The Legend of Korra is owned by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino

Present Day

A nearly blank email refused to yield to Korra's glare. She had been staring at her computer for the past hour trying to figure out what to say. In that time all she had managed to type was:

New Message

To: Asami Sato (asamisato )

From: Korra (avatarkorra )

Subject: I always have advice! haha

Asami,

I

Korra was embarrassed by her email address. It was something that seemed like a good idea back when she was in high school and thought she was a hotshot, but now that she had graduated from college, she rarely used this account anymore. In fact, she only ever used it to email Asami. She would abandon it altogether except that it held the archive of the thousands of emails they had sent to one another over the past six years. It was, perhaps, and outdated form of communication, but by now it was so familiar that Korra couldn't imagine keeping in contact with her any other way.

She banged her head against the wall with a groan. Why was this so difficult? Last week Korra had managed to talk a teenager off a ledge where she was threatening kill herself. A few days before that she was called in to diffuse a situation where a man held his family at gunpoint. She didn't even break a sweat, so why was she having so much trouble writing an email to one of her best friends?

"Hey, Korra," came a voice from her doorway.

"Go away, Jinora," she muttered.

Jinora was her foster sister, the biological daughter of Tenzin and Pema, the couple who had taken her in back when she was fifteen. Korra loved the family dearly and was forever grateful that they continued to welcome her even though she was almost twenty-two and had officially aged out of the foster care system last year. They even kept her room the same when she went away to college, despite the fact that she only came home for brief periods a few times year. Now they were more than willing to allow her to stay for a few months after graduation until she was able to save up enough money for a place of her own. The only downside was that she had to contend with four foster siblings whom she loved dearly, but could be a bit of a handful. At nearly sixteen, Jinora was the oldest and had grown out of her wild stage, but Ikki, Meelo, and Rohan were constantly bickering and breaking things. Still, she loved the feeling of belonging to a family too much to find somewhere else to crash.

True to form, Jinora ignored Korra's demand and glided across the room to curl up next to Korra on her bed. She laid her head on the older girl's shoulder and looked at the screen.

"So, I heard that Iroh asked Asami to marry him and she said yes," Jinora began, glancing up at Korra to judge her reaction.

Korra sighed and shook her head. It was more complicated than that. "Asami agreed to marry him because she didn't have a reason to say no and they've been together forever, but she's not sure she really wants to." She groaned and let her head fall back against the wall again. "She wants to know what I think."

"Oh, wow. That's a lot of pressure," Jinora said.

"Tell me about it. I don't know what to say to her. I just want her to be happy."

"Doesn't Iroh make her happy?"

Korra thought for a moment. "She's content with him."

"But does he make her happy?" Jinora had it upon the main problem Korra was having.

"He doesn't make her unhappy, but…" Korra's voice trailed off, unable to find words that could convey her thoughts. She ran her hand over the homemade afghan on her bed absentmindedly.

"But she's not happy with him and you're wondering if 'content' is good enough for her," Jinora finished wisely. She grabbed Korra's hand to still its motion. "Stop. You know I hate that sound."

Korra took solace in the fact that Jinora held onto her hand even after she had stopped bothering her. "Sorry. I forgot."

"It's okay. Anyway, don't you think that maybe there's a bigger reason you're having trouble responding to Asami?"

"Uh…like what exactly?" Korra asked, bewildered. The issue with Asami seemed pretty straightforward to her.

Jinora closed Korra's laptop and slid it under the bed so she could throw an arm around Korra's stomach to cuddle more comfortably. "Come on, Korra."

Korra frowned as she stroked Jinora's hair. "I really don't know what you're talking about."

"Think about it. Have you dated anyone since Mako?"

"…no," Korra responded, still not sure what Jinora had in mind.

"That was your sophomore year of high school. Doesn't it seem odd to you that you haven't even thought about dating anyone since then?"

Korra's hand stilled in Jinora's hair as she contemplated the younger girl's words. "I have thought about it. There have been a few people I've liked."

Jinora snorted. "Yeah, but not seriously. You haven't even been on a date since Mako and that was in high school and you just graduated from college. Korra, that's not normal."

"So your goal here is to insult me?" Korra was starting to grow agitated. She knew people thought she was weird for not dating, but she had so much else going on. In high school she was too preoccupied with sports to deal with a boyfriend, particularly after the Mako fiasco. Once she went to college she got involved in volunteering with a suicide hotline, which was how she ended up with her current job. Between that, coaching a kids' soccer team, and her classes, there wasn't a lot of time for a social life beyond a few friends.

"No. I'm not trying to insult you. Let's try it this way. How did you feel when Asami was dating Mako?"

"Jinora, you know this story. I was jealous that Mako was with Asami, so I kissed him. We learned pretty quickly that we were better as friends, so we broke up. After that Asami and I started to become friends."

"So you were jealous that Mako was dating Asami, but you didn't want to date him?"

Korra let out a choked laugh. "Yes! What more do you want me to say?" She still had no idea what Jinora wanted from her.

"Maybe it wasn't Mako you liked," Jinora murmured quietly.

Korra blinked in shock and thought back over the past seven years, the time in which she had known Asami. "You think I like Asami?" Korra asked slowly.

Jinora looked up at her and shook her head sadly. "Oh, Korra. You're beyond liking her. You're completely in love with her. Spirits! You'd marry her tomorrow if you thought she'd agree."

Jinora's observation struck Korra like a bolt of lightning from her head to her toes. "Shitdamnfuck!" Korra cursed. "I'm in love with Asami Sato! How long have I been in love with her?" she wondered aloud, more to herself than to the girl who was falling asleep beside her.

"Dunno," Jinora slurred. "I've known how you felt since before you graduated from high school." She let out deep breath, said, "Think about it," and promptly fell asleep.

So Korra thought.

A/N: Things to know about this story:

1. The title is from the song, "Hiding Place" by Aushua, particularly the lyric:

I ain't saying I believe/and I'm not saying you're to blame/But you call this thing love and I don't think they're the same/It's just a hiding place.

2. Weekly updates. Some will be short and others will be long. Sorry for the inconsistency, but it's the only way that makes sense.

3. There will be two timelines. One is the present and one is the past. In terms of style, think Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden. The plot is entirely different, though.

4. Comments and constructive criticism are appreciated, but I don't require them in order for me to update.