Can’t stop thinking about Asami, alone for two years in every way that matters while the boys are off on their jobs and Korra’s “couple of weeks” has turned into something indefinite and - Asami is an engineer. She fixes things, maintains them, whether they be mechanical or interpersonal. All through seasons one and two she was there with Mako and Bolin when Korra was away. She knew what to say to keep their spirits up and keep her new family together. She can’t measure her success when Korra won’t reply, but she writes anyway.
She writes to Korra, but every letter that comes to her is from her father.
How many times did she look at the drawer she kept his letters in and imagine that her own letters might be unopened somewhere in the South Pole? It wouldn’t have stopped her from writing because she wasn’t doing it for a reply. She was doing it because Korra needed it. I wonder if it surprised her, how much she looked forward to receiving one and how hollow it felt to keep getting nothing but silence. All she can do is keep writing.
Two years, and finally a letter comes for her. Blue tinted, I imagine. White seal. Ice. The handwriting of someone who had better things to do than pay attention in any informal penmanship class she may have had - does the Avatar get that kind of teaching? Two years, and it’s Korra. And Asami was right. Those letters had been necessary, every one. They kept the line open so that when Korra was ready she didn’t have to wonder if it was okay to reach out, to wonder if everyone had moved on without her. In some ways they had, but there’s been a pause in everything - a breath held, waiting. It’s not time to release it yet, but there’s a letter and for the first time Asami feels like the day is coming when the world makes sense again.
And Korra asks her: don’t tell the others she wrote Asami and not them. They wouldn’t understand what Korra’s been going through or why, but Asami does.
On one hand I’d love to imagine that the first letter Asami writes back after that is full of joy and relief, and on the other it’s more likely that she would have known to keep it level - keep those feelings (unexpected but welcome?) out of it. Express how glad she is to hear from her, but keep things pointed towards what Korra needs to read.
Fast forward a year and Asami is ready to see Korra again after so long. Knowing she’s coming, she’s made plans to see her father for the first time. Things are moving again. She can take the step to leave him in the past for good because her chosen family is coming back together.
Only to find on the day they’re supposed to see each other that Korra disappeared six months ago lmao. Like no wonder she yelled at Korra over the first and smallest thing - Asami doesn’t seem to have an end of her rope but damned if Korra didn’t find it for her. It’s a miracle Asami didn’t strangle her frankly, but then again neither of them had any way of knowing what about all of it affected Asami to this degree or why. (Korra, it should be noted, was expecting this kind of reaction from literally everyone and only got it from Asami, which is its own kind of confusing relief and trust.)
I don’t know that I would go so far as to say either of them had necessarily fallen yet, but there is a lot that happens before that moment - and plenty more that happens before you recognize what’s happened. I wonder if Asami stared up at the ceiling from her bed that night, that engineer’s mind puzzling over what drove her to snap at someone she was so pleased and excited to see. Wonder what conclusion she came to that night, if any, and whether it matched her expression the next day that “it’s been three years since we were all together. There’s bound to be an adjustment period.”
