He follows her not because he wants to protect her (Ha. As if he could.), but because he needs to see what happens. He needs to know if the world is going to fall apart, because his world came crashing down weeks ago, and he needs to know if everyone else loses hope as fast as he does. If she's as fragile as he is. He thinks she's not. She can't be. But she is the Avatar and yet she is human, too. He needs to see if his last beacon of hope has just left him and become just as miserable and useless as he has.
The further he has to walk to follow her, the more he feels the chill creeping into his bones, and he remembers that he's not cut out for this weather, and the coat isn't helping as much as he expected. (Was it really the wind making him shake like this?) He wonders if she's cold, too, or if it's even possible for her to register that in her mind with everything else she must be feeling. It's not until he catches up to her that the thought leaves his mind.
When he sees her there, standing on that cliff, he doesn't know what to do. He can't be sure if she's going to jump, and he knows that if she did, he wouldn't be able to stop her from where he is now. (If only he could do something with his bendi-) And yet he won't step closer because he's afraid a simple thing like his presence will push her over the edge .That would be the last ounce of guilt it would take to push him over, too. So he just stands there, waiting with his breath caught in his throat.
He doesn't know what he's really waiting to see. If she's going to give up or keep fighting, he guesses, but he's not sure how he'd be able to tell such a thing, anyway. Not from all the way over here.
And yet, he can.
He feels his heart sink the moment she falls back onto the ice and her wail reaches his ears. She is just as broken as he was, and no matter how much he wants to help, he can't. He turns away, fighting the urge to just scream and stomp and throw a tantrum, because he doesn't know what else to do. Now there is nobody to blame and nobody to take revenge on. Everyone did everything they could, and yet they still lost.
Life was cheating them, he thought with a grim smile, just as he had cheated himself.
He expects that to be the end of it, and finds himself walking back to camp, though he's not even sure where he's finding the motivation to do that, because it's over and what's the point anymore? Freezing here would be just as satisfying as going back to life at home.
The wind changes direction, and gently pushes him back towards her, and he realizes that he can't just leave her there. He turns, sighing to himself and wondering how painful it's going to be to drag her back with him. He knows she'll fight it, but that thought is gone in an instant because suddenly everything in front of him is flashing orange, and then there is a wall of ice rising and falling, and then he can hear the waves crash and he doesn't know what's going on, but Korra is there and she's beautiful.
He'd thought her beautiful before, for sure, but somehow it's not the same, because not for one second does he think about touching her, or even approaching her, because this is a completely different kind of beauty that he's never seen in anyone before. He can feel the power radiating from her, and that's when it finally clicks that she is still the Avatar, and he doesn't know how it happened or why, but she can bend, and she has the whole world at her command and she could crush him if she so desired.
He stares at her for what feels like an eternity, but it is over too soon, and she is standing on the ground again. She looks small after that display of power, and he knows that she is still human, no matter how much power she can have at her fingertips.
She turns to him, and he thinks he doesn't deserve to even look at her anymore, and that maybe he had just witnessed something that nobody should, but she seems to think otherwise and approaches him without hesitation. He almost backs away and runs, but forces himself to stay there because he can just barely see the smile on her face, and he wants something to smile about, too.
He expects her to stop in front of him, but her body crashes against his harder than he expected, and together they slide back on the ice a few inches, until he grinds his heels into the ground to stop them. He feels the heat radiating from her as he tries to embrace her back and tell himself that it's real and that he's allowed to do it.
Just when he gets a good grip on her, she backs off and keeps smiling; but now she's smiling at him, and he doesn't know when he starts smiling back, but before he can think about it, her lips are getting closer to his, and he thinks he shouldn't let himself kiss someone like her. She is so much more than he deserves, no matter how much they played at it for the rest of the journey.
But he can't stop her, and then it's too late. He is kissing the Avatar, or she is kissing him, or maybe it really doesn't matter because it feels so right no matter how wrong it seems in his head. The egotistical jackass was kissing the most powerful mortal being on the planet, and somehow it was okay.
She breaks away first, even though he tries to follow. She rests her head against his chest and murmurs something he can't quite hear through the thick coats. His voice sounds rough when he asks a 'huh?' and the steam rises from his breath.
"I said I can bend," she said again. Her voice is shaky, and then she buries her face in his coat again, and he thinks she might be hiding tears, and he's never been good with crying women. It was always easy to run from that, but he doesn't want to this time.
"…Good for you, then," he blurts out lamely, sounding a little more bitter than he means to. He feels her chuckle against him, and feels a bit better knowing that he hadn't offended her somehow.
They remain for a few more moments before they hear calling in the distance.
"Korra!"
There is no call for him, of course, but that doesn't surprise him anymore. He lets her go and expects her to go ahead so Mako isn't disappointed. But she doesn't. She pulls away and grabs his hand, leading her with him. He thinks she's still smiling.
He doesn't realize he's almost smiling himself, strutting back with the Avatar leading him with her hand.