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Korra thinks that the hotel is the second most beautiful sight she's seen on Ember Island.
Which is as good as it gets, really, because the most beautiful sight on the island is standing next to Korra and just so happens to be Korra's wife.
Korra says, "Hey, wife?"
Asami smiles, eyes crinkling in pleasure. She asks, airily, "Yes, wife?"
Korra supposes that, some day, that word won't send giddy thrills shooting through her body every time it leaves her or Asami's lips.
"I love you, wife."
"Love you, wife."
It's going to take years, though, Korra thinks happily.
Asami smiles, invitingly.
Korra can never refuse that invitation.
They kiss.
It takes a while.
Asami is impressed.
The hotel is an old building, in an old Fire Nation style. It's made of dark, lacquered wood, secured with dowels and clever jointing. The whole structure is built on an elegant arrangement of stilts, right over the beach.
As they go inside, Asami wonders how much effort it takes to maintain a building like this. It's not the most practical -- or sturdy -- method of construction. But it is beautiful.
Inside, the hotel gives in to modern ideas of comfort.
While the interior is all dark wood, rich wall hangings, and painted screens, low-output electric lamps have replaced the old oil-burning lanterns. There are Water Tribe rugs on the floor, and Earth Kingdom couches in the waiting area of the foyer, opposite a fountain.
There's even a big brass hand bell on the concierge's desk, which Korra rings a little too enthusiastically for either Asami's or the concierge's liking.
Interesting as it all is, it's neither the construction nor the decoration that catches Asami's full attention at check-in.
"Excuse me, did you say swing dancing lessons?"
The concierge bows. "It's one of the services available to our honoured guests."
Asami looks at Korra.
Korra. The Avatar. The woman with the most captivating blue eyes in the world. The woman she loves. Asami's wife.
Asami asks, "Could we? I've always wanted to learn."
Korra grins. "We're only going to do everything you want to, wife."
Asami's heart skips like she still does, sometimes, when she's holding Korra's hand on a quiet Republic City street.
"Only if you want to do it, too, wife," Asami says.
Korra gets that dazed look she gets quite often these days. Especially when she's looking at Asami's lips. "It sounds perfect."
Korra leans in a little. Asami leans in, too.
The concierge coughs, snapping them both out of it. "Ah...your key. Please, enjoy your stay."
"Oh! Uh, thanks!" Korra snatches the key, blushing.
They head towards the main stairs, opposite the concierge's desk.
Asami grabs Korra's hand. "Come on! Let's explore our room!"
Korra says, "Don't you mean our suite?"
Asami gives her a look, and lifts one eyebrow.
Korra turns quite fetchingly red. "Oh! Uh, yeah, let's do that!"
They explore their bedroom.
It takes a while.
Later, they take a walk on the beach. They hold hands, and enjoy the view, and the feeling of just being with each other.
Korra could stand to have more moments like this in her life.
There are so many crises that demand the attention of one or both of the Avatar and the CEO of Future Industries.
There has been so little time for just...Korra and Asami.
And Korra knows it won't be long until the next crisis rears its head.
Korra has learned that peace is not an ultimate state to be attained. It's something to be fought for, to be defended. It's something that needs to be built, and ceaselessly maintained.
Asami looks at her, and sees her. She smiles. "We're here. Enjoy it, okay?"
"We're here," Korra agrees, and kisses Asami. "And I am. But you know it doesn't matter where we are, right? As long as it's us."
Asami touches the necklace at her throat. "Always."
They stare at each other, until, abruptly, Korra's stomach growls.
Asami giggles. "Hungry?"
"Always! We did kinda skip lunch. It's dinner time soon, right?"
"We should get back. We need to change." Asami tilts her head. A smile flickers at the corners of her mouth. "Race you?"
She doesn't wait for an answer, she just takes off running. For a second, Korra can only watch, breath catching in her throat, as Asami's long legs flash across the shore. Her feet kick up fine sprays of sea and sand. Her laughter warms the evening around her. Her long black hair is a banner in the breeze.
"She's my wife," Korra marvels.
Still.
Korra's not going to let her just win.
"Hey, Sato! I'm coming for you!"
Korra bends a spinning globe of air, leaps upon it, and takes off after Asami.
They're just about to leave the suite when someone knocks on the door.
Asami groans. Strictly speaking, they could have been in the dining hall by now.
But...before they left Republic City, Asami had convinced Opal to take Korra dress shopping. As beautiful as Korra's Southern Water Tribe dresses are, Asami was of the opinion that Korra would need something lighter for a summer visit to Ember Island.
This, it turns out, was an excellent decision. When Korra had emerged from the bathroom, a sheepish vision in a blue silk gown, Asami had made a mental note to thank Opal when they next meet.
Then she'd pounced on Korra and dragged her to the nearest couch.
The knock sounds again. A man's voice says, "Urgent cable from Future Industries."
Asami groans again.
Korra chuckles. "Wanna pretend we're not here?"
"No point. I told them not to bother me unless something's on fire. I'd better deal with this."
Asami climbs off of Korra.
Korra smooths out her dress, and wipes the lipstick off her face. "I'll wait."
"No. I'll be quick. Go get us a table. And put us down for dancing!"
Korra pecks her on the lips. "Okay. See you down there!"
Asami opens the door.
A tall, lean man in a Future Industries uniform, clutching a thick envelope, smiles nervously at her.
Korra nods politely, and slips past him. She blows Asami a kiss before she walks away.
Asami grins. "What have you got for me?"
He hesitates. "Um, it's confidential. Perhaps I can explain inside...?"
Asami frowns. "Well...alright. I only have a minute though." Her grin reappears. "I'm having dinner with my wife. We're on our honeymoon," she explains, giddily.
He follows her into the lounge, closing the door behind him.
"You were," he says, opening the envelope. A heavy leather sap falls out, into his waiting hand. "Now you're our hostage."
He grins as he raises the weapon.
Asami pinches the bridge of her nose. "No, seriously. This is our honeymoon. I'm going to have dinner with my wife, and then we're going dancing. No one is going to prevent that. So it'll be more efficient if you just...go away? Please?"
He laughs. He rushes her.
Asami sighs.
She steps forward, and to her left. She blocks his downward strike, her right forearm stopping his. She grabs his right elbow with her left hand, and with both of her arms, she forces his arm down, and across his body, rendering his weapon useless.
His grin changes to a grimace of effort as he struggles against her.
Asami kicks low, and simultaneously yanks his arm, explosively. She twists her hips, and, using her kicking leg and her assailant's arm as levers, she throws him up and over the couch.
He crashes onto the floor, hard enough to knock him out cold.
Asami takes a deep breath, holds it, and listens.
Out in the corridor, she hears the unmistakeable silence of several people moving stealthily.
Asami breathes out through clenched teeth. She kicks off her heels, flicking them under the couch.
She looks around the room, noting the position of everything. Her eyes focus on an electric lamp near the suite's door.
Asami nods.
She kicks a footstool across the floor.
She bumps a table with her hip, scoops a ceramic bottle of rice wine off of it, and crosses the room.
She takes her jacket from a hook near the door. She stuffs the bottle into a pocket, then slips into the jacket before she grabs the lamp.
The non-sounds are close. She only has seconds before they're at the door.
As she yanks the wire from the base of the lamp, Asami begins to mentally compose the scathing review she intends to leave in the hotel's guest book.
At first, Korra isn't sure what bothers her about the dining room.
It's a large, low-ceilinged, open hall. Maybe it's just that Korra would prefer to have Asami to herself.
But the dining tables are spaced far enough apart to give some privacy. And, unlike the rest of the hotel, there are no electric lights. Bamboo lanterns lend the place a warm, intimate atmosphere.
There's a small bar in one corner, its shelves lined with bottles of sparkling wine.
Korra doesn't usually drink, but...Kya introduced her to the stuff at Zhu Li and Varrick's wedding.
Korra had been intrigued by the weird fizzy feeling on her tongue, but hadn't liked the taste.
Kya had put the wine left in Korra's glass to good use that evening, in any event.
A waiter in an ill-fitting uniform bows in front of her, bringing her out of her reverie. "Avatar Korra! Please, allow me to show you to your table."
Korra follows him, sneaking glances at the other diners, and, more importantly, their food.
It looks incredible. It smells better.
Korra whispers, "I'm going to have dinner here. With my wife."
She grins like a big, hopelessly in love, Avatar idiot.
The waiter leads her to a table squashed into a corner near the bar. Which seems weird, because there are other tables free. The dining room is only half full.
The waiter pulls out her chair, but it's so close to the wall, Korra will still have trouble squeezing in.
Korra frowns.
She gestures around. "Uh...I don't mean to be rude, but...could we get one of the other tables, maybe? It's a bit cramped."
The waiter's eye twitches. He signals to another waiter.
Korra glances around, and begins to notice things.
This is one of the fanciest hotels on the island. The diners are all well-dressed. Even Korra is wearing something fashionable.
All of the other hotel staff she's seen have tailored uniforms.
A small crowd of waiters are converging on her. And their uniforms don't fit.
When Korra was younger, she would have leapt to the attack before she knew what she was really dealing with.
She lost a lot of fights that way.
So Korra waits.
Korra cranes her neck and sees a waiter wrapping a thick rope around the wooden handles of the entrance to the dining room.
Which is when what's wrong with this place finally hits her.
There's no metal in here.
No electric lamps, no metal cutlery, not even the wire twists that normally secure the corks on the bottles of sparkling wine.
There aren't even nails in the walls.
The room is all wood, and there's a big gap between the floor of the hotel and the sand below.
There's no earth for her to bend.
There's no water, either. Not even in the glasses on the diners' tables.
The low ceiling cancels out some of the advantage an airbender has in a fight. The tables and chairs make things awkward, too.
But worse still, the hotel's age and method of construction mean that too much violent airbending could cause the whole place to collapse.
And in this place, fire could quickly get out of hand.
Korra's being ambushed.
Another waiter secures the door to the kitchen.
Korra can hear faint hammering sounds from behing the kitchen door.
They're sealing her in. They're sealing everyone in.
More waiters close in on her, but a few linger near the rest of the diners.
Hostages.
There are a lot of innocent people here, both trapped, and part of the trap that's been set for the Avatar.
There are a lot of innocent people here who are not going to get hurt on Korra's watch.
The waiters form a semi-circle around her, leaving her no room to escape.
A tall man with a scarred face says, "Avatar. We are the Order of Ozai. For your crimes against the Fire Nation, you will be executed."
They adopt the combat stance of trained firebenders.
Korra says, quietly, "We don't have to do this. It was a long time ago. I'm not even connected to Aang's memories anymore. And the world is better, now. We have peace."
Scarface laughs. "We had an empire! We'll build a new one, when you're gone."
Korra shakes her head. "You won't. Leave the mistakes of the past behind. It's not too late to walk away."
"Oh, I will walk away from this. But you won't. You see...we have your wife, Avatar. If you submit to our judgement, we might even let her go..."
He grins.
Korra gasps. Her shoulders shake.
She bursts out laughing.
Scarface blinks. "Why...why are you laughing? I sent six of my people. You let one of them into your room, yourself. Your wife has been subdued. In a minute, she'll be brought down to us. This...this seriously isn't funny!"
Korra wipes a tear from her eye. "I'd wait a minute, I would. Just to see the look on your face when Asami breaks that door down. But...you just threatened my wife."
Korra reaches down and tears several inches off of her skirt, freeing up her legs.
Korra's eyes blaze with white light. Her voice booms out, shaking the hotel, as she enters the Avatar state. "ON OUR HONEYMOON."
Some of the firebenders back up, nervously.
One glances at Scarface and says, "It's their honeymoon? That is so messed up..."
The diners are all watching, now. So Korra booms, "EVERYONE! MOVE TOWARDS THE FAR END OF THE HALL!"
Scarface snarls, "Start the fires! Kill the Avatar!"
From around the dining hall, waiters converge on Korra, hurling fire at tables and wall hangings as they go.
There's a dozen of them, all told.
As the diners panic, and rush for the door, Korra whips up a mini-cyclone, scattering the fake waiters around her.
Scarface ducks, rolls, and comes up punching precise jets of flame at her.
Korra deflects the fire away.
The tablecloth behind her ignites.
Korra dodges another burst of flame, and airbends a waiter into the ceiling.
She tries to think of a plan, while the diners pound their fists desperately against the sealed door.
The hotel shudders.
Asami grits her teeth. That can only mean one thing. They're going after Korra.
The door to their suite bursts open.
The first woman into the lounge skids on the puddle of rice wine Asami spilled in front of the door. Before she can recover her balance, she trips over the stool Asami kicked earlier, and crashes head first into the end table Asami bumped four inches to the left of its previous position.
Asami, crouched in the corner behind the door, ignores all of that. She tugs on the cord she separated from the base of the table lamp. Its other end is still plugged into the far wall. Asami wrapped a length of the cord at the plug end round a table leg, for good measure.
She lifts it up from the floor and pulls it taut.
So that the second woman into the room, who hops over the spilled wine, runs into the wire. She trips, but manages to dive into a roll, narrowly avoiding the rearranged furniture and unconscious bodies of her companions. She springs up into a fighting crouch.
In the only possible open space Asami has left her.
Asami's right hand is holding onto the table lamp's insulated cord, a couple of inches of exposed copper wire jutting from her fist. The plug is still in the wall socket, thankfully.
In her left hand is the table lamp itself. With no more than a quick glance, she throws the lamp.
Just as the acrobatic woman straightens up, the lamp hits her head, and she falls down again.
Asami lunges upright, jabbing the live wire projecting from her hand into the chest of a burly man trying to come through the doorway.
As he squeals, twitches, and passes out, Asami makes a mental note to work on improved safety features for household electrical appliances. Some kind of circuit interrupter, maybe?
A slim man leans in through the door and yanks the other end of the power cord out of the wall socket.
Behind him, a stocky woman bends a jet of fire at Asami.
Asami leaps back, dropping the wire. She takes the empty wine bottle out of her jacket pocket.
The slim man charges at her, a sap in his hand.
The firebender jumps into the room, harrying Asami with fire.
Asami stays low, and tries to keep the slim man between her and the firebender.
She ducks under his sap, and smacks the back of his knee with her bottle. He staggers, dropping his guard. Asami rises up and hits him precisely over the head.
The firebender hesitates as her compatriot sinks to the ground.
Asami tosses the bottle at her, and tries to quickly close the distance between them.
The woman ducks the bottle, and sweeps her arm, sending a fan of flame arcing across the room.
Asami drops to her knees, and leans back, her momentum letting her slide across the floor, under the flames, and past the couch. Her left hand flashes out, snagging one of her shoes in passing.
The firebender kicks out, sending a line of fire across the floor towards Asami. Asami grabs the end of the couch, pushes off her knees, and flips over the back of the couch.
She throws her shoe at the firebender's head, in mid air. The firebender promptly incinerates it.
Asami lands behind the couch.
A burst of flame scorches the top of the couch, above her head.
"Give up! We have the Avatar trapped! Give up, and you might be spared."
Asami takes a breath. She rolls her shoulders. Her face becomes utterly calm.
Asami stands up, facing the firebender. She picks up a cushion from the couch, and nods, thoughtfully.
The stocky woman adopts a ready stance and sneers, "The Avatar is going to die today, at the hands of the Order of Ozai!"
"Order of Ozai? I see. I suppose you'll have Korra locked in the dining room, with the other guests as hostages?"
"That's right! And more of our people are in the foyer, ready to destroy this place if she tries to escape! The mighty Avatar is helpless!"
"Korra really isn't. Not in any sense." Asami pulls the cover off the cushion. She stares the firebender in the eye. "And you just destroyed one of my dancing shoes."
The woman laughs, and hurls fire at Asami's face.
Twelve seconds later, Asami strides down the corridor barefoot, her evening gown torn and singed. Her eyes are determined.
Behind her, the firebender is sprawled on her belly, the cushion cover tied tight around her left wrist, the suite's door handle, and her right ankle. The cushion is stuffed into her mouth. Her eyes are full of stunned regret.
As she nears the stairwell, Asami tears a hanging and it's supporting rail from the wall.
Asami says, "Korra, I'm coming for you."
She takes the stairs down two at a time.
Korra airbends a table into one of the Order of Ozai who was trying to get behind her.
A diner screams as flames near him. Korra whips her arms, pulling the air, and the fire toward her. She bends the stream of heated air around her, and sends it out in a powerful jet, slamming into another firebender's chest.
Then she's forced to cartwheel away from two bursts of flame from two different opponents.
Korra sends out another gust of air, forcing the nearest firebenders back.
A shiver runs through the hotel.
And it only buys her a few seconds.
There are fires in too many places around the hall. The diners are trapped. Korra doesn't have enough to work with to shut the Order of Ozai down.
And they don't seem to care about burning the entire hotel down to get her.
Korra drops out of the Avatar state. It isn't much use right now. Oh, she can feel the earth beneath the beach, and reach it, in the Avatar state. But she'll bring the whole hotel down in the process.
Scarface laughs, and sets the bow on her dress alight. "You're doomed, Avatar. Give in to the inevitable!"
Korra smothers the flames on her dress. "Spirits! Asami loved this dress!" Korra whips a chair into an Ozai acolyte before she can send flames streaming towards Korra's feet.
She dodges, deflects, counterattacks where she can, but she gets pushed back into the corner.
She can hear the other guests coughing and crying out.
Korra yells, "At least let them go! This is between us! For some...weird, dumb reason!"
Scarface directs a stream of fire at Korra. "They are traitors to the Fire Nation! Fawning over the Avatar, our greatest enemy? Let them witness your destruction. Let theirs follow!"
Korra dives, rolls, and comes up with her back to the bar. "No one was fawning! People hardly ever really fawn over me!" Korra somersaults over the bar, avoiding attacks from four different Order members.
"A bit of fawning would make a nice change, too," she mutters.
Korra can feel the heat of the spreading fire through the wood of the bar, through the floor of the hotel.
Korra needs to get the hotel guests out of here. She needs to find a way to turn this fight around, fast.
Korra narrows her eyes.
Maybe they've set an Avatar trap, but that doesn't mean it's a Korra trap.
She needs to think about this like Asami would.
Asami would use the terrain, look for a weapon, a solution. If she couldn't see one, she'd make one.
Asami would...make a solution.
Korra grins.
She yells, "Hey, sore losers' club? There's two things you should know!"
Korra reaches out and grabs two bottles of wine. She puts her thumbs over the corks, and shakes them vigorously.
Scarface laughs wildly. "By all means, Avatar! Share with us your last thoughts!"
"First, my wife is the best."
Korra leaps up. She aims and pops the corks on the bottles of sparkling wine, and airbends a little, for some added oomph.
One firebender takes a cork to the chin, and collapses. Another gets hit in the forehead, and yelps in pain.
Expensive, fizzy, frothy wine pours out onto the bar.
Korra drops the bottles.
There are still half a dozen firebenders in front of her.
Scarface raises his fist, ready to strike. "Was that your last trick? Pathetic!"
Korra says, "Nah, that was a diversion. Second thing you should know? My friend Kya taught me how to do this."
Korra's arms slide smoothly into the familiar forms, the style that's naturally hers, the first she ever mastered.
The wine rises up from the bar, spiralling and flowing into a shimmering, pale gold sphere in front of her.
It fizzes gently.
Korra says, "I can winebend. You're done."
Scarface gapes. "That's...what? Who does that? I-it doesn't matter! That isn't enough to save you!"
He and the others launch a series of strikes at Korra.
Korra grins.
Her eyes glow, and every cork bursts from every bottle in the bar, simultaneously.
Korra raises her arms, and wine pours out, forming a wall in front of her.
The firebenders' attacks fizzle out when they hit the wall.
Scarface tries to throw another punch, but Korra brings her arms down, and the wall becomes a tidal wave that sweeps away the firebenders.
Korra vaults over the bar, arms weaving in endless, sinuous forms as she draws the wine up around her.
"THE BAR IS OPEN," Korra declares. "I HOPE YOU'RE THIRSTY!"
Korra dodges a flame blast from one of the few of her enemies who isn't trying to get back on their feet. With a flurry of punches, she directs daggers of frozen wine at the woman, pinning her uniform to the wall and immobilising her.
Korra throws up a wall of wine, shielding her from attack, and distracting several of the Order as she weaves a rope of wine between their legs. Korra loops her rope around their ankles, then yanks, pulling them off their feet and dragging them half the length of the dining room.
She weaves the rope around their wrists and freezes it, securing them to the floor.
Korra sweeps out her arm, sending a gust of wind at another three waiters who were recovering their feet, slamming them against the far wall. She flicks globs of wine at them, and freezes their wrists and ankles.
She advances into the dining hall, and wine flows and surges where she directs it.
Sparkling wine smothers the flames. Fizzing waves of wine slam false waiters from their feet. Golden wine freezes around the fists and feet of the still conscious firebenders.
Until only Scarface is left.
He snarls, "Die, Avatar!"
He thrusts out his hand, and lightning crackles into life, spearing out from his fingers at Korra's chest.
She catches the lightning, and redirects it into the wine, surrounding it in a sphere of pale gold ice.
Scarface gapes at her, his whole body shaking with the effort of his bending.
Korra says, "NO ONE WILL DIE HERE TODAY. SURRENDER."
Scarface screams and hurls himself at her, blades of fire jutting from his fists.
"FINE. I REALLY WANTED TO PUNCH YOU, ANYWAY, JERK."
Korra forms a fizzing tendril around her arm and the frozen lightning.
She whips around, gathering momentum, and slams the sphere into Scarface's chest. It explodes in a burst of heat, dazzling light, and a delicate citrus fragrance.
He sails the length of the dining hall, and crashes in a smoking, whimpering heap on the floor.
Korra looks around again. None of the Order of Ozai are any threat right now.
To the diners at the main door, Korra says, "MOVE ASIDE.
Korra directs a powerful gust of wind at the doors, but though they shudder, they don't open.
The rest of the hotel shudders, too.
Korra drops out of the Avatar state.
The fire and all her airbending can't have done the hotel's structural integrity much good. If she tries to just blast her way out, she'll bring the building down on top of them all.
The fires are a problem, but the smoke is going to be worse, soon.
If she can't unseal the dining room door...
Suddenly, Korra smiles. She goes to work putting out the rest of the fires.
To the other guests, she says, "Alright, I know everyone's scared, but help is on the way. We're going to work together to stay safe, for now. So, I need some of you to start tearing up tablecloths. And everybody else, help get the injured together. I'm going to put out the fires, and then, I'll see to you. Everything's going to be fine."
Korra knows it will be.
She just has to deal with what's in front of her. Asami will take care of the rest.
Asami tosses the wadded up hanging into the foyer before she reaches the bottom of the stairs.
A burst of flame shoots through the air at chest height. A fraction of a second later, from the opposite direction, another jet makes the air waver at head height.
Asami doesn't hesitate. Clutching the brass rail to her chest, she dives down the last few steps, rolls when she hits the floor, and comes up running.
Spears of fire chase her, every step of the way.
There's a firebender at the main entrance of the hotel.
There's another firebender between her and the dining room door.
Asami is equidistant between them.
Which means that if Asami runs for one firebender, the other will have opportunities to attack her exposed back. Asami can't win on those terms.
Which is why she runs for the concierge's desk opposite her, instead.
Taking a two-handed grip, Asami swings the rail as hard as she can at the brass handbell.
It sails through the air, jingling merrily, and hits the Order of Ozai member near the dining room in the chest.
The bell rings sweetly as he drops to the floor.
Asami spins and hurls the rail like a javelin at the other man.
He ducks, which buys Asami a second.
She strips off her jacket as she races towards him.
He lunges upright, throwing out his fists and creating twin bursts of fire.
Asami dodges one, and deflects the other with her jacket.
Smoke wisps from the material.
The firebender kicks out.
Asami jumps over the flames, but that just makes it easy to predict where she'll be for the Ozai appreciator's real attack.
He grins. He twists and yells, lashing out with his right arm, putting everything he can into the strike.
Asami is still a few feet away. He's out of her reach.
But before he can complete his attack, she whips her jacket out. One sleeve wraps around his wrist. Asami yanks, hard, pulling him off balance and sending his flames wide.
It also puts his jaw into a convenient position.
Asami turns her pulling motion into a spin, her leg snapping out into a hook kick with all of her considerable momentum behind it.
He flies back through the hotel door, unconscious before he hits the sand.
Asami quickly checks her surroundings. The beach is clear.
The foyer is otherwise empty. There's no sign of the concierge.
Asami looks at her ruined dress and sighs. "I knew I should have packed the glove..."
She tosses her jacket, and collects the rail, and the hanging.
Asami dumps the hanging into the shallow fountain in the centre of the foyer.
She picks up the brass rail, and presses one end of it against the floor, bracing the length of it against her body.
She uses her bare foot to stomp the end of the thin metal rod flat.
She grabs the doused hanging, and drapes it over herself.
She runs as quickly as she can to the dining room.
Someone has driven wedges under the doors. They've stuffed cloths into the cracks and between the edges of the doors and the doorframe.
Asami can feel heat on the other side of the doors. She can smell smoke.
She pauses when the firebender on the floor groans and stirs.
Asami says, "I'm going to find my wife. Do you want to try to stop me?"
He looks at her expression. He swallows. "Uh...I'll find something to tie myself up with? Or maybe just pass out?"
"That'd be fine, thanks."
Asami turns back to the door.
She tears the cloths out.
Asami kicks away the wedges that will budge. She pries the rest out, working methodically, telling herself over and over that that's better than trying to work quickly.
When the wedges are removed, she thrusts the flattened end of the rail between the double doors, and levers them open.
Smoke rushes out into the foyer. Asami shields her eyes and mouth with a corner of the hanging until the worst of it is past.
Asami peers into the dining hall.
A large group of hotel guests are huddled near the doors. Some of them are singed. All of them are damp. And, even over the smoke, they smell like...wine?
The dining hall is a smoking ruin. The walls, floor, and ceiling are charred, and smoldering.
A dozen men and women in waiters' uniforms are lined up against one wall, their arms and legs bound with strips of tablecloth.
They also smell like wine.
There's a young woman with burns on her leg, but she's going to be okay, because she's being treated by Korra.
"Korra!"
She looks up. Her dress is tattered, her hair dishevelled, and there's soot on her brow.
She's the most beautiful woman in the world.
Korra's eyes light up. She grins at Asami.
Asami drops the rail, shrugs off the hanging, and races to her wife's side.
Korra finishes her healing. She stands up, and opens her arms.
Asami leaps into them.
Korra pulls her in, and holds her tightly.
Korra rasps, "Hey, wife."
Asami laughs. "Hello, wife."
They kiss.
It's all too brief.
Then they go to work, helping the injured, securing the rest of the Order of Ozai's members, and moving everyone out onto the beach.
Before long, Fire Nation soldiers arrive and try to make sense of the mess around them.
That takes a while.
The end of their night goes like this:
When they're sure all of the hotel guests are safe, and the Order of Ozai is secure, they wander down the beach together.
The concierge has vanished. Asami thinks he might be Order of Ozai, too.
Korra thinks he's someone else's problem. They're on their honeymoon.
Their dinner ends up being some fish Korra catches and cooks on the beach.
And when dinner is done, and they've snuggled, and kissed, Korra stands up, and pulls Asami out of the sand.
Korra says, "Care to dance, wife?"
Asami laughs. "I'd love to, wife."
They hold each other, and turn a slow circle. They sway together in time to the breeze, and the sound of the waves, and the crackle of their driftwood fire, and the gentle hiss of the sand beneath their feet.
Korra says, "We'll try swing dancing another time. Promise."
Asami laughs. "I just wanted dinner and dancing with you." She pulls her head back, and kisses Korra. "You delivered. That makes this a perfect night."
And Korra kisses her, because she must. Korra isn't sure she knows the right words to tell Asami everything she makes Korra feel, so she puts it all into the kiss.
Asami eventually pulls away, gasping. She laughs, and whispers into Korra's ear, "I love you, too, Korra."
Korra whispers back, "I love you so much, Asami."
She buries her face into the crook of Asami's neck.
They sway together, dancing gently to the music that the world makes for them.
They take all the time they need.