#and he tried to do the same with kuvira when she came to live too

[beifong-brainrot]

I've joked about how mild the Beifong siblings expressions are in the scene where Suyin tells Baatar Jr that him leaving broke her heart and the family was never the same afterwards.

Like go girls give us nothing.

Though I suppose it's in line with the Beifong family to close of their emotions in times of distress (i speak of the Beifongs as if they were a different species). And there is still some emotion to be read from them.

Opal is looking down, and she furrows her eyebrows in a way that implies deep pain. Her eyes are markedly shinier than the twins' and although that is also just kinda hoe she's drawn, it could imply she's close to crying, which we know she is prone to in moments of distress.

Wing is by far giving us the least, so I like to think he's just straight up dissociating lol. He's also standing behind his siblings which could further imply that he's distancing himself from the situation. He's also the one who is looking away from Baatar the most, so I think he's going for the 'if I don't acknowledge it it can't hurt me' strat.

Wei's reaction is by far the most animated, as he actively turns his head to seemingly look at Baatar. He also seems to be the angriest out of the siblings, giving a scowl and glare. Tjis falls in line with him being rather protective of gamily and the more outspoken against them of the twins. While Wing questions Suyin's choice to try and take out Kuvira, Wei seems completely on board. Wei is also the one to yell at Kuvira and call her out for painting herself as reasonable and peaceful. He's also the one to jump out of cover to save Su, while Wing and Lin held down the fort.

[sokkas-honour]

Let’s say #10 of the Spotify wrapped writing for Korra :)

ANON HOW DID YOU KNOW

girls - korra x reader

pairing: korra x fem!reader

wc: 1.7k with lyrics

warning/notes: i can’t think of anything, but if there is fee free to message me!

taglist (message me/fill out form): @draqondance @biqherosix

i've been hiding for so long, these feelings, they're not gone, can i tell anyone?

you stared at her from across the room, god she was beautiful. the way she laughed and joked around with your brother made you heart soar, the sheer sound of her joy making your day.

you snapped out of your staring when your older brother came by, a stack of empty boxes in his arms as he dropped them on the ground, the thump getting your attention.

“oh thank god you found the boxes mako.” you sighed in relief at the fear of not finding the boxes to put back all the decorations used for varrick and zhu li’s wedding.

“they were in ikki’s room for some reason.” makos discovery caused a laugh to come out, your brother following your lead.

“how in the world did they end up there?” you wondered as you grabbed some of the decorations off the tables and placed them delicately into one of the boxes.

“no idea.” he answered, taking the decorations off of the other tables and copying you.

“you two need some help?” you felt your cheeks heat up and heart pick up as you heard the voice of the woman you loved dearly. you met her eyes and smiled.

“i wouldn’t say no to it.” you joked, smile growing bigger as you watched her laugh.

mako called bolin over for help as korra worked on the same tables as you did. working in unison, your hands accidentally landed on top of each other’s as you grabbed the same center piece, a blush erupting on both of your cheeks.

once you were done and your brothers went to bring the majority of the boxes to where varrick wanted them to, you were left alone with your girlfriend.

“i saw you staring before, you’re not very discreet.” korra teased once the both of you were alone which just made heat rush to your cheeks which just made her laugh at your flustered expression.

“yeah well youre insanely cute when you laugh.” you answered, arms wrapping around her waist and head being placed on her chest as you breathed in her comforting scent.

“i’m always cute.” she joked, earning a small chuckle from you as you looked up to her, loving smile adorning her face.

when you thought you heard someone coming, you quickly unwrapped yourself and jumped back, afraid of them seeing you two hug. you looked around frantically only to find that you were still alone. with a sigh of relief, you returned your attention to the avatar whos expression had changed to one of slight disappointment.

“y/n, we can’t keep sneaking around like this. one day or another, we should tell the others. you especially should come out to your brothers.” she sighed. you two had gotten together right after defeating kuvira but she had come out a while before leaving for the south pole after zaheer.

it hurt korra to see you living some sort of double life, lying to your brothers who tried to get you to bring someone to th wedding about you seeing someone, your brothers still fully thinking that you were only interested in men which would be the opposite of the truth.

“i know, i’ll tell them one day but i just, don’t know when.” you shrugged off your concerns and told a white lie to the girl in front of you.

afraid of what they'll say, so i push them away, i’m acting so strange

“y/n, you’re not telling the truth. i’m your girlfriend, we may have only been together for a little over two weeks but we’ve been friends for years, i can tell when you’re lying.” she informed, placing her hand over yours that was limp next to your hip. you grabbed onto it and sighed, you knew you were going to caught and have to voice your fears eventually but some part of you had hoped that your girlfriend wasn’t as smart as she said she was, she unfortunately wasn’t.

“sometimes i forgot how much of a genius you are.” you smiled half heartedly as she looked at you concerned, wanting to know the reason why you were still in the closet after supposed years of knowing your sexuality.

“babe come on, you can tell me.” she insisted, giving your hand a little squeeze from encouragement.

you took a deep breath in and let it out it, coming yourself in order to tell your girlfriend the reason why you hadn’t come out yet.

“i just. i don’t know how mako and bolin will react.” you finally admitted, feeling as though a huge weight was lifted from your shoulders when suddenly, the girl in front of you starting laughing. you quirked an eyebrow, wondering why the hell was she laughing.

“y/n! you saw how they reacted when i came out! they were completely and utterly fine with it! hell they were super supportive of me!” she reasoned once her laughter died down.

“i know but i’m their sister, it’s different.”

“no y/n it isn’t. why would it be any different.” she asked, confused at your stupid reasoning:

“i mean for one, they’re going to be mad i never told them anything, especially since i’ve already dated a girl or two. two, they might find it a tad bit weird when we tell them we’re dating.”

“well your first reason could’ve been avoided if you’d told them in the first place.” she pointed out, earning a small blush from you. “and second, they won’t, trust me. mako might be a bit stunned but he’ll be 100% supportive, don’t even get me started on bolin.”

“you’re right, i should probably tell them.” you sighed in defeat, head turning slightly to stare at the building on air temple island where your brothers probably were.

“if you want ill be there.” she proposed, her free hand placing itself on your cheek to which you gladly leaned into.

“yeah, i’d like that.”

they're so pretty, it hurts, im not talking 'bout boys, I'm talking 'bout girls, they're so pretty with their button-up shirts.

after dinner, mako, bolin, and you were on kitchen duty to clean the dishes, giving you the perfect opportunity to finally come out to your brothers and stop hiding.

as you finished drying a plate, you decided that it was time. especially since bolin was bringing up the idea of setting you up with someone.

“okay so y/n, i found this great guy that you’ll love. super sweet, super nice, super good looking, bolin approved guy.” your younger brother told you, scrubbing the food off one of the dishes.

“that’s nice bo but i’ve got something to tell you both.” in an almost perfect synchronised moment, both of them stopped what they were doing and turned to you. with both of their eyes on you, you froze a bit.

“sure y/n, what’s up?” mako encouraged, seeing your slightly stunned state and helping you snap out of it.

“i’m gay.” you blurted out. mentally smacking yourself for saying it so bluntly and straight to the point.

“knew it.” mako smirked as bolin let out a big ‘ohhhhh’.

“okay then, i think i know this one really nice, sweet, bolin approved girl that i believe also likes girls.” the earthbender quickly responded, correcting his previous date proposition to adjust it to the news.

“thanks bo but that’s not necessary.” you smiled gratefully at the youngest of you three before turning your attention to the eldest.

“what makes you say that mako?” you inquired, curious as to why your brother wasn’t very surprised at the news.

“well um, i.” mako stumbled over his words, slightly unsure of how to go about it but he recomposed himself. “i think you forget that as your older brother, i was able to see things that you didn’t.”

“go on, i’m intrigued.” it was now your turn to smirk.

“at first it was probably the constantly stealing mom’s kyoshi book, only to stare at the pictures of kyoshi warriors.” he joked.

“hey i still know a lot about kyoshi warriors!” you protested, half joking about the reason why you were addicted to the book.

“yeah but i literally walked into your room when you were about five only to see you open at the same page for a solid ten minutes. also, you couldn’t read!”

“i’m surprised mako caught any of it because it’s news to me. good news though!” bolin inserted himself back into the conversation, a cheery grin on his face.

“i think the longing stares between you and that waterbender from the red sands rabaroos could’ve also been an indication. and the constant cheering for them.” mako teased, resuming his dunking of plates in the water.

“yeah, umi and i didn’t last too long but it was fun while it lasted.” you reminisced over your first girlfriend, and followed your brothers lead to return to drying plates, leaving a dumbfounded brother to connect the dots.

“wait, you dated someone in an enemy team? y/n!” bolin gasped, accusing you in a joking manor.

“guilty as charged.” you smirked.

“okay well, let me set you up with someone! i’m sure i know another lesbian or bisexual!” bolin persisted with his idea so you thought that you might as well come out about korra and you.

“well bo, mako, i’m kinda seeing someone right now.” you started but were interrupted by someone barging in, the exact person you were about to mention.

“are you idiots done yet? we figured we’d all go see a probending match tonight but if you slowpokes aren’t done we might miss it!” korra informed the three of them. the two boys quickly returned to work but your gaze lingered on the avatar.

“so are you going to tell us or?” mako asked as korra left.

“i think you’ll figure it out.” your eyes stayed a little too long in the direction that your girlfriend left, a smirk on your lips at the idea of making your brothers wait.

when you all made your way to the probending arena, you caught up with korra and asami in the front, making sure to interlock your fingers with the watertribe girl.

“im guessing you told them?” asami asked, a knowing smile on her face at the romantic gesture.

“not exactly.” you guiltily admitted as you heard two gasps behind you. one was almost dramatically loud while the other was a bit more subtle.

“y/n!” you heard from the two boys behind you, and korra gave you a knowing smile, your idiot brothers had figured it out.

[babyboiboyega]

Confessions (Wing Beifong x reader)

Pairing: Wing Beifong x reader

Content: angst, major injury

Word Count: 1 .4k

REQUESTED BY ANONYMOUS:  “would live to request a LoK Oneshot (but in an anonymous way, I got the notifications active so you wouldnt have to tag me :D), but I don't know if you're too busy at the moment.. but just in case you'd write sth.. a Oneshot with Wing in the last episode, where the whole team is fighting against Kuvira. The reader, who also is an earthbender or Wing getting hurt really bad (but still surviving it) and both of them confessing their actual feelings??”

I hope you enjoy this! I’m sorry it took me a while! I was thinking of maybe doing a short drabble or a small oneshot as a second part to this where Wing and the reader can talk more! 

Babyboiboyega’s Legend of Korra Masterlist

Babyboiboyega’s Masterlist of Masterlists

********************

Every breath you took coated your throat with a mixture of ash and dust. Every building you ran past was a game of chance, whether it would come crumbling down on top of you. Yours limbs were stiff and with every step they threatened to give out, but you would not let that happen. You couldn’t let that happen, not when you were tasked with finding those who were hurt and who needed help. Despite knowing how important it was to stay focused and alert, you couldn’t help the way your mind wandered to your friends and if they were okay. Specifically, if he was okay.

No. There would be no “if’s”. He would be okay; he had to be, because you had no idea what you would do if he wasn’t.

There were so many words that you had to say to him, and if- when- you made it out of this alive, you would find him and tell him what your heart had revealed to you a long time ago. You couldn’t count how many times you had been close to telling Wing exactly how you felt, but you had never gotten the chance. Between everything going on, Kuvira, the brief time where the world was encompassed in pure evil, the two of you hadn’t really had the time to interact as much as you wanted to. But somehow, the feelings that you harbored for him had only grown over the months. They had grown all the way up until this moment, when you were just about ready to pop and confess everything.

But all of that would have to wait until after the battle was over, whenever that would be. You knew it would have to be over soon, you had just stumbled across the sight of Korra racing after a disheveled Kuvira.

As you raced through the debris ridden streets, you kept your eyes peeled for both enemies and survivors. It proved to be quite difficult as there was a blanket of ash that covered any an everything it could reach. Only when you had lifted enough earth to make a small building and still hadn’t found anyone did you turn on your heel and begin making your way back to Tenzin and the kids.

Your feet caught on a few pieces of debris, but you made it back to them in one piece. You couldn’t say the same for Tenzin as you caught sight of him leaning exhaustedly against Jinora.

“Tenzin! Jinora!” Your voice rang out across the broken street as you approached them. Without hesitation, you quickly walked to Tenzin’s other side, taking some of his weight. Jinora threw an appreciative look from the other side of her father before continuing to walk and support her father.

“Y/N, you’re here! We’re glad you’re okay.” Meelo exclaimed from your other side, prompting a small, reassuring smile to be thrown his way. You could say the exact same for them; the sight of them in good shape, for better or worse in Tenzin’s case, made the smallest sliver of hope appear in your chest. Something that told you everything would be okay.

“I’m okay, Meelo. I’m glad you all are okay!” Your eyes trailed to Tenzin’s hunched figure beside you, “Tenzin…is it over?”

Before a word could be uttered, the ground beneath your feet began to rumble. Your teeth knocked against each other as if the ground was threatening to either swallow you all whole or laugh you into the sky. Jinora’s look of appreciativeness changed into one of unbelief and fear. Your eyes followed her faze over your shoulder where you were met with a sight that, undoubtedly, made your face mirror Jinora’s.

The sight of a tidal wave of pure spiritual energy consuming everything in it’s path was terrifying enough to both freeze you to your sport while making an inner voice yell at you to get out of the way. You didn’t have to choose between the two actions, for you were already being pulled towards an alley.

Despite being pulled by two people, your feet still couldn’t move fast enough to escape the incoming cloud of energy and dust.

You felt the heat of the energy licking at your neck and without a second thought, your arms shot forward, pushing Tenzin with all of your might into the alley. Your view of him and the kids were obscured as the cloud of dust enveloped your body, the pure energy setting every nerve in your body on fire.

Your arms shook with the effort of raising them against the intense winds that pushed against you. You were barely able to raise a slab of earth in front fo you as it all intensifies, however, it proved to be futile.

You couldn’t help the yell that escaped your mouth as the slab gave way against the winds, your body being effortlessly picked up and thrown backwards.  

The panic that you felt was like no other as you floated through the air, your eyes searching for something- anything- that wasn’t dust. However, the search was cut short as you slammed against something that effectively took all of your breath away and made your vision go dark.

*****

The first thing you had expected when gaining an ounce of consciousness was to choke on a mouth full of dust. Well, to be honest, you were surprised that you had even gained an ounce of consciousness in the first place. You remember every detail that had happened and you knew that it hadn’t been good. You didn’t need your memories to know that much; the pain that radiated through your body said enough.

The first sense that came back was your hearing. You heard nothing at first, but then you heard what sounded like footsteps. They were muffled due to the sound of your own blood rushing in your ears, but you could hear them nonetheless. You had no idea how long it had been before voices accompanied those footsteps, but with every second that passed, your hearing threatened to go back out…and it scared you.

“Y/N! Say something, let us know where you are!”

You tried with everything that you had to reply, to call out to him, but your mouth felt as if it were filled with cotton.

The air around you was charged with electricity, giving off a heat that would have normally made you uncomfortable; but your limbs felt ice cold and like they were being weighed down by something relentless. You couldn’t move or say anything if you wanted to, and you wanted to; so badly.

“Y/N! Please say some-“

“She’s over here!”

Through your hearing that continued to fade in and out, you could hear the sound of footsteps quickly making their way over to you and the sound of debris being pushed over.

“Oh no. No, no, no. Y/N!”

You couldn’t see him, but you could hear him. You could hear a rathe large piece of debris being dropped somewhere and then you could feel him.

His thumbs gently rubbed at your eyes, removing the ash that blocked your vision…and then you could see him. The sight was enough to bring tears to your eyes, Wing unharmed and here, right before you.

“Hey! Can you hear me?”

With all the strength you could muster, you moved your mouth, hoping that sound was actually coming out.

You knew that you should have been worried at the look his face as he looked at the state you were in, but all you could feel was relief at the sight of his face. He was okay. Nevermind the tears that trekked down his face, cutting paths in the thin layer of dust that covered his features.

“You’re going to be okay. I’m going to get you help, I got you.”

The feeling of his hands picking you up was masked by the intense waves of pain that wracked your body. The only thing keeping you from crying out was the sound of his voice reassuring you as he ran quickly.

“You’re safe now, Y/N. You keep your eyes open for me, okay? You have to keep your eyes open for me, please. I need you- I love you. You can’t leave me.”

The sound of his voice cracking as he spoke made tears appear in your eyes. You never knew that you could hate a sound so much until you heard the sound of Wing crying. It made your chest swell with sobs.

You could feel your mouth moving once more and this time, you could feel both and hear your voice as it came out of your mouth. The sound of your voice made Wing stop and look down at you, his eyes wide and filled with tears.

“W-what’d you say?” He lowered his head closer to you as your mouth opened once more.

“I love you too…more than you know.”

****************

Once again! I hope you enjoyed this! I’m still taking requests for LoK and the other fandoms I write for! Don’t hesitate to send them in!

[not-all-dead]

angstpril day seven: friendly fire

CW: war, bombs, explosions, death, pain (of literally every kind)

fic under the cut

“Newbie, can you check our coordinates? Kuvira’s starting fire soon,” I heard my squadron’s sergeant say in my direction.

“Yes, sir,” I replied, walking the short distance to where our map has been laid out.

“We’re in block F32, sir,” I looked up at him and he nodded, pushing up his sleeve and tapping his watch twice.

“Good, good. We charge forwards the moment we hear the explosives launch, and if all goes to plan, the barrage should provide enough cover for us to get in and sabotage their defences,” I watched as he checked the time again and nodded to another officer behind me.

“But sir,” I asked cautiously, folding the map in front of me.

“What happens if all doesn’t go to plan?” I stood up, folded map in hand.

He looked at me sadly and gave me a quick smile, patting my shoulder with a rough hand.

“We won’t get caught in the fire, kid, don’t worry. After all, they don’t call it friendly for nothing,” He let out a boisterous laugh and walked around me, helping to pack up the last of our supplies from the overnight.

I put the map I held into one of the cases we kept for smaller supplies and we hid all our sacks in a small cave behind some bushes. The plan was to come back to this site after the attack to retrieve it all, so we didn’t have unnecessary clutter on the move. Once everything was set and ready to go, we got into our formation.

The minute the first explosive flew overhead, I knew something was wrong.

“She’s firing too close!” I yelled, turning in horror to our sergeant.

“Does she not know we’re here?” I continued, panic growing in my chest as another bomb launched over us.

Our sergeant gave me a grave smile and nodded.

“She knows we’re here, kid,” He said above the now near constant sound of explosions.

“But you said- you said we’d make it out alright,” I flinched as several shells exploded a little too close for comfort.

“You said the barrage was to provide cover!” I had to fight off tears as the panic climbed up my throat.

How was everyone else so calm about this? Did they not realise she was firing right at us? She swore she would protect us, train us and then keep us safe. And yet here I stood, surrounded by living corpses, all because she lied.

She lied.

And I’d trusted her. But of course I had, my village had been one of the first she’d helped. I’d left with her on the train that same day, pledging my allegiance and going to her first training camp. Most of the officers that I was with now had been in the army before Kuvira had taken over, but I had been top of my unit in training. I’d been sent here early.

If only I hadn’t.

Another shell screeched overhead, exploding mere metres in front of us. I let out a yelp and ducked down, covering my head against the debris that came flying towards us. Several of the others squatted as well, our sergeant not among them. I saw a piece of shrapnel come into contact with his cheek, leaving a mark that would undoubtedly scar.

“We have to get out of here,” I screamed, no longer fighting the tears.

“It’s too late,” The private next to me said in a low and scratchy voice.

I stared at her, tears rushing down my face. I saw that her eyes were watering too, though from emotion or from the dust in the air, I couldn't tell. She pulled her lips into a tight smile and held her hand out to me. I took it gratefully, a sob escaping my lips as she laced our fingers together. I tried not to think about the fact that I was about to die, holding the hand of someone I barely knew, and at the hands of the person who swore to protect me. To protect all of us.

There were several loud booms as more shells were fired. Something felt different this time, though. There was a negative energy suddenly enveloping us, hanging over us like a heavy rain cloud. Time slowed as the bomb gave a high whistle and fell right in the middle of our group. I watched, frozen in place, as its fuse burned down to nothing. The air seemed to pull towards it in the long seconds it took for the reaction within to occur, and there was something in me that longed to reach out and touch it.

I never got the chance.

Those long seconds were over all too quickly, despite how slow time seemed. I felt the energy coming off of it in waves, each one larger and more intense until the casing of the bomb split open. It’s contents flew everywhere, the force of the release sending us all flying backwards. My hand slipped from the kind private’s at some point, her warmth replaced by that of my own blood as shrapnel was thrust into my skin.

I landed hard on my back, a jolt of pain going through my body at the harsh contact. I tried to sit up but gasped and doubled over, clutching my stomach tightly. My head was spinning, a loud ringing in my ears, and I was in the worst pain I’d ever felt. My legs screamed at me as I shifted again and I gritted my teeth, trying not to throw up. My stomach was churning, just about every muscle and organ around it throbbing with pain. I closed my eyes against the spinning of the world, hoping to ease the nausea, but it hardly helped.

My eyes snapped open again, my head lifting quickly, when I heard someone shouting something. I cringed at the webs of pain that renewed throughout my body, but looked around anyway, searching for the source of the voice.

I saw the private who’d held my hand lying not too far from me. She was fighting to keep her eyes open, the leg closest to me blown clean off. Behind her were several other recruits who’d been closer to the bomb when it had exploded. I no longer recognized any of them. I tried to turn my body to look in the other direction, still wondering where the voice had come from, but something above me caught my eye.

It shone in the sun as it flew through the air, it's cold metal almost like a mirror. I didn’t hear the whistle this time, the ringing too loud for any other sounds to break through. The world seemed to still as it landed, bouncing once before rolling to a stop just in front of me. Somehow, at that moment, I felt calm. I reached forwards, ignoring the agony I was in, and picked it up. I ran my thumb over its smooth metal, mesmerized by how it sparkled in the sun. The fuse was burned down to almost nothing now, the burnt end of the rope sticking out the top of the perfect sphere.

This was the end.

There was a sadness about it, perhaps the fact that I had barely lived to twenty, or maybe the tragedy of destroying one’s own people. You might say it was both. That sadness was what brought the idea into my mind, fueling what could only be described as hope. Hope that I might spare the people around me, people who didn’t deserve to die. The logical part of my brain told me that they’d die anyway, whether from injuries from the first bomb or from wounds to come later. The desperate part insisted that that might not be true.

I gave in to the desperate part of me and pulled the bomb into a hug. I curled myself around it, pressing it harshly into my stomach.

It’ll be over before you know it, I thought to myself.

A tear slipped from my eye, carving a path down my dirty cheek.

Soon, I thought.

Soon.

I was right.

It was an odd sensation. At first there was the shock, the build up of energy coursing through my body. Then there was the sickening ripping of limb from limb as the bomb fought to expand. I expected it to hurt more, but was pleasantly surprised when I mostly felt detached, in every sense of the word. There wasn’t much after that point, the world quickly fading around me. I knew I should’ve felt sadder, more scared, but there was a peace to it all that almost made me smile.

I heard the voice again and closed my eyes, listening with everything I had left.

“Come,” It says to me, making me open my eyes again.

Everything around me is gone. I push myself off the ground, staring down at my unwounded body as the voice speaks again.

“Come home to me, child,” I then recognize it as my grandfather’s voice.

I look up to see him standing a few feet in front of me, both of us surrounded by the vast space that is both nothing and everything at the same time. He reaches his hand towards me, taking a slow step forward.

“Come,” He repeats as I place my hand in his.

I suddenly become light-headed at the touch. I close my eyes and let out a breath, trying to steady myself. When I do, the breath doesn’t stop. It pulls the air from my lungs until there’s nothing left. Then, it takes my soul. My eyes stay closed and I feel myself falling, back, back, until there’s nothing. And when at last there is nothing, I know, I feel, I am gone.

[moonlightsanctuary]

The Librarian X Reader

here’s something for the peeps! :D *DISCLAMER* There will be smut! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED -.-

( also the spacing is really off so I apologize about that. Just make sure you scroll down all the way!)

@chaoticallywriting @darlingimmafangirl

You loved going to Republic city university library, always felt at home surrounded by books that offered you a sanctuary, away from life’s problems. It also gave you a chance to see her.

You didn’t know much about her when you first moved to Republic city but you were memorized by the way her beauty mark under her right eye made those brilliant pale green eyes stand out . You liked the way her sleek black hair was always pulled back into a tight bun. Though most people couldn’t pull it off at such a young age, she could. It was a natural look to her. She couldn’t have been much older than you, but she certainly acted like it. She held an authoritative posture and spoke with such professionalism that it rivaled many of the older faculty members.

When you first applied for your library card you stole a glance at her ID card hanging from her neck. Kuvira was her name. A name you never forgot, even months later. Oftentimes you came to study, but there were times you stole glances at her. It wasn’t something you could help. The way she projected herself always walking with such poise and grace was something that quickly caught your attention. Her tone was never condescending, always warm and welcoming whenever you required her assistance in searching for new reading recommendations or a book needed for class projects, she was always willing to help. It made her that much more unique and interesting, something you couldn’t help but admire. You found it odd that you were developing a crush on her but who wouldn’t she was clearly a breathtaking sight.

Though she spoke very little the times you did speak to her she always had something interesting to say whether it was newfound knowledge or a book recommendation. It was hard for you to tear your attention away from her.

One day you caught her off guard, engrossed in a romance novel that you couldn’t help but recognize. The author was one of your favorites, you couldn’t help but chuckle at the similarities and taste you both shared in books.

“That’s a really good book. What chapter are you on?” You asked.

Kuvira looked up to peer over at you with the book still in hand. Her pale green eyes watched you carefully through black square-framed glasses. “Beg your pardon?”

“The book that you’re reading. I read it before and it’s very good. I was just curious how far you’ve gotten”

Kuvira paused momentarily before realizing that you were referring to the book she held in her hands. “Oh, I didn’t think you were interested in Nora Roberts.”

“How could I not be? Her books are very good. I like how she writes the female characters. Though they struggle through their strife they always manage to find the will to fight through their problems.”

Kuvira took a moment, taking in your words before nodding in agreement. “I know it's a bit much, but she has a writing style that is very unique. I do like how she incorporates mysteries and suspense into her books.”

“True. My favorite book from her is a book called Sanctuary. I’m not sure if you ever read it.”

“Actually I have,” Kuvira answered, smirking. “Ironically it is also one of my favorites.”

“Well then, you obviously have good taste.”

It was then Kuvira smiled, a rarity in itself. You couldn’t help but notice the fluttering sensation you felt in your stomach. She was absolutely beautiful. You watched as she placed the book on the table and placed a marker into it. You wondered if It was out of embarrassment as Kuvira tried to hide the blush that was growing on her face.

“I should say the same about you. I actually have read some of the books you checked out previously, which is why I always recommend some to you. What brings you by today Y/N?” Kuvira said, changing the topic.

“I just wanted to use the library to study. I have a test coming up. Midterms to be exact.”

“I see. Well, you are always welcome to use one of the open tables unless you’re trying to check out a study room.”

“No, the table should be enough. Thank you.” You said offering a warm smile before turning to walk away. Once you settled in an open seat you stole a quick glance at Kuvira and noticed her watching you from afar her gaze fixated on you. You could feel your heartbeat quicken but managed to quell your feelings by dismissing it as coincidental and focused on studying, assuming that she had no interest in you in that way. However, you soon learned how wrong you were.

One evening, on a rainy day you came into the library soaked. Your shirt clung to you uncomfortably which caused it to outline your figure more. Exposing the fullness of your chest and waist. You cursed yourself for not wearing a jacket or bringing an umbrella. You approached the Librarian’s desk where Kuvira stood. Her gaze fixated on you with so much intensity you could feel yourself tremble. You questioned if it was from her gaze or the chill from being in wet clothes for too long, you couldn’t tell.

“Hi,” you said awkwardly

Kuvira continued to stare. Standing stiffly not seeming to hear you.

“Um… are you ok?” You asked, growing more nervous as she continued to stare.

You watched as she jerked back, her eyes blinking in confusion.

“Sorry?” Kuvira finally spoke, clearing her throat as a blush grew on her face.

“I was asking if you were ok.” You said watching Kuvira’s expression carefully.

“I should be asking you that, especially since you’re dripping water onto my carpet. Rough day?”

“More like a rough week. This is just a lovely addition to it.”

“You are aware it’s supposed to be raining for the rest of the week right? That typically happens when the season transitions into fall around here.”

“I wasn’t aware but then again I was too much in a rush to leave before even thinking about checking the weather or grabbing an umbrella.”

“ I see…” Kuvira regarded you a moment before turning on her heel and walking away towards her back office. After a few awkward minutes, she came out with a coat in tow. She placed it on the counter between the two of you and slid the coat towards you.

“Here, it’s a spare. Hopefully, it will help you get through the day.” Kuvira said gently, eyes full of compassion.

You stare dumbfounded at her, surprised at her kind gesture. It stirred those feelings again this time with much more intensity.

“Thank you.” You said quietly, appreciative of her kindness.

Kuvira smiled widely as she took in your expression. “Of course, flu season is upon us. I wouldn’t want you to get sick. You can return it to me when you’re finished with it.”

“I will, I promise.” You took a moment to put the jacket on, enjoying the warmth it immediately offered you. You held the collar tightly to your face, could even smell the Librarian’s scent on the coat. It smelled of pine and a hint of tea-tree. At that moment you prayed you weren’t blushing as you thanked Kuvira before turning away and heading towards your usual area to sit and study. You wondered if she was usually like that with everyone.

Your happiness was short-lived over the next few days as you went through a chain of unfortunate events. You ended up catching a cold that forced you to be bedridden for a few days. When you came back to school you entered your philosophy class and were greeted to a surprise pop quiz in which you ended up failing miserably. It didn’t help that your college professor blew it off as something that was your fault. You could feel the irritation and rage growing as he seemed to be accusing you of being irresponsible. What made it worse was his insinuation of you moonlighting with some student you met on campus and felt the need to bed him. It took every ounce of willpower not to punch him in the face. You had heard from the reviews that your professor could be rather sexist but didn’t know the extent of how far he could take it. You thought your grades were enough to validate that you were a hard-working student but to him, you were nothing more of a nuisance. That’s struck you deeply. Knowing full well that was far from the truth, but it wasn’t the first time you were mislabeled.

One of the passing sorority girls overheard your conversation with your professor. She stopped with her gaggle of handmaidens and laughed at you. You recalled her telling the professor that wasn’t true, how can someone as unattractive as you could possibly find anyone who would want to date let alone fuck you. If anybody decided to give you the time a day it was because they were very desperate. It was then you lost your temper, suppressing hot tears that threaten to fall as you rounded on the sorority group yelling that they had no room to talk since they probably fucked their way through half the campus by now, probably had STD’s still unknown to scientists, and were so loose that once age finally caught up to them they would be nothing more but leathery skin and bones that not even their stepdad want to fuck.

It was a bitter defeat as one of the girls stepped out and punched you hard in the face, causing your lip to bleed. Your Professor stood there laughing, doing absolutely nothing to help. What made you enraged was when you heard him say “you got what you deserved.” It was then you knew you were outmatched, that there was no way you could win this fight. So you did the best you could in that situation, you grabbed your bag and walked away. You tried to maintain your composure as you reached the door to the library. Swinging open the door, you rushed past Kuvira’s desk.

“Y/N? What happened to you?!?” Kuvira demanded, shocked at the state of your being.

You didn’t even realize that she had tried to get your attention. Kuvira watched in horror when she saw blood running down your lip as you stormed off. You opened the door to one of the study rooms and slammed it shut. You released a shaky sob as you let yourself fall into one of the chairs, dropping your arms on the table. You leaned forward resting your head on them. It was then you allowed yourself to fall apart. You couldn’t help the sobs that racked through your body, couldn’t control the cries of anguish echo through the room. Engrossed in your emotions you failed to realize the Librarian that stood at the small window of the door to the study room watching you cry. Kuvira watched your body shake and could hear your sobs through the closed door. She debated using her master key to unlock the door but didn’t want to invade. With a heavy sigh, she turned away from you and walked back to her desk.

After what felt like hours and the tears finally subsided, you collected yourself to where you felt comfortable enough to take your leave. Taking a quick glance at your phone to check the time you realized that the library had already closed. You were surprised Kuvira didn’t try to shoo you out. Swinging your bag over your shoulder you stood up to leave. You carefully opened the door, taking a moment to peek your head out to see if anybody was still there. The library was completely abandoned. No sounds...nothing…

When you realized the coast was clear you gently shut the door behind you and began walking towards the exit.

“I was wondering how long you were going to lock yourself there Y/N” A voice called out. You immediately recognized that voice. It caused you to cease your movements abruptly. You slowly turned around to find the Librarian standing directly behind you, pale green eyes locked on to yours. You noticed she wasn’t wearing her glasses. It made her gaze much more intimidating...

“Kuvira? I’m sorry I didn’t mean to keep you here so late.” You said ashamed, guilt began eating away at you.

“Y/N…” Kuvira trailed off, taking a step towards you.

A hand reached out and lifted your chin, tilting it to the side. Kuvira could see the dry blood from your busted lip. Something flashed in Kuvira's eye, her expression darkened. From what exactly, you didn’t know. You assumed it was because of your busted lip.

“Who did that to you?” Kuvira asked in a dangerously low tone that made you tremble.

“It’s nothing.” You said defensively. You fought back the tears that threatened to fall, causing your eyes to sting painfully.

“It obviously isn’t nothing.”

Kuvira said sharply, causing you to look away. You set your gaze to the floor.

Kuvira’s hand moved to your shoulder, squeezing it gently as she pulled you towards her. “Come with me.”

You obeyed as Kuvira led you up and around the check- out counter towards her office in the back. When you entered you were guided to a chair. Kuvira gestured for you to sit as she turned back to the door. The office was nice, the decor rather simple. There was a large desk in between you and an office chair that was pushed in behind the vacant desk. Two accent chairs sat on the other side. A laptop rested beside a neat stack of papers. Landscape paintings adorned the walls giving a room a cozy atmosphere. You heard the door click shut. You turned to watch Kuvira approach, rounding her desk. She opened her desk drawer pulling out a napkin and a bottle of water. She quietly folded the napkin into a neat square. She then opened up the water bottle placing the napkin at the lip of the bottle before flipping it over to wet the napkin. Once she was satisfied that it was wet enough she placed the water onto her desk before grabbing her office chair and pulling it from behind her desk. She set the chair in front of you, sat down, and settled into it.

“Here,” Kuvira said gently, taking hold of your face. She carefully placed the napkin on your lip, gently trailing down to wipe away the dried up blood. You couldn’t fight the waves of emotions that you felt, finding it increasingly hard to meet her gaze.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” Kuvira asked. Her voice was much more gentle as she continued on with her ministrations.

You sighed deeply debating on whether or not to tell her the events from earlier that day that led you into her office as she finished, tossing the napkin into the waste bin beside her desk. Her hands still on your face, gently pushing away strands of hair behind your ears.

“What’s the point… it's not like it matters anyway.” You stated in a nonchalant tone.

“It does matter,” Kuvira said, her voice still gentle but held much more of a serious undertone. She let her hands fall away as she gripped her knees. “It’s my job to help students no matter what the situation may be. Especially when I find one of them barging into my library near tears and with a bloody lip that I know for a fact was not accidental.”

“Well then, you’re probably one of the only faculty members of this university’s pathetic excuse of what they call staff that actually cares. My professor didn’t even care when that girl socked me in the face when she interfered with a conversation she had no business getting involved in.” You said dryly, words coming out more bitter than you intended them to be.

“A professor witnessed this? What did they do? Surely they were at least reprimanded.”.

“HE didn’t do shit. That bastard did nothing but laughed when those girls cornered me.”

“What!” Kuvira said shocked, taking in a sharp breath to quell the anger she felt from this newfound information. “What is your professor’s name?”

“It’s fine, you probably don’t even know him. Besides, I do not wanna become more of a nuisance that people have already painted me out to be.”

“Try me. You’d be surprised how many people I am forced to interact with when my face isn’t glued to a book. I probably met this man at one of our weekly faculty meetings.”

“It’s okay, Kuvira. The last thing I want to do is to trouble you further with frivolous issues”

“Y/N,” Kuvira said, coming out more forceful than she intended.

Your eyes finally met her gaze, almost if challenging her. Your rising anger quickly dissipated as you took in her expression. Her face was hardened, you could see Kuvira’s jaw clenching tightly as suppressed anger flared in those pale green eyes, her gaze zeroed in on you with such intensity you knew that no matter how much you tried to stonewall her she was not going to let this go. She was going to get the answers she sought, by hook or by crook.

You sank into your seat, deciding to be honest to the one person who clearly proved that she had your best interest at hand. “His name is Professor Caldera.”

Anger flashed sharply across Kuvira’s face. “Did you say, Caldera?” She asked voice full of malice as her expression darkened.

Taken aback by her abrupt change in demeanor you tensed up, carefully answering her question. “Yes, do you know him?”

“Unfortunately I do, that man is the most disgusting, vulgar, perverted, piece of shit and sorry excuse of a human being. He loves to start drama and stir the pot with both faculty and students. I’ve sent so many complaints up to the board members from things I've witnessed and from others and they still haven’t got rid of him.”

“Well, he witnessed the whole ordeal. Actually, all this began because of him. It all started when he began accusing me of getting laid by some imaginary guy. A group of girls from the Alpha Delta pi sorority group overheard the conversation and said that if anyone wanted to bed me then they must be pretty desperate. I don’t even have a boyfriend and I haven’t been laid in god knows how long… So you know me being a smart ass and all I told them they probably fucked through half the campus, had STDs that we’re still unknown to scientists, and by the time old age caught up to them they would be so ragged and loose that not even their stepdad would want them.”

Kuvira bit down on her lip hard, trying her very best to suppress her laughter, but failed. She snickered loudly. She gathered her composure, drawing her hips into a tight smile. “Very well worded.”

“Glad you enjoyed it. The fist to my face wasn’t something I enjoyed though, but I guess I brought that on myself.”

“Y/N,” Kuvira said gently, her face full of compassion and empathy. “That was in no way your fault. Caldera had no right to talk to you like that. Neither did those bimbo sorry excuse of what we call sorority girls. I am sorry I wasn’t there to help but rest assured that I will be reporting this to the president, dean of the sorority group and will be giving a lengthy speech at the next board meeting. So please, put your trust in me and allow me to fix this.”

“I appreciate the help but don’t trouble yourself, it’s not worth the effort.” You said casting your eyes to the ground.

Strong hands took hold of yours, squeezing gently. “I am, and I will! No one should have to go through something like that. Especially somebody as hard-working, dedicated, and sweet as you.”

“I really do appreciate it. I just don’t want you wasting your time”

“You are not a waste of my time, actually if anything I enjoy having you around. You’re very funny, with excellent taste in music.”

“You know what I listen to?” You asked, surprised.

“Yes, I sometimes will screen monitor the computers to make sure that they are being used appropriately. You’d be surprised how many people think they can get away with watching porn in public.”

You chuckled nervously remembering the many obscene searches you had made on the library’s computer. The number of fanfics and erotic stores you read, praying that no one noticed made you wonder how much she actually knew.

“I don’t know about all that. I mean in a way the sorority girls are kinda right. They got the money, the clothes, the looks...I just have my books and my mind.”

“Hey Y/N, don’t listen to those girls… you are much more beautiful than they will ever be.”

“Am I really though?” You asked, challenging her response. “I mean I’m not dating anyone, I don’t have many friends and I’m a huge nerd. I don’t see how anyone could find me attractive. In a way, it doesn’t surprise me.

“There are more things in life that are much more fulfilling than to waste time trying to attract the attention of boys. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Good looks will only get you so far and if there is one lesson those girls could learn from you is that you are correct. Their good looks will only last for so long before age does catch up with them. When that time comes, they will realize the mistakes they have made in life.”

“I just wish I felt that way...it’s just difficult… especially when everyone else tells you otherwise.” You said, turning your attention away from Kuvira.

Kuvira released you and abruptly stood up, pushing the chair away. She reached out and turned on the small lamp on her desk before walking towards the door. She turned off the lights to her office.

“I think you’re attractive…” Kuvira said so softly, her voice barely above a whisper. It made you wonder if you heard her correctly or if you were just imagining it. It made you turn your attention back to her.

You heard the clicking sound of the door lock sliding into place. She turned around slowly, eyes locked onto yours. The low light from the lamp made her eyes glow in such a way that was mesmerizing and breathtaking. Her expression darkened in a way that it stirred something deep inside you, bringing out fantasies you knew wouldn’t ever happen in your wildest dreams.

You chuckled awkwardly before deciding to dismiss what Kuvira had said as pity. “I appreciate the compliment but there’s no need to lie to make me feel better.“

“Who says I’m lying?” Kuvira asked, eyes watching you carefully as she approached you. You could feel your heartbeat heavily in your chest with every step she took.

“Come on. Seriously Kuvira, how can you? Just look at me.”

Kuvira stood directly in front of you, towering over you. Her eyes never left your face.

“I am,” Kuvira said in such a tone you felt your body stiffen.

She rounded your chair, coming to stand behind you as you felt her hands resting on your shoulders.

“I’ve been watching you for quite some time Y/N.”

Kuvira leaned down, inches away from your ear, feeling her hot breath tickling your ear as she whispered. “And I know you have been too.”

You release a soft whimper, feeling your body heat up. You didn’t think it was obvious that you secretly had a crush on Kuvira, but learned at that moment how wrong you were. Trying to gain the upper hand, you tried to feign innocence.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about...” You said softly, your voice betrayed you coming out rather shaky that even you knew Kuvira would question the validity of your statement.

“Do you?” Kuvira whispered again, shifting slightly as she leaned into your other ear before continuing. “Because if watching me at a distance isn’t enough to convince me then maybe the trashy short stories that you’ve been writing and reading on the university’s computer is enough to tell me otherwise…”

Shit. You mentally cursed. Feeling the embarrassment gnawing at you as your face turned bright red. You had no idea she had seen them. How you wrote about her dark hair and pale green eyes. Wrote about the way her beauty mark made her hard features much softer, much more beautiful in your stories. How could you not? Kuvira was one of the reasons you always visited the library. You never thought she would find out.

“How?” You asked nervously, wondering if you could handle her response.

Kuvira chuckled before answering. “Because I see everything… I’ve been around long enough to know when someone has taken an interest in me romantically…”

Kuvira smoothed her hands slowly over your stiff shoulders before letting them fall away. She moved from behind the chair to stand in front of you, her hands coming up to grip the armrest of the chair you sat in trapping you in place as she leaned over, face inches away from yours.

Kuvira’s lust-filled eyes searched your face, slowly drifting over as her gaze fell upon your lips. She hesitated for a moment, appearing mentally conflicted, trying to decide what course of action she wanted to take. You bit your lip in anticipation, feeling yourself trembling with desire. You watched as Kuvira’s face darkened, her eyes grew more feral, fixated on your lips. Her hand reached out, tugging your lower lip free before coming up to cup your face.

“Don’t,” Kuvira whispered, her voice full of want. “It drives me insane when you do things like that.”

You let out a shaky breath at her admission. Growing heated at every passing second. You wondered if the temperature of the room was increasing or if it was just you. Nothing, absolutely nothing could prepare you the moment Kuvira crashed her lips onto yours, muffling your surprised gasp. Her kiss was rough, needy even, you couldn’t help but shutter. It was Kuvira who pulled away first, taking a moment to study your face for any signs of rejection. When she saw nothing but your flushed face, panting heavily, she rested her forehead against yours.

“Spirits Y/N, I’ve waited so long to do that.”

Before you could speak her lips were upon yours again, this time both hands coming up to cup your face. The tip of her tongue traced your lips, begging for entrance. You moaned softly, granting her wish. You felt her slip her tongue in seeking out yours. Kuvira couldn’t get enough of you. She enjoyed ravishing your mouth, she was so intoxicating, so divine, you couldn’t tell if any of this was real. You felt Kuvira’s hands settle on your waist, felt them slip underneath your shirt, slowly making their way up to your chest. You moaned into the kiss feeling strong hands cupping your breast, squeezing you gently. Kuvira loved how you fitted perfectly in her hands, loved how soft and silky smooth your skin felt under her palms. Kuvira nipped at your lower lip, using her teeth to snag your swollen lip, tugging at it gently. She trailed kisses down to your neck, there she sucked greedily at the skin. You cried out feeling Kuvira’s teeth sinking into your neck. She used her tongue to soothe the mark before peppering kisses over it, soothing the abused skin. Kuvira pulled away from you dropping onto her knees. Her hands seized your hips, pulling you closer to her as her fingers fumbled with the waistband of your pants. She managed to pry them open, dragging the zipper down. In sharp jerking movements, she pulled them down panties and all. You shifted so she could get them off easier. You watched as Kuvira removed your shoes, dropping them carelessly to the floor so she could fully remove your pants. She pushed them aside as she settled at your feet.

Her eyes peered up at you. You could see the hunger in them as she kissed your knees gently, causing your arousal to grow stronger. You felt her hands gliding up your legs, stopping at your lower thighs. Her fingers curled, gripping at your legs firmly. In one swift movement, she jerked your knees apart eliciting a surprised gasp from you as she settled in between your legs. Kuvira nipped and kissed your inner thighs, moving closer and closer to your throbbing center that ached for her touch. You whimpered, feeling her tongue peeked out to trace up your slit. Kuvira used the pads of her thumbs, opening you up to her. You could feel her hot breath between your legs. Kuvira’s eyes searched yours almost as if she was asking for permission. When you showed no signs of protest she leaned forward and tasted. You gasped sharply at the way her mouth ravished you. And ravished you she did, showing no mercy as she used her tongue, lips, and teeth to attack your core. You threw your head back in rhapsody, feeling that heat plummet south to your throbbing core, building up and bringing you closer and closer to your breaking point.

Your thighs closed in around Kuvira’s head. She pried you open, hands resting on your inner thighs as she continued her ministrations. You moaned loudly when you felt her tongue plunge inside you, the bride of her nose rubbing that tight bundle of nerves. It was then you felt yourself at your peak. You screamed out her name as you fell over, coming into her mouth as you felt your release wash over you. Kuvira eased you through your orgasm, lapping away greedily at your essence while your release raked through you. Your body went limp against the chair. Breath coming out deep and ragged. You watched through heavy-lidded eyes as Kuvira stood up, wiping the remains of you from her mouth as she leaned over you and kissed you hard.

She wasn’t done with you. She was determined to hear those noises again. Two fingers plunged into your core pumping into you. You tore away from her lips, choking back a moan. You felt your body shaking violently, her thumb circling that over-sensitive bundle of nerves as her fingers worked you. You felt your body tighten around her fingers sliding in and out of your wet aching core as she stared down at you, lust determined eyes watched you carefully. She leaned forward kissing your neck before she bit down hard. You suppressed a scream, nails digging into the armrest of the chair you sat on. Those clever fingers grew bolder, seeking out the very center of your being, curling upwards and shaking vigorously as incoherent noises escaped your lips. God Kuvira loved the sounds you were making. It was so intoxicating, so thrilling, it stroked a dark part of her ego knowing she could bring you under her control, could even get you to scream out her name. You tried to fight your orgasm, tried with every fiber of your being to hold on. But once Kuvira’s gaze shifted back to you, she leaned in, her face mere inches away from yours. “Y/N, I know you’re fighting me,” Kuvira said in a low voice that made your pulse quicken. “Let go. Come for me.”

As if your body had a mind of its own you obeyed, arching off the chair, your hips canting against her hand as you reached your breaking point. You cried out loudly as you felt your release crash over you so hard that you felt your body stiffen, your mind haze, and the room spinning around you. You felt her lips upon you again swallowing your cries of release as she eased you through your high. Your body fell back against the chair with a loud thud. You felt weak, heavy even. You opened your eyes to see Kuvira’s pale green eyes staring at you, a mischievous smirk graced her lips.

“So beautiful,” Kuvira whispered, leaning down to peck a quick kiss to your dry and swollen lips before straightening back up.

“Still think I’m lying?” She asked you, amusement evident in her voice.

“No.” You managed to say. Surprised by how small your voice sounded. You learned your lesson the hard way. You learned to never question Kuvira again.

[wishingforatypewriter]

Questions for the ship Baavira Pre-relationship 4 General 5 Love 4 Domestic Life 3

4. Who felt romantic feelings first? (pre-relationship)

Baatar caught feelings first, back when they were kids. Within two years of Kuvira’s arrival at Zaofu, he was 100% wrapped around her finger. She remained oblivious to this fact through most of their adolescence, but in the years leading up to Book 3, there was something like a mutual crush between them. 

5. What’s their height difference? Age difference? (general) 

For most of their young lives, they were basically the same height. But then Baatar went away to study in Ba Sing Se and came back a few inches taller than her. He only grew more during the unification campaign, and by the time they get engaged, he has to bend down in order to kiss her (Kuvira refuses to stand on her tip-toes, but will occasionally earthbend herself up to his height). 

As for age, I think Baatar is about a year older than Kuvira. (My headcanon is that Kuvira is two years older than Korra, making her 20 when she left to stabilize Ba Sing Se and 23 during Book 4).

 4. What are their favorite things to do together? (love)

During the unification campaign, they did a lot of stargazing together, trying to make up for all the nights they spent under the domes back at Zaofu. The night sky is especially beautiful in the Si Wong Desert and the northernmost parts of the Earth Kingdom, where they can see the lights from the spirit portal at the North Pole. Sometimes, when they didn’t have too much administrative work to do, they would stay out past midnight, just watching the celestial bodies. Kuvira has all the constellations and their myths memorized (because independent study at Zaofu). Sometimes Baatar would point to a random one to see if she knew it, and he never caught her lacking. 

They also listen to music together. When they were teenagers, Baatar would try to rewire her radio so it could pick up the stations in Republic City and the Fire Nation instead of sticking to the local ones. Kuvira is the only force in the entire cosmos that can convince Baatar to dance, but he’s acquiesced every single time she’s asked, and will probably never stop. 

I also have a headcanon that they get kinda competitive over pai sho. Being the tactician she is, Kuvira is the better player on the whole, but Baatar can often eek out a win because he knows her so well. 

3. How many kids do they have, if any? What are they like?

Ironically enough, I see them having five children. (I initially wanted it to be three, but all five personalities kind of stuck with me. I’ve mostly imagined them as adults in the Avatar Jade headcanons, so please bear with me). Character descriptions are under the cut because there’s a lot lol. 

The eldest, Tai, was very dutiful and mild mannered as a child. He never gave his parents any trouble, and understood what was expected of him as the child of the governor of Ba Sing Se (more on Kuvira’s political comeback later lol). He’s a strong eartbender, but he never truly masters metalbending the way his sisters do. He decides to study law and go into politics, and by the time Avatar Jade is discovered, he’s the governor of Gaoling. 

Avani (two years younger than Tai) always loved fighting and threw all of her energy into her metalbending training. She learned a lot about matters of state and security from Kuvira (as the career peak baby, national security briefings were basically her lullabies). As an older teenager, she accompanied her mother on a number of high-risk missions. She decided to join the United Forces instead of going to university, and becomes “General Beifong” before she turns 30. 

Priya (two years younger than Avani) was the wild child. She was a talented metalbender like her older sister, but she built her reputation as a dancer rather than a fighter. As a teenager, she liked to party and stay out late. Priya argued with her mom and older sister A LOT, and she once ran away from home and hid in Zaofu with her Grandma Su. Even though they don’t always see eye to eye, Priya adores her mother and would fight anyone for her. After dancing professionally for years, she goes on to found the Bending Arts Academy (a performing arts school she had talked about with Grandma Su and Uncle Huan for years) in Zaofu, and is known as Headmistress Beifong as an adult. 

Jae (four years younger than Priya) was the first nonbender among the siblings, and he definitely compensated for it with his personality. Charming and charismatic, he could always talk his way out of trouble (and there was always trouble where Jae was concerned). When he was a teenager, he was designing race cars and drag racing on the outskirts of Ba Sing Se. Kuvira was always so entertained by him that she basically let him get away with murder. Baatar tried to lecture him on using his talent for engineering wisely (because parental hypocrisy is unavoidable). He goes to university in Republic City and ends up interning at Varrick Industries, where he meets and becomes involved with Lily Moon Varrick. As an adult, he becomes a wealthy capitalist, best known for developing resorts in the Si Wong Desert. 

Shreya (two years younger than Jae) is also a nonbender. As a child, she was quite upset about not being a metalbender like her sisters (especially when Kuvira would leave on some world saving mission and take Avani and Priya with her). She is a talented engineer, even more so than her brother, but is more drawn towards city planning and public works than the showy projects Jae tended to take on. She is the only Beifong child who is definitively closer to Baatar than Kuvira. She goes to the University of Ba Sing Se, and later becomes head of the National Electric Company. She is largely responsible for bringing electricity and phone service to even the most remote parts of the Earth Republic. 

[imhereforthelesbianstuff]

Have you seen Asami?

Hi everyone! I usually don’t post my stuff, just repost, but I have a new obsession: Korrasami. And this small story came to my mind and won’t let go! So...here it is. English is not my mother tonge, so I apologize for all the mistakes! And I hope you enjoy!

_____________________________________

“Have you seen Asami?” Korra asked, interrupting the tea time of Tenzin and Pema. Tenzin raised a eyebrow, he thought that at least  had teach Korra how to greet people politely.

“Good afternoon to you too, Korra.” Said the airbender with sarcasm, making the Avatar frowned, a little bit confused. “No, we didn’t see your girlfriend.”

“Asks the kids, they’re training over there.” Answer Pema kindly, pointing to the back of the temple. “Thanks, Pema.” Said Korra sticking out the tongue to her air master.

Indeed, Jinora, Ikki and Meelo were training, or at least trying. As always they were a good team, but a messy one.

“Korra!” Yelled the three kids when they saw their not-bloodrelated big sister. “Hey kids! How´s the training?”

“I can’t wait to Rohan to be old enough to train. Then it will be just the boys: him, me and Poki.” Said Meelo, always complaing about his sisters, even if he loves them.

“How can we help you, Korra?” Jinora was the most controled of the three childrens of Tenzin. “Have you seen Asami?”

“Yes, she was here just a minute ago.”

“Meelo tried to steal your girlfriend.” Accused Ikki with a laugh. Korra raise an eyebrown with the hands on her hips. Meelo blushed. “You can’t blame a boy for trying.” He said with a shrug. “Actually I can. She’s my girlfriend, and I thought you were my friend.” Meelo smiled with what he thinks is a seductive smile. A very childish one. “I’m you friend Korra. Always. But she’s so...”

“Adult. And you’re a child. Better don’t finish that sentence.” Cut Korra laughing. “You’re lucky you’re the Avatar, if not, I’ve already would had steal the girl.”

“So now she’s just with me because I’m the Avatar? Lucky me.” Laugh Korra with a sigh. “Where did she go?”

“I think I saw her with Mako on the terrace of the temple.” Remember Ikki. Korra narrowed her eyes. On the terrace? That was their place. “Thanks kids.”

“Don’t worry Korra, if I couldn’t steal her, Mako has no chance.” Yelled Meelo, gaining a punch on the head from her older sister.

Mako did was on the terrace, but again, no sign of Asami. Where in the spirits hell was her girlfriend?

“Hey Mako”

“Hey Avatar”

“Had you´ve been with Asami?”

“Yes, she just left with Bolin.” Now Bolin? What happens with Asami? Korra felt like all day she’s been a minute late for the tallest brunette.

“Is everything ok?” Asked the firebender.

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” Answerd Korra, with an idly hand gesture, distracted. Everything was ok....right?

Bolin was with Opal, admiring her air powers like it was the first time. He was always so excited about everything, but mostly when it’s involve Opal. They were way too better match than with Korra’s crazy cousin, that’s for sure.

“Hey couple, how are you?”

“Look honey, the Avatar is here.” Said Bolin, exagerating on purpose. After the fight with Kuvira he had been teasing Korra with small reverences everytime he saw her. The first ten times maybe it was funny, now? not so much. “Where’s your other half?” Ask her friend, looking over her shoulder like Asami was coming behind the Avatar.

“Yeah, same question. Mako told me was with you.” Korra pointed Bolin a little bit mad. Are all of them playing with her? It’s was all of this a big joke?

“Yeah, but she left...”

“Let me guess, a minute ago?”

“Yeah! I thought she went with you.”

“Not even close, Bolin.”

“I’m sure she’s also looking for you, Korra.” Said Opal with a tender smile, making Korra narrow eyes again. “Do you know something I should know?” The Avatar didn’t miss how the couple share a look.

“Of course not, my dearest Avatar. My good Korra, how could you think something like that? My beloved Korrasami, I’m your friend, right?”

“How did you call me?”

Bolin look at Opal, clearly asking for a saving hand of that conversation. Opal laugh, that was her boyfriend, yes sir. “Bolin just trying to say there’s nothing we should tell you.”

“Then where’s Asami?” Asked Korra for the millionth time, pouting. “Maybe she’s watching the new airbenders traing.”

A new group of airbenders, this time all kids not older than six, had arrived the temple a few weeks ago, and now everything was a lot more caothic.

And, finally, there was Asami, looking at the kids, amused, while Bumi tried to teach them.

“Hey stranger.” Greet Korra, hugging the brunette from behind with a small kiss under the ear. “Hi, love.” Asami smile at her with such tender in her eyes. “Where had you´ve been?” Asked the Avatar trying not to sound needy.

“Looking for you.”

“No, I was looking for you. You were....everywhere but with me.” Korra pouted dramatically, making her girlfriend laugh and kiss her nose.

“Maybe I have bussines to do....” Laugh Asami.

“With Mako and Bolin?”

“Oh spirits, are you jealous?”

“Of course not! I just missed you.” Asami turns in Korra’s arms and kiss her. “There’s something I want to ask you...” Start the owner of Future Industries, but then all the kids saw the Avatar was there.

“Loooooook! is the Avatar!!” That’s been happening since all the kids arrive at the temple. All the small ones runs towards Korra, too excited, using their new powers to be faster. A very bad idea, of course. A wild wind push Asami over the cliff.

“Asami!!” Scream Korra, jumping behind with no hesitation. The Avatar catch the woman, bending the air, landing gently on a mountain ledge.

“Are you ok?” Asks Korra, worried, caressing Asami’s cheeks with a soft hand, looking for some possible injuries. Asami kiss that hand. “I’m always perfect with you, my love.” Korra blushed. “Well...I try.” The Avatar scratch her neck, like everytime she’s nervous. “I hope you don’t want to ask me if I want kids, after what just happens.” Laugh the Avatar, trying to look like a normal conversation not happening in the wall of a mountain.

“For all the spirits, no.” Asami also laugh. “Maybe in a few years.... But not now.” Korra open wide eyes, for her girlfriend amusement. “No, I’m just gonna ask you... Well, I wanna ask you... Just if you want, of course...” Now Asami was the only nervous on that ledge. Korra grabs her chin, making Asami look directly at her warm eyes, and smile. “Tell me.”

“Giiiiirrrrrlllllsssss!!! I saw you fall! Are you okey?” Bolin, of course, looking at them from the edge, meters over the two girls. Korra look at him, angry.

“Can we have some privacy, pretty please?”

“But you fell....”

“We’re alive, right? I’m the damn Avatar, don’t have to worry!”

“Love, don’t get mad, friends do worry.” Said Asami taking her hands, caressing them with one finger.

“I’ve been looking for you all day, and I’m only get a private moment with you because you fell from the mountain. I think is too much if they also took this from us.” Asami laugh hard and loud, grabs Korra’s face and kiss her, with decision, pasionately.

“What would I do without you?” Asks Asami with a wide, bright smile. Korra look at her spellbound, hipnotized by Asami’s smile and lovinly gaze. “You would surely fall from fewer mountains.” Answers the Avatar, still enchanted by the kiss.

“You two aaaaaareeeee sooooooo cuuuuuuteeeeee. Right honey? they remind me of us.” Bolin still was watching from the edge. “Bolin!!” Screams Korra, moving the earth under her friend to create a small wall that keep him away from the edge of the mountain. A while, at least.

“I would never regret to fall for you, my love.” The one that almost fell from the ledge was Korra after that words. But Asami doesn’t let her react to that. “But I was trying to tell you something...” A little bit nervous again. “What I was trying to say...to ask you, is....if you want, maybe... Would you like to move with me?”

Yep, Korra wasn’t specting that. Not at all. “Like....to your house?”

Asami wasn’t looking at her, moving her hands, even more nervous than before. “Well, that’s was I was talking with Bolin, his family has return to Earth Kingdom, so we’ll be all alone. If you want, of course. A…and…and my house is huge, we dont have to spent all the time togheher if you don’t like. We don’t even have to sleep in the same bed...or in the same room. We’ll have plenty. You’ll have a lot of space for training, or for, whatever you want. And I’m counting with Naga, of course.”

She was rambling, that’s for sure. Korra was having a hard time keeping her laugh, she has never saw Asami so unsure. But why so unsure? Nonsense.

“You mean, without Tenzin, without Jinora, Ikki and Meelo the stealer? Without small airbenders? Without Mako and Bolin? Just the two of us? Plus Naga.” Asami finally look into Korra’s eyes. “Is a bad idea, right?”

“My amazing girlfriend and my enormous polar bear dog, all alone in a mansion full of surfaces to explore? No Naga in that last picture, obvious.” Was the time for Asami to blush.

“Korra, you mean...?”

“Let’s pack! Or even without packing, I can’t wait to live you you!”

The Avatar was radiant of happiness, full and completely happy with the idea of share a house, a life, with the woman she loves. “Only one thing...” Korra said, raising one finger. Asami listen. “That thing about not sharing a bed was a joke, right?”

The laugh of ms.Sato echoes all over the mountain. “Are you sure about this, Korra?”

“Never been so sure about anything else. I wish we had done it before.” Asami leans towars Korra, hands in the Avatar’s chest.

“What did she say? She said yes?” Obviously Bolin tear apart the wall time ago and was watching them again. Korra could have spit fire to him if is wasn’t for Asami, who laugh again.

“She said yes.”

“I told you! I want a party when you move! We have to celebrate.” Opal was besides him, softly laughing, she knows her boyfriend was very inopportune and was interrupting a very personal moment, but she love him that way. Is not like there’s something she can do, of course.

Korra ignore them, hidding herself in Asami’s hug, feeling already in home. “Why are you so perfect? I’m so lucky.”

“I’m the lucky one. Avatar’s girlfriend, remember?” Korra laughed against Asami’s chest.

“True. Meelo said the same. Being the Avatar is my only charm, aparently.”

“That and your amazing abs.” Whisper Asami in Korra’s ear, amused.

“I think I need to have you out of here. Now.”

“I agree, love.”

The Avatar look deep in her girlfriend’s eyes. “Thank you, Asami. Not just this, everything since I knew you. I really am the luckiest Avatar ever.”

Two hands pulls Korra closer by the hips, crashing in a tender but pasionate kiss that grew quickly. There’s was fire and it wasn’t for Korra’s powers.

“Asami, I...I...”

There was so much feeling in the Avatar’s chest to expres it in just three words. But she want to tell, she wants Asami to know, to feel what she feel. But there wasn’t enough words in the world. All the feelings was stuck in her throath.

“Me too, Korra. So much.”

Korra push Asami against the wall when she kissed her again, incapalble of stoped herself. That woman awaked every cell in her body, every nook in her soul.

“Giiiiirrrrrsssssllll!! Do you need me to go there and help you get back here?”

“I swear I’m gonna kill him.” Laugh Korra biting Asami’s lips. “Later, now let’s get out here.”

The Avatar touch Asami’s mouth one last time with her fingertips. She has no words to expres all her feelings, but can prove it, they have a full live for that, right? Both woman smile each other and jumps at the air. Their new home was waiting.

__________________________________

Soooooo....that’s it. What do you think? :)

[sxypigeon]

Chapter 20 - Bolin tries to write a screen play and everyone has a bad day

Book 5 Absolution (a mostly canon korrasami story)

Things in the refugee camps have gone downhill, Korra checks on Kuvira, and Asami tries not to murder Varrik.

Chapters  1,  19

---

The scene: A dusty Earth Kingdom village on the edge of the Si Wong Desert - a sleepy tourist town in its off season at dusk.

Enter: Ting-Ting in disguise wearing sandbender wraps and clothes, looking for his informant.  He walks down a side street and into the shadiest tavern, through the torn sheet acting as a door.  The interior is crowded and smokey, just the way Ting-Ting likes it.  He approaches the bar and says to the bartender -

“Bolin!”

Said earth bender turned from the window of the airship he’d been vacantly staring out of to his brother.  “What, I’m here - yes! . . . Um, could you repeat that in case I missed everything you just said?”

Mako sighed and rolled his eyes from his seat opposite him, next to Jeong.  “I asked you if you enjoyed your time with Opal, but judging by the look you just had, I guess I don’t need an answer.”

Bolin frowned at the pair of them as they shared a smug smile.  “Of course I did, but that wasn’t what I was thinking about.  I have this idea for a mover I’m working on-”

“Still?” Mako asks in surprise.

“Well, yeah.  What with working on uniting the Earth Kingdom and then saving Republic City, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to work on it.”

“What’s it about?” Jeong asked with interest.

“Oh, here we go,” Mako muttered with a small exasperated grin.

A huge grin lit up Bolin’s face.  “It’s about an ex-United Forces operative named Ting-Ting who’s on the trail of his kidnapped love Ivy.  His arch-nemesis Dr. Razor took her as revenge for Ting-Ting’s last mission with the United Forces to shut down his illegal laboratory where he forced spirits and thugs to merge and become his minions.  Ting-Ting’s research leads him to the edge of the Si Wong Desert where his former partner, Lee, is undercover trying to bust a smuggling ring among the sandbenders.  All clues point to Dr. Razor using the lost city of Sobata in the middle of the desert as his base and the center of the sandbender’s smuggling operation.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of information.  Do you think people will be able to follow along with the plot?”

“Sure, I mean, maybe there’ll have to be a voiceover explaining some of the finer details, but I think-”

“We’re here,” Mako interrupted.  

Jeong smiled and shrugged, “Next time.”

“Yeah,” Bolin muttered, “maybe by then I’ll have a bit more of the plot worked out and not just the backstory.”

---

“What do you mean you took over an Earth Empire reeducation camp?  Where are you?!”

Kuvira sighed tiredly and rubbed her eyes.  The avatar, as usual, had chosen an inopportune time to appear.  “Reeducation Camp 11, just east of the mountains and Fort Senlin.”  She paused to yawn.  “I helped the prisoners overthrow their guards and we currently control the camp and it seems like the Empire forces are unaware.  Was that all - can I go back to sleep?  It’s been a long two days.”

The spectral form of the avatar glared at her for a moment before worry won out over anger.  “What’s your plan for the camp?  Are you going to keep control of it or shut it down?  I don’t think the prisoners will want to stay long if they have the option of leaving.”

She is the wettest blanket.  No appreciation for taking over a camp singlehandedly, I see.  “We’re working on a way to send some of the prisoners by boat to Republic City, others want to stay in the area and fight the Empire locally and reunite with their families,” Kuvira muttered through a yawn.  “Seriously, I’ve had maybe three hours of sleep in the last two days.  Let’s hurry this up.”

“Do you need back up or me to help in any way?”

“Other than going away and letting me sleep?”  Kuvira ignored another glare.  “Send a ship to meet the boat in three days.”

“What about the guards?”

“What about them?”

“Are they dead or your prisoners?  Do they need to be moved?”

“No one has died per your orders,” she sighed.  “I was going to destroy all of the camp except the cells and leave a few days of food.  Someone will investigate if radio-silence goes more than forty-eight hours.”

“Okay, what’s after this?”

I’m working on that, but your pestering isn’t helping.  Kuvira was quickly losing what little patience she had left.  “If all of this works?  Who knows, maybe I’ll open a tea shop in the middle ring of Ba Sing Se and retire.”

Korra looked ready to explode.  “I’m trying to help you!  We both want the same thing!  I can’t do anything for you if you don’t let me in on what you’re thinking.”

“And I’m telling you, right now, what I’m thinking about is sleep.  Now kindly disappear since that seems to be something you’re good at.”

---

This was a mistake.  Why did I ever agree to this?  This was one of the most important buildings in Asami’s entire company . . . and she was letting a known swindler and thief in through the front door.

“You know, I came up with something like this in a dream eighteen months ago,” Varrik said thoughtfully while passing an airplane large enough to hold two dozen people.

There is no plausible way this will end any way, but in disaster.  “As a reminder, Varrik, everything in this building and in or around the surrounding complex is off limits to you and Zhu Li.  These are trade secr-”

“Yeah, yeah.  Zhu Li, did you remember to pack the pumice scrub?  You know how bad my calluses get.” 

Asami gritted her teeth, but maintained a smile for her employee leading the tour.  He will steal at least one of my R&D designs.  He’ll steal it, copyright it, and then counter sue me when I try to take him to court over it.

Varrik wildly flung his arm in the direction of his wife’s head and pointed, “Hey, is that the break room?  Does it have a full kitchen?  Top quality genius requires expertly prepared, well-balanced meals.

He’s going to drive me insane and I’m going to kill him . . . then I’ll go to prison and never see Korra again . . . or I could go on the run and maybe Korra could come with me . . . as long as I don’t have to live in the sewers again.

The group came to a stop just inside the break room while Varrik tested the water pressure and temperature coming out of the taps in the kitchenette.  The tour guide, the head of the research building, approached her with a calm smile born from years of dealing with eccentric researchers. “Will there be anything else, Miss Sato?” 

“No, thank you, Mr. Taka.  That will be all,” she replied.  She waited for him to leave before waving her guests over and addressing them.  “I cannot emphasize this enough: everything you see here falls under the heading Trade Secret and cannot be copied or reproduced in any form-”

Varrik rolled his eyes and wrapped an arm around Asami’s shoulders.  “What are you, a broken record?.  I remember the forms your lawyer made us sign.  She read them all out loud - it nearly put me to sleep.”

“You can never be too careful,” Asami said with a forced smile.  Remember to breathe.  Maiming him won’t make this easier . . . or will it?  “Would you like some time to settle in or-”

“Heck no!  Let’s get straight to business!”  He stepped away, with a hand behind his back and a hand in the air, counting off what he needed on his fingers.  We’re going to need three heavy-duty electro-magnets, five industrial spools of thirty gauge copper wire, multiple sheets of pure platinum ranging from 0.25mm thickness to 5mm, and a pot of black tea every fifty-two minutes.”

Asami attempted to unclench her jaw before answering.  “Zhu Li warned - informed me of what we’d need.  It’s all set up in the lab.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?!  Zhu Li, do the thing!”

Asami watched the newlyweds practically run toward the ballistic R&D laboratory hopelessly.  Maybe everything will go fine . . . and maybe the Earth Empire will spontaneously surrender and give up their super weapons . . . and just maybe I’ll come out of this with my sanity intact.

---

“Is it just me or do these people not seem happy to see us?”  Bolin asked

Mako kept his head on a swivel.  Everyone on their path hurried away as they approached.  “They do not.”

“I don’t like this,” Jeong whispered.  “Something must have happened while we were away.”  She led the group down the dirt path between the rows of tents at a brisk pace.  “Dad!  What’s going on?  What-”

Jeong was stopped in front of her family's tent when the boys caught up to her.  The stricken look on the man’s face told them nearly all of the story.

Mako stepped beside the silent young woman and addressed her father gently, “What happened, sir?”

He breathed deeply and squared his shoulder, trying to hold his emotions in check.  “My son . . . and at least two other members of the neighborhood watch have been abducted.”

“No,” Bolin muttered hopelessly behind Mako.

“Did someone see any of this take place?  Are you sure they’re being held against their will?” Mako asked as he took out his notepad.

“Letters were sent to the families . . . delivered by young orphans we’ve seen with Triple Threat members.”

“This is my fault,” Jeong muttered in shock to herself.  “I stole that weapon.  I set up the watch.  I tried to drive the Triple Threats out of the area-”

“No!  You helped your neighbors!” Bolin insisted.  “Everything you did was to make everyone safer.  We’re going to get everyone back and bring the Triple Threats to justice!”

“Assigning blame isn’t going to help the situation,” Mako cut in, mostly to prevent Bolin from making more promises he wasn’t sure they could keep.  “May I see the letter you received?  Jeong, I need you to stay with your family while Bolin and I look into this.”

Perhaps as a sign of how distraught she was, Jeong simply nodded and headed into the tent.  Her father sighed sadly once she was inside.  “She’s tried so hard to help.  Here, find the bastards and bring my son home . . . please.”

Mako met his eyes and nodded as he took the letter.  “We’ll do everything in our power, sir.  I’ll let you know when I’ve learned anything.”  He grabbed Bolin by the arm and marched them back toward the airship they arrived on.

“Wait, aren’t we going to collect evidence and question the neighbors or stake out a . . .a tent or something?” Bolin asked.

Mako kept his face neutral.  “The two of us can’t take on an entire gang by ourselves.  We’re going to need back up.  There’s a radio in the airship.”

“Oh, right.  We can call for backup?”

“I hope so,” Mako muttered to himself.  If there is any . . .

---

Thanks for reading!

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Wrought Iron Machine (Part 21)

Azula and Zuko haven’t heard from or seen their father since the show. It is no comfort for Azula who is waiting for something to happen. A death threat, a thrown fireball, anything. But the man doesn’t show. It leaves Zuko twice as jittery, he frequently mentions his scar itching--some sort of phantom sensation that seems to arise whenever he is anxious.

Eventually TyLee’s need to be comforting overpowers her need to hold a grudge. She sits herself down next to Azula who only briefly glances up. Tylee doesn’t speak and simply ties a pink ribbon into Azula’s hair. She doesn’t fancy the color but she accepts her girlfriend’s gesture anyhow. TyLee braids the former princess’ hair and kisses the top of her head.

“What do you think he wants?” Zuko’s booing voice spoils the peace.

“To fuck with us, what do you think?” Azula asks.

“I think that he finally saw our videos and…”

“And what?” Azula questions. “Do you still pine for his approval, because I don’t.” Maybe if she says it enough, she will believe it.

“What do you think he’s going to do?”

Azula shrugs. She supposes that if they stick to the Earth Kingdom that he can do nothing, it is out of his rule. But they are in the Fire Nation. Perhaps his worry isn’t unfounded. Just like that she finds it curious that they are permitted to perform in the Fire Nation. She wonders what his game is. Perhaps it is fame alone that leaves them untouchable; the notion that his reputation would be in tatters if harm came to she or Zuko by his hand. That there would be outcry if they were banned from performing. He can’t afford such in a day and age in which electing rulers seemed to be becoming commonplace.

She hopes that such a breed of paranoia will keep him at bay.

Agni forbid she and Zuko have to fight the man. She can’t imagine that a spat between royal family members--in exhil or not--would go over well with the public.

Intimidation, it must be.

She hopes so.

.oOo.

Kuvira paces around the bedroom she shares with P’Li. The woman in question had wandered onto the balcony for a smoke. Thank Raava, the woman would surely be annoyed by Kuvira’s relentless unrest. Back and forth she walks with her thoughts, but she can’t escape them.

She isn’t sure which news to break first. Her hand absently makes its way to her slight baby bump. She thinks that it might be easier to announce the baby first, to explain why she is withdrawing from Southern Air Sounds.  But then, it isn’t any of their business is it, that she is going to be a mother. She may as well just let them assume that Baatar’s departure is the cause of the withdrawl.

It isn’t a full blown lie. It isn’t a lie at all. It is simply a fraction of the whole truth.

Kuvira hears the door slam, and she gives a start. “Raava, do you have to slam it!?” She snaps, with a reeling sensation she notes that she sounds like her mother. It is almost enough to bring tears to her eyes. Raava forbid she treats her child as her mother treated her. She rubs at her eyes with the heels of her hands.

“Sorry.” P’Li mumbles half-sarcastically and half-genuinely.

She reeks of smoke and Kuvira feels almost dizzy with the scent. Much to the annoyance of the woman who has just entered, Kuvira continues her restless pacing. She only brings herself to a halt when P’Li physically obstructs her path. “The fuck is going on with you?” P’Li grumbles.

“I think that you already know.”

P’Li grabs her by the shoulders and forces her into a chair. “Talk.”

Kuvira crosses her arms, determined to hold the type of silence usually upheld by Ming.

“Talk.” P’Li repeats.

She wants to. She really does. “Baatar quit.”

“And…”

“So do I.” She replied quietly.

“Quit what? Your own fuckin’ band? Southern Air Sounds?” Now P’Li has her arms folded over her chest as well.

“Both.”

“Why?” P’Li demands.

“I have other things to take care of.” Kuvira replies flatly. P’Li stares at her and she knows that the firebender wants some elaboration. Kuvira crosses one leg over the other and stares at the hands she has positioned on her knee.

“Fine.” P’Li shrugs, she turns around.

“Wait!” Kuvira isn’t yet ready to elaborate though. But it is enough to keep P’Li from leaving. The woman pulls up another chair. She supposes that if there’s anyone she can speak with it is P’Li. Kuvira shifts in her chair.

“What other things do you have to take care of?”

For an answer she simply moves her hand from her knee to her belly.

“Does Baatar know?”

“No.” She replies. “I don’t know if he should.”

“He should.” P’Li states. She leaves no room for protest. “And you’re not withdrawing from the contest.”

“That’s not up to you.”

“I need this.” P’Li pushes. “This band is everything. If you just throw it away, what are the other two and I supposed to do?” She pauses. “You need Southern Air Sounds.”

Kuvira rubs at her temples, she doesn’t appreciate the demands. “I need to be able to take care of a child.”

“Which is why you’re going to win the prize money and the fame to be able to.” P’Li insists.

Those are pretty words, but she doesn’t quite believe them. It will be a waste of time and energy to perform without their original lineup. She has already set the band up to fall. “There’s no point, P’Li.”

“I just told you what the point is.”

“I have to put the baby first.”

“And you can do that by attending S.A.S.” They are going in circles.

Kuvira has been holding so much inside and it finally pushes its way out. “Of course you would think that. You didn’t think twice before putting your baby down.” She says with a poison.

Pure rage flickers on P’Li’s face for an instant before her expression goes blank. “Fuck you.” She stands with a force that knocks the chair to the ground. With the slam of a door, Kuvira knows that she has pushed out the last of her allies.

.oOo.

Azula still wears the ribbon that TyLee braided into her hair while she is on stage. It doesn’t exactly fit the aesthetic but Zuko and Mai had begged her for a less intense performance. The clashing ribbon reminds her that they are taking it easy tonight.

As easy Azula can take a performance anyways.

It is going mostly well. They have opted out of kissing on stage this time, not overdoing it is the key. Another scream tears from her throat, vicious and powerful. The sort that will bring Fire Of Agni their reward.

She looks up and spots him again.

Ozai stares at she and Zuko.

This time Zuko doesn’t see him.

She will let him have his cozy ignorance.

Azula tries to dwell only on the music. It is surprisingly easy to forget about her father when her voice strains and falters. It is the first time she has struggled to get a verse out. Perhaps she has been doing too many shows after all. Her face flushes and she hopes that the blunder has gone unnoticed.

She tries to push through, all the while her throat begs for mercy. Dread settles in and she tries to cast it aside. This has happened before, all it takes is a steaming cup of tea to make it right.

The song doesn’t finish soon enough, but when it does she speaks, “we’re going to change things up a little.” She mostly says it to address her bandmates. “Since we’ve taken a break from the theatrics, we’re going to perform a song we don’t usually sing live.”  She has learned this time around and has left herself a collection of ballads with smoother vocals as well as a remake of an older song where both she and Zuko sing with clean vocals. The announcement is well-received. She waits for the applause to die down before starting the song.

Her throat is pulsing by the time she finishes the show and they still have to stick around for autographs. Again security is tighter than usual. Their presence alone seems to speed this little meet and greet up.

It isn’t until she and Zuko are finally getting comfortable that Ozai makes his appearance. Her bodyguards edge closer. “What do you want?” She asks in a dangerously low tone.

“I’m just here to witness the failure. That is all.” He replies.

So intimidation it is.

“I’d like to see the exact moment when you realize that you need me. I’d like to be there to see the precise minute when you realize that you’ve made a mistake following your brother…”

Zuko goes rigid beside her.

“He is a lost cause, but you? You can make something of yourself. Something worthwhile.” He reaches a hand out but her body guards come to stand in front of her. “Honestly.” He chuckles. “Have you really resorted to having others fight your battles?”

“This isn’t a battle.” The remark is just as much for him as it is for her body gurads who step back.

Ozai’s hands are back at his sides. “Not at all.” He agrees. “It is an invitation, come back home and we’ll pretend like this mess has never happened.”

Azula swallows. Isn’t that what she wants, normalcy? Stability? She can have it. She can hand Fire Of Agni to Zuko and have her father’s love and respect back. TyLee curls her fingers around Azula’s hand. “What about TyLee and Mai?”

“They are free to come home with you.” Ozai’s lip curves up. A vicious sort of curl. “Of course you can stay here and I’ll be in the crowd watching you fall with your leech of a brother.”

TyLee squeezes her hand harder and Zuko looks devastated. Devastated and betrayed and she hasn’t even made a decision. She thinks of the girl who she slipped her number to, the very same girl who had almost killed herself. She thinks of how many other people put such faith in their music. She has come this far… “that is fine father, I would like you to see our victory.”

.oOo.

The pen quivers in Kuvira’s hand as she tries to come up with an adequate way to word her resignation letter. She thinks that perhaps it is selfish. But it is the most selfless, selfish thing she has ever done. She doesn’t like to sacrifice her bandmates at the expanse of her baby, but they can take care of themselves. Her child-to-be can’t. Still, it is hard to come up with anything to write when her head is so full of other things.

She runs a hand through her tangled locks. Strands of hair tumble into her tired eyes. She has tried to resume conversation with P’Li but the woman is unshakably pissed and it seemed as though she has poisoned the opinions of Ghazan and Ming. She supposes that the venom isn’t unjustified.

Still she can’t fathom why they are still lurking in her loft. The one she is paying for on her own. She doesn’t have the fight or the heart to throw them out.

Kuvira sets the pen down and curls herself up on her bed. She feels sick and sorrowful. Everything is falling apart and she knows for sure that it had, in fact, been Baatar who kept the band in good trajectory. She may have started the band but it is his.

She reaches a solution, one that can satisfy everyone. She forces herself out of the bed and into the living room.

“You finally going to tell us that we’re withdrawing from Southern Air…” Ghazan starts.

It takes a degree of willpower to tell him that he had been too lazy to do anything more than halfway before the possibility of withdrawal. Instead she says, Yes, that’s what I am here to talk to you about.”

Ming glowers at her, shaping a pair of watery arms just so that she can fold them over her chest in disappointment.

“I’m turning the rights to the band over to Baatar. You all can carry on and I’ll take care of my...of what I need to take care of.”  Kuvira says with as much stoicism as she can muster. A month will leave them with ample time to adjust. She can’t imagine that the fandom will miss her too much, they seem to vastly prefer Baatar. “I’ll discuss the matter with him.” Like P’Li, she leaves no room for objection nor further discussion in general. She can’t keep her composure long enough to do so.

As soon as she reaches her room and locks the door she slides down to the floor and releases much of the pent up tension. Her cries are as quiet as she can make them and rather breathy. She crawls her way to the phone and picks it up. She dials Baatar’s number and fights to level her voice before the man picks up.

She almost has herself moderately compoused when his greeting comes through. She takes an extra second as he repeats his hello twice. Quickly, before he can hang up, she returns the greeting.

“Kuvira?” He asks, she can’t assess his tone.  

“Yes, it’s me.” She confirms.

“What do you want?” This, she can tell, is annoyance.

“I wanted to…” She trails off. “I’m going to sign the band over to you. I can’t go to Southern Air Sounds but the other three, they need it.”

“What do you mean, you can’t?” Baatar questions.

“I just…” she pulls the phone away from her mouth as she chokes up. “I just can’t do it right now.” She can’t keep her voice from cracking as she adds, “I have other things to take care of.”

He doesn’t miss the hitch in her voice. “Are you alright?”

“Fine.” She tries, her voice cracking again. She sets the phone to the side again and chokes out another sob accented with a soft sniffle. She wipes at her eyes with the back of her hands. She picks up the phone again and says with more clarity, “I’m fine.”

It isn’t enough clarity to keep him from asking, “are you crying?”

“No.” Almost involuntarily she lets a cry escape her parted lips. The tears slip down her cheeks and drip off of her chin.

“You’re crying.”

“No.”  She slams the phone on the receiver only to hear it ringing. She brings her pointer and thumb to her forehead and lets it ring as the cries overtake her in full. The phone doesn’t stop its incessant ringing and finally she picks it up. “Leave me alone!” She is about to slam it down when she hears him ask, “am I going to have to come over there?”  

“No.”

But she wants him to so badly. She misses having him cuddle up in her arms. She misses the closeness.

She hangs up again.

.oOo.

Zuko is still staring at her has their tour bus departs. They are all staring at her, really. But Zuko stares the most intensely  and the most slack jawed. It is enough to make her forget about her aching throat. Finally she has enough, “what?” She hisses, her voice still strained.

“Y-you chose me?”

Azula rolls her eyes. “I absolutely did not.” She doesn’t think that she has convinced anyone. “I chose my dignity and independence.”

“And Zuko!” TyLee throws her hands up in excitement. “You chose us.” She tosses said hands around Azula and nuzzled her cheek against the firebender’s.

“Stop it, Ty.” Azula grumbles. But TyLee does not cease her fluff and cuddles.

“She chose us, Mai.”

Mai mirrors Azula’s eye roll, a faint hint of amusement tugging her lip upwards at her band mate’s current TyLee induced predicament.

“Will you let go if I say that I chose you guys?” Azula’s voice comes out distorted by the way TyLee’s face was smushing against hers. TyLee nods and Azula caves. “Alright, I chose Zuko and Mai.”

“And TyLee!?” TyLee beams.

“Nope, just Zuko and Mai.”

“Hey!” TyLee pouts and softly thumps Azula’s shoulder.

Azula gives a soft snicker.

“His face was priceless.” Zuko comments, allowing for her snicker to become less soft. “I hope that it ends up in the papers.”

“Let’s just make sure we win in front of him.”

.oOo.

He finds Kuvira curled up in a corner. Her hair is a mess and her cloths are disheveled. He sweeps his fingers through his hair. He knew that she was crying on the phone but he didn’t expect her to be such a mess. Getting closer only reveals more signs of distress. Her eyes are dull and accented with light bags. She hasn’t bothered to change out of her pajamas. He hopes that she has only been wearing them for a day or two.

He doesn’t know how to open the conversation, he knows exactly what’s wrong and he knows why she didn’t call sooner. With nothing else to say he opens with those questions anyways. He doesn’t expect her to tell him that she didn’t want to bother him.

He knows it would be a lie to tell her that it wouldn’t have bothered him. He picks his words carefully. “It wouldn’t have bothered me if you told me you were upset.”

“I’m not upset.” She insists. “I’m angry.”

He rolls his eyes and nearly sighs. “I think that you confuse anger and sadness.” He knows that she does, he also knows that she cries when she’s angry. But he has learned to differentiate between the rage crying and the mournful ones.

He stoops down and carries her onto her bed. She is some heavier than he recalls. He brushes her hair behind her ears. “Talk to me.” He says taking her hand. He is treading in dangerous waters. If he isn’t careful…

He groans to himself because he already knows that he is being pulled back. She hasn’t even tried to guilt trip him and he is being pulled back. Perhaps her lack of guilting is precisely why he isn’t trying to resist.

But of course she isn’t trying for a guilt trip, because she isn’t trying for anything save for, maybe, slowing her tears. Other than that, she is silent. “Tell me what’s going on he tries again.” Cupping his hand over the one she has positioned on her belly seems to somehow open the floodgates. Her weeping becomes that much more intense and is intermingled with babbled words he can’t make out. He lets her ramble like that, simply stroking her hand until she finishes.

He feels awkward in asking her to repeat herself with more clarity.

With a whispered, ‘fuck’, she wipes her eyes with the hand he isn’t holding. “I can’t do this Baatar.” Is all she says.

He realizes that they have an audience now. Ming and Ghazan peer into the room. They exchange concerned glances. They only leave when P’Li scowls, nudges them both, and scolds them for peeping.

“What can’t you do?”

“Anything.”

“Can you be less vague?”

“I can’t go to Southern Air Sounds. I can’t manage the band on my own...I can’t manage it at all.” He opens his mouth to speak but Kuvira continues first. “My idea didn’t even work…” She mumbles something else. Something that had probably degraded her idea.

He pinches the bridge of his nose. “That’s not true.”

“If it’s not true then why have these new songs gotten less views than the first ones did when they first came out?” Kuvira asks. “Lately we’ve only received negative reception.”

“Your idea wasn’t dumb.” He insists.

“Prove it!” She demands.

He pushes out another sigh. “They’re just not used to me not being there. It doesn’t have anything to do with your idea.”

His words only help until she comes to another conclusion. “They don’t like me.”

“T-that’s not true.” He stammers.

“You don’t like me.”

“Also not true.” He sputters with more intensity. He lifts her into his arms and props her head up against his shoulder. “I’m just...you’re frustrating sometimes. You always have to have it your way and…” He knows that now isn’t the time to make accusations. He tries to backpedal. “And my ideas have always been shot down, ever since I was a kid. I’m not the most confident person.”

Her crying seems to slow but she her words remain dismal. “You left me. Everyone leaves me.”

“I didn’t…” He stops himself because he did. He had left her.

“My parents, you, P’Li…”

A light bang tells Baatar that P’Li hasn’t left. He steals a glance at the doorway where P’Li has her head pressed against the wall in exasperation, Ming and Gazahn snickering.

“I assure you, P’Li is still very much here.” He tries to make light of things.

Kuvria tosses a pillow at the door, with it fully shut again she metalbends the lock in place, ignoring Gazhan’s protests.

“I’m still here.”

“You’re going to leave again.” Part of him thinks that he should. But he can’t imagine doing so when she looks so fragile.

“I can’t leave.” He forces a smile. “We have a lot to catch up on.”

She doesn’t speak.

“You have to decide which verses of the new songs I get to sing. And I think that we have time to remake at least one music mover before Southern Air Sounds.”

“It’ll be an awful, half-assed video.”

“Then we’ll just have to rely on my sex appeal.” He wriggles his brows. “Apparently the fandom loves me.”

Kuvira looks anything but amused.

“We’ll figure something out. Something that we both like?”

Kuvira wipes her eyes a final time and sits herself upright. She gives a firm nod before opening her notebook.

“You just get right to it, don’t you?” He allows her to distract herself, deciding that he will get better conversation with her when she relaxes more or less in full.

“You’re not leaving?” She asks again.

“I’m not leaving.” He confirms, giving her ear a kiss. “I shouldn’t have left the first time.” He hopes that she will have a good apology for him. He supposes that she has already admitted that she was wrong. He won’t push for an apology yet.

Some of the tension leaves her body, as though he has taken some sort of unseen weight off of her. “Good, because I need you.”

“Yeah the band isn’t quite the same…” he tries to joke.

“I need you.”

He supposes that, that is better than an apology. Much better. “How about we write a song and plan a video together. We can talk more after that.”  He thinks that it will help to build up some cooperation and compromising before diving into personal matters that will require a whole lot of that. She nods in agreement, a good sign.

[zupeiza]

Korrasami Month 2018 - The Race

Once upon a time, Atalanta was a powerful huntress that had made a vow to never marry. Surrendering to her father insistence, she offered to marry anyone who could outrun her—but those whom she overtook she speared. In one race Hippomenes was given three of the golden apples of the Hesperides by the goddess Aphrodite; when he dropped them, Atalanta stopped to pick them up and so lost the race.

Jinora closed the ancient book she was examining and sighed. After putting it back on the shelf, she pondered where to look for reading material next. Republic City Public Library had seriously taken its toll after Kuvira's attack, and to make things worse, becoming the hiding spot for a particularly vicious gang of firebending crooks reduced the amount of salvageable books and scrolls to less of a hundred.

The young master airbender looked outside through the newly-restored windows. If only they could access to all the knowledge they had in Wan Shi Tong's library... They wouldn't even need to bring the originals with them, maybe just... copy them? In some format that was not so flammable, if possible? She made a mental note to talk with Asami about that, she would probably figure out a way to manage it.

But until then, maybe visiting Wan Shi Tong's library was enough. Maybe the librarian would allow them just browsing the material. After all, the Unalaq debacle had happened years ago. And yet, she was reluctant to try. But she glanced the single shelf with all the remaining reading material they had. It was time to at least try.

She sat cross legged on the floor. The library was empty and the restoration works had managed to turn it back to its silent state. It was a good place to meditate. Better than home, even, without Ikki and Meelo interruptions. She concentrated, and in the blink of an eye there she was, in the middle of her favourite place of the spirit's world. Some knowledge-seeking foxes were startled by her apparition, but they went back to their business, and Wan Shi Tong was nowhere to be seen. Well... maybe she could just take a look to some of the books there, before she faced the scary owl spirit.

She looked around. The aisle where she had appeared was as good place as any to begin her search. The banner at the head of the aisle read "Greek mythology". Uh-huh, whatever that is, let's find out - she thought. She took a beautifully decorated volume that called her attention, it had really detailed illustrations of people - nude people in some cases, she realized, blushing - with strange-looking robes, nothing like she had seen on any of the Four Nations styles. Also, the animals, or spirits, were different to what she was used to. "Maybe 'greek' means 'fantasy'" she muttered to herself. She opened at a random page and began reading. "In Greek mythology Atalanta was an Arcadian heroine-"

***

"I don't care what you want, father! Just because you want a heir for Future Industries, it doesn't mean you get to decide who I marry with!"

Asami stormed off her father's office slamming the door. She was sick of it, of all the self-absorbed, full-of-themselves suitors pursuing her day and night. Sometimes it was charming, granted, but very soon, every time, she discovered that they weren't interested on how she was but what she was, a heiress. And she wasn't just that! Not to boast, but she was a brilliant engineer, a more-than-capable fighter and an excellent driver and...

"That's it!" She stopped on her tracks and went back to Hiroshi's Sato office. She opened without knocking only to find her father lost in thought.

"I'll marry... whoever beats me in the racetrack." Hiroshi's brow arched, he didn't expect that. "But if I win, you have to make those candidates of yours to stop pursuing me, and you will not ever attempt to force me into any marriage". Asami crossed her arms awaiting a response.

Hiroshi pondered for a moment. Yes, she was her best satomobiles tester, but that didn't mean she was the best driver in the world. He was starting to feel desperate with his attempts to secure his legacy, and the look in Asami's eyes made her think this was no bluff but an ultimatum.

"Very well, it will be as you wish" Asami dropped her arms as she wasn't expecting her father to agree so quickly. "But this will require some time to prepare... " He looked at the calendar in his desktop and browsed through its pages "It will be in three months from today."

Asami nodded, and started planning her practice schedule. Three months was more than enough to achieve perfection. There was no way she was going to lose this. There was just too much at stake.

***

"You won't believe what Huan just told me!" Opal announced stepping into the training grounds of the Air Temple Island. Bolin and Korra stopped their training session and looked at her. "My brother Wei is entering the road race to opt to Asami Sato's hand!" Bolin and Korra remained silent and exchanged an amused look. "What?" Opal exclaimed, throwing suspicious glances to both of them.

Korra shrugged and said nonchalantly "Nothing! I just thought Wei of all people wouldn't be so interested in... *ahem* ... plus isn't he a bit young for marrying?" Bolin sniggered beside her, not really helping the Avatar to get out of trouble.

Opal decided it wasn't worth to feel offended, in fact she had thought very much the same when receiving the news. "Well, it seems like Mr. Sato is trying to establish some sort of industrial empire, so he has been contacting most of the big families throughout all four nations searching for a *worthy* heir for his daughter, and that includes my own one. But apparently there is a catch, and it's that she has only agreed to marry if she is beaten in a road race. And according to this article it will take place in less than three months" She showed the newspaper in her hand to her boyfriend and Korra. Korra held the article but couldn't tear her eyes from the picture of the Future Industries heiress even if Opal continued with her explanations "But you're right, and I just think this is a last resort kind of thing for Mom trying to marry off Wei..." Opal finished sheepishly. Her mother seemed to be very open in other aspects of life, but when it came to her children she was adamant to let them live their lives freely. "Well, I'll leave you to it, sorry I interrupted your training!" and with a swift of air she flew out towards the air bisons barn.

Bolin noticed Korra was still transfixed with the newspaper article. He waved his hand in front of Korra's eyes to break the spell, but she seemed lost in thought. Then Korra raised her eyes from the article and muttered "Bolin, I think I'm in love". Bolin looked surprised to his friend, looked at the dark beauty picture in the newspaper and back to his friend. He started jumping up and down and screamed "OOOOHHHH!! This is so goophhhh mmhhh!!" Korra muffled his mouth bending a chunk of earth to silent him while shushing her excited buddy. Bolin tried to look outraged while he spitted the soil out, but he couldn't help to be happy for her. He stopped moving and putting his hand in Korra's shoulder he whispered "Okay, but you know we need a plan, right?". Korra grinned, noticing he supported her, no questions asked, and then she leaned into him, murmuring in a conspiracy tone "I think I have a solution that will work out just fine for Wei... and for me".

***

"The answer is no." Beifong's answer was curt, and she went back to her paperwork.

Bolin looked exasperated and tried to elaborate "But... but... How can you say no? It's a noble cause! Love! Young Love!” Bolin looked at his brother for help. The Chief of Police was actively trying to ignore them but they needed her, if they wanted to have a chance in all this craziness. Mako sighed and tried a different angle. "Chief, I agree all this... is nonsense,” Bolin frowned “but think about your nephew. He's being forced to compete for something he doesn't even want! I can't believe you agree with that".

Lin stopped writing and held the bridge of her nose. The two brothers looked at her expectantly. "All right, I'll do it! But only because you two nosy punks won't leave me alone!" Lin looked up to them, they were smiling and Bolin was tempted to initiate a hug, but realised it wasn't a good idea. The chief dismissed both with her hand, and they complied quickly before she changed her mind.

Wei had already agreed to their plan in the phone. He would train his driving skills back in Zaofu to avoid suspicion, but once in Republic City for the race event, Korra and he would swap, leaving her compete in his place. Having Chief Beifong onboard granted they wouldn't have any issue infiltrating the race, and more importantly, she would be a perfect coach for Korra's driving lessons. Everything was going very, very well.

***

"Brake! BRAAAKEEE!!!" Metal squeaked when bent to pull the satomobile to a stop. Korra, with her knuckles almost white on the wheel, pouted. Lin grunted, and tried to compose herself. She turned to the back of the satomobile to find Mako and Bolin, all color drained out of their faces. "This is not working, kids" the Chief of Police said without emotion. "And at this point I'm not allowing her in a car, much less in the middle of a car race! She is a hazard for anyone in her way!"

Mako ignored the Avatar indignant cry and offered "Maybe if she isn't driving?" His audience turned to him, waiting for an explanation. "I know Varrick has been working on some kind of autonomous mechanism for satomobiles, he has been blabbering about it for weeks in the press. Maybe he could put one of those in Korra's satomobile, and at least she would be less... dangerous?" Korra huffed again, but again she was ignored. The date for the race was only a few days away, and it was a fact that Korra's advances driving were mostly non-existant. For an Avatar who had managed to bend four elements, it was astounding how incapable she was to manage mechanical devices.

Bolin nodded "That might work, I'll talk to Varrick later. He owes me some favors from the times we were together in the movers business, so I think I can bring him onboard." He was getting excited again, and that made Korra abandon her pouting face, but Lin just shook her head. "If that works, that would solve the fact that Korra doesn't run anyone over - which frankly, would make my life much easier - but we also need Asami to lose, and she is a really accomplished driver. And I don't think we can tamper with Asami's car, they would find out about any attempt to sabotage."

Mako nodded in agreement, "Then we need to distract her. But how?"

***

"Raava, I need your help" Korra's inner voice murmured during her meditation.

The light spirit made her presence known to the Avatar, and prompted her to make her request. "Avatar Korra... What is bothering you?..."

Korra gulped. "I need to know about a human, Asami Sato... " Korra fiddled with her hands, suddenly thinking this was not such a good idea. "I need to know her weak spots... but it's for a good cause!" Korra extended her hands, trying to justify herself. The light spirit made something similar to a sigh sound, their connection had made clear what kind of good cause was pressing the Avatar to ask for her help.

"She is a builder, but she is no bender. She needs tools..." the spirit voice was getting weaker, but before disappearing Raava imprinted an image in her mind. It was a workshop... a Future Industries workshop... and inside there was a cabinet containing a box... a toolbox marked with an anagram "A.S.". And as quickly as it came, the image disappeared from Korra's mind.

Korra woke up from her meditation. She was back in her room and Mako and Bolin were looking at her with expectation. Korra cocked her head. "I'm gonna be needing... tools?"

***

Mako didn't feel proud. He was a cop, he was supposed to catch trespassers, not become one of them. And yet here he was, holding a cloth with a wrench, a screwdriver and a hammer belonging to Asami Sato. He handed the evidence to the Avatar, embarrassed. Korra opened the package, examined its content and hugged her friend. She knew the effort he had made to break the rules for her.

The race day had arrived. Varrick had done a good job automatising the car. They had a trial the day before and it worked seamlessly. They had even managed to make a decent mark, with Chief Beifong driving remotely. Korra put on her helmet and pulled the zipper of the overalls Wei had just taken off. Together with the scarf and gloves, nobody would notice the deceit.

She hugged a last time her two friends and a very relieved Wei, and left the locker room for the starting grid. There were six other participants, but she had sneaked into their practice and she knew they weren't rivals to her - thanks to Varrick's device, that is. Korra took the seat of her satomobile, nodded towards Chief Beifong who was half hidden in a secluded box seat, and got ready to start.

Asami Sato was the last participant to reach her car. She flipped her long, raven black hair before fitting her googles, and looked back to her competition. She smiled smugly, and sat down in her seat.

All engines roared, ready to start. Ikki held a chequered flag by its pole, and upon Hiroshi Sato nod, she waved it down, with Meelo merrily floating in a small hurricane made by himself at her side.

The satomobiles sped up, wheels rotating at a burnout before shooting off. After just a few seconds, Asami Sato red roadster was clearly in advantage of all her suitors, with Korra's silver roadster following closely.

Asami sight was focused on the track, but her peripheral vision caught a glint of something shiny in that next opponent. She frowned when she recognised one of the hammers of her personal toolbox. The other driver threw it aside to the road margin. The distraction made her slow down, allowing her adversary to take the lead.

Korra was ecstatic, the plan was working! She laughed, exhilarated, until she noticed Asami's roadster was again at her level. Korra frowned, and got ready to use her second "secret weapon". She took the screwdriver, and purposedly wiggled it for the engineer to see. Asami was alternating looks to the road and to her opponent now, and Korra smiled at the heiress gaping mouth when she realized Korra had another tool of hers in her power.

Again, Korra threw the screwdriver to the road margin, allowing herself to mouth "Oops!", very much to Asami's anger. The engineer had slowed down again, but the rage towards this... this... dirty... Beifong scumbag... made her regain her focus and push to the metal. She managed to get matched again. There was absolutely no way she was going to let herself lose to some cheater.

Korra made a long face, but she still had her last ace up the sleeve. The wrench she had in her hand looked the same quality than the other tools, but much more worn away, probably a favourite for the engineer. Again she made sure Asami was looking at her, and shook it in front of the heiress eyes.

Asami couldn't believe it. "No, not Wrenchie, how do you DARE!" She was so dumbfounded she didn't realize until she saw the other car's rear plate that she had given up so much advantage. From behind, she could see how her nemesis threw her dearest tool to the side of the road. She was fueled by her fury and hit the gas as much as she could.

Korra winced. What she saw in the rear mirror was a very VERY angered Asami speeding up. Well, she would really have to make amends afterwards. She crossed her fingers and prayed that Chief Beifong floored it as much as she could. The finish line was closing, and Asami's roadster was still a little behind. "Come on... come on..." Korra was muttering to herself now, and then, all she could see was a the chequered flag waving again, and a red blur passing her after the line. She had won. Unbelievable.

"Wooohooo!!" She cheered and threw her right arm to the air, trying to maintain her cover. When the satomobile stopped, she jumped out of her seat and started to bounce up and down.

Asami Sato was making a beeline towards her. Maybe she was no firebender, but Korra could feel fire glowing from her green eyes. She was even more beautiful in person, Korra thought. "You cheater! How did you get hold of my tools! How do you d..." Asami seemed to lose her train of thought when Korra took her helmet off. The Avatar tried her best smile, and it seemed to be working.

"You are not Wei Beifong" Asami stated puzzled. And then something made click in her head. "You're the Avatar. You're the Avatar!" This outcome was not bad after all. Asami licked her lips, smiled and flipped back her hair. "But you really are a cheater, don't think I'm forgiving you so easily"

"So... I guess me winning means we're engaged now?" asked Korra with a goofy grin plastered in her face. Asami laughed and, knowing her father was approaching them, she took the Avatar's face with her hands and kissed her.

"What do you think you're doing?"

***

That wasn't Hiroshi Sato's voice. Jinora blinked twice, before recognising her surroundings, and Wan Shi Tong voice. She gasped, and closed the book she had fallen asleep upon. She smiled awkwardly and raised to her feet. Wan Shi Tong was in front of her, extending his wings to make himself more frightening. Bowing, she tried to calm herself, and appeal to the owl spirit knowledge hunger. "Honorable Wan Shi Tong, do you know how satomobiles work?"

Atalanta's myths are told, among others, in Ovid's "Metamorphoses". It's actually quite a cool character, one of the toughest chicks of the Greek Mythology :)

I'm not sure if it is a canon divergence... but dreams sometimes diverge from reality, so...

Comments, edits, suggestions... are very welcome. I hope you enjoy it!

[loopy777]

Since you are asking Lok type questions decided to ask one. Ozai was a villain that had potential (Shishio's Mantra comes to mind) but overtime his depth came across as a flat piece of Cardboard with a tape recorder attached. Thanks The Search. Flash forward to LoK we have Unalaq that retreaded similar territory. This is where my question comes in. What would you have done with him, what motivations would you give, and what sort of relationship would you have given him to Korra and the cast?

I’ve been delaying answering this Ask because when I normally do these kinds of ‘rewrites,’ I try to hone in on what it seems like the story was trying to do, and see if I can reconfigure or streamline the ideas in play to create something clearer and more impactful. That’s a lot easier than what the original storytellers had to do- start from scratch and build something from the ground up. I’m essentially doing another draft of their work, with the benefit of having experienced their vision and knowing what worked for me and what didn’t.

But wow, it is hard to do that when nothing worked for me and I’m just left confused about what the original intention was, or if there was an intention at all.

OH HAI BOOK SPIRITS.

You bring up Ozai as a fairly flat character, and I agree, but I never expected more of him. (Whether the comics could or should have added something to the character is an open question, and not one I’ll get into here.) He is a symbol of the bad parts of the Fire Nation, cast in the form of the ‘evil warlord’ archetype that’s so prevalent in the Wuxia genre that AtLA draws from.

Similarly, the villains of LoK all represent something, but they add some complexity of character to things (although of course some were more successful than others). Amon is intolerance and weaponized blame, but coming from a terrible childhood that created a self-loathing he couldn’t grow past. Zaheer is anarchy and ideological extremism, but he has that intriguing affability that alone of all villains lets him sit down with the protagonist and make some good points in conversation. Kuvira is dictatorship and nationalism, coming from the lack of identity she developed as a result of being orphaned.

And then we have Unalaq and Book Spirits.

And I just don’t know what’s going on in that season.

There are several different subplots in play - the Water Tribe Civil War, Varrick’s takeover of Asami’s business, the rise of the dark spirits, Korra and Mako’s romance, whatever is going on with Tenzin’s family, and the little movie about Avatar Wan - but none of them work together. They don’t share themes. They don’t advance each other’s events. They mess with each other’s pacing. They separate the cast before a sustainable dynamic has been developed. It’s just a mess.

Varrick gets the closest to working, because at least I understand some of his motivations. He’s doing bad things to try to help his Tribe in the war with the Northern Tribe, which is sympathetic, while serving as a flawed mentor to Bolin. But then he’s also sabotaging efforts to get weapons to the Southern Tribe so that he can bankrupt and buy out Asami’s company, which directly contributed to his Tribe losing the war. It’s a mess, and the story never reconciles these two contradictory aspects of his character.

Varrick could have been fixed by either eliminating one of these subplots (either make him a patriot driven to doing bad things, or make him a greedy jerk who’s exploiting his Tribe’s troubles to steal Asami’s company), or making the contradiction the point of his character. His flaw could be his greed, and he fails to balance it with his patriotism, to the point where he defeats himself. I don’t think this is what the cartoon was trying to do, because there’s no payoff to this flaw in the story. Varrick never shows such greed in his later appearances, and there’s no point in Book Spirits anyone seems to even be aware that he sabotaged himself.

But then there’s Unalaq. And I- I just don’t know what’s going on with this guy.

He’s introduced as something like a religious fundamentalist. He’s down on celebrating a spiritual festival with a carnival. He offers teachings to Korra that contain secrets even Tenzin and the White Lotus don’t know. He’s friends spirits to the point where they’re acting as his informants. And his ultimate goal is to release Vaatu and bring about TEN THOUSAND YEARS OF DARKNESS. There’s a possible cautionary tale there about religious extremism and fundamentalism, that it turns people into misanthropes and forms a path to violence and oppression.

But, unfortunately, there’s more to Unalaq. His backstory includes manipulating his brother and enemies of their Tribe to destroy a sacred forest so that he could be made crown prince. He takes over the Southern Tribe for seemingly no reason, oppressing it just to further antagonize his brother, directly trying to kill his brother, and manipulating Korra into doing his dirty work- all eventually leading Korra to cut ties with him and become his enemy.

But Korra is the key to his whole plan to bring about TEN THOUSAND YEARS OF DARKNESS!

So, we have another self-sabotaging villain. Maybe that’s the point? But what is this story saying? That religious extremists are really just flawed hypocrites, despite their posturing? But the story continues on from there, and Unalaq actually succeeds in getting Korra to redeem the plot coupons that free Vaatu. So his flaws didn’t ultimately matter to the story. Korra isn’t even able to successfully rally any opposition to Unalaq, thanks to Varrick and her conflict with Mako. So, again, what’s the message? That religious extremists are really flawed jerks, but the people who oppose them are also flawed jerks, so it’s all a wash? But then Korra gets new magic powers that ultimately let her defeat Unalaq, so what does that add to the message?

I guess it’s saying that we’re all doomed to TEN THOUSAND YEARS OF DARKNESS by our flaws, but it’s okay because a Higher Power will just come along and fix things for us?

Yeah, I don’t think that’s the intended message of Book Spirits. :P

But we all know Book Spirits stunk. We all know it was rushed in development. The original plan was to just do the story of a Water Tribe Civil War, and then when additional writers were brought on to help meet production deadlines, the whole Spirit World subplot was added. The result is a mess that’s infamous in the fandom. LoK would recover in the next season, and we now laugh at Unalaq.

Well, I’m going over all that to explain why I’m not sure how to 'fix’ Unalaq. I can’t identify a goal for him, or for any of the characters.

So on a whim, I’m going to try to base him on my favorite (neglected) subplot in LoK as a whole, the lack of spirituality in the modern world.

It was established in the very first episode of Book Air that Republic City is flawed. The city that Aang built is riddled with organized crime. The people are all mean. Equalists are a growing movement, and they might possibly have a point about the power imbalance between Benders and Nonbenders. The leadership is all either corrupt or ineffective, and also mostly jerks. Tenzin says, “I have done my best to guide Republic City towards the dream my father had for it, but you are right. It has fallen out of balance since he passed.” Korra soon after promises the people, “Look, all I know is Avatar Aang meant for this city to be the center of peace and balance in the world, and I believe we can make his dream a reality.”

So I think Unalaq has the most potential as someone focused on the same goal as her, restoring balance and spirituality to a world that has gotten lost in its own modernization. I’d cut out his conflict with his brother Tonraq; in my version, Unalaq never manipulated his brother into getting exiled. Tonraq did that on his own. Unalaq’s oppression of the Southern Tribe doesn’t extend beyond imposing his own religious fundamentalism on them. Maybe he even tries to butter Tonraq up to get his brother on his side, and to keep Korra as a willing ally.

And, most importantly, I wouldn’t give Unalaq any hidden agenda. He’s not plotting to unleash TEN THOUSAND YEARS OF DARKNESS. He doesn’t even know about Vaatu when the story starts. He puts his plan of taking over the Southern Tribe into action simply because he learns of Korra’s mission, and is overjoyed that he finally has a powerful ally who sees the corruption in the modern world. Perhaps he previously considered Tenzin as a possible ally, but Tenzin was turned off by Unalaq’s extremism. (Which is the first warning sign for the audience. Tenzin thinks this guy is too down on modern society?!) We can keep the part where Korra cuts ties with Tenzin because of the revelations about her past, going along with Unalaq despite her misgivings.

So Korra learns super spiritualism from Unalaq for a while. He shows her how to destroy dark spirits. (Neither of them know what’s up with the dark spirits, just that it’s suddenly a problem.) They work together to decry modern corruption. They make the Southern Tribe go to church once a week under penalty of law. Perhaps they go up to Republic City to try asking the citizenry if they’ve considered letting the light of balance into their lives, check out these pamphlets, etc.

They discover that the Dark Spirits are a result of the modern world’s corruption. Just like Hei Bai was turned into a monster by his anger at his forest being burned down, and the Painted Lady was nearly destroyed by her lake being polluted, the Dark Spirits are nothing more than injured, crazed, dying spirits. The Southern Water Tribe is drilling for oil and disrupting the environment. Oceans are being polluted. Forests are being cut down. The big new cities are producing enough waste to poison the land around them. People don’t commune or talk to the spirits anymore; there’s a shortage of sages around the world. The spirits are being driven violently insane even as they’re being wiped out.

So Korra and Unalaq become environmental terrorists.

Perhaps we can fit in a conflict between Mako and Korra at this point. He’s not really into her new course, and they break up. Perhaps he drifts back towards Asami before the official breakup, leading to both girls kicking him to the curb. We definitely won’t do anything with Korra getting amnesia and maybe forgetting that they broke up. That was pointless and just created more problems for the subplot. As a bonus, this can be an excuse for Asami to maybe bond directly with Korra.

Mako angrily confronts Korra about her tactics, but he just winds up antagonizing her and accomplishing nothing. Asami, on the other hand, demonstrates a more deft touch, and reaches out to Korra in a way that works. Asami gets Korra to see the damage being done, and the ineffectiveness of the tactics. Asami is sympathetic to Korra’s cause and wants to help, but can’t if Korra just wants to wipe everything out.

And that’s the key. Korra and Unalaq are failing, partially because of their extreme tactics, but also because it’s just impossible to turn the clock back. They make no dent in Republic City’s lack of balance. Unalaq is horrified. Korra, too, but Unalaq is really crazed by this. He wonders if humanity is even worth saving. Korra backs away from that, partially because of Asami’s influence; of course humanity is worth saving, she’s seen the good in people, etc.

And during this conflict between them, they learn of Avatar Wan’s history, and the whole story of Raava and Vaatu.

And this is where Unalaq falls. In his extremism, he sees that Vaatu has the power to destroy everything and start it all fresh. So he sets out to free Vaatu, become a Dark Avatar, bring about TEN THOUSAND YEARS OF DARKNESS, yadda yadda. Unalaq falls from grace because of his uncompromising vision. Extremism has poisoned him.

Korra is nearly defeated by him, but as in the cartoon, it is Jinora who somehow provides a key to winning. In this case, though, Jinora is a not a Magic Fairy Princess who’s always been able to see spirits. She represents the best of the new generation and the modern era. Jinora is spiritual, even more so than Tenzin, but she’s also someone who loves Probending and getting into a little trouble in Republic City and terrible modern cooking. Jinora, perhaps along with Ikki and Meelo, are symbolic of the balance that can be achieved. So Korra defeats Unalaq, and does something with Spiritual Energies that create a new generation of spirits living in the modern cities. Korra also sets out to find compromises so that the lands are no longer being polluted so much, to help preserve the old spirits. And, to everyone’s surprise, Airbending is discovered to have spontaneously returned to the world, perhaps the start of new respect for balance and the elements, and a new calling that the people will answer…

Which will be explored in Book Change.

So, that’s my idea. It requires ditching the whole Water Tribe Civil War, and all the shenanigans with Varrick and Bolin. I’m honestly not sure if Varrick can be worked into this storyline. I love the character because he’s hugely entertaining, but none of what he did in Book Spirits is worth preserving. Perhaps he could be tied in to the corruption of the old spirits, that he’s using them as batteries like with Kuvira in Book Balance. His can be a symbolic defeat, that his loss and exile is a tangible sign of respecting the environment. As a symbolic victory, we can also show Asami rolling out some environmentally-friendly reforms with Korra’s help, further building up their friendship, and establishing a partnership.

(Varrick is later hired by Suyin, and later Kuvira, in a kind of Operation Paperclip deal. They’re fine with his awful sciences. But Varrick is slowly influenced into abandoning his ways, and by the end of Book Balance, goes to work for Asami.)

As I’ve previously posted, I’m not crazy about Tenzin’s family troubles, so I’d like to just cut that. Bumi and Kya can still show up, but I think Tenzin’s subplot should be questioning if, as Korra and Unalaq fight their crusade, he’s really living up to Aang’s ideals. He spends time with his family, until Korra arrives with news of Unalaq’s plan to unleash and bond with Vaatu. He tries to help, Jinora proves to be more help, the journey to the Spirit World to chase Unalaq happens, but they can’t stop him, and during the fight Jinora is seemingly destroyed, but really sent to the Fog of Lost Souls to be rescued by her father. And we still get our Zhao cameo. Booyah!

I have no idea what to do with Bolin in all this. But then, neither did the cartoon, so that’s fine. His subplot in Book Spirits was the most confused, and that’s really saying something. Maybe he goes into exile with Varrick, and they both pop up in Zaofu as established members of the leadership there? Perhaps Bolin and Opal are already a thing, and Opal being an Airbender leads him to reconcile with Korra and the others. I don’t know, Bolin’s character never did anything for me.

Eska and Desna can be Unalaq’s minions. They have misgivings when Korra breaks ties with him, but continue to try to help their father and maybe moderate his darker tendencies. They fail, and wind up having to help the good guys. There’s no romance with Bolin and Eska.

So, that’s my take. There’s a lot of rewriting here, in pursuit of finding some message. I just focused on character arcs, and I’m not sure what the final battle would look like. (Hopefully not an episode of Ultraman.) I’d still like Korra’s connection with her past lives to be destroyed, as I think that really works as a character moment and low point for her. I’m not sure how to accomplish it, because I prefer the power of the Avatar State to be the actual accumulated power and minds of the past lives, rather than Raava. I also eliminated everything to do with the Spirit Portals, because they never made sense to me, what with AtLA showing spirits going back and forth between the worlds without any trouble. Vaatu can just be unleashed in a more mundane way. Maybe Wan Shi Tong knows and tells Unalaq, getting that cameo back in. And I really have no idea what Bumi and Kya are doing here, besides hanging out with Tenzin. But we know I have difficulty with their subplot.

I’m not if this would actually be better, but it’s more streamlined, at least. And Unalaq becomes, I hope, someone who is understandable. We don’t sympathize with his methods, but can at least see where he started with a reasonable hope but went very, very wrong. And, as a bonus, we’ve avoided another case of childhood trauma causing someone to become evil!

Score!

[ragdollrory]

I don't know if you're still taking asks, but I thought of a few. Of course you don't have to fo them all but I just really love your writing and wanted to give you some options: -You always this quiet- Linko -So it was you- Kyalin -I'm not doing this- Makuvin??? (i'm hooked on those rps!)

First of all, thank you for the lovely words, and the prompt! I’ve started with the Makuvin, because you just have to love this three, ugh, so much! 

So here it is, an AU Makuvin for you!—————————————————-

“Wait, no! Mako, stop it, it’s not funny anymore.” Kuvira was flushed in every inch of visible skin, and Mako laughed, placing his arm over her shoulders and hugging her to his side.

They were out for drinks after their shift at the Police Station, and they had been graced with the fact that Chief Lin Beifong was currently at the same bar. She was Kuvira’s crush. Well, pretty much everyone’s crush, Mako had been pinning after her for years now, but still, Kuvira was so easy to tease and rile up when it came to the Chief, and she would deny it to the end of her days, but she was in deep for the woman. So Mako had spent the last hour or so, abusing their slightly drunken state, to whisper all sort of dirty ideas about Lin to Kuvira’s ear.

“Relax tin-head, I’m not going to say anything to her, like I would dare to speak to the Chief outside of work. How drunk would I have to be?” Mako grabbed his beer from the bar and took a swig, examining the way Kuvira seemed to have gotten serious all of the sudden. It was dangerous when she did this, always over analyze everything.

Mako had found it annoying at first, when he met her back at Zaofu, they had even gotten into a few spats out of nothing, just because they were younger and had some free time to kill. But then, after Zaheer was defeated, and they were in an airship going back from the Air Temple, Mako had found himself unable to rest, so he took to walk the hallways, and found her outside, leaning on a railing, smoking. He had joined her, asked for a cigarette, and they had chatted the whole flight. It was probably not the most comfortable trip, the wind was cold, and they were both exhausted, but they had talked about their fears and hopes, and he had convinced her to leave the guard and become a cop at the city. And they had been best friends since. There had been a few slip ups on drunken nights, and not so drunken ones too, but they had managed to find a pace that didn’t make any of that uncomfortable between them.

“So how drunk would you have to be, exactly?” Kuvira asked coming out of her pensive state, and she had that wicked smile on her lips that Mako adored so much.

“To do what? Talk to the Chief?” Mako stared back at the table where the older woman was drinking and conversing with a couple of high ranked officers, his direct superior was one of them. “Like, in front of them?” He stared back at his friend, her smile had gotten even more dangerous if that was possible.

“Oh, I don’t know, I guess you could intercept her coming out from the bathroom, too.” She answered, toying with the end of her braid between her fingers.

“No, forget it, I’m not doing this. I’ll get fucking fired, and then who will save your ass in the raids?” He took another swig of his beer, finishing it and asking the bartender for another one. “It’s too risky.”

“Oh, come on Mako! It’s so boring here tonight, let’s play dares!” Kuvira whined, and she actually stomped her foot to the ground. He chuckled, she really couldn’t take a no for an answer.

Mako looked back at their Chief. She was not wearing the plate tonight, instead she had that infuriatingly hot dress jacket, and dress pants, he knew there had been some formal ceremony in the City Hall today, and he lived for days like this, where Lin Beifong would show up at the station in cloth uniform. Because she seemed more soft and approachable, and petite, and he felt the urge of-

“Kiss her neck, and lick those sexy scars on her cheek, grab her by the hips and press her hard against you.” Kuvira’s hands had worked their way up his waist and torso, and she was whispering by his ear, and Mako closed his eyes for a second too long, in which she bit his neck and pulled away laughing. “Oh Mako, come on! You so want to do this, just, imagine if she actually talks back to you. How much more fantasies you’ll get from that, even if she only slaps you for being out of line. Oh, even better if she slaps you! Then I’ll get some really nice images to pull from.”

Mako laughed with her, because Kuvira was so anxious and hyperactive one second, and calmed and collected the other, that she was like two completely different persons in one. And he loved them both. He sighed resigned.

“Okay, let’s do this. But!” He added at the sight of Kuvira clapping joyously, her green eyes so shining he just wanted to kiss her. “But, we’ll start with some easy dares first, and you’ll have to talk to her too. Okay?”

She darted her eyes to the Chief’s table and back at him, biting her lower lip, thinking quickly, likely analysing the cons of the conditions, before nodding eagerly.

And so, for the next hour, they made their own night a living hell, a fun living hell. Daring each other to “go kiss Detective Chun”, “dance to that song in the middle of those girls”, or “you have to eat this bowl of flaming fire flakes”, and “tell me a fantasy”, amongst others. They had long stopped drinking beer, and they were now doing shots of vodka and that awful anise liquor Kuvira liked so much, waiting for the moment one of them would actually get the galls to go talk to the Chief.

Mako guessed they made a funny picture right now, sitting with their backs to the bar, elbows supporting them, each with a shot glass in their hands, and a stupid puppy face aimed at Lin Beifong. He sometimes wondered if she knew, if she realised how much everyone in the Force was dying for her, how they would literally do so, most of them.

“It’s her eyes.” Said Kuvira, and Mako laughed softly because they had reached that point in the night, the one in which they would shamelessly toss the Chief’s qualities and features around, trying to come to terms with the fact that she was fucking perfect.

“Her lips, look at her, she’s actually smiling to that toad face Kuai.” He answered, he hated Kuai from now on.

“Her hands, she’s just so strong, I want her, no, I need her to touch me with those hands.” She all but moaned out.

“And her hair, it looks really soft. Have you smelled it? It’s like apples, and something else I couldn’t catch.” Kuvira punched him in the arm, and he looked offended at her.

“You smelled her hair?! How? When?!” He punched her back, a smirk on his lips, and refilled the glasses.

“We were training, and I missed a movement and fell flat on my face. She came to correct my stance, and just- amazing.” Kuvira tossed the shot back, poured yet another one and swallowed it in one go, too.

“I fucking hate you.” She said poking his chest with her index finger, her eyes were slightly unfocused, and he grabbed her wrist and kissed her palm open, that would fix it.

Kuvira wrenched her hand from his grasp, and turned towards Lin’s table, Mako’s eyes widened with panic, and he started working on excuses to save her ass from getting fired, or suspended, or beaten. She reached the table and placed her hands on it, he was too far to listen what was happening there, and she was blocking the Chief from his view. Spirits, to have seismic sense at least, to feel if he would have to grab her by the collar and run from the bar. A laugh was heard from the table, and Mako’s pulse was loud on his chest, he felt his heart stammering on his ribs. Stupid tin-head and her games, and stupid him and that hair story, he should’ve known she would get competitive.

Mako was about to go fetch Kuvira, when she turned and made her way back to the bar, and then, the Chief stood up and followed her steps, and Mako had to grab onto something because his knees were suddenly very weak.

“What have you done?” He whispered to Kuvira the second she was at ears reach, but she only smirked up at him, that sexy predator smirk she had, and stepped aside to let Lin Beifong stand in front of him. For a second, Mako wondered if maybe Kuvira had managed to convince the Chief to slap him. After all, she seemed to want to see that, but then, that perfect in every way woman in front of him smiled. An amused smile that made Mako’s heart go all the way up to his throat, and maybe most of his blood go down to his belt area.

“Does he not speak?” Lin asked to Kuvira, and he thought he’d die right there, for making a complete fool of himself.

“Sometimes he does, but he says nonsense, so don’t worry.” Kuvira poked him on the side, and Mako teared his stare off of the Chief, the fucking Chief of Police, who was standing so very close to them both, to burn his friend to the ground with his stare.

“Mako is it, right?” She was speaking to him, and Mako tried to school his pulse, and his shaking, and all of him, really, and not die in how wonderful it had felt to hear her say his name. “Your friend here tells me you have a game going on, a dares game. Apparently she’s winning because she came to talk to me. So, I thought maybe you needed a hand to turn the scale around.”

“Yeah, I- Yes, Chief.” Mako managed to croak out. He really hoped he could say something more smart, but this was Lin Beifong talking to him, he had many many fantasies, that began with her talking to him in a bar. “Kuvira tends to win at this anyway, she’s less inclined to care for the rest of the world’s peace.” He added to spike his friend up.

Lin laughed, and Mako’s heart stopped, and he knew Kuvira’s too, because her hand gripped at his arm, nails digging in his skin, but he didn’t mind, he couldn’t even if he tried.

“I see. Well, I’ve seen you playing around all night, molesting a couple of my officers even, and I have to ask, why is talking to me the highest dare?” Lin asked curiously, her eyes were sparkling with something Mako couldn’t really pinpoint.

“Because you’re Lin Beifong, the Chief Lin Beifong.” Kuvira provided, and Mako felt forever grateful that she the bold one of them both. “No one ever speaks to you outside of work, other than your elite officers. You’re unattainable.”

Everything that came after that, Mako could’ve sworn it was a dream, and he was sure he was going to get admitted in some sort of psychiatric facility for daydreaming so hard. Lin smirked at Kuvira, and took her braid between her fingers, running them all the way to the tip, before turning to him and touching his jawline with her thumb. It was like he was living this in slow motion, and he hoped he could live in those seconds forever. She fished Mako’s pen from his breast pocket, and leaned between them on the bar to write something down on a napkin.

“I think you two are rather cute, with your little games, and your rather flattering pulses, so I’ll leave now, and in ten or fifteen minutes, you’ll be at my place, and we can see who wins this game, how does that sound?” Her tone was so alluring, Mako knew he’d follow her to the end of the world.

And just like that, she left, and Mako took a moment to eye at Kuvira, who seemed to be at the edge of a meltdown, and reached out to grab the napkin where her adress was neatly written, trying to make sense of everything that had just happened.

“Her hair doesn’t smell like apples, you lied to me.” Kuvira snarked out.

“I know, it’s lavender.” He whispered dumbfounded.

[quousque]

finally saw wonder woman

and it was great, but boy oh boy do I have my gripes. I haven’t really seen anyone bitching about any of these, though, which is odd, because I can’t be the only one. Keep in mind that I like the movie and I would see it again. I’m not trying to diss anyone’s favorite film, particularly the first woman-lead (and directed!) big-studio superhero film. I recognize the importance of Wonder Woman as a female-led box office success, and I will heap praises on it on other posts. This one is for critiquing, so here’s the things I want to bitch about:

-they fridged General Antiope. Granted, Diana isn’t a man, so at least it lacked the gendered manpain dynamic, but the plot would not have changed at all if she had lived. Meaning it was a completely unnecessary lesbian death (assuming, as I’m pretty sure is canon, that the distraught Amazon running to Antiope’s side after her death was her girlfriend).

- 95% of the movie was full of the born sexy yesterday trope. If you haven’t seen the video explaining it, go watch it now, but the basic rundown is that for some sci-fi or fantasy reason, there is an incredibly beautiful and sexy woman who is also completely naive about everything, and the friendly helpful man (first man she’s ever seen!) gets to show her How the World Works. Wonder Woman certainly isn���t the grossest example, but boy howdy was it full of it. It made for some cute/funny moments, but it came at the expense of my respect for Diana as a character (seriously, she’s unable to notice that she’s acting strange for the entire time they’re in London, it’s like she’s completely incapable of observation or listening). The prevalence of the Born Sexy Yesterday trope is probably my #1 least favorite thing about the movie.

- For all her idealism about humans being 100% good and her surprise at the pain and suffering caused by war, Diana sure gives zero shits about killing a bunch of soldiers. Killing people should have had more of an impact on her as a character. 

- also, her naivety about how people can be bad sometimes was unrealistic. Either they needed to spend MUCH more time building up the idea that she literally thinks all humans are good 100% of the time unless they’re under some evil influence, OR she should have shed that idea much quicker. I mean, she yells at the British generals for sacrificing soldiers near the start of the movie, so she knows that humans are capable of bad things while not being “influenced by Ares”. Yet somehow, the idea that the soldiers just might keep fighting after she kills Ares never even enters her head, to the point where she’s willing to blow the whole operation- risking thousands of lives- so she can kill Ares. Her belief in utter human goodness could have been interesting, but they needed to play it up much more, like let her have a conversation with Steve where he tells her that humans do bad things all on their own, and she utterly refuses to believe him, or tries to excuse literally every crime/bad act by blaming Ares or something. That would have made her later actions make much more sense. Her continued naivety and lack of basic observational skills made it really hard for me to relate to her as a character, because I was spending too much time being exasperated with her. 

- also, Steve had way to big a role, and was too much the hero, for a movie that’s not supposed to be about him. He’s the one who saved the entirety of London- if Diana had done nothing, London still would have been saved, but if Steve had done nothing, London would be destroyed. Steve orchestrated and planned the mission, got together the ragtag crew of misfits, and directed their goals at every turn, bringing Diana along for firepower. 

Throughout the movie, there was too much Steve and too little Diana. His agency was what directed the plot. Diana’s agency was “I want to stab this dude, steve take me to the dude”. It would have been totally awesome if Diana had planned the attack on the base (whether to destroy the gas or kill Ares, or whatever), and if Diana had assembled the ragtag team of misfits. It should have been Diana gathering information about the current situation with the war and deciding their goal and drawing up their plan of attack. Steve should have been the one offering her information and pointing out when her lack of knowledge about the 20th century causes her to make dumb plans. It should have been her saying “I don’t fit in with these people, Steve show me where I can get clothes like theirs”. Even her big awesome moment- crossing no man’s land- didn’t change the plot that much. If she hadn’t done that, the group would still have crossed, just much more slowly and less dramatically, and it would have taken a few days. 

-General Antiope’s lessons were apparently 100% combat, 0% tactics and strategy. Steve came up with all the plans of attack, and Diana was basically “I have a plan, attack!” Which basically meant that it was Steve and Steve’s sidekicks completing the Big Mission, and Diana was, as I said, really kickass firepower.

-for a movie that’s ostensibly all about how there’s no one big bad guy in a war, it sure managed to have one big bad guy.

- also, I wish they’d let the female villain be the villain. Instead of General Lutendorf or whatever his name was. The stereotypical thing where he’s the volatile threatening man with the awkward semi-sexual, definitely threatening dynamic with the woman who is definitely evil, but it just kinda seems like maybe he’s made her worse than she is and maybe she’s only doing evil stuff at his command.... it was just annoying and old. Let the woman be the fucking villain. Let her be the one making the threats to him, let her be the one to decide that the war is NOT over and kill the generals arguing for peace. Let her be the big fucking evil. I get that they needed a red herring for Ares, and it had to be a guy, but Dr. Poison could still have been the main villain. 

If Dr. Poison were the big bad (of the German side, at least), I think it would have made Diana’s sparing her life that much more meaningful. The movie made Lutendorf the driving force behind the development of the gas, meaning that with Lutendorf gone, Dr. Poison is much less of a threat. That might not be literally true- she could always go off and start making more gas- but, within the plot framework, the villain with the agency to Do the Bad Thing is already gone, so letting Dr. Poison go isn’t really that big a deal. Imagine if Diana had let Lutendorf go. Big difference. 

The moment where Diana refuses to kill her is the Big Moment of the movie, where Diana realizes that yes, humans do bad things of their own volition, but that she’s going to try to save them anyway. As the movie was, she realizes that and refuses to kill what is essentially a tool that the villain used to hurt people. The emotional impact would have been so much more if it were the villain herself- the driving agency behind the villain’s half of the plot- whom Diana decided to save anyway. For an example of this dynamic done right, look at Legend of Korra. Kuvira is the driving force behind all the Bad Shit in season 4- it’s her decisions, her force of will, that does everything Korra’s fighting against. Bataar, her husband, is important to her plans, and is an important male villain, but without him, Kuvira would have done the same things anyway (WW implies that without Lutendorf, Dr. Poison might not have developed that gas). At the end, Korra decides not to kill Kuvira. She chooses to see the part of Kuvira worth saving, and to save her anyway, despite all of the lives she’s taken and destroyed. Diana’s moment would have had similar impact if Dr. Poison had been the big bad in Lutendorf’s place.

- Hippolyta was unrealistically stupid and overprotective. She knows that her daughter is a weapon meant to kill Ares. She knows that Ares will return/has returned. She knows that, at some point, Ares and Diana will fight. And yet, she refuses to tell Diana these things, even when Diana leaves the fucking island to literally find and kill Ares. She also makes it clear that Diana can’t return (why though?) meaning it’s literally her last chance to say anything, and yet she still doesn’t give her this extremely vital information that could possibly save her life. Her reasoning is that if Diana knows, Ares will find her sooner. So basically, her reasoning is, “don’t tell her this extremely vital information, without which it is reasonable to expect that she will lose the fight and die, because if I tell her and thus give her the tools to win the fight, the fight will happen sooner”. She’s going to fight Ares anyway, so just fucking tell her! (also, her literal last words to her daughter are “you are my greatest sorrow”. fucking ouch.)

-also, the romantic subplot seemed contrived and unnecessary (my opinion, your mileage may vary). Seriously, she’s known him for like 2 days, and she just had her aunt and mentor die in her arms, and she’s left her entire home and family forever, and she’s trying to complete a task she’s trained for all her life and save the world, with literally millions of lives depending on her. You’d think she wouldn’t really have the mental space for a romance.

-less of an egregious error, but still a gripe: at the beginning of the movie, Diana seems to consider people in terms of their value in a fight. I forget what line it is, but at one point she’s like “but how do they fight?” (I think it’s talking about the drunk men or something). Also, when Charlie is involved in the bar fight, she says “at least Charlie is good with his fists”, meaning that his redeeming factor is his fighting skills (before finding out, of course, that that guy isn’t Charlie). Later on, she has that truly beautiful moment- that I’ve seen a lot of people praise- where Charlie suggests that he stay behind because he can’t shoot, and Diana says “but who would sing for us?” showing that she believes that people’s non-fighting skills are just as valuable. I don’t think there was enough of a character journey presented on screen to justify that change of attitude in Diana. The potential for a really great character arc is there- especially since it would parallel her whole arc of losing her naivety about human nature- but it just wasn’t there. 

To me, the movie felt like a hero story about Steve, told from Diana’s perspective, with a side dose of her completing her (ultimately mostly inconsequential) goal, and liberally sprinkled with scenes where she’s naive about the world in a funny way and Steve long-sufferingly herds her along, and scenes where she is the ultimate badass, says something dramatic, and then flips a fucking tank (which was AWESOME btw). 

Also, I think it would have been better if they’d let her actually kill Ares. I know she killed him, but I mean, really kill him. She did this classic thing where the hero takes the villains power and throws it back at him, which accomplishes two things: the death is not visceral: she didn’t shoot or stab him, hit him, or in any way damage his body in a traditional fight-y way, and two, it wasn’t really her lethal force and ability that killed him. It’s a thing storytellers use to keep their hero one step removed from the nasty business of killing. Harry Potter is another prime example- Harry doesn’t cast the killing curse at Voldemort, or sectumsempra, or whatever (despite being more than capable), he deflect’s voldemort’s own curse back at him. Disney does this a lot (the villain being the ultimate cause of their own death): Scar being killed by his own hyenas instead of Simba killing him, Frollo falls to his death from his own cathedral into a fire set by his own men, Gaston falls off the roof trying to kill the Beast, blah blah blah. This whole trope (does it have a name yet?) means that yes, technically the hero killed the villain, but the actual thing that does the killing (usually in a way such that the audience doesn’t really see the death) is the villains’ own fault, not the hero’s. Part of the purpose is that usually these deaths come right after some sort of dramatic confrontation, which includes a conversation, and killing someone right after talking to them really looks a lot like cold-blooded murder, no matter how righteous you are, so it looks a lot more heroic if the villain strikes the final blow against themselves.

I think that Diana should have beat the ever-living hell out of Ares with her fists. Only a god is capable of killing a god, and I think she should have killed him with her own power, not by parry-riposting his power back at him. If they were willing to go R-rated, she could have torn his head off (how awesome would that be?). If they wanted to keep it PG-13, and didn’t want her to basically punch him to death, she could have done some sort of ass-pull big-explosion-y strike thingy (no more ass-pull than the crossed bracers + righteous fury = Lightning Rod of Doom). Whatever it is, it should have been Diana’s own power destroying Ares. Also, I think (personal opinion) that after Ares died, we should have just seen his body lying there on the ground instead of the big crater. Right after Diana kills Ares, there’s a scene where the German soldiers pull off their masks and fall down in relief, enemies embracing, etc. It’s supposed to be an incredibly human moment, and I think it would have been improved by having a very human body of Diana’s fallen enemy instead of the hollywood-esque CGI crater. It would have emphasized Diana’s emotional journey, too- instead of cheering because she destroyed a Force of Evil, we would have been forced to recognize that Diana killed someone, and, even though it needed to be done, and she was saving lives by doing it, a life was still ended. A bittersweet moment- Diana recognizes that people can be both good and bad at the same time, and chooses to recognize the good in everyone, spare the life of a very bad person despite her bad-ness, and chooses to believe in love- but, that means killing another being, meaning that Diana, too, is capable of both good and bad- she also has darkness within her. It would have been a very poignant point. (I have a similar gripe with the 8th Harry Potter film- in the book, Voldemort’s body just lies there after he dies, and it’s made clear just how human he was in the end, but in the movie, he disintegrates like some sort of magical video game boss).

Basically, I think the movie undermined its own message by keeping Diana too far from the realities of war and keeping her in a zone of Fantasy Hollywood, where as long as you don’t spend too long looking at the people she punches, it doesn’t matter that she’s killed them (and thus literally killing people for the first time ever has zero affect on her as a character), you can defeat one bad guy and therefore the war is over (despite trying to prove that that isn’t how it works, the movie still worked exactly that way), and the villain isn’t really a person who dies and sits there all gross and dead like a human, they’re just a video-game boss proxy-of-all-evil who vanishes when they die (preferably with an explosion), and just in case, it wasn’t really the hero who killed them anyway, since the villain struck their own final blow. 

You know that moment in the trenches, where Steve tells Diana that they can’t save everyone? And Diana says “fuck that” and crosses No Man’s Land and it’s awesome? There should have been a moment later in the movie where Diana realizes that she really can’t save everyone, even if she does everything 100% right, people will still die. The moment with the gas killing the village doesn’t count, because Diana still believes that if she had stabbed Ares, they wouldn’t have died. There should have been a moment where Diana looks back and realizes that she didn’t make any mistakes, she did literally everything she could have done, everything she should have done, and innocent people still died. That would have been a great character moment.

-One thing I can’t tell if I’m happy or sad about: no “you’re a wonderful woman” or any “wonder woman” title play/pun. Either a missed opportunity, or a merciful omission.

-not really Wonder-Woman specific, since literally all movies forever do this: since when has the super fucking sinister “join me and together we can rule a world that is literally the antithesis of everything you’ve worked for your entire life” villain speech ever worked? How stupid are villains? You sound threatening and ominous, and you’re not even trying to play down the fact that you’re asking me to commit mass murder, also I hate you for personal reasons (usually involving the death of a loved one), of course the fucking answer is no.

So them’s my gripes about Wonder Woman. I did like it though! It was much better than most other superhero movies- I could write much, much longer posts about, say, Avengers, or any of Nolan’s Batman films... I only bitch this much about Wonder Woman because I loved the film and therefore the parts I didn’t like bothered me that much more. Brief list of the parts I did like:

-flipping a fucking tank

-ok, just all the action scenes

-Diana’s fuck you, I’m crossing No Man’s Land

-the way the movie managed to make “I believe in love” and “I believe that love can save the world” actually make sense and not sound stupidly cheesy

- the muscles on the Amazons

-a visibly middle-aged woman in a badass, sexy outfit kicking ass

-ZERO shots of Diana or ANY Amazons designed to show off their asses, boobs, or any other body parts for the male gaze. Yeah, I can gripe about the costumes, but it’s such a minor fucking gripe and part of it being so minor was that the costumes were not in any way a tool for the male gaze. Yay!

-the fight choreography. I thought I’d be quietly burying my annoyance at all the flips and twirls, but that wasn’t really the case. It really fit with who the Amazons were and the world they come from. I have a lot of thoughts about this, actually, but i’ll put that in a different post. Also, it looked really fucking cool.

[low-budget-korra]

The Legend Of Korra: Book 5_Legacy

Hi everyone from tumblr all good with you? 

Things are starting to get interesting now. And Thanks to all who are reading the fic (if there is anyone reading lol)

Chapter 08_The Revelation - Part I

Mako

As soon as I came to the council this morning, I talked to the chief of police from that area, who had just arrived on the scene for some reason. I needed to know if there was any concrete clue as to who was responsible for the attack, but all he told me was that a thief who seemed to have some connection with the case had been arrested in Zaofu. He also informed that Kuvira would have no involvement with the event, since the pump used did not even have vestiges of spiritual vine in its composition. That should have reassured me, which did not occur, since the fact didn't rule out any of the suspicions.

As we waited for a statement from  White Lotus  regarding Kuvira's arrest, to make sure she remained there, the council sent an official report to Reiko clarifying and softening all the rumors that would be rolling in Republic City. Some citizens were desperate spreading to the four winds that Kuvira had fled and killed Avatar in an attack .... It is amazing how fast these rumors spread ...

..--------

The day passed and no news from the White Lotus, which started to worry everyone. The other members then decided it was time for me to go back to Wu's house, where it was certainly safer than anywhere else in the city - according to them. So they escorted me back home, where I'm about to cross the front door.

As I enter, I immediately notice Asami's concern as she walks hastily from one side to the other. Wu accompanies her by saying a few words in order to calm her down. I dont see Korra, which makes me understand that the problem is with her.

-Guys -  I say, drawing the attention of the others. -Apparently Korra has not arrived yet ...- Wu nodded.

-Where did she go? Even you who left after her are back and she is not. - Says Asami.

-Dont worry, Asami, she must be coming back. She is the Avatar, she knows how to defend herself. - I try to soften the situation and also believe the words that have just come out of my mouth. Korra has the gift of getting in trouble ...

-I'm not worried about Avatar, Mako. I'm worried about Korra. - She stares at me.

- You're right. You think we should ... -I begin to suggest that we go out to look for her, but before I can finish, Asami is already with her gloves in her hands walking towards the door. I take a few steps to reach it.

- Hey, guys .... I dont want to cut your cheap, but .... Should not we stay here waiting for her to come back?

-You're right, Wu. You stay here, just in case she arrives before us- Asami says through the door.

Korra

I open my eyes analyzing every inch of the place where I am. Do you know those moments in which you find yourself lost, not knowing how you ended up in a certain place? Yeah, I'm in one of those moments. I get up from the bed where I was unconscious in the previous few minutes, a very uncomfortable bed, it's worth mentioning ...

How did I get here? Where have I been before that? What happened? I try to remember something, but everything seems extremely confusing. "Come on, Korra! Remember if! Where have you been? "- I think and in the midst of that confusion, the image of the attack comes to mind. The bombing ... The restaurant! And suddenly, everything comes back ...

I left the morning determined to find some clue in the restaurant. Not a clue about the attack itself, but a clue about the mysterious man who approached me in the alley just moments before. Something told me that he had some connection.

At first I went to the alley near the restaurant, where I had my attentions drawn the other night. For a brief moment I thought of the voice and how familiar she looked, but I could not remember anything or find any clue about him in that place.

Finding nothing about it, he decided to sweep the area by asking the residents of the nearest houses, but the man looked like a ghost. No one seemed to have seen or heard of it before I mentioned it. It was a shot in the dark.

He had just given up trying to find him that day, after all, it was night. I was about to go back to Wu's house when I saw him across the street. The same hood ... The same man? I tried to see his face, but the people in front of him prevented me from seeing him clearly, and then he just disappeared. Had he seen me and fled?

I shook my head and started to walk. I need to go home. I did not want to worry Asami or the others, it was when I felt something in my feet and was dragged to a huge building that seemed to be abandoned.

I read the chains as soon as I identify them as such, easily bending  the metal and put myself in a position of battle.

- I know it's there! No need to be afraid, I just want to talk. - I say, doubling fire to light the place.

I hear a noise and follow the sound to a large room that seemed to be exempt from the presence of any living being. I look around and see a few old furniture that at once seems worthless. ''Waste of time! '' - I think and when I turn towards the exit, I face the guy.

And again I could not see the details of his face. He was too close for that, but I could see a large beard. In a quick move, it hits me in the region of the neck and I fall.

I remember nothing more than the sight of Amon hitting me the day I challenged him to a duel ... And here I am.

For the first time since I woke up, I realize that I'm not alone in the place. The same guy is standing a little far away, watching me.

- Good thing you woke up. - It says - It seems that even after all this time I can still play with you, right, Avatar?

The intonation he uses as he launches the last word through his lips makes me recognize his voice immediately ...

- Did you miss me?-  He walks toward me, showing himself through the light that enters the room's only window. I swallow and dry. It can not be....

- Amon? -I say in disbelief.

Someone see this coming? 

[iishipallthethings]

Three is (Not) a Crowd

Story summary: Two months after Kuvira was defeated, things have finally settled down in Republic City. For better or for worse, Avatar Korra is ready to talk to Asami about the Unspoken Thing between them, however there's something Asami had been hiding from her friends. And that something is Lin Beifong.

Chapter 11: Back to Work

With the fourth cup of coffee since she first entered the building held in her hand, Lin turned the page of her rather big file on the Spirit Vines case. She was able to snuff the press’s flame about the spirit vines connection with the recent explosions. No need to cause a public panic, she had told the quivering reporters. Such spineless fools, Lin thought to herself.

She looked over to the map hanging on her wall. If anyone who was not on the case asked why she had circled certain areas, she would tell them that those were places where she was considering living in when she retired. That way no one would be the wiser when she crossed the circles off, they would just assume she was narrowing her choices. Of course, the word retirement sent the officers outside her office into a frenzy. Each one of them had their own ambitions but no matter what officer, they saw themselves sitting in Lin’s seat as the new Chief of Police once she hung up her metal cables. Greedy little shits, Lin had dubbed them all but greedy little shits got their work done and relatively well.  

A page turned and Lin’s coffee mug halted before it touched her lips. Hard and cold eyes stared back at her from a mug shot. Even when beaten and arrested, Kuvira still had a commanding look about her, like she was calculating each move, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. She was one of the most difficult criminals Lin ever had the misfortune to work with. Kuvira had been nothing but cooperative since she first starting interrogating the woman, but that just made Lin’s life harder. Lin had a sneaking suspicion that Kuvira was all too aware of the predicament she was causing her.

In most cases, Lin would have offered the young woman a deal to get time off of her sentence or a possible transfer to a less…. strict facility for the amount of information she was giving so freely. It occurred so often that it became an unspoken policy at the Republic City’s Police Department. The public was blind by the standard so there would be no outrage but the scum of Republic City knew about it so when they were interrogated, they were more willing to spill the dirt on their comrades.

Lin wouldn’t allow it in Kuvira’s case however. The bitch deserved to rot in that wooden prison for the rest of her life for what she put everyone through. For what she put Asami through.

The Chief took a gulp of her now cold coffee, wishing she had some whiskey to warm up the drink. She remembered helping Asami pick up the pieces after her father’s sacrifice. They had celebrated Kuvira’s defeat that night but afterwards Asami had stole Lin away from the meek party. Lin had held Asami and whispered soothing words as the younger woman sobbed into her metal uniform. The younger woman actually apologized for her tears and that was what caused something within Lin to snap. She said nothing, she had simply picked Asami up and carried the sniffling woman to her car. It had taken an hour for Lin to navigate to her house due to the destruction of the city but she finally found a safe route and carried Asami to her bed. Asami didn’t offer any complaint, she had pulled Lin down to join her as soon as Lin was free of her uniform. Even though they were both dirty and Lin had dried blood stains on her clothes from the final fight, they didn’t rise from that bed until well into the next day.

And that funeral. Lin drank the last of her coffee and pushed the empty mug away. It was such a small funeral, only Asami and her friends had attended. Lin was there as a formality, making sure no one harassed Ms. Sato as she lowered an empty casket to rest, or at least that was how her presence was explained. She hated it, seeing each tear that leaked from Asami’s eyes and not being able to do a thing about it. Instead she watched as Korra held onto Asami and murmur things that were too soft for Lin to hear. She was grateful for the Avatar that day, especially when she pulled her away from a publicist that somehow slipped through security to take a picture of Hiroshi’s funeral. Lin had smashed the camera to pieces and slapped a pair of handcuffs on the asshole. She couldn’t charge him with anything, it was a public place after all, but it was still satisfying to throw him in her patrol vehicle. Lin had secretly let Asami stay at her place for a week to comfort the grieving woman.

“Uh, Chief?”

Lin was brought violently out of her memories and she stowed away her emotions like she would the sheets of paper in the file that was clenched in her hands. Lin closed it and set it to the side so her desk would be somewhat clear. “Come in,” she barked.

Mako opened the door and went inside her office. He closed it behind him and marched to her desk. He offered a file that was meager compared to the one occupying the desk and Lin took it. She leafed through the report as Mako went to the map and crossed out another circle. “We’ve found none of the spirit vines but there was evidence of recent experimentation.” Mako answered before Lin could ask the question. “My partner is fine, Chief.”

There was something off in his stance and Lin looked at him expectantly. He almost fidgeted and she knew he was trying to hide something. She didn’t even need to use her bending to feel his pounding heart through the earth. “Out with it,” she ordered, her voice brooking no argument.

“When I came back, I, uh, got a call. From President Reiko.”

Lin growled under her breath and pushed back into her chair. “Let me guess. The investigation is going too slow?”

Mako nodded and almost fidgeted again under her intense stare. “He said that if we don’t pick up the pace, he’ll find others who will.”

A fist slamming on the desk made Mako flinch. He had only seen Lin angry once and that was at Su. He hoped he would never do anything to incur Lin’s wrath and he pitied the fool who invoked it. “That fucker has been up my ass on this investigation and now he’s threatening my officers! Disgraceful!” Lin growled. She stabbed a finger in Mako’s direction. “We are doing this safely and if that means being more cautious then so be it. I will not have another member of my force and another civilian killed because some pompous buffoon wants things done fast. The next time he calls, tell him that if he has a problem with how I handle things, he should face me like a man and not go behind my back like a pussy.”

“Really?” Mako’s eyes were wide in shock.

“No, not really!” Mako was truly one of her finest officers, the finest actually, but he could be just as dense as the rest of them. Lin took a deep breath to calm herself and waved impatiently at the map. “Just continue your investigation on another location after you and your partner have rested up.”

Mako nodded and left the Chief to her musings. Lin stared at the map. A little less than half the circles were crossed off now but what Mako said had disturbed her. “Evidence of recent experimentation,” she repeated. She didn’t like the sound of that at all. Lin radioed all the teams that were currently dispatched and warned them of what Mako told her. Once that was done, she slumped against her seat, feeling a headache coming on. Lin glared at the fat folder and the picture of the woman hidden inside the countless papers. “This is all your fault,” she told the photograph.

Lin looked down at her hands and noticed how they were empty. She opened one of her drawers and took out the present Korra had given her. The Avatar could be even denser than Mako but she did very well with choosing what she should give Lin. The Chief looked at the chunk of meteorite, feeling the metal within it, begging to put into use, to be manipulated into something beautiful. She created simple shapes first and then made the meteorite become more complex objects as she pulled the folder back in front of her. Lin opened it up to the page she left off and ignored the picture of Kuvira as she read what the notes of her interrogations with Korra.

She tried to think of new questions, anything that would help her find those spirit vines before they could cause more damage than they already did. But as she stared at the words written by her own hand, they danced off the page. In their place were two faces: the faces of the two officers that were killed in the second explosion. She had sent them to their deaths, they accused Lin. The Chief ground her teeth and banished the faces from her thoughts.

“Those two officers knew and understood the risks.”

Lin had tried to take comfort in Korra’s words, and she did for a time, but that night she couldn’t stop seeing their coffins being lowered into the ground. They were a fine man and woman and they had received a hero’s funeral. Lin looked back to the meteorite. Without her knowledge, she had bent it to the symbol of Future Industries. Asami had much the same look on her face as the two officers’ families.

She quickly sent the meteorite into a formless blob. Lin should think of something else, anything else. She allowed her mind to go forth wherever it wished. Her thoughts turned to the events of the night before. Lin had fun on the date, surprisingly. She still didn’t fully understand why she let it happen. She cared for Asami deeply, more deeply than she cared for anyone really, but Korra was another story. The Avatar was attractive, there was no argument there, but she was too full of herself. Lin had to concede that she had gotten a lot better than when the two had first met. She still chuckled when she recalled that Korra had assumed she would have gotten off scot free from wrecking a street and evading the police just because she was the Avatar.

But why did she let the date occur?

Even as she pondered the question, Lin had the answer. She would do anything to make Asami happy. If the duchess would be happy with the snowblower so be it, as long as Lin could have some of that happiness too. When Korra blurted out her feelings and asked for a date, it was Lin that agreed to it. It was a spur of the moment decision but she was also panicking. She didn’t want to end up alone again. Lin still did not know why Asami would entertain her for those three years and had assumed that the duchess would have put an end to it when Korra entered her life again. A dark voice would whisper that she was just a temporary replacement for Korra when she and Asami were panting and sweaty from a round of passionate fucking. Lin would roar at the voice to shut up and leave her be but it would whisper the same words the next time the two fell into bed together. But even after Korra returned, she and Asami would still meet in secret and spend whatever time they could with one another.

If she had to share Asami then she will.

“I’m going soft,” Lin grumbled to herself.

That damn voice was back. It whispered so low that Lin had almost missed it. It murmured how she was intrigued by Korra. After so much tragedy in her life, Korra was still able to hold her head high, like Asami. Lin respected that. And she supposed that the younger woman could be funny when she wasn’t aggravating.

The voice wasn’t satisfied with Lin’s confession. It brought out a memory of the date, more specifically the last bit of it. It showed Asami kissing Korra. The kiss itself was nothing particularly special, it was a peck really, but seeing it ignited something in Lin. The Chief thought that the sight was incredibly arousing.

Lin gulped and tried to take a sip from her mug but forgot that she drank the last of the coffee and hadn't refilled the mug. She set it down and tried to end the thoughts budding in her mind but she couldn’t. It was like a mud slide. Lin was so tempted to pay Asami a visit later on that night, it wouldn’t be the first time either of them made a late night call, but she stopped herself. Barely. So Lin had spent a great portion of that night touching herself, imagining the kiss between the two younger women leading into something more. Her mind didn’t even bother creating a proper scene, the two made love right in front of the restaurant. Lin took a deep breath and could feel her body heat up in arousal.

Maybe she was, what was the word? A cuck? No, that wasn’t right. Lin fought for the word and managed to grab it right as it tried to slip past. Compersion! That was the word. Lin frowned and crossed her arms at her new discovery. But it didn’t make sense. She never had the inclination of sharing her partner with anyone before. Lin knew and accepted that she was a woman that was quick to a temper and jealousy and perhaps she was possessive of Asami but the younger woman never voiced a complaint before. In fact, Lin believed that the duchess liked the knowledge that Lin could become possessive and jealous over her, she suspected that it filled Asami with glee that she had such a hold on Lin.

The Chief decided to do a little test. She looked at the door where Mako had left a little while ago. She tried to imagine him and Asami being intimate with one another. They had dated before so surely they had sex at one point? Lin knew first hand how much of a sexual deviant Asami could be once she was comfortable to let that side be known.

Lin didn’t even get past the image of Mako kissing Asami. She felt intense anger towards Mako, her hand clenched at her arm. So she didn’t like the idea of Asami being intimate with the firebender. Lin rubbed at her temples as she puzzled out her feelings. Why was she okay with Asami kissing Korra?

She tried another test. This time she imagined Korra kissing Mako. The same hot anger reared in Lin and she had another urge of hitting Mako. Lin groaned in annoyance. She never had to deal with these confusing emotions when she dated Tenzin. It was more like a second job than anything else. Go on a date, talk over food, laugh a little at his terrible jokes, maybe share a kiss goodbye. Just a checklist. Neat and tidy and predictable. But with Asami and Korra it was more like a sandstorm tornado. Lin could never predict where it would take her or how fast the winds would blow. But fuck was it exciting.

“I’m too old for this bullshit,” Lin concluded. She looked back down at the neglected folder and turned to the next page. It held much of the same information as the others but maybe there was something hidden there, something that Lin could use to end this mess. “Time to get back to work,” Lin muttered.

Author’s notes: I should probably explain this chapter. I figured I should explore Lin's mind, especially after the date. Out of the three, I think that Lin is the most confused about this new relationship, she didn't have the Unspoken Thing between her and Korra like Asami and Korra do. And I feel like she is more comfortable when she knows what's going on, with labels and such. She is the Chief of Police after all, anything that's messy and questionable is a thorn in Lin's side. For those of you who don't know, a cuck (usually a derogatory term BTW) is a person who takes sexual gratification from watching their partner having sexual intercourse with another. Compersion is when a person takes joy from the knowledge that their partner is in a romantic (or sexual) relationship with another. I actually didn't know about this until I started writing this story. However to be perfectly clear, this is a polygamous relationship with all partners being involved romantically with one another (if it helps I like to think of a triangle with the sides being the romantic feelings between two points). Lin just doesn't know the actual word for it and she's trying her best to label her feelings for Asami and especially Korra. Sharing doesn't come natural to the Chief so she's gonna have an adjustment period to this thing. Sorry if this is long winded.

[iishipallthethings]

Three is (not) a crowd

Story summary:  Two months after Kuvira was defeated, things have finally settled down in Republic City. For better or for worse, Avatar Korra is ready to talk to Asami about the Unspoken Thing between them, however there's something Asami had been hiding from her friends. And that something is Lin Beifong.

Chapter 12: How did it begin exactly?

Korra thanked the ferry attendant as she stepped onto the dock. She looked around and noticed that the docks were busier than usual but she wasn’t that surprised. The sun was setting, casting an orange glow to the sky and the street lamps were flicking on one by one. It was a prime time for a romantic boat ride out in the bay of Republic City. Korra spied several couples boarding on a pleasure boat, each one wearing extravagant clothing that bragged of their class. She felt an impulse of taking Lin and Asami out on one of those boats, or perhaps having a nice picnic in Korra Park. Well away from the statue of course.

The Avatar walked leisurely under the comforting street lamps, humming Nuktuk’s theme song to herself. She didn’t particularly enjoyed the movers, Korra thought they were a bit over the top, but the song did have a catchy tune. She ignored the tantalizing aromas coming from the small shacks and restaurants that were opening up for the night life. Korra was on a mission and she wasn’t going to be distracted, even if those squid being grilled were being spiced up with garlic and butter that would make the flesh melt in her mouth.

After buying a squid to munch on her walk, she made her way deeper into Republic City. Korra finished off her snack quickly and almost backtracked to get another one but restrained herself. What was it about going on personal missions made her so hungry? She was almost as bad as Bolin. Korra made a grimace at that thought.

She walked up to the crest of a hill and looked up at the sky. Korra could see the portal she accidentally created during her final battle with Kuvira rise and disappear into some clouds. After that first time, she never had the inclination to go through the portal. There was so much to be done after all the reconstruction of Republic City and relocating the citizens whose homes were destroyed by Kuvira or were overtaken by the new spirit vines. If Korra narrowed her eyes, she could just make out the barricade that prevented the public from going near the portal. Spirits came and went as they pleased but humans weren’t allowed to enter the Spirit World. Korra shuddered as she remembered the nightmare of having to deal with President Raiko and that sleazy businessman who wanted to turn the portal into some kind of amusement park. The Avatar had been pushed hard that day and it wasn’t a good day to begin with. Lin had came to her rescue before Korra could do something that might end up getting her exiled again. The Chief had stated in more brusque terms that it was a ludicrous idea to allow humans into the Spirit World for mere entertainment. It may anger the spirits and we all saw what happened when a spirit was pissed. Her words and not-so-subtle threat had won that fight and the Police Department was charged with securing and maintaining a perimeter around the new portal. Korra never properly thanked Lin for her help. Maybe she get her something but she didn’t really know what Lin would like, besides metal to bend with. Perhaps Korra could take Lin on a vacation and Asami too. Both women deserved it and Korra was getting itchy from staying in one place for too long. Traveling the world really made her dislike the docile life. They could go to the Fire Nation, the idea came to Korra as swiftly as a fireferret. Asami did have to figure out where to put those tracks after all.

Korra stopped walking as she reached her destination, her goal springing back to the forefront of her mind. She marveled at the Sato headquarters for a bit as she tried to calm herself. Korra hadn’t seen Asami or Lin for a week. Every night Korra was plagued by some very interesting dreams of the two women. Plague probably wasn’t the correct word but she started to see them when she was awake. The tipping point was her meditation session that afternoon. Tenzin was droning on and on about something or other and all Korra could think about was Asami’s mischievous eyes and Lin’s smirk when they had took turns kissing her after their first date.

Korra ended those thoughts as she felt her body heat up. She ignored the budding flame inside her and she took the steps two at a time in her haste. Korra waved to the person behind the desk in the lobby and said she was going to see Asami. The man nodded and wrote something down before gesturing to the elevators placed at the back end of the lobby. One amazing thing about being the Avatar is that most people didn’t question her motivations when she arrived unannounced. Usually.

Once the doors finally opened at the top floor, Korra stepped out and breathed a sigh of relief from escaping the terrible elevator music. She should talk to Asami about fixing that. Korra halted in front of the doors to Asami’s office. She noticed that the mechanic had fixed the hole the Avatar had created the last time she was here. Korra could hear Asami’s voice from the other side of the door and the woman sounded agitated. She opened the door slightly and peaked inside.

Asami held the phone in one hand and was scribbling down something with the other. “Yes, I understand that time is of the essence, Varrick! But we can’t just lay down tracks wherever we want. There are rules!” She listened to whatever Varrick was saying with a frown. “No! Just-” Asami took a deep breath and Korra felt a pang of pity. Varrick wasn’t a man who backed down but neither was Asami. “Put Zhu Li on.” She waited for a moment before speaking again, her voice much more calm. “I’m having a biologist be flown to the Fire Nation as we speak. I already informed him where we would like to put the pillars for the train’s bridge. If he says no, then we can’t build on those areas. It’s as simple as that.” Zhu Li said something and Asami looked relieved at the words. “Thank you, Zhu Li. I’ll see you in a few days.” The relief was short-lived. “No, tell Varrick he cannot bring a journalist to the meeting. This whole project is supposed to be as tight-lipped as possible. If another company catches word that we’re trying to bring the Satostation to the Fire Nation, they might strike first.” Asami listened to Zhu Li’s response and nodded. “Thank you again, Zhu Li. I don’t know how you manage Varrick but I’m glad you’re here to talk sense to him.” She said her goodbyes and hung up the phone. She jumped at the knock on her door and smiled when she saw it was Korra. “Hey, what are you doing here?” Asami glanced at the phone. “You didn’t happen to hear that, did you?”

Korra walked inside the office and ignoring the chairs in front of Asami’s desk, walked right behind the woman and looked over the woman’s head at the notes. She soon lost interest and focused on the questions. “Yeah, I heard. And I wanted to see you.”

Asami chuckled and grabbed one of Korra’s hands to kiss. She didn’t miss the blush on Korra’s face and made note to do the action more. Korra looked exceptionally beautiful when she blushed.

“Are you okay?” Korra asked, gesturing to the phone.

“It’s Varrick,” Asami grumbled, leaning into her chair. She tried to swivel it so she was facing Korra but a hand on the chair stopped the motion. Asami didn’t question it as she continued. “He wants to speed up the project but he’s not used to dealing with all the tiny details like laws and regulations. He might have paid off officials to look the other way but I’m not going to do the same.” She gave the phone a nasty look before tilting her head up to look at Korra. “I don’t want to talk about work anymore. How are you?”

“Bored,” Korra answered. She looked down and noticed how Asami’s shoulders were tensed. Worried she was overstepping her bounds but not having the willpower to stop herself, Korra placed her hands on Asami’s shoulders. When the older woman made no complaint, Korra began to gently knead the flesh, frowning at the knots. She worked at them as gently as she could and almost smirked when Asami murmured something and melted into her touch. Korra put a little more pressure into her massage and Asami responded with a hum and her eyes fluttered shut. Korra smiled and continued to work at her shoulders as she commented, “You’re really responsive, Asami.”

The older woman opened an eye slightly as she responded, “Lin’s worse.” Asami straightened in her chair so Korra could touch more of her comfortably. “I can’t give her a massage without it leading into some fun.” The sultry grin she gave Korra made it obvious what kind of ‘fun’ she was talking about.

Korra gulped and didn’t know what to say to that.

The sudden silence made Asami move out of Korra’s fingers. She looked at the younger woman in concern. “What’s wrong?”

Korra ground her teeth together as she considered whether to ask her question or not. When she looked at Asami and saw how patiently she was looking at her, Korra decided to go through with it. “I want to talk about you and Lin’s relationship.” Asami’s eyes narrowed in confusion and Korra was quick to clarify. “I can’t wrap my head around it. How in the world did you two end up together but not together during those three years I was… gone?”

Asami’s eyebrow rose at the description of her relationship with Lin but she had to admit Korra did have a fair point. If anyone had told her that she would be dating the Chief of Police three years ago, Asami would have probably laughed and tell the person that they should lay off the bottle. “It’s a long and honestly a rather confusing story,” Asami admitted. She gestured to the two open chairs in front of her desk. Ignoring the silent prompt, Korra sat at the edge of the desk. Asami rolled her eyes with a smile but didn’t tell Korra to get off. “Well, like I said before, I was a high profile person so Lin basically became my bodyguard whenever I left Republic City. Sort of like how Mako was made to babysit Wu.” The two shared a look that spoke how much they’d pitied Mako for having to put up with Wu. “I felt bad about the whole thing. I mean, I know there were other things that Lin could be doing instead of watching over me so I tried to accommodate her as much as possible. I set us up in the best hotels that were available. I practically treated her like she was the CEO instead of me.” Asami laughed at the memories. “Of course I paid for everything, even though Lin complained the entire time.” Her face sobered and Korra leaned over to rest her hand over Asami’s. Asami grabbed onto it, grateful for the physical contact. “I was visiting one of the mining facilities in the Earth Kingdom and it didn’t go as plan. One of the miners turned out to be a member of the Red Lotus and he tried to assassinate me.” Korra flinched at the words and Asami kissed her hand soothingly. “I’m fine now, don’t worry. Lin was able to stop him and even hush the whole incident up.”

“But?” Asami hesitated for a moment but answered. “But Lin believed that the attempt was really a ploy to rouse you out of the Southern Water Tribe.” She gave the hand another kiss. “It didn’t work, obviously. It did shake me up though. It was the first time that I wasn’t with anyone from Team Avatar when I was attacked. When Lin and I got back to the hotel, I had a glass of whiskey.” Korra’s sharp eyes made Asami admit, “It was one glass. At first. Lin came in to see if I was okay and I asked her to drink with me. At that point, I pretty much considered her a friend more than a bodyguard. So after a few glasses we started to talk, like really talk. Somehow we ended up talking about failed past relationships and I told her that Tenzin was stupid to let such a beautiful and strong woman slip through his fingers.”

“You seriously said that?” Korra snorted. “That’s really cliche, Asami.”

“I was drunk and it’s true,” Asami countered.

Korra smiled at the little pout on Asami’s lips. “You’re beautiful and strong too,” she said. The pout disappeared like it was never there and Korra felt her heart swell.

“Well anyway, one thing led to another and we woke up on the floor naked.”

“That’s it?” Korra sort of hoped that Asami was going to admit there was some scandalous sex in her story. “No details?”

Asami swatted at Korra’s arm playfully. “You’re a pervert,” she said with a slight grin. “But no, honestly Lin and I don’t remember the exact details but we do know we ended up sleeping together.”

“Is that how you two ended up together?” Now Asami sported a frown and she leaned into her chair. “No. We made an agreement not to speak about it.” From the tone Asami was using, Korra could guess that it was Lin that brought up, and probably ordered, that agreement. “But after a few more trips the same thing happened except we weren’t drunk and we actually made it to the bed this time.”

“Details?” Korra could only imagine what Asami and Lin did that night and she could feel herself become excited from all the images playing in her head.

This time Asami smirked up at Korra. “Ask Lin if you really want to know. I’m not telling you squat.” The way that Korra blushed told Asami of what she was thinking about. It made her feel sexy to know that she could elicit such a reaction from Korra. “Lin and I made a deal. Whenever I went out of Republic City and Lin came along, we would have a night to ourselves. That didn’t last long however. One night after a trip, I had a nightmare and called Lin over. I didn’t actually expect her to show up but she did. That’s when we got together but we didn’t know we were together until you pointed it out.”

Korra stayed quiet for a bit when Asami finished talking. “That’s quite a story, Asami.”

Asami shrugged. “It’s a better story than how I met Mako. Hopefully, this story will have a happy ending.”

“I hope so too,” Korra agreed. “We should watch ourselves though. I don’t want to imagine how Lin would react if we broke up with her.”

The older woman laughed and nodded. “She would probably try to throw our asses in jail.” Asami looked at Korra who was chuckling at the joke. She was absolutely beautiful and the way she was sitting on her desk sent a tingle of desire down Asami’s back. The mechanic stood from her chair and moved closer to Korra, gently parting the Avatar’s legs so she was in between them. The laughter ended in a nervous giggle as Korra gazed at Asami. The sudden timid nature pulled at Asami’s heart and she couldn’t stop herself from kissing Korra. The three of them hadn’t discussed if it was okay to show affection to one another when it was only two of them, but Asami didn’t think that Lin would mind if she shared a semi-innocent kiss with Korra. When she pulled back Asami smirked at the dark blue eyes and the lips that were now tinged with red from her lipstick. “We should have a date night tomorrow at my place,” Asami suggested. “We haven’t seen each other for a week. I need a break and I’m sure Lin does too.” She bit her bottom lip deliberately and Korra’s eyes darted down as her hands found themselves lightly clutching Asami’s waist. She leaned forward to brush her lips against Korra’s ear, whispering low into it. “Spend the night with us.” She let her teeth scrape against Korra’s earlobe and a soft gasp was her reward. “Besides, you’ve seen Lin and I naked. It’s only fair that we see you too.” Asami felt Korra shiver as her breath tickled her ear. She leaned back and saw how dark Korra’s eyes became and her lips slightly parted as she breathed a little harder than usual. Lin and Korra really did have a lot in common. A little nibble on her bottom lip and some hushed words and both women would be restraining themselves lest they lose control of themselves. Asami would have felt a little bad that she was wounding Korra up like this but it sent a surge of glee knowing she had such a hold on the younger woman.

Despite the way her body behaved, Korra still voiced her reluctance. “Isn’t a little too soon? I mean it will be only our second date and uh-”

When Korra continued to stammer out excuses, Asami did feel a little abashed. Maybe she was a little too hasty. The mechanic wrapped her arms around Korra’s shoulders and kissed her chastely on her cheek. She moved back enough to look into Korra’s conflicted eyes. Asami took comfort that she could feel Korra’s thumbs rubbing lazy circles into her shirt. “It’s true that we’ve been dating for such a short period of time but we’ve known each other for years and we’ve been through so much.” She moved her right hand so that it was now cupping Korra’s cheek. The younger woman nuzzled against the palm instinctively and Asami felt another rush of affection for the younger woman. “But if you don’t want to, that’s okay too. We can wait until you’re ready. Lin’s a little harder to read but neither of us want to push you too fast and make you uncomfortable.”

Korra looked at Asami with her soft smile and warmth in her eyes. Asami was willing to wait until she was ready to take that next step. And Lin would probably kick her ass if she rushed into things that she wasn’t completely okay with. A part of her was nervous, a big part actually. That little seed of doubt was still there but as Korra continued to feel the heat from Asami’s hand, she found that she already had the answer. “I want to,” she whispered, like saying it too loud would ruin the atmosphere the two had created. This time Korra kissed Asami. “I’m ready for that.”

Asami couldn’t stop the delight she felt from Korra’s words shine in her eyes. She pressed her lips against Korra’s and sucked at her bottom lip. Asami pulled back and Korra could only stare at her. Asami smirked at the dazed look. She grabbed the satchel full with notes and blueprints from the side of her desk. “See you at my house at five tomorrow, Korra. I have a meeting to attend to.” She left Korra at that, making a mental note to apply her lipstick again before going to the meeting.

The Avatar stayed sitting on Asami’s desk, her mind short circuiting from that kiss and her bottom lip from being sucked. She turned her head to wish Asami good luck but found that the door was already closed. Her fingertips brushed against her lips. “Whoah.” How the hell did Lin manage to control herself around such a fiesty woman like Asami!? Korra guessed that she would find out tomorrow. Korra’s face reddened at the thought. She was going to do the do with Asami and Lin. They were going to have sex. The three of them. Together. “Whoah,” Korra repeated.