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“...I know this Kuvira problem is only going to get worse. But no matter what happens, no matter how crazy things get, I’ll always try to restore balance.”
Asami’s eyes follow Korra’s across the horizon. Beside her, she feels Tenzin do the same. There’s quiet conviction in Korra’s voice, and more than that, a hint of hopefulness, at last (that smile at her - well, both of them - but that smile at her).
“In that I have no uncertainty,” says Tenzin warmly, drawing the attention of both girls back. He lifts a hand to Korra’s shoulder. “And now, I should go find Ikki for a training session I promised, if you’ll excuse me.” Korra smiles again, and granted, it’s not the brightest smile, but Asami quietly relishes the instance all the same. Although Korra doesn’t say it, she can hear thank you for having faith in me in that smile and in her eyes. When they turn to her, Asami beams back.
“Asami,” Tenzin says, also facing her, “shall I let Pema know that you’ll be here for dinner?”
Asami inclines her head. “Yes, thank you, Tenzin.”
“Wonderful. It’ll be like old times, having the both of you here at once. The new airbenders may be a welcome handful, but I think the kids rather miss sharing Team Avatar’s home base.” He turns and strides back towards the house, in the direction of his daughters’ living quarters.
Korra and Asami watch him leave for a long moment, before Korra says, “You’re staying, huh?” Asami thinks she hears mild surprise in her tone, but a pleasant kind.
“Yeah,” she replies evenly. “I thought it would be a waste of a ferry ride to come over for such a short amount of time.” She had arrived just over an hour ago, having spent the better part of the day at work. Specifically, reviewing orders and requests for supplies from newly-minted Earth Empire states, deliberating whether and which to send, for what purpose she was moving her products. The Kuvira problem, as Korra had worded it, was impressing on them all, in one or more of its many ways. “Besides,” Asami adds thoughtfully, “it’s been too long since I’ve gotten to really see the kids.” And you.
The answer appears to satisfy Korra, who is looking across the horizon once again. “Well,” she exhales, “you got here for a gorgeous evening.”
“Mmm,” Asami says. It’s a pretty sunset. The violent blush of the clouds makes her want to stay out here for a while yet, though it’s going to be dark before long. She leans forward on the wooden balustrade and Korra mirrors her a few paces away, but they keep to their own thoughts. It’s a companionable silence, as theirs always were (are, again.) Asami stares straight ahead. There’s something of a tiny knot in her stomach, which is a strange contrast to the serenity she otherwise feels in this moment.
She likes this particular place a lot. There are a couple of gazebos like this around the island, isolated, providing shelter, something to lean on - but still fully outside, such that she can let the open air help her play with her thoughts. Back when she and Mako and Bolin had first come to stay on Air Temple Island, she would come here on sleepless nights and ruminate on her suddenly splintered life. On what she thought had been her life with her father, and where exactly the line between what had been real and what she had believed to be real was. (Nearly four years later, she is less sure than ever.) She had never left these occasions with much more clarity than before, but they killed the hours, so she was grateful for that at the very least.
It seems like Korra hadn’t come here for too different a purpose. Asami takes a measured glance at her. Her eyes are faraway, hands wrapped around her teacup. She’s pensive again, but more peacefully so than when Asami had found her. It makes her look oddly, endearingly innocent. Nonetheless, she cuts a sturdy and splendid figure against the deepening sky. The hint of a breeze slowly plays the ends of Korra’s hair against the corner of her chin, her mouth, and Asami tears her gaze away.
“Your - I think your tea’s getting cold,” she says gently.
It snaps Korra out of her reverie. “What? Oh. Yeah.” She looks down and considers the cup before lifting it to draw a long sip. “You want some?” She adds nonchalantly, holding the cup out to Asami without waiting for a response. Asami receives it and drinks from where Korra drank, swallowing the flutter in her throat with the tea.
Eventually, Korra speaks again. “So are you going back to the city tonight? Or the estate -”
“Huh? No. Actually, I hadn’t been back to the estate for a while until we took the prince there. Kind of left it to Yin and her family - it’s best for both parties to have the other out of the way, you know?” She pauses. “Especially now that Wu’s there.”
That makes Korra scoff. “Oh, you’re right. I don’t - I don’t really understand how Mako does it.”
“I know!” Asami snorts. “I’ve told him as much!”
Korra grins when she sees her laugh. “To be fair, the prince is pretty fond of him.”
“Well, he was fond of you, too,” Asami smirks back.
“That’s - not something to be proud of. In any case, it didn’t exactly endear him to me.”
Asami concedes, “I can agree with you on that.”
“Oh, no.” Korra’s eyes widen. “Did he ask you out, too?” When Asami exhales loudly and presses her eyes close, a signal in the affirmative, Korra rolls hers own. “Oh, of course he did.” She tilts her head and continues to smile at Asami, direct and bright, and Asami wonders about dropping her gaze, unsure what to think or where to look.
“Well, regardless,” she starts to say, throat a little dry. “I didn’t - I didn’t really like the way he was talking to you.” When Korra’s eyebrows jolt upwards in a kind of abashed curiosity, she amends quickly, “I mean, about the Avatar state. The restaurant… He was really insensitive, I know. And I didn’t even want for him to be there, and he wasn’t even apologetic.”
She pauses and sighs before continuing softly, “On which note, actually, I want to apologize.”
“For what?”
“At the restaurant - for snapping at you. I shouldn’t have.” She wants to explain herself, and Korra must notice because although she lifts a hand to Asami’s forearm, brow furrowed, she doesn’t interject. “I was tense and confused myself, and I took it out on you. I guess...I guess it’s because I knew you could be right and I wasn’t prepared to second guess myself - I still don’t,” she feels her voice waver all of a sudden, “I don’t really know what to make of it all. With my father. Anyway, I was sore. You didn’t know.”
The hand on her forearm travels upwards in a reassuring touch.
“It’s alright,” Korra says eventually. “I was just worried about you.”
Asami lets out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding as, unexpectedly, Korra continues. “I know I wasn’t here for you - that I wasn’t able to be - but you know that doesn’t, not for a moment, Asami, mean that I didn’t want to be.”
I know, Asami wants to interject, to reassure, but the sentiment reaches her somewhere unexpected and she pauses to collect herself and make sure, really make sure, that she isn’t going to cry.
“So will you tell me now? Asami?”
Asami looks at her for a moment. “About...?”
“About your father.” Korra isn’t smiling, but the earnestness in her eyes is somehow warmer. “About everything.”
“...Yeah, of course.” Asami musters the smallest grin. “There’s not a whole lot worth telling on my end, to be honest, but -”
The smile widens infinitely when Korra pulls her forward into a brief yet snug embrace. “But you’ll feel better if you share, I swear. Besides, I’m interested, whatever you have to tell me about.”
Once again, Asami feels strangely overwhelmed by such a minor notion. She allows for the quiet acknowledgement that yes, maybe something so simple as this small token, this affirmation of I’m here and I’ll listen was what she had been missing for countless months. That the sense of solitude she was carrying had become so encompassing, it was taking nothing more than the smallest, most unconscious gestures to begin easing it. Yes, maybe I’ve really been lonely, she concedes to herself. After all, wasn’t that desperation part of the reason she had faltered in severing the failing, fading tie to her father?
She pushes the last thought from her mind, unwilling to concede that much, and instead quips, “Even if it’s about sales meetings? If I wanna tell you about budget reviews?”
“Literally, whatever!” Korra enthuses.
And for all the lessons of her past, Korra’s expression makes Asami believe her, one hundred per cent.
“I hope you know that I’ll be here to listen to whatever you need to say, too,” she says sincerely.
Korra smiles almost achingly soft. “Well, that would be nothing new.”
Asami returns that smile with her happiest of the evening. She leans back onto the balustrade as Korra does the same.
Much sooner than she would have expected, the pink and purple sky is bleeding into blue. She watches it change slowly, her heart light, revelling in the quiet, comfortable silence and the feel of the only-just-detectable breeze against her face. It’s nice to have a moment like this, where she has no immediate reason to feel any kind of pressure, whether it be about her personal anxieties, or work, or the political issues they were all having to consider. The potential menace of the Earth Empire is still there, as is the shadow of her father, but they feel rightfully distant when she thinks, I’ve taken the night off, I’ve taken some time out to not consider that. She’s on schedule as ever, but right now her schedule demands that she leave a quiet night for herself and some of her friends. She realizes how much she sometimes misses Air Temple Island, thinking that hopefully she would be here more often now that Korra had returned. Coming here almost takes her outside of her life for a moment - as if the bay she had to cross separated her from it as it separated the island from the city. It was a calming effect.
After a while Korra speaks again. “D’you wanna walk with me?”
“Huh?” Asami turns her head as the sound of Korra’s voice glides into focus.
“I don’t wanna go back inside yet. I think the acolytes are eating.”
Asami nods, fully present again. “Sure.” The acolytes and most of the new Air Nation usually ate before the family’s private dinner, and there was a whole lot of them. It would be noisy indoors. She wasn’t ready to relinquish the tranquility she felt yet, either.
Korra positions herself onto the ledge, as she had been when Asami had found her, and hops elegantly over it onto the ground a few feet below. Then she gives Asami her hand to do the same, although it takes a moment longer for her with a skirt on. When Asami has landed on the ground, her hand is still clutched in Korra’s. It’s a firm and warm grip on her cold fingers.
Korra retracts and turns to skip a few paces forward, casually enough that Asami feels silly for noticing so keenly, and wonders if she should have let go first, and feels silly again for wondering about it. She walks forward quickly so they’re standing abreast again. They’ve been facing south towards the ocean. Asami gestures further down that way, towards the expanse of trees on the island’s most southeasterly section. “Shall we go down there?”
Wordlessly, Korra follows her. The ground is uneven in this direction, the path unpaved as it meanders towards the trees and bushes, inching closer to the island’s perimeter. It’s clear and natural here, even for Air Temple Island. They keep their pace slow, partially for the terrain but mostly so that they can enjoy the serene atmosphere.
“Do you miss the Water Tribe food?” Asami asks, becoming aware of her own creeping hunger.
Korra laughs. “Yeah - now that you mention it. Though I kind of missed being half vegetarian too, in its own way. I just have to eat a lot more of the food here, and I’m fine. I mean, it was a lot more difficult to eat well when I was travelling, especially in the desert areas. Though Toph does fine in the swamp. I’m hungry.”
Asami giggles. “Yeah, me too.”
Korra pauses to smile knowingly at her before continuing her train of thought, hopping on and off rocks half-buried in the earth. “But I’m glad that at least I was in the Water Tribe when I began training again! It takes a lot to bulk up. You wouldn’t believe how much I started eating, and that was meat twice a day - almost like I was making up for when I didn’t.” Her expression becomes wistful with the last thought, though she’s still smiling.
“Well, you look amazing,” Asami says truthfully, turning so that she’s walking backwards for a moment, facing Korra. She makes a point of assessing her (as if she hadn’t a hundred times already), regretting it slightly when the sudden urge to touch her manifests itself. She shakes it off and adds in a not quite serious tone, “And I really like these gloves on you.”
Korra laughs bashfully, plucking at said gloves. She’s more flustered than Asami had intended to make her. “Um, thanks and - they’re really long, I know! To make up for no fingers,” she adds jokingly, awkwardly.
Asami wants to reach out and touch her more than ever. “Mm, I think they’re longer than Rohan is,” she teases, but she makes no effort to keep the affection out of her voice.
“Oh -” Korra says suddenly, finally meeting her eyes. “Don’t sit next to Rohan at the table. He’s a cutie but he makes a mess.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” replies Asami. When Korra looks at her inquiringly, she explains, “I was over here quite a bit when I was testing the wingsuits and I think he was a little taken with me. Meelo was jealous.”
“You made those wingsuits?”
“Yeah -” Asami says, holding a low-hanging branch out of Korra’s way, ‘well, I designed them, start to finish pretty much.”
Korra looks impressed as she steps forward. “Nice job!”
“I - actually, it wouldn’t be any trouble for me to get one done for you if you wanted. The plans are all still there.”
“Awesome,” says Korra, nodding eagerly. “Can you make it blue, though?”
Asami makes a show of deliberating, causing Korra to elbow her playfully. They jump over a tiny brook together, Korra very unnecessarily using airbending to propel herself, smirking and giggling when Asami rolls her eyes at her. Asami tells her eventually, “Ikki actually wanted a pink one initially, but Tenzin insisted that everyone have the traditional colours.”
“It makes sense, right? I mean, they’re hardly Air Nomad-y looking otherwise. Something’s gotta stay the same, if only for Tenzin’s sake.”
That makes Asami snicker.
They walk a while yet, weaving around more branches and rocks, conversation light and veering from topic to topic, not hanging on one thing for too long (there’s just so much to cover, but neither are willing to dig very deep today.) Sometimes their hands brush, and Asami thinks through the warmth clustering in her own mind that there’s a spring in Korra’s step for a moment. It gets incrementally colder. She feels it more than Korra, obviously. Korra must notice though, because as they enter the last stretch of their walk, the house’s lights twinkling a way beyond them, she takes Asami by the shoulders and rubs, letting both the friction and firebending warm her.
“For the tea earlier,” she says.
Asami huffs a smile, and they’re making their way across the wide, paved yard in front of the house again.
Dinner is fun, in an understated, sweet kind of way.
Asami sits between Korra and Ikki, opposite Rohan. Before Meelo can object, Pema distributes an equal amount of steamed buns to each of them. Jinora relays the latest from the airbenders assigned to aid the Earth Kingdom, Ikki interrupting every ten seconds with a new question before the last one’s been answered. They ask Asami about work, though when she responds she’s more conscious of Korra’s attentive stare than Tenzin and Pema’s comments. They sit at the table for much longer than she’s used to, taking their time with dessert (pistachio rice pudding). More than once, Asami finds herself thinking about the settled camaraderie of the family, the care underlying each compliment, question or reprimand; it’s in the once-over Pema gives everyone’s plates before telling Meelo to help her clear them away, in the tone of Tenzin’s voice when he asks Jinora to lead a group meditation session in his place the next morning, even in the way Korra waterbends the lychee juice in Rohan’s cup to make him giggle. It extends to the way Ikki taps Asami’s shoulder and offers to sprinkle more sugar in her pudding, to make it taste better. It’s been a very long time since Asami has experienced this sort of dynamic, and she feels contented by the family’s very presence.
After dinner, Asami plays one long game of Pai Sho each with Ikki and Meelo in the main living room. Jinora sits just inside of the doorway, attempting to use her spiritual projection to connect with Kai and determine his and Opal’s whereabouts. Beyond her, on the patio, Korra is playing a very subdued game of fetch with Naga, with Pema watching from indoors with Rohan in her lap. She really doesn’t get cold, Asami thinks.
Just as Asami is about to propose a second game with Ikki (she’s pretty good), Korra strides over.
“Hey! Your mom says to get ready for bed. Mind if I steal Asami?” She says, addressing Ikki.
“No!” Ikki says brightly after considering, and scampers off to take Korra’s place entertaining Naga, even as she stifles a yawn.
Asami looks at Korra expectantly. Korra sits herself down opposite her and begins to help her pack the tiles away.
“I was wondering if you wanted to stay here tonight? It’s getting pretty late.”
Asami had nearly forgotten that she was supposed to be leaving.
Korra stops meeting her eyes. “There are free rooms as always, if you want your own one. And I can give you something to wear, if you need a change of clothes, I mean.”
“I might have to leave early tomorrow, but okay,” Asami says, pausing to pretend to consider. And for good measure, “That’d be nice! A sleepover.”
Korra perks up at that, raising her brows. “Um, I’m twenty-one.”
“And I’m even older,” Asami counters, somewhat amused, “it’s still a sleepover!” Right on cue, she yawns. “Come on, find me some pyjamas.”
She lets Korra lead her to her room. It’s the same one as three years before, but it’s been refurbished, displaying a Water Tribe-looking rug, a double bed instead of a single and multiple thinner blankets rather than the one thick comforter the dorms on the island usually featured.
Asami plops onto the bed whilst Korra rummages through her clothes and throws her a plain purplish shirt and a pair of three-quarter length bottoms. Then she grabs the pyjamas and white tank folded on the dressing table and spins around to quickly undress and put them on. She’s ever so casual about the act - whether that’s simply her unfussed nature or the fact that Asami’s had to help her in various states of undress before, in less than savoury situations, Asami isn’t sure. She wishes she could be the same way, but the thought of disrobing makes her burn up.
“You think you need something warmer?” Korra says as she turns back around, pulling her tank down with one hand and gesturing to the blankets next to Asami with the other.
“I’ll be fine.” Asami twists the clothes in her lap before standing up decisively and beginning to pull off her shoes and tights. She wonders if she should have done this the same time as Korra had, so that they both would have been occupied, but Korra changed too fast anyway.
Offhand as ever, Korra picks up Asami’s boots where she’d dropped them and places them neatly against the wall next to her own. She reaches into a drawer and places something onto the dressing table, though it’s blocked from Asami’s view as she unbuttons her shirt. “There’s a hairbrush if you need it,” Korra says, heading for the door next. “I’m going to get us some of Tenzin’s green tea.”
By the time she returns, two steaming cups in hand, Asami is sitting cross-legged on the bed, brushing out her hair.
“I haven’t seen you like this in three years!” Korra declares. Asami laughs when she realizes she’s referring to her untied hair.
Korra sets the mugs down on the bedside table with characteristic grace in her movements, before flopping down on the bed in front of Asami. She lays herself out, stretching languidly. The hem of her tank rides up as she does so and Asami continues the small movement with her eyes, tracing the contours of her torso and arms as they sink into the mattress. She’s emanating so much comfort and warmth that Asami wants to reach out and share it. So she takes the opportunity.
“Want me to brush yours?” She says, waving the hairbrush in her hand.
Korra sits up and scoots so that her back is flush against Asami’s legs. For a second, Asami has to resist the urge to use her fingers instead of the brush, though she ultimately ends up working with both - brush on one side of Korra's head, hand cradling the other side in place, shifting slightly through her hair.
Asami’s done this before - stayed the night with Korra - but only a few times when they were both in a state to enjoy the other’s company. (After the venom was another story.) The first had been in the airship, after one of the several long evenings of group airbender-recruitment brainstorming. They sat in Asami’s cabin and talked about pro-bending and their childhoods, and Korra had picked her favourite shade of lipstick on Asami after rifling through her makeup. It had been unplanned, yet easier than anything Asami had ever planned, which wasn’t a bad model for the essence of Asami’s feelings towards Korra.
Korra almost falls asleep with Asami's hands in her hair, but they end up talking a long while tonight, too, making an easy way through various sprawling positions on the double bed and various topics of discussion. When Korra does fall asleep for real, Asami manoeuvres a little closer to her against the cold, thinking that she should have accepted a warmer blanket. The warmth of Korra beside her is a good second, though.