Six days. It's been six days since Bolin had last seen Iroh, second of that name. He groaned as he sank into his bed in boredom. He sure didn't realize how much he'd miss that general. Bolin glanced at the telegraph key on the small table hooked up to the wall.

"Here," Iroh had said, giving Bolin the device the day before he left Republic City. "That way we can keep in touch. Even if we can't see each other, it'll still feel like you're with me."

Bolin let out a dreamy sigh and hugged his pillow tight. It felt like he was hugging Iroh the moment just before the general boarded his ship. Bolin could feel those strong arms wrapping around him, making him feel warm.

"I'll think about you every night," Iroh had said before giving Bolin a kiss to the cheek. Good thing Mako wasn't around to see that.

If Mako knew what Bolin and Iroh had been up to while the general was in Republic City, Mako would've used his city-issued handcuffs to chain Bolin in their room until he was sure Iroh was gone. The night at the noodle shop came to the fore and a warm flush immediately followed. He could never look at sweet and spicy sauce the same way again.

Bolin would always see Iroh tasting his fingers. But it started off as an innocent attempt at small talk on Bolin's part.

"Look," Bolin had said, dipping his middle and index finger into a sauce. "My fingers look like the spring rolls." Bolin grinned as the firebender chuckled. He leaned over to tease the general with his fingers.

"What are you doing, Bolin?" Iroh had asked, laughing and trying to avoid the sticky fingers.

"Come on, Iroh," Bolin had said, persisting. "You know you want it."

Then Iroh caught his arm and stopped him. Bolin gulped, thinking he had annoyed the other man. That line of thought, though, slowly went out the window as Iroh pulled Bolin's hand close.

Bolin's heart raced. "What are you––"

"Uh, what are you doing, Bo?"

Bolin's eyes shot open to see Mako standing by the doorway, looking at him with a questioning brow.

"Nothing," Bolin said, sitting up quickly. "I wasn't doing anything. What did you think I was doing?"

"You were hugging that pillow real tight," Mako pointed out as he dropped his rucksack by his bed before sitting down. "Kind of like that time you were dreaming about––"

"Pabu!" Bolin said, summoning his fire ferret from the hallway. "There you are. I was wondering where you went." Said fire ferret rushed onto Bolin's bed and wrapped itself around his neck.

Mako rolled his eyes. "Fine. I don't really want to know what you were dreaming of," he said before getting back up again. "I only came to drop off my stuff. Korra and I are going to the mainland so you have the room to yourself."

"Bring me back some pork buns!" Bolin said to his departing brother. And with the shutting of the door, Bolin let out a relieved sigh. He scratched the spot between Pabu's ears and his pet purred. "At least you like Iroh, don't you buddy?"

Minutes of waiting turned into a couple of hours well into the night. As much as Bolin wanted to stay up in the hopes of hearing Iroh's telegram, he eventually fell asleep with Pabu right behind him.

It was going to be a quiet night until the telegraph key started.

"Bolin? [stop] Bolin are you there? [stop]"

"Quiet, Pabu," Bolin grumbled as he turned away from the source of the noise. "I'm sleeping."

"It's Iroh [stop]."

"Pabu," Bolin grumbled again as he sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Do you have a cold or something? You sound weird." Some moonlight managed to filter into the room through the cracked window and Bolin turned to see his fire ferret still very much asleep. "Pabu?"

"Please be awake [stop]."

"Oh!" he said as he scrambled for the lamp. His index finger trembled before the keys and sent out "S." Bolin cursed and tried to send another message when the key started again.

"Bolin? Is that you? [stop]"

Bolin furrowed his brows in concentration, trying to remember how to break up his dots and dashes. "Yea5, it's me [stop]." That sounds about right, he thought happily.

On the other side of the wires, Iroh sat in his office and chuckled. He knew Bolin only learned the code recently so he expected a few hiccups.

"Arrived at Kyoshi Island [stop]," Iroh sent out.

"Still on Ajr Temple Island [stop]," Bolin typed with a pout. It'd take a few more weeks before the Pro Bending Arena was repaired and, until then, they weren't allowed back into their apartment. Bolin liked the Air Temple but it wasn't home. Plus he was getting a little tired of eating vegetables for every meal. "Need meat [stop]."

Iroh smiled at the message. Bolin was still a growing boy after all. "You should go to the stall by the park [stop]. They had your favorite pork skewers [stop]."

"Sounds good, right now [stop]," Bolin sent out, sighing dreamily and thinking about how many skewers he'd eat tomorrow.

"You know what else sounds good right now? [stop]"

"Yeah [stop]" Bolin typed excitedly. "Some seaweed noodles [stop]. And fishballs [stop]."

Iroh groaned in his seat. He should've known better than to get Bolin started on food late at night. "No, I meant something other than food [stop]."

Bolin thought about it. "A drink? [stop]"

Iroh groaned again. He wondered how to word it so that it didn't sound too forward or too vague.

"Do you want to try something? [stop]" came Iroh's reply.

"Sure [stop]."

"What are you wearing? [stop]" Iroh asked.

Puzzled, Bolin typed, "Pajamas [stop]."

"Is your shirt unbuttoned? [stop]"

On the other line, Iroh was hoping that sounded as sultry on a telegraph key as it did in his head.

"No [stop]. It's too cold [stop]," beeped his key.

Iroh hung his head in failure. Of course, it didn't.

After a few more failed prompts from Iroh to initiate code sex, he finally explained to Bolin what he was trying to do. Bolin was puzzled at first. But the concept became clearer when Iroh told him he was hard and ready to bust. So he told Iroh he was ready to try again and unbuttoned his shirt when Mako finally returned.

"I got your pork buns," Mako said, dropping the food on a the table by the key.

Mako caught his little brother telling typing, "We'll do this later [stop]."

He just rolled his eyes and decided to ignore it. It can't be anything he'd really want to get into this late at night. It can't be anything that bad, right?

They managed to catch each other three days later. This time Bolin was sure he wouldn't be interrupted by Mako. He was taking Korra to watch those moving pictures and that was going to buy him four hours, at least.

"What are you wearing? [stop]" Iroh sent out.

Bolin grinned as he looked down at himself. He started to unbutton his shirt with one hand while the other typed. "Wouldn't you like to know [stop].

Iroh half–smiled.

"It doesn't matter what you're wearing [stop]. Just imagine I'm there, massaging your shoulders [stop]. Can you feel it? [stop]"

Bolin rubbed his shoulder and stretched his neck, trying to imagine Iroh's hands on him. He liked to use his firebending to warm up his hands and help Bolin relax.

"Yeah [stop]," Bolin replied, closing eyes.

"Your muscles feel tense [stop]. Let's lose the shirt [stop]."

Bolin obeyed and shrugged off the garment, imagining it was Iroh pulling it from his arms; that it was Iroh's hands...

"... trailing along your chest down to your navel [stop]."

Ragged breaths escaped from Bolin as his hand stopped along the garters of his boxers.

"Then I'd slip underneath [stop]."

Bolin's other hand slipped on the key and sent out "Unn."

Iroh had long shrugged off his officer's jacket and was now slowly palming himself through his pants. When Bolin's message came through, Iroh thought of how...

"... hard your cock is [stop]."

Bolin started to stroke himself slowly while he typed. "Are you hard, too? [stop]"

Iroh replied, "Stroking my cock, wanting it to be next to yours [stop]."

It prompted Bolin to remember his first time visiting the general's quarters on Iroh's ship. They ended up fooling around on the bed where Iroh showed him a very good use for fire breath. If a firebender's hands were good for a massage, just imagine what they could do with their mouths.

"Thinking about that night in your room [stop]," Bolin typed.

"Never met anyone who stayed hard after coming from that [stop]. Guess I need to try harder [stop]," Iroh sent with a satisfied grin.

"Would love that [stop]. Feeling your mouth on my cock [stop]."

"Just want to hear your moans and your begging [stop]."

"Fuck, Iroh, I'm gonna come dhicc." Bolin couldn't finish his message properly as he focused both hands on his cock.

A brief silence of keys followed as both of them fell into their rhythm. Bolin's stroking had degenerated into him fucking his fists with powerful thrusts before shooting his load onto the table holding the telegraph key. Iroh jerked his dick with frantic strokes before coming to the thought of having Bolin squirming while he plays with the young earthbender's cock.

When the air had settled, Bolin was first to break the silence. "That was weird–fun [stop]."

Iroh used the sleeve from his jacket to wipe the cum from his chest before typing, "Haven't came like that in a while [stop]."

Bolin chuckled. "Glad I could help [stop]."

"I miss you, Bo [stop]."

"I miss you, too, Iroh." A few second flew past Bolin before a worrying thought occurred to him. "Hey, Iroh [stop]."

"Yeah, Bo? [stop]"

"No one can intercept our messages right?"

Bolin hopped down onto the sand and scanned the bay. "Iroh's ship should've docked by now," he thought out loud.

The night lights of Republic City were as bright as always and casted a shadow over the docks. He could pick out a few naval vessels but he wasn't sure if they were Iroh's. Only one way to find out.

He ignited the lantern and held it high before using a piece of wood to block the light in a pattern.

"Calling General Iroh [stop]."

He saw a light appear atop the tower of one of the ships.

"Good evening, Bolin [stop]."

Mako held on to Korra as they slept on her bed. They were breaking all the rules set by the Air Acolytes but Mako didn't care. Korra was his girlfriend and he'd sleep in her bed with her if he wanted to.

It was one of the most restful nights he'd had in a while. The elimination of the Equalists have given the bending gangs renewed purpose. And that meant he had more work to do both in the office and on the streets.

He was going to wake up in the morning to his girlfriend smiling down at him but instead he woke up to the most annoying light show in Republic City.

"What the fuck?" Mako groaned as he sat up.

Korra grumbled as his arms left her but she didn't open her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Some jerk is lighting fireworks by the beach," he assumed as he looked out the window, trying to find the lightsource.

"Okay, go take care of it then come back," Korra said, her voice getting softer as she returned to sleep.

Mako shrugged on his coat and scarf before looking back out the window. His eyes narrowed in on the tower of a ship docked by the city. Those aren't fireworks. Those are just flickering lights.

He was slightly annoyed that someone decided to play with the bright flares on the tower when something else caught his eye. The flickering on the ship had stopped but then the beach below started to flicker, too. He didn't even notice that there was light down there before.

The flickering at the beach stopped and the ones at the tower started again. He noticed that the period of time between flickering wasn't uniform and he realized it was in code.

The lights on the beach said, "He'd totally kill us if he found out [stop]."

Mako narrowed his eyes. His thoughts were deciding whether he should just go to the beach and stop it or keep 'listening' to see if this was a possible case. He could've stumbled onto a smuggling operation that Tenzin may need to know about.

"Let me worry about him [stop]," the tower light signaled. "So what are you wearing? [stop]"

Wait, what?

"Nothing anymore [stop]," came the reply from the beach.

"Are you touching yourself, Bo? [stop]"

The following day, newspapers speculated about the massive explosion that took out the command tower of General Iroh's ship. It ranged from a gang attack to a persistent group of Equalists but no one was able to confirm either claim.