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Korra can hardly believe her eyes when she walks into the busy café to see that there is only one table at which a gorgeous, dark haired woman sits alone. That was as much of a physical description as Opal had given her. Her friend’s insistence on this being a blind date seems pretty ridiculous at this point, because if Opal had just shown her a picture, she wouldn’t have had to spend six months convincing Korra to let her set her up.
Gorgeous doesn't do this woman justice, with her lush black hair and red lips and high, sharp cheekbones. Korra wishes she could see her eyes, and that thought is enough to set her moving. She trips a little on the leg of a pushed-out chair but her date is too absorbed in the book in front of her to look up, much to her relief.
“Excuse me,” Korra says as she reaches the table, pleased at the steady, calm tone of her voice. “Are you-” as the most stunning green eyes she’d ever seen look up at her, she is horrified to realise she’s forgotten the name Opal had given her- “Opal’s friend? I’m Korra.”
She hopes desperately that the woman in front of her will return her introduction, but she doesn't. For a few seconds, that perfect face is utterly blank as she stares at Korra. Korra feels the creep of embarrassment, starting to suspect this might be a case of mistaken identity, but then:
“Yes, Korra, hi!” the woman says, closing her book. “I think I’ve seen you on Opal’s instagram.”
Korra breathes a huff of relief and sits down in the chair opposite her date. She offers a smile that she likes to consider rakish, worries that it comes off goofy instead. It’s a fine line. “You have me at a disadvantage then! I don’t think I’ve ever seen her post you. I’d definitely remember.”
“Oh,” the woman opposite her blushes prettily, a perfect diffuse rose spilling across her cheeks, the bridge of her nose. “Well, with my work I try to stay off social media as much as I can. A security thing.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Korra says, in reality a little confused. She knows doctors with active internet presences - but then again, her date is a paediatrician; maybe it’s like her teacher friends who use fake names on their platforms. “Plus Opal mentioned you work such long hours she doesn’t get to see you as much as she’d like, so I suppose that doesn’t exactly leave much time for selfies!”
“I suppose not,” the woman says with a small smile, though she seems a little troubled for a moment. “You’re a physiotherapist right?”
“Yeah! Self-employed though. Gives me some flexibility with my hours, so it’s pretty easy for me to make time for a social life. Not that there’s anything wrong with being busy!” Korra is quick to cover for any presumed offence. “What you do is so important - like wow, that’s so much responsibility.”
“It is. But I love what I do,” the woman - Korra really needs to remember her name - shrugs, like saving lives is no big deal. “It was definitely difficult at first, but I had and still rely on a lot of support from trusted mentors.”
“That’s so great,” Korra says. “It must be amazing to be a part of a team like that. I know what I do can really help people but you’re saving lives.”
The woman’s lips part in surprise, and then shut, looking slightly awed. Korra has seen first hand the abuse doctors can receive when things don’t go right, but surely respect for the profession shouldn’t be so hard to come by that it warrants such a reaction?
“Maybe my work has led to some lives being saved,” her date says, which seems like a very passive way to phrase things. “But physiotherapy gives people their lives back. A close colleague of mine was in a pretty bad car accident a few years ago and his injuries left him in a pretty bad way, emotionally as much as anything. The change in him over the course of his physio sessions was unbelievable. I visited him pretty frequently in the hospital, and when I say I never believed I would ever see anybody so thrilled to be able to grip their own cup of water…”
Korra nods seriously. “So much of what I do is about making people’s daily tasks easier for them. I always thought I’d focus on sports injuries since that’s what made me want to go into this career, but I’ve actually ended up doing a lot of geriatric work. Sweat the small stuff, I say. Like being able to brush your own teeth. Makes the big picture less daunting.”
“As someone very detail-oriented and with my dentist on speed-dial, I’m inclined to agree.”
Korra laughs. “On speed-dial? Well, I guess it’s working out for you.” The woman - ugh, her name is on the tip of Korra’s tongue - looks confused. “I mean, because you have a seriously beautiful smile.”
Her date’s blush is deeper this time, splotching her cheeks adorably as that brilliant white smile emerges again. “Thank you. That’s sweet of you. The dentist thing though - it’s not my vanity. I just had a lot of problems with my teeth as a kid. I was pretty spoiled and had a sweet tooth which was just… cavity central. I decided to do better with my adult ones. I try to look after myself, you know, in general. Which you clearly do too, I mean just... Look at you.”
She waves a hand up and down like Korra’s on display, and it’s her turn to fight the blush rising to her cheeks, obscenely pleased that her own attraction towards this woman - Sara, her name is Sara! - is returned.
“Well, here’s to being hot!” Korra says, before realising she doesn’t have a drink. Sara clearly got here early enough to order before Korra arrived, but the cup in front of her is pretty much empty. “Oh, sorry, Sara, I’m being a terrible date - can I get you a coffee?”
“Excuse me. Are you Opal’s friend? I’m Korra.”
Opal’s friend Korra.
Asami’s eyes snap up from her book - because, well. She knows of Opal’s friend Korra.
Somehow she looks even better in person than in the photos she’s seen. Blue eyes. Blue, blue, blue eyes, and an open expressive face, and breathtakingly defined arms. Only a little shorter than Asami would be, if she were standing, and Asami is tall. She realises she’s staring, and snaps her book closed, plasters on a friendly smile.
“Yes, Korra, hi! I think I’ve seen you on Opal’s instagram.”
Asami’s brain shuts off as Korra grins in a way that she can only describe as rakish, bringing a blush with it as it flickers back on. “... I don’t think I’ve ever seen her post you. I’d definitely remember.”
Korra has settled into the seat opposite her and Asami is baffled and dazzled by this turn of events. Has Opal stealth set her up? Sent Korra to Asami’s usual Saturday morning haunt to batter down Asami’s resolute refusal to give Opal any power over her love life in person?
She regrets ever referring to Korra as “the gorgeous one in your last Instagram”. She should have known Opal would never let it go, even after her friend stopped barraging her with updates and photos of Korra in an attempt to get her to agree to a date.
Except - does she actually regret it? Now that Korra’s actually in front of her, as vibrant and beautiful and friendly as promised? Chatting with her is so easy that eventually she relaxes enough to be bold, gesturing at Korra’s whole… thing - her physique, her face, her silky hair - and making it blatantly obvious she likes what she sees.
"...I try to look after myself, you know, in general. Which you clearly do too, I mean just... Look at you.”
“Well, here’s to being hot!” Korra says with a truly luminous grin. “Oh, sorry, Sara, I’m being a terrible date - can I get you a coffee?”
“I’d love a long black,” Asami says unthinkingly, before realising what Korra had just called her.
Oh, fuck, she thinks, as things become clear.
She feels like she’s existing in that one moment within a vivid dream where you realise what had until then seemed perfectly pleasant might actually be a nightmare.
Korra thinks she’s on a blind date with Sara Hada, her and Opal’s paediatrician friend from college. It’s making a truly horrible sort of sense now. The saving lives part, definitely. It was a bit much to hope that Korra would somehow know about her pet project, the surgical robotic arm that was the subject of her PhD and had recently made its way into hospitals. At least Opal hasn’t been complaining about how much time Asami made for her; she thought they’d hashed that one out a while ago, and she was doing better with it.
It shouldn’t sting that Opal had given up on her and Korra, moved on to fixing her up with someone else instead. It shouldn’t sting that when Opal had asked her to recommend a coffee shop, she was asking for help planning this. Korra and Sara’s date. Somehow, it does.
It would be so easy for her to rectify the situation. ‘I’d love a long black… but I think we have our wires crossed - my name’s Asami. That’s so funny that we both know Opal!’
They’re having a nice conversation, or at least Asami thinks so. They’ve made it clear there’s mutual attraction between them. They could go forward from there.
Except what if Korra decides to go find Sara, her actual date, and they fall madly in love or something? And then Asami is forced to attend the wedding with some faceless plus-one she’s found on Craigslist? Knowing that it could be her up at the altar, looking into blue blue eyes, and…
Maybe she’s getting a little ahead of herself.
The debate is kind of moot, since at some point during Asami’s spiral of inner turmoil Korra had gotten up to get their drinks.
Korra had only said Sara once, and it wouldn’t be absurd for Asami to have misheard her, especially with the shared sibilance of the S. If she says it again, Asami will correct her.
“Aaaand I’m back,” Korra says, sliding back into her seat, carefully setting two cups on the table between them. “There you go, Sara.”
“Thank you!” Asami says. And that’s all. Why is she like this?
“You’re so welcome,” Korra says with a sweet, toothy grin. “Nothing I love more than buying a drink for a beautiful woman.” She falters. “I mean - not that I do it a lot. I’m not like a player, or something. But also it’s not like I never see anyone either! Just… a regular amount of… beautiful women? And men. I’m bi. You’re cool with that right?”
Asami bites down on her knuckle to stifle her giggle as Korra buries her foot firmly in her mouth. It makes her feel a little better about her own predicament. “Of course,” she reassured Korra. “I am too.”
“Really?” Korra says. “Opal said you were a massive lesbian.” Asami watches her wince awkwardly. “She definitely said it like a compliment though!”
Asami freezes, floundering for too long to cover the slip. “Oh, you know… fluidity. Spectrum. Discovery. Evolution.”
She’s just saying words, now.
“Totally,” Korra says, seeming completely serious. Wow, Asami was lucky to get away with that without Korra at least looking at her funny.
She shouldn’t have even entertained the thought, even for a second, that the universe might be on her side. Korra’s phone chimes on the table, screen lighting up with a text notification.
Korra only throws her phone a cursory, automatic glance as she goes to slip it away in her pocket, not wanting to be rude. The message preview catches her attention though, and she double-takes.
Hey Korra! Sara just texted me to say she got caught up in surgery and won’t make it, but wants to know if you can rearrange for…
Korra opens the message, frowning, not comprehending.
… one day next week? She has Tuesday off, if it works for you. Let me know! Sorry if you’ve been waiting, I missed her message at first. Should’ve given you each other’s numbers!”
Korra is officially confused. Is Sara not sitting in front of her right now?
“So, that was Opal,” she says, still staring at the blue bubble. “Saying Sara needed to rearrange our date…?”
“Oh,” says apparently-not-Sara. Her cheeks are so pink. She’s so pretty. “Um, right. I’m Asami - I’m a friend of Opal’s too. I have seen you on her Instagram, like I said, and she was trying pretty hard to get me to let her set us up for a while so... I honestly didn’t realise you thought you were meeting someone else until you said Sara’s name and then I was just having such a nice time. I’m so sorry I was too awkward to say anything.”
“Opal was trying to set us up?”
“I… might have told her I thought you were gorgeous, once.” She looks determinedly at her hands.
Butterflies erupt in Korra’s stomach - this stunning woman thinks the same of her.
“Only once?” Korra asks. “Because I’d call you gorgeous a thousand times, if you’d let me.”
She cringes at herself for how cheesy a line it was, but it gets Asami to look up at Korra, a tentative smile on her face.
“You aren’t upset?”
Korra laughs. “I’d have to be an idiot to be upset to have ended up on a date with you. There’s a connection, right? Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like there’s definite chemistry.”
“For me too,” Asami says, and she reaches out to touch Korra’s hand over the table - it’s only light, only brief, but it’s electrifying.
From behind a large newspaper, Opal Beifong surreptitiously texts her boyfriend a picture of their friends: bodies tilting towards each other like magnets over the separation of a wooden table; hands touching; wide-eyed smiles on both of their faces.
Operation Korrasami = success!!