[AN] - deep conversations from surprising sources...

I sigh as I shove the last of our guests out the door with a promise they could come back tomorrow to see him. Bolin's resurgence had completely eclipsed anybody's objection around the upcoming mission and Kuvira had smirked triumphantly at me as she left.

Asami comes up from behind and wraps her arms around me as I stare out over the pool to the hills beyond.

"That face has deep thoughts on it, Avatar," she murmurs against my neck.

I sigh again. "Our timing is always the worst, isn't it?"

"How do you mean?"

I turn and wrap my arm around her before leading her out onto the patio where we fall onto an overstuffed lounge chair.

"Bolin just made the best progress he's made in a year, and I have to go on a mission," I grouse.

"Hmm," she agrees as she runs her fingers through my hair. "It's for the best really."

I glare at her. "What? Why?"

She smiles gently. "It's okay to be excited, love," she tells me. "But he's still got a long way to go and he's not going to get there quickly. It's best if you lot are busy in the meantime."

"You're saying we'll push him."

She nuzzles into me. "You won't mean to."

I start to object, then nod glumly. "Fine, you're probably right. I'm already ready to haul him out bar hopping."

"That would not be advisable at this juncture, Colonel Korra," Raava informs me. She flickers into view next to the door with a reproving expression on her face.

"Whoa," I say in surprise. "You sound different."

She hesitates only briefly, but for Raava it's a significant pause.

"Lieutenant Bolin requested it," she says finally. "Apparently my voice is sufficiently different from what he was used to hearing in his Traumatic Brain Injury protocols while unconscious that it was disconcerting. I have modulated it accordingly, and he reports a much improved experience."

Asami sits up slightly. "What was your basis for modulation?"

Raava hesitates again, and Asami and I exchange a surprised glance.

"This is difficult for me to describe," Raava admits finally, her whole visage uncomfortable, if a hologram could be described in such a way. "We… winged it, as I have heard Colonel Korra and Lieutenant Colonel Kuvira mention repeatedly."

I burst out laughing. "I've been a good influence on you, Raava! I knew you were a Fire Ferret at heart!"

Asami snorts. "I hope she doesn't abandon her scientific rigor, given how completely you two are unable to conform to anything remotely like it."

"I assure you, Doctor Sato," Raava assures her, "The process of 'winging it' is extremely uncomfortable for me. However," she continues with notable reluctance, "I have admittedly observed many unanticipated benefits from more random experimentation." The hologram suddenly raised her head, as if listening. "Excuse me, I need to attend to Lieutenant Bolin." She flickered and vanished.

I blink, then drawl, "That was weird. Was that weird? You thought that was weird right?"

Asami's fingers tap against my arm, her gaze thoughtful. "Unusual," she agrees eventually, "but perhaps not so unexpected." She pushes against me until I lay back and she settles happily into my arms. "She's been in a role of a long term caregiver, absorbing quite a lot of information about the human psyche in the process. She does learn voraciously, if you recall."

I hum as I cuddle her more firmly against me. "So now she's learning how to be more human?"

"Hmm, perhaps. Given that she's the only one of her kind—"

"That we know of," I interject sourly.

She elbows me gently. "Don't interrupt, but yes, Colonel, that we know of. My point is it's hard to know how her intellectual and emotional development will proceed. We're in uncharted space here."

"Look at you with the Corps jokes," I chuckle. "I'm a bad influence on you."

She turns and with a devilish look she rakes her teeth down my neck. I shudder with a hissing inhale.

"I don't know," she murmurs, her breath hot on my skin. "I think some of your influences have been quite beneficial for me."

I groan at another nip, this one to my collarbone. I run my hands down her sides and with a grunt lift her onto my hips, so that she's now straddling the tops of my thighs. She raises one eyebrow at me, her lips pursed in an adorable smirk.

"What devilish things are you thinking of, Avatar," she husked with a subtle rock of her lips.

"Terrible, horrible, vile things," I growl in reply as I sit up, pulling her flush against me as I lift us off the chair. She wraps her legs tightly around me, her arms draped around my shoulders. Dark eyes twinkle merrily at me as I carry her towards our bedroom. "Things that will have you screaming for mercy."

"Mmm," her lips caress my ear and nearly send me careening into a wall. "I can't wait."

—-

"Coffee, Colonel?"

I grunt in thanks as my orderly presses a steaming cup into my hands. The recruits are out on a training run so the hanger is largely empty. He then hands me the instructor evaluations from the preview week that I have to review and sign. I usually make Boss help me with this, but, "Hey, Chen? Have you seen the XO around yet?"

"Lieutenant Colonel Kuvira is the briefing room." He hesitates briefly, then adds, "She had left instructions not to be disturbed, but—"

I nod absently. The poor lad has relaxed a bit since he first received orders to act as the Flight School's office administrator, but I know she still makes him nervous.

Just how she likes it.

Coffee firmly in hand, I wander into the briefing room to find the holomap set to the Zeta quadrant, with various way points and flight paths highlighted in glowing purple. The rest of the room is dark and still.

Kuvira is perched in a gargoyle-like squat on the table, in the midst of the holo. The light beams play across her, and unusually her face is still and thoughtful.

"It's been a while since we've been out-system," I comment.

Her eyes flicker in acknowledgement, but she doesn't respond. I plop down in one of the chairs and prop my feet on the table top, studying some of the routes she's choosing. After a moment she slides off the table and sits down across from me, picking up her own cup of coffee and we sit quietly while Zeta quadrant rolls slowly around above us.

She finally growls her irritation. "Makes sense that they chose these godforsaken systems to put secret bases on. It's going to be fucking hard to sneak in there."

I look at her more closely. "You want to tag out of this, Boss?"

She immediately shakes her head. "No way you're going out there without me, and I know you wanna go."

"You know why," I whisper.

She meets my gaze. "Yeah, I do. The thought of sending Mad and Wee makes you want to throw up."

"Something like that." I take a long swallow of my coffee. "I wonder how Izumi did it. Make the jump to flag officer I mean."

"Iroh asked her to," Kuvira shrugs.

I stare at her.

"We got drunk one night and somehow we ended up talking about her. When he got his wings, he said he needed somebody he could trust calling the missions."

I swallow hard against the sudden tightness in my throat. "Yeah, I could see that."

"That will be you," she adds, her face serious. "Pretty sure when she retires she's gonna make you take her job. We'll still need somebody we can trust calling those missions."

"Fuck that," I snark roughly, but my heart feels the rightness of it and Kuvira knows it too, from her smirk.

"Well, okay, maybe," I finally admit. "But in the meantime, you and I have a evil fucker with doomsday weapons to sneak up on."

"Damn right we do."

[AN] - For those not in the know, "XO" is short for "Executive Officer", or second in command. Also, for those who were being driven nuts by Raava speaking in ALL CAPS, like I said there was a reason, and hopefully know it's more palatable. Certainly it's now more palatable for Bolin... :)