There were days Korra loved being the Avatar.
Just today, doing her rounds around Republic city Spirit portal, checking in with the airbenders and acolytes, she noticed for the fourth time in a row this week this little kid, bright blue eyes and red garments, playing around jumping vines with some bright yellow spirits, they weren't speaking to each other per se but they seemed to be communicating somehow through playing.
She had to stop and marvel at the sight, suddenly stunned by the fact that ten years ago, that scene wouldn't have been. She thought about this new generation that would grow up around spirits, literally a whole new world open to them. She let the glow of pride warm her chest for a second before returning to the petty bickering happening behind her.
Rohan and a young Acolyte were trying to reason with a couple of tourists that insisted on taking a private tour to the spirit world, going as far as shuffling a couple Yuans in their hand, in a poor attempt at bribery. Rohan's red face would have been comical if she herself wasn't so frustrated about the situation. Some part of her wanted to take them inside the portal herself, show them the wonders inside, maybe tell them about Avatar Wan, let them give meditation a try, maybe they'd had another Jinora in their hands, who knew, those came in handy.
She wanted to share it with the world, that was why she had kept the portal open to begin with, humans and spirits living in harmony once again. But it had proven to be some sort of Utopia, a relic kept by her younger naive self. If she was honest, it had brought nothing more than trouble since its inception, and Korra couldn't help but wonder if she was clinging to something that could never be.
After Wonyong Keum gave away the lands around the portal, and Zhu Li assumed as president, she thought everything would be smooth sailing. And it was, for a while. Zhu Li managed to divert funds to keep the portal a public space even after the chaos left by Kuvira's invasion. The air nomads took people into the spirit world, and took care of the place to the best of their abilities.
The problem was, most people didn't have the same intentions. It got old pretty quickly, the air nomads were needed around the four nations, and soon only the airbender newbies and acolytes in training were in charge of the portal, Korra already stretched beyond thin as it was, unable to give a hand on a regular basis. People started getting lost in the spirit world, vandalising the place, taking natural souvenirs and reselling them for profit. It made Korra sick.
After a while only private tours were allowed, but that didn't stop people from sneaking in at night. Finally, a few months ago it was decided to bring the police force and earthbend a 30 feet wall around the portal, closing indefinitely the physical passage into the Spirit world. Air nomads still gather around the sad brown cylinder and meditated, encouraging people to enter the Spirit world that way, but most tourists were in for a quick look around at weird mushrooms rather than a deep spiritual journey.
Korra looked at the posters plastered all around the earth wall, all reading some sort of variation of Down with Spirit-Human segregation Korra couldn't help but wish she could firebend those into ashes, thinking: That was the whole freaking point to begin with!
She didn't like it, but she had to side with the Spirits this time, protect them, before they retaliated. They were going away as it was anyways, at least now some of them were coming back. She thought about the little kid playing, and smiled, before going to Rohan's rescue, who was looking flustered and about to go off on this people. Somehow the kid had managed to inherit Tenzin's pride and Bumi's energy.
"I'm sorry ma'am, the portal is not open for visitors, but you are invited to meditate with us if you want" Korra was pretty sure she had said the same sentence a million times. It never failed to piss people off. Maybe the air nomad's needed a publicist. Maybe she needed a publicist. She put a pinned to it-
After a whole lot of "pleases" and "how dare you" and "Avatar Aang would never" she nodded slightly at Rohan and let the kid go wild on the couple. She had more important stuff to deal with, a small mob of protestors marching towards the park.
"LISTEN LADY" she heard Rohan scream as she glided towards the mob.
Some days Korra loved being the Avatar, but today wasn't one of them.
It was far too dark and she was way too tired to be flying on her glider, but she had lingered at the portal for far too long, too late to catch a lift on one of the airbender's bison, and she would rather fly right into a spirit vine than ride with Lin and her second in command. The woman seemed to be dumping all of her frustrations about Mako leaving the force into the poor guy, trying to bend the newbie to her prodige's image the only way she knew how- by sheer force. And screaming, there was plenty of that too. Spirits, she missed Mako, she was trying to remember the date of the upcoming trip to the Fire Nation when she noticed herself losing altitude.
Luckily, she had finally reached home. The same gust of wind that plained the glider was used to open the front door with a loud bang. She winced regretting the excessive force afraid she would wake Asami up, but she was nowhere to be seen in the lobby.
She checked the kitchen and noticed leftover dinner kept warm inside the oven. Good, she at least has come home for dinner There were a lot of late nights spent with her in her Futures Industries office lately, she was glad she wouldn't have to crush in Asami's couch tonight.
Korra went straight downstairs to her wife's workshop. The place was always a complete mess, sketches hanging from every visible inch of wall, if not lying on the ground, oily footprints darkening their corners, all apparently concerning the machine that laid in the center as the jewel of the crown. Korra took a deep breath when she reached the end of the stairs. She loved the smell of the place, it was a mix of sawdust, oil and sandalwood.
It seemed like her couch-crushing streak wasn't over. Asami had fallen victim to a bigger blueprint laying in front of her on the coffee table, a pencil in her hand. Korra kicked her boots off and untied the leather jacket at her waist before switching the sleeping woman from the seated position she was in, to laying on her side, leaving just enough space for Korra to squeeze in, an arm propping her head up. Asami scooted closer to her, wrapping and arm and leg around Korra's body.
"Korra, you're home" Asami muttered into her chest. "I fell asleep waiting for you"
"Yeah, I can see that" she responded, nuzzling at the black hair. She breathed in sawdust, oil and sandalwood.
"How was your day?" the question was asked absently; drunken circles being traced in her dark skin.
"I saw a kid playing with some spirits at the portal, it was really cute" she answered, drowsily "Those little yellow ones, like the one that kept asking us for lychee nuts that one time"
"The spirits are coming back out?!" the voice seemed more enthusiastic, but Asami's head remained against Korra's chest.
"Yeah, I guess they are, the smaller ones at least" she hummed, as if she had just realized.
"Way to go, Avatar" she raised her head to meet Korra's lips, her eyes still shut "Congratulations sweetie, told you you'd figure it out"
Yeah, I guess I did figure something out.
Today Korra loved being the Avatar, she thought, drowsing off at Asami's the steady breathing.