When Korra woke up, she was greeted with 3 seconds of serenity before a headache the size of Jupiter smashed her skull.
"Ugh…" she moaned, too pain-ridden to even properly convey the pain through coherent words. As her mind attempted to dull the throbbing, she drowsily scanned the room she was in.
Wait, a room?
Korra shot up in a panic, temporarily ignoring the incessant spikes of pure torture stabbing her mind.
"Good morning." A quiet voice to her side said, although it felt like a super sonic shrill scream to Korra. She groaned again and screwed her eyes shut in an attempt to disperse some of the agony, only to slowly creak an eye open when she felt an elbow gently nudging her arm. "Here," the voice said, holding out a glass of water and some aspirin.
Korra could only murmur a quick 'thanks' before gulping down the pain-relieving pills.
"How are you feeling?" The voice asked again, and Korra turned to answer with a grimace.
"Not so snazzy," Her grin slowly faded into open-mouthed shock as her eyes met tired and sorrowful emerald ones. Korra almost couldn't recognize her. "…Asami?"
"Hi," Asami greeted lamely.
Korra inwardly gaped at the state the older girl was in.
Sunken, dull green eyes. Cracked, pale lips. Asami looked like she hadn't slept in days.
Korra groaned again, another tendril of pain shooting out to hit her right in her temple. "How-"
"Bolin and Opal dragged me. They asked me to bring you back here when they found you." Asami explained and Korra noticed the unnatural roughness of her voice. "If it makes you feel any better, I really didn't know you were there."
"It's fine." Korra grunted, rubbing her temple with her fingers. "I'm just glad it wasn't some stranger."
Asami couldn't stop the disgusting feeling of relief bloom inside her at those words. "Yeah."
Awkward silence hung in the room. For the second time after waking up, Korra looked around their bedroom. It felt almost surreal sitting on their bed again. She frowned as she spotted the very un-Asami-like pile of dirty laundry sitting next to the bed stand. Korra felt a growing sense of worry as she noticed the room looking disturbingly unkempt, at least when it came to her usually neat and tidy ex(?)-girlfriend.
Asami shifted, drawing Korra's gaze to meet her own, but the Southern Water tribe girl could see that her mind wasn't all there at the moment.
"Asami…?" Korra tentatively began. That seemed to snap her out of her daze. "Are you okay?"
Asami didn't answer. Her tired green eyes bore into Korra.
"I'm sorry." She whispered, clutching her arms around herself. Korra watched as the raven-haired girl broke down.
"I didn't mean to say those things. I was drunk. I wasn't thinking right. I just-" she choked on a sob. "It's all my fault."
Korra's own eyes began to sting.
"I'm such a horrible person." Asami cried, shuddering in between breaths. Her eyes were squeezed shut; her body bending over as the tears fell into her lap like the shards of her broken heart. "Someone like me doesn't deserve someone as wonderful as you."
Bright blue orbs began to water.
"I never deserved you from the start!"
"Stop it!"
A breathless cry jolted Asami from her rant of self-hate. She looked up, tears blurring her vision and mucus running from her nose and down her lips.
"Stop talking about yourself like that!" Korra yelled angrily, pools of clear liquid threatening to fall to the bed sheets.
"Korra-"
"Someone like 'me'? What the fuck do you mean? That you're some monster? That you're a lesser being than me? That I'm better than you?"
"I'm saying I'm not good enough for you." Asami whimpered.
"That's BULLSHIT! Korra said, voice harsh and raw. "Asami Sato is a confident, beautiful, intelligent woman who can kick ass like there's no tomorrow!"
Asami held her breath and stared at her lap to avoid Korra's gaze.
"She's the person who held her shit together when her father died and her company almost went bankrupt at only 19!"
Her body trembled.
"She's the girl who has to be reminded to eat her lunch when she's at work because she's working too hard! She can't cook to save her life and keeps cleaning up the house even though her own work is all over the place!"
She felt a hand touch her cheek.
"She's the woman I love with my entire soul." Her head shot up, only to see a sad smile on Korra's lips, and blue eyes looking at her with such affection that she forgot to breathe for a second.
"You're the girl I spent hours with, slow-dancing in the living room. You're the dork who argued with me about cereal at the supermarket. You're the one I shared a million kisses and tears with. You're the one I spent days with on Netflix, just snuggling under the covers when it was raining outside. You were the one who caught me when I was falling and crumbling away." Each word Korra spoke had Asami quivering more and more in an attempt to suppress the surge of pure emotion pulsing in her.
Korra gently brushed away the tears on Asami's face. Asami hesitantly placed her hand on Korra's, leaning into the soothing touch.
"The words hurt me. I didn't expect it. And I won't lie; at first I seriously considered taking a break from our relationship." Asami gasped. "But I was angry. It took me a while, but after I cooled down, I realised it was actually my fault. I should have been more considerate of your feelings. I guess I just liked the attention. I'm sorry."
"If you needed attention, I'd have given it to you, free-of-charge."
Korra laughed fondly. "Yeah. I was a jerk. Truthfully, I wanted to talk to you a lot earlier. I just didn't really know how to bring it up. Sorry about that."
"You shouldn't be the one apologising, you know."
"I never want to hear you talk about yourself like that again. You shouldn't say those things about yourself. I know you've been suffering too." Asami opened her mouth to say something but Korra cut her off. "Bolin and Opal filled me in on you when I wasn't here. Look at yourself, Asami. You practically tortured yourself."
"I just haven't been sleeping or eating well lately."
Korra sucked in a sharp breathe at the confession. Asami scooted closer, getting up from the chair she was sitting in and placing herself in Korra's lap, arms wrapping tightly around the younger girl. She let out a shaky exhale as more tears threatened to fall again. Korra hugged her girlfriend back just as tightly.
"Asami…"
"I don't know why. I was angry with myself. I missed you. I couldn't really do anything else but miss you because I thought you'd leave me."
Korra began lightly rocking her body, resting her forehead on Asami's chest and sighing contentedly at the terribly familiar warmth enveloping her.
"Never. Not in this lifetime." Korra lifted her head to kiss her, which Asami responded to with pent-up passion.
"I was actually prepared you know, for you to dump me."
Asami rested her cheek on Korra's shoulder, eyes starting to droop. She yawned and continued mumbling despite the growing desire to pass out. "I watched you sleep the whole night. I wanted to treasure you for the last time. I wanted to memorise everything about you. Your smell, the sounds you make when you sleep, your warmth…" Another yawn.
She sleepily turned her head to glance at Korra.
Her eyes widened and a grin broke out on her face.
"Is that what I think it is?"
"Its not my fault you're the one saying all these things!" Korra spluttered, a fierce blush spreading across her face.
"Cute."
"Ugh!" Asami laughed, peppering kisses all over her adorable girlfriend's red-stained cheeks.
"So… we're good?" She asks. Korra rolled her eyes.
"We're cuddling. What do you think?"
Asami smiled apologetically before laying her head back down on Korra's shoulder, the final strings of consciousness beginning to melt away. She felt Korra kiss her cheek before murmuring a 'goodnight' and falling back onto the bed, bringing her down with her.
A/N:
Welp, here ya go guys. I didn't really know how to go about it because I initially wanted them to break up. I adore angst.
But I decided against it; halfway through writing this, I felt so sorry for Asami and just decided, "you know what? she's gonna be happy here. I'll give her a happy every after!" and there you have it.
Sorry if it seems anti-climatic. maybe I'll add a chapter 3 showing an alternate ending? The original ending? Maybe a longer version of what happened or what happens afterwards? Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!