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The fact that they understand each other so well might not actually be a compliment. It just means they've both been through too much.
A Cracked Diamond Is Still A Diamond
"The night is young, you should enjoy it," Katara says, with a gentle smile.
"It's almost midnight," Korra deadpans, growing serious. "You don't want us to come with you, at least walk you home?" she asks, her fingers threaded with Asami's.
"Don't worry about me. I have Kya, remember?" says her former teacher.
"The White Lotus won't be around to guard you anymore though."
"I've never needed them in the first place," the elder spoke, placing a hand on the Avatar's shoulder who sighs.
"I'm just worried that something will happen to you or Tenzin now that I've separated myself from the order."
The eighty-nine year old looks up to the short Avatar. Blue eyes meet blue and the wrinkly and sage woman is kind. "Believe that you have made a wise decision, Korra."
The younger waterbender looks sideways and her hair sweeps with the turn. Katara can feel the slowly growing strands brush against her wrinkled hand as it lays on the woman's shoulder. "At least the Red Lotus is no longer a threat," the Avatar resolves.
"Which I'm sure Zuko and President Raiko are going to be overjoyed to hear," the elder, who has basically become Korra's gran-gran, says.
Katara watches as her former student turns her head towards the light-skinned woman beside, giving a coy smile. Asami had squeezed the shorter girl in reassurance. Both of the two young women look at each other as if huge walls of ice had suddenly erected around them, supplying shelter from the world and its distractions. The Sato girl stands straight in posture with both her hands around one of Korra's, looking like a bashful teenager with naturally red cheeks in the cold weather, which compliment her classy velvet coat. A grateful smile makes its way onto the confident girl as they share a gratifying look. There are no walls though, unfortunately, and anyone can intercept their secret-but-not-very-subtle communication.
Katara coughs.
The pair switch their attention and cough too, wide-eyed and embarrassed. They're still getting used to being with each other and around other people. The couple looks so out of place at the Glacier Spirits Festival. The white and red upper-class woman (who's skin blends in with the perfect snow), the blue, green, and brown native tribal woman, both holding hands and walking around the carnival while people shoot off unabashed, awe-filled stares. Not because Master Katara is here. No, not because of her, but because that is two girls together, and one of them isn't the normal skin color of everybody else, which all of the above is as uncommon as it gets down in the South Pole. Furthermore, that is the CEO of Future Industries–the girl who builds cities–and that is the Avatar–the girl who saves the world.
What in the world are they doing here?
Korra's blush recedes beneath dark cheeks. "We'll see you then. Take care."
"Goodbye girls."
Farewell hugs are shared between the three women. Katara whispers into Korra's ear when Asami can't hear or see, telling her to do something right.
"So did you find what you were looking for?"
"No, I found something better. You were right. In the end I did find the meaning in my suffering, and more."
"That's good." Katara sips on some tea out of her cup. "Now I do have something that was meant to be given to you as soon as your airbending training had been completed at the compound, but we all know how that went. Instead, let me give you Aang's gift now."
Korra was stunned. "Aang had left something for me?"
"It's an old device he had constructed for use during the many travels he'd make into the Spirit World. It'll let you know how much time you've spent away from the human world."
The current Avatar looks at it, fishing for something in her pocket.
"It should fit perfectly," Katara continued.
Asami and Korra wave at the retreating form of the great old lady. Their surroundings come to life again as they tune back in to the laughing and chattering coming from the festival behind them.
"How has your month in the Spirit World and Water Tribes been?"
"Lovely."
"Ready to head home?"
"Definitely. It was fun to hang out with mom." Yes, the connection between Asami and Senna was instantaneous and even though it took time to get used to, Korra's girlfriend was treated like another daughter of the family. The daughter Senna never got to have, the mother Asami never got to have. "They remind me a lot about you, especially dad."
"How so?"
"For one, his energy is never-ending, and he's kinda intimidating at times." Not that Asami is ever afraid of Korra. There is no reason to be. "While this was definitely nice I'm kinda tired of them for now."
"I don't blame you. I love them but I think it's about time we went back to Republic City..." Korra pauses. "Are you tired of me?" she asks softly, unable to help the pout settling on her lips.
Red lips gape open in surpise. "No! I mean–I don't think I'll ever get tired of you... If anything I'm going to miss you a lot when we have to get back to work rebuilding."
Korra sighs. "It was bad being away for so long during those three years, but we weren't together then. I don't really want to know what it's gonna be like now that we are, even if we'll only be apart for a few hours a day."
The former heiress saw her girlfriend sigh. "You really thought that I would get sick of you? I don't want to be away from you any longer... Korra, do you want to come live with me?" comes the sudden question.
Now it's the Avatar's turn to be shocked. Her mouth goes through several different shapes of o's and a's before settling on a meek, "...okay."
And the engineer lights up. "Really?"
And the waterbender can't help but grin widely, a face of joy that Asami fell in love with. "Of course I will! I would like nothing else."
A tear drops from green eyes and Korra's tan fingers rush to wipe it away, encasing a face of many hard edges in her hands. The chin and cheekbones being trailed by the tips of her hands, the front of her knuckles.
"Where do you wanna live?" the engineer asks gingerly, feeling Korra's forehead connect against her own. Her life is dictated by schedules and plans and blueprints, but this one thing she gets to decide with Korra.
"It honestly doesn't matter, just as long as you're with me," The Avatar answers.
Always the simple and eloquent, Asami thinks this of Korra's statement that rings true for them both. When she talks her cheeks move in Korra's palms. "I was thinking of an apartment near the portal."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." Instantly the ideas come to her mind. "We'll have to wait to construct it though so we'll live in my mansion first. The building is going to have to be further away since the main island is only ruins now, and it can also serve as Future Industries' new high-rise and offices as well. That way I don't really have to go anywhere for work; I can run the business from our penthouse."
"A p-penthouse?! You are spoiling me, Sato."
"Only the best for my Avatar. Naga can move in with us too, and I know you don't want anything big or fancy, just the view will be amazing. We'll get to see the light from the portal everyday and be reminded of what we're fighting for."
Fearful that her jaw will split from her wide smile, Korra attempts to speak instead. "I love you." Her hug is crushing and her heart is overjoyed.
"I love you, more than you'll ever know," Asami responds, throwing her arms around her girlfriend's neck and they kiss until they bruise or need air. Or both.
As soon as their lungs recover, Korra whistles, calling forth the sound of heavy thumping on fluffy snow, it coming closer and closer over the plains. A magnificent beast appears–the only tame one in existence–and it lets the princess and industrialist climb on.
They ride. Fast. By command of Korra, there is no purpose in wasting any more time. Not that she wants to get this over with but because she cannot wait any longer while her lover looks like that. So incredible. Asami's not even doing anything special, just being... here, with her arms wound tightly around Korra's waist.
Naga pants, resting for a bit after having carried both Asami and Korra, and their backpacks, all the way to and from the palace. The Avatar leads her two companions towards the light between the shrubs. These once dead plants have begun to sprout near the warmth of the Southern Portal, decorating the holy place with life. It's been four years since she opened it.
It's only a few seconds left before the Winter Solstice and the Southern Lights dance above in the sky, which is littered with Spirits who can feel the amorous energy around this duo. They feed off it and desperately want to be part of a love this strong. More and more of them appear as the day in which their worlds are closest together, steadily approaches.
The pair head into the portal hand in hand, gaze firmly locked for this is now a ritual between them. Each time they enter or exit the Spirit World, their eyes will land on and never leave the other's marine and green islands.
Once through, the surreal landscape of jagged rock forming Yin and Yang come into shape, as well as the the Tree of Time that sits in-between both portals.
Once through, the sun in their world dips below the horizon and the moon rises to give power to all people of the water.
It's a tripled rush of power for Korra. Of earthly forces from the moon, of spiritual and cosmic energy as their worlds collide and merge for today and today only, the day before the end of the year. Whatever nervousness she had left in her body is now obliterated with these feelings of absolute and potent raw power. It makes her remember how much bigger the world is than her, and how much of an effect she can have on it.
Korra feels young, like if there was a time before you were born, that's how stupidly fresh she feels. Invigorated and reminded of her influence, Korra attempts to remain calm and even humble because she also recalls her ability to be vulnerable. A literal light is being shone in her face and it's so clear that of course this is meant to happen now. Even the universe is telling Korra to do this.
But not even the universe can compete with how a certain person makes her feel.
After appearing in the spiritual world, Korra whips out, from the backpack, the clock that was given to her. It's face shows midnight, but the seconds aren't moving. She hands it to Asami, asking for her mechanical skills. The woman tinkers with it for a short period. Korra watches Asami watch the watch. It's clearly broken, the engineer concludes, then apologizes that her girlfriend's important gift is faulty, even though it isn't even her fault. This raven-haired woman with fair skin and eyebrows and eye lashes and a face and a body and a personality... Korra fell in love with this, and this woman has found with her eyes on the device something that is out of place. There is a switch that Asami triggers and to her eternal surprise the thing cracks open and now she really feels the need to apologize because a clock is not supposed to open like that, or open at all.
And it definitely should not have a betrothal necklace inside it.
It is a beautiful oblong shape. A crystal prism. Tinted green but still clear, and light. Medium-sized and it hangs off the necklace so you can spin it. It's engraved and decorated. As she tries to take it all in she notices that the shapes amazingly fit inside the three-dimensional space of the transparent mineral. This is something that only the Avatar could make. What Asami sees is... The Yin and Yang at the bottom, blue and red. Its black and white dots have yellow tendrils within them that spiral upwards into the beam of a spirit portal, then they form into Raava herself. At all corners of the crystal are the iconic emblems of all four nations. There is lightning that joins the elements together in an electric bond, and in the center of the whole thing, within Raava, is a cog and a wheel.
Then Asami can look no more through the fog of her tears. She turns around and her breath hitches like so many times with Korra. The Avatar is on one knee, wetness dangerously close to falling over the edge of her azure eyes, but a crooked smile that is the widest.
"Asami Sato... You and I, we've been apart for far too long, and not together long enough. I want to make up for that, with the rest of my life. Will you do me the honor of being mine?"
Asami has one clear thought in her mind.
"Yes!"
And another one. It says that if this is the reward, then she'd do it all again.
So it happened that Korra proposed under the Tree of Time with a broken clock, because no one walks into the world of the spirits to remember time. They go here to forget it ever passed. In the past, Aang used this very same device to propose to Katara, tricking her the same way although not in the Spirit World. Now it is a gift from Avatar to Avatar, and a keepsake from wife to wife. It is henceforth Asami's mission to carry on the tradition.
Master Katara once told Korra the tale of "The Cave of Two Lovers." The green crystals in there only gave light once proof of true love between two souls was given. It served as great inspiration. Every time the Spirit World goes into 'nighttime' for the privacy of the two women, they'll have the glow of the necklace to guide them. A light in the dark.
The newly-engaged power couple settle beneath the timeless tree. They have one large sleeping bag; separate bedrolls are uncomfortable. An Avatar pillow and Sato blanket is not. They shrug off their winter clothing and enjoy the warmth of the Spirit World, enjoy each other.
A month is not a long time. It is exactly short enough. Long enough to share a first kiss, lose your virginity with each other, and get married. Time does not care, so why should they?
There's a bigger reason to why Korra proposed before they went back to the city. Korra is the only Avatar; her past lives are lost. She is completely alone in the worlds, possessing a unique duty and responsibility. It is up to her to uphold balance. And while there is only one Avatar, there is also just one Korra. Then there's only one Asami. Their duties as Avatar and CEO will eat up their time together, but Korra wants to show that she doesn't just belong to the world. She wants to belong, give herself to Asami. And now, eventually, there will be official proof of it. A certificate, with the name Korra Sato.
This is one thing, among many, that they agree on: Life is too short to be wasted. Why wait? They've been patient enough.
So under the pulsating and purple glow, Asami talks to her fiancee, and for how long they don't know. There's no time to tell.
"This is the best vacation I've ever been on. You even gave me a souvenir that almost outshines the entire trip. That's rare," Asami laughs quietly, toying with the jewel around her neck.
There are non-stop tears coming every now and then, but Korra doesn't mind wiping them away for both of them as long as she can keep laying this close to her soon-to-be-wife. "It'll take me another lifetime to figure out a better surprise," Korra responds.
The women's features are stretched and sore but there's no stopping the joyous grinning and very palpable happiness radiating off the couple. The entire worlds can feel it. During the comfortable silences meant for reveling in yet another new experience, synchronized heartbeats have spirits above dancing to the calm rhythm.
"I'll still be waiting here when you wake up, for the rest of our lives," Korra says, and it's not strange to be saying that. It's the most right thing she's ever done and unmistakably the greatest decision of her life. While Asami drifts off, the Avatar hesitates not to plant kisses on those hard edges that soften in sleep. "You deserve to be loved."
Asami's dreams are blissful.
She's not surprised to find Korra meditating in the tree once she wakes up, feeling very refreshed. Nor is she disappointed. Her rest has been the best since a long time, thanks to her future spouse.
She is surprised however to see herself in the memories projected around the hollow.
They're not of her literally, but she's in the newspapers that Korra is reading while sitting in a wheelchair and petting Naga:
HEIRESS ASAMI SATO REBUILDS REPUBLIC CITY
Her heart lurches as she witnesses the memory of Korra doubling over as if in pain and then cry. Asami knows that this isn't because she was being successful. But Korra told her this: every time she would try to write something, something would stop her. Like that article. Every time she tried to send a letter, she was reminded that everything in that message would only slow down Asami, make the CEO worry needlessly about someone halfway around the world. While people wrote about Asami, Korra could only write about how much pain she was in everyday and how little progress there was, while the heiress fixed broken structures on a daily basis.
Another memory is Korra regrettably discovering an article about herself, six months in on her recovery:
AVATAR KORRA MISSING, DEAD AFTER RED LOTUS?
This was around the time when Korra had tried to take her life, on her birthday. That's what she told Asami. It was all perfect, the exact day when Aang passed away and she was born. Korra's guilt is overwhelming on that day every year, she had said. People tend to forget what happened in the past. She never will. That it was her fault that Aang disappeared. That Aang built Republic City, and then the president tried to banish the new Avatar, Korra, from her city. That she couldn't stop the city from being destroyed.
Throughout all of this, Asami knows what Korra is feeling. Or rather, what she isn't feeling. Her mind travels back to when her then-girlfriend showed her her own memories. Of her parents and them passing away. It was a strange experience, like she was watching it happen, disconnected from the whole thing. Korra can see herself react, but she doesn't feel the pain while remembering. That is the gift of this tree.
Korra will be able to forgive herself.
Asami will never forget her parents. She'll remember how Hiroshi married a woman of Fire Nation descent, grieved over her murder by a firebender, masked his anger at his daughter dating a firebender, how he hated benders and joined Amon, and how he's not alive to see his daughter be engaged to the Avatar.
Asami was able to forgive her father.
Another memory is a most recent one, and it glows the brightest in the tree as if wanting attention. Neither of them will be able, nor want, to forget this moment. The moment is of course when Asami says yes and practically hurdles towards the kneeling Korra, showering her face with kisses. Then they lie on the ground so close together, not wanting to let go, crying like babies. Because it is dangerous to not remember what happened in the past, because if you forget then you'll always make the same mistakes over and over in a never ending cycle. You'll keep doing the same things wrong, and you'll keep doing the same things right, and in the end you'll look back and think of all the times in your life when you were everything and nothing.
And you'd do it all again.
So when Raava, the entity that Korra had tried to reconnect with so long ago right here, says that she is proud of her, Korra actually laughs. Then Asami envelopes her and says the same, over and over again, mixing in "I love you's" between breaths. Korra has trouble doing anything in her emotional state or questioning why Asami is awake, so she stumbles out "Love you too" as best she can whenever.
Neither will be able to forget their vacation and the time they spent here. It was nice to remember and heal from their past but as they step out into the human world, they look to the future.
They'll rebuild and fix their city together, because they know that it is more beautiful for having been broken in the first place.