She hears the sound of a branch snapping, frustration with her muted human hearing and her inability to locate its exact location coursing through her. What was taking him so long? He had agreed not to stray too far from the campsite while collecting firewood, but it felt like he'd been gone forever. She's about to call out his name (it's so inconvenient not being able to track his scent), when he stumbles into the clearing, branches and logs nearly spilling out of his grasp.

"The wood's still pretty wet from this afternoon's storm, but I tried to find as much dry stuff as I could." He builds the scaffolding for their fire and shoots a little flame into the center. Her mood is always sour on her full-human nights—the inexplicable loss of both her half-demon abilities and her bending leaving her in a particularly vulnerable position—but for some reason, watching him bend that tiny flame pisses her off more than it should. They have been traveling for almost two weeks—Asami and Bolin had stayed behind to help Katara ward off an influx of demons in her village—and two weeks was just… too much time alone with the fire-bending boy. But despite her flaring annoyance with him (among other things), she holds her tongue and matches his casual comment with a huff and silence. No need to send her best method of defense against attacks brooding into the forest.

She hates these nights. It is during these moments of darkness, her senses dull and her bending absent, that she curses whatever gods decided she should be the Avatar. As the daughter of a powerful Water Bender and a beautiful InuYoukai, her life would have been complicated enough, but the discovery that her body housed the Avatar spirit was both a blessing and a curse. Her 'Avatar lineage' was a string of fully human Avatars; never before had the Avatar spirit appeared in a half-demon (but the fact that her existence alone had ruined countless countryside myths about demons being "too impure" to house the Avatar spirit still makes her laugh). Caught in an uncomfortable limbo, she had faced the frozen smiles of prejudiced townsfolk who would have otherwise tried to kill her; it's a tense safety only afforded by the title she carries. She hates the forced pleasantries almost as much as she's sure those people hate her, but it's her duty as the Avatar to act as the bridge between their world and the spirit world, and she tries (despite her occasional failings) to do just that.

"So what's it like?" He speaks with his head down, watching the fire he's stoking, like he's worried the question might offend her. It doesn't, not really, but she's already wound too tightly and ready to snap.

"I'm just human, so I'd imagine it's exactly what you feel every day. Incompetent, weak, a bit jerky—" Her tone is unnecessarily biting and she regrets her rushed words the second she says them.

"So you're admitting that you're being a jerk right now?"

"Mako…" She tries to fight it; she can feel her eyebrow twitch as she tries to restrain her temper.

"It's not my fault you can't put together a good insult!"

"Shut up, Mako!" She shouts over the fire at him. For a second, she wonders if fighting off demons and lecherous wanderers in the forest is worth the risk if it means getting to ditch him right here. She can tell the boy across from her isn't ready to let go of this stupid fight and she kind of hates him for it, even though she knows she started it. She hates that stupid smirk on his face, like he's just waiting for the right moment to whip out his stupid insult. She hates his stupid, taunting voice and his stupid eyes and how…

How she can see the frustration burn out, like she has somehow caught him off guard and doused a bucket of water on his flame with her temporarily blue-eyed glance. She hates how she feels when his eyes meet hers and she hates the stupid way his eyes glow in the firelight and the sharp angles of his face and his stupid, stupid lips.

She hates him.

Really.

"Sorry, I'm just…tense on nights like this." She watches him from the corner of her eye, his gaze focused too intently on the fire in front of them.

"Do you, uh, want a back rub or something?"

She looks directly at him now, feeling her face flush as she sputters. It might just be the fire, but she's pretty sure his face is a few shades darker, too.

"Why would I need—what are you—I don't—"

"You said you were tense!" His face is practically the color of his scarf, and she bets hers is just as red. She thinks—no, she knows—this is a horrible, horrible idea, but she stands up, crosses the short distance between them, and plops herself down in front of him. Crossing her arms across her chest, she tries to fight down the flaming heat in her face.

"What are you waiting for, City Boy?"

She hears him clear his throat before she feels his hands hesitantly clasp her shoulders, his thumbs pressing into the stiffness she's been carrying between her shoulder blades for weeks. It feels…nice. Really, really nice.

He doesn't stray from the imagined confines of her upper back until she lets out a puff of air, closes her eyes, and allows her posture to go slack, his hands slowly working down her muscled back. She ignores how good it feels when his hands clasp her waist as he works on a particularly stubborn knot. She pretends her pulse doesn't pick up when his fingers brush against her neck as he pushes her wolftails over her shoulder and out of his way.

She hates him. She hates him. She lov—

"Why do you lose your bending with the new moon?"

She forces her eyelids open and tries to snap out of haze he has induced with his warm hands.

"To be honest, I don't know. I've trained with four different masters and everyone has their own theory, but no one knows what to make of me since I'm the first half-demon Avatar. Tenzin thinks maybe my demon side and the Avatar Spirit are at war, so their ironically inseparable, one always tagging along, hoping to eliminate the other."

"What do you think of that?"

"It's the best theory I've heard so far, I guess. Why, do you have a better idea?"

"I…It's stupid."

"Just spill it already."

"Maybe they're inseparable for another reason."

"And what's that?"

"They're supposed to be opposites, right? Maybe one is drawn to the other. Like magnets."

He's quiet behind her, his hands tracing down her back more so than rubbing it at this point, but she's not about to comment or move away. She likes that idea almost as much as she likes the way his chest feels against her back when she absentmindedly leans against him, her eyelids heavy. He stiffens slightly at the contact before he awkwardly closes his arms around her, but she's too tired to care and too tired to move.

"Magnets, huh?"

"Even though they're opposites, when one pulls, the other follows."

His words are warm against her human ear and she likes the feel of his head resting against hers as she closes her eyes. His arms seem to have tightened around her too, and even her human nose picks up on a smell distinctly him, like embers and forest and warmth. She doesn't want to leave the comfort and security that she always manages to find with him, not tonight, not tomorrow morning, not ever.

"How does your back feel? Less tense?"

"Yeah, thank you. Mako?"

"Hmm?"

"You smell kind of nice."

"You've told me before that you hate my scent. That I 'reek of the city' and burnt noodles." He manages to quietly laugh as he replies, but she can hear the hesitant, questioning tone hidden beneath it.

She's so tired. Tired from the stresses that come with her human nights, tired from questioning why she is what she is, tired from telling herself they could never work and desperately trying to convince herself of that, too.

"I was lying."

He doesn't respond and she thinks that's okay as she feels herself slipping into sleep. Something wraps under her and she's weightless, and she's moving with him. She smells fur, hears his voice saying something to Naga, before she's on the ground with him again, her back still against his chest, his arms still around her.

"Goodnight, Korra."

She tries to reply, but can't seem to remember how to say words and opts for snuggling further into his arms. For the first time, she sleeps peacefully on the night of the new moon.

Goodnight, Mako.