A/N: I'm sorry this is later than usual but I've been really busy you know... procrastinating but never mind that, Sooooo, guess what this chapter has? Makorra Fluff! - well at least at the beginning. And i felt a bit upset writing this chapter because I know what's going to happen and that it's going to lead to achey-break-heart stuff, but apart from the chapter I do include some clues as to what's going to happen...
Chapter 9: Misinterpretations
"What's the big idea of making me train this early in the morning?" Korra exclaimed grumpily as she wacked the ball to Bolin before demonically whispering, "The morning is evil."
Bolin smiled sympathetically at Korra, "We're the rookies so we get the worst time slot in the gym."
"And you're the rookiest of us all," Mako explaimed as he blocked Bolin's line of shot and took the ball, "We gotta get you up to speed if we wanna survive in the tournament," Mako wacked the ball to Korra at his following statement, "Deal with it."
Korra scowled at Mako, "You deal with it," and she wacked the ball far too hard against the wall so that it bounced back and Mako got it.
"How many times have I told you: skill, not strength…" Mako advised.
"That's not fair!" Korra had her hands on her hips as she glared at Mako.
"Get used to it, in this game you need less strength and more skill, so hitting the ball really hard and then having it bounce on the wall for me to take is not going to help you," Mako explained, although his reprimanding tone was followed by a smirk at Korra's pouting.
"Well, at least you can't deny my strength but ok, we'll see who has skill soon enough…" Korra had a sly look on her face and Mako had learned that, that face, meant trouble.
Nonetheless they continued practicing and Korra was doing exceptionally well, enough so that Mako had kept all of his attention in the game so that Korra's strike came as somewhat of a surprise, she quickly galloped Naga towards him to block his line of shot, although Mako easily knew how to dodge that but just as he was about to move to the side, Korra quickly turned Naga around and had maneuvered her swiftly to his side so that she could hook the ball off him with a perfectly executed ride off.
The look of shock underlined with impressed approval on Mako's face at Korra's tactic was enough for the hard work she put into it and she smirked, "That enough skill for ya city boy?" Bolin followed in laughter in agreement of Korra's statement.
Mako raised his hands in the universal sign of surrender and chuckled as he shook his head at what he was about to say, "You never cease to impress, Korra."
Korra blushed slightly at Mako's praise, he rarely praised anyone, let alone Korra, but when he did, Korra couldn't help but smile, she loved it when she could bring Mako out of his serious shell and it felt even better when he opened up and could laugh with her. "Well, I promise that you shan't be disappointed." Korra bowed as well as she could atop a horse.
"This girl is crazy." Mako muttered under his breath, but he soon realized he wasn't quiet enough when he heard Korra's retort.
"I heard that you know and for that you will have a hard time taking the ball of me, not that you already don't of course…" There was a challenging gleam in Korra's eyes and Mako was drawn to it.
He smirked, "Bring it on." And the game commenced.
"That was a pretty good practice huh?" Korra was walking along with Mako, the reigns of their horses in their hands at the side.
"Yeah, it was, and since you're new you should come as an advantage to us." Mako thought aloud to himself.
"Bolin really likes Pabu, doesn't he?" Korra smiled lightly, Bolin had stayed back to practice some more on his deep red, chestnut coloured horse.
"Yeah, he does," Mako looked toward Korra and sighed before continuing, "It was our mother's horse." Mako spoke with a light smile at the memory of his parents.
Korra didn't know what to say to that but she had often found that when she thought about her parents she liked to be at peace and have quiet so she held Mako's hand and when his slightly blushed face looked towards her, she smiled brightly at him and rested her head on his shoulder.
Mako soon relaxed to their proximity and drew Korra closer to him as he took in her scent of freshly cut grass and lemons, "Korra, I was wondering if you-" Mako had started to talk but Korra would never know what he would've said since at that moment her phone started to ring. Korra blushed sheepishly as she fished the phone out of her pocket but since she was holding it sideways, Mako caught a glimpse of who the phone call was from and his heart dropped.
"Oh hey!… lunch?… is it that late already?... sure, Ok I'll meet you there!" Mako had carried on walking while she talked but had pricked his ears to hear her part of the conversation and his plummeted heart was laced with confusion. Although Mako was dragged out of his thoughts when he saw Korra whizz past him with her horse before abruptly stopping for a few seconds and turning back to quickly run towards him and to his surprise, smashed her lips onto his and after swiftly getting over his joyous shock, he happily responded and wrapped his arms around her to deepen the kiss. But, just as quickly as she brought the kiss, she ended it in a heartbeat , whilst flushing I might add, and was back on her way and since she was talking and walking at the same time he only just managed to catch bits of her speech: "need… go… now… sorry… text you."
"Bro, you know you like her!" Bolin exclaimed as he gave a knowing look to Mako who was currently brooding over something while he stirred there meal in the pan.
"Huh? What're you talking about?" Mako asked his brother, lowering his gaze to avoid eye contact.
"I'm talking about Korra, dude, I know you like her it's obvious and you were just thinking about her, right?!" Bolin exclaimed, he just couldn't see his brother go on like this.
"What makes you say that? I was just thinking about… um….," Mako didn't deny anything about Korra but his mind currently wasn't in co-ordination with his brain so he said the first word that was on his mind, much to his regret, "Iroh!"
"Iroh?" Bolin was now profoundly confused before his face took on a sly grin, "Well I thought you had a thing for Korra, but if Iroh's in the picture... should I inform Asami that she has some competition?" Bolin smirked at his brother flustering.
"Bo, what! No! It's not like that I was just, I don't know, I'm just thinking about Korra, I mean Korra kissed me after practice and then rushes off to meet Iroh and, I don't know?" Mako had been thinking about that ever since he saw who had called Korra and asked her to lunch and come to think of it, Korra had mentioned him first as her host for the dinner she had last night and his mind and logic only got one message from that but his heart kept thinking about that kiss: so sudden, desperate and yet deep and passionate and…
Mako looked glumly for his brother to advice which surprised Bolin because it was usually the other way round so after shaking off the fact that they kissed and he hadn't known, Bolin smiled sincerely, "Hey, she probably just needed to talk to him about school, you know how work orientated he is and don't you worry about that, since he and Asami have a date today, so relax and anyway, I don't think she would've kissed you otherwise!"
"How do you know? I mean, about Asami and Iroh," Mako asked, his heart lifting slightly with a reassuring hope.
"I kinda overheard their conversation, but I couldn't help it, I was going to the class next door, but never mind that how was your ki-" Bolin's speech was cut off when his his eyes widened in shock as he yelled, "AAAHHH! Mako, the pan is bubbling over!" Mako jumped, quickly turned the gas down and sighed.
Korra smiled brightly as she walked into Narook's, still thinking about her kiss with Mako, she still couldn't believe herself or the fact that Mako had passionately returned her kiss. She spotted Iroh at a side table beside the window and her smile quickly turned into a frown when she saw his facial expression, "Hey, why so glum chum?" Korra nudged Iroh with her elbow since she had grown to treat Iroh similarly to with Howl since their dinner with Zuko, before she sat down and ordered seaweed noodles while Iroh had a spiced prawn curry.
"Hello your Hi- I mean Korra," Iroh corrected himself before continuing, since he thought it best to share the information with Korra because they now knew each other better and come to be better friends, "And I'm not so much glum as I am stressed, but putting that to the side, I've heard that the Republican Leader is arriving soon in Republic city and-"
"Wait, how do you know that?" Korra impatiently interrupted.
"Well, I did some research after last night and found some information on some old republican bases, and even though they're abandoned now, I did gather that they are definitely plotting something dangerous, apparently to do with the royals, but I couldn't get much…" Iroh rested his chin on his fist, brows furrowed, in thought.
Korra registered his words, "By research I'm guessing you mean snooping around town," It wasn't so much as a question but a statement but Iroh still reluctantly nodded before Korra's expression and tone had become more serious as she continued, "Well, it must be serious if the leader is coming and if it's something to do with the Royals…" Realization dawned on both Iroh and Korra at the same time when they exclaimed with wide eyes, "The nations' leader's meeting!"
"It makes so much sense now, why the leader is coming to republic city, the big thing they have planned; it must be something to do with the meeting since the main royals along with the parliamentary Ministers will be there." Iroh explained, keeping his voice from raising in excitement at this knowledge. A thoughtful silence followed as they both pondered on what to do, until Iroh came to a conclusion, "Well, there isn't much we can do, I can inform Grandfather, since Mother will probably be busy but…"
"We have to do something Iroh, we can't just do nothing!" Korra looked to Iroh with hopeless determination.
"I'm afraid there isn't much we can do Korra, they probably can't call off this meeting, it's too important and the people are worried, but that doesn't mean I won't try my best to confer upon this with my mother." Iroh explained softly to Korra, he knew she was intelligent but also quite childish, so he felt like a brother to her as he explained.
Korra sighed in defeat, "I suppose you're right, but I'm also gonna have a word with Tenzin." Korra crossed her arms over her chest and the two sat in thought for a while before Korra's impatient ways lead her to break the ice with a sly grin, "So…. Asami and you have a date tonight, huh?"
"Well, uhm, yes but who-" His question was cut short when he realized Asami must've told Korra and he simply smiled and lowered his gaze to hide his reddening face.
Korra smirked at Iroh blushing, "You look more scared then you should be for an upcoming date with your true love." Korra exaggerated the last couple words to get Iroh to shake his head in exasperation.
"I'm not scared actually, really, I'm truly elated," Iroh admitted and hesitated slightly before continuing, "But I'm nervous too, what if things don't go to plan, I never usually have doubts but, I want this to be perfect."
Korra smiled sympathetically towards Iroh, if she had learned anything, it was that Iroh was a bit of a perfectionist, "Well I can tell, in fact, the whole world could probably tell, that you really like her and I'm pretty damn sure she likes you too so I'm sure that things will definitely go smoothly now stop worrying." Korra chided, it was surprising to see Iroh nervous over anything, and something so trivial too since her grandfather had told her of his accomplishments but for him to get worked up over Asami was sweet.
After a few moments silence the best Iroh could come up with was that, "It's not that obvious is it?" And Korra burst out laughing at Iroh's confused-turned-annoyed expression.
"Well, I hardly see it as something so hilarious." Iroh crossed his arms but couldn't stop a smile twitching his lips as he thought about all the plans he had ready for his date with Asami, he was definitely going all out.
Bolin was hungrily scoffing down his food when he noticed Mako had barely touched his, still brooding most probably, so he decided on a different idea: "Hey! Why don't we call Asami and see how she's doing? You know, about her date with Iroh tonight and all!"
Mako raised an eyebrow and anime sweat dropped at his brother's over excitement, "I'm pretty sure that's what girls do with each other…"
"So?! I just wanna know where he is taking her and all, I mean, it did take him an age to finally ask her," with that said as enough argument, Bolin went ahead and called Asami but was answered by teary sobs…
A/N: Makorra kiss! Yaaay... and then Mako gets confused, but wait why is Asami crying? well, like I said, the clue is in there, although quite subtle actually. Also when I was writing this chapter I got upset because I just kept thinking about the broken hearts to follow, more specifically for Iroh because he wil be the more confused one because he's just so innocent in the ways of love. Question: Do you want Makorra to get together within the next 2/3 chapters, without anymore bumps? ORDo you want Makorra to wait 5/6/7 chapters with a bigger bump in the road (which includes Mako having a certain raven haired girlfriend so a certain prince and princess are left in the dust for a bit...) so that it follows the series storyline a bit more? Or are you like me and you just want them to be together now so badly before anything else happens, Please review your opinions and answers and suggestions etc! Love you! Ba bye now, and if you review... you'll make me very happy so I'll write faster.
