When Your Pet Is Sick

Korra reached the boys' apartment just as Bolin was leaving. He was frowning in such a distinctively non-Bolin way that Korra was immediately concerned.

"Hey, what's up?" She reached out to touch his arm.

"Pabu's sick," he said quickly. "I'm going out to try to find some medicine for him. Mako's in there taking care of him now."

"Oh, that's awful, I'm sorry," she squeezed his arm. "Go on, then, I'll just let myself in."

He nodded and hurried off as Korra climbed the steps up to the attic apartment.

Inside, Mako was sitting on the couch next to a bundle of threadbare blankets, studying it with a furrowed brow. Korra greeted him and moved to sit on the other side of the little nest, and saw Pabu inside, curled up tightly and breathing shallowly, shuddering ever few moments.

"What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know, he's never really gotten sick before," Mako ran a hand through his hair, mussing his already bedraggled hair up even further.

"How long has he been like this?"

"At least this morning. We woke up and found him curled up like under the table. He wouldn't move or eat or anything."

Korra stroked the little fire ferret softy, "Did he eat something bad?"

"That's what I thought first, too, but he's always been a tank. He'll eat anything and be just fine. He's eaten sweets, meats, and bed sheets," he smiled a little at a private memory. "Korra, Bolin can't lose him."

"Hey, don't talk like that," she grabbed his hand and held it tightly. "No one's losing anyone. Pabu's going to be just fine."

"I got Pabu for him for his birthday the year after our parents died," he continued, looking blankly at their intertwined hands. "I thought it would be good for him to have something when we had to be apart. He was so young."

Korra got up and moved to his side of the couch, sitting close and holding both his hands in her lap. "Mako, look at me." He reluctantly tore his eyes away from their hands, and Korra saw a vulnerability in his eyes that pricked at something inside her. She would do anything to take that feeling of weakness away from him, a feeling she was all too familiar with in herself lately.

"You were both so young," she said firmly. "And you were – and are - the best brother Bolin could have hoped for." He scoffed at that, but she ignored him. "And Pabu will get better. Everyone gets sick once in a while. He's tough little guy, just like the rest of his family. He'll pull through this."

Mako sighed, his shoulders hunched and clearly carrying too much weight for his youth. "I wish I could be so optimistic."

"That's why you've got me," she smiled, bumping his shoulder gently with her own. "Also, maybe I can try healing him? I don't know if it'll do anything, since it's a sickness and not a broken bone or anything, but it's worth a shot."

"That would be great," he said, his shoulders loosening a little.

Korra filled a bowl with clean water from the sink, and carried back over to the boy and his pet. After placing it on the table and situating herself, she called a stream of water to her hands. It glowed with a soft blue light and she rested her hands at Pabu's forehead and back, her hands nearly covering the tiny ball of fur completely.

She felt him shudder on her touch. He mewed pathetically, uncurling slightly, and Korra felt Mako tense beside her.

"Relax," she said softly, to both boy and animal. Neither really obeyed. She closed her eyes and felt for the wrongness inside the little guy the way that Katara had taught her.

She was starting to worry that she wouldn't find anything when something snagged her attention - the little tangle of bad energy she was searching for. "Got you," she muttered and Mako's head shot up.

She took a deep breath, concentrating on untangling that mess, and Pabu's own breath started to even out.

After several long moments, the glow faded from her hands and she returned the water to the bowl, exhaling, her forehead slightly damp with sweat.

"Well?" Mako prompted impatiently.

"He'll be fine, just like I told you," she smiled, proud of her work.

Mako let out a whoop and hugged her around the shoulders. "Thank you!"

Korra laughed. "You're welcome, but you don't need to thank me for something like this. I'm happy to do it."

"Either way, I'm saying thank you. So he's better now?"

"He'll need to rest, but he should be fine in a day or so. And if Bolin finds medicine, that certainly won't hurt anything."

"What was wrong?"

"I'm not sure exactly, but it was probably just his time to get sick and make his mama worry," she teased with a smile.

Mako rolled his eyes, too weary with relief to fight back. "And for that, I'll stop trying to thank you."

"Sounds good to me."

Bolin returned a short while later, a small paper bad in hand with some generic medicine, and Mako told him what Korra had done. Bolin thanked her profusely, hugging her so tightly he lifted her off the ground. She just laughed and said it was nothing.

Still, the boys insisted on taking her out dinner as thanks, which she happily accepted, and Pabu jumped from Bolin's shoulders to hers whenever he saw her for the entire week after he got better. She'd scratch him behind the ears and laugh, but inside, she was genuinely touched.

She was never more grateful to be a healer, even an amateur one, than when she could help her friends.