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Korra groans happily as she sinks down into the warm water, lungs relaxing the sweet-smelling steam that rises from the bath. There's nothing better than coming home after a long day and unwinding, surrounded by familiarity and comfort: and there's nothing more familiar or comforting to the young avatar than water. She assumes that back in his days, Aang took comfort in lying under a summer breeze, and that before him, Avatar Roku relaxed by a roaring fire. It's not a mystery why benders feel the most comfortable around their element: in an ever-changing world, a world where you sometimes don't know where your home is, there's always something nearby that you can control. Something that reminds you of the home you had or the home you want.
It's not dark outside, but it's not bright, either: it's twilight, that dusky purple haze between afternoon and evening, where all the colors of night and day blend into one another over translucent, puffy clouds. The streetlights will make it hard to see the stars. But right now, she's far too tired and far too relaxed to complain. The bubbles tickle and caress her body, washing away the grime and kissing her dark skin as they pop and sink back down into the water. With a lazy rotation of her index finger, she stirs and warms the water, leaning back and closing her eyes. Asami will be home soon, no doubt, and Korra knows that there's nothing an heiress loves more than a soothing bubble bath. So,really, this is for the both of them--or at least Korra will say that later when asked (because really, this is just an excuse to close her eyes and participate in the ritual self-care that Asami's got her hooked on, but seeing Asami naked is always a plus). The tension, like smoke, lifts out of her neck and shoulders lightly, dragging the pain and discomfort with it like a stray thread from a roll of cloth, floats up to the ceiling, and vanishes.
Almost as if on cue, Korra's ears perk at the soft, distant click of the front door opening and closing. The sound of Asami's boots as she steps into the front hall. The slow downwards zipping and quick unlacing. The sound of leather gently flopping to the ground as she frees her feet. The coat rack jostling with the addition of a new resident. It's routine, and--dare she say it?--boring. Not in a bad way, the way meetings and trials and operas are boring, but a nice kind of boring. Mundane. She experiences it every day, sure, but she's not exactly tired of it, either. It's taken her a while to come to terms with the fact that quiet and domestic does not equal dull and snore-worthy.
"Korra?" Her voice is muffled by the walls of the flat.
"In here!" shouts Korra in return, bending her legs and staring at the scrapes on her knees. The bathroom door opens, and Asami is leaning against the wall, hair mussed from her helmet and goggles. She still looks hot, though. She always looks hot. Korra grins at her. "Hey, 'Sami. Long day?"
Asami sighs and nods, dragging a graceful hand through her dark hair; she always looks so graceful, even when she's asleep at three in the morning and she's drooling a little onto her pillow. "Yeah...What happened to your knees?"
"Hm?" Oh, right. Those. They're really not that bad, she's had worse, but they still sting a little. "Took a bit of a tumble while looking after Meeloh and the others today. I'm never babysitting those brats again." Asami clicks her tongue in that tutting, condescending kind of way and steps forward (again, so gracefully--how does she do that?), frowning. "It's not that bad babe. Doesn't even hurt."
"I know, but you're still hurt," she replies, sinking down onto her knees beside the bathtub. She smooths her hands over her skirt and then folds them patiently in her lap. "You're sturdy, I know that." Sturdy, huh? Wow. Romantic. Asami notices that Korra's biting her tongue to keep from laughing and rolls her eyes. "You know what I mean. You can take a lot."
Little drops of water drip from Korra's arm as she lifts it to rest on the side of the tub, fingers wiggling a little. They're already pruny. She winks. "Yeah, so can you. If you know what I mean." She barks out a laugh as Asami smacks her arm gently. "What--take a joke, Asami!"
"You are absolutely the worst at flirting." Asami's fingers curl around Korra's wrist, and she looks up at her as she rests her chin on the porcelain. "And I dated Mako."
"So did I, remember? Who'daya think I learned it from?" She adjusts her arm a little so she's tangling her fingers with Asami's. "Wanna hop in? Come on, I know you want to. You're such a neat freak"--Okay, not a neat freak exactly (Lin Beifong--now that's a neat freak), but more like she...enjoys the finer things in life. Meaning that she's a total neat freak, case closed. "It's nice and warm."
Asami laughs quietly. She turns her head and rests her cheek on their joined hands. "As if the great Avatar Korra would ever take a cold bath," she mumbles, and the tiredness is weighing down her eyes. That makes two of them. Korra brings her spare hand from the water, lets it air-dry for a few moments, and hovers it over Asami's head of dark, thick hair. Slowly, Korra lowers her hand and begins stroking Asami's hair with as much gentleness as she can muster. Asami makes a soft sound of surprise before humming happily and snuggling her face further into the top of Korra's hand.
Outside in the violet, rose-tinted haze, the streetlights flicker in the place of stars