm really sorry about getting drunk and smooching you. No, that's not right." Bolin paced back and forth on the ferry, trying to get the words just right. He'd been practicing his apology all the way to the docks, dodging newspaper reporters all the way, and it wasn't getting any smoother. Now, without much time left, the pressure was starting to get to him, "Korra, alcohol does funny things to people." He growled and tried again, "Korra, I'm not that kinda boy, I swear! No, no, no!" He grabbed two chunks of his hair. Why did this have to be so hard? As he stepped onto dry land, sweat started forming on his hands, "I screwed up so bad."

"Hey Bolin, are you dating Korra now?" The eldest of the airbending children asked him as soon as he crossed the threshold of the airbender residence.

"Hey Jinora, no," he slumped, this wasn't going to be easy. If the kids knew, that meant that Tenzin knew about it as well, and since he was responsible for the avatar while she was in Republic City...well, Bolin really didn't want to think about what that meant, "I was just..." to tell two little girls he'd been drunk out of his mind, or to not tell two little girls he'd been drunk out of his mind... "it was an accident."

"How do you accidentally kiss someone?" Ikki popped out of nowhere, though that wasn't out of the ordinary, "Did you like kissing Korra? Why is your hair look messy, is it from Korra running her hands through it while you two were kiss-"

"Bolin." A stern, deep, strangely threatening voice acknowledged his presence from the doorway. The young man flinched before slowly turning around in the slight hope that his third worst fear hadn't come to pass. And from the look on the airbender's face, it had. Master Tenzin was in full protective father-figure mode.

"Oh! Hi, Tenzin." he smiled his biggest, and most nervous smile, "Is Korra here by any chance?" The bearded man's face began to turn red, and Bolin seriously reconsidered retreating to reschedule this groveling session.

"Hey it's the lady killer!" Bumi came to the room, leaning in the door frame with a smirk, "Come to lock lips with some acolyte girls?" he asked with a laugh, "Or are you gonna try your luck with the avatar again?"

"No!" Bolin waved his hands frantically, "I'm here to apologize, that's all. Apologize."

"Ah, well, she took Naga to the beach. Go get 'er tigerdillo."

"Thanks, Uncle Bumi." Said as he slid around the stoic Tenzin and out the door. He went down to the beach and found Korra sandbending a ball into the swimming area for her polarbeardog to fetch, "Hey Korra, I'm sorry!" he shouted quickly, getting the whole sentence out before she could turn around and go all avatar on him.

"Bolin?" she glared. Oh, this wasn't going to be good, "What are you doing here?"

"Apologizing." he fiddled with his hands nervously, "And doing a horrible job at it, might I add."

"Go away."

"Kiss was that bad, huh?" It came out of his mouth before he could stop it. He quickly covered his mouth but the damage was done.

"Yeah, it was that bad." It was also her first kiss, which made it all the worse.

"Sorry, alcohol breath. I-"he cleared his throat, "seem to be an 'I love you' drunk."

"I don't care, leave me alone."

"I promise I'll leave, but I came to apologize and I'm gonna leave this island with an semi-clear conscience." he cleared his throat again, as if preparing for a speech, "Korra, I'm sorry that I let my crazy uncle talking me into getting sauced and then invading your personal space. This black eye I got for it," which the medics refused to heal...and he had no reason to argue, "is completely deserved and I have no idea why I thought that was a good idea. I swear that's the first time I've done that! Of course, I've only been drunk one other time, but then I only flirted with my crush-"his eyes got big as saucers, "I meant, 'I only flirted with a girl who crushed my toes for it'." Yeah, that was right. Man, he was a horrible liar, "But I promise not to succumb to peer, or uncle, pressure again. Seriously one, maybe two drinks then I'll have them cut me off. I'll just go now." He said what he came to say, however blotched it came out, so it was time to fulfill his promise and vacate the premise.

"Bolin, wait."

…...

"She's stopping him from leaving!" Pema whispered excitedly to Tenzin and Bumi as they watched from a hidden spot on the cliff above the teenagers. The children had been sent to focus on their studies in order to give the young adults a little space to solve their problems, and a 'little' space was all the three adults were willing to give them. They had to be there, just in case a fight broke out. That wasn't out of the realm of possibility, or at least that was their alibi should anyone ask.

"He's got the girl chasing him. Atta boy!" Bumi quietly cheered his nephew on, "Taught him everything he knows." The others rolled their eyes and continued to watch the unheard conversation. The teens' bodies got less and less tense, they even saw Korra laugh. And it looked like maybe...well, a shy real first kiss might be in the near future. But by the time they noticed a shadow beside them, it was too late. They heard both teens scream in surprise as the ground rose and hurled them into the water.

"Mom! What the hell was that for?!" Lin's boy shouted with a raised fist.

"Lin!" Pema shouted, astonished by the older woman's actions, "Do you always have to do that when Bolin shows interest in a girl?" The older woman crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. She knew, for a fact, that Pema's tune would change when Meelo reached dating age, maybe even before that when Jinora did.

"Gotta stick with what works."