Korra smiled and looked at her lover with loving eyes. "Wow, Mako. I-" The avatar looked over and immediately stopped speaking.
Korra's mouth was wide open and her eyes as big as saucers. She completely forgot what she was going to say before. All that Korra could focus on was the lingering spirit that held a wooden sign with the question 'Korra, will you marry me?' printed on it. By the time Korra looked back towards Mako he was down on one knee. He was holding a large ring box. Korra stared into his eyes with an expression that was hard to read, her mouth still agape.
"Korra, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?" Mako asked staring into her beautiful bright blue eyes. He was a little nervous, but he remained confident. Although the look on Korra's face was impossible to read, he had a good feeling inside. He had never wanted something so much before. The few seconds of silence felt like an eternity.
"Yes!" Korra finally exclaimed with excitement and partial shock. Her eyes were tearing up from happiness.
Mako smiled like Korra had never seen him smile before. She had never seen him look so happy, which made her feel amazing. Mako jumped back onto his feet and lifted Korra into his arms. He squeezed her then put her down. She was laughing before they kissed each other passionately for about the third or fourth time that night.
"I love you so much, Korra! You just made me the happiest man in the world!" Mako yelled excitedly before bringing the overly sized ring box back out. He opened it to reveal a beautiful ring and necklace. The ring was silver with a large circular royal blue sapphire surrounded by smaller diamonds. Mako placed the ring on Korra's appropriate finger. Korra admired the beautiful ring; it was definitely meant for her. It fit her personality perfectly. Mako then fastened the choker-style betrothal necklace onto Korra's neck. Mako hand-carved the stone himself. It took him months to perfect. The stone had a light blue exterior that matched the color of Korra's eyes. Carved into it were the words 'Fire And Water' in varying colors. The interior was purple. Mako chose purple because when he mixed red and blue it became purple. Carved into the purple were two symbols. The symbols were the water tribe symbol, which was colored in blue and the fire nation symbol that was colored red. Korra touched the beautiful stone, feeling all of the carves that were put into it.
"I love you so much, Mako! The ring and necklace are both beautiful."
Mako picked Korra up and carried her bridal style to the ferry that had just arrived. Korra smiled at the romantic gesture. It felt as if all of the problems that Korra had been focused on melted away. She couldn't remember the last time that she was this happy.
Mako carefully put Korra down when they got close to the ferry. He didn't want any of the press to bombard them with questions, and he knew he would have attracted more attention if he was carrying the avatar. He held Korra's hand as they got onto the ferry. She smiled at her new fiancé.
"Pema's throwing you a small welcome back party, right?" Mako asked the beautiful avatar.
"Oh yeah. It starts pretty soon, actually." Korra said as if she had completely forgotten.
"Should we announce the engagement?"
"Yeah that sounds like a good idea." Korra smiled.
"You two are engaged?! Does this mean that you being with Ms. Sato was just a rumor?" A random member of the press yelled as he snapped a photo of the couple. Of course he happened to get the betrothal necklace in the shot as well.
Mako and Korra both jumped. They hadn't even noticed the small man.
'Oh great,' Korra thought to herself. She wanted to be the one to tell all of her friends, especially Asami. Korra suddenly became a little bit nervous. How would she tell Asami? Would she even care? The young avatar's questions racked around her own brain.
"Since when does the press care so much about my personal life? Don't you realize that there are more important issues going on right now? Part of Republic City has been destroyed, and you're asking about my love life! My personal life is no one's business but my own!" Korra answered in an aggravated tone.
A bead of sweat ran down the man's face as he slowly backed up. He went to the other side of the ferry. Although Korra was annoyed she smiled. Putting someone in their place was one of Korra's many skills.
"I see the press seem to love you now," Mako smirked.
Korra playfully glared at Mako. Mako laughed at Korra's cute expression. She was so sassy, but Mako loved it.
Mako and Korra talked for the entire duration of the ferry ride. They were both excited about their engagement. After awhile, the ferry reached Air Temple Island. The couple decided to go straight to the temple so that they wouldn't be late for Pema's party for Korra. Pema had invited only a few of Korra's close friends.
Mako and Korra walked up to the front door to the large temple. Korra was a bit nervous to tell everybody about her engagement to Mako. She hoped that they wouldn't act too girly about the situation. She decided the first thing she would do is find Asami, though.
"Mako, when we go inside I'm going to find Asami and talk to her about you and I. I need to set things straight."
"Alright. Stay strong, and just stick to the truth. I'm sure Asami will be okay." Mako gave the avatar a reassuring smile.
Korra returned the smile. Before opening the door Korra tucked her necklace behind her hair so it wasn't visible. She removed her ring and held tightly onto it.
"Korra! There you are. How did-" Pema paused when she saw Mako walk in behind Korra. "Oh. Welcome to the party, Mako! Make yourself at home." She smiled immediately dropping the question that she had for Korra about her date.
"Hi Pema. Is Asami here yet? I need to talk to her." Korra said in a slightly nervous tone.
"All of the guests are up in the attic in the Air Temple."
"The attic?" Korra had a confused expression on her face. "Why the attic?"
"The kids and I fixed it up for the party. I'm making the food right now."
"Alright. Thanks for the party!" Korra smiled.
Korra escorted Mako over to the attic of the Air Temple. When they arrived they saw Bolin, Opal, and Asami. The other guests hadn't arrived yet since there was still an hour before the actual party.
"Korra!" Bolin yelled in excitement before getting up and hugging his friend who had been gone for a week. "It's great to have you and Asami back!" He flashed his goofy yet adorable smile.
"Thanks. It's great to see you guys. It's kind of like old times again." Korra smiled. She looked at Asami who smiled at her.
Korra didn't want to just call Asami out; she thought that might seem awkward so she thought of what she wanted to say. Mako could tell what Korra was thinking. He came up with a plan.
"Bolin, I have to show you and Opal a picture that I found of you guys. It came out really good." Mako exaggerated about the quality of the picture.
"Awesome! Come on, Opal." Bolin became overly excited as usual. Mako led the two out of the room.
Asami and Korra were by themselves now. Korra took a deep breath.
Both of the women said the other woman's name simultaneously. They laughed.
"You go first." Asami said.
"Alright. I know I said that I didn't feel a spark between us, but.." Korra looked down. "...I didn't tell you everything." She paused. "There's actually another reason why I didn't think things would work between us."
Asami was listening to the avatar intently. "And what reason would that be?"
"I have feelings for someone else, and they return my feelings. I'm sorry." Korra bit her lip nervously.
"Korra, it's ok. The breakup was mutual. I'll admit I thought we had something, but I can't force you to feel the same way. It's better that we figured this out now before it was too late for us to go back to being friends. The truth is I don't think I love you in a romantic way, either. We just got caught up in the moment, and I was feeling vulnerable because of my father's death." She looked down before looking at Korra and smiling.
"I'm so glad that we could come to the same terms." She smiled. "I kind of have some news, and I wanted you to be the first to know."
"Really? What is it?" Asami smiled.
"I'm engaged." Korra didn't know how Asami would react, but she was glad to see a shocked look on Asami's face that showed no hurt.
"Korra! You just met the guy. Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"I guess I forgot to mention that. It's Mako."
"Oh my goodness! I'm so happy for you! Did he give you a ring?"
Korra opened up her hand and slid the ring back onto her finger before holding her hand up to Asami with a slight blush on her face. "Yeah. I hope he didn't spend too much on it, though. It looks expensive."
"It's any engagement ring! What do you expect?" Asami laughed.
Asami and Korra heard the others coming back up.
"Don't tell anyone! I'm going to announce it when everyone gets here." Korra whispered.
Asami gave Korra an understanding smile. Mako trailed behind Bolin and Opal as they all climbed up the ladder into the attic.
"Hey guys!" Korra quickly said.
"Hey. Everyone else arrived. They're on the way up." Mako announced.
Suddenly, as if on cue, Kai, Lin, Iroh, Suyin and her family, Tenzin and his family, a few old probending friends, Varrick, Zhu Li, and a few other airbenders entered the attic. They all quickly found a place to sit or stand.
"Korra it's so great to see you!" Suyin smiled before sitting at a table with her family.
Many other people came up to Korra to welcome her back. She made small talk with a few of the guests before Mako walked up beside of her. He looked into Korra's eyes. She knew what he was trying to tell her.
"Everyone." Korra paused as everyone focused their attention on the air bender. "I wanted to thank all of you for coming to this party for me. And thank you Pema for organizing it." Korra noticed Pema smile at her. "While you're all here I'd like to let everyone know that I'm engaged." Korra moved her hair out of the way to reveal her betrothal necklace.
Tenzin's eyes looked like they were ready to pop out of his eye sockets. He had no clue that Korra even had time for relationships with all of the chaos going on. Many people were surprised, but they began to clap.
"Who's the lucky guy?" Opal asked sweetly.
Korra motioned for Mako to join her. He put his arm around Korra. Many of Korra's friends began talking to the couple and asking them questions about their engagement. Korra and Mako answered everyone including Tenzin, who's questions at first didn't make much sense from the astonishment that had come over him.
After about twenty minutes, Pema had some music playing. People got up from their tables to dance. Mako, Korra, Asami, Bolin, and Opal were all sitting at a table together. Mako looked deeply into Korra's blue eyes.
"May I have this dance?" He asked sweetly.
"Of course," Korra allowed Mako to lead her to the dance floor.
"Come on Opal; this is my jam!" Bolin grabbed her arm and followed Mako's lead. Opal giggled.
Asami realized she was the only one at the table. A sad look formed on her face. "I guess this is one of the downsides of being single." She said quietly to herself. Asami's loneliness wouldn't last too much longer, though.
The two couples danced near each other. The song was upbeat, which was a relief to Korra. She wasn't the best slow dancer out there.
"Congrats you two!" Bolin said to Korra and his brother.
"Thanks bro." Mako replied.
"Who's that over there with Asami? He looks familiar!" Opal wondered out loud.
"Oh, that's Iroh! He's with the United Forces." Korra answered Opal's question.
Asami was getting to know the man that she had met before. Iroh had noticed the beautiful Asami by herself, so he decided to talk to her. He had always found the Sato heiress to be attractive, but never had the chance to get to know her.
"So you took over Future Industries? That's incredible," Iroh and Asami continued with their small talk.
"Looks like they're hitting it off," Mako smirked as he danced with Korra.
"Yeah! This party turned out pretty good." Korra said with a smile. She was having a lot of fun dancing with Mako. In the back of her head she was thinking about the city that needed to be rebuilt, but she knew that for now she just needed to have a little fun.
"Definitely!" Bolin somewhat butted in.
"So have you two been staying at Air Temple Island?" Korra asked.
"Yep! Tenzin said we can stay until our apartment gets rebuilt." Bolin answered.
"Well that's good. I want to start working on rebuilding the city as soon as possible." Korra held her hand to her chin as she thought.
"I can probably get Aunt Lin to set up a meeting to raise awareness and get us the help we need," Opal offered.
"That would be great! How soon do you think the meeting can take place?" Korra asked.
"I think we can get it started in less than a week."
A few of the guests started to say goodbye to Korra as they left. It was getting late. Now only the residents of Air Temple Island remained. Bolin was wore out, so he went straight to his room after saying goodnight to everyone. Shortly afterwards Asami went to her room.
"..And then there were two," Mako smirked.
"I'm about to turn in, too. I'm so tired," Korra groaned.
"You're so cute when you're tired. Come on; I'll tuck you in. I just have to sneak into the woman's dormitory," Mako laughed.
"I'll be fine, city boy," Korra smiled at her clingy boyfriend.
"Alright. Goodnight, Korra. I love you," Mako kissed the avatar with great passion.
"I love you Mako," Korra said after returning his kiss. "I'll see you in the morning!"
A/N: I tried to make this chapter longer than the others; I hope you liked it! Please review. :)
