Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Do you think we’ll get to go penguin sledding?”

Asami smirked and shook her head at Bolin’s eager question. Opal took a deep breath with an exasperated smile and comfortingly patted Bolin on the head.

With a chuckle, Iroh responded, “I don’t think they let you ride their penguins, Bo.” Bolin gave a pout at the statement and crossed his arms.

Keeping herself from laughing out loud, Asami bit her cheek and leaned against the wall behind her. It had been five weeks since the end of the semester. And in that time she had been too busy to see any of her friends. She had been occupied helping her father with their new car model she had pitched at the beginning of the summer. The project took off much faster than she anticipated and the result was she had only been able to see most of her friends in passing.

But this was nice, right now. They were all together again and it was like school had never ended. Everyone assumed their normal roles in the group, excited to be reunited. They understood Asami’s absence, as most of them had been traveling the first month of the summer. Opal and Bolin had gone to visit her family in Zaofu for a few weeks; Iroh had a humanitarian project he was helping with in the Fire Nation. But as Asami observed her friends, she was acutely aware of the one presence that was missing.

It had been five weeks since Asami had become Korra’s girlfriend. And it had been five weeks since she had seen her girlfriend. Sighing, she closed her eyes and smiled softly thinking about their kiss on RCU’s seal. Shortly after, they had returned to Korra’s room to finish packing and said their goodbyes. Asami had opted out of meeting Korra’s parents so soon, and she had been grateful Korra didn’t try to push the subject.

But there were some moments Asami wished she would have stayed with Korra longer that day. Even a few more minutes. She almost ached, she missed the tribal girl so much. There were times in the shop or in her office Asami would make a breakthrough on the project, and she would almost get up and excitedly run to tell Korra only to find the absence of her friend. She knew she was being slightly over dramatic, as her and Korra called and Skyped almost every day. But in the past year, she had become so used to her best friend only being a short walk away, to seeing her every single day.

So when her father approached her a week ago about potentially tagging along on a shipment delivery to and further negotiations with the Southern Tribe, Asami hurriedly contacted her friends to see if they also wanted to come. Which led to them all being bundled up on the ship deck only a few hours out from Harbor City.

The low buzzing hum that had accompanied Asami on the journey from Republic City slowly morphed into a rumble of excitement as she realized how close she was to seeing Korra again. Her friends had been passing coy smirks to each other throughout the whole trip, well aware of the engineer’s obvious anticipation. And while, sure, she could be really excited about seeing the Southern Tribe for the first time (as she kept insisting), a certain tribal girl probably skyrocketed that enthusiasm. Asami knew her friends weren’t stupid, but she had to ignore the looks. She’d promised Korra she would wait until they were all together to tell them.

Opal once again had that look in her eye: the one that was considering calling Asami out straight on her bullshit. Asami met her gaze with a forced nonchalant look, but was biting her cheek to keep from relenting a grin. But the longer Opal challenged her, the harder it was becoming to keep her promise; the corners of her mouth began to upturn slightly as she fought to maintain control.

“Asami, please, for the love of spirits, tell Bolin that he is too big to ride a penguin.”

Releasing a grateful sigh at Iroh’s impeccable timing, Asami turned her eyes from the staredown she was losing and focused on the boys. They had been debating the logistics of penguin sledding for the past several minutes and now were looking to her to put an end to the debate. She gave a short laugh at the expressions that met her: Iroh’s was an exasperated plea, Bolin’s a hopeful inquiry.

With a shake of the head, Asami calculated her response. “While you probably are too big to physically ride a penguin,” she started, trying to hide a laugh at how quickly Bolin’s face fell at her words, “how about we talk to Korra when we get there about sledding with the penguins?” This idea cheered Bolin up, and Iroh rolled his eyes as his friend eagerly agreed.

“Speaking of Korra,” Opal wedged into the conversation, a knowing glint in her eyes. But Asami knew her limits, and if her friends confronted her, she wouldn’t be able to not tell them. So instead of amusing her friends with the subject, she quickly stood.

Pointing in a general direction behind her, she fought off the heat rising to her cheeks as all her friends’ smirks returned. “I’ve got to- um- re-discuss some details with our negotiator, since we’re getting so close to Harbor City, and um-” The grins on the trio in front of her broadened at her obvious escape, so instead of making more of a fool of herself, she spun on her heel quickly and made her way into the cabin of the ship, pretending not to hear the chuckles behind her.

As soon as she stepped into the cabin, she closed the door and rested her back against it, burying her well-heated face in the palms of her hands. Thank the spirits she only had to do a couple more hours of this alone. It would be easier to take the obvious prods and teasing when Korra was with her. But then again, everything was easier when Korra was with her.

With a short huff, she stood up straight again and headed towards Lyon’s office. If she was going to make an excuse to see him, she might as well stop by. Future Industries’ top trade negotiator (besides her father and herself) had been a family friend for most of her life. And though her father desperately wanted to visit his new branch personally, something popped up in the Fire Nation he had to attend to himself. While mildly disappointed by his absence, Asami was grateful her father had allowed her to still take this as a personal trip and send Lyon as the negotiator instead. If he would have asked, Asami would have negotiated; it just wasn’t exactly how she wanted to meet her girlfriend’s father for the first time.

When she opened the door to his office, Lyon was on the phone, but his eyes lit up as he caught sight of her. “Actually, she just walked in!” he commented to the person on the other end of the line. Knowing who he must have been talking to, Asami walked over to the desk and signalled she’d like the chance to speak as well. With a nod, Lyon began pulling the phone away from his mouth as he said, “Here, she wants to talk to you.”

“Hey dad,” she greeted, allowing a smile to sweep over her face as she relaxed into one of Lyon’s chairs.

“Asami, sweetheart,” she heard her father’s voice over the line.

“How’s your meeting?” Asami tried to ask nonchalantly, but her body stiffened at the question, tensing at the anticipation of the answer.

“Everything’s fine here, Asami,” her father assured her in a warm tone, and she felt a sigh release from her body. “How’s your trip so far?” he continued, a more pleasant tone entering his voice.

“Long,” she answered, relaxing into the conversation. And it was a long trip. It just felt much longer than it should because she knew who was waiting for her at the end of it. Her heart thumped sadly at the thought she couldn’t explain that to her father, however.

It wasn’t that she thought her father would disapprove of her and Korra, exactly. She just… didn’t know how he would react. Asami and her father had a very professional relationship. And it wasn’t a bad thing. They both loved working with Future Industries and inventing things. It was what they had in common. And her father cared for her immensely. Her personal life just never got brought up often, partially because until Bolin dragged her into their friend group, her personal life was mostly Future Industries.

Needless to say “Hey dad how do you feel about me dating girls?” was never exactly asked. And again, it wasn’t that Asami felt her father would be disapproving, but... she couldn’t help but hesitate. And spirits, she told her father everything and she wished she didn’t have to hesitate.

Her father brought her thoughts back to reality, however, with a soft chuckle. “Now that I can attest to,” he agreed, and a small smile curled at her lips. “Chief Tonraq’s daughter,” he began, and even though Asami knew the only reason he would bring up Korra was because of business, her heart still did a little extra thump that her father wanted to talk about her. “She’s the one you’re bunking with this school year?”

Asami fought for her face to remain a neutral shade as her father implied she would be sharing a bed with Korra, not just an apartment. Which of course her father wasn’t actually implying she was- Get a grip, Asami, she chastised herself.

“Yeah,” she finally managed to choke out. “Korra.”

“Tell her her father drives a hard bargain, and as much as I respect that, maybe he could give me the ‘our daughters are friends’ deal?” he suggested hopefully with a small chuckle.

Asami smirked. “Don’t think it works like that, dad,” she countered. Maybe if he tried the “our daughters are dating” deal, he would get a little further, she thought, giving a laugh at her own joke.

“Ah, well. Worth a shot,” he pointed out. There was a beat of comfortable silence as she heard some rustling of paper on the other end. “Asami?” he inquired, earning a hum from his daughter. “I really am sorry I couldn’t come meet your friends. I hope you bring them around the estate sometime, though. Anyone who’s earned your friendship is worth meeting.”

“Thanks, dad,” she all but whispered. Asami heart swelled at the sincerity in his voice and bit her lip in contemplation. She was going to wait to ask Korra first, but since her father and her were having a heart to heart about her friends…

“Dad?” He hummed in response, which she took as her cue to continue, even though her skin began crawling and her heart began hammering. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to relax a little. She just needed to say it. “I was thinking about inviting Korra to come to the gala with me this year, if- if that’s alright?” Her father had always had an open invitation to Asami’s friends for Future Industries events, but taking Korra to the gala felt different. Even if her father wouldn’t know they were dating at the time, it just felt appropriate to ask him.

“It’s been awhile since you’ve taken anyone to any of our parties,” he commented offhandedly, and Asami held her breath. “I’ve always thought it would be good for you to have a friend accompanying you. Any particular reason you’re asking though? She’s not going to protest our trade deal or anything at the gala, is she?” he asked with a playful tone.

Though her cheeks were heating slightly, she shook her head in amusement. “No, no reason,” she lied smoothly. “Just thought I’d run it by you,” she reasoned, and he gave an approving grunt. Her heart felt lighter at her father’s response and she fought to conceal her grin from Lyon who was watching her intently, an amused smirk on his face.

“Alright, well if you need anything, sweetheart, you know how to get ahold of me. I think I’ll stop clogging up Lyon’s phone, however,” he stated with a laugh. “Talk to you later.”

“See you, dad.” She ended the call and darted her eyes up to Lyon’s; she resisted the urge to groan at his raised eyebrows and knowing smirk she was getting all too used to from her friends.

“So how long you been banging this Korra girl?” Lyon asked playfully.

This time Asami did groan and put her head down on his desk in defeat. “Is it that obvious?” she asked exasperated.

Lyon boasted a hearty laugh at this and shook his head. “Not to your father apparently,” he continued to tease her, and she looked up at him desperately.

“Please don’t tell him,” she pleaded. “We only started dating at the beginning of summer, so the relationship’s new, but I care about her alot, and I just don’t know…” She cut off her rambling abruptly as she averted her eyes in embarrassment. Maybe she was being silly. Maybe she should have came out to her father years ago.

“You just don’t know how he’ll take it?” Lyon offered with a sincere and sympathetic smile. Asami nodded ashamed. Lyon’s mother was raised in the Eastern Air Temple, one of the most progressive institutes in the world. She knew Lyon wouldn’t bat an eye at her relationship, but hiding it from her father for her? He was also one of her father’s closest friends, and she wasn’t sure how comfortable he would be with keeping something like this from him.

He sighed. “Your father loves you more than anything in this world. Every time I talk to him, he has to bring up something you’ve done or achieved since the last time I’ve talked to him. But he is also a traditional man.”

Asami bit her lip, trying to decipher what Lyon was telling her. “So are you saying I should hold off on telling him?” she asked, her heart clenching. How long could she hide this from her father?

“I’m saying,” Lyon started with soft eyes, “that your father would do anything for you and traditions change.” Asami gave a shaky breath at this and nodded slightly. “I can’t say I’ve ever had a specific conversation with him of how he’d react if you came home with a girl, but I think your worst case scenario would be him diving into his work for a few months and then realizing he misses you.”

So, not exactly the confident “Of course your father won’t care” Asami was hoping for, but it was something. She offered a strained smile to Lyon as a thanks and allowed him to change the subject to the specifics of the trade deal Future Industries wanted to hack out this week. Asami half-listened, throwing in input where she thought would benefit. But mostly her mind was on her father.

If her relationship with Korra was going to distance him from her for months, she would prefer to tell him after she was out of school and secured an actual position in Future Industries. She couldn’t- she didn’t want to go through her final year of schooling without her father’s unequivocal support. But then she felt guilty because Korra deserved better than to be in a secret relationship with her for a year. Korra’s parents probably already knew they were dating.

Thankfully Lyon pulled her from her thoughts by pointing out the ship was getting close to Harbor City. Gathering up his papers, the two of them made some more small talk before Asami awkwardly stood to leave, not knowing what to say to Lyon after their conversation. But once again, Lyon took the initiative.

“Enjoy this trip, Asami,” he prodded her gently, forcing a small smile on her worried creased face. “And don’t worry about what may or may not be. I could see how much you liked her when you said her name. That type of affection doesn’t come often.”

Asami nodded with a small smile of thanks and made her way out of the room. Her friends were waiting for her inside the doors of the cabin, apparently fed up with sitting outside in the cold. Not that she could blame them, but the cold was something they would all have to get used to for the next week. Bolin’s face lit up when he noticed Asami coming towards them.

“The captain just stopped by and told us we’re only fifteen minutes out!” he relayed, bouncing slightly with excitement. His mood was contagious and soon had Asami in a grin. Her heart fluttered at the thought of being in the same vicinity as Korra again. Thankfully, however, her friends had decided to cease prodding her about their friend, for they too were all excited to see her again.

The following minutes dragged on as some of the longest Asami had ever experienced. By the time the ship was docking, she felt her heart might explode if she didn’t rush off and find Korra. By some incredible self-restraint, however, she managed to feign enough level headedness to calmly seek out her bag and follow her friends onto the dock. Before she could get her bearings and search for Korra in the line of people waiting for the arrival of the ship, however, Asami only saw a flash of white as she was tackled to the ground.

A warm tongue began licking her face as Asami unconsciously let out a squeal and tried to pry the fluffy mass off of her. From above her, a familiar laugh rang out that caused her heart to give a louder thump than usual. A breath caught in her throat as she turned her face to hide from the incessant lick-assault.

Someone reached around what Asami was realizing was a giant, white, fluffy dog and began trying to tug it off of her.

“Naga!” the all too recognizable voice rang out with a jovial laugh. “Naga, come on, leave Asami alone.” The dog--Naga--finally backed away from the engineer who was sitting up on her elbows laughing on the ground. Naga flashed a happy pant at his new friend, to which Asami smirked.

Biting her cheek to keep a beam from overtaking her face, Asami’s eye slowly drifted up to the person who was gently holding the fluffy creature back. As soon as her sight swept over the gorgeous cyan eyes and shy grin, she suddenly had the urge to tackle this girl herself.

Noticing the awkward pause between them as neither of them communicated words to show how happy they were to see each other again, a slight blush broke out on the tribal girl’s face. “Hey, Sami,” she greeted with a lopsided grin.

“Hey, Kor,” Asami returned, taking Korra’s now outstretched hand to stand up. Once standing, they both paused for a moment, before giddily wrapping each other in a tight hug.

After the hug lasted a beat too long for just a friendly greeting, they both broke the embrace nonchalantly, aware of the attention they had attained throughout the whole incident. Seeing her other friends she had ran past before, Korra excitedly ran back to greet and tackle them all in a large group hug. Asami hung behind the spectacle, smirking slightly, incredibly happy to have everyone reunited. But her eyes wandered slightly behind the hug to a man and a woman standing slightly in front of everyone else at the dock.

Asami recognized them from all the pictures she had periodically seen over the past year of Korra’s family. These were Korra’s parents, and for some reason that made Asami’s stomach turn. She noticed they were looking at her with an amused expression, and she forced a smile on her face to keep from feeling too awkward. She had absolutely no idea what Korra had told her parents about her.

To be completely honest, Asami always tried to stealthily avoid any conversation about their parents. Her own confusion about her father made her uneasy about how Korra would feel being in potentially unapproved of relationship.

But as Korra glanced up at her parents and followed their line of sight to Asami, Korra flashed Asami a strained grin. And Asami realized what she should have realized sooner: avoiding the topic of parents was too easy with Korra. There was a possibility Korra had been avoiding it too. Asami bit her lip. Though it would make some things more uncertain, the thought calmed her a bit. They were both in this together.

With a small smile, Asami picked her suitcase back up and joined her friends. The van Korra’s parents brought to transport the group filled up quickly. It was crowded with seven people plus luggage, and Asami was trying so hard to ignore Korra’s thigh being pressed tighter against hers than necessary. But the sensation of being here with Korra for the first real in-person day of their relationship was overwhelming. She unconsciously glanced up at her girlfriend who was looking at her intensely, as if she were about to say something she shouldn’t say in front of the group.

But then Asami’s eyes caught Bolin’s playful look behind Korra’s head, and Asami bit her cheek, trying to stop the light blush. She averted her gaze down to her hands as Korra trained her eyes to the front of the van to watch the road ahead of them.

The three in the backseat of the car listening absentmindedly to Opal making small talk with Korra’s parents. Bolin kept trying to get the girls’ attention to tease them a little, but both remained stoic in their clear avoidance of looking at him. Asami almost let out a sigh of relief when she caught sight of the small palace looming before them.

As they all piled out of the van, Korra’s dad--Tonraq--looked pointedly at the group. “Senna will take you inside. After Korra gets done helping me unload the bags, she’ll be in to lead you to your rooms,” Tonraq directed. The crew tried to politely decline the Chief’s insistence on getting all their bags for them, but it was a fruitless fight as both him and Korra waved them off.

Senna smiled at the group as she motioned for them to follow. The other three couldn’t help but admire the estate before them, sparkling and glittering in the sun, but Asami couldn’t remove her eyes from the woman in front of the group. Her stomach clenched nervously at the thought of Korra’s mother turning and finding her wide eyes watching her carefully, but Asami couldn’t find it in herself to tear her gaze away. This was the mother of her girlfriend, and this woman seemed to have no inclination of that fact.

As the group crossed the threshold into the foyer from the harsh cold of the outside, Asami’s eyes quickly averted themselves and become intricately interested in the plain wall to her right when she noticed Senna begin to turn towards the group, hoping the light blush on her cheeks was perceived as an after effect of the temperature change.

“I’m so happy you all came to visit; Tonraq and I could tell Korra was getting restless without her usually distractions. And it’s so great to put faces to all the friends Korra talks about at school,” Senna welcomed warmly. Shyly, the engineer allowed her eyes to wander and affectionately take in the woman with incredibly familiar cyan eyes.

“Oh, does she talk about us a lot?” Bolin inquired excitedly, interrupting Asami’s thoughts.

Senna smiled softly at the question, offering a short chuckle. “She does,” she confirmed with a short nod, and her eyes seemed to unconsciously glance towards Asami. Not missing the look, Asami had no time to fight the heat in her cheeks. The tribal woman opened her mouth once again, most likely to elaborate on the point amusedly, but a familiar voice rang out from behind the group.

“Okay, everyone grab your bags and run before she pulls out the baby albums,” Korra announced, half teasingly. Everyone turned to see her smirk at her mother as Senna responded with an exasperated shake of the head and roll of the eyes. Asami couldn’t help but allow her expression to grow warmer upon seeing her girlfriend, and her heart gave an extra thump when she noticed Korra do the same.

Blinking back to reality, Korra flashed a smile at her friends. “Come on, I’ll take you to the rooms I have prepared for you all.” And fighting the urge to walk right alongside Asami, she sped ahead of them all towards the staircase, leaving each of the friends the opportunity to shoot pointed smirks at the engineer before grabbing their bags and following.

Asami bit her cheek as she lagged behind the group a bit to gather her bag and trail her friends. Korra hurriedly presented Iroh to his room and Opal and Bolin to their room and suggested to give them all a half hour to get settled in before she would be back. Each of them raised their eyebrows at the rushed abandonment, but each let it go with smirks as they closed their doors and left Korra and Asami alone for the first time that day.

A brief moment passed where they both shot uncertain glances at each other, not yet used to the freedom they were now granted. Asami took a deep breath and opened her mouth to say something--anything--but before she could form a thought, Korra’s mouth met hers forcibly, knocking them both a little off balance.

Asami’s breath caught in her throat as she clutched her arms tightly around the tribal girl’s waist to keep her footing. But as soon as she regained stability and her mind caught up to the scene playing out, she eagerly reciprocated the kiss. Chills ran down her body as she felt Korra’s soft hands cup her face and gently pull her even tighter into the kiss, causing her fingers to curl a little deeper into her girlfriend’s back. The subtle motion elicited a barely audible groan from the tribal girl, causing both girls to break the kiss a bit breathless. A slight blush creeped onto their cheeks, but they just held each other eyes with soft smiles.

Korra--however--soon ripped herself from Asami full of energy and banged on the door beside her that Bolin and Opal had just disappeared into. Taking the cue, Asami shouted for Iroh as her hand found Korra’s and their fingers became interlaced, both anxiously waiting in anticipation for the doors to open.

Bolin and Opal opened theirs first, suspicious grins masked as confusion marking their faces. Iroh’s door opened a beat after theirs with genuine confusion and furrowed eyebrows accompanying him. All three of them looked expectantly at the couple. A beat passed and the trio began to take notice of the clasped hands, excitement beginning to build inside them.

“We’re together!” Korra finally announced, beaming and bouncing as she said it. All their friends’ faces lit up at the announcement but remained where they were standing as they tried to process the information. They had, of course, been waiting for this news for almost a year now, so hearing it officially almost seemed unreal.

Bolin was the first to pipe up. “That was quicker than I expected, but I think we all expected it this trip,” he stated dutifully, unable to keep the cheerful lilt from his voice.

Asami shot him a strained smile. “About that, uh,” she started, averting eye contact with her friends. “We’ve been dating for over a month,” she mumbled quickly with a nonchalant air. She wasn’t sure if their friends would be upset about the omission of that particular fact, and she wouldn’t blame them if they were, but she still-

“I knew it!” Opal exclaimed, clasping her hands together and squealing.

Korra and Asami’s worried eyes shot up to her in surprised. “You- Your not mad?” Korra asked concerned. “Because we wanted to tell you guys, but we wanted to tell you all together and this is the first time since we started dating that we’ve all been together, so-”

“Korra, Korra,” Iroh stated calmly, stepping forward and gently placing his hands on her shoulders. “We don’t care when you started dating, as long as you two are actually finally dating.” He gave her a genuine smile, to which Korra offered one back, while gently squeezing Asami’s hand.

“We are,” Korra confirmed seriously, and then with a joyful laugh she released her girlfriend’s hand and wrapped Bolin and Iroh in a tight hug.

Seizing her opportunity, Opal gracefully embraced Asami. “It was worth it, wasn’t it? To be here right now?” she whispered into the engineer’s ear.

With a tight smile, tears began welling in Asami’s eyes as she thought back to everything that had happened in the past year. “Yeah,” she finally responded softly. “It was more than worth it.” Her eyes flicked over to Korra who still had a pure look of joy on her face, and her heart soared at the thought she was the cause of that.

“Alright, we’ve got to unfinish packing, so we’ll leave you two little lovebirds alone,” Bolin announced with a smirk and a wink. Opal stepped away from Asami and allowed her boyfriend’s arm to wrap around her shoulders and lead her back into their room.

Iroh nodded in acknowledgement of taking an absence himself, and soon disappeared back into his room as well. And once again, the two were alone. Korra shot Asami a dopey grin and hooked her arm through the heiress’ elbow. Asami allowed Korra to begin leading her down the hallway, letting out a relieved sigh.

“So that wasn’t so bad,” Korra commented. Nodding, Asami silently agreed, but a small voice in the back of her mind told her that telling their friends was supposed to be easy. It was telling their-

“Korra?” Asami asked suddenly, and the tribal girl looked up at her with furrowed eyebrows. “Do, um, your parents know? A-about us?”

They stopped walking and the question sat uncomfortably in the air. A hand reached shyly behind Korra’s neck as she avoided eye contact.

Eventually, she let out a sigh and met Asami’s eyes. “Not… not exactly,” she finally admitted. “They, uh, don’t even know I’m…” The end of her sentence trailed off, and Asami was caught off guard by what she had eluded to. She would have thought for sure Korra had told her parents she was bisexual, and yet.

“Me neither,” Asami finally offered, squeezing her girlfriend’s forearm slightly. Her cyan eyes gratefully met hers relieved. It seemed they were in this together.

“Korra!”

The two jumped away from each other, hearts hammering at the sound of Tonraq’s voice at the end of the hallway. Both looked up started at both of Korra’s parents walking up to meet time.

“Dinner will be ready soon,” Tonraq continued nonchalantly, either remaining oblivious to or ignoring the looks on the girls’ faces.

Senna glanced down at the suitcase Asami was still pulling and furrowed her eyebrows. Looking up at her daughter, she commented, “Korra, you should show Asami her room before we eat.” Asami briefly became confused as to why Senna was concerned about that, as that was what they were on their way to do.

“Oh, um, we- we were actually just heading to my room because, um,” Korra sputtered for an explanation, knowing she was completely busted for completely skipping Asami’s prepared room and instead ushering her to spend the week with her instead. As a blush intensified on her face, Asami luckily caught on to the situation quickly. Trying to fight a blush herself, she cut in.

“It’s girls night,” she quipped brightly. “Opal will be joining us soon, but Bolin had to get some stuff out of her bag. And people say I pack too much.” She gave a forced laugh at her own joke, as she felt Korra relax to her side and Senna raise her eyebrows in understanding.

“Sounds fun!” Senna approved, and both girls let out a visible sigh. “Well then we’ll leave you to it. Be down in fifteen minutes?”

Korra nodded eagerly as she dragged Asami past her parents, desperate to get away. Once they had turned the corner, they both collapsed in a fit of laughter, and Korra pulled her in for a light kiss.

Flashing her dopey grin but keeping a serious glint in her eyes, she inquired, “Do we tell them?”

Asami played with the material on her girlfriend’s shirt and sighed. “Not yet. I- Just not yet.” Korra nodded, approving. Honestly both girls were a little relieved they didn’t have to deal with that particular stress yet. Asami honestly didn’t know what she would do if her dad-

“Hey,” Korra cut in, noticing the engineer’s worried expression. “Don’t worry about that right now. This week is our first week together together. Let’s focus on that.”

Feeling herself nodded, she pecked tribal girl’s lips again. A small smile turned at the corners of her mouth.

She could definitely focus on them for a week.

“Will you come to Future Industries’ summer gala with me this year?”

Asami cringed as she blurted the words out of nowhere. She’d had a plan. A perfectly reasonable plan to segue into asking Korra without cramming the question into the first lull in the conversation. A plan that wouldn’t have caused an even bigger lull in the conversation--as Korra hadn’t responded yet--and left her curled up on her bed with her hand pressed to her forehead like a middle school girl thinking idiot, idiot, idiot on a loop.

“Of course, y-you don’t have to!” Asami tried to recover, a little too eagerly, her hand gripping her phone tighter with every passing silent moment that it took Korra to say anything. “It’s really boring anyway, and my father has this weird habit of quizzing my friends on Future Industries’ stock rates, which is probably why I don’t bring friends to these things. Well that and that I never really had friends I even wanted to invite to these things, and just-” Asami paused, pinching her nose, trying to get herself under enough control to at least stop rambling… even though the irrational part of her was screaming that the rambling was better than this spirits-forsaken silence.

Asami took a shaky breath, and tried again with a low resolve. “Korra, please, just say something. If this is too fast for you then we can-”

“Asami?” Korra’s voice came through the phone a little breathless. The phone sounded as if it was being jostled, and the engineer’s eyebrows quirked slightly confused. “Sorry, I had to run and get my laptop in the other room. What day’s the party-thing?”

Asami was stunned into silence for a second. Korra had--right after Asami asked her a question she was overly stressed about--left her phone and ran to another room to grab her laptop for spirits know why. Honestly, Asami didn’t know whether to laugh or berate her girlfriend.

Eventually, she settled on a restrained question. “You know they call it a mobile phone because it’s mobile and can move with you, right?”

Korra cleared her throat and gave a nervous laugh as she tried to form an answer. “Yeah, but you mentioned the summer thing, meaning I would have to get to Republic City yet this summer, and the flights from here to there this time of the year fill up really fast, and I just got really excited, and thought I should definitely book my flight right now so I can definitely come, and so I just ran and kinda… forgot my phone?”

And for the second time in the past minute, Asami was stunned into silence. She still hadn’t recovered when Korra cleared her throat again.

“So, um… What date is it?”

Asami shook her head and tried to get her mind off the one way track that was her girlfriend not even hesitating to run and buy a plane ticket for her. “It’s- uh- the second of August,” she stuttered, trying to snap herself back to reality. “So the week before we’re supposed to move into our apartment.”

“Awesome. Booking my flight now,” Korra responded without missing a beat. She wanted to do this. She wanted to go to a big, fancy, inconvenient party she would inevitably hate just for Asami. “Hey Sami?”

Straining to sound completely at ease, Asami offered a soft hum.

“Would it be okay if I just brought most of my stuff up then? You wouldn’t mind me cluttering up a room of your house for a week, right?”

And that’s when the full implications of what Asami asked her hit. Korra would be living with Asami. In her house. With her father… around. For a week. She bit her lip nervously. Was this how anxious Korra was before she visited in the South?

And how crazy was it she couldn’t decide if she was more anxious about her father being around them for a week or the fear the two weeks between now and seeing Korra again wouldn’t go fast enough?

She swallowed thickly remembering she would have to respond. “Yeah!” she finally confirmed, a bit too enthusiastically. She bit her tongue and tried to tone it down a bit for her next words. “I would be honored to have you clutter a room,” she teased, and a puff of breath sounded through the speaker of the phone that she knew was accompanied by a fond eye roll.

After a beat of silence, and Asami finally starting to get her jitters under control, Korra’s comforting voice rang through the phone. “I was nervous too, you know. But, Sami, as far as anyone knows, we’re just friends. A-and people are usually pretty oblivious to this kind of thing, so you don’t have anything to worry about.”

A long sigh was let out of the engineer’s lips she didn’t know she was holding in. “Okay,” she said calmly, closing her eyes and nodding to herself. “Yeah, okay. Thank you. I’m really excited- to take you on a date in public and all that jazz. Even though it’s just as friends.” The sentence ended on a sad note, as she was torn between wanting to walk into the gala and shout to the heavens that she was dating this amazing girl, and hiding with Korra from the gala and her responsibilities forever.

Both options were tempting.

Both options had consequences.

With a small chuckle, Korra agreed. “I’m excited to be in public with you too, Sami.”

And whatever trepidation Asami had towards the weeks passing slowly was soon forgotten as she stood in the airport lobby awaiting a certain tan skinned girl who was never off her mind. A large wave of people passed her and some instinct in her knew they were Korra’s fellow passengers. But her girlfriend remained elusive, as a small gnawing feeling began in the pit of her stomach.

Asami couldn’t pinpoint what she was worried about. Because there was nothing to be worried about. Korra’s plane had landed safely. All the variables were now at rest; she just had to wait for-

And then she caught a glimpse of her wonderful, dorky girl. Instinctively, Asami’s hand found it’s way to her mouth as she began laughing uncontrollably at Korra struggling to pull three very large suitcases behind her. Still giggling, Asami began walking over to meet her.

Noticing the engineer, Korra’s eyes lit up and she shot her a sheepish smile. She opened her mouth to try to defend herself from being a laughing stock, but was quickly cut off by Asami pressing into her for a light kiss.

There was a mischievous twinkle in Korra’s eyes as she pulled away and tried to feign insult at Asami’s amusement. “Hardy har,” she commented with an eyeroll, but Asami didn’t miss the endearing smirk. With another kiss to the cheek, Asami took one of the handles from Korra.

“I’m assuming you want help with this?” she asked innocently, to which she received a half-hearted glare.

“How very kind of you,” Korra said dryly, and it took everything in Asami not to begin laughing again. She couldn’t keep her faux-off-putting demeanor for long, however, as she quickly warmed up to jesting as they made their way through the parking garage to Asami’s Satomobile.

“I swear it on my grave,” Korra insisted adamentally with a brilliant grin. “My mother could read your whole future with astrology and a jar of peanut butter.” She swung the first of her suitcases into the trunk Asami just opened to her, never breaking eye contact, as if she were challenging her girlfriend to doubt her.

Giggling at such an atrocious statement, Asami shook her head as the second suitcase was packed. “Okay, the peanut butter is reasonable, but the astrology thing just makes it so unrealistic.”

Korra let out a genuine laugh at this as she dropped the last suitcase in the trunk. “She might fight you just for saying that,” she warned teasingly, but Asami shook her head.

“No way. Senna wouldn’t fight anyone,” she replied, lightly, but immediately noticed a mood shift in the tribal girl. Her body stiffened and her smile became a little more forced. Frowning, Asami shot Korra a concerned look. “Korra?” she asked slowly, and panic entered her body as Korra refused to look at her.

“It’s nothing, I’m fine,” she responded offhandedly, throwing her hand to the back of her neck as she only did when she was truly uncomfortable. Asami opened her mouth to speak again, when Korra cut her off. “We had a little… fight. Before I left.”

Asami felt like she’d been kicked in the stomach. There was only a few reasons she could imagine kind, gentle-hearted Senna getting into a fight with her daughter, and unfortunately all of those reasons pointed back to the girl standing by her daughter at this very moment. The engineer’s voice caught in her throat as she fought back tears and tried to think of anything to say.

She’d lost her mother as a child. How selfish was it to drag Korra away from hers, then?

Glancing up at Asami’s reaction, Korra’s eyes suddenly became wide. “Oh, spirits, Asami no,” she quickly tried to rectify. “This was- It had nothing to do with you. Or us, for that matter. It’s… complicated.” She finished the sentence lamely, but held Asami’s eyes to prove how sincere she was being. Asami let out a sigh of relief, believing Korra. But her eyebrows still furrowed in concern.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Korra considered her carefully, then shook her head. “No, I- uh.” Her eyes shot up to hers with a sad smile. “Maybe sometime. But not anytime soon.” She offered an apologetic expression, but Asami merely shot her a smile she hoped conveyed that she understood and wouldn’t push any further.

With a sigh of relief, Korra popped open the passenger side door, and jumped in the car. “So what kind of music hook up do you have in this thing?”

Letting out a sigh even though she was still on edge, Asami smirked slightly as she slowly opened the driver’s door and slid in the car, unsurprised Korra was already hooking up her phone to the USB.

They discussed their class schedules and thoughts on the upcoming school semester on the twenty minute drive back to Asami’s home. Asami--personally--didn’t feel like she had an incredibly hard semester coming up, even if Korra did become paler with every class name she listed. A few jokes were made about how Korra was a young and inexperienced fourth year who would understand when she became a wise fifth year, like Asami. To which Korra always jested back that she was too wise to even require a fifth year of schooling.

But they kept the conversation lighthearted after the unexpected turn of things in the parking garage. They were here together to enjoy themselves. And they would get to be together uninterrupted for the rest of the school year. The prospect was daunting, and yet they both welcomed it with eager smiles and jokes as they unloaded Korra’s things from the trunk and entered the house.

“Oh good! I just caught you!”

Korra was in the middle of explaining a story about trying to get her dad to sled over the summer when a voice cut across the room. Asami immediately paled at the voice and slowly turned to face its originator.

“Dad!” she tried to call out excitedly, but anyone could see it and the smile painted on her face were strained. “I didn’t know you would be here.”

He shot her a soft smile. “Forgot one of my blueprints in my home office that I need for a meeting today. Was just stopping by home to grab it,” he explained, waving around a rolled up sheet of paper. Then his eyes trained off of his daughter onto his guest. “And you must be Korra!” he greeted happily as he made his way over to shake her hand.

She laughed nervously and weakly shook the hand outstretched to her. The man it was attached to was thinner than the man Korra had come to know through pictures with her girlfriend, and was more subdued than anything Korra had ever imagined. “Hi, Mr. Sato- sir!” Both the girls were incredibly tense, but he didn’t let on that he noticed, to which they were both grateful.

“Nonsense, you’re a friend of Asami’s! The first friend I’ve actually met of hers in years,” he confided, lowering his voice and leaning in to tell Korra as if he didn’t want his daughter hearing. Asami’s cheeks immediately flushed and Korra loosened up a bit and tried not to laugh so overtly, clearing reveling in the reaction this man wished to receive from his daughter. Standing back up with a twinkle in his eye, he winked at Korra. “Call me Hiroshi.” Korra nodded eagerly, but it didn’t quite seem like Hiroshi was finished with them yet. He aimed to fill the lull in the conversation.

“So how did the two of you meet?”

Asami cleared her throat. “For that tracking project I told you about last year,” she replied, clearly uncomfortable her father wanted to delve into her relationship with the tribal girl.

His eyes lit up at this. “Oh, so you’re an engineer as well? We’re always looking for great new engineers at Future Industries,” he advertised, but Korra merely shook her head with a smirk.

“Sorry to disappoint, sir, but I was merely the lowly test subject in that project,” she responded, earning a nice chuckle from Hiroshi that caused her chest to swell in pride.

“Well, lowly test subject or no, you’ve had to have impressed Asami in some way intellectually to become her friend. So what is the major then?” he asked, genuinely interested and still oblivious to both of the girls’ blushes.

In a small voice, Korra responded, “Environmental Science.”

At this, Hiroshi raised his eyebrows and looked pointedly back at Asami. “Have you told her about EMV?”

“Dad!” Asami couldn’t stop herself from hissing. “That was supposed to be a surprise,” she grumbled as Korra narrowed her eyes confused and looked back and forth between the father and daughter.

What neither of the girls noticed was Hiroshi raise his eyebrows watching the two girls as a genuine and nostalgic smile twitched at his lips.

“I have to get to my meeting, but Asami can fill you in. I think you’ll really like the project and if you’re interested, we’d love to have you on board,” he offered sincerely, both girls’ eyes shooting up towards him widely. “It was wonderful to meet you, Korra. I hope to see you around the estate more. You’re always welcome here.”

Korra nodded, the words seemingly being caught in her throat, and they both watched as Hiroshi walked away.

“So,” Korra finally broke the silence. “What’s EVM?”

Asami sighed, and shot Korra an apologetic smile. “I promise, I was going to tell you. I just wanted the first prototype to be tested before I did, and-” She paused and took a breath. “It’s EMV, not EVM, and it’s that project I pitched at the beginning of the summer that had me crazy working all the time? It stands for an Electrically Motorized Vehicle.”

The tribal girl stared in shock for a few seconds, trying to grasp the full scale of what Asami was telling her. “So… it’s an electric vehicle?” she inquired, a bit breathless.

Asami hummed in agreement, her muscles tensing as she waited for Korra’s full response, that seemed to be taking her longer than Asami thought should be necessary.

“So it… doesn’t release harmful emissions?”

The engineer resisted the urge to playfully groan at how long this was taking her girlfriend to comprehend. “That would be the intent, yeah.”

She didn’t have time to form a complete thought before Korra pressed her lips against hers hard and tightly wrapped her arms around her waist. When she pulled back, Korra was beaming while Asami was a bit breathless.

“You’re making me a green vehicle?” Korra asked, squealing and jumping up and down like a little girl.

With a chuckle, Asami couldn’t help the grin now plastered on her face. “Don’t be so vain. I’m making it for the world, not for you.” Sure, she was lying through her teeth as she definitely pitched the project completely inspired by her girlfriend, but the more she dug into it, the more the project had definitely morphed into something bigger than just her relationship.

Her retort didn’t even phase Korra, however. “Oh my spirits, I love you,” she cried, hugging Asami again.

Squeezing her tightly, Asami laughed and just responded, “You better.”

When Korra pulled away this time, it was clear she still had a lot of excited pent up energy from the revelation. Without thinking better of it, she shouted, “My girlfriend made me a car!”

Shushing her immediately, but still not able to wipe the silly grin off her face, Asami chided her. “Okay, okay, you’re going to have to contain that excitement unless you want my father to hear you and come back to have that talk with us.” Korra paled at this concept, which caused another chuckle to escape Asami’s lips.

“Oops, sorry,” she apologized bashfully, but the sentiment only lasted momentarily. “Can I see the car?” she asked, clasping her hands together and begging.

With a smirk, it only took Asami a split second to decide. Quickly grabbing her girlfriend’s hands, she yanked her down the hall and the two began sprinting towards the garage workshop, Korra’s luggage completely forgotten in the hallway.

Asami smiled fondly as her friends piled into the backseat of her car. Her trunk slammed and a few seconds later, and the passenger door flew open as a certain tribal flopped into the seat, automatically leaning over to kiss the driver before they departed.

“As your guys’ personal fifth wheel, I would just like to say, as I’ll only be with you one evening of fall break, that I would encourage you all to thrive in your PDA any day this week besides today.”

The two couples let out a small laughs at Iroh’s statement, as Asami shifted the car into drive and began the trip to her house.

“Oh, come on, Roh,” Korra admonished playfully, dramatically leaning her head upside down to look at him in the backseat. “You’re welcome to stay with me and Sami for the week instead of going home.”

Jumping in on the action, Bolin eagerly added, “Oh, I’m sure Opal’s mom could whip you up a room in Zaofu for the week.”

Rolling his eyes, Iroh ignored them and looked steadily out the window, trying to keep his amused smile at bay.

Asami scoffed at their statements and called back, “Opal, what is it with these two always offering up their girlfriends’ homes to people?”

“I’m glad you noticed that too!” Opal responded with a laugh. “I think I would be more upset if I thought there was a chance Iroh would want to third wheel the whole break.”

“I think I’ll stick to the fifth wheel, but thanks for offering,” he tried to retort, but more amusement than he wanted snuck into his voice. The entire car bursted into mute giggles at the response, as the car rounded out of the city on the highway towards the mountains.

Twenty minutes and a karaoke session later, the group was piling out of the Satomobile with their luggage in awe. Korra smirked, already used to her girlfriend’s mansion, as said girlfriend tried to get her friend’s attention.

“Hey guys,” Asami finally called out a little louder, turning four sets of eyes towards her. “You wanna stare, or do you want to go in?” This received a chuckle from the group, as they gather their things and headed for the door.

When planning the escapade to Asami’s before their fall break officially began, everyone had unanimously agreed on two goals for the night: make an almost offensively large dinner and watch an almost offensive amount of movies. The movies would be the easy part of the night, their host informed them. The dinner, however, could required a bit more work, as her father and her hardly ever had enough food in the house for each other, let alone two boys and Korra.

As they made their way to the kitchen, the engineer silently prayed that her father remember to restock as she had requested. Opening the first cabinet she came across, a small sigh of relief came out at the sight of five boxes of pasta. The other four also began opening drawers and doors and slowly Asami began to realize her father might have gone a bit overboard with the restocking.

“Why does your dad think we’ll need twelve loaves of bread?” Korra asked amusedly, shooting her girlfriend a large grin.

“Or fifty-six cups of yogurt?” Iroh called out, a bit in disbelief as he opened the refrigerator.

Turning her focus back on Korra, Asami smirked. “Probably because he’s seen Korra eat here for a week before,” she lightly accused, fondly remembering how they had to send out three times for groceries that week in the summer, because Hiroshi and herself were incredibly unprepared for a Korra to be living with them. Seeing the tribal girl’s face flush red at the tease as she tried to defend herself, Asami let out a laugh and quickly wrapped the sputtering girl in a hug, kissing the top of her head.

“Okay, okay,” Opal cut into the moment, the expression in her eyes making it clear she was forming a plan. “How does everyone feel about making their own pizza?”

In hindsight, Asami should have really predicted the outcome of such a plan, but in the moment, it seemed like a good one. A resounding consensus was made and the group set to work.

Three hours, two edible pizzas and one smoke filled kitchen later, the five of them sat down amidst the haze of the ghosts of failed pizzas past, exhausted from their failed attempts at cooking. Pizzas were cooked too little and then too long; pizzas were dropped due to miscommunication of others’ movements about the kitchen; there was even an unfortunate event with the microwave that Iroh would appreciate if everyone wiped from their memory.

But they still managed to successfully create two pizzas for the five of them to share, and with the fifty-six cups of yogurt and twelve loaves of bread to supplement anyone who wished for more food, the dinner was considered mostly a success.

Opal was in the middle of explaining her architecture project for the semester when they all heard a throat clear from the entrance of the kitchen.

“You know, my house is supposed to be my idyllic getaway from my smoke-filled factory,” Hiroshi commented, startling the group. With an amused smile he took in the disaster that greeted him in kitchen and the horrified faces of the mostly unfamiliar faces of being caught destroying the room.

The first to recover, however, was Bolin.

“Pizza?” he asked, mouth full of a bite he had already taken before Hiroshi had appeared and hand holding up a half eaten slice of charred pepperoni. And to Asami’s humiliation, her father actually took him up on the offer with a chuckle, and sat down next to the group at the bar.

Swallowing her piece, Asami quickly began working to make the atmosphere less awkward than it was. “Dad, this is Bolin, Opal and Iroh,” she introduced, gesturing to her friends respectively. “And you already know Korra,” she reaffirmed, relieved her father nodded brightly at the familiar face. But he didn’t dwell on her long.

“It’s nice to finally meet you all,” Hiroshi directed at the group, “and I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to make the trip to the Southern Tribe. Although at the time, I was convinced my daughter was almost relieved I wasn’t coming because she had been making you all up”

Asami’s face flushed bright red and grumbled at her dad’s insinuations. But Hiroshi ignored her with a bit of pride in the effect his comment had, and instead singled in on one of the group.

“Bolin?” he asked, pointing his attention at Asami’s friend in question. “That wouldn’t happen to be the civil engineer Bolin who partnered with my daughter on that fantastic project last year, would it?”

Bolin’s eyes widened to the size of saucers at the realization that possibly the biggest name in the engineering world recognized him. “Y-yes sir!” Bolin stuttered, for once at a loss for words.

Hiroshi smiled triumphantly at this. “Fantastic work, you guys did. Bragged about it to all my colleagues. You’re a senior, right?” Asami’s father inquired and then took a bite of his pizza. Asami had to give him credit for not cringing a noticeable amount at the taste.

Bolin sputtered for an answer. “Y-yes,” he responded again, pizza long forgotten on his plate.

“Have you applied anywhere yet? I know Future Industries is widening our civil branch, and would love to see you as an applicant,” Mr. Sato continued with a gleeful nonchalance at seeing Bolin’s disbelief.

Finally, Bolin was able to speak for the first time throughout the exchange. “Sir, if you are offering me a job at the biggest and best company any engineer could dream of working for, then I already accept; we can skip the application formality, because yes. Yes please,” Bolin rambled, almost in tears at the prospect. Hiroshi let out a chuckle at this.

“Bolin, I’m more than willing to accept you on the spot, but unfortunately by the time you’ll be hired, I’m not the one who will be making those calls,” he explained, amused. Four pairs of eyebrows furrowed at Mr. Sato’s statement, while one pair raised in shock that her father would bring this up now.

But quickly understanding the looks on her friends’ faces, Hiroshi turned to his daughter mildly shocked. “Sami, you never told them?” he asked in disbelief, and Asami buried her head further down into examining the exact pattern of charred cheese on her pizza as her face reddened to the shade of the sauce. Realizing she was set on not saying anything on the subject matter, her father turned back to the companions and cleared his throat. “I’m so sorry, I thought Asami must have told you. Our agreement is she’ll inherit Future Industries when she graduates,” he clarified, and all four jaws dropped.

After a beat of silence, Asami muttered, “I swear I was going to tell you guys at some point.”

“At some point?” hissed Korra, more in disbelief than anger. She had been dating Asami for six months and been best friends with her for six months previous to that. How had this never been mentioned?

Korra’s feelings were soon muted, however, when Asami shot her a particularly guilty look, and she realized she was the last person who should be judging her girlfriend on the disclosure of inheritances. The engineer must of had a reason as to keep the information from her, and until she was ready to say why, Korra would just have to trust her.

“Oh my spirits, Asami, please hire me,” Bolin interrupted the tense air, practically falling off his barstool, ready to clamor at her feet, begging his friend for job security at the company of his dreams.

Still donning a serious face, Asami looked over at Bolin unimpressed. “Submit an application, and you’ll be considered,” she commented dryly, and Bolin blinked in disbelief.

Opal let out a loud laugh at this, ruffling her boyfriend’s hair as he began pouting. “But Asami, you owe me!” Bolin began bargaining, not ready to let it go. Asami let her dry facade slip a little as a small smile tugged at the edge of her mouth and her eyebrows raised in question. “I introduced you to Korra!”

Asami’s heart skipped a beat as she registered his words, and her playful eyes quickly turned into a deadly glare, as she fought to not show any reaction to the words in front of her father.

Quickly realizing his mistake, Bolin scrambled to do damage recovery. “A-and Opal! And Iroh! I introduced you to all your friends, not like one in particular, because that would be odd!” he tried to play off, but Asami’s face became more red, praying to the spirits her father wasn’t able to interpret what was happening as Bolin made it worse.

And by some miracle, the praying combined with Bolin’s continued rambling worked. Hiroshi merely chuckled, and commented, “I think the boy raises a fair point, Sami.” To which Asami, forced a lighthearted laugh at her father, as she tried to recover from the second disaster that almost happened in the kitchen that evening.

Everyone at the table was still rather tense as Hiroshi finished his piece of pizza and stood from the bar. “Well, I’m going to turn in for the night, as I have early business to attend to tomorrow in the Fire Nation, and-”

“You do?” Asami cut in, all her fears from the moment before replaced with concern. “I thought you were just there two weeks ago?”

Her father painted a light smile on his face. “This was a far in advance planned extra trip, Asami. Nothing to concern yourself over,” he reassured her, as he gathered his things to leave. Before exiting the room however, he made a point to walk over and give his daughter a gentle kiss on the forehead.

Even with his calm words, Asami was finding it hard to relax.

“You dumbass!” Korra shouted, throwing a half full yogurt cup at Bolin as soon as Hiroshi was out of hearing range, pulling Asami from her thoughts.

Though Asami wished to explicitly show anger towards Bolin for almost outing her, the sight of mango yogurt on his face did help to crack a smile.

“I’m sorry!” he cried, holding his hands up in surrender. “I was just really focused on the job thing and completely forgot your dad was there, Asami. I swear I’m so sorry, I’m the worst.”

Korra still fuming beside her, but waiting on the go ahead to throw another yogurt cup, Asami considered him. “You’ve lost your movie choosing privileges for the night,” she stated. “But apology accepted.”

Mildly disappointed the yogurt cup would remain grounded, Korra grumbled as she reluctantly stood down. Asami leaned over to her and kissed her check. “He didn’t mean it, babe, and nothing bad came of it,” she explained.

Korra huffed. “Yeah, I know,” she relented. Their eyes met as their fingers intertwined. They knew they had almost slipped in front of both of their parents several times, as it was such an easy thing to forget to hide; their anger at Bolin reflected more more on fear than anything else.

The whole group was silent for a moment, relaxing from the stress of the situation now that it was resolved.

“Well, if Bolin lost his choosing privileges,” Iroh started, drawing out his last word, “then dibs on first pick!” He scrambled from the counter before anyone else could react, but soon the two couples were quickly chasing him down.

Korra’s favorite thing about the past two days is she got to spend time entirely alone with Asami. After their friends and Asami’s father left the morning after the pizza fiasco, the two quickly became used to constantly being in the presence of one another. And while sleeping together on a lumpy twin size mattress in their apartment was nice (neither of them could think of a valid excuse for their parents to get one of them a queen size mattress), waking up curled around Asami in her gigantic and fluffy bed definitely competed for second favorite thing about the past two days.

The reason it didn’t win outright was because when they weren’t cuddling or walking around the gardens or voluntarily almost dying by letting Asami drive them on her motorcycle around the test track at top speeds, they were in the garage putting in hours on the electric car they almost had perfected. And watching Asami bend over a car for hours, covered in grease and geeking out using terms Korra would probably never understand was definitely just as good as waking up next to her in the mornings.

“Alright,” Asami called out to Korra who was sitting useless on the workbench from under the hood of the car. “Hopefully, that worked, but there’s only one way to find out,” she explained, stepping back and standing up, slamming the hood in the process. She wiped her hands in a rag and made her way past Korra to the driver’s seat.

“Wait!” Korra cried out, popping up from her seat and causing Asami to turn with her eyebrows furrowed. The tribal girl bounced over to Asami with a mischievous grin. “You’ve got a grease smudge, right there,” she explained, as she cupped Asami’s cheek and rubbed the smudge with her thumb.

Asami gave a fake-annoyed huff and tried to roll her eyes, knowing she had grease smudge several other places on her face as well, and Korra was just making a scene of it. Not that Asami was complaining, as her girlfriend still made her weak in the knees in moments like this.

“Did you get it?” she asked coyly, narrowing her eyes playfully at Korra.

“I think… Oh no, missed one spot,” Korra responded, and moved the hand on Asami’s cheek back to her neck to lightly tug the engineer down and press their lips together. Asami would have scoffed at such a cheesy move, but she supposed it would be hypocritical to criticize something that made her heart rate spike.

“Got it,” Korra announced softly and triumphantly when she pulled back. This time Asami really did scoff as she pulled her girlfriend back in for a deeper kiss, wrapping her arms securely around her shoulders. Taking her cue, Korra dipped down to firmly grab Asami’s thighs and pick her up. She spun the engineer towards the car, as to gently set her on the hood. But instead, Korra unceremoniously let go of the girl in her arms, and with a loud thud, Asami landed on the car hood, definitely creating a dent.

“Korra, what the-” Asami started, frustratingly looking up at her girlfriend, who had never been known to drop her before. But her sentence cut off when she saw Korra’s ashen face, not looking at her, but rather at the door in a panic.

Oh no.

Asami knew what she was going to see before she turned around. Slowly, she made her way off the car while twisting her body towards the door.

And there was her father, watching them both solemnly.

Asami fought every urge in her body to run. This couldn’t be happening, she thought, as she tried to remember if her father had ever mentioned when he would be home, and how she could have been so careless to let this happen. She’s not sure when she had, but Korra’s hand was now tightly intertwined with hers, silently willing support onto her.

“Korra, would you mind if I got a moment alone with my daughter?” Hiroshi asked calmly, not betraying any emotion. Chest constricting, Asami stopped Korra from protesting and agreed with Hiroshi. She needed to do this alone.

As her father fully entered the garage, Korra slowly trudged out around him, not pleased she was going to have to let Asami take whatever he threw at her.

The silence between the father and daughter was thick and tense. Neither knew who was supposed to speak first in this situation. After several moments of nothing, Hiroshi decided it was his move.

“Korra is a nice girl, Asami, but-”

“Please don’t,” Asami cut him off with a whisper, unable to meet his eyes, and rather studied the floor with her own that were now filling with tears.

Hiroshi paused for a second, but ultimately continued. “No, you need to hear this,” he started again, and his daughter cringed in anticipation. “Korra is a nice girl, but you are the future CEO of Future Industries; you are a Sato, first and foremost.”

“Dad,” Asami cut in, voice cracking and eyes finally shooting up to meet her father’s. “If you’re threatening to take Future Industries away from me, you can’t, we agreed!”

He held a hand up to silence her and continued unperturbed. “You have to ask yourself if this is worth it,” he continued, looking at her seriously.

“Korra’s worth everything to me,” Asami confessed with a desperate air, surprised at the level of truth in her own words.

“I wasn’t asking you to consider Korra’s worth. I was asking you to consider the worth of the whole thing, Future Industries included, and whether or not you would be able to handle it,” he clarified, and his daughter’s eyebrows furrowed. “Asami, sweetie, you are exactly like me. The company is everything to you, and once you take over you’ll put in an incredible amount of overtime, and even when you come home, you won’t really because you’ll bring work with you. I was so dedicated to this job, I almost ran your mother out the door several times. So I’m not asking if Korra is worth it; I’m asking if potentially disappointing the girl who may be the love of your life will be worth it.”

Asami stood there stood for several moments trying to process her father’s words. Her upset demeanor slowly morphed into disbelief as she blinked at her father, still watching her earnestly.

“I-” she tried speaking, but her throat closed up. “This- this isn’t a ‘you’re a powerful figure and shouldn’t date a girl’ talk?” she finally asked, her disbelief coming through in her tone.

Hiroshi blinked at this, looking taken aback. “I- what? No, Asami,” he chided her softly as he pulled her gently into a hug. Still a bit numb from the whiplash the conversation gave her, Asami didn’t react immediately. “This is a ‘you’re a powerful figure and need to be prepared of the potential of hurting a nice girl’ talk.”

Unable to return the hug even yet from her incredulity, Asami pulled back. “I- I thought you would- Why aren’t you surprised?” she demanded, grasping on one of the thousands of questions spinning through her mind.

Chuckling at her question, her father smiled softly. “Do you know what I did for your mother when I knew she was the one?” he asked amused.

Asami considered this. And now trying to rack her brain for the story, she realized her father had never told her. She shook her head.

“Your mother always complained about how she could never parallel park because of how long the Satomobile was,” he began, a twinkle in his eyes as he waited for his daughter to put it together.

She mulled over it, and suddenly it hit her. “Oh my spirits,” she whispered, eyes widening as they met her father’s. “The first modification to the Satomobile was a smaller more compact car. You built her a car.” Asami’s hand slapped to her forehead now as she glanced over at the car in her garage that was an exhibit of exactly how alike her father and her were.

“I built her a car,” Hiroshi agreed, chuckling some more. After the initial shock of the situation, Asami began joining him and wrapped him in a hug. Her father must have known as soon as he realized who the car was for what was going on, which means he’d known for months and had been purposefully prodding her since then.

After awhile, Asami groaned into her father’s chest at how ridiculous the situation was. “Maybe we should just try flowers,” she suggested as a joke, which received another round of laughter.

“You would think we would honestly learn by now,” Hiroshi commented after their laughter died down again, to which Asami snorted. With a firm kiss pressed to her forehead, he gestured to the door Asami was sure Korra was anxiously waiting by. “Go and stop her from wearing a hold through our floor,” he commanded, and his daughter let out a laugh.

She made it a few steps away when Hiroshi called out to her again. “And Asami?” he began, prompting her to turn and look at him with concern in her eyes. “Promise me you’ll do everything in your power not to repeat my mistakes. You’re the happiest I’ve ever seen you with that girl. You can and will be a great CEO and a great partner.”

Silently, Asami made her way back over to her father and buried her head tightly in his chest. A few tears fell before she pulled back.

“Of course,” she promised softly, and then she left to put her girlfriend out of her misery.

“Right, remind me of the talking points again?”

Asami squeezed her girlfriend’s hand comfortingly, in an attempt to get her to stop shaking. They were a few minutes out of their winter break destination: Harbor City. When they arrived, Korra’s parents would be waiting to pick them up from the dock. They would be elated to see Korra and Asami, but also slightly confused as to why Asami was the only friend joining them for the break, as the invitation was offered to the rest of the friends.

But everyone knew the two girls had to be alone for this one. Hiroshi had found out about their relationship two months ago; it was time to tell Korra’s parents before they found out in a potentially unfortunate way (like by dropping their daughter only a hi-tech expensive new car.)

Hiroshi officially knowing went better than either of them could have expected, and it gave them confidence going into their next challenge. Neither of them, however, wanted to become over-confident, as they still wanted to be prepared for the worst. Even though Korra’s parents would probably definitely most likely be okay with it, they also had to be the voice of reason for an entire nation.

And so the girls were nervous. Neither of them had ever really done this before. Everyone who already knew their sexualities and their relationship had already assumed it on their own, so this was completely uncharted territory.

But Asami was trying her best to put on a calm facade for Korra, as this was her turn to be outwardly freaking out. And Asami honestly couldn’t imagine having to prepare herself for her talk with her father, so she honestly thought Korra was handling everything very well for the circumstances.

Knowing the circumstance of their trip, Hiroshi had told the girls not to worry too much before he saw them off, which had comforted them both immensely. If a seemingly conservative man like Hiroshi had taken it so well, this had to go well with Korra’s parents, right?

“Talk about soccer first,” Asami instructed, gradually feeling Korra begin to relax her tensed shoulders. “They’ll want to hear all about your season, especially the championship game from you in person.” The tribal girl nodded at this, as if she were convincing herself. “Then segue into classes; tell them you made the Dean’s list this semester even with all the soccer hype.”

“Which I’ve never done before and they’ll chalk up to me living with you,” Korra cut in, reminding herself of the plan the two had worked on rigorously throughout the past few weeks.

Asami nodded, squeezing her girlfriend into a hug. “Right, and then-”

“I tell them that it’s true that you’re an amazing influence on me, and that’s why I started dating you,” Korra finished, letting out a long sigh, and trying to get all her jitters out of her before the actual conversation.

With a brief kiss to her forehead, Asami rested her head against her girlfriend’s. “I’m so proud of you, Kor,” she whispered, and Korra shot her a grateful look through her nerves.

“Promise you’ll save me if I fuck this up?” the tribal girl asked with a shaky laugh.

“I’ll always save you when you fuck up,” Asami promised, hugging her girlfriend tighter.

The boat docked too quickly for either girl’s liking. Before they knew it, Tonraq and Senna were wrapping them both in tight hugs.

“We’re so happy you could join us this winter, Asami,” Senna welcomed genuinely, and the engineer let herself relax a little. Soon both the girls’ luggage were loaded in the car and the four of them piled in.

“So, uh,” Korra began, and Asami prayed to the spirits that this started off on the right foot. “Do you guys want to talk about soccer?” Korra asked, obviously nervous. Her parents passed each other side glances from the front seat, and Asami could feel her girlfriend’s leg shaking beside her.

If starting on the right foot meant taking a step and twisting an ankle, this was probably going well, she thought sarcastically, trying to hold back a groan.

“Yeah, Korra, we’d love to,” Tonraq finally responded, and Korra let out a sigh of relief. “Tell us all about being a two time national champ.”

Korra dug into soccer for the rest of the car ride, and Asami had to give her parents credit: they faked being interested for that long really well. It wasn’t that Tonraq and Senna didn’t care about Korra and Korra’s interests, but Asami had been with Korra for long enough to understand they didn’t get her obsession with the sport. They were from the Southern Tribe. If anything, Korra should be a prodigy hockey player.

But they tried, and that’s what counted, Asami supposed. But the three having to listen to Korra ramble on and on about the different plays used during the championship match were rather relieved as they pulled into Korra’s estate, providing a much needed excuse for a lull in the conversation to change the subject.

As the four exited the car, Tonraq quickly made use of the brief second of silence to ask Korra about her classes. This prompted Korra to shoot Asami a look that said “Look at how well we’re following the plan!”, which Asami of course found adorable, while simultaneously difficult not to laugh at.

Korra and her father dragged the luggage into the estate as Korra detailed how her exams went and how she had made the Dean’s List for the semester.

“That’s wonderful, sweetie!” Senna cried, immediately wrapping her in a hug in the foyer. Tonraq immediately wrapped his arm around her shoulder and squeezed her with pride.

“Asami get you into some new study habits?” Tonraq jested, sending a wink Asami’s way, which slowly made her cheeks heat up.

This was it. All Korra had to say was “Yeah, she’s a great influence, which is why I’m dating her.” Asami practically willed the words out of her so this whole nightmare would be over.

When Korra’s eyes met hers in a panic, however, Asami felt her stomach drop. “Uh, my professor’s were really great this semester!” she fumbled, completely missing the mark of where she was supposed to be. Asami resisted facepalming. “A-and there were study groups that I went to like, once, but I think it really helped me for the whole semester. And all of the reasons of why I did so well were very basic and general reasons that don’t have anything to do with my roommate, so I don’t know why you would mention her-”

Asami sighed. “We’re dating,” she stated over her girlfriend’s rambling, and the other three people froze. Surprisingly, the engineer was calmer than she had been all day. It was a relief to get that out into the open, no matter the reactions, and judging by Korra’s thankful expression, she agreed.

Tonraq and Senna exchanged looks with raised eyebrows, and the girls held their breath waiting for a response. Finally, a sly smile crossed Senna’s face as Tonraq rolled his eyes at his wife.

“Looks like someone’s out of fifty bucks,” she jested, and he waved a dismissive hand at her as he pulled out his wallet.

Both girls stood shocked with their mouths hanging open at the interaction playing out in front of them.

“Wait, woah woah woah,” Korra cut in between her parents waving her arms. Both stopped and looked at her expectantly as she addressed her mother. “You bet on whether or not Asami and I were in a relationship?” she asked incredulously, appalled and mildly embarrassed at her parents’ behavior.

Tonraq, wager in hand halfway to his wife, feigned disgust. “Yeah, Senna, that’s horrible,” he chimed in, pulling his hand back and stuffing the money back in his wallet.

Korra scoffed and Asami bit her cheek so as to not giggle. “Hey, you are not innocent here, mister!” she cried, hands on hips and eyebrows scrunched in fury. Both of her parents just looked on her with a fond amusement, as Senna ripped the money out of Tonraq’s wallet.

“Korra, sweetie, if it helps at all, we weren’t betting on whether or not you were in a relationship with Asami,” Senna comforted with a sweet smile. Korra paused at this, mellowing down to a slightly angry confusion.

“Yeah, we bet on who would tell us when,” Tonraq offered, as if that was any better. Korra sputtered trying to come up with a response, and Asami’s body was shaking with hidden laughter at the once again ridiculousness of a situation she was put into.

“I bet on Asami not even fifteen minutes into the break,” Senna disclosed proudly, beaming at Asami and taking one of the engineer’s limp arms, holding it up, and high fiving it. Asami blinked in disbelief that Senna had gotten that right.

Korra looked incredulously from her parents to Asami. “I- you guys knew! This whole time! And you just let me- This- this is horrible parenting!” Korra declared desperately, but was severely undermined by Asami’s hysterical laughs. Pouting, Korra glared at Asami. “Asami, they bet on us, it’s not funny-”

She was cut off by more laughter, and soon there were tears rolling down her cheeks and Senna and Tonraq had joined, and it was just one half-angry Korra watching helplessly as no one cared about her frustration. Still laughing, Asami walked over to her girlfriend and wrapped her in a tight hug.

“You’re just mad your mom bet on me instead of you,” Asami speculated with a smirk.

Korra glared at her and deepened her pout. “Shut up,” she grumbled, and with a lighthearted laugh, Asami pecked Korra on the lips, which arguably was the best way to soften up her girlfriend in front of her parents.

“Alright,” Tonraq called out after everyone had calmed down and Korra was now a deep shade of red from being kissed in front of him. “The soup’s probably getting cold, and you girls are probably hungry after all that worrying we watched you suffer through, so let’s go eat,” he declared, and everyone began moving towards the kitchen, the girls’ arms wrapped around each other’s waist.

Asami felt a light touch on her arm and turned to find Senna walking beside her with a soft smile.

“Welcome to the family, Asami,” she expressed, and the engineer stopped walking to quickly wrap Senna in a tight hug, which was easily reciprocated.

Later that night, Asami sat alone in Korra’s bed reading a book. She tried not to focus on the yelling happening in a different wing of the estate, but it was hard to ignore Senna and Korra shouting. She grimaced with every scream and resisted the urge to sneak down the hall and listen, as the voices were too muffled from where she was to pick out any words.

Tonraq had left for a meeting a few hours earlier, and Senna had requested to speak to Korra in private. Asami tried not dwelling on the twist in her stomach as she went through the possibly reasons two of the most kind-hearted people she knew were in a screaming match at the moment. She remembered Korra saying her and Senna had a fight before the school year, and she had to assume this had to do with that.

But she promised Korra she would wait for an explanation, and so she would wait.

Eventually, the yelling ceased, and a few minutes later, Korra softly padded into the room. With a guilty look on her face, she grimaced as she met Asami’s expectant eyes.

“Uh, you didn’t hear what that was about, right?” she asked nervously. Her girlfriend shook her head, and she let out a relieved sigh. “Okay, good. I promise, it’s nothing to worry about. I can’t really explain it right now, but-”

“You don’t have to,” Asami reassured her, trying her hardest to keep her disappointment out of her voice. What could possibly be the problem? But soon she forced herself to forget as Korra shut off the light and climbed into bed with her.

A few minutes after snuggling up in Korra’s bed, Korra suddenly flipped around to face Asami as she was about to fall asleep. She opened her mouth to say something, but the words couldn’t quite come out.

With a soft smile, Asami decided to fill the silence. “I’m proud of you,” she repeated her sentiment from earlier in the day.

Korra considered this for a moment. “I love you,” she finally whispered.

Asami’s eyes widened slightly at the words, but took it in stride. Pulling her girlfriend closer, she whispered, “I love you too, you dork.”

With Korra’s head snuggled into her neck, Asami felt Korra’s breaths slowly begin to even out. Falling under the influence of sleep herself, Asami clutched to her girlfriend.

She knew there would be trials in the future, but today it felt like they had reached their most important summit so far in their lives. And even with new mountains already forming in the horizon, she knew she would climb every mountain in the world if it meant getting to hold onto Korra every night.

But tonight, they were done climbing and were just enjoying the view. And Asami rather liked it.