The Girl From Last Night

Aftermath

"Life was... better after that," Korra finished off, still not meeting Asami's gaze directly, "harder, but better. When I was able to walk on my own again I started having more hallucinations of myself... that's why I cut my hair like that, to differentiate between me and her." She explained. "And that's why Naga isn't here with us. Every time she was back in the south she got really depressed and anxious so I stopped bringing her with me." She then breathed in deeply, finally gathering the courage to look at Asami. "Are... you okay?"

Am I okay? Of course I'm okay, why wouldn't I be? Asami mused to herself. It's not like I sat here for the last hour or so listening to the most traumatic life story I've ever heard in my entire life. No biggie.

She shook herself to reality, feeling sort of like a zombie at this point. "Right, yeah, I'm fine, I'm just processing." She answered. "I uh... I have several questions."

"Oh," Korra blinked, "well, I'll be happy to answer anything I can."

"Cool, so um... first question; when you said you have back problems," Asami started awkwardly, "you actually meant that you have a fucking bullet in your spine?"

Korra stared at her for a second or two, before chuckling lightly. "Nah, they removed the bullet, silly."

"I'm silly? You described a spinal cord injury as 'back problems'!" Asami exclaimed.

"I mean... that's technically correct," Korra nervously rubbed the back of her neck.

"Well yeah, but..." Asami didn't even have the words to describe the confusion and shock she was experiencing at the moment. "...never mind."

"Are you... mad or something?" Korra asked, nervous.

"What? No, of course not, I'm just..." Asami trailed off. "I'm trying to peice it all together."

"Oh, okay then," Korra didn't seem all too relieved. She understood it though, it probably wasn't easy for her to share this.

"So, um, Naga is your... service dog?" Asami asked. "And before that, she was a tracker dog during the war?"

"Legally, she is still my service dog yes, even though I pretty much retired her at this point." Korra answered, " I'm still considered disabled by law so..."

"Really?" Asami asked, surprised. She didn't want to sound like a dick, but she never imagined Korra struggling like that. Maybe Asami was just closed minded, but it was an odd concept to grasp.

"Well, the recovery  of temporary paralysis isn't exactly full," Korra explained awkwardly, "I still have episodes where I have really bad back pain, or sometimes my lower body is just abnormally stiff. It's not very frequent nowadays, and usually it's not too bad..."

"Oh," that was... shocking to say the least, she never expected something like this from Korra, she always seemed so... so very Korra. She didn't know how to explain it, but the way that Korra had handled herself around Asami had never made her question her physical shape. Maybe Korra was good at hiding it, but Asami felt like she is just as capable as she claims to be, even if now and then she needs a hand. "Can you prevent those?"

"It's chronic." Korra blankly stated.

"I know, that's not what I meant," Asami started massaging her temples, her head hurting from all of that new information, "I meant to ask if it's possible for you to do anything to make it better?"

Korra shrugged. "All the regular stuff," she said, "I have to do a lot of stretches before and after a weight-lifting related workout, and be careful with the exercises that I do and how much weight I use. Oh, and I have an orthopedic mattress, plus I do a lot of yoga and pilates and stuff like that."