A/N: Currently, this story is largely *unedited* so please bear with it. I have a mild phobia of sharing my writing, so I figured if I waited to do a full edit I'd never work up the courage to publish anything at all. Please enjoy! ((Note: I'm in China for the next month so updates will be slow, but once I'm home, a chapter takes only a day or two.))

Chapter 1: The Exhaustion

The young woman kneeled before the Avatar, with her neck craned backwards and eyes trembling. Korra pressed her thumb against the girl's forehead and felt the other bender's energy intermingle with her own. Their eyes and mouths glowed exceptionally bright, pulsating and radiating outwards. Fire began to flow from the woman's fingertips and she was released from Korra's energybending, gasping on the floor and crying words of thanks.

This was Korra's life since she returned to Republic City after Amon's defeat. The people celebrated their Avatar's victory, and rejoiced at her ability to bring their bending back. It was nice at times, really it was, but the more recognition she got, the more people expected of her. There were still buildings needing repairing, a social structure that needed reforming, people who needed healing, and worst of all, there were still residual Equalist supporters, furious at their great leader's demise, causing havoc. The top priority, however, was giving back the citizen's bending. As she waited for the next bender to step forward, she peered out her office window, and saw a line of tired men, women, and children stretching from the ornate council chamber's doors as far as the eye could see. She didn't understand how Amon could have taken bending away from this many people. He must have been working years before she ever step foot into the City.

"Mr. Tahno is up next!" she heard her assistant call. The door swung upon and, sure enough, the pale-faced waterbender sauntered in as if nothing had changed, though he could not hide his sunken and humbled eyes. She gazed at him wearily, half-expecting a snarky comment. He tried to maintain his cool stance, with one hand on his hip and another smoothing his hair. "Avatar," he seemed to speak with his usual sultry condescension before chuckling and lifting his eyes to meet hers, "You kept your promise." His lips turned up slightly, and his eyes shone with sincerity. Korra relaxed and walked over to him, "Now that Amon's gone you can go back to being a hotshot probender, eh?" She gestured for him to kneel on the floor.

"I'm not that guy anymore," he tipped his head back, "I'd love to see him again, but he's gone forever." Korra placed her thumb between his eyes, and the two benders began to glow blue and white. Though it only lasted a moment, Korra could feel something… different… from his energy. Not that he was different from any of the others, it was just incredibly different from, well, him. She expected his pompous effrontery to manifest in swirling and intricate patterns of energy rushing into him like a reversed fireworks display. Instead, she felt a small, glowing orb of candlelight go forth from her spirit, timidly moving along its path to his chakra like a small child. It flickered warmly and the light went out, settling itself back into its home, deep within Tahno's spirit.

"Well that was unexpected," she said, helping him off the floor. "What," he asked, "is something wrong?" This was the first time she'd seen him legitimately scared since their first encounter. "Did it not work? Is my bending never coming back?"

"No," she leaned to sit on the top of her desk. "You're fine. You're just—" she sighed, "You're not who I thought you were."

He looked at her quizzically, and brushed off his sleek suit, "What do you mean?" He didn't seem entirely pleased with this news. "Is there some Avatar mind-reading power I don't know about?" he laughed cautiously. "No, no…" Korra said, "Let's just say your spirit energy is, um, sweet." Probably the wrong word choice. His face recoiled in disgust, "Sweet? What's that supposed to mean?"

Suddenly, Korra's assistant opened the door, calling out "Mr. Yun!" and another citizen shuffled in, unaware of his interruption, but ecstatic to finally meet the Avatar, and even more anxious to retrieve his bending. The secretary bowed to Tahno and gestured to the door, "If you would please, sir." Tahno quickly reverted his face back to its usual calm, collected, and superior smirk, and turned to walk out the door. "Certainly," he said, "I'll see you 'round, Avatar."

As he closed the door behind him, Korra shouted, "Meditate on it! It's a good side of you." It shut before she could get a response. And so Korra's daily routine of restoring bending continued once more, with very few other interesting stories to speak of.

At the end of the day, her assistant nervously peered into her office door to find her slumped on the desk, half-conscious and groaning. He gasped "Oh! Avatar!" and began earnestly, but uselessly, tittering around the room in search of something to raise her spirits. She raised a hand, face still planted on the wooden desk, "It's alright, Lee. The energybending just takes a lot out of me. I'll have Naga carry me home." His pacing abruptly stopped. "Would you like me to call a cab? Bring you a meal? Some tea, perhaps? Maybe— "

"Lee. It's fine. You're not Tarrlok's page any more, you're my partner. Take the night off and relax for once…," Korra seemed half-drunk in her drowsy state, flopping her arms on the table and groaning with each muscle's movement. "I really just wanna go to bed," she moaned, and seemed to fall asleep moments after.

"Oh-! Um, well, I suppose I should call… someone… Um, I hope she wasn't serious about the night off, there's far too much work to be done: papers to sign, approvals—" Lee scurried off to find a phone book, and proceeded to call Air Temple Island's Northern building before being verbally ambushed by a small boy who seemed to lack any concept of politeness. He heard an older man's voice scolding the child in the background, was once more assaulted by a young man demanding to know where "his" Korra is, and finally the phone connection broke from all the mess. The Water Council member's chamber, Korra's temporary office, had a private number, so Lee doubted they could call back and he certainly did not want to try and redial. The assistant scurried to and fro once more, trying to find another suitable and trustworthy contact (and he did not have much faith in the great polarbear-dog). He tugged at his beard, muttering, "What to do, what to do…"

Much to his distaste, he found himself forced to pull her personal contact book from her satchel, slung over the back of her chair. He extended two fingers and carefully drew out the compact book, holding it as far as possible from his body, as if it were toxic. Too ashamed at his breach of privacy, he flipped to the first page of the "A" section and dialed the first number, then quickly placed the book back in the Avatar's satchel pocket while the phone rang. He would not compromise his sense of duty ever again.

"Hello?...Hello?" the phone called out. He scampered to it, "H-hello! Yes! Um, Miss…?"

"Sato. Asami Sato. Who is this? What's going on? How do you have my personal number? I swear if this is another threat call from those Equalist junkies—"

"No, no! Oh, forgive the interruption, Ms. Sato! My name is Lee. Lee Wong. Avatar Korra's personal assistant during the Reconstruction. She is, um, currently unconscious. Not that anything's wrong! She's just rather drained from energybending so many citizens day after day… In any case, could you direct me to a trusted friend of hers that might be able to bring her home at this late hour?"

The phone laughed. "Yeah, I think I can find a trusted friend. I'll be there in 15 minutes." The line was disconnected once more. Lee breathed a sigh of relief, shuffled to the door, bowed to the unconscious Avatar, and took his leave to organize her itinerary for the next day.

Korra, meanwhile, vaguely had a dream of staggering against Asami's shoulder and driving off on her motorcycle. Even after waking up in the Sato mansion, she still was not entirely sure what happened; her memories seemed lucid. She did not remember Asami's guards carrying her up to a room, or the Sato family maids scrubbing her, or being changed into white silk pajamas and tucked into a feather bed by the eldest housekeeper, who went "tsk, tsk, tsk" at Korra's baggy eyes and tired chi.