Title: The Buddy System
Rating: G
Pairing: Korra/Bolin-ish
Spoilers: Through episode 4
Notes: Thanks to jin_fenghuang for the beta!

Summary: Korra and Bolin have been facing rough times recently. They need a new system.

Pabu skittered across Bolin's shoulders, tail curling around his neck as the fire ferret stood on his hind legs. He tugged at Bolin's cheek. Bolin craned his neck under the assault, glaring at his pet as he smoothed his mustache back into place.

"Ouch, Pabu! Watch it," Bolin chided. "You'll take my mustache off and lose your hat!"

That seemed to be Pabu's intent, which was ridiculous. How did he think were they going to make any yuans?

Pabu pulled again, this time at Bolin's hair. His little hands weren't particularly strong, but it was enough that Bolin couldn't really turn his gaze away from where Pabu was directing him. They were nearly right back at the arena. Bolin blinked, taking in the scene in front of the building.

Big, pricy car. Crowd of pro-bending fans. Gigantic fluffy white monster.

"Naga!" Bolin gasped. He rushed forward, squeezing his way through the crowd as much as he could to eye the polar bear-dog. She turned her head, cocking it to the side to examine Pabu. They were buddies, he knew, so he let that go to focus instead on how Naga was in the driver's seat. "How are you driving?"

"Um, she's not," Korra put in.

Bolin stepped to the side, leaning over the backseat of the car to get a good look at her. She looked better than the last time he'd seen her, like she'd actually slept recently.

"Oh, hi, Korra," he said. He brushed at his hair, swiping his hand down his face to surreptitiously tug his mustache off. "So you drove?"

That made even less sense.

"Tenzin dropped me off." Korra gave him a half smile and a shrug. "I thought I should apologize for being a bad teammate."

"What? You a bad teammate? No way, never!"

Okay, so she hadn't been to practice in like a week and hadn't shown up today. And so Mako had already looked up Hasook again, keeping him in reserve just in case. But she was the Avatar. She had responsibilities. He got that.

"I brought a lot of goodies," she offered. Bolin's gaze homed in on the basket of stuff in the back. It was familiar.

"Isn't that…?"

She winced, voice cracking awkwardly, as she admitted, "Courtesy of Councilman Tarrlok."

"Good enough for me. You need any help carrying?"

Korra was already vaulting out of the car, leaning over to pick up the huge basket easily.

"Nope."

Naga perked up, ready to follow, and Korra shot her a look. The polar bear-dog stopped mid-jump, coiled muscles relaxing under Korra's commanding expression. Korra scratched between her ears and the polar bear-dog leaned into the touch, reluctantly lying down across the front seats. Bolin had to hand it to her. That was a serious theft deterrent.

"That's a good girl," Korra praised. She hefted the basket against her hip, slanting a look at Bolin. "So where do you want this?"

"Um, upstairs? You've never been to our apartment, have you?"

Korra silently shook her head, so Bolin led the way. He parted the crowd of fans with promises of autographs later and winning smiles that were mostly met with blinking confusion. Oh, but he caught a few. He definitely caught a few. They might have even known who he was.

He led Korra through the back hallways of the arena, up the stairs, and past the training rooms. He could hear the grunts of the other teams in the tournaments, the whoosh of their fire as they practiced. They'd be going up against some pretty stiff competition and the hair of the back of his neck prickled at the thought. He kinda couldn't shake the feeling they were going to get completely pounded. It was going to be so amazing.

It was another flight of stairs before he reached the landing their apartment was on. It was more of a loft than anything. Well. An attic. But it was clean, relatively, and it was theirs. For a certain definition of theirs.

He rapped at the door, easing it open.

"Hey, Mako? You home?"

Bolin pushed the door the rest of the way open, taking in the dead silence of the empty loft. He caught Korra's eye, gesturing her in. She looked disappointed for a moment before straightening, striding right into the middle of the apartment to set the basket down between the twin couches.

"So I guess Mako's out with Asami?" she asked, eyes flicking toward him and then away.

"Could be," he said slowly. He ambled over to the couch, sitting down directly under Korra so he could peer up at her. Pabu took the chance to jump off his shoulder, running off to bask in the afternoon light coming through the windows. After a moment, Bolin added, "Could be that Mako's working a quick shift down at the power plant."

Korra's shoulders slumped.

"Oh." Her blue eyes were shuttered, still not meeting his, as she added, "I'm sorry I couldn't help out with that. You know, the tournament money."

"It's okay. Looks like Mako has it all taken care of!"

Korra blinked, hand on her hip as she cast a skeptical look his way.

"That's why you're in that getup?" Her other hand waggled up and down, taking in his costume. "Because Mako has it all taken care of?"

"Well, he does," Bolin said defensively. He wasn't altogether sure what he was defending, but there had been a definite accusation there and he wanted to assure Korra that she was wrong about it. "I just…"

"So you're just wearing that for fun," Korra concluded.

"No! I just – well, it is fun – but I get sick of letting Mako take care of everything! Sometimes. You know."

Korra sighed, sitting down heavily beside him on the couch. She leaned her elbows on her knees, perching her chin on her knuckles to stare broodily at the gift basket.

"I know," she said.

"And I don't want to sound ungrateful!"

"No, of course not!"

"But sometimes I just feel so…" he gestured futilely at the air, trying to complete the thought.

"So useless," she said quietly, completing the thought. Bolin nodded, flopping backwards on the couch. Useless was right. His eyes scanned over the apartment – cleaned by Mako, paid for by Mako, even furnished by Mako.

Bolin frowned to himself, thoughts backing up a step. Next to him, Korra seemed to be doing much the same. She sat up, eyes wide and apologetic as she turned to him.

"I don't mean you. You're not useless at all. That was me, thinking out-loud … about me!"

"What? Korra, you're not useless!" he said, words overlaying with hers.

She shook her head, frustrated.

"That's just it! I am! I thought coming to Republic City would prove something. I'd finally be stepping up, taking control of my own destiny, doing something big! But all I've done since I got here is make things worse. I'm no closer to airbending than the day I arrived and every time I try to do something about Amon I just make things worse!"

"You joined Tarrlok's squad and arrested all those Equalists," Bolin pointed out. He scooted over on the couch to nudge her shoulder. "And you saved me."

She smiled for a brief, sweet moment.

"I know, but I just feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. Why didn't they prepare me for this?"

Bolin's mind spun at the possibilities. She'd been raised at the South Pole, right? That's what the tabloids said. She'd spent her years guarded and guided by the White Lotus, all but locked up. What could they have been done? Given her a textbook on anti-bender rhetoric and quizzed her on how it would unfold politically? Or taken her on field trips to the city, pointing out Triple Threat Triad hang outs.

"I think they did the best they could," he said sheepishly.

"I know, but…" she trailed off, hands falling limply onto the couch as she failed to gesture. She pouted. "I just want to blame someone else right now."

It sounded pretty appealing. Bolin loved his brother. Mako was a great guy. Okay, a little serious, but that had proven very handy in a number of very tough situations when they were growing up. But at the same time, Bolin felt like he wasn't contributing. Maybe if Mako had sheltered him a little less, held his hand a little less, cleaned up his messes fewer times, then maybe Bolin would know how to do this all by himself.

No, that was a dumb line of thought.

Bolin shook himself, brows knitting together as he focused on the problem.

"Okay, I have a thought and I need you to hear me out," he said. He stared over the gift basket, toward the window. He could just barely make out the statue of Avatar Aang in the distance. "The problem is us. Not because we're useless! Or even because we're irresponsible. But because we're just not realistic."

He pronounced the last word carefully, stretching out the thought in his head.

Korra laid her arm across the back of the couch and pillowed her head against it. She was staring right at his performance vest; he felt the phantom itch of his mustache.

"That's possible. You, for example, thought you could make thirty thousand yuans with a fire ferret trick," she said.

Bolin felt his hackles rise. It was more than just a trick! It was a sophisticated act!

Okay, breathe through it. She was right. No matter how awesome the trick was, they just weren't going to make that much money that way.

"And you," he said, "thought you could fix all of Republic City with a duel."

Korra cringed and Bolin immediately felt bad. Was he bringing up a touchy subject? He was totally bringing up a touchy subject.

He was about to apologize when Korra exhaled a long, depth breath.

"You're right. That was really unrealistic."

They paused a beat and then smiled at each other. Bolin felt like he was making progress.

Another beat.

He scratched at his neck.

"Okay, what now?"

"I think we have to come up with more realistic plans," Korra said.

They shared a look. This was seriously going to be hard.

"Maybe we should start smaller," Korra eventually said. Bolin nodded fervently.

"So, okay, how about we just act as a reality check for each other? We could be realism buddies!"

Korra drew he leg up onto the couch, angling toward him.

"You could tell me," she pitched her voice lower, giving it a calming, rhythmic cadence, "'Korra, I just don't think that's advisable.'"

"Ooh, that's good. Is that Councilman Tenzin?" Korra's hair flew as she nodded happily. Bolin tried to match her, going for Mako's flat annoyance as he said, "And you could tell me, 'Bolin, what were you thinking?'"

"Wow, you've got him nailed."

Bolin sketched a bow to her and caught her eye, grinning. She thrust out a hand and he took it. They shook once, firmly.

"Realism buddies," they agreed.

With that, Bolin dug into the basket. He'd been restrained long enough. The cookies seemed edible, the perfume completely mismatched for Korra, and the plum wine just a bit too young to crack open. They quickly agreed the time for the wine was after the tournament and also not when Councilman Tenzin could catch them. Korra stood, wandering over to the radio while he sorted through the goodies. A few turns of the knob and she found what sounded like a pro-bending match. Bolin perked up to listen, quickly recognizing one of the old classics – Space Swords versus Tiger-seals in a semi-final match.

He looked across the apartment to where Korra stood. She was directly in the path of the afternoon sun, right in that same window Pabu slept in. Sometimes she'd move, miming the action from the match, moving just enough to reveal the distant figure of Avatar Aang.

"You should come over more often!" he said, voice buoyant with enthusiasm.

She turned, flashing that half-smile at him.

"I'd like that."