Chapter Text
~*~*~
It all started with a little tug.
Korra was standing near the concession booth at the Golden Lion-Turtle Theater, waiting for Mako to get out of the bathroom, when she felt the boy pull on the pelt around her waist. When Korra thought about the incident months later, after the whole heartbreaking business was over, she realized she never asked his name. She’d just met so many of them; had had so many similar conversations in the last two months.
“You’re the Avatar, right?” he asked, his bright green eyes glassy and wide. He couldn’t have been older than ten. He didn’t even have a scent. “I was an earthbender. Can you help me?”
“Sure, buddy.” Korra gave the boy what she hoped was an assuring smile as she stepped down on one knee, placed one thumb on his heart and the other on his forehead.
It only lasted a minute, but it was enough to spur a murmur throughout the theater’s lobby. A small crowd formed around her. Korra exhaled, tried to mentally brace herself. Tenzin had put advertisements in the paper informing victims of Amon that they could set up an appointment at the island and get their bending back, but they weren’t seen by everyone and scenes like this – at restaurants, at parks, on the street – had become all too common.
“Avatar Korra,” pleaded a shabbily-dressed Yin woman in her late thirties. “Can I have my bending back too?”
“And me!” said a Yang teenager standing next to her.
“My waterbending!”
“My earthbending!”
“Please, my family have been firebenders for generations. I want it back!”
“Hold on,” Korra implored the crowd. “I’ll get to everybody, I promise.” She took the Yin woman’s hand, tried not to look at the tears forming in her eyes. Korra would do this as many times as she needed to and do it gladly, but she wasn’t sure if she would ever get a handle on the emotions involved. People would cry, would faint, would babble about how sad and useless they felt after they’d had their bending taken away. (Tahno actually kissed her after she’d given him his bending back. Mako had snarled at him for it, but their former rival had insisted that, as another Yang, Korra wasn’t his type even though he “wouldn’t say no to some real crazy stuff.” Korra sent him away before Mako could do something stupid.) It wasn’t that Korra didn’t understand what they were going through. It was that she understood too well, and it was a bit too easy to relive how she had felt.
When Korra was done with the woman, about three other people tried to surge forward. Korra repeated that she’d get to them one at a time, but some were still impatient. She was half-way through fixing a Yin teen boy’s earthbending when an older Yang male pushed him out of Korra’s hands.
“Hey!” Korra yelled at the man as she came out of the Avatar State. “Don’t do that! I could have hurt him.”
Shamed, the Yang babbled out an apology, but Korra was momentarily distracted when she caught Mako’s smell. Even with their greater presence in society in recent years, some Yangs still couldn’t recognize the scent of an in-between, usually mistook them for Yins despite the territorial pheromones they exuded. But having grown up among Katara and Tenzin, the scent would always be familiar to Korra.
“Mako!” Korra called out. She finally him saw as he pushed his way, shoulder-first, through the crowd.
Mako didn’t need to be asked what to do. He knew the drill by now. “Okay, everyone,” he called out. “We’re forming a line. Now!”
A few people in the crowd made some minute, unsure shuffles into slightly less wide crowd, but most, fearing they’d lose their spot, stood their ground. Mako started directing people where to stand, then, and after a few arguments with some of the more stubborn Yangs the crowd was finally forced into a line, which Korra dealt with easily.
“I think she’s the last one,” Mako said as he led a young girl by the hand up to Korra.
By this time the lobby was pretty much empty. Most of the patrons had gone home or into the next performance of “The Passion of Omashu,” leaving only the three of them and the cranky Yang teenage boy selling chestnuts and fire flakes.
Korra looked the girl over, a tight feeling in her chest. The girl’s gray and green cheongsam was frayed at the edges, her long black hair uneven and tangled, the skin of her pale hands chapped and red. She had small, rounded features that made her seem incredibly young – if Korra had to guess she would have pegged her at around nine-years-old – but the girl had a strong Yin scent that must have put her at eleven, at the very least. Such a nice scent, too, Korra thought.
“Hey, pretty girl,” Korra said. She had the urge to hug her, but she knew how inappropriate that would be. “What’s your name?”
Mako raised an eyebrow.
The little girl gulped. Korra thought she saw the girl squeeze Mako’s hand as she spoke. “Shuchun. I … I heard the Avatar helps people.”
“That’s right!” Korra moved closer to Shuchun, put her hands on her heart and forehead. She seemed incredibly warm. “Don’t worry. This won’t hurt.”
Korra felt herself slip into the Avatar State. She tried to feel along Shuchun’s chi lines, find the broken connection to her bending and heal it.
It wasn’t there.
Korra came out of the Avatar State, stared at Shuchun’s nervous, trembling face. Did she do something wrong? Mako was looking at Shuchun strangely too. He sniffed the air over her head.
Korra decided to give it another shot. She searched along the energy lines in Shuchun’s body from head to toe, then searched again, then searched one more time.
“Shuchun?” Korra asked as she let her go, came out of the Avatar State again. “Were you ever a bender?”
Shuchun’s bottom lip started to tremble. “Th-They said you could help me. My … my brother,” Shuchun clasped her hands to her heart, let out a loud wail. “He still has my older brother.”
Clarity finally hit Korra. Her heart rate increased placed her hands on Shuchun’s shoulders. The cloth of her dress was damp with sweat. “Who has your older brother?”
“Korra,” Mako interrupted. “I think something’s wrong with her. Her scent isn’t …”
Shuchun let out a cry, collapsed to her knees with her hands clasped over her groin. Korra immediately reared back, covered her nose and her mouth with her hands. She’d been such an idiot. She knew the signs of heat, had even felt Shuchun’s hormones playing with her brain, but somehow it hadn’t connected.
“Hey!” the concession stand guy screamed at them. He held a dirty rag over his own nose and mouth. “Get that girl out of here now! You want to cause a public health hazard?”
Korra growled at him. “You’re a public health hazard.” She circled her arms, trying her best to clear the air and disperse the smell of heat. Mako had already tied his scarf tightly across his nose and mouth. He picked Shuchun up, his arms beneath her shoulders and knees. Shuchun squirmed in Mako’s grip as they made their way toward the exit.
“Hey, don’t try to help, or anything,” Mako yelled to the concessions stand guy as he pushed open the door with his back.
“Up yours, pervert.”
Korra snarled at him, was ready to leap across the concessions stand and slam the guy’s face into it, but Mako told her to forget about it.
They left the theater, rushed to around the back where Naga waited for them.
Korra could hear Shuchun moaning as they climbed onto the polar bear-dog’s back. She took off one of her wristbands, held it against her nose. “Where do you live?” she asked Shuchun. “Where are your parents?”
Shuchun shook her head. “No parents. My brother … Please, help my brother.”
“We’ve got to get her to a safehouse,” Mako said.
Korra shuddered. She’d heard about safehouses. Run by Yins and guarded by Yangs, safehouses were places where poor Yins could wait out their heats free of charge, but they had a reputation for being filthy and degrading places to be. News stories and one-yuan paperbacks were chock full of details about bedsheets covered in stains, walls dripping with mold, broken locks and … well, Korra didn’t even want to think about the toys.
Korra looked back at Shuchun. Her face was scrunched up and her eyes wet with tears.
“Can’t we bring her back to the island? They have a lot of rooms for Yins there.”
Mako shook his head. “They won’t let Yins in heat anywhere near the docks. We’d be harassed within five blocks, anyway.”
“You really think your average Yang will try to fight off Naga?”
“Well… okay, maybe not. But some of them might be dumb enough to try. Unless you can fly or swim her to the island on your own?”
Korra wasn’t sure. Just being near Shuchun was making her antsy, even with her nose covered and her occasional airbending away the most potent Yin smells. If she tried to bring all of them on Naga through the water, the scent in that air bubble would quickly get unbearable. If she flew, she’d have to be carrying Shuchun the whole way and trying to keep her own Yang instincts in check could be beyond her.
“Maybe if I tried the Avatar State …”
“Look, I can guess what you’re thinking,” Mako said. “Bolin hated those places. I used to go without food to buy him suppressants so I wouldn’t have to leave him there. But I really don’t think we have a better choice.”
Korra ran the fingers of her free hand through Naga’s fur. Her polar bear-dog whined in response. Korra didn’t like to think of Mako or Bolin in a situation like that, didn’t want to put a girl who was probably barely older than Jinora in it. But she grabbed the reins and spurred Naga forward.
The nearest safehouse ended up being only a few minutes away. As soon as they arrived Mako slid off Naga’s back, Shuchun hooked over his shoulder, and ran toward the entrance. Korra stayed behind. Even though she had the instinct to defend Shuchun, she knew that it was best for the both of them if she kept as far away as possible.
Korra put her wristband back on, looked over the safehouse. From the outside, Korra supposed it didn’t look so bad: a squat, brown building about four stories tall, the only decorations were a Yin-Yang symbol on the door and a tiled green awning held up by detailed wooden supports over the front door steps. A thick bruiser of a man – light brown skin, dark hair, about seven feet tall – stood watch.
Naga sniffed the air and let out a low growl. Korra brushed the fur on her neck, trying to assure her. When Korra looked up, there was a young woman standing near the door.
The bruiser tensed as she approached. The woman looked pretty, although Korra wondered how much of that was due to her makeup: black shadows around the eyes and red lips the color of a stoplight. With her dark skin and black hair – which was looped on either side of her face with green beads and piled up in a high bun atop her head – Korra would have pegged her as a Water Tribe girl. Yet her nearly-skintight blue silk cheongsam slit up the sides and decorated with what looked like flowers stitched in green didn’t resemble any clothes from the South or North poles. The outfit didn’t interest Korra as much as what was strapped to her waist – on one hip was something Korra thought was a water skein, on the other a small, lumpy bag.
The woman and the guard were speaking about something Korra couldn’t quite hear. In a few moments their voices were louder; they seemed to be arguing but since it was still unintelligible Korra just tried to ignore it. Then Mako came out of the door, and the woman covered her face, grabbed onto the bruiser by his jacket and sobbed.
“Stay here, girl.” Korra whispered to Naga. She made her way toward the safehouse.
“Miss, I told you this already,” the bruiser said as he pushed the woman away. “The law is that Yins who’ve been checked in aren’t allowed out until their heat is over. No exceptions.”
The woman let out a howl, covered her face. “You don’t understand. This man … this, this awful man! He kidnapped my younger sister.”
“What?” Mako asked. “That’s ridiculous. I’ve never seen this woman before. My bondmate and I were at the theater for a date and–”
“Oh, listen to his lies! He’s always wanted poor Shuchun for himself, wanted to take him away from our family.”
“So I took her to a safehouse?” Mako asked. “How does that make any sense?”
Korra didn’t wait for the woman to reply. She grabbed her by the shoulders, twisted her hands in the woman’s dress as she lifted her up just high enough so her toes were scraping the top step.
“That’s enough!” Korra said. “Why do you want Shuchun? Answer now!”
The woman didn’t answer. She let her eyes roam over Korra’s body, curled her mouth into a slow smile. (Was she a Yin, then? Korra tried to smell her but was hit with a thick coat of perfume similar to the type Asami wore when Korra first met her.) “And who might this fine specimen of Yang be?” she asked, licking her lips.
Ugh. Was this girl serious? “The Avatar,” Korra spat. She cocked her head in Mako’s direction. “And his bondmate.”
The woman’s seductive expression immediately melted. Korra put her on the ground.
“Would have thought someone like you would have needed a real Yin to satisfy,” the woman purred. “There are some dark edges to our spiritual leader, eh?”
“Can it,” Korra growled. “Shuchun never mentioned a sister. Who are you? No lies this time.”
“Tukiko,” the woman said. “And it doesn’t matter if I’m not really her sister. She belongs to us, to our pack.”
Mako’s eyes widened. He stepped closer to Tukiko, his mouth curled in a snarl. “You stay away from that girl.”
Korra blinked, stared at the both of them. Something had completely gone over her head.
The bruiser seemed to understand, though. He took her by the arm and pushed her hard so that she stumbled down the stairs. “Out! If I see you near here again, the Vice Squad is hauling your butt to jail.”
Tukiko winced. She rubbed her arm, seemed genuinely hurt, but when she looked back at all of them her eyes were blazing with anger. She dug into the bag on her hip. “If you want to catch me,” she snarled, “you’ll need to send the metalbenders.”
She sliced her arm through the air like a sword. Korra felt herself being hit on her forehead, her shoulder, her abdomen, her thigh, and while the hits didn’t break the skin they stung. When Korra recovered from the volley, she heard a rolling sound, saw a bunch of small, smooth rocks return to Tukiko. She scooped them up in her hand and ran.
“An earthbender!” Korra looked back at the others. The guard was on his knees, his beefy arms wrapped around his stomach. Mako had also been knocked on his butt, had his hand clasped over his left eye.
“Mako?”
“I’ll be okay,” he said. “Go after her. I’ll catch up.”
Korra didn’t quite believe him, but broke into a run anyway, bending the air behind her to propel her forward and make up for lost time. Tukiko must have heard her. She turned around and stomped on the ground, giving Korra barely a second to jump as the streets shot up beneath her.
When her feet hit the ground, Korra took up her run again. She saw a puddle left over from the previous day’s rain, bent it toward Tukiko and froze it to ice beneath her foe’s feet. Tukiko skidded on the ice and fell, but when Korra was within reach of her Tukiko grabbed her rocks again, rolled them along the ground so Korra was the one who slipped.
Korra felt the streets rise and encase around her torso, holding her to the ground. Pinned, Korra tried a blast of fire, but Tukiko was able to dodge it. She tried air next, but by that point Tukiko had slipped into one of the alleyways.
Korra growled. She slipped into the Avatar State to break out of the earth around her, then used it to fly to the top of the highest building around. Korra came out of the Avatar State upon landing, looked as far as she could for Tukiko’s blue and green outfit, but couldn’t find her.
Using some wind gusts, Korra gently buffeted herself down to the ground. In the distance, she saw Naga rushing toward her, Mako close on the polar bear-dog’s heels.
“I probably should have had you run after her, girl,” Korra said as she hugged Naga’s neck. Then she got better look at Mako. His eye was closed shut, had grown purple and swollen. “Ouch. She got you good.”
“Yeah,” he winced as Korra stroked her fingers along the bruise. “I talked with the guard. He was hit hard in the stomach but he says he’ll be fine.”
“Anyone calling the police?”
“The guard refused. He says he’s gotten into a lot of fights with prostitutes ready to bring Yins back to their rings and unless he has them ready for arrest he doesn’t bother to …”
“Woah, woah,” Korra pulled her hands away. “Back up. ‘Prostitute?’ ‘Ring?’”
For a minute, Mako stared at her through his good eye like she was an idiot. Then he shook his head. “Sometimes I forget you’re not from here. Yeah, she’s a prostitute. I knew it as soon as she said ‘our pack.’ It’s slang for a sex trafficking triad.”
Korra’s mouth dropped open. Then she growled. She leaped onto Naga.
“Korra?”
“We have to go back and get Shuchun,” Korra said, pulling Naga’s reins so she moved back in the direction of the safehouse.
Mako laid a hand on Naga’s muzzle. The polar bear-dog growled beneath it, but Mako didn’t move. “We can’t take her out, Korra. I’ve heard of Yangs who were almost sent to prison for trying to spring their bondmates.”
“I don’t care if it’s against the rules! That woman wants to hurt her and we need to get her away from here!”
“Look, it’s … what time was it when the show ended? Seven? It has to be about nine now. We’ll come back early in the morning and be ready to get her out of here after her heat ends around noon. Okay?”
Korra sighed. Naga looked back at her, cocked her head as if she was waiting for a decision. Korra finally nodded and reached out a hand to help Mako onto Naga’s back.
The two of them didn’t speak for a while. Korra began to feel tired. At one point she dozed sitting up and felt herself jarred awake as she started to keel over.
“You okay?” Mako asked.
“Mmm, yeah,” Korra said. She stretched her arms as she yawned, then rolled her shoulders. “I think I’m just sort of crashing after everything. I’ll fix your eye when we get back and then hit the hay.”
She felt Mako’s hand rub along her back. She smiled.
“Some end to a date, huh?” Korra asked.
“Yeah,” Mako chuckled. “So ... did you like the play?”
Korra bit her lip. “Well, I don’t know. It was really long. I liked it better when you took me to that place with the actors in the funny hats.”
“You mean the nickelodeon?”
“Yeah,” Korra said. “That. It was funny when they pretended to hit each other.”
~*~*~
They had some trouble getting back home. Mako suggested they try to get the last boat of the night but when they got near the docks, every other Yang spotted the bruise over Mako’s eye and shot Korra a dirty look. Frustrated, Korra had Naga bring them to a secluded spot and, through Naga’s swimming and Korra’s waterbending, they arrived at the island a half-hour before midnight.
To Korra’s surprise, Bolin was waiting at the island’s docks for them. (“Where the heck were you guys? And what happened to your eye, bro?”) Mako explained a little bit about the fight but not much more as Bolin led the both of them back to the dining hall, where Tenzin and his family had waited up for them. The three older children had a barrage of questions. (“Why were you so late?” “Why is Mako’s eye purple?” “Wasn’t that actor Huang so dreamy?” “Did the show have real badger-moles or just people in costumes?” “Badger-moles! Roar!”) But both Korra and Mako declined to answer any of them. Tenzin tried to question them next. (“Don’t you know we were all worried sick about you? What happened?”) Korra continued to insist she’d tell him later.
Sensing the mood, Pema gently urged, then, when that didn’t work, ordered the kids to bed.
“Thanks,” Korra whispered as Pema left.
“Don’t mention it,” Pema whispered back. “Just tell me later to let me know everything’s okay.”
A female Yin Air Acolyte brought Korra a bowl of water, which Korra put to work on Mako’s eye. As soon as the acolyte was gone, Korra and Mako told Tenzin and Bolin the whole story.
“So,” Korra said. She bent the water back into the bowl, watched as Mako awkwardly opened and closed his healed eye. “It’s okay if we bring Shuchun back here tomorrow, right?”
“Uh, so long as when you get her you bring me,” Bolin said, pointing to himself with the last word. “Honestly, you guys tangle with some weird marble-throwing earthbender and I’m not there? Pft. Lame. I’d show her what’s what.”
Tenzin let out a sigh.
Korra pouted. “That’s never good.”
Her airbending master frowned. “I have no objection to letting the girl stay here, Korra, but I want to know what you’re planning beyond that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Republic City is in a precarious position right now. Do you really plan to help that girl get back her brother?”
“Well … yeah,” Korra said. “I can’t turn away from someone who needs help, right?”
“Yes,” Tenzin said. “And you and Mako did the right thing tonight. But, Korra, as horrible as this girl’s situation is, and as much as I’d wish it were otherwise, there are untold numbers of Yins like her in Republic City.”
“What does that mean?” Bolin asked. Korra thought he sounded offended. “Are you saying she doesn’t matter?”
“No, Bolin. But the police has officers who are experts in busting these … these ‘packs’ and specialists willing to help the Yins they rescue. You’ve all been in trouble for stepping on the police’s toes in the past and now that the city is trying to heal after the Equalist uprising …”
“Wouldn’t they want more help?” Korra asked.
A low growl vibrated in Tenzin’s throat. “Honestly, Korra, do you even listen to the words I say?”
“Yes,” she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “You told me two weeks ago that the police have been so tied up in trying to rebuild their force that Bumi and General Iroh have been helping them with the United Forces. The Council is short on money and lost a lot of its public buildings in the airstrikes so the board of elections isn’t sure where it’s going to put the polling sites in the race for the new Northern Water Tribe representative. One group is calling for the ousting of every Council member except for you and some other group wants a law to always have at least two non-benders on the Council. And …”
“You’ve made your point!” Tenzin sighed and rubbed the side of his head. “I don’t understand why you kids are so willing to thrust yourselves into danger this way.”
“Sir,” Mako said. “I think I get what you’re saying about there being lots of Yins like her. I know we’re not going to get rid of this problem, but I don’t think it’s wrong to just try to help Shuchun get her brother back. Besides it seems like …” he looked at Bolin, “ … like she really doesn’t have anyone else.”
Bolin took a deep breath, nodded. “We should help her. Mako and I have been through some tough times, but what this girl must have gone through?” he shook his head. “I don’t want to think about it.”
“I …” Tenzin coughed. “I understand this must be a sensitive subject for you boys, but …”
“Tenzin,” Korra interrupted. “She’s about Jinora’s age.”
Her words froze him. Tenzin lowered his gaze. “Yes, I … I heard some of the pack’s victims are that young. I’ve spoken to them at task forces. Some of them were even younger, had barely any idea what happened when their heats began and these … these monsters used that to ...” He shook his head. “All for money, too. Money. I can’t understand it.”
Korra looked over at Mako, saw him staring down at the floor. She put a hand on his shoulder, but he didn’t respond. Korra tried to see if Bolin could give her a clue, but he seemed to be lost in thought.
“The leaders of these … these ‘packs,’” Tenzin emphasized the word with a special contempt, “they’re capable of truly terrible things. You all need to promise me that you’ll be careful, that you’ll keep me informed of what’s happening so that we can get these children the help they need. Do you understand?”
The three of them nodded.
“We promise,” Bolin said.
“Good,” Tenzin stood up from the table. “Now, I think we all could use some sleep.”
~*~*~
Korra walked Mako and Bolin to the men’s dormitories after their talk with Tenzin. Mako insisted she didn’t have to but as a Yang who, after everything, had still just been a date, Korra thought it was appropriate.
“Hey, I keep meaning to ask,” Bolin said as they followed one of the stone paths. “Do you know why they separate us into boys and girls? I mean, if the acolytes don’t want anything, uh, unsavory to happen wouldn’t they separate us by Yin and Yang?”
“So, what about perverts like me, then?” Mako asked. “Would I be sleeping in a tent somewhere?”
Bolin looked at Mako sadly. “Bro, I know you mean to be funny, but …”
Mako sighed. “Forget I said anything.”
Korra looked at Mako sadly, then turned back to Bolin. “Pema explained it to me once. It goes back to the four temples, how they had two for men and two for women. You know how we don’t know if we’re Yin, Yang or in-between until we’re teenagers – well, most people anyway, I knew I was a Yang since I was about five – but almost everyone knows right away if they’re a boy or girl? I think the monks wanted the Air Nomad children to, sort of, learn to see each other as equals before those differences came about, and that was easier if they were with other boys and other girls.”
“Huh,” Bolin said. “I always thought it was because the Air Nomads weren’t that into relationships. You know, that whole ‘no attachment’ thing and stuff.”
“I think the most spiritual monks and the leaders were like that, but not everybody. I don’t think everyone can do that. And I heard some rumor about how Avatar Aang had a Yin and a Yang mother and they stayed together for life, but I don’t know how true that is. Aang never met them, so I can’t find out.” Korra shrugged. “The Air Nomads always had one Yang to every four Yins in their heyday, anyway. If they had one temple for just Yangs I bet the Yangs would drive each other crazy.”
“I guess that’s all moot with Tenzin’s family, anyway,” Mako said.
“Yeah,” Korra said. “He wanted to live like his fathers and mother’s family. Well … like Aang and Katara, I guess.”
Korra and Mako saw Bolin to his room and they parted with assurances that they’d meet early tomorrow to go to the safehouse. Bolin didn’t seem eager to watch them go, closed the sliding door slowly with what Korra hoped wasn’t disappointment. Korra walked with Mako to his room next, gave him a good-bye kiss.
Then, as she turned to go for the night, she quickly turned back.
Korra wasn’t completely sure what had come over her; maybe it was something residual from smelling Shuchun’s heat for so long. But within seconds Korra had Mako by the shirtfront, pulled his face down to meet hers and kissed him. With her mouth still locked on his, she forced him to walk backwards into his room, closing the sliding door behind her as she did so.
Mako breathed her name into her mouth. Korra laughed in response, lifted Mako up by the waist and carried him to his bed. He moaned as she climbed on top of him.
For the next few minutes they were just kissing, and Korra was fine with that. She liked the taste of his mouth, the feel of his tongue. She liked how well it matched with his scent, already so rare and so uniquely his. Korra loosened his scarf and licked his neck.
Mako ran his fingers through her hair, leaned forward and buried his nose in it. “You smell so good,” he said. He took another sniff and sighed. “I never thought I could like a Yang’s scent this much.”
Korra wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but didn’t really care. His hormones were doing their work on her, were urging her to more aggression. She licked along his neck again, punctuated it with a scrape of her teeth. Mako cried out and bucked beneath her. Korra reached down, tried to loosen his pants.
Mako grabbed her wrist. “No. Not tonight.”
His words were like a blast of cold water. She growled and sat up on his waist. “Again?”
Mako frowned. “I thought you were tired. Weren’t you falling asleep sitting up a few hours ago?”
“I’m not too tired for this.”
Mako groaned, tried to sit up. Korra moved off him, sat at the edge of the bed with her arms crossed.
“Look,” he said. He rubbed his eyes. “I’m really sorry, but this isn’t the right time.”
“Well, when is the right time?” Korra asked. “We’ve been together for two months and every time I ask you …”
“I know. I know,” Mako shook his head. “It’s just …”
“Is it me?” Korra put one of her hands on his. “Am I scaring you? Am I doing something you don’t like? Do I need to do something to you first?”
“You’re perfect,” Mako said. He kissed her on the cheek. “Listen, tonight I’m really tired. And I’m not a Yin. I can’t just … just be ready like they are, especially since I’m a guy. Do you know what I mean?”
Korra wasn’t sure she did at first. Then her eyes widened. “Oh! You mean the butt lubrication?”
Mako groaned. “You’re so embarra … yes, that.”
“Well, maybe if I stimulate you a little more …?”
“It’s not happening tonight. I really am sorry, but I know my body and it’s not going to work.”
Korra stared down at the floor. “Okay.” She got up to leave, felt Mako’s hand grab her wrist.
“Look at me. Please,” Mako said. Korra turned back, met Mako’s lips in a kiss as he stood up. “I love you. I want our first time together to be special.”
“If it’s with you, it will be special.”
“But it will be better if we’re not half-dead at the time. Okay? Trust me.”
“But there always seems to be a …” Korra sighed. “Okay, you’re right. Not tonight.” She kissed him again and left.
~*~*~
There was one aspect of being the Avatar that nobody liked to talk about. When the Avatar approached puberty, it was common for them to have dreams of their past (and, on the rare occasion, future) lives and their lovers. Few Avatars wrote about this in detail or shared these experiences with their family and friends, especially present lovers who might feel unnecessarily jealous, but in those brief mentions in their memoirs a few common traits emerged: the dreams were vivid and powerful, making the current Avatar feel not just as if they were watching their old self, but taking on all the emotions and pleasure of their old self. It was also the only experience in the world, other than a particularly powerful piece of romance writing, that could let a Yang know what it was like to be a Yin or a Yin know what it was like to be a Yang.
Due to her spiritual block, Korra missed out on the visions growing up, but the visions were accessible now.
Korra was standing in a hallway lined on both sides by thick wood doors. She couldn’t see her past self yet, but she could feel his hunger. He was a Yang like her, had that familiar overwhelming need to consume another person, to make them beg and whimper beneath them.
Korra had to smile as she felt the Yang’s body grow hot. She was going to love watching this.
Her past self appeared at the end of the hallway. The first thing Korra thought was that he wasn’t very handsome. He looked strong, was maybe slightly larger than Bolin, but his nose was large and crooked, his lips slightly too big. He was dark-skinned with brown hair, but his plain green and yellow hanfu marked him as Earth Kingdom rather than Water Tribe. He was fierce looking, but at the moment he felt weak. So, so weak.
The Avatar sat in front of one of the cells. A Yin scent hung around the door like a cloud, and the Avatar wanted nothing more than to burn it down and take the Yin inside for his own, imagined he could feel the Yin’s flesh in his hands, the Yin’s slick around his hard knot. He could have the Yin if he wanted, could have him right at this moment, but then the Avatar knew he would lose him forever, that to do so would be as good as cutting his throat.
“Anil,” the Avatar pressed his hands against the door, moaned against the wood. “I’ve returned, Anil. I’m here. My love. My master. Can you hear me? Can you feel how I ache for you? I’m dust beneath your feet, Anil. I’m nothing without you. I owe you my soul, my life. Can you feel that Anil?”
Ugh, Korra thought. She’d never said anything that embarrassing to Mako, right? Granted, given the hormones swimming in his head it made a lot of sense that the Avatar (and she) felt so desperate and needy. It was impossible for Korra not to feel swept up in it, not to feel how much he truly loved and desired that Yin. And yet there was something darker in it. The Avatar felt debased in that torment, like he deserved to feel so wretched.
Korra realized exactly whom she was watching, mouthed the name which history attributed to him, the name every Yang with a thirst for battle needed to learn. He was Kyung the Furious: the vicious Avatar who fathered and abandoned multiple children, who nearly killed the Fire Nation Crown Prince, who would have been killed before being allowed to become a fully realized Avatar if not for the intervention of his airbending master, Monk Anil of the Southern Air Temple.
Right now he hardly seemed so dangerous. Every second near the door to Anil’s cell was agony, but Anil’s scent was doing this to him, was so alluring that he didn’t want to be anywhere else. It was right that Anil should entrap him, should turn him into nothing but the mindless beast he knew himself to be.
“My love,” Kyung struck the door with his fist, moaned against it and pressed his ear to the door. To his shock, he felt something hit the door on the other side.
Korra’s breath hitched in her throat. When Kyung whispered Anil’s name, she whispered it with him.
“You punish yourself,” said a voice – weak, breathy, and to Kyung and Korra so beautiful – behind the door. “I’ve … I’ve told you not to, Kyung. It’s been three years. You’ve made amends. You’ve truly become The Avatar.”
“Anil …” Kyung scrambled against the door, clawed against it.
“You don’t need me anymore, my student.”
“I will never stop needing you. I love you. Can you believe that? Can you believe a wretched, unworthy man like me could love you?”
“For the longest time, I couldn’t,” Anil sighed. Kyung heard the door unlock.
Korra gasped.
Kyung threw open the door, grasped the monk in his arms and held him tight to his chest. He felt the wind blow behind him as the monk airbent the door closed, shut the lock. Anil was pale and thin, weighed practically nothing in Kyung’s arms. His beard was close-cropped, growing gray in a way that had to put him at Tenzin’s age or older, but to Kyung and Korra he looked like the most beautiful man in the world.
It didn’t last long, nothing with that much buildup could. Kyung had Anil on the floor within minutes, after only a few thrusts was knotting inside him. Anil was already coming, had an orgasm so powerful that Kyung felt the both of them temporarily lifting off the floor. This was everything Kyung had dreamed it would be, was better than anything he had felt with his previous lovers. This was home.
When Kyung’s orgasm had ended, when the vision started to fade, Korra felt happy, content. She was laying down in the dark on a soft surface that reminded her of being a child and playing in the new-fallen snow. She sighed happily. Maybe it was worth missing out on the real thing for that.
A blue light shone before her. Korra looked up to see Kyung’s spirit form.
The ancient Avatar gave her a cocky smile. “So you’re the new one. Nice to meet you. Expect me.”
“Expect me?” Korra asked. “What do you …?”
He disappeared.
“Well,” Korra let out a breath. “That was unpleasantly ominous.”
“Korra?”
She turned to her right, saw another shining blue form emerge from the darkness, one that had become very familiar to her.
“Aang?” Korra pouted. “Do I have to watch you have sex now? I know I said I had a crush on Katara but I was like, seven or something, and now it would just be really awkward.”
Aang rolled his eyes. “I once saw Roku and Sozin together. Kyung sent that vision to you for his own reasons. But I have something important to show you, something that you need to know about if you continue down this path. Follow me.”
Korra did. The darkness burned away, coalesced into what Korra realized was an office at the city hall. Councilman Sokka sat at the desk, adjusting a radio. Around him stood the rest of the famed Team Avatar: Fire Lord Zuko, Chief Toph Bei Fong, Master Katara with a newborn baby in her arms, and Avatar Aang.
As Korra watched, Aang’s spirit form stood next to her. “What time is this?” she asked him. “What are you doing?”
“It is well over 50 years ago,” Aang said. “I hadn’t given birth to Tenzin yet. Zuko was visiting the city, had heard the rumors at a party of a major announcement coming at a symposium in Ba Sing Se. The reporters there recorded it. Listen.”
Sokka finally found the right frequency on the dial. A deep, elderly voice – one more used to university halls than the radio – mumbled out of it. “Dr. Auckaneck. Graduate of Ba Sing Se University. Consulting physician at Republic City Hospital East. Professor at Republic City University. The good doctor has an announcement that has been the subject of much speculation and rumor. We ask you hold your questions until the end.”
“Thank you,” responded a new voice over the radio – much clearer, much younger. “The last five years have been some of the most productive in scientific history. With open borders and faster communication scientists have been able to share ideas at a rate like never before, to unlock mysteries of the human body once only thought changeable through mystics and benders. We’ve discovered the hormones: chemicals native to our body that stimulate a multitude of process, from how we feel hunger to how we grow to how we mate. It is the last, ladies and gentlemen, that concerns us today.
“I …,” Dr. Auckaneck coughed. “For those who don’t know me, I’m a native to the Northern Water Tribe. My father – my Yin father, anyway – was named Adlartok.” (Korra though she saw Katara flinch at that name and wondered why.) “Due to the customs of our tribe, he was unable to acknowledge me as his own, acknowledge my Yang father Mauja, until years after I was born. I was born male, grew up to be a Yang, received every privilege and opportunity in my culture, but I never forgot this slight.
“I speak to you today, ladies and gentlemen, as a research scientist but also a physician, as a man who has dedicated his life to improving the wellbeing of all humanity. Although the fields of science and technology grow and change, our cultures have been slow to keep pace. With the formation of the United Republic, I fear that it won’t be the more open cultures – the Air Acolytes, the Southern Water Tribes, the Cities of Omashu – that will set us free. It will be the Northern Water Tribes and the Fire Nations’ values of Yang supremacy that will keep us from further progress and enlightenment.
“For so long, cultures have marked the Yin’s heat as a reason to bar her or him from leadership, from employment, from the public stage. No longer. I have isolated the hormone that spurs heat, found a way to inhibit it. My colleagues, with a simple shot administered once a month, we can now cure heats.”
Dr. Auckaneck said something else, but it was drowned out in the loud, angry rumbling from the crowd. In the hall’s office, almost every face was twisted into an expression of shock. Only Zuko and Toph, the Yangs in the group, remained unmoved, listened to the radio with intense concentration.
“I assure you all the process is safe and reversible. A heroic anonymous volunteer offered to use the chemical suppressant for a year, and is currently pregnant with her second child. In the months ahead, I will be available to the press and my colleagues to answer questions, but I urge you all to support this, to help me change our world for the better. Thank you.”
The news announcer came back on, and Sokka shut off the radio. “Wow,” he whispered. His eyes were wide with awe.
“Is he for real, Zuko?” Toph asked.
“Everyone who has met Dr. Auckaneck describes him as an honest man. Exacting and a bit of a control freak, but honest,” Zuko said.
“Right,” Sokka said with a nod. “Wow, I’m … I’m still stunned. If I heard this when I was fourteen, I’d be bouncing off the walls.”
“I don’t know much about chemical healing,” Katara said, stroking Kya’s head as she spoke. “I think we need to be absolutely sure it’s safe.”
“Yeah, of course,” Sokka said. “This … If this was really safe it would help so many people.”
“I’m not sure what the police’s role in this will be,” Toph crossed her arms in front of her. “But if more Yins take this there will probably be less Yang attacks on them. And less Yins will be fired because some jerk factory boss won’t let them miss work for the day. It could do a lot of our job for us.”
“It’s going to change everything,” Zuko smiled, spread out his hands. “We’ll all be equal now.”
The four of them kept speaking, apprehension slowly fading as they discussed more and more what this discovery could mean. Aang stood apart from them, practically shaking with his hands balled into fists. Korra wondered what could be bothering him so much, was ready to ask his spirit form but then …
“Have you all gone crazy?” Aang yelled. “How can any of you think this is a good idea?”
The four of them stared back at him in silence. Korra couldn’t blame them. Even Katara seemed confused as to why he was so mad.
Aang took a deep breath, “Katara, how can you be okay with something that takes away someone’s ability to have a baby after all we went through for me to have Bumi and Kya? Toph, why do you think Yins need to take a shot every month so that Yangs can stop doing what they shouldn’t have been doing anyway?”
“Don’t put words in my mouth, Twinkletoes!”
“Well, Zuko just said if this happens we’d all be equal now. Does that mean you think of Sokka as inferior? How about me?”
Katara sighed and shook her head. “Aang, you know that’s not what Zuko meant. And I know we worked hard to have our children, but you know that’s my fault and this suppressant would never change that.”
“And what if someone made a shot that could turn you into a Yin, Katara? After all, that’s what the Northern Water Tribe would have wanted.”
“That’s not the same thing!” Zuko protested.
“You’re a Yang!” Aang spat back at him. “What would you know?”
“Okay, fine! I won’t talk!” Zuko turned away from the rest of them, stalked off to the other edge of the room. “I only called this meeting together. I’ve only passed countless reforms to improve the lives of Yins in my country. What would I know about this?”
Katara rolled her eyes. She held Kya up to her shoulder and whispered in the baby’s ear, “Don’t be like your Yang father when you grow up, okay?”
“Well, I’m a Yang too and I’m going to say what I think,” Toph huffed, digging her fists into either side of her waist. “I see so many Yangs who grow up thinking mating is just for fun and Yins are just toys attack or seduce Yins and leave them pregnant and alone. If you’re offering me something that’s going to help stop that, I’m going to take it.”
“You didn’t abandon Lin!” Aang countered.
“Because I’m not a jerk! And I love my daughter. But I can’t stop people from being jerks, Aang, so I have to put their Yins and their children first because they clearly won’t.”
Aang let out a disgusted groan. “Sokka, you … you have to see what I’m saying, right? Are you really okay with everything that doctor said? Do you really think heats are something that needs to be cured?”
Sokka had been leaning against the desk, arms crossed and uncharacteristically quiet, when the fight started. Even now he seemed to Korra to be unwilling to get into it.
“Aang, here’s the thing,” Sokka said. “What this guy is offering, it sounds awfully similar to what the Air Nomads were able to do. It’ll help us control how we react in heat. It’s just a shot instead of meditating.”
“So why don’t we just use meditating? It still works.”
“It didn’t work for me!” Sokka yelled, waved his arms in frustration. “And I tried. I really did. I did everything you said and went through every heat aching and miserable until I was with Suki.”
Toph sighed, muttered under her breath, “You didn’t have to.”
Zuko groaned over on his end of the room. “Let it go, already. How long are we going to still act like kids?”
“All right,” Katara took Zuko by the arm and led him out of the room. “You’re not helping anyone. Come help me with the baby.” She shut the door behind them.
Sokka shook his head as he watched them go, then turned back to Aang. “Buddy, think about it for a minute. Meditating makes you feel better during heat but it doesn’t mean you can go out and work. What if we had these shots during the war? Wouldn’t it have been much easier if we could keep moving every day instead of having to stop and rest so Katara could tie us up in a tree or whatever so Zuko wouldn’t catch us?”
“Considering he became one of my bondmates, it worked out pretty well,” Aang said.
“Aang,” Sokka put his hands on his shoulders. “I really think you’re letting your struggle to have kids with affect you too much.”
“It’s not about that. This is not like meditation,” Aang wrenched himself out of Sokka’s grasp. “The Air Nomads made spaces for Yins, made a society that understood what we needed. Everyone else puts the Yins’ needs last and then calls them weak for it. I want to give my children a world that’ll serve their needs, not one that’ll cut them down for not meeting its messed-up rules.”
Sokka groaned, slapped his forehead. “We are trying to meet their needs, Aang. That’s what this is all about. Why can’t you see that?”
Aang didn’t say anything back. Korra watched Toph shake her head and leave the room as the vision faded.
“Wow. So what changed your mind, Aang?” Korra looked around. It was dark again. She was alone. “Aang?”
A loud knocking sound spiked through Korra’s head, jolted her eyes open. She was lying in her bed, was looking at her room in the early morning light.
“Korra!” Bolin knocked on the door again. “Korra, it’s almost eight. Are you ready?”
Oh. Right. Korra forced herself to sit up, to get on her feet. “I’ll be right there,” she said.
End Chapter One.