Asami sighed as she sat at her desk and stared out the window of her office, distractedly twiddling a pen in her hands. She had to get ready for her meeting with her fellow executives about the ideas she and her team had in the works. Trying to piece it all together in her head for the presentation, however, was proving rather difficult, like she was trying to pluck specks of dust out of thin air.
She should be feeling confident enough to do this. This wasn't new to her at all. Apart from her time interning in college for this very company, Asami had plenty of experience with sitting in on corporate meetings and suiting up in a jumpsuit to get into the literal nuts and bolts of various cars and motorcycles before she had even graduated high school. Such was the life of being the would-be heiress of Future Industries.
That never turned out to be. There wasn't even a Future Industries to inherit after all that had happened in the last several years. Instead, Asami had to keep moving forward, forge her own path out of the ashes.
Though she kept moving forward in the business world, there was very much one aspect of her life that wasn't so easy to move forward from.
Korra.
Asami put down her pen and started massaging her temples. Even a week later, over and over again, that argument replayed in her head, dredging up those raw emotions that had been buried underneath a sea of paper and late nights at the office.
Why? The question repeated itself over and over in her head like a broken record, getting louder and louder the more Asami's thoughts went back to it. Why did Asami find her so close to her house, after months of no texts, no calls, nothing, like their friendship wasn't even worth a simple two word text of "I'm alive." Why, in all of her stubbornness, did Korra insist she was fine when she had dropped out of school, got kicked out of her parent's house and looked so disheveled and broken? Why did she accuse Asami of doing something so underhanded and nasty as infidelity when Korra was hardly forthcoming about explaining her own deceptive and manipulative behavior?
Why did someone that Asami had cherished hurt her so much?
Turning her attention back towards her desk, Asami's eyes instinctively went towards the framed picture that lay next to the dedicated spot where she put her laptop. It was the two of them standing in front of a Christmas tree, Korra's long hair in her trademark three ponytails, her arm around Asami's shoulder and grinning broadly with her eyes shut while Asami was wearing a more subdued but equally enthusiastic smile. She stared longingly, the picture transporting her thousands of miles away from the present.
Asami's teeth chattered as she hugged herself to brace against the absolutely frigid air. Even with several layers of clothes, a long wool overcoat and fur-lined leggings underneath her jeans, the biting chill crept in as she soldiered through the snow-covered streets.
Korra chuckled as she looked at Asami, looking completely unbothered by the weather. "What, you aren't getting cold feet, are you? It's only ten below outside."
Asami groaned before replying with, "Remind me why I traveled ten hours on a plane with you just to hear jokes like that."
"'Cause I'm great and you know it."
The town that surrounded them had semblances to any other small American town - grocery stores, restaurants, a bank, a police station, churches. There were Christmas lights strung up around many of the buildings, adding a bit of color to the faint nighttime glow from the streetlights. However, the darkness that was normal for this time of night was the same darkness that greeted them when they woke up this morning, with only a brief respite in the form of a few hours of twilight earlier in the day. The homes stood elevated above concrete pilings, worn but still standing strong against the extreme elements. Standing as the solitary outpost of civilization among an infinitely vast tundra, Utqiagvik, Alaska - or Barrow, as most people still called it - was a place of extremes. Extremely cold (as Asami was all too aware of), extremely isolated, extremely rugged. Nonetheless, there was a tangible element of serenity to be found from the extremes, giving the town its own unique beauty.
Korra let out an easygoing sigh, looking around her at the surrounding structures. "I have so many memories of this place."
She pointed behind them with her thumb. "I used to sneak out for some joyrides on our snowmobile out in the open tundra. Used to race some of the kids too. Guess who always came out on top?"
Asami hummed. "If you race snowmobiles like you do motorcycles, not you."
"Hey! I only lost that one race because I was still getting used to the throttle on your company's new bike."
"And the one after that?"
Korra huffed. "I claim interference from Mako. He distracted me."
"All the way from the bleachers?
Someone had their mind in the gutter," Asami teased.
Korra crossed her arms and scoffed with faux indignation. "Whatever. I can still easily beat you one-on-one on the pitch!"
Asami laughed, mock exaltation in her voice as she said, "You got me there, Miss Soccer Champ. Truly, no one can compare to your greatness."
"
That's more like it. I knew you'd come around."
Though Asami couldn't see Korra's face behind her scarf, she could easily imagine that she was wearing that endearing crooked and toothy grin of hers. Asami couldn't help but smile as well, feeling ever so slightly warmed against the relentless cold.
Despite the jokey nature of their conversation, there was an undeniable truth to it all. Korra was great. A great friend, a great athlete, all-around great person. Much like the town she was from, she was very much a diamond in the rough.
The fact that Asami was all the way up here with Korra - almost literally on top of the world - felt special in and of itself. Korra and her parents were up here to see their old family friend Katara and her daughter Kya for the holidays. Though the two families weren't related by blood, Asami could tell that they shared quite the close bond with each other based on how personable they were with each other and the lengthy exchanges about their lives. She had noticed too that as soon as they stepped off the plane, many of the townspeople had given friendly greetings and talked about the good old days when Korra's father Tonraq had been the mayor, Senna had been teaching at the local community college and Korra was their rambunctious, adventurous little girl.
It was the sense of family Asami wished she still had.
As if they had come from the depths of a murky sea, memories from years prior and more recently resurfaced. Her father talking in hushed tones with shady suited men when he thought she was asleep, Asami being woken up to the sounds of sirens and police kicking down their door, the resounding sound of the gavel as the verdict was read out.
Asami's breath shuddered and started blinking rapidly, feeling like she had just been socked in the gut.
" —and over back that way's where—" Korra stopped mid-sentence as she looked back over at Asami. "You okay, Asami?"
"Y-yeah. Fine," Asami replied, her voice pitched upwards and strained.
"You sure? The cold isn't getting to you, is it? I can have Kya come pick us up."
"It's…not that." Asami shook her head and cast her glance downwards.
Korra stopped walking to match Asami. She put a hand over Asami's shoulder. "What's wrong?"
"My father…"
A silence filled the air as Asami trailed off and stood as stiff as a board, her mind remembering the empty house she would come home to once this vacation was over. Empty save for her, a shrine to her mother and the crushing sins of her father.
Korra started gently rubbing her shoulder, her deep voice turning soft and tender as she whispered, "It's okay. Let it out."
Like floodgates being opened up, Asami started weeping as her sorrows coursed through her. The very thought that someone so close to her had done all the terrible things he had done - extortion, blackmail, smuggling weapons, unrepentant assaults and killings done in his name - and claimed it was all for her and her mother's memory made Asami feel that much more tortured about the whole situation.
"I-I'm s-so sorry, Korra, we were having such a good time and then-" Asami's stuttering, rapid-fire response got cut off with another sob.
"Shh, you're going to be okay. Breathe." Korra enveloped Asami in a hug, the firmness of her grip a testament to her physical prowess. Belying her brawn and bravado was the care she took in continuing to gently stroke along Asami's back, testifying to the inner strength of her kind-hearted nature.
In the depths of her anguish, Korra was Asami's lifeline to keep her from going completely adrift. Even as more memories kept barraging her, Asami remembered to breathe, to listen to the soothing reassurances Korra was repeating to her, to take solace in her comforting touch.
Eventually, Asami had calmed down enough that her sobbing had trickled down to sniffling, though she dared not to let go from Korra. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ruin the mood."
"You don't ever have to apologize for that. I know this isn't an easy time for you and shit's really crazy right now. It's why me and my parents invited you up here. We couldn't stand for you to be alone for the holidays."
Korra snorted as she added, "That and Mako's kind of a baby when it comes to the cold. Los Angeles boy through and through."
Despite the previous solemnity of the moment, Asami couldn't help but give a small chuckle at her quip being at Mako's expense - and the truth of it. She remembered his incessant griping when the weather went below forty when they had dated.
Korra's tone shifted back to sincere as she said, "But seriously, I'm always here for you, Asami. You'll get through this. You're tougher than you give yourself credit for."
"Thank you, Korra. Thank you so much." The waterworks threatened a return as Asami gave Korra another firm squeeze.
Korra gave Asami one last pat on her back before letting go. "Here. Why don't I show you one last thing on our tour here and we can call it a night. I promise it's really worth it."
She once again led the way as the two of them walked through the small central part of the town until they came across a small clearing that led directly to the would-be waterfront of the town. Beyond an abandoned wooden house stood an arch, the skeleton of canoes and a small pile of bones.
"The arch is made from some whale bones," Korra explained. "Whaling is still a big deal around these parts. We throw a big festival to celebrate the hunt called
Nalukataq. The whole town comes to get their whale meat and
maktak - meaning blubber. There's a bunch of traditional dancing and games, but the main event is the blanket toss. It's this big old blanket hoisted up on some rope and some poles, someone gets on, a bunch of us grab it, lift it up, pull it taut and
woosh! Tossed in the air!"
Korra laughed heartily, the mirth in it warming the frigid air. "Good times. I didn't drag you out here just for another trip down memory lane. Look up."
Korra's voice guided Asami as she looked up at the sky above. The entire sky was alight with stars, seemingly infinite in their scope as they twinkled in every direction and coalesced into a dizzying array of constellations. The light of the full moon gave just enough light to see a sliver of the frozen ocean, similarly vast and never-ending in its scope. Most impressive of all were the brilliant green lights of aurora that crisscrossed the night sky like ribbons, dancing and shimmering.
Asami gasped as she stood enraptured by the beauty of it all. "Wow…"
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
A pleasant silence fell between them as they wrapped arms around each other's shoulders and took in the striking scenery. There didn't need to be any more words wasted on the serenity of that moment, where not even the arctic chill could drown out the swells of warmth welling within Asami.
Asami finally looked up from the picture with a forlorn look on her face, thrust back to the harsh reality of the present day without Korra. Four years had passed since that trip. It felt like it was just yesterday that she was up there – and yet those happy memories felt like they had been made a lifetime ago.
What Asami wouldn't give to have it all back, to wish that Korra wasn't on that stretch of highway at that time of night, to wish that she didn't have to see Korra suffer, to wish that Korra was still able to be in her life and be that wonderful, spirited person she used to be.
Asami squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't be thinking about this anymore, not when there was always so much work to be done, so many people relying on her, so much pressure to keep it all together.
Opening her eyes and blinking away the tears that threatened to spill out, Asami reached for her purse and fished her compact mirror and various components of her makeup repertoire out of it. Just like she would before any other meeting, she opened the mirror and checked her face for anywhere that would need touching up. She grabbed the tube of dark red lipstick and applied a fresh coat on her lips, pursing them and rubbing them together to spread it around. After capping the tube and putting it back into her purse, she used a powder brush, dabbed it into the face powder and powdered her nose and cheeks. Finally, she applied some concealer to the dark bags under her eyes that were starting to poke through and around the smudged bits of eyeliner.
After putting away makeup back into her purse, Asami gathered the papers that were piled up next to her computer and neatly tucked them into her briefcase. She took one deep breath, forcing her mind to think about the concepts she and the team had drafted up for a new car rather than the churning pit of emotions that lay underneath her composed exterior.
She got up from her chair and started making her way to the conference room, the steady clacking from her heels resonating as a rhythm that guided her forward to her destination. Forward, the hardest direction to move when a big part of Asami's life was missing.
Somehow, Asami got through the meeting without a hitch. At least, none that were so easily detected. Her heart wasn't quite in it, but she had faked enough enthusiasm when it came her turn to present to not arouse any major suspicion; the only indication that anyone noticed anything at all was a comment that she looked a bit out of it during some of the other presentations, which she shrugged off as being a bit tired.
The only reason she had even been able to fake the enthusiasm at all was thinking about her dedicated crew. All of her engineers and researchers who had poured their hard work in making the R&D department what it was. They all depended on her to make sure their needs were being met from the higher ups. There wasn't any room at the boardroom table for her self-indulgent problems.
As she walked back into her office, Asami took her phone out of her purse and it automatically lit up after she had put it up to her face. At first glance, there were a few missed calls and some texts while she was in the meeting. Strangely enough, they were all from a number that she didn't have on her phone. Perhaps it was just a spam caller and somehow-
Asami immediately stopped in her tracks as soon as she saw the area code of the number: 907, Alaska. It wasn't a number in her contact list - or rather, it wasn't one that was in it
anymore. Yet there would be no mistaking it for anyone else given the years' worth of communication Asami had with this number.
The phone had gone back to sleep before she had a chance to read the texts. Her heart was thumping in her chest, her mouth suddenly parched. Was this going to be another apology that she was going to see? One that came after yet another fight, Korra saying she let her temper get the better of her, she would make it right, excuse after excuse given?
Her hand shook as she squeezed the phone, roiling anger coursing through her at the thought. Another half-assed sorry wasn't going to undo the damage. It wasn't going to make Asami forget how many times Korra had taken things out on her, getting pissy and moody over the smallest things and taking it out on Asami when she tried to delve into the reasons behind her behavior. It wasn't going to make Asami forget all the times she had lent money in good faith to Korra for school supplies, only to find out that her going back to school was a giant lie and she went and did god knows what with the money. It wasn't going to make Asami forget the time Korra had flaked on her graduation; the only explanation given was some sort of drunk text that Asami could barely even decipher.
She would be better to just block her number and throw the texts into the trash bin where they would belong. Asami unlocked the phone, went into the messaging app and was prepared to delete the conversations without a second thought. However, Asami's eye got caught on one word that stopped her finger from pressing the delete button.
Hospital.
A pit settled itself deep in her stomach. Her eyes frantically scanned the texts, her dread only growing as she read them.
you there?
just got discharged from hospital, harborview
i need you to pick me up
i don't know what to do
you're the only one i knew to call
please help me
Please help me. Three words and it was all Asami could see in front of her. Not the office around her, not the phone in her hands, just "please help me" in Korra's voice.
Without regard for anything else, Asami grabbed her purse and booked it out of the office, ignoring the concerned calls of her employees as she rushed over to the parking garage.
