Work Text:
“Hey, are you busy?”
Asami jumped about a foot in the air. Last time she'd checked, she'd been alone in her office. She turned round, grabbing reflexively for the glove she kept in her desk drawer, before registering whose voice it was.
Korra stood by the window, a glider staff in her hand and a wide smirk on her face. “Please don't zap me.”
Asami sighed and pressed a hand to her heart. “One of these days, you're going to kill me.”
“I hope not. Anyway, it's hardly my fault you get so absorbed in diagrams that you don't even notice someone flying through your window. That's kind of a security risk, honestly.”
Korra was grinning in the most smug, should-be-annoying fashion, and Asami still wanted to kiss her. Damn.
“You say that like I don't leave the window open specifically for you.”
“You do?” Korra asked, sounding genuinely surprised. “I thought you just liked fresh air or something.”
“No, it's entirely because you insist on flying here, and I didn't want you to crash into the window again.”
“That only happened once!” Korra protested.
“Because after that, the window was always open.”
Korra opened her mouth like she wanted to argue, then shut it again. “Fair point. Anyway, to return to my earlier question: are you busy?”
Asami was, in fact, definitely busy. She had a meeting in half an hour, and a bunch of papers to review before then, and correspondence to catch up on, and multiple different conferences to prepare for.
“I can spare a few minutes.”
She couldn't, really. But it wasn't like her life's equation hadn't included Korra>work for years now.
“A few minutes, huh? Guess we'd better not waste any time.” Korra leant down to kiss her, slow and sweet at first, then deepening into something more.
Asami stood up from her desk, and Korra pushed her back against it instead, scattering papers across the floor. That was probably important, but right now, she couldn't care less. Korra's lips were warm and urgent on hers, like they'd been apart far too long – really, it had only been about six hours, but six hours was too long, honestly – and she was pressing as close to Asami as she could, like any space between them was too much, and who gave a fuck about diagrams?
Asami half-stumbled backwards, unable to stay steady on her feet (honestly, equilibrium was overrated), but there was genuinely nowhere to go, so she wound up sitting on the edge of the desk, pushing her work out of the way with one hand. She wrapped her legs around Korra's waist, holding her closer still, and Korra gasped into their kiss, and– knock, knock.
Korra and Asami scrambled away from each other like they'd been shocked. Korra's eyes were wide, and her hair was a wreck, and there was lipstick on her mouth, and Asami knew she probably didn't look much better. There were diagrams and minutes and contracts scattered on the floor around their feet, an Airbender staff by the window, and no valid excuse for not letting in whoever was knocking.
“Miss Sato, Mr Liu is here to see you. From one of our suppliers?” Asami's assistant called through the door. “He says it's urgent.”
“Um, just a minute!” Asami called, trying to make her voice sound steady and professional, and not like she was breathless from making out with her girlfriend.
“Are you all right?”
Okay, so maybe her voice-steadying had been less successful than she'd thought.
“Yeah, I'm good, just... I dropped some papers, give me a moment.”
Korra was still standing frozen, looking between Asami and the door with a comically startled expression. “What do I do?” she whispered.
“Um.” Asami cast about, then opened the supply cupboard at the back of the office and shoved Korra inside, along with her glider staff. “Stay there.”
“I can leave if you want,” Korra whispered.
That would be the sensible thing, but... come on, they'd only had a few minutes together all day.
“This shouldn't take long. Mr Liu always says it's urgent when it isn't. Just... stay quiet, okay?”
Korra nodded, a spark of laughter starting in her eyes.
In record time, Asami gathered the papers from the floor into a haphazard pile, set her desk chair back in place, and used a hand mirror to fix her hair and reapply lipstick. There was nothing much she could do about the blush on her cheeks or the unprofessional expression that was probably in her eyes, but whatever.
“Come in?”
Mr Liu opened the door and came inside, looking annoyed at being asked to wait. He was an older businessman from the Earth Kingdom who headed one of the companies that supplied Future Industries with metal materials, well-known for not having the best tempered disposition, especially when it came to meetings.
“Mr Liu, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Asami asked, forcing a smile.
He began a long speech about delivery methods and some recent issues with the supply chain, and Asami tried to pay attention, resolutely not letting herself look towards the cupboard, otherwise she might start laughing, or crying with frustration, or both.
Mr Liu was halfway through a long explanation of an issue with a shipping manifest when there was a dull thud from inside the supply closet, like someone knocking into something.
Mr Liu paused, looking across the room with his eyebrows raised. “Miss Sato, is there someone inside your cupboard?”
Asami very nearly burst out laughing. Only years of professionalism saved her, and she managed to turn the laugh into a cough. “Not as far as I'm aware, Mr Liu. It was probably just a poorly stacked pile of boxes, or something. Do continue.”
Inside the closet, Asami was almost sure she heard a quickly stifled laugh, but luckily, her companion didn't appear to notice, already going back to his shipping-manifest-related lecture.
As soon as was humanly possible (and a lot later than she would have liked), Asami saw him on his way, with a promise to look into the matter. He kept pausing, and reiterating the importance of the issue, until she was tempted to physically shove him out of the office.
“Mr Liu, I really am going to have to insist you leave now. I have another very important meeting in a moment. I'm sure you understand.”
When he finally left, Asami shut the door behind him with such force it was almost a slam. As soon as his footsteps faded out of earshot, Korra half-fell out of the closet, doubled over with laughter.
“'Miss Sato, is there someone inside your cupboard'?” she gasped, doing a poor impression of Liu's voice. “I'm going to die. The amount of effort – it took – not to fall over laughing... 'not as far as I'm aware' – spirits, Asami!”
Asami tried hard to maintain a poker face, but it was impossible. “I can't believe we got away with that. We definitely cannot do this again.”
“What do you mean? We handled that beautifully.” Korra doubled over again, wiping tears from her eyes. “'Poorly stacked pile of boxes'! Of all the ways – you've ever described me...”
Her laughter was infectious. Asami gave up the struggle and joined in, laughing so hard her sides ached. “Spirits, I thought we were caught for sure. I thought he was going to go over there and be like, 'Miss Sato, why is the Avatar hiding in your cupboard'?”
“What would I have said?” Korra choked out between giggles. “'Just checking the supplies are in order, Sir! Nothing going on here!'”
Asami imagined the interaction and grabbed onto Korra's arm, laughing so hard she could hardly stay on her feet. “'Mr Liu, I swear my girlfriend's in the cupboard for a legitimate reason'. Oh, we would have been so dead!”
“And – a 'very important meeting'? Is that what we're calling it now?”
“Hey, I had to get rid of him somehow!”
It occurred to Asami that her assistant could probably hear them laughing, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She loved the way Korra laughed, the way Korra made her laugh, genuinely, not in the polite society way she'd learned growing up. It had never really occurred to her, when she was younger, that she wanted to be with someone who made her laugh, not until Korra came along with her blunt honesty and her Mako impressions and her terrible jokes and her absolute inability to learn how to drive a car, and lit something in Asami's heart she'd never even known existed.
Now, Korra's laughter had to be one of her most favourite sounds in the world.
When they finally calmed down, Korra wiped her eyes and grinned at Asami, wide and bright and beautiful. “So, about that 'very important meeting'... still got some time for it?”
Asami smiled back. “I actually do have a real meeting in... hmm, about five minutes now. And you can't hide in the supply closet for this one, sorry.”
Korra mock-pouted and then laughed. “Don't worry, I have no intention of going back in there ever again. That place is seriously cramped.”
“I mean, it's meant to store office supplies, not girlfriends.”
“You should think about investing in a girlfriend-cupboard,” Korra said thoughtfully. “It could be your next invention.”
“I'll take it under advisement.” Asami leant down to kiss Korra briefly on the lips. “I need to get ready for that meeting now, but I'll see you later?”
“Nothing could keep me away!” Korra said dramatically, then she bent down to whisper in Asami's ear. “Not even a cupboard.”
Asami bit her lip hard, trying to hold back more laughter, as Korra grabbed her staff, jumped out of the window, and flew away.
Spirits, I want to marry that girl.
She shook her head. That was a thought for a later date. For now, she had to focus on the upcoming meeting. And not, absolutely not, on anything resembling a girl with blue eyes and an infectious laugh and the ability to bend all four elements.
Asami sighed. It was going to be a long meeting. She hoped there weren't any cupboards in the room they met in. Otherwise, she was pretty sure no professionalism would be enough to keep her from laughing.