Chapter Text
"I've always wondered what the spirit world is like."
"Sounds perfect."
They could have put it off until the next day or the day after. Or a week after. Or at least until things were better under control with Republic City... But Asami recalled the spontaneity of Varrick's proposal, was suddenly worried of 'soon' turning into 'never,' and felt compelled to 'do the thing' immediately.
"Let's go now," she insisted. "Right now. We can go pack and be off before the others even know we're missing."
But Korra had finally grown to know the meaning of the word patience, and instead said,
"Whenever I disappear without telling anyone, things usually go wrong," she laughed. "Go home, change, get your things. I'll go tell Tenzin and Lin where we're headed so they won't worry, and then meet you back here."
"Okay." Asami rose, but soon after she turned back, asking, "Just the two of us, right?"
"Just us two." Korra reassured with a blush and flighty eyes. And then reaffirmed as much with Tenzin, who started to protest with his usual amounts of nagging worry before Pema knowingly pulled him aside and silenced him.
"Just the two of you then."
----
In the plane between worlds, Korra opened her eyes slowly, her vision steadily adjusting to the swirling blue haze of spirit energy that encompassed her. When her surroundings came into sharp focus, she found Asami smiling back at her, her own spirit illuminated with a warm golden light. She reached out her hand. Asami mirrored her motion, their fingertips touching lightly through the barrier as the transitional plane dissipated around them. As their bodies materialized in the spirit world, their feet landing lightly onto the soft grass, their lips met each others' a little less lightly.
Korra inhaled deep the scent of Asami's perfume, loving the barely audible moan she gave when Korra reached up with her hands to cradle her slender face, fingertips playing with strands of long, black hair. When they pulled apart slowly, her lips were tingling delightfully, and Asami let out a light chuckle.
"Oh no, was I that bad a kisser?" Korra bit her lip. It had been three years after all...
"No... It's just..." Asami ran her thumb gently along the line of Korra's bottom lip. "I got my lipstick on you."
"Oh." The avatar flushed. "Can--" she grabbed Asami's wrist.
"Yes?"
"Can you get your lipstick on me again?"
Asami's smiled brightly, and Korra relished learning the exact shade of pink that colored the engineer's cheeks when she blushed.
"Sure."
The second kiss was less hesitant than the first, and Korra took the chance to bring their bodies closer, her hands resting firmly on the curve of Asami's hips. Asami was taller, curvier, softer... the picture of femininity. But even so, Korra could detect a hint of machine oil behind that jasmine perfume, and the fingers that caressed her cheeks were calloused and rough. In her partner's body she had a mirror of her own, and she could only appreciate all the extra finesse and poise Asami possessed.
To their surprise, the end of only their second kiss was met with a strange assortment of cheers and chirps from spirits that had slyly gathered around them.
"Aww, well wasn't that just sweet?"
Korra's ears flushed a bright pink--more from being startled than embarrassed--as she shrieked,
"What--what are all of you doing here?!"
"Obviously enjoying the show," Asami teased.
"Is this what you humans call a wedding?"
"I assume Kuvira's been taken care of then."
"Oh, is this her? The Great Uniter?"
"No!" Korra was mortified. "No, this is not Kuvira, this is Asami!"
"What's a sommy?"
"Me. My name is Asami. And I'm not the 'Great Uniter,' I'm Korra's girlfriend." She grabbed Korra's hand, reveling in the awed silence she had created among the gaggling crowd.
Seizing the momentary distraction, Korra began to pull Asami past the gathering of spirit bunnies and badger moles and serpent owls--the welcome party had turned out to be a bit of a paparazzi gathering--saying, "Yes, yes, now everyone knows, yaaaay. Now if you'll excuse us, Asami and I are here on vacation!"
A few of them raised what eyebrows they had before fading or flying away; the last to disappear was a little green butterfly bird, who gave Asami a knowing wink before fluttering off, chirping, "Enjoy your vacation!"
And once they were alone again, and several paces away from the blinding light of the spirit portal, Korra let out an irritated sigh.
"Geez! Sorry about that... They're about as bad as Republic City reporters, to be honest."
Asami giggled and bumped their shoulders together.
"It's ok. I thought it was cute. Plus it was nice to hear how supportive they were about it all. Don't know how many avatars have brought their girlfriends into the spirit world."
"Yeah... I guess they were... Right, well, ok, what do you want to see first?"
"You do remember the part where I have no idea about anything here, right?"
"To be honest, I don't know that much either. But that's why..." she pulled her pack from her shoulders, crouching down on the grass to pull out two books and a handful of scrolls. "I borrowed these from Jinorra. They're books that the air acolytes use to study the spirit world, and it's all the stuff Tenzin never got the chance to drill into me."
Asami knelt down and flipped through one of the bound volumes, pausing briefly on a page with a rough painting of the tree of time.
"Well this is about the only thing I recognize, so I think I’ll just leave it to you.” Revisiting the potentially traumatizing sites of previous battles was probably not the most appropriate first stop to take on their vacation. Looking away from the books to the lush grass and the vibrant sky, she marveled, “I have to admit though, it is beautiful here. Everything feels so alive.”
“That’s probably thanks to you, Asami.”
“Are you sweet talking me now?” she teased.
“No, I—“ It was more than a little bit embarrassing how easily Asami could make Korra blush. “What I meant was… here in the spirit world, the environment reacts to your thoughts and emotions. So since you and I are pretty… happy,” she muttered the last word as quickly as she could, “the spirit world is reflecting that too.”
“That’s pretty cool actually.”
“Yeah! Well, except for this one time when I was here—the time that Jinorra and I got separated—I was really scared. Without my bending, I felt so helpless, and so the image of my spirit here turned into a scared little girl. And when I threw a tantrum at Iroh, the—“ her eyes grew wide.
“What, what is it?”
“That’s it! We can find Iroh, and I’m sure he can give us a ton of places we can see!”
“Not... General Iroh of the United Forces, right?”
“I’m talking about Lord Zuko’s uncle, the first General Iroh!” Korra hurriedly shoved the scrolls back into her backpack. “If I remember right, I think he said he has something of a tea shop here in the spirit world somewhere… not that I asked where, but we can definitely ask some spirits, I’m sure they know.”
“Well do your thing, Avatar! Find us that tea shop.” The young CEO looped her arm around Korra’s elbow and snuggled in close.
“O-okay!”
The problem for Korra was that she wasn’t usually a quick thinker outside of combat, and her attention span got all muddled and fuzzy when Asami cranked up the charm like she was doing now with those bright emerald eyes and long lashes... But she just had to breathe—not breathe in Asami’s perfume—and just remember that she was the Avatar, master of all four elements, the bridge between the spirit world and the physical. She had saved the world several already, she could definitely manage showing her girlfriend a good time.
If I just had a spirit world equivalent of a car maybe…
But as soon as she had the thought she knew she had something even better. She brought her hands together, resting the right above her left, thumbs touching, she closed her eyes and envisioned Hai-Riyo Peak. She focused on the sound of the wind howling in the distance above her, swirling around the double jagged peak of the mountain, the smell of the rich, verdant grass growing at its base, the colors of the sky and clouds above it, pink and green and vibrant… her breathing was controlled, even... A deep breath in, slow exhale... and when she opened her eyes, they were standing at the foot of the mountain, and Asami’s grip on her arm had tightened pleasantly.
“How did we—“ Asami breathed, her mouth gaping.
“I’m the avatar, remember?” Korra smirked, and led them forward. Occasionally she could manage some pretty cool things. “This is Hai-Riyo Peak. Remember I told you how scared I was that one time? Believe me, this place looked pretty awful back then. It was dark and there were all these storm clouds and, I didn’t wanna go anywhere near it. But I had to return this baby dragon bird spirit back to its home.”
“Mmhmm,” Asami listened attentively as they walked, letting her eyes wander and examine the grassy hills beneath their feet, which gradually transitioned into a dusty mountain trail.
“That’s what’s up there, by the way. A nest of dragon bird spirits.”
They heard them before they saw them—excited yelps, musty panting, and the light pitter patter of their paws on the earth—as three guardian spirits came bounding up to them. Asami let out a yelp as they came closer and became increasingly larger, and shouted,
“Whoah! What are those?!”
“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Korra put up her arms, and one of the bright blue guardians nuzzled its magenta nose against her, sniffing excitedly. “Just think of them like Naga... only blue!”
“They’re quite a bit bigger than Naga…” she tentatively reached out a hand as a second guardian knelt to meet her touch. “But as long as they're friendly...”
“They have to be big, they’re guardians!”
Bringing her palms up, fingers wide, Korra began to swirl the air around her feet like a tornado, and lifted herself off of the ground to perch herself onto a guardian's back. A second one lowered its neck so that Asami could similarly mount, and soon they were bounding up the mountain path towards the nest. Riding a spirit was significantly different compared to riding Naga, and there were notable differences even between riding them as a spirit and as a corporeal form. The last time she'd done this, Korra had been a spirit and it had felt as though the dragon bird and she had become one seamless being in the air. Her body had been weightless and the flight had been swift; she had barely felt the wind rushing through her hair.
"It feels so different from riding Naga!" she called to Asami, who was following just a little behind.
"I'm used to cars and motorcycles, so I'm not even gonna talk about different!"
"Hahaha, true!"
Once they reached the top, they slid off of the guardians’ backs to find a chirping nest of young dragon birds at their feet. They were just as Korra remembered them, minus the injured wings.
“Ohh… they’re so cute!” Asami cooed, kneeling next to the bundle and tickling one under its beak.
Korra plopped herself down beside the nest as the bird dragons began to hop out, sniffing around them curiously and chirping about. Wrapping an arm around Asami's waist, Korra pointed up into the sky with her free hand, guiding her emerald gaze to the swirling mass of clouds above them. They seemed to dance and sway in the wind, the colors mixing and blending into each other to paint new shades across the sky.
"It looks like the aurora at the north pole. But brighter almost. How does it work?" Asami was following the paths of the cloud shapes and counting the instances of the different colors, trying to find any discernible pattern.
"I have absolutely no idea how any of it works. I'm just enjoying the view." Korra shrugged. "you can't really apply mechanics to things here, but leave it to you to try."
"I'm the brilliant mind behind Future Industries, remember? I always have to know how things work."
"Ok well while you do that, I'm gonna ask these cuties... Where can we find Iroh's tea shop?"
One of the chicks chirped to a second, who chirped to a third, to the fourth until they were all squeaking incessantly.
"So tell me, Avatar, do you speak dragon bird?" Asami giggled.
"Just watch..." Korra pouted.
And after a few more seconds of simultaneous squawking, the four hopped back into the nest, standing in a cross with their beaks touching. In a great burst of light, they melded together into one magnificent dragon bird mount, which let out a resounding call before bowing its mighty head to the avatar.
"Whoah."
"Impressed yet?" Korra grinned triumphantly, her blue eyes twinkling.
"Getting there," Asami smiled, the wind whipping her hair around her ears.
Her cheek was met with a mischievous twinkle in those blue eyes, one she barely managed to register in time before the ground shifted beneath her boots, launching her up into the air and onto the spirit's back.
"Okay okay!" she relented. "You're very impressive, no more earth-bendy-catapulting me into the air without warning!"
"If you say so..."
"Anyway, does she... he... our ride... Have a name?"
"Uhh..." Korra paused and blinked several times at the face of the spirit, who only gave a compliant squawk in reply. "Uhhh... That probably translates to... Lee."
"Lee? Really?"
'Lee' narrowed its beady eyes and lightly wagged its head from side to side, giving a distressed huff and fanning out its feathers.
"Okay not Lee... Lu?"
That made 'Lu' utter a presumably delighted cry and nuzzle into Korra's back, nearly knocking her over with the force.
"Ok so she is ok with us calling her Lu." Asami laughed, reaching to give Korra a hand up.
The avatar was forced to sit behind her, but that could hardly be called a problem. She wrapped her arms around Ms. Sato's waist and rested her chin on her shoulder, planting an affectionate peck on Asami's cheek before saying,
"Okay, Lu! Take us to Iroh's tea shop!".
With a great gust, the three of them rose up into the sky, and the girls whooped and hollered as the ground got further and the clouds grew closer, the wind roaring in their ears.