Korra didn't know how anyone could stand it. The Sun beat through the roofs of every building she was in, dust was thick and choking and sliced at her throat from within with every breath. Every cell stood on a razors edge, the faint papping of gun fire pricked her ears and made her muscles impossibly coil within themselves with every beat. If she didn't know any better she would say she was standing on a doomed apocalyptic land. This strip of anarchic shacks and holds in Gaza would be blasted to atoms any second, or at least fall out of orbit and in its chaos topple out of existence.
But she couldn't let it affect her, she had a family to save.
This mission was different from all the others. For a start she was acting completely alone, while her skills were above anyone else's on the jump team, a trait she had been assured by the Moon's came from her exposure to the spirit ray incident some five or six months before, this was the first time she didn't have the support team appearing by her sides.
Next there was the location, Korra had never left the Americas before, the tribes being located in the northern hemisphere in Alaska she'd only been to visit family, and her father's abdication from the Chiefdom some twenty years back before their move to the city. Despite her abilities she'd never been one for actually Globetrotting, there was safety in the places she knew. And better yet people she loved.
The heat of this place was hellish and disturbed her train of thought every thirty seconds or so. All she wanted to do was find her target and get them out of here.
This was the third and most perturbing different aspect, her target was no where to be seen. Korra could feel them, they were scared, and quick, impossibly quick, for the first time she was looking for another Teleporter.
Suddenly she felt a pull, a scream of panic sliced into her peripherals and her attention was snatched by it. Focusing, Korra found her target had finally stopped moving. She rushed to join it only to be greeted by smog, fire and death.
She spotted a girl shivering and clutching her own bleeding leg, eyes green, skin dark, hijab askew as tears leaked from her piercing gaze. Korra had never seen a child cry that way, most children sobbed howling for attention or consolation. Korra felt a stab of sympathy as she realised that this child knew she would receive neither.
Korra reached out to her, bending down, palms flat, entirely expecting the flinching scramble that the girl responded with. She tried a different approach, securing eye contact before Jumping, back four paces and then forward six. The girl blinked with surprise and began to speak, a language completely indecipherable to the Water Tribe girl's ears.
She was kicking herself at that moment, remembering the kit Asami had prepared for her for overseas trips, in it included translators, energy bars for starving survivors and a teddy bear for scared children. She smiled at the thoughtfulness of the gift. The heiress always seemed to be two steps ahead of any situation, any time Korra returned from a mission Asami was adamant about learning every detail and plotting consequences down the line for everyone involved. Mad gun toting men received the therapy they needed to recover and become functional members of society, as did the victims of any trauma, courtesy of Future Industries Unfortunate Incident Fund. Korra nearly passed out at the gesture, joking that should the FBI begin investigating the presence of Teleporters in the western seaboard, once they interviewed every recipient the impossible-to-link-together jig would be up.
This memory dragged her back to only an hour before, holding sweet thoughtful Asami in her arms and wishing the moment would never end.
As she bent and the girl allowed her to tend her wounds with her tenuous healing abilities, she was filled with the memory. Drawing her finger along the cut it sealed before her nail, and emitted a soft calming glow that alleviated both the pain and stress the small girl was feeling. Korra smiled without looking, marvelling in the sound of her enamoured yet genuine giggle. As the secondary charge blasted the side of the building, these peaceful thoughts enveloped her for long after she lost consciousness.
Asami felt wave after wave of incapacitating dread and guilt power walked out of the elevator of her and Korra's apartment. Newspaper clutched between her elbow and ribs, free hand rummaging through the impossible crap she now loathed keeping her keys from her grip. She jolted as flesh touched metal and dropped everything in a fit of frustration and panic. She thought of screaming, just for a short while, how dare anyone judge her on who she loved? How dare they use it as a weapon?
She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes, throwing her thoughts into her future, now at every turn it gave her such comfort. Even five minutes, when she walked into her home and would spot the crest above the fire place, the blue prints either side. The mattress that was now held up by a bed frame. The bedside table now entirely covered by multicoloured melted wax. And despite the entire wall window that might have left them open and vulnerable on the ground floor, the stunning view overlooking the harbour fed her sense of privacy and intimacy. They lived at the top of the world, and this was enough to get the heiress to smile softly to herself.
She loved drinking her coffee and watching the sun rise, cupping the mug dearly in her hands and awaiting the moment a sleepy groggy blanket monster Korra would wrap her hands around her hips and press her lips to the nape of her neck. Teasing the hem of her pencil skirt as she lets out a mumbled,
"Hey you,"
Already she could hear Naga waiting to pounce on the other side, tail wagging wildly enough to shift the weaker floorboards in front with deft squeaks. Asami had put off repairing them purely because she didn't want anyone, not even paid repairmen, disturbing her home. She dipped to collect her things, plucked the key from them and, exhaling slowly, pushed its teeth into the lock.
Opening the door she combed her fingers gratefully through Naga's fur before the beast could floor her. Growling back playfully as she dropped her bag and paper and kicked them aside. Mimicking Naga's barks and growls mixed with giggles and her own higher pitched noises. Suddenly Naga's smile dropped and ears fell back. She jumped onto her own bed in the next room.
"What did I say?" Asami called after her. Naga barked, the air thinned, and instinct tugged their heiress' lips into a smile. As the door closed behind her and she shirked off her coat, or began to. Strong hands curled into the leather and trapped her arms by her side. She felt familiar lips on the back of her neck, nose nuzzling her pony tail and a strange jarring sensation at the back of her head.
"You have the right to remain silent." Korra's silken voice cut through her and sent shivers coursing through her spine, "Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law." She punctuated the statement with another kiss to her throat. Asami smirked and yelled.
"Johnny Depp! Laura Prepon!"
"Oh that's really mature." Korra laughed and turned her. Asami blanched, arms finally free she grabbed Korra's sleeves an pulled them apart to inspect her. "Thanks to Mako's recommendation the Chief hired me right out of the academy this morning!"
Her grin was infectious, eyes bright and hair pulled back under her cap she looked a picture. A blue shirt hugged her strong figure modestly, yet still if the heiress looked hard enough she could trace each muscle beneath from memory. The glint of a belt, badge and christ, that tie on this woman sent her mind in a wanton frenzy, already imagining the future, and those tight slacks thrown over the slowly oscillating ceiling fan.
"You're a policewoman!"
"Officer." Korra corrected.
"You're a policewomanofficer!" Korra snickered, sliding her palms from Asami's arms to her shoulder blades, pulling her into a giddy, greedy kiss.
"They swear me in next Sunday will you come?" she asked breathlessly, adjusting her cap so she could press her forehead against the engineer's.
"No my other girlfriend wants me that day. Or wait is it my secret husband? Hmm." Her mouth twisted in a faux completive look, smirking all the while as Korra pouted, "Of course I will you dolt!" Asami cupped her head to kiss her, but became immediately distracted by something familiar, or lack thereof, not ticking her knuckles. Tentatively she grasped at air, immediately unable to identify the pit that had formed without warning in her stomach.
"That's the other thing." Korra whispered biting her lip barely able to contain her excitement, she tore off her hat and combed her fingers through that adorable puffy ponytail, setting free the bob Asami had not seen for five months. "It was kind of cathartic, impulse thing, new job, new look."
Asami's gaze turned into a full on guarded glare.
"Do you like it?" Korra asked, brows drawing together as Asami readdressed the Timeline of Many Korra's in her mind. How long did she have left with her before she time travelled for the first time? How long would she be gone? Sure she came back, and ten to twenty years from now they would be together, give a take a few years depending on how well Korra would age and learn to control her new insane time travelling abilities. But how long in-between then? How long would she have to wait for her to figure it out? How on Earth could she bear it now that she'd had her Korra thirst quenched and then without warning she would be taken from her?
"Asami you're freaking out more than I thought you'd be."
It had been a long time since she had to lie to Korra about what she was feeling, but it seemed the reason was still just as relevant. She blinked, hard, willing the tears forming behind her eye balls to hold off until it was too late. For now all she could think was how much she wanted Korra to stay with her now.
"Do you have another one of those uniforms?" she breathed, her voice tight.
"I have a spare shirt but I think I have to buy the-" she stopped when she felt Asami's hand paw into those short silken tresses and listened to the audible tremble in her breath. As much fear as the new look had given the heiress, it also gifted her with a stunning nostalgic spike of arousal.
"Because I want to tear this one off of you right now." Muscle memory is truly a wonderful thing, as Korra's mind stopped to savour Asami's sudden deep white hot kiss her hands found her thighs and raised her legs so she straddled her. All without entirely meaning to.
She jumped them to the bed, not that Asami noticed of felt it through her closed eyes as her fingers desperately tangled with Korra's black pipe tie. She'd lost her jacket in the fray, and her thin chemise was no challenge for Korra's eager tearing, her uniform however was proving to be tougher than the engineer anticipated. Without breaking the kiss she fondled madly with the buttons, Korra helping from the bottom as she concentrated on reaching access to that glorious chest. When she pulled the navy blue apart however, she gave an indignant sigh at the vest underneath and the sports bra beneath that.
"Too many clothes!" she seethed, feeling Korra rip her skirt past her hips, knees and ankles, losing interest in her lower half for the moment she pitched up to reclaim Asami's gloss smeared mouth. She paused after a long languid and lazy kiss, a little more of her mind returning to her and also the to do list she had set for herself today.
"I uh, actually wanted to talk to you about some things…'Sami, the future to be exact." Asami blanched leaning back, taking comfort from the jarring statement by carding her fingers gently through her girlfriend's hair. She took stock of her position, bra exposed, her own hand under Korra's slacks pawing at her perfect, as yet unscarred ass. She parted spongey, eager lips to speak hoping her voice would hold out.
"Are you breaking up with me?" Korra's eyes widened in horror and she nearly yelled.
"No!" Asami smiled at her, before pulling her down and kissing her gently, and tracing those kisses to her ear, taking her lobe between her teeth knowing the Water Tribe girl's eyes were rolling back into her head, before whispering.
"Then shut up and eat me." Whatever it was could wait, the future was coming, and Asami wanted to hold off on living it with everything she held dear. Korra didn't need telling twice, she was good like that.
Eventually Asami's eyes drew away from the slacks on the ceiling fan, the red of her ruined skirt stuffed between the mattress and the bed frame down until, had her eyes been able to remain open, she would have seen Korra's palm splayed over the engineer's heart like a pleasure detector and her head buried before her writhing hips. Mouth shaped bruises already forming between Asami's left knee and the crux of her hip.
She came embarrassingly fast after that, broken pieces of Korra's name pouring from pale pink lips. As she relished in her after shocks, Korra repositioned her arms beneath her back, loving the touch of her skin as she bit lightly, kissing her abdomen and slowly bringing herself level with the heiress. Pausing only when she felt Asami's hand cup her cheek and slip into her hair, gentler than the hard tugs she had been giving it earlier. Eyes met, Korra watched her mouth smirk and felt her heart swell with affection as Asami drawled breathlessly.
"What's the punishment for trying to seduce an officer of the law?"
"I think it's a fine." Korra blushed, struggling to remember any of her training in the wake of this absolute goddess.
"Like a parking ticket?"
"Don't say it."
"'Cause you got fine written all over you."
"Now I have to punish you." Korra laughed, tugging her close, only Asami flipped them, hands on her wrists, pinning her superior muscle weight using a calculated hold and kung fu grip.
"Worth every penny." she hummed before claiming Korra's lips with her teeth.
Korra disentangled herself from the bed, smirking watching Asami spiral into blissful post coital sleep despite the fact the sun was only just setting. Padding to the kitchen as quickly as she could, not wanting to be long or loud to disturb her, but of course failed. Stumbling, surprised by Asami's bag that never usually landed any where other than the hat rack. She surveyed the forming floordrobe with a bemused gaze, while her new uniform had warranted some respect, perhaps 0.99% of Asami's expensive and fashionable wardrobe had been torn to pieces. If Korra didn't know there was an entire room of similarly delicate clothing back at the heiress' mansion she would have felt guilty.
She spied the newspaper tucked beneath her foot, plucked at it and aimed to place it beside Asami's bedside for her to read before sun rise, only the headline caught her eye.
FI Stocks Plummet As Sato's Sordid Affair Confirmed True.
On one side of the article, row upon row of statistics and percentages and the other were photographs taken through zoom lens. She clapped a hand over her mouth as she traced her eyes over her near moonlit form. She thanked the stars that they had kept their bathing suits on at the bay. Unfortunately that didn't hide the fact that they were clearly making out, the engineer straddling Korra and then being pushed into the sand.
She pulled on her robe, suddenly chilled to her bones as she read and re read the article. She had been so comfortable taking her next step with Asami, her best friend turned lover, it certainly didn't feel wrong in any way. And yet Asami had shouldered this ignorance and close minded judgement without her.
"Come back to bed…" she couldn't smile as Asami's sleepy pillow muffled whimper reached her ears. "Take that stupid robe off you look so much better in your birthday suit."
She allowed a laugh and turned kissing the first part of her girlfriend she could reach. Asami flinched as newspaper crunched against her skin, still wrapped in Korra's fist.
"Korra what is that?"
"Nothing just, you know padding for Naga's litter box."
"Naga is literally the only dog in the world that can let herself out. And she's a dog." She sat up and flattened the page. Jaw set, emerald eyes narrowed as she looked at the words she could recite from memory by now. "You know I don't care what some newspaper thinks of me."
"It's not a newspaper though is it? It's a broadsheet, it's a Financial Times. And it's describing the downfall of your company. The company you've been rebuilding for years."
"It's nothing, not as bad as the papers make it out to be. If I can bring Future Industries back from a fraud scandal, the best relationship I've ever had should be no problem… I'm rich I can do what I want that includes you."
"God I feel so much less sordid now."
"Do you remember when we met?"
"Yue Bay, our families camped near each other when we were six."
"You tripped me on your way to your dam and I got a face full of sand."
"Oh crap." Korra cringed remembering, "I said sorry right? I'm sorry, you know. Sixteen years too late." Asami laughed. Sitting up and wrapping her arms around her waist.
"You picked me up, made sure I was okay and you asked me if I wanted to help build it. By sunset you must've had every kid on the Bay building that thing. Everybody there loved you. I loved you the most," Her rouge lips touched where Korra's jaw joined her ear, chin balancing on Korra's tense shoulder. "You're brave and inspiring, I have loved you for all this time."
"You think if it's not too much trouble for your company, you could love me for a bit longer." she let her fingers glide over Asami's wrist, unable then to identify the sulphur assaulting her senses, she could barely feel it. Korra closed her eyes, numbly processing the precipice she was preparing to step off.
"Korra." Asami stiffened behind her.
"Rest of our lives maybe."
"Korra." She finally opened her eyes, wincing blinded by the spirit beckoning her away, it pulled at her peripherals, and sucked with it her courage.
"Asami…I," her arms loosened from her vice like grip slowly.
"It's okay." she managed, "just promise me you'll come back."
Korra couldn't say anything else, she reached for the portal and read it silently. Hot. Sandy. Tough. Desperate. Whatever pieces of her heart not being held by Asami went out to it.
She dressed as though in a trance, hating every second. Wishing she had the will to uncurl her fingers from the silken trinket she'd snatched from her sports gear and show it to her girlfriend. But no, she stuffed it in her cargo pants, and tugged her white shirt over her head.
"Do you think I'll need money? I can't tell where I'm going." She stepped past the kit Asami had prepared for her perhaps half a dozen times, it had completely slipped her gaze and the engineer couldn't speak.
Asami was swept in the fever dream like state of it all. It was like watching Clark Kent turn into Superman. She bit her lip hard to keep from weeping, clutching the bed sheet to her chest to keep from shaking too hard. Oh the places you'll go, she thought.
"The Inauguration…" Asami began.
"It's in a week, I'll be back before then."
"But if you're not."
"I will be. In and out. No time.I'll meet you at Kwong's tomorrow morning. 10am, so you'll get a lie in." She assured herself more than anything. Doing something impossible and reckless might just be the boost she needed to ask Asami what she needed to. Korra ruffled her new cropped hair and patted the yuans and trinkets in her pockets, pulled the tongue of her boots high and opened her arms to present her visibly hard body to her girlfriend.
"Runway ready?" she forced a smile, which Asami returned with equal tension. Swallowing she replied.
"Stunning." Korra eased a little, returning her attention back towards the light. Already she could feel the sun. Asami wasn't sure how she could, or why she even said it, but she couldn't stop herself. She couldn't let her leave without a real "Goodbye Officer Korra."
Even from the side she caught the smirk in Korra's eyes, She turned her ear further towards her and corrected with as calm and gentle a voice as she could muster.
"That's goodbye Officer Sato."
Green and gold, and once again, nothing.
