After returning the dishes, both stood on one end of their wagon in front of the window, watching the landscape fly by.
"I don't know why you didn't just tell me", Korra started, not turning to her girlfriend.
"Because I waited for the right moment", Asami answered, then forced a chuckle, "it turns out there is no right moment to tell your wife you've been dating the guy who keeps following you around all day."
Korra turned her head to look at her: "Why? I already know you dated a lot of guys."
"Not a lot", came the angry reply; Asami was puffing her cheeks at that hurtful comment, "at least I didn't crush on an entire compound full of people."
There was a lopsided grin on the Avatar's face as she looked out of the window. "Not the entire compound! Only the girls." She made a small pause. "And I still think you dated more people than I ever crushed on."
"You're on", Asami stated icily, she hated how Korra's words made her sound like - she was not like that, "let's talk numbers."
Korra had already started to count (with her fingers, nonetheless), when she suddenly shook her head violently. "What are we doing", she questioned, "I don't want to fight. You know I don't care for what you did before Mako."
A big sigh made Korra look over to her girlfriend. For whatever reason, Asami did not seem to be relieved, but was biting her lower lip. "It wasn't before Mako."
The Avatar furrowed her brows at that. For her, that was entirely impossible. Awkward dating aside, she assumed Asami would have told her if there was someone she liked. Except maybe for the time...
"Korra, you were gone three years", Asami almost yelled out, but quieted down when she looked down the aisle, hopeful that no one had heard her, "I didn't know if you were dead or had found yourself a nice waterbender girl and started a family with a bunch of polar bear dog puppies." A flicker in her girlfriend's eyes told Asami she was not too far off from what the other girl's secret desires were. "So after two years I thought I'd treat myself to going out with the first boy who asked."
Korra looked sceptically towards their compartment: "But him?"
"He's a sweet guy", Asami defended her former boyfriend, "you two have a lot in common. I think that's why I liked him so much."
The Avatar looked up at that, not unlike Naga had when someone had mentioned food. "If he's so great, why did you break up", she questioned, not even sure if she wanted to hear the answer.
"Because of your letter", Asami answered, "when you wrote, I realized you weren't dead, and there was no waterbender girl and no polar bear dog puppies, and I..."
"You realized that you loved me", Korra finished with a big grin.
"At least I realized it was weird how many feelings I still had for you."
"So you broke up?"
Asami leaned closer to the window, because she did not want to face the other woman at the moment. "No", she finally said, "he broke up because I told him I thought I was in love with someone else and he wanted to give me the space to figure it out." She sighed again. "He thought I would come back to him for sure, but we didn't talk again until he turned out to be our bodyguard."
"Well, that's sweet", Korra said, "and dumb." After a moment of silence, she added: "Letting you go, I mean."
When Asami turned to her, she was annoyed: "You left for the South Pole, too."
"So I know what I'm talking about", Korra said with a smirk, "worst decision of my life."
Asami relaxed at that. The Avatar had done her fair share of dumb decisions, and many of them could have gotten her killed. Even though Asami did not agree, it was flattering to know she thought that was her worst mistake.
"So you're okay with... everything", the older woman questioned and moved back from the window to look over at her girlfriend.
"Nothing I can do about it", Korra answered and shrugged, "but I'm not okay with you not telling me stuff."
"I'm starting to think we should have had the girls' night out with the mandatory talk about boys when we were just best friends", Asami joked, and when Korra scoffed, added: "but you were making things difficult."
"Saaami", someone shouted behind them, and when they turned to look at the source of the racket, they saw Qiang waving at them with an embarrassed grin, "are you two having a moment?"
"I'm gonna smack him in the...", Korra started, but then they saw that there was another adult next to the policeman.
"Because we need the tickets", he yelled, and the Avatar decided she would still smack him, only later, when the conductor was gone.
"Just take them from the small red bag", Asami called back.
Qiang grinned way to wide when he answered: "Your purse, got it." Then he vanished into the cabin. Korra had laughed at his statement, because she, too, knew how Asami took pride in not being a girly girl with a purse, and therefore called the small red bag "purse" whenever possible, just to spite her.
They watched how Qiang gave something to the conductor, so everything seemed normal enough to resume their conversation.
"Are we good", Asami started, taking each of Korra's hands into one of hers.
The Avatar nodded in response and pulled her girlfriend down to peck her on the lips, timid at first but soon getting bolder. It was not long until Korra had one of her hands on the small of Asami's back, and the other in her hair pulling her head towards her.
They immediately scattered when they heard what sounded like someone vomiting right next to them. It was the conductor, who grinned proudly at their flustered faces.
"That's weird, I've never seen a travel-sick conductor before", Korra stated, and for a moment Asami was not clear on if she was joking or not.
"Believe me, it's not the travelling that's making me sick", the man retorted sharply, and just in case they were dense, added: "It's you two."
"Really", Korra smugly replied, crossing her arms and trying to look down to him (which was hard, since he was taller by a head), "you're angering the most powerful human?" To prove her point, she motioned only her hand in a wave, and an entire patch of meadow along the rail tracks started turning black, while a growing bubble of water flew next to the train.
"Threaten me, Avatar", the conductor spat with a chuckle, "that will make you look sane."
Korra growled angrily at him and suddenly her arm shot into the air and with it, the water next to the train. Only seconds later the water landed on the roof, making it sound like a very heavy rain. But the conductor still stood there, grinning, since he actually thought he had the upper hand.
That's when Asami turned to him and and started speaking with a condescending voice, as if she was talking to Tara: "You know pretty well who we are. You know Avatar Korra can kill you. You know I can get you fired. And you still think it's a good idea to tick us off instead of just doing your job?"
The man rolled his eyes when he opened the door to step on the small platform between the wagons: "Really? I'd rather lose my job then work for someone like you." And then he was gone, leaving both women hurt.
When they had calmed down and walked back to there compartment, they heard Qiang talk, and curiosity got the better of them. What could he have to talk about with their child? They glimpsed through the door window and saw Tara resting with the back to the window on one of Asami's red jackets. She was cuddling with the fire ferret under one of Korra's ponchos. Her feet rested on Qiang's lap and he was stroking her shins absentmindedly while he talked.
"...so then the old king said: 'No son of mine is going to be a landscaper!' And so the prince got fitted with a new armor and sword and learned metal bending to be a poli- I mean a knight", he said and thought for a moment.
"That's mean", Tara commented with half-lidded eyes.
"You think", he questioned, "it was a pretty wise king? And have you ever heard of a prince who was a landscaper?"
"No."
"See? Maybe it was a good decision after all", he explained amused, because Tara's eyes were now entirely closed, but she was still trying to fight the sleep.
There was a moment of silence, where he already assumed she was sleeping, when she asked very slurred: "Was there a princess?"
He calmly answered: "Yes, sure, there was a princess, and beautiful one at that. And her name was..." Korra and Asami had decided they should not listen to this without him knowing, so they opened the cabin door and entered silently, spooking him. "Asami?"
"Asami", Tara repeated questioningly, and opened one of her eyes to look at him. She did not even realized her parents were present.
"Yes. No", the man was clearly embarrassed at that point, looking from Korra to Asami with a flustered face, "okay, let's call her Asami for now. So the prince and Asami went to a soughing ball and danced an entire night. But the next morning she told him she was to be married to someone else."
"Another prince", Tara mumbled almost asleep, "evil."
Qiang looked at Korra for a moment, before he answered: "Well, no. No prince. More like another king. Or the captain of the kings guard. Or maybe both. Someone the poor prince was not fit to hold a candle to. But not evil, either. He was just luckier, he had met princess Asami before the prince." He looked at Tara, waiting for the next question, but none came. After some minutes it became evident: she was finally asleep.
Realizing who had listened to him talk he slowly turned to face the two grinning women with a face that got redder and hotter by the minute.
They only stared at each other for what felt like hours, until Asami chuckled and asked: "Did you know Korra was a real life princess?"
He looked sceptically at the Avatar, then simply answered: "She doesn't look like it. You sure? I thought her dad was an elected chief."
"He is, but my grandfather was the chief of the North, which is hereditary", Korra explained proudly, "my cousin is the current chief. I guess when she dies I'm somewhere in line for the throne."
All of them kept silent after that, but at least it was not as awkward as before.
"Can I ask", Qiang questioned after he had pondered for a while, "have you talked?"
"We're good", both women answered at the same time, and laughed when they realized that now they sounded as if they were hiding something.
He looked at Korra with fright when he questioned: "So, are you going to kill me?"
"If you give me a good enough reason, sure."
Asami punched her halfway into her sentence, then corrected: "No, she is not, because you didn't know." With a frown she told her girlfriend: "Now stop being mean."
"I think there's a rule against taking your ex's side against your spouse", Korra stated and pouted, while letting herself fall into her seat. Qiang looked afraid until Asami laughed, which made him relax. The Avatar just smirked at him: "No, really, it's fine. Keep your hands off of her and we'll be great friends. We'll even try to rein in the oogie."
"The oogie", he repeated confused.
Korra ginned toothily at him: "Yeah, that's the Southern Water Tribe word for 'love'."