Training turned out to be the best medicine for Akemi. It was great watching her slowly take control of her own powers, even if it was to the detriment of the landscape which progressively began looking more… burnt. A nice plus was that by the end of the day the girl was too tired to fight sleep and even her nightmares were starting to go away, and with them, Akemi's late-night trips into Korra and Asami's bed. Although, now that they were gone, the women kinda missed the little body sleeping between them.

After a few weeks of steady training, Asami suggested adding meditation to the mix and even if it got off to a rocky start, with Akemi either falling asleep or quickly growing bored by it, they were beginning to get the hang of it. Specially since they figured out it was easier for Akemi to keep calm if she meditated seated on Korra or Asami's legs.

They weren't all the way to loving spirits yet, but they rested assured on knowing they were set on the right path.

Not only Akemi began to thrive in her new stable environment, but Korra and Asami did as well. Time let them settle into their new routine almost seamlessly, and the three of them quickly became a well-oiled machine. Albeit the sporadic incident where Akemi set something on fire during one of her training sessions.

It became easier to let some of the uncomfortable details slide past them. Like the possibility of Akemi having a family out there still, or even worse, said family being the crazy cult Leader. But without any news on the matter, they inevitably got caught up in everyday life, and chose to chase away any ill thoughts about it.

Reality had its own ways of keeping them on check, though. This time it came in the form of a phone call.

Asami was doing some paperwork in the kitchen while Akemi took a nap upstairs when the phone rang. It was a rare occurrence in their house as most people didn't have a landline, let alone their phone number. Asami had gotten it installed a few years back mainly so she could take calls from work and Korra could be reached by the airbenders more easily. But given she had spoken with her secretary this morning and Korra was already at Air Temple Island, the ringing came as the inevitable bearer of bad news.

Asami shot up from her chair, gathering something must have happen to Korra, but the voice on the other end was unknown to her.

"Hello?"

"Good afternoon Mrs. I'm agent Lao-Tzu reaching you from Republic City police station. Is Mrs. Sato speaking?" Asami's blood went cold.

"This is she, what is this about?" She tried hiding the alarm in her voice.

"We have come up with new information regarding a case involving the child in your care" Asami wanted to say something, but any and all words got caught in her throat "Social services will be contacting you soon but I'd like to schedule an appointment at your earliest convenience"

"An appointment for what, what new information?" She didn't sound as loquacious as she wanted to, the questions pouring out of her unintelligibly.

"I'm afraid I can't disclose anything more over the phone, that's why we urge you to come to the station as soon as possible" Asami looked around for a piece of paper and a pen, but only found the latter, writing the agent's name on her palm.

"Do I need to take Ake- I mean the child in my care to the station with me? Does my spouse need to be present as well?" She was trying to gauge the seriousness of the situation.

"Social Services will be contacting you regarding that matter. And it'd be best if Avatar Korra was present as well, yes" There she had her answer. She felt her heart pounding on her chest, cold sweat making the pen in her hand slippery.

"What do you mean? Will they take her away? Is something wrong?" She heard the tremble of her own voice echoing back at her from the other line.

"Social Services will be cont-" the engineer didn't get to hear the end of the sentence.

"Asami?" She turned around to see Akemi standing a few feet away from her, the whiny tone of her voice telling Asami she had been listening. The girl ran up to her, holding on to Asami's leg as if she knew what was happening.

"We'll be there in an hour" she muttered quickly.

"Mrs. Sato wait, I'd have to check-" she heard before hanging up the phone. She looked down at Akemi who stared back at her as terrified as that first day in the alleyway.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing sweetie. What do you say we pay Korra a visit?" She made her best impression of a smile.

After a rushed phone call to Air Temple Island with a confused Tenzin, Asami buckled Akemi to the back of her car and drove all the way to the mainland piers, downtown, where luckily Korra would be waiting for them.

The Avatar stood at the docks, fidgeting with her glider open and close, when she saw Asami's car approaching. The first sign that something was wrong was Asami's sloppy parking. She never parked crooked, and yet it was her who leaped out of the car without bothering to turn off the engine, looking at the verge of tears. If Korra was nervous before, that was the straw that broke the arctic camel's back.

"What's wrong?" She said closing the distance between them.

"I got a call, they told me to come to the police station" Asami said under her breath.

"That much I gathered from Tenzin. What for?"

"Something new came up in Akemi's case, the agent didn't say much"

"Do you think they'll take her away?" She tried keeping her voice down in case Akemi could hear, but it came out less as a whisper and more like a shriek.

"I don't know" Asami lamented.

"Over my dead body" Korra clenched her fists.

"Korra, we knew this could happen" Asami reached for her hands, and laced their finger together, trying to appease her. She'd had the drive there to process that possibility, unlike Korra.

"But she is doing so well with us, everything seemed settled" this one stammered, her voice filled with grief.

"I know" Asami wrapped her arms around Korra "But no matter what, we need to stick with Akemi. If this is hard for us, it's even more so for a child. Either way, today she loses something, and she doesn't need us making it harder" the words were spoken softly in Korra's ear, but they weighed on her.

She looked over Asami's shoulder at the girl peeking through the car's open window. Korra's feeling didn't matter right now. She faked a smile and waved at her direction.

"You are right" she leaned away from the embrace "Let's just get this over with"


A/N: I love me some good ol' cliffhanger.

Kinda short but I'll make up for it in the upcoming week.
Next chapter it's gonna be a good one to hold you off during quarantine, if your country is going through that, anyways.

Hope you liked the chapter and please take care of yourselves 3

And to the guest reviewer who I guess is always the same person: I like you. You are very observant. And don't worry not even Akemi could be afraid of Bum Ju, he is too cute. Thank you for reviewing!

-TypingMitten