The Legend of Korra belongs to Bryke and Nickelodeon.

The portal was strange. It was brilliant. Blinding. Asami expected warmth and she received it, but there was ice too. There was lightning beneath her skin, in her blood. She was unsure, though, if it was all the portal or Korra too, the lightning surging where they touched. It was weird. To enter fire and ice and a brilliant storm in a destroyed city and to exit into the beautiful, surreal, alien otherworld.

"Wow." Asami cursed her lack of eloquence but there were no words. She was surrounded by beauty, by light, by Korra. She could feel her presence everywhere. This was her realm. This was her. This was the part of her she wanted to explore. When they broke completely free of the portal, she knew the lightning was the woman beside her, the heat. She spun in circles as best she could, keeping her hand tight around Korra's, the bender's laugh making the air shimmer. When she stopped spinning, she found herself drawn close, the lightning reaching a peak.

"I'm so glad you're here with me." She had never seen the cerulean so bright.

"Me too." They stared at each other. They drank the other in but their eyes did not wander, remaining locked on the opposite orbs. They felt themselves falling, falling into each other and they both gasped and turned, hesitant steps turning braver as they chose to explore the fields around them, both failing to hide the blood bright in their cheeks. Their fingers tightened.

"It's so beautiful." Korra looked over, grinning.

"I can't wait to show you everything. The Tree of Time. Hai-Riyo Peak. Xai Bau's Grove. And there's someone I want you to meet."

"It all sounds wonderful." Asami smiled, squeezing the hand in hers. Her smile widened as she watched the Avatar's face flush. They stared again. They leaned forward. The heiress turned, movement catching her eye. A spirit hovered nearby, considering them. Asami watched the spirit pass them and disappear into the portal. "I'm glad they're coming back."

"Really?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You've had to rebuild the entire city and accommodate them. You're not the slightest bit bitter?"

"I wasn't accommodating them. I had to do everything for people, the ones not willing to coexist with the spirits. I like the spirits. They…they reminded me of you when you were gone." The industrialist fought the urge to duck her head, keeping her gaze on Korra.

"Sorry for assuming-" The pressure on her hand distracted the waterbender enough to cut her off.

"It's alright." Asami nudged Korra with her elbow, grinning, attempting to pull her further into the field of flowers. She had no idea in which direction she was going but she did not care. "C'mon. What's next? What are we going to do first?" The Avatar stumbled after the raven-haired beauty, her face flushed from the contact, a smile dominating her features. Asami decided then and there that she would do whatever it took to keep that expression on her face.

"Well, I've actually never been here. Mind if we explore a little?"

"Oh, so the Avatar hasn't been everywhere?" The taller of the two continued to walk backwards, pulling the bender along with her.

"Hey! The Spirit World's a big place and I'm pretty sure places move." Asami laughed at the disgruntled look on Korra's face.

"Well hopefully this place won't move while we're here."

They picked their way through the flowers carefully, the nonbender naturally cautious of the unfamiliar surroundings, the Avatar vividly recalling the last time she went tromping about without looking. They took their time, walking slowly. Whenever one would get ahead of the other in excitement, they would quickly fall back. These moments of discovery were the only times where their hands were apart, fingers always searching eagerly in between. Neither could think of when they had had more contact, with the other, or with anyone.

This was new. Exciting. Their smiles were practically permanent, their blushing constant, but eventually, the electric energy of exploring someplace magical and new, of testing the electricity between them, lessened. Asami lagged first, her strides becoming shorter and shorter, hiding her yawns poorly from her much more chipper companion. She mused that Korra could probably scale one of the mountains bordering the valley a few times and still would not be tired. The waterbender was nearly vibrating, had been since they stepped out of the portal.

Despite her own clear distance from exhaustion, Korra was not oblivious to Asami's wavering. After the fifth poorly disguised yawn from the young woman behind her, she stopped, but before she could turn around, Asami bumbled into her, sending them sprawling to the ground. Korra understood that she had not been prepared nor was she standing in necessarily the most stable of ways but she was baffled by how the mishap occurred with the heiress walking so slowly. While she worked through the mechanics of what had just happened, her companion awoke from her exhaustion induced haze.

"Korra are you alright? I'm so sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going." Asami's hands wandered over the hair, shoulders, and back below her, lingering a tad longer than necessary in regards for concern. Korra shifted enough to face Asami, but remained beneath the taller woman.

"I'm fine, just a bit surprised." She chuckled, tucking a stray lock of ebony hair behind the ear hovering above her. She did not retract her hand, running her thumb across Asami's cheekbone. She whispered a lie. "An eyelash." They blinked at each other, eyes bright, faces flushed. They were falling again. Hurtling towards each other. Breathing the same air. Then Asami slid off of Korra, rolling on to her back, her shoulder brushing the flustered Avatar's.

The sky was awash with colors. Asami swore there were colors she had never seen before. The awed nonbender tangled her fingers with Korra's once more, their breathing evening out as they admired the sky.

"It doesn't get dark here. Not like in the physical world." Korra reddened, remembering how she had learned that particular lesson. She was thankful that the woman beside her could not see her face.

"But it does get dark?" Asami sat up a bit, resting on one arm. Korra nearly choked, thinking for a moment that the heiress was going to lay her head on her shoulder, ebony hair brushing her bare skin.

"Sometimes." The Avatar ached to tell Asami everything, the whole truth, that the Spirit World had not been this bright in ages and it was because of her but the words were stuck in her throat, heavy with nerves.

"So we'll just sleep when we're tired then?"

"I do that anyway-" The raven-haired beauty shoved her lightly, earning a cheeky grin.

"You know what I meant." The sentence was punctuated by a yawn.

"We can camp here."

"I'm sorry. I'm just so tired."

"I was going to stop here anyway before you tackled me." Korra's grin widened as color flooded Asami's face. They stared at each other for several moments before sitting up, silently setting up their camp, the very little of it there was.

"Korra, what are you doing?" The taller of the duo watched her companion in confusion, brow furrowed. Asami had unfurled her bedroll and slipped beneath it but Korra had shifted a bit away, simply laying on her pack.

"Trying to sleep?"

"You didn't pack a bedroll?"

"I don't need one. I got used to sleeping without one."

"Oh. I…nevermind."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"C'mon, 'Sami." The heiress' breath hitched.

"We could share." The words escaped without her consent. She backpedaled quickly as Korra sat up. "I mean that's what I was thinking. That we could share. If you had forgotten your bedroll. But you didn't forget it and if you'd rather-." Asami could not believe she was rambling. She never rambled. Thankfully, she was cut off as Korra approached and slid in beside her.

There was no room. They had to lay half on top of each other, legs tangled together. Asami's hair was everywhere, constantly finding its way into Korra's mouth. Korra was too warm, burning through the nonbender's clothes. They were constantly elbowing and jabbing the each other on accident, whispering apologies into shoulders and necks. There was no way this was more comfortable than the ground, but it was. Neither minded the lack of space one bit.

They shifted throughout the "night," tangling and disentangling over and over again, but they never let the other's hand go.