Korra opened her eyes lazily, slamming an open palm down on her alarm clock. She rolled over with a groan, shutting her eyes once again.
"Just a few more minutes," she pleaded with the open air. Unfortunately for her, the sun was not amused with her pleas, shining brightly at just the right angle to catch her eyes. Korra huffed and threw the blanket off of herself. Muttering curses underneath her breath about the "stupid sun" and "how are people happy this early", she sat up and pawed at her half lidded eyes. Finally getting her eyes to fully open and focus, Korra was startled at the surroundings in the bedroom.
This isn't her room.
She quickly scanned the environment and furrowed her brows. Not one of these things belonged to her, right down to the shape of the damn room. Did she get kidnapped? Did somebody poison her? Was this a dream? Okay Korra, don't freak out. The young Avatar swung her feet over the bed and quickly shuffled to the bathroom to wash her face. What she saw in the mirror sucked the breath right out of her lungs. No fucking way. As soon as she realized she could breathe was as soon as she unleashed a blood curdling screech.
Korra leaned forward to examine more closely. This body did not belong to her. Not the long black hair, not the freckle underneath her eye, not the fair skin, none of it. This all belonged to Kuvira. Why was she here in this body? She shook her head. Maybe she should just call her own phone and figure this out with Kuvira, who she assumed would be sharing her body. She fumbled back into the bedroom and searched for Kuvira's phone, feeling every muscle move in ever so unfamiliar ways. Korra had been through some wild, unspeakable things, but she had to say, swapping bodies with her former enemy slash she didn't even know anymore, was one of the more unsettling. It was terrifying to her, having her spirit and consciousness in a foreign temple.
"Aha!" she cried out, clicking the phone to life only to be met with a passcode entry screen. "No!" Korra sighed angrily and racked her brain for any ideas of what Kuvira's phone passcode could possibly be.
Kuvira, however, was behind the wheel of Korra's car, swiping at the tears falling from her currently blue eyes. She rolled down the windows and clutched the steering wheel, desperately trying to regain some sense of emotional stability. She had been up far before Korra had even dreamed of waking up, and the only thing she knew was that she needed to get back to her. Kuvira can feel the eyes of the street staring at her. They all thought she was the Avatar, and it quickly began spreading through the streets that Avatar Korra was having a total meltdown in her car.
She heaved and brushed the back of her hand against her nose. "I'm sorry, Korra. I didn't mean to make you look like a total wimp."
Saying that out loud caused her to cry even more, just imagining how embarrassing it must seem to outsiders. I'm not Korra! It's Kuvira! The wind danced with her hair wildly as she continued to make her way back to her home, where she hoped Korra had stayed put or was still asleep. She could hear the phone ringing but made no move to pick it up. This wasn't something a simple phone call could fix. She had to see Korra and she had to see her now.
The gas pedal underneath her foot sunk lower and she was surprised there were no sirens squealing unforgivingly behind her. She certainly was nowhere near the speed limit anymore. Her thoughts seemed to suffocate her even more as she saw herself getting closer to where Korra should be, inhabiting her body.
Korra frantically tapped her number again, only to be met with the all too familiar voicemail greeting. She wanted so badly to hurl the phone across the room, instead settling for slamming her fist into Kuvira's firm bed again, and again, and again.
"Come on! Pick up the phone!" She threw long black hair out of her face and decided she couldn't wait any longer. She was going to go find Kuvira herself. She began to tear through the closet for something to wear and found herself in a mess of earth tones. "Wow, you really take the whole earth thing to heart." She settled for a pine green half sleeve shirt and some khakis, searching next for where the hell this woman kept her shoes.
She looked everywhere; the corner of the closet, underneath the bed, next to her desk and was welcomed to a world without shoes. Maybe by the front door. She left the bedroom, determined to find some damn shoes. She slowed herself to look around, taking in the quaint apartment that Kuvira had sparsely decorated. It was very well kept and organized, as neat as the bun she always tied her hair in. Korra smiled, forgetting for just a moment that she was in another woman's body and instead admiring how well Kuvira's living space matched her clean cut personality. She eventually brought herself back down to earth, remembering the mission she had assigned herself: shoes. She found them by the front door, as she suspected, and threw them on in a fury. She growled as she pushed back the obnoxiously long hair once again.
"I need a hair tie," Korra grumbled, hands searching through drawers and miscellaneous bowls for something that could tame her currently unruly hair. "How do you do this?" Fumbling with having Kuvira's long hair gave Korra a new appreciation for the way she decided to keep it short. She was about to move to the bathroom when her search was interrupted by a frenzied pounding on the door. Maybe it's her. The moment her hand left the last lock, she found herself avoiding being hit with a swinging door.
Baffled by seeing her own body from the outside, Korra hardly noticed the door slamming shut. She was too busy examining what she must look like to others when she's panic-stricken. There were tear stains and wide, puffy blue eyes staring back at her as Kuvira made a poor attempt at catching her breath. Instead, she burst into another fit of tears, moving Korra to place a hand of concern on her shoulder.
"Hey, what's wrong? Other than the obvious, you know..." Korra trailed off, gesturing between the two of them. That much was understood unspoken from miles away. Kuvira didn't answer. She grabbed a hand and began pulling Korra back to the bedroom, making swift movements which left Korra stumbling ungraciously after her. Korra's request of slowing down was met only with quick, soft footsteps coming to a halt at the foot of the bed.
"Do you mind telling me what this is about?" Korra asked again, retracting her hand. She waited expectantly, watching uncertainly as Kuvira turned around. She began to rid herself of the shirt she was wearing, leaving her bare and shaking slightly. Korra stood in shock, not knowing how to react to her own half naked body from the outside, still without reason. Kuvira continued, shakily stripping her bottoms and underwear off until she stood entirely exposed in front of the Avatar. Pained tears flowed steadily and she locked eyes with Korra.
"How many?" Kuvira asked lowly. Korra stuttered and struggled to gather a complete thought.
"W-what?" she asked in reply, staring at the naked body in front of her. Kuvira lifted both arms and turned them, beginning to point to old scars that scattered Korra's warm brown skin.
"How many?" she asked again, choking on a tear and then hiccuping. She kept running her fingers over the scars she could see, and tried to feel the ones she couldn't.
"I'm... I'm not sure what you're asking." Kuvira let out a breath of frustration and aggressively grabbed Korra by the shoulders, startling the other woman.
"God damn it, Korra! How many of these are from me?!" she screamed, inches from the other's face. Tears flowed even faster and her face twisted into something Korra couldn't fully decipher. Something like guilt, something like pain, something that feels hidden. Korra's face fell as she held Kuvira, who was slowly crumbling to the floor. Deafening sobs filled the space between and around them. "How many are from me?"
Korra, for once, was left speechless. She truly wasn't sure of the answer, but she could feel the pain of it even being just one. All she could do now was hold the other woman, gently reaching for a blanket to cover her up.
"I'm sorry, Korra. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Kuvira whispered repeatedly, desperately wanting the Avatar to understand that she never meant to hurt her. She never meant to become so twisted and drunk on power all those years ago. She never meant to leave such a permanent physical mark on the woman she'd been in love with since the moment she laid eyes on her.
She cradled into Korra, wishing to return to her own body, her own temple, so she could properly worship Korra's. Korra needed to know.