Song 1 - Waves - Chloe Moriondo

" Korra…Hey,

Iroh's asleep, but you probably guessed that. It's four am here, so it's… midnight where you are, which means you're asleep probably, or out, I don't know….I don't know why I'm calling.

Actually I do I had a nightmare and you were in it.

I just, I needed to hear your voice,…but I guess, I'll settle for hearing your voice in the machine, and pretending to talk to you…

It was here, on the island, the nightmare, but you were here, and the volcano just burned everything and you were in the middle of it and I- there was so much fire and…and I couldn't revive you and then suddenly I was awake I was sitting up and before I knew it - I had already dialled your number…

This is stupid… I'm sorry…I… I've been feeling distant from you…Maybe it's me, I haven't been a good enough friend. All this time you had all this happening and I haven't noticed. It's not good enough I know. I've been lazy, I've been… switched off. I need to be better for you Korra…I will be better.

This is ridiculous isn't it?

I'm just…tired. I'll call you later, to apologise for this embarrassing message. Maybe do me a favour and burn the tape okay?

Night K, or I guess, good morning… Bye."

Asami played the message she'd left Korra in her mind for hours after she'd left it.

As she lay on the beach, eyes closed, sun warming skin, hands knotted in sand as she listened to the memory of heightened panic. The nightmare had left her petrified, shaken to the core, as visceral as it felt real, but the call it stayed with her. In the absence of her best friend she couldn't describe enough the intense loneliness that had settled upon her soul. She couldn't begin to explain it.

Her husband was right beside her, and by all accounts should be the perfect candidate to soothe her soul in the wake of a bad dream, but before she had a waking mind her sleeping one reached out for the handset on bedside. She could barely register the tears licking her cheeks, but in the same moment, she still had the instinct to dial a ten digit number, after, of course, pressing the star key to dial out.

She tried to listen to the waves, but the thought of Korra's sea blue eyes captivated her, causing her stomach to make an anxious dip. Korra had always worried her. Korra had always fascinated her. Lately all that worry and fascination had been amplified, but Asami couldn't pinpoint why exactly.

"Sex on the beach?"

She's shocked out of her reverie by her husband, holding a cocktail in her direction. Her eyes adjusting she caught the corners of his body turned pink by the sun. Smiling, sunburnt and squatting in the sand.

"Thanks," she took the cool drink and sipped it meekly, caught in her thoughts, hoping one look into his eyes wouldn't betray them.

"You still feeling tired?"

Asami only pursed her lips and nodded, grateful he couldn't read her.

Day five of her honeymoon, and she watched her husband truly relax, he'd been working long and hard, day in day out, and now he was melting in the summer sun. This was their time to stop, to enjoy each other, but all Asami could think about was what she had left behind, and the haunted look on Korra's face when she saw her last.

The Ocean is right there, she berated herself, love it dammit.

"I think I need to wake myself up," she spoke her intentions aloud, inciting them to become her only truth. She got on her feet and marched for the blue, don't think about them, her feet touched the surf and a surprising chill thrilled her, don't think about those eyes, she kept walking until the water level passed her hips. She dared to look back to her husband on the shore, certain he would be looking.

Instead his head was turned at an uncomfortable angle, up and left facing a portion of the sky the Carmaker had not yet noticed.

"Asami!" his voice was harsh and direct, switching from calm to crisis mode.

The chill gripped her, her body turning numb as she followed his gaze and watched her nightmare unfold to a tee. The mountain on the horizon belching unmistakable red fire and spewing a river of hot lava.

The tourists on the beach stopped and stared for a moment, half-hoping this was a performance or a practical joke of some kind. A light show that would end soon enough, and they could go back to enjoying their holidays.

"Get out of the Water!" Iroh yelled again.

She couldn't move, in the moment as her fears and future collided, she couldn't think. The next thing she felt was Iroh's hand around her own, his guiding hand on her back, being led briskly into the hotel, towel thrown over her.

Iroh was speaking, barking orders over the cacophony of panicked guests to a hotel representative, who had never dealt with such an event in her short lifetime. Petrified, the girl had a hard time understanding what the General was saying, Asami felt for her and placed a calming hand on her forearm.

"Mang," she read her name tag, "People are still out there right?" Asami asked her gently, "We can help, okay? My husband is a general, he can call air support from the main land, we just need some information okay?"

"We need a list of all the tours where they're going to give to the response teams, and the staff need to cordon off-" Iroh insisted until Asami shot him a look,

"Are there files on the front desk?"

"It's on the computer in the office," Mang began entirely unsure if she herself had fallen into a nightmare.

"Take us there,"

Asami never realised what a privilege it was, to have never seen her husband at work. In the office he kept a phone to each ear, calling bases, rallying forces, pouring over maps and timetables.

Asami mused watching him, that this was why she had chosen him, a safe calm harbour in a sea of chaos, a functional Goliath, an irrefutably good man, on paper at least.

She was swayed out of her reverie by his guiding hand on her arm.

"Asami, you should go,"

"What?"

"When help arrives, I'm going with them, there's safe houses on the north side of the island, a lot of the guests are already there."

"I can help,"

"You're trained to operate in flight missions?" Iroh smirked gently rubbing her arm.

"I'm trained to have eyes and look out of a window." Asami shot back, thoroughly unimpressed with being patronised.

"This isn't our honeymoon anymore, this is my job," he kissed her forehead, "I need you to promise me you'll keep safe. I'll do the same."

"Okay," it tasted bitter to say the word, it was only later, in the long car ride to the opposite side of the island did she figure out why. They weren't partners, not in this.

As she mused on the notion of becoming a kept woman, the car pulled to a stop. A crowd had gathered outside the side of a house, she caught the sight of a tall, grey haired woman, handing out drinks and smiling at the customers in earnest. All of whom couldn't keep from stealing glances at the smoke belching from the mountain in the distance.

"Another one!" Asami heard the voice and her heart skipped as sea blue eyes caught her. It couldn't be. Don't be ridiculous. There was something of Korra in the woman walking toward her. She was Water Tribe of course, but her aura, brash, brave and soothing hit Asami like a freight train, reminding her of all she missed.

It's been five days get it together.

"You really just came with the clothes on your back didn't you?" she even had a grin that could lift spirits like her, "Jinora honey, go grab one of the spare shirts from the cupboard." she caught the attention of a teenager clutching a book she was too anxious to read.

"Who is this pretty mermaid?" Asami nearly jumped out of her towel when she noticed the small grey eyed boy staring up at her mesmerised.

"My name is Asami," the heiress omitted her surname as she always did, the Sato name didn't exactly inspire empathy in recent years. Still the child seemed in awe of her.

"Meelo is at your service your lady-ship!" the boy bowed low and the women around him shared perplexed looks.

"Right…I'm Kya," the older woman reached out to shake her hand, Asami took it, pointed out the taller woman holding drinks, "That's my partner Kana, she's giving out drinks, but don't be afraid to ask us anything else, and…I don't see Kuvira, but perhaps that's for the best, tourists tend to…aggravate her,"

"That's very kind of you," Jinora had returned and placed clothes in her hands, even managing a comforting smile of her own that moved herto her core from someone so young, "I mean I can lend a hand,"

"Oh," Kya balked, there were almost a hundred guests here, not one had offered to help, "I think we're gonna like you!"

Kya ushered the Carmaker to the kitchen, a small crowd already gathered, but it became clear from cheek kisses and hugs that ensued that this was Kya's family.

"A volunteer!" Kya presented her happily, Asami blushed and waved, glad she'd pulled on the 'Ember Island is for Lovers' shirt before entering this room full of strangers in a wet bikini.

She took a place at the table, adorned with fruits, breads, salad and deli meats, all being reassembled to feed the growing crowd.

"What a day you must be having," said a woman balancing a rowdy toddler on her knee, "Pema," she bounced the boy, "Rohan,"

"When they say honeymoons are unforgettable, I don't think they meant like this," Asami shrugged, before giving her name as well.

Intense worry passed over the mother's face.

"Oh he's fine, he's working with the Army,"

Pema let out the breath she held.

"Well, helping others is the first step to helping yourself, I think we forgot the butter can you check the fridge,"

As Asami did as she was told, she felt strange for a number of reasons, firstly she'd just witnessed a volcano explode, secondly her new husband had taken upon himself the safety of the island and promptly left her alone, and thirdly she had been swept into something so utterly unfamiliar, a family home, a creche of strangers so welcoming it had her on the verge of tears quite inexplicably.

A fourth punched her in the chest, now she definitely knew those eyes, smiling out at her from a photograph taped to the fridge door. Perhaps a decade old, colours faded only slightly, was a milk-toothed, slanted Korra grin, holding up a medal and clutching a surfboard.

"See someone you know?" Kya was caught where she was looking in passing, placing an empty punch bowl in the sink beside her. Asami's mouth flapped in disbelief, mining memories and obsessing over every detail. Korra had never mentioned coming to these islands before, never mentioned she was a junior surfing champion.

"It can't be, I mean Korra never said she came here…"

"Wait, you are Korra's Asami,"

"She told you about me?"

"Only for those last four summers after she met you, she never shut up about you, except the one she spent one with your family and well, you know the rest."

"I didn't know she came here,"

"Korra doesn't really talk about herself does she," she could tell by Kya's sad smile that she missed the girl in the photo. "The competitions used to mean so much to her…you tell her when you see her next, well, we miss her."

"I will," Asami whispered stunned, still reeling.

"Maybe, if this whole volcano thing hasn't put you off, you can convince her to come back. A couples trip, is she with any one special?"

"I…don't think so," Asami stopped for a moment, considering, connecting dots, "Do you…you and Kana, are you two business partners?"

"We're lawyers." Kya smirked, tongue firmly in cheek, "We're together, Korra already told me, way back when, well, we figured it out. You know if you ever plan on setting her up, I think Kuvira here is her type."

"No," Asami balked, "I mean, she would hate that." to hide her face she ripped open the fridge in search of butter, "you probably know how stubborn she is."

"That I do," Kya paused before saying it, thoroughly inspecting the newlywed as she cradled the cold dairy product in her hands. "Any friend of Korra's if a friend of ours, we have spare beds upstairs, if you guys aren't in a hurry after this, stay, we'll look after you."

"Oh I can't,"

"I insist," Kya rubbed her arms, and before Asami knew it she was encapsulated in a genuine hug. Asami couldn't help but bend into it, exhausted from just her thoughts running wild alone.

"This is such a strange day," she whispered, to which Kya could only laugh and rub between her shoulder blades.

Helping others seemed to work a treat, it definitely occupied her mind enough from the confusion and swathes of guilt.

As the evacuees were taken to empty beds elsewhere, Asami made small talk with those left at Kya's bar. She desperately tried to talk about any thing else other than Korra, but reminder's of her were on every wall, in this house seemingly made from the interlocking frames of thousands of photographs.

Iroh found her in the evening, exhausted, dirty but overall satisfied with a job well done. He brought soldiers with him, happy to partake in a drink and share in their own quiet glory. When the general saw his wife, in two bold steps he crossed the stage towards her and pulled her bodily into his chest.

Beneath the scent of soot was the smell of her husband, she tried to let it soothe her as he held on tight. She couldn't shake the fact that the nightmare had come true. She couldn't help but compare the photos she had seen with their real world counterparts.

She particularly liked the one of twelve year old Korra, sat at the bar eating a sandwich, her hair in those old three pony's. Her grin so wide her dimples could be seen. It had been so long since Asami had seen those dimples.

Success had her husband as happy as the day they'd married, he wanted to dance with her, he wanted to kiss her, but Asami couldn't relax.

"You alright?" finally he asked. Asami only looked at her glass, before shaking her head. "Hey it's alright, it's been crazy but, after all this I may be looking at a promotion to General of Armies…"

How could Asami explain to him how deeply unsettled she was? Not when this opportunity had fallen in his lap, and he'd knocked it out of the park. The smoke in half the sky hung over her heavy and dark, and the more Asami thought about it, the more her throat grew tight and her psyche screamed omen.

"We can stay on this side, we can salvage this-"

"I want to go home," the words jumped out her mouth before her mind could stop them. Iroh stiffened, sobering, listening intently, "I had a nightmare this would happen and it sounds crazy but I just don't feel safe…can we…can we try again some where else? After…after some time?"

"You had a nightmare and you didn't tell me,"

"Iroh,"

She watched as a litany of thoughts crossed his visage, his jaw set, his wheels turning.

"Of course," he breathed, "of course we can leave, tomorrow, I'll sort out a flight."

Asami hugged him gratefully, perched awkwardly on the edge of her stool, before stepping away.

"I'm going to bed now,"

"Okay," Iroh rubbed her arms. "I love you," he told her, squeezing her arms.

Asami tried to put the blue eyes that kept flashing out of her mind. Omen.

"I love you too,"

When she woke some hours later, Iroh's sleeping shoulder pinned her own, his heavy arm across her waist, his warm huffing breaths swatted her cheek. She didn't realise Kya was offering twin beds when she agreed, and sleeping with the big lug in such a tight space became stifling. Carefully she extricated herself. Apologising, stroking his sleeping cheek before settling in the spare bed beside his.

The first thing she noticed when she stepped over the threshold of their apartment was the lack of photos. Kya and Kana had spent a lifetime of happiness together, and it showed in every inch of their home. Back in Republic City, Asami saw her own place with new eyes, open eyes, there was so much empty space, waiting to be filled.

Iroh pulled packed bags into their room and Asami waited. She waited to feel normal and safe and calm. She was still waiting when the phone rang.

"You're alive!" crowed her assistant on the other end.

"Too soon Opal, too soon," Asami shook her head, "Have you seen Korra?"

"I- not since the wedding, she's been working I think, among other things…that's not why I called, your lawyer dropped something off, asked me to make sure you'd got it as soon as."

"I don't have a lawyer, Future Industries have a team of patent lawyers but I-"

"He's your mom's lawyer …'Sami,"

"Oh,"

"I posted it in your door last night."

"Oh,"

"Are you okay?"

Asami was far from okay. She'd long since developed an armour that kept the despair she felt when she thought of her own parents in a neat sealed little box. The armour allowed her to pass day by day, unchanged through the years. It served her well, it kept her safe, relatively unfeeling, but safe. As of late her psyche was cracking.

"Yeah, what does it look like?" she turned towards the stack on the floor by the door.

"Manila,"

Asami pulled the yellow envelope out of the pile, feeling the small bump and hearing the clink of metal. with one hand she opened the top, and the other she poured the contents on the coffee table.

Keys clattered on glass, Asami recognised them instantly. She saw the writing as clear as day, on pink and white embossed card, in her mother's hand.

It's time my darling.

Song 2 - Hometowns - Band of Skulls