Korra tended to measure life events with the insignificant moments that surrounded them, like frames to photos, she accented her strongest memories with the simple, modest actions that preceded them. In retrospect she always wondered if even a tiny decision could have made a difference, but mostly when she looked back, she looked for the signs that the inevitable was obvious. It was a form of self torture that she whipped herself with constantly.
Could she have known she was about to be hit by that car T-minus two hours before, when the lace on her sneaker broke and she took ten minutes to thread another?
Could an earlier bus,T minus one hour and thirty minutes, missing her stop instead of stepping off T minus forty five, or even waiting a little longer for the barista to steam her coffee, T minus four minutes and thirteen seconds, have made any difference? She remembered how the cold splash had doused her wrist that day, when she and the driver met, as the bonnet of his car collided with her hip, head and legs in quick succession.
Could she have known from that slightly inconvenient sign that the day would end with her fighting for her life.
As was her practice, searched for signs in her memory of hiking Mt Makapu, of shirking Asami's touch, that she'd be sleeping with her for the first time a mere six hours later.
No, she thought, she had been so busy in the present keeping tight vices on her cards that once again she had forgotten to look ahead, and would miss the fate train headed right for her. Paying no mind to the hand she was about to deal herself.
As she lay there in silence, Asami doing nothing more than combing her fingers through her hair, and arranging the locks of it into a plait, parting, turning, twisting and gently tugging at it in a move so intimate Korra was reminded of what came after those big moments.
Waking up in the hospital those years ago, encased in casts top to toe, she remembered the exquisitely surprised face of the nurse who encountered her.
"Look at you you're beautiful!" the stranger told her scrambling with her pen light, beaming, gripping her fingers, before shining a bright orange light in her eye. She hadn't meant it in any flirtatious way, and Korra knew not to take it that way although it filled her chest with pride at the sheer purity of it. She hadn't seen herself but it was then she was sure she was going to be okay. It could have also been the morphine.
"Can you tell me your name?"
Korra couldn't.
"What about your parents?"
Again nothing.
"A phone number?"
Korra rattled out eleven numbers with barely a thought. Less than an hour later Asami came running through the door, pale face whiter than Korra had ever seen. She couldn't remember her own name, but the accident made no difference to the memories encoded into her worthless heart.
Through the crying and hand holding and assurances that her parents would be coming soon, Korra managed to relay that she was hungry, and the apple slices Asami fed her were the sweetest she'd ever tasted in her life. Memories returned to her, but she couldn't recall birdsong ever sounding more like a symphony. Even rain sent her senses glittering with sensation.
In the present, even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky, each scrape of Asami's fingernails against her scalp had her body singing.
"Are you asleep?" Asami asked her when she'd finished the weave, opting now to simply stroke the soft loose locks she could get her hands on.
"Basking," Korra answered softly, placing her fingers encouragingly over Asami's on her head.
"Do you remember when you were in the hospital, I was the first person you called?"
Korra opened her eyes but chose not to mention she had also been thinking back to that very event.
"I couldn't remember my own name." she recalled, "it was like trying to come up with a new colour."
"You remembered my phone number…the nurse called me and I had forgotten to call you that morning. All I could think would it have made a difference."
"You can't-" Korra began to chide but was interrupted.
"You couldn't remember your own name but you remembered my number, not your parents, not Mako or Bolin, just mine…" she trailed off, letting the notion of it all sit there between them, slowly Korra was pushing herself up by her elbows, blue eyes boring into hers, stoic and contrite. "I never questioned it till now, but it made sense to me and I never questioned that either, makes a different kind of sense now."
"Post coma brain is a bit like drunk brain," Korra defended, still instinctively on the run for a comfortable hiding place, "I was basically drunk-coma-texting you to come pick me up, I've broken my femur, bring snacks."
"You loved me then."
"I fell in love with you when you broke my nose." Korra surprised herself by the confession, and watched as the honest words moved through Asami's body. First touching her lips, then coursing down her shoulders and into her chest, Korra swore she even felt a twitch in the hips beneath her own. "I remember looking up at you and knowing that was the moment it all changed." she cleared her throat and looked down, "It took me a few years to figure it out though,"
"I-"
"Don't…Don't say it unless you know you mean it."
"How can I not?"
"Just, I need you to be sure, three days and this night alone…I can't trust it."
"Korra,"
"Please," Korra pushed forward and pressed a kiss on her lips. "give it time."
Asami's expression remained schooled as she thought about it all, searching her feelings for what the differences could be. She loved Korra, she would take the time to make her believe it before saying it. Instead she tried to express what she was feeling into the following kiss, tilting her chin up to keep her mouth firmly against her.
When she moved away she moved all the way, leaving the bed and pulling her case from under her own.
"What are you doing?"
"It's been four days and I've done no training - I need to run." Korra tugged a sports bra over her chest and immediately Asami thought that was a crime, "Care to join?" the ice sculptor look back at her, and Asami could only give her narrowing eyes.
"I'm going to masturbate while thinking you, care to join?"
Korra felt her jaw drop and face redden, she froze and tensed at the sheer vulgarity of it.
"We just had sex! A lot of it!"
"Isn't that all the exercise you need?" Asami reasoned pressing her bare chest to Korra's back as she wrapped her arms around her from behind.
"C-Cardio,"
"We could do it standing up?" the heiress offered pressing teasing kisses along the column of her neck.
"Physio," Korra managed, "I have to do the stretches and sprints, or I'll go back to the way I was." she reasoned, less and less convinced the higher Asami's mouth reached, her teeth nibbled the crux of her jaw when she let go with a wet pop.
"Okay, fine." she lay on her side on the bed "if you can live with yourself." she reasoned. Korra looked back at her eyes wide, questioning everything.
"Come with me?" she offered, blinking with one eye as the image of Asami's breasts burned into her memories. Asami might have told her how she never exercised on vacation, except the expression on Korra's face deserved a certain type of teasing.
"Are you thinking about the quintessence of life or should we take a picture so it'll last longer?" the heiress teased.
"Uh-"
"Go Korra, we'll shower when you get back."
"We?"
"Did I stutter?"
"But…" Korra remembered vaguely their agreement, when the first time was over (which admittedly had many sessions, sleep in-between and an unaccountable amount of climaxes), no more sex until three dates, it seemed reasonable at the time, but looking at her now, she couldn't help but imagine playing with those nipples under the stream.
"Hurry so you can get back!" Asami complained, covering herself and breaking whatever spell she'd cast but only slightly, Korra had to drag herself away from getting lost in her eyes next.
She pulled on her shorts looking anywhere but, and a vest with wide open sides that showed off her exquisite arms.
She almost head out of the door without another word, and what a tragedy that would've been if Asami hadn't stopped her. Not bothering to get dressed she caught her elbow and kissed her hard, and Korra was so distracted by it she didn't notice the heiress tying her hair up for her.
"You forgot to tie it," she explained simply, cheeks splashed with rouge as Korra grinned dumbly down at her.
"Thanks Asami." she whispered to her, making sure to kiss her cheek before leaving her alone in the hotel room. It was an entirely different feeling to the last time.
Korra's life was flashing before her eyes as she ran, she made it through to her teens before she recognised she had lapped the resort twice and was now at the entrance of the lobby. She needed a drink and remembered the bar was all inclusive for guests.
She was taking long draughts of water from the glass, letting the cool drown her racing heart. Running helped her process things, she made some of her better decisions with 100 percent of her blood passing through her brain and her muscles working in perfect unison. After the night she'd had it felt like a victory lap. All these thoughts were exquisite and heartwarming, yet a cold chill ran through her spine, and she realised it was because a voice had pricked her ears.
"What do you mean she changed the room? Where did she go?" Korra stopped mid gulp to listen.
"I'm sorry sir, but guest information is kept with the strictest confidence," Korra recognised the second voice also, it was Joo Dee, the tour guide who had seen them kissing in a secret cave, and seen them leave their unofficial rescue hand in hand the night before, "and I'm sure Miss Sato wouldn't want me giving you the room number. Given the situation, you can understand this is a complicated matter the hotel must remain in favour of our guests."
"I was the other guest meant to go with her - she took our honeymoon without me."
Korra's heart stopped when Joo Dee's eyes flashed her way, but it was imperceptible enough for Iroh not to notice.
"That being said," the hotel clerk kept up her trademark ear to ear customer service smile, "Your position was filled and we are fully booked…"
"Can you give me the number for her room phone then? This is important."
Korra knew she should stay, she should interject on Asami's behalf, maybe do some of the ass kicking herself, but the physical embodiment of Asami's past without her was leading her feet before she knew what was happening; she was sprinting to the hotel room from the outside.
She let herself in from the beach-side doors, when she did Asami put down her book and draped her legs over the side of the bed. She had put her nightgown back on, perhaps with the intention that Korra might take it off.
"I'll get the water running," she beamed excitedly, before seeing Korra's expression, "Everything okay?"
"I was worried," Korra breathed, "this would all be gone when I got back,"
"Hey," Asami kissed her, and something possessive in Korra kept her close against her, "You need this shower," she said curling up her nose.
"I just have to make a quick phone call." Korra forced a smile at her. "Date plans," she lied hating how easy it came.
"Okay," she said it with such trust, Korra knew she should tell her, but then she knew their honeymoon would be over, and things would become real very fast. She had no intention of lying or pretending anymore, but still, she needed to buy time and all she really wanted to do the second she saw Iroh was hold Asami.
Asami walked backwards into the bathroom, green eyes tantalising her the whole way as she teased the straps of her slip down her shoulders.
Korra plugged in the phone when she was sure Asami had turned on the water. Immediately it rang, and Korra wasn't surprised.
"Asami? Honey is that you? Listen to me I'm sorry- Let's talk."
"She'd forgotten you, Iroh," It was a visceral and dark place from which she spoke, empty of nothing else but the need to protect Asami.
"Korra?"
"Go home."
With that she dropped the phone back on its hook and unplugged it again.
"Did someone call?" Asami asked from the stream.
"Wrong number," Korra told her peeling her shirt over her head as she let the notion that Asami was hers wash over her. Of course she wasn't, Asami was a gorgeous shining star and she was a spec of rock graced with her orbit. She could love her fiercely, but there was no owning a star. Still as she stepped in the stream behind her, she wanted nothing more than to show her how she loved her, wordlessly and unconditionally. She kissed her back gripping her hips gently, her neck, her cheek, arms criss crossed over her chest and pressed her against her. Asami craned her neck back to kiss her but Korra only allowed a peck, lathering showergel into her hands, she caressed her back with it, her shoulders her chest, Asami caught herself in her arms, holding on only by the neck and hair, still tied up, that she could grip.
The heiress was stunned by it, the intimacy, as someone she had spent maybe the past twelve hours or so ravenously fucking, how gentle she was now being treated, and how overwhelming it all was. When Korra's fingers started running shampoo through her hair she was suddenly on cloud nine. She shut her eyes, and couldn't say how she remained upright because she felt like she was floating. Korra took the shower head and splashed the suds away, kissing where she'd cleaned. Asami felt surreal, her best friend conditioning her head and kissing her cheek.
Suddenly she found herself biting her lip to keep from crying. She tried not to, but she thought of how cold Iroh used to be, never venturing past the sex part of being naked and sharing in this.
"Are you crying?" Korra whispered after a moment, but Asami couldn't answer her, she couldn't tell her how screwed up her life had been for this to have such an affect on her, so she kissed her, took the shower head from her grip and told her.
"Your turn,"
"The Johnsons are done!" Jet crowed, drawing an 'X' over their room number on the white board map of the resort, "Mr J caught Mrs J screwing one of the surfers competing in The Aang"
"Who had Johnsons?"
"I did!" Mang chimed, waving her ticket high. "Room 2-0-3!"
The break room at Ember Island Hotel was a boring white room with lockers on one side, vending machines on the other, and a large collection of tables for the staff to lounge, if not uncomfortably, during their downtime. It started when three bus boys in the hotel starting keeping tabs on the couples who split on their honeymoon, with Ember Islands history of soul searching trips and quite frankly attractive residents, there was an unusually high number of divorces in this strong honeymoon capital. Still, so long as the higher ups never figured it out, which thanks to the deluxe break room in a nicer room elsewhere, they were good to go.
"Can I get in on this?" Haru asked.
"Ooh sorry newbie, all the rooms are accounted for you gotta wait for new guests but we're booked solid maybe in a week." Sneers replied, picking her teeth with a fingernail as she watched Mang collect her winnings.
"How's it work exactly?"
"When we get new people we go on a rota of who've joined, Duke, Pipsqueak, me, Mang, Oma, Shu, Joo Dee, Sneers and now you, you get a room you put in your yuans, and if they cheat, split up or part ways due to creative differences you get the current pot. When new guests arrived we start the total all over again."
"What about-"
"You can't sleep with the guests to get the prize - it doesn't matter if they throw them selves at you."
"That was one time!" Sneers defended, "What were the odds she was A that hot and B interested in me and three! Just so happened to be in my pick?"
"That's literally the game!" Jet jibed back unable to keep his grin from his lips.
"Sounds juicy I can't wait." Haru mused, eying the rooms and the names underneath, watching the check out dates to see where his next pick might be staying.
The staff door slammed open and the four of them stood to attention instantly, only to relax when they realised it was just Joo Dee.
"What's the haps J-Dizzle?" Jet crooned, before noticing her flushed cheeks and knitted brow that usually came coupled with the client dressing down of a lifetime, "What they do?"
She didn't answer instead taking the pen and scrawling on the map, 207, she wiped away the names and rearranged them. 'A', she wrote next to it, JB, and a line to the left 'K', DTFJB, and right and 'I' EX.
She stood back from her creation, and said.
"I think we have a new game."
"What does that mean?" Haru asked, just getting his head around the first game.
"What does J-B mean?"
"Jilted bride." Joo Dee explained.
"And E-X," Sneers added.
"Her Ex Fiance,"
"And D-T-F-J-B"
"Well K is her best friend who came to replace the Ex, but if me seeing them necking by make out mountain I'd say - do I really have to explain DTF to you?"
"Down to?"
Joo Dee rolled her eyes and spelled it out on a blank bit of whiteboard,
Down to Fuck!
"Thank you for clarifying." Sneers rolled her eyes.
"Good, we're all on the same page." she sealed the lid of the marker with finality, "Who wants odds on this?"
Korra sat on the floor by the bed, leaning back on Asami's knees as she towelled her hair. Both were enrobed, and both were testing their limits of intimacy and had yet to find a threshold on it yet, Every moment that passed by Korra knew she was on borrowed time. If the coming all this way only to be rejected hadn't incensed Iroh, her phone call with him certainly would have driven him insane. She felt a twinge of guilt having left him to torture that poor defenceless hotel worker, but also a part of her hadn't forgiven Joo Dee for interrupting them the first time. And second. And third come to think of it.
So when she heard a knocking at the door, she felt a pit punch through her stomach.
"Did you order room service?" Asami asked, so innocent and trusting, Korra couldn't look at her as she shook her head in the negative. She felt the heiress kiss the back of her head before standing to get the door.
"Don't," Korra started, eyes glassy, "Don't open that."
Asami looked back at her, and it was as though the veil had been snatched back between them, and she knew Korra was hiding something from her.
It was in the heiress' nature, Korra knew, so when she reached for the door and turned, she couldn't stop her.
Could Korra have known that morning, she thought suddenly, that by the end of it she'd be fighting for her love?