Chapter Text
"Hey! You’re Asami, right? You’re in my chem class!" Asami slammed her journal shut and looked up to see an annoyingly familiar young man leaning over her.
"Yep, that’s me," she replied with a sigh. She had done her absolute best not to sit near Wu in class and gritted her teeth every time he asked an annoying question.
He grinned, apparently oblivious to her tone. “Chem! What a tough class, am I right? If you ever wanted to go over notes sometime, I’m your guy!”
"I’m actually doing really well, thanks. It’s not hard if you do the reading." She saw him reaching for his phone and suppressed a groan. She scanned the coffee shop, looking for someone she knew in the line of people waiting for their drinks, trying to come up with some sort of a quick getaway, but no luck. "If you don’t mind, I’m actually trying to get some work done, so…"
"Mind if I join you?" he asked, pulling the chair across from her out without waiting for an answer. Great, she thought. Just great.
"Oh, there you are!" a young woman in a Republic City University tank top and athletic shorts stepped forward, setting her drink on the table and casually using her free hand to replace Wu’s on the back of the chair. "Sorry I’m late!" She dropped her backpack with purpose next to the table, nearly hitting his foot.
He stepped back, caught off guard. “Korra? You know Asami?” Korra. She recognized the name - this must be that new freshman the swim team was so excited about. The woman - Korra - winked at her, and she hastily dropped her bewildered expression for one of recognition.
"Yep!" Asami chimed in. "She and I actually have plans, so if you don’t mind, we can talk about chem some other time." Not that she wanted to any time, but she could deal with that later.
"Right. Well, I’ll see you in class! Are you sure you don’t want my number so we can talk abo-"
"See you in class!" she cut him off. Korra sat down, reaching out to give his shoulder a slight shove towards the door. As soon as he had left, she burst out laughing. "Sorry about that - Wu’s got a reputation in my dorm as the Fuckboy on the Fifth Floor."
Asami stifled a laugh. “Thanks you. You saved me from having to put up with him, even if it’s only until next class. I’m Asami, by the way.” She held out her hand to the other woman, who smiled and shook it.
"Like I said, I’m Korra. And don’t worry about it - it’s what I would have wanted if it had been me. You looked pretty desperate to get rid of him!"
"Believe me, if you had a class with him, you would be too. Let me make it up to you… can I buy you a coffee?"
"Already have mine, but thanks," she replied, taking a sip from her cup. "Mind if I stay here though? I came to study too, so I promise I won’t get in your way. The other tables are full, and…"
"Sure! Go ahead." Asami smiled as Korra pulled out a massive textbook and opened up to the page where a slightly wrinkled piece of graph paper poked out. She returned to her own notebook, flipping through some of her sloppy sketches. Her engineering class involved a bridge-designing project, so she had been playing around with different structures and calculating the advantages of each. Doodles of various flowers lined the bottom of the page - sometimes she thought more clearly when her hands were busy.
Asami snuck a glance up at Korra, who was running her left hand through her short bob and punching numbers into her graphing calculator with a little more force than necessary. She furiously erased what looked like five or six steps to the problem she was working on. She looked up with a sigh, and Asami noted that her blue eyes stood out against her dark skin. Of course, then she also realized that she was staring and hastily looked away. “Math troubles?” she asked.
"Yep." Korra’s reply was terse. "Of course, it doesn’t really matter for my major, so it’s just to meet core curriculum requirements. And I was too stubborn to take a more basic level and just get it out of the way, so now I’ve got to dig myself out of this hole."
"What are you majoring in?"
"International relations. And religion too - I’m hoping to double major."
"I"m a mechanical engineering student going after a minor in business," Asami told her. "Here, scoot over." She moved her chair around to be next to Korra. The problem wasn’t easy, but she had spent enough time on integrals the year before to figure out Korra’s mistake. She talked through a second problem, making sure to write out the steps she normally would have done in her head, and handed the pencil back for the third one. Korra narrowed her eyes, absentmindedly biting her lip as she worked. Both of them cheered aloud when they checked the solution in the back of the book, earning a couple of odd glances from the people at the nearest table.
"I think I’ve got it now!" Korra exclaimed, slamming the textbook closed with a satisfying thud. "Wow, you taught me more in an afternoon than I think Professor Raiko has all semester."
"Don’t mention it. I’m kind of a mathy person, so let me know if you have any other questions." She pulled out her phone to check the time an noticed it was later than she thought. And that she had a missed call from her dad, but she’d deal with that later.
"What time is it?" Korra asked, still trying to cram her textbook and binder into her bag.
"Five forty-five. Why - in a hurry?"
"Five forty-five? Shit! I’ve got swim practice at six - and I need to get my suit from my dorm - ugh, Coach Kya’s gonna kill me! Ummm, hold on…" Asami tried to keep a straight face; Korra seemed ready to head off in every direction at once, turning between her bag and Asami and the door. "Here’s my number. You saved my ass for the upcoming test, so I’ve got to find a way to pay you back. But also, well, you seem like a cool person besides that, and I’m gonna be at practice until 8, but maybe… text me tonight?” She was babbling, scrambling to grab her things, losing her breath before even reaching the pool. It was actually sort of endearing.
Asami gladly took the piece of paper Korra shoved towards her while grabbing her bag. “It was nice meeting you!” she called as the other girl darted out. The door closed too quickly, muffling Korra's reply, but Asami saw her raise her hand in a quick wave from the window.