A/N––I just love it when I post a chapter with em dashes and they magically turn into hyphens. Anyway, did you like chapter 10? Did you hate it? Do you want more smut? A certain AU? I have no idea what you guys wanna read, so give me some prompts or tell me my style sucks or whatever. Feedback is super important to me and I wanna give you stories you actually wanna see (plus if you give me prompts I can upload chapters faster because it gives me motivation). I kinda feel like I'm shouting into the void, so please drop a comment! Thanks guys! ––

I'm starting school again so it's probably gonna slow down my updating a lot. Sorry for the mistakes, I'll continue to go through it and fix them. This one is pretty long as well, I couldn't find a good place to chop it in half, so double apologies.

The Heist

If she could just make it to Asami's office she'd be fine. She'd be okay because Asami was smart and all she had to do was make it there without falling over.

Don't pass out. Breathe.

But it was hard to see in the dark Future Industries building, so Korra dragged her hand along the wall for support as she went, the other one braced her torso: increasing the pressure on the slope of her waist. She hissed through her teeth and trudged around the corner. You'd think that maybe the Avatar could find a little peace in the few days that followed defeating Kuvira–but no; only two days later she found herself clawing at the door handle to her friend's office, trying to ignore the slickness of her red stained hands. Once the knob turned she pushed open the door and staggered inside.

"Korra? I wasn't expecting a visit so late. Korra?"

Through growing tunnel vision she watched Asami's eyes widen and the papers she held fall through her fingers, haphazardly. Korra's legs buckled: they had done all they could and now wobbled under the increasing weight of her body. Though, as she was about to drop to her knees, an arm wrapped around her shoulders.

Asami walked her to a small couch and helped her to sit. "What happened?" her voice was now flooded with concern as she crouched down, hovering her hand tentatively over the other woman's and the red that was seeping through her fingers. But her moment of hesitation was brief; she peeled away Korra's hand and lifted the dampened shirt over her head. "Korra, what happened?" Asami pressed again, her voice now strained and anxious.

Korra groaned through a broken exhale as the engineer ran her fingers under the torn flesh. "Tried to heal it. Won't work," she ignored the slipperiness in the touch of Asami's examining digits. "He hit me with something." The Avatar ground her teeth together. Agony cramped through her abdomen and rippled through all of her adjacent muscles, making her diaphragm hitch. It was getting difficult to breathe.

"The entry wound is round," Asami stated, the crease in her brow deepening. She rocked up on her heels to stand, "keep pressure on that. I'll be right back."

"Wu-wait," Korra returned her palm to the lesion and grimaced, "don't leave, p-please?"

"I have to get a first-aid kit, Korra. It'll take me two minutes," she held up a pair of blood smeared digits as she backed away, then turned to sprint.

It took what felt like ten minutes before the engineer came running back into her office. She resumed her kneeling position over Korra and opened a small white box. Pulling out gauze and a bottle of liquid, she murmured to herself, "I'm gonna have to close it." Asami opened the bottle and pressed a fresh piece of cloth to the opening as she tipped it upside down. "What hit you?" she asked and began to wiped around the wound.

"I'm not sure. Something exploded and th–arh!" one of Asami's quick sweeps ran too close to its edge, sending the sensation of flames through the puncture and up under her ribs.

"Sorry."

"And then I was hurt," Korra continued. "I tried to heal it but it won't close."

Asami discarded the now red cloth and felt around the torn flesh. "If something exploded it might be shrapnel." She grabbed Korra's hand and moved it over the wound, "Try to bend it out." Korra realized her face must have looked uncertain because the emerald gaze that was cutting through her softened and she added, "You can do it, just go slow."

Korra nodded and flexed her fingers. She'd done this before, bending a piece of solid metal out of her body wouldn't be too hard, right? The Avatar tried to focus through the pain, tried to feel for anything inorganic. She pulled up a little; something followed. Korra growled through the aching heat the motion had caused and decided that the situation was, instead, similar to removing a bandage; it was better to rip it off quickly–or pull in her case. She sucked in some air then exhaled deeply as she flicked her hand upward, dislodging the metal.

"You did it," Asami wiped the area again, "I have to stitch you up now, maybe if I can close the gash you'll be able to heal it somewhat, but I don't have anything to numb you."

"Just do it," Korra breathed, rolling her head back. She wasn't strong enough to heal it completely with bending now. Waves of pain were still crashing through her torso and that was just about their only option.

As Asami began to work, the Avatar busied herself by examining the piece of shrapnel between her fingers. It was small, no bigger than the pad of her index, and round. Why would shrapnel be round instead of jagged? She closed her hand around it and shifted her gaze to the woman before her. The slightest tension strained in Asami's brow as she worked. Korra took note of the way the muscles flexed on the corner her jaw every few seconds or so and how she held her bottom lip between her teeth while concentrating. The Avatar laughed internally; even in a times of distress she couldn't help herself from being captivated by Asami's grace.

"Hey," Korra spoke as the thought drifted to her, "how do you know how to do this?" and winced as the needle struck a nerve that wasn't already on fire.

"Ever since Future Industries was turned over to me, I had all my floor guys take some medical training courses." Asami dabbed at the area with clean gauze, "They're the closest ones to all of the machinery and if someone got hurt it could be really bad. I sit through the greenhorn class every time we have new hires."

"That's really smart, Asami."

"Well when you start hanging out with the Avatar it doesn't seem like a bad idea," she chuckled, though, Korra was currently thanking all spirits for her foresight. "But my guys," she continued, "my guys are my company, y'know? If anyone got hurt, if anyone died I… I just want everyone to be safe." Korra noticed Asami's jaw muscle tighten once more and fail to relax. "Done," she mumbled and stood. Reaching over the front end of her desk, she picked up a glass of water, half empty on the account of a red lipstick stain, and handed it to over.

Korra bent the water around her hand and rolled it over her new stitches. Focusing her energy, she felt a soothing coolness numb the area within the muscles. She went over it few times, watching the redness recede and the gash seal somewhat, but there was nothing else she could do for the time being–it would heal completely in time and when her strength returned. What mattered was the bleeding and most of the pain had subsided.

Korra dropped the water back into its cup and lifted herself onto fragile legs. She ghosted a few fingers over her waist, echoing, "Safe." Upon looking up again, she discovered emerald blades slicing her down to bits, through her skin, nicking at her marrow. "You're talking about me too, right?" She didn't have to ask; the answer was screaming behind the engineer's irises.

Asami folded her arms across her chest and busied her eyes with something on the other side of the room. "How did you get over here without dying anyway?" There was something resembling concern in her tone, but she was learning well from Mako; she evened out any inflection that gave it away, only Korra knew them both well enough to catch on–Asami was her best friend after all.

"I got hit a little under a block away from the building. I saw your office light was on from the street and probably trailed blood all the way up here." She staggered over to Asami and held up the ball of metal, "You saved me." Korra hooked her finger around the engineer's thumb, turning the palm that clutched at her bicep open, and dropped it into her hand.

"It's round," Asami mumbled, rolling it between her fingers. "Did the man who attacked you get hurt in the explosion too?"

Korra frowned, "No, I don't think so," stepping closer, she brushed her hands up the other woman's arms, "he ran when I got back to my feet. Are you okay?" she asked, taking a light hold of two slender biceps–half because she wanted Asami near her again, and half because standing up was proving to be difficult.

"If he didn't get hurt, maybe it was supposed to be a controlled explosion," Asami spoke, glossing over the previous question and proving Korra's suspicions. Though keeping her eyes locked on the metal ball, she showed no intention of moving from the other woman's grip. "I heard rumors that Cabbage Corp was developing prototypes for a new style of long range weapon."

"You think this could be it?" Korra suggested, moving to settle her hands on the engineer's waist, only to have her slip from her grasp.

Asami sighed and stepped back once, turning perpendicular. "Possibly, but who knows if this"–she held up and twisted the shrapnel between them–"was them or just a freak happening. But the thing that is weird is that it's round." She turned another ninety degrees to look out the large window spanning from the floor to the ceiling, presumably to consider their findings. Below them Republic City had died to a soft hum, and the remaining lights in the windows of buildings speckled the landscape like fallen stars.

Korra stood blinking: fighting off the spinning of her equilibrium and the slight edge of darkness around her vision as she waited for her to speak again. When nothing more came, she questioned softly, "Asami?"

"It's spherical–purposeful," the engineer stated, turning back around. "If it was a controlled explosion maybe this was meant to be more of a projectile than blind shrapnel."

"Why would anyone need a weapon like that? And you didn't answer my question."

Asami stepped closer to her, "Well think about it. If you could launch a projectile with a lot of power behind it–like an explosion–it could inflict a lot of damage." She dropped a hand to Korra's waist and feathered a finger over the stitching, "I mean that much force traveling through such a small surface area could really be a problem."

"So what I'm hearing is explosions, damage, and problems," Korra moved her hand to the one on her stomach and intertwined their fingers. "What I want to hear is how you are feeling."

"I'm fine," she declared, though the tightening line of her painted lips said otherwise. "Let's get you to a hospital to check that thing out, just in case." Asami slipped her fingers from Korra's hand and wrapped an arm around her shoulders for support.

"If you say so, Ms. Sato."