Korra has noticed plenty of times that most of her friends are intimidated by her, sadly. Though she fights for it to not be that way, and ironically it is because she's had to fight all her life that she is this 150 pound powerhouse. But surprisingly, in the best way, Asami does not seem to be afraid of that. And yet...
"You know I was just kidding right?" the businesswoman seemed awkward and out of place, standing there in the ring with these huge maroon boxing gloves on her hands, regretting all decisions in life.
"Why?" Korra was already jumping around in her element, rapid footwork telling gravity to go fuck itself as she appeared to defy it. Those dark half-circles, tainting her determined sky eyes, faded into skin as she prepared to do what she loved. "You had martial arts training, didn't you?"
The older woman tried to argue. "Yeah...but that was self-defense. I only learned like, how to use an opponent's attacks back against them."
"Oh come on, loosen up." the fighter jabbed the air once-twice and did an uppercut. "I'm sure miss-prissy-rich-girl-who's-also-coincidentally-a-two-time-Kung-Fu-champion can throw a punch or two."
Speaking of throwing punches...heavens above. The arms on that girl... The heiress reined in her senses and god, when's the last time I've had thoughts like these? Asami was glad that her girl was showing some of her usual spirit, but fighting was the last thing she'd expected (from her pro-fighter girlfriend, she noted). Especially after what happened last night—which was the precise reason Asami had suggested they do something else today, as a distraction—after having woken up next to an exhausted and defeated looking Korra who wouldn't talk about it. (So imagine her surprise when the younger girl suggested sparring.) "Korra, I'm serious." She placed the glove on her hip to emphasize her point, where it almost slid off.
"So am I." The fighter paused in her warm-up to properly face her girlfriend. "I won't hurt you, and I know you won't intentionally hurt me. Besides, we've got protective gear, so don't go easy on me!" Korra certainly wasn't planning to. Not with the possibility of ending up with her head between those long legs of Asami's (in a different situation she wouldn't have minded), which could probably work as human nutcrackers, in more ways than one.
The heiress did loosen up the longer Korra went on. "So, lemme get this straight," Asami said and saw her lover snicker behind a midnight blue mitten—making her internally swoon at the small musical sound—so she couldn't help but eyeroll and grin herself. "You want me, a civil engineer, to fight a welterweight boxer?" Even as the engineer said this, her confidence grew by the second as she looked down at the 'marginally' (as Korra put it) shorter woman.
"Yep!" Korra nodded with finality, made rigid her spine and raised fists, the dullness that used to be in her gaze wasting away. A moment passed between the two athletes. Asami remained unsure but still got into her stance, dreading what was to come.
When Mako found them, he stayed in the shadows. The two women appeared to be getting hot 'n heavy on the matted floor, but upon closer inspection he realized they were grappling. Both decked head-to-toe in heavy gear, they were showing impressive agility with all the impediments. Korra had managed to get her thighs locked around the heiress' neck, but wasn't pushing like she usually did, not using full force, and eventually allowing Asami to come loose and perform a quite remarkable switch in position.
They ended up in another strained, compromising position, struggling for control, and then all of a sudden one of them let out a loud—sensual, even—moan. The dojo went silent. Deathly still. Mako-the-detective-with-impeccable-timing remained in hiding, embarrased face blooming with rosy color. He heard movement. Then...
"W-what the f-f-fuck...?" Korra stuttered in a shaking voice, stammered and panted.
The policeman peeked around the corner, seeing Asami had readjusted and was leaning atop her girlfriend whose body quaked. "Oh my god, Korra are you okay?! Wait—did you just...?" the woman's face slowly emerged into a wide ecstatic grin. "Holy crap, you did! You had an E-I-O!"
For a moment there Mako thought the businesswoman was gonna break out into song, singing 'Old Macdonald had a farm' or something. His quivering friend on the ground echoed his thoughts. "A-a w-what?"
"An exercise induced orgasm!" Asami explained shamelessly and anyone, but her, would have been totally embarrassed. Her eyes glowed instead. "This is so fascinating. I've never had that happen to me. If only I knew it was this easy to get you underneath me..."
Korra swallowed, cheeks burning, the piercing white heat in her belly the root of her constant shivering. "I-it's never happened to me either. H-how do you know about it? Or better yet, how do I not know about it? This is what I do for a living!"
"I'm not just an engineer, Korra," the genius winked and Korra's eyes slipped shut. Asami pulled off the restrictive boxing gloves and moved so she was closer atop the fidgeting athlete and could scan her love's magnificent form. The small space in-between their bodies felt hot. "How do you feel then?" she purred.
The fighter's head rolled back then, exposing her long tan neck, small whimpers escaping her as she tried to breathe evenly. "It's still going on..." Her whole body writhed as if in discomfort, when it was anything but.
Asami's voice lowered as she crept nearer, a salty scent reminding her of ocean waves. "You're soo sexy..." She couldn't stop a hand from trailing up the woman's side, to which Korra's breath hitched, especially when a pair of ruby lips grazed her jaw.
Suddenly a loud bang reverberated through the hall, startling them both.
People stared as a breathless young man with red fire flaming his face stumbled out onto the morning, early-autumn street. He adjusted his scathing collar and wiped the seeping sweat off his brow, 'cause clearly what he had to say would have to wait a while and Lin would not be too happy about those news. Recomposing himself as well as could be, ready to face the next monster, Mako trod back to the patrol vehicle, thinking he'd just leave and then wait for his friend...to learn to lock the goddamn door.
The biggest surprise of all though was he expected to find the girls a lot more gloomy today, considering what had happened just last night. But he supposes he can't be mad at Korra for finally being a little happy for once, and Mako thanks Raava for Asami.
"Korra, let's go," said the gentle voice in her right ear among horrified gasps in the absence of loud music.
"Korra, you have to leave," yelled the desperate voice in her left ear as fire crackled around them. "It's too dangerous for you!"
But Korra never wanted to leave. She wanted to stay and fight. But the fight followed her here, where she was supposed to be safe, in this new town with new friends. And a new girl.
Asami.
Korra couldn't react to this sudden turn of events, she had to keep the secret... He didn't seem to recognize her anyway. Weak bastard was too drunk. Not sure if he even registered her impulsively knocking him out. But his coward brother sure did, shouted "Amon!" and checked for pulse at the neck every five seconds. He drew the attention of the whole bar so she couldn't move, for fear of being found out. Couldn't fight or run. Regret pulsed at the back of her mind. She needed a distraction...she needed—
"—Asami Sato!"
Korra jerked awake, leaning on the shoulder of the person who'd just been called out.
"Kya, good to see you!" replied Asami Sato. "Oh, I think we woke Korra."
Blearily, the tanned woman saw another tan woman with a hand stretched out before her. "Sorry 'bout that. It's nice to meet you," said Kya.
"Uh, you too," Korra sat up and shook the hand firmly, "Doctor," she added as she spotted the white coat and name tag.
"Apologies for disturbing you," Kya began. Korra disagreed. She'd fallen asleep, on Asami, and Asami hadn't woken her when they were supposed to be respectfully waiting. Although she supposed it didn't matter too much when her girlfriend knew this clearly very important person.
Nobody but important people knew Asami Sato.
"If you don't mind me asking, what are you two doing here...together?" Kya finished, and added an almost imperceptible wink towards the heiress, who blushed easily. If Korra wasn't so tired and had actually gotten any sleep last night, she would've have noticed.
Speaking of late last night, Asami had coaxed her girl into bed where she still wasn't able to fall into slumber until early in the morning. But Korra still woke up a few hours later and couldn't get back to sleep, so they decided to start they day anyway. And as to why they were here, they'd gotten an urgent call from a very nervous sounding Mako, telling them to come as soon as they could. Then for some reason he quickly rephrased that sentence and told them to "arrive at the hospital at earliest possible convenience" instead. He told them the purpose of their visit was because things needed to be sorted out, which, if Asami had any say (which she obviously did) in anything, that guy would have to try his damnedest to get to Korra, and a sleazebag like him was no match for a Sato.
Korra answered Kya's question. "Uh, we were waiting for someone to take us into the ward."
"Ah. Seeing a family member?" the doctor watched both girls.
The question gave Korra pause as she stared tiredly somewhere else, and it took a while before she looked back into those other blues. It felt like it'd been so long since she'd seen another person of her heritage who didn't have this hate on their mind that she had to fight against. These eyes were kind and helpful, non-judging, and unwavering. So when Korra was ready, she had no answer, but a question. "Are you North, or South?" she gently asked.
The question gave Kya pause. "South," her words slipped through suddenly gritted teeth.
Korra could offer this placation: "The man we're seeing is from the North. So no. Not family." But it used to be.
Asami watched confused as two of the only people in the world she knew and could trust, held their silent eye-contact.
Right then, a policeman decided to make his entrance. He...salutes them? Korra couldn't find it in her though to smile when Mako realized what he was doing and made a face that looked as foolish as he probably felt. "Um... I'm here to take you to him."
As they walked, Mako watched conflicted as his good friend and her girlfriend barely even held hands when they followed him down the hall. They were somber, and it seemed like Asami was actively giving Korra space. And behind them a doctor followed, looking equally sorrowful. He thinks he's seen her at the station before, but can't quite put his finger on when and where. Automatically the brain that made him a detective went to work, trying to figure out based on these clues what had gone wrong since he last saw Korra and Asami this morning.
But Korra just watched annoyed as Mako very obviously tried to piece together their scene. Not even conjuring up the image of steam billowing out of his ears as he thought too hard for his own good could help save her mood. He's about to find out more than he may want to, she thought as they made it to the right (read: wrong) place.
Kya peeked over the shoulders of this group of young'uns, glaring through the window at the man as they all stood outside the room.
"I thought he was from the South initially," she said to no one in specific. "Not a lot northerners around here in this part of the Earth Kingdom."
"Why's that?" Mako asked.
She replied, "Because we had to run."
"Your visitors should be here in a moment, Mr. Amon," his very friendly doctor had told him.
His brother however by the bedside was just mad at everything, and if he looked at you it was like he could move your arm by will and make you punch yourself in the gut if he really wanted to. The doctor attending to him wasn't fazed by Tarrlok's foolishness though.
If Amon wasn't mistaken, the doctor—Kya, as she was named—and the Chief of Police had a thing. But what Lin Beifong did with her life was none of his business, even though he wasn't particularly in favor of it. Ba Sing Se was very different from the Northern Water Tribe. And he was pretty sure that Kya had no clue where he was actually from, otherwise he would not be treated so nicely. Just the same way that if they were somewhere else in the world, she would not be treated so nicely if people knew what she was doing.
His back stung. As soon as he winced, Tarrlok would be there every time, worse than a dog's tongue slobbering in your face after you'd had the finest of arctic hen. "Just go get some tea or something if you're that restless, I'm fine!" He'd said before his sibling left the room in haste. The police—Chief Lesbian and some other tall and brooding guy—had given him more bad news. Apart from his broken spine, which he still didn't even remember how it had happened, the one who ruined him was now coming to see him when he could barely move a limb. To finish him off perhaps.
No matter. He had the protection of law enforcement and was looking forward to pressing charges on whomever had manhandled him.
A click came from the door, and he turned to face blue eyes that were not his brother's arriving with refreshments, but a pair belonging to a stranger who was strangely familiar.
Behind the intimidating woman followed another, a picture-perfect beauty, and accompanying her he guessed was a boyfriend—that depressing detective from earlier, probably here to take notes for his lawyer and keep things under control. Or so Amon hoped. He looked instinctively towards the windowed door, only to see his doctor in a heated conversation with the Chief. He could guess what that was about.
"Amon, is it?"
That voice... Its commanding tone ripped his gaze from the arguing happening in the hall just beyond the wall. This woman's eyes had bags under them, but were filled with rage. If he wasn't mistaken, that was all directed at him.
"Y-yes...?" Why was this woman interrogating him? She was the one who'd disabled him, no? Shouldn't he be the angry one? The stinging was back, growing in tandem with his confusion. Those icy pearls bored into him and he started sweating and squirming as the hospital bed begun to feel very inhospitable.
It only got worse when the—southern, he determined—woman leaned forward menacingly and spoke, "Lie to my face again. I dare you."
From the corner of his own blue eye, Amon spotted the two people looking surprised, but none of them were gonna make a move to force this unusually muscular girl away from him. Try as they might, both of them would probably not be enough.
"No," he cleared his throat. "No...it isn't."
"Tell them who you are."
Just then, both Lin and Kya entered the room, locking it. The whole thing was maddening. Should he be recognizing these people, because that southerner possibly knew who he actually was? The doctor, judging by the new animosity in her formerly amicable personality, now obviously knew more too, and had gotten the Chief on her side. And that locked door...he regretted sending Tarrlok away for he was alone against everyone, as he always seemed to end up.
Swallowing, he summoned whatever dignity he had, producing a simple response in the deepest, manliest voice he knew that he had. "I am Noatak, Son of Unalaaq, Prince of the Northern Water Tribe," he said proudly before these five people, as if they would bow to him.
The doctor's, Chief's, and southerner's eyes all narrowed, but the eyes of the detective and his girlfriend widened. Both of them scanned the other's faces to discover they were the only ones surprised by this fact, and worriedly met each other's, then the black-haired girl looked over to the person who had forced his true identity forward, who in turn looked at him fiercely.
"Do you remember who I am?" The short-haired one asked. Did she have a secret identity as well? He would have loved to pay the favor back, but since he could not even remember what happened last night, and this person was the cause of it, he gave up and shook his head. She became even more irate.
As opposed to Kya's warm hand as Korra shook it, everything about Noatak was as cold as the place he came from, and she couldn't see her old friend anywhere in that cold face. It was fucked honestly, that this boy she once knew tried to get with her last night. And to be truthful she was afraid, and the confidence she'd put up was wavering even though they clearly outnumbered him and he was...a cripple. Korra had done that to him. No matter the things he'd done to her in the past, she knew she'd be unable to forgive herself for having put another person in this agony, regardless of how much they may deserve it.
She had never chosen to leave the South, in fact she was forced against her own will and the regret has eaten away at her soul as she never got to stay and fight. So Korra ran away and would like to say she never looked back but...she never even got the chance to.
Noatak saw how the big, frightening warrior from before was wilting away into something much more vulnerable. Her expression was pained, and it scared him how much he recognized it. And it all made sense once she spoke these words: "I'm Korra. Princess of the Southern Water Tribe. Daughter of the late Chiefs Tonraq and Senna."
A gasp told him that the detective's girl was even more surprised by this reveal than his of own. He still didn't know why she was there apart from being with her man, but none of this actually crossed his mind at first because he was too busy dealing with the onslaught of memories.
Korra was crying softly now, salty tears watering her familiar brown cheeks. "Have you come to finish the job?" she whispered and slowly fell to her knees.
Noatak had to force himself to focus and glue back his jaw. His whole outlook had just changed in an instant. "I—I'm... Korra, I can't believe it's you... You're so different..." Not so—broken...
No response.
"You've gotta understand. I've come to—"
"Kill the rest of my family?" she sobbed. "Because I'm all that's left thanks to your fucking dad!"
"No!" he tried. "No, please just listen...you have to—it wasn't my fault. There was a rebellion recently. God, that's why I came here." The prince really could use the help of Raava now.
"You followed me?" Korra's eyes fogged up even more, brows slanted dangerously and she yelled. "Why won't you just leave me alone?!"
"It's not that easy!" Noatak retorted. "I told my father I could stop them from fighting if I found you. So if..." he swallowed momentarily, still struggling to comprehend the whole situation. "If you came with me I could convince him to stop."
"WHAT, NO!" Korra raced back up to her feet. "You think after trying to get in my pants...after all the shit you put me through... I'll just give everything up and go—no! I'm tired of running, I'm staying here!"
I did? But no time was there to dwell on that. He raised his voice in turn. "But—you can't!"
"And why not!?"
"Because if you don't marry me then I don't know what the chief will do to your people!"
"Marry...?!" Korra stopped. "They are OUR people! We were never separate to begin with until Unalaaq started the war!"
"Don't you dare speak about my father like that!"
This time it was not a click at the door that made Noatak turn his head around. It was a full on smash that rattled the wood and metal, and it seemed Tarrlok had finally figured out he was locked out and there were people in there with his brother. The Chief reacted quickly. She pushed the door back out on him and Kya followed her swiftly outside, making sure he wouldn't be bothering them, and making sure the prince bitterly wish for his legs back. Instead Noatak settled for observing from his leaning position, the taller woman moved to comfort Korra, sitting her down and whispering mildly to her, green eyes sparing quick glances at him.
In only a couple of minutes, the prince of the North had been revealed as such, found out he accidentally bumped into the princess after weeks of searching, and had not behaved dignified for someone royal. And actually seeing Korra again, after so long... Once again Noatak could not, literally and figuratively, move. It crept up on him ever since he first woke up in stinging pain, that he would be stuck like this, regretting. It would not be possible for him to go home now, let alone bring the princess with him. His father will be furious.
Mako was much in the same dumbfounded position, having just overheard all of that, and like a detective, pieced together the clues over all his time knowing Korra.
In the hallway Lin had temporarily handcuffed Amon's brother, or Noatak's—whatever that piece of shit's name was, and Kya had locked off the ward for the duration. They still worked great as a team, but neither could shake off how pleasantly they'd treated a murderer and betrayer.
Meanwhile, crouching down uncomfortably on her haunches, Asami wiped at her girlfriend's sadness so she could see clearer. "Korra," she whispered. The woman in question focused sadly on the face of her loved one, so the heiress could be reminded that she would not be getting tired of sharing eye-contact with Korra anytime soon in this life. She wasn't religious and believed not in Raava, but loved the thought of spirits crossing dimensions and universes to be with each other, and she hoped that was true for them.
"Korra, look at me."
"I'm sorry for lying to you," she whispered back.
"Uhh...you don't have to apologize for that." Asami was not expecting those to be the first words spoken to her. "You okay?" she asked, for this was about Korra, not her own worries.
Korra looked away.
"Hey, I understand why you didn't tell me."
"Not just you. I didn't tell anyone." Like she has many people to tell.
"And I'm sure your friends understand too. All of us have known you for a long time after all. Well, me only for a while in person, but I like to think no one knows as much about you as I do. Maybe I know more about you than you yourself do."
Korra gave a small smile and rose. That's probably true, she thought but didn't say. After helping the heiress back up, and with drier eyes, she watched Noatak watching them. What Korra said then had Asami sighing internally, eternally.
"I'm not leaving. I'll never leave 'Sami."
So the detective did not have this, Asami, as a significant other. That didn't really surprise Noatak. But he never imagined Korra would be on the side of "Equality"—some movement preaching equal rights for same-sex relationships—the most preposterous thing he had ever heard of. He'd grown up learning about the places in the world that supported this, and was cautioned that if he ever saw it to not be enticed by Vaatu's forbidden fruit. Now he'd met two of those couples in one day in the same room.
"If you don't go I'll press charges."
"Go ahead," Korra said, gripping the hand of the woman beside her and thought briefly of the night before. "Tons of people already have, just like you when they found about us."
"Fine then, write it," he faced the detective. But Mako was reluctant to do so. "What are you waiting for?!" Noatak shouted.
Mako looked to his friend, remorseful. Korra knew he couldn't do anything about it and her friend angrily noted the allegation.
"Send a lawyer after you," the prince told the trio as they left.
Tarrlok was released once Lin spotted them. The northerner sent evil stares at them and went straight to his brother, shoving the door closed.
Now that was over and Mako detailed things for his boss, and Kya allowed traffic back into the ward, Korra placed a palm over her forehead. It was like she was suffering from sleep deprivation and a hangover all at the same time. What a mess.
"I'm so sorry about all of this. I should never have dragged you into this."
"What? Korra for fuck's sake I said there's no need for apologies." Asami said this and Korra had to check if she was mad, but the woman was smiling. "I'm in this with you."
The younger girl sighed and just felt that hand on her bare shoulder. "I won't leave, you know. I promise. Especially not for a prick that won't stand up for the right thing." It'll never be the same anyway, and nothing good would come out of me marrying him, Korra tried to rationalize. But still...the war wasn't going to end anytime soon.
"Never thought you would." Asami opened her arms.
Korra hugged her lover like her life depended on it. At the moment it was, and she experienced the remaining energy seep out of her body as she soaked up the warmth of another person who cared about her. She spoke her fears into the shoulder. "I'm gonna lose my license."
That shoulder started becoming a bit wet, and the engineer felt so guilty. Conflicted, because she had kissed Korra to distract her when she was seemingly frozen in place, lost in the sea of sudden people. Clearly the person Korra battered down deserved it because of how he had affected her, and Asami felt she had to do something even though she didn't understand it in that moment (after today however she's gathered ample amounts of information on what place Noatak might have in Korra's past). That kiss understandably made people think Asami did it as a reward for Korra for assaulting someone. Those charges were her fault—not because people were against homosexuals. Those charges weren't going to cost her a dime—but instead Korra's only way to fight for her people.
"Oh my god. Korra, I'm so sorry," she paused when she heard a sniffle from below. "Will you ever forgive me?"
"Why are you apologizing?" There was no anger in Korra's voice, concern.
"If I had never come to Ba Sing Se this would've never happened." Her brows furrowed. "If I had just stayed at home or not try to help all the time we wouldn't have gone to that club, I wouldn't have made you drink that disgusting fucking drink that even I hate, you wouldn't have puked again, and you would never even have met that prince or lose your license—!"
"Asami." Korra silenced the blabbering mouth of the lovely engineering genius with a short peck on the cheek. "You overthink things too much," she chuckled. "You're just like Mako sometimes. Look, you think this is your fault, right?"
Asami was still stunned by that brief but wonderful lip-lock. "Well, yes of course it is—"
"No it isn't. Mako said the same thing when he..." she trailed off. "Whatever, forget about Mako. The point is...I think this was meant to happen. You know, like destiny or fate or something?" Korra's permanent frown she'd been carrying all day wasn't there anymore, like she'd figured something out just by looking at Asami.
"Yes," Asami was immeasurably happy that Korra had said that. "I do...get that."
"There's an old legend, actually I'll tell you about it later but essentially the moral of the story is that no matter how bad things get, there's always a light at the end of the tunnel."
"Okay?"
They broke apart when Korra checked her phone. "When are you leaving?"
Asami was getting a bit tired of getting her expectations flipped around by Korra all the time. "I don't really feel like thinking about that now?" She hugged her own body, at the same time as she reminded herself that Korra's spontaneity was part of the fun of being with her.
The shorter girl's mouth comically gaped as if hearing her thoughts. "That's not what I meant!" Korra tried to explain herself.
Asami tried not to laugh. She could play with the other woman's expectations too. "Relax Korra," she said and did so with her own posture as well. Only they could go from somber to happy in seconds.
They both giggled, then Korra attempted again to say what she meant. "Even though I'll lose my professional license, I can still fight. I can go with you."
That's when it dawned on Asami, and she timidly asked. "To Republic City?"
Korra made a noise, that if put into letters would look something like: PFFT. "A choice between coming with him and you? Easiest decision I've ever made in my life."
Asami laughed.
"Hey, can I interrupt you two, again?" Kya cringed while approaching, but smiled her usual friendly smile. The couple looked over and smiled in return to the doctor who...bowed? "It's an honor."
The princess was so stunned it took her a while to return the formal greeting. She coughed. "Um, please. You don't have to do that."
Kya ignored her. "Don't worry, we all know what happened four years ago. You have our utmost respect, and deepest condolences. Your parents were the greatest chiefs we've ever had."
"Thanks," Korra simply said, desperate to move on to a different topic. "So. How do you two know each other?"
"Where do I start..." Kya began. "Let's just say, your girlfriend built this hospital."
Yep, I can definitely play with Korra's mind, Asami thought when she saw the raw awe freely displayed on Korra's face. The priceless reactions the southern woman could produce amused her more than anything.
Even Kya thought the princess looked hilarious. "So you know, you definitely picked the right person. She's got money to last you til the end of time."
Asami would've retorted if the Chief of Police hadn't interjected. "Pick up your jaw off the floor, Your Highness."
"Oh. It's great to see you too, Chief," Korra replied sarcastically. At least the old hag didn't seem to be mad that she'd lied, Asami was right as usual.
"How's my niece?" Lin questioned.
"Why don't you just ask your 'son'?"
"I did. Told him to keep his brother in line if he wanted to keep his job."
"Don't worry. Bolin would never do anything to Opal."
Once Korra finished her sentence, a certain detective called out to the chief that they were needed at the station.
Lin rolled her eyes and got a goodbye from Kya who then walked off to her duties. Mako approached them next. "Uh...so, you guys probably heard that right? I gotta go, so I'll...talk to you later I guess." He looked to Korra and offered her a hug. Asami didn't hear it, but he whispered something. When pulling away, he looked at them both, hesitantly. "Um—lock the door next time, kay?" Then it looked like he wanted to add more, but time or some other otherworldly forces kept him from doing so and he just stiffly turned around and stalked off.
And once that painfully awkward and bewildering conversation was over, Korra dropped into her seat next to Asami in her rusty, green Cabbage-mobile, making sure to lock the doors? (For how much she was thankful for him as a great friend, Mako really perplexed her sometimes.) The afternoon was just beginning but it felt like they'd spent the day...doing something taxing—god they were both too tired to think, let alone come up with any contrived similes.
On Asami's mind was that one day, the businesswoman would get her girlfriend a new car, a real car. A Satomobile of course. Maybe a custom one, blue. Then they could go anywhere... "About what you said...earlier."
"Is that okay?"
"Umm, only if it is for you?"
She sighed. I'm not running this time, I'm leaving voluntarily. "I've had a hard time realizing that this fight is bigger than me, because I'm so stubborn I never ask for help but...I would never have gotten through today without you. Maybe I can find another way to help in Republic City, but right now I can't afford to lose you, knowing how much I depend on you. I wanna say thank Raava, although she has nothing to do with this, it's all you."
Asami was not obviously not expecting a speech like that. "I—I need you too, Korra."
The princess grabbed the hand of the heiress, ready to send her mind elsewhere with the help of her love. "Take me for a spin?"
A kiss answered her queries.