dance with me
By diav

Genre: Romance
Rating: T
Characters: Korra, Asami Sato, Mako
Story Type: one-shot
Summary: Based on a Tumblr prompt for Femslash (February) Trope Bingo: fake relationship.
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Avatar: The Legend of Korra.

Asami was in quite the predicament. Somehow Korra had convinced her to play along in this charade to try to get Mako to back off from his advances and now here they were: too close to each other in an enclosed space, surrounded by a throng of dancing bodies.

"Asami?"

Her eyes snapped back into focus at her friend standing in front of her. Korra seemed hesitant in saying anything further.

Asami blinked and swallowed nervously. "Hey... Sorry. I spaced out a bit."

"Mako's looking over," murmured Korra. "I think we should actually dance."

Asami made note of her surroundings again and nodded. She wasn't sure what to do until Korra started swaying to the beat and took her hands. After a moment, Asami's body moved of its own accord.

"I'm sorry about this," muttered Korra as she leaned closer. "He's just been so persistent that I couldn't think of a better way of saying no."

Korra had asked Asami earlier during the day to accompany her to the club. Apparently Asami was to be Korra's stand-in girlfriend to try to get a guy who had been eyeing her friend to back off. It didn't work that well - Mako simply rolled his eyes and may or may not have suggested to the two women that he wouldn't mind "sharing" them. Ugh. That was when Asami smiled (a bit too scarily) at Mako and told him that she and her girlfriend were going to go dance. He had waved them off and continued sitting at the bar, watching them.

"It's fine," Asami heard herself say. It really wasn't. She'd been harbouring feelings for her best friend for a while now but had resigned herself to not doing anything about it. It was just too great a risk to take. Korra was a great friend and she didn't want to wreck their friendship.

"You look like it's not," muttered Korra.

Asami chose to ignore Korra's observation and continued dancing. "How'd you meet him anyway?"

"Judo practice. He and his brother are also in the class."

"He doesn't look that bad, but he could lose the attitude."

"He tries too hard and he's not my type," mumbled Korra as she tried to bite back a rude remark as someone shoved her closer to Asami. If her friend was uncomfortable by the sudden lack of distance, Korra couldn't tell because she was now eye level with Asami's jaw.

"Pray tell, Korra, who is your type?" chuckled Asami as she tried to pretend Korra was far away, so far away and not very, very, very close to her.

"Someone who's not him," replied Korra. They were close enough that, if she was pushed again, Korra might land on her friend's chest. She noticed Asami swallowed nervously as the song changed to something slow. A lot slower than what their current distance allowed.

It was suddenly too intimate, being this close to Korra. Asami took a deep breath and finally looked at Korra. Her friend appeared to be mulling over something in thought before she took a step back, bowed her head, and gave Asami one of her biggest smiles. "Can I have this dance, Ms. Sato?"

Asami's breath caught in her throat and all she could do was nod. She took a step forward to close the distance, wrapped an arm around Korra's waist and held out her other hand for her friend to hold. Asami's brain was on overdrive now but it kicked into high gear when she felt Korra press closer against her.

They swayed slowly to the music - neither of them spoke. Asami was too shocked to say anything and Korra had picked a spot on Asami's neck to stare at as they danced.

After a while, Asami murmured, "You know, you didn't answer my question."

"Mm," replied Korra. She was still staring at the same spot on Asami's neck when she exhaled a bit too forcefully that Asami felt it and almost recoiled.

Suddenly blue eyes were boring into her emerald ones and it took almost all of Asami's self-control to not run away from Korra's gaze.

"I don't think I have a type, really," Korra said slowly. "Though honestly I'd prefer someone like you."

"Me?" Asami blinked. Korra was still looking at her as if she was the only person in the room right now.

"Yeah," her friend mumbled and finally looked away.

They continued swaying slowly to the song as Asami tried to think of something to say. Suddenly this was too much for her to handle. Was Korra confessing? Was she raising her own hopes up on the chance that Korra felt the same? Why had Korra not shown any initiative or interest before? Why now?

Before Asami could process all of the new information, she felt Korra move and suddenly they were pressed together. Korra had decided to close the distance between them as she laid her head on Asami's right shoulder and wrapped her arms around Asami's waist.

Asami felt her face flush but wrapped her arms around Korra's shoulders. It was awkward to dance like this but no one was watching (well, maybe Mako, if he was still there anyway). Asami blinked away her lingering thoughts when she heard Korra mumbling again.

"...youknowIlikeyou, right?" Korra's eyes were closed as they continued dancing, the girl oblivious to the bewildered look that had suddenly appeared on Asami's face.

Asami was freaking out but she was a lady of poise and grace, so to any third-party observer, it looked more like she was offended by an offhand remark but managed to remain neutral in her facial expression.

"You've never said anything," whispered Asami. She was elated but also thrown off by Korra's sudden admission.

"You haven't either," was Korra's reply.

Touché, Asami thought. She tried to swallow the question she wanted to ask but asked it anyway. "How long have you known?"

"For a while," came Korra's soft reply. "Maybe since you tried to date Iroh."

"Oh." Iroh was Asami's attempt at burying her feelings for Korra, but it backfired miserably: he was a constant reminder that he wasn't Korra. Asami felt bad, in a way, since she and Iroh got along perfectly fine. She broke things off after a month but Iroh had handled it well and soon became a close friend. Close enough to call Asami out on her feelings for Korra and close enough to be the person Asami had talked to before agreeing to Korra's idea of fooling Mako.

Asami sighed. She might as well come clean now - Korra deserved that much. "Iroh was just... I was trying to..." So much for being the strong, confident businesswoman who could talk her way through business meetings and product pitches. She faltered. What did she want to say to Korra, anyway? She had all this time to dream about the perfect confession but it was what it was: a dream. Asami didn't expect this to be a reality and now she was stumbling over her words.

"Hey." Korra gave Asami a light squeeze. "It's ok. You don't have to say anything you don't want to say."

Asami took a deep breath. It was now or never. "I was confused for a while, trying to figure out why my thoughts always drifted back to you and why your smile always made me so happy... Iroh figured it out before I did, I guess. I-I-I mean, it wasn't my intention to lead him on or anything but he noticed how distracted I was when we were on our dates and how my face would light up whenever I mentioned you..."

Korra seemed to nod in acknowledgment - Asami couldn't tell, but she could feel slight movement on her shoulder. There was a tightening in her chest that she couldn't determine the cause: this is what she wanted, right? She wanted Korra to know her feelings, but maybe not like this. She was about to speak further when Korra looked up at her and smiled shyly.

"You know, I think I've been in love with you for a while."

Love.

Asami blinked and then stared as Korra's confession registered in her head. She broke out a smile just as the song ended and the throng of bodies began moving excitedly with the song change.

"Yeah?"

Korra nodded. She didn't break their embrace but she could feel Asami finally relax.

"Maybe we should get out of here," said Asami as a man pushed through them.

"And ditch Mako? Gladly." Korra gave Asami her best shit-eating grin - the kind where Korra succeeded in pranking someone. She broke their embrace, took Asami by the hand and dragged them further into the swirling mass of bodies.

"Korra-what-" shouted Asami as Korra tugged harder on Asami's hand. She was hoping they didn't leave anything with Mako at the table but, since they were at a club, Asami had forgone her purse this evening and had slipped a few notes of cash, her phone, and a credit card in her pockets (bless dresses with pockets!). Korra didn't seem to have brought anything with her but Asami couldn't tell since her friend was dressed in her everyday wear: a sleeveless tank and cargo shorts. Remembering that they didn't even pay for their drinks, it seemed like Mako was going to pick up their tab whether he wanted to or not. Asami smiled at the thought as Korra finally got them outside via the back entrance - Asami wasn't sure as she still couldn't believe this was happening and wasn't paying attention as they made their great escape.

"Finally. Thought I'd have to fight my way through the crowd," sighed Korra as they walked away from the club.

"My hero," replied Asami, causing Korra to blush a little.

They walked together in silence for a while before Korra entwined their fingers.

"So... What happens now?" asked Asami.

Korra shrugged. "Do you want to just... wing it?"

"Wing it?" Asami tilted her head in confusion as Korra led them to Avatar Park.

"Yeah, like see where this takes us... And not worry about our friendship not being ruined if... it doesn't work out," mumbled Korra. She led them through a path that brought them to the fountain situated in the centre of the park.

Asami gave Korra's hand a light squeeze. "Sounds good." She'd wanted this for a long time and didn't want to fathom how awkward things would be if they broke up. They'd known each other for years that, if something didn't work out, major shifts in their everyday routine would be required. Asami shook her head at the thought of things going bad and laughed a bit too amusedly for Korra's liking.

"What's funny?" They'd stopped walking now and the look Korra was giving Asami was a mixture of fear and anger - Asami knew it was mostly fear because Korra's hand was suddenly very sweaty.

Asami just smiled. Korra would never back down on being hotheaded. "Here we are, having confessed our feelings, and we're being silly thinking about things we shouldn't be thinking about. We should just stop over-thinking and let things play out. It's silly, don't you think, to dwell on something that won't happen?"

Korra turned to face Asami, blue eyes shining in the dark. "It won't happen?" She seemed unlike herself, Asami noticed. Timid, even.

"Yeah." Asami used her free hand to touch Korra's cheek. "I plan on being with you for a long time, as cheesy as that might sound."

Korra laughed and leaned into the touch. "Good. 'Cause I plan on sticking around for a long time too." She turned her head a little bit and kissed Asami's palm.

Much to Korra's surprise, Asami leaned in close so their noses were touching. "I think you missed a spot." Asami batted her eyelashes and Korra didn't miss the fact that there was a light dusting of pink on her friend's cheeks.

Korra grinned, tilted her head as Asami did the same, and closed the distance.

Author's Note: I didn't want to make Mako an asshole but let me just indulge in this moment of making him an asshole in this. lol

Originally, this was written for Femslash February 2015 but I forgot about it for two years... Oops?

Dug this out of my writing folder because the Korra comic is coming out soon! I'm excited. :)