Korrasami Week

Prompt: Home

Summary: Korra is still recovering from her traumatic battle with the Red Lotus. The nightmares of it only seem to grow strong and more violent.

I can feel it. The loss of everything.

It happens over and over again.

Repeating itself.

I'm too afraid to face the darkness.

These long nights I cant stand. The existence of the darkness creeping everywhere and never leaving. Seeing faces in its haunting presence. Memories flash by, bad ones, scary ones, things I don't ever wanna see again. The darkness tricks me. I believe I see the memory before me, but that darkness distorts it more, amplifying it to be 100 times worse than it was before. The darkness makes me believe that this new memory was real. Its rewriting the memory for me.

I hear Tenzin's voice echoing in my head. "They are here."

Zaheer's ugly mug flashes before me. I'm seeing a fight that I never saw. Tenzin is losing. He falls. I panic and reach out but my voice cant come out. I cant move, I cant stop him. Because I was never there. Suddenly my friends come to Tenzin. They protect him from another blow from that twisted airbender.

But one by one I see them all fall. Mako. Bolin. And Asami.

No this fight couldn't have happened. How could Zaheer take them all out? Why can't I stop him?!

He's picking up Bolin and Mako by the collar and throwing them off the cliffside. I cant move to stop him.

He throws Tenzin into the wind, he's being carried away. I want to scream. I open my mouth to scream but nothing is coming out.

He looks at Asami. Move damnit! He's approaching her lifeless form. Get up! GET UP! He casts his hands out towards her, bending the air from her lungs. NO NOOO! She opens her eyes, clasps her throat, and looks right at me.

Finally I can hear my screaming but the memory fades away. No! He's running away with her! I have to move. Why can't I move! Where did he go!

"Korra!" A pair of hands grab my shoulders. The darkness reveals bright green eyes. "Hey Hey Hey! You're having a nightmare! You're safe now."

She's here, Asami is safe. But how?

"Korra wake up! Please wake up!" She starts to shake me but I can't feel it.

"I…I can't move…..Zaheer he's getting away." I finally can hear my voice, its hoarse and weak. It startles me, when did I become so weak?

"Korra SNAP OUT OF IT!"

Suddenly the darkness is gone. Its light. Im not at the air temple anymore. I'm in a room. A dim light bedroom, with fancy wallpaper and drapery. I suddenly realize that everything I just saw was an illusion projected from the darkness. Another distorted memory of a fight that I never saw. Another horrible nightmare.

"I guess the tea didn't help this time." Asami's voice is now ringing clear. I can see her brilliantly illuminated by a lamp next to me. That's right. I am in a bedroom, I'm in Asami's estate under her care. I have been for a long time, but I can't remember for how long. My head throbs.

Asami busied her hands with a cloth, she whips it across my forehead. I can't feel it. I can't feel the sweat on my face that she is collecting.

I clear my throat, "I don't think tea is gonna help me sleep."

Asami frowns, "But you need proper sleep. This is the 6th night that this has happened."

Has it really only been 6 nights? The darkness felt like its been haunting me for an eternity.

"Korra…." Asami's voice sounds frightened. "Why are you crying?"

I didn't realize I was.

Instead of Asami using the cloth to whip my tears, she uses her soft fingers. They are gentle and warm….and…..I can feel them. I can feel her hands. Its one of the warmest and softest touches I have ever felt.

"Korra." Her voice coos me. Apparently I spill more tears because she continues to whip my cheeks. Her soft hands. I don't want them to stop.

"I can stay with you, if that will help."

I nod in her hands. I can't have her leave.

Asami slid out of her slippers and took off her robes. She slipped under the covers beside me. My cold lifeless body suddenly feels alive as she wraps her warm arms around me. My cold wet face presses into the lacy collar of her evening dress. I can hear her heartbeat.

I can feel everything about her. From her bony collarbone, to her soft firm bosom. To her strong slender fingers tangling in my hair, to her breath on my scalp. This is all the evidence I needed to prove that that darkened memory was not real. I am some place safe.

"One night when I was 5," Asami broke the cool night's silence, "I ran away from home. My mother had yelled at me for going into my father's workshop. Apparently I knocked over a very dangerous chemical, one that can burn skin clean off the bone. Luckily I was unharmed, but my mother wasn't happy. After that she told me I was never allowed in my father's workshop again. I was so upset that I wanted to run away to my dad's factory and live there instead."

She would break once in awhile to rub my head and whip my tears. As the story progressed, she stopped touching my cheeks less and less. I guess I stopped crying.

"I grabbed a small suitcase, threw some clothes in and escaped outside. However I didn't predict it would rain that night. It poured so hard that I couldn't even see. I got so lost. I couldn't tell where I was. I tried to go back but the night got darker and darker. And it only rained harder and harder. I was soaked, cold, and very very scared."

Asami rested her soft lips against my forehead. It felt like a rose laid on my temple. She spoke a bit softer.

"It wasn't until hours later that I could see flashlights all coming towards me. Turns out that I had barely made it out of the estate, and all the butlers and maids, even my parents were all outside with flashlights looking for me. My mother found me first, she hugged me so tight and I was so relieved. They brought me inside, dried me off by the fireplace. And my mother said the craziest thing. 'From now on, you and I are gonna have afternoon playtime in your father's workshop. But I have to be with you at all times." She paused to take a deep breath, I could feel her lungs expanding beneath my cheek. Her heart quickened as if recalling this memory pained her.

"And that's why I became such a gear head. My mother may not have wanted me to, but she would move mountains to make sure I was comfortable to learn anything I wanted."

Suddenly being in her estate added more weight. This place once filled with a happy family. With a mother, a father and a daughter. And now it was only Asami left, but she had taken me in. Asami was caring for me even against my struggling physical condition. And my mental state wasn't making me a good guest for her. Asami was here for me even when I wasn't here for myself.

"Is my story boring you to sleep?" Asami looked down at me and was surprised that my eyes were open.

I shook my head. "I don't think you can put me to sleep Asami."

"Well if that's the case perhaps I should leave." She taunted.

No, I can't have her leave. I need her. I need her voice to keep talking. I don't care if she told the same story over and over. I don't care if she never leaves.

I can feel my fingers ache in protest as they clutch her dress. And suddenly my cheeks are wet again.

As if sensing my need for her presence, Asami settles herself more in the covers. She cuddles me so close that my forehead rests in the crook of her neck, my hands lay on her chest and her legs tangle with mine. Like my own personal blanket of warmth.

The cold dark clutches that have wrapped me in this spiral pit of madness were of my mind's own making. I have trapped myself in a dark place inside myself, one that felt like it was locked from the outside. But now, here I am clutched in warm different arms.

It was my saving grace, this kind heart let me out of my box and into a new place with bright lights, a warm bed and a hot meal. But mostly it had the warmest heart, even if her heart had been broken twice from lost parents. She needed me just as much I needed her. I couldn't admit it before, but now I know that I need her. I need her so badly. She is my light. My heart. My home.

"Stay…please."