Asami sighed, leaning forward over blueprints for a new sector of Republic City. She had grown accustomed to her small breaks while working. She used to become fixated on an idea or project all the way through until it was finished but for the past few weeks she was never able to focus for more than a few hours at a time. As usual, her thoughts drifted back to the Avatar. Korra had said she was going to be gone to the Southern Water Tribe for two weeks to recover from her injuries. It had been 12 weeks now and Asami had heard nothing but small reports from the White Lotus messengers that delivered updates to Tenzin from his mother.
Asami pulled open a drawer of her office desk and pulled out a pen and paper. She delicately began to craft another letter to Korra. She hadn't yet perfected her letters and worried that maybe her previous ones had pushed too hard or been too vague. Maybe this one would incite a response from the injured Avatar. She began with:
Dear Korra,
I miss you. It's not the same in Republic City without you. How are you feeling?
Things are going well here. I just got a big contract to help redesign the city's infrastructure so I'll be keeping pretty busy for a while.
She placed her pen down and looked at what she had written. It was a decent start but thinking about where to go from there she was lost. It wasn't like she could write down all the thoughts that had been going through her head lately. How she longed to have Korra close to her or even just laughing beside her like they used to. It wouldn't do to confess that she wishes things could move past the friendship they had built over the past years or how when she readied Korra for her journey home in Korra's room on Air Temple Island she yearned to guide her hands along the sad Avatars cheek and kiss her pain away. No, she couldn't write any of that.
Instead, Asami turned her head back to the blueprints in front of her. Maybe there was another way she could express how she felt for Korra.
Asami stood glaring over a group of sculptors who were gently working a large block of stone into a statue of Avatar Korra. A group on the ground were earth bending the stubborn rock into various positions while a group on scaffolding up by the top were using water bending to slowly scrape the rock to form Korra's facial features. The project was going very well but something about it put Asami more on edge each day.
As the statue that was meant to be the final addition to Asami's vision of Avatar Korra Park came together, Asami fumed. It had been almost a year and she had heard nothing from Korra. Letter after letter were left unanswered and as the final projects that Future Industries were working on for Republic City began to wrap up Asami was feeling more lost than ever. Of course there was more to work on, but Asami had drawn up the ideas and the rest would just be overseeing the improvements to the Central Terminal.
Asami looked up tentatively at Korra's statue, the stone face gazed unfeelingly back into her eyes.
"Some help you've been." Asami muttered. She had put aside everything for Korra during the two weeks before the Avatar left. Taking care of her had been a full time job and Asami felt nothing but eagerness to help. Now, that eagerness drained from her and was replaced by anger at Korra for abandoning her all alone in Republic City. Mako was occupied with protecting Wu, Bolin had found meaning working for Kuvira, her dad was in prison and Asami felt like she had no one left.
Asami stirred when she heard someone approach from behind her. Asami had learned to expect the delivery man. The delivery man had learn to expect Asami's disappointment when he showed up with another letter that was from Asami's father. What he didn't expect this time when he showed up to deliver yet another letter from Mr. Sato that would go unopened, was Asami's anger.
"I assume you've brought me another letter from my father?" She growled, turning to face the pale faced man. She had begun to lose hope that he would ever come around with a letter from who she was actually hoping to hear from.
"Yes, ma'am. Would you like me to deliver a reply?" The man asked, not sensing the engineer's growing rage.
"No!" Asami shouted suddenly. "What I would like you to do, is to deliver me something other than this trash!" She stated sharply snatching the letter from the man's hands and turning back to the statue.
"What I'd like is one of these from you, explaining yourself!" Asami barked up at the Avatar's stone face.
The workers around the statue avoided Asami's eyes and finalized their work silently.
The statue was installed at the park the next day.
When Asami had jumped in her car six months ago and drove to oversee the installation of Korra's statue, she had been hit with the memories of Korra and her driving around town. Korra was not a good driver by any means but once Asami gave her a little guidance and even more patience, Korra had gotten the hang of it. Her red and black Satomobile reminded Asami of this. She promptly got a new car.
As Asami left the manor that morning and clambered into her now blue (she couldn't quite pin why, but it seemed right) Satomobile she had no desire to go to work. She started up the machine and began to drive. Without realizing her intent, Asami found herself parked just outside Avatar Korra Park. She huffed sadly. Asami began visiting the park once the Avatar's honorary statue had been installed. Every time she thought of the stubborn brunette she made her way to the park and quietly spoke to the statue how she used to speak to her friend.
Making her way towards the middle of the park and sitting in the same spot she did every time she came, Asami wished she could speak to the real Korra. A few spirits came floating by Asami's spot and a small dragonfly-hummingbird darted in and out of her vision. The insect weaved around the park and reminded Asami of Korra when she was really focused while using her bending or just fighting.
Korra and Asami had decided that a great way to focus Korra's Earth Queen frustrations was to do a little sparing. Since Mako and Bolin weren't around and Asami wasn't a bender, they scrounged up some sparing gear and made their way out to the lawn.
Asami readied herself in a stance and before she even had the chance to give the go ahead Korra began throwing punches.
"I know that Earth Queen is lying to me!" Korra grunted through punches. "I can tell by that stupid little queen-ey smirk of hers!"
Asami observed Korra quickly between her sparing blockers. Korra's features were pulled into a frown and her jaw was set. In total, Korra looked pissed off and Asami decided hastily to herself that it was a look that was unbelievably sexy.
"And I can't believe I helped her." Korra complained, throwing a punch out to the side that Asami reached out slightly to catch.
Korra's determination was becoming very arousing for Asami. Sweat began to drip slowly from Asami's brow and she knew another place on her body that felt ready to drip as Korra's fierce eyes bore into hers.
"I should have known she was using me!" Korra spun, gathering some air under herself and kicked the sparing glove right off Asami's hand, stunning her from her fixation on Korra.
"Woah, hey!" Asami exclaimed, recovering quickly. "I think I could use a break. You letting off steam is starting to hurt, a lot."
While it was a slight lie, Asami had recognized that if they had kept going at that pace, she would have most likely jumped the Avatar to show her another way they could let off steam.
A group of young earth benders broke Asami from her reverie when they sent an earth disk flying close by at an alarming speed.
Looking back up at Korra's stone face, Asami smiled.
"I hope you're doing okay, Korra. I miss you." She said quietly before gathering herself and deciding she should probably get to work. Before leaving, she did what she did every time she visited the park and Korra's statue and tossed a coin in the river in the foolish tradition of hoping it would grant her wish. Bring Korra back.
The delivery man decided that today was going to be a good day. Wen would have to stop at Future Industries to deliver a letter to Ms. Sato but this letter wasn't from the CEO's estranged father. As he knocked firmly on the office door he felt assured that this time he wouldn't be yelled at, dismissed with a frown or looked at with the severe disappointment he had come to expect.
"Come in," Asami said, poured over a various assortment of brainstorming sheets and blueprints.
Asami peered up at the man who entered her office and frowned.
"Oh, hello Wen. Another letter from my father I assume? You can add it to the pile." She stated dismissively, gesturing to the small stack that had accumulated on a table by the door.
"No, ma'am. This letter is from the Southern Water Tribe. Sent by Avatar Korra, miss." Wen said proudly.
Asami's face changed from one emotion to the next so quickly it was almost as if she was deciding which to land on. Ultimately it landed on a mix between confusion and utter excitement. Wen didn't even have to move before the letter was snatched from his hand and Asami was returning to her desk opening it hastily.
It wasn't until he looked down that he realized the young engineer had slipped quite a few yuans in place of the letter and he acknowledged that today was indeed a very good day.
Korra was supposed to be on the ship. Naga wasn't supposed to come bounding out all by herself leaving Asami's excitement crushed underneath her paws.
Asami crawled into her bed that night wishing with all her might that Korra was there just like she was supposed to be. Asami had thrown several coins in the river tonight all with the regular accompanying wish. Bring Korra back. Allowing her eyes to slip shut, Asami tried to remember what it felt like to sleep beside Korra.
Zaheer's crew gone and Korra safe, the group had decided that there had been enough action for one night and it was time to get some sleep. While they rested, the night guards of Zaofu were going to work on restoring the damage Ghazan's lava bending had done to Su's estate.
In the mean time, Korra couldn't sleep. Earlier that night when she had awoke, she was hit by a dart, knocked out and almost kidnapped. Now, the fear of vulnerability plagued her. She stood up unsteadily, still unsure if her limbs would give out below her. When they didn't she used them to guide her quietly to the room she was looking for. She slipped into Asami's room silently only to find Asami sitting up in her bed.
"Can't sleep either?" Asami asked quietly.
"No," Korra replied, "I keep feeling like I'll be leaving myself open to another attack."
Korra hung her head and made her way over to sit down on the edge of Asami's bed. Asami reached out to touch Korra's shoulder gently.
"Would you like to … stay in here tonight?" Asami prodded.
Korra didn't respond. She simply flopped down onto the bed beside Asami, curling herself up in the blankets before faintly muttering a soft thank you.
Asami smiled and pulled the blankets around the two of them properly.
When she awoke in the morning, Korra had wrapped her arms around Asami like a koala. Asami blushed and basked in the moment before deciding her next move. It took all of Asami's stealth to slip out without waking the sleeping Avatar who Asami decided deserved to sleep in.
Asami kicked a piece of rock hard enough that it bounced much farther along the pavement than she had expected and splashed into the river that ran through Avatar Korra Park.
What gave her father the right to say the things he had? If Asami truly was the greatest thing he ever created, why did he betray her like he had? She had more questions than answers and as she flopped down in her usual spot in the park and looked up at Korra's statue she realized she wasn't as angry as she thought.
"You wouldn't let me go down without a fight, would you?" Asami asked of Korra's statue.
But then she thought of how defeated Korra looked before she left for home. Korra had lost the look of the fight in her eyes.
"Maybe I've lost that fight just as much as you. I'm sick of being angry, Korra. At you for leaving, at my dad for what he did. I don't want to be angry any more. If I forgive my father and let go of that anger, maybe you will come home. I miss you so much."
Asami stood and walked over to a nearby bench. She sat down with her head in her hands. When she allowed herself to look up, she saw a man and his daughter sitting nearby playing a game of Pai Sho. She didn't know if she could forgive her father but she was at least going to try. If she couldn't have Korra, she could have at least one person in her life who wanted her around.
But she still stopped to toss a coin in the river and send the same wish that had rung in her mind for almost 3 years. Bring Korra back.
The news wasn't all good. Korra was back but she had been beaten by Kuvira and Zaofu had been taken. Asami was feeling quite guilty because while she waited with magazine in hand, she couldn't care less about Zaofu.
Asami tried to focus on the words on the page in front of her but her patience had been worn down by years of waiting for this day to come. She glanced up as she felt someone approach and stared into the blue eyes she'd been dying to see since they'd wheeled out of her life a few years back.
"I hope you haven't been waiting long." Korra said smiling. Asami felt like everything stopped when she realized for the first time in a very long time the next words out of her mouth wouldn't reach Korra's stone statue in Avatar Korra Park but the face of the girl herself and Korra's own soft lips and blue eyes. The statue could never do Korra justice. The cold rock would never reflect the warm smile that made Asami's heart jump.
"Only three years." Asami said softly. Embracing Korra with a smile because Asami wasn't in the park and she didn't have to wish anymore. Korra was back.
A.N. - Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it. Leave me any notes you'd like. I would love to hear if you liked the way I wrote or if you didn't. Either way, feedback is completely appreciated. It didn't come out as perfect as I'd like and since I don't write it hasn't been edited so let me know if there are mistakes.