A/N: 400 views wooo-

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When Mike regained awareness, he was in his room and it appeared to be the middle of the night. He looked around for changes to his surroundings, the most noticeable of which was the airbender outfit at the end of the bed. It had been on the dresser when he'd last seen it before he'd put it on confusedly per the request of the airbenders. He felt an incredible soreness throughout his whole body, keeping him from moving around too much at first. He wasn't injured, but his muscles ached something awful. Despite this, he still managed to stand.

His stomach growled. Whoever had been around before him had not eaten dinner. "Great…I doubt the acolytes will be cool with me ransacking the kitchen," he mumbled. The second growl was mildly painful and made him curl into himself. "Kitchen ransacking it is."

He used the walls of the hallways as support as he sagged his way towards the kitchen. His feet were bare and he wore his usual undershirt and pants. A chilly wind hit through the open air sections he had to traverse, causing him to pause and shiver…

Now he was in a random room balled up on the floor. It was mid morning…was it still the same day? His body felt worse, probably from being on the literal floor in a room with the window open. At least he didn't feel hungry anymore.

He was getting his bearings after leaving the room when Tenzin appeared at the end of the hallway. "There you are! I was starting to wonder why you weren't at morning airbending training, but that's nothing to worry about," the airbending master said in a friendly manner. "You've put hard work in the past several days, after all."

"…who has," Mike asked, blinking. "I didn't…I didn't even finish putting it on. I can't airbend, I only took that invite because I couldn't really say no."

Tenzin paused. "Oh, my apologies, I—I almost forgot. Having such a talented new student—forgive me," he requested. "I lost sight of the situation."

"What day is it?" Mike asked. Tenzin told him, and he took a step back in shock. "No, no way, that can't be…you've got to be kidding." Four whole days had gone by. Four days. "I haven't been gone for that long, it didn't feel that long." This hadn't been happening so much recently, he'd been coming back around much faster when he was pushed out of the way, but this—this couldn't possibly be a good sign. "It's happening again." He covered his face with his hands. "Four days!"

It was one thing to learn you lost half a week of your life. It's another thing to learn that the person who replaced you during that time had gained an admirer.

"Svetty!~" Mike heard Bolin behind him as he was cleaning up after eating lunch; Mike was dressed vaguely like one of the acolytes as his regular clothes still needed to be washed. He'd found different ways to wear the loose balloons of fabric tied at certain spots so it was clear that he wasn't a full on monk. "I know we only talked for a little while the other day, but I think we really made a connection, so I thought maybe you and I could get to know each other better and-" Bolin had a small bouquet of flowers and everything, oh no….

Bolin spent plenty of his free time on the island, of course, so it stood to reason that the two of them would have communicated, but that wasn't the case. Mako had put a worm in his brother's ear that it was better to stay away from Mike at first, but Bolin's curiosity got the better of him and, when he had a day off from pro bending practice on-shore, finally had introduced himself properly…and found the person he'd spoken to attractive enough to ask on a date.

Mike held the plate in his hands tighter as he felt her invading his brain space once again. "I think you've mixed me up with someone else…" he said slowly, taking a silent deep breath and digging his feet into the floor. "We've never talked before." He definitely didn't sound like the same girl.

Bolin stopped at hearing his voice. "Oh. I thought you were-oh. I'm sorry, you just look really similar to this girl who is also living here and is really cool and an airbender. I mean, you have the same hair and eye color and you're the same height and-" Had he forgotten what Mako had told him? Absolutely. "You don't happen to have a twin sister or anything, right?"

"No, I don't," Mike confirmed, putting the plate down and accidentally breaking it in two from putting too much force on it all at once. He was startled by the sound of the crack and stumbled back.

"Heh, guess I'm not the only one who breaks plates around here!" Bolin joked. "That looks like an easy fix."

Mike stared at the broken plate.

"You okay? You look spooked!" Bolin asked, picking up the two pieces of the plate. "I can earthbend this back together, no worries, dude."

"I'm sorry, I broke it," Mike replied, a tightness in his throat and an almost roboticness to his voice. "I'm sorry." No other words would leave his mouth. His vision blurred; he wiped his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"It's all good! Tenzin is pretty chill, most of the time, and the acolytes are super nice," Bolin doubled down on the reassuring words. "And like I said, I can fix it so it's like it didn't really happen." He smiled.

Mike wasn't reassured. He felt panicked and didn't know why. He couldn't see Bolin anymore; he didn't feel his own hands hitting the counter to keep him up-

He felt an abrupt pressure around his center and a loss of the ground beneath his feet. It didn't hurt, but it was enough to re-align his focus to see what it was, his eyes wide. His breathing was still out of whack as his feet returned to the ground.

"You looked like you were maybe going to fall over. Sorry if you don't like being held, but that's worked with Korra before so I figured it might work here too-?" Bolin apologized, removing his arms from around Mike's torso. "If that somehow made it worse I am so sorry, reading the room isn't always my strong suit."

Mike blinked rapidly, looking down at him properly for the first time since they'd been talking. "I-its fine," he managed to speak, embarrassed and confused.

"You know, you're pretty muscly under all that fabric," Bolin felt the need to comment. "Do you work out?"

"Uh, I had to carry heavy stuff at my job before I came here, if that counts…?" Mike was still very tense but was slowly letting it go.

"Ah, okay! I'm a pro bender so I'm always looking out for cool people who can share workout tips and stuff like that—I guess I should've introduced myself by now!" he offered his dust-covered hand for him to shake. "I'm Bolin."

Mike hesitated before accepting the hand. "Mike," he offered his name in return.

"Are you a new acolyte or something, just based on how you're dressed it kinda looks like it," Bolin then asked, having not picked up on the difference in how he layered the cloth.

"No, I'm just…visiting," Mike replied vaguely. "You could get the details from the Avatar if you want."

"Okay, I'll talk to her later. You seem interesting just based on your crazy height—are you older than me?"

"I'm sixteen."

"No way, I'm older than you! Not by much, but still! Some people are so lucky…" Bolin sighed.

"Don't say that, you're built like a brick wall. Believe me, I know of a guy who's called Brick for that exact reason. Being this tall is more of a hazard than anything else," Mike assured him.

"Still, kinda amazing you got to be that height. And I guess Svetty got lucky too…I'm gonna go look for her again, it was nice meeting you!" Bolin waved goodbye and left the kitchen.

"You won't find her," Mike said under his breath as Bolin disappeared.

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