Asami sat in the filled tub, her head resting against its side in exhaustion. She hugged her knees to herself, her arms loose around them, and her gaze stayed on the same spot on the patterned tile. It broke Korra's heart to see her girlfriend this way, so small and sad and hurt, but she steeled her resolve and continued to gently massage the shampoo into the raven hair, making sure to the best of her ability not to pull or tangle them. She took a little more of the shampoo, the special kind the doctor recommended, and continued to lather as she tried to keep her hands from shaking.
These past two months had been the worst of their lives. The second the doctor explained the test results, was the moment their life was put on hold. Asami had lung cancer. Korra remembered the shock on Asami's face, the fear in her eyes. Most of all she remembered how her girlfriend's body trembled as the doctor spoke, how silent tears poured down the pale cheeks, how Asami looked at her as if begging Korra to do something, anything, to help her.
"Babe, lift your head a little?" Korra asked gently. The only sound that answered her was the sound of the dripping faucet, a faucet that Asami could have fixed in mere minutes if she still had the energy. Korra waited as Asami took a moment and then slowly lifted her head. She resumed massaging Asami's scalp, and then carefully rinsed the suds off. The bubbles poured down ivory skin, nearly blending in with how pale Asami's gotten, and spread around the bath water, sticking to her as the soap settled. Korra worked in silence after that, conditioning the black locks and praying to every spirit out there that her hands stopped shaking. She raked her fingers softly through the hair, stifling a whimper as her hands came away riddled with dark strands tangled around her fingers.
She hastily took them off, throwing them into the trash bin, and turned back to rinsing Asami's hair. As the last of the conditioner washed away Korra let her palm rest on Asami's shoulder comfortingly. "I finished sweetheart. You want to get out or stay here a bit?"
Asami let her head lay back to the side of the tub and wrapped her arms tighter around herself. "I want to go to work." Her voice was so dull that Korra felt her tears well up in her eyes.
"We can drive by your office tomorrow if you want."
"No, I want to go back to my job. I want to wake up at five in the morning, make myself coffee, and drive to my office. And then, I want to sit down on my stupidly comfortable chair, and I want to stay there for fourteen hours and sign boring papers and meet with boring people." Korra sat listening to Asami vent, her tears making their way over her skin and dropping onto the wet tile on the floor, creating tiny ripples. She couldn't see Asami's face, but she was certain that the engineer was pissed if her tone was anything to go by. Her voice steadily picked up its volume crackling occasionally as she tried not to break out in sobs, and her grip on her legs tightened more and more. "I want to use my expensive as fuck, imported shampoo, and sit here for an hour styling my hair! And I want to eat food without barfing every time, and I want to stop tasting metal every time I use a normal fucking fork."
She turned to Korra, her green irises surrounded by broken blood vessels, and gazed into her blurred eyes. "I just want you to look at me like I'm not broken Korra! I need you to look at me and not cry, and not see me as weak, and I hate that your hands tremble! I hate it!" Asami's voice cracked and she broke down weeping into her knees loudly.
"You're not weak Asami! You are the absolute strongest person I know. I'm sorry I'm making this hard for you… I'm really trying." Korra stood and carefully pulled the sobbing Asami out of the water, wrapping her in a soft robe and pulling her into a strong hug. "Hey 'Sami, look at me. Sams please." Korra smiled when those greens peeked out, and kissed Asami's forehead. "The surgery's coming up soon, and then this business will be over. Okay? You'll be pulling all-nighters again in no time."
"I'm gonna be bald!" Asami cried, her shoulders shaking as Korra held her closer.
"I'll get you a wig." Korra heard Asami snort and chuckled along with her while their tears still fell.
"…I'm gonna have scars." Asami's voice dropped to a whisper and her hands gripped the material of Korra's shirt tightly.
"And I'll love you all the same."
"I'm gonna look like freaking Frankenstein, all ugly and bald and scarred."
"Technically Frankenstein is the scientist," Korra whispered into Asami's ear. Asami giggled and sniffed her runny nose as she lightly punched Korra's shoulder.
"It's not funny you ass."
Korra brought her back into her embrace and lulled them both side to side for a few moments, both of them clinging to each other. "You ready to go to bed?"
"Yes please," Asami whispered into her shoulder and Korra led Asami away to their room. She came back after a few minutes to clean up, taking a long look at the now drained tub, her eyes scanning over the strands of hair that littered it. Her hands shook as she cleaned, and her fears clouded her thoughts, but Asami was strong, and Korra would be there for her no matter what. With one last look around, she turned off the bathroom lights and took a deep calming breath before closing the door with one last thought rattling around her head: we'll get through this.