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"Mako," Bolin called as he joined his brother on their new sofa. Toza had gotten it for them and helped them set up a majority of the apartment above the pro-bending arena.
Bolin was on his knees and settled facing Mako expectantly.
"Yeah?" Mako asked hesitantly, not really sure he wanted to know what had the curious look on his brother's face. Sometimes Bolin's questions were nearly impossible to answer.
Bolin didn't say anything at first, which was the first sign this was a conversation Mako didn't want to be having.
"Mako," Bolin repeated, "do you know the Rabarros?"
Mako raised a brow at his brother. "Yes," Mako said. "We practiced with them last week. Ula was helping you get used to the throwing discs. Why?"
Bolin looked up at him with wide fearful eyes. "Mako," Bolin repeated again, "how do you know if you're in love?"
Mako blinked down at his brother. His mind moved sluggishly as he tried to connect what his brother was saying and when he did a peel of laughter escaped him.
Bolin's face fell and Mako felt slightly bad but he couldn't stop. His brother was experiencing his first real crush.
Sure Bolin had a few girls he blushed around when they were on the streets but this was a different kind of crush. Not the sweetheart crushes of a kid that Mako rolled his eyes at but the hormone crazed out of your league crush of a budding teen.
That thought cut Mako's laughter off abruptly as he glanced at an unamused Bolin. He really didn't want to have this talk.
"Bo," Mako said, drawing out the nickname, "you're not in love with Ula."
Bolin opened his mouth to object and Mako waved him off.
"Look, this is going to be the most awkward conversation we ever have so don't make it worse," Mako said, pained at having to talk to his brother about this topic. Mako brought girls home on occasion, even when they lived on the streets, but he had always waved Bolin's curiosities away and never really got past wandering hands.
Mako had to figure out most of this stuff on his own, with occasional input from gangsters, criminals and, most helpful, sex-workers. In fact the house down the street from the Triple Threats main base was where Mako learned most of what he knew, not from experience but Mako often fixed things for them in exchange for advice.
It was mostly what not to do but at least it was something.
He wasn't letting Bolin learn anything that way, which meant Mako had to do it.
"I know she's pretty," Mako continued. "All of the Rabaroos are but Bolin you're fourteen and she's nineteen. I need you to understand that if she's giving you that type of attention, you don't need to be taking it. It's not appropriate."
Bolin frowned. "Ula didn't say anything," Bolin muttered, "and when I asked her out she just laughed and ruffled my hair but I think I can wear her down!"
Mako closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. That sounded a lot like a Shady Shin line and not for the first time since going with Toza had Mako regretted taking his brother anywhere near the triads.
"No, Bolin," Mako said. "We don't wear girls down. If they aren't interested, we leave them alone. Particularly girls like Ula who have the capability to end you if you try it. Don't make her uncomfortable or she won't even want to be your friend."
Bolin huffed and looked away.
Mako sighed, knowing he wasn't doing a good job here.
"You're gonna have a lot of crushes," Mako said, trying a different approach. "Some are going to leave you feeling like this, like you're in love even when you barely know them. Others are going to leave you feeling weird as it's unexpected or random. That's okay too so long as you don't act on it. Your body is figuring things out and adjusting to being an adult. You'll find a lot of things that make you, uh, turned on in the next few years. Not all of them mean anything. In fact, most of it means nothing."
Bolin's headshot around with a horrified squeak.
"I wasn't, it was, she," Bolin stuttered.
Mako shook his head and held his hands up. "Please, I really don't want to know," Mako said, grimacing slightly at the idea. "I just want you to know that you can't rely on that feeling to determine emotion. Sexual attraction is normal but it's not the same as love. You think Ula's pretty and that's fine but she's not someone you should be dating at fourteen. You've known her for three weeks, she's certainly not someone you're in love with. If it makes you feel better all three teammates make me have similar feelings. I'm not acting on them though because it's not love. It doesn't have to be anything."
"How would you know?" Bolin asked, still pouty, that Mako hadn't answered his first question. Admitting he also found the Rabaroos pretty probably didn't help.
Mako's brain, against his will, pulled up the image of a girl with a tangle of black curls and bright hazel eyes who took his heart by storm last summer. He had thought then that he was in love, but as soon as she came into his life she left it and without her around the feelings faded quickly. She had been his first kiss but that's all she'd ever be.
"I can't tell you what love is Bo," Mako said. "I've never experienced it myself but I can tell you what it isn't. If you think you're in love the second you see someone? That's not it. That's lust. Love takes time, I guess."
"You don't actually know what you're talking about do you?" Bolin asked.
"About love?" Mako clarified. "No. About the rest, yeah and I learned it the hard way. Just, don't jump into everything your downstairs brain tells you to."
Bolin bit his lip and nodded. "I'll stay away from Ula," he said.
"You don't have to," Mako replied. "Just don't flirt with her."
Bolin nodded again and stood before turning back to Mako. "One more question, how do you determine if you're, you know, for the right reasons, and not the random ones?"
Mako shrugged. "You have to figure it out," Mako said. "Generally speaking at your age, anyone older than eighteen isn't an attraction you should act on. As you get older -"
Mako cut himself off with a shrug. He didn't really know. He was only two years older than Bolin himself.
Bolin was still looking at him expectantly.
Mako sighed. "What?" Mako asked, not sure he wanted to deal with Bolin's next question.
"I saw you," Bolin admitted. "In the locker room with that guy from the Boar-q-pines."
Mako's heart skipped a beat. "How much?" he asked, worried Bolin had seen him showering with the other teen.
Bolin tilted his head. "Just the kiss," Bolin said, before his mouth dropped open. "Wait, was there more than that to see?"
Mako buried his face in his hands. "Bo, drop it," Mako said. "This is what I meant by figuring out what's right and what's random, okay. Sometimes guys trigger those feelings and I'm figuring it out. You don't need to worry so much about it yet and I better not catch you doing anything."
"But-"
"No, buts," Mako said. "I don't know what idea you have of me but I'm not preaching what I don't practice okay? It was too dangerous to do things like that before and I'm not comfortable doing it now. Just don't. Not yet."
"When then?" Bolin asked.
"When you no longer feel like you need to ask my permission," Mako said. "When it's a decision you feel comfortable making without needing my opinion. When you're like thirty. I don't know. Are we done here?"
"But how do you do -"
"No!" Mako yelled, only to see a grin form on Bolin's face. "Ass!"
Mako threw the pillow next to him at his laughing baby brother.
"Revenge for laughing at me earlier," Bolin said, grabbing the pillow as he moved towards the ladder to his loft bedroom.
He paused at the top of the ladder and looked down at Mako.
"It's okay," Bolin said.
"Huh?" Mako asked, looking up at Bolin in question.
"It's okay that you like the Boar-q-pines Waterbender," Bolin said. "I don't care if you like guys too."
Mako's face flushed darkly but he nodded, taking Bolin's admittance for what it was.
Mako shook his head at how old Bolin was getting where he was suddenly perceptive enough to comfort Mako as much as Mako comforted him.
"Go to bed, brat," Mako called, tossing the last sofa pillow at Bolin.