Korra's slumber was far too deep for her to hear the knocking on Asami's bedroom door. She couldn't hear the creak of the door opening either, nor could she hear the first part of Grandma Yin's words, but she definitely caught the last part as the old woman ended up saying, "Asami? Dearie? Are you still in bed? It's already 10 in the morning and the o-OOOOH!"
"SQUAAWWWWK!"
The sound of Grandma Yin screaming caused Korra to fall out of bed much like that time she had accidently lit herself on fire in her sleep as a kid and in that frantic 0.32 seconds between blissfully dreaming in Asami's arms and landing on the floor, Korra's eyes caught sight of what she thought was an elderly woman coming into Asami's bedroom and tripping over something white and fuzzy that had been roosting drowsily on the floor just in front of the door.
Korra's brain wasn't nearly awake enough to be able to process what that white and fuzzy something was, though she could have sworn that it had made a very loud and obnoxiously disagreeable noise, and in the time it took her to blink away the last traces of sleep from her eyes, that white and fuzzy something had disappeared, as though it hadn't even been there in the first place, and all Korra could process was the very alarming sight of a frail old woman falling, her mouth still caught in an open 'oh!' of surprise.
The avatar reacted on instinct, diving into action as she rushed forward, even going so far as entering into the Avatar State to give herself that extra burst of fire-and-air-propelled speed she needed to make it to Grandma Yin, catching the elderly woman before she could break anything.
"It's okay! You're okay! Everything's fine! I've got you!" Korra tried to calm down the flustered old woman, who clung to her with surprising strength, a bewildered look in her eyes.
Back on her bed, Asami had bolted upright and was staring at this dramatic situation that was taking place by her bedroom door with a look of complete astonishment. It didn't even take a half-moment later before Asami deduced what must have happened and she quickly made her way over to the two women on the floor, pulling a sheet off the bed and holding it to her chest in an attempt to maintain her modesty almost as an afterthought. "Grandma Yin!" She cried, kneeling down beside Korra, and grabbing one of the grandmother's hands firmly. "Are you alright?"
"Oh, dear me!" Grandma Yin uttered breathlessly. It took her a few moments before she finally calmed down and let the two young people help her back up to her feet, holding her arms. Luckily, the elderly woman was only startled, and not otherwise harmed. "Good gracious, whatever did I trip on?"
They all looked back at the doorway and blinked stupidly at the hazard which turned out to be Asami's clothing that Korra had so urgently discarded to the floor to be forgotten the night before.
All three women's eyes went wide for just a moment as they considered the implications of the discovery, before Grandma Yin blinked and looked down at Asami's hand supporting her, followed that hand up Asami's arm to the shoulder it was attached to and finally realized that what Asami was so-called-wearing at the moment was nothing more than a bed sheet hastily wrapped around her. Asami blinked a couple of times before she realized what Grandma Yin had to be thinking and her eyebrows crinkled guilty, as a very large and 'e-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh' kinda insincere smile stretched awkwardly across her face.
Then Grandma Yin blinked woodenly and turned to look at Korra, who quickly let go of the grandmother's arm with a "gah!" of panic, blushing furiously as she tried to cover up her complete butt-naked-ness.
"... Oh my." Grandma Yin finally managed to say, before blinking again. She reached out and patted Korra's abs. "You really are very muscular, aren't you?"
Looking just about ready to die of mortification, Korra wordlessly took two big side-steps to slide behind Asami and hid as much of her naked self as she could behind her girlfriend's taller frame, peering out from behind one of Asami's shoulders in supreme embarrassment. "Y-Yes Ma'am. Sorry Ma'am." She had no idea why she was apologizing.
The grandmother gave the two young women a bemused look before sighing, "ah, to be young again." She bent down to scoop up Asami's clothes from off the floor as though she was going to do the laundry. "But honestly, Asami," she chided, "while I can now better appreciate just why you'd choose the Avatar over my grandson, I would be very thankful if the two of you could be a little more considerate with your youthful urges and discard your clothing into the laundry hamper first. Or, failing that, at least make sure the door is locked. You might have saved me from an awful tumble there, Avatar Korra, but at my age, I'm as likely to die of a heart attack as I am anything else! Hmph! Now the two of you should go get dressed and come downstairs for breakfast. Asami, dear, I'll let your secretary know you just slept in; he was very worried when you didn't show up to work this morning."
"T-Thank you, Grandma Yin," Asami said as apologetically as she could as she shoo'ed the old woman out of her room and followed her instructions to lock the door, before whirling around and giving Korra a truly horrified look, softly mouthing, 'oh my god, I can't believe that just happened!'
"At least you had the sense to grab a bedsheet!" Korra hissed back.
They continued to stare at each other silently in equal mortification before they finally both broke down into laughter at the ridiculousness of the situation.
Eventually they got around to getting dressed.
"Hey, Asami?" As she was belting her pelt back around her waist, something about its fuzzy white lining twigged at Korra's memory. "This morning, did you hear anything besides Grandma Yin screaming?"
'Seriously. I could've sworn there was something bigger on top of that pile of clothes that caused her to trip...'
Asami thought about it for a moment before cocking her head to the side. "Actually, now that you mention it... I do think I heard something that kinda sounded like... like squawking."
The lovers stared at each other for a moment before the light-bulb clicked on over both their heads at the same time. Korra felt the incredulity rising inside her chest much like the way Asami's eyebrows were raising upwards to her hairline.
"Botan!" They both blurted to each other.
And as though saying his name had summoned him, there came suddenly the sound of flapping wings and then, from out of nowhere, a thirty pound bird suddenly crashed into Korra's face, knocking her off balance in a flurry of flying feathers. It took her a while, but eventually, Korra managed to pry the spirit from her person and flung him down onto the floor.
"Good grief, I gotta watch that first step!" Botan muttered to himself even as he shook himself out and compulsively preened at a wing before noticing Korra and Asami's flabbergasted looks. "Oh! H-Hi! Avatar Korra! Asami Sato! You called?" The wanna-be stork swallowed nervously.
"'Called'? No! We didn't call you!" Korra stared at the spirit incredulously, her head racing at a million thoughts per second. 'No way! NO freakin' WAY! What is he even *doing* here?!' She frantically looked over at Asami. A horrified thought came to her as Korra recalled the circumstances that had brought the wanna-be stork into their lives in the first place. "Oh, god, please don't tell me you're here because you think we were 'summoning' for you again!"
'Is this guy seriously going to show up every time Asami and I-! I-?!'
"Oh, no no!" Botan replied quickly, holding his wings up in front of him in the universally recognized sign of 'please-don't-beat-the-shit-out-of-me'. "Though I still firmly believe that you two were definitely trying to make another baby last night, I have learned my lesson! No more deliveries without King Enma's seal!" The spirit made a sound that was supposed to be the equivalent of a bird's nervous laughter before he deflated. "And, um, in any case, I've kinda been suspended for the next 75 years, so, um, yeah. No more deliveries for me for a while..."
Relief flooded through Korra's system. 'Oh, thank god.' She gave Asami a look of reciprocated relief.
"Well then, what were you doing here this morning?" Asami asked. "You almost killed Grandma Yin!"
"Oh! Um, well, I'm trying to get some community service hours in by helping the ravens out with their quota." He showed Korra and Asami his left wing and they could see that a single black band had been wrapped around it. "They're in charge of the other side of the cycle, to bring departing souls back to the Spirit World, and Bob thought that maybe if I could show King Enma that I was on my best behaviour, he'd be willing to shave some time off of my suspension, but," and now the bird looked rightly depressed, "I don't know if I was really cut out for this."
Korra couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the spirit; clearly, delivering unborn souls to babies was what he was passionate about. To be stuck doing the complete opposite had to be rough. "Okay," Korra said very slowly. "I get that, but why are you... here? In front of Asami and I?"
The bird somehow became even more depressed. "Well, it was Bob who set me up with this gig. He told me to follow you two for the next few weeks in case you decided you changed your mind and wanted to take King Enma up on his offer. Bob said you guys have up until the 8th week of gestation, since that's the average amount of time humans have to abort their applications for baby souls prior to soul delivery, but oh, please, please, please, please, please tell me that you're not going to change your mind? I mean, I was really happy with the decision that you guys made at the Administration and it really touched me and made a lot of sense to me but Bob said that you guys might have just been overwhelmed at the moment and didn't think it through and might still change your minds and stuff..."
Korra and Asami stared at each other before Asami finally smiled and said to the bird. "In that case, I think you're probably safe to go, Botan. We aren't going to change our minds. We do intend to keep the baby."
"Oh, well, that's good to hear!" Bob gave a sigh of relief. "So, um, about this Grandma Yin person I supposedly almost killed. Um. How far gone would you say she is? Should I follow her around just in case?"
Asami was rightly too horrified to answer the spirit, while Korra just pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Get out, Botan. Just get out."
