Save Me
Rating: T
Fandom: The Legend of Korra
Words: 1840
Characters/Pairings: Amon, Korra; Amorra-ish intentions
Author's Note: Amorra shenanigans of the sort where Amon is annoyed the Avatar into some sort of temporary truce that resembles friendship.

If there was one thing that Korra didn't take lightly, it was slights on her pride.

The words of Amon had stung her pride to the point to where she had taken to sneaking away from Air Temple Island late at night and prowling the streets for any Triad member she came across. The police station would find four or five men tied up on their front step where some mysterious vigilante was leaving them. Lin had an idea who was doing it, but decided it wasn't worth it to try and fight with her over it; no doubt Korra would say that they wouldn't be able to prove that she was the person who was behind the mysterious drops anyway.

Tonight Korra prowled around the downtown area, looking for anyone who was dumb enough to challenge her. She was lucky that so far the only people she encountered belonged to the Triads, as she wasn't sure she'd be able to walk away from an encounter with an Equalist. Creeping around in the shadows, she tailed a lone Triad member, waiting for the right moment to strike. He turned into an alley and Korra smirked. Perfect.

Except that it wasn't. Down the alley there was a group of five waiting for her. It wasn't the most favorable outcome, but Korra could take them.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" one of them asked, cocking his head to the side with a smug smile. "Looks like our Avatar has decided to grace us with her presence tonight." His cohorts chuckled, stopping when he held up a hand. "I think we should give her a proper welcome. What do you say, boys?"

Cracking her knuckles, Korra smiled. "Bring it on." Six was nothing. This would be easy

When the number tripled, that's when Korra realized that she was in trouble. Triad members weren't like her sparring partners back in the compound in the South Pole, waiting to attack one at a time. Instead they all rushed at her at once. A few she managed to turn on each other, but it didn't take long for them to overpower her.

This was not good.

Frantically she struck out, attacking with everything she had, but it didn't matter. She was being attacked on all sides and without a minor miracle, she'd be lucky if she walked away from this.

What she got instead was Amon.

One by one they fell at his hands, their chi blocked and bending rendered useless before he knocked them out. When he stood in the center of a mass of sprawled bodies, he looked over at her and tsked in annoyance. "Honestly Avatar, are you really so careless as to follow a Triad thug down an alley without possibly considering that it is a trap?"

Standing and dusting herself off, Korra snorted. "I was doing just fine."

"You were losing and if I hadn't stepped in they would have killed you."

"I'm surprised you didn't let them just do me in." In retrospect this was probably not the smartest thing she could have said to him, but her brush with death had put her on edge and she was beyond caring how she came off to people, least of all Amon.

"On the contrary, Avatar, I refuse to let you fall at anyone's hands but my own." He picked his way through the unconscious bodies until he was standing directly in front of her. "Take my advice and avoid future situations like this."

"You're not the boss of me," she shot back, glaring up at the expressionless mask.

"That doesn't change the fact that I have offered you sound advice. I'm not always going to be here to save you should your impulsiveness get you into trouble you can't get out of," he replied as he dusted off his shirt sleeve.

"I didn't even ask for your help in the first place!"

"That doesn't change that you sorely needed it."

"Augh! Just leave me alone!"

"Finally, something we agree on," Amon replied as he turned away from her. He disappeared into the shadows, leaving Korra standing amongst the unconscious Triad members. Realizing that there was no way for her to take these men in by herself, she tied them up with bits of rope and twine she found about the alley and then headed to the nearest pay phone and calling in the location to the police department. She climbed up a nearby fire escape and waited, watching intently as the police arrived to find the men just starting to come around.

Content that these men would be locked up for quite some time, Korra headed back to Air Temple Island for some much needed rest.

The next night she headed out again, hoping to avoid the previous night's situation. Needing help was humiliating enough, getting that help from Amon had been so mortifying she almost decided to stop going out altogether. However her pride wouldn't let her give up so easily, so after some waffling on her part she finally crept from her room in the women's dormitory and headed into the city.

Though she didn't want to admit that Amon's advice had been solid, it didn't change the fact that he was correct and so Korra was much more careful when approaching potential targets. This method served her well until she was ambushed by twenty members of the Agni Kais in the middle of the street. It seemed as though they had simply been waiting for her to arrive, melting out of the shadows to stand around her, many of them sporting wicked grins and dangerous gleams in their golden eyes.

Well crap.

This time she wasn't stuck in an alley, but excess damage to the street would certainly have Lin knocking on her door come morning, and the last thing she needed right now was to spend a day in Lin's ever delightful company. Opting to fight fire with fire, and occasionally water she could pull from the puddles from the day's rainfall, she managed to take most of the Agni Kais down, but enough were still standing as she felt her body start to tire. Pulling back she tried to pull on her reserves but found that she was exhausted. Again she'd need a miracle to get out of this.

"I thought I told you to avoid situations like this," a voice grumbled behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, she watched Amon come up next to her from the corner of her eye.

She grunted. "Hey, I was just walking down the street and they ambushed me. I wasn't looking for trouble."

"Of course," he said as he rolled his shoulders a few times. "Well then, let us begin."

She caught her breath as she watched him fight, long limbs striking with speed that she could only hope to one day match. Watching the ease in which he took down the remaining Agni Kai's, Korra realized that she probably didn't stand a chance against him. She'd been training since she was a child, she wasn't a bender to take lightly but it was clear that Amon was years ahead of her in skill and there was no way that she'd ever be able to take him on and win. At least until she could unlock her airbending and the Avatar State.

"You should probably call the police," he said as he straightened his clothing.

Deciding that it wasn't worth it to argue with him, Korra found a pay phone on the corner and called in to report the mass of unconscious bodies in the street. When she hung up she found Amon was pulling the ones from the street onto the sidewalk. "I'm surprised you're doing this. I thought you'd be okay with them becoming roadkill."

"I am many things, Avatar, but a cold blooded murder isn't one of them," he said as he propped one up against the wall. "Give me a hand; most of them are your doing."

"Fine," she grumbled as she grabbed the nearest unconscious body and pulled it up on the sidewalk.

She and Amon worked in silence until the wail of sirens filled the air. Amon grabbed her wrist and yanked her into the alley, boosting her up to a fire escape and then following her up. He jerked his head up to indicate that she should go all the way to the roof. Rolling her eyes she climbed up, trying to ignore the prods to her ankles and calves when he thought she wasn't moving fast enough.

From the safety of the roof she peered down and watched the men work, Lin standing off to the side and glaring in disapproval.

"It seems that our esteemed chief of police doesn't take kindly to your tactics."

"She doesn't like me working outside of her authority," Korra muttered as she backed away from the edge.

"Are you saying that Chief BeiFong likes to be in control of all variables?"

Korra gave a small shrug and looked away.

"Clearly you have no idea what I'm talking about," he muttered as he looked over the edge to see how the police were progressing. The last of the unconscious men were loaded in the trucks and a few remaining officers made a sweep of the street and nearby alleys to see if they could find their anonymous tipper, but turned up nothing. Content that it was just a random Good Samaritan, they got into their truck and sped away.

"Well, this has been a most enlightening experience but I should probably get back to Air Temple Island," Korra said as she stretched.

"So soon?"

"You don't think that I want to spend the entire night on a roof with you, do you?" she asked, arching a brow at him.

He shrugged. "Getting into these little scrapes makes me think that perhaps you enjoy my company."

"Dream on, jerk," she answered as she started climbing down the fire escape.

She really didn't want to spend time with him if she didn't have to. That didn't keep her from being intrigued by his behavior, which was puzzling at best. As she made her way back to the bay, Korra contemplated the way Amon kept coming to her rescue. She believed his line about keeping her safe so he could be the one to take her down, but for some reason she felt that there was more to it.

It was a terrible idea, really, but she wanted to know – she needed to know – what he was doing. This was something she was going to regret, she knew it, but her curiosity was getting the better of her. Would he come to her aid every time she got into trouble? He'd made it sound as if he wouldn't always be there, but she felt that the words were hollow, that he'd do anything to ensure that he had his victory over her.

And as stupid as it was, she was going to test this theory.