Asami couldn't bring herself to look up, unsure of which answers would be the least devastating, even as a look on Senna's face. She felt a light squeeze on her fingers, and listened to every sound that she made intently.

"We were there for the aftermath, nothing else." Asami hung her head lower, ashamed at what she had been thinking. Senna sat on a nearby stool, the weight of the memories heavy on her slight shoulders. "Your father was so angry. So broken. Tonraq said couldn't get a word out of him. I took you and Korra home as they spoke. I don't think you knew what was going on…It would have been impossible for him to not change on that day. But even then we couldn't guess what he would do to us. What he'd blame us for."

"Was it a Jumper?" Senna's eyes flashed and looked Asami straight in her eyes. The silence disturbed only by the hoots of the cops in the bar beside them.

"It could have been. We really don't know."

"How could you not know? It either was or wasn't." Asami snapped, but immediately retreated, regretting the spiteful edge her voice took. She mumbled an apology and turned to face the door. Yet still found herself unable to walk into the room where Korra and her friends were celebrating so jubilantly. Even though she loved her she felt like such an outsider.

"There was very little evidence either way." Senna continued, light fingers curling around the heiress' nimble shoulders, "The building was destroyed, a bomb tore through it. Whoever set it off was obliterated."

Asami felt her body grow cold, her mind twisted and she cursed silently the extra questions she had been given rather than answered. Stepping back into the conversation she added breathlessly.

"I have the tapes…" She felt Senna's light grip loosen, from shock perhaps. Never the less Asami hated herself in that moment. "I haven't been able to watch them…I don't know what all this will do to us." Asami had never seen that look on a woman's face before, despite their similarities she couldn't match it to anything she had ever seen on Korra. Brows drawn, eyes wide filled with something between rage and mortification, yet there was undeniable affection in that look, and Asami loved and hated it.

This was when the bar door swung open and bounced haphazardly on the walls before Korra put her hand on it, embarrassed at her own strength.

"There you are baby!" she beamed, eyes a little clearer than Asami had left them but still clouded with alcohol. Asami sought escape and found her hand curling into Korra's shirt and pulling her into her arms. "It's great in there and all but," she leaned back and bit her lip in a way that made Asami want to kiss her up against the wall, "nothing I do feels complete until I share it with you."

Asami pressed her forehead to hers, raising her hands to brush the strands of hair that had free'd themselves from that adorable ponytail and smiling allowing the tears that had collected to stream unabashed.

"Hey, what's going on?"

"Nothing." she whispered, feeling Korra flexing her arms gratefully and earning a laugh as she lifted the heiress off the ground, "Your mom was just…accepting me into the family,"

"Aw you guys," Korra drawled, hooking her arms over both their shoulders, "I wish I wasn't so drunk for this moment," she tilted languidly, falling into her lovers arms again, "Oh crod I didn't ruin it did I?"

"No it's fine, you made it better," Asami laughed and kissed her hairline, glad that for the moment she could avoid looking at that heartbreaking expression on Senna's face. She felt the need to add softly, "I love you." while she still could.

"Well come love me indoors. I hear talk of body shots." her hand was already teeming into the heiresses shirt.

"We will in a minute sweet." Senna reminded her daughter of her presence with a hand to her numb forearm, "I need to let Asami know something."

"Is it that she's gay? Because I really don't think I can take it."

"You're such an idiot."

"Ah but whom is the bigger fool, the fool, or the fool who fu-ornicates with her. Hi mom!" Korra's rosy cheeks flared at the slip of her tongue, and she finally allowed Asami to extricate her from her arms. "I'll see you inside where we can fool around later. Fiancee." she pointed at her eyes and then used those fingers to point back at her two favourite women, whispering happily, "Water Tribe." in a spectacular circular gesture before being swallowed by the swinging door.

Senna watched Asami visibly deflate at her daughter's exit, for as long as it lasted any way, because Korra forgot something. Stepping through the backswing of the door, Korra's trained hands pulled her down for a sweet kiss.

"'Love you too." She turned back grinning with Asami's lipstick proudly smeared on her mouth.

When she was gone Senna let out a breath that drew back the heiresses attention.

"I don't think I've seen her this happy since, well, meeting you."

"Yeah. I'm sorry she doesn't have usually drink so much."

"Asami she's an adult. As much as we love her she can handle herself, and she can handle this. Tonraq and I won't leave you to go through this on your own. We can tell her together…Tomorrow when she's sober." Asami allowed a smile as she felt Senna pull her into her arms. "And we'll watch that awful video together as a family."

Asami felt like if she wasn't propped up she would have melted there and then. She remembered her father alone and bitter in his cell, and in that moment she wondered how anyone could ever be mad at these people. The warmest people on Earth right here in Republic City.

Senna promised to meet them tomorrow to go through this, but for the moment, this party had become an impromptu celebration for the couple's engagement. Re-entering the establishment the Water Tribe woman had to coax the ex Southern Chief from another round of jaeger shots with Republic City's finest, which were free, she'd learned, due to their daughter graduating top of her class.

"Being a father is finally paying off!" he winked with both eyes at Asami as his wife rolled hers. The heiresses jaw dropped as she watched her expertly snatch and throw back the shot that had been poured in front of him barely a second before.

The heiress scanned the room. Bolin and Opal were huddled into their own little booth, their own little romantic world of promise and future. Asami could tell they were going to last by how they held their hands. Barely touching, completely intertwined. Mako was in a bout of shots and a show of ritual drinking with RCFD, it seemed the backbone of the city had formed two opposing teams, and were in a drinking race either sides of a pool wasn't a ponytail in sight.

Suddenly she felt those familiar hands grace her hips from behind, punctuated with a kiss to the back of her neck and that silken voice cooing,

"Hey you." She slapped a hand to catch Korra's, tracing fingers over the diamonds that yesterday weren't there. Lips teased the silk at the back of her neck before pitching up to nibble at her earlobe. She goaded. "Dance with me."

"Absolutely." It started as a fun jig of tangled hands and messy feet to Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love" surrounded by RCPD, the joining Fire Department, Bolin and Opal and a severely uncomfortable Mako who couldn't seem to raise his elbows higher than his ribs whereas his brother had the exact opposite of that problem.

Facing Korra her worries were definitely being stripped away, as were the other people in the room. Coupled with the song change, or her fingers finding there way into weak spots in Korra's tiny pony tail, or Korra's palms holding her against her and massaging the sore spots under her shoulder blades, their dance became slow, intimate. Not at all suited to the Beyonce song that had started to play. Asami lowered her lips to Korra's ear, smiling.

"I'm so proud of you. Your uniform makes you look so snazzy."

"You're never going to let that go are you?"

Long fingers curled into that crisp collar and refolding it gently over those taut shoulders.

"Never."

Her fingers traced puckered skin and her stomach bottomed out, counting the seconds that went by that Korra would let her touch her still. One Mississippi. That look of devastation on her face was a day away. It was like looking at an exquisite ming vase, all the more precious knowing it wouldn't last the night. Hoots and cheers erupted from around them when she pressed her lips to her fiancee's. She tried not to let her need show, instead it shone through as intensity and passion, when they parted Korra's eyes were dark and focused. Breathless and slightly indignant; Asami's kiss had stolen her words.

"Take me home."

Korra's smile had dropped before the kiss, but now her expression was unreadable. Still she nodded, adjusted her hands to hold Asami's, led her from friend to friend and bid their goodbyes, accepted their good lucks.

"Take your shoes off." They were half way down the block when Korra spoke to her finally. Asami expected she'd squeeze their hands and they'd be home, and she could log and calculate and store every moment together while they had it. Korra's spontaneity was throwing her off her plan.

"Why? They're Choos, I thought you liked my Choos." Korra was already shucking out of her all black converse, and rolling her pant legs up her calves before taking Asami's in hers.

"You have the no pants rule in the bed." She unclipped the pump from her ankle and slipped it off.

"It's not a rule it's-" The heiress drew off, partially realising that the story of the fast and loose bed pants had only started because of that first night together, because Korra took hers off because the Asami of her timeline insisted on sleeping without them. The other part was the young Officer's lips familiarising themselves with the long since faded marks on her thigh.

"Korra," she breathed, balancing hands on her shoulders as she prepared to be inevitable sweep and her pulsing heart thrummed through her.

"Hold," Korra stood, presenting Asami with her own shoes.

"Korra?"

"Shush." She placed her sneakers atop of the heiress' Choos. Before Asami could think about being angry about a rookie cop stealing the shoes off of the youngest, most influential CEO in the country and telling her to shush, her legs suddenly became parallel with the ground.

Gold and green swept her senses in a rush of light and the siren song of waves. Cackling softly Korra lost balance and they tumbled onto the sand. Korra's knees dug into the ground at her hips and their hands twisted and sinking at her head. Asami felt her laughs subside, realising that Korra had stopped and was staring at her with that odd expression again. She pressed a kiss to it, hoping it would change, It didn't.

"Are you in a safe place?"

"What?"

"This is home for us right? This place."

"Well yes-"

"And you trust me?"

"I love you." Korra gripped tighter, and their hands sank a little deeper.

"It's not the same."

"Of course I trust you."

"Then why are you so scared?" Asami felt her heart jolt, and unconsciously her toes began to twist and burrow. Impossible, she thought. Impossible that Korra remembered every twitch and twist that went through her body when she was uncomfortable, worried, and what she needed to get through it. Her mother's Wake and funeral that led them here, hand in hand, toes in the sand, digging for treasure without letting go. Seeking memories and chasing each other after she and her father scattered the ashes. There was comfort in it.

She reached up to touch her lips, forgetting the granules on her fingers and smiling finally as she listened to the pfft noise that resulted. "I can taste it."

"You're ridiculous." Emerald eyes narrowed despite the smirk tugging at her lips.

"It's true and I can see it. You try to hide it because you're a badass but, I've known you long enough to know when you're scared Sato." Her fingers traced down, skating lightly over the pendant she's presented her with that morning. "This doesn't have to change anything if you don't want it to."

Her voice came out so small and gentle Asami had to take a moment to wonder if it was Korra or the ocean whispering at her. She could swear that the ebb and flow and whoosh took over her senses and slicked her skin with anguish and guilt.

"This isn't that." She started to sit up, and Korra let her, watching their shoes slide off of the heiresses flat stomach. Scrunching her eyes shut, Asami clung to that one hand with both of hers, begging silently that she would dissipate after she told her.

"If this mascara's waterproof I think you need to sue the company."

A smile tugged at her lips as warm hands wiped the stream.

"I met with Hiroshi on Thursday."

"Since when do you call your dad Hiroshi?"

"Korra please, if you, I can only say this once. It's killing me so please just…" she hung her head.

"Okay, okay I'm listening, you met with Hiroshi."

"I knew why they imprisoned him, he'd designed and commissioned weapons that were illegal, but I never questioned why they were illegal…until you came back from the future. I called you when I couldn't reach you and I was scared and you warned me about what he did." She took a moment to dig her toes into the sand, Korra was right this was a safe place. She knew what she was doing when she brought her here. If it was possible she fell more in love with her in that moment. "He was a part of the organisation the weapons were commissioned for. And these weren't weapons made to kill, they were to stun, and fry the body so it's in nothing but excruciating pain but it also keeps you conscious. It's the only way to stop a Teleporter from jumping."

Opening her eyes her free hand started tracing the scars she could see, the ones she'd kissed and traced and loved for proving Korra survived.

"He was high up, and he knew what you were before you did. And I didn't believe it so I saw him and it wasn't until I heard him talk about you and how much he hated you did I realise that he planned…your accident. It wasn't an accident it was fucking murder and I'm so sorry…I should have seen it. What he was and-" Korra yanked her into a hug. Asami felt her scars against her cheek and the starchy crispness of her troopers uniform.

"Paladins right?"

"How did-"

"I had a past life warn me of the clandestine organisation that's been hunting my kind for at least two generations while meditating into the spirit plain in Gaza." Asami didn't know whether to be relieved or horrified, "His name is Aang, he was Jinora's grandfather. And Bald, I hope that's not genetic. If genetic is the right word." The heiress laughed weakly, disbelieving as she fed her arms tighter around her. Korra rocked back on her knees to touch her forehead to Asami's. "You're fine 'Sami. The only thing that accident did to this relationship was prevent me from asking you to senior prom." Lips met in a slow and sweet kiss.

"You did, I didn't think you meant it because you were high and singing the goofy goober song over and over."

"I was obviously serenading you," Korra grinned, "As far as I'm concerned baby, I'm still taking your name. I owe you everything."

"There's more. I have more to tell you."

"But you don't want to tell me now?"

"We just got engaged. You just came back. We're young, lets act like it…please."

"You want me to act young huh?"

"You know what I mean."

"No no, I can act young for you my dear."

"Korra no, I know what you're thinking! Don't-" This was when Korra scooped her up and jumped them into the ocean. "Versace!" Asami sputtered, ripping off her jacket and trying to keep it, extremely unsuccessfully from the surf. Surfacing writhing in the officers strong arms, before she realised the water was only waist deep. Yet Korra insisted on floating on the surface and treading water.

"You have like three Versace's." She smiled up at her, blue eyes gleaming with the starlight and Asami stopped struggling, "At least your shoes are dry." she offered sliding her hands into the heiresses shirt and touching skin.

"It's freezing." She burrowed her face in Korra's inexplicably hot shoulder.

"Molecules," she explained gleefully as the water began to heat up around them. Asami couldn't think about anything else to say other than.

"What about global warming?"

"This is like six cubic feet of ocean hot tub I think the otter penguins are safe."

Asami leaned back, letting the water comb her hair together and out of her face. Her jacket fell away. When she returned her gaze to Korra she was watching her with hooded eyes, her shirt now completely parted, the white vest beneath see through, strips of hair had fallen from her tail and hung dripping over her cheeks. The heiress drifted towards her, palm finding home under Korra's shirt and tracing abs and imperfections. Korra's own hands were indulging in a habit she'd had since before they started dating, stroking from her knee to the tops of her thigh as she cerulean became lost in emerald.

"Officer Sato."

"Yeah baby?"

"Kiss me."

The water was blissful and balmy as they pressed closer together, lips skating and indulging in the electric pulse that thrummed happily whenever they touched. Versace, unfortunately, was lost to the tide, but Asami found herself unable to care as Korra stripped her, wordlessly scooping her out of the water and jumping them into her walk in shower. If the heiress didn't have her lower lip clamped firmly between her teeth she would have explained the brilliance of jumping from water into a room with a drain. Still she had better things to be doing. Things. People. Fiancee's.

Clothes hit walls with a wet pap, Asami tugging off Korra's undershirt as she raised her arms. At it slapped tile Korra's breath came out broken, sultry, hands tugging at silk she tried to ignore the memories flitting past her eyes.

Eyes burning in the sterile brightness of RC General's ICU. Waking up with skin on fire. Trapped in a body she couldn't move and unsure of just how alive she was until she felt the cold tug on her left hand. Machine's bleating, head swimming with drugs, Asami was the only thing pinning her to the Earth. Asami's nose puffing sleeping breaths onto her fingertips as her lips held against her palm.

Palm against her wrist the heiress kissed her fingertips before knotting their fingers. She made a noise at the back of her throat and lets her mouth dance across Korra's collar, kissing scars, caressing.

Caressing her cheek with her thumb gently, Asami forcing a smile as she drew a stinging cloth steeped in iodine along Korra's stitches. Joking how Mr. Goldfarb was going to have a conniption when she got back to school and would be smarter than everyone else combined thanks to the tutor she was shipping in. Korra had tried to reach up, reciprocate kindness by brushing hair behind her ear, but her muscles were too bruised and weak to pull her in for the kiss she wanted. Kiss, bite, tug, these urges consumed her, Korra couldn't begin to regret what the accident had done to her because it led her on a path that let Asami touch her. It was selfish, and idiotic but even when she was drugged out of her mind she'd loved every minute of being taken care of by her. It became something she craved.

Korra craved the sparks now, wherever Asami's hands roamed and hers clasped. Friction on the skin warmed her every inch, it almost seemed a shame to lay her down on their bed but she wanted both hands free to slide. Her mouth guided over the scar on her abdomen, the sparks catch and so does Korra's breath. Fingers curling in raven hair as she bites her hip and jade looks up at her. Smiling, fingers teeming into her shorts that she started tugging town, inch by inch, chuckling softly as Korra let out an impatient moan.

Expertly angled shoulders arched beneath her legs, Korra couldn't dwell on their perfection and god-like sculpt as she threw her head back and clung to her combustion.

Spent and on the edge of sleep, Korra mused as she pulled the heiresses back into her front on the night they'd first shared a bed after her accident. Despite the awkwardness of initially asking Asami to sleep next to her in her single, she'd still managed to make a chasm between them. It was only when the Water Tribe girl had reached up and touched her jaw and throat did the young heiress reciprocate. Korra had watched the relief flood her face as Asami used Korra's continuing pulse to calm herself into sleep that night.

For now Korra rubbed her nose and lips on the parts of the necklace she could reach until sleep found them both.

Asami woke without her arms around her, again. Her stomach bottomed out, burying her face in her pillow she screeched angrily before she felt the light ministrations on her thigh.

"I still have sand between my toes." Korra grumbled rolling towards her. She twisted and embraced her.

"You stayed!"

"What are we just starting out? I never mean to leave you alone in this thing Sato." Asami leaned on her elbow and admired her, letting the sheet fall from her bare shoulder. She was wearing her RCPD workout shirt and boxers.

"Why are you dressed?"

"Honey where's your coffee? Tonraq can only find chai and it's no good for his-" Asami shrieked and tipped off her side of the bed to hide her bare chest from Senna, whom had wandered from the kitchen holding up two cans of ambiguous tea.

She grimaced and grunted and tugged the blanket off the bed to cover herself. Face as red as a fire engine, which she covered with her palms and quietly whispered to herself. "Oh my god I've just flashed Korra's mother,"

"You okay sweetness?" Korra tried and failed to keep the laughter from her voice.

"Just having a miniature heart attack dear."

"We buy our coffee out Mom. Kwong's remember?"

"Ah, I'll improvise." Unperturbed by what she had just witnessed Senna wandered back to the kitchen and started tinkering and tending to all manner of breakfast food.

"Korra, why didn't you wake me?"

"You looked so cute I didn't want to bother you." The rookie officer snickered and pulled herself over to look at Asami wrapping herself on the floor. "Besides you'd never let my mom cook breakfast and she loves doing it for all four of us."

"Just tell me one thing."

"Yeah baby?"

"Did your dad give your mom any money when they walked in here?"

Korra pursed her lips and bit her lip before nodding.

"Ugh."