“Hi Korra.”

Glad to be distracted from her thoughts, Korra turned away from the airbending gates towards the familiar voice of Bolin.

The younger Fire Ferret brother wore a concerned smile, an expression that Korra by now was getting tired of receiving. Still, Korra put up a smile as she returned the greeting.

“Oh, hi Bolin. What brings you here?”

“Uh, I just came to see how you’re holding up,” he answered innocently, and then beamed what probably was a reassuring grin. “Mako and I are patiently waiting for your return to practice. Wait ‘til you see the fans who’ve been hanging by our place. You’ve got a lot of people waiting for you, Korra.”

The Avatar fought against rolling her eyes as she sighed. “I bet…” In the two days after her…rescue from Amon, a whole stack of letters were delivered to Air Temple Island, addressed to her. Fanmail. If it were another occasion, Korra would’ve probably read through each and every one of them eagerly, and spend days figuring out which letters to cherish and reread.

But right now, just going through one short letter was an ordeal in itself. Something twisted in her guts as she how some child she never met was wishing her a speedy recovery and return to Republic City, so that the Fire Ferrets would win the tournament, and so that she would get revenge on Amon for his dirty tactics.

Korra couldn’t stand the reminder of her humiliating defeat, and the fact that the whole world seemed to know about it.

Sure, it might have been dressed up to everyone else (Xing probably played a hand in that) but the fact remained that Korra had lost. She, a bender of three elements, faced off against a mob of non-benders and lost.

Because she basically flung herself into that trap. A trap that she herself had laid out, against herself.

It was obvious in painful hindsight that Amon would’ve been lying in wait for her. The villain had been working in the shadows of Republic City for so long, how can he not keep playing dirty, especially when the Avatar herself offered him the perfect opportunity?

Why did she think that he’d actually face her one on one?

If not for Tenzin’s airbended haste and Xing rocketing after him, Korra would’ve been completely at the mercy of Amon. A captured Avatar, made utterly helpless because of her own idiocy.

A part of her was glad that Xing hadn’t said much that night. There was no ‘I told you so’ or the lectures on recklessness. But at the same time, the look he gave her…

Korra quietly wished to herself that only Tenzin had arrived to rescue her. Xing’s resigned disappointment made her feel so small, so…so useless. The weight of his gaze, along with the haunting memory of her defeat, clung over her like a wet cloak.

And so Korra tried not to wince when Tenzin and the other people on Air Temple Island looked at her with heavy concern as they offered their sympathies, even if it reminded her of how badly she’d failed. She kept away from the letters as the encouraging words were instead read as mockery. She barely contained her utter relief when Tenzin told her that she’d no longer be involved with Tarrlok’s task force.

If she could help it, Korra would gladly spend the rest of her time on Air Temple Island, until the pall of shame hanging over her disappeared. But the outside world didn’t seem to be having any of that, as Bolin’s visit seemed to hint.

“Hey, are you alright?” the boy asked, deeply concerned.

Shaking off her dour thoughts, Korra forced a smile. “Yeah… Yeah, I was just…”

“Hey, no worries!” Bolin quickly interjected. “You got jumped by the Equalists, after all. That’s no small thing.”

And Korra’s guts churned at the sincere sympathy shining through in his eyes. Just like the letters, it didn’t matter to him that the Avatar had lost to a bunch of non-benders. Bolin didn’t seem to care about the significance of her defeat, and seeing it in person… It was simultaneously heartening, humbling and humiliating.

Bolin’s concern was suddenly replaced with a bout of nervousness. “I’m just here to, uh, see how you were doing. No pressure, y’know? If you’re more comfortable being alone-”

“No,” Korra immediately answered before she realized it. “I…I could do with another friendly face.” There was a reassurance in having someone her age who wasn’t Xing around, and someone who wasn’t keeping such a worried eye on her like Tenzin or Pema.

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A real friend. Hopefully.

The earthbender’s face brightened instantly with a wide smile as he puffed up. “I can do friendly. If you wanna talk, I’ll listen. Or if you don’t, that’s fine too.”

It was hard not to smile at that. “Thanks, Bolin.”

“Not a problem.” Bolin scratched the back of his head as he chuckled, and Korra thought she saw another flash of nervousness under his grin. “So…uh, whatcha doing now?”

Korra glanced back to the airbending gates. “Just…thinking.”

“Well…thinking’s good.”

Was it?

“I just…I can’t help thinking back to…that night,” she huffed, her thoughts threatening to return back to how the whole fight might’ve played out if she had only mastered airbending, or if she could’ve jus-

“Yeah, I get it.” And surprisingly, Bolin sounded like he did.

Korra’s attention returned to the pro-bender, and found him wearing a soft, empathic smile.

“I know it’s not as dangerous as what you went through, but whenever we lost matches in the arena, especially back when we first started… I could go on thinking about the loss for a whole week, and it messed up my appetite and practice.”

A self-deprecating chuckle left his lips. “Those first losses almost made us lose even more because I kept second-guessing myself in the arena. Mako got angry of course, but eventually I got over it.”

“How?”

Bolin looked like he was ready to answer, but then a realization flashed behind his eyes and all his humble confidence fled him as he offered a sheepish shrug. “I, uh… I’m not sure? I mean, I stopped letting the losses get to my head and distract me, but…um, I guess I just forced myself to just learn from my mistakes and move on. Focus on preparing for the next game. Uh, maybe I got more afraid of Mako scolding me? Eheh…”

Korra blinked. That was…somewhat useful advice. Still, a grateful smile formed as she nodded at him. “Thanks, Bolin. But I think I’ll try finding a different method instead.”

“Sure. Maybe between the two of us we can figure something out? Uh, not that it just has to be the two of us, of course. We can get Hanh and my brother to join in.”

It was immensely refreshing to receive such gentle support and advice, compared to Xing’s wry retorts or exasperated sighs.

“Yeah, that sounds like a plan.” Then an image of a crowd of people waiting for her in Republic City, waiting to ask about her defeat, flashed through Korra’s head. “Though…I don’t think I’m prepared to return to the city yet.”

“Oh, it’s ok! Maybe I’ll talk to Master Tenzin, and ask if we can hold our pro-bending practice here for a bit? I’m sure Hanh and Xing would be fine with it as well.”

Korra couldn’t help but beam a smile at the suggestion. “That sounds like a great idea.” Then hearing Xing’s name dulled the mood.

Bolin was quick to notice. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she huffed. “It’s just…” The image of her former minder pouncing on the Equalists alongside Tenzin popped up in the back of the Avatar’s head, and she let out a drawn out sigh. “He’ll be insufferable.”

“Who’ll be?”

“Xing.” Korra rolled her eyes even as she pushed down on the shame that began to well up. “He’ll probably come over to make some backhanded remark about me continuing pro-bending or something.”

At the earthbender’s puzzled expression, she shook her head. “It’s his thing. He likes saying ‘I told you so’.”

“Um…but that’d mean he was right in the first place, right…? To be able to tell you so?”

Shit.

Barely suppressing a wince, Korra quickly defended herself. “It’s not like it’s hard being right, when all he tells you is to sit back and do nothing! Don’t do this, don’t do that… If I listened to Xing all the time, I’d be stuck in the South Pole doing nothing but practicing bending forms. I wouldn’t be here now, as part of the Fire Ferrets.”

“You have a point,” Bolin conceded, which gave Korra a rush of vindication.

“Right? I mean, I’m the Avatar, I’m supposed to go out there and help people. Aang was much younger than me when he traveled the world to stop Ozai. He learned and grew from the people he met and places he visited.”

“Well, that’s true…”

Giving in to the urge to vent, Korra began pacing about as she gestured with her hands. “Just because they made it Xing’s job to watch over me, doesn’t mean he has to be such a stick in the mud about it! Am I supposed to just sit back and do nothing? Why can’t he be like Sokka, who supported Aang in his journey?”

“Sokka? Shouldn’t he be more like Zuko, since they’re both firebenders?”

Korra blinked as she realized too late that she might’ve just run her mouth off a bit too much.

“Xing’s a firebender, but doesn’t use it very often because it’s…wonky,” she said. “Even when we get into trouble, he sticks to his fists or words.” Which got the extremes of bloody or slimily smooth results.

“Oh.”

Bolin hummed for a second before shrugging and breaking into a reassuring smile. “Well, at least now you don’t have to worry about all of that anymore, since he’s not your minder.”

She begged to differ. “It’s kinda worse now that he’s technically my boss, though.”

“Only for a while!” came his quick reply. “We can renegotiate the contract after the tournament, so if you really don’t like it, the Fire Ferrets can leave the sponsorship deal with Future Industries.”

That made Korra frown with concern. “Are you sure? I mean, you and Mako…”

“It’s fine,” the earthbender said with a grin. “It’s not like we can’t rough it out for a while… Besides, we’ll still have the Avatar on our side, right?”

The optimism was infectious, and Korra found herself mirroring his grin. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, Bolin.” Then a belated thought.

“Would Mako agree, though?”

It was almost funny watching how Bolin stumbled in place. “Uh, well… I’m sure we can talk some sense into him?”

“If you’re sure,” she responded cheerily. Well, Mako or not, at worst Korra could just leave the Fire Ferrets. She wasn’t supposed to be pro-bending long term anyway. She could get Bolin (and maybe Mako) to join her in her Xing-free adventures?

But she’d still have to figure out airbending first. That was why she came to Air Temple Island and Republic City in the first place.

And the thought of an exasperated Xing looking disappointingly down at her popped up again.