"It takes a tremendous amount of bravery you know, not to pat myself on the back of course," Katara said.
The entire crew had transplanted, once again to the Southern Water Tribe. Bolin joked that Korra had to have had enough of the snowy icecap at the bottom of the world after three years down there. Mako was just happy to be invited, Opal was ecstatic to meet Katara. And Asami was nervous at the prospect of facing Tonraq in a much less friendly way. Though Korra insisted he would not be nearly as harsh on her as he had been on Mako because he actually liked Asami. But still…
"Huh?" Asami said, turning to Katara.
They were having tea, together, inside Katara's own home. Through the window Korra was in view, playing with Naga in the snow. Opal and Bolin had engaged in a snowball fight with Jinora and Kai.
"It takes bravery to love anyone," Katara said. "But nothing requires it more so than loving an Avatar."
Asami often had to remind herself who Korra was, especially when it mattered. Loving her had happened all on its own, quite slyly and without warning. Nothing about it had been hard except admitting it. She spent hours tinkering in her workshops, building things, taking them apart, and building them again, anything to keep busy. It was in those late hours under a cold light at her desk that there was nothing on Earth she'd rather take apart and put back together than Korra.
The Avatar was a side effect of her existence.
"I don't think of it that way," Asami said, busying herself with her tea cup.
"You will have to," Katara said. "Then again this is a different time, perhaps I was too aware of it. I know I was, at first. But once I let go of it, everything turned out fine."
Asami took a sip. She recognized the brand, imported from Republic City. She wondered if it was the kind with bags or not. She also wondered in that moment what it was like for Katara to be able to have imported goods, sitting at a full kitchen table, under a full roof and walls. She'd seen pictures of the Southern Tribe less than a hundred years ago, barely even a homestead.
Only when she lowered her cup again did she consider an answer to Katara's statement.
"She will be far from you often," Katara said.
Asami was mentally preparing for the inevitability again. In the past month since the battle she'd managed to remain in the city, mainly because Raiko very vehemently said told her "if you're going to continue to have grudge matches with Spirits and would-be dictators at least clean up after yourself."
"I know," Asami said. "I've thought about it."
"Have you though?" Katara said. "She will be called everywhere and all at once. In the middle of the night, in the middle of dinner, and birthdays. You'll hear rumors, and they'll keep you up at night."
Asami would be lying if she said it wasn't beginning to stress her out. She hardly wanted to have this conversation, and she didn't know what exactly it was Katara wanted her to say if she wanted her to say anything at all.
"Aang was away a lot," Asami said, trying to sound sympathetic. Kataara nodded.
"It was hard, especially after spending such a long amount of time at his side day and night. He was once gone for seven months, barely any contact. It was meant to only be a two week mission," Katara said.
"I know what that feelings like," Asami mumbled.
"I thought it was a test," Katara said. "The Spirits were putting me on trial for how long I held him at arm's length. But seeing his face for the first time after all that time made me fall in love all over again. And then he got right down and proposed on the spot."
Asami smiled and took another sip. She should start buying this brand when she got back. Outside, Korra had been wrangled into joining the snowball war. There seemed to be an altercation over the fairness of Korra's presence in the game. The pantomime concluded with everyone turning on her, deciding the only fair way was everyone versus her. She took cover behind a snow bank. Asami laughed.
Katara followed her gaze out the window where Korra was holding her own against her army of enemies. With a mixture of Waterbending and Air, there seemed to be another debate starting over her using more than one element. Korra defended her inherent right to bend whatever she wanted when she wanted.
"Being the Avatar is lonely."
Well that was a juxtaposition the likes of which Asami had never known. Korra was surrounded by laughing friends.
"It may not look it," Katara said, reading her thoughts. "But she will have no home. She will have no nation, despite her place of origin. She's very old, and sometimes she'll remember just how old.."
Asami kept watching her. She gained ground, building up her defenses instead if sending her barrage of snowballs.
"And the worst part, for you Asami," she said. "Is that she will belong to everyone else and nothing will make you more jealous."
That one, Asami had also considered. Everyone saying her name, taking her picture, looking at her statue. Asami felt Korra's name and face and voice inherently belonged to her. And everyone, everyday tried to steal it and repurpose it. They didn't know what her whisper sounded like, how warm her hands were, the exact shade of blue her eyes were. They never said her name right.
"But, in the same breath she'll be only yours, in a sea of everyone claiming her, and that will be very special."
Katara stood up with her empty cup and walked over to the kettle. Asami heard the clink of clay as she continued to watch the saga outside. Asami whiffed the scent of the tea on the steam that perforated the room as it dissipated. She looked at her own tea, still half full and quickly cooling. If Korra was with her she'd offer to warm it up, but she was outside, getting pelted with her own element.
Was it a ping of jealousy? Was it beginning already?
"Don't doubt her Asami," Katara said, sitting back down. "Whatever you do, no matter how much they hate her, no matter how many of them say she's dead, no matter how many people come forward claiming to love her."
"I never doubted her. Now would be a very bad time to start."
Katara let out a laugh at that and even gave her a cheers with her teacup. Asami wondered if this had been a test as well. Was Katara imparting wisdom? Was she testing Asami's devotion? Was she doing both at the same time?
No matter her intentions, Asami felt something relax in the room and she knew she had the approval of the most famous woman to ever love an Avatar.
"Did you know," Katara began. "That every single Avatar, with the exception of Wan, has been married? Tens of thousands of people never get married but in over a hundred incarnations, every time, the Avatar falls in love and marries. I asked Aang about it a few times and he seemed uninterested. But these old writings, they think it has something to do with Raava's love for humans or Wan's love for Raava."
Asami pondered this one. She strove to understand the Spiritual nature of Korra. She was "part Spirit", whatever that meant. She knew Raava was Korra and Korra was Raava and yet at the same time she spoke of Raava in the third person. She'd told Asami that being separated from Raava all those years ago had been more painful than anyone could possibly imagine. Not just physically, but she called Raava's absence a "desolate hole."
So perhaps there was something to that. Avatars fall in love and then pour all the essence of their connection to Raava into it. She really didn't want to dissect it though, despite every part of her mechanical mind begging her to pick at the puzzle and study the cogs. But something told her Korra would not appreciate her emotions being treated like a blueprint on Asami's work desk.
"They want to put roads down here you know, get some of your all-terrain Satomobiles down here," Katara said, less than graciously changing the subject.
"I got a wire about that not too long ago," Asami said. "I wasn't sure if it was serious or not."
"I personally would never set foot outside my house again, but all of the kids are complaining about not having roads or buildings and Satomobiles," she said. "I heard you designed those Airbending suits."
"I did," Asami said. "Tenzin originally commissioned gliders, but I took a chance on a more modern approach. The suits were more practical, they were faster in all the tests, they were more user friendly, stealthier…"
She let herself trail off before she went into a board meeting pitch. Katara was nodding though, looking out at her grandchildren.
"I'd say it worked out just fine."
Dinner that night was a ridiculous amount of fun. Asami was so used to elegant dinner parties with three course dinners. The Water Tribe made a ruckus, they laughed loudly, the banged on the table, they passed food around left and right. Her father had always grumbled about dealings with Water Tribe business, complaining about their animal skin clothes, jewelry made of animal bones, and fur lined clothes.
But Asami couldn't remember having so much fun.
Korra would occasionally point out food to her or warn her to stay away. She tried the Water Tribe's particular brand of liqueur, made from sea grasses. The Air children fought over their favorite dishes and the honor of sitting next to their grandmother, Bolin and Opal demolished the seaweed noodles. Even Mako was enjoying himself.
Telling about them had given Korra a huge amount of anxiety. Tenzin and Pema swore they already knew, Tonraq and Senna actually already knew, Bolin was surprised but instantly ecstatic, Opal just shared a smug smile with Jinora. But telling Mako kept Korra up at night. He'd been fine about it, really. Granted, he didn't say a word for a solid half hour after they told him, but when he was done with that he smiled and nodded and asked if they didn't mind him third wheeling dinner with them that night.
After dinner, they made a huge bonfire in an outside courtyard and the men of the tribe started belting out tribal songs, about war, about missing home. Next to her, Asami heard Korra mumbling along with them absently. She recalled what Katara said, about Korra having no nation and Asami wondered if that weighed on her mind now as her glazed over eyes watched the fire.
Asami knew only the United Republic as her nation. Her father came from the Fire Nation, her mother was of mixed decent back in the time of the colonies. She had very little feelings of connection to tradition, but Korra seemed to be fighting hers.
She felt a smaller hand sneak into her own and turned.
"Come on," Korra said. "I want to show you something."
And she allowed herself to be lightly tugged out of the courtyard and into the tundra. It was dark, though the glow from the city lit up the sky and hid the stars just as Republic City did. It was snowing, flurries dropping lightly all over. She was lead over to Naga.
Korra hopped on and stuck her feet firmly in the stirrups. Asami climbed on after, wrapped her arms around Korra's middle, and they were off at a gallop. Asami kept her face pressed into Korra's shoulder to hide from the wind in snow while the natural-born Waterbender took the brunt without complaint.
The snow kicked up around them as they got farther and farther from the lights of the main part of the tribe. Asami tried to control the amount of times she slammed into Korra's back as Naga's hind legs kicked up. Eventually, on the dark horizon a very deliberate wall of snow came into few, sitting on the edge of a cliff. The closer they got, the more obvious a very large door, marked with the crescent moon of the Water Tribe, became. And there appeared to be watchtowers too.
"Welcome to my childhood home," Korra said when they slowed to a stop in front of the very large door. Asami could hear the eye roll in her voice.
"This is the infamous compound?" Asami said, shaking the snow out of her hair.
"Yep."
Korra dismounted from Naga and offered a hand to help Asami down. It was a lot bigger than Asami imagined it from the many stories Korra told about her days locked up down South. Though Asami always assumed Korra was exaggerating, she couldn't deny this place looked like a fortress.
"There's a crank somewhere over…"
Korra went to the side of one of the watchtowers and rummaged in the ice until she found a compartment and opened it with a creak of the hinge. She began pulling hard on a chain and eventually the door budged. Asami moved over to help and they both threw their entire weight into pulling, eventually the door opened enough to admit them.
"I always wished they had one of those on the inside," Korra said, breathlessly, taking Asami's hand back in hers, this time interlocking their fingers.
They stepped through he narrow opening of the door and Asami saw a vast expanse of barracks, towers, obstacle courses, and training dummies. She felt her cheeks go red when she thought to herself no wonder she's so fit. Of in the distance was a decorated floor with a podium raised above it. Beyond that seemed to be the main indoor area of the compound.
"They moved me here when I was four," Korra said, brushing snow off one of the dummies. "Thanks to Zaheer. Avatars used to travel the world, learning the elements in each nation. The White Lotus, suddenly experts on the Avatar, said it was best if I stay put in one place. I don't think anyone ever heard of an attempted kidnapping of an Avatar in training."
Asami knew what the White Lotus once was, a shadow organization comprised on world leaders. When they openly declared for Avatar Aang in the Battle of Ba Sing Se, it cemented their role as servants of the Avatar. She'd heard plenty of banter, most of it not kind, at dinner parties over their devotion to the Avatar, complaints that they were some kind of army or unnecessary bodyguards .
They were everywhere Korra was though, on Air Temple Island, tailing them in the city, fighting by her side, even now Asami was sure one or two of them had followed them out here.
"They certainly kept you safe," Asami said, looking back at the watchtowers.
"They locked me away from the world," Korra said.
Asami tightened her grip on Korra's hand, and pulled her closer. Korra's face was still distracted. Asami brushed a few strands of hair across her forehead and tucked them behind her ear.
"I just wanted to come back one more time. I'll probably never see this place again. They won't use it for like another 300 years until the next Water Tribe Avatar," Korra said.
Asami kissed Korra's now exposed forehead and Korra's eyes took a long blink before finally looking up to meet her own. The blues were focused only on her but her mind was still very far away and Asami thought of Katara's words about loneliness.
"I'm here you know," Asami whispered. Korra could share the weight of the world onto Asami's shoulders but she would always keep a small piece for herself.
Korra smiled and leaned up, catching Asami's lips quick and fast but it was still the warmest thing in the entire southern hemisphere. And later that night, after the returned on Naga and curled up in bed, Asami snuggled closely to Korra's sleeping back, and half asleep and sensing her there, Korra rolled over a groggily pulled Asami up to rest her head on Korra's shoulder, one arm slung over her middle.
The Avatar belonged to the world, but in the night, when everything was quiet, Korra belonged to her. And in the bright light of day when everyone was calling her to all corners of the globe, Asami would remember this.