disclaimer: disclaimed.
dedication: uhhhhh… idk, nona's house for all the writing I get done?
notes: for day #3 of Bolinora week, but I'm late as fuck; prompt was genderbender
notes2: come on did you actually expect something quality out of me. I thought about genderbending them both, but then went "…naaaaaah."

title: angels made from neon and garbage
summary: Bolina is sixteen when she meets the airbender girl called Jinora. — genderbent!Bolin/Jinora.

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Bolina loves Korra, really, she does. Korra is silly and strong and makes her laugh, and she is pretty sure that someday Korra is going to marry her brother. Korra and Mako squabble like an old married couple during practise, for sure, and Bolina smiles so hard her cheeks hurt.

She loves them both so much that sometimes she doesn't even know how to cope.

"Do you want to come to the island to train?" Korra asks, one day. "It's really quiet, there, and we could, you know, sleep in. There's a boat down in the harbour, if you want to?"

They are both sweating, and it is disgustingly early in the morning, but Bolina grins bright and wide and cards her fingers through sweat-soaked hair. "That sounds like fun! When, though?"

Korra shrugs. "Whenever. I mean, we could go today. You can watch me fail at airbending," she says. The sarcasm is layered on the words so thick, Bolina winces.

"Is it really that bad?"

"Worse," the other girl sighs. "But it's whatever. It doesn't matter."

Bolina grins and thumbs her nose. "It's whatever, yourself. I know you, Korra. You'll get it eventually!"

And Korra smiles out of the corner of her mouth, and it's sort of tired, but a smile is better than no smile at all. Bolina wants to pat her face, shakes for it, because seeing Korra sad is like watching the whole world die.

So she slings an arm around Korra's neck (with some difficulty because Korra is a near head taller than Bolina is), and says "Look at us together, we're swag as fuck, two lady benders without a care in the world! Who needs 'em, anyway?"

And then Mako ruins the moment because that is what Mako does best, and Bolina watches as he and Korra eye each other like wolves and she wants to scream WOULD YOU JUST FUCK ALREADY, PLEASE, LIKE, GET IT OVER WITH.

But she doesn't.

She sighs, and slips her arm from around Korra's shoulders.

"I'm gonna go get clean, okay? You two… do whatever it is you do when you're alone—no, don't tell me, I don't want to know."

They aren't really paying attention to her, anyway.

Ugh, Bolina think. Classless, all of them. She makes her way to the showers to get the sweat and the grime off, and to fix her hair. It takes her a full half-hour, but Korra never comes in.

She rolls her eyes, and strolls right back out to the training room.

Mako and Korra are making out against the wall. Bolina's eyes burn. "OH MY GOD, YOU TWO, I DO NOT WANT TO SEE THAT!"

They both turn red. Bolina flips her hair over her shoulder, and stares the both of them down. "You know what? I'm gonna go wait on the boat. You two—ugh, you know what, I don't even know, you're ridiculous."

And Bolina turns, totally not graceful at all, and heads down the docks.

It's not a long walk, but it's still early enough that most of the city sleeps. There's a faint mist clinging to everything, and the world is pale and quiet. Bolina likes Republic City when it's like this, because it looks a little cleaner than it normally does, and things are… things are better, like this. She kind of smiles at nothing in particular.

And then she's at the docks, and, well, there's the airbender boat. It must be, anyway, she's never seen a boat with orange sails before. Bolina bounces towards it—the sailors up this early whistle at her, and she waves and bats her eyes at them because like they even had a chance—and settles when she gets there.

There's a little girl sitting inside of it with her nose stuck in a book.

"Hi!" Bolina says. "Korra sent me, you must be—?"

The girl looked up, and blinked innocently. "Oh! Um. Hi! I'm Jinora. Where's—where's Korra?"

Bolina rolled her eyes. "Probably still making out with my brother. Ew."

They both shuddered, and Bolina jumped into the boat. "What'cha reading?"

The little girl's eyes light up, and suddenly she's talking so fast that Bolina can barely comprehend the things she's saying. She's animated and adorable, and Bolina can already tell that one day, this girl is going to break hearts. She is just that cute.

Bolina listens intently, and smiles and nods and laughs.

Yes, Jinora is going to break as many hearts as she comes across.

(Bolina didn't expect to find out that hers would be one of them, and wasn't that just the saddest thing?)

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fin.