A.N. – Set during "The Spirit of Competition," right before the semifinal match. Un-beta'ed, spur of the moment shippy-ness; I won't apologize. I don't own The Legend of Korra, nor the song I quote below. The title of this drabble is from another Greenwheel song.
You have no reason to apologize
For all the love that you keep inside
-"Better Life," Greenwheel (Electric Blanket)
Lonely Afterglow
Mako, Korra oft notices, is terrible at this whole dating thing. It took a run-in with a Sato-bike for him to (literally) fall for a girl. And not just any girl, no – he had to snag the beautiful daughter of a rich industrialist. He couldn't have planned it if he tried, couldn't have had her any other way. And so Korra can't really bear a huge grudge against him for what he has with Asami. The only fault lies with herself, and not acting sooner to make known what she felt so as to prevent the current situation from transpiring.
Korra's no great shakes in the romantic arena, either, but at least she facilitates things by, you know, talking. Except, of course, when she really needed to. She tries to reason with herself – I was busy with Airbending training, with Probending training, with Amon and the task force and… Every excuse piles up, but it's not consolation when she sees Asami draped over Mako after a match. He looks content in his love-sickness, and Korra can only seethe inwardly as she imagines herself in the heiress' place.
The first time they talk about it (well, she does most of the talking, and he does most of the rebutting), it turns into an excuse to blow off steam. It's appropriate, she realizes - the natural result of when water and fire try to mix. A flood of feelings inside, a burning to set the nerves ablaze, all lead the person to a boiling point. Korra reached hers after the "conversation" with Mako. Spirits, he was dense at times. And yet, so was she.
The second time they talk about it, Mako does better. She does not. Oh, and Bolin is an accidental voyeur to the whole thing, which doesn't exactly help matters. She huffs to herself after Mako drags his blubbering mess of a brother away, and if she could airbend, that one defiant gesture would've blown a hole in the roof. If Mako, of all people, could try to open up about his feelings, then by all means she could try, as well. She turned on her heel and strode off. She had a lot of pent-up agitation to release, and a match to win.