Song 1 - Iris - Kina Grannis

"Stay with me I'm right here," Korra begged quietly, a pocket of sound beneath the din of the sirens howling above. Asami's eyes could only flutter, succumbing to the pain, grip weakening on Korra's shirt. "Stay awake,"

She watched her eyes widen, trying her hardest to do as Korra asked.

"That's good," Korra flinched at the voice of the paramedic working on her back didn't look up from his task. "Keep talking to her," he instructed.

Asami lay on her side, rocking with the turns of the ambulance, held steady by three sets of hands. Korra did her best to gingerly swipe away the strands escaped from her loose bun over her temple, she'd looked so adorable this morning tying it up, but only succeeded in leaving a smear of blood.

Korra's lower lip quivered even as she bit it. The surge of adrenaline had every inch of her body coiled and trembling, desperate to do something to break them out of this nightmare. Her head dipped heavy, and spinning, reeling, until a delicate finger tapped her chin. Deft and weak, and she followed its influence to see Asami, watching her suffer.

Speak, Korra read her lips misting clear plastic. Her mind was a tempest of self loathing, shame, and despair, but given the circumstances voicing this aloud seemed counter-intuitive.

"When I told you I loved you, I never told you what it means to me," she gave a sour smile, "I never told you anything you wanted to know," the fingers prone on her chin fell and Korra caught them. "You wanted the house, the home, the someone to come back to, I always wanted to say just pick me," her voice gave under the weight of a watery laugh, and Asami's grip on her shirt only twisted tighter. "I never believed you would!"

Asami would've laughed if she could, as it was the darkness was seeping in and she had very few cards to play. Tugging she moved the hand Korra held to her cheek.

"I was such a coward." Korra sniffled, "Now I only want more time,"

Korra hadn't realised they'd come to a halt until the doors were open and blinding. Asami's hands slipped from her and followed as quickly as she could, but there came a palm firm over her chest to stop her.

"No I can go, we're married, please-"

"Even spouses can go no further," a nurse assured, tone calm, eyes dropping to the bloody hand print on the novelty t-shirt, "She's going straight into surgery, she's in good hands."

There would be no medical explanation to the way Korra's knees gave out as she listened to the gurney wheels squeak away beyond those doors. She nodded anxiously, struggling to balance gripping a counter before she noticed the mess she was making.

"I'm sorry," she cupped her hands over her chest, digging her thumb into her palm while her fingers pressed into stinging battered knuckles.

"It's okay, here," she could barely count the people lifting her to her feet and guiding her to a seat.

"Can you give me her name?"

"Asami," Korra responded, "Asami Sato," she felt a dip in her stomach, trying to find the best lies to tell to keep herself in the loop.

"Do you know her blood type?"

This one Korra knew, Asami had given blood in a last ditch effort to give Korra what she'd needed when she had almost died, and they weren't a match.

"A positive," you have the best grade in the class, Korra had teased, high on morphine and not particularly reading the room.

Korra offered to take the form the nurse was filling out. Birthday, home address, allergies, she knew all of it, pen only wavering when the nature of the injury needed to be described.

Bullet Wound.

Next of Kin/ Spouse.

Korra hesitated, the lie, while important, had only been words thus far, but all she could think signing her name was simply not like this.

Still, the situation called for it, and she scribbled a signature she usually redacted from her idle doodles over the years.

Korra Sato.

She handed the forms back. Thumb printing red on the page. She wasn't surprised by the odd looks she received, and even less so by the ill authoritarian presence that sat beside her.

"Mrs Sato," Korra would never be able to get used to that, and when addressed as such it took a moment for her to respond. "Detective Lin Beifong," she flashed a badge, and Korra was suddenly doused a cold sweat, "I'm here to take a statement from you,"

"Beifong," Korra murmured, "I think I met your mother,"

"I'm sorry to hear that, you wanna tell me what went on here?"

Korra nodded, looking down at her hands, before glancing at the nurses. Any who were idle were definitely listening.

"Not here,"

Lin nodded, standing and leading her to an empty waiting room. As the detective made a point of closing the door behind her, Korra's eyes were drawn to the newspapers and magazines scattered on the communal table.

She couldn't pinpoint why at first, perhaps it was the familiar colours of today's top story, the blue doors, the yellow lamppost she knew she'd walked past before, the red dress of a woman she'd been kissing mere hours prior.

Silent and still she took in the front page from where she stood, Asami at a gala, neutral mask covering the sad aura that nobody but Korra could see as she posed on Iroh's arm. Beside it, Asami on her door step, confessing to her in earnest, and the kiss that followed.

THE SATO AFFAIR emblazoned on the headline. From the photographers high vantage point he could even capture Korra lifting Asami from her lap, legs around her, attached at the mouth, thankfully silhouetted by the light inside through floor to ceiling windows.

WALK OF SHAME read the bi-line, as Asami left in the morning, telling Korra everything would be okay. Lying to her, before kissing her goodbye with an ill-fated sense of accomplishment.

WATER TRIBE MAYORS DAUGHTER - WHAT WE KNOW

The world caved in on Korra when she saw the brief snippets on her and her family, they'd even managed to procure a portrait of her parents and herself and a brief biography. Her heart was pounding, lips numb and head still caught in the maelstrom she'd been churning in since Iroh pulled the trigger. She was sure there wasn't much more the universe could throw at her that could top that. Yet the knowledge that what happened in Republic City, no longer stayed there; blindsided her. She had been outed, if not now then soon. Her parents would learn how far she'd fallen from a third party, and it trapped her in entropy. She could barely hear the detective talking to her.

"Kid? Are you ready?"

"It was her husband, Iroh," the truth tumbled from her lips, broken by those pages, she could only utter the truth, "he found out we were sleeping together and he was aiming for me…" Korra said.

"So you aren't married?"

"I'm her wife," Korra levelled her stare, for the first time since entering the hospital reclaiming her strong, immovable stature, "I'm all the family she has." turning her faux wedding ring on her hand.

"But her husband shot her?" Lin arched an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Iroh," Korra conceded. "General of Arms in the United Forces,"

Lin was surprised by the gall is took to simultaneously lie and speak the truth to a detective. Particularly one doused in a victim's blood.

Korra was balanced on a fine tightrope, but she had done so for so many reasons over the years that she was as poised as an acrobat; miraculous and unyielding. When she met her eyes, Lin's expression was stony, but a modicum of sympathy flashed there.

"Cooperate with me now, and you won't be separated,"

Korra had spent the moments before Lin uttered those words weighing the pros and cons of fighting a police officer in a hospital. Pro - Medical treatment would be immediate. Con - As would arrest probably. She sunk onto her heels, gut twisting, fingernails digging into her arms.

Lin was quite unprepared for such an emotional response, but had the decorum to sit and wait until Korra could speak again.

"We were coming clean," she wept, "We weren't supposed to happen but we did and we tried to do the right thing so we could start our life together, and he, I knew he'd- but not," she threw her gaze to the papers once again, and saw the diner photos, zoomed in blurry, but Asami had been pressing loving kisses to her eyes and lips and cheeks in a precise sequence. "Is anyone-? I mean he could come here,"

"Officers are stationed at the house, a team arrived shortly after the ambulance, other than you no one was there."

"He escaped?" He'd been so still on the linoleum after she'd decked him that he could immediately be forgotten when Asami had made a noise. Her best friend's life had taken priority over beating her husband to death.

"We're arranging protection-"

"He is the protection," Korra's throat was tight, trying not to snap, voice shattering anyway.

"We are aware," Lin assured as much as any gnarled, scarred seasoned cop could. "He won't get near you,"

"I could give a shit about me." an inciting statement if she hadn't sounded so weak. She wanted whatever squadron or stormtroopers Republic city had at their disposal surrounding Asami with a wall of muscle and guns and was about to lay it into Lin when a voice intruded upon her tirade.

"Korra,"

Her head snapped to the now open door, Mako stood in his trench coat, black shirt, pleated pants and a badge glinting on his hip, eyes panicked and furious. Korra swore she'd never been happier to see him, yet equally certain he may finish the job that Iroh started. She stood bracing for the impact of everything she deserved. She was surprised to be buffeted bodily by his hug.

"Asami she-"

"I know,"

"We-"

"I know. It's okay," he hushed, voice cracking, yanking her tighter.

"It's not okay - he shot her, because of me,"

"Don't you dare," Mako seethed clutching her at arms length, golden eyes blazing, "He knew what he was going to do, he came for me first,"

"What?"

"I was in a bar at Kyoshi park and he followed me, started accusing me and almost-"

"The only bar at Kyoshi is a - Mako you're…"

"This isn't the way I wanted to tell you," he gave her a wry smile, eyes dropping to the publications beside them, "I imagine this wasn't how you two wanted to tell us,"

"She was leaving him for me," Korra murmured weakly, her forehead met the meat of his chest,

"Is," Mako corrected, "She'll be okay, she's tough, old Salami Aato,"

Korra couldn't help the mad goofy chuckle her friend teased out of her then, the world was spinning but some things remained just the same.

"There she is," Mako muttered into her hair.

"If you two are quite finished," Lin cleared her throat.

They parted, taking seats on the benches, while Korra gave her account.

"Do you want the affair?" she dropped her gaze down at her flexing knuckles, starting to scab, "or the after?"

"Why don't you start from this morning?"

"Asami made me breakfast,"

"Asami can't cook," Mako responded reflexively.

"She tried," Korra gave a sad smirk, "she practiced while I was sleeping."

Mako breathed a surprised curse, and Lin barely concealed her derisive stare. Korra tried to stay in that happy place as she spoke, though it wasn't long until her voice wavered.

"She left to tell him alone. She was worried what he'd do to me if I went with her. She kissed me goodbye and went to work, I think, and then home to pack."

"How'd you end up at the house?" Lin asked.

"Iroh came to my apartment, to thank me for fixing up their house, and…I think that's when he knew. I came straight over to the manor and I wanted her to run now, but she kissed me quiet and then… he caught us in the car, " her jaw locked, working through the events in her mind, "Asami got out first and locked me in, the door jammed, I couldn't follow, I couldn't do anything she-"

"It's okay Korra, take a breath,"

Mako tried his best to soothe her while remaining professional. Korra could only hear the pap of Iroh's palm smacking his wife on repeat in her head.

"He hit her across the face…" her throat closed, working through it, tears prickling in her eyes, "he pointed a gun at her, and then aimed at me," her fingers made the shape of it, without particularly thinking, cradling it on her lap, "she pushed it aside just enough so when he fired it missed my head."

"How did she-?"

"I'm getting to it," Korra heaved a breath, "She ran to me in the car, but behind her I could see him levelling the gun at my head…from my face she must've known so she moved."

"How'd you get away?" Lin pressed.

"I hit him, I kept hitting him," Korra responded through gritted teeth, "When I thought he was unconscious, I went back to her… Before I even called the ambulance she stuck this ring on my finger and I carried her outside,"

"She knew this was going to happen?" Mako breathed.

"Yeah I think she did," Her own face was sore when she made to sweep tears away. "Is that everything you need?" she choked out, still in the memory, vaguely aware that she had confessed to a crime herself.

Lin flipped her notebook without flourish and stood.

"We have enough to go on, if there's anything further, I'm sure Mrs Sato can corroborate when she's out of surgery."

Korra appreciated the use of the word when.

"Mako collect her clothes as evidence, take photos, the usual, it might be advisable to retrieve some for both, I'm sure my niece is more than capable,"

"Wait what?" Korra muttered under her breath, eyes wide connecting the dots.

Lin left not long after, presumably on the hunt for Iroh. From the privacy of the waiting room, Korra did as she was asked, numb to anything but the requests of her old friend. Officers took pictures of her hands and face. She'd been so preoccupied, her panicking mind heightened to the peak by that adrenaline wave, that as she rode it back down, she could only now feel the beginnings of a black eye hours later; her lip split stinging and nose oozing with blood. It seemed despite her best efforts, Iroh had managed to get his licks in too. She hadn't noticed, focused on that singular task of vehemently making him pay.

Mako was his usual stoic self, nudging her into place, a calm exterior that she could mimic while her guts boiled with waiting.

Given the chance Korra excused herself to the bathroom to wash the blood from her hands. It seemed endless, pockets of dried liquid melting with each lather until her palms were raw from it.

When she finally stumbled back into the room she'd come to think of as purgatory, Opal was there, pausing mid sentence to barb her with wide pitying eyes. She launched herself at Korra the first chance, yanking her close.

"I can't believe this," she whimpered, "I just can't," Korra gingerly raised her hands to her back, feeling the phantom ick of blood lace her palms. Opal was clearly reeling, voicing her spiralling thoughts aloud without filtering. "I mean when I found out about you two I was happy for you but devastated for him and he- it makes no sense with the man I knew but he wouldn't would he? No wonder she'd leave him for you if he's capable of that, but how did he know? I only knew because of what I saw in the gym-" she seemed to stay herself from revealing the particulars, but Korra could guess, sickening heat adding to the foray of twisting emotions.

"It just happened," Korra choked, hating how inadequate it sounded.

"She told me she loved you and she wanted to be with you after I… but I never- I never thought-"

"He'd try to kill us?"

Opal hadn't a response, but it seemed Bolin wasn't far behind her, working his wide arms around them both. It didn't have the desired effect, more and more every inch of love he squeezed into them made Korra's darkening soul coil deeper and more viciously around itself.

When the big lug released, Opal toted the bag Asami had been packing.

"They let me take this from the car," she sniffled as Korra took it, "maybe there's something that can fit you?"

"Thanks,"

It was heavier than she expected, Korra opened it to find the photos nestled amongst her clothes.

Korra shouldn't have been surprised to see so many of herself amongst them, over the years, the memories had been precious to her despite all along thinking the sentiment was unrequited. Of course they weren't, she knew that now.

She cleared her throat, covering them up, packing them neatly after pulling loose a looking shirt and sweatpants combo and taking the bag back to the bathroom to change. Upon returning she held her clothes out to Mako in a fist. His Adam's apple dipped as he swallowed a reflux of deep dread that he tried not to let show. He scooped them into an evidence bag and handed them off. Korra desperately tried not to let it affect her.

"Was there a book?" she asked Opal, eager to distract herself, as she idly fumbled along the spines of the many frames inside Asami's bag, wrapped like packages. "It would be a handwritten diary. Probably on the front seat or glove compartment,"

"This was the only thing in the car they could find, but I can check again"

"Mrs Sato?" Nurse beckoned.

"That's me," her friends hit her with simultaneous aghast expressions, to which she could only purse her lips and mutter, "I'll explain later,"

She stepped forward, heart pounding, examining the face of the woman at the door for signs beyond the neutral. Alas all she could tell that the nurse was at the end of a very long shift, and the outcome that held Korra like a vice wouldn't affect her day either way.

"Is she okay?" Korra had to refrain from begging, wringing her hands instead. "Is she alive?" her voice gave on the last word, and the bind on her chest had been exchanged to her shoulder as Bolin gripped it.

"She's alive, the surgery was successful,"

Relief was a choked sob, coupled with those infernal weak knees. This time Bolin caught her with an arm about her ribs before she came anywhere near the ground, Opal's hand cupped the side of her face, Mako gripping her arm to keep her propped.

"The bullet entered via the her right shoulder, and lodged into bone, We've managed to remove it and suture the wound. We've got her in an ICU ward where she's resting comfortably."

"Can we see her?"

"Visiting hours are over, I'm afraid only family is allowed at this point," she looked pointedly at Korra.

"Go," Mako urged, "We'll be here,"

Korra didn't need to be told twice. She would have ran if the nurse allowed it, but as it was she set them at a bustling pace that Korra struggled not to surpass.

When they reached the door she stopped shy of opening it. The new memory burning in to her psyche with the fluorescence; Asami on her back, elevated arm in a sling, sheets taut over her hip, blue and pink dotted gown the only colour against her pale complexion. Korra watched her breathe from the distance, so soft it was almost imperceptible, long hair tucked beneath her in a dark inky sheet that she rest on.

"She'll be coming round from the anaesthesia soon, she has a morphine drip for when the pain too much,"

"I'm familiar," Korra murmured without thinking, remembering her own time in a bed not dissimilar to this one, the deja vu alone making her skin crawl. "When can I take her home?" she asked.

"It depends on how she does," the nurse replied cooly. Korra's prone fingers started pushing gently on the door.

Asami didn't stir as she approached. Korra had always seen her as strong, agile and formidable, but here she was a punctured paper doll, skin almost translucent and all Korra wanted to do was take her up in her arms and breathe colour back into her.

"There's a button by the bed if you need anything, and water fountain down the hall,"

Korra nodded mutely, her ears were tuning in to those light huffs instead of what she was being told.

When alone she sat on the single chair beside her bed and her vigil began. She slipped her fingers between Asami's and gave a light squeeze. Her throat felt too tight to speak, but she hoped the message was received. I'm here. If it wasn't she was at least warming her extremities.

Asami slept on, with Korra counting and measuring her breaths like sheep. Her head bowed forward and her own exhaustion took over.

She hadn't meant to fall asleep, only realising what she was doing until cool fingers combed through her hair at the back of her head. Stroking softly until she raised it.

"What are you doing all the way over there?" Asami asked huskily, quietly, throat sore.

"Asami," Korra gasped, relief jarring as she stood, propelling the chair she had been on backwards. Bowing over her she swept a hand over her cheek, instantly giving in to the need to press her lips to her forehead, her temple, thanking her wordlessly for just being alive.

"Come to bed, Kay," Asami muttered, fingers tangling with Korra's shirt.

"I don't think I'm allowed…"

"Don't argue," She yawned petulant, turning to her side and pressing her forehead to Korra's throat, "I have work early tomorrow," she went on, slurring a little, "and you have to pick up the kids ready for school," the grip on her shirt insistent.

Korra's heart hammered for her, less with panic and more in tune with a bittersweet symphony of joy. Asami had been dreaming of domesticity and routine, of a life with her, and in the light of everything they'd been through, that mundanity was too exquisite to bear. Asami had even conjured the scenario to such an extent that when waking it would only make sense to continue.

"Asami-"

"Look at you you're exhausted…" she trailed off as she took in Korra's face, specifically the bruises and cuts she inspected with heavy bleary eyes and a thumb and forefinger to her chin. "Who did this to you?"

Korra hadn't the heart to explain it to her, particularly when she was clearly stoned.

"I'll tell you in the morning," she whispered, taking back her hand, "Go back to sleep,"

"Not without you," Asami whined, it was the only thing her high mind could comprehend, a single task to focus on, she couldn't fathom why Korra was being so difficult at this time. "Ow," in her yanking she'd pulled something she shouldn't and flopped her head on the pillow.

"Okay," Korra yielded, mostly for fear she might try and wrestle her into the bed if she waited any longer. She hadn't expected blissed out Asami to be quite so grabby.

A smaller space than they were used to, but with the way Asami turned and curled into her it didn't seem to matter. Her ear against her shoulder, her leg slung instinctively over hers, Korra lay on her back while Asami sought that tight cocoon she'd come to love from Korra.

"Tighter," she mumbled into her t shirt, turning her lips into the cotton, seeking softness and warm and the scent of Korra like nothing else mattered.

"Not too tight," Korra warned, extremely aware of the proximity of her hands to the gaping hole that had once been in Asami's back.

"You're no fun," Asami complained, becoming irritated when her sling prevented her from slotting perfectly against her. Soon their breaths fell into sync, slow and calm. Every minute of being under her, warming her and feeling her nuzzle and tug soothing her battered soul.

"Asami?"

She hummed in response, on the cusp of sleep, but seemingly unbothered by it interruption.

"We don't have kids,"

She hummed again, eye brows drawing in as she willed her brain to work a little beyond the haze.

"Who am I thinking of?" she mumbled.

Korra let out a laugh, that gave way to a gentle sob, she couldn't help the tears pouring down her temples as she clutched Asami to her chest. She didn't seem to notice she was in distress, Korra couldn't blame her, she was on the strong stuff. Once again unconscious, soothed and cradled in Korra's arms as she wept as silently as she could.

When Asami woke, she took a long while to figure out exactly what she was looking at. A glittering dried up river on beautiful brown skin, marred only by purpling valleys. Her features were lax, Korra was sleeping, Asami could tell from the portion of her lips she could see, pleasant shape almost pouting.

She's been crying. Why has she been crying?

"Korra," she tried to follow her instinct, to cup her face and rouse her gently, but her hand was bound by the sling. "Ah," her pained whine seemed just the ticket. Korra's eyes snapped open.

"Don't move," her sleep heavy lips mumbled an order, and Asami could only smile, until that too made her wince. With the hand that wasn't tied down, she could turn to touch her own cheek, swollen slightly.

"My teeth hurt," she whimpered, turning her face into the safety of Korra's shoulder. Desperate to stretch and wake.

"There's a clicker," Korra mumbled, reaching over her, "for the pain,"

"This pillow talk is strange," Asami would've laughed, if not for the solemn expression on Korra's face. Her throat was raw, and now she that thought about it it felt like she'd swallowed glass.

Korra had already lifted a beaker with a straw of water to her lips.

She sipped gingerly, body sore, head pounding, piecing together the why with the here.

"Did something bite me?" Asami tried to reach back to the hot sting on her shoulder, but Korra stopped her, "Like a dog or a-"

"Bullet," Korra whispered and it was all it took. In a flash, everything returned. The bullet. The slap. The car.

"The locks weren't finished," Asami whimpered, covering her mouth. Korra was trapped like a rat, and rather than Iroh getting in, she'd prevented her from making her escape.

"Now you tell me," Korra's lips were on her forehead soothing the guilt she knew was brewing there. She was already heaving sobs, making her pain that much more pronounced, physical and emotional. Korra hushed her, stroking where she could reach.

"I'm sorry Korra, I'm so so sorry," Korra's hands were warm where she was ice cold, under her jaw and over her hip, grounding her holding her steady.

"Did you know?" Her green eyes flicked up to her, pleading, guilty, distraught

"I didn't want you to come,"

"He almost killed you,"

"And you,"

"If I wasn't there you would have been his only target,"

Asami wanted to point out that he almost shot her twice between the eyes. She'd only just emerged from surgery this was not the conversation she wanted to have with her girlfriend. She was getting ahead of herself. My list.

"Be my girlfriend," her fingers curled into her shirt with the urgency of it. It seemed to stop Korra in her tirade. Blinking, confused, elated, perhaps a little annoyed. Her lips had dropped into that adorable surprised 'o' and her head cocked like a puppy while she gathered her thoughts.

"How can I…" Korra found her smirk, fingers tangling with Asami's on her chest, "When I'm currently your wife?"

Asami spied her mothers ring on Korra's wedding finger, a trinket really and in no way deserving of being the jewel that bonded them, simple and silver and tinged with the slightest red. Still her heart leapt to her throat at the sight of it, and she followed the instinctual pull of her mouth, and kept kissing firmly, despite a sore swollen lip.

"You had that plan ready to go," Korra teased.

"You're clumsy," Asami chided, "and I couldn't stand the idea of being apart when either of us woke,"

"Oh my God you've had this plan for years?"

"It takes your parents a minimum of twelve hours to get here," Asami's eyes were glassy, lost in the painful memory, "Waiting was hell and I…"

"I know," Korra cupped her cheek to soothe her, thumb hovering over the marks Iroh's meaty fists had left there, "It was a good plan,"

"I'm sorry I know how much you hate lying,"

"It's the last lie we tell," Korra's lips found that full smile as she made that promise, and Asami instantly felt reprieve to witness it.

"Is that a yes?"

"So long as you asking isn't another confabulation,"

"A what?"

"After surgery, the anaesthesia, or in my case it was a little bit of brain damage. Confabulation makes your memory fill in the gaps of things you can't quite understand with things that just aren't true…like how in my first month out of the hospital, I thought everywhere I was, was San Francisco,"

"You mean how you thought that nurse was your mom, even though she was a different race than you?"

"Yes that,"

"Your mom was right there too," Asami laughed, the bittersweet of Korra's charming silliness, post accident. Left unattended for but a few minutes she'd stolen flowers, and chocolates from other patients beds and laid them on the desk of a nurse she hadn't met before that day. Happy Mother's Day!

Luckily Korra's actual mother, Senna, had found her in time to inform her the day was a while away.

"Wait, what did I say?" Asami muffled the words behind her hands at Korra's smug grin. Preparing to be mortified at the earnest, yet probably embarrassing thoughts of her drug induced heart.

"You asked me to pick up the kids for school,"

"Oh god,"

"I know, you have such a crush on me,"

"Says you!"

"I know,"

Victory was carding her fingers through her hair then, tucking Korra's eyes into her neck and holding her there. We did it. We get to have it all.

"Of course I will," Korra murmured, quiet so the nurse nosing through clipboards at the end of the room wouldn't hear, calm and joyous and so certain of her answer, "be your girlfriend, I mean,"

"Ow," Asami's voice was as soft as it was heart breaking.

It was then Korra realised her left hand was clutching her shoulder.

"Ow," she repeated, eyes turning watery, hand gripping Korra's bicep tight.

"Wait shit, I'm sorry," Korra untangled the morphine-clicker and held it up, Asami snatched it and clicked the button insistently as the scourge of red-hot agony spooled up from Korra's grip.

"You'll stay with me right?" she whimpered, concentrating all her willpower in keeping her grasp on Korra. Almost as soon as it was administered, she felt like she was in the shower with Korra once again, floating.

"They couldn't tear me away,"

She could swear it was raining indoors, but Korra paid no mind to the water dousing them on the bed from the perfect blue sky. She gazed at her as lovingly as always. Every bead of aqua jeweling on her skin, iridescent, almost as mesmerising as her girlfriend's sweet sweet smile. Asami kissed her neck with numbing lips.

"This is good stuff do you want some?" she lifted the clicker to share, only to drop it immediately with a fumble of numb fingers.

"I uh can't, addicted last time remember?"

"Oh gosh, I'm being so rude," Asami balked, although her faux pas quickly illuded her thereafter. All the colours she could see were bright and saturated and it was fascinating.

"Hush up druggie, try to sleep." Korra smiled and kissed her brow.

"Good night Korra, I love you,"

"I love you too,"

"Here, try this," Korra balanced a slice of apple upon the blade of a pocket knife, holding up to Asami's lips.

She was being discharged today from the hospital's custody into the protection of RCPD. During their stay, Korra had succeeded in exactly three things, keeping her calm, helping her sleep, and keeping their very public scandal out of Asami's field of view. She wanted her to be in a kinder place when she told her, swaddled in warmth and love when the rug is pulled out from under her. That she could prepare herself for the reality of what they'd done, with a little bit of the dream to keep her going.

Asami's fingertips brushed the back of her hand, lingering over the soft tendons as she took the fruit between her lips.

"Oh my god, that's delicious," she spoke around crunches and munches, "where did you get that?"

"It's just an ordinary nurses station granny smith,"

"That can't be right," Asami inspected the pieces left.

"Near death experience will do that for you," Korra smirked at her, a certain type of sadness in her gaze. Asami cupped her cheek. "What do you think of those birds in the nest outside?"

"I thought I'd be annoyed but…their song… waking up to them has been just beautiful,"

"Give it a week, you'll go back to being a cynic,"

"I don't think so, if you're with me,"

Korra pursed her lips at that, face flush and at a loss for words.

"Smooth," she coughed, turning away to gather up her bag.

It'd been three days, and Iroh hadn't been seen nor heard from in that time. The army had disowned him, obviously, but Asami's legal team had already heard they'd taken the stance he was under extreme mental duress at the time of the incident, and would likely be treated with leniency.

The idea of it made Korra want to burn him all the more.

Korra thought Asami was being rather blasé about staying at a location he already knew about. Asami insisted they would be safe, purely because she felt nowhere was safer than Korra's bed.

"Stay away from the windows," Korra cautioned when entering her longtime abode. She scanned the walls and windows for weak points, catching the undercover cops staked out in cars idle on two curbs outside before snatching the curtains closed.

Asami watched her pace, brows drawn, heart heavy, settling the weight of the blame squarely on her own shoulders. From her bag she pulled her pink radio, setting it on the open-kitchen counter, and admiring its new home however temporary, and how it seemed to suit the fantasies she might have been having under a plethora of painkillers. She placed her free hand gently between her shoulder blades so not to spook her. Knowing without even touching her, her back muscles were riled into tense unforgiving knots.

"Dance with me,"

A song was already playing, a honeyed melancholic voice ringing out in the twilight of Korra's living room. Singing about lovers meeting in shadows, in sin, fearing being found. It was an old song Asami recognised, and loved, but never paid much attention to the story or meaning behind it until tonight.

Asami's lips traced the cord of muscle of Korra's neck, calming her with tender kisses as her arm held her waist firm against her own across the small of her back. It was an easy sway, Korra's hands braced either side of her hips. Her vigilance began to slip with such a soft ministration, and any other day she would have been embarrassed by the moan she gave at Asami's touch. The coils in her body unfurling, weak with struggle, embalmed with the reward of holding the woman she loved more than anything.

She had a lot to tell her, that they'd been found, that the world knew, and that quite possibly, Korra's worst nightmare; her parents. But in the darkness, and in her arms, she wanted her to feel loved, and safe, so when Asami reared back and saw the fall of tears on her cheek Korra kissed her, firm and distracting, not pushing for more.

There was a moment after another song ended, though neither had had noticed, where their fingers entwine, and Asami looked down at the new ring on her wedding ring finger.

"I guess it's safe to take these off now," Korra whispered, gentle, her thumb stroking that hand.

Asami's heart had began to pound, at the idea of it, and in the next moment she was unable to stop it from leaping out her mouth.

"Let me stay married to you," Korra's thumb stopped, "just for tonight," she tacked on in self preservation.

"Alright," Korra breathed, stunned by those words, but still very much a sucker for her best friend "But I expect a first date very soon,"

Asami laughed with her, leaning against her gratefully, weeping as the rush of all that had happened overwhelmed her. Korra held her through it, as she always had, swiping tears from her as fast as they came.

"I'm so sorry Korra," she meant for everything, and Korra knew it from the cadence in her voice.

"No more of that," she crooned, kissing her forehead.

The phone rang, shocking them out of their reverie as though they'd been stung by it.

"You go, get ready for bed, I'll go… rip the phone out the wall,"

Korra watched her go, walking through her bedroom door with a fond smile, just for her, like she belonged there.

When she lifted the phone to her ear she hadn't expected the beauty of that moment to be shattered so soon.

Her gut knew something was wrong before a word was spoken by either of them. The caller struggled, waiting for Korra to speak.

"Tell me it's not true,"

"Mom," the word fell out of her as though it had been punched out of her chest.

"Tell me you're not…"

"What, Mom?" Korra worked her jaw as her own petulant response surprised her.

"Sleeping with Asami," There it was, the think she'd never hoped to hear her mother say, and at the same moment of course her mother had hoped the same. Korra couldn't lie anymore, but she hadn't prepared a rebuttal. Her eventual response was achingly simple.

"I love her,"

She listened intently, she couldn't even tell that Senna was breathing, not until the line went dead.

Song 2 - Dark End of The Street - Percy Sledge