[Bolin listens quietly and with his full attention, nodding a little here and there and only finally taking his hand back from Lance's knee to rest on the table when he finishes speaking. Then it's his turn to carefully measure his words.

Bolin isn't trained in how to deal with any of this stuff, he can only work from experience. How he's treated other people in the past and his role models. Mako can be a many things, but he raised Bolin right and those lessons have stuck through all his own terrible experiences.]

No, that's not true.

It might feel like that? But from where I'm sitting, I don't think that's the case. I think the people who know you will see their friend. Sure, their friend is going through a really dark time, and they'll see their friend who needs to heal, but when things are dark there's nowhere to go but back to the light. And they'll support you because that's what friends do. Leaning on other people is how things heal and get light again. No one can do it alone.

And all those other people? They don't know you and they don't matter.