This is more hopeful than it has a right to be, but I felt guilty for leaving the story where I did. Even Avatars deserve some happiness.


Three days later, Korra opened the door to find Asami carrying a breakfast tray. Other than the thin, raised scar curving along her cheek, there was no sign that she had been in a crash. She'd even managed to find a fair approximation of her jacket and trousers. Korra would have thought it was a perfectly ordinary morning—if Asami hadn't been chewing on her bottom lip. "I brought breakfast." Her smile was tight. Definitely something going on.

Korra stepped back to let her inside. "You do know that it's usually the person who's been hurt that gets food brought to them, right?"

Asami shrugged and set the food on the table. "I don't feel like eating in the dining room. The whole inn knows I'm here. And I thought we could talk in private before—well in private."

"Before what?"

"I was hoping to work up to that," Asami murmured before taking a deep breath. "Future Industries has finally worked out something with the Provisional Authority forces at Fort Bosco. There will be an airship here in a couple of days to take me home."

"Oh." Korra tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice. Of course Asami had to go home sometime. But Korra had gotten used to seeing her again, to checking on her every morning and evening to make sure something hadn't gone horribly wrong with the healing and to Asami's hand on her knee as they people watched at the bar. "Well, I know you've got a lot to do in Republic City. And I should probably get moving too."

Another chew of the lip. "I was thinking maybe you could come back to the city with me." Asami's voice was so small and hesitant that Korra couldn't even muster indignation at the impossibility of it all.

Instead she pushed her sea prunes from one side of the plate to the other with her chopsticks. "And then Raiko and everyone else asks me to solve their problems before they figure out that I can't."

"Tenzin and I can run interference with Raiko and the press. Most of them are up to their eyeballs in debt to Future Industries in one way or another. You don't have to do anything you don't want to." Her hand found Korra's free arm. "I just thought it might help if you were among friends."

She thought of watching Mako serving as bodyguard to the prince he thought was an idiot. Tenzin training airbenders who were too young to come forward three years earlier. It was all still too much. "You don't need dead weight like me hanging around. I'd just be a distraction."

"Korra." Asami's voice was so hard and serious that Korra couldn't help but jerk her head to meet her gaze. There was warmth and sympathy in those green eyes, but there was anger and grief too. "You're not dead weight. Not being able to go into the Avatar State doesn't make you worthless. You got me out of the desert and you healed me. You are amazing. Not the Avatar. You."

Korra swallowed. She knew she ought to say something—thanks, protest, something—but her voice seemed to have decamped back to the South Pole. The blazing intensity felt weird, like a field that had been shrouded in fog was suddenly exposed to the sun.

But Asami shrank back in her chair. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't pressure you like this. You know what you need to do to heal, and that's all that matters. I'm just being selfish."

That was enough to return Korra's power of speech. "You think I'm amazing? After everything?" On the other hand, maybe it would've been better if she'd kept her mouth shut.

Asami blushed. "I don't want to go another two-and-a-half years without seeing you," she whispered.

Korra set her food aside and shifted so she could rest her hands on top of Asami's. The warmth of them sank into Korra's skin. It was more seductive than any kiss or caress could be. As long as she was alone, Korra had been content. Reconnecting with Raava had been all that mattered. Now the prospect made her feel cold. Asami was right. Korra had healed her. That was a lot better than being so incompetent that she couldn't stop a petty thief. Her memory flashed back to Asami standing in the desert, a hairsbreadth away, lips parted. Maybe, Korra thought, if she wanted to regain the Avatar State, she had to regain other things first.

But Tenzin, Raiko…

But Asami…

Her head hurt.

"Why don't we finish breakfast?" she said at last. "And spend some time together. No saving the world or running off scavengers. Just, us, together again." And maybe she could find her courage, one way or the other.


Korra brought the rented satomobile to a reasonably graceful stop. "Well, here we are."

Asami got out. Her expression was slightly dazed, as if she couldn't believe that Korra had been behind the wheel for more than thirty seconds without crashing or giving her a heart attack. Or maybe she was just taking in the view. Before them was an exact replica of Won Shi Tong's library as it had looked in the material world. Moonlight glinted off the golden spire. She'd seen flashes of the real thing in Aang's memory before their connection had been severed. The replica had been a public works project Earth King Kuei had ordered when the kingdom's economy had been especially bad. A total tourist trap. And still so much more impressive than memory.

"Wow," Asami said. "I've heard the stories of the old library, but…wow. Is there anything inside?"

Korra furrowed her brow, trying to remember what the guidebook had said. "A tea shop. A gift shop. No books, ironically enough."

"Oh." Asami's face fell, and Korra wished that she had more than flashes to share. "All that knowledge locked away in the spirit world. I wish...it's a shame non-benders can't go into the spirit world."

Korra almost reminded her that she was a bender and couldn't go into the spirit world either, but that didn't seem like the thing to say. "South Pole," she said. "Portal. Right there."

Even Asami's snorts were delicate. "How could I forget? Now I just need to mount an expedition. Brave the Everstorm—"

"—Find the thing—"

"—Hope the owl spirit that hates humans doesn't kill me."

Korra swallowed again, this time to tamp down the hysterical laughter that threatened to overtake her. "You look like you could do it." She cleared her throat and launched into a not-very-good impression of Shiro Shinobi. "Asami Sato, tycoon, inventor, now daring explorer of the Spirit World. Watch as she braves crumbling ruins to study ancient knowledge."

They did laugh at that, and Korra felt another bit of the weight she'd been carrying for the last three years dissolve. Asami did look like she could pull it off. She looked like she should be in one of those adventure movers that had become all the rage after Nuktuk. The moonlight had silvered her skin and hair, made her practically black and white already. Even the scar gave her a thrilling, dangerous air. Korra licked her lips and was grateful Asami was concentrating on the library.

The feel of a rock whizzing by made Korra blink. She felt faintly fuzzy-headed as she turned, her brain only reluctantly transitioning from ogling to the here and now. She saw the culprits at once: two Earth Kingdom boys who were even younger than Kai had been when they met. They froze and dropped their remaining rocks.

"We're sorry, miss," blubbered one. "We were just trying to get that fox over there." He pointed at an outcropping of rocks a few meters away. Sure enough, a fox scurried along the edge.

Korra's skin tingled. Not a fox. A fox spirit. She couldn't see the eyes, but she knew they would be solid blue without pupils. "You're trying to attack a Knowledge Seeker? Are you crazy?"

"K-knowledge Seeker?" The boy gulped. "I thought all those ran off into the spirit world with Won Shi Tong."

Korra folded her arms and gave the boys her best Avatar glare. "Obviously not. Now why don't you run along back to your parents before Won Shi Tong decides to leave the spirit world to come get you?"

"He wouldn't really do that, would he? I mean it's not our fault that fox was—"

"You really want to take that chance?"

The boys, quite sensibly, ran back in the direction of the library. Korra watched them, feeling stupidly pleased with herself. Asami raised an eyebrow, and Korra shrugged. "You pick up a few things babysitting. And I'm supposed to protect the physical and spirit worlds from each other. This counts." Maybe it really did, the first tiny step toward actually doing her job.

The Knowledge Seeker scurried toward them. Korra could make out a scroll tied to its neck. Tendrils of thought eddy into Korra's mind. Thank you…Avatar. The other humans were becoming quite annoying.

"You know who I am?"

I would be a very poor Knowledge Seeker if I didn't. Not all of us make up nonsense about radios. Before the first library was buried under the sand, it was customary to repay those who assisted us. My master cannot keep us hidden forever. Perhaps it's time to bring back the old courtesies. He lowered his head. Take the scroll.

"Um, okay." Korra unhooked the scroll, and the Knowledge Seeker vanished into the night.

"What is it?" Asami's breath was warm on her neck as she peered at the scroll.

Korra shivered. "It's—" She shifted so she could hold the scroll in one hand and summon a makeshift torch with the other. "—a bunch of sketches of hummingbird dragonflies. Wow. I guess Won Shi Tong really would take anything in the old days."

But Asami was making a humming noise. The sketches had given her some kind of idea. By this time tomorrow she'd have sketches of a new model of biplane or something. "What are you thinking about?"

Asami blinked. "Nothing. It probably wouldn't work anyway." She cocked her head to one side. "Although…"

Korra smiled and bowed. "I believe you wanted some ancient knowledge Miss Sato. Take it."

They switched positions so Korra could provide light for Asami. And as Asami pulled a bit of scrap paper from her jacket to scribble a mathematical formula, Korra understood. She was doing her job. Bridging two worlds. The non-bender using the spirit's knowledge. Wan would be proud wherever he was now.

I am the Avatar.

I am the Avatar, and I am not broken. I can do this. Zaheer didn't take everything from me. And I can do what I should've done two-and-a-half years ago.

"Asami," she whispered as she extinguished the fire.

Asami looked up. Korra looked at her. Please let me be right. But Asami looked almost knowing in the moonlight. "Korra." And then they were kissing. Any thoughts or fantasies of how the she go vanished at the reality of Asami's mouth on hers. Her lips tasted like figs. Those strong, soft, rough, paradoxical fingers traced the curve of Korra's spine. Korra heard herself whimper. She was all heat and lightning and—how had she managed to go this long without kissing Asami? She didn't want to figure out how she was going to stop.

Asami pulled away. They were both breathing hard. Korra ran a hand over Asami's hair. Soft and silky, just like it should be. They had kissed and the world hadn't ended. Zaheer hadn't swallowed Korra whole. In fact, she felt…great. Human.

Asami stroked her face, leaving a trail of electricity under her fingers. "Korra? Please, say something."

Korra laughed and dared the kiss to Asami's nose. Say something? There was only one thing to say. "I think maybe I can try Republic City."