[Next time. You'll know for next time. While Mako was busy guarding their lives he inadvertently gave Bolin guardianship of their hearts. He taught his little brother everything he remembered of their parents. Taught him how to thrive. Kindness. Curiosity. Loyalty. How to rise up when the time came. By taking the sharp hand of reality, Mako held space for Bolin to learn gratitude and tradition and ritual. Together they created memorials for their lost family. Together they forged traditions for themselves. Small, but vital gestures to keep them human.

Bolin doesn't realize this so candidly and he knows that he's been cruel to his brother int he past for making the hard decisions, so it isn't that big of a surprise when Mako didn't come to him. Plus.. obviously they've been fighting. So.

Next time. Ever onward.]

Here.

[That's when he pulls back and disconnects to turn and retrieve the pack he brought. Inside it are three paper lanterns made of thin, red paper, ready to be puffed up into shape and let go into the sky. Beside them in another layer of protective fabric is the glass Memory's Touch he was gifted in October.

It blooms over and over again and was recently a spider lily, but when he reveals the orb, fabric between the glass and his skin, it's a fiery lantern flower just on the cusp of bloom.]

This thing is like a little vision of home. A smell.. or a sound.. a taste.

[Which has been equal parts helpful and devastating.]

It changes every time the flower opens. I don't know what this one is, yet.