All recognizable characters and allusions are property of Viacom, Nickelodeon, and the creators of The Legend of Korra.

Summary: Mako and Korra reunite after being separated for three years.

Mako took in a deep breath and prayed to the spirits for patience.

"…and if I don't have my weekly facial, my skin will start to dry out and flake! I can't have ugly skin!"

"For the last time, Wu," Mako replied with thinly veiled frustration. "What part of 'Kuvira's supporters are out to get you' do you not understand? I know you want to go out of the hotel but it's not safe right now."

Wu, who'd been trying for the better part of two hours to get Mako to go with him to the spa, threw himself down on the couch. "Then why do I even have a bodyguard? I just want to get my facial!"

A knock at the door interrupted Mako's last attempt to reason with him.

"Ugh, I don't want to see anyone," Wu said exasperatedly, getting up. "Send them away. I'm taking a nap."

Mako pinched the bridge of his nose and turned to answer the door. He couldn't believe he was thinking this but even his days working as a lowly beat cop were better than this.

A bellhop was standing on the other side of the door when he answered it.

"Sorry but….King Wu isn't seeing anyone right now," Mako said, using Wu's title because he knew despite Wu leaving the room he was probably eavesdropping.

"I have a telegram for you, sir," the bellhop replied with a nervous smile, holding out an expensive looking card stock note. "From Air Temple Island."

"Air Temple Island?" His heart started to palpitate faster as he took the note from the bellhop. The bellhop nodded. "Thanks."

The bellhop nodded again and turned and left. Mako quietly shut the door and stared at the telegram.

"What did they want?" Wu asked, coming into the living room again. "Another autograph for one of my fans?"

"No, it was for me," he replied, walking past him to the window. "A telegram."

"Well, what does it say?"

Mako turned over the telegram and read the message.

Korra returned from Zaofu. Come if possible. -Tenzin

It felt like his stomach was about to drop through his feet. He blinked and read the message again. And again. And again.

"Makoooo," Wu said, coming up next to him and plucking the note from his hand. "Why are you being so…Korra? As in Avatar Korra?"

Mako nodded. He turned from the window and clasped his hands behind his back. "Come on, Wu, we should go."

"Go? But you said - "

"I know what I said."

"I don't know, Mako, you said it wasn't safe - "

Mako walked to the door and held it open. "This is really important to me. Can we go?"

Wu stared at him. "O-okay."

The elevator ride to the lobby and walk out to the limousine was oddly quiet and Mako didn't realize it until Wu took his seat beside him silently in the car.

"Are you alright, Wu?" he asked, trying to sound concerned, but the question came out flat.

Wu crossed his arms. "I'm fine."

Which meant that he wasn't fine but Mako's mind was too clouded with confusion to care. Ever since the incident at The Royal Palace a week ago Wu had been a little insufferable and he still wasn't taking his removal from power by Kuvira well, especially since news that Zaofu had fallen reached them the day before. Both were still trying to deal with it in their own ways - hence Wu's insistence to go to the spa and Mako wishing he was anywhere but where he was right now.

The drive to the ferry was heavily silent and did nothing to help clear Mako's mind. He wasn't even sure what he was thinking—for three years he'd imagined what seeing her again would be like, but now that the moment was here, all the words he'd carefully crafted over the years failed him because he couldn't settle on one.

Three years, he thought. Three years is a long time.

He had missed her so badly for so long, that after so much time, it was easier to push the longing aside, and now he didn't know what he felt.

"Is she nice?"

Mako was snapped out of his reverie with Wu's question. He looked to Wu. "Is who nice?"

"Avatar Korra. Is she nice?" Wu was watching him with sharp eyes.

"Yeah, she's nice."

"She's really that important to you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Even though she's failed to keep my kingdom whole and failed to stop Kuvira?"

Mako narrowed his eyes. "None of that was her fault. She's been through a lot."

Wu hmmped and crossed his arms and grumbled to himself the rest of the ride on the ferry to Air Temple Island.

When the ferry docked, he let Wu lead the way up to the Air Temple, where they met a couple of Air Acolytes on their way to the greenhouse.

"You'll find them in the dining hall," one of them supplied helpfully before they moved on.

Mako took in a deep breath to calm himself and followed behind Wu towards the dining hall. His palms felt clammy and a strange tingly feeling bubbled up in his chest. He wasn't sure how nervous, excited, or scared he was and he didn't want to figure out which emotion would win out when he saw her. Instead he tried to focus on his surroundings. It was still early in the day and the sky was bright blue and cloudless. The air was slightly briny and damp as it blew in from Yue Bay from the north and the light chirping of some birds filled the background with noise as they climbed the steps towards the building. To his right he spotted the bagua circle by Tenzin's house. That used to be the place he would most likely find her.

Used to be.

He shoved the thought out of his mind and noticed that they were at the doors to the dining hall. He stepped forward and opened the door for Wu, who stomped in without looking at him.

Mako hung back, hesitating for a moment at the entrance to the dining hall because he could already hear the chatter of voices floating down the small hallway that led into the actual dining hall. A familiar laugh rang through the chatter and his heart stopped at the sound of it. It was her laugh. It sounded no different from the last time he heard her laugh, which had been longer since he'd heard it.

Why would it sound any different? he scolded himself.

Down the small hallway, Wu had already made it to the dining hall. There was the sound of greetings and Mako forced his legs - which felt like they'd acquired lead weights in the last minute - to move forward to follow after him.

"…very nice to meet you, King Wu."

"Good to meet you too, Avatar Korra. Y'know, the way Mako's been acting weird since he found out you were here I would have expected you to be quite the sight. Your clothes…very…Earth Kingdom shabby."

"Mako's here?"

Mako answered the question by stepping into the dining hall opening. His eyes took in the scene before they settled anywhere. Asami was already there, sitting beside Opal and Jinora. Ikki and Meelo were sitting at another table with Bumi, Lin, and Pema. Tenzin was standing next to a young woman in a thin green sleeveless tunic and baggy dark green pants with Wu.

"Mako!"

His eyes stayed on the young woman, who had addressed him by name with Korra's voice.

Wait.

No.

That.

That was Korra.

"Korra?"

She walked around Wu and Tenzin and came to a stop a few feet in front of him with a smile on her face.

All the lines, all the different possibilities he'd pictured over the years, flew out of his brain and he stood there, staring at her, speechless. His heart was hammering out a beat so hard and fast he wondered if she could hear it.

Of course it was her. She looked the same—but not exactly. Her face was more angular, her build leaner. But her eyes - they stared back at him with the easy familiarity of knowing parts of him that no one else did. They were the same shade of fiery blue he remembered seeing for the first time all those years ago, even if the expression in them now was more subdued.

She stepped closer to him. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

He stared at her, his voice caught in his throat. His brain was going a million miles a minute, trying to settle on the right thing to say and what exactly he felt right now.

"Your hair is different," he managed to blurt out, and instantly regretted it. Your hair is different? Really?

She shrugged. "Yeah. Yours too."

He reached up and started to touch it but he dropped his hand. "Yeah."

"It makes you look like a stiff," she said, grinning. "It's good to see you, Mako."

Mako nodded, unable to breach the awkwardness he felt. He could tell it was wedging between them because Korra fidgeted with her arm wrappings. What was the right thing to do in this moment?

Before he knew what he was doing, he took a step towards her and opened his arms. Her eyes lit up and she hurried to step into his embrace, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. He was momentarily in shock, but responded by squeezing her back tightly.

Hugging her always felt right, even if their hugs had changed over the course of time that they knew each other. What kind of hug was this?

"It's good to see you too, Korra," he said in her ear, hoping it was enough to tell her what he felt, even if he didn't exactly know what it was at that moment.

She nodded and exhaled shakily against his shoulder.

Had - had she been nervous about seeing him too? Had she been waiting for this moment like he had?

His thoughts became more confusing and his heart stirred in his chest again.

Someone cleared their throat beside them. Mako let go of Korra and she laughed a little before stepping away from him. He glanced sideways to see that almost everyone in the dining hall had been watching their exchange.

"Why don't you have a seat, Mako, so we can have lunch?" Pema said, breaking the strange tension that had built up in the room.

Korra nodded over to the table where Asami and Opal were sitting and Mako followed after her, noting that Wu opted to sit at the same table.

"So, Korra, do you want to tell the story of how you met my grandma Toph now?" Opal asked as soon as they were sitting.

Mako raised his eyebrows at Korra, who was sitting across from him, and she shrugged a little before nodding. "It's a little dark at first, but sure," she said.

Korra launched into telling the latter part of her journey after she left the South Pole, and as she talked, Mako noticed that it wasn't only her physical appearance that was slightly different. He couldn't pinpoint it, but he should have noticed it first - her usual vivaciousness was dimmer, her smile slightly strained. There was something still bothering her and he had a feeling losing the battle at Zaofu was only the beginning of it.

But most of all, Mako noticed something else as he listened to her tale, something that struck him and warred with all the other feelings he couldn't sort through.

I still love her. After all these years, I still love her.

Three years apart with no contact had not changed anything, but it wasn't that simple anymore. And he was starting to suspect that it might be the case with her, too.

But she was back in his life, and that was a start. It was a start and he hoped that they would get through this, regardless of where they ended up.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I'm sorry if it reads a little rushed or sloppy - I literally wrote this in four hours and set it free on Tumblr late yesterday. I'm literally vibrating in my seat waiting for the actual Makorra reunion on Friday and my hope is that it's as tense and awkward as this one was supposed to be. If I feel up to it, I might write the Korra POV of their reunion once the actual episode comes out. I'm also finishing up another Mako POV fic where he writes his first letter to Korra at the beginning of the three-year gap that they don't see each other - it should be done by Monday night at the latest. Thank you again for reading! I'd love feedback on what I did wrong, what could have been done better, and what I did well! See you soon! :D