Korra's prior confidence was everything but annihilated. She'd hit a complete 180- and not in the cool way. She had been so sure a week ago that she was going to spill her guts to Asami, and that they'd run along together into the sunset, while it lasted. But now, she was beginning to think three months for sure was not enough time to prepare for something as momentous as this, and by the time she got it out, it would most likely not even be worth it, because Asami basically just told Korra she need her support now more than ever.

The prospect of Asami being needy for her would normally be heart-wrenchingly romantic to Korra, but when placed in perspective of her unsuspecting friend wanting to be able to breach a new chapter in her life with someone to lean on, it sort of lost that appeal, and her sense of duty to her longtime friend was all that remained.

The appeal fell even further, when in the last fifteen minutes of her shift at the outdoor pool, Iroh (IROH) and his friends from the lacrosse team showed up (which had never happened before on her watch- she was going to murder Hasook for convincing her to take an afternoon shift). They sat in the hot tub for a while, supposedly relaxing after a "killer gym sesh" (which Korra wanted to call douchey so badly, but, unfortunately, she did the exact same thing herself), and she purposefully avoided their circle (they were like three feet taller than the water, they would be fine) by taking her sweet time adjusting the goggles on the little kids bopping around in the shallow end.

She would have gotten away with it too, if Iroh hadn't left his group and approached her (two minutes to go, seriously), all tall and sleek and muscular and what the fuck, he has dimples too? They fucking make lists on Buzzfeed dedicated to guys with dimples and this motherfu-

"Hey! Korra, right?" (good GOD his voice is hot, too? I cannot catch a break.)

"Yeah? What-"

She was cut off by Iroh pulling her in for a tight (drippy) hug against his bare chest (ugh, gross, this is what Asami is always feeling up), before pulling away and holding her at arms length.

"What was that for?" she asked incredulously. (This was literally the guy she hated on 89% of her waking life, her competition, the guy she punched in the face in her daydreams even though they had never officially met-)

"Sorry for getting you wet," Iroh started, before he was interrupted by:

"That's what she said!" by one of his bros behind them.

Korra rolled her eyes, and tried her best not to smile.

"And sorry for that too…" he said sheepishly. "Oh, and uh, that was to thank you!"

"For what?" (Seriously… what?)

"For everything," he said, making a motion like he was praying to the spirits, before continuing. "Asami is so hot, (everything we do is hot, he whispered, and Korra died a little on the inside), there's no way I could have gotten with her without you being okay with it."

"Me?!" Korra yelled (Okay with it? Who the hell does this guy think he is? Okay with it is the last thing I am-)

"Yeah! You're her best friend right?"

"Yeah, but, I mean, she's an adult and whatever- she can do –whoever- she wants, and stuff, you know?" She rambled, the conflicting thoughts colliding in her mind (is he serious?) (plus, this is awkward, right? we're in awkward territory here?). She was lucky she didn't lose it right then and there (fuck geometry, this is her least favorite subject).

"I know, but I know how girls are with each other's opinions and stuff so I'm glad you're so cool about the whole thing," he explained. "Otherwise our arrangement probably would not have lasted this long."

Arrangement? "Whadyou-"

Korra was cut off by similarly pale arms slinging around his shoulder.

"Hey Korra!" It was Mako (goddamn it Mako, ten minutes ago you would have been perfect now I'm about to get an actual reason to punch this guy and you're all ruining my investigation, some cop you are-) "This guy bothering you?" he joked.

"Shutup, Mako," Iroh laughed, play punching him in the shoulder (they had played football together through their younger youth) "I was just saying "hi"."

"Trying to gain favor in the family?" Mako asked.

"Can't hurt, ya know?" Iroh smiled. "Nice meeting you by the way," he added to Korra.

"Sure. I'm gonna go clean up for the next guy before I get outta here," she told them, pointing back to the scattered mess of pool noodles on the deck, before backing away quickly.

"I'll go help her," Mako offered, adding a last wave and "see-ya" to Iroh, who returned it and retreated back to the hot tub.

A few minutes later he found Korra angrily stuffing noodles into the kickboard container, and muttering something about dimples? "You alright over here?"

"Yeah, great, lets get out of here," she huffed, taking the last of the noodles out of Mako's arms and throwing them into another container. "Hasook, you good?" she called to the boy now taking up the lifeguard chair.

He answered with a thumbs-up, and Korra was gone.

Mako ran to catch up with her, throwing back the finger for Hasook who'd blown the whistle at him for "running in the pool area" (probably to embarrass him) (which worked).

She was out front waiting for him by the time he found her.

"What was that all about?" he asked.

"Nothing, you ready?"

"Yeah," he fumbled with the keys in his pocket, before grabbing Korra's arm as she prepared to stalk off again. "Wait! Seriously, what is up with you?"

"Nothing." She continued their walk to the car.

"Korra."

"Mako."

"I will leave you here."

She really needed to start driving to work. "Fine. Can we talk about it later?" If she stayed here, she would lose it. All the cool and calm and acceptance she had been trying to radiate would explode, and turn into the exact opposite, probably killing her, Mako and Iroh at the same time.

"Like 'in the car' later or 'in twenty years' later?"

"How about both?"

"No way! Seriously, what is it? Is it Iroh? Did he say something to you? Was it those douche lacrosse guys cause-"

"How the fuck does she like that guy?" she asked, as they got in the car.

Mako followed her in, and saw her pouting in the passenger seat, arms crossed. He decided to start moving, so at least she couldn't return to her argument of needing to get out, and thought maybe the drive would help loosen her up.

"How does who like what guy?" he asked (yes, he did learn that one in detective school).

"Asami," she clarified. "How does she like that guy?"

"That guy being Iroh?" (Always get them to answer in the affirmative, Interrogation 101)

"Yes, Iroh." She scoffed (doing good, detectivvee). "He's so…ugh, I don't know!"

"Did he say something to you?"

"No," she seethed. The problem was now that it was clear to her Iroh seemed fine and polite and whatever–(in addition to all his physical assets) which she was now realizing was worse than if he wasn't fine, cause then she could have just punched him, but still, something about him rubbed her the wrong way. "He didn't say anything, I guess it's more like, how he said it?" She tried to clarify.

The drive seemed to be calming her down, so Mako thought it safe to press on. "What'd you guys talk about?"

"He was talking about Asami," she told him. "He basically thanked me for letting him get with her," she added, groaning, and thumping her head on the dashboard (because if this was the case, she was going to have to break another ten thousand phones to get over it).

"Hey! Stop that!" Mako swatted at her, (this was not good, he did not like to be distracted while driving, and he had a feeling he needed to make eye contact with Korra to make this conversation work). "You let him? Didn't she decide to date him on her own?" he asked, holding an arm across her shoulders to keep her up against the seat.

"Yes- but, he made it seem like me being okay with it is the only reason he gets to keep doing it- her- ugh this is so stupid!"

"I mean, you are okay with it, aren't you?" he asked, feeling as though he was treading into rough waters here-

Which was confirmed by the white-walker murder inducing ice glare he earned from Korra.

She didn't say anything for a second, before realizing her faux pas, and looking back towards the road. "Yeah, well, I guess I am," she resigned. "What can I do?"

Mako had always been too practical for rhetorical questions, so his answer was not particularly what she wanted to hear, because she would have preferred to hear nothing. Ever. "You could talk to her. Tell her you don't like him. Or, that you like her." He peered over hesitantly, not sure if she'd try and throw him out of the car for that one.

Her following silence was all he needed to know he'd hit the jackpot (What was that, Chief Beifong? Yeah, seven questions, and the perp confessed. I know, my interrogation skills are impressive, but I'm not ready to take over for you just yet-)

"How do you know?" she asked weakly, as she slumped down on the seat.

"We used to date, remember?" he asked smiling. "Contrary to popular belief, I know how you work." When she didn't react, he play shoved her in the seat. "Plus, I've seen you like people before, your approach hasn't changed."

"My approach," she repeated.

"You're like a puppy in love, and when anyone gets in the way, you turn into a rabid wolf," he explained simply. "You're the same with the people your friends date."

"Seems like you've put some thought into that."

"When you liked Sokka when we were ten, puppy. When Bo liked Ginger, wolf. When you liked me, puppy. When Katara tried to make a move on me when you liked me, wolf. Bo and Opal, puppy. Asami and Iroh, wolf- and now you're a giant sad puppy because-"

"Okay, okay! I get it. I'm transparent as fuck, what do you suggest I do about it?"

"Well first, let's go to the store and get you a new phone, so we don't have to guess where you are all the time."

(Korra is the friend who needs a new phone every two months, (and who they make those giant heavy duty ones for besides construction workers) because she either breaks them on purpose, or loses them, falls on them, gets pushed into pools with them in her pocket, leaves them on the hood of the car and runs over them, drops them in the toilet, uses them as a hockey pucks- you name it, she's done it. And now I guess you can add "drops weights on it" to the list, but they have long since grown accustomed to this habit of hers.)

"Then we can figure it out," he finished, patting her shoulder. "Together."

"Fine."

They spent about half an hour in the Verizon store, not because it ever took Korra that long to pick a phone (she was just going to lose it anyway) but because the girl behind the counter was cute and Korra could not leave without throwing Mako at her. That had been like twenty minutes ago, and they were still talking (about what, she didn't know. Phones? Phone cases? Phone plans? How was he not using this as a perfect segue into getting a phone number? It never comes up this organically, does she have to do everything herself?)

"Hey so, speaking of phones," she cut in, "which is what I'm assuming this is about," she pointed between the two of them, "how about you two exchange numbers, so that I'm not late for that appointment you were driving me to, Mako?"

Mako looked at her blankly for a moment, before being snapped out of it by the girl behind the counter.

"Sure," she said sweetly, before taking Mako's phone out of his hands and typing in her number. "I'll get yours when you call me later," she added to him.

"Uh, yeah, sure!" he grinned stupidly, waving goodbye as Korra dragged him out by the arm and back to the car.

"How are you such a bad closer, Mako," she asked exasperatedly.

"Because! I've got you to do it for me," he grinned, pulling her under his arm and rubbing his fist in her hair.

"You better not fuck it up," she growled, trying to pull out of his grasp, "I need to be able to come back to this store," she added (which was very true).

When he finally let her go, she pulled her hair back up, huffing, as he made his way back to her house.

They set up camp on the backyard deck, with a cooler full of beer and a Korra's phone book (she had taken to writing the important ones down, since her phones were usually too messed up to salvage anything from) so Mako could read off the numbers while she typed them in.

"Oh baby, Shin is in here, you want that one?' he teased, as he flipped through the pages.

"Fuck you, and yes, cause last time I didn't put it in, he called and I answered it because I didn't know who it was. So now it's a necessary precaution," she explained, sipping her beer.

He chuckled, reading off the number. "Why don't you just go out with the guy, put him out of his misery?'

"I don't do pity dates. Remember your friend, Wu?"

Mako's chuckling turned into full-blown laughter at the memory. Wu had gotten extremely drunk at dinner, thrown up in the bathroom and then gotten into a cab while Korra cleaned it up. It was not until the waiter approached her to pay the bill that she had even realized he was missing.

Korra threw ice at him from the cooler.

"Hey! I lost on that one too," he reminded.

That made Korra laugh. "You deserved it!" She had called Mako at one in the morning, (who had work at six a.m) after interrogating the doorman as to where the last cab had gone, to meet her at the train station to find his friend that was on some train to no one knows where, that they alsoended up on at the last minute, screaming as it left the station before they could wake Wu up from his nap on one of the seats and drag him off. They'd ended up somewhere on the outskirts of Republic City, before calling Korra's dad to come find them. Mako was late to work.

"I think your dad still hates me for that one," Mako mused.

"Probably, he hates waking up. Its where I get it from."

"You know who your dad would love, though," he asked.

"Don't say it."

"Asami."

"Oh," she sat up. "I was really expecting you to say Shin."

"No. It's funny how you can deal with all those weirdos, but when it comes to who you actually want, you're worse than me!"

"It's cause I waste all my good lines on you idiots," she defended.

"I know. And I appreciate it. I do," he smiled. "But maybe this time around, you could stop thinking about what other people want and do what's best for you. Be a little selfish for once."

"Right, cause that worked out so well with us?"

"If it's making you crazy like this, it might be better to get it off your chest," he answered. "And we were never good to begin with, we let everything run wild. We were both young and selfish and stupid- I can tell you've already put more consideration into this than we did in our entire relationship."

"Yeah, but that's cause this isn't just "other people" I'm thinking about. This is Asami. Of course I have to care about what she wants," she added desperately. She understood about needing to be selfish once in a while, but she did not want it to turn out anything like her relationship with Mako (though they were much better friends now). If she got to the point of a relationship with Asami, she would prefer it stayed a relationship. "You're also being very nonchalant about this," she added looking over to him. "I also can't believe I'm telling you about it."

"We've always been brutally honest with each other," he said. "You roll with my punches, and I roll with yours, remember?"

She did. After their breakup they had realized they never really communicated, and it was worse when things like jealousy got in the way. But what had always remained true between them was their support for each other. That's probably why she'd thought they would be good together in the first place. They might not have always said the right thing, but when it came down to it, Korra would do anything for Mako, and he would do anything for her. It actually didn't surprise her at all now that she had let him in on her secret so easily, mostly because she couldn't lie once he figured out something about her (their communication issues were only solved by blunt honesty) and Mako had always been synonymous with support.

"You're not mad I'm going after your ex?" she said slyly.

"You mean my middle school "hold hands and eat lunch together" ex?" He laughed. "I think we maybe kissed each other on the cheek, once."

"Wow, you have really got the moves, Mak."

"I learned from the best," he shot finger pistols at her. "Seriously though, you actually are usually really good with crushes, what's going on? You were a mess earlier. And I guess it explains the last few weeks, too."

"Have I been that obvious?"

"Only in retrospect."

Mako was also correct on this point. When it came to romantic history, Korra's had been far more prolific than Asami's, and rivaled even Bolin's. Sure she'd liked Sokka in the sixth grade or whatever, but in high school she'd dated Mako, (and not in the same way Asami had dated Mako), had a fling with a guy named Wing, (she liked his hair better then Wei's) which was how they'd all met Opal, and then had her weird rival hate sex relationship with Kuvira in their last year. She'd had her share of hookups as well, which all came easily with her popularity. She'd never been particularly awkward, except in the circumstances where her friends threw someone who was already awkward at her and she had to deal with them (see: Shin, Wu). But she suspected, in none of those cases, was she particularly, well, in love.

"She's different, Mako. She knows me better than anyone. I want to be there for her, all the time," she sighed. "And, obviously, there's Iroh, and the fact that she's leaving-"

He scoffed. "Her leaving won't change anything between you. Even I know that."

"Yeah well maybe her being in love with Iroh might," she added sadly.

"Love?" he yelled. "Since when! She hasn't told the rest of us anything like that, I thought they were just you know, friends with benefits!"

"I don't know, she mentioned it the other day, I just- I don't want to ruin anything, and now I want to kill myself cause apparently it's my fault they're even together!"

"We're going to have to figure that one out A.S.A.P," Mako said. "If we don't know for sure, there's no reason you should be beating yourself up for it." He threw his arm around her shoulders and brought her close. "I wouldn't give up if I were you. You might be a puppy for Asami, but I think she's one for you too."

"Shutup," she sighed, trying to wrestle out of his grip again. "We've never seen Asami puppy for anyone."

"Maybe because she's been doing it this whole time, and we never knew!"

"Mako, please-"

"No you please. If it's an investigation we need, it's an investigation we'll get. But please, really, don't be so hard on yourself. It's really weird to see you give up on something."

She squirmed in his grip some more. "You're going to mess up my hair again!" She yelled.

"If you get out of this headlock, I promise I'll do everything in my power to help you get through this. No matter the outcome. I'm here for you buddy."

"Fine!" she agreed.

They ended up in the yard surrounding the deck, wrestling and sliding, grass staining their clothes, until they realized they were cheers coming from the deck. They paused, still tangled, to see Asami and Bolin all dressed up, (since Asami sometimes took Bolin to work with her and her father to see if he could find anything he thought he'd like to do in the future) waving at them.

"Who's winning!?"Bolin called.

"Me," they answered in unison, which only caused them both to snap back into the struggle. Korra caught one last glance out of the corner of her eye of Asami, in her business suit, smiling at her, and that was all she needed. She threw her elbow out and into Mako's gut, which is what finally got him to let go.

"I want your help," she said sternly from the ground, panting.

"That was a fucking dirty way to get it," he wheezed. "But you win."

They were soon joined by their friends, who jumped into the pile on top of them, Asami kindly requesting they don't muck up her good white shirt.