"People suffer from pain and call it evil, yet in reality it may be growing pains of the Spirit-the changing of the body into a finer and more spiritual substance."
―Henry Thomas Hamblin
Chapter 21 - Spiritual Free Rein
Hisakata wasn't in very good shape in his little earth tent and trash pile. He was burning up, weak, achy everywhere, and only had one good eye. Asami carried Midori and Korra carried Hisakata up to her office.
There was no need for communication between the couple. They simply guided the children up to Asami's office though Korra had to carry Hisakata and Midori was a little suspicious of everything.
Korra made quick work on Hisakata, but advised Asami to call Kya and ask if she could bring some blankets and give a better opinion on Hisakata. She suspected food poisoning, but wanted to be certain.
When Kya arrived, the couple stepped outside in the hall and shut the door, giving the master healer privacy to evaluate the children with a more critical eye.
"Fuck," Korra sighed lowly, rubbing a hand against her face. "Did I read the situation that badly?"
Asami shook her head then leaned up against the wall, thinking and putting all the pieces together. "They ran away from their orphanage and chose the streets. There was no way we could've known."
Groaning, she pulled at the ends of her hairs so hard Asami was surprised she didn't pull any out. "I can't just let them go back on the streets because …"
"Because of what?"
Korra groaned again, mimicking Asami's position next to her. "One, what kind of person would I be if we threw them back out on the streets even if they prefer it there?" She looked down at her feet, hair shielding her face from Asami. "Two, there's a part of the case that I didn't tell you about. It's about them."
Eyebrows raised at this, Asami rolled her head to look at Korra directly and she responded the same way. "What about them?"
"They're symbols of us," she admitted quietly, reaching for her right hand. "All that time, what was impending for you was right in front of my eyes just like everything else in the case. It's another reason why it's been hard for me to accept what happened to you, but I really am trying, 'Sami." She traced the area where she'd been electrocuted with one hand and the area where she'd been cut on her hand.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Asami whispered, a little hurt that Korra hadn't told her about that.
"I'm sorry." She pleaded with her eyes that she didn't intend to hurt her. "There was already so much going on, and you were still in the hospital when I figured it out. I guess then I kind of forgot about it until now. I know it's no excuse, but-"
Asami slapped a hand over her mouth to get her to stop rambling. "Korra, you can't keep something like that from me. That's probably why you've been having those nightmares too." Lowering her hand, she cupped her face. "You never have to go through anything like that alone. Okay? I love you."
"I love you too."
A plan was already formulating in Asami's mind. She didn't know the kids that well, but she was willing to take her chances so long as they were safe. Maybe she even saw a little bit of herself in them.
"We have to earn their trust so we can gather enough information about them to look into their background," Asami said, rubbing her chin in thought with her free hand. "I'll hire a PI and write up an NDA when the time comes."
"Are you suggesting…we take them back to your estate?" Korra asked unsurely, running her thumb along the back of her hand.
"Our home, baby." She smiled warmly, brushing a stray strand of chestnut hair behind her ear and trailing the tip of her finger along her check. "We have plenty of room. They'll be safe and with some time, hopefully come to trust us to reveal some of the skeletons in their closets. I'm sure we could get some sort of emergency custody over them, but I think the hard part will be convincing Lin that they're not associated with Tokuga or the Dai Li."
Korra groaned, lightly pounding her head against the wall. "Spirits, she's gonna whip me with her cables. She was very suspicious when she received the call from Tenzin."
"I know it won't be easy for anyone. It will take an adjustment period, but we'll get through it. We always do and always will. Together."
Hisakata's eye was still a little swollen, but much better and open now. It wasn't difficult to confirm he had food poisoning. Healing wasn't capable of eradicating that, but Kya had given him some medicine and left the bottle with the couple after hearing about their plan.
The siblings sat on the couch, wrapped up in fuzzy blankets courtesy of the master healer. The couple sat across from them on the table.
"I'm sorry I didn't read the situation better," she began, placing her hands in her lap and looking between the two kids. "But I can't let you return to the streets after everything we've been through together."
"We're not going back to the orphanage. They tried taking me away from him! We're not going through that again!"
Asami and Korra eyed one another. Another piece of the puzzle revealed itself.
"We're not trying to separate you two," Asami calmly clarified, wishing the little girl would relax. "We genuinely want to help you and Hisakata." Green eyes met weary, deep sea blue eyes, their owner being relatively quiet. "You know I know how it feels to have a piece of me ripped away. I would never wish that upon anyone let alone two kids." He perked up a little, but remained quiet.
"Our friends, Mako and Bolin, they were on the streets too. By a small chance, they found long lost family all the way in Ba Sing Se, but by then, they were already grown up. There's a strong chance you have family out there too that you're not aware of. Family-"
"We're not living with any of his family! I would rather starve on the streets than go back to him!"
"We're not trying to give you back to your father." Korra kneeled down before Midori on the floor, trying her damndest to get her to trust her. "We're suggesting you and Hisakata come live with me and Asami for a little while. When you're comfortable, you can tell us some basic information about yourself so we can investigate for any long-lost family."
"We're not worth it," Hisakata whimpered, clutching the blanket around him tighter.
Midori's eyes softened at the sight of her sick, defeated brother. She sat back down and wrapped her arms around him from the side, leaning her forehead against his frail shoulder.
"Let us help you." Asami joined her girlfriend on the floor, letting the kids have the higher ground on the couch. "I know how painful it is to have a complicated father, to come from a fractured family. To be honest, I'm still working through my own problems with mine and learning to accept what happened." She blindly slipped a hand into Korra's, squeezing it reassuringly. She'd been there for her, maybe they could be there for these kids.
"We don't know what your father's done, but I know the anguish of knowing someone you should be able to love unconditionally, your own blood, turning against everything you stand for. I don't know how much I can help you through the emotional burdens you carry, but Korra and I, we want to ease everything else around you. You can just be two kids, free from all the burdens."
There was a heavy silence between them. The siblings weren't looking at them, but the couple waited patiently.
Then a quiet 'okay' came. Then another after a few moments of hesitation from the young girl.
The rain tampered off to a drizzle, sunlight overpowering the clouds and beginning to part them. Asami and Korra conversed quietly when movement in the rearview mirror caught Asami's attention. Midori had woken up, rubbing her eyes briefly before widening, taking in their surroundings.
"You… live in the forest?" There was a hint of skepticism in her voice.
"The property's surrounded by forest and there's a pond in the back, but I wouldn't say we live in the forest," she replied, keeping one eye on Midori and one on the driveway she knew like the back of her hand. She pressed her face against the window, and the moment she set sights on the Sato estate, her mouth dropped open.
"Which one's your house?"
"All of it," Asami simply answered. "All the buildings you see, all the land surrounding us is Sato property."
"No way all of this is yours."
"Better believe it, Midori," Korra chuckle, turning in her seat to face her. "I remember when I first set foot on Sato property many years ago. To say my opinion on Asami was completely wrong barely scratches the surface."
Asami smirked, remembering what she'd said at the race track. "If I remember right, you thought I was a prissy, spoiled princess until I proved you wrong."
She righted herself in her seat and pleaded her case. "Hey, I apologized for that!" Asami didn't respond, making the Avatar pout. "Do you still love me?"
The older woman bit her bottom lip like she had to contemplate it seriously, still focusing on reaching their garage. Out of the corner of her eye, Korra looked to be sweating earthbullets. Silly, silly, girl. "Are you the Avatar? Am I the owner and CEO of Future Industries? What an absurd question, sweetie."
"Just double checking," Korra defended. She leaned over and laid a kiss at the corner of her lips, whispering softly in her ear. "You're not a prissy, spoiled princess, but you're my one and only green-eyed princess that can flip the switch and become a beautiful, sexy warrior fighting alongside me."
Asami broke out in a wide smile and shook her head at the ridiculous yet endearing statement, chuckling under her breath. She glanced in the rearview mirror one final time before pulling into the garage, seeing the little girl eyeing them inquisitively. There was something in her eyes she couldn't read and she hoped one day soon she would.
After a handful of stumbling with getting the kids situated, fed, and cleaned, they were settled in a room a few doors away from theirs. They didn't feel comfortable being separated so the couple worked together to move another bed into the one designated to them. Of all the things the two had done together over the years, moving a bed from one room to another turned out to be a learning process for the engineer with a plan and the Avatar who went with the flow and figured things out later with her brute strength.
"Well, that was a fun couple activity," Korra noted, looking proudly at the two-bed set up.
Asami frowned at her, arms crossed over her chest. "You know I'm going to have to call my contractor to fix the dents you left in the doorways and halls. I told you we'd have to turn it on its side."
She sheepishly grinned. "Do you still love me?"
"You're lucky I love you," she retorted, but leaned over and placed a lingering kiss against her cheek. "And I say that with all the love in the world. Stop asking me that question, Korra. The answer will always be yes."
Now that the kids' basic needs were met, the women were a little hesitant on how to proceed.
"So," Korra began, rocking on the balls of her feet and clasping her hands together in front of you, "I guess Asami and I will let you two have some privacy. We're just down the hall if you need anything and the bathroom is across this room. Uh…house tour later? Please, don't leave."
They were about halfway out when Asami stopped dead in her tracks and turned around, glancing between the two kids. She sat at the end on top of the covers, and he laid underneath his, still a little drowsy and out of it from the medicine. There was one thing that was nagging her.
She cut the distance between them in half, biting her lip again, pondering how to go about this. "We're going to try to help you two as best as we can. There's one thing I'd like to know though. If you don't want to answer it, it's fine." She took a deep breath, hoping the words out of her mouth weren't going to destroy the miniscule foundation they seemed to build with them. "Were you that close to Future Industries' office by coincidence?"
She looked down in her lap; he turned onto his side, away from the couple. Asami sighed softly, crossing her arms dejectedly and turned to rejoin Korra and vacate the room. Korra was in the doorway and Asami only a step behind, reaching to close to door when a quiet voice broke out.
"I heard on the radio you were going to give a press conference. I just wanted to see that you were okay."
"He got a black eye because of it. No food, no money came from it."
"What?" Korra moved to stand next to Asami. "What's the black eye have to do with being by Future Industries?"
The siblings eyed each other willfully, communicating in a way only siblings could. He hissed a little and sat up.
"Two guys passed us and criticized every word you said, believing it all to be a big show especially being in a relationship with Korra. Said a woman has no right in running one of the biggest businesses in the world whether she's mentally sane or not, but instead should be on her knees for the men. They said some other stuff that I didn't understand, but the way it came out of their mouths sounded nasty." He shrunk into himself, drawing his knees up to his chest. "They don't know what you two have been through." He mumbled something else inaudible against his knees.
"He tried yelling at them, but the one punched him. I had to step in and scare them off."
Asami was used to such criticisms, but the Avatar's face became red as fire flakes, fists clenched angrily. She slipped her hand underneath the back of her shirt, letting her soft touches caress the tense muscles. Long ago, Asami accepted that she was a woman in a man's world, but she'd finally bit back at that world publicly.
"Don't worry about any of that. Get some rest, okay?"
She led her fuming girlfriend out. In the doorway, she paused, hand on the knob, taking in the two children in the room. He flopped back on the bed, eyes closed to the world. She since ducked under the covers, but sat up against the headboard, eyes moving from one object to another in the room rapidly, learning the environment, looking for something. Eventually she'd fall asleep, Asami was certain of it.
With a soft click of the light, Asami closed their door and came face to face with her enraged girlfriend.
"I swear if I ever find those guys," she seethed, nearly snarling and digging her blunt nails into her palms.
"Hey, look here." Asami titled her face towards her, smiling affectionately and rubbing her hands up and down her back again. "I can fight my own battles. We're happy together. Their opinions don't matter. Only ours."
Korra released a long breath, trying to come back down and not track those two arrogant males. "What should be our next move?"
"Make sure we keep them safe and alive," she half-heartedly joked. "I think the next step is calling Tenzin and Lin to let them know what happened and that we're alive and weren't kidnapped." Korra groaned at the mentioning of Beifong. She giggled and teasingly pinched her cheek. "Don't worry, I'll keep you safe from the big bad, mean chief of police and your airbending master."
"You're really okay with this? I mean, today at least they have to stay here, but if I make some calls, I could probably find some other arrangement for them. I know you didn't sign up for any of this-"
Asami had to shut up her rambling girlfriend again so she pinched her lips together. If this wasn't such a serious topic, she'd laughed at how caught off guard she was.
"All the elements, whatever the world throws at us, all the dark and the light, I'll accept it all with open arms. I'll support you forever, Korra."
The first time they kissed in the spirit world, pulsing shocks raced in her veins, waking her up to what love really was. At the time, she may not have known that what she felt was love for Korra, but she knew without her, there was an empty void in her life. She thought she loved Mako like the way she loved Korra, but that was only platonic, friendship type of love and nothing more and never would be. It was something to fill the void that was initially her deceased mother then her incarcerated father.
But with Korra, she permeated herself into that void, and if she was ever ripped from there, she wasn't sure what she'd do. It terrified her to think what would happen if that ever happened, Raava forbid if that had been her several weeks ago, but like she said, she couldn't dwell on the what ifs more than a few days or she'd go mad and forget to live in the present and cherish every moment together.
She'd never tired of feeling her lips over hers, interlocked like two pieces of a puzzle. Strong hands curled in her hair and rubbing up and down her right side, sending a shiver up her spine and a shudder through the entirety of her body, almost melting onto the floor. Many shivers had run up her spine lately, but this was a very welcome passionate shiver drawn by the woman she loved. This one, this kiss seemed to open her spirit and let it roam free among them, no longer restrained and hiding in the shadows.
Once they pulled away, Korra graced her with her favorite lopsided smile, drawing a radiant smile from her too. Asami gazed at the sturdy wood of the door the children lay behind. She pressed her hand against the solid wood, feeling the ridges of the wood from the craftsmanship of those who built her family home under her father's guidance. She could imagine her mother walking along the hall, running her fingers along the walls on her way to her room after lulling her to sleep through fables, myths, and lore.
She became lost in the bones of her home, smiling placidly at the memories this home held and could tell and the memories it was going to collect of the two of them for years to come.
Green eyes fixated blue eyes. She pressed her lips against Korra's forehead, thanking her for everything she had done for her. Taking her hand in hers, Asami led them down the hall and to their room, ready for whatever waited for them next.
Posted: May 6, 2021
Tumblr: mysky27
