Hello guys, I'm sorry for the delay, again. I made sure to put lots of fluff to make up for it. Hope you like this chapter!
If you spot any typing and grammatical errors tell me about it, I would be happy to correct it =)
They arrived at an empty air temple a few minutes later. The sun was just starting to set, beautiful colors were invading the sky. The view of the empty island against the colorful sky and the broken city brought to Asami a feeling of melancholy, it reminded her of what she had lost.
"Asami?" absorbed in her thoughts, Asami didn't realize Korra had hoped out of the bison and was now offering a hand to help her get out of Pepper, looking at her with those beautiful eyes. She saw in Korra's eyes the same feelings she was having, sadness for what they had been through, fear for what was coming and courage to move on and help the world come back to its place. They both smiled, seeing the same feelings in each other made the fear seem smaller and the courage bigger.
She took Korra's hand and came down.
"Let's go in?" asked Asami.
"Yeah, I'm excited to see everyone" She looked happy to be back, her smile started to get brighter. Asami nodded with a bigger smile as well. Infected by Korra's brightness, a warm feeling filled her body. She knew she could face anything with Korra by her side.
So they entered the main building looking for someone. It also seemed very empty, at first they couldn't even hear any footsteps. Or anything for that matter. But after a few minutes wandering around, they found Pema at the end of a hallway.
"Hello, girls!" She exclaimed as she walked to them with a maternal smile. Rohan was running circles around her with a toy in his hand, ignoring what was going on.
"Pema! We've missed you!" Korra hugged her tightly. "How have things been?"
"Oh! The best that they could be at this point…" Pema answered vaguely as she hugged Asami "You must be so tired!"
Asami nodded. "Yeah, tired. But, also invigorated!"
"Well, I must admit I am a bit jealous of you two. The last time I got the chance to go on a nice relaxing vacation was before Meelo was born…" Pema had a nostalgic look on her eyes. "Anyway, you should go to your rooms! But Asami, I'm not sure we have a spare room for you, you may have to share. The air temple has been rather crowded lately…" Asami and Korra looked around with a confused look, the air temple seemed very empty. Pema answered their silent question "Everybody is in the city, helping the reconstruction, the refugees, the injured. They only come here to eat and sleep."
"That makes sense!" Said Korra with a spike of guilt for going away when everybody stayed to help.
"But don't worry Korra, we preserved your room. Maybe, Asami could stay with you, is that okay?" Suggested Pema innocently.
The girls smiled, maybe more widely than perhaps they should've. "Sure!"
So, how was the vacation? Did you battle big spirit monsters? Did you see beautiful little spirit fairies? How is the spirit world when there's not a chaos spirit loose trying to rule the world, anyway?" Bolin inquired before putting an unreasonable amount of food in his mouth.
"Great. No. Yes. And, beautiful!" Asami answered in between bites.
"Did Korra drive you crazy? Tell the truth." Asked Mako with a raised eyebrow.
Asami looked at Korra who was on the other end of the big crowded table talking about their trip with Jinora and Ikki. Korra looked back at her with the smirk that always gave Asami butterflies in her stomach. "Actually, no. Korra and I work well together."
Mako laughed "Yeah, you are really good friends aren't you?"
"Yes, we are indeed." Asami looked backed at Korra who was now moving her hands around excitedly probably trying to tell Meelo the story of one of their adventures. "So, how have things been here? How is republic city?" She asked Mako and Bolin, changing the subject, although she couldn't take her eyes off the avatar.
Mako answered with a sad tone in his voice "It is a bit of a chaos. There are a lot of people with nowhere to go, who lost their house, their livelihood. At least we were able to evacuate the city and few were injured. But the surrounding towns are too crowded, there are a lot of people living in the streets there because there is no infrastructure and in those cities and because there is nowhere to go. Crime has also been increasing a lot, the government and the police lost control of it. Everything's a mess. But we are going to pull through, we just need time."
"Yeah…" Bolin had a frown on his face "we've been building camps for the people that lost their houses. At first, we thought of bringing some of them to the air temple, but Lin said it wasn't practical to bring those refugees to the Island."
Asami listened as her heart sank, she knew it was going to be bad, but she was not ready to hear it. She was already thinking of what she and her company were going to do to help the city.
"How is your family?" Asami asked the brothers.
"They've been great! Our cousins, aunts, and uncles are helping with the reconstruction and the expansion of the city. But they are talking about going back to Ba Sing Se, grandma won't stop talking about it." Mako answered.
"I'll definitely miss them if they leave the Sato Mansion…" Said Asami.
On the other side of the table, Jinora was talking to Korra about the new portal in Republic city: "Some spirits are really liking this open portal, they come out talk to us. There are even some who get help us with the injured, the reconstruction. But most are angry, there were some bad fights with some mortals, the president isn't very fond of the spirits, mostly because his electors aren't. How were the spirits on the other side?"
"The same, most are very angry with this new thing, they are afraid of what mortals are going to do once they start entering their world. A lot of them demanded that I closed the portal."
"Are you going to?" Jinora asked.
"I don't think so." Korra had doubts in her eyes. "The spirit world and the mortal world have been separated for too long, is time to try again."
After dinner, they went to bed. Pema had placed a mattress on the floor for Asami, making the girls blush and awkwardly thank her for the action. Ignoring the mattress on the floor both girls cuddled together in the bed, Korra laid her head on Asami's and draped her arms across her waist. Asami hugged Korra's shoulders bringing her even closer. Their minds were full of the things that they learned over dinner. Korra could feel Asami's mind, like her own, buzzing over everything.
"Stop!" She said it like Asami knew exactly what she was talking about. She wasn't saying it only to Asami, she was saying it for herself as well.
"What?" Asami frowned confused.
"Stop thinking about everything that's wrong in the world," Korra explained getting out of the embrace and sitting up beside her girlfriend.
"Like there's something else to think about…"
Korra said nothing for a moment, she couldn't think quickly of a response. But then a light turned on in her head. It was so obvious. She smiled. "Yes, there is!"
"What?" Asami's eyebrow went up, looked doubtful. Korra smiled at her, no matter what face she made, she would always look beautiful.
The avatar didn't answer. Better yet, she did answer, she just didn't need to say anything. She lowered herself and kissed Asami slowly, gently, bringing a smile to her girlfriend's lips. She got it, Korra needn't say a word. It was them.
They were a happy, good thing that was happening.
Asami brought her hands to Korra's head, deepening the kiss. If they were going to face shit from the world, they might as well enjoy each other.