Korra couldn't see. She couldn't see anything but blackness. It was all completely, impenetrably dark. Wait – there's a squiggle, or is it a flicker of colour? It's orange… it glowed in the corner of her vision, pulsing stronger and then – no, don't think about the colour. The colour shouldn't be there. But it kept growing brighter and then receding, and then –

Her eyes flew open to glare at the flickering candle, the light of which was interrupting her attempted meditation.

'Stupid candle,' she muttered.

Tenzin's left eye cracked open a smidge to survey her disapprovingly.

'I can see the brightness through my eyelids, okay, it's distracting!' she explained irately.

'Don't worry about the candle, Korra,' said Tenzin, calmly but firmly. 'Let go of the candle.'

'That's easy for you to say.'

But she exhaled long through her nose and closed her eyes again.

'Tenzin!'

'Ugh!' cried Korra, leaning back on her palms in frustration. 'This is impossible –'

'Yes, dear?' Tenzin called over his shoulder to the door.

'Can you look after Rohan, please, he needs attention and I can't look after him and cook at the same time.'

'Yes, dear.' Tenzin turned back to look appraisingly at Korra. 'Stay here and keep trying until dinner.'

Korra just gave him a dirty look before closing her eyes again and listening to him get up, open the door and close it behind him. Okay Korra, now don't think about anything, just keep your mind blank and – no, shut up, you're doing it again!

The door slid open again.

'Okay, Tenzin, I give up!' she said loudly, looking up to challenge him with a glare, but her frustration faltered as she saw Mako leaning against the doorway.

'Sorry, I thought meditation was over,' he said, trying to look apologetic.

'Oh, no, Tenzin just ditched to do something more fun,' said Korra sulkily.

'Like watching over a baby?' Mako raised an eyebrow.

'Believe me, watching grass grow would be more fun than this.'

'Let me help you.'

And he stepped in and slid the door closed behind him.

'I'm not much of a meditator myself but, well, maybe I can help you focus.'

He sat down cross-legged opposite her, the flickering candlelight making his skin appear lusciously warm and supple. The thin white tank-top he was wearing clung to his sculpted figure and the shadows from the candle only accentuated the contours of his rippling pectorals…

'You, help me focus,' Korra repeated, with a small laugh. 'That's likely.'

Mako frowned slightly, obviously confused.

'I can think of a much better thing to do than meditate,' she said, a smirk now playing around her lips.

'Yeah? Like what?'

'Like…'

And Korra, grinning slightly, leaned forward on all fours to kiss his neck, just below his jawline.

'You're tempting me,' murmured Mako disparagingly. 'What if Tenzin comes back?'

'Not until dinner,' she said, her lips moving against his skin. 'But I'm hungry now…'

She proceeded to put her hands on his shoulders to push him back down against the mat; he complied easily, unable to resist the lust burning like blue fire in her eyes. She bent down, kissing him passionately before biting his lower lip, and Mako smoothed his hand down the dip of her lower back to her rounded, womanly backside. But Korra caught his wrist before he could touch her sweet spot.

'Not a chance, today is my turn,' she said, locking his wrist in her grip and slowly beginning to trace her fingertip down from the nape of his neck, down his sternum, over his navel to swirl tauntingly above his trousers. Goosebumps bloomed up his arms and Mako groaned with longing, feeling her hot breath between his hips as she fumbled with the tie of his trousers.