Chapter Text
So you coming over or what?
Korra stared at the message on her phone for a few lingering seconds before letting out a sigh of defeat. Her blue eyes scanned over at the time in the upper right corner.
12:07am
After mulling over the conflicting thoughts of in her head… She knew she would probably regret this in the morning.
Yeah I’ll be over in 10
Her phone lit up accompanied with a notification sound a couple of seconds later.
Sweet! Also… you’re driving to Asami’s
“Damnit Bolin,” She muttered with a small smirk and a shake of her head.
It wasn’t like she was about to go to bed after a long day of school when one of her best guy friends had started texting her ten minutes ago. He just had to convince her to come out in the middle of the night to go bring some leftover pizza and donuts to her best girl friend (um, not a girlfriend like in a romantic relationship type… no, not like that. More like “oh you’re my best friend, and you’re a girl… but I’ve insanely attracted to you for the past year or so, but you have a boyfriend now, okay”), Asami. Also it wasn’t like she had to get up at six in the morning for her internship or anything…
But Korra knew because of the fact that Bolin said they would go visit Asami, she didn’t have much of a chance to reject his idea.
Korra quickly got out of the comfort of her warm bed and pulled on some dark blue sweatpants, a sports bra and a black sleeveless muscle tee. From all the rustling around in her room, Korra’s large white dog, Naga, perked up and began to whine from the corner of the room.
“Don’t worry, girl. Just going out for a bit, I’ll be back soon, okay?” Korra reassured as she scratched the back of Naga’s ears. Naga (sometimes referred to as a “polar bear dog” because of how big she was) seemed to understand and settled back down after licking the side of Korra’s face.
After slipping on a pair of socks and her sneakers, Korra grabbed a gray jacket and was out the door with her keys and cellphone in hand.
It wasn’t that cold out despite it being midnight, so she tied the jacket around her waist after locking her apartment door. Her eyes darted along the road, but it was empty with the illumination of the streetlamps along with the evening sky of the moon and stars. She walked across the street to her car and was on her way to Bolin and Mako’s place.
When Korra had started college at Republic City State University three years ago, with hopes of getting into the physical therapy program, she never would have thought she would have the group of friends that she had now. Being from the Southern Water Tribe, it was quite a culture shock when she moved over for school. The tall buildings, bright lights, and various vehicles were a change from the usually quaint and quiet frozen tundra she grew up in.
Mako and Bolin were brothers, Korra had met Bolin in history class at the beginning of the semester and he was her first friend she made in the city. He was an aspiring actor and, although a bit naïve and boyish at times, he was hilarious and had the best intentions at heart. Mako was the brooding older brother with whom she was introduced to a week later. He was on the criminal justice track with hopes of one day becoming a detective on the force.
And last, but not the least, there was Asami Sato.
She literally plowed into their group.
Well, she nearly ran over Mako after school one day.
The heiress to Future Industries, one of the biggest corporations in the city, drop dead gorgeous, incredible intelligence with no end to her wit, and ambition beyond anyone’s imagination. She was an engineer major with a minor in business (following the footsteps of her father) and was expected to graduate later this year at the top of her class.
Concerning romantic involvements, Asami and Mako sort of had a thing, but it didn’t last. Bolin crushed over Korra and that ended rather quickly when Korra set him in the friendzone. But the four of them stuck together despite the weird love/ crush relationships… Korra may or may not have had a crush on Mako and dated him as well at one point.
But that was all in the past and in their first year of being together.
Korra’s first impression of Asami was her being a “prissy, beautiful, elegant rich girl,” which all changed as they spent more time together and Korra found out that there was more to this heiress than she had originally thought.
Their friendship grew over the past couple of years and somehow in that time Korra found herself head over heels for her best friend.
It wasn’t just Asami’s physical appearance that was attractive (that did play an important role) rather, it was everything else about her personality that made her all the more endearing. The way those green eyes would focus in on you when you were talking, how she would always ask how you were doing, the genuine tone in her voice, her concern over things (like that one time when Korra’s car wouldn’t start and she group texted the four of them about it, and Asami immediately called her asking if she was okay and if she needed a ride). It was the honest compassion that Korra fell for. She could go on and on describing Asami Sato.
It slowly developed from seeing each other every other day when they hung out with the rest of their “krew”, to the constant texting, especially late at night, to where one was, the other was also there (attached at the hip), to the various arm linking, hand holding (Asami’s hands were always a bit cold and Korra ran more on the warmer side, so the least Korra could do was to hold Asami’s hands to warm them up), lingering hugs, and to practically knowing everything there was about each other.
Everyone saw just how close Korra and Asami got and Bolin started making the joke of “you guys are practically dating,” one night at which Korra swore her heart skipped a beat. She glanced over at Asami, who just laughed it off, but there was no denying the tinge of red on her cheeks.
“Didn’t you guys know? We’re going to get married one day and travel the world,” Asami played along and sent a wink over to Korra. As she tried to ignore the feeling of warmth that seemed to grow inside of her, Korra shot back a lopsided smile and wrapped an arm around Asami’s waist.
“Yeah, I guess you didn’t get the memo,” Korra added on and Asami nestled further into her.
Bolin (who now had a girlfriend, Opal) gave the girls a thumbs up and congratulated them with a chuckle as he continued on with their banter. Mako just sighed and shook his head at them.
“Oh, don’t be jealous Mako. You’re still invited to the wedding even though you dated the both of us,” Korra scoffed. At this Asami and Bolin broke out into more laughter.
“As long as you make each other happy, I guess,” Mako rolled his eyes but finally joined in on the conversation.
“Of course,” Korra’s blue eyes connected with Asami’s and the hint of a smile played on the heiress’ lips.
During this past summer Asami had left for a vacation with her parents to visit the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom. It was the longest month that Korra ever had to endure. Asami couldn’t contact anyone from home because of something with the cell phone data and roaming shit. (You would think that the CEO of Future Industries would have developed something to change that). She promised to write and send a postcard while she was away and if she had internet access she would update them on her vacation.
The night before Asami left, they all had dinner together and wished Asami a safe travel.
“Have fun and be safe! I’ll miss you,” Korra lowered her voice at the later part as she hugged her best friend at the door of her house. Of course, she was the last one to say her goodbye.
“I’ll miss you too, but I’ll be back in no time,” Asami breathed out and tightened her embrace on the other girl.
“Oh, come on, Korra! It’s only a month!” A yell came from the street where Mako, Bolin, and Opal were waiting. Korra clenched her jaw and wanted nothing else but to punch Mako in the face at that moment.
“Shut up, Mako!” Korra’s annoyed tone cut through and she could just imagine Mako averting his eyes with a mumbled apology.
“Take your time!” Bolin’s voice replied back after a couple of seconds of silence passed. Mako didn’t have the balls to answer back, him and his stupid eyebrows.
Korra felt the vibrations of Asami’s giggles before they let go of each other. Asami tucked a loose strand of her dark hair behind her ear and Korra gave her a bashful smile. Asami’s pale hands rubbed up and down Korra’s darker (also more defined) upper arms in comfort.
“I’ll see you in a month,” Korra nodded at Asami’s words and slowly headed back to where the car was. She glared at Mako as she got inside the backseat, closed the door, and glanced back at Asami, who was still at her doorstep with one hand on the door handle and the other up in the air waving at them. With that they drove off into the night and Korra sighed and folded her arms over her chest once they were out of sight. Opal reached out an assuring hand and patted Korra’s shoulder.
“A month will fly by,” Opal gave Korra a soft smile and Korra couldn’t do anything else but nod back as a reply.
It was all a lie.
That month dragged on forever and Korra struggled with every day that passed.
It was pathetic.
So she decided to put more effort into working out to channel all her thoughts and emotions after a week of slumping around. Mako and Bolin were more than happy to accompany her (they knew how down she had been since Asami left). Asami was able to send through a couple of messages and pictures from her trip over email, but nothing too extensive.
Korra impulsively made the decision to cut her hair, so she did and it suited her nicely. She needed a change, and another distraction to get her through the “month without Asami”.
Then, one day (about 5 days before Asami was supposed to arrive back) Korra got something in the mail. It was a postcard from Ba Sing Se, on one side there was a picture of the Capital City and its walls. The other side was packed with Asami’s perfect handwriting.
“Korra!! I’m in Ba Sing Se, this city is gorgeous and so extravagant. We were traveling around the Fire Nation for the first couple of weeks, but the Earth Kingdom is more of my liking. There’s so much history here and it’s just beautiful. I think you’d love it here, we should definitely come back together and explore more. Since I’m with my parents I don’t have as much freedom to go wherever I want, but I feel like I’ve seen most of the site and attractions. I swear they still sometimes treat me like I’m a teenager when I’m almost done with my college career. But, what can you do? They say their hellos since they love you so much (still can’t get over how you managed to do that by the way). I’m sure this card is going to arrive late but I’ll be back soon! I hope you’re doing well and are keeping out of trouble.
Love from Ba Sing Se, Asami.
P.S. I miss you. <3”
Korra had to re-read the card at least five more times before it really sunk in. She couldn’t help the wide grin that overtook her features.
Asami had sent postcards to all of them (Mako, Bolin and Opal too) but Korra knew hers was more personal. The last few days went by easier and the night Asami arrived back, she group texted them.
It’s nice to be back home
They all replied back with “welcome home”, “how was your trip?” or “did you see anything crazy happen?”
Korra replied with
Oh Spirits, finally
Asami texted back with “it was lovely,” and “nothing too crazy, just some tourist things, I was able to hustle some souvenirs from the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom for you guys”.
To Korra she simply sent a winking face emoji: ;)
The following night, Asami invited them over to her house to give them their gifts. They were greeted at the door by Asami’s parents (Hiroshi Sato and his wife, Yasuko Sato). Hiroshi was an intimidating man (he was after all the founder of one of the most successful businesses in the city) but he seemed to take a liking in Asami’s friends. Yasuko was a sweet older woman with a kind heart and face to match with it. Korra somehow charmed both him and his wife with her natural personality and they were constantly asking Asami how Korra was doing. Hiroshi took more time to warm up to Mako and Bolin but he got used to them nonetheless. Opal, being a girl, again made her have more leeway with the parents. Her being a Beifong (her parents were the founders of Zhao Fu, one of the safest cities around) didn’t hinder her either. Also Opal’s aunt, Lin Beifong was Republic City’s Chief of Police. (Mako was able to meet her a couple of times, but everytime he tried to get acquainted with her, she would brush him off)
The four of them greeted Asami’s parents respectfully, Hiroshi shook their hands while Yasuko gave them all light hugs. They noticed Korra’s new haircut and expressed their liking. Korra returned a sheepish smile and a small “thanks”.
“How was your trip?” Opal asked once they all got inside the house.
“Oh it was wonderful,” Yasuko stated with a smile, “it was so nice to have some quality family time together,”
“The Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom were quite different from Republic City. It’s been years since I’ve visited,” Hiroshi mused. “It gave me some ideas to implement on some developments I have at Future Industries,”
Asami popped out around the corner in a nicely fitted red top and black jeans and embraced her friends in a tight hug.
“It’s so good to see you guys!” She exclaimed with a beaming grin. “Korra! You cut your hair?” Asami focused in on her, eyes wide in surprise, “I like it, it looks nice,”
Korra rubbed the side of her neck in slight embarrassment of the attention on her. Unconsciously she tugged on the ends of the right side of her hair and felt her cheeks warm up.
“Well, you look… snazzy as always,”
What in the…
What the fuck?
Who says ‘snazzy?’
Korra mentally slapped herself as she realized what came out of her mouth. That just had to be the first thing she blurted out to her best friend after not seeing her for a whole month. Bolin’s muffled laughter from the right broke the silence. Opal elbowed him in the side to stop him.
Asami’s eyes lit up with amusement and she covered her mouth as a few giggles escaped from her. Korra averted her eyes down to the floor and tried to get over the embarrassment of her words.
“Come on, I have to tell you guys so much!” She changed the subject and took Korra’s hand in hers as she lead the rest of her friends to the living room.
Once they all sat down, Asami spoke of all that her and her parents did on their month away together.
“I got you all some edible treats from the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, I hope you like them,” She pulled out their gifts from a bag that she carried at the end of her story.
“Thanks Asami! But you really didn’t have to bring us back anything,” Opal said with a grateful smile.
“But since you did, might as well not let it go to waste!” Bolin perked up and immediately began to rummage through to bag of treats.
“Bro, calm down! Let us all have a chance to get some!” Mako scolded as he tried to pry away all the “good” candy that Bolin got his hands on.
Asami then turned to Korra and pulled something from out of her pocket, while the other three were busy choosing what they wanted.
“This one took me some time to find, but this is for you,” She leaned in closer to Korra and placed a bar of dark chocolate into her hands. “I looked through the whole store to make sure that no peanuts were processed with it,”
Korra was at a loss for words. Asami remembered about her peanut allergy (many people forgot from time to time) and even went through the trouble of finding something for her specifically during her vacation. She really did not have to do that. It didn’t seem all that extravagant, but Korra was so thankful and smiled brightly at Asami. She felt her heart swell at the thoughtfulness.
She then pulled Asami into a warm hug and thanked her.
“Asami… wow, thank you,”
“You’re welcome,” Asami’s jade eyes sparkled and Korra linked arms with hers for the rest of the evening.
From then on, Korra knew she was in it deep. But she was too scared to act on her feelings.
And then, Asami started dating someone else, about three months later. His name was Iroh, he was tall, handsome, in the military and was overall a really nice guy. They met in one of Asami’s upper division business courses.
Korra remembered when Asami first told her about Iroh and Korra tried to suppress the squeeze on her heart as Asami described him.
“He sounds… perfect…” Korra said (hopefully the tone of dejection wasn’t in her voice) as they sipped from their cups of coffee at sundown one evening.
“He asked me to go to dinner with him on Saturday,” Asami gave Korra a hesitant look, “should I?”
“I mean, what’s stopping you?” Korra gazed directly into Asami’s eyes and waited for her reply. It felt as if Asami wanted Korra to say something to make her not go.
“Nothing, I guess…” Asami replied back slowly after a few moments. She glanced down at her cup and brought it to her lips, not making any more eye contact with her best friend. Korra furrowed her eyebrows together, did she say something wrong?
“Well, you’ll tell me how it goes, right?” Korra asked as she tried to pursue the topic more. There was a hint of something that Korra couldn’t describe behind Asami’s gaze as she looked back at Korra.
“Of course,”
A month later, after a few more dates, Asami and Iroh were official and Korra was crushed. She tried not to let her feelings get in the way of their friendship and opted to take the higher route of trying (yes, trying was the key word) to be happy for Asami.
She even met Iroh and he was everything that Asami told her, very easy on the eyes (he had these piercing golden eyes and a well defined jawline), well built, and strong. He was also funny, extremely knowledgeable about the world and politics, and was polite and courteous.
Asami and Korra were still close, but with the new boyfriend, a new schedule of classes for the semester and Korra’s new internship, it was harder to hangout practically everyday.
And this was now where Korra was. Trying to deny her feelings for Asami, because her best friend was now in a relationship with someone else (who was probably a better fit for her anyway and made Asami happy). She could get over her, she got over Mako after a couple of weeks. But then again, Mako was… Mako. Good thing she was busy with everything in her life, she had time to be focused on other things.
She arrived at Mako and Bolin’s apartment and texted Bolin that she was outside. While she waited for Bolin’s reply, she decided to text Asami.
Korra: You better be awake for these leftovers.
Asami: You guys really don’t have to come over just to drop them off to me
Korra: Too late, we’re already on our way
Just then Bolin slipped into Korra’s passenger side with two boxes in his hands. One filled with three donuts and the other with three slices of pizza.
“Let’s roll!” Bolin said in his naturally eager voice. His green shirt had some grease stains, most likely from the pizza.
“Sometimes I hate you,” Korra deadpanned as she started up her car.
“But you love Asami more,” He sing-songed with a huge smirk.
“I hate you. So. Much.”
They got to the Sato residence about twenty minutes later. The clock on Korra’s dashboard read 12:42 am. It was too late to try to come inside, as close as they were to Asami’s parents, they were still a bit old school. So Korra and Bolin waited as they leaned on the hood of Korra’s car.
“I can’t believe you guys drove all the way out here to give me some pizza and donuts,” Asami walked out from the side door in black sweatpants and a maroon “Republic City State” shirt. Her hair was up in a ponytail and she had her glasses on.
“Korra does anything and everything for you,” Bolin laughed as he held out both boxes for Asami to take.
Korra rolled her eyes but didn’t deny his statement.
“Thanks guys. I would invite you in, but my parents are already sleeping,” Asami then placed the boxes on the car and opened them with a grin on her lips.
“It’s fine, we wanted to see you anyway,” Korra said as she took a slice of pizza after Asami chose one.
“You can never go wrong with mushroom and chicken, am I right?” Bolin snagged the last piece and scarfed it down.
“Who knew that pizza and donuts tasted so good in the middle of the night?” Asami plucked out a blueberry donut from the other box and held it in her hand.
“Sounds like you got the munchies,” Korra teased after she swallowed the last bite of pizza. Bolin snickered in the background and Asami narrowed her eyes at the other girl.
“Shut up,” Asami bantered back, she took a bite of the donut in her hand, “No Mako tonight?”
“He has a criminal justice exam tomorrow at 8am and he was asleep on his textbook when I left,” Bolin stated with a shrug.
“Don’t you have your internship tomorrow?” Asami questioned after she took another bite of her slice of pizza.
“Yeah, but I’ll wake up,” Korra reassured her with a smirk.
“Coming from the girl who needs like five alarms to get up in the morning,” Asami raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“Exactly, I have my five alarms already set,” Korra said in a cheeky fashion and pulled out her phone as proof.
5:00AM: Wake Up.
5:10AM: No really, get up now.
5:20AM: Tenzin is going to kill you if you don’t wake up.
5:30AM: Get your ass up for your internship.
5:40AM: You’re going to be late.
5:50AM: You better have a good excuse for being late again.
“That’s six,” Bolin said after counting the number of alarms she had set up.
“Okay smartass,” Korra stated pointedly as she tucked her phone back in her pocket.
“Love the alarm titles,” Asami smirked with a laugh.
“I try to find amusement in the trivial things in life, like if I’m late for my internship in the mornings,” Korra said in a nonchalant tone, she halved one the glazed donut and took a bite from it. “Besides, Tenzin is a family friend, he can give me some leeway,”
Korra lifted up her donut to take another bite, but Asami quickly leaned over and beat her to it.
“Hey! There’s the other half in the box still!” Korra pursed her lips together in a fake pout as Asami continued to munch on her stolen bite of Korra's donut.
“But where’s the fun in that?” Asami chuckled and stuck her tongue out at her.
“Oh god, get a room you two,” Bolin cut in as he covered his face with a hand.
Korra lightly punched Bolin’s arm and shook her head. Asami continued to laugh and finished her donut.
“Well, it’s getting late and I have to work on a project all day tomorrow,” Asami stood back up and stretched her arms over her head.
“Thanks for letting us come over to drop off some food,” Korra closed up the boxes and placed them on top of each other.
“No, thank you guys for coming over, we haven’t seen each other in a few days,” That genuine smile appeared again on Asami’s lips.
“We’ll be sure to change that! Hang out Thursday night?” Bolin asked hopefully. Asami scrunched up her face in thought.
“I don’t know if Iroh has anything planned for that night, but if not, I’m down!” Korra felt her heart ache slightly at that, but she opted to place a grin on her face.
“Alright, sounds good,” Bolin went to give Asami a quick hug goodbye and flashed his boyish grin at her.
“Keep us updated,” Korra walked up next and wrapped her arms around her best friend. Asami always smelled so nice, Korra could get the scent of vanilla, probably from the lotion that Asami used.
“Definitely,” Asami replied back with an extra squeeze before letting go, “Drive safe,” she added with their hands still held together, she rubbed her thumb across Korra’s hand.
“Yeah, I’ll text you when I get home,” Korra nodded with her lopsided smile. Asami dropped Korra’s hand and took the empty boxes to throw away in her house.
“Goodnight!” Bolin waved and got in the car on the passenger side, followed by Korra on the driver’s side. Asami waved with her free hand before walking back into her house.
Once they got back on the road with the night sky a few minutes later, Bolin turned to look over at Korra and had this grin on his face.
"What, Bolin?" Korra asked as her blue eyes glanced over at him.
"So, are you going to tell me what's been going on with you and Asami, or what?"
Korra only groaned in response and Bolin's laughter filled the car.