Note: Hey guys, finally finished chapter 9….and the odd thing is I actually have nothing to say about it. lol I just hope that you guys enjoy it. I'm gonna start working on chapter 10 either tonight or sometime tomorrow. :3 Hopefully you guys enjoy it and I hope that it is worth your while once i finish the entire fanfic ^.^
Thanks for all of the reviews guys! :3 I'm glad that I could make a few people laugh and that you all understand what I am trying to do with this fanfic. It makes me feel great when I know you guys are enjoying the read.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything Legend of Korra.
Mako and Korra had set up an old radio at their campsite after talking to Gommu and trying on their chi-blocker disguises. For the rest of the day, they had kept it on, monitoring it the entire time and listening for any important announcements. Korra kept it right next to her while they all sat at the table, focusing on the cheap wooden radio with deep intensity.
Bolin yawned and leaned back in his chair. "Well, hopefully something will come up, and no more food commercials. They're making me hungry." He pouted and stroked the fur of his pet fireferret.
Without taking her eyes off of the radio, Korra sat up in her seat. "I guess I should go gather some more food before it gets too late." She stood and looked around the table. "You guys keep listening to the radio. I'll be right back."
Mako watched her with interest. "I'll go with you."
"Just stay here. I've got Naga." She put two fingers in her mouth and gave a short whistle. "Here, Naga!"
From off in the distance, Naga picked up her head and excitedly trotted over to Korra.
Bolin raised his brows. "You think you could pick me up another one of those sandwiches?"
"No problem." Korra grabbed the front of Naga's harness and led her forward. "Come on, girl. I'll be back, guys." She just confidently walked off, not caring what anybody else thought about it. She could handle herself. At least, that's what she told herself.
The deeper she had gotten into the city, the more she realized that she did not want to eat that food again. There had to be something better around that place, anything better than stale bread and old fruits and crackers. Then she remembered how they had arrived at the underground city in the first place. She grinned to herself. The ocean! Where there was an ocean, there were fish and Korra was going fishing.
Back at the camp everyone was pretty bored, lazy and tired, except for Mako. Mako was tense and worrisome, which he usually was if Korra was wondering off again. It had been more than a half hour since she had left and Mako was just about ready to jump off of the edge of his seat. Where in the name of all spirits was that girl? What was taking her so long? He didn't think he could sit still for much longer, and the fact that Bolin was complaining about food and annoyingly playing around with Pabu was not helping. His brows bunched over his forehead with frustration. "Maybe I should go look for her. She's taking forever." He eagerly gripped the end of the table and shifted to the edge of his seat.
Bolin tried to make Pabu do flips on the table. "Or maybe you should be patient and calm, like Tenzin said." He frowned to himself. "Am I the only one that's learning anything here?"
Mako's jaw tightened. "I'm serious. It doesn't take that long to get food."
Asami played with a strand of her hair from across the table. "That's true. I don't remember it taking us that long when she and I left to get food this morning."
Bolin waved a hand. "Aww, you know Korra, she's probably fine. She's probably just being Korra."
Mako narrowed his amber eyes menacingly. "That's exactly what I'm afraid of. Korra being Korra." He groaned.
Asami's eyes widened at the sight of Mako's hands gripping the table. Smoke drifted up steadily. "Mako, you're scorching the table!"
He growled and crossed his arms tensely.
Bolin smiled. "See? I told you she was fine. There she is over there with Naga."
"It's about time." Mako was greatly relieved, yet at the same time he was angry. He remained rigid, conjuring a flame in his hand and playing with it moodily.
Once Korra finally reached the campsite Bolin ran over to her excitedly. "Korra! We were worried about you! Did you get my sandwich?"
She grinned, grabbing a basket down from Naga's back. "Even better!"
"Where the hell were you?" Mako snapped, already standing in front of her and angrily crossing his arms.
Korra frowned at him as she sensed his ire. "Fishing."
His eyes widened. "Fishing? Fishing where?"
Her aqua eyes narrowed. "The ocean, where else?"
His arms swiftly uncrossed as his hands bunched to fists. "The ocean? Are you crazy? Damn it, Korra! What if something happened to you? What if somebody saw you?"
Bolin slowly slinked away and pointed toward the camp. "Yeah, I'm just…gonna wait…right over here…right." He quickly left the two fuming benders.
Korra groaned. "Well, I'm fine and nobody saw me."
"And how would you know?" He curled his lip.
"I just know!"
"You could've just picked up some food from the city!" He jerked his hand in the proper direction mentioned, shooting out a small flame.
"Yeah, well, I didn't!" She tightened her grip on the basket.
His brow twitched. "Of all things, you just had to go fishing."
She raised her brow and used one hand to gesture toward herself. "I'm a native waterbender. It was the natural solution."
He gave her a sarcastic expression. "Well, I'm not from the watertribe."
"Well, maybe you should be!" She gave him a hard poke in the chest. "Firebender…"
He flared up with irritation and a slight excitement at her contact. "Don't poke me! Waterbender…"
She made a face and poked him again. "Make me."
"Ugh!" He rubbed a hand over his face.
"Look, if it's such a big deal, why don't you fish next time!" She shoved the basket of fish into his chest and brushed past him. Naga whined and followed after her.
Mako awkwardly held the basket and stared down at the fish with a sigh. "Korra…" He shook his head with ridicule and followed behind her as she stormed off toward the area they used for the campfire. She veered him so off topic that he didn't even get to get his point across. "Korra, that wasn't the point."
She grabbed the scrappy radio and sat down on the ground in front of the garbage and strips of wood that they used for a campfire. She knew what she had said wasn't the point. She just didn't care to hear what the point was. She had screwed up….again…and she didn't care to hear of it. She kept up a stubborn expression and crossed her legs, turning up the radio volume to help her ignore Mako's voice.
The broody firebender set down the basket of fish and sighed, standing over her patiently.
Korra lowered her eyes and turned down the radio. She sighed, feeling quite scornful toward herself. "What, Mako? I know. I messed up again. I don't think. I'm too impulsive and I let my impatience get the best of me. I'm the Avatar, I should be more careful…" With a shrug, she pulled a stick from the pile of scraps and then tossed a small flame into the heap. It slowly flared up into small campfire.
Mako raised his brows, a bit surprised by her reaction, and cleared his throat. "Uh, actually, what I was going to say was… I was worried about you…" He sat down beside her and adjusted his scarf, gazing into the fire. "But if you would like to go on with what you were saying I would be more than happy to oblige…" His eyes turned toward her with a bit of sarcasm.
She blushed. "Are you kidding me?" She smirked. "I bet you would like that, wouldn't you?"
He gave a light laugh. Hearing Korra admit how she was wrong about something was definitely something worth hearing.
"I'll pass. That's the last thing I want to continue talking about." She poked at the flames with her stick.
Naga walked off to the side somewhere and lied down, figuring Korra was ok but still keeping an eye on her.
Mako nodded and continued to stare into the flames.
Bolin walked over hesitantly and bit his lip. "Is it safe?" He asked cautiously.
Korra grinned and then glanced at Mako. "I think it's pretty safe for now." She raised her brow.
Mako smirked. "For now."
"Thank the spirits, 'cause I'm starving!" Bolin sat down next to Mako and called over his shoulder to Asami, who was still sitting at the table. "It's safe, Asami! Come sit with us! Korra caught fish!" He smiled at Korra. "I'm really diggin' your natural instinct as a Watertribe native. I bet the fish is gonna be great!" He raised two thumbs in the air.
Asami came over and sat down on the other side of Bolin. "Nice one, Korra!" She smiled. "Fish was a great idea."
Korra shrugged happily. "I figured it would be nice to eat something a bit more decent than what we had earlier."
Bolin tilted his head affectionately. "Awww, how thoughtful of you!" He nudged his brother. "You see that, Mako, she went out of her way just for us!"
Mako slanted his eyebrows and gave his little brother a look of ridicule. "A bit dramatic, Bo."
He raised his hands clulessly. "What? She was so worried about finding us some awesome food that she didn't even bother to think about her own safety."
Korra cleared her throat awkwardly. "How about we not talk about this before the area between point A and B…" She gestured between she and Mako. "..becomes dangerous again."
Asami sarcastically raised her brows. "Agreed."
Mako let out a short huff of air. "Right. Bo, can you hand me that fish?"
Both Korra and Mako cooked all of the fish Korra had caught and split it between the four of them. Fish had definitely turned out to be a lot better than the food they had eaten earlier. By the time they were done, they were all completely sated.
After discussing how the shifts for the radio would be distributed, Bolin and Asami left the campfire to go to sleep. Only Mako and Korra remained awake and listening to the radio.
Keeping her legs pulled to her chest, Korra rested her chin on her knees and fed a few more flames to the fire. Her aqua eyes remained on the radio with determination. Were they ever going to announce anything? She was getting sick of info-mercials and lame music so much that her attention span was weaning away. Her brows drew closer together and she blinked a few times, trying not to doze off after such a long day and being up so late.
Mako shifted a bit from the position that he was sitting in and bent one knee. He raised his brows. "Korra, maybe you should rest."
"No." She kept her eyes on the radio. "I'm the Avatar. This is my responsibility."
He sighed, eyeing the way her eyelids slowly began to droop. "Even, the Avatar needs help, Korra. We're all you're friends remember?"
Her gaze lazily drifted to the fire as she tightly hugged her knees. "I know, Mako….But I should still stay up as long as I can." Her shoulders slumped with exhaustion. It was extremely late, but she didn't want to sleep yet. She wanted to stay up as long as she could before the next shift had to take over. She wanted Bolin and Asami to get plenty of rest before they had to wake up again. So it didn't matter how tired she was….It didn't matter how badly she just wanted…to sleep…
"Korra."
She jumped and took in a swift breath of air. "I'm fine."
Mako shook his head and inched a bit closer to her so that he was right next her in case he had to give her a nudge. "Korra, you dozed off."
She weakly groaned in disapproval and slowly blinked at the fire, crossing her arms over her knees and resting her face in her arms. "No…I w's jus'…ya know…blinkin'…an' stuff…" She slurred. A stray strand of hair fell from her bangs and rested on the bridge of her nose. Something about the way the fire danced and the way the heat touched her skin soothed her senses into a relaxed state. Something that somehow felt like home or Naga's warm fur…
Mako watched carefully as her eyelids sank heavily for the second time. Her eyes completely closed and her expression relaxed with ease. The next thing to go was the tension in her shoulders and her arms slowly began to uncross. "Korra?"
Her posture shifted sideways and her head made gentle contact with Mako's shoulder.
He blushed and steadied her by shifting his arm behind her back, but that only caused her to limply roll onto his chest. "Woah…" He quickly wrapped an arm around her before she could sink into his lap. The flustered firebender held onto the young Avatar unsure of what to do. He just watched as the glow of the flames danced over her calm expression and her mocha skin.
Korra shifted slightly, her hand finding Mako's scarf and gripping it with familiarity. Though she was unconscious, she could slightly sense him with her subconscious. It was because of his scent, his spicy warm scent. She was so familiar with it because of the times he had lent her his scarf.
Korra nuzzled his chest, relaxing her grip on the scarf slightly.
His heart sped. Mako wasn't used to having Korra so close, but he realized he liked it better that way. He preferred to have her close. Close in a sense where she was somewhat relaxed and familiar with his presence. Un conscious or not, it was as if she knew she was in his arms. Not many people shared that kind of closeness.
Eager to touch her, his other hand reached over to fix the strand that fell from her bangs not too long ago. He could feel as she suddenly relaxed more in his grasp and molded her body against his side. How could she feel so soft with such an athletic body structure? He gently shifted her a little higher up his chest so that she wouldn't fall.
What was he to do with her now?
His brows slanted upward as his gaze thoroughly traced over her sleeping figure. As much as he just wanted to sit there and hold her all night, he knew it was best to just get her to bed. She needed rest and if anyone were to see her sleeping on him, there would be an uproar. So he carefully scooped her up into his arms and looked around for a place for her to sleep. He spotted Naga sleeping a few paces away and stood up to walk over to her.
As he approached, Naga picked up her head and wagged her tail.
Mako smirked. "Hey, Naga." He whispered. "Make sure she sleeps ok, alright girl?" He gently laid Korra against Naga's side, softly untangling her hand from his scarf in the process.
Korra moaned, turning onto her side and nuzzling Naga's fur. "Mako…" She quietly mumbled his name in her sleep.
He hesitated at the sound of his name before deciding to lightly kiss her forehead. "Good night, Korra." He carefully undid the hair wrap on the top of her head and let her hair cascade in waves of dark chocolate brown. He didn't want to walk away, but he had to. With one last glance, he placed her hairpiece beside her on the ground before walking off to the campfire to finish his radio shift.
Note: Hope you guys enjoyed it. :3 Don't be afraid to comment or state your opinion. I love the responses.
I actually kind of extended the fanfic a bit too…so…I think it will be three more chapters left after "this" chapter. haha I'm not so sure. Things tend to vary with me depending on the way my writing decides to flow ^.^ But this will definitely go all the way until the end of the season finale and there might be some smut toward the end…the world may never know….0.o
