A/N: Well, I lied. There will be 3 parts to the Korra/amnesia drabble. Here is part two. :)

014 - Recognition

Later that night, Korra sat in bed and flipped through her memory book, trying to make sense of the drawings, grasping for anything that could link her to the people she met tonight. So far no luck. All she saw were strikes of color—black, gold, red—that looked like she had drawn with her eyes shut. She wanted more, to remember the people who cared for her.

One thing was certain: these people were not her family. No one had her brown skin or the blue of her eyes. When she asked—because how could she not?—it had been Lin Bei Fong who had answered. "They are safe," she had said, and would not say another word.

But Korra knew why.

The radio next to her bed was turned down, set on a news broadcast, the only source that would not deny her the reality of the brewing war between the North and the South. As she listened, she poured her frustration into the speed of turning the pages until she finally snapped and threw the book across the room.

"Stupid pictures!" Korra snapped. "This isn't helping at all." She pulled her knees to her chest and let her head bow forward. The radio continued softly in the background.

"It is said that the North is plotting with… Newly appointed Detective Mako, just a rookie, has no leads with the…And with playboy philanthropist Varrick on the run, the United Nations has been forced to—"

A sound outside her window startled Korra and she jerked, extinguishing the candle immediately and shutting off the radio. She leapt from the bed and faced the window, set in a fighting stance in half a second, arms up and ready. The window was cracked open and had no curtains, but it was pitch black outside and she didn't want to get any closer to have a better look.

"Who's there?" Korra demanded.

Silence.

"You have five seconds to tell me what you want and who you are before I break through the wall and find out myself," she threatened. At least five seconds passed and Korra considered that maybe it had just been a lemur. She had seen plenty since arriving on the island.

"It's just—"a sigh. "My name's Mako," said a distant voice, a voice from outside the window.

"Mako?" The name rang a bell, but not one that got her any closer to discovering her memories. Her arms dropped fractionally. "I heard your name on the radio."

There was a soft, short sort of sound. Not quite a laugh, but an echo of one.

"You're a detective, right?"

The stranger was quiet for a moment, and then said, a little hoarsely, "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I was…I was investigating on the island for a new case. Yeah. You haven't heard anything unusual, have you?"

"You mean besides detectives lurking outside my window?" She had moved closer but still could not see outside the window. It was too dark.

His laugh was soft, but Korra felt something when she heard it. "Sorry," he said. "I'm just trying to do my job."

"Must be nice," she grumbled. "I can't seem to."

He hesitated before asking, "What do you mean?"

"I don't remember how," she whispered so quietly she doubted he heard her. She sat on the edge of the bed and rested her face against the wall by the window, feeling a sense of defeat.

"Do you want to?"

The question took her off guard. She sat up. "What?"

"Do you want to remember how?"

She opened her mouth, and then hesitated. "Yeah," she said finally. "I mean, of course I do."

"Well, then I'm sure it will come back to you. You just have to put the pieces together." He cleared his throat. "I should go."

She didn't know what made her do it, but she lifted the window open. A gust of cool wind blew against her face. The detective was already retreating, a fire burning in his gloved palm. A Firebender, then.

"I'm Korra, by the way," she said to him. "I'm the Avatar."

Slowly, Mako turned, sliding off his hood. His face caught in the firelight and Korra nearly gasped. His eyes were a bright gold and his face was pale, all angles and high cheekbones, a red scarf wrapped snuggly around his neck. The sight of him nearly took her breath away, he was that beautiful.

Korra couldn't say why, or even how, but she felt something else, too. Something she didn't recognize. But it was strong, strong enough that she found herself gripping the windowsill for support, as if a tidal wave was threatening to knock her over.

"Nice to meet you, Avatar Korra."

She watched him go until she saw nothing but darkness.

Korra tried, but she couldn't sleep. Only a little belatedly did she realize she could have asked him about the war—he was a detective! She didn't even ask about what he was investigating. Was there a danger on the island? Should she tell Tenzin? And then there was that feeling that just wouldn't go away.

Korra rolled onto her side and her eyes landed on the thin red book. She threw off the blanket and went to pick it up. They still didn't make sense to her. The healers said her memories might return backwards, just like she had remembered the water first, the last place she had been. What had happened before the water?

You just have to put the pieces together.

She tore out the pages of the book and scattered them on the bed. Then, she started arranging them like they were pieces of a puzzle. Her hands moved without thought, like her brain was working without her knowledge.

The gold, the red, the black lines. Separately, it was a mess. Together, in this arrangement, that's when she saw it. It was…not a picture at all. It was an outline of features.

Features of a person.

And that's when she knew, when that feeling came back with such force that Korra felt like she was choking.

Recognition.