The Girl After

Chapter 24

Asami was ecstatic the very moment she saw me walk into the noodle shop with Bolin. She lunged forward and embraced me, knocking the wind out of my lungs on impact. Mako was a little less excited, as expected.

"Good to see you're alive," was all he said.

"Good to see you were so worried," I retorted.

"No!" Bolin frowned. "None of that passive aggressive stuff, you two! We're gonna have a pleasant day of catching up, and it won't be ruined by your age-long feud."

"Bolin is right," Asami said with a warm smile, linking her arm with mine. "We should celebrate."

"I'd rather we didn't," I said. "I'm not in much of a celebratory mood right now. Catch me up, though. What's happened while I was out?"

Everyone shared a glance.

"What?" I asked. "What did I miss?"

They all shared an awkward Well... before Asami finally spoke up. "Korra is training with her uncle to harness her connection with the spirits because he's able to control dark spirits for some reason, Tenzin's siblings are staying with him, I'm in a business partnership with Varrick, and I'm pretty sure Dakota ran off into the Spirit World — I'm still a bit confused about that whole thing."

"Wow," I said, eyebrows perked up. "I missed a lot."

"Now, answer something for us," Mako said as we took our seats at a table. "That fight you had with the sidekick, back in the South Pole — What was that about? We asked Bo, but his answer never makes any sense."

"Then I guess mine won't be much help, either," I replied with a shrug. "I walked in at a bad time. I desperately needed to talk to Bo, but they were in the middle of an argument. Dakota apparently remembered what happened between Bo and I, and she wasn't happy."

"So she just... attacked you?"

I nodded. "To be honest with you, I don't remember it in detail. I was still delirious from..."

"From what?" Asami asked, leaning forward.

I stopped. If it didn't make sense to Bolin, why would it make any more sense to these two? I didn't even know what I saw, so there was no way I could expect anyone else to understand. Well, there was someone who would understand...

Nope. Don't even think about it, I scolded myself. She isn't an option. We're not that desperate.

"Leinani?" Asami's broke through my thoughts. She waved her hand in front of my face from across the table. "Are you okay?"

I looked around to see that the three of them were staring at me with concern. "Y-Yeah," I replied slowly. "I'm fine."

"Is that part of the whole 'delirium' thing?" Mako asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You were zoned out for almost three minutes," he explained. "You were just staring blankly, and you wouldn't respond to anything."

Asami nodded and asked, "What happened at the South Pole, Leinani?"

I looked to Bolin, who gave a nod as some weak form of encouragement. They may not be much help when it comes to anything beyond Pro-Bending or running a factory, but they were still my friends. Or, at least, Bolin and Asami were. Mako was more so an acquaintance that should consider himself lucky that I haven't punched him in the face yet.

On the other hand, I didn't need friends right now. I needed answers. The Avatar had already left for what I now know was spiritual training with her uncle. Who else was there that I could talk to? As my original idea swam its way back into my mind, it was just as quickly forced away when fingers snapped in my face.