Old Wounds

Korra woke up to what she assumed was the next morning with a heavy migraine and a painstakingly empty stomach. Her hair was grossly stuck to her forehead and in a desperate need to be combed. She sucked in a harsh breath and wiped a stream of drool from her chin. Why does her lips taste like toothpaste?

She rolled over on her back and groaned, vowing to never even look at another alcoholic drink again. Her curtains were closed, thankfully shielding her eyes from the blinding sunlight peaking through the cracks and she noticed the half empty glass of water on her bedside table. She didn't remember ever going to get water when she came home.

Korra sat up slowly, trying to recall all of last night and piece together the fragments of her memory. She remembered the bar, and the drinks, and oh god she broke something too didn't she?

Raking her hands through her hair she whimpered. Her eyes welled up with tears as she felt a wave of embarrassment, disappointment, and sadness all rolled up into one. This wasn't who she was, it was the result of letting her feelings get the better of her. She wiped her face persuading herself to get out of bed and swept her blanket away from her body.

She was still wearing her cocktail dress that had been ripped up the side and was stained with alcohol and other questionable substances. The dress was so skin tight no wonder she felt so out of breath. The constricting fabric pushed on her chest, waist, and hips like a latex glove.

Moaning under her breath she slowly reached behind her back and zipped it down, sighing in relief that she could finally breathe. The dress fell from her torso revealing her unsavory decision to go braless and as she shimmed it down her legs she saw her stark choice in underwear. If that would be the proper term for such a thin piece of fabric that left nothing to the imagination.

Sheer, She thought and wanted to punch herself for thinking so deviantly. Obviously her intentions last night wasn't to go home alone and she was thankful she wasn't waking up next to some random stranger.

Korra had never been so drunk before and she couldn't help but beat herself up about it. Thinking of what Tenzin would say or her parents made her feel even worse. Her father was chief of the southern aboriginals, teaching about and preserving their culture was the utmost importance and this wasn't the type of representation they wanted.

Looking down at her right ankle she saw it was wrapped in bandages. The pain from a fall she didn't remember more or less gone. "Mako," She breathed, running the tips of her fingers over the gauze trying to remember when he did this.

"Mako!" She gasped, as the later parts of the night flashed before her eyes. He drove her home and brought her to bed and. .bandaged her ankle? She sat back against her head board and breathed a heavy sigh. She didn't deserve to be treated that kindly with the way she acted and by her ex-boyfriend no doubt!

Swinging her legs off the side of the bed and down on the cream colored carpet Korra decided to quit her sulking and try to salvage what was left of her dignity. She contemplated getting back into bed but knew that wouldn't be the best way to shake off her lethargy. She slowly stood up bringing most of her weight to the left side of her body. Too afraid to put pressure on her right and further upset her ankle.

She suddenly felt a bit nauseous but persevered into her bathroom for a quick and heavily needed shower.

After, she dressed in a pair of black sweats and a white sports bra. Admittedly she was already beginning to feel much better and made her way out of her room. Getting to the bottom of her stairs painfully slowly, she was greeted by a very happy and excited Samoyed dog.

"Hey Naga!" She bent down as the large, fluffy dog stood on her hind legs and placed her front paws on Korra's shoulders. Naga licked the side of Korra's face always happy to see her, "I'm pretty late for your morning walk aren't I?" She still really had no idea what time it was and suddenly realized she didn't know where she last put her phone.

She ran her fingers through Naga's hair and noticed it was slightly damp like she had been outside and exposed to a dewy morning. "Did you get outside?" Korra looked over to her patio door that lead into her backyard and saw that the doggy door was still locked. Meaning there was no other way she could had gotten outside all by herself. She decided not to dwell on said mystery for a majority of last night was in fragments.

"Well, I bet your hungry," Korra walked down the hallway past her office and living room to her kitchen with Naga eagerly following behind her.

"What?" Korra stopped at the side of her refrigerator and placed her hands on her hips now extremely confused. Naga's water was filled up and her food bowl half eaten, even though she had no recollection of ever doing this.

"I hope you don't mind but I already took her out." Naga ran toward the voice and Korra turned to see Mako walking out of her office which also served as a guest room. He was shirtless with a towel wrapped around his waist and hair damp from a fresh shower. Korra couldn't help but stare at Mako's firm chest and toned arms, thinking how wonderfully his workouts had been paying off. She eyed the little trickles of water that ran down his abs and absorbed into the hem of his towel just at the base of his hips. He was definitely a more developed man than the last time she saw him and she secretly wondered if he was more well endowed in other places as well.

"Oh" Korra sighed. She watched as Naga wagged her tail happily and circled around Mako a few times before jumping up against his leg begging to be petted. Naga always did like Mako for whatever reason, she seemed to be more heartbroken over their break up than Korra was.

"And I hope you don't mind." He pointed to her room, alluding to his decision to spend the night. "It was late and-"

"I threw up on you. We're even." Korra replied, she pointed to her foot,"and thanks for my ankle. When did you do that?"

"You began throwing up when I left your room, but it was hard for you getting in and out of bed so."

That explained the glass of water on her bed side table. She cringed at the image of Mako being her nurse-maid as she threw up all night and was partly grateful she couldn't remember it. He replied so nonchalantly as if it wasn't such a big deal, even though Korra thought it as such.

"Oh, thank you. I can't help but feel even more terrible now," She looked away and rubbed her neck as there was an awkward pause between them.

Mako looked her over silently, wanting to get a better judgement that wasn't a reflection of last night. Korra definitely cleaned up well, her hair was wet and slightly wavy, bare dewy face and long lashes bordering her bright blue eyes. As juvenile as it sounded to him Korra really did grow into an even more beautiful woman. Broad shoulders, toned arms, flat stomach; an overall lean build but still such wide hips. The lascivious part of himself also couldn't ignore the observation of how well her breasts generously filled out her sports bra and the amount of cleavage that spilled out the low scoop neck, although he didn't linger on it for very long.

Korra shifted, she wanted to thank him for all he had done but didn't exactly know how to go about doing it.

"Oh! Um if you need to wash your clothes." She began,

"One step ahead of you," He walked up to the double doors on the side of her kitchen and opened them revealing his clothes in her dryer. "Just waiting for them to finish up then I'll be heading out."

Korra bit her lip and tried to find something else to make him stay. He knew her too well to know he wouldn't be intruding by doing all of this without her verbal permission, which made it harder for her to come up with a way to console him for being her caregiver last night.

"Do you want some clothes while you wait?" She asked with a soft shrug.

"No," he tightened the towel around his waist and clutched his shoulder awkwardly. "To be honest I thought you'd still be asleep right now," which explained his half naked appearance.

"Oh, Okay," Korra sighed, looking around timidly. She couldn't help but feel so nervous around him, they had been apart for four years and the last thing she wanted was her drunken behavior to be his newly formed impression of her.

Korra's stomach growled and she glanced at her clock to see it was around 2pm. "Do you wanna have a late breakfast or um..uh brunch?" She opened a near by cupboard and pulled out a box of pancake mix, "Believe it or not, I can actually cook a decent meal now with less risk of a fire."

Mako shook his head, raising a brow, he could see what she was trying to do, but couldn't bring himself to play along. "A brunch?"

She set the box on her counter top and sighed, "Mako I'm trying here," she walked up to him with her palms open and shoulders slumped as if she had officially given up.

"Just stop trying," he muttered, waving his hand submissively. She didn't need to make up for anything, he didn't need a favor in return for what he did. He honestly just wanted to forget what had happened and continue living their lives as they once were, separately.

Mako turned to head back into her office but Korra strode in front of him and blocked his path with her hands firmly on her hips. Obviously she was in no position to be critiquing his behavior but she didn't understand why he was being so rude to her.

"Why is it so hard for you to let me back in? What is it that makes you so uncomfortable?" She asked, her face looking slightly annoyed.

"Because we've tried this before. We've tried this 'friend thing' and it didn't work." Mako replied.

"I'm just being cordial! I'm not asking for a relationship in return."

"Well, thank you for trying, but I'm not interested in being cordial with you." Mako stepped around her and headed back toward her room wishing his clothes were finished drying so he could leave.

All of Korra's frustrations began to bubble on the end of her tongue and now that she finally had Mako in front of her she wasn't going to let him slip away without getting them off her chest. This was a conversation they should have had years ago.

"You're not fooling me Mako! If you didn't want anything to do with me you wouldn't have taken me home, took care of me, walked my damn dog!" She grabbed his arm, squeezing his hard bicep and pulled him around to face her, "Stop acting like you don't care."

"I'm a police officer! You're an old friend! I wasn't going to let something happen to you when I could prevent it!" Mako tore his arm from her grasp and crossed his chest feeling a little too exposed under her piercing glare. Korra stepped closer to him, looking up at him as if his height wasn't playing a factor in how intimidating he tried to look.

"That's not what you said last night, you said you cared about me." She replied. That, she remembered underneath all the drunken stupor.

They were so close she could smell the scented body wash on his skin and Korra enjoyed in more than she'd ever admit.

"Yes, I did," He looked down at her, his fiery glare matching her ice cold scowl. "and you laughed."

Korra paused, her expression slipping as she looked away doubtfully, "I was drunk..."

"That doesn't change what you said Korra. Being intoxicated only removes the filter that stops you from saying how you really feel."

"I'm telling you how I really feel right now!" She snapped, her voice rising a little higher than his. Mako was always like this with her, bringing up words she said when she was angry, or drunk in this case, to use as leverage even though she completely regretted them. It was always in his nature to remember the smaller details.

Mako scoffed, "Are you? Because what I remember is you laughing that I still knew where you lived, that I was still so familiar with you, because deep down you like that I haven't gotten over you."

"T-that's not true," Korra breathed, her expression growing more and more somber.

"Yes it is, But you're not holding that over me anymore, I'm not going to let you take advantage of it." Mako declared, his face slightly flustered and red from how angry he was. However, he was mostly just angered with himself, that even though Korra had moved on, he was still so attached.

"I'm not taking advantage of you!" Korra replied, her voice wavering slightly. "I didn't ask for you to take me home!"

"Yeah! But you did ask me to sex with you!" Mako replied with a confident expression that there was no way she could make up an excuse for that.

Korra rolled her eyes, inwardly kicking herself for her previous behavior. "I asked you to stay with me-"

"Of course, just to sleep right?" He rolled his eyes.

She didn't want to hear what he was saying mostly because he was right, she would have never asked that of him if she wasn't confident he'd do it.

"This past few weeks haven't easy for me, I just wanted a break from it all!" Korra confessed, throwing her hands up in frustration.

"Trust me Korra, I know what that feels like," He snapped. Obviously referencing to their break up no doubt, but she wasn't going to allow him to think she wasn't broken by it either.

"So do I! Mako you're not the only one who was hurt."

"Yes, but obviously I'm the one still dealing with it!" He turned away, pinching the bridge of his nose as if to fend off a headache.

"You seriously believe that?" Korra stammered.

"I don't want to have this conversation right now Korra" Mako sighed, his eyes reluctant to look at her face making her feel even more ignored.

Her eyes began to water and breathing steadily became uneasy. She leaned her back against the wall, looking at the ceiling reconciling on their broken past. "Honestly, Asami was good at filling that gap, like a puzzle piece she fit almost perfectly, but there was always a little wiggle room, some gaps she just couldn't mend."

She glanced over at him just to see if he was still listening, "And I couldn't help but wonder what could have been."

She pushed away from the wall and leaned closer to him sincerely. "Bolin will tell you how much I ask about you Mako, just because I can't stand not being in your life. We tried being friends, I wanted to do at least that, but slowly we just drifted apart."

Korra started to feel herself getting choked up as buried memories began to resurface. "When we graduated university, I took pictures with everyone and celebrated happy as ever, but deep down I was torn inside, because I couldn't celebrate with you. The person I spent three out of those four years with and two years as angsty teenagers before that!" She coughed up a laugh remembering high school with him, nothing but bottled up emotions, hormones, and puppy love.

Mako clenched his jaw, wanting to erase those memories she was uncovering for him. He felt the same, watching from afar as Korra and Bolin took pictures and planned a celebratory dinner at Narook's. They use to always talk about their future together and taking such a monumental step without her felt bittersweet, like he accomplished a life long goal but lost something equally important in the process.

"And when you joined Republic City's police academy I knew you'd excel and when you graduated to a police officer I sat at home watching the ceremony wishing I could be there for you..."

Mako looked over at her watching as she bit her bottom lip as it began to shake. She looked up at him, her eyes softer than before as she walked over to him. "So maybe you're right, but maybe I just laughed it off to hide the fact that I'm not over you either. I was content knowing you still loved me, because I hoped that maybe if we ever crossed paths we could try again."

"Korra, you don't understand. I was in love with you, that's why I couldn't just be your friend. It felt wrong pretending to be okay with our break up. I knew I fucked up, and you had every right to end things after what happened. I still regret the way I acted back then, but pretending I was content seeing you with her, I couldn't do it."

Korra was single for the last year of university and it was during the end of their final semester that she and Asami became a couple. After that discovery Mako couldn't stay in her life anymore, it was too painful.

"You could have found someone else too Mako. I've always wanted you to be happy! Whether that was with me or not!" Korra replied.

"That's just it! I never wanted anyone else but you!"

"Fuck it" Korra breathed.

She pitched forward and kissed him. Her hands gripped the sides of his face and forced their mouths together in an aggressive mixture of frustration and glee. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her flush against his chest, relishing in their second kiss; rough and tender with less alcoholic after taste.

Their mouths formed together perfectly, with a familiarity that ignited the moment they made contact with each other. She missed cupping her hands around his firm jaw and lapping his lips with her tongue. The feeling of warmth from his rough hands as he squeezed her waist. That small twinge of pain when he would bite her bottom lip, followed by an apologetic lick and nip. Korra felt like she was being restored of something she had been deprived of for a long time and she hoped he felt the same.

They broke away from each other gasping for air. Korra's hands clawed his shoulders for dear life as if he would leave if she didn't. Her bright blue eyes were wide with shock and a longing to continue what she had started.

"You wanted me sober, I'm sober Mako."