Hello! I know it has been so long since my last update on my other stort, yet still, I haven't post another chapter.. But I was really busy last year and I am not quite pleased with how LoK ended. Then when I rewatched LoK again for an inspiration for the other story, this couple looked cute together and I can't help it! So gere, guys. I hope you like 'em. And it's not a one shot so please wait for next chapter patiently will you? Thank you!

Legend of Korra and its characters are not mine. If it ia, Irosami would be real.

Eight Years Apart

Chapter 1

The first time he saw her, he was curious. Interested, maybe, but mostly curious.

The day was a little bit cloudy, a hint that the rain would start at any moment. It was a rather calm, a situation that rarely occurred in a daycare full of toddlers and children. Mako himself thought it was a little odd, but chose to ignore it anyway. Maybe the other toddlers and children finally got into their senses about yelling while playing. He decided to be happy.

But then he was bored. He used to spend his free time in the daycare watching other toddler or children fighting for an Othello board or television remote control, or just having fun seeing his little brother Bolin put up a joke that was not that funny anyway. Today, everybody seems to mingle in their own business like doing homework or reading books or coloring some pictures in a messy way of a four year old would do.

Mako and Bolin had been spending their time five days a week in the daycare since Mako was seven and Bolin was five year old. Their parents worked until late at night and they were scared to leave both of the boys alone in the house so even if Mako was eleven years old already, they kept sending them to the daycare.

He decided to take a tour of the place. It was not like he has not done it before. It was just he had absolutely nothing to do and he wanted to entertain himself by doing so. He began his tour from the playing room and then stopped when he reached the front office, where parents usually dropped their children off and the staff would take them inside.

That was the moment he saw her.

She was so tiny; far shorter than Mako by several inches. He used the architecture to conceal most of his body, but his head peeked out to see more of the little toddler. He guessed that she must have liked orange and yellow very much because her clothes are full of the colours, so bright that the dress was practically shine like the sun. However, it was not her obnoxious dress that made Mako curious.

It was the fact that the girl was not crying even though it was her first day in the daycare.

He kept staring at her. He kept looking at how the girl walked (it was weirdly poised), how she tried to hold her head up and not looking down, and how she hugged her book tightly against her chest. Somehow he could see that she tried to make herself look tough.

Before Mako realized it, the tiny girl and a caretaker were one step in front of him already.

"Mako, how are you?" the caretaker asked in a cheerful tone, "You have a new friend today! She's Jinora! Jinora, say hello to Mako!"

The eleven year old boy hesitated a bit before finally struck out his hand, "Hi, I'm Mako," he said in a low voice. Jinora shook Mako's hand with the same amount of hesitant as Mako had, and the hand-shaking only lasted for three seconds before Jinora pulled her hand back fast.

"Well, why don't you go back to the playroom together?" the caretaker said, "Move along then, both of you! Have fun!" she added as she patted the crown of both of the children before she walked towards the front desk again.

Mako found the situation confusing, as he did not know what to say to the tiny girl—Jinora, he tried to remember her name. The girl also did not make any effort to put up a conversation or trying to come up with an idea on how they should play together.

"Well… So… What do you want to do, then?" Mako finally started the conversation, and apparently it made Jinora jumped a little, like she did not expect Mako would speak that fast. She pursed her tiny little red lips a little before she opened her mouth to answer.

"Do they have Princess Storybooks in the playroom?" her voice was low, it took Mako his full attention to be able to hear her well. He decided to add this small fact about Jinora inside his head so he would not spare his attention with anything else while talking to her (so he would be able to hear her, that was why).

"Well, I think so," Mako answered, "Do you want to read 'em?"

Jinora nodded, and a small smile formed on her lips. This strung Mako a little, as he never made a little girl smile beforehand. It made him somewhat proud, to be able to make a little girl like Jinora happy.

"Well, let's go then!" he said. He scratched his not-that-scratchy head a little before he finally led the way. He actually thought that maybe he should stick his hand out and make him and Jinora walk hand by hand, like he always did to Bolin when they were younger. However, Bolin was hyperactive and by walking hand by hand it would prevent him being lost. Mako did not see why Jinora would need that kind of action too.

In no time, both of the brunette-haired children arrived in the playroom. They walked toward the book shelf. "So what do you want to read, Jinora? This is your first time here, so you pick any," Mako said as he stuffed himself on a red, fluffy bean bag.

Jinora rolled her eyes to scan the title of the book. After a few long seconds, she took out a book called Cinderella, and she gave it to Mako, which made him frowned.

"Aren't you going to read it, Jinora?" he asked, still did nothing with the book on his lap.

Jinora shook her head slowly. "I don't know how to read," she answered, "I see the pictures only and Mom would tell me the story. Can you do that too?"

"You can't read? How old are you?"

"Three," Jinora said, wiggling three fingers of her right hand on Mako's face. Another fact about Jinora added up; she was only three and had been acting more mature than Bolin had done when he was five. This made Mako widened his eyes and gasped.

"You're only three? And you don't cry for your mommy when you got here?" Mako asked with a curious tone, "How can you do that?"

"Why would you cry for mommy? She will pick me up later, won't she?" Jinora's eyebrows now frowned with confusion, "Or she won't?" and this made her eyes teary. Jinora was ready to cry anytime soon.

"No, no, don't cry!" Mako did not need to put up with another crybaby; he had Bolin in his hands already! "Mommy will come of course! I'll read this for you too! Look!"

Mako opened the Cinderella storybook and colourful pictures were shown. It immediately caught Jinora's attention away from crying. Her brown eyes glued to the multicolour paper and her ears listened to every word that came out of Mako's mouth. She paid attention incredibly well for a three year old girl who just spent her first day in the daycare.

"…and they lived happily ever after. So that's it!" with an enthusiastic but a hoarser voice than before, Mako closed the storybook proudly. He had never told a story before and the first time he had done it, it felt amazing! He might be doing this to Bolin later but then, Bolin was not a really fan of books like Jinora. "What do you want to read next, Jino—"

A soft snore interrupted him. It looked like Jinora had fallen asleep during the storytelling and had been using Mako's thigh as her pillow. Mako must have been too immersed in his storytelling that he did not realize even a bit of Jinora's head's weight. But then, Jinora's weight might have been that much also.

It left Mako stunned, of course. He never had a three year old girl using his thigh as a pillow and he did not know what to do now. He stayed still, tried to not care whether he could feel his leg or not, and kept trying not to wake Jinora up. He tried to relax and used the bean bag as a support for his back.

Then it was the last thing he remembered before waking up from a poke on his cheek.

"Wake up, Mako! Read me another story, please?"