Some quick notes: This is a College AU that centers around a coming-of-age story; this fic heavily concentrates on character development for Korra, Asami, and Kuvira.
Books 1, 3, and 4 villains all make an appearance in this story.
Rated T: For graphic violence, coarse language, limes, and suggestive dialogue.
Korra propped her legs up on her school desk the moment Kuvira left the room.
"Are we going over the same techniques today again?" she sighed, kicking her seat back as far as she could without falling.
The freshman folded her arms behind her head and groaned even louder, clearly disrupting the concentration of the surrounding students. Korra instantly earned more than a few annoyed stares this time, but she paid them no mind as she continued talking. "...I mastered that sweep like the first day I got here. I swear, who actually learns anything from these conceptual discussions?"
"C'mon, Korra," Bolin nudged his best friend in the shoulder. "If you can fight giant spirit monsters on a daily basis, then I know you can take on anything. Such as—" Bolin lifted his notebook up, flipping over to the next page. It was graced with a doodle of human stick figures in interlocking positions. "—This absolutely riveting two hour lecture on takedown sweeps."
Korra stopped fidgeting for a moment, a single hand raking down her face as she tried to comply with Bolin's charm. After all, he was the only one with an earnest desire to help. She had to give him some form of credit. "Okay, so how much time is there left in class?"
Bolin grabbed the wrist of a random boy sitting next to him, squinting at his watch. "One hour and forty-five minutes."
"UGH—"
She could already feel the effects of imprisonment by another long lecture, and her body protested accordingly. She began cycling through various sitting positions which, one way or the other, all ended up with her forehead pressed against the wooden table in defeat.
"Just... try not to go into the Avatar state before school is over, alright?" Bolin said, watching Korra writhe around in her chair.
The Southerner huffed, finally settling on her original pose- feet up, chair tipped back, neck arched for a better look outside the window. She caught a glimpse of the class next door, a sea of heads buried in an equally monotonous sea of textbooks. It went on just like that for pretty much every class in the Academy: hour long struggles of scribbling down notes in hopes of surviving midterm week.
Boarding school had turned out to be even more restricting than living with Tenzin on Air Temple Island. It was much harder to be absent and the teachers always seemed to know Korra's whereabouts, even outside of school grounds. Really, she thought the guards would be cool with her by now. Snitches.
"I mean, you make some strong points there," Bolin agreed. "Who cares what kind of angle is made when hooking a dude behind the knee? Even in fighting there's math! I'll never escape!" he said, mock weeping into his notebooks. "I wanna get to the good stuff- let's knock each other out already!" The youngest of the two brothers shot up from his desk, making fists and punching the air.
"Guys, if you can't handle the fact that fighting has both a physical and mental component to it, go to a regular college and join an after school club. We're here to learn and build on old techniques to come up with new ones," Mako finally spoke up, earning petulant glances from both his friends. "The Four Nations weren't built in a day, you know."
Korra sighed. Yes, of course they knew. Students from the surrounding cities flocked to the Academy, seeking an outlet for their exceptional skill in combat, engineering, or research. They were to become the future defenders of peace, as a secret police force in training, something that a regular college education just couldn't satisfy. This was the result.
Bolin booed from his table. "Well, I'll tell you what I do know. That you're really killing our relaxed college vibe!" He made two hand motions that mimicked the rolling tides of an ocean.
Mako shook his head. "There is no such thing as being relaxed in this school."
Korra chuckled. As she leaned further back and balanced in her seat, she scanned the room for what seemed to be the hundredth time since entering the Academy last semester. And she saw the same things she observed the last ninety-nine times: sad, steel colored walls. It was no surprise that the most miserable looking room in the entire school was Kuvira's main lecture hall. There were two small windows on each wall with no curtains or blinds, allowing early spring sun to pour through.
Despite the wind chill being worse since they were situated in the mountains, Korra always wore her ribbed sky blue tank top. It almost matched her aquamarine tinted eyes, and complemented her dark brown skin quite well. Everything about Korra- her posture, her voice, her expressions- carried a heavy air of confidence. Even when she was bored out of her mind, tucking her chin into her palm and slouching, her muscles were a visible testament to her formidable strength.
"Come on you guys, we had this technique down weeks ago! Let's do something fun for a change. Let's cut class and take the rest of the day off!" A wide grin swept up the girl's face, shining with mischief.
"Nuh-uh. Absolutely not," the younger brother said, shaking his head like a child refusing to eat his vegetables. "You got us in trouble last time, and there's absolutely no way we're going to deal with the wrath of Tornado Tenzin again." Bolin squinted and made a circling motion with his index finger.
Korra grumbled with dissatisfaction. If Bolin couldn't be convinced, there was no point in even trying with Mako. As she closed her eyes and opened her mouth to give another big sigh, she felt her chair tip back just a little too far from the propped stance and yelped. "W-w-woah!"
"Ow!" Korra's eyes shot open and she slammed her head into the desk behind. There was Kuvira, her lip curled slightly into a snarl. The tyrant had pushed her chair further back without alerting the teenager.
When the hell did she get there—?! Korra thought, shortly before recalling her anger.
She rubbed her head begrudgingly as she adjusted herself back in the proper sitting position.
Korra's fiery temper was easily set off by Kuvira, and it took all of the freshman's willpower to keep her mouth shut.
Unfortunately, this was different than a high school, or a normal college, where teachers couldn't strike back at a temper tantrum. This was the Academy. And everyone knew Kuvira was definitely one teacher who enforced her zero tolerance policy for disobedience. There were rumors of her putting students in her specialized class through 'highly unnecessary and strenuous' training. Some fourth-years deemed it legalized abuse.
Since Korra was only a first-year, she was cautious around the masters who had a reputation for being callous with their students. She still didn't quite know how to bend all the rules just yet.
"Troublemakers like you are just untrained dogs," The metalbender sneered into the 18-year-old's face. "You snap at everything you find threatening, not knowing where to direct your loyalty and your pent up ferocity."
Korra glared right back up at her, which was something most people couldn't bring themselves to do.
Try that again and I'll show you which one of us here is the dog. Bitch.
The students surrounding her cowered. The intensity of the grudge match seemed to reach everyone except the stubborn Avatar.
"You all just need a rightful master," the ex-captain concluded, her displeased expression turning into one of amusement.
Korra's eyes darkened, looking away. The older woman's smile looked so sinister, it kind of unsettled her. But she wouldn't show any kind of backing down.
"I know your type," Kuvira said, testing Korra's defiant countenance. "You don't want to be owned, yet every fiber of your being screams for a worthy challenge."
The room had fallen silent, her classmates frozen with fear. All eyes were on the freshman, searching for her reaction, but she ignored everyone else.
"Korra, you will go to your next class and hand your teacher this slip to excuse you. You will meet me in my office after this lesson is over." Kuvira slid a pink piece of paper onto her desk and returned to the front of the room. "And there will be consequences, should you ignore my instructions."
After class, Korra found herself sitting outside the Academy's steps going into the man-made garden. It was called "Diamonds' Way" because a special kind of night-blooming flower literally lit up a particular spot in the garden from midnight to three in the morning. Everybody assumed that it was some sort of spirit giving the flowers their light source. Unfortunately, there hadn't been any sightings of the flowers for the past six years.
The teenager plucked grass blades from the ground, rolling them through her fingers then letting them slip back into the soil. She heard footsteps behind her, and assuming it was a guard, quickly whipped around to find a tall figure approaching her. Korra's irritated look softened when she realized it was second-year student Asami Sato.
"Hey, are you doing okay?" The ivory skinned girl smiled as she walked closer, cocking her head to the side to establish better eye contact.
"Um—" Korra's eyes lit up at once, but turned her gaze back at the grass. "Yeah, of course, why do you ask?"
"Well, for one thing, I know we have the same class together right now..." she sat down beside Korra and looked at her. "...And you clearly have no intentions on going to it. What's on your mind?"
It had been an entire semester since Korra started attending the Academy, but it was only recently that she'd gotten to know the heiress. She wasn't sure as to why such a popular girl was interested in becoming her friend. They were complete opposites. Korra was stubborn and outspoken. Asami was sophisticated and somewhat quiet, maintaining a cool and collected attitude.
"I don't know. Sometimes I find myself questioning whether coming here was the right decision." Korra said, mostly to the ground.
"Well, why did you come here, anyway?"
Korra looked up at Asami hesitantly. She didn't know if she could trust this girl yet, and despite being comfortable with herself, she wasn't as open to talking about her past with others.
"You're training in the secret police division," Asami said with a warm smile, sensing her uncertainty. "And most students here just want to protect the people however they can."
Before Korra could even respond, a teacher rounded the corner and pointed an accusing finger at the two girls. "What do you two think you're doing?! You-" he turned to Korra who had started to stand up and back away, "-Are supposed to be meeting Kuvira! Stay right there! Don't you even think of running away agai-"
"Let's go let's go let's go!" Korra grabbed Asami's hand and dashed into the Diamond garden, running as far as they could until their legs burned with lactic acid.
"Come back here!" The teacher screamed far behind them, "You may be the Avatar but you have to attend class just like everybody else!"