Prompt # 41 - Envelope, from 100makorrathemes
Word Count: 628
Summary: Korra leaves for the South Pole, post book 3 finale.
AN - Thanks for all the favorites, alerts, and especially the reviews! This chapter feels a little sub-par to me (it was absolute hell to write), but let me know what you think!
Mako knew she needed time to heal.
She had slammed back down to earth with burning eyes and steady strength and poison in her veins, and despite all of his faith in her, not even the Avatar could just rebound from that.
So when she left for the South Pole still confined to a wheelchair and with a tired and empty look in her eyes, he only smiled and wished her a safe trip, raising his hand in farewell. The ship sailed off into the distance and disappeared on the horizon, but he, Bolin, and Asami remained standing on the dock.
"She'll be back before we know it, I'm sure." Asami stated confidently as she wrapped her arms around herself against the brisk ocean breeze. The three friends waited a moment more in somber silence before finally turning away from the bay and returning to their lives.
She definitely was not back before they knew it.
Bolin kept his word. A jauntily written letter, folded neatly and caringly placed in an envelope complete with a colored illustration was mailed off to Korra every morning. Asami sent off a thicker letter once a week between developing construction plans for the city and managing her company. And Mako surprised himself by finally visiting the post office a full two months after Korra had gone (when it became apparent that she would not be returning home soon) to pick up envelopes so he could write her.
There were a few bumps along the way -
"But sir, I do not need a package of fifty envelopes."
"I understand that, young man, but that is the smallest pack we have in stock right now."
"I will never use them all." (He did.) -
but Mako finally found himself sitting at his desk after work one night, running his hands through his hair as he wondered what in the world to say to a girl that seemed so much farther away from him in that moment than she had ever been.
Piles of crumpled paper littered his desk and floor for a full two days before he finally settled on a short and concise recount of how his life had been, the weather, the number of triad members the police force had arrested that week, and finishing with the hope that Korra was feeling better and would be returning home soon.
He mailed it off and waited anxiously for a few weeks for her reply, which never came. (He of course knew that she had yet to write back to Bolin or Asami, but he'd thought that… maybe things would be different between them.)
Still, Mako found himself settling into a comfortable rhythm, mailing out a letter every couple of weeks once he had enough monotonous news to fill a few pages. He had no idea whether Korra read them all the way through, but just the act of writing a letter that she would receive, hoping that she would think of him in the midst of whatever kind of life she was leading down there, was cathartic. Korra may not have replied, but Mako was determined to still be a part of her life.
So he wrote. And slowly the pile of envelopes shortened in height until one day, Tenzin returned from his trip to the South Pole with the news that Korra was doing much better, and would hopefully be returning soon.
"She misses you all very much. She reads every letter she gets," Tenzin said to Mako with a kind smile on his face, followed with a quiet,""She just needs a little more time."
Yeah, Mako thought, feeling an old warmth fill his stomach again.
Korra did need time to heal, but in the meantime, Mako would need some more envelopes.