The Bridge (Part 1)

“It’s so amazing here.” Asami sighed  as her lovestruck gaze fell upon Korra. She rolled over with a satisfied sigh, letting the speckled rays of the afternoon sun, passing through the flowering spring trees, warm her lithe, naked body, glowing with a thin sheen of post orgasmic perspiration while a blissful smile curled the corners of her crimson lips.

“Yeah...” Korra hesitantly resounded with downcast eyes as she seemed lost in her own thoughts.

“Is something wrong?” the beautiful green-eyed, woman asked, concerned. 

“No…no…” Korra began, before reluctantly picking up her azure gaze from the forest floor to meet Asami’s, “These past few weeks with you have been great!”

“But?” she fixed Korra with an expression of anticipatory disappointment as she sat up and her hands found their way to her hips in a sassy huff.

“Nothing!”

“Don’t do that.” Asami sniped.

“Do what?!”

“That thing you do, when you really want to say something, but don’t because you’re afraid of how I’ll react.”

“Who do you take me for? Mako?” Korra chuckled.

“At LEAST MAKO is honest with HIMSELF!”

“Whatever.” Korra sat up, visibly agitated before she began putting on her clothes with an aggravated sigh before Asami grabbed her hand and she pulled away.

“Korra!”

“Look, Asami. I didn’t want to do this here… the spirit world is sensitive to our emotions-”

“Oh you think I didn’t notice when the stars rained from the sky and the flowers bloomed with spiritual energy when we made love?”

Korra slowly shook her head with a sigh, before handing Asami her own clothing.

“I think we should go home.”

“What? Just- all of a sudden?! Is that why you’ve been so moody lately?! IS THIS ABOUT MAKO?!” the irate woman shouted before snatching on her pants and bomber jacket.

“WHAT?! NO! Why would you even bring him into this?!”

“JUST SPIT IT OUT ALREADY!”

“I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE!”

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!”

“Look, I didn’t want to do this here!” Korra started, before a distant thunder rumbled and the sky began to darken. “It’s not that I don’t love you - I do...but...I’m just a little confused...is all… I don’t know if… I’m...”

“Korra, we’ve talked about this! If it feels right, why are you so worried about anyone else’s opinion? No matter who you love, you’re still the Avatar. You’re allowed to love whoever you love.”

“Love isn’t the issue Asami… Look, I love it when we’re together, you make me so happy and no one could ever replace you, but I’m just...confused...and It’s not because of Mako or my feelings for anyone else, but I’m just starting to feel like...maybe we should take a break…”

“REALLY?!?!” she spat the word like venom as she slapped Korra across the face in a fit of rage and tears welled in her jade orbs “YOU’RE BREAKING UP WITH ME!? AFTER EVERYTHING WE SHARED?!” Asami shrieked in a fit of hysterics, crying as her flailing arms swatted at the Avatar, who barely defended herself as the sky turned cold with bitter storm clouds and lightning closing in overhead.

“Asami, please,” she muttered, as she grabbed hold of the furious woman’s dainty wrists in an attempt to calm her “ You, of all people, should understand that my destiny takes precedence over our worldly desires. I DO love you...I’m just- After everything that’s happened, I don’t want to lose you as a friend,-but I can’t keep pretending to be someone I’m not!”

“Pretending?!?! FUCK YOU, KORRA!” she shrieked before shoving Korra to the ground, turning tail and running off into the spirit wilds sobbing hysterically.

“ASAMI!” Korra shouted, scrambling to her feet at once to run after her, calling out “ ASAMI, PLEASE, LET’S JUST GO HOME WHERE IT’S SAFE AND WE’LL-”

Just as she ran through a patch of bushes, the forest brush gave way beneath her feet and Korra fell into a cavernous underground pit, with just enough time to airbend and cushion her fall into a hard thud that continued as she rolled deeper down the steep steppe, grasping for any type of cliff or vegetation that would slow her tumbling descent to certain death, if she couldn’t regain hold of her footing.

As she bounced to the edge of the bottom of the deep cave, she caught glimpse of a temple’s facade carved into the face of a sandstone cliffside across a wide crevasse of immeasurable depth that awaited her at the edge.

As she rolled over the edge, she was barely able to kick off the vertical face with a fire blast from her heels that shot her across the vast chasm, nearly falling into its maw and barely grasping the edge of the other side that left her dangling at the precipice of the mysterious temple cliffside.

As she climbed up, she rolled onto her back, winded, bruised and bloody; her arms covered her crying eyes, thinking the worst of what might have become of Asami.
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“Hey Asami! How was your trip?” Mako looked up from his desk with a smile as Asami slammed his office door behind her, gripped him by his collar and kissed him desperately.

“Whoa! Wait- WHAT?” he stuttered, confused. “Asami- Waitaminute!”

The woman clawed at his police uniform with such fervor, through thick, breathless kisses, he had to physically pin her arms to her sides before he could back away enough to  get a word in.

“What is going on here?! Where is Korra?”

“UGH! WHAT ABOUT KORRA!? I’M SO TIRED OF EVERYTHING ALWAYS BEING ABOUT HER!” she screamed, before she was overtaken again with sobs that shook her entire body and threw herself into Mako’s Arms.

“Asami…” Mako began, his face in shock, as Chief Beifong, roused by the commotion stopped in front of his office door window to see the trainwreck of a scene unfolding, before throwing up her hands and deciding, instead, not her problem. “Asami, what happened?”

“Korra broke up with me…” she sobbed into his shoulder.

“Ah…” he seemed at a loss for words as he embraced the crying woman with compassion. “I’m so sorry Asami…”

“I just feel so stupid! I don’t know why I believed she could care about anyone other than herself!”

“Hey now… You don’t mean that... “ he said, taking the sniffling beauty’s chin in his hand and raising her head. “You were both trying something new and I know this hurts now, but it’s not the end of the world, Asami. Though, I’ve never seen you like this…”

“I just thought about how many times she came between you and I - and after all I ever did for her... for “TEAM” Avatar- AFTER I FORGAVE ALL HER TRESPASSES AGAINST ME - I ACTUALLY LET MYSELF FALL IN LOVE WITH HER... SHE SAID SHE COULDN’T KEEP PRETENDING TO BE SOMEONE SHE WASN’T!” she scoffed “Like I was just some kind of experiment!”

“Asami…” Mako sighed, tightening his embrace round the fragile woman. “You’ll get through this. I’m here for you, you know that.”

“Thanks Mako…” she sniffled.

“If you’re like this Korra must be pretty upset… I bet she’s taken out half of downtown by now.” he chuckled jokingly.

“Maybe,” Asami shrugged “Last I saw her, she was still in the spirit world.”

“You left her ALONE?!” Mako’s tone suddenly became very serious.

“Why are you taking her side?!” she snatched away “She is the Avatar! She’ll never let you forget it! She can take care of herself!”

“Asami… Please. Go home and get some rest…” Mako sighed, before turning to grab his jacket when Asami stopped him.

“Come with me...please… I can’t stop thinking that if it weren’t for Korra-”

“Look, Asami. I know how you feel, but I can’t start to reconcile our relationship in good conscience before knowing that Korra is safe.”

Her eyes found the floor as he rushed out the door with a final comforting squeeze to her hand before saying.

“We’ll talk about this later, I promise.”
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“Whoa, that’s intense.” Bolin shook his head as Mako finished telling him the story while one busty model gently toweled his brow and another fed him cherries from a bowl as he lazed out in the summer sun next to the pool.

“Yeah, so I need you to come with me to the Spirit wilds to find Korra.”

“No can do, bro. I’m a real busy dude these days,” he flashed a cheeky smile as he peered over his superstar shades winking at a modelesque, bikini-clad brunette woman that walked by. “Besides, Korra can take care of herself.”

“I don’t know, Bolin. Usually I’d agree with you there, but thinking about how she must be feeling right now, combined with the fact that she’s in the spirit world is worrying me; and I just have a feeling in my gut that something’s wrong. I think she might need our help and it’s not like she can just call us on the phone.”

Bolin’s expression instantly changed to one of disdain.

“Bro, when do I get to start living my life for me?” he began, “Will there ever be a time when I can just enjoy the fortune of fame I’ve earned without there being some kind of world crisis to avert that doesn’t involve the Avatar?”

“Bolin!” Mako reprimanded. “She has saved us all more than a few times! The least we can do is make sure she’s safe!!”

“Sure...Alright.” Bolin gave in, reluctantly, before dismissing his fan girls with a wave of his hand.

“Thanks, Bo.”

“If I didn’t trust your instincts, I’d probably sit this one out,” Bolin admitted. “But you’re usually right about this kind of stuff anyway, which worries me.”
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<“I don’t think it’s worth going in there and getting trapped.”> the lost girl stood at the edge of the cave after throwing a stone into the darkness and hearing, after a 2 minute fall, a tiny echo of a splash.

<“I wouldn’t even be considering it, if I hadn’t had dreams about of this place for the past 2 years that led me here.”>

<“...I don’t know…”> she sighed.

<“You’re the only one who I ever told…”> the blond boy stood from his crouched position next to his best childhood friend. <“I just wanted you to know where to look, if anything should happen to me.”>

<“No, Sakura... I need you to go get help if I don’t come out after 24 hours…”>

<“A whole day!”> she scoffed

<“Kurama has led me to this place for a reason, so I don’t know what might happen, but I do know I need to do this alone…”>

She hugged him tightly before gently planting a kiss to his cheek, that caused him to blush furiously before a toothy grin lit up his face and he promised with a thumbs up,

<“I’ll be back before you know it, Sakura-chan, ya’know.”>

<“Be careful!”> she called out as he jumped into the mouth of the cavern, disappearing into it’s heavy, enveloping darkness all at once.