"Asami? Are you here?"

Korra called out through the large mansion.

"Asami?"

Still no answer. Korra made her way to the back warehouse. The engineer had probably got some idea and it sidetracked her for the past…..nine hours.

"Argh!"

Korra could hear Asami grunt, followed by distinct loud sounds. Was she moving machinery? More grunts and more thwaps and thumps. Curiously, Korra pushed open the door.

Asami was on the other side, but she wasn't fixing any machinery. She'd shed her mechanic's jacket, opting for just a plain tank top. She was barefoot, bouncing around a hanging punching bag. Asami ferociously hit it for a one-two combo with an uppercut.

"Hey?" Korra chanced.

"Korra," Asami beamed, halting her workout. "What are you doing here?"

"Uhh," Korra stammered dumbfounded, "I thought we were going to dinner?"

"That's not until six right?" Asami answered merrily.

"Well, yeah," Korra said cautiously, "but it's 6:15 right now."

"What?" Asami exclaimed, grabbing her watch from atop a bench. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!" She quickly pulled off her boxing gloves and began unwrapping her hands. "I'll go get cleaned up right now." She began running out of the workshop, but Korra grabbed her by the wrist.

"Hold on," Korra said, pulling Asami into her. She wrapped her arms around Asami's waist and tucked her face into Asami's neck. "Hmm, you smell delicious," she murmured. And she did. Asami was slightly sweaty, and combined with her normal flower scent, the musk was irresistible. She playfully stuck her tongue out, licking the sweat off Asami's neck.

"Ew Korra!" Asami cried, pushing her away. "I'm all gross! Give me fifteen minutes and we can go to dinner!"

Korra only laughed.

A week later, Korra found Asami immersed in another project. This time, she was working on a modified hand gun.

"So you shoot this at something, it'll hook onto it, and you can pull yourself up."

"Like the metalbenders?" Korra said, catching on.

"Exactly."

The week after that, Asami's workshop was assembled into an obstacle course. Korra walked into the warehouse, finding Asami hurdling over blocks, swinging from poles and sliding under fences. It was hot, Korra admitted out loud.

Another week, another day of finding Asami holed up in her workshop. This time, Asami was hunched over a bench, welding torch in hand.

"What's this?" she asked Asami.

The engineer held up a tiny object, no bigger than her finger. "It's a bomb!" she exclaimed excitedly.

When Korra raised an eyebrow silently, she continued, "You draw an outline of the whole you want to break, then place this device inside of it. It creates a controlled explosion within the space."

"Wow," Korra said, impressed.

The next time, Korra heard the loud explosions before she even reached the warehouse. She rushed to the back workshop, wondering what Asami was up to this time. She really hoped her girlfriend hadn't expanded on the pocket explosives idea.

"Goddamnit," Korra heard Asami yell right after another explosion. Korra threw the door open, expecting the worst.

What she found, however, was not what she was expecting. There was a ring of dummies arranged in a line, some in a far more "crispy" state than others.

Asami was standing in front of them, goggles on. On her wrist was a most curious device. It resembled her shock glove, but it had an extra wire attached to it. The wire ran to one of the dummies, which was still smoking.

"Asami?" Korra interrupted.

"Hi," Asami said grumpily. Okay, so today was not a good day at the office.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Asami said in a short voice. The engineer turned back to her project, using a screwdriver to make some adjustments to the device on her wrist. Korra stood by silently, watching, until-

"Shit," Asami muttered. She fiddled with more gears.

"Anything I can do to help?" Korra tried.

"No."

Asami turned some more screws and welded another element on. She retracted the part that was attached to the dummy and clicked it back into place on her glove. She pointed it to the next dummy in line (not yet burnt, Korra noted). Suddenly the piece shot off Asami's glove like a rocket, and attached to the dummy. For a second, nothing happened, then it burst with a loud bang, filling the workshop up with smoke.

"Asami are you okay?" Korra coughed.

"Fuck!" was the response Korra got. When the smoke cleared, Asami was back at her work bench, fiddling with the glove once again.

"Asami, what's going on?"

"I'm trying to get this stupid thing to work," she sharply replied.

"Yeah, I get that," Korra said carefully, closing in on Asami. "But what is this?" Korra motioned to the rest of the workshop. It was littered with Asami's prototypes of the mini explosives and grappling gun, and there were pieces of dummy everywhere.

"What's with these little projects? You haven't touched your bike for weeks, and I haven't seen you make any adjustments on the new race car you were so excited about."

Asami stopped fiddling with the glove. "I don't want-" she muttered.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you," Korra said, stepping closer until she could put an arm around Asami.

"I don't want to be a burden to you," she whispered again.

Korra was floored. "You'd never be a burden!" she insisted.

"That's sweet, Korra, but it's not true, and you know it. Remember when the Earth Queen captured you?"

Korra did. They'd been captured by earth benders while she was in the Spirit World.

"But you got us out eventually!"

Asami shook her head sadly. "But I was powerless to protect you."

"You don't need to protect me," Korra pleaded, holding Asami's hands in her own. "I'm the Avatar."

"I know," Asami smiled, "which is why I can't expect you to have to protect me either. Your job is to protect everyone else. I won't let you be put in a situation where you have to choose between saving me and saving the world. I won't let anyone hold me hostage."

The epiphany crashed onto Korra then. "That's why all these inventions…" she trailed off.

"Yes," Asami confirmed. "I want to be able to help you, and I never want to be that damsel in distress."

The weight of the moment threatened to steal the air from Korra's lungs. Everything over the past month and a half was because Asami was worried about her. Asami realized that Korra would go to the ends of the earth and beyond to save her. What would happen if Korra were forced to choose between saving Asami and saving the world. Korra knew her duty; she knew that she must detach herself from a single being. She must be able to make the choice for the greater good when it came down to it. Truthfully though, she wasn't sure if she could.

Asami was trying to take away that choice. Take away one less bridge to hurt Korra by. She looked back towards the mechanic, covered in soot. Her heart swelled, and she was sure she loved her more than she had before.

Korra pulled Asami into a fervent kiss. When they broke apart, Korra touched their noses together. "I'm pretty sure you've saved me more times than the other way around, you know."

Headcanon that Asami refuses to let anyone hurt her bby through her.