Korra closed her eyes tightly against her pillow, the rumbling noise in the distance driving her positively insane. 'Come on Korra,' she thought in a snappish voice in her mind at herself, 'it's just a storm. Why are you so worked up over it?'

She jumped again as the rumble tore through the sky. It wasn't that she feared storms, no, it was that she feared THUNDER. She found comfort in the sharp flashes of lightning and the gentle drum of the rain on the roof above her. But when the thunder is put into it, she lost her mind.

Rain was water and lightning was a form of fire, which were her two most-used elements. She felt safe in the arms of her elements. It made sense, being the Avatar and all, that she would enjoy these things. But then there was… thunder. It was loud and unexpected, coming at random moments. She couldn't control it as it wasn't one of the four elements. It scared her.

The rain around her began to grow harder and louder, rattling the Air Temple. Lightning flashed quickly and brightly outside her window. Cracks of thunder grew louder and louder, booming and snapping high above her, constantly, each time making her heart beat faster and faster, the intensity making her feel as though she'd explode. She hated it. A particularly loud crack came down extremely close to her, shaking her room, and she leapt out of bed with a scream. She couldn't stand it anymore.

Korra didn't really know where she was headed, but her feet were leading her somewhere. She had to find protection from the awful noise. Korra didn't know how she ended up where she did, but she found herself standing with the door still in her hand from opening it, standing in the entrance to Mako's bedroom.

Mako must have been a very, very light sleeper, or maybe he hadn't fallen asleep yet, but as soon as the Avatar appeared in his room, he was sitting up in bed, rubbing his bright amber eyes to get a better vision of who'd disturbed him. He looked up groggily, half expecting it to be Bolin or perhaps one of the Airbender children. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw who it really was.

He blinked a few times, his mind unable to process that Korra had come to his room, ironically in the middle of the night during a storm. The firebender couldn't believe that she had come out of fear of the storm, so the clearest thing that ran through his mind was, 'What is she doing in here at this time of night?'

What surprised and confused him further was that tears were running down her cheeks. Yes, Avatar Korra was crying. Mako was sure he was dreaming. This couldn't possibly be real! It took him a few minutes to get this all wrapped up in his mind.

"Korra, what are you doing here?" he said, his voice a mere sleepy mumble as he had just been awoken from his half-sleep. He noticed Korra twisting her hands together in a way that she might if she were waterbending in a battle. Mako assumed that it was a nervous habit of hers.

Korra's eyes wandered around the room as though she was extremely interested in the plain light blue walls. The firebender began to feel frustration at this. She was obviously stalling. Why had she woke him up if she was just going to stall?

"Korra!" he said in a stronger voice, "what do you want? I was trying to get some sleep."

The Avatar jumped as though she had forgotten that he was there. She looked at him and said, "Mako… I… I…" a crack of thunder rang outside and she jumped with a short squeal. Mako's eyes widened at this. She wasn't afraid of thunder… was she? No way! That simply wasn't possible! But she was definitely afraid of something.

Mako stood up and walked over to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. He felt her shaking and felt his heart ache. What could get her riled up this badly?

Gently, he led her over to his bed, where he sat her down and sat next to her. "What's wrong?" he asked in a soft voice, looking at her with sheer concern in his eyes. She was staring at the ground nervously now, twiddling her thumbs and occasionally clenching her hands together. Finally, she spoke up.

"I'm afraid of thunder… and…" She screamed when another clap was heard outside and she broke down in tears, falling against Mako's chest. She balled up her hands in fists and clung to him, crying hysterically. Mako rubbed her back, feeling awful for her. He had to admit, he was surprised that Korra was scared of thunder, but everyone had at least one weird secret he supposed.

"It's ok," he murmured, "you're safe. I'll keep you safe from the thunder." He held her close to his chest, resting his chin on the top of her head. "Just go back to sleep," he murmured softly into her hair. Korra nodded slightly.

Mako noticed that slowly but surely, her wild sobs were dying down to nothing but silent tears making their way carefully down her face. Her breathing evened out to the soft drone of a sleeping person's and her tensed muscles relaxed.

The firebender placed a kiss in her hair and he whispered a soft, 'I love you,' before laying her down carefully so as not to awake her and laying down beside her, holding her close to him.

As he fell asleep listening to the raging thunder outside, he decided that she had a good reason for disliking the rumbling that came along with rain and lightning that was thunder, and he swore to himself silently that whenever a storm came along, he'd be there to protect Korra from it. She'd never have to fear thunder ever again, he'd make sure of it.

A/N I needed a break from my Bade fanfic. I haven't had time to work on it and today I had some serious writer's block and had no inspiration to write it. I'm sorry if you're reading that, I actually had more than half of the next chapter typed but then I forgot to save it and lost it all. I got frustrated and haven't worked on it since. I'm sorry!

This was basically just some Makorra fluff. I was going to do one in which Korra goes to Mako because of nightmares, but I feel that that is overused, and I thought it'd be a neat plot-twist if Korra had a general fear… so out came this. Hope you like, please read and review =)

~Leafdrift