Author's note: I do not own anything. I am sorry this one was a couple days late but me and Kenzie were still trying to figure out the details. Originally we were going to have this also include the Red Lotus group but we will have that in the next chapter. We get a look in Mako and Asami's relationship and how Mako was able to survive without Korra. The breaks are to show that we are going back and forth; between past and present. Thank you for reading, please comment and tell me what you think.

"We seemed like a good idea…"

Mako sighed as he put his head into his hands; his headache was getting worse, and he didn't know if it was all the stress or if it was the memories floating throughout his head. Asami was right, they needed to focus on the current threat at hand, not Korra and his relationship. Mako had to admit, Asami had a brilliant idea to help him get over Korra, but he still didn't feel comfortable with the whole scheme of things. With another sigh he closed his eyes, let his head fall backwards, resting against the wall, and just thought back; he was breaking apart and Asami tried to hold all the pieces together. Tried.

With another loud yell, he grabbed the mirror and threw it across the small room as the tears streamed down his face. The mirror hit the ground as shards of glass flew across the floor, adding to the destruction all around him. Another yell left his mouth, this time with fire spiraling up his throat and out his mouth, fanning throughout the room, giving it an orange glow. He turned quickly and with a fist full of flames, he put another dented scorch mark into the wood. Now panting, he hit his head against the scorched wood trying to stop the memories from arising once again.

With the sound of her laughter in his mind, his anger grew as the flames grew higher and stronger. Just like his grief, the fire was eating up everything in its sight. He threw his fist into the wall one more time, trying to choke back the tears that were already spilling down his face. He couldn't hold back the whimpers that were clawing their way out of his mouth; he was finding it hard to breathe as he remembered the way she would softly kiss him.

He pushed himself off the wall a with fire almost dripping out of his mouth, he let out a heart wrenching wail; another chair flew across the room and smashed against the door. He fell to the floor, letting another wail fly from his mouth as he pounded his fist against the ground; crying out Korra's name as if she could hear him, as if she would come running back to him. What hurt him the most was that he let her walk away, saying nothing more than a nod.

That is what Asami walked in on; Asami had decided to check up on the fire bender and when she heard all the smashing and yelling, she sprinted up to his room. She looked around and saw how badly he was hurting, and how bad he destroyed his room. Asami sprinted out of the room and got a bucket of water when she saw the fire burning up half the room. After Asami put out the fire, she ran over to the cause of all this misery and draped her arms around his body, resting her head on his back. He was still on his elbows and knees, banging his fist into the ground, whispering Korra's name.

Shaking his head, Mako couldn't believe how hard he had fallen; it had taken him months to return to normal, or at least where he wouldn't have a break down in front of Korra when he saw her. All he had to do was dive into his work, leave almost no time for anyone, and stick to Asami's plan.

"Mako, it has been over five weeks," Asami said, Mako knew she cared but he couldn't bring himself to, "If Korra can move on with her life, well then… so can you."

Mako lifted his head out of his hands and stared at the non-bender sitting across the table from him, he wasn't as bad as he was before, but he was still ignoring Korra and the group. The only one who knew how bad he was, was Asami, ever since she found him on the floor that day, she has been trying to put him back together. Mako never really had a family outside of Bolin, no one to take care of him, to listen to him. Sure he had Bolin, but he couldn't show weakness to Bolin. Mako was the one to take care of Bolin, not the other way around. When Korra came into his life, for some reason he put all his faith in her. He took care of her, but she also took care of him. Then she disappeared, and he didn't know how to cope with losing his family…. all over again. He just snapped.

"Asami, I am fine." He said staring at her, trying to make her believe him, but the look she was giving him told him that he wasn't doing a very good job. Asami sighed deeply and pushed her hair out of her face.
"Mako, I have an idea to help you get over Korra." Asami said as she stood up to look down at him, "I don't think you are going to like it, but I believe it will help."

"Well get on with it." Mako was never a patient man, and he was going crazy being stuck on the beautiful Avatar.

"Well, you know how you skip work; you claim that you are sick? And after a while of saying you are sick, suddenly you become sick?" Asami questioned with all seriousness.

"Yes, but I don't know how that has anything to do with Korra." Mako said with a rather unneeded sigh, "I can tell myself as many times as I want that I'm over her. It does nothing."

"Well, besides the fact that you aren't even trying, you need to take it a step farther. You need to not only tell yourself that you are over her, but act like it." Asami said trying to explain what she was thinking, "You need to spend more time with her, in your mind you need to pick out her flaws. Focus on them, and you need to act happy. As if you are happy that you are single, even get a girlfriend, or girlfriends." After a moment it finally it clicked in his head and he frowned.

"I don't think that is going to work." Mako said feeling uneasy; he could barely look at Korra, let alone try and get a girlfriend.

"Look, it is the only option we have left; it doesn't even have to be a real girlfriend." Asami said with a wink, "It could be a fake girlfriend." Mako looked at the beautiful non-bender with skepticism in his amber eyes, but after a couple minutes with a sigh he gave in.

"Okay, we can try it. But where on earth am I supposed to find a 'fake girlfriend'?" Mako said rolling his eyes, making air quotations around the end of his question.

"Well what about me?"

That is how this whole charade had started, and he wasn't going to lie, his feelings for Korra had started to dwindle down. Korra still had a hold on his heart, but it was growing weaker yet he knew deep in his mind that she always would have a small tug on which way his heart swung. He had wanted Korra to see that he was happy, but he hadn't meant to send her into the dessert upset. Mako looked up when he heard soft footsteps heading in his direction.

"There you are, Mako." Asami said with a relieved grin on her face, "I had thought we were going to have to search in the desert for yet another person." She added with a small laugh, she was trying to lighten the mood. Although it wasn't working the way she had wanted it to. A sigh passed through her lips, and she slid down the wall, sitting next to the fire bender.

"Why did you kiss me?" Mako whispered looking at the ground in front of him; refusing to look at Asami until she answered him. He felt anger bubbling up inside of him, mostly at himself for hurting Korra. Again.

"Well I thought that was what I was supposed to do…" Asami said looking at Mako with confusion filling her beautiful features, "Remember we are 'dating'?" She used air quotations just as Mako had a long time ago.

"Well yeah, but..." Mako began to say, but he knew he had no reason to be mad at Asami; she was only going along with the plan. "Nothing, it isn't you." With that he got up and started to walk back to Korra's room. Asami just sat against the building sighing and shaking her head, those two will never learn.

As Mako got closer he couldn't help but think of Korra, "We had seemed like a good idea…."