A/N Happy Mother's Day! And thanks so much to everyone reviewing! I get so happy when I get them and it makes me want to write more :)

Chapter 14

Korra's footsteps caused her to sink into the fluffy, new fallen snow as she struggled to pull on her protective boots. Her shoulders ached with the fire proof, tightly fitting clothes. Her fingers were freezing, having trouble as she stomped towards the training ring. Her master was already positioned on the course, his head level. As she approached, she noticed his eyes full of anger and distaste. She bit her bottom lip; late, as usual.

Still, she rushed up to him and put her hands together, bowing to him. The middle aged man had closed her eyes when she looked at him, still struggling to move in the new clothes. She'd finally learned how to control a flame instead of just shoot it from her fists when she was angry. She wanted to learn more, though. Her crave for knowledge on the element astounding her. "Good morning, Master Kozon." She said, smiling at him. The elder man raised a brow and shook his head. Her enthusiasm fell and her hands went to her hips.

"You're late." He said through his gritted teeth. "Again."

Korra's mind flashed back to why she had been so behind; waking up beside Howl sent chills down her spine to the very tip of her toes. He'd begged her wait until the shifts had changed so that nobody would notice. Of course, it was her fault that she had stayed so late in the morning with him. "My bad." She said, shrugging it off. Her master should have been used to it now, like Katara and Master Ty Ro. They had conformed their schedules to match hers, guided her. This man, however, spent his time degrading her. Not that the insults mattered, but she didn't like his attitude at all.

Plus, it was kind of fun to make him mad. He would get so angry that individual fire daggers spurted from his finger tips. Sometimes he would strike himself in the foot by accident and yelp out in frustration. She always burst out into laughter and it made him angry enough that he called her training over, threatening to never help her into a fully recognized Avatar.

He shot her a look that screamed Do not defy me, young one. I can end you. Korra snickered internally before she raised a brow and crossed her arm, leaning to one side. "Today, you'll be learning to use fire disks. The key to this exercise is to use your body to propel the flame like a slice. Its main purpose is offense, used to slash." He took a deep breath and shot his arm out, his flame erupting from his finger in a circular pattern to the practice dummy. It left a dark scorch mark against the stomach of its victim. Korra's brow rose, impressed. "Though, it can be used as defensive as well, to destroy something being thrown at you."

"Cool." She shot her arm out and felt the fire coursing through her veins, enhanced by the sun, and grunted, a massive flame erupting from her closed fist. It hit the dummy with such force that it almost burned the entire thing to ashes. She frowned, wincing as she heard Kozon slap himself in the head. It was going to be a long day.

On the other side of the camp, Howl was trying to focus on his job. He knew Korra was behind him, but he didn't want to make it too obvious. He'd been stuck on the same page in the same book for the past twenty minutes, trying to zone his attention to the white wasteland in front of him. For once, he missed home. He missed all of the colors; the greens of the leaves, the purples and pinks and deep blues of the flowers growing by the streets. He missed the deep reds that everyone wore and the different shades of yellows that the sun caused when it sank into the ocean.

"Hey there, lover boy!" Sitch shouted. Howl's gaze lifted to his friend's face and shook his head when he saw the other sentry carrying a plate of dumplings. "Whatcha reading?" He asked, handing Howl the plate. The pleasant scent of the dumplings invaded his mind and he licked his lips, taking one with his gloved fingers and plopping it into his mouth. Sitch pulled up a wooden chair beside him, leaning back slowly. "Didn't see you at breakfast and I thought you might be hungry."

"You thought right," Howl said between bites. He'd been so late for duty that food hadn't even crossed his mind. He chewed slowly, trying not to lose his breath. "Thanks."

Sitch shrugged, taking the book from Howl's hand. Howl blanked, setting the plate down on the table and reaching for the novel as his comrade read the lines he'd been stuck on. "They were already engaged in heavy conquest, the woman he had desired to bed below him and trailing her tongue down to his—" Sitch's eyes widened as Howl resorted to yanking on his warrior's tail. "Howl, what the hell are you reading?"

Howl's cheeks flushed as he turned back to his plate of food, ignoring the look Sitch was giving him with heavy awareness. His friend rubbed his head and struggled to put his long hair back up into a knot. He used the chance to grab his book, stuffing it into his pocket. "It's a book."

"That's why you don't have a girl." Sitch mumbled, sliding his helmet on and shaking his head. "You pay too much attention to romance novels instead of going out there and taking a little village girl."

Howl rolled his eyes and withheld a smirk. Little did his friend know, he had a girl, but he wasn't about to tell anyone that. Instead, he crossed his arms and played dumb. "I'm not that inconsiderate, buddy. I don't feel like 'taking a little village girl'."

"You're one of those get-to-know-first guys, aren't you?" His friend questioned, reaching across Howl and snatching one of the dumplings. "Have you ever bedded a girl?" He asked. Howl's cheeks reddened angrily, his ears growing extra hot. The thought of bedding a girl led him back to Korra. That was something he would never do, something he couldn't do. "You haven't." Sitch concluded, and subconsciously Howl shook his head. "Why not? You're… handsome, I guess."

"You're nice." Howl prodded, shaking his head to get rid of the thought of Korra and him… together…like that. He didn't want to risk his life or his job; both which could be stripped if he was discovered making love to her. "Women just never came easy to me." He said softly. It was partial truth, but enough to let Sitch's mind explore whatever he wanted.

"You're not one of those 'special' guys who gets turned on by other guys, are you?" He questioned. "Cuz, well, that'd be kind of awkward for the rest of us and I—"

"Sitch," He strained, holding back laughter. "I am not like that." He couldn't hold it when Sitch's face went red with embarrassment and relief. Howl took another dumpling and bit half of it, entranced by the delicious, mouth watering taste as he chewed.

Then he heard an aggravated shout come from behind him. Both he and Sitch turned and glanced out over the camp, spotting a massive fireball erupt from a figures hand. Howl's stomach tightened. "What's going on?" Sitch asked, but Howl didn't answer him. He was worried about Korra. She had that certain thing about her that liked to piss people off and he really didn't like the thought of her doing it around a firebender. He slid down the ladder and started towards the training area. He heard Sitch's footsteps behind him and he picked up his pace.

"You must have patience, Avatar! Power is not what you need here! You're not trying to dismember the dummy, you're trying to weaken it!" Kozon's voice had heightened a pitch or two as she struggled to get her fire to work. Anger was boiling in the pit of her stomach and resulting in a fireball each time, not a sliver of fire. "Patience!" He screamed again.

She growled, facing him. "I have patience! You're the one that's shouting at me!" Her fingers were shaking from fury. "All you do is degrade me! Maybe if you could cool your head a bit, you'd learn that you're not meant for a teacher!" Shouting seemed to be attracting attention from the guards and from the others. It wasn't until she spotted Howl that he body cooled in seconds. His eyes were searching her face, trying to tell her something. Calm down. He mouthed. Korra sighed, turning back to her master, only to see a flicker of reds and yellows before the fireball hit her.

Howl couldn't believe what he'd seen, but he knew his feet were moving before the master had lashed out against Korra. He raced up the steps to the training floor and tackled the man that had dared to hurt her. His heart was pounding in anger, his own level head exploding with fury. He pinned the struggling man down with his legs, pressing his knees to the man's thighs and holding his hands above the master's head. He glanced over to where Korra had fallen, his brain a jumbled mess. "Sitch!" He snarled, tightening his grip against the man. His friend raced over and slammed the struggling man's head to the pavement, sliding over in Howl's place.

The next second, he was running over to Korra and kneeling in front of her, holding her to his chest. She was staring at her hands in shock, her lips parted in frozen words. She let out a choked cry. "Shh, Korra, it's okay." He shouted, ignoring the gazes of his fellow guardsmen. "Get Katara!" He snarled at them, turning back to her without a second thought. "It's okay. I've got you."

She let out another strangled gasp, looking at the burns forming on her hands. Howl knew nothing about healing or medicine, or even about burns, but this looked awful. The skin was turning redder as the seconds passed, splotchy and terribly damaged. Her breath became shakier than he'd ever heard, and he had no idea on how to help her. She was fighting tears, he noticed. When he looked at her eyes, he saw the truth of how much pain she was in, with tears forming in the corner of her eyes. "Howl—"She cut herself off with a terrible cry.

"Hurry!" He snarled, spotting the guards returning with the elder woman, struggling up the stairs. She bended water from her water skin and he let Korra go, watching as the woman put wrapped the water in between her fingers and surrounding her entire hand. She gently put them close to Korra's swollen hands, smiling softly. Howl waited, listening to her strangled whimpers fade as the burns did, the splotchy, broken skin fading into Korra's soft brown hands.

Katara glanced between him and Korra for a few moments before she gave a warm smile. "Aang accidently burned me when he was first training with fire. I had wanted to hate him afterwards, but I couldn't. He'd helped me discover the healing side of my bending." She whispered.

"This wasn't an accident, Master Katara. He purposely did it to her." Howl's blood was still boiling. He had no worse hate than for the firebender, almost ashamed of his bloodline. Katara's gaze fell on him with a smile that said she knew, she knew about the fireball. In the back of his head, he wondered if she knew about Korra and his relationship. He didn't want to find out. When Korra wouldn't look at him, he'd balled his fists, let out a breath, and started to storm off. He had to get away before he did something irrational. He hadn't been this anger in…well, forever.

Katara watched as the young man left before facing Korra again and seeing a different sort of pain in her eyes. "Where does it hurt, Korra?" She questioned, choosing to ignore her instincts and turning the Avatar's hands over, looking for any more burns.

Korra didn't answer, her gaze lingering on Howl's fading figure. She'd never seen him angry and while he didn't scare her, she knew he had been worried. It had been tangled heavily in his words as he had held her to him, intertwined as he screamed for the others to hurry. The burns had hurt, but there wasn't a real fear in her. Not the way Howl had felt it.

Still shaken by the fact that he had been genuinely worried about her, she allowed Katara to take her back to her room and help her out of the fireproof clothes that had protected everything but her hands. "The Order will desperately search for a new firebender to train you. Until then, you should rest. These past few months seem to have been very traumatic for you."

Korra shook her head and went to answer when Katara gave her a pointed stare. "Why was that boy so worried about you, Korra?" Her master questioned, crossing her arms and raising her chin.

"Maybe because I'm the Avatar?"

"You like each other." Katara said bluntly. Korra's heart quickened and she felt herself grow red. "You know I would never tell, Korra. If it weren't for your training, I would say that you should go for it. But you're the Avatar, and love is never going to be easy." The old woman sat down on the bed beside her.

Korra faced her master. "I know that." She muttered. "I just wish he wasn't part of the stupid Order or that they didn't have such a tight chain around my neck." Her stern voice wasn't meant to be harsh, just to the point. Still, it came out like a hiss. Howl was so busy being worried about losing his job that he couldn't express himself fully. She was too busy trying to train that she hardly ever saw each other. When they did, though, and no one was around… those were her favorite moments. It was when Howl could hold her and keep her warm in the chilly spring snows, when he wasn't afraid of kissing her.

Katara put her hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "I don't think that my husband would approve of such a tight chain like you would." Her smile came across weakly. "But for now, it's for the best."

Korra knew that. She just didn't understand it.

Katara left after she was sure Korra was alright, but she wasn't. Now two people she trusted knew about Howl. She hadn't explained how in depth the relationship was and she hoped she never would have to. She pulled out the book her mother had given her and opened back up to the page where she'd left off when a gently tap came on her window. She jumped and glanced over, thankful the cover was hidden. Howl had left his helmet by the glass to let Korra know it was him. She pulled on her parka and gloves as gently as she could before walking out to their meeting place, picking up his helmet as she did.

She found him leaning against the wall with his head lowered. Her heart jumpstarted and she didn't hesitate, racing over to him and wrapping her arms around his chest. She touched noses with him, nothing more than a gentle reassurance, but did nothing more. She didn't want to hear his apology, didn't want to hear how angry had been.

He hadn't moved at first but slowly he, too, wrapped his arms under hers. He moved to kiss her nose, afraid that she was angry with him for exploding towards Katara. "A-are you okay?" He whispered, too worried to ask anything else. She nodded against his chest and he exhaled, unaware that he had been holding his breath for that long. "Korra… I was so scared…." Howl wasn't afraid to admit it. He never had been when he was growing up either. He was no coward; just someone who became frightened over the littlest thing.

Korra pulled away from his chest reluctantly to look him in the eyes. Her pale blue irises were filled with confusion and understanding and reassurance. Then she met his lips with hers, putting all of her emotions into one simple connection. She dropped the helmet she'd been holding, wrapping her arms around his neck and feeling his soft tangles. His mouth was cold against hers, frozen. She was doing all the work; she was in control. She liked it that way but wouldn't admit it now.

As their kiss deepened, she felt tears racing down and freezing on his cheeks.