Title: Cold Air
Word Count: 682
Summary: [The ride to the South Pole is quiet. Korra can't sleep. | Korra. Tenzin. Post Ep. 12]
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be-the-peaf · Prompt 016 - sleepless nights
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The ride to the South Pole is impossibly quiet.
The air is all around them; swirling, twisting with the clouds as Oogi flies. Korra glances to Tenzin, who sits atop the bison's head, guiding them through the sky. The ocean below speeds by in a blur of blue and black lines. The sun has long hidden away beneath the horizon. The only light they have now is the half-moon that peaks through the clouds.
Everyone else has gone to sleep, resting their heads against the rise of Oogi's saddle. Pema has the kids lying beside her, their small hands clinging to their mother's clothes, Rohan tucked safely in her arms. Bolin, Mako and Asami sleep across from them, huddled in their own a pack. Bolin's mouth is open and he lets out a soft snore, his face presses into Mako's shoulder, and Asami's into his.
Korra sits close enough to them to feel the warmth of Mako's hand next to hers. He was holding it before, but his grip slackened in his sleep and now it just lies there, open and still. Fingers curled slightly around a gloved palm. Korra takes her hand from the saddle and tucks her arms under her legs. Stares out into the sea.
"We'll be there by morning." Tenzin says, not even turning to look at her. "You should try to get some sleep."
"Yeah, maybe." She says quietly, her voice drifting away with the passing wind. Her hair flows in front of her face and she lifts a hand to brush it aside, her fingers linger and rub against her eyes. She holds two fingers under her eyelid, feeling the slight puff of skin that rests there.
I'm not tired. She tells herself. I'm not.
She tried to sleep the first night, tried to tell herself that somehow this was all one big dream. That she's wake up in the morning and everything would be right. There'd be no bombs or burning city or crying children, no rallies or evil bloodbenders seeking to take what made her her. But then she'd go back, back in her dreams to a dark room and her muscles clench against themselves, moving against her will. The feeling of a hand tight on her neck, Mako's struggle, his voice crying out her name. A hand coming from above, pressed down to her forehead –
Then nothing.
And she'd scream. Wake up thrashing at make-believe ghosts and the wind would fly from her fists, whirling around the room, sucking up everything and she would stop, dig her fists into the mattress and try to remember how her lungs work with all this air in the room. Then she'd move her messy hair from her face and sit there with her hand open in front of her and she'd try to feel the heat in her palm, to summon up light but all that comes is a small spiral of wind swirling in her hand.
She couldn't sleep after that. Wouldn't. Everyone would try to reason with her, urge her to shut her eyes, to rest her head. But she wouldn't; anything to keep those nightmares away. The night is lonely and quiet, but the nightmares are worse. To see it happen over and over again is something she can't stand. It's almost as bad as holding her hand out to the water below her and feeling nothing at all.
"Katara will be able to help, right?" she asks in a soft voice, looking to Tenzin. "She'll be able to fix this?"
The old airbender glances behind his shoulder and sighs heavily.
"I don't know." He says. His gaze lingers on her and he opens his mouth again before closing it slowly, facing forward again. There wasn't anything to say now; all they could do was get there as soon as they could. Hope for the best.
Korra tucks her face down into her arms. She can hear Tenzin's hushed voice, carried by the wind, telling Oogi to go faster.
Everything is quiet again.
Korra can feel the chill of ice in the air.
:Fin:
I've wanted to write this one for a while (ever since the finale). I don't really like how it turned out though. =.=