DISCLAIMER: I do not own Legend of Korra.
A/N: TO those who have long awaited a new chapter: I am terribly sorry for this late update. I was sort of worried that I might disappoint you if the next chapter couldn't have lived to your expectations especially when I received such wonderful reviews. Anyway, I can't prolong this and hide forever so here is your new chapter in Asami's POV. (Next chapter would be in Mako's POV.)
DISREGARD ANY OTHER DIFFERENCES FROM THE SHOW BECAUSE THIS IS A FANFIC.
POST "TURNING THE TIDES" UP TO "SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET."
THIS IS NONLINEAR.
Asami in Rags
"They said they'll be arriving in three days." Korra says, relaying the message she's received from the United Forces.
"Three days, huh, that's too long." Mako sighs.
"Oh yeah..." Bolin groans his agreement.
Asami doesn't think three days is too long. It's better than waiting for a week, at least.
Korra and Mako shares a look, Bolin peeks at Korra, and Asami stares at them.
Korra then glances at her, Asami in turn looks straight at her very blue eyes, and suddenly the Avatar's eyes widens and she flushes as if she's caught red-handed and she is but Asami doesn't – never – comments. Korra looks down guiltily. Mako hangs his head, his eyes closed with his brows wrinkled in a frown. Bolin pretends he doesn't notice.
She's the only one who doesn't break her stare.
Nowadays, Asami's nose is always filled with the revolting smell of the dank never-ending sewers that has become their refuge. She hates it. She hates it so much with a passion, like how she hates that her father is on the other side of this war, like how she hates that she barely gets to take a daily bath, like how they're running around like pitiful rats, and like how she hates Mako being overly protective and overly caring to Korra. It's nauseating. Disgusting.
The knowledge of whether it's her or them is blurred.
Asami gets the urge to pull out her finely manicured fingernails to see what's going to happen. She knows there will be blood and tears. And she imagines Mako rushing to her forgetting Korra for a moment, for a while, she hopes. She wishes she could keep him.
Somehow, in a series of unfortunate events, three days becomes five.
During the day they walk and walk and walk. Sometimes they sit, to rest for a minute or a second until they are on the run because suddenly there's a roar of the engines of Equalist motorcycles and mobiles. They run like scared prey but not really because they're just in hiding but it feels like they truly are captives in a den of hungry wolves. Her legs pop and crack under her but it's only in her mind because she's still running fast, fast, and faster. (They run on foot because riding on Naga screams Avatar like the red on top of Amon's poster and they don't need any more advertisement.) Her lungs threaten to burst and it doesn't feel anything like fighting, not at all, its closer to anger, to hate, but not really. Anger is much more vicious. There's another thing to add on her Hate List.
They scavenge for food, mostly fish — because Korra's a waterbender (she bends the fish out of the water quick enough for anyone to see) it's less risky and the way they make a beeline along the coast of Yue Bay to await the arrival of the fleet it's handy. Fruits become a luxury to her, no, food becomes a luxury to her. No rice, no bread, no meat, no desserts. But fish, and fish, and fish. Asami wonders how the people on the Northern and Southern Water Tribe could live with it. Oh yes, and the sea prunes. It makes her sick, sicker when she remembers a time when she can just ask her father to get her anything she wants to eat. Life of a seemingly fugitive doesn't suit her, how not prissy she may be. When she puts the roasted fish on her mouth she feels a strong impulse to throw up. Don't even get her started on the soup from the refugees place.
They sleep without sleeping at all. It's only during an hour after midnight that Mako calls it a night. She knows he wishes they could afford more sleeping time especially when it's evident Korra's still strained and bags under Bolin's eyes are starting to become prominent. She wants to know what Mako sees in her. He fears she sees nothing with Korra a big sand in his eyes.
Mako always calls for first post even though everyone knows he's always and forever the only post until they have to wake up and change location. Their beds varying from bushes, under the bridge, building wreckage, and mostly sewers and more sewers because that's the place that the Equalists mostly doesn't bother to check. And that isn't the worst, because if anyone asks her the cold is more brutal. Her knees knock over each other as she curls into a ball and her teeth chatter between her lips. They huddle for warmth with Naga as their pillow, Bolin pushes himself against Korra's back and Mako half lays himself on her other side and puts a caressing hand over her hair.
Asami is on his other side. They don't do anything.
Yet, it's not what makes her spiteful. It's the red wrapped around Korra's neck that does.
When Asami closes her eyes there is only one thought: 'I wasn't born for this.'
Asami dreams of a time and a world forgotten; wherein when she is hurt her father is there to comfort her, when she is sad he consoles her, when she is in need he is by her side, when she is the only center of existence. She thought she has also found it in Mako.
When she wakes up she feels her heart cold as snow under her feet.
It's easy to pick out how Mako and Bolin are acquainted to the streets and how Korra easily adapts and knows how to live practical. She's an odd one out in that measly team of there's. The brothers know nooks and crannies of the city, perfect places to rest, to hide, and to sleep. Korra's great at hunting, on earth and sea. She skirts the edges of the city, a nearby forest, and comes back with a haul of game and a bag of forages. Asami liked those times the most when breakfast, lunch, and dinner isn't fish. But those times are rare.
Asami is the only one who doesn't have anything to contribute except for looking out for Naga and Pabu and fighting on random Equalists they tend to come across.
She realizes how suitable those three are. Young people who can live on their own in the streets. And she is reminded of Mako and Bolin's past, how they were orphaned with both parents in a very young age, how they strived in the cruel streets of this city, how hard it must have been to worry every day for food and shelter. She shudders. She doesn't want to imagine how she would manage on her own. No money, no one to run for help, no sanctuary. Everybody indifferent.
It occurs to her that she has no idea of what kind of life Mako really had until now.
Her pity for his misfortune disappears and is replaced with respect and admiration.
However, she feels envious of how Korra can fit in this picture. The sheltered Avatar in a band of ragtag teenagers who thwarts pursuers and laughs at a fire ferret's compromised tricks on boring days.
She thinks that maybe Korra's just good at adapting, or maybe, the Avatar is just someone who always lives a life of wandering.
Asami could have sworn that Mako also wanted to jump on the water the moment Korra dove to save the ships. That is why she wasn't at all surprised who he chose to go with when the time came. She deludes herself into thinking that it's because Korra can't face Amon alone and that General Iroh just had other plans.
It isn't the electric current that is shocking her body that pains Asami. No, it is the unmistakable truth that the one she loves is hurting her. Her father who had said he loves her more than anything in this world wants to kill her because she is blinded by friendship and love. He hates her now. He hates her because she chose her friends who are benders, the Avatar, and Mako; a street-rat firebender. She chose his enemies.
Asami terribly wants to cry, terribly wants to be hugged by her father and cry on his chest just like the way she did when she was still but a child. She terribly wants to tell him that indeed these benders had hurt her, these so-called friends of hers. They're stabbing her behind her back.
But she wouldn't cry and wouldn't tell her father anything, because just like them he is giving her the same pain that she has been suffering from. And the world, right now, is more important than any teenage drama. She knows that much.
Asami may have lived a high-maintenance life before but she sure isn't someone selfish.
As Asami gazes at her unconscious father, she finally realizes why he has fallen from grace. She finally understands how her sweet and gentle father could be a person so bitter and so cruel to wish for the destruction of benders — a kin and not a kin at the same time.
Misguided anger could lead to a man's unbecoming, Asami reckons.
A/N: Thank you everyone for your reviews! XD They truly made me happy and they also gave me the burden of trying harder to write another chapter. I'm truly glad that I have written something refreshing and deep for this fandom since this was actually a result of my frustration from the lack of character development of the LoK cast/team. I didn't think that I'd also be able to capture a good Makorra interaction/relationship. (They're hard to right together, especially Mako.)
Forgive me for the errors. Thank you thank you very much! And again, Please Review.