Hello! This is my very first post here and I'm pretty proud of this piece. Anyways, if you haven't watched the finale, then please don't read this story.
And speaking of the finale...I'm still not over it like, wow. I'm pretty sure Bryke was just like, "So what's the most emotionally-crippling thing we can do? Now what if we multiplied that by ten?"
Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own the Legend of Korra.
He doesn't mean to find her like this, crying in her room in the middle of the night.
He was restless so he got up to get a glass of water and maybe sit outside and watch the stars until he felt tired again, but the sound of someone crying alerted him.
So Mako followed the noise to Korra's room and found her facing the wall, her shoulders shaking.
He doesn't know what to do for a moment. A small part of him is telling him to let her cry on her own because Korra needs time to heal and that she would hate for anyone to see her this weak and he isn't the best person to offer comfort, but the other part is telling him to rush in there and hold Korra because she needs someone to help her share this burden and Mako is standing right there and why won't his feet move why can't he just walk into the room and offer support for this broken girl-
And then he takes a step. It's quiet, but as soon as his foot crosses the threshold from the hallway to her room, Korra stops crying. She stops moving.
Mako makes his way over to her bed before saying her name softly.
She doesn't respond.
He takes a moment to look at her figure, her arms wrapped tightly around her body and her head down near her chest. Her eyes are closed but he knows she's awake and the tear tracks are still there, glinting in the moonlight.
He carefully lowers himself down on the bed, his back only inches away from hers, deciding that this was the best option.
"Korra, I just...I want you to know that you're allowed to be weak. Crying doesn't make you any less of a person. You are a human being and you have been through so much," Too much, he thinks. "These past few months. You're allowed to feel pain and no one will blame you."
She is quiet for a moment, her breathing and his breathing the only sounds in the room.
"Hold me. Please." It's so quiet, so soft that he barely catches it and it makes his heart ache because he thinks that that's the most he's heard her talk in the past few weeks and he can hear how scared she is. So he complies and lays down so that he is parallel to her. Mako carefully lays his arm across her body, hoping that he isn't resting it on any bruises. He guesses not because Korra takes his hand in hers and presses it against her face.
He stays like that for a while, breathing in the scent of her hair. It no longer smells like the ocean and he wonders how long it's been since Korra went swimming. And he knows that not being able to swim is just as bad as not being able to walk for most waterbenders and Mako just wants Korra to get better so that she can swim again.
He lays there, quiet, until he feels a drop of water on his hand and it takes him a moment before he realizes that it's her tears that are getting his hand wet.
Her silent cries quickly escalate into sobs and he just holds her, pulling her closer to his chest, letting her cry her heart out.
He doesn't offer any words of comfort and he doesn't tell her that things are going to get better because he doesn't know and that kills him inside.
He just lets her cry and holds her, rhythmically stroking her hair with his other hand and he knows that Korra needs this because she has been too strong for too long and she needs someone to watch over her while she heals.
Mako holds her through the night, long after her breathing evened and her tears stopped, and he holds her well into the morning because no matter how much he doesn't want to admit it, he needs someone to hold too.