Hi. So I don't own the Legend of Korra or any of its characters.

Introduction

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It was a clear night, being early August, the summer storms had finally decided to move west and the there was only a ghost of a cloud remaining in the night sky. It quivered before he twinkling stars, and a soft cold wind helped it along as it struggled to catch up the moving storm. It was a clear night, a cool night. Most houses had opted to turn their air conditioning off and open all the windows, allowing the sweet, cool, night air to drift inside and wash away the stale scent of the hot mugginess that had assaulted the homes not but a few hours ago, when the sun had still been shining and the last bits of humidity clung to the air. It was a clear night, the sounds of the city could be heard far off, far, far, off, here in the suburbs it was mostly peaceful, save for the occasional rumble of a car as it made its hasty way through the deserted streets.

In one of those houses, one that was not particularly unique, save for the occupants who inhabited it, there lied a girl, nay, a young woman, comfortably in her very early twenties, awake on her back, tangled in her sheets as if she had been in a fight with them and indeed she had, for ever since she had found her way beneath their once comforting depths, she had tossed and turned, huffed, and moaned, slapped her hand to her forehead and ran it wearily down the length of her face as her mind raced, and her muscles ached, and twitched, and itched, fingers found their way into tangled brown hair as blue eyes squeezed shut again and yet another exhausted and irritated and dejected moan escaped past clenched teeth and flittered into the clear, cool, early August night.

…

Of all the things that she knew, she knew, and she constantly tried to remember to tell herself over and over and over again, that there was nothing wrong with her. First and foremost, she was very smart, very talented, and had always known she was meant to do something big with her life. So why was she back here, at twenty-two years old, in her old bedroom, in her parents' house, still with no degree, and no money, and no job, and very recently (three weeks to be exact) no boyfriend, feeling like she had been drifting aimlessly through life ever since she graduated high school more than five years ago?

When she was seventeen and driving away from her high school for the last time after she received her diploma, this was not how she pictured she would be at twenty-two years old. No… this was not at all how she pictured it. It felt like she had been on the right track when she started at university in the fall, right after high school, but that was like the beginning of life as she would ever know it. Everywhere she turned there was something, every time she felt like she had it under control, life surprised her, and she discovered that in fact, she had never been in control. And finally as she lied there on her back, feeling tired and sad and angry and restless, she threw every one of her inhibitions out into the air and a tight, "Fuck it. Fuck everything," squeezed its way past clenched teeth and finally she kicked the covers off of her, rolled out of bed and went to her window. She stuck her head out into the night air, and a moment later she was standing out on the slanted roof, her eyes closed her face to the sky, and that sweet cool wind came and made sport of teasing her hair across her face and peppering her cheeks with playful kisses and fluttered her shirt against her naked skin and raised goosebumps on her flesh and tried to lift her into the sky so she could drifted up into the night but in vain.

This was what she had needed. She breathed in the fresh air and already she felt her mind let go of what it had been holding onto all night, and as the wind rid the homes of the hot air desperately trying to make a stand in all those houses, it also purged her mind of the noise which prevented her from sleeping. Slowly, she settled herself down on the roof, and drew her knees up to her chest.

"There is nothing wrong with you," she whispered. The words hung in the air before her before taking flight into the sky. "There is nothing wrong with you."

It had been a long summer; she and her boyfriend of four years had just gone through a long and painful breakup. She had met him during her time in the military; it had been love at first sight. Mako was everything a girl could ever want in a man. He was tall, so tall, and incredibly handsome. He was smart, disciplined, and everything he set out to achieve, he got it. He came from nothing, where she had her parents, he only had his younger brother, Bolin, who he had taken care of ever since their parents died way back when Mako had been barely seven years old. She had joined the military shortly after discovering she would not be able to afford to continue to attend university, and she knew that through enlisting she would be able to go to college for free, anywhere that she chose, after three years of service. Mako had joined because he had been forced to choose; military service or jail. He and Bolin had been homeless most of their lives, and in order to survive they had participated in a lot of gang related activities. He always made sure he and his little brother never got in too deep, but Bolin was often reckless and during a drug deal gone wrong, Mako had chosen to take the fall for one of Bolin's mistakes. He would have had to go to jail for up to twenty years if they had not given him the option of serving out his time through the military. When they met, Korra had fallen for him instantly, but it had taken him some time before he saw her the same way. They became close friends in the beginning; they ended up getting stationed overseas together and saw each other through some terrible times. It wasn't until he saw how much he was able to lean on her that he realized he wanted to be with her, and when they had returned to the states, they got an apartment together.

Both of them suffered nightmares and severe mood swings caused from what they experienced while at war. Even with Mako by her side, every time she put her uniform on, Korra felt herself deteriorating. Finally, after a terrible mental breakdown, she was sent to Psychiatry where she was deemed unfit for duty, and she received an Honorable discharge, conveniently, right at her three year mark, a year before her contract would have been over.

Mako though, had remained in the service. In a way, he never forgave her for leaving him to deal with it on his own, because he was not allowed to break his contract otherwise he would go to jail. He also had not much of a desire to leave anyway. Despite the fact that he had been to war and seen and done awful things that would stay with him forever, he liked it. The discipline, and the purpose of it all was the structure he craved in his life. His nightmares were never as bad as Korra's. But he still loved her, depended on her, needed her. She was his best friend, and the university Korra had wanted to go to was far away. But she loved Mako, so when he asked her to stay, she had stayed and gone to the city's community college and taken a part time job a retail store close by.

Her hours were not constant like his. Her work schedule was no consistent and she always had homework, and projects to work on. Unknown to Mako, school was the one thing keeping Korra from falling into depression or anxiety; she needed to remain focused on the future, but he needed her. When he wanted to be with her, she was not available and it made him resentful. When she wanted to be with him was angry, tired, or gone. The inconsistencies led to fighting, the fights involved yelling, and swearing at each other, holes in the wall, tears being shed, then long periods of silence. Early on when the fights first started, they always ended up back in each others' arms, softly kissing one another, murmuring to each other how sorry they were, how it would never happen again, they were "just tired" "hadn't eaten much" "had a rough day" "I love you I'm just so stressed with work/school" and they would fall asleep after tenderly making love. But as the fights continued, they would go days without talking to each other. Each of them dreaded coming home, once they went a whole month without speaking, even while they lied together in the same bed, not touching, turned away from each other. The last year of their relationship had been fighting, and finally, after they had gone weeks sleeping in separate rooms, she recognized that it would never get better. Mako wanted her to stay home, have children, and be a mother and wife, and nothing more. She loved him, but she couldn't do it. She had never wanted to live simply, or be taken care of while all of her own ambitions flew away while she drove to soccer practice and attended PTA meetings. So she had packed her things, and even when he cried and pleaded with her to stay, she had taken his face into her hands and kissed him.

"I can't do this Mako," she'd whispered through tears. Her hands were on his cheeks, her forehead pressed to his. His hands covered hers and his lips reached for hers again.

"Please," he had implored, his soft lips grazing hers. "Please Korra, I"ll do anything."

"We've been trying for a year…"

"I love you. We've been together for four, we can't just throw that away…"

"I can't…" she had taken his hands then and squeezed them, and he had pulled her into his chest and held her as her shoulders quaked. "Mako…" she closed her eyes and swallowed her tears, trying to breathe, trying to remain strong, trying not to let herself melt into his arms the way she always had. She breathed him in, one last time, she allowed herself to revel in how warm, and comforting, and beautiful he always felt, and she held that breath, as if to save it, lock it away some place so she could never let it go; not totally. And then she stepped back, took his hands and kissed each one of them, and she let it go, let him go, as she breathed, and turned away.

"There is nothing wrong with you," she had said out loud, as she drove away. Her voice cracked, and tears fell from her eyes, and she let a few fall, then she wiped them away and forced the rest of them down. She breathed deeply. Took a drink of water. Sat up straight. Focused on the road before her. She cleared her throat, and said it again.

"There is nothing wrong with you," the wind snatched it straight from her lips from her place on the roof. She had been away from him for three weeks, she had cried for a week straight, for another week she had remained in bed without moving except to go to the bathroom, and when her mother forced her to, to eat. By the third week, she had forced herself to get up and sort out her priorities. She still felt an ache, she still fought the urge to get in her car and drive back to their apartment and throw herself in his arms, she still felt sad every so often throughout the day, but she forced herself to focus, and in doing so, she slowly got better.

"There is nothing. Wrong. With you." The words resonated into the night, and finally, her mind finally felt clear enough for her to go to sleep.

...

SO. It feels weird, but also kind of good to be back on this site. I'm pretty sure all of my old following as moved on with their lives, considering I met most of them in 2006. So I've been going through a lot since I graduated high school, and I've finally reached a point in my life where I feel like I'm finally doing what I should be doing. This fic is kind of personal, as it is base loosely off of me. It is a bit of an incentive for me to start writing, for real writing again, since I haven't in such a long time and I MISS it so much. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, it felt SO good to write. I finally feel like I got my old flow back. The whole story will not be this deep and slow, I promise, I have something good planned so if you stick around I promise you won't regret it.

Reviews are always wonderful.

If you have a problem with run on sentences... wellllll... thaaaaaaat is just how I talk. Sorry about all the typos and grammar mistakes; I don't like editing.

I'd like to thank my dear Ariel4891, if you do end up reading this. If you hadn't decided to continue your long lost fic, I never would have come back here, and I would never have felt the long missed joy of writing this first chapter. I know it was not intentional, but it meant a lot, and I honestly love you for it, so thank you.