advent calender day five - for chasseurseul - korra/asami - first date
Korra wakes up early that day, like she does most days, and Asami’s first guess upon awakening to an empty bed is that she went outside to train, but it’s her second that’s right. Korra likes to watch the sun as it moves, and the view of the sunrise from Asami’s house is like something out of a painting. She finds Korra out on the balcony, watching beams of golden light sparkle across the horizon as the sun ascends the sky.
“Everything okay?” she asks quietly, pulling her shirt tighter around her for extra warmth as she pads out to where Korra is sitting on the railing. “You woke up really early.”
She wills her words to be steady, but she’s pretty sure Korra hears the electrifying thrum of her heartbeat bouncing in her ears, anyway. Korra’s face is soft in the early sunshine, less superhero and more tranquil, and she smiles a little as Asami approaches her. It’s not a lot, but it’s enough.
“Sorry,” she says, reaching out almost absentmindedly for Asami’s hand. “I didn’t mean to abandon you. I just – I just needed some air.”
“You didn’t abandon me,” Asami promises, though she can’t deny the ice-cold pang of hurt that had pounded down her spine when she awoke to find herself alone. The first moments of lucidity after dreaming are always the hardest, she had to remind herself, and Korra is easy to track down, at least for her. “I was just worried.”
Korra’s smile is half-lit by the sunrise as she plays with their interlaced fingers. “Don’t worry about me,” she says, and Asami thinks it’s mostly out of habit at this point. Korra knows she will always worry about her. “I just have a lot on my mind. Watching the sunrise – it helps clear it.”
“Well,” Asami says, hopping up onto the balcony railing in front of Korra, “my room does have the best view.”
Korra blinks at her sudden appearance, then smiles even more genuinely. Asami swears she can hear her own pulse rate pick up. “Thank you,” she says softly, cupping her free hand over their tangled ones and looking down. “And – I don’t want you to think I regret anything,” she adds, her face going somber as she looks back up at her. “Because I don’t. Regret it. I mean us. I don’t regret us.”
A giggle bubbles out of her on its own. “I don’t regret us, either,” she says, half-teasingly, and squeezes Korra’s hand. “Last night was nice.”
Korra smiles, and the sight of it sends warmth seeping back into Asami’s bones. “It was really nice,” she agrees. “Does this count as our first date, then?”
Asami laughs, tilting her head to look out at the sun bleeding spirals of light over Republic City. “I can think of worse first dates,” she muses, and Korra nudges her leg. She shoots her a smile. “If you want to be, then it is.”
Korra lifts one hand to touch her cheek. “I do,” she says quietly, her voice reassuring and gentle and so very different from the loudmouthed hot-headed teenage Avatar that she had met all those years ago. Korra is older now, changed, and different. She is war-weary and tired and struggling with the weight of the world, and still, Asami knows her. She’s the same fireworks-and-sparks girl she was when she first came to Republic City, except now, it’s like the sunrise has bled into her as well, blunting her sharp edges, making her warmer and less heated.
Now, she has short hair and maybe a more tired smile, but the way Korra looks at her is no different. She’s fire and sunlight and inspiring, and Asami brings her free hand up to press Korra’s against her cheek, smiling at her as she does.
“I do, too,” she murmurs, and Korra grins and leans over to kiss her as the sun rises high into the skies above Republic City, raining light down upon their world.