The height of the summer solstice made Mako do things he usually wouldn't. The sun was too high burning over head, hot and unrelenting during a week-long heat wave. It made him tap his fingers against the dinner table and jiggle his foot every time he sat down.
When Korra had suggested they go for a swim to cool down, she hadn't expected him to bolt up from his seat and agree.
"Race me to the dock?" he said, pulling his gloves off of his hands and tossing them to the floor.
"Uh...sure?"
He broke into a run, out of the house, and she could hear his feet thumping down the stone steps to the coast of the island.
She trailed behind him, interested in watching to see what this new, less-serious Mako would do. The second his foot collided with the wooden dock, echoing with hollow bangs, his hands started ripping off his shirt.
She picked up her pace after that.
Without breaking from his run, he managed to discard his scarf, coat, and white undershirt in a messy line on the dock. He slowed for a moment to hop on one foot as he pulled off each shoe, then undid the fly on his pants and practically leapt out of them. He was left in just a pair of grey underwear.
He lifted his arms and his feet pushed off from the dock, his entire body turning into one solid curve of sinewy muscle before disappearing over the edge and landing into the water with a splash.
Korra finished her run to the edge of the dock and leaned over the edge, staring down just in time to watch his hair pop up from the soft waves. He gasped and flicked his head sharply to shake the water from his face, his hair comically plastered to one side of his head. Opening his eyes, he looked up at her, and his face broke into a bright, childish grin.
"I won," he said.
Korra blinked and swallowed, watching as the waves rolled over his bare shoulders, the rest of his body just hints of shifting lines of pale skin under the blue water of the bay.
The left corner of her mouth quirked into a smile.
"I'm not so sure about that."