Note: Ok, bear with me here….this chapter was very very hard to write… lol I really think that it was the hardest one to write because of all the transitions with the show and the scenes that I had added before and during this chapter…..also because of the scenes that I am going to add later lol…errr….well I really hope that it turned out ok. I really did my best :0

Thanks for all of your reviews! I really enjoy reading them ^.^ and the humorous ones really make me laugh. You guys are awesome. 3 and yes, i mean that :3

Disclaimer: I don not own anything Legend of Korra.

In the morning, an announcement had finally gone off on the radio. It notified Republic City of a public speech that was going to be taking place in front of the Council Hall. Their speaker was to be Hiroshi and he was going to explain the new set of rules now that Amon had taken over.

The idea of it all had put Korra in a blaze all over again. Though, at least this time it had been a blaze of determination. She had known when she was supposed to make her move to spy, and she was going to wait and prepare for that moment. Just like an airbender.

The Equalist campaign wasn't until the evening so she and the rest of Team Avatar had a talk with Gommu when he had checked up on them that morning. He'd offered to help and find out more about how the campaign was going to be set up.

Once things had finally been planned out, it went a lot smoother than they had expected. Going to and from the campaign was cake. The only problem was the flare Mako noticed in Korra's aura.

"Can you believe Hiroshi? The Avatar's on the run- I'm not running from anyone!" There was this competitive spring in her step as they walked down the tunnel that led back to the underground city.

Mako wasn't exactly sure how bad Korra had been affected by the campaign, but he certainly didn't have a good feeling about it. Even he was a bit agitated himself.

"Let's go back up there and knock some heads! They'll never know what hit'em!" With an irritated scowl, Korra smacked a fist into her palm and started back in the other direction tensely.

"Relax, General Iroh is coming with an entire fleet of battleships. Then, Amon will be the one who's running." He kept an eye on her to make sure that she didn't walk any farther. He wished that he could tell her something more dependable, but the United Forces was all that they had going for them at the moment.

Korra gave a mental groan and turned back in the direction of the underground city. "I hate this being patient stuff…" She grumbled as they continued down the hall.

In reality, Korra wasn't sure about how to feel about it all, and when she wasn't exactly sure how she should feel, it just made her angry. Why did things have to be so difficult? She had never had to deal with these sorts of problems before….people accusing her of running away or oppressing non-benders…What did they know? They didn't know her! How dare they even assume anything about her! She just wanted to go back up there and prove them wrong. It was in her nature to defend herself and to defend what was true. What angered her even more was that she couldn't do it now. There was a war going on. That would just be one more foolish thing to add to her impulsive mistakes…..What ever happened to simplicity?

Suddenly her pace slowed. Mako took notice and followed in suit, taking the time to study her suddenly calmed expression. What was she thinking?

Her oceanic eyes sought the ground. Maybe her life had never actually been so simple, but being the Avatar was definitely a lot more than she had expected. Conquering three elements had come natural to her, but airbending and trying to stop Amon had been something else all together. What would it have been like if things were different?…Her eyes drifted over to Mako, his amber eyes were focused on her intensely. Would things had different between them?

"What is it?" Mako finally decided to question her behavior.

She quickly looked away. "Nothing, just….thinking. That's all."

His eyes drifted away unsteadily as if he were afraid to say anything further. "About what?"

"Maybe some things would have been a lot simpler if the situation was different…" She avoided his gaze.

"Hey..." Mako raised his brows and grabbed her wrist to stop her from walking any farther down the tunnel. "We're all gonna get through this, ok?"

She shook her head and shifted uncomfortably. "I know, it's just a lot, alright? I'm fine, Mako." She was about to walk away, when he took a step closer and gently held her face with both hands. She hesitated, not expecting him to touch her face.

"Korra…" He waited until her cool aqua eyes met with his. "Don't worry so much. It's gonna be ok. The United Forces are coming and everything, ok?…" Brushing his thumb over her cheek, he thoroughly searched her guarded eyes. "I'm here for you…" He carefully leaned down and gave her a light kiss on the tip of her nose.

She blushed and raised her brows with uncertain curiosity as she stared up at him. "Did you just kiss my nose?" She twisted her mouth to the side, her brow twitching slightly.

He pulled his hands away with a flush and cleared his throat, his hand finding his scarf nervously. How could he be so childish? Her nose? Really? "Well, I figured you wouldn't want me to kiss your lips."

"Didn't I tell you not to kiss me?" Her brow rose sarcastically and her eyes narrowed.

Amber eyes turned away abruptly. "You did. I- It's just-" He was suddenly cut off by the feel of her lips against his, his lower lip held gently by her mouth. One of her hands was gripping his scarf and the other was holding the side of his jaw. His breathing hitched and his hands found her waist and shoulders as the energy of her kiss rushed through him.

That girl never made any sense, did she?

He kissed her back with the same intensity as she did him, and slowly backed her into the wall behind her, much more gentle than the last time. Then he softly broke the kiss and stroked the side of her face. "Korra…" He said it more as a question, and tenderly held her gaze.

"Sorry…"

"I'm not complaining." He raised his brows.

She smirked slightly and then looked away, mentally chiding her sudden behavior. "With this war and all, it's hard for me to tell when I'm missing my chances…" Her smirk faded and she lowered her eyes.

Using a hand to fix that one strand of hair that always fell from her bangs, Mako watched and tried to understand what she meant. Maybe she had felt torn between what to feel about the war and what to feel about him. He stalled a bit before speaking. "Asami and I, we aren't even…" He trailed off and switched his wording around with a sigh. "You wont be missing any chances, Korra." He gently lifted the bottom of her chin. "I'm on your side."

A smirk crookedly curved up the side of her face. She was about to dodge the bullet again. Maybe this wasn't something that she was quite ready to face yet. There were too many things going on. "We'll see about that, Mr. Hat Trick. We've still got a war to fight." And with that, she sighed and slipped out from between him and the wall. "We should go now. Bolin and Asami are waiting for us."

Mako nodded and followed after her. What had she meant by "we'll see about that"? Was that a challenge? He just silently followed after her until they arrived at the edge of the tunnel where the city began. Bolin and Asami were sitting on a pair of crates, waiting for them. Bolin entertained himself with making Pabu do tricks while Asami just watched.

The second Mako and Korra had arrived at the end of the tunnel, Bolin and Asami headed over to meet up with them. Asami crossed her arms at the sight of them, a tinge of jealousy in her aura. "You two were gone a while." She rudely pointed out.

Mako flared up inside, annoyed by the sudden spurts of impudence she portrayed every so often. "We were doing reconnaissance." He firmly stated in defense. Gee, he thought the jealousy thing was over already.

Korra just looked at Mako a bit surprised by his sudden repulsiveness.

Asami lowered her arms and turned away her eyes, green with envy. "Whatever." So was really just moving on to Korra that fast, wasn't he? Korra really must have meant a lot more to him than she had thought.

"Welcome back!" Gommu showed up and rushed over toward Korra and Mako. He put an arm on each of their shoulders with a big grin. "Hope you've worked up an appetite 'cause dinner is served!"

After Gommu had led them all to a small sitting area to serve them street gruel, Korra had thanked him for letting them hideout underground for the past few days. To him, it was not a problem. Everyone that lived underground was against Amon anyway, both benders and non-benders alike. He was all for Team Avatar.

In the end, they were all very grateful for their street gruel, in exception to Asami. She seemed to have found some sort of displeasure in eating a soup made of leftover food from the dumpsters of Republic City. Whatever the case had been, she didn't eat any of the food Gommu had provided for them at all, and Team Avatar mainly focused on the possible arrival of Iroh's fleet the next morning.

That night, Korra was, once again, sitting alone with Naga. At least she was a little bit closer to camp this time, but she still kept her distance. Something about the way her mind and emotions kept altering and intertwining with each other had just rendered her to instinctually keep away from everyone.

Earlier that day, when she had stepped out in the open to see what had become of Republic City, she couldn't even begin to soak everything in. This wasn't a war that the elders of the Watertribe would talk about around a campfire. It wasn't a war of the past. It wasn't a war that was looked back on as people tried to imagine how it could have possibly felt…..This was a war of the present….and it was happening then and there. It was happening in a city that she was meant to protect. Korra knew that there were others to help her, but she couldn't help but only see herself as one person. One person against this city….against the world if things ever got worse..

Before she had come to Republic City, war situations had only been things that she had read about, or heard about from others. Life had been simpler then. She only had to worry about training and perfecting her bending, not trying to defeat a man that was almost impenetrable. She knew nothing about Amon, yet she had to defeat him one way or another. This 17 year old watertribe girl had to defeat Amon, a man who had the ability to strip away her bending at any given moment if the chance were available to him…..And what would she be then?…Who would she be?….What if she failed and there were no more benders in existence?

Would she ever enjoy another moment of simplicity? Like those days when she had lived in the Southern Watertribe? Where did the boundaries between normal life begin and end, because some sinking feeling of nostalgia told her that she was no longer just that girl from the Watertribe of the South Pole anymore…

"Can't sleep either?" Her thoughts were interrupted by a deep familiar voice.

She instantly looked up from where she was sitting and met with eyes of liquid topaz. "No, I have this awful pit in my stomach." She sat up slightly to adjust her sitting position.

Mako sat down beside her and casually leaned back against Naga. "Me too…"

She lowered her eyes thinking back on what had been simple for her, not too long before the war. Things had changed so much since then. "It's so crazy, just a few months ago I was back at the South Pole practicing for my firebending test." She raised her brow with a competitive smirk, reliving the memory of her past, but then it quickly faded. "And now, I'm in the middle of an all out war…" Her brows slanted upward with sadness and her eyes became that of a desolate ocean.

Mako's eyes cast downward, a bit distraught by the display of emotions in her expression. "I know. We didn't even know each other then, and now, I can't imagine my life without you in it." He smiled at her, trying to cheer her up. Maybe that was what he had been trying to say every time he attempted to explain how he felt about her. Maybe it didn't come out as great as he had wanted to, but he was just going to say the truth. She deserved to know. "You're the most loyal, brave, and selfless person I've ever known."

That was not something she had ever expected Mako to say, but she wasn't complaining. She adored the words that he had said. This was what simple was, wasn't it? She timidly lowered her eyes with a smirk. "I think you're pretty incredible too but, you already knew that…" Her eyes met his softly as she recollected on what she had said to him back in her room at Air Temple Island. He was calm and cool, and she admired his stability.

Of course he knew what she thought of him. He remembered every word of what she had said at Air Temple Island. He just exchanged a soft smirk and studied the look in her eyes. Something in those oceanic eyes of hers seemed to have calmed.

Then the sea became disrupted and she looked away with uncertainty. "I should probably try to get some sleep…" She didn't want to turn him away, but something about that smug look in his eyes made her want to kiss him again and she was just too mixed with emotion to handle it.

"Me too." He looked away and then stood from where he was sitting. "Goodnight." Whatever that look was, that had been in her eyes, he knew it meant that she just wanted to be left alone again. So, he didn't protest.

"Goodnight…" She said it with a bit of regret as she turned on her side and stared after him while he walked away. Then, without notice, Korra realized she really didn't want to think anymore. She was overwhelmed and emotionally and mentally exhausted. Iroh's ships should be arriving sometime the next day, and that meant big things were to be happening. She just sighed and did her best to coax herself to sleep. Maybe Mako's scarf was a great asset after all.

Note: I hope you all really enjoyed this. What made the chapter so hard to write was all of the angst and frustration that the characters face. So, hopeully I did an ok job :p I might have to wait until tomorrow night before I start to write chapter 11 because I am leaving to San Francisco at 4am tomorrow…got a wedding to attend on Saturday for my cousin ^.^ So, I will do my best to write during any spare time that I have while I'm out in the city.

Questions or Comments, don't be afraid to say anything. I love the feedback. Not only is it enjoyable to read, but also quite helpful at times.

"It's better to say too much, then never to say what you need to say." ~John Mayer