I apologize that this is not the most exciting chapter, but I hope its enjoyable nonetheless. It's a tad short but I wanted to get it posted rather than delay to include more content. My maternity leave is coming to an end, but because of the odd hours I work I get my workweek done in 3 days instead of 5 so I shall have plenty of time to continue to write.
Also, I realized I had accidentaly neglected to mention Naga at any point because I'm just an awesome writer like that. So I apologize
Chapter Text
Asami wasn't confident that her words had provided the comfort she intended. Korra nodded at her; and while she calmed, she had also sunk back into quiet. Korra had always wrapped her entire identity around being the Avatar, but to Asami she was Korra first. Her best friend. She only hoped that she hadn't come off as dismissing what honestly was a huge part of her. She just wished she could help her see all that she was beneath that mantle. It wasn't her ability to bend the elements, enter the Avatar state, and save all their asses that was at the heart of her bond with Korra. It was her selfless nature, her reckless impulsiveness that got them into trouble more than once. Her instinct to solve any problem she saw, and absolute stubbornness.
"You're shivering." Korra said, breaking the silence and jarring Asami out of her thoughts.
"I'm alright." Asami replied.
"We can go back inside." Korra suggested. Asami shook her head, the daily bout of seasickness requiring some fresh air and the ability to see the horizon. Korra frowned, but sat back against her chair and she accepted the declination. Asami leaned against the railing, her mind waxing and waning into thoughts about her father, this move south that she knew would last longer than the weeks Korra insisted. About trying to manage Future Industries from a distance, and worries about what Varrick was going to pull. Her heart began to race the deeper she let her thoughts sink, before she would be pulled back by a sharp gust of wind bringing her back to now as she tucked her face into the neck of her jacket, tugging at her fur-lined hood. She could hear the metallic creak from Korra's wheelchair, and turned to give her a reassuring smile. Concern was written in the lines of Korra's face, but it softened when her gaze shifted to something behind Asami. She turned just as Korra shouted,
"Naga! There you are!" The boisterous animal bounded across the deck, her deep rumble vibrated in Asami's chest. She smiled at her, not needing to step over to rub at her thick warm fur, and tried not to just bury herself in it.
"How does an animal this huge hide on a ship this small?" Asami asked, voice muffled between Naga and her hood.
"Naga's never liked boats, she would hide whenever we went on fishing trips." Korra replied.
"I'm surprised then, that you could get her on a fishing boat."
"We tried leaving her behind once and she almost capsized it swimming out and climbing aboard to get back to me." Korra replied with a chuckle, ruffling Naga's fur roughly "didn't you?" she asked, Naga answering her with a thick wet kiss leaving a shiny sticky smear of saliva on Korra's cheek.
"How'd she handle the long trip to Republic City?" Asami asked. She had a distant memory of Korra telling her about how she snuck aboard a ship leaving the south pole, and now wondered how she managed to hide Naga.
"Oh she was stuck in the cargo hold with me then. Meant plenty of food." Korra replied. This only brought more questions, and she opened her mouth to ask and shut it again. Simply accepting that this massive beast found a place to hide.
"What's bringing her out of hiding?"
"She can probably smell land or something." Korra replied. Asami glanced back out at the water, looking towards the bow to see if she could make out the coastline in the distance. The wind whipped up the surface of the ocean into a salty spray that fogged the air, obscuring distant objects. Even the other fishing boat they had been seeing for days was mostly obscured.
"I suppose I should go down and make sure all our stuff is packed." Asami suggested. Korra looked at her and quirked a brow,
"You've double checked twice since we woke up. But if you're cold we can." Korra replied. Asami gave it a moment of thought. Her stomach was threatening to turn inside out, but her fingertips had gone numb, her nose burned, her feet ached; the cold finally overtaking her seasickness as the stronger discomfort. Naga padded along behind them as Asami pushed Korra towards the stairs, and when Korra tried to order her to stay above deck she laid down and thumped her tail on the deck, wedging her way down the narrow stairs once Asami had brought Korra and her wheelchair down.
"Naga! I said stay!" Korra complained, pushing the polarbear-dog's face. She was as large as the narrow hall, her tail making loud enough thumps against the wall to draw Senna from the cabin she shared with Tonraq to investigate the noise.
"Oh! Naga!" She said with a forced smile, "Korra, she really shouldn't be down here." Korra pinched her lips and gestured with flat palms,
"You know how Naga gets." She replied. Senna let out a long breath and ducked back into her room with a roll of her eyes, clicking the door. She pushed Korra through the door to their cabin, but she was unable to shut the door as Naga had laid herself stretched out on her side the hall, her head sticking partway into the room.
"Do you want to sit on the bed?" Asami asked. Korra glanced over at the bed, and after a moment of hesitation shook her head no. She followed Korra's eyes to the small window in their cabin that was letting in a draft that left their room uncomfortably cold. She was quite relieved that she wouldn't' have to sleep another night on this ship. Through said window she could see the line of blue with vague shapes poking out of the water and realized it was the coastline finally coming into view. Asami needed to do something to cease the rising restlessness she felt.
When she has offered to come south with Korra it had been on impulse, albeit an impulse she felt as strongly about as had she taken time to consider the decision. But she had never taken the time to think through what exactly healing would entail for Korra. She had seen healing sessions by water benders, Korra had her share of them with Kya at Air Temple Island. But the full weight of what she had to endure still lay ahead. She glanced at her, reaching out to squeeze her hand. After a moment, Korra squeezed back. I'm here for you. The words stayed in her head, instead, allowing the silence.
Needing to occupy herself to combat the growing restlessness, Asami let go of Korra's hand to go through their belongings for the third time that day. She had expected some teasing, but went about her task in silence. Save for the panting and occasional loud slurp of Naga licking her nose. She felt a flush as she saw just how many bags she had packed compared to Korra. She wouldn't quite call herself materialistic, but she was still a girl who liked her luxuries from time to time. She had packed her warmest clothes, which she now realized were going to be wholly inadequate outside; her makeup, skin and hair care products, a few books, her design notebooks, a few tools; one chest had her satin pillowcase though she had left her cobra-goose feather pillow behind and a pair of warm slippers.
"Korra?" Senna's voice shouted over Naga. The pair looked at the doorway and saw her awkwardly clambering over her. "Want to watch the landing?" she tilted her head in way of invitation. Asami looked at Korra, and was unable to ascertain her reaction in the lines on her face. She had always been good at reading Korra, and had always suspected that she could read her just as well; they could work seamlessly off eachother, and it made her feel closer to her than she ever had been with anyone before. She'd never had such a close friendship with anyone. Not even Mako when they had dated.
"Ready to head up?" Asami asked. That unreadable expression changed, the flicker in her brow and the way she sucked in her bottom lip for a bare second betrayed her nervousness.
"Feeling seasick still?" Korra asked, the obvious redirection not missed. But Asami gave her the out, and nodded with a shrug.
"It'll be nice to get my feet on steady ground." She replied.
"Don't worry about your bags, the crew will bring everything for you." Senna waved, and finished climbing over Naga who didn't so much as lift her head until Asami had unlocked the wheelchair and spun Korra around, who nodded in Naga's direction. The polar-bear dog got up and wiggled her way through the hallway. Walking behind her Asami could see just how much space she took up in the hallway, and was surprised she fit there at all. But she scaled the stairs without incident, Asami giving Senna time to vanish from view before the laborious process of getting Korra out of her chair and up the stairs, then back into it again. A trip back up the stairs so soon after going down them left Asami's legs aching, and she was glad that Korra couldn't see the way she struggled not to pant from behind her wheelchair. She followed Senna who was further up ahead, parking Korra's chair and clicking the brakes before leaning over the railing.
She hadn't lied when she told Korra she was still seasick. The choppy waters as they approached the coast were doing her no favors. She leaned on the railing once more, but felt steadier having something solid to keep her eyes on. The vague lightheadedness smoothed away, and the urge to vomit diminished to a vague nausea. She promised herself this was the last time she would take a ship across the ocean. She would redesign an airship from scratch to handle the frigid air temperatures if she had to. She logged that fleeting thought away to scribble into her notebook once she had a chance.
The vision of the city snapped her thoughts. It was absolutely gorgeous. The sunlight almost looked like it was shining through a prism. The salty seawater that floated in the air gave a colorful glow. The buildings stood tall, painted white and blue in traditional colors. The architecture was unlike any she had seen before. The angles of the structures, curves on the roofs, the spacing of supports doors and windows looked like they were trying to mirror the ocean herself. The salty scent of the air was now accented by the smell of fish, and a sharper scent of snow and ice. It smelled like cold in a way Asami couldn't pinpoint. As they drew clower she could smell distant fires, smoke danced through chimneys and climbed into the deep blue and maroon sky.
Asami glanced at her watch, seeing it was two-pm. Korra had told her before about how strange time felt in summer and winter at the pole, and it was mid-autumn. She would be getting a taste of that twenty-four hours of darkness. She wondered how that would disturb her body's clock, and how she would feel about perpetual darkness. She found herself wondering what it was like for that to simply feel normal.
"Welcome back home honey." Senna said, looking at Korra. Asami looked down, seeing that distant gaze, the mild lines in her brow, her lips thinned. Her eyes glazed and her eyelashes looked dotted with ice crystals.