Smile
Katara hadn’t needed to see Korra bend to know she was the Avatar. She’d just had to smile. That bright, crooked grin was all Katara needed to see. And she’d smiled a lot back then. She’d been so happy. Senna still missed those days sometimes. When it had been the three of them in the little lodge outside of town, and her daughter hadn’t carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. Then they had come in the night and torn the world apart at the seams. Korra hadn’t smiled so much after that. She’d been so homesick the first few weeks at the compound, and even Katara’s familiar presence hadn’t been much comfort. Things had gotten better though, eventually. She’d started smiling again. She’d been happy. Even when it had all gone to hell she’d got through it. She’d made friends. She’d dated, and Senna had had to laugh as Tonraq immediately became the over protective father of every potential suitor’s nightmares, despite the fact his little girl was the most powerful individual on the planet. And then the Red Lotus had come back and stolen even more from her daughter.
Korra had stopped smiling after that.
They had tried everything they could. Love and patience and time, as their daughter collapsed inwards. Her smile didn’t come back with her strength. She’d just learned to fake it. The closest Senna got to see was a glimmer of it the day she set out to return to Republic City, and the feeling of hopefulness had lasted only until Tonraq questioned why she’d left Naga behind.
It had been eight months before she saw her daughter again.
The news had reached them but they’d set sail too late. Too late for the battle. And even though they knew waht had happened, had spoken to Korra on the radio, it was easy to imagine the worst as they drew close to the city. And then the little speck that Senna had taken to be a bird had started spiralling down towards them, turning into a figure with a glider. Korra landed lightly on the deck.
To say they were stunned at the change in her from when they had last seen each other would be putting it mildly. She’d left for the north ambulatory but hollow-eyed, distant. This Korra was so very, very alive. Her eyes sparkled, her laugh rang out as she lifted her father bodily in a hug without the aid of her avatar side, showing off the muscle she had regained. She could have almost been the same Korra who had first left for Republic City those years ago.
“Your hair...” Senna began, but Korra pretty much crushed the air out of her as she embraced her in turn, and Senna couldn’t have cared less if Korra had shaved her entire head.
Well, maybe she would have cared just a little.
The island was thrumming with activity. It was hard for Senna and Tonraq to follow Korra’s simultaneous explanations of where she’d been in the missing six months and what had just happened. They did pick up one thing though.
“There was still poison inside you?”
Korra nodded.
“Is that why...” Tonraq began and Korra paused on the stairs.
“I think we all know it was more than that,” she said frankly. “But I’m doing better now.”
In hindsight Senna should really have put it together that night, when she stepped out of the room they had been given to see Asami Sato stood in the doorway of her daughter’s room, with a small rucksack hanging from one shoulder.
“I tried going back to the mansion,” she began, but she didn’t finish before Korra was telling her not to worry, to come in, and the door was shut behind her. But she didn’t. Not yet, at least.
It was at the post wedding party that Senna saw them, sat alone together on the steps looking out at the city. It was a long while before they rejoined the party and when they did so they were both smiling a little shyly, and in Senna’s brain the wheels began to turn.
She wouldn’t have called it spying. She didn’t hide it. Neither did they. There wasn’t anything tangible, just a closeness. A certain quickness to smile. When Korra came to tell her and Tonraq that she was taking a break, trying desperately to assure them that she wasn’t going to vanish this time, Senna couldn’t even pretend to be surprised to learn Asami was going with her.
It was several months later when Senna found herself stood out on one of the palace balconies with Tonraq, watching the approaching figure of Naga in the distance.
“Do you think they’ll tell us this time?” She asked Tonraq. He nodded.
“I think so.”
“It’d be about bloody time,” Senna mock-griped, but she couldn’t keep it up. “You know, out of all them? I think I’d have chosen her.”
“No making moves on our daughter’s girlfriend,” Tonraq scolded. Senna rolled her eyes. “I’m going to go down and bank up the fire in the lodge, you know how cold Asami gets.”
“I’ll be right down,” Senna told him. She didn’t go though. She stayed, watching Naga bounding closer. She watched her daughter help Asami down from the saddle, kissing her at the foot of the palace steps, and when she took Asami by the hand and led her up towards the doors Senna could see it. That smile.