Track 1 –El Tango De Roxanne

(Note: Korra's dialogue will be in bold. The man's dialogue will be underlined. When they both sing, both talk traits are applied like this.

Theme: Asami has lost everything and stooped low. Korra can't stand by and watch anymore. Post season 1 finale.

~This one-shot is dedicated to my awesome little sister for all her support, love and inspiration. She's been the best friend in my screwed up life.~

Song: 'El Tango de Roxanne' from the 'Moulin Rouge' OST, performed by Ewan McGregor)

Warning: F/F)

~~~~~~.:oOo:.~~~~~~

She looked so beautiful...So exceptionally beautiful.

Asami was always the beautiful one but I could never stop being amazed by her, every step she took filled me awe, respect and jealousy… Even now, after the fall.

When Hiroshi Sato went down as an equalist, the rabid animals of the corporate world slobbered all over the Future Industries Empire like a pack of hungry wolves. Asami was the heiress and she was good at running the company but she never had a chance against the seasoned warriors of the industrial world and eventually all she had left was the empty carcass of the Sato mansion, now devoid of any value. A little later, she lost even that.

I should have helped her. I should have done anything as she would do for me but I didn't, I was so focused on myself, so determined to strengthen what I had with the man I stole from her that I lost sight of what I really wanted… I wanted Asami.

At first she was a pebble in my shoe, one that I could not shake because she was helping us, financing us, but she took the man I wanted and I couldn't handle that. Why should she have everything? She was rich, she was intelligent, she was beautiful, she was educated, she was graceful, she polite, she was feminine, she was everything I wasn't and she had Mako… I envied her so deeply that I lost track of myself and before I knew it envy had become obsession and obsession had become passion.

And now I had lost them both- Mako remained a friend but left broken-hearted when he began to see who my heart truly craved, and Asami…Oh Spirits, Asami! Why didn't I help her?

I see her every night. She stands in the same street looking much thinner than before and wearing that beautiful red dress, the dress that is a regalia from better years, the dress she wore at that silly gala in my honor that now seems to have happened a lifetime ago even though it was only a few years. That dress has been patched many times and it frays around the edges now but she still wears it almost every night in that dark shady street. Her hair has lost its luster but still looks lovely pinned to the side and her eyes, perfectly made-up as always, hold a hardness that was never there before, even after all the betrayal, even after the war…

Today she looks weary and pale. I want to hold in my arms and watch that snowy skin blend into my cinnamon curves but I fear coming close to her, she's made it clear that I am not to follow her, she would hate me if she knew that I know.

She treats me like a loved one but not a lover. She comes to me often and we have tea and reminisce of the old days, sometimes she comes with a bruise or two for me to heal while she prattles on about how clumsy she has become working as maid…Some maid she is, strutting the streets to sell the only thing has left.

I don't blame her, nobody will employ an ex-heiress, she's too famous, too well known as a spoiled princess of a fallen empire. It's either become this persona of hers, this Roxanne of the night, or beg for the mercy of others to stay alive and Asami is too proud to crawl just as she's too proud to give up, curl in a corner an die. That is why she keeps doing this, that is why I can't stop her.

A customer walks up to her, well hidden under a dark coat but I can see the light skin and the black hair under the streetlamps even as he hides his face. I see them exchange pleasantries and the delicate smile she gives him makes my blood boil, I know that smile, it's the one she gives me when she's afraid I've found out too much.

I can't take it anymore! I want to scream and grab her and steal her from this world but instead I keep quiet and follow her down the street with the customer, into a shabby little inn that looks smaller in its entirety than Asami's old room in her manor.

I use my talents, my bending, and sneak up over the outside walls to sit in the hidden shadows below the window of the room she always uses. It's barred and very high and the little red light she uses to romanticize the shabby spider-rat infested place will come on any minute, I can't get in or even peek in without raising suspicion but I can't stay away either, I'm ashamed of myself, the Avatar should not be stooping this low but she's stooped so much lower and still holds her head high in pride… How can I pretend that doesn't affect me?

There are voices in the room, arguing loudly. I know that voice with her, I know it but it can't be! Why is he here? Why is he calling her that wretched name she chose for the night life? I figure he can't call her by her real name, not here, not where people could overhear.

"Why, Roxanne?! Why won't you let me save you? Why must you fuck around with every man with half a silver coin when you could have me?!" The man pleads with a mixture of anger, jealousy and despair.

I know that tone too, I'm used it many times when I think of her. He's doing what I should have done long ago, he's trying to save her.

«Good luck with that.» I think the words somberly. I know she doesn't want saving, if it were that easy I would have done it long ago, and yet he has the guts to try, he has the courage to waltz up to her and face her…The courage I never had. He has the honor I forfeited long ago when I began hiding under this window.

"I don't want saving! I'm not a victim, I can fend for myself." She speaks with her soft but proud and determined voice that I always loved so much. "And I don't want you, I don't want anyone! You had your chance when I was somebody and now that I'm a whore you think it's that easy to just take me back? Forget it!"

I know she's angry and I want to storm in there and protect her, defend her, even though I know he won't hurt her, even though I know he wants the same thing I do.

"Fine then! Is this what you want, Roxanne?!" He emphasizes the name and I hear the clutter of metal, coins I think, crashing all over the creaky wooden floor. "Then I'll be your fare for the night!"

"Stop mocking me!" She should have yelled but she just speaks with her usual elegant fortitude.

"I'm not. There's your fare so do your job, Roxanne!" He demands and I can hear the creak of the bed under his weight. "If you will love anyone then love me tonight."

There is a pause and I hope it's because she'd gathering the necessary strength to kick him out of the room. If she doesn't I don't know if I'll be able to handle it, I think something inside me might break beyond repair.

"Alright." Her voice is soft and sensual, it makes me react in ways I'm ashamed to speak of, in ways that send butterflies flying in my stomach.

My legs give in and I crumple to my knees, listening wide eyed. The red light is on, casting a crimson glow out the window and I can hear music from the room. The same song that has been haunting my brain ever since I was with her this afternoon listening to the radio and talking about the new cabbage cars that just came out- she still knows everything about the industry even now.

The music is driving me crazy… The way the violin strums like it's playing on my nerves… I'm pretty sure the man in the room feels the same way, I can hear him kick at something in anger as she muffles his voice with kisses. The things I know she is doing are driving me…

«It will drive you…MAD!»

My own voice echoes in my head.

"Roxanne…

You don't have to put on that red light.

Walk the streets for money,

You don't care if it's wrong of if it right!"

I hear a crash and by now I know he has her pinned to the wall, I can hear the rustle and purr of fabric and I know he's pulling that lovely crimson dress aside to bare her beautiful skin… I want to barge in and steal her. I want to lick every inch of that snowy skin that others have touched just so I can make her clean again.

"Roxanne…

You don't have to wear that dress tonight.

Roxanne…

You don't have to sell your body to the night!"

I can hear his anguished voice as he holds her to the wall with his own body, it's almost of if his words are melding into the music, or maybe my mind is playing tricks on me because I'm going insane with jealousy, anger, despair, lust, self-hatred and pain… It's too much to feel at once and I almost want to sing to just so I won't cry.

"His eyes upon your face…

His hand upon your hand…

His lips caress your skin…

It's more than I can stand!"

My voice probably won't reach her but the tears are already spilling from my cerulean eyes even as I feel my body blush and heat with unwanted fantasies. I hate that I want to be the one with her in that room.

"Roxanne…"

Her fake name is a moan in his lips and I hear my cloth rustling around. I'm sure she's stripping him of his clothes just to shut him up… No, the way he says her moniker tells me more, it tells me she's teasing, she's kissing and touching him in ways that I could only ever dream of doing to her… It hurts. I feel so hot and dazed and I want her so bad that it's like a physical burn of need but it hurts, it hurts like stab through the heart.

"Why does my heart cry?

Feelings I can't fight…"

Spirits, I wish I could stop the feelings! I can hear him moan, his voice is filled with anger but the pleasure overrides it… I wish I could be cold and detached and pretend what she's doing is a job like any other but I can't… Every day she lies about where she goes and what she does, every day she tries to spare me the gruesome details but every day it pains me more and more to see her go. I want her to stop lying to my face and I want to save her so badly but I know she won't let me, she's too proud, I know that if I face her with the truth she will never come back to being my sweet Asami… I can't take that, I don't mind if she left my life in order to be herself again but I know that if I let her out of my sight she will fall again…She will just be Roxanne again.

"You're free to leave me

But just don't deceive me!

And please…

Believe me when I say… I love you!"

I think I screamed the words. I didn't intend to but I think I did. I'm crying so hard that I could probably bend my tears into little icy gems just for her, like the diamonds she used to wear, because I love her. I never told her but I love her, I need her like I need air to breathe but that revelation came too late and I know the way I feel about her is not normal, it's not something people would take in lightly- the Avatar and the whore, the fallen princess and the defiant warrior, but worse of all we are two women… Who in this world of ours would understand that? I'm scared that even she wouldn't understand how much I love just because of that.

I can hear the low voice of the singer purr along in a pleading foreign tongue but I don't care what's being said. The music is violent now, the violin plays as if the musician where stabbing into my gut until I puke blood. It plays almost in tempo with the crashing fast sounds of the creaking bed from the room above and sharp little moans that I hear slip from her lips. Oh Spirits, I never thought this much pain existed in the world… I never thought I'd be stupid enough to willingly put myself through such agony.

I think the man that's with her, a man whose name I don't want to think of right now, is feeling just as anguished as me. The difference is that he is more angry than pained, and he gets to hold her in his arms for the night, he gets to make her moan and cry out in pleasure while I grovel under her window.

"Roxanne!"

His desperate tone is now mocking, almost like he's begun to accept that this isn't the Asami he knew but a different creature entirely.

"Why does my heart cry?"

" You don't have to put on that red light."

We speak in unison, even though he doesn't know that, as he groans out with pleasure. I hear her scream and it crushes me because that scream of passion makes my body tingle and ache in inappropriate ways… Too inappropriate for the situation I'm in.

"Feelings I can't fight!"

"You don't have to wear that dress tonight…"

Time is suspended for me as I hear their pants and murmurs, then I hear a crash and it alarms me. I'm sure someone just got pushed into some sort of furniture. I hear the fast angry rustle of clothes and I can hear him huff angrily as she remains silent.

"Roxanne…"

I think we are both pleading to her but she won't listen. My eyes hurt from the tears and I can barely breathe through my sobs but I want to plead more.

"You don't have to put up that red light,

Roxanne…

You don't have to wear that dress tonight.

Roxanne!"

He's shouting at her and I hear the struggle but I'm pretty sure she'd scream if wanted to hurt her, I know he just wants to shake her until she comes to her senses.

"Roxanne…"

We beg together again…But that's not the name I want to utter, not really.

"Roxanne…"

He's speaking her name like he just gave up and the music in my head sounds desperate and cruel. I only now see that, as much as it hurt, I really wanted him to save her, to do my work for me, but if he quits… Back to the streets she goes.

"ASAMI!" I scream louder than I have ever screamed in my life and this time she has to have heard me.

I hear things fall and crash and the red lamp shatters and flickers off. Suddenly she is at the window, clutching the crumpled red dress to her bruising naked body as tumbling steps echo down the stairs of the inn.

"Korra?! What are you doing here?" She sounds terrified, she sounds so unlike herself.

"ASAMI!" I scream and plead her name because I don't know what else to say as I crumble further with my head almost pressing to the floor as my body expresses my the extent of my pain and I sob on the dirty ground. What a sight to behold- the Avatar groveling and weeping like an infant for the sake of a harlot.

How the mighty have fallen!

He quickly walks out of the shabby little building, looking at me with eyes that mingle disgust, shame, tenderness and sorrow- the unique blend of emotions that I have grown to know so well in the past few years.

"Korra…" His voice shakes and falters as he gazes at me. "I tried, Korra. She won't listen to me." Mako looks at me with tears in his eyes and I know that he feels sorry for me…No, he loves me. It hits me that he probably did this for my sake more than hers; he probably saw how I was destroying myself with my pain over her, that's possibly when he found out the truth about her too.

"ASAMI!" I keep begging her name. I want him to go, I can't look at him because I'm too angry and ashamed and I just don't know what to say. I still feel the agony corrode at my insides as I claw into the dirt.

"Korra… I'm sorry." Mako murmurs my name with such grief that it's like he's mourning a death but I hear his footsteps grow fainter and fainter as he drags himself away in defeat.

"Korra, stop this! What if someone sees? You're the Avatar." It's her, her voice is panicked and hushed but it's her and it makes my head snap up to look at her.

I see her walking to me in that ragged red dress again. She looks mortified, anguished and worried and she's obviously afraid to touch me, I must really look like a total wreck if she can't even come close to me.

"Asami…" I hiccup her name and it starts to rain, just a little misty drizzle at first. I don't know if it's nature echoing my pain or if it's my own doing with my bending, but it really doesn't help me to see her red dress become transparent and cling to her in all the right ways as she hesitantly edges closer.

"Korra, please…You're scaring me." She does indeed look scared.

I realize what's frightening her- in the little puddles of rain water I can see my eyes glow white with the tears still streaming freely. That's when I notice that my body feels hot and numb and I can sense every molecule of every element in a five mile radius, just waiting to get bent and manipulated by me.

I stand up and feel my thoughts and feelings go numb too as I almost hover in the air, I'm moving on instinct now and rain is bucketing down on us both as a storm picks up, a storm that only seems to encompass the area we are in and makes the few people in the inn shut themselves inside with fear.

I grab her by the wrist and see the terror in her face and the angry hissing burn marks that blossom on her skin under my fingers. I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know what my overwhelming emotions are numbing my brain to do, I'm not sure if I'm about to kill her and end this miserable suffering we're in or if I'm about to snatch her away and save her whether she lets me or not.

"Asami…" My voice is not my own but the voice of many and I fear I really am going to kill her. The earth under my feet rumbles, the wind whips around us almost painfully, the rain is like a stormy shower of needles and the air is thick with heat from the flames that ripple around us.

"Korra… It's ok, Korra. It's ok." Her hand suddenly caresses my dark cheek as she speaks with a nervous shaky voice, a voice of fear and tenderness wrapped together. She holds me to my reasoning with her voice, she saves me from myself.

"Why? Why can't I have you? Why can't I save you?" My tears stream with the rain on my face but I feel my senses slowly return to me, I feel my sight dull away from the clear acute sharpness of the Avatar State as her gentle touch pulls me back and I drag her into an empty dark alley, slamming her against the brick wall far too hard.

"Because you never tried." Her sad answer bursts my heart like a popped balloon. Has she been waiting for me? All this time? Could I really have stopped the pain if only I had had the courage?

"Why? Why me? Why?" I'm hiccupping again and I don't even know what I'm asking anymore, I just want to hear her voice. "You could have had anyone you wanted, any man would fall to his knees if you just asked him to!"

"But I didn't want any man. I wanted the one thing I couldn't have and everything just became meaningless. I just started doing what I had to for survival because I barely had anything to truly life for." Her voice is almost as anguished as mine but she's always so composed and graceful…

"What? What was so important that it made you into this just because you couldn't have it?!" I gesture at her, the red dress is sticking to her like a second skin and I just wish I could peel it off and warm her trembling body with my own.

"You, Korra! I wanted you!" I can see the tears in jade eyes too but she's looking at me with that hard face that pain has molded through the years. "I wanted you but I feared that if you truly knew me, knew what I am, you'd despise me with every fiber of your being! And even if you didn't, the world would never let us have what I want with you… I didn't want you to hate me because of that."

Asami looks at me with those eyes that tell me everything I already know, everything I've been telling myself- we are not meant to be together, we are not compatible. Well…SCREW THAT!

"I love you. I love you so much it hurts! It kills me!" I know I'm sobbing again but I can't stop and I don't know why but I'm pinning her body to the brick wall with my own and I can feel every warm curve of her figure on mine.

"Korra… You're the Avatar… We can't…" She hesitates and looks away but she never pushes me back, she never tries to escape my aggressive grip.

"I DON'T CARE! I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!" I scream the words at the sky, daring the Spirits themselves to take this moment from me. "I don't care! I'm done watching, I'm done waiting, I'm taking you away whether you like it or not! I love you… I love you so much. I've loved you for years!" The words spill from my lips before I can't stop them and I'm still waiting for her to push me away, for her to slap me for my aggressive actions and forceful words.

"Oh, Korra…" I feel her press back to me until I can feel her now overly skinny body almost glued to mine in the rain and at last she moves a hand to caress my cheek and make me look at her so she capture my eyes with her own. "I love you too."

I kiss her, desperately so. I don't think I've ever kissed anyone like I kiss her right at this moment, like she's the air I breathe, like she's the water and I'm the desert, like she's my anchor to the real world, like I'm drowning and she's my buoy. My mouth crashes on hers, sucking and molding in a clash of swollen delicate lips as my tongue invades her jasmine flavored mouth possessively, claiming everything, taking what I've always been too scared to take. I can feel her breasts crushed to mine like

pillows of warmth and I can sense her heartbeat that is almost as racing as mine.

«You don't have to put up that red light,

You don't have to wear that dress tonight.

Roxanne.»

The leftovers of the song echo in my head and I make my decision, our decision- tonight is the last night she is that Roxanne. Tonight is last night she wears this frayed old crimson dress, tonight she goes home with me. Tonight she becomes my Asami again, I plan on claiming her again and again until she can only remember the pleasure of my body and no other.

I will never let her go again and the world can be damned.