When she woke up, Korra felt absolutely whacked. She yawned and stretched and tried to find the source of the talking which had woken her. Evidently, Asami was speaking in the neighboring room. Based on the phone cable, which was tautened from the socket to the door, someone must have called.
The Avatar glanced around the room and a wave of guilt washed over her. The night before some butler had prepared a nice guest room for her, but she had pleaded with Asami to stay in her room for a bit, and evidently she had fallen asleep during their talking.
While she did not care much for the work that was put into preparing the guest room, she did not like that Asami had evidently felt the need to sleep on the floor, since she had woken up in the giant bed of hers and there was a makeshift bed on the floor.
Taking a deep breath, she threw her legs over the edge of the bed and tried bending the air under the pillows and blankets on the ground. She had already made her friend sleep on the floor, the least she could do was to make the bed.
"Yes, I'll tell her, don't worry. Okay, see you soon!" The last words of Asami were spoken while she entered the room, smiling at her friend.
"What are you telling me", Korra asked while she finished folding the blankets, "oh let me guess. Tenzin is going to kill me for missing the meditation?" - "No, he asked for you to call when you are sleeping over elsewhere", Asami said with still a little smile, but after that her face fell, "they'd been searching the shores of the island for your body."
Within seconds, blood trained from Korras head and a big knot appeared in her throat. The truth was, she had been thinking about it. And the very reason for rejecting the idea was what she deemed to be the reason for her depression: The suffocation on the hands of Zaheer. Her thoughts trailed back to the horrible minutes with the air bend out of her lungs. She could never bring herself to end her live in such a brutal manner.
Deep in thought, she felt the bed move and a hand on her shoulder. "Everything okay", Asami questioned, trying to give her a reassuring smile. Korra tried to force a smile and nodded.
"You know it's kinda weird", the Avatar said quietly, trying to change the subject, but not just quite accomplishing it, "just three month ago Tenzin used to scream at me like five times a day. 'Korra, meditation starts at sunrise!' - 'Korra, you shouldn't use the Avatar state for cheating at games!' - 'Korra, stop burning down our ancient air temple stuff!' Now I could burn down the entire island and he'd probably go: 'Oh Korra! Good to see your firebending is back!'"
It was amazing in it's own kind - Asami, CEO of Future Industries, who was trained to react to almost everything in a diplomatic and calm way, was at loss for words. The problem was: She could understand both sides, and she was actually sure Korra could, too. Tenzin did not want to make her feel worse than she already did, but Korra wanted just to have her old life back as much as possible.
"Do you need to stand before the Council today", she asked, which was the best she could do. The Avatar smirked for a bit, but decided against calling her on the word "stand", and instead said: "If Tenzin didn't say so, then probably no." - "You really think you have a chance with your last request?"
Korra shook her head slowly, as if to spread her gray matter more evenly. "I think in the end they will have to agree with me. Now that I brought the subject up, it's either that or arrest half of the South Pole." Asami's eyes widened in shock: "There are that many people living together with someone of the same gender?"
A sly smiles appeared on the Avatar's lips. "Where do you think I lived when I was there? My parent's home hasn't got room for a wheelchair, so I lived with Katara and Kya." Asami looked at her unnerved: "You know what mean! You aren't dating one of them." - "How do you know?"
The dark haired woman opened her mouth to retort a potentially rude answer, when she saw her friends face and registered: she was not trying to get her on edge, but was trying to help her see the problem with the current laws.
But instead of lingering over the question, she decided now was as good time as ever to talk about the elephant mandrill in the room: "Do you want to get married to some girl?"
The Avatar shrugged: "Sure, I would." - "Would", her friend echoed. "Yes, if the love of my life were to be a girl I would want to marry her. Wouldn't you?"
Asami had a shocked look on her face. Not just because of the question, but because the Avatar had just outsmarted her. Reluctantly, she answered: "You know I'm not comfortable with this sort of thing." - "But could you be happy for me", Korra asked with a worrisome expression.
Even while the question was being asked, Asami had gotten up from the bed and moved the wheelchair next to her friend. Now that it was up in the open, she just sighed and gave Korra a hand: "Let's go get us some breakfast."
"You should really eat more", Asami stated a while later, while seeing how Korra played with the scrambled eggs on her plate.
"It's just…", the Avatar replied in a sad tone of voice, "you're my best friend, and I can't get you to be supportive of me. What chance do I have at convincing other people?" - "I'm your best friend", Asami countered, determined to not again engross in the other, problematic subject, "I always thought it was Naga?"
Shrugging Korra scratched the back of her neck: "Maybe she is… out of you two, she's the only one to lick my face when I did good." Asami laughed lightly: "You really want me to start doing THAT?" - "No. Actually, could you talk to Naga about her stopping that", Korra said, laughing as well.
And just when the two of them thought the day might still be a good one, the butler came in, putting a hot tea in front of Korra and a coffee and a newspaper next to his boss. Asami took a sip of it, looked on the paper's front page and sprayed the coffee all over the table.
"You've got to be kidding me", the CEO said, her eyes big as saucers and her face even paler than she was anyway. Since she did not seem to share what was troubling her, Korra wheeled around the table to take a look at the paper.
There it was, the first colored photograph she ever saw in the newspaper. It sported her and Asami in a tight embrace. "When did that even happen", was all she could muster in her shock. Asami hit the table so hard the dishes rattled and Korras tea spilled.
She sprung to her feet so fast that her chair toppled over and slid backwards. Then she held the picture next to the nearest window frame and examined it. "Ohhh", the yuan had dropped for the Avatar, as she moved over to her friend, "that's from yesterday, when you tried to throw me from your office window."
Asami did not laugh. She was furious, but probably not with Korra this time, but herself. "Maybe I should have throw you", she said icily, "this image is from me dragging you into the window. But it's cropped to make it look more spectacular. I could have avoided that one easily."
"Sorry", Korra said with a hurt and broken look on her face. The worst part was, she was not even sure how that was her fault. Hearing the other girls heartfelt apology, Asami turned to her, startled as she realized what she had just told her best friend.
"No, no, no", she chanted, kneeling before the wheelchair bound woman, "no, you don't need to be sorry. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. It's not your fault at all." She sighed deeply. "I was just so glad when you came by yesterday I forgot there might have been paparazzi in the bushes."
"Sorry", Korra repeated mechanically. Words started losing their power - the woman knew, if she never made her request to the Council, all of this would not have happened. "You don't get to be sorry", Asami told her sternly, "and you know what? Just for that you're staying with me till this blows over!"