HEY GUYS!

Here is my 2nd Tahorra fic which I'm finally brave enough to begin publishing. This one in particular is rated higher than the rest (see it as a kind of anime like Soul Eater or Darker Than Black) because of Tahno's drinking problem. Hope you enjoy it and please please send over reviews to let me know your thoughts, so I can tweak/fix things before it's too late. The masterplan is that I dish out a fic a month before Book 2 comes out next year *BOOHOOHOO* and these would all obviously be AUs. Given the busy month ahead filled with uni and coursework and many more distractions, I'm afraid I'll have to keep the stories relatively short.

Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Korra or its characters.

Music inspiration: "Powerless" by Linkin Park

"Maybe this is a sign for you to finally get over Mako."

Jinora closed and laid down her book at last. A gold mine of knowledge on anthropology of the Earth Kingdom, to be precise. But it wasn't nearly as important as being the friend in need of the Avatar this very moment. She was seated right next to Korra on the mellow but hard wood floor lining a corridor in the men's dormitory. Their backs leaned against one of the translucent screens separating them from the Air Temple's newest - and very troubled - guest. He was asleep, but his thoughts were alive with horrors only the spirits could decipher.

"Korra…K-Korra…!"

It was extremely late in the evening. The two heard thrashing, the creaking of wood, most of all the suffering behind those screens. It had been going on intermittently for almost a full hour. To Jinora it was saddening (and worth a whole lot of curiosity); to Korra it was becoming more and more distressing on top of the anger pent up inside. The kind of anger you end up directing at no one but yourself, because you'd done the right thing. It was so difficult to explain.

"Does your offer to live at Air Temple Island still stand?"

Korra half-expected he'd ask. And she is relieved for the shortest interim before she knows what she must do.

"Of course it does. And Asami's welcome too."

"Thank you so much." His eyes are flickering, in a way that she must root herself to the ground or else. After all this time, he still has this effect on her.

"After everything she's been through," without him quite noticing she manages to draw in all the breath needed, "she's going to need you Mako." He turns away to comfort the rich and attractive girlfriend she couldn't possibly measure up to, and the Avatar's best escape from emotions are to look out the window of the airship.

They were to move in tomorrow. Mako, Bolin and Asami were spending their second and last night in a hotel across from Republic City's police station for convenient questioning regarding Hiroshi Sato. Plus they had to pack their things to lug across the waters to the island the following day.

Korra had a wealth of envious rage to shove under the rug. And adding to that, she had found herself in another situation that afternoon which required more of her selflessness…

"He's been calling my name in his sleep," she sighs, turning her gaze to the eldest airbending kid.

Jinora blinked and was silent for a while, then queried, "Would it be alright…if you told me what happened in detail today?"

"It all started when I found Tahno at the police station. You know, after the Equalists blew up the Pro-bending arena. Your dad and Chief Beifong had called him in for questioning." Her brilliant blue eyes look to a solitary vase on one of the console tables at the end of the corridor. When sharing the next bits of information she lowered her voice. "When it was my turn to be interrogated, I stole a look at the file Beifong had in her hand. Tahno's address. For some reason I still can't figure out I chose to memorise it. So I made my way there today at last. After knocking on his door too long I heard glass shattering. I managed to get inside, and was horrified." An unhealthy sight of a broken man burned in her mind. "To break it down, Tahno had too much to drink, and the authorities were about to kick him out of his home and well…he looked so sick and tired that I had no second thoughts."

"About bringing him straight here?"

Korra nodded, looking away once more. She surmised that in such panic and confusion, the former Wolfbat had squandered the last of his savings on the best and most expensive healers in the city. And worst of all, the alcohol. She hadn't seen so many emptied bottles of countless sizes lining the top of a table in her life. "I should've gone another extra mile, Jinora. I should have treated him to some tea, or gone ahead and extended an invitation for him to stay here if he needed to. Surely your father would have been fine with that."

The girl nodded, saying nothing.

More whimpering escaped the room behind them.

"Korra…"

"What shall I do?" the Avatar felt she was about to snap.

In a manner most touching, the child's hand fell on her shoulder. "Answer his cries."