Author's Note: So, from what I've seen of fanfics, the authors usually put their author's notes at the beginning. So here is mine. This isn't my first fanfiction, I've written a few other fanfiction for various fandoms, but this is the first one I've uploaded here on . So please read and enjoy! (Reviewing afterward would be nice too ^.^)

Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Korra, the characters, or even the Makorra pairing.

Birthdays

A Legend of Korra fanfiction

"Happy birthday, Avatar," exclaimed a green-clad man Korra suspected was a journalist, thrusting his microphone at her. "Do you have any wishes for after you blow out the candles?"

Korra smiled tightly at the man. It wasn't his fault, but all of the attention and presents from the various (fifty-four) newspaper and television companies running in Republic City was grating on her nerves. Especially this question. So she replied with the same answer she had now said fifty-seven times (some of the companies had deployed multiple reporters). "Sorry, but if I tell you, it wouldn't be a secret, would it? And then it wouldn't ever come true."

"Oh," said the man. "Um. Well. Then. Have a nice birthday, Avatar." Korra kept the smile plastered to her face until the man left. Then she scowled. At least this one hadn't given her some idiotic present like balloons or, spirits forbid, a flower. The presents were nice, she supposed, but they all came from people who only cared that she was the Avatar, and she couldn't help but hope, wish that a specific someone would notice the date and give her something.

At the shore of Airbender Island, she slid off Naga, breaking into a run in the direction of the meditation pavilion. She needed to get away from all the pushy newspaper-people. She sprinted past the house, past the sky bison stables where Oogie was eating his dinner with messy gusto, to the place where she had learned airbending.

Jinora and Ikki were already there, Jinora weaving through the spinning boards, swift and agile as a koi fish weaving past boulders in the river. Ikki stood on the sidelines, cheering and jumping up and down, her excitement sending her leaping twenty feet in the air. When she saw Korra, she squealed and sped toward Korra on an air scooter.

Korra tried not to wince as the barrage of words hit her. "Hi Korra! Hi Korra! When'd you get here? Huh? Huh? Huh?" She jumped off her air scooter, letting it dissipate in the breeze. "Why're you sad, Korra? You look sad. Aren't you having a happy birthday?"

"It's probably because she didn't get anything from Mako, isn't it, Korra?" asked a voice shrewdly.

The girl in question whirled around to see Jinora grinning madly. "What? No. No, I'm not-"

"Ooh!" cried Ikki, bouncing up and down on her toes. "Is he the good-looking firebender that drives you crazy like you like him?"

Korra flushed. Yes, that's the one, said the irritatingly realistic part of her consciousness. "No. No he's not," said her mouth. "It's almost seven," she said abruptly. "I have to go." She turned and walked deliberately out of the training arena, the sound of Ikki and Jinora singing at the top of their lungs resounding in her ears, and in her heart.

"Korra and Mako, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Pabu in a baby carriage!"

Korra burst through the double doors of the probending arena, flashing her ID card at the doorman when he tried to halt her. She sprinted to the training room, only to turn on her heel when she saw it was empty. She took the stairs to the Bending Brothers' apartment two at a time, stepping onto the landing, doubled over for breath. Out of nowhere, a hand clamped down on her shoulder.

She jerked back, yelling, whirling around to face her attacker with her fists flaming. The equalist was tall, broad-shouldered, wearing dark clothes that, strangely, weren't skintight. The figure pressed his palms over hers, effectively cutting off her flames. She scowled, confused. Equalists couldn't firebend. Then her train of thought shorted out when the Equalist pressed his lips to hers. Her arms instinctively went around his neck, grasping…a worn red scarf?

The figure, who her brain had now realized it recognized, pulled back. Korra felt her cheeks flame as she realized who she had just kissed.

"Happy birthday, Avatar," whispered Mako.