A/N: Welcome to my first chapter fic. I was going to do one from ATLA with Zutara after the war, but this became more important after I watched the season finale of LoK. (Fear not, the Zutara chapter fic will come later, but this has taken priority.)
Basically, my reasons for writing this is threefold:
One: I don't care what anyone says: the season finale sucked. The bending was cool, the idea of Korra losing her bending was cool (since she relied so heavily on it), but the very ending was one of the worst deus ex machina circumstances I have ever seen (and it brings to mind the end of the ATLA series). Oh, she lost all of her bending except for airbending? How convenient! Mako finally confesses his love for her, but she runs away from him because she can't have her bending? How tragic! And Aang and all her past lives show up and just magically give her her bending back (even though it's already been established that Amon took it away using bloodbending, a physical medium for destruction, which therefore has very little to do with the spiritual)? How wonderful! And then, only after she gets her bending back does she fling herself into the arms of this wonderful firebending boy who is suddenly the most important thing in her world. This must be true love! And all this in the space of about seven minutes.
In summation, I am frustrated. Out of character moments, a restoration of her bending in the easiest manner possible, and conditional love. So. I'm fixing it.
Two: Ever since General Iroh made an appearance, I have loved him so. He's a combination of Zuko and Uncle Iroh, and since they are my two favorite characters in the entire ATLA series, he's completely irrisistible. In LoK, I, of course, admire Korra and her determination to make a difference and be the best (and her stubborness). Therefore, she is another character I admire. And I tend to ship together characters I admire, if it can be done. Which means: Korroh!
Three: I've been neglecting my writing as of late, and it's been very patient, but lately it's gotten to be less of a small nagging senstation I could ignore, and more of like a DO THIS NOW OR THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES, POSSIBLY INVOLVING BODILY HARM sensation. I'm a writer by trade, and to shirk this thing is bad for me. Even though this is just fanfiction and not a brilliant literary art, it will at least give me practice. It's a chapter fic because I need to learn how to tell a story, not just a little snippet of a quaint little idea I had.
I promise I will make the Korroh ship as realistic as possible, in terms of character. The shift from Mako to Iroh will be as smooth as I can make it, but in order to do that, some Makorra will have to be present at the beginning.
Sorry for the rant. Other author's notes will not be like this.
On with the story.
(This takes place in Episode 11 – Skeletons in the Closet, directly after Korra claims she's going to take on Amon, and Mako insists he accompany her. This is that very night, the night before they are to leave. Canon makes little appearances, but after a certain point, I will cease with it completely. Enjoy.)
ooo
The Lost Things
Chapter 1: Focus
One creak of the floorboard was all it took for them to be in this predicament: Mako frozen to Korra's bedroom wall, looking bewildered and slightly frightened, Korra's chest heaving, her eyes narrowed. She sat bolt upright in her bed, her arms shaking as she held them aloft in a waterbending pose, the snarl slowly slipping from her face. They stared at each other for a full three seconds before Korra came to her senses.
"Oh. Sorry, Mako." The bed shifted as she lowered her arms, the ice melting back into water, and she diverted it into a potted plant in the corner of the room. "You shouldn't sneak up on me like that. I could've…" She broke off, still breathing heavily. She could feel that her long hair was in complete disarray, cascading over her shoulders and tickling her arms. She pawed at the back of her hair nervously, trying to make it look halfway decent, averting her eyes. Mako still had not moved, and she could feel his eyes boring holes into the side of her head.
There were a few more moments of awkward silence.
Korra, feeling more drained than she had during her first Airbending lesson, decided to break it. "Did you need something?" At this point, she just wanted to go back to sleep and forget the nightmare she'd been having…
"I… I just wanted to see how you were holding up," he finally said, blinking and taking slow steps toward her, coming to a stop next to the edge of her bed, but he did not sit down, for which she was grateful. She couldn't afford to think about the two of them while perhaps the greatest battle of her life was just over the horizen. Gotta stay focused.
"I'm fine," she said, turning her head away from him. She knew that wouldn't do much to convince him she was just fine, thank you, but facing him would definitely give her away.
The silence reappeared, lurking in the shadows.
She heard fabric shift, and could feel the heat from him as he leaned toward her. Then, the heat was gone as suddenly as it had arrived, leaving her a bit colder than before. She gripped her elbows.
"Okay," he said, and she heard him move away. Her eyes remained fixed on the pattern of her quilt. The sound of a squeaky doorknob turning reached her ears, and she exhaled quietly in relief. She needed to be alone for awhile.
But the door did not open. She looked up to find Mako staring at her again, his hand on the doorknob. "We'll get him, Korra."
"I know that," she said, surprised. "I'm just—"
"Worried," he finished for her, his eyes softening, one side of his mouth tugging upward in a wry reflection of that stupid little crooked smile of his. "It's my choice, Korra. I'm coming with you."
He smiled for real, now, still soft, but genuine, and her heart picked up in tempo again. "Goodnight, Korra."
"Night," she replied softly as the door closed behind him. Sighing, she flopped back onto her bed. No distractions, she thought, but as she curled on her side and closed her eyes, the echo of his smile danced between her dreams.
ooo
Korra was relieved to have finally gotten past the goodbyes. It was much simpler to think about what moves she would use to take down Amon than to think about how she may not see Tenzin, Pema, her parents, Naga, and the rest again. It was easier to focus on the blood pounding in her legs as she and Mako sprinted silently through the huge drains under Republic City than to think about the way Bolin had looked upset, Asami hurt, and General Iroh concerned.
They stopped at the entrance to the drain, and looked out over the bay. She could hear Mako's heavy breathing behind her, and she took a step forward to put more space between them before turning around. Taking a deep breath, she met his eyes, and building all the courage she had, said, "You should go back."
The hurt that flashed across his sweaty face was unmistakeable, and it cut her. But she stood straight, and did not waver. His safety, she decided at that moment, was more important than his feelings. Go back. Go back, please, go back.
But after a moment, the hurt melted away, and that soft look was back, the one that transferred its softness to her knees, which wobbled uncontrollably. He took a large step forward, so their chests were almost touching, and she inhaled sharply as he carefully took her right hand and brought it to his face. Her arm tingled all the way to her shoulder, the sensation snaking up her neck to the top of her head, and back down to the very tips of her toes. His dark gold eyes gleamed in the half-light, and he didn't even have to say it for her to realize why he had come all this way, why he had decided to leave his brother, leave Asami, leave it all behind to be by her side.
He leaned in, and Korra could count his eyelashes. "I'm not going anywhere," he said, and his breath ghosted over her face.
She trembled as his other hand came to rest on the small of her back. "I know," she murmered, and they met and his lips were much rougher than she'd thought and his shoulders on her arms gave off more heat than she'd anticipated and it was so much more than anything she could have imagined, the little details making it so much better because this was real, the way his long fingers curled into the fabric at her hip, the way he smelled like sweat and cinnamon and ash, the sound of his harsh breathing in her ear as he moved his way across her cheekbones and to her temple and up into her hair, crushing her to his chest. "I know," she repeated, laughed really, because her heart would burst from her chest, she was sure of it, it swelled and hurt and made her giddy from love and happiness and fear. Because that's all that she could say.
ooo
A/N 2: I'm aware there's no Korroh going on yet. It's just that General Iroh is but a blip on Korra's radar screen at the moment. He'll become much more important later. For those of you shipping Makorra: like I said, I like that ship, too, but it's going to sail away fairly soon, so brace yourselves.
I also realize that there's a lot less "storytelling" right now. It's going to have to change eventually, because the plot is just as important as thinking on what the characters are feeling. I'm going to work on that. (I'm terrible at action-y plot stuff, so bear with me.)
Also also, sorry this chapter is so short. I'll try to make others longer in the future. Or, at the very least, not make you wait long for the next chapter to go up.
Any reviews will be read, deeply appreciated, and properly weighed. You may have a say in which direction this story goes, so please review. Any type of feedback makes me make funny, shrill, a-mouse-is-suffocating noises.