Opening Notes:

Rated M for language

Sorry in advance for the names. I suck at making up names. Especially for universes with unusual/creative names.

Furthermore, I do not seek to offend anyone in any way, shape, or form. If you do find yourself offended, a rational explanation in the form of a strongly worded PM is more helpful than a rant in all caps. Rather than being angry, help to make things better for everyone. Thanks in advance for understanding.

Happy reading.

Friends

The setting sun had begun to cast the shadow of Avatar Aang across Republic City while Bolin and Opal walked, hand in hand. It seemed poetic that, even in death, the influence of the boy with the arrow tattoo could be seen, looming over the city in the form of his statue; but the young couple could not stay to admire the view. They were on a mission. Specifically, she was on a mission.

"I can't believe you're only NOW letting me meet your friends!" Opal remarked as they strolled down the city streets. "You're not embarrassed of me, are you?"

"Okay let's not start on this again. Of course not; you know that. Besides, you've met some of my friends." Bolin replied.

"Korra, Asami and the Air Benders don't count, Bo."

Bolin had been coerced into a long overdue trip. At Opals, initially tentative, and later more firm requests, Bolin had prepared and evening where she could meet some of his closest friends.

"-and why don't they count exactly?"

"Because they're OUR friends. Actually, when I met all of you, they seemed more like family than friends." Opal had thought that next to his brother, the Avatar gang was the next closest thing he had to family right now. Not that it was an issue. She always found it nice that he had such close friends.

"Well, I guess I see your point." Bolin was by no means embarrassed by his air bending girlfriend. The opportunity had just never come up. They'd only been dating a few months since the whole Red Lotus incident and friendly nights with the boys just never seemed in his agenda. "I'm not worried about them liking you. Maybe the other way around though."

Opal laughed at this "C'mon, Bo. If they're good enough to be your friends, I'm sure they're good people."

"Yeah I love those guys. I'm sure everything will be great." He squeezed her hand and smiled. "Oh by the way, I'll apologize in advance. We'll be listening the Pro Bending match on the radio tonight. Oh and talking. You know, just hanging out. If you're wanna hang with the guys, you gotta roll with the guys."

"That's fine. I don't really mind." Honestly, she didn't. Opal had no aversion to pro sporting. She didn't actively watch it, but if Bolin had it on when she came over, she'd just snuggle up next to him while he listened. She asked once if he missed those days. He'd said that he did, but that was a closed chapter in his life, and it was time to move on to new things. "Just as long as you remember that I'm not one of the guys."

"Of course not, M'lady." Bolin pretended to tip a fedora. Opal just rolled her eyes.

The door of a dingy looking apartment complex swung open and the aforementioned couple was greeted by what could only be described as a giant. Now, Opal had always considered Bolin to be a large person. Of reasonable height and extremely muscular, she had classified him as her own giant teddy bear. But if he was a teddy bear, the guy that stood before them was one of those enormous bears boys won for their girlfriends at the carnival.

He looked down at them, and beamed at Bolin. He outstretched his arms and boomed "MY BABY BOY!"

Bolin in turn thundered "ROYUK!" The two slammed into each other with all the strength they could muster as the boy Opal understood to be Royuk lifted Bolin off the ground into a bear hug.

He shouted "It's been too long, Bolin!"

"Yeah I missed you man! Now let me down, will ya?" Bolin fell to his feet and brushed himself off. "Hey this is my-"

"Ah, the new ball-and-chain? So you're the one who's been keeping my baby away from us?"

Opal laughed, it was clear that the boys were quite close. "Well I give him kisses sooooo…"

"Oh well, can't compete with that, now can I? I'm Royuk!" He extended a hand which Opal took.

She was grateful he'd decided not to crush it in his vice-like hands. Opal smiled pleasantly and replied "Opal, but it sounds like you've already been told about me."

"Yeah, the little prick won't shut up about you."

Opal raised an eyebrow at this. Just as she was about to say something, Bolin interjected with a laugh "You're so full of shit, you fuckboi."

Opal didn't know how to react to this. She had occasionally heard Bolin swear, but never so freely. She assumed that insulting each other must be a guy thing.

"Well don't be strangers. Come on in! The others are here already. There's food too."

The three walked in to find two others crowded around a radio and a large platter of sticky-buns. They looked up at their newly arrived guests.

"Opal, this is Rham and Pau. Guys, this is my girlfriend, Opal." Bolin wrapped an arm around her as he introduced everyone. She smiled and waved.

The skinny one she'd understood to be Rham stood. He was quite tall, ornately dressed, and had golden eyes like Bolin's brother. "Nice to meet you, Opal. I'll warn you now, don't trust anything that Pau says." He grinned wryly at the friend in question.

The other boy leapt up at this, his silky, jet black hair flying up and down as he did so. Opal assumed he used too much conditioner. "Say that to my face, you Fire Nation ass-wipe!" He replied curtly. Pau only laughed.

Bolin quickly jumped between them. "Hold on a sec guys, before this takes off, we have business to attend to." He turned to his girlfriend "Opal, one of my friends is gay. We make everyone new to the group guess who it is. You're thoughts?"

Opal wasn't prepared for this. She felt that a wrong answer might put her on the others bad side, but decided it'd be safe to play along. She looked at the three in question carefully, trying to pick up on any physical cues. "Hmm…" she honestly couldn't tell. She figured she'd guess on Rham, based on the rather stylish nature of his clothes. "I'd have to guess Rham."

She didn't even have time to worry about her response. The boys immediately broke into hysterics. All except Rham, that is.

Rham shouted "THAT'S NOT FAIR! BOLIN PROBABLY TOLD HER TO SAY THAT!"

"You're so gay dude! Even she thinks so!" Royuk sounded like he was going to bust a gut laughing

Pau threw an arm around a mortified Rham "Trust me friend, I know gay guys, and you could definitely pass for one."

A doubled over Bolin straightened as he spoke "Let me explain sweetie. Pau is actually the one who's gay." Pau stood and bowed at this. "-but a while after we all met, we discovered that we all thought Rham was gay at one point or another. Since then, we've always asked new friends to guess which of us is gay, and everyone almost always thinks it's Rham."

Opal giggled, pleased that her answer was deemed acceptable. If anything, answering correctly would've probably been less fun. "I don't know, he dresses kind of effeminately."

This earned another eruption of laughter while Rham began to scream over the others "EVERYONE IN THE FIRE NATION DRESSES LIKE THIS!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever makes you feel better." Bolin gasped between laughs, wiping the tears that were forming in the corners of his eyes.

Royuk stepped over to hug Rham playfully, earning him a relatively ineffective shove. "It's okay man. We still love you. Fire Nation clothes and all."

The four began to settle down for a night of Pro Bending and frequent jabs at each other. Surprisingly, Opal found she got along relatively well with the others in spite of their rather unusual welcoming. It seemed Bolin's friends were actually fond of her. Somehow though, Bolin couldn't shake the feeling that she was uncomfortable for some reason. He decided to address it later on in private.

Later that evening, at Bolin's apartment, the couple arrived after the conclusion of the Pro Bending match. There had been much in the way of food, laughs, and mild mannered taunting aimed at all individuals present. Bolin had enjoyed himself, but his senses told him that he would be in for a talk when he got home.

He gently prodded, poking his fingertips together as he spoke "Sooo…did you have a good time?"

"Um. Yeah, I enjoyed it." Opal didn't look at him when she said this.

Uh-oh. He knew that voice she was using. "Listen, Opal. It's okay if you didn't like them or if you were uncomfortable, but please don't lie to me about it."

Opal sighed "It wasn't them that made me uncomfortable." She paused, trying to think of the best way to phrase what she wanted to say. The last thing she wanted was to fight. "It was you."

Bolin was shocked to say the least. His eyes grew wide, wondering what he'd done to upset his number one girl. "Opal, I made you upset? How?"

She looked down at this, doing whatever she could to avoid making eye contact. "I don't know. It's like you were a whole different person there." She began to tear up a bit. She couldn't understand why. It wasn't like this was a huge deal or anything, but it bothered her none the less. "It felt like I didn't even know who you were. Like my Bolin had suddenly vanished as soon as his friends got involved."

Moving to hug her from behind, Bolin spoke gently in her ear. "Opal I don't understand, I'm always like that around them. I mean they're the guys, and I'm one of the guys."

Opal began to grow frustrated, and those feelings manifested in her tone of voice. "Yeah, Rham is a stuck-up piece of work, and Pau is too loud, and Royuk actually thinks he's funny. I grew up with two younger brothers, Bolin. I know how boys act around each other. I just didn't expect them to change you so much. To turn you into some arrogant, pig-headed…" she struggled to find the word "BRO! You were a bro!"

This, he found offensive. He loved his friends, and he didn't think that they had any negative effect on who he was. "Wait, Opal. What are you saying? That you think they're a bad influence on me? Those are my friends you're talking about!"

She tried to pull free from his grasp "It's not that! It's just that I don't like how you change when you're around them! When we went there I thought everything would be fine even we all didn't get along, because I'd have you there with me. Except I didn't have you! I had some-some-some frat boy and a bunch of his dudes!"

Bolin chose not to reply. Their voices had escalated to yelling at this point, and he had enough experience to know when to try defusing an argument. He thought his response over carefully. "So, you're mad because you saw a part of me you've never seen before?"

Opal paused. His question seemed to describe how she felt; but using his interpretation of the problem made her feel guilty. She didn't want to accept the fact that there are sides of Bolin she didn't know. At the same time, she felt that it would be unfair to get mad at him over something so reasonable. It seemed entirely possible that he had parts of him she had yet to understand.

Her silence seemed to be a sign to press on. "Look Opal, there are reasons there are boys nights, just like there are date nights; and NEVER shall the two of them meet." He moved a hand to her chin, gently turning her to face him. "There are sides of me I don't show you. Likewise, there are sides of me I never show them. They're separate of each other, but they're all a part of me. How would you feel if I got all smoochy and snuggly with Rham?"

Opal giggled at the mental image that began to formulate in her head. "Well, I feel that Pau would get really jealous."

They both laughed at this.

"-but, it's not fair. You're saying you have parts of yourself you hide from me?"

The Earth Bender thought carefully, knowing he was walking a thin line between a civil conversation and a yelling match. "No. Not at all. I'm saying that you wouldn't want me to call you names and humiliate you like a bad ass on a regular basis."

Opal replied in a deadpan tone "I believe 'savage' is the word you guys were using."

Bolin grinned "Yes, Opal. Your boyfriend can be a 'savage'. Not around you though. You don't want or need that part of me. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, I want you to understand who I am like no one else does. That's what makes this a relationship. However, there's a big difference between understanding the different parts of me and seeing them in action. You get the whole package, but you also get the exclusive parts. Does that make sense?"

She nodded. "I guess so. Just promise you won't go overboard with the whole 'bro' thing, okay?"

He swooped in for a quick kiss "I promise to try."

Opal smiled and moved to kiss him again. "That'll do."

Closing Notes:

These chapters draw inspiration from my personal life. As such, I do not want to edit/censor the content heavily to retain authenticity. I will be changing parts to remain in line with the canon.

Thanks for reading.