Very important chapter

Nearly a month and a half after Korra's visit with Dr Xavi, just over two months into pregnancy

Korra and Asami held each other tight. Asami traced her fingers around the faint scars left on Korra's arms, barely visible now. They'd both come back from long days in their respective duties, and weren't in the mood for talking. Asami tried to rest and get some shut-eye, but the temperature in the room was stifling despite the fact it was only January. She had opened all the windows she possibly could, and thrown the blanket off her and Korra, but that wasn't helping nearly as much as it should have.

She felt a thin coat of sweat off of Korra, and her nightclothes were wet and sticking to Asami. That's strange, Korra should be able to control her temperature given that she's an airbender, and a firebender too, Asami thought.

A few minutes after midnight, Korra sat up. Asami was glad she wasn't the only one feeling it, but now that Korra had gotten off of her, she actually felt quite chilly. The source of the heat actually seemed to be Korra herself.

"Baby, are you alright?" Asami asked, walking around and sitting beside her girlfriend. "You've been breathing really heavily, and ever since I got back from that trip last month, you've been in poor health. Please, talk to me, I won't judge you for whatever you've gotten. Didn't you go to the doctor? What did he say?"

She says she won't judge me, Korra thought. Fat chance of that.

"Look, Asami, it's honestly fine," she said, "this is a bad time to be talking about our feelings. We've both got busy days tomorrow and it'll only add to your problems."

"Why won't you tell me!?" Asami snapped, her patience wearing thin. "We're a couple, and have been for over half a year! I've been patient and ignored it when you've sidestepped my questions, but it's clearly not going to 'go away' or be a 'matter of time' like you've been saying! I could develop it your illness because you didn't tell me what it was."

"No, you can't, it's… an Avatar problem that comes around every solstice, it should wear off in a couple of weeks," Korra lied, and it was an obvious one too.

"Stop hiding from me!" Asami gave out. "How can I sleep in bed with you if you can't even be open with me?

"I feel sick," Korra muttered, putting a hand on her forehead. She'd been throwing up several times a week for the last while now.

"Don't you think you can-"

Asami was cut off by Korra sprinting past her to the bathroom en-suite. She slammed the door behind her, locking it, and then fell on her knees to the toilet bowl. She retched and threw up for thirteen minutes straight, not once getting up. When she was done, she lay on the cold hard tiles, her head spinning. She felt the full moon pulling at her, the circulation of all the water around her, including the blood in Asami's body. She panted like a dog in the summer.

"Korra, look, I'm sorry for snapping at you," Asami's voice travelled through the door, her soothing tone back. "Today was particularly frustrating and I took it out on you, which was wrong of me. Please come out. We don't have to talk about it tonight if you really don't want to. I'm sorry."

She's apologising to me, Korra thought. The irony. She pushed herself off the floor and trudged to the lock as if she had weights on her shoulders. She opened the door and leaned on Asami.

"You don't need to apologise," Korra said, her head on Asami's shoulder. "It's all my fault."

"We were both in the wrong," Asami replied, and glanced at Korra's belly. "Trying to diet?" was her attempt at a joke. It backfired horribly, but not in the way she thought.

"Is it that obvious already?" Korra said, pushing herself away from Asami, and looking down at her stomach, where there was a visible bump now. She walked to the bedroom door, and brushed away Asami's hand when it landed on her shoulder.

"Korra, I'm sorry, it was a bad joke, I didn't mean to offend you," Asami said, but her words fell on deaf ears. Korra sped out the door, and slammed it behind her. Asami kicked the bed in frustration, thinking that her diet joke had made Korra storm out, when it was really the drag of the moon making her hormonal.

Korra started jogging despite the fact that she had no energy for most things nowadays, and didn't stop until she reached a side door downstairs. She shoved them and they smashed off the walls they were connected to. The lock had been broken for a while now, and was going to be fixed the next day, but there were two handles to replaced now as well.

She strutted over to the pond which she'd gone to every full moon recently, and started to drag the water out of its tranquil state. This had become a regular occurrence in the last two months. She was getting weaker every time she came out, and the water was sluggish to respond to her movements. She tried to whip a bench on the other side of the pond, but the whip fell apart halfway through. She continued to fling water about. Asami watched nervously from inside, her hand on the window. A servant came up to her.

"Ms Sato, are you okay?" he asked. "Is there anything that you need?"

"I'm fine, thanks Theo," Asami said, and turned away from the window, resting her back on it. "I just don't get it! We were getting along so well, but ever since I came back from my trip to the Earth Kingdom, she's been hiding something. Something too big for me to know, apparently! I mean, she's my girlfriend, for spirit's sake! I can see why her and Mako broke up all those years ago. Why can't we just be open?" The question was rhetorical but Theo Guivante didn't pick up on this.

"Yeah, it sounds, really…" Theo started, trying to stay out of his master's love-life. "Secret."

Asami looked at him oddly. He usually stood up straight and was a tiny bit taller than her, but he was slouched now. He was looking down at the ground too, not looking at her directly.

"You wouldn't happen to have any idea if what's going on, would you, Theo?" Asami prodded, her eyes narrowing.

"No."

Asami faced him, and he started shifting in his spot nervously. She grabbed his shoulder and jerked him so that he'd been looking at her in the eyes. He was very polite usually, so the way he abruptly said 'no' meant that he wanted this conversation to end. He's not telling me something, Asami realised.

"What aren't you telling me, Theo?"

"I'm not telling-I mean hiding-I mean-"

"Cut the bullshit, Theo," Asami interrupted him, and a look of defeat appeared on his face. He hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"Well, what do you know about the issue regarding her health?" Theo asked quietly, gesturing towards Korra to get his employer's piercing stare off of him.

"I said it a few seconds ago, I don't know anything about it," Asami said. "Apart from the fact that it makes her really sick and restless all the time."

"She really hasn't told you?" Theo said, shuddering. He had dug himself a hole.

"Told me what?" Asami commanded, her grip on his shoulder getting all the tighter.

"Well, when she went to the doctor a while ago, I escorted her there, and she ran out crying and insulting the doctor."

"Why?" Asami pressed, confused.

"Well, it just so happened that she fell over from over-exertion, and I had to catch her. I saw her drop a piece of paper, which was her prescription, and I couldn't help but catch the first line…" he trailed off, as if she would lose interest there.

"Finish your story, we've got plenty of time," Asami ordered, not letting up her grip.

"I didn't mean to look at it but…" Theo started, taking a large gulp, "it-said-that-a-pregnancy-test-was-positive," he blurted out, but Asami caught the last line perfectly.

"Pregnancy test was positive...?" she whispered, her grip loosening and her hand falling limply it her side.

"Yes," Theo said, thinking that she wasn't sure she had heard him properly. Asami stared at him, flabbergasted, distraught, then her face switched to pure rage.

"HOW DARE YOU MAKE UP LIES ABOUT MY GIRLFRIEND!" Asami bellowed, waking up the entire mansion, but Korra didn't notice from outside somehow, or if she did, she didn't bother checking it out. "YOU ARE LUCKY TO HAVE SUCH A HIGH PAYING JOB IN THESE TIMES, AND YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO COME UP WITH THAT?!"

"Ms Sato, please," Theo said, cowering beneath the smaller woman. "It's just what I saw. I didn't mean to go saying it but you forced my hand."

"I forced your hand?" Asami chuckled, finding humour in her rage. "I forced your hand? Well, you've forced my hand in firing you! Don't let me find you here in the morning." She turned to walk away.

"Wait!" Theo said desperately. He didn't want to get involved any further, but his job was on the line, and he wasn't going to let the Avatar's private life affect that.

"What?" Asami asked sharply.

"I have proof," he said, and her ears perked up at that word. "Hard, undeniable evidence."

"What is it?" Asami asked, her attention back in his hands.

"The prescription from her doctor, Dr Xavi. I have it in my bedroom."

Asami's heart sunk. She wanted to deny it so bad, so much, but Theo was generally a very smart person. He wouldn't bother lying about something like this if he knew that it would be found out in a couple of minutes.

"Take me there," she commanded, and he nodded. The servant walked briskly through the hallway and down to the servants' quarters, his master tailing him. On the way, Asami glanced at Korra, who was throwing up again. She usually would've found it disgusting, but she couldn't tear her eyes away until the row of windows ended. She followed Theo down to his room and he opened the door for her. She silently watched him as he rummaged through the shelves in his bedside cabinet. He had a very small but well-kept room, a result of serving somebody else all day.

"Got it," Theo announced in a shy way, and held up a crumpled piece of paper. Asami's hands, which had been sweaty from them being clasped together, snatched it out of the servant's hands. She ran her eyes over the words, and covered her mouth in horror as Theo's claim were verified. Her eyes started to tear up, and she looked at Theo, one question potentially saving Korra.

"How did you get this?"

"Originally I put it back in her pocket, but I noticed that she tried to throw it away the next day," Theo explained. "When I dug it out, I did so with the intention of giving it back to her when she needed to read it. But I realised soon after that I couldn't just give it back after a while, so I kept it, waiting for a subtle opportunity." He sighed. "This is nothing like I intended. I'm sorry, Ms Sato."

Asami glued her lips shut to avoid any sound coming out. She was going through a rollercoaster of emotions. She felt betrayed the most out of all of them. Korra had been there for her so much during the last few years, even when it was only through letter writing. When her father had been brutally squashed like a mosquito, she'd had Korra to fall back on. Korra had thought she'd lost her father at one point too, and emphasised with Asami. When she had confessed her love, Korra not only accepted it, but returned it fully. When she had been brainwashed, Korra went and brought her back before she did Mako and Bolin.

Was that all a lie? her mind asked. Was every kiss just fake then? How many times has she gone behind my back and gotten with somebody else?

"Ms Sato, is there anything I can do to help?" Theo asked, and she focused her vision on him. She wanted to scream at him for revealing the truth to her, but he had just been a good servant. More loyal than Korra.

"Mr Guivante," she said formally, holding in her emotions. "You're rehired, but go to bed. And do not come out in any circumstance unless I clearly call for you. Am I making myself clear?"

"Crystal, Ms Sato," he replied. She walked out the door, and he shut it behind her.

She had one sliver of hope left. If Korra really denied it in an irrefutable fashion, then maybe Asami could go with her to the doctor and get a test to prove the paper in her hand wrong. She knew that she shouldn't, but her heart weighed on that tiny chance that everything was one big fat misunderstanding.

She walked out over to the pond, where Korra was standing unsteadily, threatening to fall in. She didn't offer a gentle hand to help balance her, but instead shoved her near shoulder to that they would be eye to eye.

"Hey Asami, what the matter?" Korra asked feebly, taken aback by the motion. "Is something wrong?"

"You tell me," Asami responded coldly, and rammed the piece of paper in Korra's chest. Korra put a hand on it to stop it from falling onto the ground, and held it up to the moonlight, clear in the cloudless sky despite the season. Her eyes widened, not in shock, but realisation of the fact that she had been found out. This was all it took to confirm Asami's information, and her breath caught in her throat.

"Asami, please, I didn't want to hurt-"

"Is it true?" Asami questioned, her voice hushed, needing that final bit of verbal confirmation for closure. Korra looked down at the ground, quiet. "ANSWER ME!"

"…Yes," Korra admitted, hanging her head in shame. "I was hoping to keep you from finding out for as long as possible, but now, I guess that's over." A tense moment of silence followed, Asami trying to find the right words to express herself.

"Why?" she asked morosely, her voice cracking slightly, but she swallowed the rising emotion down for the time being.

"I never meant to hurt you," Korra repeated, and tried to move closer to Asami but one cold glare stopped that idea before it got into motion.

"Am I not good enough for you?" Asami whispered, her attempt at keeping her emotion down failing miserably. "Am I too ugly?"

"Asami, of course not, you're beautiful," Korra reasoned, desperately trying to think of a half-decent excuse. The thing was, in the month and a half she'd been anticipating this scenario play out, she'd never found one.

"That kiss," Asami started. "Our first one. In the spirit world. It felt so real." She wiped the tears from her eyes, and shivered in the cold midnight air, only one layer on. "I had wanted this relationship for years, and finally, I'd gotten it. You liked women too, and I could be with someone who didn't know me as a rich, lonely woman, as Ms Sato, but as Asami." She started breathing heavily, using all her will to not scream all her feelings at once. She had to vent it properly. Desolation hung thick in the air.

"You healed my wounds," she continued. "I picked up the pieces of my dead father, my only family left, earlier that day! We were supposed to live happily ever after together, no matter the setbacks. Maybe even for the rest of our lives."

"You mean, married?" Korra asked, shocked. She loved Asami but they hadn't even been together for a year.

"I never had someone to hold onto until you came," Asami revealed.

"No-one?" Korra repeated, confused. "But what about your dad?"

"He was always working, he could never spare too much time for me, and never opened up a whole lot. He always thought he had to be a strong figure to set an example for me." Asami paused, and stared Korra in the eyes. "You were that figure ever since Harmonic Convergence! You turned into a giant and fought for the fate of the world, you turned yourself over to Zaheer to let the airbenders live, when you knew that he would probably try to kill you!

"Even when you were poisoned with a LITRE of mercury, and when we saw you outside, you were flying around chucking giant boulders like it was nothing!" Asami suddenly shouted.

"Asami, I couldn't have gotten through that without you," Korra said. "You helped me get through the most difficult part of my life. After I fought Zaheer, I was crippled in bed for six months, and you kept me company when Mako and Bolin stopped writing letters."

Asami didn't say anything for the next minute. She had full on believed that the physiological incisions into her heart had been healed. But they were scars, and a knife had been plunged back in, reopening them like they were a cooked leg of boar.

"Who was it?" she interrogated suddenly. "Was it Mako?"

"No," Kora lied, but it was convincing. She had planned this part out easily enough. She refused to blame Mako for this, the universe put up signs all over the place for her. She had been tired, so she should've gone home. He had tried to pretend he wasn't there, and she intruded into his home, but even then, he accepted her with good grace. Asami seemed to buy the lie.

"Then who?"

"I went to a bar after a long day of meetings at the City Hall, and I got drunk. Some random guy came up to me and I went home with him. I don't even remember what he looked like or his name." That wasn't what Korra had in her head, but it was what came out. Unfortunately, she couldn't have phrased it much worse.

"Some... random guy?" Asami echoed.

That disturbed her. All the lengths she went to on a regular basis to spend time with Korra, and when she left her mansion to her for a few weeks, she decided to head to some 'random' guy's house? "Some RANDOM guy? Is that all it took for you to cast me away?!"

"Asami, I wouldn't have dreamt of it in a million years if I was sober," Korra pleaded, tears filling in her own eyes.

"They say drunk words are sober thoughts," Asami said. "You told me that, didn't you?"

"That doesn't apply-"

"SAME FUCKIN' CONCEPT!" Asami cried. "I thought I could read people when they were lying, but I was a damn fool! How far into pregnancy are you?"

"Two months," Korra mumbled.

"What?" Asami said, genuinely not hearing her.

"Two months," Korra said louder, trying to find words to express her shame. She kept on trying to think of an excuse while Asami walked up to her.

The clap of flesh sounded throughout the night air as Asami slapped Korra hard on the face. The force of it was so thorough that Korra fell on her ass. Korra rubbed her cheek, but it wasn't the power of it that hurt. It was that not once before that night had Asami ever laid a finger on Korra. She'd beaten up plenty of others in the past, but they'd always been gentle and kind to each other. Not anymore.

Asami followed this up with another slap, and another. She didn't care that Korra was pregnant, Korra had toyed with Asami's feelings and tossed them in the trash the first real chance she got.

"Asami… please… let me explain…" Korra said between each strike, trying to hold up her arms to protect herself but not succeeding.

"STUPID SLAG!" Asami screamed, her voice cracking.

Suddenly, Korra's instincts took over. She had a baby inside of her that could be facing the consequences of this beating when it was born.

"Stop!" she yelled, holding her hand out to try and catch Asami's strikes, her eyes closed. Strangely enough, they did stop even though Korra hadn't caught either one of Asami's hands. After a few moments of suspense, she peeked open her eyelids.

Asami stood there, tilted over Korra, but was completely motionless. Her body shook slightly, and the action that Korra was performing hit them at the same time.

Korra was bloodbending Asami.

"I'm so, so sorry!" Korra apologised, immediately releasing her grip. "I-"

"Get away from me!" Asami cried, the terror in her eyes very real as she edged away from her now ex-girlfriend. "You monster!" She started running back to the house.

"Asami, wait!" Korra wailed, and reached out for Asami, inadvertently bloodbending her again. It was much weaker this time though, and Asami ploughed through the hold with pure will, no longer recognising Korra as the same person as before when she looked back. The doors slammed shut as Korra pushed herself onto her feet. She felt the night trying to swallow her up.

"I need to get away from here," Korra panicked, and started running. Out of the proximity of the house. Into the woods. Out of the grounds. Towards Republic City. It didn't matter where, she just needed to escape to somewhere dark and quiet in the city.

Sim nodded grimly over to his colleague on the roof of the Sato mansion, knowing there was no denying what they had witnessed. They started to trail after Korra from a distance, even though they had all the evidence they needed.

The Avatar was a criminal, and in the morning, when the full moon had passed, she would be arrested.