Author's Note1: This story is my creation. However, it is based on original work by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. (In other words, I don't own anything about the Avatar universe. Otherwise, I'd be on the other side of the panels at SDCC. ) No deliberate infringement of anything intended. This is merely for personal enjoyment, melding their published canon material and my wild imaginings. As such, I want to express my thanks to the Almighty Bryke for the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. The richness of their writing and artistry has made me a lifelong fan of both series. (And, obviously, without their creation, there would not be this creation.)
Republic City still needed rebuilding. The injured still needed tending. Lives still needed mending. Despite all that, Asami just could not bring herself to get out of bed. She was tired, weary, and her heart was broken. It was only three days ago that the hummingbird wreckage had been recovered and it had been all she could do to not rush to the crash site and dig her father's body out herself. Several people had volunteered to be on heiress-sitting duty while Tenzin and the Air acolyte who first reported the discovery tended to the retrieval of Hiroshi Sato's remains. Mostly, it fell to Pema and Korra. They would take turns to stay with the inconsolable industrialist. Today was Korra's turn.
After tossing and turning for the last fifteen minutes, Asami finally threw the comforter aside and sat up. Sitting on the edge of her king sized bed, the engineer stared blankly at the wall ahead, a frown etching its unfamiliar contours into her porcelain smooth features. Slowly, she got up and grabbed her dressing gown, putting it on as she walked to the phonograph on one of the side tables in her bedroom. Her shaky hand reached for a well-worn record sitting next to the player and, very carefully, she set the needle onto it.
As the first strain of the melody started playing, Asami's shoulders sagged and she sighed heavily. Tightening the knot around her dressing gown, she opened the balcony doors and stepped out. The sun would rise soon, bringing with it another day and another opportunity for her to do … something, anything, or nothing. However, for Asami, it wasn't a new day. The sky went dark and then it lightened but it was the same day for her. It was that same day from three days ago. Despite being tired, Asami just could not sleep and had not slept since finding out her father's body had been located.
A soothing baritone voice filled the room with love and promises as Asami wrapped her arms around herself, willing her mind to go back to a time when this particular song would play over and over again in the study downstairs, to a time when her father twirled her mother around as this song touched their hearts, to a time when this song symbolized the eternity that a little girl thought she would have with her parents. A soft knock jolted her out of her reverie and Asami turned to look at her bedroom door but did not answer.
Slowly, the door opened and Korra edged her head into the room, smiling widely at her friend. "Hey," she greeted the heiress, immediately registering the dark circles and her bloodshot eyes. "I thought I heard music. This is beautiful," the Avatar said, inviting herself into Asami's room. "I don't understand the words, though," she added, twirling her right forefinger in a circle around her ear.
Asami walked toward the Avatar and smiled sadly at her. "It's an old Fire Nation dialect," she explained, picking up the record cover and handing it to Korra. "This was my parents' song."
"Wander with me," Korra read the title of the song. "What's it saying?" the Avatar asked.
Having been at the helm of Future Industries for many years, Asami could tell when someone was trying to distract her. It had happened plenty of times when an overzealous subordinate bit off more than they could chew and, consequently, could not meet deadlines; or when chauvinistic board members thought they could slip one past "the girl" and try to get an agenda item approved without her. However, this wasn't some cocky executive or demanding shareholder. It was Korra. Her friend. Her best friend who was just trying to take care of her. So, she decided to indulge Korra.
"It's a love song. Or rather, a song about the promise of love," the industrialist explained. "It was actually how my Dad got my Mom to marry him," she chuckled lightly at the memory of a story she had been told many, many times. "The little steps I take to you, the world and the moon take them too as they wander with me," Asami translated after the baritone voice sang a line from the chorus.
"Wander to far away from here, to a place where I discover my heart, wander to know if your heart can love mine too."
"It's beautiful," Korra said softly, not really wanting to disturb the hauntingly exquisite song. "But why does it sound so sad?"
Asami paused to consider the Avatar's words for a moment. "I guess it does sound a little sad," the heiress nodded in agreement, smiling at Korra's observation. "Maybe … maybe because it's about someone looking for love and then finding it but feeling a little afraid because … because they're not sure if they're … enough for the other person to … to say yes?" Asami tried to explain as she continued listening to the words. "My heart wanders this earth, it wanders forever until one day, when your heart wanders with me," Asami's green eyes looked into Korra's as she spoke the closing lines of the song, a tear slowly making its way down her cheek. Korra reached out her hand to Asami, silently declaring her support in a soft squeeze and they just stand there holding each other's hands. For her part, Korra tried hard to not keep asking Asami if she was alright. Anyone could tell that the heiress was anything but alright. It was enough that Korra was there for her.
Meanwhile at the crash site, Tenzin, Bolin, and a few of the Air acolytes had begun to clear away the mountain of debris to, finally, reveal the crushed hummingbird mecha suit. The young Earthbender had insisted on helping, saying it'd be faster for him to clear away the debris with bending than for the acolytes to manually remove piece by piece. The elder Airbender was just giving directions to one of his Air acolytes when movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention.
"Lin, what are you doing here?" Tenzin asked Republic City's Chief of Police. "It's only been a few days. You should still be resting, healing."
"Have you ever tried to tell a Beifong what to do?" Bolin asked Tenzin, quirking a brow at the Air Nomad.
Befuddled for just a moment, Tenzin nodded to himself, "True, true."
"Your mother is still alive, Tenzin," the Chief pushed her way past the elder Master. "Don't try to be her. My mother is still alive too. Definitely don't need another one. I came to help," Lin said gruffly. "I've had all the laying around I could stand for just a bump on the head. Besides, I heard you found Hiroshi's body. I …," the Chief's voice suddenly got caught and she cleared her throat. "If I hadn't brought him, Asami might still have her father around. This is the least I can do."
Tenzin took a few steps toward Lin and placed a warm hand on her shoulder, nodding his understanding. "Come, we have much to do still."
Bolin had moved most of the debris aside already and the crushed mecha was visible. Lin and Bolin both got into a low stance and ripped away the skin of the ruined prototype. After the frame was exposed, Chief Beifong stopped and stood in front of Bolin with a hand on young Earthbender's shoulder, "Kid, I'll take it from here."
Bolin looked at blankly the Chief for a moment and quietly thinned his lips at her. "You know, I've been in a war. I've seen things."
"This is different," Lin's face was stern but her voice was soft. "This is your friend's father."
Bolin opened his mouth to protest but thought better and merely nodded silently as he stepped away from the wreckage. When he was far enough away, Lin finished excavating and waved Tenzin and an acolyte over. While they dealt with the remains, Lin swept up the skin of the hummingbird into a big wad and walked over to a shaded spot. Her skilled fingers flew as she pulled and shaped the metal to her will.
"What are you making?" Bolin asked as he joined the Chief, his keen eyes never leaving the morphing mass hovering between her hands. "Is that … are you … you're making a …" he started to ask as the metal began to take a familiar shape.
"We're going to take the remains back to Air Temple Island," Tenzin joined the pair after awhile. His eyes widen in surprise when his gaze set on the object Lin had formed then slowly, a small smile formed on his lips. Raising his eyes to hers, Tenzin nodded appreciatively and said, "I'll go with you to see Asami. I need to talk to her about the funeral arrangements anyway." With that, the trio made their way to the Sato Estate.
The elderly Rikyu opened the front door of the Sato mansion a few minutes after Bolin's spirited pounding. He had been a butler at the Sato household since before Asami was born. After his wife, Li Yun, passed away, Asami insisted he stayed at the estate. She didn't like the idea of him living by himself at his age and having to make the commute from his house to the estate, even turning one of the guesthouses into a personal residence for him. She always considered him family. His aged amber eyes settled on the group of early morning visitors but were not entirely surprised to see them.
"I will fetch Miss Sato," Rikyu said quietly, as he stepped aside to let the trio in.
Before too long, Asami descended the stairs, still clad in her dressing gown, with Korra close behind. Bolin gave a wide, toothy grin and a double thumbs up when he saw the two young women make their way to the three of them.
"So sorry to come calling at such an early hour, Asami," Tenzin apologized for the group.
"Kid," the Chief took a step forward and looked up at Asami, unsure of how carefully she needed to tread around the engineer. "Asami," her voice taking on a softer tone as her light green eyes gazed woefully at the despondent heiress.
"Lin, what are you doing here?" Asami asked, concerned for the still-injured woman even as her own heart was wounded. "Shouldn't you be resting still?"
"Have you ever tried to tell a Beifong what to do?" Tenzin quipped over Lin's shoulder, earning a savage glare from the Chief, which caused him to visibly wilt back.
"We have something for you," Lin sounded almost bashful as she slowly extended a linen-wrapped package toward Asami.
Carefully, Asami took the package and unwrapped it to reveal a metal urn. She looked up at Lin and then at Tenzin, her brows coming together in a question.
"It's scrap metal from the hummingbird," Lin explained, taking the urn out of Asami's hands and holding it up.
"Lin collected the metal and made it into an urn," Bolin offered.
"It would be a fitting vessel for your father," Tenzin added, a gentle smile upon his visage.
"We can have his name engraved on there," the Chief drew a line across the urn with her slender finger. "And … or … whatever else you want added on there. Dates, a saying, his favorite quote … anything?"
Asami looked at the urn in Lin Beifong's hands and slowly reached out a shaky hand toward it, her jade eyes glazing over as she was lost in thought.
Yasuko decided it was just too beautiful a day to spend indoors. Asami will be starting kindergarten next year and there would be less free time for them to just be together. Yasuko was going to maximize all the free time they had between now and Asami's sixth birthday so …
"Let's go for a picnic," Yasuko announced loudly as she walked through the house looking for her daughter. She had already sent the housekeeper and butler to prepare a basket. "It's too pretty to stay indoors, don't you think?" she asked the little girl upon finding her face down in a thick encyclopedia in the library.
Asami slammed the book closed and jumped off the chair into her mother's arms. "Can Princess Yue come too?" she asked.
"Errr … no," Yasuko replied. "She's a fish, dear."
"But it's such a beautiful day and she's been cooped up in her bowl and she wants to go out too and she …" Asami started babbling non-stop excuses to her mother.
With a resigned sigh, Yasuko acquiesced. "Fine, she can come," she stopped Asami's rambling discourse and the little girl sprinted to her room to fetch her fish bowl.
The drive to the park wasn't a long one but it must have felt like forever for poor Princess Yue. Asami had placed the fish bowl on the floor of the Satomobile and it sloshed the fish all over the place.
"I don't think your fish enjoyed the ride," Li Yun told Asami, pointing to the agitated koi in the bowl.
With a slap to her forehead, the littlest Sato exclaimed, "Oh, no! I forgot to make sure she was ok. I'll make you feel better, Princess Yue."
As Yasuko, Li Yun, and Rikyu assembled their picnic site and spread, Asami wandered to the edge of pond with Princess Yue, the water in the fish bowl sloshing out with every step the littlest Sato took. As she was walking, Asami hugged the bowl to her chest with one arm while the other slowly stirred circles in the bowl. Despite its golden scales, the poor koi looked positively green. "You ok in there, Princess Yue? Feeling better now?" Asami peered into the bowl as she continued to make her way to the pond. "You should be better now than during the drive here. I'm sorry I forgot earlier. If I'm moving and you're moving too, you won't get dizzy but if I'm moving and you're not, then you'll be dizzy. Daddy told me all about it. It's called equibroom," she explained to her fish as she continued to make sure Princess Yue was "moving along" with her in the bowl.
As she stood by the edge of the pond, she spied a handful of koi fishes making their way to the left and then to the right and back again. "Hey, look, they must be your cousins!" she bent over and held Princess Yue's bowl right up to the edge of the pond. "Do you want to say Hi to them? Maybe … maybe you can … do an activity with them?" she asked her pet koi as she pulled the bowl back up, sloshing more water out.
In the distance, she could hear Yasuko call out her name, telling her lunch was ready. "Alright, Princess Yue, you have one hour. Go stretch your fins but you better be back here in an hour, young lady," she instructed the koi before making a pitching motion and sending Princess Yue literally flying out of the fish bowl and into the pond. Gasps could be heard from the few people standing nearby. Without missing a beat, little Asami turned to one woman on her left and exclaimed, "Look, it's a flying fish!" before collapsing in raucous laughter at her own joke. "Flying fish! Ha!" The woman simply dropped her jaw even lower at the antics of the littlest Sato but could not utter a word in response. "I'll put your bowl here so you can find your way back!" Asami yelled out as she placed the bowl at the edge of the water before sprinting back toward her mother.
Asami plopped herself down on the picnic blanket and Li Yun automatically reached out for her hand, wiping one down with a wet towel she had brought.
"Asami, dear, where's your fish bowl?" Yasuko asked her daughter, looking around the park.
Asami silently pointed toward the pond with her one clean hand as Li Yun finished cleaning the other one.
With a sigh, Yasuko went to collect the fish bowl, muttering to herself about Asami leaving things everywhere. As Mrs. Sato walked away, Rikyu quietly handed Asami an egg tart, winking at the little girl conspiratorially. Dessert before lunch! There was a reason Asami liked Rikyu best.
Very quickly, however, Yasuko returned to the picnic spot with the empty fish bowl in her hands. "Asami, where's your fish?" she asked, holding up the empty fish bowl.
Asami merely pointed toward the pond again as she took a big bite out of the egg tart.
"What do you mean by that?" Yasuko stared at her daughter.
With an exasperated sigh, Asami explained, "It's alright, Mom. She's just taking a walk. You know, stretching her fins."
"She … sh-she's taking a walk?" Yasuko asked haltingly, her eyes wide.
"I told her to be back in an hour," Asami very calmly explained before stuffing the rest of the tart in her mouth.
"Y-you told … hmmm …" Yasuko could not find the words to finish her sentence. She looked at both Li Yun and Rikyu but they were just as equally stunned. Nodding slowly, she sat herself down next to Rikyu and reached for a sweet roll.
"She's just taking a walk, Mrs. Sato," Rikyu teased her. "She'll be back in an hour. Right, little miss?" the butler added looking over at Asami and grinning.
"A walk. She … she's taking a walk … ok," Yasuko muttered to herself. Asami did not seem too worried about it so her mother decided she would not worry about it either. They would either find the fish or they would not. In her mind, however, she was already planning a clandestine trip to the pet shop for a replacement koi later that evening. She would wait until her husband was home, though, so he could distract Asami while Yasuko went to "rescue" Princess Yue from the other savage koi in the pond.
Lunch was a boisterous event but soon the hour was up and it was time to pick up Princess Yue. Asami grabbed the fish bowl in one hand and Rikyu's hand in the other, tugging him toward the pond. "Come on, we have to go get Princess Yue. She's been in the water long enough. She's going to get all wrinkly like I do when we go to the beach."
Rikyu looked over at his wife and Yasuko Sato, eyes wide as saucers. They both merely shrugged at him helplessly. With a resolute nod, the butler picked up Asami and slowly made his way to the pond. "You know, little miss, Princess Yue is a fish. She's always in the water. She's used to it so she won't get wrinkly," he tried to reason with Asami.
The little Sato heiress merely shook her head at Rikyu, her arms and the fish bowl wrapped securely around his neck. "No, I get wrinkly at the beach because it's not regular water. This is her beach. It's not her regular water in the bowl so she's going to get all wrinkly too," Asami sighed at her butler, peeved that she even had to explain this to a grown man. "She's a princess. We can't have her all wrinkly, Rikyu." Giggling at her own unintended joke, Asami started chanting "Wrinkly Rikyu, Wrinkly Rikyu" until they reached the edge of the pond.
Rikyu put the little miss down and let her walk toward the water but all the while, he kept a careful eye on his charge. Asami looked this way and that at the water, searching for her koi. "Princess Yue!" she called out. "Princess Yue, it's time to go home!" Alas, no fish came. With a heavy sigh, Asami sat down and started to take her shoes and socks off. "Children these days!" she lamented. "You give them an inch, they'll take two in the bush," Asami muttered to herself.
Rikyu was quick to Asami's side with a hand on her shoulder. "What are you doing, little miss?" he asked with a tilt of his head.
"She's forgotten her curfew. We have to go get her," Asami very plainly pointed to the pond. "You're going to want to take off your shoes, Rikyu. Or they'll get sloshy. Daddy gets mad when I get my shoes sloshy."
Rikyu looked between the little girl and the pond and back again. "You can't go into the pond. It's … it's not allowed," he gestured toward the body of water.
Asami's gaze went to the pond and everywhere else nearby then shook her head. "There are no signs that say that, Rikyu. Come on, take off your shoes," she told him as she stood up, hands on her hips as she impatiently waited for the butler.
By the time Rikyu had taken his socks and shoes off, Yasuko and Li Yun had arrived at the pond.
"You go to one end and shoo her toward me and I'll put her back in the bowl when she comes up," Asami instructed her butler rather matter-of-factly as she waded into the water, not caring that her dress was getting soaked (much to her mother's chagrin.)
Rikyu looked over at the two women and Yasuko grinned wickedly at her butler then waved him toward the other end of the pond, "Go on, Rikyu, shoo Princess Yue toward Asami."
The butler scowled at the pair of women but obediently rolled up his pant legs and waded into the water, much to the amusement of his wife and Yasuko Sato. Rikyu looked around the pond at the many koi fishes swimming by, feeling rather lost. "Which one, little miss?" he asked, looking at Asami.
The little girl frowned at Rikyu, "You can't tell?" With a shake of her head, Asami pointed to a seemingly random koi swimming by, "Good grief, man! Call yourself her godfather, indeed! That one, of course!"
Rikyu nodded, intoning, "Of course."
The butler chased a few of the fishes toward Asami as she kept calling out to her Princess Yue. When she finally scooped up a golden koi into her bowl, she yelled out triumphantly, "Finally! You're in trouble, young lady! I hope you enjoyed yourself because you're grounded until you're 40!" For emphasis, she shook the bowl a little to make her point to Princess Yue.
"I think we've had enough fun for one day," Yasuko stretched a hand out to her daughter to help her out of the pond. "Let's take Princess Yue home," she added, peering into the fish bowl and shaking her head at "Princess Yue."
Li Yun peered into the bowl too as she squeezed water out of Asami's dress. "I could've sworn there was more room in that fish bowl," she whispered to Yasuko, to which Mrs. Sato just subtly shook her head in response.
Packing up everything, they drove back to the Sato Estate just as Hiroshi came out the front door, "I was wondering where everyone was."
Yasuko proceeded to tell her husband about what happened at the park with Asami and Princess Yue. Quirking a brow at his precocious princess, Hiroshi peered at the fish in her bowl (quite certain that's not Princess Yue either.) "Grounded until she's 40, huh?" he knelt down to Asami's level. "Well, that'll teach her, right? Children these days," he tsk-ed at poor Princess Yue in the bowl as Yasuko merely rolled her eyes at the father-daughter pair.
"Oh, yes, it's for her own good," Asami explained to her father. "Children these days just keep pushing the boundaries, don't you think so, Hiroshi? She's going to give me gray hairs soon," she grumped to her father.
With a chuckle, Hiroshi picked up Asami and they both walked into the house with her regaling him about the problem with children these days. Yasuko merely looked at the retreating pair, shaking her head and smiling.
A few days after that, the Republic City Council put up a No Fishing sign around the pond, as well as, an advisory against harassing the fish life in the water. A few days after that, unfortunately, Princess Yue died and little Asami was just devastated. "If … if I un-ground her, w-will she come … will she come back?" she asked in between big, heavy sobs.
"No, sweetheart," Hiroshi rubbed gentle circles on her back. "It doesn't work that way, but you know what we can do? Let's give Princess Yue a funeral. That way, her spirit will rejoin Tui and La in the spirit realm."
Asami nodded her agreement, too distraught to answer. Hiroshi handed her to Yasuko and quickly ran to this workshop. "I'll be right back!" he said as he sprinted off. In his workshop, he dug around for some scrap metal sheet before finding a suitable piece under the chest armor prototype he had been working on for the police department. About thirty minutes later, Hiroshi had fashioned an urn out of the scrap metal and returned to the still-crying Asami in her mother's arms.
"Look Asami," he handed the urn to his daughter. "We can put Princess Yue in this and bury her right in the backyard, ok?"
Taking her daughter in his arm, the father-daughter pair walked off to the backyard to bury Princess Yue. Yasuko followed behind quietly as she watched Asami being comforted by her father in his strong arms. The bond between father and daughter is unmistakable - Asami adored her father and Hiroshi would do anything for her.
Lin quirked a brow at the heiress when she didn't get a response, "Asami?"
"Yes," Asami finally answered, shaking the fog away from her mind. "A … a koi. I would like a koi etched on the urn, please," her words soft and tinged with a very clear fondness.
Note: Sorry for the long silence, folks. Real life, sadly, gets in the way sometimes. The inspiration for the Fire Nation song was Josh Groban's Gira Con Me. I had it on repeat for the longest time. It was very soothing and healing and exactly what I needed. Happy New Year!
Author's Note2: This is my first time writing fan fiction so, any feedback would be appreciated. Tell me what you thought of the story, where do I need improvement, what worked, did you like any of it? Please and thank you!