"Die, Bolin! Dieeee!" Korra yelled out as her hands moved furiously on the controller, her eyes focused on the screen ahead.
As the girl threw a particularly effective play against Bolin in the video game, the green-eyed guy let out a groan.
"You're creaming me in this," Bolin muttered, throwing his hands up in defeat while Korra laughed.
"Can you guys keep it down over there?" Mako called from the couch where he sat with his computer. Asami, beside him, gave her friends at the Playstation a pointed look.
"What are you two doing anyway?" Korra asked, pouting.
"Calculus assignment," Asami explained, which just soured the blue-eyed girl's interest.
"Hey- you people wanna hang this weekend?" Bolin asked, jumping in on the conversation.
"I gotta check my homework load, but I'll make some room for something," Korra responded, glancing around the group to see everyone else nodding along.
"What do you have in mind?" The raven-haired girl asked, curious.
"There's a surfing competition going on Saturday-"
"Shit- sorry, guys, but I sort of promised someone else I'd go to the competition with them," Korra winced, suddenly remembering her promise to Iroh. "Maybe next time?"
Mako, who had been typing on his computer during the conversation, glanced up. "Oh, yeah? Who're you going with?"
The brown-haired basketball player shrugged. "Iroh. I promised him a while back, otherwise I'd go with you guys," she apologized again.
"Wait- you're going with the Iroh I met?"
Korra pouted again, confused at Mako's tone. "Yeah. What about it?"
"….I think we should give you two some privacy," Bolin gently said as he and Asami started moving out of the room.
"We don't need any privacy, because there's nothing to talk about!" Korra called after them.
"Yes, we do," Mako clarified, closing his computer and standing up to face the blue-eyed girl. "Why're you going with Iroh?"
Her eyes widening in surprise, Korra scoffed. "Can I not hang out with someone besides you?!"
"He obviously had feelings for you!"
"Oh, stop being so possessive."
It was Mako's turn to widen his eyes. "Possessive? Please, I'm just watching out for you!"
Korra laughed, dry, moving to get her leather jacket off from the couch where she carelessly tossed it an hour ago. "I don't need you watching out for me, bub."
"Are we in a relationship?"
The question came so suddenly that Korra had to stop her actions for a moment, frozen. "…What do you mean?"
"Is this," Mako started, "A relationship? An exclusive, you-and-me relationship? Or are you fucking around with me again?"
The basketball girl whipped around, angry, pointing an accusatory finger at the guy. "I'm fucking around with you? Huh, that's funny, because if I can recall, last time it was you who kissed me and then told me you didn't want a relationship!"
The amber-eyed guy breathed out angrily, but overall maintained his calm composure. "Answer the question, Korra."
Sighing, Korra grabbed her jacket off the couch and shrugged it over her shoulders. "I'm leaving."
"Yeah, go decide what you want, Korra. It's all up to you, after all."
Without another word, she stormed out of the room, seething at Mako for complicating every little thing, and making everything somehow her fault.
After eyeing the clock furiously for the past hour, the bell finally rang, dismissing Korra from the art class. Usually, the girl was okay with art class- it was an excuse to plug in some headphones and mesh out whatever she could with a paintbrush. But this class was excruciatingly slow; researching artists was not as fun as making a terrible painting.
Unbenounced to the senior, a classmate came up to Korra as she was gathering her books, giving her a slight surprise.
"You're Korra, right?" The brown-eyed girl asked her.
"Um, yeah. What's your name?"
"I'm Sarah," The classmate answered, walking with Korra as they exited class.
Korra was flattered that Sarah introduced herself and all, but she knew that the girl was talking to her for a reason. Wanting to get to the point, the basketball player said, "So, Sarah, what's up?"
Gently grabbing her arm, Sarah stopped Korra so that they were facing each other.
"Look, I'm sorry to ask you like this, but I heard you and Tahno kissed. Is that true?"
Sarah bit her lip, desperately looking into Korra's blue eyes. "Are you and Tahno dating?"
"What?!" Korra shook her head quickly, denying the claim right off the bat. "Who- what- Who is saying all this shit?"
Sarah let out an audible sigh of relief, letting go of Korra. "No one. Just thought I'd clarify." Having gotten what she wanted, the girl walked away, leaving Korra in the hallway.
Although Sarah said she had 'no idea' who had spread the rumor, Korra thought she had a pretty good idea.
She had never wanted to punch Tahno so badly before.
So that afternoon, she stormed into the Starbucks café, walking right to the cash register-
Just to see that the person behind it was not, in fact, Tahno.
"What can I get you?" The bartender asked.
"Oh, sorry, I'm actually looking for someone?" Korra stated, giving the person a polite look. "His name is Tahno."
The bartender gave Korra an apologetic look. "Tahno isn't here right now. Is there a message I could pass?"
"Uh, no- unless you have an idea of where he might be right now?"
"Right here, sweetie," A smooth voice called from behind her, and Korra turned around to see Tahno looking at her from the entrance of the café.
"You don't work today," The bartender stated.
"Yeah, I just decided to show up just because, Leslie," Tahno said, ignoring Korra as he walked up to the cash register. "Didn't you say you needed someone to cover your second shift for you?"
Leslie breathed out a sigh of gratefulness, muttering a 'you're the best' before taking her apron off quickly and disappearing into the employee room.
"So, why are you here?" Tahno asked Korra once Leslie left. "I thought Tuesday hang-outs were off the table these days."
"Oh, they are," the brunette muttered angrily. "Especially since you started spreading rumors around that you and I are dating!"
Tahno glanced up, surprised. "Wait, what?"
The blue-eyed girl searched Tahno's face, trying to find some sort of façade or alias- and failed. "You didn't know about this?" She said.
Tahno shook his head. "No idea things about us were going around." He waved a hand. "Don't worry about it, sweetheart. I'll take care of it."
Korra was just about to leave, seeing as how she didn't have anything to worry about- but just as she was about to turn around, a thought hit her.
"Tahno- is it still possible for us to be, you know, friends?"
Glancing up, Korra observed the guy's expression. His slight look of surprise melted into an amused one.
"We were friends before?"
"Oh, shut up," Korra mumbled, but chuckled along with Tahno anyways.
The guy flipped his hair out of his face, and leaned over the counter. "Well, Blue, I am okay with 'friends'."
"No hard feelings or anything?" the girl asked, giving him a small smile.
"Nah," he replied, winking. "We were just confused for a while, that's all."
Walking out the door, Korra tossed back, "Just lettin' you know, being friends doesn't mean you get to kiss me whenever you feel like it!"
"Aw, but that's all the fun," She heard Tahno say behind her, making her laugh slightly.
"That really was not a smart move, though," Asami chided Korra for the millionth time as the girls tried to do homework.
"I know," the blue-eyed girl muttered, "But I honestly didn't know that Mako thought Iroh was still feeling for me."
"Um, honey," Asami's kind voice said from across the table. "It is pretty obvious that Iroh feels something for you."
Korra scrunched her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
"He does, like, care about you a lot."
"We're not talking about this," Korra immediately groaned. "Friends can care about other friends. I'm not going to talk about Iroh with you."
"Fine, ignore the situation if you want to- but have you and Mako at least talked since Monday?"
Looking away, Korra shrugged one shoulder.
The truth was, Mako and Korra hadn't spoken a single word to each other since the incident. They were both so busy, it was true, and a lot of lunches of the past week were spent in classrooms catching up on homework; but Korra knew that some of the ignoring was intentional.
"You know he really cares about you," Asami added gently, and Korra just shrugged again.
"Well, he needs to learn to trust me," she said quietly.
Sighing, Asami decided to change the topic. "Want to go watch some T.V? I think we deserve a bit of a break from this homework pile."
Nodding her agreement, Korra moved from the table with her friend.
"You're finally here!" Korra greeted Iroh as he pulled up to the parking space, climbing out of the car.
Hugging her, Iroh pulled a beach bag over his shoulder. He was dressed in board shorts, with a loose shirt that was slightly unbuttoned on the top.
"So, have you been to a surfing competition before?" Iroh asked her, turning to Korra.
The girl shook her head, looking around excitedly. "Never, actually. There wasn't much of a 'surf' atmosphere in my old town." She helped Iroh out as he started unloading his bag, unfolding the beach chairs that they had brought along. Korra suddenly realized there were only two chairs.
"Hey, where's Tina?" The senior asked.
"Yeah, she couldn't make it," Iroh responded, eyes focused on unloading his bag. "Had some work to do at her own place. Left early. Said to tell you hi, though."
"Hmm." Korra observed her friend, pouting. But when Iroh glanced up at her, Korra decided not to further question Tina's absence- after all, she wanted to enjoy the Saturday afternoon with her friend.
Adjusting her loose white T-shirt and shorts, Korra settled in to the beach chair next to Iroh, with all intention of enjoying the day with him.
Licking on their ice cream cones, the pair walked back to Iroh's car as the sunset was just to settle in.
"That was the craziest surfing competition I've ever seen, man," Iroh chuckled, pulling the keys from his pocket. "Like, the flip that one guy did? I can't even manage a paddle!"
Korra laughed. "I can't believe he only got a seven for that. He deserved at least, like, a nine."
Iroh nodded in agreement, and for a while, the two of them focused on loading the things into the brown-eyed guy's car.
However, Korra was caught off-guard when she was just turning around, about to hand Iroh the last item, and he suddenly leaned in.
"Whoa-!" Korra stopped Iroh's chest with a hand, preventing him from leaning in any further. Nervously, the girl laughed. "What do you think you're doing?"
Immediately, the senior regretted putting Iroh in such an awkward position. She could see his red blush, despite the retreating sunlight, and he pulled back quickly, not saying anything.
"Sorry, Iroh- I just-" Korra sighed, at a loss for words. Deciding not to beat around the bush any longer, the girl decided to just speak her mind.
"Why did you just try to kiss me?"
Iroh rolled his eyes. "Are you serious? You have no idea why I would want to kiss you?"
"No- I know you liked me, Iroh," Korra responded, clarifying. "But then you met Tina, and that was a couple of months ago, and I thought the feeling passed," she finished, hands on her hips. "And now you're saying Tina just 'went away' and you're trying to kiss me again. What's going on here?"
Iroh sighed, putting his hands on his hips and looking away. He paused for a moment, not responding immediately to Korra's demand, before licking his lips quickly.
"Look, Korra…I still like you." He shook his head, glancing down. "Tina…I don't know why I went out with her. She's a great girl, but we broke up because we remembered how we didn't work out as a couple. There's too many problems, and- you know, me quitting my job and you about to graduate…it just made sense to me." Finally, Iroh's light amber eyes met Korra's blue, and he stepped in a bit closer. "Something about you really gets me, and I don't know why."
"Iroh…" Korra took a step back, shaking her head. "Just, give me a second." She bit her lip, her head and heart a complete whirlwind. "I…I liked you for a while, too. You're such a good person, and you're funny, and you're fun and mature and just the whole package-" Korra paused, taking a slow breath.
"I just need to think about it for a second."
Iroh smirked dryly, looking to his right out at the ocean. "There's that other guy, isn't there."
Korra glanced up suddenly. "What other guy..?"
The guy turned to face Korra, and grabbed her hand. "You know we could always stay friends."
Korra nodded. "I know," she muttered.
"And if you have to think about dating me- I don't want to put you through that. I don't want you to think I'm forcing this on you. So, if you don't want to date me, if there's really another guy you think you'd be happier with-" he brushed a few strands away from Korra's face, and looked deep into her blue eyes. "You should ditch my sorry butt and go find him."
Korra chuckled, squeezing Iroh's hand.
And that's when she knew.
She knew that Iroh was important to her. That he was a good friend, a good person, a good guy. But the truth was, she knew someone else that just felt more right for her-somebody that drove her up the wall but in the way that she just couldn't get enough of.
"I'm sorry," Korra muttered.
"Don't be," Iroh replied, leaning in to kiss her cheek lightly.
When Bolin heard the doorbell, he honestly had no idea who to expect.
"Bro, can you get that?" Bolin called from his room, pulling his headphones off from his ears. "Kind of busy here."
"Yep, on it," The green-eyed boy heard his brother say as he trekked down the stairs, leaving Bolin to focus back on his music again.
Of course, he missed the sound of Korra's voice saying, "…hi."
"What're you doing here?" Mako asked as he opened the door to see the surprise guest of Korra.
"…Hi," Korra breathed. "I should have called, but I just came from the beach, and I need to talk to you. We need to talk."
Mako shook his head. "The last time we tried to 'talk', you stormed out of the room."
"Yeah, well, I won't this time." Korra grabbed Mako's hand, pulling him into the house with her.
"What's so different now-"
"I'll explain everything, I promise- but first, you have some explaining to do yourself." Korra leaned on her hip, facing Mako.
"Explain what," the guy sighed, ruffing a hand through his hair.
"Why the change of heart, I guess? I mean…why did you suddenly decide that I could be more than just a friend to you?" Korra absentmindedly pulled on some strings on her shorts, glancing away.
For a moment, Mako was silent, looking down to his side. But then he spoke again.
"Korra, you're- you're insane. You are the most loud, headstrong, overconfident, stupid girl I know." Holding a finger out to stop Korra from talking, Mako continued. "And I thought this was dangerous- hell, I knew it was dangerous for my life. I worked too hard to get this far, and having someone like you play a big role in my life was not a smart idea."
He shrugged, stepping in closer. "But you're you, and I guess being important to people is just what you do. Before I knew it, I couldn't ignore you, Korra. So yeah, you're an unpredictable person, but…" biting his lip, Mako finally looked up at the blue-eyed girl. "You're also pretty amazing."
"Of course, though, Iroh probably knows that too," Mako added, raising his eyebrows.
Stepping in closer, Korra took a breath.
"Look, I'm not with Iroh, or with anyone else, and I honestly- dammit, Mako, I want to be in a relationship with you and you have to deal with it!" she burst out.
"…What?" Mako muttered.
Korra rolled her eyes, deciding to just show the idiot what she meant.
So she pushed herself up, her lips hitting Mako's; and like every other kiss the two had shared, their lips moved against each others perfectly, aggressive and passionate.
"Wait- wait-" Mako breathed, pulling apart from the kiss. He was still close to Korra, and she could see the depth of his eyes from the proximity.
"Will you go out with me?"
"Yeah, you moron." The senior girl grinned, pushing his shoulder lightly.
The amber-eyed guy grinned at her, his finger delicately tracing her cheek.
"You're crazy, you know that?" he stated.
"Yeah, well you're a jerk," Korra teased, laughing slightly.
And somehow, everything felt more complete than ever as Mako leaned in again.
Korra knew that this is what she wanted. Because, sure, Mako wasn't 'right' for her in a way that two friends are right for each other; she and Mako blew up at each other and yelled and hurt each other and fought. But at the end of the day, they were each other's cure.
It was a weird relationship, but it was one that the two of them were willing to take the time to figure out.
AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.
Wow.
This story, after fourteen chapters, is over.
Oh my gosh guys this has been such a successful story and I'm so thankful for you all! You were all such great readers with such amazing feedback and without your reads and reviews, this story would not have existed past the first chapter! :D
But this story would TOTALLY not exist without askbadasskorra's mun. Ai, you're a fantastic person and friend. I'm so thankful for your help and support through everything and this story was honestly the least I could do to show my gratitude for your friendship :D
As you can probably tell, the story ended with Mako winning our dear Korra's hand. Iroh was a second and Tahno was a third, bt overall, mako was the highly popular vote!
I am not going to write a sequel, just because that doesn't seem too possible. But if i do end up writing another high school/college AU, it will be a completely independent story. Stay tuned! :)
Again, I must thank you ALL.