(A Korrasami Secret Santa for clarias-writes on Tumblr)

Korra's in a mood. I know something is up because a large snowball comes sailing through my window and hits me in the back of the head. Swiveling in my chair, I look out to see Korra standing beneath me. Her hands are over her head and a massive snowball is forming between them. I close the window just in time. After the snowball hits it, I peek my head back out. "Korra, you're asking for it! I won't be gentle!"

"Why don't you come down here and prove it? There's plenty of snow!" She claps her hands together and grins at me.

The challenge in her voice nearly throws me off and her cocky smirk could undo me if I stare at it too long. "Give me five minutes!"

I haven't played in the snow since I was little. I haven't been in a snowball fight… ever. There's this giddy excitement running through me and I might have giggled a little as I ran through my apartment. Which is entirely unprofessional and hardly befitting the CEO of a mega corporation like my own, but Korra just brings that out in me. I never got to have fun growing up, and Korra is just so amazing and so much fun.

A snowball fight against the Avatar, one from a water-tribe no less is a losing proposition. But lucky for me I'm kind of a genius and I have access to a lot of spare parts. I'm counting the seconds by the time I reach my garage, and start to put something a little special together.

At four-minutes and thirty seconds, I sneak out into the snow, and load up my new contraption. At five minutes, I squeeze the trigger and hit my friend in the back with an impressively sized snowball.

Korra flails as she lands face first in a snow-drift. The Avatar pushes herself up and turns around to stare at me. She has an incredulous look on her face. "That's cheating."

I give her a wave of my hand. "And using bending isn't?"

"I'm trying to play fair." She starts to form another snowball and flings it like the pro-bender she is. I dodge to the side, rolling behind a hedge and reloading my snow...blower. Snowblower. It blows snow.

I can hear her feet crunching on the snow, giving away her position. At least she isn't using airbending to silence her footsteps. I jump out to surprise her, only to get hit in the chest by a snowball. Korra bends another one behind me and I shoot blindly. I manage to clip her before I land on my back and she buries me in a small avalanche.

It's cold, and dark. If this were anyone else I'd be a little scared. But it's Korra, and I trust her with my life. Besides, I'm ready for her when she digs me back out. I grab her in a head lock and shove snow right down her pants.

Korra's shriek could wake the dead, but it's worth it.

I let go of the head lock, but I'm so cold at this point that I cling to her out of warmth.

"Asami, you're freezing!"

"You're the one with snow down your pants."

She grins and picks me up. "Cheater."

My stomach is doing flip flops. "Korra, put me down!" I don't really want her to, it's just hard to look her in the eyes because I'm pretty sure my face is as red as my clothing.

"Not until we get you inside and warmed up," she says. "I don't need you getting sick on me. Look at you, your face is burning up."

Korra carries me up the stairs, and I loop my arm around her neck and shoulders. There's no safe place for my other hand, so I just rest it against her chest. Her heart is racing from the exertion earlier, but I briefly pretend it's because she feels the same way I do. It took me a lot of time to realize I love her. I just keep putting off the inevitable rejection.

She finally sets me down and rubs her hands up and down my arms. "Which way is your bathroom?"

"First door on the left."

Taking my hand, Korra pulls me through my own apartment. When she gets a look at the size of my tub I think her eyes bug out a little bit. "Wow. There's enough room for two people, isn't there."

There's enough room for two people in this whole apartment, but now my mind can't shake the idea of sharing that tub with her. I'm good at keeping my composure, but I have to look … somewhere else. "I like having room."

Korra turns on the faucet and watches the water run. She gets distracted by a bottle on the sink and picks it up. "What's this?"

I unbutton my shirt and peel it off. "It's a special kind of soap. You pour it in and the water forms bubbles. It smells nice and is kind of fun."

She turns to me and the bottle slips in her hand. She catches it and stammers, "You're undressing?!"

"If I'm going to take a warm bath I can't do it while wearing clothing." Her reaction is cute and gives me some hope. I've been nursing this hope for awhile now, and every time I think I'm imagining things she does or says something that renews it. It also gives me this burning need to flirt. "You're welcome to join me. The tub is big enough for two and I did stuff snow down your pants."

Korra manages to drop the entire bottle into the tub. She stares as the bubbles rise higher and higher, then remembers herself and heats the water up. She turns the faucet off, glances at me, then quickly glances at the ceiling. "S-so it's all ready for you." Then, as if she's just remembering now, she waterbends the snow and wetness out of her clothing.

"Thank you." I climb into the tub. The water isn't too hot, and really is just right, but if I'm honest with myself, Korra already did a really great job of warming me up.

"I can...uhm." Korra spins her fingers around each other. "I should go. And I'm an idiot because I could have just bent the water out of your-"

"You're not an idiot, this was a really sweet gesture. Please, stay? We haven't had many chances to talk on our own."

Korra sits down next to the tub before I finish talking. Her hand slides over mine on the rim of the tub. She smiles bashfully, ducking her head. "Okay."

I lean out of the tub far enough to kiss her on the cheek. "Good."

The Avatar blushes, but she smiles like the sun. She threads our fingers together, and rests her chin on the edge of the tub. I reach over with my free hand, and stroke my thumb across her hair line, before dabbing some bubbles on her nose. She wrinkles her nose and swats at me. "So.. Uhm. Today was fun."

"Yeah, it was." My lips are still tingling from the contact with her cheek and I think maybe that was a mistake, because I want to do it again. I want the closeness, and the intimacy. I've craved it for a long time now.

"We should do it again sometime. But uhm. With dinner."

"You want to have a snowball fight with dinner?"

She smiles shyly, her normal confidence absent. "Maybe just the dinner part."

I must look shocked, because she waves her hands in a criss-cross motion. "Unless you don't want to I just thought-"

"No, no no it's okay! It's great! Just dinner. I'd really like that." And I take the leap and pray to the spirits I'm not reading this wrong. "It can be a date."

Korra laughs, a nervous sound, and I'm worried about all the blood that's rushing to her face. "It's a date. I know it won't be anything super fancy like you like to do but I think it'll be nice."

"Korra, you could take me to a street vendor and as long as it's the just two of us I'll be happy." I love the boys and everyone, I really do, but every time I manage to get Korra alone one or more of them show up. Today has been a special treat.

"It's better than a street vendor, promise."

"I can't wait!" Some of the excitement slips into my voice, and Korra notices. She grins at me, touching my cheek and I can't take my eyes away from hers. Is she leaning in? I can face a dozen men in unarmed combat, but the way the Avatar is looking at me is almost too much.

Fortunately (or not), my phone rings. She groans, sitting back. "Really?"

"Unplug it."

"Asami, what if it's important?"

"I finally get you alone for longer than an hour and I'm going to enjoy it, damn it!" I haul myself out of the tub and pad past Korra and into the other room. I rip the phone cord out of the wall, then turn to head back into the bathroom. It's freezing and I'm already regretting getting out of that tub.

Korra is staring at me, mouth agape. I cover myself, and slip back past her to grab a robe. Embarrassed, I hold it shut and stare intently at the wall. What an interesting pattern I picked out. "So how hungry are you?"

"Starving," she croaks. She stuffs her hands under her arms and stares at the floor with the same intensity as myself and the wall.

"I'm going to order something in." I move to fix my damage to the phone, but Korra's arm snakes around my waist and she pulls me against her. I lean against her. I don't want to move, or do anything but stay this close to her.

She hugs me, her face buried against my shoulder. Muffled, she says, "What do you want to do after we eat?"

"Sit on the couch. Kind of like this. We could listen to the radio and just…." I shift and slide my arms around her and press in closer. "Just like this."

Her hands jerk a little, rubbing at my back and side like she can't decide where it's safe to put them. "I'd really like that. You really want me alone, huh?"

I look down at her face and she's waggling her eyebrows at me. "So much for the moment."

She laughs, and leans up. It's the briefest touch, a kiss that's more a promise than anything else, but it's enough. "I hope we'll have a lot of moments."

Me too. But I know I'll treasure this one more than most.