"This is the kitchen, here is the bathroom, you guys have already seen the living space… and here's the bedroom!"

Pause.

"I'll bet twenty thousand yuans that that is the favourite room of the lot?"

"Bolin!" Smack. "Did you not notice the children here?"

"Oh… right. Pretend you didn't hear that, please? Tenzin will kill me if you repeat that around him, so… uh… yeah."

"I will make no such promises."

From his spot in the kitchen, Mako grimaced. The posse, group – whatever they were – had been in his apartment for less than five minutes and already he wanted them out. Normally, he would be okay with having people over, but at that particular moment, he didn't care for them too much. He resumed chopping the vegetables at the counter. Cooking distracted him; it allowed him to focus on something else. However, that was getting increasingly difficult. The voices started getting louder, and as fast as he could blink, they were on top of him. The youngest airbending girl crawled up his back, arms dangling around his neck, watching as he worked. She was quiet for a moment but then exploded into all sorts of random questions. He chose to ignore them, focusing on cutting the tomato into smaller and smaller pieces while grinding his teeth.

He could feel her eyes on him, with her head cocked slightly to the side most likely. Her gaze bore holes in his back until they were torn away by the airbending children looking for her attention. He breathed a soft sight of relief, arching his back to crack it. He glanced into the living space, where she was entertaining Tenzin and Pema's children. Even the youngest one, the one born during the middle of an Equalist raid on Air Temple Island, was there. Unlike his older siblings, he was being held by Asami, who was watching the kids for Tenzin and Pema while they ran errands in the city. Usually their go-to was Korra, but she was occupied moving into her new apartment with Mako.

It was unclear why Bolin was with the group, as he had joined Korra and Mako when they first when to check the place out. While Mako loved him dearly, he wanted to be left alone every once and a while. Today seemed like a good day to have that, didn't it? Unfortunately, Asami, Bolin and the children had other plans. Asami insisted on helping the couple settle in, by helping them unpack the few items that they owned.

Once that was finished, Korra invited them to stay for dinner – which was grating enough – and they agreed. When dinner was served, the chatter began again. Mako was getting increasingly frustrated with the entire group, only giving curt responses and short nods as an answer. This was fairly normal for the firebender, but every so enough he would snap, and the entire table would go silent for a minute before Ikki started talking again. Korra returned his answers with angry glares and narrowed eyes while clenching and unclenching her fists around her eating utensils. Spirits, Tenzin was making progress on her patience.

His patience was wearing thin by the time their friends finally left hours later. Mako was cleaning up from dinner and Korra was lazing around on the couch. Neither said a word to each other, even as Korra walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his torso. She gave him a squeeze (not a gentle squeeze either) to let him know he was in trouble.

"No problem. There's no problem," he replied, scrubbing a dish with a little too much force. She squeezed him again, stronger this time. He sputtered a little, always surprised by her raw strength. "Fine, you win. I wanted to be alone."

She untangled her hands from his scarf. "Well, you could have just left and gone for a walk or something, Mako," she pointed out in disbelief. Mako turned around and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"No, it's not like that. I mean you and me. Alone, together," he explained. Suddenly, she pulled him to the couch and she sat beside him. A look of 'and?' crossed her face and Mako felt compelled to explain his thoughts further. "It just seems that whenever we get some downtime, you're inviting people over – even when Bolin and I lived together, and you lived on the Island and you would visit us – or you're called away."

She was still as silent as an elephant mouse, when her face lit up. She scrambled over the back of the couch, ran over to the front door and locked it. Mako moved to sit up and watch what she was doing, but her hand appeared out of nowhere and pinned him against the back of the couch. "Well, we're alone now," she purred as she crawled onto his lap and kissed his lips.

Mako couldn't help but laugh. "Are you kidding? You have to help me with these dishes, Avatar. You can't get out of your chores that easily with me," he murmured in her ear, winking. He stood up, carrying her bridal style and plopped her down in front of the kitchen sink. "I made dinner. Now you have to wash the rest of the dishes." His girlfriend pouted, until he stuck her hands into the soapy water, backed away and jumped over the back of the couch. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a nap."

a/n: lol fluff I'm sorry
title lyrics courtesy of ed sheeran. thanks love 3