The Hit List: Justice for Asami

Pilot

"... We find the defended, Hiroshi Sato, accused of domestic and child abuse, not guilty."

The moment those words left the judge's mouth, Asami could feel panic detaching her from her body. All she could feel was her exhilarated heartbeat, and every sound in the room became muffled behind it. She felt almost like she was in slow motion, like her mind lacked the ability to catch up with reality. She was staring wide eyed at her father, the man that ruined her childhood and was now getting freed from his handcuffs, and her breath picked up. 

It's over, he won.

Distinctively, she could hear a lot of noise from behind her, and as she slowly turned around she could see her girlfriend, Korra, basically throwing a fit. She was yelling at the jury as they were walking away, shouting things along the lines of 'you're everything that's wrong with the world!', and the security was probably on their way by now.

The gesture was adorable, and Asami probably would've appreciated it a lot more if she wasn't currently scared for her life. Dad would be set free, what if he finds me? What if I wouldn't be able to call the police in time? He... he'll kill me for suing him... I might as well be dead already.

Everything felt overwhelming at the moment, her fists were shaking against the table as her lawyer told her things she couldn't hear. She needed to get out of there, out of town even. She wasn't safe anymore, it was over. Hiroshi won, Hiroshi always wins.

Suddenly, someone pulled her away. At her initial instinct, she raised her fist in an attempt to fight back. But, when she was met with familiar, worried cerulean eyes, she calmed down. Allowing Korra to lead her outside of court. 

She was still breathing heavily, but the air in the lobby felt drastically less thick than the one in court, and being pulled into her lover's warm embrace didn't do any damage either. She hugged back tightly, squinting her burning eyes shut and letting tears drip from them. She allowed herself to be comforted by Korra, even though logically she knew it didn't change a thing.

"It's going to be okay," she heard Korra whisper softly to her ear, "it's going to be just fine..."

And Asami almost believed her.

Almost.

"No," she answered, her voice quiet and shaky, "it's not."

At that, Korra pulled away to look at her, her hands holding Asami's shoulders. She was like an open book, Asami knew exactly what her girlfriend was feeling. She was worried, that was the easy part. She was also determined, determined to protect Asami, to make her feel better, to keep her girlfriend safe. She was like this ever since she pulled Asami out of her abusive household, and that was one of the reasons Asami fell in love with her.

And the hardest emotion to recognize, was fear. Korra was scared.

"Look at me," Korra said softly, "we can find new evidence, we can sue again and win."

"He always wins Korra, he always wins," Asami shook her head furiously, "he's going to kill me for telling everyone, he's going to track me down and kill me Korra..."

"No he won't," Korra's hand went up to cup Asami's face, "listen to me, I'll keep you safe, he's not taking you away from me."

"You don't know what he's capable of..." Asami murmured. "I'm in the dorms most of the time..."

"There's security," Korra insisted. 

"He can bribe them!" Asami called out. "Like he probably bribed the jury! Korra I need to flee the city h-he will never let me live after what I did–"