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Only days after Korra’s return from helping Wu in the Earth Kingdom, she and Asami took a trip to visit Korra’s parents down in the Southern Water Tribe.
At first it was great! Korra got to show Asami so much -- her favorite places growing up, the best places to look at the stars, and of course her family.
Senna and Tonraq had enjoyed having Asami under their roof just as much as their own daughter. Naga was thriving. Even Katara seemed to be filled with a new energy. (Seeing the Avatar in love again did wonders for the soul.) Everything was perfect.
But Asami was miserable by the third day. She spoke very little, avoided everyone, and did no more than briefly brush against her girlfriend to acknowledge her presence.
Korra couldn’t figure out the cause.
“Asami?” Korra called, wandering through her parents' home until she reached the foyer.
“Hey,” Korra smiled, and went to embrace her girlfriend right before coming to a sharp halt. Something was off.
Asami stood awkwardly, her shoulders raised defensively, and her arms crossed. She was bundled up -- fashionable as always -- but the fluffy hood on her jacket made it difficult for Korra to see her face.
“Asami, are you okay?” Korra watched carefully for the other girl’s body language.
“Yeah,” Asami exhaled. “I’m just going to step outside for a walk.”
Korra’s eyes squinted. Since when did Asami voluntarily spend time in the cold? She practically used Korra as a personal heater whenever she got the chance.
“Are you sure? It’s pretty cold out there.” Korra let the comment linger like a lifeline.
Asami’s lip curled in hesitation. “I suppose a warm body would be nice.”
Still watching Asami’s every move, Korra threw on her jacket and mittens. There was no smile to be found on her girlfriend’s face. Her eyebrows were furrowed -- which usually either meant she was concentrating on work or on some bad memories. And Korra was betting it wasn’t the first option.
“Mom, Dad, we’re going out for a walk!” Korra yelled back into the house, then shut the door behind them.
The cold air felt brutal against Korra’s face. It stung the skin on her nose and her eyes started to water. She instinctively shrank further into her coat before remembering Tenzin’s trick to use airbending to warm herself.
They walked in silence for a little while. Korra wanted to give Asami the chance to say what was on her mind before the prodding began. The taller woman’s arms remained crossed over her chest, but Korra let hers hang open at her sides.
“It’s been six months since we started dating,” Korra said. “I know something is wrong; don’t pretend it’s okay.”
“I ....” Asami deserted whatever excuse she had planned.
Korra rotated her hand so it was palm-up should Asami decide she wanted to hold it. “If you want to talk, I’m here for you.”
Asami hesitated. Whatever misgivings she initially had melted away and she wrapped her gloved hand in Korra’s. “I know, I…I just need a moment,” she fumbled.
“Take all the time you need.”
Korra remained silent as they continued to walk through the empty back streets. The lights looked so beautiful next to the glowing snow, and yet Korra had only eyes for one sight. Asami’s eyes were more reflective than usual, the beginning of a tear forming under the ring of green. Her face seemed so pale in the cold. There were the beginnings of purple bags under her eyes that Korra kicked herself for not seeing earlier.
“If it’s hard to sleep because of the cold, I can get more blankets,” Korra offered.
“No, that’s not it,” Asami said. “You keep me warm enough.” She lips parted to speak again, but no sounds came out.
Suddenly bashful of her staring, Korra watched as her boots sunk into the snow with every new step.
“Oh … good,” Korra said. “I like being your heater.”
She expected Asami to follow up with some comment about their midnight mischief. But she didn’t. Korra’s boots sunk further into the white plane.
“Do you parents like me?” Asami asked tentatively.
Korra let out a relaxed chuckle. “Yes. My dad keeps giving me the thumbs-ups when you can’t see.”
Asami’s shoulders dropped in relief. “Well that’s one thing off my mind.”
“There’s something else?” Korra spoke quietly.
“Kind of.” Asami inhaled slowly, letting the air fill her with a subtle courage. “I was trying to figure out us.”
Korra let her girlfriend’s words hang in the air, in case she wanted to follow up with more. She did.
“I’m sorry I’ve been acting strangely today. It’s just … I miss … I miss my family. And seeing yours, it’s just ....”
“Hard?” Korra offered.
“Very.”
Korra inhaled, giving herself time to carefully select her next words. She didn’t want to be brash and say the wrong thing.
“Look, I’m not going to pretend to know what it’s like to lose a parent,” she decided. “When I thought Zaheer killed my dad, I was so angry and hurt and terrified. I can’t imagine what that feels like every day. But I’m here for you.”
“I appreciate that.” While Korra was sure she meant it, the phrase itself was too placatingly polite to feel genuine.
“I was so angry for so long at what he did,” Asami said, “But I forgave him, and I still loved him, and I wasn’t ready for him to go.”
Korra squeezed Asami's hand tighter, letting her warmth flow into the other girl.
"I never got to tell him about you," Asami spat, staring bitterly at the ground. "He never got to know how happy I am with you."
"I'm sorry," Korra said, "He deserved that much."
Asami inhaled slowly. “Your parents have been very gracious to me, and I don’t mean to come off as ungrateful. It’s just I feel like your family is so full and mine is ....”
“Yours is with me,” Korra stated, so forcefully that she stopped walking and thus Asami was pulled back by their intertwined fingers, so that she faced the other woman. “Bolin, Mako, my mom and dad, Tenzin and his family, the Beifongs.”
“It’s not the same.” Asami’s voice was soft; hesitant but convicted.
“No,” Korra confirmed, realizing she may have sounded more forceful than intended. “I just mean that I want ... I would ... I consider you my family."
“You do?”
“Yeah,” Korra said without a moment’s thought, “I hope I’m not being too forward, but …”
“It’s different,” Asami offered.
“Very.”
Asami acknowledged her agreement with a tilt of her head.
“Where do we go from here?” Asami looked at Korra, searching for answers in the soft curves of her face.
“Uh, here?” Korra tilted her head thoughtfully and glanced that their surroundings. “I guess we could make the next right, and --”
“I meant us.”
“Oh!” Right. “Us.”
Korra looked ahead in contemplation. The dark coastline seemed to stretch over the frozen waters endlessly. “Well, I suppose we keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
“And what is that, exactly?” Asami asked no one in particular. “I mean, you just got back from the Earth Kingdom and all.”
“I mean, it’s just you and me in the estate now,” Korra said. “I guess we’ll get used to it just being us.”
“Just us,” Asami repeated, as if trying the words out for the first time.
“Is that okay?” Korra checked, unable to gage Asami’s reaction as anything other than uncertainty. “I mean .. do you want to keep doing what we’re doing?”
“Yes.” The tone of assuredness returned to Asami’s voice, if but briefly. “I just wasn’t sure if you still felt the same way, after being apart for a few months.”
Korra chuckled sweetly. “I brought you to my hometown. I’m serious about this.”
A particularly cold breeze scraped past their cheeks, leaving a cold burn behind as a reminder. Asami tucked her face down into her neck lining.
“Do you want to know something?” Korra fixed her with a soft smile, placing a hand on the other woman's shoulder.
“Okay,” Asami agreed.
“I missed you every day that I was gone.” Korra stopped and tucked her fluffy mit around Asami’s neck and into the warm cavern of her hood. The bender leaned closer, closer, until she felt the familiar warmth of the other woman’s lips on her own, made rough by wind. “I thought of you every morning I woke up alone, and every night when I fell asleep by myself.”
Asami’s eyes remained closed, her head bowed against Korra’s, content to listen.
“I missed your quiet snoring,” she continued, “I missed finding you passed out at your desk sprawled out with your work scattered everywhere. I missed dinner with you; no one yelled at me for slurping my noodles. I missed this.” Korra pressed her lips to Asami’s again; this time it was hard enough that her lipstick came off when they pulled apart, foreheads still inseparable.
Asami stayed for a few moments, then pulled back slowly, as if torn, her eyelids lifting once more to reveal the beginning pool of a tear. “It just seems that whenever I love someone, and get close to them … I lose them. My mom, my dad...” You.
Korra felt her heart fall. “I’ve been away from you enough. You’ll have to tear me away from you next time.”
“Next time?” Asami asked, both soothed and still concerned.
“Well yeah,” Korra said, “I figured you’d have to go to the bathroom eventually.”
She chuckled in delight, making the bender smirk in satisfaction. The path of the tear running down Asami’s face was broken as her smile pushed it off to the side, where Korra wiped it away with her mitten and it lingered no more.
“You make me really happy,” Asami admitted.
Korra gave her a soft smile. “You make me really happy too.”
The bender withdrew to press a kiss to Asami's forehead.
“We should probably head back,” Korra pointed out.
“Sounds good,” Asami agreed. “I have to keep my heater in tip-top shape, after all.”
Korra laughed. The couple started to trudge back to the house, arms intertwined, their backs to the sea. Behind them, waves lapped away, washing away the water that had come just moments before.
“How long do you think it’ll take them to figure out you’ve been sneaking into my room?” Asami asked.
Korra giggled. “I’m pretty sure Katara already knows.”
Asami wrapped her arm tighter around Korra’s, watching as her girlfriend continued to speak.
“Spirits, the stories that woman tells …”