Chapter Text
“Yeah, yeah, it's on the desk, I've got it,” Korra called over her shoulder as she entered Asami's office.
Morning sunshine streamed in through the window to fall on the desk, but aside from a few pens and a notebook, Asami's worksurface was unusually tidy. Frowning, Korra made her way over and picked up each item in turn, as if the blueprints would magically turn up underneath.
No luck.
Korra glanced around the office. She didn't spend a whole lot of time in here; Asami preferred not to be interrupted. But it was unmistakeably her girlfriend's space, from the black coat hanging off her chair to the empty box from Kwong's in the wastebasket.
“Blueprints,” she said, snapping back to reality and opening one of the drawers to poke around in. Asami had an important meeting with the city's legislators today - one that would be pointless without the new housing community blueprints they were there to discuss.
As she rummaged around, Korra caught a glimpse of her own handwriting. Curious, she dug out what turned out to be a few letters, all from her, all addressed to Asami.
Except she hadn't written to Asami in over a year. She hadn't needed to, not since she'd returned from the South Pole. Korra lowered herself into Asami's chair, not taking her eyes away from the letters for a second. She'd kept a couple of Asami's letters, but most of them - and Mako's, and Bolin's - had been thrown out, some without even being opened. Entranced, Korra flicked one open and began to read.
Dear Asami,
I'm sorry I haven't written to you sooner, but every time I've tried, I never know what to say. The past two years have been the hardest of my life. Even though I can get around fine now, I still can't go into the Avatar state. I keep having visions of Zaheer, and what happened that day.
Katara thinks a lot of this is in my head, so I've been meditating a lot, but sometimes I worry I'll never fully recover.
Please don't tell Mako and Bolin I wrote to you and not them. I don't want to hurt their feelings, but it's easier to tell you about this stuff. I don't think they'd understand.
Korra sighed, and turned to the next one.
Dear Asami,
Today, I managed to walk all the way back from Katara's without any help at all. I think, slowly, I'm starting to feel like myself again. I don't want to jinx it, but maybe I'll even be back in Republic City before long.
I've missed you. Tenzin's been keeping me up to date with Kuvira and the Earth Kingdom. He keeps telling me not to worry about it, but the sooner I'm back, the better.
“Korra, did you find them? They should be-” The door burst open and Asami walked in, but the rest of her sentence died in her throat. Korra stared at her for a moment, biting her lip.
“I, uh, didn't realise you kept them,” she said, holding up the letters. A very slight flush appeared on Asami's cheeks, but she didn't immediately respond. Instead, she came over to the desk, opened another drawer, and pulled out a few tightly rolled blueprints.
“I asked you to get these, not poke around in my things,” she said, raising an eyebrow.
“Sorry,” said Korra, looking rather like a puppy with her tail between her legs. She folded up the letters again and went to put them back, but Asami intercepted them.
“I hadn't seen you in so long,” she said quietly. “And when you finally wrote back to me I was so happy, I kept reading them over and over again trying to imagine your voice. Especially after you disappeared.”
“Well, I was always going to come back. Eventually.”
“I know. You needed time,” she said simply, tucking the letters back into her desk again. “But I'm going to be late for my meeting, so we'll talk about this later.”
“You'll be great,” said Korra, as they left her office. “And if they don't agree I'll come down myself and kick their butts.”
“As much as I would love to see that, maybe it's not such a great idea. But I'll meet you at the port after.”
“Don't be late for that too, the ship leaves for the South Pole at 3 o'clock on the dot. They won't hold it just because I'm the Avatar - believe me, I've tried.”
"I'll be there," she laughed, kissing Korra on the cheek.