haze
Korra can't breathe through the smoke. She tries to air bend it away, but the warehouse is cramped and there's nowhere for the cloud to go.
"Mako? Bolin? Tenzin? Beifong? Anybody?" Korra calls desperately though the haze, her throat choking on every other syllable. The toxic air is beginning to muddy her thoughts and she finds she can't concentrate on moving her foot left and right.
Eventually she stumbles, her head colliding with the corner of a wooden crate. She rolls onto her back, clutching her head to stifle the pain. She groans and pulls her fingers away to see blood. Not much but enough to make her stomach drop out of her body. "Tenzin? Mako?" She tries again a little more weakly this time.
"Korra?" Her heart races at his voice and she sits bolt upright, blinking through the spots in her eyes.
"Tenzin! I'm here!" He appears with a cloud of fresh air, his yellow and red robes singed and billowing with power. She can see the flames rising behind him and it takes every bit of strength for her to force them down to a manageable size. "Have you found the others?"
He nods, extending his hand to her. "They're all outside. Let's get you out of here." He pulls her up and she throws her arm over his shoulder. She feels steady enough but her vision is still dancing.
When they emerge into the fresh night air, Korra can't help the euphoric laugh that escapes her. "Well that could have gone better." She says with a cheeky smile, leaning against Asami's car for support.
"Understatement of the century." Mako says, a towel pressed to his head where a small cut bleeds freely. He and Bolin stand several feet from the flaming warehouse treating minor injuries. Tenzin has stepped away with Lin to discuss the Equalist cell they'd unfortunately lost track of in the fire.
Mako picks up a bucket out of the back seat of the car, tossing his bloody towel aside. He crosses around the front of the car and offers the bucket to Korra who smiles guiltily and bends the water up to the wound on her head. After a minute or so of work, she stops and Mako steps up to examine the wound. "That was seriously reckless, Korra." He says under his breathe, his fingers brushing back strands of her hair to get a better look.
"I feel like I've heard this speech before." Korra replies petulantly. Mako rolls his eyes and lets her hair fall back over her eyes.
"And it won't be the last time, I'm sure." Mako states, his hands falling to his side. He'd kind of accepted Korra's recklessness but that didn't stop him from scolding her about it every once in awhile.
Korra stands up straight, her fingertips skimming his forehead until they run over the cut in his temple. He winces. She bends the water from the bucket back up to his face and she watches his eyes as the water glows and heals under her hands.
Eventually she stops, letting the water cascade down her arm to the ground. "You worry too much." She says, her hand dropping to his neck and pulling him down to meet her. He meets her without hesitation and before either of them knows it they've been kissing consistently for several minutes.
"There's a time and place for that, Korra." Tenzin calls to them. Korra is happily lost in his haze and doesn't surface immediately, even when Mako tries in vain to pull away.
When she finally does resurface she looks mischievous. "Yes, there is. Right after a near death experience is the time and the place." She says and hops gleefully into the back seat of the car.
"But you have those almost every day." Bolin notes, his brow pulling together.
"Exactly."