Not a very good summary, but I think the story is a little better. My first time writing AU. It feels strange.

"More!" Desperate, panicked, a voice recognizing its transcendence into death and screaming one last protest. "More fire!"

The blaze continued to grow as the Molotovs shattered, the dirty white paint bubbling on the walls and bursting, the plaster curling up into black wisps and falling to the blackened floor as ash. Child's play. No more an obstacle than turning a door knob.

"Keep her back! Keep her back!"

They could not keep her back. Korra burst through the flames and grabbed the first of them by the throat, tossing him aside like crumpled paper. Another tossed a Molotov at the roof above her, glass and flame raining down on her head. She smiled, glowing like a devil. The flames gathered in her outstretched hands and sprang forth from her fingertips, catching on the gangster's clothing, his fists beating at the quickly spreading heat. Korra propelled him backwards with a gust of wind. The gangster's back cracked against a table with a snapping thud, his head bouncing off a sharp corner. He fell unconscious to the floor. At least she had snuffed the flames.

The last of the Triad gangsters pulled a gun from his waist. He screeched as his wrist twisted and snapped, clutched gingerly to the broken bone and groaned as he fell to his knees. "Everyone has a price," he said. "There must be something you want. Money, drugs, sex, something. Name it and I can give it to you. I swear."

"I have no doubt of that," Korra whispered. Low, threatening, standing so the fire at her back would make her seem a dark, featureless devil. Just how she liked it. "You can give me many things that I want."

"Name it," the gangster said, tentative grin at odds with the fear in his eyes.

Korra stomped the floor, and a concrete pillar bounced the criminal off the roof. A seizing cough made his entire body shudder, his back arch with dry heaves. He could give Korra what she wanted, but what she wanted was at odds with the person she was trying to be. A sharp kick to the jaw snapped the gangster's head back and knocked a couple teeth loose into the air. He rolled onto his side, groaning. He would live. Korra spared a contemptuous glance at his two comrades. They would all live, no matter what desires set Korra's blood to boiling, no matter what the merciless voices in her head demanded.

Five officers waited outside. Each gave her a wide berth. "Is the area secure?" the bravest of them asked. Even his voice quaked and cracked like a pubescent teenager.

"Yeah. Three of them. All yours."

"They're all…alive?"

"I was in a generous mood today. Don't expect me to make it a habit. Now go get them before they wake up and run off." No chance of that. Those criminals would be lucky to wake up sometime in the next hour.

The officers hurried past, glad to remove themselves from Korra's presence. "Thank you, Avatar."

Korra didn't wait for them to return.

She sped down the highway leading out of the city, well over the speed limit and uncaring. A sliver of moon hung in a sky with too few stars, the glittering painting of her youth smudged by advancement. The wind whipped painfully at her face. Memories of nights spent training with Tenzin on Air Temple Island came unbidden. Too few nights. He'd been the only one willing to teach her, and found himself quickly outclassed, same as most of Korra's mentors. She still returned to the island from time to time. However brief their teacher/student relationship had been, Tenzin had been the closest thing to a father Korra had since leaving home, and his wife and children the closest thing she had ever had to a real family. Korra closed her eyes and relished in the harsh sting of the wind on her skin.

She hardly needed them open to know when she had come upon her exit, but she did so anyway. The claustrophobic cluster of Republic City gave way to the equal lots of the suburbs, and eventually to towering gates set in well kept walls barring the entrances to the fortresses of the city's wealthiest citizens. Korra slowed and turned towards one such gate, the steel shaped into the letters A and S. A security guard offered her a cursory glance before buzzing her through.

Surprisingly, not a single light glowed in the rigid rows of windows lining the front face of the mansion. Korra walked to the front entrance, turned the knob, and released a relieved sigh when the door opened without so much as a single creak of its hinges. Dim lights built into the ceiling gave breached the night. Korra slipped out of her boots, left them beside the front door, and took the steps to the second floor as quietly as she could manage.

The bedroom door was cracked open, and like the front door made no sound when she entered. A smooth hump rose on one side of the mattress. A head of hair darker than the shadows cloaking the room sprawled across a pillow. Korra removed her clothes as quietly as she could manage, and didn't bother throwing pajamas over her underwear before crawling into bed and snuggling close to the woman already snuggled beneath the blankets.

She frowned when Asami groaned sleepily and turned over onto her back. "Go to sleep," Korra said. "It's too late to be waking up."

The pitch black swallowing the room did nothing to dull the jade green of Asami's sleepy eyes, or the pearly white of her perfect teeth when she smiled. "Hi."

Korra couldn't help but smile back. "Hi. I'm okay. Completely untouched."

Asami continued to stare.

"I didn't kill any of them. I'm trying, Sami."

"I know."

They sunk down in the bed, Asami's head pillowed against Korra's shoulder. The Avatar breathed in the scent of the blanket, the soft pillow cradling her head and neck, the silk of Asami's nightgown, the well-groomed hairs soft as a pillow against her chin. All of it carrying that decidedly distinct odor of flowers, Asami's citrusy shampoo, the leather of her bike jacket, and a faint whiff of metal and oil.

Another scent wrinkled Korra's nose, an unwelcome addition. "Oh, shit. I didn't take a shower, I reek of smoke. I'll be right back."

Asami tightened an arm around the Avatar's waist. "I don't mind. Go to sleep."

"Seriously, I stink. If I can smell the smoke, I'm sure you can smell the sweat, too."

"Mm-hmm."

"Gross, Sami."

She shrugged, or as much as she could with her arms wrapped around Korra's body. "So it's okay for you to like oil and leather and whatever nasty papery smell won't wash off my hands after a day handling paperwork, but I can't like smoke and sweat? That's a lot sexier than paper, believe me."

Korra shrugged, and relaxed her body into the comfort seducing her mind and sapping her will. "Okay. Your problem." She liked the smell of paper on Asami's hands. More specifically, the way the smell mingled with the others which clung seductively to Asami's skin, the taste of them on her tongue.

"Mm-hmm."

The Avatar grinned. For too brief a moment, she forgot the lectures the White Lotus had rapped across her knuckles and bruised her flesh with. They were probably watching Asami's estate right now, a thought that lifted her reluctant eyelids. Watching, and wondering. Scheming. To Hell with them.

She snuggled tighter against Asami, closed her eyes, and lost herself in the scent.

#

"Day off, huh?"

Asami nodded, sipping the surface of her coffee, frowning, and adding a dash of creamer.

"Well, I was planning on going down to the precinct today to talk to Mako. You know, make sure those scumbags I caught last night are tucked away nice and securely."

"That sounds like fun," Asami said.

Korra stared silently at her.

"Okay, it sounds like something for me to do on my day off."

"I assumed you'd want to sprawl on the couch and lose yourself in daytime television. Or spend the day in the garage."

"It's a long day." Asami sipped again at her coffee, this time with an approving smile. "I'm confident I can get quite a bit done."

The Avatar must not tether herself to earthly desires. Friends and family are a scab for your enemies to pick. The more you have, the better the chance they bleed you dry. Korra shook her head, rubbed sleep from a stubborn eye. "Alright."

She watched out the windows as the isolated estates turned to uniform suburbs and eventually into the familiar, cramped streets and alleys of Republic City proper. Tinted windows shadowed the two of them from public view, but Asami's car was well known and her "fling" with the Avatar had been tabloid rumors for years before it became fact. Korra grimaced, wondering how many of the drivers and passengers within neighboring cars knew she was inside, how many of the staring sets of eyes strolling down the sidewalks could guess.

Not even the White Lotus objected to the Avatar having physical relationships. There were still many women alive today who had once been mistresses of Avatar Siyu, and even more children carrying his blood in their veins. Strict as the White Lotus may be, they understood human weakness and the futility of denying any human being, let alone one with the powers of a god, physical pleasures. Korra had been allowed her "romances" as a teenager. All of them had been physical pleasures to the core. Silly crushes with no promise or future, and nonexistent compatibility.

Korra glanced over at Asami, wondering how much time had passed since the brilliant non-bender had crossed the threshold from lust to true intimacy. She wondered if her feelings for Asami had ever been simple lust. She wondered how much longer she could pass off to the public that that's all Asami still was.

RCPD headquarters froze when Korra walked through the bullpen, a buzzing swarm of bees fallen silent, staring worriedly as she and Asami passed by. Wings began to tentatively flap again as they climbed a set of stairs to the second floor.

"Smooth as always," Asami teased. "Such winning charisma. You spread joy everywhere."

Mako sat hunched over his desk, scribbling messily away at the miniature pages of his notebook. He frowned when Korra knocked and entered. Yeah, the Avatar thought. People really love me. So much one of my few friends can't help but frown when he sees me.

"Morning, Korra." Mako placed his notepad down and closed the manila folder on his desk. "Something going on?"

"A girl can't say hi to a friend?"

"That's not why you usually come around while I'm working." Mako smiled at Asami. "Hey, Asami."

"Hi, Mako."

"Hey, find your own pretty face," Korra said, causing Asami to giggle. "While I'm here, I wanted to ask you about those three Triad gangsters I took down last night."

Mako's smile wiped off his face like fire stripped paint off the walls. "Well, they'll live. You did a number on them, though."

No mercy for the black of heart. If they know mercy, they will think you weak. Korra could hardly deny her own heart was darkened. Even now she felt a tingle of regret zap through her brain at leaving the gangsters alive.

"While some of the evidence was…destroyed in a fire, there was enough to start building a real case against Viper. You did good, Korra. We're all grateful."

"Yeah, tell that to the grim-faced bastards downstairs."

Mako waved a dismissive hand. "Everyone who hears daily about the promise the Mayor and President made to rid the city of the Triads is grateful."

"Well, let me know how else I can help."

"Of course."

A powerful hand rapped against the open office door. Chief Lin Beifong stood tall and sour-faced at the threshold, as if she was permanently sucking on a lemon wedge. "Meeting in fifteen, Detective." She nodded towards Korra. "Avatar."

"Chief Beifong."

She turned her back, mumbling as she walked away.

"Still not my biggest fan, huh?" Korra said.

It was a rhetorical question. Lin Beifong's resentment towards Korra had little to do with Korra herself and everything to do with the Avatar. Every time they crossed paths, Korra swore she could see the metalbender's scars flare accusingly. That Korra had not even been born when they were inflicted made no matter.

"Well, duty calls." Mako stood. "See you two later. Bolin and his wife are in town. We should get together."

Korra was halfway to declining when Asami said, "Sounds great. When and where?"

"Well, my shift ends at seven, but counting the time the Chief guilts me into staying, I'll be out of here around eight. You have the huge mansion, how about we meet there around eight-thirty."

"Looking forward to it."

Mako smiled. "Okay, well, see you then. Later ladies."

"Take care, Mako," Korra said. She turned towards Asami once he was out of earshot. "A party?"

"If you don't want to be there, no one is forcing you." Asami crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "My house, my rules."

"Even after all the time I spend there? It isn't kind of my house, too, by now?"

Asami smiled. "Nope."

#

The day passed too quickly, as all peaceful days did. Only when Korra was surrounded by violence and conflict did the river of time find snags to slow the flow of its waters. She sat on the empty beach, watching the last sliver of sun fall past Yue Bay, setting thousands of sparkling diamonds ablaze across its surface. Asami strolled barefoot along the shore, occasionally stopping to pluck shells from the cratered mud.

"What a wonderful day," she sighed.

It had been almost a perfect day. Korra reached up and found a smile decorating her face while Asami stared out into the bay. Turtleduck boats drifted along near the coast. Shipping containers split the waters further out, white foam spraying up their hulls. "How many of those are yours?" Korra asked.

"Enough to make me very happy. Especially since my phone hasn't rung once today." Asami near skipped back over to Korra, the sun at her back making her flawless skin glow like a precious jewel. A thin layer of perspiring sheen only added to the effect. "Though not as much as seeing you smile makes me happy. I don't get to see it enough."

"Shut up," Korra said, blushing.

Asami plopped down at her side and pressed a moist kiss on her cheek. "It's true. Usually, even when you smile, there's this stress line across your forehead." A slim, agile finger traced the skin above Korra's eyes. "You always have this look as if it pains you to relax and be yourself. As if someone's going to punish you if you enjoy yourself."

There is no room for the individual. You are the Avatar, spirit of balance and justice, the vessel through which Raava's powers manifest to protect the world. There is no place for Korra. There is no place for weakness.

A branch broke loose from a palm tree to Korra's right. She jumped up, flame in hand, feet spread, ready for battle. Asami sighed. "That is what I'm used to. Sit down you big goof."

"Sorry." Avatar Aang watched his oldest child die after a pair of Earth Kingdom assassins came for him at his home. "It's been a great day." Avatar Roku loved a woman and sparked the Hundred Year War. "It's just hard for me to fully relax. I never know when vengeance birthed from the blood I've spilled will come for me." Avatar Siyu's greed for wealth, and the enemies he acquired in obtaining his fortune, walked him blindly into the trap that killed him.

"Try? For me?" Asami placed a tender, sucking kiss at Korra's jaw.

"I will." Korra would do anything for Asami. Thousands of disapproving, hostile whispers echoed in her ears.

Their hands grasped together, fingers intertwined. The kiss left Korra heady, drunk, eyes half-lidded.

"Good." Asami grabbed her shoes and stood from the sand, brushing it as best she could from her shorts. "Let's go. We have a gathering to prepare for and friends to entertain."

Korra followed her lover off the beach. The sky was darkening, the last flecks of sparkling diamonds on the water's surface fading away. She smiled. It would be good to see Bolin and Opal.

This chapter didn't flow as well as my writing usually flows, but that will improve. Please let me know what you think! I love the concept I have here and I hope the rest of you are interested enough to keep reading.