Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra. I'm just playing in the sandbox.
A/N: Enjoy!
Honey
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"I like Mr. Hat Trick."
"Not me."
"Alright...what about City Boy?"
"Only if I can call you Water Tribe Girl."
Korra wrinkled her nose at Mako's teasing reply, ignoring her oatmeal and fruit as she continued to contemplate the subject which had been keeping her occupied throughout breakfast.
"Oh! I know!" she exclaimed, disturbing the rest of the air acolytes with her outburst. Many of those gathered in the communal dinning room turned away from their food to stare perplexedly at the victoriously grinning Avatar and her constant firebender companion who were seated together at a corner table. "Mr. Moxie."
"What?!" Mako snorted, choking on his tea, the horrid burn of retched hot liquid stinging his throat and nostrils. "Korra! That's awful! Where did you even come up with that?"
"When I first heard you playing on the radio. The announcer said 'this Mako's got moxie'. I remember asking Jinora what moxie even meant. I thought it was a good thing, but I wanted to be sure," the teenager explained nonchalantly, handing Mako a napkin so he could wipe away the spittle that had collected on his chin. "It is a good thing."
"I know," Mako muttered, continuing to cough sporadically for a few more minutes before finally managing to calm his heaving, aching lungs. Wiping tears from his eyes and readjusting himself at the table, Mako stared at the newspaper he'd been reading – now splotched with speckles of tea – and tried to find where he'd lost his place. The young man had been rather engrossed in an article discussing Korra's return to Republic City and her tireless efforts to restore the bending of Amon's victims when the girl in question had started to spout out all manner of ridiculous nicknames.
"What would you like me to call you?" she wondered, still fiddling with her breakfast.
"My name?" he suggested.
"Now where's the fun in that?"
"But I like my name."
"I like your name, too, but that's not the point."
"Oh good, I was beginning to think you were just crazy," he quipped, smirking as he cast a sideways glance in Korra's direction, relaxed and happy that he could be so free with her. If he had known that being with the girl would feel so wonderful, he would have stopped denying his attraction to her long ago and confessed his love sooner. "Why this quest to find a nickname for me, anyway?"
"We're boyfriend and girlfriend now; a couple," Korra said, blushing adorably, still getting used to the reality of her and Mako being together. "And couples have nicknames for each other. It's a thing."
"Sounds more like something out of one of Jinora's romance novels," Mako stated.
"It is not!" Korra cried, her face going as red as a cheery and speaking more truth than her harsh outcry. "I am going to come up with a nickname for you, whether you like it or not, and it'll be perfect."
"Whatever you say, Korra," Mako sighed, knowing it was a losing battle to continue debating the nickname issue. When Korra set her mind to something, almost nothing could sway her – he'd learned that the hard way – and so the young man was content to let his girlfriend do whatever she wanted. Perhaps he might even have some fun with Korra's latest fixation.
Smiling secretly to himself, Mako returned to reading his newspaper, ignoring how proud Korra looked as she picked up a blueberry with her chopsticks, tossed it in the air, and caught it on her tongue before turning her attention back to him.
"So, what about Hotman?"
Later that evening, Korra and Mako were washing the dishes from dinner, Korra using her waterbending to clear each plate while Mako used his firebending to evaporate the water and create a disinfecting steam that made the crockery easy to wipe down. They worked together mostly in silence, the radio droning a lazy jazz tune that Korra hummed along with, relaxed and content in the sheer normalcy of such a domestic moment.
Adding the last cleansed bowl to the pile that Mako was quickly working through, Korra decided to put away the plates her boyfriend had already dried, taking the heavy clay dishes in her hands and using a clever bit of airbending to sway an upper cupboard door open. Unfortunately, the shelf she needed to put the plates on was a tad out of her reach, and rather than get a footstool to give her that extra boost, Korra groaned in her determination to see the dishes where they belonged, stretching as far as her body would allow.
Chuckling at the sight, Mako moved to give Korra a hand. Slipping in behind her, the eighteen year old raised his arms around hers and took the plates in his hands, effortlessly sitting them on the high shelf. Annoyed, Korra put her hands on her hips and was about to snap at Mako that she had been doing just fine without his intervention when the boy in question looped his arms around her waist and kissed her temple before resting his chin on the crown of her head.
Sagging into his heat, Korra knew it was impossible to be miffed with Mako when he was being so sweet...
The inspiration struck her with the sharp, bruising power of Tenzin's spinning gates.
Smiling to herself, and silently praising her ever impressive crafty wit, Korra's hands found Mako's and gave them a hard squeeze as she turned her head so her cheek could press against the unshakable wall of his chest.
"Thanks, sweetie," she purred against him like a cat-owl.
"Awwww! That's so cute!"
The high-pitched intruding voice effectively burst the rather tranquil bubble Korra and Mako had forged and the couple sprang apart. While they were more than comfortable with each other when it came to the more intimate aspects of being together – holding one another, hugging, kissing, saying 'I love you', and generally anything else that couples tended to do when alone – they still weren't terribly comfortable with public displays of affection, especially when said public was a hyperactive, chatty, too energetic for her own good seven year old.
"Hey, Ikki," Mako greeted, returning to the pile of dishes he had yet to dry.
"What are you doing here?" Korra asked, managing to keep her blush under control and hoping the little girl didn't go gossiping about what she'd seen to her older sister, or worse, her father.
"Mommy said I could have some litchi juice but that you had to pour it for me," Ikki answered, bobbing up and down on the balls of her feet. "I thought you and Mako were doing the dishes."
"We are," Korra said as she moved to get the little airbender her drink.
"Then how come you guys were hugging? That looks like a silly way to wash dishes. Do you like it when Mako hugs you? Mako, has Korra ever hugged you so tight she lifts you up in the air? Isn't it fun when she does that? Don't you think Korra gives the best hugs?"
"She sure does," Mako said quietly, enjoying the hot pink flush that spread up Korra's neck as she handed Ikki her glass of juice.
"Alright kid, enough questions," the seventeen year old instructed. "Let Mako and I finish our chores."
"You just want to hug him again," Ikki teased knowingly as she took her drink and started to skip out of the kitchen. "By the way, 'sweetie' is what Grandpa Aang used to call Gran Gran. Did you know that?"
"Out, Ikki!" Korra ordered, sending a blast of wind at the child who giggled as she was expelled from the chamber. "I swear, that kid..." Korra grumbled as she turned back to her boyfriend only to find him staring at with a telling mischievous glint in his eyes. "What?"
"Is it true? About the 'sweetie'?" he asked.
"I guess," Korra shrugged.
"Didn't Katara ever tell you?"
"If she did I don't remember," Korra answered as she moved to put the rest of the dishes away. "Ikki's got the memory of an elephant-rhino. She never forgets anything, so it's probably true."
"Then this won't work," Mako tutted, clicking his tongue.
"What won't?"
"This 'sweetie' business."
"Mako, are you alright?" Korra asked, reaching up to place the back of her hand on the boy's cheek, feeling for any unnatural fire. "You're not making any sense," she said, worried that the firebender might have a touch of fever. That or some of her personal brand of crazy had finally rubbed off on him.
Taking the hand that laid so cautiously on his face, Mako gave Korra's fingers a reassuring squeeze before granting her one of his most charming smiles.
"You're dead set on this nickname thing, right?"
"Yeah?" Korra answered, unsure of where her boyfriend was going with the conversation.
"Then there's got to be a few rules."
"You and your rules," Korra snorted, rolling her eyes. "Alright, what are they?"
"One, I have to like the nickname," he said, "and two, you need to come up with it all on your own."
"But I –"
"No intervention from past lives."
"Come on, it's not like Avatar Aang whispered 'sweetie' in my ear," Korra argued good-naturedly, although she couldn't deny that the inspiration for the nickname had come a bit out of nowhere, almost like an echo bouncing off the mountains of her deep unconscious. Maybe the small part of her that was once been Aang had called out the rather adorable moniker, but it was hard to say.
"So, deal?" Mako asked, shifting his hold on Korra's hand so that they were pressed palm to palm the same way they had just before separating on their mission to rescue Bolin from the Equalists. There was a playful challenge in his golden eyes, and a twinkle that seemed to sparkle with a victory he had not yet won. Korra knew she could never back down from such a fun dare. It would be like a game, one where only she and Mako were the players, and one she was determined to win.
Tightening her hold on his hand, Korra produced one her most cocky smirks and met her boyfriend's intense golden stare with her usual brash bravado.
"Deal."
Much as Korra loved the sky bison, mucking out their caves had to be one of the hardest, and most disgusting jobs on Air Temple Island. The sun was just beginning to set by the time Korra and Mako were even close to being finished their punishment, having been sentenced to cleaning out the caves as a harsh reprimand for breaking the temple rules the night before.
They'd been caught in throes of an incredibly sizzling make-out session by none other than Tenzin. While that situation alone was mortifying enough, the young couple had been caught in Mako's bedroom.
In the men's dormitories.
On Mako's bed.
In an awkward position.
Hands may have been on body parts they shouldn't normally stray.
And some missing articles of clothing may have been the trigger that set Tenzin to inadvertently create a mini tornado in the small space, which of course only served to make the dishevelled couple look even more wanton and scandalous when the entirety of the island's residents discovered them, having come running to see what had so utterly broken Tenzin's calm demeanour and earned his terrifying wrath.
Mako was actually surprised that the airbending master hadn't thrown him into Yue Bay, expelling him from the island and Korra for the rest of his natural life. Compared to that, shovelling wheelbarrows full of bison filth for an entire day under the scathing judgemental stare of the White Lotus sentries was actually a tad less traumatic, at least in Mako's opinion. Korra had been making it clear for the length of their punishment that she couldn't imagine anything worse than the stench of bison dung and wet fur, dramatically shuddering and gagging every chance she could as she dutifully cleaned the caves.
They were finally on the last one, and Mako had just wheeled out the final steaming pile of dung to the compost heap where the acolytes would later mix the filth with discarded food and dead flora to create a rich, very potent, manure. He dragged two waggons full of hay and dried sweet grass on his way back to the caves, intent on feeding the poor calf that had broken its foot, leaving it as literally grounded as he and Korra were.
Walking past the three White Lotus guards – and feeling a shiver run up his spine as the trio watched him with stabbing intensity – the firebender was taken aback when he found his girlfriend cuddling the wounded bison, scratching it behind the ear and using her waterbending to help ease some of the uncomfortable pressure in the furry animal's meaty paw. As she tended to the baby bison it began to make a strange sort of cooing noise, the gurgling hum sounding almost like the deep, endless voice of the wind caught in between high mountain ranges. Obviously pleased with the care it was receiving from the Avatar, the calf stuck out its wet pink tongue and gave Korra a slobbery lick to the cheek.
"Here. I bet she's hungry," Mako observed gently, edging close to the pair and offering the animal a handful of sweet grass. Eagerly, the sky bison tore into the treat, its big brown eyes shining with the purest kind of adoration. Korra looked up at Mako and smiled. He cut a striking profile, all sharp angles and chiseled jaw, those distinct arched eyebrows and the soft, thin line of his mouth. He was so handsome, even more so when the lines of worry or anxiety didn't crinkle the corners of his honey coloured eyes. She loved being able to spend time with him, to be near him, to share simple, everyday things with him like chores and groundings. He made everything they did together special simply because he was with her.
A keen desire clenched at Korra's heart, and just like always, she blindly followed the delicious feeling. Licking her lips, the seventeen year old leaned in close to her boyfriend, mouth wet and puckered.
"Ahem!"
Korra growled in the direction of her sentries – who, impressively, didn't flinch – irritated beyond measure that they had interrupted what would have been an innocent peck on the lips.
Well, maybe not wholly innocent, but Mako was her boyfriend and it was ridiculous for all the adults in her life to ban her from kissing him! He didn't make things any easier by being adorably kissable to begin with, especially when his hair was spiked with sweat and his skin flush from the exertion of a full day's hard labour.
Mako managed to find a bit more humour in the situation than Korra, chuckling softly and patting the calf's scruffy head before getting to his feet, much to the animal's chagrin if her disappointed mewl was any indication.
"She's a little sweetheart," the firebender commented as he moved to empty the waggon of bundles of hay and pile them up in a corner where the calves liked to sleep.
"Oh! I like that!" Korra exclaimed, completing her healing session on the calf.
"What?"
"Sweetheart."
"No," Mako answered immediately, fondly rolling his eyes in Korra's direction. It had been two weeks since they'd made their little deal and the Avatar was proving relentless in her hunt for the perfect nickname.
"Why?" Korra demanded, crossing her arms.
"Too much like sweetie. That's cheating."
"And you're adding more rules after we already shook on it. That's cheating."
"Do you even like sweetheart?" Mako asked.
"Just let me try it," Korra insisted, stretching her arms over her head and pouting. "I'm exhausted. It's been such a long day, hasn't it, sweetheart?"
The word hung in between them like fog, thick, unsettling, and almost suffocating. The rhythm of it was off, the tone uneven. It seemed to still the air around them, creating a strange sort of awkward silence. Mako offered Korra a sympathetic shrug while she grimaced at the taste of the endearment on her tongue.
It didn't sound right.
"OK, sweetheart's out."
"I told you," Mako said casually, continuing to stack the bales of hay.
"Don't look so cocky," Korra warned, frowning as Mako was all but whistling as he finished unloading the waggons. "I'll find a nickname for you before the end of winter. And it'll be perfect, just you wait."
"Korra!"
"Shh! Do you want someone to find us?"
"You bit me."
"And if you don't hush I'll do it again," Korra breathlessly teased as she ran her hands up Mako's bare chest, palms stopping for a moment over the rapid patter of her boyfriend's excited heartbeat, and a satisfied tingle of delight began coursing through her blood with the same tangible power that she held over the four elements. Exhilarated, Korra loped her arms around Mako's neck and pulled his mouth back to hers, attacking his lips with uninhibited savagery, feeling as free as the wind as they continued with their ravishing tryst in the enclosed safety of the unmoving baguazhang gates.
It didn't seem very wise for the couple to get lost in the throes of their passion just one month after having been caught in the heat of the moment by Tenzin and the rest of the island, but Korra was too stubborn to care and Mako tended to lose all of his common sense where Korra and her kisses were involved.
And at the moment, she was kissing him like her life depended on it.
It made the firebender wish he'd bought that beat up old motorcycle sooner.
It had started out as a simple project, one that would keep his mind occupied when he and Korra were apart. Her duties as the Avatar and his training at the police academy had kept the couple's schedules in a constant state of conflict for the last four weeks, leaving them with just bare glimpses of each other in the early morning and quick 'hellos' over the telephone after dinner. More often than not, Mako found himself wandering Air Temple Island all alone, Korra away in the city, Asami reinventing her father's fallen industry, and Bolin keeping the airbending kids occupied so that Pema and Tenzin could tend on baby Rohan without interruption. The firebender had never been one to just idle his time away (even if he was prone to brooding when he was alone with nothing but his thoughts) so after a few days of having nothing to do, Mako had pooled together his paltry savings and purchased a rusty fixer-upper which he'd stored in an unused shed in one of the temple gardens. He'd borrowed a few tools from Asami, took out a book on motorcycle repair and care from the Republic City central library, and tinkered away at the machine whenever he had time to spare.
The work wasn't easy. Mako knew next to nothing about motors, so every time he puttered with the machine was like beginning a new and complex science experiment. His efforts were complicated even further by his pertinacious determination to rebuild the motorcycle without any kind of professional help. Bolin had tried to share in the venture a little in the beginning, but his older brother was so bossy and protective over the bike that the earthbender eventually gave up and decided it was better to leave Mako to his toil alone.
Besides, the tiny shed tended to heat up rather quickly with one person labouring away in it, let alone two. Although it was the middle of winter, Mako often striped his shirt off and dabbed at his dripping neck and brow, continuing his work bare chested even as a fine sheet of sweat would coat his skin, while drips and streaks of motor oil criss-crossed along his heated body like an abstract painting.
That was how Korra had found him.
She had ducked out of a council meeting early that day, wanting so badly to just see Mako for more than two minutes, say more than three words to him. While she'd never admit it out loud to anyone but Naga, she had missed the firebender over the weeks without him, her life bereft without his steady company. While trying to keep at attention during one council meeting after another, Korra found herself missing the familiar turn of Mako's serious frown, the swirling honey of his eyes, the always present scarlet of his scarf.
The way he was digging his fingers into the plump flesh of her rear end and moaning in passionate agony as she took utter advantage of his bared skin, like she was a puppet master and he a hapless marionette, Korra assumed he had missed her just as badly.
She blamed the motorcycle entirely for her current predicament.
When she'd wandered to the shed in the garden seeking out her boyfriend, the most she'd wanted was a tight, warm hug, maybe a peck or two, and a couple hours of cuddling before dinner. But when she'd discovered Mako half naked in the stifling humidity of the tight shelter, hair slick, arms rippling with corded muscle, sweat clinging like oil to each firm curve and corner, and a teasing smudge of grease kissing across his left cheek, she couldn't help herself.
What sane woman in love could have?
She'd grabbed him, ignored his protests about needing to put on a shirt (she was sure he really didn't) and all but carried him to the other side of the island where she'd secluded them amidst the baguazhang gates, assuring herself that they could steal a few heated moments without interruption. She didn't give Mako a second chance to protest before she was kissing him like a starved animal that had finally caught the prey it had been hunting for months.
She tore at his skin like she was trying to undress him of his flesh and hold his spirit, leaving delicious, burning scratches along his chest and back. Mako groaned while Korra suckled at his neck, lavishing his pulse his licks and bites, knowing she was leaving behind angry plum hickeys and finding it very hard to care. The way she worked at him with a vivacious hunger was a maddening turn on, and when Korra returned her attention to his tender lips, he pulled her hips roughly against his own, letting her feel just how much she riled him up.
"Mmm," she sighed into his mouth, licking his lips like an owl cat licks cream, "like that, babe?"
"Korra," he moaned, pinching her hips, making her coo.
"Yeah, baby?" she asked, voice low, aroused, a sweet baritone only he was allowed to hear. Now, if only she would say the right words.
"Say my name," he told her, taking her earlobe between his teeth and none too gently biting down. "When we're like this, the only thing I want to hear is you saying is my name."
Korra's mind was filled with little else but hot tingles, rushing blood, and lustful daydreams and she wanted to keep it that way, so it was all too easy to get her to comply with his request.
"Mako..." she sighed. "Mmm, Mako don't stop."
"So long as you don't," he negotiated, one hand sneaking under her shirt, discovering blisteringly hot skin ready to be conquered.
His name slipped past her lips several times before their tryst in the spinning gates came to an end, her own name like sugar and spice on Mako's tongue every time she raked her nails up his sides.
And when Bolin not so subtlety shouted a warning at them that dinner would soon be ready, forcing the couple to quickly straighten out their haphazard appearance and Mako to slink back to the shed for his abandoned shirt, Korra conceded that, in the heat of the moment, only the sound of Mako's name against her lips, and the echo of her name on his, was better than any old nickname she could imagine.
Korra hated meditating.
She hated the quiet. She hated sitting so still. She hated that the whole point of meditation was to empty her mind when so often it felt like every braincell she had was buzzing with too much energy.
Finding inner peace was a pointless feat to the young Avatar, like rolling a rock up a mountain only to push it back down to the base and start all over again. She never felt relaxed or rejuvenated, just bored and annoyed, dreading the dawn before she even went to sleep.
She had been particularly contrite about the whole thing the day before, grumbling to Mako and Bolin about her meditations as the trio sparred against each other, like the good old days when they'd been training for the pro-bending tournament. Bolin had joked about kidnapping Korra and secreting themselves somewhere in the city. Much as the young woman had appreciated the flight of fancy, she knew she wouldn't be able to get off the hook with Tenzin if she skipped morning meditation.
That was when Mako had offered to join her.
He was naturally an early riser anyway, so whether or not he lingered in the temple and helped Pema with breakfast or he joined Korra in the gazebo where she cloistered herself as she tried vainly to find some inner peace wasn't causing him any trouble. In fact, he looked forward to the morning.
For the first time in forever, so did Korra.
When they met at dawn the couple sat back to back, Korra facing the bay, drawn to her native element, while Mako's face was turned towards the east, the rising sun warming his skin and kindling his chi. He felt so at peace, sharing this quiet time with his girlfriend. Korra was attempting to reach that same tranquil plane, but it wasn't as simple as she'd thought it would be with Mako beside her.
At first it was too easy to focus on his physique, noting the hard, muscular trunk of his back as it pressed firmly against hers, how wide his shoulders were, and how the top of her head just grazed the middle of his neck. Korra couldn't help the tremor that wracked her body as she thought of Mako, delighting in a primal way at how tall, and wide, and so very strong he was. He made her feel safe, and more than that, he made her feel powerful.
She noticed his smell next, picking out the perfume of smoke and cinnamon that always clung to him, the scent as much a part of his essence as his red scarf. But there was a trace of lemon, too, probably from the soap he used when he scrubbed his face in the morning, and a hint of peppermint she thought might be from his shaving cream. The aroma of Mako was wonderfully refreshing, dousing Korra like a wave, surrounding her, making her feel weightless, like she was part of the water, the earth, the fire, the air.
She could feel him breathing.
It was more than his back pushing and pulling with each breath he took. She could feel the air sweeping up his nostrils, coasting down his throat, and coating his lungs, reviving his blood, keeping his heart pumping, filling his body before it was expelled in a long, even puff and he breathed in again. She was hyper aware of the man behind her, of his heat reaching out to her, of his heartbeat tapping a gentle tattoo against his spine and hers, of his skin pimpling when a chilly breeze coasted over them, of the peaceful smile she couldn't see but knew was turning his lips...
...his soul.
If she wanted to, Korra was certain she could reach out and touch Mako's spirit and hold it in the palm of her hands. Should she open her eyes, Korra was positive she would have seen her boyfriend's aura and that it would be a thick, golden honey colour, warm and sweet, pulsing like the heart of a flame.
She couldn't remember a time when she felt more at peace with herself and the world around her. Korra also couldn't remember a time when she'd felt so intimate with Mako, like they were baring so much more to each other than the feelings in their hearts and the private parts of their bodies. The closeness was beyond touching, or kissing. It was something far more ethereal yet tangible, almost like they were one simply by breathing the same air, their hearts beating in time with each other, their spirits weaving together like a basket.
"Mako," Korra whispered, completely at ease...at peace. She felt him shift, acknowledging her. "What did your parents call each other?"
There was no stiffening of his spine, no tremor of an uncomfortable chuckle. Mako understood that Korra was curious, that she wanted to know about his past because it had shaped him. That she wanted to share his memories from the time before they knew each other. That she wanted to take in his pain. Perhaps it was the peaceful cocoon that the couple had created for themselves, or perhaps it was because the memory that bloomed in Mako's mind was one of his happiest, one of his most treasured, that he was glad to share it with the woman he loved...
It was his birthday.
He was six years old.
His mother was baking a mooncake for the occasion, joking that her eldest should have been born a waterbender since he was so fond of Water Tribe desserts. Mako chuckled with his mother, carefully taking another block to add to a tower of the fortress he was building under the tall dinner table.
It was pelting rain outdoors, the successive sound of water against brick and glass a soothing rhythm that filled the apartment since the family's radio was currently in several dozen pieces across the table Mako was secreted under. His father was tinkering away at the broken instrument, humming a song to himself, his large feet tapping out the tune that was stuck in his head while he attempted to rebuild the radio.
Bolin was sitting on an area rug close by, building his own fort with stones he'd collected from the park, practising his newly discovered earthbending with novice enthusiasm. Every so often the four year old would mischievously toss a few pebbles at Mako's blocks, sending them toppling down in a declaration of war.
His mother approached the table, her bare feet slapping soundly against the wood floor. Peeking up from his hiding place, Mako watched as his mother stood beside his father, lamenting that he was never going to get their radio working again, to which his dad just laughed and insisted that he would surprise her.
"I need a taste tester," she announced, dipping a finger into the bowl she held at her hip, scooping a generous amount of sweet red bean paste onto her fingertip and offering it to her husband. His father grinned, his golden eyes sparkling at the treat presented to him, and Mako watched as the man wrapped his lips around the finger, his dark whiskers tickling the pale flesh, His mother smiled, and after licking the digit clean, his father placed a kiss on the tip.
"Mmm! Perfect," he complimented before whispering the gentle endearment against the thin skin of his wife's wrist...
"Dear," Mako sighed quietly, content with the sun warming his face and Korra warming his back. "They used to call each other dear."
"That sounds nice," she said, equally at ease, her restless spirit calm in the small solace they had made together.
Mako hummed in reply, thinking that his parents' pet name for each other was very nice. And perhaps someday, when he was licking sweet red bean paste from Korra's finger, rain pelting outside their apartment while children of their own were building block fortresses under tables, that nickname would be perfect.
Someday.
"MAKO!" Korra cried, airbending herself out of the bleachers, landing badly on the concrete race track and creating a hasty air-scooter to speed her way to her fallen boyfriend. He had landed hard on the pavement when he'd lost control of his motorcycle, his helmet protecting his skull, but his body taking the bruising burnt of the fall. One of his boots had flown off, the legs of his pants were torn, and there was an angry bloody gash slicing down his left arm which only looked worse as Korra got closer.
Asami was already at Mako's side, her roadster abandoned in the middle of the race track. She was feeling his pulse, nibbling at her bottom lip with concern.
"He's alive," she said as Korra abandoned her air-scooter and rushed to the pair, "but that fall knocked him out."
"He needs a healer," Korra said, kneeling at her boyfriend's side and quickly bending as much water as she could from a puddle of melted snow, one of just a few that dotted the Future Industries testing track. "What happened?"
"His bike backfired," Asami, explained, removing her jacket and covering the firebender's chest. "He lost control."
"Idiot!" Korra spat, focusing her energy first on his body and seeking any internal damage (she sighed when all she discovered were a few bruised ribs) before intently working on staunching the bleeding of his left arm.
"Korra?" Asami wondered, voice coloured with dread and desperation.
"He's not as bad as we think," the Avatar whispered. Both girls sighed, relieved.
"Mako! Is he—"
"He's OK, Bolin!" Asami yelled, waving to the earthbender as he came charging towards them. "Korra says it's not as bad as it looks."
"What should I do?" the sixteen year old asked, desperate to help his fallen brother.
"Come with me," Asami decided, getting to her feet and running to Bolin. "We'll get the first aid kit from the garage and call my family doctor. I don't think Mako's going to be racing on that old bike for a while. Korra! We'll be back."
"OK! Hurry!"
"Right!" the pair declared, hasting away to do whatever they could to aid their friend.
"You idiot," Korra hissed again, taking in Mako's lax features, blue eyes catching every scrape and cut on his body that hadn't been there that morning when he'd asked her to come to Asami's testing track and watch him race his motorcycle for the first time. Korra had been so thrilled at the suggestion, happy to get off the island and out of the city and spend a day with her friends.
It had been a long time since Team Avatar had gotten together and just goofed around. All of them had been so busy since the fall of Amon and his Equalists, Asami especially as she had taken over as chair of Future Industries and expended all of her energy into rebuilding the company her father had destroyed with his radical political sympathies. It had been hard to keep in touch with the girl unless one made an appointment with her secretary, and her free time was sorely limited. So, five days ago when Mako had finished rebuilding his motorcycle, he'd called Asami (and actually got through) and had suggested a friendly race to test the limits of his bike and see Team Avatar reunited.
There was also the bold taste of spring in the air, so beyond a simple get together with his friends, there was also the very plausible chance that Mako had wanted to show-off a little to his girlfriend.
Bolin and Korra had been sitting in the bleachers, both busting at the seams with energy as they cheered on their racing friends, Mako on his motorcycle and Asami in her latest hot rod model. The friendly competition had been going so well until the pair had reached a sharp ninety-degree turn. It was likely the rapid breaking and revving of the engine that had caused the motorcycle to backfire, startling Mako and resulting in him losing control over his vehicle, crashing against the barrier wall. The whole thing had happened so quickly, that even Korra with her well-honed reflexes had been too stunned to react at first, although she had quickly shaken herself of her shock and immediately ran to help.
"Come on," she urged under her breath as she continued to pull water from melting snow puddles and bended her chi into the liquid, pushing the healing energy against every injury on Mako's body. "Wake up. Please, honey? You're freaking me out, you idiot. Just open your eyes. Come on, honey."
"I like that one."
His voice sounded like gravel, as contused as his body, but it was the most beautiful sound Korra was sure she'd ever heard. She nearly dropped her water when he raised a hand to close around one of her wrists, assuring her that he was awake, that he was fine, if a little worse for the wear. She stared at him curiously, like she was seeing him for the first time, the world returning to normal as he smiled.
"You could call me that. I wouldn't mind," he said far too conversationally.
"What? Idiot?" Korra asked. "Because I'm pretty sure we established long ago that that's what you are."
"No. Honey. You called me honey."
"Did I?"
"Yeah," Mako sighed, relaxing under Korra's touch, feeling the bleeding from the gash on his arm staunch and the skin begin to scab. "I think you finally found a nickname for me."
"You just crashed on your motorcycle. You were unconscious. And that's all you have to say? 'Call me honey?' You'll be lucky if I ever talk to you again!" Korra lectured, fire quickly replacing the dread that had been clouding her eyes. Mako huffed a beaten chuckle at her, loving her for caring, for worrying, and showing it in the most bizarre ways.
Asami and Bolin quickly rejoined with the two, first aid kit and a doctor in tow. Eventually, Team Avatar removed themselves from the testing track and sequestered themselves in Asami's mansion for a much quieter afternoon. Korra teased Mako the rest of the day, calling him 'honey' every chance she could, just to annoy him for scaring her. Mako, however, just shrugged and answered to his girlfriend's call as if the moniker was a completely normal understanding between.
Eventually, it was.
Like thick, sweet, golden honey, the nickname had stuck.
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'Of all eloquence a nickname is the most concise; of all arguments the most unanswerable'
William Hazlitt
And so ends another chapter in the STEAM chronicles. I really hope you liked this oneshot. It gave me a few problems, but overall I am very pleased with the final result.
Thanks to everyone who has been reading, and enjoying, reviewing, and PMing me on this collection. You have all been so wonderful and patient, and yes this means we'll start seeing regular updates to STEAM again. Not necessarily every week since I'm also working to complete my LEAVES ON THE BREEZE collection as well, but hopefully before Book 2 of Korra airs.
Fingers crossed!
If you want to review, comment, or have a question for me, please don't hesitate. I am always eager and pleased to answer.
Keep calm and Korra on!