Asami stood alone in the Air Temple, breathing heavily and contemplating the insanity of her life at the moment. She'd really thought that she'd have a nice night, just stay at home and relax…
—
The young woman exhaled loudly as she sank into her bath. "Heavenly," she murmured, practically falling asleep on the spot. Her job as the head of Future Industries kept her busy for what felt like 24/7, and that really wasn't that far off the mark. Today was her coveted Day Off.
She spent a good hour in the tub, reveling in the hot water as it slowly cooled and enjoying the way it relaxed her muscles. She'd just finished changing when a knock came at the door.
"Come in," she called as she tightened the tie on her robe. One of her servants stepped in.
"Miss Sato, Avatar Korra is here. Shall I…?"
"Yes, of course, bring her in." Se felt calm, at peace. Little did she know that peace would be short-lived.
Her friend of five years waltzed into the room, her green-gray traveling clothes slightly rumpled.
"Fancy seeing you here, especially around noon. Day out on the town?" Asami inquired.
Although Korra had been back in Republic City for five months, she still seemed to enjoy wearing the robes given to her over a year ago by Lin.
"Yes," Korra breathed. It was only then that Asami noticed her eyes. They were gleaming brightly, looking at something far away.
"Uhh…what's up?" Asami asked. Korra blinked, her eyes clearing as she came back to the present.
"Well, uhm, you see…" Her awkward friend shuffled from foot to foot, pulling at her frayed sleeves. "I…ran into…okay…uhh, I don't…"
"Korra," she stood up to lead her over to a seat, "just calm down and take a breather. I mean, unless you ran into my dad, then we really have nothing to worry about," she joked as she pushed on Korra's shoulder.
"Yeah…" Korra let out a nervous laugh. They sat in silence until Asami's gaze prompted Korra into speech. "Right. Sorry. I, uh…ran into Bolin today."
Oh. So that was the reason for the Avatar's rare hesitancy.
Although Korra and Asami had kept up a steady friendship throughout the past five years, both girls had found that the brothers they once knew so well had slowly drifted away from them. By this point, Asami saw them once in awhile passing through the market, only a quick nod noting their casual acquaintance. She figured that Korra saw even less of them since she was fully ensconced in her Avatar duties now.
"How was that?" Asami breached the topic slowly.
The fact that the four of them had been a hot teenaged dating mess didn't help at all.
"It was really nice." The look on Korra's face was so bizarre that Asami had to fight to hold back a laugh.
"Bolin's one of the nicest guys I know. You're surprised?" She tilted her head, still biting her lip to keep from laughing.
"I guess I'm surprised that he was nice to me. Spirits know I don't deserve it. But mostly," she went on before Asami could stop her, "I'm surprised because he asked me to dinner."
Asami's eyes widened. "Oh!"
"I know, right?"
"Korra!"
"I know, right?"
"Wh- are you happy? Wait, did you even say yes?"
"Yeah…" The way Korra answered made it a question of its own.
Asami searched Korra's eyes. "Korra, are you happy about this?" she enunciated slowly. Her friend stayed still before slowly nodding. She took in a shuddering breath before letting out a long, unwavering exhale. One of Asami's vases fell over with a crash, making both women jump.
"Oops, sorry," Korra whispered.
"It's okay," Asami whispered back.
"Uhm, while we're whispering, could I ask you something?"
"Go for it."
"Well, Bolin is leaving tomorrow on some sort of training thing. He's trying to become a metalbender and work for Lin." Korra sped up, her hissing filling up the room. "So we arranged for dinner tonight. But tonight, Pema has a meeting at the university, so she asked me to babysit since Tenzin and Jinora are who-knows-where out East." The last few words were spoken in such a blur that it was a few seconds before Asami picked them all out.
"I still haven't heard a question." Asami kept up the whispering.
Korra sighed, giving up on the 'quiet talk'. "Could you, maybe, possibly, if it's not too much trouble, take over babysitting for me?" Again, she rushed to continue. "I know it's your only day off, and you have a million better things to do, and I feel horrible for asking-"
"Korra, Korra!" Asami interrupted, laughing. "It's okay, breathe. I'll do it."
"Oh, thank you!" Korra collapsed into Asami's arms. "I owe you forever. Thank you so much."
—
She had gone with Korra back to Air Temple Island soon after, both to help Korra get ready for her date and to help herself remember what life on the island was like. It had been a while.
Pema was the first one they encountered, along with a very young acolyte that looked to be about Jinora's age. "Oh, hello Asami!" Pema seemed pleasantly surprised.
"Hi," was all Asami said. She'd let Korra explain later.
"This is Batu, one of our newest acolytes here. I'm just showing her how to prepare food for the bison. We should be done soon…" Pema looked hopeful.
"Don't worry Pema, Asami will still be here when you're done. I'm just gonna take her over to the kids…" Korra trailed off. "Where are the kids?"
"Grooming said bison." Korra nodded and the two women turned to leave.
"If they're slacking off, get them on task before I get there, or tell them they're in for it!" Pema called from behind them.
"Got it!" Korra yelled back. Asami shook her head in amazement. The ease with which Korra fit in at this contradictory island of craziness and tranquility would never fail to amuse her.
—
As Pema had predicted, her children were indeed slacking off when they arrived. They were flying around cross-legged chasing each other on balls of air. Frankly, Asami thought they looked ridiculous, but since they seemed to be enjoying themselves, she'd be lying if she said she wouldn't want to try it. Ikki was the first to notice their approach.
"Korra!" she yelled, letting her air drop away and sprinting to the edge of the pasture. A gust of air blew her up to Korra's height for them to have a proper hug. Asami watched them carefully, wistfully wondering if this was the profound sibling bond she was missing out on. Supposedly, the Avatar was an only child like her, but by the way she acted with these kids, Asami would hazard a guess that Korra was worlds ahead of her. Her name called her back to her surroundings.
"Yeah, of course I remember her! She's only, like, one of your best friends ever!" Ikki spat out the words, almost tripping over them in her haste to get them out in her excitement. She flitted out of Korra's arms and stood by Asami.
"You've gotten a lot taller," Asami noted.
"Or you've gotten shorter," the 12-year old replied cheekily.
She grinned. "I don't think that's quite how it works."
"Well, why not?" Korra demanded behind them. Asami looked over Ikki to see a very red Meelo glaring at Korra. "Go ahead!" the Avatar continued, gesturing towards her.
Meelo slowly turned to face her. "Hi…Asami."
"Hi, Meelo." she replied kindly. She'd quite noticed Meelo and his infatuation with her on her very first visit to the island, and since then, it had grown. The little boy's regular reckless and carefree attitude seemed to die quite suddenly whenever she was around.
All of a sudden, Asami's legs clamped together, an invisible vise from behind making it impossible to move. She turned and let out a breathy laugh. "Hey, Rohan. How's it going?"
The five-year old lifted his head and let out a quiet "Good." Similar to his brother, Rohan was fascinated by Asami, although Rohan was easily fascinated by many things.
"C'mon guys, your mom's coming out here soon, and if you aren't working, she's not gonna give us dinner!" Korra leaped forward, spurring the rest of them into action. As they walked to the bison, Ikki gasped. "Are you staying for dinner, Asami?"
"I think I am," she replied, smiling. Ikki fist-pumped the air before flying off in a gust of wind. Asami shook her head and joined Rohan in brushing out a particular bison that was fast asleep. Minutes passed and they fell into a comfortable rhythm, working around and with each other.
"Hey!" Meelo's yell pierced the air suddenly, followed by a familiar cackle. Asami couldn't help but smile at how much of a kid Korra was around the airbending children.
"Asami?" She turned to see that Rohan had a wild look in his eyes. "Please?" Instantly, she understood the little-boy-urge to get involved in anything mischievous. She found that she couldn't say no.
They ran around their bison to find that the other three airbenders were blasting air at each other, resulting in bison hair flying everywhere and sticking fantastically to their clothes. Inexplicably, Asami's spirits dropped a bit. All of a sudden, a hand grabbed hers.
She turned to see Rohan gazing up at her as he said with the most grave voice she'd ever heard, "Don't worry, I'll cover you." She couldn't help the grin that spread across her face as she ran after the little boy into the melee.
—
Ten minutes later, Pema and Batu came out to the pen to find three children and two women quietly working as though nothing was amiss. However, the fact that all five were covered from head to toe in bison hair gave them away.
—
Asami sat down to dinner feeling relief. Korra had left about 15 minutes before, nervous and with a stomach "so full of buttermoths" she swore she was going to puke. Asami had only laughed, telling her to be her regular confident self. She knew the jitters were more happy-related than scared.
The relief stemmed from the conversation that the two of them had had with Pema. Despite the instant welcome she felt whenever she visited Air Temple Island, Asami had still been worried that Pema might not be comfortable leaving her children in the care of a woman they didn't know that well. Pema had only smiled and rubbed the two of theirs' arms.
"I'm happy for you Korra. I hope you have a great time," she'd said gently. "And Asami, thank you so much for taking over for her, I know how busy you must be what with your job. It means a lot."
Dinner itself was a quiet affair. Okay that was a lie. All Asami meant was that other than Pema and the children, only her and Batu were there. It was actually one of the loudest dinners she'd ever had, what with the children yelling at each other to pass some such thing, only to be ignored. It usually resulted in the child then trying to lift it over to themselves by airbending, which Pema unsuccessfully tried to stop. Batu looked a bit terrified by it all, and Asami had to fight to hide her grin.
The food-bending, however, came to an end when Meelo 'accidentally' spilled the pea soup on Ikki.
—
"Now, I shouldn't be too long, and I'll try to hurry it up so you can get home at a reasonable hour. The kids can entertain themselves easily enough, a babysitter is mostly necessary to make sure they don't destroy anything or bug any of the acolytes. They get enough of the children during the day, I'm sure." Asami nodded repeatedly as she helped Pema put dinner away.
"Oh, and their bedtime is an hour after sundown, and no later, no matter what they tell you!" The woman turned, putting a hand on Asami's shoulder. "If they get to be too much, you can ask Qing to help out. He's an older acolyte, and he works wonders on the kids, but I try not to go to him too much since he's over 70 and he deserves the peace that living on this dear island supposedly gives."
Asami nods again. "No worries, Pema, I've got this. You just go to your meeting and don't even worry about them. It'll be fine."
"Okay…" sighed Pema, looking around with a bit of a frazzled look. Asami came to the quiet realization that as much as Pema complained, she wasn't so different from her children. Even if the woman had no Air Nomad background, she fit in so well on this island.
—
Within the hour, Pema and Batu took their leave. Pema got plenty of hugs as she went out the door, and it seemed that the kids were yelling over each other so that Asami wouldn't be able to hear their mother's instructions. It was a bit pointless, but the children didn't know that they were just reminders, as Pema knew her children quite well and had told Asami when they weren't around.
Then the door shut, and it was just Asami and the kids. They all turned to her almost simultaneously, and she had to admit, the grin on Ikki's face made her a bit nervous.
"So…what do you guys want to do? We have a while before you have to go to bed…" Asami clasped her hands behind her back as Ikki turned to her brothers. They, unlike Asami, seemed to understand what the evil-ish grin meant. To the point where it spread to their own faces.
"D'you wanna play a game with us?" Ikki asked.
"Sure?"
"It's called Chase and Trap, it's super fun, our Uncle Bumi taught it to us!" Meelo said in a rare burst of noise around Asami.
"What do you do?"
"Well," Ikki instantly changed attitudes, become about as serious as she'd ever seen her. "One person is the trapper and they have to stay at a chosen 'base' and count to 100. All the other people are hiding while they count. After that, the trapper has to chase down and trap everybody!"
"It's so fun, it's so fun, it's so fun!" Rohan was jumping up and down in excitement.
Asami felt a smile form on her face. "Sounds good. Who's the trapper?"
"You!" Ikki grinned. "So, we'll make the meditation gazebo the base, and all you have to do to catch us is tag us. We can walk to the base ourselves and you can keep going. Okay, go!" The girl had zipped through the end of her explanation, and before she could say 'turtle-duck', Asami found herself alone and blinking in confusion.
"Alright, well, here goes nothing!" And she began her counting.
Once she reached the end of her count, she jogged out of the house and looked around. They were playing on the entire island? Asami hadn't been planning on asking Qing for help, but if the beginning of the evening was any indication, she might have to.
She found herself at the greenhouse, and shrugged before letting herself in. As it was summer, no damage could really be done to the plants inside, and hey, she had to start somewhere.
She stepped cautiously, looking up and down and behind anything in sight. She was ready to leave when - of all things - she heard a giggle. She couldn't believe her luck! Had Ikki really just given herself away so quickly?
She spun on the spot, gazing around the building suspiciously. Her heart's beat was wild and she breathed in slowly. A pot crashed to the ground behind her, and she spun again just in time to see the tip of the girl's hair leaving the greenhouse. She booked it out of there, determined to catch the little devil.
It didn't take long, and Asami silently blessed her long legs and Ikki's kindness in not using her airbending as she practically tackled the 12 year old to the ground.
The girl was laughing hysterically. "Got you," Asami exhaled as she stood, trying to catch her breathe. "Any chance you know where your brothers are?"
Ikki shook her head, still giggling. "This is the most fun I've had playing this since that time Jinora tripped in a mud puddle! I don't even care that I'm first out!" She let out another giggle before waving and air-scooter-ing away. Asami just shook her head.
—
About half an hour later, Asami found herself outside the Air Acolyte dormitories. She sneaked slowly around one corner, peeking before she did so. As she slinked down the next wall, traveling to the next corner, she froze.
She wasn't exactly sure why. It hadn't been against her own will, but she'd just…had a feeling? Her brow furrowed and she looked around her. No one.
Unless… Asami raised her head, looking straight up. She could hardly believe that she'd guessed right. Bracing himself against the outer-rafters of the dorm was Meelo, bright red in the face from not breathing.
"Do I actually have to tag you, or does this count as me trapping you?" she asked quietly. In answer, he drifted down to the ground, landing with a practiced grace that she was surprised to see.
"Nah, I'm caught. You got me." Meelo scuffed his foot on the ground before looking up at her. "How'd you know I was there?"
"I have no idea," she offered in explanation. He seemed to accept it and began to run off, only to turn back and whisper quickly, "Check by the temple!"
—
Yet again, Asami found herself sneaking across the largely-deserted island in dead silence. She breathed slowly, determined to not let Rohan that she was there so as to not have to chase him as she had his sister.
She walked the entire perimeter of the temple, looking up and down with no results. She huffed in frustration, unsure of what to do. Looking around, she saw no other option than to enter the temple itself.
The door creaked as she opened it, and she flinched violently. However, nothing happened and she entered with no movement that she could see.
Walking towards the back of the temple, she became distracted by the beautiful simplicity of the building. Her supposed 'looking for Rohan' glances from floor to ceiling took in the pillars, the wall designs, and the patterned ceiling.
It was a mischievous snicker that woke her from her dazed trance. She could actually feel a gust of wind brush against her as she watched Rohan leave the temple out of her peripherals. "Crud," she muttered under her breath, sprinting after the five-year old. The little boy knew no boundaries, unlike his slowly learning older sister. She'd have to contend with his airbending…
Just in the entrance to the temple, she stopped to catch her breath and watch as Rohan zipped away on an air scooter. She thought back to the beginning of her day with a laugh. Funny how exhausting this island was. She'd need another bath when she got home.
—
A distant laugh, high-pitched and squeaky, dragged her to the present, and she resumed her chase.
I wrote this a few months ago (holy crap over half a year ago where does the time go) and published it on tumblr for the atla/lok Secret Santa I was in. Thought I'd put it up here as well! I really had fun writing it, and formed so many little headcanons while doing so.