Asami stepped outside, her feet crunching on the snow that covered the grounds of the Sato mansion. Her gloved fingers brushed over the surface of the note they held.
Asami meet me outside at noon! Dress warm. –Korra
She stepped down from the stairs and began to roam the grounds looking for her best friend. She made her way to one of the lower tiers, following a set of footprints she assumed was Korra's. She ended up approaching a patch of pristine, untouched patch of snow, save for a snowman standing in the middle of it. The strange thing was that the prints didn't reach the snowman, they just stopped.
"Korra?" Asami looked around confused. She reread the note and checked her watch just to be sure it was the correct time and then walked over to the snowman to take a closer look at it. The segments of the body were perfectly spherical and the pebbles making up its mouth were unnaturally identical. Someone definitely used bending for this Asami thought to herself. What's more the snowman had Korra's pelt draped around its 'neck'. After a few moments she got bored of admiring the creature and began to walk away in search of the missing Avatar. She walked a few meters away when she heard a sound behind her and turned her head back. The snowman was following her.
"Ha-ha Korra very funny. Where are you?" she said loudly, the sarcasm palpable, although she couldn't help the smile that rose on her face. She quirked an eyebrow and made her way back to the snowman showing her hand through it. She expected to catch Korra in her grasp, fully assuming that she was hiding in it, what she didn't expect was a bunch of snow shoved down the back of her jacket.
"KORRA!" Asami screeched.
Korra's laughter was almost louder than her screaming. Asami arched her back and tried to get the snow out, failing miserably as it melted down the curve of her spine almost immediately, warming up from her body heat. All of the sudden she bent down to grab a handful of snow and threw it in Korra's direction, catching the waterbender off-guard and nailing her right in the face. Korra sputtered wiping the snow off her cheeks and eyes, and Asami took the opportunity to hide behind the pile of snow that was a snowman a few moments ago. She began to make as many snowballs as she could before looking around the side of her hiding spot. Asami saw Korra bend a small wall of snow and cover behind it.
"Asami we both know how this war is going to end!" Asami heard Korra shout to her.
"Well I do, do you?" Asami snickered as her pile of ammunition kept growing. She ignored the numbness that pulled at her fingertips from the cold and slowly peeked out again. A snowball flew by her head and she saw Korra pulling her arm back to throw another. Wasting no time she mimicked her enemy and threw the snowball in Korra's direction.
Snowballs flew through the air, mingling with the sound of laughter and joyous shrieks. The once untouched field of snow was soon reduced to trampled patches and mounds of white.
Asami hid behind her defense wall, savoring a moment catch her heaving breath and to blow warm air into her palms. She rubbed them together hoping to bring some feeling back into her numb fingers. When that proved to be futile she once again made a snowball and using all her left over energy jumped over her barricade planning to make one final assault on the Avatar. Only the Avatar vanished with any evidence of her snow fort. It was like she was never there. Asami tensed and started to carefully thread through the snow, constantly looking behind her back, straining to listen for Korra's movements. She noticed a subtle movement out of the corner of her eye, a patch of 'undisturbed' snow shifted ever so slightly.
Asami smirked and pretended to not notice Korra the 'ninja' as she made her way to the spot. As soon as she was close enough to the hiding Korra, the Avatar sprung up, intending to tackle Asami into the snow, but Asami was prepared. She sidestepped as Korra sailed past her, her face shocked that she was outsmarted, and landed on the ground with a mouthful of snow. Asami didn't think twice before jumping on top of Korra in a tackle and declaring victory.
"I totally kicked your ass!" Asami said into Korra's ear as she rested on top of her, her chin resting on top of her frozen arms.
"You cheated," Korra replied after getting the snow out of her eyes.
"How did I cheat?"
"I don't know, I couldn't see cause I was hiding under the snow!" Korra said in fake annoyance.
"Well you did a bad job of it, since I found you so easily, didn't you."
Korra flipped over onto her back, effectively throwing Asami off of her as they both lay in the snow looking up in the sky. The sun was shining brightly and the glare from the white was getting to be too much for their eyes to handle, but Asami didn't care because in that moment she felt peaceful. They lay there quietly; the only sound was their breathing slowly returning to normal, but after a few minutes of rest Asami could no longer ignore just how cold she was.
"This was fun, but I think I'm getting frostbite," she said chuckling lightly.
"We should probably get you back inside then," Korra turned to face her and grinned, "I don't know if my water-healing can reattach limbs."
"Then we should probably get up right?"
"Yeah, we probably should."
Their eyes lingered on each other's and neither made the motion to stand. Their faces were mere inches apart, and Asami's breath hitched when Korra began to move closer to her. She didn't know what to do, should she lean in too, or was she misinterpreting this, but what if she wasn't and Korra would think she didn't want this, a million thoughts raced through her mind, but her body was frozen, only partially from the cold. All thought left her when Korra's lips touched hers, and pure instinct took over. Her hand grasped Korra's neck and pulled her in closer, while her other one snaked around the Avatar's back, holding her tightly against herself. She lost herself in their embrace, the feeling of coldness forgotten, the frigid snow creeping up her jacket unnoticed. All that existed in that moment was Korra, and her perfect lips, and her strong arms.
Korra pulled away, resting her forehead on Asami's, both breathless. "Was that ok?" Korra's voice was soft.
"Yes, it was perfect."
After several moments Korra stood up and held out her hand to the shivering Asami. Asami took it and immediately felt Korra's toasty-warm palm heat up her own. She wrapped herself around Korra's arm and they began to make their way back. Asami was almost sad when they reached her home because Korra let go of her and began to hang up her soaked jacket. Asami followed her lead and shed the cold, wet coat and gloves.
"So what now?" Asami asked, her shivering slowly subsiding as the heat of the parlor surrounded her.
"Now we go have some nice and warm cocoa," Korra said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. She expertly bent the water out of their clothes, and took Asami's hand as they walked inside together.