Echoes from the roots
Seeking Echoes
An echo could come from anywhere, it can be quite a task determining where they came from.
(Korra's point of view)
I stared intently into those stunning green eye's, trying to figure out the thoughts behind them, which angle she'd-
Left! The far end of the staff came swing around to my left, I blocked with my own, stopping the strike; barely noticing her hand on other end of her staff reverse to strike low on the right, which I managed to block as well as the high left strike that followed.
But this was just a warm up.
She gave a hard push, I relented a few steps back and was surprised by the one-handed twirl of her staff followed by a small hop; overhead strike so quickly? Remembering the last time I tried to block that my staff broke, I deflected the blow with my staff at an angle, she landed bent over, her left side facing me.
She quickly fed her staff back with a small lob, grabbing it a split second later with her left hand, a quick tap with her right and it was swinging at my open midsection! I quickly jumped back, only to see her angle her staff up at me and sending it up with a palm thrust. I weaved to the side so her thrusting staff fed right between my arms and staff.
She quickly gabbed the free end of her staff as I tried use the new position to disarm her, she tried the same, so I forced forward and managed to get her to the ground with me of top of her; guess all the years of bending training had given some pretty good muscles, as I had been told.
I held both staffs together against her chest, my weight keeping her pinned as I loomed over her, not bad for the last sparring session before being dragged on a 'spiritual retreat' with Tenzin. "I win." I smirked at my squirming girlfriend, she smirked back.
"Really?" I felt a leg suddenly wrap around my back.
"Huh?" Then I felt the other leg do the same, with much greater force, sending us both spinning over so that I was on the bottom now, my girlfriend straddling my abdomen holding me down and leaning in close.
"You were saying..." Asami leaned right in to look me straight in the eyes smiling all the while; as breathless and sweaty as I was.
"You win," I chuckled to myself, "I forgot how limber you are." Asami's smile grew as she leaned over to my ear and my eyes widened as I realised the implication of what I just said.
"I hope you don't forget that again." She whispered in my ear as she placed a kiss on my neck, making me shudder a little, "Shall we..." Another kiss on my cheek as she moved up, "Make sure you never forget." Oh, monkeyfeathers. I wasn't sure I was ready for this; we'd only been dating for a few weeks and I was still wondering how it would work between two women anyway, I had some ideas and vaguely remembered dreams but...
"I-I'm-Uhhh..." Asami's body stiffened as I trailed off and started to move away and I immediately felt bad; it wasn't as if I never wanted this to happen and having a sweaty and breathless Asami on top of me wasn't something I didn't enjoy. I was just still new at this.
"Sorry, I probably shouldn't have-" Oh what the hell.
I shot up and took hold of those lips with my own. Asami's shock quickly wore off as her hands left the intertwined staffs and her arms came to lazily rest next to my head as she leaned into the kiss with a moan and the same passion as always; sweat matted hair spilling down. My own hands wound up on my dear Asami's back pressing her body to mine, I couldn't help but revel in feeling her body pressed against me, the smell of her hair cascading around my face, the pulse of her heart and the heat of her sweaty skin after the intense sparring session.
Fingers slowly edged underneath fabric as the passionate kissing continued and - Was that the sound of the door opening?
"Ms. Sato and Avatar Kor-" Arika's voice made us break our kiss, with Asami quickly raking some hair aside with a finger for us to both get a look at the wide eyed Arika and the equally wide eyed Chief Lin Beifong standing next to her.
"Oh, my..." If Lin was going to add something more she didn't get the chance with Arika squealing and quickly beckoning her out of the room and slamming the door shut behind them. Asami and me just stayed there with her on top of me for a few moments.
"That was Lin, wasn't it?" Asami was the one to break the silence.
"Yeah." I replied, neither one of us had taken our eyes off the door.
"The moments gone, isn't it?" Yeah getting walked in on will do that.
"Yes." I groaned with sigh at the annoyingly unfortunate timing, but really when I thought about trying to get something like this going in Asami's gym, I really should've expected getting walked in on; especially when Arika had just stepped out for bit to go answer the door, for Lin.
"We should probably go talk to her." There was no 'probably' necessary, and I was not looking forward to this conversation with the Chief; it probably wouldn't make it easier to ask her for metalbending training.
"I know." I answered the beautiful girl straddling me with another groan as we started to untangle ourselves; not before Asami gave a quick kiss on the cheek with a sort of small smile, which gave me a sizable grin.
"Yes, I think so-" Came Lin's voice as we got the doors open and saw Arika trying to push the Chief to move faster.
"Arika! Lin!" Asami called after them, catching their attention. Their faces were both stunned by what they had seen, though Arika looked a lot more nervous for some reason. "About that, we were sparring..."
"'Sparring'? Interesting euphemism." Lin cocked an eyebrow with a slight smirk, looked she was loving this.
"We were! Things just got a little..." I cut in for a moment before trailing off, trying to find the right word that wouldn't sound dirty or something; not sure I did very well. "Heated." Lin let out the biggest snort of laughter I'd ever seen. It only lasted a moment before she covered her face with her hand to get herself under control.
I gave Asami a quick glance, mentioned to Lin with a small nod and shrug, then she shrugged too; I guess she found this just as bizarre as I did, and Arika from the look on her face.
Once Lin had gotten her burst of laughter under control she looked at us with her usual expression and just said "You don't say." I'd not seen Lin be so sarcastic; judging from Asami's sigh and eye roll I think she had. I did the same glance and nod at Lin thing as a second ago, this time Asami just gave a tired looking nod.
"So, uh, Chief." Asami coughed to get Lin's attention and get control of the situation I'd guess. "Did you come here for a purely social visit of is their some form of business?"
"Just a matter with having to commission some more of the new armour, but it's not of paramount importance." Asami gave a nod as I just felt confused.
"New Armour?" I chimed in, not sure what they were talking about.
"After some of the Equalist gloves started to get leaked on the black market, I designed some new insulated armour for the police." That made sense,
"I still wish you had gotten someone else to test it." Lin said whilst squirming a bit, I also noticed that Arika seemed to be trying not to giggle; I had to ask Asami about that story latter. "Considering that you're busy with... Sparring." I chuckled at that, really couldn't help myself. "I'll come back tomorrow I think."
"You sure?"
"Yes, I'll see you then," Lin moved to leave, but not before one last comment with a smirk, "Have fun sparring." As Lin was leaving I suddenly remembered the night of the gala when she had been leaving and the little note I had made to myself.
"Wait!" I called out, sounding more desperate than I would've liked, "I was going to ask you.." As I started talking I realised how likely it was that she'd say no, what with having her job and probably not being all that interested in teaching. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble to teach me metalbending." Lin looked pretty surprised at that, I just hoped that she wasn't too harsh on me.
"Alright then." I was not expecting that.
"Really?" I was dumbstruck, did I really only need to ask.
"Depends, do you really want to learn?" I hope that my response didn't sound as desperate as I thought it sounded.
"Yes! Yes I do." I'm sure that didn't sound desperate at all; nice one Korra, very smooth.
"I'll call Tenzin as soon as I can and see if I can arrange a good time." I was still a tab worried about the strange way Tenzin had reacted to my telling him about me and Asami, he had to know it wasn't a onetime thing as he knew I'd still been visiting Asami. Pema had told me not to worry, but Tenzin had hardly spoken to me outside of training; with a little luck this whole retreat thing with him would help sort something out about that. I still hoped everything would work out and even if it didn't go perfectly, still metalbending.
"Uh sure, thanks Lin." I was glad to have another type of bending to take on; maybe take my mind off of my slow airbending progress.
"Don't thank me yet." And with that she marched off, I'd almost missed her small nasty smirk as she did; I was getting a little worried as to what she might have in store for me.
"Umm, what do you think-" I was about to ask my girlfriend if she had any idea what Lin meant by that, and maybe that story about testing the new armour, when Arika interrupted.
"Ms. Sato, Avatar Korra." She started loudly before giving a deep bow, "I offer my sincere and heartfelt apology for this mistake of mine and beg your forgiveness. " I still didn't know what quite to make of Arika after all these weeks, every time I thought I had her pegged she make a gesture like this.
"Arika, it's okay, you had no way of knowing what was happening with us in the gym." Asami was as kind to the younger girl as always. "There's no reason to apologise."
"Really?"
"Yes and remember what I mentioned before."
"Of course," She took a moment to clear her thought. "Well, I'll leave you both to sparring, Asami, Korra."And with that she left; what had Asami mentioned to her before. I guess Asami could tell I was curious about what she meant, judging for she said next.
"I told her it was okay for her to act less formal around you." Asami gave a small shrug as gave a little more detail, "Usually we drop most of the formality when it's just her and me in the house and," Asami developed a slight smirk before she finished, "I noticed that you seemed a little on edge when she acts completely formal." Oh man, she noticed.
"Um, yeah..." I trailed off and scratched the back of my neck as I blushed; I couldn't believe she'd noticed, so embarrassing, "I'm not too used to maids and fancy stuff." Asami let out an small and adorable giggle.
"No need to worry about it, Korra." Asami waved off the embarrassment before casting her gaze back towards the gym, "So think we got time for another round or two?" She still had a smirk on her lips as I checked the clock just over the doorway before letting out a groan.
"I don't think so, Tenzin wants to make an early start tomorrow." I let out a groan, I was still not sure what was up with Tenzin and was not looking forward to this little trip; at least hopefully I should be able get a decent idea of where he stood, hopefully,
"Still worried about Tenzin?" Asami asked as she leaned in, I'd told her about Tenzin's weird reaction when I mentioned about us; and with what I was just thinking I was starting to think that this beautiful girl could read my mind, wasn't sure if I minded.
"Yeah, I hope he actually talks to me this trip." I replied with a small sad smile, the lack of words between us was beginning to get annoying, was a straight answer too much to ask for? At least I had one thing to look forward to when I got back, "With a little luck I'll be back in time for the your whole grand opening." I didn't want to miss that.
"Don't rush it Korra," Asami responded with a slight blush, "This could be helpful to your problems with the spiritual side of your Avatar role, which I recall you saying you were having trouble with." Even Asami was saying I had to do this, I guess she knew how important being the Avatar was to me.
"Okay," I answered with a sigh before smiling, I was determined to be back in time, "I'll still be back in time." Asami just shook her head with a soft chuckle; I loved the sound of her laughter, it was sweet.
"Sure sweetie," She leaned in to kiss me on the cheek, not quite enough for me; so I leaned in as well and snagged those delicious lips. I think Asami appreciated the idea, judging from the quite moaning into the kiss from her, or was that me? Probably a bit of both. When we were done and pulled away I noticed Asami's green eyes flutter open, looking very calm. "I am so going to miss you."
"Likewise." I shot back at my dreamy eyed girlfriend with a chuckle. Asami walked me to the door to see me off and we said our goodbyes, "See you in few days Asami."
"Yeah, have fun communing with the spirit world." Asami, my beautiful comedian; I cocked an eyebrow at her as I remembered something she'd mentioned.
"I'll try, and you have fun with those shipping manifests." She rolled her eyes with a smile as we both gave a last wave goodbye before I started on my way back to the air temple.
I once again lost a battle to the evil force of the morning. One day... It was barely past dawn when Pema was at my door to wake me, telling me about Tenzin wanting to get an early start, I probably would've been more nervous if I was more coherent but I was not a morning person; not even remotely.
I got dressed and had a quick breakfast before meeting my rather stone faced airbending master at the plaza with Oogi; really wish I knew what was going on. When I got there Pema was saying her goodbyes and helping load the last few supplies on to the sky bison. After she was done with her husband, Pema came my way and with a smile and gave me a hug.
"Good luck Korra, I hope you make some good progress." She said as I returned the hug.
"Thanks, I hope so too." And after a last wave Pema left and I was alone with Tenzin, and didn't have a clue what to say, luckily he spoke first.
"We'd best get underway." His voice was so even it was almost painful.
"Y-yeah, okay." I was really starting to dread this trip now and was ready to out right ask him what was going on the last few weeks since I told him about me and Asami; if he had no problem with it he wouldn't really be distant like this would he? After I climbed on to the bison and we took off towards our destination, wherever it was we were going.
It wasn't long into the flight that the silence was starting to get to me and I decided to just call him out and get a damn answer. "Tenzin, I think we need talk about your problem with me and Asami-"
"Korra," He interrupted me as he called back to me in the saddle. He let out a sigh before continuing, "I have no personal issue with your and Ms Sato's relationship." Huh? Now I was feeling kind of conflicted, I was glad he didn't have a problem with me and Asami, but I also noticed his oddly specific wording; he had no 'personal' issue, so what other type of issue could it be?
"If it's not personal, then what is it?" I asked as I started to worry. Tenzin let out another sigh before he answered, had he been dreading this as much as me?
"You are the Avatar, it is your duty to maintain balance." I knew that, but I didn't see the connection, "On occasion to do so will require the cooperation of the different nations, and the other nations would not be as accepting of your relationship with Ms Sato." I think I was starting to see where this was going. "If your relationship was to come to light if may damage your ability to maintain balance in the world."
"So, that was it." I wasn't sure how to respond to that right away.
(Asami's point of view)
"Damn it." I was not happy about this letter, I was hoping that I'd be able to at least secure a small sample of the meteorite ore from the Piandao estate but alas the company's tarnished reputation had struck again. I leaned back in my office chair with a groan; I suppose despite managing to get the contract with the united forces all the inroads I'd managed to make with Future Industries had been mainly in here in the United Republic and even that was still somewhat precarious.
I'd been looking over all the reading materials I could find on the sword made by Sokka and the ore, but he'd lost the sword itself so there was annoyingly little information on it. The only place I thought there might more of it would be in the middle of the desert and I couldn't exactly send in a survey team to confirm it considering that it was still locked down after those firebending jerks had been driven out.
"Maybe I should try seeing if I can get permission to check it." I doubted I'd have anymore luck with the Earth Kingdom as opposed to the Fire Nation, but a small favour might help with that; I'd just need to contact a certain commander in the special tactics and reconnaissance department. "This might work out after all."
As I shifted to get what I'd need for writing up this formal letter I noticed a certain sky bison flying off. Hopefully Korra would be able to accomplish what she needed to and maybe get a straight word with Tenzin; I was just hoping that she didn't try to rush it, I knew being the Avatar meant a lot to her and she probably needed this.
"Good luck, Korra." I whispered to the sight of the bison as it faded out of view, smiling. Despite knowing that my beautiful girlfriend needed to take her time I still hoped that she would be able to make it back in time for the opening of the Future Industries chi-blocking academy.