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This was a very personal thing for Asami, to bring someone outside of her family to this place. But as far as she was concerned, by this point, Korra was her family, her whole world, the very thing her universe revolved around. But still, it was something she felt a bit vulnerable about.
Where she was taking her had been a private place for her for so many years, to confess her deepest secrets, to vent out her frustrations with the world. But she felt the woman she loved deserved to be a part of that. Plus, she wanted to share this with Korra, to share every part of her world with her.
They were walking through the forests behind the Sato estate north of the city, Asami leading her girlfriend down a small stone path through the trees. There were a lot more plants there than the last time Asami had visited, most likely Spirit vines, but she didn’t mind it.
“Are you sure I’m okay to be here?” Korra asked, following her girlfriend. “I mean, I know how important this place is to you.”
“And you’re important to me too,” Asami said. “Plus, I know she’d love you.”
Korra blushed a little at that.
Eventually, they arrived at the end of the path… and what rested at the end of it. In the middle of a clearing in the trees was a beautiful shrine styled in the traditional Fire nation style, with a large tombstone erected of it, with text engraved into it. Asami stopped as soon as she arrived.
Looking at the text, Korra repeated the words in her head.
Here lies Yasuko Sato. Beloved wife and mother.
Stepping forward, Asami knelt down in front of the grave. She sighed and reached over, touching the stone with her hand. It had been so many years since Asami had lost her mother, taken from her when she was a child when a firebending thief had broken into her family home.
Not everyone could afford to bury their dead in such a private and elaborate place, but well, that was the benefit of being the wealthiest family in the city after all. And Yasuko had loved these woods near the family estate, often going on walks there with Asami and her father when she was young.
“Hey Mom,” Asami whispered. “Sorry, it’s uh… been a while. I’ve been… busy, really busy. I wish I could have come sooner but I guess you’d understand all about being busy and stuff.”
Korra just leaned against a nearby tree, watching her girlfriend in her private moment.
“A lot has happened since the last time I was here, Mom,” Asami stated. “Dad and I… we started talking again. But there was an attack on the city and… he gave his life to save me. It’s… It’s been hard knowing he’s gone, even if there was so much wrong that he did after he lost you… and I feel a lot more alone now with both of you gone.”
She shed a few tears. “But… better things have happened to me too.” She looked over her shoulder and Korra walked over to her side, taking her hand as she knelt next to her in front of the marble stone.
“This is Korra,” Asami introduced her lover. “I told you I’d bring her here someday. We’re… together now. She makes me happy, happier than I’ve ever been. I… I don’t know what I’d do without her now.”
Korra squeezed Asami’s hand back and smiled and reached out and put her hand on the tombstone. “I’m sorry I never got a chance to meet you, Yausko… but I promise, I will keep your daughter safe for as long as I live.”
They spent a while at the shrine before starting to make their way back down the path. Asami looked… happy. She felt at peace, that even if there had been so much change and upheaval in her life, she’d been able to still come here and feel relaxed and to speak with her mother again.
“Thanks for coming, Korra,” Asami replied. “You… have no idea how much it meant to me to have you there.”
“Well, I was told it was always good to get a parent's approval after dating their daughter,” Korra said with a joke.
Asami chuckled. “Well… I think she would have liked you. And dad too, if he hadn’t… well, you know what happened with him.”
“Yeah… but what was your mom like?” Korra wondered. “I don’t think you ever talked about her much.”
“Well, she’s not exactly something that comes up all that often,” Asami admitted. “But she was very smart, and creative. It’s what drew my dad to her.” As they walked out of the trees and saw the sight of the Republic City skyline in the distance, Asami pointed to it. “My mom designed half the buildings in the city, you know?”
“Really?”
Asami nodded. “Yeah, she was an architect. Probably the best in the business as far as I’m concerned. But that meant a lot of people were wanting her services and as such, that meant she was busy a lot. She didn’t get a lot of time to spend with me as a kid, but she did her best.”
“She sounds a lot like you.”
“I got a lot of my love of engineering from her,” Asami stated. “Sure, Dad might have taught me all I knew, but Mom… she was my inspiration. I remember when I was six that she got me one of my first engineering textbooks. I read that thing every day for weeks after I got it.”
“Little Asami sounds like a precious little nerd,” Korra teased.
Asami laughed. “Yeah, I guess I was.” Her expression faltered. “But it didn’t last long. A few months later, I lost her.” She held herself. “I remember the night like it was yesterday. Do you… mind if I talk about it?”
“I don’t mind,” Korra reassured her girlfriend, putting a hand on her shoulder.
Asami sighed as her mind wandered back to that night so many years ago. “It was the middle of the night. A bunch of thugs from one of the triads broke into our home. We were the richest family in the city, not a surprise someone would try and rob us. Dad tried to fight them off, but well, they were all benders and he wasn’t.”
“Where was your mom?”
“When she heard the fighting downstairs, she hid me in my room and told me to stay put. As she went to call the cops one of the guys grabbed her from behind. She fought him off though, but then he blasted one of the drapes with his firebending… and within moments, the whole house was on fire.”
Her heart raced as she vividly remembered what happened next.
“The thugs managed to get away, and mom tried to get to me… but the fire spread fast and the roof came down on top of us. She… pushed me out of the way before she was crushed by one of the beams. Dad got me and tried to pull it off her… but the fire was spreading fast and she begged him to leave.” The tears were streaming down Asami’s cheeks. “The last thing I ever saw of Mom… she was still pinned under that damn beam as my dad carried me out of the house.”
Korra squeezed her hand on her lover’s shoulder, holding her close. “Asami… I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be… I’ve thought long and hard about what happened that night. I made peace with her death a long time ago. But… I wish it hadn’t driven my Dad down the path that he did. He was a good man once, Korra, until grief tore him apart.” She held herself. “And you know the damndest thing?”
“What?”
“I’m… a little scared it would happen to me too.”
Her girlfriend’s eyes widened in shock. “Asami, what do you mean? You… You could never go down that path.”
“Couldn’t I?” Asami argued. “Korra… you’re all I have left in this world with my parents gone. You’re the most important person in my life… and even if you’re the avatar, you’re not invincible. Suppose one day something would happen and I’d lose you just as my dad lost my mom… there’s no telling what I’d do to avenge your death.”
“You really think you’d be like your dad?”
“I hated him for using my mother's death to justify him siding with the equalists, that she’d be disgusted by what he did…. But I know deep down, that there’s nothing I’d do to avenge your death and after having seen that happen to my dad, how easily his grief consumed him… I know, it sounds stupid.”
Korra kept holding Asami close. “No, it isn’t. Trust me, you are not wrong for being afraid of losing me. Especially after what happened to me with Zaheer and his allies. But you won’t lose me, Asami. I won’t let you be a widow like that and I won’t leave any child we have alone like that either.”
Asami looked into Korra’s eyes, her emerald orbs widened with love. “You… mean that?”
“With all my heart,” Korra said softly.
“I… Thank you…” Asami whispered, embracing her girlfriend tightly. “Thank you… for everything. I… I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Asami,” Korra comforted her love, caressing her hair and kissing her forehead. “Do you… have any more happy memories of your mom? Because I’d still like to hear about her.”
“You would?” Asami thought for a moment, wiping the tears from her eyes and smiling. “Well… there was that time she and I went to the lunar festival when I was four.”
As Asami and Korra walked back to Asami’s mansion, the fire nation woman regaled her girlfriend with all the happy stories she had of her mother. Though it was a source of tragedy for her family, Asami had grown beyond that and knew that after all these years, her mother would be proud of her.
And that Korra was the best girlfriend she could ever ask for.