Work Text:
The sun was shining as the ship entered the harbor. It was carrying the newest load of transfers to the military hospital in the base at Pearl Harbor. As it slowly made its way to the end of the row, sailors on the other ships docked there stopped and openly stared at all the beautiful women on the deck.
Korra was taking it all in when a voice startled her.
"You'd think they never saw a beautiful woman before." Korra recognized the voice of her fellow transfer and long time friend.
"Well, they obviously haven’t seen either of our gorgeous faces before Asami. I doubt they knew what beauty was before they saw us." She grinned at her friend as she stopped next to her.
"Oh, cut it out," Asami was smiling back at her when the ship finally docked.
They grabbed their things and departed the ship. The group of women followed their C.O. to the hospital housing where they put their bags away before heading to the hospital itself for a tour.
"I can’t believe we all got transferred out here together, what are the odds?" Opal, one of the other nurses said as they waited for the tour to begin.
"Almost too high to calculate." Kuvira, another transfer, replied as they started exploring the hospital.
After the tour, they were informed they had the rest of the afternoon off to get settled in. At which point Opal declared she was going to the beach to watch the "surf". They all wound up joining her and more than once had to stop and stare at the beauty of the sun setting on the horizon.
After the sun set, Kuvira and Opal headed back to the house. Korra stayed to watch the waves crashing on the shore for a little while longer.
"Want some company?" Korra turned her head slightly to see Asami standing a few feet away with a blanket draped over her shoulder.
"Sure, what’s with the blanket?"
"It gets cold on the beach at night."
"Thanks." Korra said as Asami draped the blanket across both their shoulders, they sat in comfortable silence for a while.
"What are you thinking about?" Asami asked
"Nothing really. There’s something calming about watching the waves come in and crash on the shore. I could sit here all night and just stare out at them forever." Korra gave her a small smile as she finished talking.
A few minutes later they got up, brushed the sand off and headed back to get some sleep. The next few days passed by with nothing exciting happening. About a week later Korra was walking in for the start of her shift when she heard people arguing somewhere behind one of the curtains.
"I told you not to touch it Bo, now look what happened." A sharp voice said as she pulled the curtain open. Three sets of eyes suddenly snapped up to meet her gaze.
"Uh, What can I do for you gentleman?"
The man in the corner pushed his glasses up his nose slightly before answering. "There was a mishap with one of our planes while we were doing maintenance. Mako was taking off the propeller for routine servicing when his hand slipped. He cut it pretty deep."
Korra stepped up to the man that was sitting on the bed with the cloth clutched tightly to his palm. "May I?" She gestured to his palm waiting for his response. He nodded while extending his injured hand out to her.
She lightly opened up his hand and removed the cloth to reveal a small but deep cut in the center of his palm.
"This was from a maintenance accident?" Korra asked as she started cleaning the wound.
"Yes." was all she got out of the gruff looking soldier.
"Then what were you arguing about when I walked in?"
"Bolin touched something he wasn’t supposed to and wound up breaking it."
"I saw something shiny! I didn’t mean to break it; it just came apart as I picked it up." Bolin said, bringing his hands into view. He was holding a clamp in his hands. She recognizes what they were instantly and started laughing.
"Sorry," She said seeing the confusion on his face. "I'm not laughing at you, I promise. I did the same thing my first day here." She reached over and took the two pieces out of his hand and, quickly reassembling them, gave them back to Bolin.
"Oh, cool!" Bolin had a look of pure wonder on his face as he pulled them apart and put them back together a few more times before finally putting them back on the tray.
"So it looks like you'll need a few stitches on that wound. I'll go get the doctor and be right back." Korra said as she turned and exited the curtained area in search of the doctor on duty.
"You hurt yourself just so you could see all the pretty nurses here didn't you?" The man with the glasses, Bataar, asked Mako a moment later.
A quiet maybe was all he got in response. Bataar smiled as Bolin started laughing at his brother.
A few moments later an older gentleman with a long beard walked in. “Good morning gentleman, my name is Tenzin and I'll be sewing you back up today.” He said in a kind voice with a smile at the end. He set to work and stitched up Mako's hand without incident.
“I'll send Korra back in to finish wrapping that up and provide you with aftercare instructions. Good day gentleman.”
A few minutes later Korra came back in and finished cleaning and wrapping Mako’s hand and told him what to expect over the next couple of days. They thanked her and headed back to the base to finish their maintenance. A few hours later, after her shift, Korra walked into the house to see Asami sitting in a chair reading a book.
“What are you reading?” Asami jumped at the sudden sound in the otherwise quiet house.
“You scared me; I didn’t even hear you come in.” Asami said putting her hand to her chest to slow her heart down.
“Sorry.” Korra offered with a slight grin. “So, do you have any plans for this weekend?”
“What’s the date this weekend?”
“Uh, Saturday is the sixth of December, why?”
“I have to write my father before the eighth so he doesn’t send a search party looking for me.”
“Oh, I should probably send one to my parents as well.”
“Why did you want know what I had planned for the weekend?”
“I, uh, was wondering if you would, um, want to go to the movies with me? We could get something to eat afterwards if you want.” Korra asked as she avoided looking at Asami.
Asami smiled before answering. “I would love to.”
“Really? Ok, we could go see that new Howard Hughes movie.”
“That would be nice. Where did you want to go to eat after?”
“There’s a new café that opened up a couple blocks away from the theater.”
“Sounds perfect, can’t wait.”
The rest of the work week went by in a kind of blur for Korra. She was so happy that Asami said yes that she could barely sleep that night. Saturday morning arrived quicker than she thought was possible. She finished her shift that afternoon and headed home to get ready for her night out. About ten minutes later, she stepped out into the living room and found Asami standing there waiting for her.
“Ready?” Asami asked as she walked closer.
“Yeah, come on, let’s go.” Korra offered her arm for Asami to hold onto as they began their walk to the theater. They filled their time with idle chatter and before they realized it, they were at the theater.
Korra purchased the tickets and they made their way to their seats. About halfway through the movie Korra tentatively reached for Asami’s hand. She breathed an internal sigh of relief when she felt Asami entwine their fingers. She glanced over and saw a small smile on her lips. After the movie ended Korra was surprised when Asami reached for her hand as they began to walk to the café.
The night ended quicker than either of them wanted it to. Before they realized it, they were standing in front of Asami’s room and chatting about the coming work week. The conversation ended and Korra looked up at her friend. Without saying anything, they both leaned in and shared a soft kiss. It lasted only a moment before one of the other doors opened. They quickly separated and watched Opal peak her head out.
“What are you two still doing up? It’s nearly midnight.” Opal stated in a groggy voice before she turned around and went back to bed.
“So, in case it wasn’t obvious, I like you. Like a lot and have for a while now.” Korra said as she started to blush.
“Me too, I would like to do this again sometime.”
“Me too, I’ll see you in the morning.” Korra turned and left to go to her room, leaving Asami to ponder over how the day had gone. She smiled to herself and made her way to bed.
Loud explosions woke her up suddenly as she was slowly waking the next morning. She grabbed her robe and ran out the door as fast as she could. The sight that greeted her nearly made her fall to her knees. Ships in the harbor were on fire and sinking with sailors still on board as airplanes fly low overhead and drop more bombs.
“Get to the hospital!” Someone behind her shouts and without having to command her legs to move she’s inside grabbing a shirt and putting it on while running to the hospital.
She can hear the drone of an airplane engine behind her as she sprints up the entranceway. The sight of so many men and women already here makes her want to throw up. Instead her training kicks in and she’s making her way over to the supply cabinet to grab a few things before tending to the kid that just came in with a gunshot to his lower leg. He won’t survive the night if she doesn’t work fast. As she works, the world fades together in a blur of limbs and blood.
“Asami,” Hearing her name she turns and looks at Tenzin as he’s working on a woman that has passed out from the pain of her missing arm. “We don’t have enough supplies to help everyone; I need you to sort them out.”
“I..I d-don’t know how-“
“Asami, please, see who we can save and make the others comfortable. Please.” Tenzin looks at her with one of the saddest expressions she’s ever seen at this point.
“Alright.” She makes her way outside where there are hundreds of people waiting to either get help, or die. She’s sorting through the injured in front of her as quickly as she can, but for every one she helps, it seems like three more show up worse than the previous. She sees a man carrying a woman whose not moving over to her.
“I just found her; I don’t think she’s breathing.”
Asami checks for a pulse without waiting another second. “She’s dead, threes nothing we can do for her.”
She brushes the hair off the woman’s face and her heart stops at who she looking at. Korra. Dead. She can’t breathe anymore. Opal is beside her before she can even register that she is falling.
“Ko..Korr..Korra’s…Korra’s dead.” She manages to say to her friend mot paying attention to what is being said to her.
“I know.” Opal replies with tears in her eyes. “We have people that need us Asami, we can grieve later. I know it sounds harsh, but the longer we sit here, the more people die.” She says the last part in a whisper.
Asami nods and gets up. She tells the man to put Korra’s body off to the side until they get through the people that require immediate attention. The rest of the day is filled with more death and gruesome images than anyone should ever have to see. The panic and craziness of earlier had died down slowly. Finally she was able to go home. She walked in the door saw Opal sitting on the couch with a box of tissues already half used and she broke down. The tears that she had pushed away had finally been able to fall.
She and Opal cried for what felt like hours. At some point Kuvira came in and asked where Korra was. Neither of them could make their mouths form the words and tried to convey what happened by the look on their faces. Kuvira's face fell as she dropped to her knees and started crying as well. The two on the couch walked over to their friend, picked her up, and carried her to Asami’s room. Since she had the biggest bed, the girls decided to share it for the night. Sleep didn’t come for a long time, when it finally did, all three were silently crying wishing they could start the day over again.
Two days later, the three women were standing in an aircraft hangar filled with caskets of the fallen military men and women. Looking at the casket in front of them still didn’t make it seem real. They had brought a photo of them all standing in front of their graduating class with smiles on their faces.
“It will never be the same without you here. There were so many things that you should have gotten to do, things you should have gotten to see. But the world can sometimes be cruel to those that don’t deserve it. I promise to live life for the both of us now. Good bye Korra. Until we meet again.”