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Asami sat up in bed, sketchbook in her lap, her tiny flashlight the only source of illumination in the cabin. It had taken a while for the group to get to sleep, but she and the other counselor, Opal, hadn’t been strict about lights out that night. After all, these kids were all going home in the morning. Asami herself had wanted to stay up and talk for a while, since she too would be heading off the next evening. She had spent nearly the whole summer at the camp, and while it would be nice to have some time off before she returned to school, she had definitely grown attached to the place.
She heard a tapping noise on the window screen next to her head. It startled her, causing her to bump her head on the bunk above her. “Shhhh!” whispered a dark silhouette outside. Asami whirled her flashlight around, then immediately sighed with relief when she recognized Korra. She slipped on her pair of flip flops and quietly crept outside, careful not to wake the other campers.
“You know, there are better ways get someone’s attention than by looming over them in the dead of night,” she muttered, rubbing the back of her head.
“Sorry,” said Korra sheepishly. “But come on, I wanted to show you something.” They began walking down the hill towards the main area of camp, both in their pajamas. “So, how does it feel to have completed a whole summer as a camp counselor?”
Asami gave a shrug that turned into a shiver - the temperature dropped at night, and she was just in a tank top and shorts. “I have mixed feelings, I guess. I’m ready to be home and have some space to myself, but I’m also going to miss everyone I’ve grown close to here.”
One reason Asami had decided to work at the camp: she had been lonely. Spending all of her time around campers who cared about her had certainly addressed that.
“Leaving’s always kind of bittersweet,” remarked Korra. “It’ll be nice to see your family though, right?”
Asami grimaced. Most of the girls in her cabin had gotten letters from home nearly every day, sometimes even with care packages. She knew that had more to do with their age, but Opal had a large family that often sent her mail too.
Korra had sensed her lackluster response. “I’m sorry, did I-”
“No, it’s fine. It’s just... I don’t really have much of a family. For a long time, it was just me and my dad but he- he passed away last year.”
Another reason Asami had come: there wasn’t much waiting at home for her.
She folded in on herself, staring at the rough gravel path in front of them. “Sorry, you probably didn’t want to know all that.”
“Asami...” Korra’s blue eyes had filled with concern. She shrugged off the hoodie around her shoulders and helped Asami into it. “I’m so sorry. I know you’ve been focusing on other people’s problems since it’s, y’know, part of the job, but.... You don’t need to feel guilty for talking about your own ones.” She did have a point - they had spent so much time together, but Asami knew she usually tried too hard to keep her boundaries up.
“I.... Thanks, Korra.” The hoodie was soft and warm. Without thinking about it, she had reached for the other girl’s hand, their fingers laced together.
“Of course. C’mon, we’re headed this way.” Korra led her off to the right where the path split into a fork. They continued until they cleared the dark foliage on either side of them.
“The lake?” Asami asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I know you’re at the crafts pavilion while the Badgermoles have aquatics time, so I figured you probably didn’t get much time with it. But it’s my favorite place here.”
“I’ve never seen it so smooth,” Asami remarked. It provided a perfect mirror image of the sky above them, complete with an identical moon across the water’s surface. Nearly every time she had walked past it before, the lake had been filled with several dozen young swimmers. It wasn’t big, maybe several times the size of the sports field, but it seemed to stretch out into the night.
“C’mon!” Korra disappeared into the supply shed and reappeared with a paddle board. Asami kicked off her flip flops, feeling the cool, loose sand against her feet.
“This is probably against about fifty rules,” she mumbled, though she took off Korra’s hoodie all the same and set it gently on top of her flip flops.
“Have you done a single careless thing this summer?” She spent a moment trying to come up with a defense, but it was hard to keep a serious face when confronted with Korra’s crooked smile. “But really. You never got to do anything like this as a camper, so this is your chance now.”
Asami watched the other girl roll up her pajama bottoms to about mid-calf, then climb onto the front end of the board. “Here, you take this and steer from the back.” She passed Asami the paddle.
Korra used her hands to push against the sand. Asami nudged the paddle board into the shallow water, then gingerly stepped on. It wobbled slightly. She slowly paddled them towards the center of the lake, alternating sides.
“See? You’re a natural!” Korra leaned back, flashing an upside-down smile up at Asami. It was easy to get the hang of, once she got moving. She steered them in a loose tour around the lake’s edges before gradually leading them towards the lake’s center. “You can sit if you want, just make sure to do it slowly.”
She reached up, and Asami handed her the handle of the paddle, bending her knees slowly until her hands could reach the board. Asami crossed her legs. Korra leaned back, resting her head in Asami’s lap.
“You have such soft hair,” she mumbled, a hand on Korra’s forehead.
Korra laughed, Asami’s dark curls tickling her when the other girl looked down. “Speak for yourself. I might cut it short before I leave for university.”
“You’d look good with short hair . Where are you going?”
“Republic City University.”
“I go to the Sokka School of Engineering. If you go downtown, I might run into you sometime.”
Korra grinned, blowing a puff of hair up at Asami to keep her hair out of the way. “I’d like that.”
“How deep is this lake, anyway?
“I’m pretty sure we can stand even at the deepest part. Or at least, I can.”
“I’m taller than you, dork.” Korra sat up, slowly turning her body around so that she sat facing Asami.
“You are not.”
“I am too!”
"Not by a lot.” Korra leaned forward, one hand cupping Asami’s face. “I mean, you don’t look any taller than me right now.” Their foreheads rested against each other.
Asami bit her lip, trying to seem nonchalant about their sudden closeness despite the pounding in her chest. “Maybe I just have longer legs.” She could feel Korra’s warm breath against her face. They stayed in that position for a while, Asami trying to garner the courage to lean in just a bit further.
Korra moved suddenly, as if making to sit up on her legs, and the board abruptly shifted beneath them, flipping them both into the water.
For a moment, Asami was only aware of the cold around her. She opened her eyes to a dark blur of green, able to hear nothing but the lurching of the water and the pounding of her own heart. She stood, her feet finding the muddy bottom of the lake with ease, and pushed the heavy curtain of dark hair out of her face. Upon turning around, she saw Korra in a similar state of disarray and waded towards her.
Korra cleared her throat. “You’ve got a bit of seaweed or something in your hair.” She reached up to remove it.
“Forget about seaweed.” This is it, thought Asami. She took a deep breath and pulled Korra in by the straps of her tank top, leaning down until their lips met. Korra responded immediately, tugging on Asami’s bottom lip between her own, her hands finding Asami’s face and neck. They pulled back panting for air, still holding onto each other.
A “wow” escaped Korra’s lips in between breaths.
“Wow is right.”
They were quiet for a while.
“We’re basically the same height.”
“I know you’re on your tiptoes.” Korra stuck out her tongue, reluctantly going back down onto her heels and sinking a couple of inches. Asami laughed and kissed her forehead, wrapping her arms around Korra’s waist. “So, how’d you end up dumping us in the water?”
“I was trying to get at a better angle, it just didn’t work out. You stole my thunder - not that I’m complaining.” She placed a quick kiss on Asami’s jawbone. “C’mon, we get out of the water before we get too cold.”
“I’m perfectly comfortable here,” Asami remarked.
“Your teeth are starting to chatter.” The light of the full moon bathed them both, casting a ray of silver over their wet features. Korra swam away just enough to reach the paddle and board, which they both held onto as they slowly kicked towards the shore.
It wasn’t far to the Fire Ferrets’ campground. Korra pulled her beach towel off of the clothesline hanging from the side of her cabin, dabbing at her face and neck before tossing it to Asami. Asami tried to wring as much water as possible out of her hair and clothes, then wrapped herself in the dry towel. She turned around to see Korra kicking off her waterlogged pajama bottoms and tried - without success, of course - not to stare at Korra in just her tank top and underwear. Asami felt her face grow hot.
Korra grabbed a pair of running shorts from the rack. Upon turning around, she caught Asami’s gaze and winked before pulling the shorts on. Asami clumsily pulled Korra’s hoodie on again, wrapping the towel around her shoulders so that her hair didn’t drip on it.
Suddenly, a pair of girls stepped out from one of the other cabins, nervously pointing their flashlights at the ground in front of them. “C’mon!” Asami grabbed Korra’s wrist, pulling them both back into the cover of the trees. The two campers slowly made their way to the bathroom. As soon as they disappeared, Korra and Asami crept back to the main camp, away from where they could be seen.
“Do you have anything to write with?” Asami asked.
"Hold on,” Korra whispered in response. She led them to the mess hall, where a clipboard and a pad of paper hung against the wall. It was usually for writing down announcements, but no one would miss a single sheet of lined paper. “What is it?”
Asami wrote down a phone number and ripped off the sheet, handing it to Korra. “Here. If you want to text me, once you’ve moved in and stuff. I mean....” she suddenly felt embarrassed - for all she knew, Korra had done this before. Maybe she didn’t want to stay in touch at all. “Only if you want to. And it doesn’t have to be anything more than you want it to be, I just thought I’d-” Korra cut off her babbling with a peck to the lips.
“Can I have your address too?”
“I... what? Why?”
“So that I can write to you. You probably didn’t get a whole lot of mail here, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on it entirely.”
Asami’s eyes shone with tears. “You’d really do that for me?” She buried her face in Korra’s shoulder, embarrassed with herself but unable to contain her reaction. The other girl’s arms wound around her waist, one hand stroking her hair.
“Shhhhhh... of course I would.” They broke apart from the embrace to look each other in the eyes. “We probably need to get back before someone notices us.”
“I guess you’re right.” Asami signed. Their lips met in one last, deep kiss. “I hope you have a good start at university.”
“I hope I’ll get to see you. I mean, I might just need someone to show me around the city, since I’ll be an overwhelmed new student and all.” Asami laughed.
“Of coures. Here,” she handed Korra the towel and began to remove the hoodie.
“You know what? Keep it. You can give it back to me when we see each other again.
A grin split across Asami’s face. “Will do. And Korra?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
They hugged tightly one last time before heading off towards their separate cabins. Asami approached her cabin silently, pulling the screen door open with care so that it wouldn’t creak. Her shorts had dried, but her tank-top was too damp to sleep in, so she sat down on her bed and quietly pulled out the first shirt she could from her trunk. Just then, a figure loomed over her from the top bunk.
“Nice of you to join us,” whispered Jinora from above. “What were you up to?” Asami knew she wasn’t supposed to have favorites, but Jinora had been one of the campers to whom she had grown closest. She was clever, and they had traded books and swapped stories. That being said, she didn’t quite feel like sharing what she had been up to would be a good idea.
“Counselor stuff,” she whispered back. “It’s late, you should be asleep.”
Even in the dark, she could recognize the knowing smile on this kid’s face, raised eyebrow and all. “I like your hoodie. Is it new?” Asami sat back and gave the mattress above her a sharp nudge with her foot. She silently took off the hoodie, then her wet tank top, and pulled the dry t-shirt over her head. She hung the wet shirt along the foot of her bed, but she kept the hoodie in her arms as she climbed under her blankets.