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"Korra, love, I have a lighter, you know. And matches." Asami said finally said, watching as Korra, with a frown on her face, the tip of her tongue sticking out, tried unsuccessfully to light a fire by two sticks together.
"I can see... you came... prepared." Korra said, not even turning to Asami, her eyes focused on the small campfire, evidently looking for a faintest sign of smoke rising up.
"Always." Asami said. "Not to mention that you can, well, you know, firebend and start the fire."
"No! No easy way out!" Korra protested. "For a true camping experience, we need a true campfire!"
"I do appreciate it, Korra, but take a rest for a moment." Asami said.
Korra indeed stopped if only for a second. Asami knew her girlfriend well enough to notice when Korra's face brightened, as an idea came to her. Korra began furiously rubbing the sticks together again... before her eyes suddenly went wide with - poorly acted - surprise.
"Look!" she called pointing at something behind Asami. "A striped crow squirrel!"
Asami shot Korra an amused look but decided to play along and turned around quickly. Of course there was nothing there.
"Where? Where did it go?" she asked, summoning all her skills learned during acting classes.
True, her parts were mostly Pedestrian #2 (in junior school) and Tree #3 (in college) but she always thought she had nailed them. She even did comprehensive research on how the tree of the kind she was playing should rustle! Not that anyone appreciated or even noticed her diligence on this.
Predictably, when she turned around to look back at Korra, she was lifting the sticks for a beautifully burning campfire.
"Ta-da!" she exclaimed.
"What a lovely fire!" Asami exclaimed. "It looks *almost* as if someone firebent it! And to think you made it just with a pair of sticks!"
Korra chuckled.
"I didn't fool you, did I?" she asked. "Why did I have to find such a clever girlfriend?"
"No takebacks, Korra." Asami chuckled and kissed Korra's cheek. "And I still appreciate you starting the fire. It's nice and romantic."
"You know... I also didn't get much experience in camping." Korra finally said as they snuggled together in front of the fire. "It's not something I was allowed to do in White Lotus compound. Not that children in the Water Tribe do a lot of it, on the poles it is usually a death sentence, but to be honest I learned less about surviving in the wilderness than a typical Water Tribe child does."
She sighed, looking at the fire.
"And when I came to Republic City... well, that was the opposite of the wilderness, wasn't it? And there wasn't really time for me to go camping." she continued before looking at Asami. "That's why I'm happy to come here, with you."
"I... I also..." Asami began then stopped.
She also didn't get to have any camping trips. At first she was too young. Then, Yasuko, her mother, finally promised to take Asami for camping.
She was murdered before that could happen.
At first Asami didn't bring this topic with her father as, even years after her mother's death the topic of going camping without her still hurt. When she did suggest it, Hiroshi at first claimed that Asami was too young and it would be too dangerous and when she got older, he was always too busy, too overworked... and once she got old enough to go by herself, she was too busy as well.
"I know." Korra said softly. "That's I wanted to take you. For us to do it... together."
Korra blushed at the words but Asami just smiled. She forgot she had written about it in one of the many letters she had sent Korra when the latter was recovering on the South Pole.
Korra didn't forget.
Asami felt warmth that had nothing to do with the campfire spread through her body. She hugged Korra tighter.
"When... when I was travelling the Earth Kingdoms I spent many nights sleeping under the sky." Korra finally said. Recalling this time still hurt. "But it wasn't really for pleasure. And I admit, I never had the patience to play with the sticks, just firebending a campfire when I needed it."
"Well, you could say that you already took me out camping during our trip to the Spirit World." Asami said.
"Yes, but that's not the same thing." Korra said. "The Spirit World... could be overwhelming. There is always so much to see, so much things are happening are happening everywhere around you. It's beautiful and with you it was even more lovely." Korra blushed as she said it. "But here... here it is only us and the nature."
"It is also beautiful here." Asami said, looking at the forest around them before squeezing Korra's hand. "Everywhere is beautiful when I'm with you."
"You're such a dork." Korra said.
"You're the dork." Asami laughed.
"Your dork." Korra said.
They sat together, watching the dancing flames as it got colder and darker.
"So what are our plans for the trip?" Asami asked. "The same thing we did in the Spirit World?"
"Well, I doubt we'll find mushroom-thingies to be jumping on, but Jinora said there is a nice valley not far from here."
Asami looked Korra in the eyes.
"I'm sure it will be lovely and I would love to see it." she said. "But do you know what part of our trip to the Spirit World I enjoyed the most?"
"The fish?" Korra suggested.
"Kissing you, dummy. I hope you scheduled it for this trip as well."
Korra's blush looked beautiful in the light of the campfire. She chuckled nervously.
"You know I'm not that great when it comes to making scheduleds." she said.
"But I'm great at it." Asami said. "And I've scheduled a lot of time for kissing you."
When she leaned forward, her lips parted, Korra welcomed her.
***
"Korra... the fire has gone out."
"I'll grab my sticks."
"Or maybe you just firebend it?"
"Hey! I'm getting kinda good at rubbing two sticks to create fire!"
"Korra, love, you're absolutely hopeless at it."
"Hey!"
"What you are very good at is rubbing something else to create fire. So instead of you focusing for an hour on the sticks while I get cold, I'd prefer if you just firebent it and spent this time focusing on me."
"Your wish is my command."
Fhwoosh!
"A circle of flames around us? That's so romantic. But please keep an eye on the fire. We don't want to burn the whole forest."
"No promises, 'Sami. I don't think I can look away with how beautiful this dancing light looks on your skin."
"You're such a sappy dork."
"Your sappy dork. All yours."