Work Text:
"It isn’t in the cards for me, Mako! I can’t," Korra kept trying to get Mako to see reason, but his voice kept rising and so did hers. The candles were flickering from the two benders’ anger.
"Can’t or won’t?" Mako retorted, bitter in his tone as he threw down the napkins from their forgotten picnic.
"I have to help with rebuilding the city!" It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go to the ball being held in their honor as the heroes of Republic City, of course she did! But there were still benders who had a part of them taken away from them, raped from their body by some Machiavellian asshat of a bloodbender.
"You’ve been helping, that’s why you are going to take four hours, and have some fun! You work too much. No one asks that of their Avatar, they want you to live too." Mako’s voice softened as he tried to get her to see his point of view, he saw the fear in her eyes and wondered if her reasoning was different than she presented it to be.
"Do you…" He didn’t even want to think of this possibility, “Do you not want to be seen in public with me? Is that it?" Korra jumped to grab his hand as he looked away from her. An acrid taste filled his mouth, and, for a moment, he felt like an orphan again, alone.
"No, no, never, of course not… I just don’t feel right having any sort of fun right now, that’s why we’re fighting, that’s why I only scheduled fifteen minutes to eat with you, that’s why… none of this is about you, Mako. You have to believe me." Korra’s eyes pleaded with him, but he wasn’t looking at her.
"Look, we’ll talk some other time, you should go back to rebuilding the city." He tried not to sound too bitter, but it came out angry, hurt. Mako was a wounded animal, he wasn’t even going to bother cleaning up the picnic on Air Temple Island, he was just going to keep running until he hit the ferry and could leave the island, get some space. He needed to get away.
A strong hand was tugging him back from the inescapable need to run, words, seemingly far away, calling him back.
"Please, Mako, I want to be with you… don’t let this ruin what we worked for…" That brought clarity to his reeling emotions. Mako decided to think rationally, putting out all his self doubt as Korra continue to plead with him not to be angry, playing the Avatar card again.
Ah ha.
"You don’t want to be attacked by the press again, is that it?" He turned to face his girlfriend, certain he had found the root of her distress. Korra sagged in relief that he had stopped trying to leave. She couldn’t take it right now if he did. They both relaxed, throats glad that the screaming part was over, and the make-up part was on it’s way.
"That’s a part of it. Last time, well, that didn’t go so well," Korra sucked in her cheeks, looking at the sky, immersed in memory.
"This isn’t Tarrlok," Mako consoled, knowing Korra still worried about being pawned around by political jockeying again.
"No, it’s the city. The city that expects me to lead them out of this… mess. And I’m not sure the citizens of Republic City want to see their Avatar partying it up."
"You don’t have to party it up, you can just go for a few hours, wear a pretty dress" Korra scrunched up her face, making Mako smile, “And have a little fun," he tapped the tip of her nose and she leaned into his chest, sighing, “and then you can go home, go to sleep, and get an extra early start the next morning. The city will think you’re handling adult responsibility very well." Mako and Korra had both settled down from the fight, and they were clearly both happy that it had ended so well. Doubt about himself and their relationship still roiled in the pit of Mako’s stomach, but he knew Korra loved him, and hoped that would be enough.
"I still don’t really want to wear a dress," Korra deadpanned.
Mako sighed and kissed her forehead, prepared to argue about the merits of dresses just to get his girlfriend into one, and to keep them from arguing about something serious.