Unread Message
Three years before
7am, Friday
Asami: I saw the news.
Asami: I
Asami: I don’t know what to say
Asami: I know that we don’t really know each other.
Asami: But I’ve enjoyed talking with you so much this last year.
Asami: And I just...
Asami: I’m so sorry, Korra.
Asami: If you need anything
Asami: Someone to talk to
Asami: I’m here for you.
Asami: I don’t even know if you’ll read this.
Asami: I mean, I imagine you have no shortage of friends and family around you right now.
Asami: And I’m likely the bottom of the proverbial barrel.
Asami: But I’m here all the same
Asami: If there is anything I can do, anything at all, please just ask.
11 pm, Sunday
Asami: I hope someone shows you all the tribute pages
Asami: [link]
Asami: [link]
Asami: [link]
Asami: [link]
Asami: Not even the tip of the iceberg.
Asami: You’ve got so many people rooting for you.
Asami: You’re going to get through this. I know it.
Asami: You’re going to be ok.
Asami: You’re a hero, you know that?
Asami: Which means you get the girl and get to ride off into the sunset
Asami: Fundamental law of the universe.
Asami: You don’t want to let the universe down, do you?
1am, Monday
Asami: I didn’t mean to make that sound like an accusation. I just...
Asami: I wish I could do something.
Asami: The news says you’re still critical.
Asami: Life-changing injuries.
Asami: I can’t imagine what you must be going through.
Asami: And your family...
Asami: The universe is a fucked up place.
Asami: This should never have happened.
Asami: It’s just so unfair.
6 pm, Wednesday
Asami: The girl was on the news today. I hope they recorded it for you.
Asami: I hope you get to meet her.
Asami: You’re her hero.
Asami: In every way possible.
11 pm, Saturday
Asami: The match was supposed to be tonight.
Asami: They had a tribute show instead.
Asami: A fundraiser.
Asami: It raised enough to build half a hospital in one night.
Asami: That’s all you, Korra. That’s what you bring out in people.
Asami: You make the world a better place.
Asami: It needs more people like you.
Asami: It needs you.
Asami: I need you.
[Error: Message Not Sent]
8 pm, Tuesday
Asami: I wish I knew how you were doing.
6 am, Thursday
Asami: Hey Korra, why do golfers have two pairs of trousers?
Asami: In case they get a hole in one!
10 am, Monday
Asami: Raiko is such a tool.
Asami: Trying to milk what happened to you for his own ends.
Asami: Slimy git.
Asami: I hope every campaign poster with his great ugly mug on gets shat on by seagulls.
4 pm, Wednesday
Asami: Has anyone actually tried to butter the back of a cat and drop it?
Asami: You know, for science.
3 pm, Thursday
Asami: The legal department have advised against looking into the mechanics and/or terminal velocity of felines and dairy products.
Asami: Scientific progress is always held back by the small minded
3 am, Saturday
Asami: fUck politcansss and theyr stupid partys
Asami: Getit?
Asami: Parties? Like they hae parties and their in partys??
Asami: Fuck you, im hilarious
Asami: and Raijo’ss parities suck. On both cunts.
Asami: leest his booze is fee
3 pm Saturday
Asami: my head will not stop hurting
10 pm Monday
Asami: Who the hell looked at the komodo rhino and said “yeah, I’m going to sit on that”?
Asami: Who thought that could possibly end well??
6 pm, Wednesday
Asami: I was so bored in the board meeting today I may have accidentally designed a jetpack
Asami: As in I may have actually got round the ‘set your own legs on fire’ issue.
Asami: Which is a whole new level of procrastination.
Asami: I’ve looped all the way back round to being productive
8 pm, Friday
Asami: So a turtleduck waddles into a bar...
[Incoming video call from Korra: Accept/Decline?]
Asami stared at the calling image, sure her mind was playing tricks on her. She hit accept. The picture burst to life.
“Ok, sweetheart, there we go,” came a muffled voice from out of shot as the camera jerked around, getting blurry snippets of a hospital room before finally settling on her. On Korra.
Asami had expected her to look unwell. She hadn’t been prepared for this. It was as if any trace of vitality had been drained from her. There were dark shadows under her eyes, the harsh hospital lighting making her appear almost skeletal in the low quality image. She was still using a canula, the thin plastic tube running under her nose, and there were tubes and wires disappearing under the neck of her hospital gown. But she was there.
“Hey, Asami,” Korra managed, her voice sounding rough and weak. It sounded like poetry.
“Hey,” Asami echoed.
“How are you...”
“Please,” Korra cut across her, and there was something like a shadow that passed across her wan face. “Just...” The pause was long enough for Asami to wonder if the screen had frozen. Korra finally spoke again, a faint pleading tone to her voice. “I can’t, ‘Sami. Not now. Please. Can we just...can we just talk? Just us? Like this isn’t...like this is any other day?”
“Of course.” Asami agreed at once, and Korra looked so grateful it hurt. “So. Turtleduck walks into a bar...”
The effort it took for Korra just to talk, even to listen, was painfully obvious. Asami found herself trying to slow down, to simplify her sentences to make them easier to follow without sounding like a patronising jackass as she veered from anecdote to bad joke to small scrap of news. It didn’t make much difference. She could see Korra falling asleep right in front of her and the other voice in the room could see it to.
“Korra. I think it’s time to say goodnight.” Came the gentle but firm suggestion, all too soon for Asami’s liking. And apparently Korra’s too, going by her protesting tone.
“Mum, I only...”
“You need your rest, sweetheart. I’m sure Asami will understand.”
Asami was bitterly disappointed but she did her best not to let it show.
“Of course. It’s wonderful to hear from you. I can call back tomorrow if you like?” Asami offered, trying to make it seem casual. Korra looked slightly mollified by the offer. “Is there a good time?”
“My timetable is rather full with lying in bed, but I’m sure I can squeeze you in.”
“To your timetable, or your bed?” Asami joked, forgetting that Korra’s mother was in the room. Korra chuckled.
“Sadly I think for now we’ll have to settle for my timetable. Can...Can I call you? When I wake up?”
“Any time. Any time at all.” Asami reassured her. Korra yawned, nearly dislodging her canula. Asami knew it would be selfish to keep her any longer, no matter how much she craved to. “Get some sleep, Korra. We’ll speak in the morning.”
The laptop was moved away again. Asami watched the other figure, presumably Korra’s mother, pulling the blankets up to Korra’s chin before pressing a quick kiss to Korra’s forehead. It looked like she was already beginning to doze off. Asami could see a little more of the room from this angle. Could see the cluster of machines at the side of the bed, IVs and monitors, trailing wires and tubes. And then the camera was moving once more. It settled this time on a figure now sat in the bedside chair, and even if Asami had not known already there was no way this woman could have been anything other than Korra’s mother. The family resemblance was striking.
“I’ll be honest,” Asami found herself saying. “Of all the ways I had expected us to be introduced this...this wasn’t one of them.”
Senna inclined her head in agreement. The silence stretched between them.
“Can...can I ask?” Asami said hesitantly. “I mean, if she doesn’t want me to know...” She swallowed. “I’ve seen the news reports. Are they right?”
Senna sighed. She looked almost as tired as her daughter, who she looked over to before answering.
“It’s hard for her to say it.” It didn’t look like Senna found it any easier. Asami just waited. And finally Senna told her.
Asami’s brain felt like it was full of white noise. Her hand clenched involuntarily over her own sternum. Her other went to her mouth.
“Over a thousand.” Senna said, dragging Asami back to earth. Asami blinked, clearing her watery eyes.
“I’m sorry?”
“Over a thousand. You’ve sent her over a thousand messages since...since it happened. Commiserations and sympathy and news and jokes and just...this veritable tidal wave of communication. Like you were screaming into the abyss. And you didn’t ask for anything. You didn’t...you just offered it all up.”
Asami waited for the judgement.
“Miss Sato...”
“Call me Asami, please.”
“Asami. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t really understand this,” She waved vaguely at the laptop. “This internet...” She fumbled for the right word to describe exactly what Asami and Korra had but there wasn’t one. “...thing. But thank you. Thank you, so much.”
Asami hadn’t been expecting that.
“You made her laugh.”
It was a simple thing but Senna made it sound like she’d found the Holy Grail.
“You actually made her laugh. After all this... you managed to make her laugh. Got her to smile. To make a joke. Asami, I haven’t seen her smile since she woke up and you just...just by answering a call, you brought that out of her.” Senna sniffed. “I might not understand how it works but you bring my daughter some comfort, some happiness in the face of all this. So thank you. Consider this my official seal of approval. I just wish it could have been given under better circumstances.”
“So do I.”