"Korra!" Mako yelled as she leaned over the edge of the saddle on the giant polar bear dog.
Groaning at having been dragged away from the beautiful view of the ocean, she turned towards her friend and sat down with a pout. "What is it, Mako?"
"We're almost there. I can see the Air Island ahead!" he shouted against the wind. Bolin glared.
"Why do we have to go to the Air Island now? We've been riding for ages since you defeated the rebels of the Non-benders," Bolin argued. "Couldn't we just stop at some city?"
Korra smiled. "You mean the one with your fangirl on it?"
"She's not my fangirl!" Bolin yelled., his face reddening in protest.
"Uh-huh..yeah..sure," Korra mumbled, looking back over the edge at the water. Chewing on her lip, she extended her arm and called up a column of water to eye-level. She detached it from the ocean and molded it into a giant ball of water, spinning until it became small enough to balance horizontally between her palms. Bolin looked bored.
"Could you stop playing with that? Ever since you water bended you've done nothing but – YAAAAOOOOWW!" he shrieked as the icy water ball was dropped from above his head. "What was that for?"
"Nothing. You just looked like you could use a cold shower," Korra said innocently as Mako fell over in peels of laughter. Fuming, Bolin said nothing for the rest of the trip.
Suddenly, Naga descended and they were greeted with the stunning walls of the Air Island. Bluish-grey floora rose up from the ground forming a dome-shaped building. There was easy access to the shores from the island, and inside held statues of all the Avatar Aanf past.
"Do you remember your childhood Korra?" Bolin asked in a rare serious moment.
"A little," she admitted. "I mean, it's been coming back to me more and more as the years go by. I remember the most about the time when the White Lotus came, fighting, especially while I fought Amon."
"Korra, you don't have to talk about this if you don't want to," Mako told him, putting a hand on her shoulder.
She looked up at her. "I know. But I think it's better to just say what's inside of you instead of just bottling it up." Her eyes burned into his own until he had to look away.
Bolin, the ever-blunt one, looked between the two of them and gagged. "Okay, lovebirds, I'm going to wait on the polar bear dog. Feel free to sort out your passion while I'm gone," he called as he headed out the door.
Both Mako and Korra turned red. Suddenly, Korra turned on her heel and went outside to look at the shores of the Air Island. Extending a hand, she called up a few droplets of water from a nearby puddle. "Look, Mako," she whispered as he came up beside her. The droplets spun around in a circle between her palms. Smiling, Mako recalled the same trick he had done for her with his flames, although the memory caused him to frown at the memory of his parents death.
"Thinking of your parents?" Korra guessed.
"Yeah," he said softly, sitting next to Kora on the ledge.
The two friends sat in silence as they watched Bolin tried to let Naga run off wiht him. Pulling out his special flames, he spun them around between his palms as Korrra's forgotten water droplets joined them to make a larger chain.
"Mako, do you remember much about your past lives?" Korra asked, venturing the question even though it could hurt him. She needed to know something,
"Not a lot. I remember more about my parents and my orphanage than my first few. Why?"
"I was just wondering," she trailed off. Assuming she was thinking of something else, Mako lapsed into silence as well. "Actually," she started quickly, trying not to lose her nerve, "I was wondering if you recalled any..you know, sweethearts or anything."
Korra smiled. "Sometimes. I mean, I assume some of my lives were married and had children."
"Korra! Mako! Come on..I'm hungry! Speed it up, will yah?" Bolin yelled from his perch on Naga.
"We're coming!" Korra called back. Sliding down, she took a few paces ahead before Mako fell into step beside her.
Impulsively, he grabbed her hand. "Korra, I know I'd never forget you, no matter how many lives I have after this."
Kissing her cheek, the two made there way between all the lives of the Avatar to the polar bear dog where Bolin was waiting.