"And with a whopping SIXTY-EIGHT PERCENT of the vote, Zhu Li Moon wins in a landslide!"

The eagerly waiting crowd erupted in thunderous cheers. Asami smiled and let out a sigh of relief. She hadn't realized it until this moment but somehow former President Raiko had become a symbol in her mind for everything that was going wrong with Republic City and, by extension, her life.

She loved this city. Even after traveling all over the world this was the place that felt like home, spirit vines and all. She had lost count of all the awful things Raiko had done but number one on the list was his bad habit of shoving as much blame onto Korra as possible. She loathed how the president of the city she loved made making the woman she loved feel unwelcome a personal vendetta.

But that was going to change. This was a fresh start.

She cheered with the crowd this time when newly-elected President Moon took the stage for her speech. Her smile widened when she felt someone sidle up next to her. She didn't need to look to know who it was. Somehow she always knew where Korra was in a room.

President Moon began her speech and Korra started fidgeting, clearly not interested in the words. She felt Korra's fingers lace with hers. "Come with me."

Asami gave her girlfriend a quizzical look but followed Korra's lead. The confusion deepened when she saw that Korra had led them through a set of double doors to a completely deserted outside patio that overlooked the portal. "What are we doing here?" she finally asked. "The speech isn't over."

Korra grabbed Asami's other hand and Asami noted with a hint of trepidation that Korra looked especially nervous and her hands were unusually cold. "I've been afraid to say something," she started slowly. "But I can't keep it to myself any longer."

Asami felt her heart lurch. Why is she acting so nervous?

For one brief, horrible second Asami wondered if Korra was trying to break up with her. Everything inside her froze as she tried to brace herself for the news that she was, yet again, being left alone.

A fierce blush burned across Korra's cheeks. "I love you, Asami."

The frozen grip of fear instantaneously melted and Asami couldn't hold back the huge smile that might be forever stuck on her face. "I love you, too," she said simply. She was too overwhelmed to say any more.

Korra slipped her arm around Asami's waist and they both leaned against each other, taking in the otherworldly glow of the portal while enjoying the blissful happiness surging through both of them.

xXxXxXx

After quite a few long, beautiful minutes on the patio, Asami and Korra rejoined the boisterous victory party. No one had even noticed their absence and Asami surprised herself at how easily she was able to activate her outer shell of light smiles and good manners even though she was inwardly anything but calm and collected.

She loves me. She finally said it. Is this actually happening? Did I just imagine the whole thing?

Korra returned to her side after talking to Tenzin and the kids. Her hand once again grabbed Asami's in a reassuring grip while grinning at Asami like a lovestruck idiot. Asami barely managed to contain a laugh. Korra was many things but subtle was not one of them.

Yep. Definitely really happened.

She shot Asami a probing look. "Are you ready to leave?"

Asami raised a questioning eyebrow, hoping against hope that Korra was really asking her what she thought she might be asking her. "Are you?"

Korra rubbed the back of her neck nervously. "Yeah. But only if you are. That is… what I mean… you can stay and I can… but I'd rather we go together… erm… that is…"

Asami willed her voice to remain steady. "Korra. Do you want to come home… with me?"

Korra nodded and Asami suddenly felt light headed with giddiness.

There is no way this is happening. Any second now I'm going to wake up.

Not wanting to waste another second of this incredible dream, Asami led Korra outside to her waiting car.

xXxXxXx

The car ride back to Asami's mansion was unusually quiet. Had it been any other night, they would have laughed and joked about all the weird people they saw and awkward conversations they had to extricate themselves out of.

But not tonight.

Tonight they both felt too much.

Asami pulled into her garage and walked Korra past rows of shining cars and motorcycles to the private access elevator that led to the upper level family rooms of the house that included Asami's bedroom. It wasn't a long trek but Asami still felt the need to keep glancing over at Korra, as if worried that at any moment she might change her mind or, worse, just disappear.

They entered Asami's room and she noticed with a twinge of embarrassment how Korra took in the new surroundings, including the mess of scattered blueprints and sketches all over the floor. Hardly what one expected to see when entering an heiress's bedroom.

"You work in here."

Asami shrugged. "Not really. Sometimes I get ideas in the middle of the night or sometimes I can't sleep. Sketching helps me relax."

Korra closed the distance between them, her piercing blue gaze somehow able to bore out all of Asami's secrets. "Does that happen often?" she asked while gently running a hand down Asami's arm to fiddle with the bracelet at her wrist.

Asami shuddered in pleasure at the contact. Her defenses were dropping at an alarming rate. Korra was too close and Asami's love-starved soul was desperate for this kind of emotional connection, no matter how embarrassing. "More than I would like. It happened a lot…" she swallowed thickly "... when you were gone. Less so now."

Korra nodded in understanding as she unlocked the clasp of the bracelet, setting the item on top of the table that was close to the door. She held her arms out to Asami so she could return the favor with her wristbands. "I thought about you a lot while I was gone as well," she said quietly, seeming to not notice the slight tremble in Asami's fingers as she pulled at the wristband ties to loosen them.

Asami pulled both bands off and set them with her bracelet. She pulled Korra's now bare arms up to her mouth and kissed the inside of each exposed wrist. "What did you think about?"

She noted with satisfaction that her caress had made Korra's eyes lose focus for a moment and close. "This," she said hoarsely.

Desire shot straight through Asami, making her inner muscles clench. "You thought about us being together?"

Korra gave a small nod. "A lot."

Asami kicked off her shoes and walked around behind Korra to help her with the laces that held together her dress in the back. Asami loosened the ties, delicately running her nails over Korra's neck and placing another kiss.

Korra sighed and leaned back into the kiss. But the moment Asami pulled away she wasted no time pulling off the outer garment, revealing a deliciously thin undershirt.

Asami watched as if in a trance. She was trembling so badly she honestly wasn't sure how she was even still standing at this point. As much as she wanted this… wanted Korra… she wasn't about to rush things along. She had waited so long to be in this exact moment that she wanted to savor everything. She wanted every precious second to be burned into her being as a treasured memory.

The undershirt soon joined the outer dress on the floor. Asami felt her jaw go ever so slightly slack as she took the sight of the nearly topless avatar. She had seen Korra with no shirt before. But never like this. This time she wasn't fighting for her life while feeling weak and helpless. This time she was looking like she was bursting at the seams with vigor and the look in her eyes was… hungry.

Korra pulled Asami's head down toward her and kissed her slowly, ardently. Asami melted into the kiss. Since their kiss in the Spirit World they had only had stolen moments here and there with real life immediately throwing them into yet another crisis. There had been small intimacies. A few light kisses. Absolutely nothing that came even close to quenching the raging desire that had been coursing through Asami for nearly four years now.

Now she held nothing back. She wanted Korra to know the full force of what she craved… what she needed.

Korra seemed more than ready to handle the onslaught of charged emotions. Their tongues tangled wildly, each trying to taste more of each other. Korra moaned as Asami tugged at her lower lip with her teeth. The sound was devastating to her resolve to go slow.

They pulled apart, both gasping for air.

Green eyes met blue ones. In unspoken understanding, they both hastily removed the rest of their clothing in a flurry of zippers, buttons and boot straps.

Asami gasped in surprise as Korra slid her hands under her thighs and lifted her up off the ground with almost ridiculous ease and deposited her on the bed. Asami lay sprawled out and Korra kneeled above her, taking a moment to rake her eyes over her naked body for the first time. Asami felt her body tingle from the visual caress.

"Spirits, Asami… I… I can't believe this is for real."

Asami's heart warmed at Korra's words. "That makes two of us."

Korra grinned, again looking completely lovestruck. Korra's inability to mask any of her emotions was one of Asami's favorite qualities. The mental tally of other attributes that she adored was cut short when Korra leaned in and captured Asami's lips in another heated kiss.

Asami returned the kiss with fervor, hooking her legs around Korra's hips and thrusting forward with her own. The feeling of friction between their naked flesh… breasts pressing together… hands roaming freely over muscled planes… Asami felt her impending release rise sharply. She had held too much back for too long and she no longer had the willpower to prolong the delicious agony any longer.

Korra seemed to sense the rising tension in her body. She understood the desperation because she felt it too. She deepened the kiss even more and established a steady thrusting motion, grinding against Asami's core. It was all that she needed to push her over the edge. Asami's senses exploded. Entire galaxies revealed themselves in that glorious moment. Every fiber and nerve in her being seemed to be violently shuddering to the one word repeating over and over in her mind: finally.

Korra collapsed on top of her heavily after coming down from her own climax. Neither of them were capable of doing anything other than gasp for breath as their heartbeats steadied. The wonderfully comforting weight and warmth of Korra's body seemed to sap away at even more of Asami's carefully constructed defenses.

Korra must have heard her sniffle because she pushed herself up to look at Asami, concerned etched in her features. "Did I hurt you?"

Asami gave a watery chuckle and wiped away the single tear that had fallen. "No! Not even close. I'm just… I'm so happy." Korra beamed and Asami felt like a dam had broken inside her. Words and emotions she had suppressed with an iron will-never intending them to see the light of day-suddenly bubbled forward. "I… I was just… so lonely while you were gone. It wasn't like there weren't people around. And I had our friends to keep me company. But with my father locked away I… I had no one. I came back to an empty house after work. A lot of the time I just slept in my office. But I didn't have anyone that was there to just… just be there for me. To make me laugh. To make me feel loved."

"You didn't try dating anyone…?"

Asami heard the hidden question behind Korra's words. She wanted to know if Asami had fallen in love or slept with someone else but didn't dare ask.

Asami shook her head and looked squarely into Korra's eyes. "I didn't want just anyone," she said quietly. "I wanted you. Only you."

Korra stilled and digested these words. It was perhaps the most noticeable change in her personality after returning from her recovery journey. She was still impulsive but it was now tempered with this newly gained ability to quiet her body and contemplate.

She shifted her weight off to the side of Asami and leaned in again, this time to brush a light kiss on her neck. "I'm sorry I didn't write more. I couldn't."

Another world was waiting for Asami under the gentle attention from Korra's lips. Up until now she had no idea how many erogenous zones she possessed on that particular area of her body. Asami tilted her head back to give Korra more access as heat lanced straight to her still-throbbing center. "You don't have to apologize," she gasped out.

"I know." Korra worked her way down Asami, seemingly intent on kissing every square inch of her skin. "I just wanted you to know that it wasn't because I had forgotten you." She kissed the valley between Asami's breasts. "Or that I wasn't tortured by the thought that I might never be able to show you exactly how I felt about you."

Each kiss… each word… they felt like a soothing balm providing blissful relief to wounds that had been there so long Asami had forgotten what it was like to not ache from them. Four years ago her feelings had only just begun to blossom. It had made her nervous, excited… alive. And then Korra had been snatched away from her at the worst possible moment in the worst possible way.

But now she was back. Life was flowing back through Asami's veins, reminding her that she was human. And loved.

Asami felt herself grow needy again. She grabbed Korra's shoulders, intending to take charge of the situation but found herself yelping in surprise when Korra flipped her over on her stomach, continuing her agonizing exploration.

"I'm not finished with you yet," she said with muffled amusement against the small of Asami's back.

Asami groaned with intense frustration into her pillow.

Korra laughed but was showing no signs of mercy. "This…" more kisses trailed up the spine. "The thought of this was sometimes the only reason I tried to get better on some days."

Asami let out another moan, this time for entirely different reasons. Was it possible to climax just from someone's words alone?

"I know it sounds selfish but I wanted to be worthy of you. I wanted to be strong enough to swing you around in my arms." She kissed the back of Asami's neck. "To take you out on fun dates." Her hand slipped between Asami's body and the mattress, easily finding with her two fingers the sopping wet area that was eagerly waiting for her touch. "To be able to make love to you all night."

Asami was lost in the ocean of sensations. The second she felt Korra's fingers slip under her and touch her clit she nearly cried out in sheer relief. But it wasn't enough. She needed more movement. The smallest amount of friction and she was going to be done for.

Korra kept her fingers still. Instead, she used the weight of her body to roll Asami's hips into her hand. The rolling motion became faster, more insistent. Asami gripped the sheets for dear life, powerless to stop the impending orgasam. A scream was torn from her throat. She was vaguely aware of the sound of cloth ripping as her final defenses dropped and four years of raw emotions poured out of her. The anger… the longing… the pain… the fear… every mind blowing shudder coursing over her body seemed to purge one of those feelings.

At last her body gave out from sheer fatigue and the ripples finally subsided. All that was left of Asami was a shaky, shivering mess. She felt utterly destroyed, exposed, vulnerable and yet at the same time completely safe and loved. She just, flat out, felt absolutely wonderful.

"Wow…" was all she managed to utter.

"Whoa yourself," Korra said with an undisguised hint of smugness in her voice as she rolled off of Asami. "You ripped a hole open in the sheets. I take it you enjoyed that?"

Asami pushed herself up onto her elbows and saw that there was, in fact, a sizable hole in her very expensive linens. She narrowed her eyes at Korra in a mock glare.

"Hey! Don't blame me."

"Korra. Please. Placing blame is unprofessional." She inched over and pushed the Water Tribe woman onto her back, her green eyes gleaming with promise. "As is leaving a job unfinished. By the time I'm through with you, these sheets are going to be in tattered shreds."