Her eyes closed slowly, her grip lost its power and her head lulled to the side.
Her smile stayed.
Korra had told Mako to tell everybody goodbye for her. There was a need for that closure, she knew, and she could only hope that it would be good enough.
The young avatar intended to die shortly after that moment.
"All clear!" shouted one of the doctors that came along in the ambulance truck before they held a finger to her chest and sent a jolt of electricity through her body. She remained unmoving.
"Two!" the same man yelled before sending another jolt through her, and this time, a gasp came from her lips.
The next moment came as a blur. Before Mako had any time to rejoice, the bed she was on was pulled out of open doors and brought into a small hospital. "Is she okay?" he called out to deaf ears. Mako, rather than wait around for some sort of confirmation, ran through the doors and to Korra.
To his disdain, they had all ready taken her to surgery and they refused to grant him admittance.
"But you don't understand! I lo-"
The large metal doors shut and he couldn't find it within himself to disrupt them any longer. Who was he to whine and complain, especially when her life was on the line?
He came back two days later, when the hospital finally gave him admittance, with the biggest bouquet of sunflowers he could find. Sunflowers were large, obnoxious, and not exactly the most picturesque of flowers, but it was unique and it looked up towards the sun, just like her.
Korra wasn't awake though. Consciousness seemed to be the last thing on her mind. Still, he placed the flowers on the counter beside her bed and sat in the chair as he took her hand.
"Hey there, Avatar," he greeted with a slight quirk of his lips. She was there - not really- but at least she was alive.
"We don't know what's wrong with her," a doctor, that he had not recognized, told him, "The surgery was successful - we were able to find her blood type and get her some blood, and all of her wounds should be healing now, but we don't know why she won't wake up- " the woman glanced to the ground and a frown set onto her lips. "Trauma... it might be trauma. Maybe she was all ready too far-" She stopped speaking when she realized that Mako had all ready began to walk away.
"I can't guarantee that she'll wake up!" she called after him. He showed no signs of acknowledgement.
Mako looked at her familiar face with fond eyes as he tucked a strand of stray hair away from her face before he got up and left.
"I'll be back tomorrow," he said before closing the door behind him.
And he was. He was there the next day, the day after, and the day after that, all with a new bouquet of sunflowers. The days turned into weeks which turned into a month. He never stopped visiting, and every day he would tell her about how his own day went.
"I'm part of the police force now, Korra," a pause, "I think you'd be proud.."
After that day, she was moved back into intensive care.