A World Of Grey (Legend of Korra)

Chapter 40

"Mako, come here. Put that down."

He turned away from the medicine cabinet, hand outstretched and closed around a small plastic container. "Huh?"

"Come here," she repeated, standing in the doorway. "Leave the aspirin alone."

"My head is killing me right now, Korra," Mako told her irritably.

She moved into the room when he displayed no intention of putting the container back. "I know, baby. I just want to try something with you. I think it'll work –"

He showed her the flat of his palm. "Thanks, but whatever you did with your waterbending this morning hardly lasted an hour."

"Mako –"

"For goodness sake, will you just let me be?" he said bluntly, face tight and eyebrows drawn together. He began unscrewing the cap of the container. Korra caught his wrist in a strong hand and wrested it from him.

"Stop being so damn stubborn," she told him, pulling Mako over to the bath as he growled his impatience. "Sit," Korra said, placing her hands to his shoulders and pushing. Mako complied, dropping himself down onto the edge of the tub and accompanying his acquiescence with the rolling of his eyes. He moaned from behind his lips afterwards, putting a hand to his temple. Korra merely arched her brow at him when he looked up at her, folding her arms.

"Are you ready to stop behaving like a child?" she asked him.

Mako leaned forward, spine curved and shoulders hunched forward. "I'm really not in the mood for this," he said in a low voice.

Korra sighed. "I'm sorry," she allowed, uncrossing her arms. "Look, what I want to try is kind of similar to what I did this morning, but just a little…different."

"How?" Mako asked, exasperated as he dropped his hand from his face to look at her. Headaches always seemed to erase his long-suffering patience.

"I – well, you remember what I used to do with energybending, right?" Korra began hesitantly. "Returning bending to the people Amon managed to take it from."

"Obviously," Mako replied. "That's pretty much all you were doing after we came back from the South Pole."

"Well I've studied it a lot since then, training myself how to use it like one of my other elements. Except it's not like the other elements so –"

Mako stopped her with his hand again. "Korra, please."

The words were falling out of her mouth, she couldn't deny that. Korra had been giving what she was about to do a lot of thought after seeing Mako come in, pain etched into his face. His tether was short, he was snappish and she had seen the amount of paperwork piling up on the desk in the bedroom lately. Though if Korra was really honest with herself, there was an undercurrent of curious excitement beneath genuine desire to help Mako get better, however well hidden. She showed him her arms, bare up to the elbows in her shirt.

"You remember the estimate the doctor gave us, about how long the burns would take to heal?"

"Something like six or so weeks," Mako replied without really looking at her, massaging his temple. "But you're the Avatar, so for whatever reason you healed faster than that."

"For whatever reason, right," Korra said with a little smile. She sobered. "Mako, listen, I want you to trust me, and I'd like you to…well, I'd like you to keep this to yourself, please."

He slowly lifted his eyes, framed with suspicion. "Just what are you planning to do to me?"

"Only what I've practiced on myself first," she answered. "Remember when you said waterbenders didn't have a monopoly on pain relief?"