Notes: Originally posted at the Legend of Korra fic meme on LiveJournal. Also, my first Avatar fanfic so I was mostly trying to get a feel for the characters/universe. Critique is totally welcome.
Korra was surprised when she arrived at the training gym and found a bunch of wildflowers waiting on top of her equipment. She picked them up with a smile.
When Mako and Bolin came down to join her for training, Korra had her equipment on and had placed a few of the wildflowers into her ponytail.
Mako gave a tiny smile upon seeing the flowers while Bolin gave Korra a little shove. "Feeling girly today?" he teased.
Korra stomped her foot to shift the earth beneath Bolin, making him lose his balance and fall. "Sure. After all, it won't stop me from kicking your ass."
(And kick Bolin's ass, she did, especially once Mako teamed up with her after Bolin grumbled something about roses being more romantic than wildflowers.)
The next week, Bolin took Korra out to wander Republic City. They mostly ended up window shopping along the main road. Something in one of the stores caught Bolin's eye and he dragged Korra in to look at it, pulling her away from the store that sold smoked meats.
"Hey, Korra," Bolin picked up a small wooden hair clip with wildflowers carved into it, "How about this to replace those wildflowers?"
Korra examined it and then turned around. "Put it in; let's see what it looks like." She lowered her voice and whispered, "I think I'm a little allergic to these flowers, but I didn't want Mako to know."
Bolin snorted. He, of course, would be telling Mako at the next available opportunity. He removed the flowers from Korra's ponytail and replaced them with the clip. "And you could probably wear it for that city thing you have next week. Change your hair and maybe it'll confuse the Chief and she won't bother you!"
Laughing, Korra turned and grabbed hold of Bolin's shirt to pull him close and give him a quick kiss on the cheek. "That is an amazing idea, Bolin! Let me go pay and then let's go find some place to eat!"
"Oh, no." Bolin pulled Korra back. "I am buying this as a gift for you."
Korra blushed a little. "You guys don't have to buy me things. You know that, right?"
Bolin grinned. "Of course!" He left it at that and paid for the hair clip. Linking arms with Korra, he said, "Now what say you to finding some place with food and drink?"
(When they stumbled back to Mako and Bolin's rooms at the pro-bending arena, completely drunk, Mako just rolled his eyes and tucked them into bed, taking care to remove the hair clip so it wouldn't get broken when Korra inevitably flailed around the bed.)
The first time Korra had an idea that anything unusual was going on was towards the end of one of their practice sessions. For the past couple of days, she had found trinkets left by Mako on top of her equipment when she arrived and Bolin had kept giving her gifts before she left and returned to Air Temple Island. This session had started no differently.
She had begun trading bending tips with the brothers and alternating between them every other day. Today was firebending.
Mako used his foot to nudge Korra's right foot closer to her left. "Feet a little tighter. You almost want to be standing straight. Now try." Korra narrowed her eyes at the fireproof target. She took two weaving steps forward in quick succession before jabbing forward with her left then right and following it up with a roundhouse kick. This time instead of being pushed back just twenty feet as it had before, the target flew all the way to hit the wall of the gym.
"Yes!" Korra jumped and put her hands up. "Finally!" She looked at Mako and pushed into him with her shoulder. "And you said I'd take longer. Shows you!"
Mako lowered his head with a small smile. "I guess you did. Good job." He brought one hand up to Korra's cheek and leaned down to fit their mouths together. Normally, Mako only gave quick kisses when Bolin was around, but this time the kiss lasted much longer than usual.
When he pulled away, he headed out, raising a hand in farewell. "I'm going to go take a nap. See you tomorrow, Korra."
Korra watched him go before turning to Bolin who quickly dropped the suspicious look he had been giving Mako. "What's up with your brother?"
Bolin shrugged. "No idea." He clapped Korra on the shoulder. "You wanna go out or just head back to the Air Temple?"
Korra pulled away with a sheepish grin. "Master Tenzin says that if I'm going to spend so much time here practicing all the other elements, I must have enough time to do more airbending practice." She started to run off towards the washroom and called back over her shoulder, "Maybe later!"
(Korra couldn't make it later so Bolin instead planned for the next day. He'd show Mako.)
The next day everything came to a head. They made it through warm-up and started on formation practice, attacking moving targets without running into each other. Korra sometimes lost track of Mako and Bolin, more used to bending by herself. This time, though, they managed to make it through a full three minutes of moving around each other and sending attacks toward the targets without anyone bumping into anyone else.
"Now you're getting the hang of probending!" Bolin grinned and moved to congratulate Korra. Which he did by dipping her and kissing her passionately.
Mako was furious. "What are you doing? We're in the middle of training!"
Bolin pulled Korra back up and angrily turned to face Mako. "Oh, so you can kiss her during training but I can't?"
"I didn't kiss her during training, we were fini - "
"Well we're finished with this bi - "
"You can't just - "
"Stop!" Korra pulled water from a barrel and dropped it over the brothers, drenching them and stopping their argument. "Are you seriously fighting about this? Don't I get a say in when I want to be kissed?" The look Korra gave the two made them shuffle a little ways away from her.
She sighed and moved closer to toss an arm around each of their shoulders. "You two've been acting weird. I like both of you; you don't have to go around impressing me."
Mako and Bolin exchanged glances over her head.
"Or wait, is this one of those sibling things?" Korra gave them a very unimpressed look. "Trying to be better than your brother will get you nowhere."
Then a though came to her and she let go and of them. "Is this going to be a problem? That I like both of you?" She frowned. "We could go back to just being friends."
"No, Korra." Mako's worried face reassured Korra that that wouldn't be the case. "We just…" He motioned for Bolin to explain since he was better at it.
"We know you like us. Both. Equally." Bolin grabbed hold of Korra's hands and looked down at them. "Maybe - well, for me, it started just making sure you knew that I wanted you. Same for Mako. Then we just wanted to keep up with each other." He brought one hand up to scratch his head guiltily. "Then I think I went too far today. Sorry."
Mako nodded and reached out to lightly touch Korra's shoulder. "Sorry." He let the hand drop. "It won't happen again."
Korra rolled her eyes and pulled Mako and Bolin in for a hug. "I don't mind the gifts and unexpected kisses. There's just no reason for it to be a competition between the two of you. I'm not a prize. I want to be kissed because you want to kiss me, not because you think you need to to keep up." She let go of them and cracked her knuckles with an evil grin. "Is that understood? You do this again and I'm going to have to find new teammates because you'll be too scared to go back in that ring once I'm done with you."
"Like you could take me and Mako," Bolin scoffed.
"Oh yeah?"
Mako smirked in response and darted forward to give Korra a quick peck before jumping away and sending a blast of fire her way.
(The verdict was that if Korra were solely a waterbender, Mako and Bolin would have won. But of course, Korra didn't like to lose and they were all bruised and singed by the end when they collapsed into bed and curled together.)
