"Oh, man, you should have seen Varrick today. That guy is a genius," Bolin bubbled while excitedly pacing on Mako's shagged apartment carpet. Mako watched him out of the corner of his eyes, making sure he didn't have an outburst on the carpet like certain people tended to have.
"Uh-huh," Mako replied as he flipped through another file folder of registered criminals in the police database. He threw another folder onto the growing pile on the floor. Bust, he muttered in his head.
"He was gonna help Asami sell her mecha tanks to the South, but she was against that idea. And Lemaya kind of went off the rails at the idea of it," Bolin rambled.
"Selling stuff for war? They were probably right to do that," Mako said, dropping another file to the floor.
Bolin ignored his input. "Varrick also came up with this great idea for Korra to get General Iroh to fight Unalaq without President Raiko ever even knowing." Bolin yelped as Mako quickly pushed himself up from his lying position on his stomach, Bolin's heart racing as he balanced himself above the carpet. "Man, Mako, this thing is a death trap. Why do you even have it?"
"What? Forget the carpet, Bolin. She's going to do what behind Raiko's back?"
"Get General Iroh's help," Bolin said as he straightened out the carpet he messed up.
"That's a terrible idea. Who allowed that?" Mako asked, picking up the busted stack of folders and setting them on his coffee table.
"Well it was going to be a we with Lemaya and Korra and then Lemaya, as I said, went off the rails, so Korra kind of vetoed the decision and made it for herself." Bolin got to his feet and wiped off the dust on his knees.
"You need to clean this carpet." He smiled at Mako. "Anyway, Varrick's also gonna put me in these movers as this hero, Nuktuk! He's a man of action, but he's got a heart of gold. Also, he was born in the tundra."
Mako furrowed his brows. "But you're not- you know what? Nevermind. Good for you, Bo."
"Thanks, Mako!" Bolin smiled.
"Now, uh, can I bounce an idea off of you?" Mako asked. He got off of the couch to grab himself his like twentieth cup of calming tea as Bolin sat in his spot on the couch and started flipping through the folders Mako still had to go through. "Something doesn't make sense about this bombing. I just don't buy that the Northern Water Tribe was behind it." He returned to Bolin's side and looked over his shoulder. "It must- wait!" Bolin stopped his flipping and went back a page.
"That's him! That's the guy that attacked the center! I gotta show this to Beifong!" Mako jumped up and sipped as much tea as he could fit in his mouth before snatching the folder from Bolin and heading to the door. He swallowed and grinned at his brother, pointing to the mug. "Thank you, Bolin. And you can have that. Whether or not it is actually calming is surprisingly still a mystery even though I've gone through like the entire box today. Bye!"
"Glad I could help. Nuktuk saves the day again!" he chuckled to himself. Bolin hummed and took a swig of the tea, savoring the scalding taste against his tongue "Hmm, tastes like leaves."
---------------
"Alright, Meelo, the first thing you need to do as a trainer is establish dominance. You are in charge. Never forget that. Now call Poki." Tenzin pushed Meelo partially forward toward the tree and rubbed his back soothingly.
Meelo firmly nodded. Then, he demanded, "Poki, come here!" Poki didn't move. "Poki," Meelo demanded again. Poki didn't listen and jumped forward, out of the tree and onto Meelo's shoulders. "Poki, no!" Meelo laughed as Poki crawled around him and tickled his skin.
"Meelo...you're rewarding him for bad behavior," Tenzin said as Meelo continued to laugh.
"But he's tickling me!" Meelo squealed. Tenzin blew a warm breath of air out of his mouth as he steered Meelo back inside to his room. Along the way, Meelo continued to laugh loudly, and still did so as Tenzin tucked him into bed. Meelo reached out for Poki and pulled him up into the bed, letting Poki get comfortable as he looked up at his Dad.
"You can't let him nap in the bed with you. You are the alpha lemur. He has to sleep on the floor," Tenzin instructed as he placed Poki onto the ground. Poki then leaped back up next to Meelo, so Meelo had to be the one to put him back down. "I know it's hard, but it's for the best."
"No Poki, this is my bed. You sleep on the floor," Meelo murmured while tiredly looking down at Poki's saddened eyes on the ground. As Meelo's eyes fluttered close, he whispered, "Being alpha lemur is lonely."
"I know," Tenzin said after kissing the top of Meelo's head, "I know."
---------------
Raiko stood sturdily before Lin's desk, listening along to her explanation of the events. "So you haven't found any new information on the cultural center attack?"
"We're working on it, sir," Lin answered, standing up from her desk.
"Okay. I'll need some results soon, though," Raiko said as he leaned over the desk to shake Lin's hand, "I have some decisions to make."
"Sir," Lin nodded.
Outside of Beifong's office, Mako hastily walked into the headquarters, the file he brought tucked neatly under his arm. He came up to the desks before the entrance to Lin's office and set down the file at his, shuffling around the desk for anything else he wanted to hand in to Beifong.
"Well hello there, kid. What's up?" the officer in the desk across from Mako.
Mako looked up at him briefly, giving him and his friends standing next to him a smile. "I got a break in the bombing case. I I.D.'d the guy I saw at the scene."
"That's great, Mako," one of the detectives, Lu, said as he nudged his partner, Gang.
"Yeah, you better run that in to Beifong right now," Gang goaded, shoving Lu back.
"You think?" Mako asked, setting his file down.
"Sure. You're gonna be a hero!" Lu smiled while gesturing toward Beifong's office. Mako smiled to himself as he stared confidently at the file's picture, then he took the file and headed right for Lin's office. Lu and Gang laughed and moved through their signature handshake as Mako burst into the office, nearly ramming right into President Raiko.
Lin flung her head to the open door, slamming her hands down onto the table as Mako's face flushed in embarrassment. "What makes a rookie beat-up cop think he can interrupt my meeting with the president?"
Mako began to stutter, especially at the ruckus Lu and Gang were causing behind him with their echoing laughter. "I'm sorry, I just, um, I found something out about the bombing."
"Well give it to Lu and Gang, you moron. Now get out!" Lin snapped, shooing Mako away. Mako nodded and quickly left, shutting the door behind him as he turned to face Lu and Gang's pleased faces.
"Sorry, was she busy?" Lu chuckled, trying to quiet Gang's laughter.
Mako rolled his eyes and tossed the file before the two, opening it to the picture he wanted to show Lin. "This is the guy I saw sneaking out of the building right before the explosions. He's a member of the Agni Kais. Someone must have hired him to make it look like Northerners attacked the cultural center." Gang groaned and slipped his fingers under one of the photo's corners.
"Mhm." Gang pulled open a drawer and dropped the picture into it.
"Did you learn anything about that remote control I found at the scene? That's gotta be the key to finding out who's really responsible.' Mako tried to press further but they both waved him off, pulling his arm from around the desk and shoving him back to his desk.
"Listen, kid, it was the Northern Water Tribe, okay?" Lu dismissed.
"Yeah, give it a rest, Super Cop," Gang grinned. Mako tugged at his scarf as he set himself back at his desk. Once he was situated, Raiko finished his stroll out of Lin's office and made his way over to Mako, giving out his hand for Mako to shake.
"I've heard good things about you. You've made some big triad busts for a rookie," Raiko said as Mako readily returned the handshake.
"Thank you, sir," Mako replied.
"And you're dating the Avatar, right?"
"Uh, yes, sir."
Raiko smiled brightly. "Good. I'm concerned that she might do something rash after our meeting today. We didn't exactly see eye to eye, but that doesn't mean that I want her to get all tangled up in some mess that involves the security of the United Republic. She's the Avatar, and the least I can do at the moment is prevent her any unnecessary problems that I can address." Mako uneasily glanced at the desk below him, organizing the stray objects littered across it to try and do anything but look back at Raiko.
"I understand your concern, sir. What do you want me to do about it?"
"Well, I just wanted you to let me know if you know anything that the Avatar might do that could create a mess out of our systems. That's all. Keep up the good work." Raiko nodded pleasantly at him and continued his march out of the headquarters. He halted his stride as Mako called out to him before he got too far away. Mako stepped up to his side, facing the president as he played with the edges of his scarf.
"She's honestly just trying to help, sir," Mako faltered, not wanting Korra to get into too much trouble for this.
"I know that, Mako. That's why I am worried," Raiko said, ushering for Mako to continue.
Mako sighed, "There's something you should know because it goes against our rules for unleashing our troops, and as much as I want for her to do what she feels is right, I can't agree with how she's doing this."
Raiko sucked in a breath and steered Mako away from the desks with a stern hand. "Tell me what you can."
---------------
Korra did as many breathing exercises as she could muster without getting irrationally upset on her way to the United Forces' ship harbor to try and calm her anger. It worked, for the moment anyway, and she saw that as a win. You know, given the fact that she would most likely screw up this ask for help with a burst of anger, calmness was a win in her book.
"Thank you for seeing me, General Iroh," Korra said nicely as Iroh brought her up onto the deck of the first ship in the harbor.
"Of course. What can I do for you, Korra?" Iroh asked. He stopped her from going any further on the ship, and just in time for a swarm of soldiers to jog by. "It's their daily exercise. A couple jogs around the ship."
Korra politely laughed and then cleared her throat. "The South needs military support before Unalaq wipes them out completely, but the president is refusing to give the order. So I decided to come to you directly." Iroh hummed for a moment, mulling over what Korra said.
"I see." Iroh scratched the side of his neck before raising sad eyes to Korra. "Lisen, Korra, I'd love to help, but I can't just go about doing as I please. There are proceedings for this that I signed onto when I joined the United Forces and as much as I may want to, I can't do anything until President Raiko gives the go-ahead." Korra's nostrils flared again, but she managed to keep it under tight wraps so she didn't, you know, exhaust her foot into Iroh's face.
"Yeah, it seems like there's a lot of proceedings and not happenings today," Korra bitterly mumbled under her breath. Before she could offer another plea to Iroh, another pair of footsteps clamored onto the ship's deck.
The new arrival cleared their throat. "Swapping old war stories?" they asked. Korra threw her head back at the familiar voice, Iroh and her looking up to see President Raiko standing at the head of the ship.
Iroh jumped into a salute. "Mr. President."
"General Iroh," Raiko greeted. Then, he turned to Korra. "Korra, I really didn't want to have a problem with you trying to undermine how our government runs here in the United Republic. I am worried that maybe you aren't getting the most sound advice."
Korra shook her head. "What you should be more worried about is how you're not doing anything!" Korra cried.
"My hands are tied for the moment, Korra, but I promise that I am trying to get things done. This takes time, though I know that is of the essence right now. I hope that at some point you can just accept that answer and stop trying to command things that the Avatar doesn't have the power to." Raiko sighed sorrowfully and turned to exit the ship. "As you were, general," he said as he disappeared over the ship's edge.
"Ugh, I hate that guy!" Korra complained as she started pacing. Again.
"I'm sorry, Korra. I know that's not what you wanted to hear," Iroh consoled as he watched Korra pace in circles around him, "but I can maybe offer something that might be a different way to approach what you need." Korra paused and looked expectantly at Iroh.
"Oh, please. That sounds great!" Korra rejoiced as she ran up to Iroh. "What is it?"
"Try talking to the Fire Lord. My mother and grandfather have always been good friends with the Avatar and the Southern Water Tribe. I'm sure they'll be able to help you." Iroh smiled kindly at Korra as she ran off the ship.
"Thank you, general!" Korra called behind her as she ran off down the dock.
Iroh waved to her as she left. "No problem!"
---------------
"Wouldn't I be cold wearing this outfit in the snow?" Bolin asked as he stared down at his mini shorts and small vest over his shirtless chest. Bolin scratched his ear, looking around the snowy set for Varrick.
"Ah, Nuktuk is never cold," Varrick said, coming out of nowhere from behind the backdrop to Bolin's right. Bolin snapped his fingers at Varrick, situating his costume as a berry perfume wafted over him. He glanced over to see his co-star Ginger come up to his right, her hair bright red and her outfit slightly less revealing than his.
"Hey, Ginger," Bolin flirted, shooting her a sloppy wink. Ginger rolled her eyes at Bolin's flirtation and flipped her hair at him. Bolin grimaced at his failure and leaned away from her, training his eyes on Varrick as he gestured around Ginger's face.
"How about that, huh?" Varrick chuckled while pointing at her hair. "It's the latest product in my Varri-Manageable Hair Line: Varri-dye! We get some shots of her using it before Unalaq kidnaps her, and I guarantee we sell a million cases week one." Varrick shot up as Naga pounced on the ground next to him, Korra sliding off of her back as she rubbed it lightly.
"Bolin, I need you to watch Naga while I'm gone," Korra said as she pressed a kiss to Naga's fur.
"Where are you going?" Bolin asked while fluffing his tiny vest.
Korra moved to answer but just had to stop herself at the sight she was witnessing. "What are you wearing?" Bolin furrowed his brows and stared at his outfit.
"What's wrong with it?"
"Too much to name." Korra shook her head. "But it doesn't matter. I'm going to the Fire Nation to try and get them to help the South. And I need a boat."
"What happened with General Iroh?" Varrick asked, pushing Ginger out of the way so he could worriedly stare at Korra.
"He and President Raiko are sticklers for following protocols apparently. I don't know how Riko even showed up, but someone must have tipped him. I can't figure out who, though. No one knew about it except for us, Lemaya, and Asami."
"Well, Lemaya did yell at you," Varrick began to murmur, but Korra quickly shut him down.
"Yeah, but even at her worst, she wouldn't do that to me," Korra said. She looked from Varrick to Bolin, scrutinizing Bolin's nervous teetering before saying, "Who else knows, Bolin?"
Bolin wired his eyes shut as his ears flushed. "Mako."
"Mako?" Korra heaved, glaring sourly at Bolin.
"What? There's no way Mako would have told, right?" Bolin shrugged. Watching Korra ignore him and run off, he started to falter. "Right?"
---------------
Meelo confidently stared down at his friend. "Poki, sit!" Poki sat. "Roll over." Poki rolled. "Good boy!" Meelo congratulated, throwing Poki a treat with a smile.
"Well done, Meelo! I knew you could learn to train Poki," Tenzin gushed as he gripped Meelo's shoulder.
"Not just Poki. I trained all the lemurs. Watch!" Meelo reached under his shirt and pulled out a whistle, blowing harshly into the metal and letting a high-pitched screech ring through the forest. Poki flew off at the whistle, jumping into the sky and flying off into a swarm of lemurs as they rush up to follow Meelo's various commands. Where he pointed, they followed, and when Meelo blew the whistle one last time and pointed to the courtyard floor, all the lemurs landed gracefully before him.
Tenzin's eyes went wide. "I've created a monster," Tenzin whispered to himself. When Meelo tugged at his robe, Tenzin stuttered, "Uh, maybe we should forget about all this training discipline for now. Why don't you and Poki just have fun and play?"
Meelo's cheeks widened into a grin. "Thanks, Dad. Training makes me tired. Come on, Poki." Meelo waved Poki toward him and let Poki jump onto his shoulders, rushing back into the temple. As he ran, he blew the whistle, sending the rest of the lemurs away as Tenzin took deep breaths. Lots of deep breaths.
Speaking of deep breaths, Korra abandoned her calming exercises long ago on her march to the police headquarters, and it showed when she kicked the door into the area with all the desks wide open. She stamped up to Mako's desk and knocked her fists into the table, nearly forcing fist-shaped holes into the wood. "You ratted me out to the President."
Mako sighed and stood up from his seat. "Korra, let me explain," Mako said, attempting to calm her down. But, Korra was having none of it.
And though she tried her best to keep in mind Lemaya's tidbit that not everyone was going to agree with her, she just couldn't. Mako went too far for her liking, too far for someone who simply just disagreed with her. "Explain what? Why my boyfriend stabbed me in the back?"
Mako sputtered, "Stabbed you in the back?" He pressed his hands tightly against his face. "All I did was tell the president that you were stepping out of line, which you were, by the way. You can't exist above whatever rule is inconvenient for you at a specific moment. That's not what the Avatar should be doing-" Korra gave him a fiery and pointed look- "in my opinion," Mako relented.
Korra chuckled mockingly, pressing her fists further into the desk. "'Not what the Avatar should be doing'? Okay." She let out a dry laugh, and Mako couldn't help but roll her eyes at her behavior. "You betrayed me and my family!" Korra snapped at him. His eyes fell momentarily at the desk, and Korra found herself so impossibly angry at the stupid piece of wood that she just kicked it. And threw it across the room with a gust of wind, knocking all of Mako's papers up into the sky.
"Right, now you're being unreasonable and childish," Mako muttered, taking a deep breath as he watched all his stuff go everywhere, "I admit the law is not ideal, especially not for what you and your people need, but it is the law. And I also admit that I'm probably being very difficult right now, but you can't just blow up on me whenever we have different opinions, Korra, because most of the time we will. If you just want someone to agree with you all the time, ask yourself!" Mako shot back. He gripped his hips, probably bruising them with how hard he kept his stance before Korra.
Korra huffed and pulled her eyes from the array of papers still falling from the sky, ignoring most of what Mako said because she decided to quit listening at a specific point. "'Unreasonable and childish'? You're the one who is dooming my home because I stepped up and made a decision for myself! And yesterday you weren't even sure about this whole police thing. Now, you're kissing up to the president. How does that happen? Huh? Tell me, Mako!"
Mako's face curled up in anger and he seethed, "I am not dooming anyone! The South will survive your attempt to undermine the United Republic's authority. Spirits, imagine the additional problems you would have caused. What is so hard for you to understand about the nuances to this conversation, Korra! Bad things can happen when you don't think about the in-between of what you do. How you do it matters!" Mako's breathing unevenly as he continued to stare at Korra. His voice lowered and became thicker, his eyes stinging as he said, "As for me not wanting to be here, maybe I don't want to be policing, but you said to keep trying if I thought it might work, and I did think that at one point. I wanted it to keep working. But now you're angry at me for following your advice! I just can't-"
As Mako swallowed back a sob, Korra tugged on her lip so much that she could taste the blood. "Can't what, Mako?" she asked hoarsely, her eyes watering at the thought of the answer.
"I have a job to do! I can't constantly be worrying about keeping you from making another of what I see as a huge mistake!" Mako's voice was strained and broken, but he kept forcing it out, even as tears stained his cheeks.
"And I have a job to do, too. And I can't be constantly worrying about whether or not you'll support me in what I do," Korra whispered back, her energy to fight suddenly evaporating once she couldn't hold her tears back any longer.
They looked at each other in silence. "Well, I guess if we're both putting our jobs first, there's no room for our relationship," Mako sniffled, nipping at the edges of his scarf.
"I guess not since this obviously isn't working," Korra gulped.
"So is this you breaking up with me?"
Korra nodded. "This is me breaking up with you." Korra ran off, her fingers rushing to wipe off the tears on her face as Mako sighed roughly and shrunk to the floor to collect all his papers. Lin, finally hearing the screaming die down for good, figured it was now a good time to leave her office and pulled the door open, pretending to be shocked at the mess.
"What the flameo happened here?" Lin asked, walking over to Mako.
"Korra and I broke up," Mako said, almost as if he didn't believe it himself. Lin pursed her lips, weighing over whether she should make a joke or console him. He does look kind of sad, she thought. After thinking about it for a moment, she decided that it wouldn't be on-brand for her, so she resorted to trying to lighten the mood.
"Fly-away papers? You got off easy. You should have seen Air Temple Island after Tenzin broke up with me. Spirits, you should've even seen Lemaya's mom's ex-boyfriend choking up gallons worth of water after Yue caught him lying to her. You got off way easy." Mako narrowed his eyes as he grabbed the last of his papers and set them off to the side. He grabbed his desk and set it right-side up, placing his papers neatly in two piles over the fist-sized indents in the wood.
"Is that supposed to be making me feel better? That she didn't drown me?" Mako asked, too tried to raise his head to look at Lin.
Lin slapped Mako's back, making him wince at the sudden loss of air to his already breathless lungs. "No, but it sure did make me feel better," she chuckled.
---------------
Korra fled momentarily to Air Temple Island to give her goodbyes to Lemaya whom she told to meet her there. As Korra made her way through the maze of hallways to the room where Lemaya was staying, she repeated over and over to herself the only things she was going to do: tell Lemaya that she and Mako broke up, give Lemaya a hug, and say goodbye to her. Simple, right?
Wrong. Not simple at all. Very hard actually, especially when Korra couldn't help herself in ranting about everything that Mako did to upset her just now. Minus the obvious big one.
"He just kept getting angry at me for trying to do something, focusing on the how and not the why. It's like he doesn't even understand the gravity of this situation!" Korra threw her hands up in exasperation as she paced around Lemaya's room, the waterbender listening intently to Korra.
"Well, he's sort of right, the how does matter," Lemaya said, wishing she could instantly take that back as soon as Korra's head twitched impatiently and she skipped completely over what Lemaya had said. For her own sanity, of course.
"Then things get so heated and I flip over his desk in the middle of the headquarters-"
"You what?" Lemaya gasped, rising off of her bed. She padded over to Korra, confusion written over her face as she tried to grasp what would bring Korra to do that. "Korra, you threw a tantrum because he disagreed with you?"
Korra scoffed and shook her head immediately. "Of course I didn't! I got upset because he wasn't on my side! Spirits, what is wrong with you? Why would you say that?"
"Because it seems to me that you lost it because he had a different opinion, which I agree with, by the way. I think what you did was such a stupid thing." Lemaya shook her head at the thought of what Korra did. "Who in their right mind would go behind a president's back like that?"
"Well of course you agree with him, Miss Chief's Apprentice, but I can't say the same. Maybe I'm just willing to do whatever it takes to save the South!" Korra fired back, raising her voice at Lemaya higher than she had ever raised it.
Lemaya thinly smiled and tried to hold back her rising anger. "Look, we both obviously won't agree on this, and I hate fighting with you so I'm trying my best not to entertain an argument." Korra rolled her eyes, which tested Lemaya, making her turn away for a second to catch her breath. Looking back at Korra's clenched jaw, Lemaya said, "Korra, I understand how worried you are for the Southern Water Tribe and how much you want to help, but it isn't worth all this headfirst diving you're doing. You can't just burst through every roadblock in your way when you set out to aid a war diplomatically."
"Well then what am I supposed to do? Huh? Avatar Aang and his friends can go off and do things headfirst to stop a war, but I can't?" Korra scowled, boiling Lemaya's patience over its limit.
Lemaya burst into a loud yell that rivaled Korra's. "These are two very different things! Along the way they had some fights, but it's not like they tried to bore Ozai to death with diplomatic meetings! You, Korra, have started down the diplomatic route ever since you accepted your father's request to ask President Raiko for military aid. This route can't be traveled with threats and subversions and rudeness! Otherwise, you end up like Unalaq and bribe and lie your way through everything"
"So what you're saying is you think I'm turning out like my Uncle," Korra started, but Lemaya wouldn't let her finish that thought.
"You know that is not what I'm saying, so don't even start with me Korra," Lemaya snapped. Koorrra's mouth flew closed as Lemaya chuckled darkly at her. "What I'm actually trying to say is that you can't rush headfirst like you're doing right now. Sure, if you had decided to do what you please to get aid for the South at the beginning, I would still hate it, but I wouldn't be as upset as I am with you trying to force others to fit what you need while you don't care about their end of these asks of yours. If you would just listen-"
Korra raged, "Listen? Listen! I don't have time to listen. Our home is being invaded!"
"You think I don't know that!" Lemaya exploded, much like how she did on Varrick's yacht," I do, and I think about it all the time, but that's the point, Korra. Everything was started with not listening. With your Dad not listening to what you wanted, with Tenzin ignoring your wishes, with you not listening to people making good points about the people giving you advice. Spirits, I bet someone even said something regarding you opening the portals." Korra flickered her eyes off to the side for a moment as sudden echoes of the spirits from the cavern ricocheted around in her head as if she was right there again listening to them yell at her.
"So forceful."
"Don't do that, Avatar."
"Leave us be."
"Don't awaken it."
"Listen to us."
"We don't want that of you."
"Go away."
As Korra wandered off into an all-too-real world of her own where she felt the spirits still trying to eat at her, Lemaya pulled herself together. She sighed and fluttered her eyes closed, feeling a sudden heaviness on her shoulders as she wracked her brain for all that she had just said. Spirits, I'm the worst, she mumbled. "Korra." Lemaya's voice broke Korra out of her trance but didn't stop Korra from feeling a pit in her stomach at the fact that Lemaya was so right about that one thing that she even though she didn't know the half of it. "I am glad that you stay true to your choices and what you think is right, but I can't get behind how you're going about saving the South. And I'm sorry about that. I'm so sorry, but how you're doing this won't always work, and I just want to help. Please, I know I'm being hard on you but-"
Lemaya reached out to grab Korra's arms but Korra pulled herself away, backing toward the door. "You're blaming me! You're blaming me for all of this even though what you're doing is leaving the south defenseless when it doesn't have time to be!"
"No! I'm not blaming you. I know it may seem like it, but that's not how I meant it. This would have happened with or without you, but I can't just roll over and blindly agree with you." Lemaya's voice quieted as she choked back a sob. "You have the right intentions Korra, as always, but so much is on the line besides you and me and how this affects us and our personal opinions on it. Not everything can be solved with the Avatar just going and going. Sometimes the Avatar just needs to try a different way."
"My Dad said to get reinforcements, which is what I'm doing. Why can't you see that?" Korra quietly breathed, her throat very dry from the second screaming match she had today.
"I do see that, Korra. But your reinforcements don't exist in a vacuum and have very real consequences with how they're gotten. It's not the end result or nothing, things happen in between that effect others. Like trying to talk your friend into becoming a war profiteer or suggesting to steamroll mecha tanks into our home! I know that, sure, those options may work, and I'm thankful that you're trying to do something, but what we don't need after this is all over is people who weren't listened to and got flattened in another person's idea of the right thing to do. And that goes for me too, I am not the end all be all, Korra. I can be wrong."
Korra pulled her focus out of the tight pit in her stomach and to Lemaya's bright blue eyes that were now darkened with pools of tears. "I know. And you are wrong now. You are questioning every move I try to make to save our home, and I'm sick of it. Your way isn't working either, and though you may say you're just trying to help, it doesn't feel like it. It feels like you're just trying to force me to do it your way, and I won't. Because you're wrong." Korra let out a shaky breath as Lemaya let her tears fall, Korra's face still dry because she had no more tears left to shed after earlier.
"Korra, please, I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to do any of that, I-" Lemaya wiped away her tears and sniffled, "I just don't have it in me to continue to follow along with you while you do all this in a way I don't agree with." Korra nodded solemnly and held the silence between them, cursing herself for saying what she was about to.
"And I don't have it in me to listen to someone who doesn't trust how I'm doing this. I don't even have it in me to care about this anymore," Korra said simply. She tried her best to keep her eyes steady and cold, but it was hard, especially as Lemaya's eyes blinked sadly at hers.
Lemaya got really quiet and bit onto her lip as long as she could to try and prolong her turn to speak, spilling out her question hoarsely and with bated breaths because she already knew what the answer would be. "What's this?"
Korra backed toward the door and opened it. "Us." That one word brought Lemaya to even more tears, and Korra had to quickly close the door behind herself and rush out of the temple just to stop her heart from hurting at the sound of Lemaya's pained cries. She headed down to the dock and slipped onto the speedboat Varrick had gifted her and kicked off into the bay, speeding off fast enough to prevent her from looking back and being able to feel all the awful things she felt for leaving like that.
Lemaya stayed behind in the room and plopped herself onto the ground, crying it out as she berated herself for hurting Korra like that. Once she regained some semblance of productivity, she stacked up a couple of, ironically enough, diplomatic plans she drafted to help Korra and dumped them in a bin next to her desk, muttering, "Since Korra's decided to just do whatever the flameo she wants without a care in the world, I guess these are not needed."
But even her attempt at being angry at Korra left her in utter sadness, because at the end of the day, Korra did make a few points, and Lemaya could see where she went wrong. And maybe that's what made it hurt even more. The fact that she could have prevented this. The fact that her being more supportive could have stopped her from blowing up at her best friend and having Korra blow up at her. Or rather, it could have saved her the heartbreak of knowing she hurt the girl she was in love with.
On Korra's side, things were equally as bad. Korra couldn't help the pit in her stomach as she rode across the water, and hated that she yelled like that at Lemaya—and, she guessed Mako, too—especially when it was something that she probably could have avoided if she hadn't shut down on any other option for doing things than the one she wanted first and listened to her best friend. It hurt knowing that she didn't even get to do the three things she set out to do that night, and it hurt even more knowing that Lemaya was right about everything beginning with not listening.
But what hurt most of all was being sucked deep into the ocean by an angry spirit after her cousins berated her with attacks for "stealing" their husband and ruining their wedding. And that they had basically left Korra in the ocean, alone, to die.
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