"Do you want me to get you some leggings?" Asami asked earnestly, having seen the beach-side spa deck for the first time and all the partially nude couples enjoying their honeymoon massages together.
"It's fine, they're healed it's ok."
"I just want you to be comfortable," Asami told her, hand cupping the arm of the gleaming white robe that was covering Korra's partially nude body.
"I'm not sure I'd ever be all that comfortable with a stranger touching me," Korra didn't mean to snap, but being reminded of her scars, on top of this entire calamitous honeymoon-replacement situation, put her on the edge of the finest razor blade Ember Island had to offer. She also had to admit seeing that volcano on the horizon still set her teeth on edge too.
"We can cancel." Asami offered, eyes dimming with the hurt Korra knew she'd inflicted.
"No it's- I'm sorry. I'm being a brat. I'm not used to pampering. I need to loosen up. This could help."
Asami smiled at her gratefully for trying.
"Sato?" The masseuse called them, and Korra waved before standing and leading Asami on.
Their guide was an older man in his late fifties, bald with a nose piercing, skin turned leather after decades in a climate he was not used to.
"You've had a very stressful week!" he told them matter of factly.
"Did management tell you about our…" Asami paused, not at a loss for words but a knowledge that she had put Korra and her together immediately, naturally, "Situation?"
"It's written all over your faces, tension, tension, tension!" he declared poking Korra between her eyebrows. "You two look like you might need more than massages, tell me how do you feel about acupuncture?"
"No needles please!" Korra squeaked, immediately losing colour.
"Well we'll just need to maximise the relaxation levels in this zone,"
The deck they were stood on was beach side, with sandalwood structures holding curtains that, if needed, could shield them from the outside world. With a tug of a string the old man pulled all four sides down.
"I'll give you a minute to get settled on your fronts," he swept an arm over the tables with towels over it, "and I'll grab my partner for the side by side massage. I will be your server today - Aiwei,"
He left in a flurry of sheets and suddenly the pair were once again alone in near darkness. They shared a look, that at once gave them a sense of a pull dragging them closer and a solemn air keeping them stapled where they stood.
Wordlessly they stepped between the beds and shed robes. Strongly aware that the woman next to them was now nude to the waist and desperate to see the beauty beside them. Korra's bed creaked first, hastily yanking the towel over her hips and looking away from the heiress beside her.
"You're slipping." Asami told her as she grabbed the towel on the small of her back, pulling it back into place for her.
Korra didn't know if it was better or worse that she had chosen to turn her head the opposite direction of where Asami was laying, so close beside her. She pondered the same conundrum as her fingers continued to linger on her back, drawing gently upwards, sweeping a patterns over her spine. Korra's toes were curling as she did this, and without thinking she crossed her legs as tightly as she could to prevent a whimper from coming out her lips. Suddenly the Carmaker's fingers pressed harder, rubbing a circle between the shoulder blades of her counterpart, undoing the knot she found there.
"Asami-?"
"Now you're used to it." she explained in a quiet breath, rescinding her hand as the curtains' wings beat and their masseuses set about lighting candles and incense.
"Any allergies we should know about moving forward?" Aiwei asked well and truly shattering the moment and all the thoughts that followed.
"Korra's allergic to nuts and penicillin." Asami told him matter of factly, Korra wanted to share a look with her only to find she was already facing the other way.
"There are no nuts or penicillin in my creams so you're golden." he told them.
It was a strange feeling watch another woman touch Asami's hair and tuck it in front of one shoulder. Their eyes met as she did this and shared a friendly smile, noticing that Korra was watching the young woman shared the same with her. Her hands began to work, painting that alabaster skin with lavender and peach flavoured salve. The aroma was intoxicating, and Korra didn't mind when Aiwei began his own ministrations on her shoulders.
"You two make such a lovely couple," she told them sweetly.
By this point No pretending had become a knee jerk reaction for Korra.
"We're not together." she caught the difference in the tension of Asami's body after she said this, "We're just here to have a good time." Korra added, watching that same tension ebb.
Korra had to admit, she was actually feeling like she was relaxed, she closed her eyes, lost her self in the calm ocean sounds, and let the man with the magic hands distract her into oblivion. That was until he touched her legs, she flinched, she couldn't help it, he was folding the towel up to better reach her fascia muscles, and Korra knew he could see the scars there.
It was a moment before she realised she had reached for blindly and grabbed Asami's hand. Asami squeezed back, hard, I'm here.
The Carmaker had turned her head back, eyes sending silent comforts to her in the candlelight.
"Let your partner soothe you." Aiwei instructed, "There are no problems here,"
Asami's thumb rubbed calming circles over hers. Her hair covered her mouth, but Korra could tell from her eyes she was smiling at her. When the smile faded that's when time stopped, her eyes were clear and deep, and Korra got lost in another mind. For just that sheltered, calm, eclipse of a moment she saw proof of everything she had ever felt for this beautiful soul was reflected back.
Until of course Asami reached over and covered her eyes and closing them.
"Relax," she urged in a raspy whisper, before reaching once more between them and entangling their fingers once more.
Impossible. Korra thought back, her heart was kicking into overdrive for the thousandth time in as many days.
Which why she was surprised that she passed out so quickly on the table. They were alone again when she was awakened, namely by Asami's fingers combing through her locks. Her body had turned to butter, she had been taken so far down into bliss she didn't even react to the sensation, just took it. Marvelling at how each scratch of her scalp sent shockwaves tingling through her to her toes.
"Thank you for doing that." Asami told her, eyes watery, "I couldn't be here without you." she leaned up, hands still in her hair, and pressed her lips soothingly to her forehead. As quick as it all happened she was gone.
When Korra's brain could put two synapses together she tried to lift herself, only the loosened muscle in her arms betrayed her and she fell back onto that bed.
"Dammit…" what is she doing to me?
XXX
Asami stood under the stream of the shower touching her lips. She knew there was no point before a diving lesson, but she needed cold water, fast. How did she wind up doing most of the touching in that couples massage, she wondered. It was Korra's back, she deduced, the way it writhed under her fingers, the way her anatomy danced for her, and loosened under her touch.
Her skin had been so soft, so unbelievably smooth, had Iroh's skin felt that good? That wasn't fair, she thought, Korra was on an entirely new level. Everyone has gay thoughts, she told herself, doesn't have to mean anything, she added. How long had it been like this? she wondered. Objectively Korra was, and still is, a smoke show. Asami had often thought she was as skilled at shaping her body as she was at carving ice figures.
Her best features were her eyes, she knew this without even having to think about it. That pale blue stare had been so inexplicably powerful in the spa, Asami felt herself being emptied of everything in a single moment, and filled in her mind with only the woman across from her. Like her memories were being played through another lens.
The way she used to watch Korra work, the way her arms shook with the force of chiselling away chunks of ice. The way her eyes used to hone in on the way her collarbones peaked out her shirt, especially when Asami made her laugh.
The last time Asami had been at the beach with Korra, they were in a group but, neither went into the sea. Content to lay in the sand and watch her sleep peacefully. After many months of pain filled sleepless nights post-accident, that first look of peace was something Asami would always cherish. Korra's hair was long then, she remembered, she wore a blue vest, and fell asleep with her fingers clutching the sand. Asami never wondered why she wanted to brush the stray locks from her face as she slept, not even as she did it.
Now her mind was filled with new memories, mounting Korra in the back of a limo in a drunken haze, feeling the thrill of her warm hands seared into the memory of her spine. She couldn't shake the scent of her bed, the scent of Korra enveloping her that morning. Korra had slept on the couch in the next room, but what if she hadn't? What if Asami had made the mistakes she now wanted to make? She had come so close this morning, and Korra, not for one second, had ever pushed her away.
This cold water was defective. She heard Korra close the hotel-room door out side, listened as her footsteps padded around the room, changing into her swimwear. She didn't move as she saw it in her minds' eye, as she watched without watching.
No, she stopped herself, You are heartbroken, emphasis on the broken, she was reminded. I can't stop her from living her best life while she's here. She can no longer be my crutch. She stopped the stream and grabbed a towel, this shall be my new rule.
She looked herself in the mirror and tried to school her features; to stop pursing her lips; mentally preparing herself to bounce her eyes rather than look into Korra's blues. She felt that intensity wash over her once more and dropped her face into her hands.
"You will stop having fantasies about your best friend!" she said it out loud.
"You ok in there 'Sami?" Korra asked.
"Shit," she seethed, "Just washing that cream off before we got in the sea."
She towelled off, slipping into her waiting bathing suit and tying her hair into a quick ponytail. Take a deep breath, she gripped the door handle, look at her like an asexual amorphous blob. She pushed through, only to take a single step before seeing Korra. The six pack, I forgot about that.
Her eyes drew up the ice sculptor slowly, who luckily wasn't paying attention as she pinned her short locks behind her head, before tying the knot of her blue, of course, board shorts.
"This is all we need right?" Korra broke her concentration, "I didn't bring goggles or anything."
She was looking at her, oh god, why was she looking at her? Asami felt her brain switch on.
"They have the gear yes." she confirmed. She thought for a moment, and then risked receiving potentially upsetting news, "When do we have to be back?"
"Kuvira said Kya's bar at 9 so back here for 8? Is that ok?"
God no! A small indignant part of her screamed. Maybe she didn't want to be alone, maybe that was it and nothing else, although in that moment it really didn't feel like it.
"Sure." Asami said instead.
"What are you going to do?"
"I-" Asami started, the answer shocked herself, but given she was alone and feeling a semblance over her ex, she continued, "I want to read the letter."
"Are you sure?"
"I think I'm ready to know what he has to say."
Korra nodded soberly, before moving to her suitcase and pulling the partially shredded envelope out. She placed it next to the hibiscus flowers on the drawer.
"Ready to go?" Korra asked.
"Let's go meet some fish." Asami found her smile as she offered an elbow, friendly as can be, and Korra took it, amicable as you like.