moonchild ☽ legend of korra

book 2 - chapter 10

"Luna!" Mako screams as he grabs me by the arm and pulls me close to him. My eyes widen as I see the potent flames coming towards us. I wrap my arms around his waist and bury my face on his chest, closing my eyes in fear. I start feeling the scorching heat of the fire and I feel completely and utterly helpless. It's like I'm twelve once more and the New Ozai Society is attacking me once again. I'm hugging Mako so tightly and so hard out of fear that I'm afraid I'm going to break him.

"You will pay for what your late grandfather did, long live Firelord Ozai!"

Mako lets go of his grip on me, but I don't move at all. Not even an inch. I'm so frozen by the fear that the only thing I can do is hold onto Mako for dear life.

"You can't even defend yourself. Granddaughter of Avatar Aang? Pathetic. Just like he was."

I feel Mako moving despite me clinging unto him like a monkey. He's the only thing keeping me from having a total breakdown right now. I'm just waiting for the traumatizing, burning sensation to hit me once again. For me to be burned again.

"Look at her, boys. She's crying like a baby! If Avatar Aang could only see the weakness of his descendants. He'd bust in shame."

I think I feel Mako shaking me, but I don't move. I'm not letting go, I'm so scared and so frightened. I don't want to be burned again. I don't want to go through all of that again. I just started to get my life back; I was doing everything right, and now it's all going to happen again. I don't want it to. At all.

"Luna?" Mako coos softly. "I-I dissolved the fire. You're okay."

I don't answer because I'm not certain what he's saying is true. I feel him stroke my hair, which I'm guessing is his attempt at calming me down. "Ice girl, I promise. You can let go now, you're safe." He assures once more.

I leisurely begin opening my eyes.  "Is it really gone?" I croak, slowly looking up to meet his eyes.

He nods with a slight smile, his lips pressed tight. He reaches down his hand and wipes the tears I wasn't aware I had. "Are you okay?" Mako asks me, his eyebrows creased in worry.

"I think so." I say in a small tone, letting go of my tight grip on him. "Sorry for uh, you know, clinging unto you like that."

"It's cool, ice girl." He assures me with a smirk. "What are friends for, right?"

"Right." I say, twiddling my thumbs. I'm not sure why, but I feel weird. Memories of how close Mako and I got to be before he and Korra started dating scramble through my brain. I miss him, sometimes. As a friend more than anything. I feel like I can't be close to him anymore because of his relationship.

Just then, more explosions start going off at different points from the building, further away from where Mako and I are. I jump as they go off and instinctively grab hold of Mako's arm. He looks at me and offers me a small, smoothing smile – as if he's trying to tell me that I'll be okay.

"Give me a sec, I think those guys aren't gone yet." Mako informs me, removing my hand from his arm. He takes off running after the guy that pressed the red button, who I see is running towards a parked Sato-mobile.

I run as well, since I figure that I can be of some help after I literally did nothing during the explosions. Mako's speed is insane, he almost catches up to the guy. Mako bends some fire blasts towards him, which the guy dissolves and shoots back – indicating that he's a firebender. After's Mako's blasts, the man in the red coat falls back and drops something. He scurries to get on the Sato-mobile and manages to escape.

Just as I'm reaching the point where Mako is, I see him crouch down and pick up something whatever it is that the man dropped.

"What's that?" I query, breathless from the running.