Avatar Korra had arrived in the spirit world holding the hands of her best friend, Asami Sato. Several hours had passed since then—or at least, Korra felt like that amount of time had passed. Time tended to flow differently in the spirit world. During that time, she and Asami had exhibited what any discerning onlooker would recognize as classic signs of two people in love who were too shy to properly do anything about it. Even holding hands had been a big step, but Korra hadn't really thought about that in the moment. It had felt incredibly natural. However, when they'd actually arrived in the spirit world, the usually very forward Korra had suddenly grown timid. She'd dropped Asami's hands, albeit gently, and just been left staring into her eyes.

Asami hadn't even appeared to notice that they were no longer holding hands. She'd been too busy staring back. But whatever might have happened next had been interrupted when a flock of slender, colorful spirit birds had swept past them. They hadn't made a sound, other than that of their wings swooping through the air, but Korra had felt their feathers brush gently against her bare shoulders, and she'd admired their pastel colors. Asami had been enchanted, watching them fly away with an expression of amazement on her beautiful face.

"I've never seen birds like that here before," Korra had said, a little dazed by the surprise greeting.

Asami had laughed. "Look, they left me a feather." She'd carefully plucked a fluffy blue feather from her sleeve and studied it, twirling it between her gloved fingers. She'd looked up and smiled at Korra, then gently tucked the feather into her hair. Korra had blushed deep pink, just as she had on her first day back in Republic City, when Asami had complimented the same hair she'd just touched.

"Thank you," she'd said.

Asami's lips had curved upward. "You're welcome," she'd said. She'd faced the large, expansive meadow they'd been standing in. "Shall we?"

Korra had nodded enthusiastically. She was only too glad to be Asami's guide in the spirit world. As she walked with her friend, she remembered what Iroh had told her about your emotions becoming your reality here. At the moment, everything was so picturesque that Korra knew Asami must be as happy as she was to be there.

Every once and a while, they held hands again. Sometimes they stopped for a moment and looked at each other, only to have one or the other of them look away before anything could be said. There was the occasional blush here, the odd touch there. They talked about the sights and about Varrick and Zhu Li's wedding, but they didn't mention Kuvira or the recent battle for Republic City. They'd both had enough of such things. This was their vacation, after all; their reprieve from all that.

They spent some time exploring, moving through the meadow, across a river, through a crop of trees. They encountered various spirits, some of which reminded Korra of Bumi's little friend Boom-Ju. Korra even saw the little yellow spirit that had turned into a puppy for her when she'd been wandering the earth kingdom, after she'd gotten her butt kicked in an earthbending arena. The creature had greeted her with a "Hey, it's the Avatar! Remember me? Who's your friend? She's pretty!" which had led to a conversation between the spirit, Korra, Asami, and a few other curious spirits, during which Asami had seemed quite at ease.

Korra was beginning to hope that they'd eventually run into Iroh somwhere when it had hit her how long they'd been walking, at which point she'd proposed sitting down to have some food. Asami had agreed and they'd found a nice sunny spot in a clearing. Korra was almost positive that the spirit sun hadn't been setting when they'd first arrived there, but it had sunk in the sky remarkably quickly, as if the spirit world wanted to make things more atmospheric. Soon, the sky was filled with red, purple, orange, and blue streaks that seemed to bleed into the very air, coloring everything around them with a light that could only exist in the spirit world.

"You look happy," Korra said, watching Asami beside her. "Are you?" She suddenly felt that it was important to be sure of it.

"Are you kidding? Yes! It's glorious here," said Asami. "It's even better than I pictured it." She met Korra's gaze. "And I'm here with you," she added, a little shyly. "Thank you for bringing me here, Korra."

"Thank you for coming up with the idea!" Korra said quickly. "I'm glad you chose the spirit world for our getaway."

Asami smiled, then cast her eyes down. "Korra," she said, "I have a confession to make."

"What is it?" Korra wasn't sure whether to be concerned or...excited. If she was being honest, she had a confession of her own, but she let Asami go first.

Asami cleared her throat. "Varrick didn't really want to fly off the tower with one of the airbender suits," she said. "I said that so Tenzin would leave, because I wanted to talk to you alone."

Korra's eyes widened. "You...wait. What?"

Asami nodded, confirming. "I wanted to talk to you alone," she repeated. "But I never really told you what I meant to tell you, and, well...now we're alone again. About as alone as we can get."

"Yeah," Korra agreed, pulse speeding up. She gave a nervous laugh. "Can't get much more isolated from our friends than this. Although, who knows, Jinora could be around listening in."

Asami laughed, then shrugged. "If she is, that's fine with me. I don't mind if everyone knows how I...how I feel about you." She blushed.

Korra stared at her, even though she was looking down. "How you..." she swallowed. "How is that, exactly?"

Asami took a deep breath. "You know how we both dated Mako?"

Korra raised her eyebrows. That was definitely not where she'd been expecting this to go. "Um, yeah," she said.

"Well," said Asami. "Mako and I got together pretty fast, and I think that's because...well, because being with Mako made sense." She paused, then went on: "Being with you..." she smiled at Korra, her green eyes full of affection, "well, it doesn't really make any sense, does it?"

Korra furrowed her brow and sat back down next to the other woman. "Being with me...how?" she asked. She couldn't seem to come up with anything original to say. It was rare that she relied on others to do the talking, but she was at a bit of a loss here.

Asami sighed. "I'm going about this the wrong way," she said. "Korra, I like you. I really like you, and I don't think it's just friendship anymore. To tell you the truth, I don't think it has been for a long time."

Korra's thoughts seemed to go a mile a minute, moving back in time to shortly after she'd been poisoned, before Jinora's ceremony. "If you ever want to talk...or...anything." Asami's words.

Korra swallowed. "You never said anything," she said. "You knew way before I did that there was something more between us. Why didn't you mention it?"

"Wait...you think there's something more, too?" Asami asked. Her eyes were full of hope.
Korra nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Of course! Asami, I'm crazy about you! It's not friendship—well, it is, or...it was. But now it's..."

"It's love," said Asami, blushing again. "It doesn't make sense, but..."

"But...it's real, isn't it?" Korra asked.

"Yes." Asami turned her head away from Korra and stared into the distance, focusing apparently on the spirit world sunset. "I've never felt anything so real before," she added quietly.

Korra covered Asami's hand with her own. Asami turned her smile on Korra again before looking back toward the sky.

Korra stretched her long, toned legs out in front of her. "I love being here with you," she said.

"I love being pretty much anywhere with you. I love you, Korra."

Korra closed her eyes for a moment. No one since Mako had said that to her. Not in the way Asami meant it.

She opened her eyes again. "Asami?"

"Yes?"
"Come here."

And then they were holding hands again. Korra reached up with her free hand to touch Asami's neck, letting it glide through her raven hair. Asami watched, her eyes shining, and then...

Korra had made the first move with Mako, and she did the same now with Asami, but this time it wasn't a surprise attack. It was a slow lean, every second a question—are you sure? Are we doing this? Do you want this? Do you want me?-until their lips touched, and no more questions needed to be asked.

Asami's kiss was gentle but confident and full of certainty. She knew what she wanted, she'd waited years for it, and now here it was. They kissed as the leaves of the spirit trees around them rustled, even though there wasn't any wind. The same flock of birds from earlier brushed past them again, as if blessing them, and this time, it was Korra who received a feather, which she saw on her skirt after she finally pulled away from Asami.

This feather was light purple in color. Korra picked it up and looked at it, then put it behind Asami's ear. "I love you too," she said.

Hope you enjoyed my take on Korra and Asami's trip! The idea of Asami having lied about Varrick wanting to fly off the tower came from the season 4 DVD commentary, where one of the creators suggests that she really just wanted to get Korra alone. It's not confirmed true, but I like to think that it's what happened!
Also, none of the creators are me and I don't own LOK.