A/N: This is a birthday fic for a good friend on tumblr. Happy birthday, secretsecrettunnel!

Sleep Deprivation

When Korra crashed into Republic City three years ago, she had been a sight that no one— least of all the Triad members she had beat up— had ever expected to see. After all, it wasn't every day one saw a wild looking water tribe girl riding through the orderly city streets on an even wilder looking polarbear dog. When everyone found out that she was in fact their new Avatar… well, things hadn't quite been the same in the city since then, and things had certainly never been the same for Korra herself.

That day seemed so long ago… yet it didn't seem so long ago as the brief nap Korra had indulged in merely five hours ago. "Come on, Nila," She pleaded as she paced, wearily swaying her tiny daughter in the crook of her arm in what she had learned was a (near) surefire last resort trick for sleep. "Mama wants to go to beeeeeeeed."

Wide blue eyes staring up at her from within the soft hand-knit blanket that Kya had given as a shower gift, the infant waved a tiny hand in a way that seemed to suggest that she was not going to go to sleep for a long time yet.

Korra had been warned by both Pema and her own mother that Nila would most likely not sleep in any regular pattern until well beyond six months of age. But no one— absolutely no one— warned her that could mean two hour intervals of catnaps around the clock, for three months straight. Truthfully, the Avatar was starting to feel herself go a little loopy from lack of sleep. (The charred remains of her forgotten supper, the letter to her parents she had somehow stuck inside the icebox last week and couldn't find until this morning, and her inability to pay attention to anything for more than two minutes was testament to that.)

Still, it was hard to get mad about it. Korra was too weary to stay angry for long, and really, it was hard to keep a bad mood when Korra forced herself to breath in a calming breath and look into Nila's guileless eyes. She groaned as she longingly looked at her bed before offering her much-too-awake child a pout. "Pfft. If it's this bad now, maybe I should be gearing up for when you hit two. Are you ever going to cut me a break, kiddo?"

Her petulant whine might have been a bit childish, but she found herself smiling when the only response she received was an owlish blink that preceded a sneeze so ridiculously adorable, it seemed to blow away the rest of the Avatar's frustrations. Chuckling, Korra rolled her eyes and gave up on the option of sleep for the next hour. "You're lucky you're so cute."