"And the Fire Ferrets win again."
Mako watches Korra and Bolin soak in the adulation of the screaming crowd. His brother has always thrived off the fame of being a pro bender, and Korra has taken to it as naturally as she's taken to everything else that isn't airbending. Mako has never really known how to feel about all this. People he hasn't even met, who don't even really know him, cheering his name and swearing that that love him? It's all weird. Fame is the thing he puts up with for the sake of the purse. Probending has never been anything more or less than a way to claw out of the gutter. He's seen what happens to the other boys who grew up in the Triple Threats. It's one thing when you're young and cute and they have you running numbers or doing short cons. But when you're older, it's all robbery and extortion and burning someone's mother alive.
He thinks of Asami's mother and suppresses a shudder. That could have been him. Could still be him if they lose the championship or Asami gets sick of him. So he lets Korra and Bolin have their moment and think of the four hundred and eighty thousand yuans.
"Hey, city boy! I know you like being all grumpy and stuff, but you can at least try to smile and wave."
Mako does, somewhat stiffly. Soon. Soon. All they have to do is stay focused and win and he will finally wash the smell of the street from his body. Get an actual real apartment for him and Bolin. An actual real job. The city won't give him the time of day because of his record, but being a champion has to open some doors. Maybe Hiroshi will give him a job. He looks up at the Future Industries box and imagines he sees a jovial, fatherly smile on Hiroshi's face. He doesn't have to imagine Asami. She leans forward almost over the box's railing and blows him a kiss.
He has a future. All he has to do is reach out and take it.
That thought buoys him down to the locker room. Asami is already there, beaming. Mako sucks in a breath, earning a glare from Korra. But Asami, with her soft, shiny hair and custom-tailored clothing, looks like a princess. His princess. "Great job champ!" She pulls him into an embrace and they rub noses. A month ago, Mako would have found this all incredibly precious and nauseating, but now he wants to cry. This beautiful, kind, rich girl could have any boy or girl in the city, but she wants him. It seems like something from a children's story: the princess in love with the poor thief. Mako thought he had stopped believing in that kind of thing when his parents were murdered. But here he is.
They pull back. Korra is still glaring, but Bolin is giving them an unreserved smile that Mako hasn't seen since they rescued him from Amon. "Ah, young love! You two are so cute together."
A faint blush dusts Asami's cheeks, and Mako feels an answering heat on his own. Neither of them have said that word, but Mako wonders if it might be love. His parents died before he could really ask what love was, and Shin's advice on the subject wasn't…repeatable in polite company. But he feels a rush of pure sexual attraction whenever he looks Asami. He's wanted to protect her ever since she told him about her own mother. They can talk or not talk as the mood takes them and they hardly ever fight. Maybe that's love. It's better than what a lot of people have. But still Mako doesn't say the word for fear of jinxing it. It's a stupid superstition and he knows that, but he stays silent all the same.
"Dinner, my treat?" Asami asks. "You've all been doing so well. You deserve a reward."
Korra's expression is pure murder, and Mako again wonders why she seems to hate Asami so much and wonders if he really wants to know. But then the murder is gone to be were placed by the nervous stammering of a bad liar. "I, uh, you know. I'm not really a Kwong's kind of person. We growing Avatars need big portions." She pats her stomach for emphasis.
Asami just smiles. "Narook's is right down the street. I could use the walk."
Korra opens her mouth to say something, but Bolin charges forward. "Ooh, I love noodles! Come on, Korra say you'll come?"
"Then that settles that?" There's a question in Asami's voice, and Mako realizes that Asami isn't nearly as oblivious to Korra's dislike as she seems.
Korra looks like she would rather be anywhere else, but finally nods slowly. "Yeah. noodles. Great."
It's freezing when they exit the arena, a light snow turning everything white, and icicles hanging down from the awning. The weather has done absolutely nothing to deter the twenty-five or thirty fans desperate to see them. A cheer rises up.
"Fire Fer-rets! Fire Fer-rets!"
"We love you, Korra!"
"Marry me, Bolin!"
A little boy of seven or eight in full Fire Ferrets gear and holding a plush duplicate of Pabu approaches him nervously. "Mr. Mako, sir?" He holds out his program with trembling fingers. "Can I have your autograph?"
Smile and wave. "Sure." He signs his name with a few quick strokes.
"Thanks. You're my hero. Well, you and Tahno."
"Um, thanks I guess."
He lets the kid go and returns to Asami. Her hands are shoved in her pockets and her teeth are chattering. "Here," Mako murmurs. He summons a little of his fire and wraps his arms around her. Asami stops shivering and relaxes into him with a whispered thanks.
But as they stand there watching Bolin deal with his adoring public, he feels her growing thoughtful. "What is it?"
"I just thought it was funny. That boy saying both you and Tahno were his heroes. All these people saying they love you, but they don't even know you're so much of a better person than Tahno. It's all about the image of their heads. Even for me, at first."
Mako furrows his brow. "But you do know me."
"But I didn't then. You were just this handsome firebender who could do a hat trick. I thought you must be this dashing, smooth storybook hero who would sweep me off my feet."
"And now?"
"I think you're either adorably awkward boy who doesn't mind firebending to keep his girlfriend warm. And that I can trust you not to burn me." She nuzzles against him. "I'll take it."
Dinner is nice. The noodles are piping hot, banishing the freezing cold. Bolin spends most of the night flirting with Korra, who seems resolutely fixed on her food. And Asami… Asami traces her fingers on his thigh between courses. Mako shivers, but Asami just gives him a too-innocent smile that makes him blush harder. And as Bolin tells a joke that leaves Mako clutching the table to keep from doubling over laughing, a question occurs to him. Is this what it's like to be happy? Good food, hope for the future, surrounded by the people he cares for, a girlfriend who wants him as much as he wants her?
They're all pleasantly full and slightly buzzed from the sake as they walk down the street. The sidewalk is slippery with ice and Mako keeps one arm around Asami, partly out of affection and partly to keep either of them from falling and breaking their legs.
And then it all happens so fast.
A car horn blares. Tires screech and skid on the ice. Mako watches in horror as a Satomobile barrels into a pedestrian—a little kid. Bones crunch and a man screams. Korra recovers first and she's charging down the street, pushing people out of the way like there no more than reeds. "Bolin! I need you to open that hydrant! Asami give me your jacket!" There's nothing of his teammate in her now. Her voice is all power and command. The Avatar's voice. She points to a random pedestrian. "You, call for an ambulance and Mako, get over here."
Mako approaches the bloody heap on the sidewalk and all the firebending in the world can't keep the cold from him. It's the same little boy who asked for his autograph, though Mako can only recognize him by his torn and bloody Fire Ferrets shirt. His breathing is labored and shallow, and his skin is ashen. There are enormous gashes on his head, arms and legs. "Bandages. We need bandages. She takes Asami's jacket and fashions crude tourniquets for the worst of the bleeding. Even Mako can see it's not going to be enough. Korra guides water from the hydrant to the boy. The water shimmers and glows, but sweat pours down Korra's face as she grits her teeth. The boy falls silent.
"Come on, come on!" Korra shakes her head in disbelief. "I can't find a heartbeat."
"Heartbeat?" Asami purses her lips beside him. "We've been working on these devices that restart heartbeats with a little electricity. Mako, can you…"
Mako doesn't say anything. He remembers, just after Zolt had started to teach them how to generate lightning, another Triple Threat had collapsed. Freak heart condition, the medics had said later. Zolt had gotten it working again. But Mako…he's never done anything like this before. The boy could die.
Korra seems to read his thoughts. "He's going to die anyway if we don't do something. Please, Mako. I can't."
Mako takes a deep breath and opens the boy's shirt the rest the way. His chest is impossibly small. Mako puts fingers to skin and gives him the barest jolt. Nothing happens him. He tries again. Again. Mako bows his head. He should've known better. Korra is the type of person who saves people. Mako is just a lucky street rat. He can't pull miracles out of his pocket.
But then Korra gives him a look, bright and blazing and something stirs within him. It's not lust. It's the part of him who wanted to be a storybook hero, not just to get the princess, but because there were monsters to slay and villages to say. "One more time," she says, and Mako has no power to refuse.
The lightning courses gently from him to the boy. And then, a gasp. Feeble but unmistakable. Korra is shaking with relief and exhaustion. "We did it," she says. "You did it."
"Yes, you did." Asami pulls to his feet and into a bone crushing hug. "You saved him. You're a hero." Then, quietly enough that only he can hear, "A real one."
Mako doesn't get a chance to say anything else before the healers arrive on scene. "Miracle the kid survived long enough for us to get here," he hears one of them say.
And now Mako is shaking and his vision is blurry with tears. He doesn't save people. The best he can hope for is comfort and maybe giving kids romantic ideas about pro athletes. The best he's capable of is to not do evil. But that's not true, is it? He's actually done some good. The world seems to shift before his eyes, and he gets a glimpse of something else. A world of more than food and warmth. A world where he does things and people are better for having known him. A world of storybooks.
And for the first time, Mako's ambitions rise higher than winning the championship. He will be a hero.