Korra yawned, fingers tapping against the new silk sheets she'd thrown over the bed. Flower petals danced as her fingers thrummed. The fresh candles filling their bedroom were guttered and flickering, and she'd long since given up holding a sultry pose—it strained her back after the first hour.
Of course Asami would work late today. Stupid multinational conglomerate, making demands of the Avatar's wife when she'd set up a special night! In fact, what time was it?
She grunted a little, kicking her bare legs off the bed and glancing at the clock. Two minutes to eight. With a sigh, she stood, padding out into the living room to stand by the phone, fidgeting in the frilly underwear she'd spent the last week parading around in privately, to accustom herself enough not to blush. The filmy negligee that covered her was more of a pretense than a proper garment—but it was something else for Asami to take off of her. Which sounded very fun indeed.
If she ever got home.
At eight o'clock, sharp, the phone rang. “Long day?” Korra answered, preemptively.
Asami agreed with something that wasn't quite a word and wasn't quite a groan. Korra could picture the face she must be making. “There was an accident in the Harbor City dockyard involving one of our ships. Nobody was seriously hurt, but everybody is scrambling to throw blame around and nobody is actually solving problems.”
From the tone of her voice, it sounded like Asami had been on the phone constantly, and had spent much of the time trying to reach through and strangle someone. “Sounds intense. Everything starting to get under control at least? Think you'll be home soon?”
“Ugh... I don't know. I've got another call with the harbormaster in a few minutes, but it figures this would happen on a day when I had to start extra-early. I'm probably going to hit a point where I'm too tired to do anybody any good. Tenni will be sure to send me home then.”
Asami's assistant was Korra's biggest ally in protecting Asami from herself like that. “If you get that bad, you'll have somebody drive you, right?”
“I promise,” Asami sighed. “Did you eat?”
Korra glanced at the untouched meal she'd laid out by their bed, the food now cold and the wine now warm. “Yeah, I scrounged around the kitchen. Want me to have something ready for you?”
“Tenni force-fed me an hour or two ago. I'll be fine.”
Korra wanted to give her wife a hug. Or a back rub. Or a long kiss, leading into a long, sensual... but no, that evening was dashed. “Alright then. I'll let you get back to work.”
“You won't wait up for me, will you? You don't need to.”
“Only if you promise you'll wake me when you get home.”
“Alright,” Asami replied, audibly rolling her eyes. “Love you.”
“Love you too.” They hung up together.
Korra looked around the apartment, at the dozens of candles in their bedroom, and sighed.
–
For once, Asami eschewed the stairs, trudging past the building's janitorial night staff and into the elevator and blearily pushing the button for her floor. The drive home—as a passenger, galling as that was—had been short, given the lack of traffic at this hour. Even so, she'd nodded off.
She got to her floor, happy to let her feet carry her home without direct conscious instruction, and startled herself a little at the door. She should have gotten her keys out on the way. Why hadn't she thought of that? And why did she have so many?
Finally, finally, she got her door opened and stepped into her home. The apartment was as dark as it ever got, considering the view of the spirit portal from their balcony. Plenty of room to navigate in, to reach the table and deposit her bag, to reach the coat rack and fail to hang her coat. She kicked one shoe off, tossing it aside, then stumbled at her uneven steps toward the bedroom, one shoulder dragging along the wall as she struggled out of the shoe. She regained her footing as she reached the bedroom.
Korra was fast asleep in a ruffled tank top and sweats, her legs wrapped around a pillow, her back toward the doorway. Asami had just enough presence of mind to set her remaining shoe beside the door—they worked hard to keep the bedroom tidy, and it was as spotless as ever. She wouldn't be the one to mess that up, no matter how tired she was. Even if it did feel wrong to leave one shoe unpaired like that, but oh well.
With that, Asami was officially, utterly out. She didn't even bother washing her face, as much as she'd scold herself for that in the morning. She unclasped her bra under her shirt, slid onto the bed, and wrapped her arm around her wife.
Korra stirred, not truly waking, but found Asami's hand and twined their fingers together. She made a slight happy noise in her throat, before drifting back into oblivion.
Asami smiled, briefly, and joined her.