Chapter Text
Early morning practice is what Korra hates. Back home in the Southern Tribe, she needed to wake up early to meet with her different teachers, but here in Republic City she needed to be ridiculously early. Like the-sun-hasn’t-even-shone-yet kind of early. Since Air Temple Island was a bit far from university grounds, not to mention time consuming since Korra has her morning schedule all jam packed with Air bending and she needed to train at the temple to really absorb her lessons.
The arrangement though was still hard for Korra, so she and Tenzin had to compromise. Tenzin arranged a perfectly timed schedule of Korra’s training. She will be alternating from a whole morning of meditation to practicing her Air bending. Republic University’s historical department was kind enough to provide Tenzin an exact replica of some of the items used by the Airbenders in training.
With a few strings pulled by her Airbending master, Korra has the university’s pro bending gym all to herself for three hours every second and fourth days of the week. The gym was supposed to be utilized by every student with bending abilities, the only other place where students were allowed to use their bending other than the pro bending stadium used by student athletes competing with other universities across the world.
Asami heard her alarm the first time it sounded. She looked up at Korra’s bed and saw that the girl was once again gone so early in the morning. The past few days, Korra has been in a routine of always disappearing so early and only coming back to get ready for class just before Asami leaves for her own. Besides her unusual behavior in the morning, she also notices Korra meditating in their room. When she first saw her do that, she had thought her roommate was asleep sitting cross-legged in the middle of their room only to be surprised and fall on her backside when Korra suddenly spoke to tell her of her predicament.
Korra had apologized so many times for startling Asami and the way she had found Korra meditating in their room. Korra’s face was burning red and Asami just laughed at the girl’s embarrassment which prompted Korra to pout. Asami had to stop her laugh at the cute face Korra was showing. Needless to say she had found Korra’s somewhat childish antics to be very attractive.
Asami noticed Korra to get easily flustered whenever she sees her stripping nonchalantly in the room. Asami always forgets to check if her roommate is already in the room and just strips herself to change into her comfortable clothing to do her homework, apparently Korra had been sitting quietly beside her study table and as soon as Asami noticed Korra, she was beet red and had not looked at Asami’s face the entire night.
Korra had tried countless times to get through the rotating contraption for her Airbending training. Unfortunately she has had no luck and the whole situation was only making her irritated. Tenzin’s children were there to help guide her into mastering her Airbending, the little rascals are like siblings to her. It was early in the morning and they were in the university’s gym training. The children had flown in with Tenzin with their bison to continue what they had already started at Air Temple Island. Frustrated and still sleepy Korra managed not to burn down the whole building. “Why can’t I Airbend!?” She groaned, “this is not working Tenzin.” She looked at her Airbending master, his face calm and collected.
“Korra, you need to focus. Airbending will come to you easily. You’ve done this hundreds of times through your past lives.” Tenzin sighed heavily. It had not been easy on the Airbending master as much as it had been on the young Avatar. “Jinora, why don’t you show Korra again on to get past the gates.” The master said, urging his eldest daughter to help the Avatar.
“What the hell is this!?” Looking at the notice board of the gym facility, Mako could not believe his eyes. Asami looked over his shoulders reading the note posted.
“I guess we won’t be able to test the vest today,” the young engineer looked at the closed doors of the gym. “Wow, I guess we won’t be able to do the test this time of the day,” Asami read the note, “it says here the gymnasium will be closed every Tuesdays and Thursdays for repairs, until further notice.”
“What!? This is not happening,” Mako exclaimed. “The intercollegiate bending tournament is only a couple of months away. I still have to replace the seniors that graduated last year.”
“Well, you can train when there are no repairs going.”
“You don’t understand Asami,” Mako sighed grabbing Asami’s shoulder. “This is the only free time I have on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Any other day is fine, but this,” he gestured to the closed gym doors, “This is not good.”
“Hey, it’s fine, right? I don’t think this repair will last long.” Asami said trying to cheer up her friend. “Besides, you need to look for teammates first before you start training, right?”
Mako sighed and just told himself there might be a way to solve this dilemma. “You’re right,” he straightened up and waved his hand nonchalantly, “what about your project though? Didn’t you want to test those?” he pointed to the vest Asami was holding.
“It’s fine. I’ll just hold up testing these once we both have time.”
Korra growled and let out a barrage of firebending at the rotating gates. “I’m done! No matter how many times I try I just can’t airbend!” Tenzin just sighed for the nth time that day. Seeing Korra losing her temper on every training they had was testing the Airbending master’s patience towards his pupil. He can’t blame the young Avatar though; the Avatar was still not able to make even a small gush of air.
“Let’s call it for today,” Korra started to walk to the gym’s back door. Tenzin called out “Korra, I want you to meditate again today. Don’t let what you know now hold back your potential. I know you will be able to do this.”
“Fine. Thanks Tenzin.” Korra moved back to her master and his children for a quick hug. “I’ll see you back on Air Temple Island tomorrow.”
“Bye Korra!” The Airbending kids shouted together.