Fire Burns with Fury {Bolin x OC}

Long Time Coming

For the first time in a while, no one barges into my room to wake me up and I get a chance to sleep for as long as I wish to. I take my time getting out of bed and try to push the dreadful thoughts of having to get my luggage from Tahno's apartment. I grab my clothes off the floor and pull them on.

The day slips away as I pace in my room, coming up with every way my plan could go wrong and how to get out of those tricky situations. As the sun starts to set, I stop my pacing.

I move to the door and carefully open it to not draw any attention to myself. I slink along the side of the dorm building and into the bushes. Since the attacks on the island, many more White Lotus members have set up on ground around the property which makes stealth all the more difficult. Especially when it comes to hiding from high-level benders who can hear you breathing from metres away. Luckily my years of sneaking out of the Fire Nation Palace have taught me well.

I make the last sprint towards the last boat back to the mainland for the day, except I don't make it there before another presence makes itself clear, "Going somewhere?"

"Are you going to stop me," I turn my head around to face the voice, "Bolin?"

"No."

"Then go." I spit, "Stop wasting my time and yours."

"I will. But first, I just wanna know why."

"Why what? Spit it out." I fully turn around to face him. He has a frown on his face that would usually have a smile, "Why are you so horrible?"

My eyes widened at his words but I let him keep speaking, "Not that I really mean that. I like you, Yuko. You may be grumpy all the time, but I feel that you've been a good friend to me."

"I've never done anything good to you. And if I did, it wasn't actually for you. It was for me."

"That's not true." Bolin takes one step closer to me, "You came to my mover premier. You had no reason to come but you did. You were kind – until you started yelling at me... You wanted to support me. I know you did."

"Then I guess you know nothing about me. Not that I ever thought you did. You don't know the first thing about who I am. So don't treat me like we know all of each other's secrets."

"You're not who you say you are, Yuko. And you're the only one who can't see it." Bolin takes another step closer.

"Can't see what? That I'm actually an angel in disguise? I don't think so. I won't sit here and pretend that I'm a good person when I know I'm not!"

"When we were at the Southern Water Tribe, you came with me to the festival-"

I interject, "To get you to shut up and leave me alone."

"But that's a lie! We were having fun, I could see you were having fun. You got angry when I got distracted by Eska and Desna. You do care about people. You do care about what your friends think of you."

"Shut up. You don't even know what you're saying."

"You helped search for Korra and you helped take down Amon, which I should remind you, was because you made a promise to Tahno. Neither of those things were for your benefit."

"Shut up," I repeat.

"I know you have a bad past. Mine isn't so great either. That doesn't mean you have to be a bad person." Bolin steps forward again and now he's only about an arm's length away from me.

"Just let me go," I say just above a whisper.

"I can't do that."

"Why not?" My voice shakes and I'm not sure if it's out of anger or fear. Bolin wraps his arms around my body in a quick movement, keeping my arms pinned to my sides, "Because you're my friend." He says in a whisper.

My body stays still. I don't resist. I don't try to shake Bolin off of me. I relax my head and let my chin rest on top of his shoulder. I've never had someone speak to me the way he just did. He was calm, he didn't yell. His words were harsh, yet kind.

He could see through me like glass and I let him.

He moves away from me and on his face is a smile. And for the first time, I truly feel happy to see it. It's a strange feeling that I have inside. I'm not sure what it is. I've never had anyone that could even come close to the title of 'friend' yet here he is standing right in front of me.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" He chuckles.

"No, it wasn't." My feeling of happiness drops, "I'm sorry, Bolin."

His eyes quiver with curiosity, "What-why?"

I grab his shoulders with a solid grip and slam my forehead against his own. His body crumples to the ground as my head starts to pound. Judging by his groans my headbutt wasn't strong enough to knock him out, but enough to get him away from me.

I run to catch the boat just as it's about to pull away. Bolin gets up quickly, but not quick enough to stop me. He makes no attempts to call out or even say anything to me. Bolin's silence says all that needs to be said.

As I pull further away, his broken expression becomes less and less clear.

"You must really hate that boy!" The captain of the boy hollers over to me. I meet his eyes with a frown, "No... I actually like him more than I would like to admit."

He looks me up and down with a strange gaze, "You have a weird way of showing it."

"I'm doing what's best for him... Now mind your own business!" I snap. My gaze falls back to the dot on the horizon that is Bolin's silhouette.

-

'Knock! Knock! Knock!' I bang as loud as I can on Tahno's apartment door. There's a long silence so I begin knocking again.

One of Tahno's neighbours – an old lady wearing a robe – pokes her head out of her door, "Keep the noise down! People are trying to sleep!"

"So sorry," I say sarcastically, "But this guy called the police on me earlier, so I kind of need him to Open this damn door!" I yell at the top of my lungs.

The door swings open and I'm pulled in. The door slams behind me, but I am more focused on Tahno's face which is centimetres from mine, "Are you crazy?" He seethes.

"I'm here for my luggage," I state blandly. Tahno loosens his grip on me and gestures to my suitcase which sits right next to the front door.

As I reach down and pick it up he comments, "Don't come back here."

"I wasn't planning on it." I scoff.

"I don't just mean my house." He clears his throat, "Don't come back to Republic City. You've caused more problems here than you've fixed."

I can't help but laugh, "Then I guess it's a good thing that I like this city just as much as it likes me." I turn the doorknob and open the door.

"You're a horrible person, Kazuko."

"I'm glad you've finally realized that." I slam the door and sigh. I walk down the stairs and out onto the street.

A long walk with a lot of thinking leads me to the park. I place my suitcase on the grassy terrain and I sit down on top of it.

First boat out of Republic City and I'm on it. The ship is headed for Ba Sing Se where I can only hope to start over again. Maybe this time my looming past won't catch up with me.