It was nearly a week before Asami convinced Korra and Tenzin that she was recovered enough to leave.
"It's another four days' travel to get to the south at least," she said rather irately. "What do you think I'm going to be doing? I had no intentions of climbing around on the outside of the airship, if that's what you're worried about."
Asami knew full well that everyone was only concerned for her health. She knew. But that didn't make their constant fretting any less aggravating. She didn't particularly mind Korra hovering at her side almost constantly – and she certainly wasn't going to complain about getting to sleep beside her every night – but Tenzin's hovering had disrupted her time with Korra more than once. Even Bolin was developing a talent for interrupting them, but at least he realised when he had. For all his talk about Korra and Asami's feelings for each other being obvious, Tenzin was completely oblivious to the pair's flushed cheeks and awkward squirming whenever he burst in unannounced.
Such was the case now. Asami had leapt to her feet when the door slid open and Korra managed to do a commendable job of looking casual about being sprawled out on Asami's bed.
"We just want to make sure you're fully recovered," Tenzin said. "Four days is a long time for something to go wrong, especially when there are limited resources on your ship."
"You mean that you and Pema aren't there?" Asami asked. "Tenzin, relax. I'm fine. If I haven't collapsed on the spot by now, I think it's fairly safe to say that I'm not going to."
"If Asami thinks she's ready, it might not be a bad idea to think about leaving soon," Korra said, sitting up to swing her legs over the edge of the bed. "I have been gone a while. My dad will want to know what I've been up to." Her smirk was impish, but it wasn't difficult to see her uneasiness.
Asami instinctively laid a hand on Korra's shoulder and Korra reached up to gently grasp it.
"Well... if you're sure," Tenzin relented finally.
"I'm sure," Asami said. "We'll make preparations to leave in the morning."
Her tone was final and Tenzin nodded before leaving the room.
Korra turned a grin onto Asami. "That was close."
Asami rolled her eyes. "Please. At least our hands were visible."
"This time," Korra said as Asami lowered herself to sit beside her. "I'll be grateful to get home. Plenty of secret spots there, far from prying eyes."
"Oh?" Asami said, brushing Korra's hair back and leaning in to graze her lips over the shell of the southerner's ear. "Do you have plans, Korra?"
Korra swallowed audibly and Asami couldn't help her smile. "Maybe," Korra said rather unsteadily.
Rendering Korra speechless was a newfound hobby of Asami's, and it was surprisingly easy to do. For someone who had been so cool and confident before, it really took very little for Korra to devolve into a stammering dork. Asami absolutely adored it.
She let her lips trail down from Korra's ear, basking in the way Korra's head tilted to follow their path, in her trembling inhalation and the appreciative sigh that followed.
Korra turned her head to catch Asami's lips with her own and Asami fell eagerly into the kiss, a hand dropping to Korra's thigh while Korra's arm looped around her waist, fingers grasping at the material of her shirt as she pulled the princess nearer.
Experimentally, Asami started to slide her hand slowly up Korra's thigh, and at first Korra's response was positive – a short gasp, the parting of lips, the brush of her tongue over Asami's – but then she was pulling away, gently reaching down to stop Asami's hand.
"What's wrong?" Asami murmured, though she turned her hand palm-up to lace her fingers with Korra's, allowing it to be moved down again.
"Nothing," Korra said immediately, but sighed when Asami gave her a sceptical look. "It's just... not yet, okay?"
"After eight years, I'd have thought you'd be done waiting," Asami teased.
Korra smiled ruefully. "There's more to it than that."
"Such as?"
Korra's expression became pained and Asami immediately regretted pushing. "If you're just not ready, it's okay," she added hastily. "I don't want to pressure you."
Though the look Korra gave her was grateful, there was definite regret when she leaned in for a soft, chaste kiss. "You don't make it easy to hold back," she murmured, and Asami's stomach bottomed out.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I can stop."
"No." Korra's grip on her hand tightened. "I don't want you to stop. Besides..." She pulled back enough to grin rather wryly at Asami. "You could be doing nothing at all and it would still be difficult."
"All this sweet talking isn't making it any easier for me, either," Asami pointed out.
Korra's eyes lingered on her (those ridiculously blue eyes, what the hell) for a long moment before she gently released Asami's hand and stood up. "Come on," she said. "We should start packing."
It felt good to be back in the air.
While Asami was starting to grow rather fond of Air Temple Island, being bedridden for a week and then tailed around like a walking bomb for another had grown very tiresome, very quickly. Besides, she'd been anxious to get back into the engine room – the significant lack of engines to tinker with on the island left her with only her sketchbook, and while she could spend hours staining her hands black and leaving eraser rubbings all over the floor, not having anything to physically play with definitely grated on her.
She was aboard the airship for barely more than half an hour before she found herself in the engine room, jacket discarded and hair tied back.
Of course, being pent up for a fortnight wasn't the only reason Asami was so restless. Their stay on Air Temple Island had served as a brief respite from their journey south, but now that they were on their way again she couldn't help but feel anxious. Very few northerners had ever returned from the south alive, and those that did certainly didn't get away unscathed. She knew that this situation was different – she wasn't a soldier, she wasn't going in looking for a fight – but she remained uneasy nevertheless.
Her brow furrowed as she worked, lips pressed into a thin line. Had Korra been this anxious when they'd travelled to the Reach? If so, she'd done a remarkable job of concealing it. To those that knew Asami's behaviour, she was sure her nerves were almost palpable. And she felt ridiculous for it. Bolin's remark about Korra travelling with them alone lingered perpetually in the back of her mind; the courage it must have taken for the southerner to get on board a northern airship and go with them, alone, to the Reach... Asami could barely comprehend it. She was taking a ship full of airmen and one of her closest friends with her and she was barely keeping it together.
Not having Mako around certainly wasn't helping. She felt the familiar hot sting of tears behind her eyes as her friend's serious face rose in her mind, but shook her head and threw herself almost angrily into her work. The last thing she wanted was to appear weak or afraid. If Korra could do it, then so could she.
However her determination was slightly premature and, naturally, not an hour later she was sitting in the infirmary while a medic carefully re-stitched the wound on her shoulder.
"You're lucky Tenzin isn't here, or you'd be getting a right earful," Korra remarked mildly. Despite the lightness of her tone, she lingered close by, her tight grip on Asami's hand betraying her worry. "You were told, you know. Quite specifically."
"I know," Asami sighed, wincing as the needle pierced her still-sensitive skin. While Tenzin may not be here to give her an earful, Korra was certainly making her disapproval obvious.
Korra said nothing until Asami was patched up and given firm instructions to avoid straining her shoulder too much. They left the infirmary in silence and were almost at Asami's room before Korra finally spoke again.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Asami puffed out her cheeks before releasing the air with a sigh. "There isn't much to talk about."
"You're scared."
Wordlessly, Asami nodded, avoiding Korra's gaze.
"It'll be alright." Korra's hand found hers again and gave a reassuring squeeze. "I meant what I said to Mako. I won't let anything happen to you." She paused. "Although, if he finds out you were stabbed on my watch, I probably won't live long enough to see that promise through."
Asami couldn't help a small laugh. "I'm not dead yet."
"Let's keep it that way."
A brief silence fell between them, each lost in their own thoughts.
"Korra?"
"Hm?"
"Were you scared when we were taking you north?"
"Absolutely," Korra said without hesitation. "Honestly, I didn't sleep very well for a while there. But I trusted you. It might've been foolish, all things considered, but... I did." She shrugged.
Asami's heart warmed with the confession and she turned when they reached the door to her quarters, drawing Korra in for a soft, slow kiss. "I trust you," she murmured softly.
"I know," Korra said, her voice low and breathless. "But you're still allowed to be scared. Just..." She pulled back slightly to meet Asami's gaze. "Be more careful about how you deal with it, okay?"
Asami grinned rather sheepishly. "I will," she promised. "Does a nap sound like an agreeable solution to you?"
"Provided it's in your bed and not on top of a running engine, I think I can live with that."
While trusting Korra certainly provided some comfort, Asami's fear didn't dissipate. In fact it only grew with each day, until the captain announced that they were approaching Korra's home tribe.
"Pardon my wariness, your highness," the captain said, "but I daresay flying a northern airship right up to the settlement would be... unwise."
Asami glanced at Korra.
"He's definitely not wrong," Korra said. "The north is aware of the situation, but my people aren't. If my dad saw a northern airship approaching he'd shoot us down without a second thought."
"Any ideas?" Asami asked.
"Land here. I'll go ahead and bring my dad back with transport to get into town."
"Are you sure that's wise?" Asami recalled only too well Hiroshi's reaction to seeing Korra in the Reach.
Korra shrugged. "I'll talk him around. I won't pretend to know your dad, but I know mine, and I have a feeling this will be a lot easier than it was with Hiroshi."
"Let's hope so," Asami murmured, dimly aware of the tension in her shoulders.
Korra gave her a knowing smile. "It'll be fine, Princess. Trust me."
Watching Korra leave was almost as hard for Asami as battling down her rising fear. The cold certainly wasn't helping – by the spirits, how did people handle it? And Korra had traipsed off wearing only a jacket over her thin, armless shirt – Asami had been forced to bury herself beneath at least three layers of clothes just to stand outside and see Korra off.
"At least Pabu's having fun," Bolin remarked as he stood beside Asami, watching Pabu roll around in the snow.
Asami forced herself to tear her eyes from Korra's retreating back to watch Pabu instead, internally chastising herself. She'll be back soon. Pull yourself together! You're a Sato! You do not pine like a helpless damsel in a bad love story!
It wasn't long before the cold drove them back inside the ship. As much as Asami wanted to throw herself into the engine room, her shoulder still smarted from having her wound re-stitched and her conversation with Korra discouraged her from repeating a bad decision. Instead she buried herself in her sketchbook, though she didn't manage to get much done glancing out the window every five minutes.
Darkness was starting to fall by the time Korra returned. Asami was outside almost before the lookout had time to finish his sentence, but the look on Korra's face quelled any cheerful greeting she might have mustered.
"What's wrong?" Asami asked as Korra dismounted from the vehicle she'd been riding, very similar to a motorbike but clearly designed to traverse snowy terrain. Behind the vehicle she towed several more, all riderless and waiting patiently to be occupied.
"Dad's not there," Korra said, moving to unhook the tow rope. "No one would tell me where he is."
Asami's brow furrowed. "That seems... odd."
"It is." Korra wound the rope around her hand and stuffed it into her pack before moving on to the next one. "The only thing I can think of is that he's doing something he shouldn't be doing – probably involving the north."
Asami bit against her bottom lip. "Well... he doesn't know yet, does he?"
Korra sighed, shaking her head. "No, he doesn't. Still, I was hoping we could reach him before he tried anything. He might've noticed your father's forces retreating and decided to take advantage of it."
"Well then," Asami said, "we'd better find him and talk him around, hadn't we?"