Chapter Text
She was setting everything up in her office for the debrief. Now that they'd handled the Equalists and Amon, they needed to continue working to weed out the other various groups still associated with the cause. It would take time, but Korra was fully ready to sacrifice that time if it meant getting even closer to their goal of ending the Red Lotus entirely.
Asami was the first to slip into her office— as per usual. She strutted over to where the Avatar was putting the board together on the wall. Korra didn't even bother turning around as Asami came up to her from behind and kissed her jaw. It wasn't anything more than routine at this point.
But as Asami pulled back, she handed the Avatar a cookie. That wasn't part of the routine, but she wasn't complaining either. “Where did these come from?” she asked as she took it with less weariness than she probably should’ve.
Asami plopped in the chair closest to Korra before crossing her long legs and biting into her own cookie. “I'm not sure. Bolin brought them for us.”
Korra was never one to turn down food. Especially dessert. So she happily ate it while she continued stringing everything up on the wall. By the time she was done, everyone else was flooding in to take their seats. They continued passing around the tray of cookies as Korra started talking.
She showed them the files, the pieces of evidence they had that would suggest more operations happening around the underground or near the city. They'd managed to make a large dent in things, but there were still plenty of smaller groups to hunt down. But they were finding them, even if it was slower than she would have liked.
All of them were taking notes, writing things in their journals, asking questions.
And then a half hour into that presentation, she said, “All soldiers on active duty—”
Bolin laughed.
No, he didn't just laugh, he giggled.
She gave him a look. “Seriously? What are we? Five?”
He grinned like he couldn't help it. “It's just such a silly word. Duty.”
This time Opal laughed with him.
And soon they were all laughing so hard that Korra wasn't sure if she was missing something. Except then the laughter continued and after five minutes, they still hadn't calmed down. Korra turned to them with her tone more firm. “Alright. Knock it off. This is serious.”
Kuvira huffed. “Alright Sergeant Stick Up Her Ass.” But then she was silently smiling behind the hand she ran over her face.
Asami came to her defense. “She's right. This is serious, we're supposed to be paying attention.”
Which would have been great, except for when Korra looked at her girlfriend, she also spotted Asami's notebook.
Asami's notebook that was half filled with actual words and notes, but was also half filled with drawings of Korra making faces. Which was…not something Asami would do when she knew something was important. When they were at home, relaxing somewhere, Asami was often curled up with a sketchbook in her hands full of portraits Korra pretended she didn't notice just yet. But she wouldn't do that now. She wouldn't risk being caught by Korra, or Opal, or Ren— because she'd definitely never live that down.
Which left Korra…concerned. She'd never been more confused in her entire life. None of them were usually like this. They all knew how to draw the line between business and fun. That had never been a problem before. They’d all been doing this for a long time. Long enough to know better. “Okay, seriously, what's wrong with you guys?”
“I personally feel great.” Ren grinned as he looked at his hand like it was a surprise it was attached. He then ate a bite of the cookie in his other hand.
Korra froze.
Looked at the cookie again.
Looked at her friends.
She walked over to Asami, lifted the engineer's chin, and— yep. The edges of her eyes weren't just pink, they were red. She looked around at the others, scanning all their faces. Instantly, she was met with the same thing over and over again.
She picked up the tray of cookies, sniffed it, and sighed as she held one of them up. “Bo, where did you get these?”
Her friend blinked at her syrupy slow. “Oh! Some guy at one of the street stalls. They looked good, so I bought a tray for us to share.”
Korra took a breath, held it, and let it out slowly. This was fine. Everything was fine.
“Alright. We'll continue this later. We're going upstairs to my place.” she said as she started putting everything away— accepting that today’s meeting was essentially going to go nowhere.
Mako looked baffled, like he wasn't squinting at the board. “What? Why?”
“Because you're all high as a fucking kite and none of you are going to pay attention.” she told them sourly, tidying everything back into its folders— something Asami would appreciate if she wasn't currently trying to write with her pen upside down.
Bo huffed like the accusation was the most offensive thing he'd ever heard. “No we're not.”
“Yes. You are.” she argued with less bite in her voice than she expected.
She really really hoped these weren't laced with anything other than weed. She herself wasn't even feeling any different. It helped that she'd only had one, but the bigger factor was the years she spent doing every drug under the fucking sun that made her tolerance far too high. Granted, she hasn't gotten that fucked up in a long time. She still smoked every now and then, but it was never enough to last very long. Which meant she couldn’t even enjoy the feeling like everyone else was.
And she knew her friends, some of them smoked from time to time, but none of them likely would have consumed the amount of weed they just did. She read the label on the container. 25mg a piece.
They were all definitely, irrevocably, undeniably, fucked.
Most of them probably hadn't even had breakfast yet. Which unfortunately meant they were all on empty stomachs and this was going to hit them way harder than just a regular edible. Especially considering some of them had eaten two to three each. She really should have been paying more attention.
Mako looked at the board. “What's that photo?”
“That's the next place we need to raid.” Asami chimed in helpfully.
At least she was still somewhat coherent
Seth frowned at it, blinking a few times. “Oh. Are we going there now?”
“We need to get dressed and ready.” Ren said, like he had any idea what was happening right now.
Mako stood up. “I should grab my gun.”
Kuvira shook her head. “Wait. Where are we going?”
“On a raid.” Asami told them as she stood and started for the door.
Korra instantly grabbed her by the belt loop of her pants and pulled her back. “No, we're going upstairs. None of you are going anywhere near a fucking firearm right now. None of you are going anywhere other than my place.”
In fact none of them should probably be around firearms, chemicals, water, high buildings, ledges, or literally any place other than the safety of Korra's living room. There were too many scenarios for this to go very fucking bad, and she was determined to make sure none of them ever had a chance to come to fruition. They all managed to get into enough trouble sober, let alone giggling and tripping over themselves down city streets.
She slowly corralled everyone out of the room and into the hallway, which posed their first issue.
Nobody knew what the fuck was happening, despite Korra repeating it ten times.
Opal was headed for the break room, Bolin close behind her. Kuvira was walking towards the gym. Mako started towards his office, and Seth was pressing every button he could find in the hallways. Ren was following Asami— Asami who kept trying to insist she needed to go to the chem labs to check on her current experiments.
Korra quickly found herself grabbing a rope from one of the storage rooms nearby and tying little knots in it. “Alright. New plan. Everyone grab one of the knots on the rope.” she ordered as she held one end.
Mako went to grab the same one as Bolin, which of course, only delayed the journey more.
“I reached for it first.” Bolin pouted as he tried to pry his brother's hand off.
Mako didn't budge. “Well I got to it first.” he said dryly. “Plus, I'm older.”
“You're also dumber.” Bo shot back like a toddler as he tried to bite Mako's hand.
Mako pulled his hand away and smacked him. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Bolin grinned as he held the knot he'd been originally fighting for. “Told you, you're dumber.”
Maybe if she wasn;t aware this would be a preview for the rest of her night, she would have laughed. But as it stood, the scene just made her want to smash her head into a brick wall.
“Guys. No more biting. Come on, we don't have time for this.” she said as she started walking them towards the elevator like a line of preschoolers on their way to the bathroom.
She made it a solid two steps before the rope went slack and everyone tripped into one another.
Asami stood at the back, frowning at the rope as everyone else reoriented themselves.
Korra could only stare at her and try not to sigh. “Asami, baby, you have to walk.”
The engineer nodded. “Right. Sorry.”
That settled, she started walking again.
Except she didn't make it any further than she did the first time because the same thing happened.
“Asami.” she said flatly as she turned around again. “You have to walk with everyone.”
“I was!” she argued indignantly.
Korra couldn't hold back her sigh this time as she tied the rope to a table momentarily and walked towards her girlfriend. She crouched down. “Come on. Get on my back.”
She was shocked, but relieved, when Asami didn't put up much of a protest. Instead the heiress flopped onto Korra's back, leaving the Avatar to try and wind Asami's ridiculously long limbs around her. Once the engineer was properly in place, Korra went back to the front of the line and grabbed the rope to finally lead them towards the elevator.
It took longer than it really should have to get everyone inside. But she let herself take a moment to close her eyes and get her thoughts together the moment the doors were shut.
Which, she should have known, was a mistake.
She heard the click of all the buttons on the elevator and watched in furious horror as they lit up. “Seth. Seriously?”
“They looked very pressable.” he argued with a pout.
She sighed. “I don't know whether I should be pissed off or impressed that you managed to hit every single button aside from the one we needed.”
“Oooh, I've got it!” Bo raised his hand excitedly. “Boop.”
Asami snorted.
Seth squinted as he investigated the buttons again. “Oh wait. There's another one we didn't press.”
Korra saw what he was reaching for and her stomach dropped. “No! Don't press that. Do not press the fucking button for the alarm.” she yelled as she swatted his hand away. “All of you, free hands where I can see them.”
Asami's hands instantly fell in front of Korra's face— leaving Korra to reach back and make sure the heiress didn't fall backwards.
“Guess who.” she giggled as she pressed her palm to Korra's eyes
Despite the situation, it was a little funny. “Sunshine, you can put your hands down.” she said amusedly.
“Oh. Okay.” she said simply, a smile in her voice as she dropped her chin on Korra's shoulder.
After that, she thought they'd be fine.
It was a foolish thought, really.
The first floor they stopped on, thanks to Seth, was the main lobby where a nice couple stepped into the elevator with them. Korra smiled at them awkwardly as the doors closed— praying none of the others opened their mouths.
Ren looked at the man and leaned in to smell him. “You smell nice.”
The man inched back away a little. “Thank…you?”
Opal pointed to the woman's heels. “Oh I have those. They're super comfortable.” At least that was a normal comment. “I once had to use the heel to stab someone's eye out though.”
Goddamit.
The woman's eyes widened as she glanced towards her husband for help. “Oh…”
The next stop, they both got out. She was pretty sure that wasn't their floor, and she should probably apologize for the uncomfortable situation her guests had found themselves in, but as it stood, she didn't even have the words to begin trying to fix what had just occurred. She'd probably get a report later about a complaint. Another thing she'd get to deal with.
Finally, finally, they made it to the door of Korra's apartment. She was still holding Asami on her back and had the rope in her other hand. Putting Asami down was a risk she wasn't willing to take just yet.
She turned to Opal so the woman could reach the carabiner on her side. “Here. Grab my keys.”
Opal carefully picked the keys up before dropping them on the floor. She giggled. “They make such a fun sound.” she mused as she picked them up and promptly dropped them again. And again.
Korra stepped on them before she could do it another time. She looked around. Kuvira was probably the least fucked up. She was a casual smoker. Her tolerance was a little higher. “Kuv. Grab these keys and unlock the door.”
Kuvira grabbed them and made her way towards the door so slow Korra was starting to wonder if the woman was so high she believed she turned into a fucking snail. But, eventually, Kuvira managed to stick a key in the door.
The wrong key.
“No. Kuv. The other one.” she said. “Kuvira. You know what my fucking house key looks like. No— not that. Just—” She gave up. There was no point. They'd all just have to sit there until Kuvira finally got to the right one.
She nearly went though Korra's entire key ring before they finally made it inside. All of them trailed behind her, still holding onto the rope with more obedience than she anticipated. She led them over to the living room and sat all of them down on the couch.
She ran her hand through her hair and tried to think. Water. They'd need water to help flush this out a little faster. But realistically, there was nothing they could do aside from wait until it passed. Which considering the amount everyone inhaled…could be a while.
She started with the water. That was something she could control. She grabbed bottles from the fridge and passed them around— opening a few of them when they couldn't figure out how to use their hands anymore.
That taken care of, she settled on the next order of business. They would need sleep. If they could all sleep for a little bit, they would be so much easier to deal with.
She slowly started getting everyone laid down on the couch with blankets and pillows. She considered putting them in the guest rooms, but having them all in one place would make it all significantly easier.
After she passed the blankets and pillows around, she felt a hand wrap around her wrist and tug at her. Asami was looking at her with that adorable face she made when she wanted Korra to do something for her— it was completely unfair, and Korra knew it was ridiculous, but she still gave in every time.
She smiled as she plopped down onto the couch beside her girlfriend and let Asami wrap the blanket over them. The engineer put her head on Korra's chest, wrapped an arm around her waist, and flung one leg over her thighs. She was wrapped like a fucking koala hugging a tree.
“Comfy?” she mused as she started running her fingers through Asami's hair in hopes it would make Asami relax like it normally did.
Asami hummed— eyes already closing. “Very. You're warm.”
Korra just shook her head. Asami always said that Korra ran hot. And honestly, she believed it. Especially when Asami loved to cuddle, even in the middle of summer under a thousand blankets. She'd try to scoot away throughout the night, only to wake up with Asami touching her somehow. It didn't matter if it was a hand on her arm, a foot on her shin, a head on her shoulder. Asami always found a way to make sure they were touching.
She'd complain, but she didn't actually mind.
It was nice to feel wanted.
She kissed Asami's hair, turned down the lights through the app on her phone, and put on a movie for the others to fall asleep to.
Hopefully they could sleep off some of the weed.
♣️
The problem with Korra's plan was that everyone wouldn't sleep forever.
And now that they were well rested, the weed was still going strong, and they were full of a newfound vigor— Korra was losing her fucking mind.
It was like trying to wrangle wet cats into a bag or keeping a baby from putting a fork in an outlet.
Korra had never realized just how many things in her living room could be turned into a weapon until that moment.
Everyone seemed keen on venturing away, everyone was determined to leave, everyone was emotional, and Korra…
Korra was going to kill someone.
Whether it was Bolin, herself, or the person who had sold Bo the cookies that were packed with weed, she wasn't sure. She was halfway debating rolling a dice and letting fate pick, but fate was what landed her here in the first place, so maybe fate needed to stay far the fuck away for a minute.
She'd finally managed to wrangle them all— sort of— into the living room. And wrangle was the only proper word for the situation. She'd either dragged everyone by their arms, played defense at the door until they gave up and flopped on the floor, or simply bribed them with food.
That was problem one. Everyone was already hungry. And Korra didn't let anyone in her kitchen, not even Asami— especially not Asami. She loved her girlfriend, she did. Asami was a genius, she was brilliant and witty, she could solve science equations in her sleep and build motors from memory while blindfolded.
Asami Sato couldn't cook.
But by god was she determined to try.
Korra took the spatula from Asami's hand for the third time.
Asami blinked once, looked at her hand, and then looked at Korra's— like she didn't understand how it had magically traveled there. “Hey, I need that.”
Korra was stuck between trying not to laugh and annoyance. “You need a spatula for the…metal mixing bowl full of water you put on the stove?” Not to mention Asami had the oven preheating and not the stove turned on— which Korra was actually quite grateful for.
Her girlfriend pouted as she tried to subtly reach for the spatula again. “Yes. I'm making us noodles.”
“Asami, baby, you're making us a trip to the ER with a side of pissed off fire department.” she countered as she slowly turned the engineer by the shoulders and directed her back towards the living room.
“You could be a firefighter. You'd put out the fire before it could hurt us. And you're strong, you could carry us down a ladder.” Asami states thoughtfully as she finally sits down. “Why didn't you become a firefighter?”
“Great question. Probably because I had to become a Mafia boss against my will.” she answers bluntly.
Asami nodded. “That makes sense.” she said. “You'd be a very hot firefighter.” she adds in the same simple tone.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, but let's keep it a daydream, yeah?” she says as she kisses the heiress’s hair and gently pushes her to sit down on the couch.
Korra silently cheers.
And then Asami abruptly looks like she's about to cry.
Korra's taking the engineer's face in her hand within seconds— scanning for anything that looks visibly wrong. “Hey, woah. What's wrong?”
Asami's lip trembles. “I don't want you to be a firefighter. I don't want you to run into fire, that sounds awful.”
She kisses her girlfriend and then gently frees Asami's face to wander back over to the kitchen. “I'm not going to become a firefighter, sunshine.” she soothes quickly as she starts digging through the pantry for snacks the others can hold themselves over with for now.
She thinks that conversation is done, and lets herself breathe for a minute. It would all have to stop at some point. Once they all had food and slept some it off, they'd slowly start sobering up. Quite frankly, she'd probably be a little less shitty about everything if she herself could still feel the lingering effects, but as it stood, she'd fucked up her tolernece a long time ago.
So instead, she kept rummaging through the cabinets in an attempt to help get everyone back to baseline with her. She didn't have a ton of options. She needed to stop at the store—
“If you were a firefighter, and the building had one of your past hookups in it, would you save them?”
Korra nearly jumps out of her skin. Asami has somehow spawned behind her and is now staring Korra down to a point where their height difference is more obvious than usual.
“What the hell Asami?!”
Her girlfriend narrows her eyes further. “You didn't answer my question.”
Korra shoves a few bags of chips, marshmallows, and pretzels in her arms. “What kind of question even is that?”
Opal smiles as her head pops up over the back of the couch. “That sounds like you're avoiding it.”
“I'm not avoiding anything!” she argues as she shuts the cabinets, sets the snacks down, and starts filling a pitcher with water.
Kuvira’s head pops up beside Opal's. “Would you save me if I was the past hookup in this scenario?”
Korra prays for strength. “I would save any of you from a burning building. I don't know what I'd do in any other situation, but thankfully we won't have to find out because there's no fires and there will be no fires.”
Mako holds up his lighter so that all Korra sees is a pale hand with a lighter already flicked open. “Did you need fire for something?”
She leaps over the kitchen island faster than the speed of light as she pries the lighter from his hand to shove it in her pocket.
Bolin huffs from the floor as he sets the game controller down. “I'm hungry.”
“I'll make us noodles.” Asami says happily as she tries to grab the spatula off the counter again.
Korra promptly picks her up, throws her over her shoulder, and puts her back on the couch. “No. You're not allowed in the kitchen.” she says as she brings the snacks and water over to the coffee table in the living room.
When Korra looks at her girlfriend, Asami's eyes shimmer again. “Are you training to be a firefighter?”
Great so they were back to that.
“No, I'm not going to be a firefighter.” she says exhaustedly before she grabs a bag of marshmallows and starts handing them out like she's passing candy to trick or treaters. “Here, eat some snacks. I'll make us some food.”
She hears a sniffle and finds Bo looking sadly at the marshmallow in his hand.
Phenomenal. This was all going so well.
“Why are you crying?” she asks as she sets the bag down.
Bo holds up the marshmallow and squishes it. “Look how cute it is. It's too cute to eat. But I'm hungry. So I need to. But I just can't.” he says as another tear falls.
It was going to be a long fucking night.
♣️
Everything was going well. Everyone was fed, nobody was crying, and she'd let them pick a show to watch— how they all settled on Rupal's Drag Race was far beyond her understanding, but she didn't really care as long as they all stayed put.
After she finished her own bowl of noodles, she quickly did a head count.
There was one person very obviously missing.
How was that woman so fast?
She turned to Opal. “Where did Asami go?”
Opal blinked at her slowly— genuinely having to put some effort into her words. “Upstairs? She wanted a book. Probably one of her fun ones.” she said, wiggling her brows before she burst into giggles.
“What the fuck does that even mean?” she asked exasperatedly. “Nevermind. It doesn't matter.” She started to make her way up the stairs.
“Careful. If you stay too long, she'll make you act out the scenes.” Ren grinned from where he was upside down on the couch.
Korra furrowed her brow, even more confused than before. “Huh?”
Both him and Opal fell into a fit of giggles and Korra accepted that any further conversation with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum was absolutely pointless right now.
Instead she made her way upstairs, straight to Asami's office.
Instantly, Korra stood in the doorway and took a deep, grounding, breath.
It looked like a tornado had shaken every book from the shelf. Each novel was placed in chaotic and halfhazard little piles around the room.
“You know, when I said you could make the office your own, this isn't what I was expecting.” she teased as she stepped carefully through the mountains of books to sit next to her girlfriend.
Asami held one book in her hand, tears in her eyes as she turned to look at the Avatar.
Korra was quickly learning that Asami was very emotional when she was stoned. It likely had a lot to do with the fact that Asami tended to keep her emotions bottled up and neatly tucked behind a proper little mask. It was only in these moments, when Asami's mind was fully relaxed and didn't have constant thoughts moving rapidly in her brain, that she could finally let herself feel things to their full extent.
Despite the fact that it was somewhat adorable to watch Asami pout, she couldn't stand seeing her girlfriend with that frown on her face.
She wiped a tear from Asami's cheek. “What's wrong, sunshine?”
Asami's lip wobbled. “I can't read.” she said quietly as another tear fell.
She didn't fully understand. Maybe Asami was just tired and couldn't focus on the words. She probably wasn't getting sick.
Korra really hoped she wasn't getting sick.
Instead of panicking, she let her hand rub soft circles on Asami's back— something that usually calmed her down. “Baby, what do you mean you can't read?”
“I can't read. The words don't make sense and I can't understand them. I don't know how to anymore.” she said plaintively.
She then shoved the book towards Korra.
The very upside down book.
It was nearly impossible to keep herself from laughing, but somehow she managed as she flipped it the right way and put it back in the engineer's hands. “Try this.”
“You fixed it.” she smiled happily. She turned to Korra, staring at her like Korra had just presented her the entire universe and more. “I love you.” she declared like it was a confession at a booth.
Korra shook her head fondly despite everything else that frustrated her. “I love you too.”
Asami kept staring. “Thank you for fixing me. I promise I'll make it up to you.”
“I didn't fix you, I just— you know what nevermind.” she started before giving up. It wasn't worth it. “You can make it up to me by coming back downstairs.” she offered, trying to steer them back towards everyone else. She'd already been gone too long.
“Oh, I can't.” Asami said simply as she began to refocus on her books.
She took a grounding breath. “Why not?”
“Because I decided I need to organize my books in alphabetical order.” the engineer said, like it was obvious.
Korra stared. Then stared some more.
Then briefly wondered if she should just pick a god and start praying.
Then reminded herself that this was the same woman with an absolutely outrageous IQ when she wasn’t hindered by weed and a woman that she loved dearly.
“Asami…they were already in alphabetical order.”
Her girlfriend frowned. “But one of them was in the wrong spot.”
She couldn't do this. She didn't have the patience or the time to deal with this. She could sit and try to explain to Asami that taking every book off the shelf was the least efficient way she could have solved that problem, but Asami was stubborn on her best days— trying to argue with her in her current state would be a wasted effort.
So instead she simply handed Asami the book she'd previously shown her, scooped Asami up, and carried her down stairs while the heiress was distracted with her book.
Only a few more hours.
Then everything would be fine.
_______________________
She let her eyes zero in on the fan above her— watching in awe as the blades of the fan spun and spun and spun.
Asami felt amazing.
It was like she was floating. The world blurred at the edges, her chest felt lighter, her eyes squinted, and her lips tugged up at the corners like they were already prepared to giggle at the next cool thing she discovered.
That something happened to be her own hand.
It was just so weird. She felt her arms, but they moved so slow. And her hand was right there, reaching and pointing and doing all the things she told it to do.
Five whole fingers. But why five? Why did they evolve with five fingers? Why not six? Wouldn't it be nice to have more fingers? She could think of a few reasons having more fingers would really work in her favor. She was sure there was a scientific explanation, but she couldn't seem to find it in the endless stores of knowledge in her brain.
She turned to the TV as she watched the movie play out. It was some old war documentary that Kuvira and Mako had picked. They had banned the Disney sing along movies rather quickly— much to her, Bolin, and Opal's despair.
“Did you guys know they made a bear a Private during the war?” Mako asked casually as they watched.
Asami, always excited to have more knowledge, tipped her head back where it was laying on the couch to look at him. “What?” He was upside down, but his voice was normal, so that was nice.
“Yeah. His name was Wojtek. It was a Syrian bear that the Polish adopted and made a Private so he could carry ammunition crates for them.” he said as they all watched him.
“Why a bear?” Opal asked from her spot near Asami.
“Why not a bear? Bears are great.” Bolin chimed in as he ate a piece of popcorn.
Seth hummed. “We should get a bear. Our missions would be so much fun with a bear.”
“How would we sneak a bear into a building?” Kuvira mumbled, half asleep again as she lay sprawled out on the rug.
Bolin sat up eagerly. “We'd give it a disguise! We'll give it a hat and a mustache. Nobody would know. Nobody would suspect a bear to be under a mustache.”
Well Asami couldn't argue with that.
She turned her attention back to the fan as she watched it go in circle after circle. “What would we name the bear?”
“Something cool.” Mako offered. “Related to the organization.”
“Would he have a code name? Would he get a radio?” Ren asked.
Seth looked offended. “Of course he'd get a radio. He'd be part of the team.”
Opal furrows her brow. “How would we train him to use the radio? Are bears easy to train?”
Asami grabbed her phone and unlocked it. And then she turned it off and did it again because the sounds the numbers made were very satisfying. She typed in “Where to buy a bear?” and scrolled through a few sites.
All of them were very cute.
She heard the toilet flush and the click of the bathroom door opening. Korra came out, standing behind the couch and resting her forearms on it.
Korra looked so beautiful. Asami always found Korra attractive, but something about this version of Korra, the one that was calm and healthy and happy, was Asami's favorite. Her girlfriend's eyes looked brighter, her cheeks were fuller. She didn't move like she had to drag herself around.
Asami stared. Absolutely fascinated.
Her jaw was sharp. The freckles on her nose were so pretty, like little stars. The shaved part of her hair was freshly trimmed. Her scars were subtle, but always caught Asami's eye. Even the way Korra carried herself now. More confident. More sure. More at ease. Less like she wasn’t about to start sprinting the moment things went South.
She was just so beautiful.
But she was also so far away.
Why was she so far away?
Asami sat up to look at her better. Her face inches from Korra's. God she loved Korra. Her lips, her eyes, her smile. And Korra was hers. She grinned as she kissed her girlfriend, watching as the Avatar grinned back.
She promptly pulled back, enjoying the Avatar's peaceful smile, when she remembered something. “Korra. We're getting a bear.”
Korra paused, smile dropping. “Excuse me?”
She grabbed her phone to put it up to Korra's face. “I found a bear. We should get this one.”
“I left for two fucking minutes to go to the bathroom.” she muttered as she ran a hand down her face. “Also, that's my phone. Give that here before you accidentally call someone.”
“Why? Are you hiding something?” Asami asked haughtily as Korra room the phone away. Korra never tried to hide her phone.
“Yeah, I'm hiding my search history asking where I can buy a bear.” she said dryly as she pocketed her phone. She then looked at the screen and groaned. “Alright. Who has the remote? We're not searching for videos on how to train a bear. We're not getting a fucking bear.”
“Why not?” Asami asked sadly.
She'd done all the research. A bear would be a great addition to the team.
“No bear.” Korra said as she sat down on the couch. “We don't have the space, the need, or the training, to handle a bear.” she said. “Besides. We have Naga. She's better than a bear.”
The pup heard her name and trotted over to them. She leaped up on the couch to snuggle in Asami's lap.
She supposed Naga was a good substitute.
But she would keep working on the bear thing. She wasn't giving up just yet.
She spent the next half hour working out plans for a fully detailed sideshow and a ten page written proposal.
♣️
“My feet are warm.” Bolin grumbled as he continued playing GTA and crashing the car into everything.
“It's because you're high, Bo.” Korra answered as she scrolled through her phone.
“My feet aren't warm. Maybe I'm not high anymore.” Seth commented from the floor.
“Considering I just watched you stare at your watch for ten minutes and make the clicking noises as it ticked, I'm gonna have to disagree.” the Avatar grumbled.
Asami looked at her feet where they sat in Korra's lap and frowned. “Where are my toes?” she asked as she wiggled them. She could feel them, but she couldn't see them. That was strange. Did they fall off?
Korra pulled one of her socks off. “Right here.” She put Asami's sock back on.
Ren looked at them confusedly. “Are my feet supposed to be hot? Is that, like, a requirement?”
“There aren't requirements to get high. Aside from actually using the drug.” Korra told him.
“My feet are full of static.” Bolin pouted again as he steered the car straight into oncoming traffic. “Am I gonna die?”
Asami reached down and took the controller from him so she could take over. He was doing a terrible job. She sped away from the cops as she tried to salvage Bolin’s minimal progress.
“Bo. You're not dying.” the guard told him exhaustedly.
“But my feet—” he started.
Korra cut him off. “No more feet talk. It's weird. You might all be high enough for that, but I'm not.”
Bolin gave up and turned to the TV to watch Asami. “How are you so good at this?”
“I work on cars for a living. Plus I love this game.” she said simply as she kept driving through an underpass.
Opal stood to grab one of the board games from the shelf Korra had in the corner. She grabbed Monopoly and set it down on the coffee table. “We should all play something together. It'll be more fun.”
Asami passed the controller to Korra before she slid down to sit on the floor next to her friend. Ren, Mako, Kuvira, Seth, and Bo joined them until they all were sandwiched between one another on the rug.
Korra didn't move. “I'm not playing. I'll be the referee.”
Asami could only stare at her with her head tilted. “We don't need a ref for Monopoly.”
“We do in this family.” she said gravely as she watched the board be set up before returning her concentration to the game.
Asami didn't believe her, but she also wasn't going to argue. If Korra didn't want to play that was fine. Asami just wanted her close.
♣️
As it turned out, Korra was right.
This family needed a referee for Monopoly.
Korra held Kuvira back by her shirt collar. “Kuv. Let it go.”
“No! I needed that fucking space and that little shit bought it just to piss me off.” She growled as she tried to lunge at Mako again.
Mako smirked, but looked otherwise unbothered while he organized his cash. “It's part of the game. I'm not just going to let you win.”
“But then this game will go on forever because we'll get stuck having to trade, and people won't want to trade because that would mean the other person would win, and nobody does that in this group because none of us like to lose.” Kuvira rambled as Korra continued to hold her back.
Korra gave a long suffering sigh. “I knew this was a bad idea.”
Opal threw her cash down on the board. “We should just play Uno instead.” she said as she went to stand and grab the cards.
Korra dropped Kuvira and promptly lunged across the coffee table to tackle Opal. “Don't. You. Dare.” she warned as she dragged her friend back away from the game rack.
Opal tried to push her off. “What? What's wrong with Uno?”
“Half of those cards still have creases from where we've bent them into shurikens!” she yelled desperately. “And the other half have been torn and taped back together so many times I'm not sure they're even legible anymore.”
Opal rolled her eyes. “Fine. Then what can we play?”
Seth raised his hand. “Oh! Can we play Mario kart?”
Asami nearly jumped to get the controllers.
Korra considered it. She then let her eyes glance towards Asami, smiled quietly, and nodded. “Alright. Fine. But you're all wearing the wrist straps.”
♣️
After winning every round of Mario Kart— much to everyone's dispair— she was snuggled up in the bed, briefly looking over the edge to make sure she wasn't actually on a cloud and floating away every now and then.
The others were asleep on the couch, but Korra had brought her up here so that they could sleep in their comfy bed.
The moment the Avatar hit the mattress, Asami was scooting over to her so that she could tangle herself with her girlfriend. Korra laughed as she gently pried Asami off of her. “Hold on, I'm not laying down yet. Let me see your face.” she said as she cupped Asami's jaw and gently ran a rag over it.
Oh, she was washing off Asami's makeup. That was sweet of her. She didn't have to do that.
It was sad that not everyone had a Korra. She was so lucky. Everyone should get to have one. But nobody could have hers. She's already claimed this one. They'd have to find their own Korra. If they wanted hers, they were going to have to be really good at dodging arrows from a crossbow.
Korra gently brushed her hair and braided it in the way Asami liked. She carefully pulled Asami to the edge of the bed and helped her change into her favorite nightgown with little flowers embroidered in the silk. It was so soft. Korra had bought it for her.
She loved Korra so much. It was like her heart didn't know what to do with it. Nobody had ever loved her like Korra did. With gentleness and patience and grace. She'd given Asami a place to stay, she'd taken a chance on them, and she made Asami feel impossibly safe. For once, Asami didn't feel like that horrid lonely feeling was crawling under her skin. She felt loved and wanted and heard. And it was mostly because of Korra.
Korra who gave her a home. Korra who introduced her to the others. Korra who bought Asami her favorite ridiculous coffee the way Asami liked it despite the way the Avatar complained about the substitutions and additions every time. Korra who took her out on dates, who let her feel everything in full, who let her fall apart in peace. Korra who loved her despite all of her flaws. Korra who stayed up to wash Asami's makeup off and help her into her pajamas and braided her hair.
Korra was running a thumb over her cheek. “Hey. What's wrong?” she asked softly as she swiped a tear away.
Asami hadn't realized she was crying, but she wasn't sad. She just felt like the love had nowhere else to go because it made her chest so full. And she was tired and warm and cozy. And Korra was here and Korra made everything so much brighter.
“I love you.” she said reverently as she stared at the guard.
Korra looked slightly confused but she smiled anyway as she kissed Asami. “I love you too.” she said, kissing her again. “Lay down. I think you need some sleep.”
Asami complied, crawling underneath the covers, not even pretending to sleep on her own side of the bed as she reached out. “Stay?”
Korra smiled as she turned off the light, laid down, and opened her arms up for Asami to cuddle into. Strong arms wrapped around her waist, their legs tangled together, and the steady rhythm of Korra's heart beat under her ear. And then Korra squeezed her tight, just the way Asami loved. “Always, sunshine.”
And Asami, warm and happy and home, believed it.