Title: "I Can't"

Characters/Pairing: Makorra

Rating: PG

Genre: Angst

Word Count: 1.479

A/N: So, this was the best way I could get out my frustrations with what happened in the latest episode. It actually helped. Not sure what you guys will get out of it, but go ahead and read. Anyway, there might be a sweeter companion piece to this in the near future.

A gust of wind hit Mako full force as soon as he exited the small igloo he was sharing with Bolin, and he pulled his scarf up to protect his face from the bitter cold. He still couldn't get used to this. No matter how many winter nights he slept outside in Republic City, it couldn't compare to the numbing winds that blustered through the Water Tribes.

His body kept telling him to go back inside and wrap himself in the numerous blankets and sleeping bags they had brought, but there had been a sound of someone moving that had brought him out of his shallow sleep and he couldn't help but feel like something was wrong.

"Korra, what are you doing?" Mako's voice trembled.

Before him stood the girl in question, her back turned to him as she finished saddling up her Polar bear dog. She didn't turn when she heard his voice, just fiddled with the bag strapped to Naga's back.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Korra sounded more focused than anything, but he could still sense a note of bitterness in her voice that she tried to hold back. "The Harmonic Convergence is today and I am getting ready to leave."

"By yourself?" Mako's mouth dropped. Did she seriously think that she could just sneak off to face what was to be her most dangerous battle yet, while Mako and the others slept, completely unaware that she ran off alone?

"It's my duty and there's nothing any of you can do. I don't see the need to bring everyone else into the spirit world just to get hurt." Korra replied without any waver in her voice. Once again she had made up her mind and had every intention to do things this way.

It was driving him nuts that she refused to turn around and talk to him face to face. Her feet were still firmly pressed into the snow and her back was like an impenetrable wall that stood defiant to his silent pleas to look at him. He knew that he was never going to get through to her if he couldn't look at her in the eyes.

"Just because it's your job doesn't mean that you have to do this alone. We came all this way so we can help you, so let us."

She scoffed and turned her head slightly, still not enough to see her face. "Sorry if you wasted your time coming all the way here, but I don't need your help."

Shit, she was stubborn.

"Korra, that's not what I meant and you know it. You know why we came and you know that we care about you. So why don't you tell me what your lone wolf act is all about?"

"What are you even talking about?"

"You had no problem with me and Bolin tagging along before." Mako paused for a moment, careful about what he was going to say next, but when nothing easily came to him; he decided to go straight to the point. "Then you heard about what happened with me and Asami and now you are pulling away."

"That has nothing to do with it." Korra raised her voice until she was able to catch herself, and then she retreated back to her calm demeanor. "We broke up and you can be with whoever you want. I am not going to let something like that get in the way of what I am meant to do."

He was surprised at this. This 'I really couldn't care less' attitude was so unlike her that he had no immediate response. But he could see where she was struggling. There was a small tell hidden in the way she slowly brought down her chin and all he wanted to do was run up to her, hold her, and convince her that everything was going to work itself out.

He didn't though. Mako remained in his place a few yards behind her; a distance that felt entirely too large.

"We're not together you know." Mako offered. "We were never officially back together. I was- I was just confused…."

"You seem to get confused a lot."

"I was hurting, Korra. I was starting to regret letting you go and I was angry that I couldn't get myself to accept what I did. I didn't mean for it, but I just desperately grasped for any distraction I could get; anything to make it better."

With this, she finally turned around, her wolf tails moving rapidly in the wind. The silence that hung over them was agonizing, but he waited. He knew that she had something to say, so he was going to let her get it out, whatever it was. Watching her in this moment was like watching water boil. Slow and steady until her emotions started to bubble over her detached presence, and the only feeling she had to give was fury.

"No!" Korra shouted back.

"No?" His eyebrows shot up, dumbfounded.

"No, you don't get to do that!" She quickly closed the distance between them, her feet slamming so hard into the ground he could swear that she was earthbending the rocks below them. "You don't get to break up with me, go and kiss your ex-girlfriend, and come back to say that it was all because of me. You don't get to use me OR Asami like that." She jabbed her pointer finger painfully against his chest, her eyes blazing and dark. "You don't get to forget that I was in just as much pain as you were! And I was alone!"

"I know, and I'm sorry! I don't know what else to say!" Mako shouted back. He didn't mean to, but he just felt so frustrated and desperate. None of this anger was meant to be directed at Korra. It was for himself. Mako couldn't stand that he hurt her and he might not ever forgive himself for it. But he knew that he would never forgive himself if he let her fight alone either. With the chances of her not coming back being more than worrisome, every bone in his body shook with fear. "All I can do is make sure that you make it through this fight. I am not going to let you go off by yourself."

As quickly as she made her way toward him, she moved just as quickly when she gave him a view of her back once again and returned to Naga.

"You're going to have to" She said as she mounted the large polar bear dog and took hold of the reigns.

"Please, Korra." There were tears in his eyes now. How -how- could he make her see? How could he make her know that he wasn't going to give up? "You need to know that I love you and I am going to stand by you."

She offered him another look, but it only lasted a second before she said "You may think you love me, but I can't love you. Not right now. Not anymore." Before he could say anything else in response, she gave Naga a tug, urging her to go, and suddenly Korra was gone.

He lost. They lost.

Just as Mako felt like falling apart, something occurred to him. It wasn't 'I don't', it was 'I can't.' The moment those words rang in his head he was brought back to the time when she first struck him with it. The circumstances had been very different, but he could tell that the feelings behind it were similar. When he told her he loved her - not the Avatar, but Korra - she ran away. After losing her bending, she felt her self-worth plummet to new depths and was expected to be abandoned in the fallout.

Now she felt abandoned because of what he had done. He chose his job over Korra and her tribe. Even though she expressed how she understood as soon as she came back, the knowledge that he had turned to Asami so quickly immediately thrust her back into that feeling of being alone. So that's how she was going into this battle. Whether or not she loved him, Korra didn't trust his words of loyalty anymore. She couldn't say 'I love you' back because she was cutting her reliance on him.

He knew he had to fix it.

Mako returned inside the igloo and yanked the covers off his brother. "Come on, Bolin. We have to go after Korra."

Working through their relationship wasn't the most important thing right now. Being there for her was. Mako didn't need an 'I love you' or an 'I forgive you', he needed her alive. And she needed to know that she will never have to feel alone again. He wasn't going to let her isolate herself over his stupid mistakes.