Broken Expectations

Getting Out

"You broke character."

Korra ignored her roommate, who was now her cell mate too. She felt shut down, like she couldn't even speak if she wanted too. She was sitting on the floor, arms wrapped around her knees, hugging herself. She didn't care that she broke character, she didn't care that she was in jail. She just...

She felt so small.

"You yelled at her for being in his squad? What the hell were you thinking?! It was good for us! You ruined it! Now people think she's on our side, when they should despise her like we do! Why did you do that?!"

Kuvira had been telling her off for at least ten minutes, and Korra had been listening to her every word, she just couldn't bring herself to feel regret. She didn't care, she was just replaying in her mind what had happened.

"Hey! Are you listening to me? You would have destroyed everything!"

So, finally, Korra turned to look at her roommate, and as soon as their eyes met, Kuvira's whole dementor softened.

"Oh... what's wrong? Are you alright?" Kuvira asked, concerned. 

What was wrong? Such a stupid question. What wasn't wrong? They were in a jail cell for violating their newly found curfew, Korra almost blew her cover out of anger thus destroying the entire mission, she was having an existential crisis over how jealous she got over Asami and a third party was now threatening her status with her target. Everything was wrong, everything was horrible and everything she ever worked on almost broke apart.

"Nothing." Korra said in a weak voice, so weak that it broke halfway.

Because none of the above was bothering her at the moment. Bolin and Asami kept her awake last night, but even that seemed so far away from the current reality. No, what was bothering her was so much worse, it was huge and dominated all of the room she had to feel and stress, leaving absolutely no space for other intrusive thoughts. She was stuck, stuck with the flashback, stuck with that familiar feeling that was always hovering over, yet she managed to suppress it up until this moment. 

But there was no escape from it now.

Kuvira's eyebrows were clenched in confusion for a few good seconds, before realization dawned on her. It was really no surprise that she understood the situation so quickly, she knew Korra better than anyone else, she was the only person in the world who actually knew her.

"It must've been really triggering... the way he grabbed you."

And there it was.

"I hate waterbending." Korra answered, tears starting to stream from her eyes. "I've been training hard for so long yet whenever water comes my way I'm just... the same weak girl I was when you found me."

Kuvira listened to Korra, walking closer and sitting on the floor next to her.

"You're not weak, Korra," Kuvira softly said, "you're making a difference. Soon those people  won't have any sort of power over you! You're making sure what happened to you won't happen to anyone else ever." 

Korra sniffled, nails clawing into her arms. "I hope so..." she mumbled.

"I promise," Kuvira said with a smile. "You were never weak, you just had to find your strength, and you did. And now, you're using your strength to help. You're heroic, Korra. Children will learn about you in school, how you ended the reign of benders for good."

Korra choked out a laughter. "Yeah right."

"I swear! I can see it right now!" Usually Korra didn't like being touched in those situations, but when Kuvira wrapped an arm around her she actually felt comfortable sinking into the warmth, comforted. "In the future, kids will speak on and on about The Legend of Korra, it has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"