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“So, Korra, have you thought about it yet?” Asami asked, as casually as she could. Like it didn't matter to her. Like she hadn't been jittery for weeks, waiting for Korra to decide, waiting to find out if she would stay with them or if Asami had to mentally prepare herself to lose her.
It had been three weeks since Asami and her crew boarded the ship Korra was being held captive on. Three weeks since Asami let her out and made her the offer of joining them. Three weeks, and they still hadn't reached land, and Korra still hadn't given her an answer.
She would never put pressure on her. She wouldn't! It was just hard, not knowing. Especially when those three weeks had been filled with a lot of casual touches and glances and not-so-subtle flirting, and Asami had long ago given up pretending to herself that she didn't want it to turn into something more.
But it couldn't, if Korra didn't stay.
“Thought about what?” Korra asked, leaning against the railing, the light rain plastering her hair to her forehead. Asami tore her eyes away from the way the moonlight glittered off the water droplets tracing the lines of Korra's muscular arms and stared resolutely at the deck.
She could take down five grown men with a sword and barely break a sweat, but talking openly to this girl felt like a task too impossible to complete. Korra might be the one who got flustered and blushed, but move on to the topic of deeper feelings and Asami felt like she was floundering in the water, suddenly unable to swim.
“You know, whether you're gonna stay, or... if we should drop you off. Say goodbye.”
“We can't even see land yet,” Korra said casually, pushing her damp hair out of her face. “I've still got time.”
“Of course.”
Asami turned away, mentally cursing herself. This shouldn't matter so much, not this quickly, not after only three weeks.
“Are you asking because you want me to stay?” Korra said.
Asami turned back to her. “I already told you that, didn't I?”
“Yeah, I just...” Korra rubbed the back of her neck nervously and looked away. “I just wondered if you'd, you know, changed your mind. Or something.”
“Or something,” Asami answered lightly, then shook her head. “Korra. No. I do... I want you. To stay!” she added, cursing herself internally and trying not to blush. “Want you to stay.”
“Oh, really?” Korra raised her eyebrows, a wide grin on her face. “Why might that be, Captain?”
“You're a good fighter,” Asami said dispassionately, suppressing everything else because casual flirting doesn't mean she wants to be with you, Asami. “You've proven you're trustworthy. You take your share of the hard work. You're strong, and you get along well with people, and you're a valued member of the crew.”
“So it's nothing to do with my...” Korra waggled her eyebrows, smirking. “...devilish charm?”
“Now that,” Asami replied, leaning in closer to Korra and smiling slowly in a way she'd learnt was guaranteed to make her blush, “would be telling.”
The telltale flush of red bloomed under Korra's skin, and Asami was almost certain Korra's eyes flickered down to her lips before she backed away, laughing nervously.
“Better get out of this rain, huh?”
“Sure,” Asami agreed, trying not to sigh in disappointment. (Or alternatively in longing, which would be much worse.)
They headed below deck, joining some of the rest of the crew, who were sitting around talking, drinking, playing cards. The mood was light and triumphant. They'd conducted another successful raid yesterday, plundering a ship and leaving it for wrecked – it hadn't been valuable to them as a craft.
The battle had been almost ridiculously easy, half the soldiers surrendering within the first ten minutes, and everyone was in high spirits. They should be reaching their next stop-off in a little under a week, another reason to celebrate, for everyone except Asami, who was still terrified Korra would leave them there.
She was half-tempted to set a longer course, just to snatch a few more days, but that would be disloyal, to Korra and everyone else.
“Where've you been, almighty captain?” Opal asked teasingly, sliding into a seat beside her as Korra went to join Bolin, another crewmember with whom she'd become fast friends. “Let me guess, pining over Korra's muscles.”
“Shut up.” Asami elbowed her in the side. She prided herself on being a captain who treated everyone who sailed with her like an equal, listening to them when it came to big decisions and not cultivating any atmosphere of reverence or fear towards her. Sometimes, though, when one of them decided to tease her like this, she almost wished she had insisted on being treated differently. Almost. “It's not like that.”
“Suuure it's not,” Opal replied, elbowing her in return. “Just talk to her!”
Asami said nothing in response, trying to stop her eyes from tracking towards where Korra sat, laughing at something Bolin had said, shadows playing across her face in the flickering light.
“I can't believe you!” Opal continued. “You're a pirate captain, Asami. You're not scared of battle, you're not scared of injuries, you take down guys twice your size in ten seconds flat, and yet you're scared to tell Korra how you feel about her? Guess we're all just awkward teenagers under the surface, huh?”
“I'm twenty-three!” Asami protested.
“Which proves me wrong... how exactly?” Opal asked, merciless.
“I don't have to listen to you! I'm in charge here, remember?” Yeah, Asami really wasn't helping prove that whole 'I'm a mature person' point here, was she?
Opal laughed. “Whatever you say, boss. I'm serious, though.” The grin faded off her face, replaced by a look of concern. “Talk to her. I've never seen you this happy around anyone. Don't mess it up if you don't have to.”
Asami sighed. “I'll try.”
“There we go!” Opal said, and patted Asami on the shoulder, then left her with her thoughts.
Asami looked back at Korra. She could never look away for long. It was starting to become a problem, actually. In yesterday's battle, she'd been so mesmerised by a particular move Korra executed that she'd nearly taken a sword strike to the upper arm. Asami's first rule of captaincy: Don't stare at hot girls when you're in the middle of a fight.
She'd never actually written any 'rules of captaincy', but she was beginning to think it might be a good idea.
Faint dawn light was permeating her cabin when Asami woke with a start. She'd been dreaming of Korra (when wasn't she?) but the dream wasn't what had woken her. On the contrary, she would very much like to know how it ended.
She shook that out of her mind, trying hard to focus, even if the feelings it produced in her body were harder to push away.
Something was wrong. She could hear sounds from outside, the creaking of oars, hushed voices, the swish of the water under the hull of a moving boat. Both their ships were anchored in place, and there was no reason for one of her crew to be rowing. This had to be someone else.
She sat up, reaching for her sword in the dark, debating and ultimately discarding the notion of changing out of her nightclothes. If someone was attacking them, attire was the last thing that mattered.
She headed out to the deck, where Bolin, taking one of the night watch shifts, had evidently dozed off to sleep. She shook his shoulder roughly, and he woke with a start, a question on his lips that she silenced with a hand over his mouth, gesturing towards the water.
Together, they crossed the ship as quietly as possible, Bolin's boots still loud enough against the deck to make Asami wince. Stealth wasn't one of Bolin's strengths.
Once they reached the other side of the deck, though, Bolin's boots were the least of Asami's worries. There was another ship on the water. Not the trusty silhouette of the Lightning Bolt, following alongside the ship Asami's crew had stolen from Korra's captors. This ship was unfamiliar, although its design was the opposite. It wrenched in Asami's gut, twisted up with memories of workshops and drawing boards and her father's smile. She shoved the feeling down, focusing on the small collection of rowing boats on the water, crossing over towards them.
A surprise attack. That was the only probable explanation.
Asami pulled Bolin back into the shadows, hiding them from the view of their would-be attackers, and whispered to him to wake the crew. He nodded, eyes wide, and hurried below-deck.
In under a minute, Korra was at Asami's side.
“What's going on?” she whispered. “Are you all right?”
“I'm fine,” Asami replied, not letting herself dwell on Korra's concern for her. “But we're under attack. They must have been planning to ambush us while we slept.”
“I don't understand how we didn't see the ship before,” Korra said, staring at it. “There's open sea in every direction.”
Asami bit the inside of her cheek. She knew why. She remembered what kind of things her father had been working on. What kinds of things she'd helped create, before she knew what he would use them for. “It's a... there's technology for it. Making ships that can survive underwater, unseen, then come up to the surface. It's... new. But definitely real.”
Korra frowned at her for a second, then shrugged. “Right. That's... really terrible news, actually.”
Asami nodded. “Yeah. Trust me, I wasn't expecting this either.”
They'd been in the design phase when she'd last seen her father. It should have taken much longer to get to actual prototypes, let alone a working model. But none of that mattered right now. All that mattered was getting out of this, fighting through it and keeping her crew safe.
They filtered out onto the deck quickly, hiding in the shadows, ready to reverse the surprise attack on their assailants.
It was another several minutes, minutes of silence and held breath and Korra's body close to Asami's, their shoulders pressed together in soundless reassurance, before the first attackers made it over the side of the ship.
Both were down before they could even scream, but the third was luckier. He parried the strike Opal made against him and shouted a warning to his companions.
Their element of surprise gone, the crew came out into the open, Asami and Korra among them.
“Cut them down before they reach the ship!” Asami called, slicing through the rope of one man who was scaling the hull close to her. He tumbled towards the sea, screaming, and hit with a hard, unforgiving splash. Well-deserved, in Asami's opinion.
Korra flashed her a grin. She seemingly approved of the tactic. Dammit, they were in the middle of a battle and Korra's smile still made Asami's heart beat faster. She was done for.
Cutting the soldiers down this way proved to be extremely effective. Coming from rowing boats, they had no choice except to scale the side of the ship, leaving them vulnerable to any blade that could cut through their ropes, and Asami's crew prided themselves on their blades.
The men who did make it over the side were dispatched easily, and Asami was beginning to feel more relaxed about the whole thing. They could handle this. Her crew had the upper hand. The assailants had been expecting to handle sleeping civilians, and instead they found armed fighters. They didn't stand a chance.
To her right, Asami saw Korra, facing down a tall man in the uniform of the army of the Regime (she would never think of it as anything but that). He had several inches on Korra and was armed with twin blades as long as her arms, but Korra smirked at him confidently, not showing an ounce of fear. As he lunged at her, she dodged fluidly out of the way, then slammed the butt of her sword down on his arm with all her strength. Something crunched, and he let out a ragged cry, dropping one of his blades to the ground. Korra kicked the other one out of his hand and then brought the butt of her own weapon down again, this time on his head. He crumpled to the floor at her feet.
All of this had lasted maybe five seconds, but once again, Korra fighting was enough to steal all of Asami's breath from her lungs. Her heart thumped against her ribcage loudly, like it was reminding her: she's who you want.
Korra turned towards Asami and her grin froze, her eyes widening. Asami had just enough time to remember her number one rule of captaincy before something struck her, hard, in the side of the head, and she found herself on her knees.
Korra screamed her name and lunged across the deck to put herself in front of Asami, parrying the blows of the soldier who'd snuck up on her.
Asami had just enough time to wonder why he hadn't gone for a killing strike, just enough time to register that Korra had put herself in danger to protect Asami without a second thought, before her vision swirled away sickeningly into darkness.
“Asami, wake up. Please. I know you're going to be okay – you have to be okay – but I need to see it. If you can hear me, open your eyes.”
Korra?
Slowly, Asami became aware of the softness of the covers over her, the dull chatter of voices in the distance, and most pressingly, the pain pounding in her skull.
Yeah. She'd been hit in the head. Right.
“Asami, come on. I know I'm being ridiculous, but I need to see you're okay.”
And that was Korra's voice. She hadn't dreamt it. Or at least, hadn't only dreamt it, although Korra had definitely featured in her dreams, too.
And someone was holding her hand.
It felt like her eyelids were weighed down with lead, but she managed to drag them open. She was in her cabin, lying in bed, and Korra was sat beside her, holding tightly to her hand, worry in her eyes.
“Korra?”
Her voice sounded weak and fuzzy to her own ears. Fuck, her head really hurt. Some part of her that wasn't caught up in the pain or in Korra's presence was wondering why the soldier had gone for a non-fatal blow. A horrible suspicion that it could have something to do with her father's involvement rose in her chest, and she crushed it down, focusing on the warmth of Korra's hand in hers.
“You're awake!” Korra let out a sigh of relief, almost like she'd been holding her breath for hours. “Asami, I'm so glad you're okay.”
Korra had a bandage wrapped around her arm, Asami noticed, long and stained with blood. The memory of the fight came back to her more fully, and only the pain in her head kept her from bolting upright in alarm.
“Did you... fight that guy for me?”
“I killed him for you,” Korra said bluntly. “I'd do it again.”
“Why would you... do that? I don't want you to risk your life for me.”
“Well, too bad. Because I did. And I'll keep doing it.”
“Does that mean... you're staying?” Asami asked, tentative hope blossoming in her heart.
Korra nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, of course I am. There was never really any other choice, huh? Not with you there.”
“I didn't mean to put pressure on you...” Asami began, not sure how to take Korra's words, but the other girl was shaking her head.
“No. You didn't. I meant that... I was pretty much done for as soon as I saw you. I was never really going to be able to walk away. This just... proved that to me. For good.”
“You're staying,” Asami said again, hardly able to believe it.
Korra nodded. “If you're okay with that.”
“Okay? Korra, I'm more than okay with that! I... haven't just been flirting with you as a joke, you know.”
Unconsciously, Asami tightened her grip on Korra's hand, afraid this might be the last time she held it. If she was wrong, if Korra didn't feel the same, then... ugh, she might change her mind, she might not stay, why had Asami said that, why did she have to–
“Really?” Korra asked, her eyes bright. She didn't look like she wanted to run away.
“Really. I... I think I've been falling for you since the moment I met you.”
Asami cursed herself again. Surely that was too much, right?
But Korra's face lit up like a sunrise.
“Oh. Wow. I... me too. I... I like you too. A lot.”
Outside the door, somebody shrieked so loudly Asami was certain they'd been attacked again. Korra seemed to have the same thought, because she let go of Asami's hand and jumped to her feet, grabbing a blade from her belt and swinging the door open, ready to strike.
Opal stood just outside, a plate of food in her hand, like she'd been coming to bring it to one of them.
“Opal!” Korra said awkwardly. “Is everything okay?”
“You two! Finally!” Opal said, gesturing between Korra and Asami with shining eyes. “I told her you felt the same! Didn't I tell you?” She directed this to Asami.
Asami rolled her eyes and gestured vaguely at her friend. She wasn't admitting anything.
“Guys! It finally happened!” Opal yelled, shoving the plate of food into Korra's hands and heading off to find the rest of the crew.
“How many minutes do you think it will take for all of them to flood in here?” Korra asked.
Asami grimaced. “Not long. Not long at all. Like I said, I don't know why they're incapable of staying out of my business.”
Korra looked at her thoughtfully, a small glimmer in her eyes. “Hey, Asami?”
“Yeah?”
“Does this door lock?”
Asami felt her own smile grow to match Korra's. “Now that you mention it...”
When most of the crew followed Opal to Asami's cabin a few minutes later, they found the door locked against them. Exchanging knowing smirks, they headed away, clustering around Opal as she recounted what she'd heard of Korra and Asami's confession.
As for the captain herself? Well, she was busy discovering that kissing had an extraordinary ability to make the pain of head injuries fade into the background, and learning that sometimes, dreams, both the day and the night variety, really do come true.
So the ship sailed on into the afternoon sunlight, carving a smooth line through the waves, like a pathway to something new.