Exhausted

Title: Exhausted
Author: SplishySplash
Genre: Friendship/fluff
Pairing: Mako/Korra
Rating: K
Disclaimer: I own it, okay? Well, just the plot. Thanks everybody for making me feel welcomed on DA!
Summary: Korra was giving 110% of her effort to everything, but sometimes she just needs a break.



Training was going to be the death of her.

She was up at sunrise to train with Tenzin, well more or less get knocked around by the spinning gates, until both of them lost their patience. They would meditate for what seemed like days under the gazebo looking at the ocean and she would day dream.

By lunch time Pema would order them to each lunch and the children would ask her a million and one questions about everything before she would leave to Probending practice. Practice would consist of dodging, diving and dishing out things thrown at her. She would throw water around and get told how to control her element by a fire bender, setting her off on a rampage. The rampage would generally end with her toe to toe with said fire bender, bending fire from her finger tips to show that she could do it better than him.

Usually the arguments made her miss dinner and then she would run late to Tarrlock and his stupid task force meetings, she would mostly sit in a room full of stuffy people and again day dream before going out to kick some major Equalist butt. At night, she would limp home sore, heal her bruises before going to sleep and start all over again.

It was an off day when she arrived at the gym early because Tenzin had forgone meditation today in favor of teaching her breathing techniques, even before Bolin who did nothing but hang out at the gym all day. With a sigh she sat down on the bottom bleacher. She yawned a little bit and stretched her aching muscles before she laid down on the hard plastic, almost instantly falling asleep.

Bolin and Mako walked in side by side, both sharing a laugh when they saw her and both of them quieted as they crossed the hardwood floor to the sleeping water bender. She laid on her back with her hair sprayed under her head like a pillow and fell down the side of the seat, most of it escaping from the tie that normally held it back.

Her sleeping face was facing them and her features seemed to be at peace. "I didn't think she ever stopped moving." Mako commented with a small smile.

"Aww." Gushed Bolin, he was always the romantic. "She looks almost like she couldn't rip your face off with any element kind of peaceful."

"Except Airbending." Mako joked and Bolin looked at him as if he grew another head before he laughed quietly. His brother wasn't the joking kind.

The brothers watched her breath in and out for a moment before Mako noticed the dark circles under her eyes. Why hadn't he noticed that she was absolutely exhausted? He knew that she was busy, but she seemed to have managed it well, but how much longer before she got sick? With a critical eye, he noticed that she seemed smaller, had she been eating?

Mako moved to wake her when his brother stopped him. "Aw, come on Mako. Are you really going to make her practice?" He asked in a harsh whisper. "She looks totally wiped."

The older brother shook his head. "No, I was going to take her upstairs so she can sleep." He said softly and moved to shake her gently. "Korra."

Her eyes fluttered opened, but she didn't seem like she could fully comprehend what was going on. "Mako?" She asked confused.

"Come on, let's go upstairs." He said tenderly and it surprised Bolin just how delicately he was handling the young Avatar. He held out his hand and she took it before he pulled her to his feet, she swayed on her feet and he wrapped his arm around his shoulder before leading the way up to the apartment with Bolin in tow.

When they reached the stairs, she couldn't lift her legs high enough to get up on the stairs and with a small chuckle, Mako scooped her up. "She must be really tired."

Commented Bolin with a chuckle as he squeezed past them to open the door. "Where are you going to put her?"

The couch wasn't comfortable to sleep on and if he had to guess, her body probably ached. "I'm just going to put her on my bed, do you want to go pick up something to eat?"  He asked and Bolin nodded before trekking back down stairs.  

With careful ease, he pushed his door open and crossed his neat room to set her on his bed. He sat her down, supporting her with one hand as he removed her shoes and socks. He froze for a moment, wondering if he should strip her down even more. He started with her bending pouches at her waist and set them on floor. When he looked up at her, her eyes were open and look at him dazed. "Do you want to change into something more comfortable?" He asked, knowing full well that she wasn't going to remember this.

She nodded and crossed her arms to take off her shirt, but couldn't lift her arms very high. He pulled it off, leaving her in her under robes. He inhaled deeply, willing himself to not enjoy the view longer than seemed appropriate. He fed her arms through one of his own shirts, button it up before the daunting task of taking off her pants. Mako knew that she had nice legs from the constant trainings and her pants did not hide her muscles very well.

Her skin erupted in goose bumps as his fingers brushed against her skin. He made the mistake of looking up at her after her pants joined her boots on the floor. Her eyes grew dark and lustful, but he couldn't take advantage of her. He stood up and carefully guided her body into position on his bed. Before he could even cover her with a blanket she was asleep.

With a deep sigh, he picked up her clothes and folded them nicely putting them on the night stand before turning back to her one last time to see that she had a small smile on her face.  This girl was going to be the death of him, he knew it. He walked out of the room and pushed the door by enough so that he could see her from the sitting room.

He took a seat on the couch and rested his feet on the coffee table before reaching for a book. Only occasionally did he look up to see that she was still sleeping. Page after page he would look up at her, still in the same spot and after about an hour he got up to get a glass of water, stopping by the door to check on her. She seemed relaxed and the dark circles seemed to have disappeared, she needed the escape. Her nose was buried into his pillow and her hands held the blanket secure around the top half of her body, her feet had been uncovered. Setting his glass down, he covered her toes and turned to leave. She sighed heavily and whispered his name.

It made him blush and he was thankful that his brother hadn't come home yet.

Bolin eventually came back with some food as the sun began to set and the brothers sat
quietly eating on the couch when a knock on the door startled them out of their revere. Mako got up cautiously, but let his guard down when he saw the Airbending Master. "Good evening, Master Tenzin." He said respectfully, moving to the side to allow him entrance to his apartment.

He got right to the point. "Have you seen Korra? She didn't show up to her meeting with Tarrlock." He said worriedly. Mako looked out the window to see just how dark it had gotten outside and he gave a guilty smile.

"She's here." Answered Mako and the older man's face started to turn red. "She fell asleep during practice."

Mako led the man to his bedroom where he could see the sleeping Avatar and Tenzin gave a sigh of relief.  "Thank the spirits." He whispered, he had envisioned a million different scenarios of what could have happened to the young girl.

"I'm sorry I forgot to send a message." Mako said taking responsibility. "She seemed exhausted and I thought some sleep would do her good."

Tenzin smiled and squeezed Mako's shoulder. "It's okay, as long as we now know where she is." He said with a relieved smile. "You are a good man, Mako."

Mako felt a swell of pride that the master knew his name, let alone complemented him. "Thank you." He answered before it suddenly got awkward.

"I can take her back. . ." He started, suddenly feeling the reality of leaving young Korra in the hands of a young man, even though trustworthy, but still a teenaged boy with raging hormones. Tenzin secretly hoped that neither of his girls would ever age into hormone-raged teenagers, because Korra was a handful enough.

Mako shook his head, a little too quickly. "She's fine to stay here, she needs the rest and nobody will bother her here." He stated and he had a point, the children were probably still bouncing off the ceilings. He would be a fool to not have noticed Korra's exhaustion.

"Fine." He concluded and he turned to leave. "Thank you for being a good friend to her, the two of you are all she talks about." Bet Korra didn't want them to know it, but call it sweet little revenge.

"Believe me we are glad to have found her." Mako commented as he followed the older man to the door.

As the older man exited, he turned for a moment and looked him over, deeming him trustworthy. "Tell her to get some rest and I do not expect to see her for training tomorrow."

Mako nodded and shut the door, locking it and then double checking it. It was as if he was given a large responsibility to care for the young Avatar. He turned to see Bolin dozing on the couch and being the big brother, he shook him awake. Bolin snorted before opening his eyes. "Go to bed." The younger brother didn't argue and got up to go to bed.
He picked up the dishes and set them gently in the sink, he would deal with it later. Mako was tired as he went up to grab a change of clothes before retiring onto the couch, but when he opened the door Korra opened her eyes. "Hey." He said, walking to his dresser.

"Hey." She said, her voice was hoarse and scratchy. "Thank you."

He shrugged, not used to the praise especially from her. "No problem." He said modestly, turning his back to her to change.

As he took his shirt off, he could feel a pair of arms wrap around his waist and her warm breath on his back. "Nobody has really cared about me before." She whispered, he opened his mouth to argue but she beat him to it. "What I mean is, everybody cares about me, the Avatar me. But you, you care for me as a person."

He turned around and smiled down at her. With his hands he held her face, pressing his lips to her forehead before replacing it with his own. He watched her swallow, suddenly
nervous, gaining a smile from him. They stood like that, no words needed for a long moment before he spoke. "Come on, you need to sleep." He said quietly, leading her back to bed.

She pouted her lips slightly like a young child as he tucked her back into bed. "Stay?" She asked, her eyes growing heavy again as she was surround by his smell. He nodded and climbed in with her as she cuddled into his side. "Good night."

With a deep sigh, he pressed his lips to her forehead. "Good night." It didn't take long for either of them to drift off to sleep.