Author's Note;

Hello everyone and welcome to my first 'Legend of Korra' fic. This is an AU where Bolin is the Avatar through events that will be detailed during the story. This will also be in the same AU as my 'Legend of Aang' fic 'Child of the Moon', though how much that story will affect this one remains to be seen. I hope you all enjoy the chapter.

I own nothing.

Prologue

It was the early days on the street that Mako noticed it.

They were still learning how to survive the harsh life they'd been dropped into, still learning the tricks and skills needed, and winter had come, bringing with it the icy cold that claimed many street orphans. Mako did his best, he truly did, but his flames could only do so much to warm them and he couldn't keep them going indefinitely. On top of that, they still had to find food to survive and it was lean pickings.

It was no wonder Bolin fell ill.

Kneeling on the stone floor of some abandoned building in the city's poorest district, Mako gently bent fire around his out-of-it little brother, desperately trying to warm him. As many rags and vaguely useful bits of cloth were piled on the small boy as possible, Mako himself had shed as much of his clothes as he could, letting his firebending keep him warm, easily donating them to the heap. However, they didn't seem to be doing much and Bolin was still far, far too cold.

Repeating the bending motions he'd been performing endlessly, Mako stared at his brother's still face, searching for a sign that his efforts were doing something. As before, nothing changed and the young firebender gritted his teeth, refusing to give up, and continued his bending, ignoring the exhaustion that was creeping into his body.

Then he felt something.

It wasn't definable, nor was it visible, but he felt something of a tiny surge, coming from Bolin. He momentarily halted his ceaseless bending and glanced at his brother's face once more, seeing that the boy's breathing had become deeper, more deliberate, more controlled. Bolin himself seemed to still be unconscious but these breaths were not those of a sleeper.

Then it happened.

It was tiny, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it event, but a flame briefly appeared as Bolin exhaled, in the same way some master firebenders could breathe fire. Mako jumped in shock and quickly rubbed his eyes, thinking he was seeing things, then, slowly, tentatively, placed his hand on Bolin's forehead, finding it far warmer than it had been. He quickly moved it to his brother's chest, finding that it too had gone up to a far more reassuring temperature. It wasn't normal and was still colder than it really should be, but it was much better than it had been.

Carefully, Mako replaced the disturbed cloths and sat back, his firebending apparently no longer needed, and thought about what he'd just seen.

Did his brother just firebend?

He immediately shunned the idea, Bolin was an earthbender like their father, he couldn't firebend, not unless he was…no! It wasn't possible, maybe he'd imagined the flames and Bolin's recovery was due to the continuous firebending he'd been doing or their dual nationality, that had to be it. He should just be thankful that Bolin was likely to recover.

However, the thought lingered at the back of his mind.

Over the following years, the thought remained, and as time passed, Mako's suspicions grew.

Each event was small and easily missed or attributed to luck, the odd, sudden gust of wind that just happened to help them out, the way the sea magically washed Bolin on the shore when he fell off a ship in the bay, how the earthbender seemed to be able to unintentionally warm himself in winter. All of these things added up and pointed to an uncomfortable truth that really shouldn't be possible and Mako slowly grew more and more certain. Bolin himself hadn't seemed to have realised and the elder brother reluctantly blamed himself for that.

Each time one of these 'lucky' occurrences happened, Mako would explain it away and his younger brother, trusting him completely, would believe him. He told himself it was for Bolin's sake, he couldn't be sure his hunch was right and there was no point in freaking his brother out over something that might not even be true, but the more things happened the more obvious it was getting. At some point someone was going to find out, someone was going to find and put the scattered pieces together and realise that Bolin was somehow the Avatar.

The question as to how remained.

The next Avatar was supposed to be from the Water Tribe, everyone knew that, so why was an Earth Kingdom/Fire Nation earthbender showing signs of being the Avatar, it made no sense! It couldn't be possible!

This was Mako's main excuse for not saying anything, it was so impossible that it couldn't be true. All the strange things that happened were nothing more than luck, chance, a coincidental turn of events that could be called good fortune and left at that.

Except there'd been too many and since meeting Korra, they'd only become more regular.

The Water Tribe girl had apparently been sent to Master Tenzin by her father to both see more of the world and achieve some internal balance. She was headstrong by nature and tended to act herself rather than take other options, something that had pulled him and Bolin into more dangerous situations than he liked. That being said, her attitude had actually been the reason they'd managed to rescue Bolin from Amon before he had his bending taken away, something he was immensely grateful for. On top of that, she was an excellent teammate and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they owed their chance at winning the Pro-Bending Tournament to her.

But the brush with Amon had made Mako's thoughts on Bolin much more concrete.

In the frantic rush of his rescue and the fight with one of Amon's goons, he'd seen Bolin instinctively airbend, halting an incapacitating blow. Bolin himself had reacted in panic, his eyes screwed shut, and had missed the fact his counter had been done with air, not earth. Fortunately, Mako had been the only other person there and the Equalist had been knocked hard, hopefully blurring his own memories of that part of the fight, meaning that it wasn't revealed to all. However, it couldn't be rationalised away this time, at least, not to himself. Bolin had bent air and Mako couldn't convince himself otherwise, that meant his little brother had to be the Avatar.

It weighed heavily on his mind.

Mako glared down at the ropes binding them to one of the arena's pillars.

Above them, Amon was holding forth with his Equalist speech having just taken away the Wolfbat's bending abilities and he hoped they weren't next. He turned his head to Bolin, "How are we gonna get out of here?"

His little brother grinned and nodded downwards to where Pabu was rapidly chewing through the ropes and both Korra and Mako grinned as well as the chewed rope fell away. Instantly, Korra was up and bending the water around them, "Let's go!"

With no time to prepare, Mako found himself being hurled upwards by a torrent of water, Bolin alongside him shrieking in delight at the wild ride. Somehow, they both landed smoothly on the arena floor and rolled into bending stances, Korra followed closely behind and their sudden entrance effectively ruined the climax of Amon's speech.

Not bothering to exchange words, Korra began her attack and Mako and Bolin quickly followed suit. They took out a couple of the grunts but the higher ranked Equalists were swift and agile, closing the distance and pressing an attack of their own. Within moments, the three teens found themselves on the defensive, barely prevent chi-blocking strikes and electrified weapons as Amon watched impassively.

A lieutenant danced around Mako, using swift strikes and jabs, aiming to electrocute the young firebender. For his part, Mako was dodging well but his own bursts of flame were not coming close to actually hitting his foe, unless he got especially lucky he was going to lose.

A sudden, easily identifiable yell snatched his attention and he whipped his head around in time to see Bolin collapse forwards, another Equalist standing over him with his electric glove still sparking. Mako immediately moved to aid his brother but a sudden surge of electricity ran through him as his opponent took advantage of his loss of focus.

He dimly heard Korra's scream as he fell, indicating she'd also been bested, but his thoughts stayed on Bolin. He was roughly hauled up and dragged towards Amon and made to kneel in front of him. The revolutionary stared down at him, his eyes showing no sign that he particularly cared about what he was about to do, and spoke bluntly, "Prepare to be equalized."

Numbly, Mako could only watch as Amon placed his thumb on his forehead, awaiting the loss of his bending.

"MAKO!"

From out of nowhere a gust of wind blasted around him, raging around the arena and knocking Amon off his feet. It increased in power and he saw the earth discs rip themselves from their holders and fly wildly in the air, several of them being crushed or shattered in the process. As he heard the shocked gasps and screams, he slowly turned, already certain of what he was about to see.

Bolin, his face a mask of uncharacteristic fury with eyes shining an unearthly white, standing in the centre of the maelstrom he'd created.

Around him, Equalists were tossed away and they hastily ran for ropes that had been dropped by an airship, desperate to escape the raging storm they'd riled up. Bolin paid them little heed, his current state seemingly focused purely on awesome bending power, Amon had already vanished but the boy's rage didn't seem close to ending. The wind's power increased and earth discs were scattered across the arena, smashing into everything in sight, Chief Beifong's elite had recovered from the Equalist attack and were managing to deflect the discs from the civilians but if Bolin didn't stop, someone was going to get hurt.

The boy had begun to float upwards, the wind raising him from the ground, and Mako pushed against the winds, taking a step towards him and shouting over the howling wind, "BOLIN!"

His brother showed no sign of hearing but the firebender pushed forward anyway, "BOLIN, CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

Bolin cast his glowing eyes upon him but there was no recognition within them. Regardless, Mako opened his arms and looked up appealingly, "BOLIN, IF YOU DON'T STOP NOW THEN SOMEONE IS GOING TO GET HURT!"

If there was one thing Mako knew about his brother, it was that Bolin didn't want to hurt others if he could help it. Even like this, he was certain the boy would still feel that way.

For the first time, Bolin's face showed more than rage, it switched to a frown and then a look of fear, his eyes slowly closed and Mako could see his brother crinkling his forehead, as if fighting something. The winds gradually died and the boy slowly dropped back to the ground. The moment his feet touched the floor, the wind died and any remaining earth discs dropped out of the air.

Ignoring the deathly hush of those around them, Mako pulled Bolin into a tight hug. The younger teen buried his face into his brother's chest and began to sob.

"I'm sorry Mako."

PS-So Bolin has both discovered and revealed he's the Avatar in one shot. The next chapter will deal with some of the aftermath of this, as well as give a sort of explanation as to how he can be the Avatar. Please let me know what you thought and I'll hopefully update soon.