The large earth disk catches her by surprise.

Maybe there was way too much power behind it, or maybe the pale, brownish green disk was different. Normally, the disks shattered on impact. Sometimes though, they would stay completely intact. But they never did an incredible amount of damage. Though she never asked, she suspected they were designed that way. Maximum result with minimum injury.

So when Korra doesn't duck in time, and takes a disk to the chest with bone shattering force, she does feel a moment of surprise. It is quickly replaced by breath-taking pain. The impact knocks her, thankfully, to the side and she collides with ropes.

The arm that isn't clutching her ribs flails for a moment before catching the ropes, and Korra manages to stay in a passably upright position, albeit a little hunched over. Mako and Bolin immediately turn their heads towards her, eyes alight with worry.

Korra narrows her eyes at them and jerks her chin towards the opposing team. They seem to understand and snap their attention back to the game. Just in time too, as Mako narrowly dodges a string of water.

No one on the opposing team seems to notice her. Korra figures they must plan on taking her last, if they manage to take out the bending brothers. She hopes Mako and Bolin can win this thing. The teams have one match each, and whoever wins this was moving on.

"The Avatar just took a wallop of a hit and it looks like she may be down for the count. Can the fabulous bending brothers hold out and win this thing. Bolin throws a-"

Korra drowns out the announcer and sucks in a deep breath, standing up a little straighter. Ribs were definitely broken, but just how many, she didn't know. Korra had broken plenty of bones in the past, but never as many as this. This wasn't good.

Two splashes make her snap her head up, fearing the worst and anticipating to be immediately targeted. Much to her relief, she sees that only the the opposing team's earthbender remains. He puts up a good fight, but a well timed shot to the ankle throws him to the ground.

Seeing her opportunity to strike (and maybe to try and regain a little dignity) Korra removes her arm from her injury, cocks it back then thrusts it forward, launching a pretty impressive blast of water at the prone player and knocking him clear off the ring.

Korra's smug smile turns into a grimace as her ribs protest and falls to one knee, wrapping both arms around her chest as if that would lessen the pain somehow. Her teammates run over, slipping off their masks and throwing them down in the process.

When she looks up, Mako is beside her, one hand resting on her shoulder. "You okay?" He asks.

Korra attempts to play it cool and brush it off as nothing more than something that'll end up as a nasty bruise. "Yeah. Just caught me off guard and knocked the wind outta me. I'll be sore for a while but I'll live."

She can tell he doesn't really believe her, but she doesn't care. She's not going to be doted on, especially not in the middle of the entire arena packed with spectators. So Korra squares her shoulders and rises, biting the inside of her cheek to keep in a cry of pain. She waves at the crowd to show she'll be fine and they erupt into another round of applause and cheers.

Korra makes her back to the waiting area over looking the ring, followed closely by the other Fire Ferrets. Once there she rips off her helmet and tosses it, collapsing on the nearby bench with a wince.

"You can drop the tough facade now, Korra." Mako says, walking up to her. "How bad is it?"

"I'm now really sure, it's hard to tell." She responds. "Some broken ribs for sure, maybe some cracked ones too."

"Hey, why don't you use your healing to fix 'em!" Bolin suggests with a smile.

Korra shakes her head. "Can't. It only works on flesh and muscle, not bone. They'll have to heal on their own."

"Then we'll have to drive you to the hospital. Asami should get here soon. She can take us." Not long after Mako finishes, the door swings open and Asami rushes in, eyebrows slanting down and lips drawn in a worried frown.

"Are you alright? I saw the spill you took. That looked like a hard hit."

Korra smiles at the raven haired girl. She couldn't help it, the girl looked adorable. "I'm fine, really. It's just some broken bones, nothing big. Honest."

Asami stares Korra down for a minute or so, expression unreadable. Surely she must be accustomed to broken bones by now. Then she sighed. "Alright. But broken bones are hardly something minor, Korra."

Korra hung her head slightly, sticking out her lower lip in her classical pout. "I know. Sorry."

Asami shakes her head and chuckles a bit. "We'll see how sorry you are when you make it up to me," she replies with a small wink.

Korra blushes and looks away, focusing intently on the floor. Asami laughs at this, and the others join in.

"Now, up on your feet, Avatar. We need to get you some medical attention."

"And some other attention," Bolin snickers as she rises, leaning slightly against Mako.

Korra throws a half-hearted glare his way.

X X X

Author's Notes: Just a lighthearted oneshot to ease the soul. I'm assuming that the disks the earthbenders use are at least a little bit different than regular old rock. I mean, I know it's a kids show, so they aren't going to have bones snapping, but in the show they get hit by rocks all the time and almost always brush it off. Or maybe they just have really tough skin. I don't know. It's AU because apparently, Mako and Korra aren't pro-bending anymore in season 2.