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“Asami, I need a sparring partner!”
Asami looked up from the papers in her hands, trying not to react too much to Korra's voice. So what if it made her heart rate speed up? That was no reason to not act normal.
This request, though, was a little surprising. Sure, they'd been sparring partners before, but not since Korra had returned from the South, and definitely not at six a.m.
“Korra, why are you even up? I thought mornings were evil.”
Korra sighed, leaning against the doorframe and running a hand through her hair. “They are. But... I haven't been sleeping that well. I woke up at five and my mind just kept going round and round in circles, trying to think of a solution to this stuff with Kuvira, and... I think I need to let off steam, you know?”
Asami bit her lip and determinedly did not think about any other ways she and Korra could 'let off steam' together. Nope. No such thoughts occurred. Even if Korra was leaning against the doorframe in a way that accentuated her biceps and made her shirt ride up over her abdomen. Even if her hair was the kind of messy that made Asami long to run her fingers through it, and...
Yeah. No. Not going there. The emotional attraction was impossible to ignore, but the physical one? She could suppress that. At least until after the war. Right?
“Sparring.” Her and Korra, in sparring gear, fighting hand-to-hand, with a lot of physical contact. Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea. “Sure, yeah, of course. Just let me get changed.”
Korra grinned. “Great! Okay. Don't worry about... the, um, all the extra padding and arm guards and stuff, you know? I promise I won't airbend at you this time!”
Asami laughed. “I'll meet you in a few minutes, all right?”
Korra nodded, her smile suddenly shy. “Yeah.”
As the door closed behind her, Asami smacked her forehead with her hand. This was a terrible idea.
This was a bad idea. Korra paced up and down nervously, wondering what had gotten into her. Sure, she enjoyed sparring with Asami, and sure, she absolutely needed something to take her mind off things, but getting that close to the girl she was in love with? The girl who didn't know Korra was in love with her? That sounded like a recipe for disaster.
She shook her head. She could do this. It would be fine.
“Korra!”
She turned round. Asami had taken her at her word and forgone the protective gear she wore sometimes when they sparred together. She was wearing leggings and a red vest top Korra had never seen her wear before. She'd never seen her wear anything like that at all, actually. It was... different. In a good way. Maybe too much of a good way.
Oh no. This definitely was not fine.
“Hi,” she said, her voice coming out maybe an octave higher than it should. She fixed her eyes determinedly on Asami's face, but it didn't really help. She was beautiful in every way, and like this, Korra just got lost in green eyes and imagining what it would be like to kiss her. “Um, you ready?”
Asami nodded, smiling, adjusting the wraps on her hands. Korra had never seen her wear those before either. That shouldn't be hot. Oh, this was definitely a mistake.
Sparring, Korra. Focus.
They circled each other tentatively, both watching each other closely. Clinically, Korra told herself. Strategically. Not lovingly. No.
Asami opened with a careful jab towards Korra's midriff, which Korra avoided easily, spinning round into a kick. Asami backed away.
They continued like that for the next several minutes, moving in some kind of dance of space and awareness and strikes too careful to really hurt. Hurting Asami was the last thing Korra wanted to do.
Like, really, the last thing. The first thing she wanted to do, though? Definitely kiss her. She didn't think she'd ever wanted to kiss Asami more than she did right now, when the other girl was smiling and a little flushed and sweat was sticking a few strands of hair to her forehead and Korra could trace, with her eyes, the lines of her arms and the dip between her collarbones and the smooth skin of her shoulders.
“Staring, Avatar?” Asami asked, a small smirk on her face, and Korra felt herself flush.
“Um. No. Just... looking for an advantage.”
Asami raised an eyebrow. “Worried I'll destroy you?”
You're welcome to, Korra thought, but managed not to say aloud. “Uhh...” was what came out instead, nearly as embarrassing.
Asami grinned, pushed her ponytail back over her shoulder, and directed a spinning kick straight at Korra's ribs. This time, she connected, knocking Korra fully off-balance. Still slightly dazed, Korra forgot sparring etiquette and reached out thoughtlessly, grabbing onto Asami to try and right herself. But Asami's centre of gravity was still off from the kick, and they ended up both falling to the ground.
Korra couldn't breathe. Okay, maybe part of that was because Asami had just landed on top of her, physically knocking the breath from her lungs. But most of it was because Asami had just landed on top of her. Their bodies pressed together, Asami's hair in her eyes, Asami's face against her neck.
Korra didn't move. She honestly thought she'd be happy to lie here forever, global crises be damned, bruised ribs insignificant.
Asami pushed herself up on her forearms, taking a little of her weight off Korra. And now Korra really couldn't breathe, because Asami's eyes were wide and green and staring into hers, and her lips were slightly parted, and her hair, half-freed from its ponytail, fell down around Korra's face like a curtain, like they were hidden from the world. She could feel Asami's breathing, and it felt almost as short and shallow as hers. She couldn't tell if the heartbeat between them was her own or Asami's or both.
Their legs were tangled together, and Korra forgot that the floor was hard and forgot that there was a war going on and forgot that she'd made all sorts of resolutions to suppress the way she felt. All she could see was Asami, her cheeks flushed, her eyes filled with something Korra thought she recognised but didn't dare hope to name. She heard the other girl draw in a breath, shuddering and uneven, and now there was heat unspooling through her veins and if Asami didn't stand up soon Korra wasn't sure what might happen.
“Asami?” she said, trying to be casual, but her voice did something strange on the word, cracking halfway through the second a, the final syllable coming out as an exhaled breath.
“Korra...” Asami's voice sounded as uneven as Korra's felt.
“Hey, Korra?”
Not Asami's voice. One of the Airbender kids, maybe. Shit. This was a public space. Other people used it to spar, to practise.
Asami's eyes widened and she scrambled off Korra hastily, getting to her feet and extending a hand to help Korra up. Korra took it, the contact sending a fizz of longing through her veins. They'd been so close to... what? Kissing? She thought so. She wasn't just reading into this, right?
Right?
Asami was trying to remember how her lungs functioned. She could still feel Korra's body against hers, see the way her eyes had darkened, her cheeks flushed, like she'd wanted... something. Maybe the same thing Asami did. Probably. Hopefully.
They'd been so close to finding out. But of course someone had to interrupt, and now Korra was talking to Jinora, laughing awkwardly and sounding decidedly unlike herself, and Asami was standing here feeling like her knees had turned to liquid. She drew in a long breath, trying to regain her composure, but the air wavered in her mouth, catching on the memory. Her skin felt empty, lonely without Korra's pressed against it, and her lips tingled with the distance of the almost-kiss.
This had been a definite mistake. Even if she couldn't bring herself to regret it. Not any of it. Nothing except not asking to kiss Korra when she had the chance.
Whatever this was, it was getting out of hand. She needed to say something soon.
But not now. Right now, she needed a cold shower. And some blueprints or something to take her mind firmly off the pathway it was going down.
“I'm gonna...” she gestured vaguely. “I'm gonna go. See you later?”
Korra looked at her and her cheeks flushed anew, one hand nervously twirling a strand of her hair into a small knot. “Uh-huh. Yeah. Bye!”
She waved, small and awkward, and Asami smiled at her and waved back and left the room as fast as she could. If she almost bumped into an archway on her way out, that had nothing to do with Korra. Or proximity. Or almost-kisses. Or any of it. Of course not.
One thing was for sure, though. That whole 'suppress the attraction' mission was failing. Spectacularly, in fact.
She shook her head and headed back towards her room, telling herself she wasn't going to spend all day thinking about kissing Korra. Or touching her. Or doing anything else with her.
Suffice it to say, that mission failed spectacularly, too.