The door to the small apartment creaked open slowly, causing Mako to wince due to how early in the morning it was. He entered silently, closing the door carefully behind him, and hung his keys on the first ring of the key holder on the wall. He took a quick glance at the clock on the wall just as he headed down the hallway and quietly groaned. It was three-thirty in the morning, meaning Korra had most likely attempted to stay awake long enough to welcome him home as she always did. He always hated his shifts that ran into the late nights and early mornings — so much so that he had even requested a better schedule from his superior, which was ultimately denied with the reason being rookie officers needed the proper exposure and experience to every shift the force had to offer. His co-workers were quick to correct that reason, informing him that rookies were always given the worst shifts because the senior officers were given the better end of the stick simply due to how much time they had invested in the force. Mako quickly learned not to question it, knowing he had to move through the ranks just like everyone else if he wanted to keep his job, as well as keep food on the table and a roof over his and Korra's heads.

Assisted by only the faintness of the streetlights shining through their bedroom window, Mako could barely make out the sleeping figure sprawled across their bed. It always ended this way with his late night shifts; Korra would stay awake as long as she could manage, only to eventually succumb to the heaviness of her eyelids and that nagging voice in the back of her mind that ordered her to get some sleep. Mako always told her that she didn't need to torture herself like that, especially given her duties as the Avatar and daily training with Tenzin. She would insist she would stay up long enough to welcome him home one day, and, of course, that day had yet to make an appearance.

He rid himself of his uniform, shedding the articles of clothing on the floor, leaving him in only his boxers. Figuring it was too late for a quick shower — not to mention not wanting to wake the sleeping Avatar — as well as being too tired to grab a pair of sweats, let alone a shirt, he made his way toward and crawled into bed.

Mako closed his eyes, glad that he was finally able to catch up on some much needed sleep. He had finally made it to his first day off in what seemed like forever, and he planned to sleep as much as he possibly could in order to spend the day with the young woman beside him. He hoped the long shifts he had to endure would end soon so he could be able to go back to being home for dinner, taking Korra out on their weekly dates that had quickly turned in to monthly, if they were lucky, and catching his brother and the two new members of the Fire Ferrets at one of their matches.

Just as he was sure he was on the verge of sleep, Mako felt two arms wind around his midsection, accompanied by the faint sound of a groan emitted by the young woman beside him.

"Welcome home," Korra yawned, pulling herself closer to the young firebender.

"Did I wake you?" Mako asked, wrapping his arms around her muscular frame.

Nuzzling her head underneath his, she replied, "Nope. I was awake when you came in."

His face twisted in to a smirk. "You sure are one terrible liar."

"I'm not—" she was interrupted by a yawn. "—lying.

"If you were awake, you would have said hi before I got in bed." Mako stated, running his fingers through Korra's loose hair. "But, if I agree that you were awake, will you give up trying to stay up long enough to just say hi to me and actually get some sleep? The world really doesn't need an Avatar that is on the verge of passing out in the middle of saving some village in the Earth Kingdom."

"That was one time and it wasn't entirely my fault," she grumbled. "I had just got done with some pretty intense airbending training, thank you very much."

"The day before," he corrected. "You got done with your session the day before."

There was a brief moment of silence, leaving Mako to believe Korra had fallen back asleep somewhere between finishing her sentence, and him ending his. That belief was shattered, however, as soon as he heard the sheets rustle slightly.

"I really hate these weird hours they keep giving you," Korra muttered, unpleased. Mako could picture the pout that was certain to be on her face perfectly.

"I know. I do, too. It gets pretty old having to spend time with people you barely know or flat out can't stand."

"Do you think you'll get better shifts soon?"

Mako shrugged. "Doubtful. Us rookies get the shifts no one else wants. I'll probably be on these weird hours for a while. But, on the bright side, I have my first day off in what seems like forever, and I plan on sleeping as much as possible."

"Oh no, Cool Guy. You're waking up bright and early with when that damn alarm goes off," Korra said, releasing her grip on Mako and bending her arm awkwardly to point at the small alarm clock on the nightstand beside the empty space of the bed. "I'm not going to get in trouble for being late to training again."

"Ugh," Mako groaned, throwing his arm over his eyes. "Can't you just wake me up when you're done? I need my sleep." He let out one last groan when he felt Korra's hands move to his chest and her weight press down upon him.

"I told you before there are some new airbending moves I learned that I wanted to show you!" she pouted, moving his arm away from his face and looking into his eyes. "So yes, you're coming with me."

Mako stared back at her for a moment. There really was no use in arguing with this girl, so, instead, he did the most logical thing that came to mind: pushing her off of him and back to her side of the bed. Her grinned when he heard her protests and turned his back toward her, closing his eyes.

"Goodnight, Korra."

I had to reword this oneshot when the original felt odd. The ending was something that popped into my head at the right time. This sat in my documents for a while because I couldn't figure out a proper ending. The mental image made me laugh. I hope you all enjoyed! Please be sure to review, and, if you have one, leave a prompt/idea for a future oneshot in it, or shoot it over in a private message! Thank you all for being so patient with me. Also, if you spot any mistakes, let me know. I wrote and am posting this from my iPad. The copy-paste method on this site messes me up a lot...