move

Mako couldn't bring himself to move.

She had insisted they would have been fine riding with Naga in the cargo hold. In fact, she'd been rather adamant upon the idea. He completely understood her need to accompany her animal familiar along the ocean journey from Republic City back to the south pole. But the fact of the matter was that people were not meant to ride in the cargo bay. And Korra, according to all the genetic markers, was, in fact, a person.

So, with a little coaxing, Mako and Bolin had convinced Korra that riding in the overnight cabins would be acceptable. She'd pouted from the moment they loaded Naga into the cargo bay all the way through dinner in the dining hall and even into their cabin that evening. Bolin had, unsuccessfully, tried to cheer her up all evening. Even Mako had taken a crack at it, though really he hadn't had much hope in making any sort of effect.

So Bolin had settled in one of the top bunks in their cabin, happily snoring some of his seasickness away, while Mako tried to coax an audible response out of the spectacularly stoic Avatar. He'd never seen her stay so quiet for so long. It was a little unnerving. Briefly he imagined a child-like Korra; one her parents must have encountered many times in her youth. It was a delightfully adorable image.

"Come on, Korra. This has gone on for hours. It's not a big deal. Tomorrow morning when we dock you'll be reunited and all this fuss will seem really silly." Mako prodded, leaning across the cabin to peer into her bunk. She was curled up on her side facing away from him but he could tell she was awake. He could still see glimpses of her cerulean eyes as they narrowed in the darkness.

She didn't respond. Mako huffed and got off his bed, leaning over hers to get a good look at her face. "Bolin is the king of tantrums. Believe me. I have dealt with worse than this. So you might as well talk to me." Mako reasoned with a cheeky smirk. Her nose wrinkled infinitesimally. He raised a challenging brow.

At last she sat up, her mouth buried between her knees. "It's just so weird." She whined, her voice crackling a little with disuse.

"What?"

She feigns a shrug. "I don't know. Going home without her next to me. She kept me steady, running off to Republic City."

Gradually cognition trickled through Mako and at last he understood that Korra's fuss was less about Naga needing Korra and more about Korra needing Naga. This trip was the first time Korra would be going home to the south pole. No wonder she was on edge.

"Well, you're not exactly running off to the south pole, are you?"

"No."

"And even if you were, you've got me and Bo. We'll keep you steady. And even if Naga isn't here, I'm pretty sure she'd tear through steel to have your back." Mako's smile was an ember that wouldn't fade. It caught on Korra's lips, an infectious expression, and she visibly relaxed.

"I knew there was a reason I kept you around." She reached up, ruled as ever by impulse, and tugged him down by the neck of his scarf. Their lips met—just half a whisper.

And then, in the quiet, Korra forgot Naga in the cargo hold. He kept her steady, physically and metaphorically, as they collapsed on her bunk, feverish and insistent to the tune of Bolin's snoring. His arms built a cage around her head. She arched up to meet him; their rhythm was syncopated between every breath, every kiss.

Never to be bested, Korra quickly took control, reversing their positions so that she was looking down at him. Somewhere in the mix her hair had come loose. She leaned down to kiss him again—and that was when they both registered than the snoring had stopped.

Despite that every muscle in Mako's body was screaming to escape this rather awkward position (because he knew Bolin would be mortified to see his brother making out while he'd been sleeping in the bunk over), he just couldn't bring himself to move. Korra hovered over him, a colorful panic rising in her cheeks.

There was another loud and glottal snore from above. They both slumped, laughter barely contained between pursed lips. Mako's head fell back, his eyes traveling to his brother's sleeping form across the way over his own he glanced at Korra whose cheeks were still a little pink. He leaned up on an elbow and brushed the hair out of her face before recklessly leading her down to him for yet another kiss.