Written for Korrasami Month 2019 day 7 - in the moonlight.
Word count: 1,265
Korra lifted the clump of snow higher and higher. It hovered above her head where it appeared larger than it actually was. The moonlight reflected off it's surface to give it an eerie glow.
She looked at it with a satisfied smirk. At the tender age of four, she knew others in the Southern Water Tribe who had shown signs of being waterbenders at her age, but none of them could do what she could.
Standing in the moonlight, she felt the moon's energy traveling through her. That energy had a name, if she remembered correctly, but she didn't care enough to remember it. She didn't have much time for spirits and those sorts of things, no matter how often the older members of the tribe, like Katara, liked to talk about them. Still, she couldn't ignore the power the moon had over her even if she didn't have time for the technicalities of how it all worked.
Only a few days before, she'd bent earth for the first time. It had made her feel more powerful than ever, especially when she'd seen the look on the faces of the boys who'd taken to taunting her after she surpassed them at waterbending.
She'd felt a connection with the earth, too, as the chunk of solid dirt had hovered before her, but it hadn't been the same as the all encompassing connection she felt with the moon. Perhaps that was because most of the earth at the South Pole was buried beneath thick layers of ice and snow. She'd never been surrounded by it in the same way she was always surrounded by water.
Whatever the reason ,though, it was comforting to return to the moon and water after the past several days had been spent experimenting with what little earth they could get from under the ice and trying to coax her into bending fire or air, which she had yet to do.
The process of pushing herself further was invigorating. The knowledge that she was the next Avatar filled her with pride, and she wouldn't have traded it for the world, but she was exhausted. So much so that she'd exploded at Katara and the other adults as they encouraged her to try at fire—the next element in the cycle—just one more time before calling it quits.
Katara had laughed as she dusted snow from her coat, but her father had been less amused as he reminded Korra that important people were on their way, people who she couldn't disrespect in such a way.
Korra smiled at the thought of the important people who would soon know her name, if the news hadn't reached them already. Katara had sent word to the White Lotus as soon as she'd seen Korra bend earth for herself. Letters to the Fire Lord, Earth Queen, Air Acolytes, and Korra's own uncle at the North Pole had quickly followed. Soon, the world would know that the next Avatar had been found.
Korra bent over the letter, straining her eyes to read with what little moonlight made it through her window.
It was the tenth time she'd read Asami's letter since it arrived earlier that day. Her heart ached as she scanned the words again. She wasn't sure why she was doing so when she had most of it memorized.
In the time she'd been gone, those she loved had continued with their lives in Republic City. Somehow, that hurt in a way her family living out their lives without her at the South Pole never had. Korra longed to see her friends, but the idea of going back when she didn't feel like herself was frightening.
Laying the letter to the side, Korra tilted her head up to the moon and pushed aside thoughts of her friends. She'd been poisoned; there was no escaping what had happened. She had to live with the consequences.
As the moonlight hit her skin, she tried to feel the power that had once come to her without her needing to ask. It was one of the most painful parts of her injuries. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't feel any of her previous connection to the moon or the water surrounding her, let alone any of the other elements.
Tears stung her eyes, and she turned back to Asami's letter. It called to her in a way the moon no longer did. When she read the words, she felt a strange comfort drape over her, the same comfort that the moon had once brought her.
Korra leaned over to the small table in her room and tugged a sheet of paper from the drawer. Bending close to see in the moonlight, she began doing what she'd sworn she wasn't yet capable of: writing back to one of her friends.
Korra closed her eyes, smirking to herself as she felt the moon's presence with as much surety as if she'd been looking at it with her eyes. She lifted her arms, raising large chunks of the frozen South Pole landscape with them.
Even after nearly a decade of being a fully realized Avatar, bending water still came to her in a way that was different from the other elements. It brought her joy for simpler, purer reasons. As cliché as it sounded, being surrounded by the snow and ice was her home.
"I don't understand why you need to do this in the middle of the night."
Korra opened her eyes slowly and fixed her gaze on her girlfriend. Asami was shivering in her heavy parka. No matter how many trips they made, she never adjusted to the weather of the South Pole.
"You don't have to stay out here," Korra said softly. "I'll come back inside once I'm finished."
Asami gave her a small smile and didn't move from where she sat.
"But what exactly are you practicing?" she asked. "You lifted some ice. I've seen you do it a million times before."
"I'm not learning anything new," Korra admitted. "But it's the full moon. Sometimes I need to flex my spiritual muscles a bit."
"You?" Asami teases, tilting her head to the side. "Avatar Korra being spiritual?"
Korra directed a small clump of snow Asami's way, being careful to hit her in the shoulder instead of the face.
"I am the Avatar," she said. "The spiritual stuff has to be part of me too."
Asami's smile turned soft.
"Of course it does," she said, her smile growing as Korra moved to stand in front of her. "Sometimes it's hard to remember that you have a connection with the world that I can't understand."
Korra tilted her head to look at the moon hanging above them in the sky.
"It's hard to imagine not having it," she said quietly.
Her thoughts drifted to the years she'd spent in recovery after her poisoning. All of the connections she had to the spirit world had felt to her like they were destroyed, so it wasn't that she was incapable of imagining them not being there. She couldn't, however, imagine feeling that way and being content with life like Asami was.
Even when she wasn't bending, she felt the moon's influence on her. It was a connection that she would never take for granted after what she'd been through.
Asami touched her hand, and Korra linked their fingers together and squeezed. Asami would never experience the world in the same way she did, but she hoped she could feel something, at least, from the moon as they looked up at it in the sky.