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« KORRA HERE! LEAVE A MESSAGE. YOU CAN DO THAT RIGHT? »

Oh, you're on.

( would she even be korra if she backed down from a fight?

she makes it there. faster than usual, because the wind is on her side, now, and when she arrives she's greeted by the scent of lightning in the air, the tell all signs of bending greeting her. at the sight of mako, she gives a wolf whistle, ever playful and - really, she seems to have come alive, from all times prior when mako had seen her. her smile was never quite as honest as it is now, evidently brought on by the miracle of bending. )

Hot stuff's still got it, huh?

( the ozone is crackling in the air. mako, like korra, is enlivened by the change. he's adapted quickly to the siren song of earth, but fire is his. it took a long time for him to accept that about himself, but in accepting it he became fiercely proud of it. being good at it.

he's grinning like a fool, and when korra wolf-whistles he just bows elaborately, a flourish in leashed flame at his fanned-out fingertips. once a fire ferret, always a fire ferret. the showmanship doesn't come as naturally to him now, but it's still there. )

What about you?

( ah, bravo! korra gives a delighted clap at the showy gesture, starry eyes of the girl who first listened to mako play on the radio all those years ago evident on her features. it's been a long, long time since she's fought with mako - an equally long time since she's seen him. you know, actually have fun with bending. seeing him with a smile on his face and fire in his heart tickles an ancient thing in her, long since buried. maybe it's risen a few layers up the earth's core since they've been here. maybe.

it's a fleeting praise. korra doesn't respond to him. she's idolizing him one second, and in the next there are the quickfire sweeps of her punches, one-two, fireballs flying out of her knuckles and to mako in rapid succession. she's too far away for it to be actually harmful, but it does set the field. she's here to play! put 'em up, big guy. )

You know, you didn't dance with me at Varrick's wedding.

( so it's ... time to dance now!! this is more their speed, anyway. )

( he steps forward to meet the fire head on, diverts it with a gesture that's more water than firebender, and is left standing in the curling smoke. she wouldn't hurt him in a million years, but it feels good to catch fire in his hand. hers has always felt a little different to him. maybe it's an avatar thing, but her fire... it seems as if it has a heartbeat.

he's smiling a bit, as he reaches up to pull the sling off over his head. it gets tossed somewhere out of the ring haphazardly. his arm's still... you know, not at its best. it aches pretty near constantly, and he hasn't been able to bend anything. neither earth nor fire. but if he's going to square off against korra for a dance like some ceremonial agni kai, he wants to at least be able to move. )

You're the one who snuck away!

( mock-indignation. no. he knows why he didn't ask her. and he (thinks) he knows why she didn't ask him. things are fine between them. settled, solid. he will always love her. )

But you looked beautiful, Korra. You always do.

( he bows deeply, left fist against the palm of his right hand. then he springs back lightly into a firebending form and, just to be a cheeky jerk he flicks his fingers at her, come on. )

( sparring with mako. it's weird.

because it is different. mako was always a master firebender, and certainly more elegant that the fuddy duddy master who thought to teach her the ancient ways of fire, but he's grown in different ways in the three years korra took to divide herself from them and find a path of ... repentance, almost. mako is more sure of himself, now. his right swing's gotten better, probably to compensate for the left. he's grown out of his teenaged body and into one befitting an adult man. he stands a little taller, no longer afraid of his height. his punches, when they come, aren't all power, but maintain the flow of his movements, the way an airbender would move. they're slight, small changes - someone watching him would see no difference. but korra.

she's spent some time studying in the university of mako. it's like she could've predicted all the ways he'd grow and change, fitting the cop command like the spot was made for him. this is a man hardened by the dirt of republic city, a man bathed in the fires of comets and forged from clear water cuts of icebergs. this is man is not a firebender. this man is like the old stories of iroh in his youth, studying waterbending and applying it to fire. there are trace amounts of all the elements in mako and how he moves, forfeiting the hotheaded power of an all natural firebender, in light of thieving away the fluidity of an airbender, using the sudden stability of an earthbender to offset his opponent.

this is a man who knows what he's up against. and korra has grown a lot too, on the tail ends of suffering, on the conjoining of elements and philosophical debates on what it all means. they are where four walls come crumbling down, and where bending becomes more than just fighting. they are rewriting the fabric of their world, rebuilding the very foundation of firebending, one agile step at a time. they are the dragons, giving knowledge to man. they are ran and shaw, dancing. )

You sure know how to make a girl blush!

( it isn't a lie. being called beautiful touches a soft spot on her. if mako were being tactile, he'd use it to gain the upperhand. instead,

korra switches to airbending, sliding easily in between his legs and coming out the other side. it's playful, not exactly in the goal of winning, but. fine. she's honestly just flirting with him, peering over his shoulder. ( she hasn't been going after his left side whatsoever. ) )

You weren't so bad yourself. I like how you style your hair now, by the way.

( korra was always the best bender he'd ever seen. not necessarily in terms of knowledge — there's no denying she had a lot to learn when she got to republic city — but in terms of... untapped potential. when he first met her, she was unformed. untempered. and maybe... that was what drew him to her at first. you could look at korra and see a thousand different tomorrows. you could look at her and see something limitless, beyond the known horizons of the world. there was hope in potential, and that was always the best and brightest of what she gave him, more even than the love.

he's never met anyone who learned as quickly as she did, and adapted what she learned to suit her. she took everything she ever learned and made it better for having done it. she could move effortlessly, seamlessly between elements without a shift or a break in her style. and mako would find little pieces of himself scattered in the way she did it, sometimes. bolin was in the lightness of her earthbending stance, mako was in the power and agility to her airbending, tenzin in the evasiveness of her firebending. and her waterbending became more and more like asami the closer they got too.

but of all her elements, he's always loved her airbending the most. maybe because it's the only one she struggled with, because the moment she used it first was also the moment she saved him. but more importantly than the love he had for air was —

his earliest memory is his mother pulling him into her lap and tucking a well-swaddled bolin into his arms, showing him how to support the head, her warm arms around him so there was no danger to letting a toddler handle a newborn. but the next memory he has is of fire.

he doesn't remember what he was doing, there was no firebending in his family for generations so there was no expectation that he'd have it. he just remembers conjuring flame to lick his fingers and laughing in the usual glee that toddlers have at something new and shiny, and his mother's face when she realized what she was doing. she could have been anything — afraid, or worried. but instead she was excited and proud. children at that age are a reflection of what their parents show them, so he'd been the same. they couldn't afford a firebending master, but his parents would take scrolls out on loan from the library and go over them with him while he learned.

and then they died. and fire transmuted from a thing of wonder into one where only horrors lurked. for a while, he'd resolved never to do it again, but even at eight years old he knew that was probably pointless. it was a tool, and it would help them survive, and if he was going to learn it he needed to be the best because of what happened the one time he wasn't. but he never liked bending, only the utility and practicality that came with it.

seeing korra use fire, knowing she'd never... had anything ill come of it. seeing the unfettered passion in it, feeling the warm little heartbeat that seemed to settle and pulse in the flames she called up from the heart and soul of her. that was what gave him back the love he'd had for it once. for a long time, what he carried was the idea that fire could only destroy, she's the one who let him relearn all the ways it could be soft and nurturing. not necessarily because she used it that way — it was her element of power, she almost always defaulted to it in an attack — but because she made him see it in himself.

and if he loved her for nothing else she's ever done, he would have loved her for that. she talked about broken bones, resetting them so they can heal? she broke what he'd been limping on for a decade and realigned his view of the world.

spirits, he loves her. he loved who she was when they met, and he loves who she's become even if he can mourn for what it took from her. it's nice to see her smile again, like the sun's peeked out from behind a wintry veil. )

Really? Bolin says I look stuffy.

( he's playful about it. his looks have never been something he needed his ego stroked about, mako knows he's attractive. and that his hair is fine. when korra dances around behind him on a gust of air, he flips himself to one side, pivoting so he's facing her when his feet touch the ground, a gust of fire at one heel to stabilize his landing just the way an airbender might. he crouches to swipe at her feet, a slicing arc of flame he knows she'll jump over just as easily as he does it. )

( they are a meticulous duo. korra wasn't always that way - she used to like throwing herself wholeheartedly and entirely into a fight, exhausting all of her resources and being annoyed when it was over too quickly. it's why pro bending was so much fun for her, honestly. she couldn't just win right away, couldn't be the antithesis to whatever element her opponent was spouting. she was just the water one, needing to figure out how to make that work for her - it did wonders for her bending, siphoning off the other elements like lanced wounds, focusing on the one. having clear boundaries, pouring her all into one thing and reaping the grown fruits of that particular labor.

not all the fruits. they lost in the end, but. that ended up being a good thing, kind of.

she's a different fighter now. before it was all power all the time, like she had something to prove to whoever she was fighting against - hurling rocks and fire in every direction, talented yes, but undisciplined. an avatar without a cause, fighting for the sake of fighting. she's taught herself discipline in the last few years, lived with her own body weighing her down, fighting against her. her moves are all well timed and small shows for benefit more than showing off, mako and korra both moving in time together, like they both have the choreography of this fight memorized. mako moves here, korra moves there. they never touch each other's fire, because they're too in sync to be caught off guard - their flames just lick each other at the wisps of fiery tips, tasting, flirting. )

You look like a cop, if that's what he means.

( it feels good to stretch her muscles. mako, despite his reservations and pissy attitude when they first met, has this - almost childish excitement about him, that comes out in small ways, playfully, when the world is looking in another direction. but. korra's pretty much always looking at him, watching him enjoy himself, laughing, smiling through bending, getting to exert himself through something that actually challenges him. fire's history has always been twinged with the pain and suffering of older, ambitious men trying to upset balance, but. korra has hundreds of lifetimes when fire was fun and pure, and the nations living in harmony saw friendships form throughout the four kingdoms. avatar wan was a firebender by nature, and she's always thought of the element as - uncompromisingly fun, danger and excitement laced in every move. that was how wan embodied it. and honestly? that's how mako embodies it, too. korra can read him like a book, and where someone else would see the cool lines of hard determination, korra just sees. fun. and loves him all the more for it.

there's a basin of water, somewhere nearby. she knows that's how she'll win, at least on the first round. they flip and step and move with each other, drawing closer. at the right moment, the way her hands move changes suddenly, and - there's a burst of water kicking at mako's feet, knocking him off kilter. korra goes the rest of the way to knock him down, sitting on his stomach, one knee bent up, hand on his chest. )

Two out of three?

( she laughs. her chest is rising and falling with exertion, but - she's happy. she can see it on him, too. )

( wow, what a dirty trick. korra should be ashamed of herself. mako is laughing as she pins him, at the gust of air she used to soften his fall, at how light he feels. losing his firebending, the heat and warmth of the sun. it's. exactly what it was like to have korra gone for those three years. an anchor around his feet, but he just learned to carry it. the weight constantly threatening to drag him under some impossible ocean.

but when she came back to republic city, it was like a lost sense was returned to him. color came back into the world, or the sun into the sky, or. the wind in the air. he lived without her, but he didn't realize how much he hated it until she was back.

and now she's pressed in close against him, and he can feel the warmth of her hand over his heart, and everything in his mind has gone silent except for one simple, singular thing.

mako levers his good hand down against the earth. the left reaches up to touch her cheek, and then he's leaning up to her to kiss her. it's all the things it never was before — soft and chaste and sweet and so gentle it's barely a fully realized touch, but he's smiling when he pulls away. )

( it's so natural, she doesn't even think about it. she leans into him, lets him kiss her, but it's too short for her to really kiss back. there's no question about if it's okay or not - he's smiling, she's smiling, and her eyes had gone hooded somewhere in between him touching her cheek, so she opens them now and.

and.

for some reason, she's expecting asami to be looking back at her.

it's an awful crash of feelings. her face drops from happiness down to near horror as she realizes what she's done. she works in an effort to actively not hurt mako, but in doing so she's. forced herself to do exactly that. what did she expect would happen? she wants to kiss him a million more times, but. she can't hurt asami, either. she loves them both so much she thinks her heart might burst at the notion of. choosing one over the other, letting whoever gets left behind feel the burn of dejected isolation.

korra knows it too well. she doesn't want to hurt anyone. her hands both clap over her kissed mouth, eyes a little wide but - she can't let mako think he did anything wrong either. she just blurts out, )

I have to tell you something!

( ugh. she groans and hangs her head, hands flattening out on her face. she isn't moving off him, though. not until she gets this out. )

It's — Asami.

( his expression sort of undergoes a series of shifts, from happy and contented to confused to. set, as if he's expecting some horrible recrimination. he knows korra well enough to read the language of her body, and he. just. sort of.

extricates himself out from beneath her so he can sit a short distance away. his brows are drawn down in serious consideration. )

What? Is she here? Is she okay?

( if so, it's an odd time to bring that up, but. you know. korra doesn't have the world's best timing. )

No.

( she lets him go. she wishes asami were here, so she could know what to do about all this. but. it's just korra, and it's just mako, and now they're a foot apart even though they were just having such a good time - korra shouldn't have pinned him. she shouldn't have done a million things, not the first of which is keeping everything from him.

it's uncomfortable. not only because it's mako, and then it's korra and asami, but. sexuality. she's never had to voice it out loud before, explain it to anyone, figure out. how they're going to respond. what mako's going to do. is he going to hate her? won't he have every right?

abruptly, )

We like each other, I think. ( her gaze is locked on a very interesting pebble, knees pulling up to her chest so she can wrap around them. ) I like her. I think she likes me. We aren't dating, but I think ... maybe we will. Maybe. I don't know.

( if she and asami had a Confession, it'd be different. and - if they had the Mako Talk. but. they haven't. they've barely held hands. )

I'm sorry. I should've told you sooner, but I was ... ( i didn't want to hurt you. she shakes her head. ) I'm sorry.

( whatever he was expecting, it wasn't. that. she's lucky she's not looking at him, because his expression goes from concerned to angry in the span of a heartbeat. but it doesn't last. it's just there, and then it burns itself out, and he's left with something guarded and neutral, because korra could've easily stopped him from kissing her, and she didn't.

it's just. one more element in the cycle of how they are with each other. everything's good, and then it hurts. something aches in his chest and all the happy lightness he'd felt just moments earlier have curled into ash like burnt paper.

korra and asami. dating? he's not sure what to make of that. but it. explains a few things. like why korra wrote to her and not him. that takes an old wound and twists the knife in the slick messy ichor of it, and mako drops his attention to the ground where it's charred with the dance of firesign. )

I see.

( a year ago, he would have yelled at her. maybe even just a few months. but he'd never tasted death as closely and as intimately as he has now, and it. changed him in a few impossible, irrevocable ways. the anger is a coiled thing somewhere deep beneath his ribcage, but he can calm it. it's like bending the water around a spirit and changing its nature as an act of will. until he can, he'll guard it closely. )

Well, you already know I think Asami's great, so... I hope it goes well for you both.

( but he's not going to. sit here. and he doesn't want to talk to her any more, or spar, or do much of anything. so he gets to his feet. )

I'll see you back at the temple, Korra.

( words are like knives. the korra of an age ago would've tossed fire at his back and yelled, because that was how she dealt with guilt and sorrow. but. korra's been made aware of her flaws in the last few years. she's understanding to all her shortcomings, every which way she ruined the peace between them. she wonders if she'll ever be able to look at mako and not want to kiss him, not remember how good it feels to be with him, to love him - guiltless, uncomplicated, eternally.

it's not the life she has, now. everything is complicated. she knows she messed up. she watches the shrug of his shoulders disappear in the distance, and only when he's out of reach does she release the breath she was holding in, fingers racing sharply through her hair. this is the part where she runs away again, where she tries to figure out why she is the way she is, why she can never seen to do anything right. she can't put a world of distance between them now, but she can give him space, let him seethe and be angry and turn that anger - maybe into hate. she'd understand.

she just occupies her time somewhere isolated and lonely, feeling sorry for herself. she doesn't care about bending, anymore. she hurt mako, and that's all that matters. )

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