Disclaimer: I do hereby disclaim all rights and responsibilities for the characters in this collection. Kudos to Bryke, indeed.
Pairing: Tahno/Korra, Mako/Korra
Genre: Romance/Drama
Word Count:
Rating: PG-13/T
Prompt: #37. Wake up, the day is dying. (This was also my original idea for Tahnorra Week — Important Step in the Relationship.)
Summary: Three lies Korra tells, and one she doesn't. Pocket language dictionaries, sunflower fields, and a summer filled with all the things that she cannot fix. — AU, mini-series. mako/korra, tahno/korra.
Warnings: Infidelity.

Author's Notes: Before I proceed, I would just like to make my views clear. Real Life infidelity: bad. Fictional infidelity: intriguing.

Personally, I think Korra has way too much integrity to actually ever cheat on a committed partner. But if we were to ask, "What would happen if so-and-so were to be unfaithful?" then I'd like to think that this story contains the kinds of circumstances that might lead someone like Korra to do this.

This is not meant to have an extravagant plot, it's not meant to have real specific elements, like a structured timeline, nor a specified region with any specific languages. (However, if you're up-to-date on the fact that I spent five weeks in Spain this summer, then you'll probably get where most of my inspiration came from.) This is meant to be an outlet for all of my traveling, and the experiences that I both had myself, and that I witnessed from my students. Some of this story is based on truths and some of it is completely and totally fabricated.

And finally, after writing so many installments of longer series (gray skies ahead, Personal Record), writing small, momentous drabbles or vignettes is actually really difficult right now. I have a hard time leaving them as drabbles should be (short, in the moment) because I keep finding myself wanting to make up back stories and provide deeper character development. I tried to find a balance here.

(Also, it is unfortunate that I lost inspiration for this so quickly after returning to the States... for a while, I never actually intended to post this at all. If Personal Record is, essentially, a written manifestation for my autumn feels, then Broken would be my tribute to summer.)

Musical Inspiration: Young Blood (Renholdër Remix) by The Naked and Famous and "Summertime Sadness" by Lana del Rey.

broken
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"So," he begins awkwardly. "I broke it off with Asami."

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Broken pieces of a beautiful girl's broken heart—

—and she wonders if that's not all he might have broken.

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#1.

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course everything's all right."

She thinks she should be happy now.

But she's not.

Instead Korra's smiles feel like they are all teeth and no eyes, and her skin feels tight where it rests against her bones. This is wrong, she thinks. If you're gonna be with somebody, then you should be grateful for them and want to be with them and not be sitting there wishing every moment while you're with them that you were actually somewhere else.

(Is this how he used to feel? her mind whispers in between the sweet kisses and the gentle touches to her hand, her elbow, her knee. Is this what Mako meant when he said that it just wasn't there—with Asami?)

But Mako is with her now. It's what she's wanted all along, what they'd been waiting for, and after everything that has happened... It only makes sense, in this moment, for them to finally be able to love and fight and appreciate one another fully, freely, openly.

Doesn't it?

(And she can't even consider the idea of being alone again.)

Because Mako, despite all of his shortcomings, is the perfect gentleman when he wants to be. He is attentive and understanding, patient and kind, concerned and helpful, a provider in all the ways that make proud fathers-of-daughters pleased. She should feel relieved. Grateful, even, because no longer are there painful—precious—moments of yearning—desperate—pauses in too-awkward conversations, or the feel of caught-in-throat breaths and furtive glances under long lashes, or the feel of fingertips dusting across skin so carefully, so cautiously, that the touch might never happened at all. Now, they are free to desire one another openly. Now, he comes when she calls, and often even when she doesn't, and in his arms she feels cherished and protected and wanted—

But the fire is gone.

And she's not sure where it went or even for how long it has been missing. All she knows is that one day, not long after he left Asami—broken pieces of a broken heart—she looked up and Mako was there, but the heat wasn't, and instead all she had was a deep, hollow ache building in her chest.

They are out in the open now, she'd realized.

And as the first lie spills from her mouth, a ridiculous part of Korra begins to wonder if this might actually be the problem.