"What has you looking so down?" Bumi asked the Water Tribe woman he had come to think of as another one of his nieces. He'd found her in one of the higher towers of Air Temple Island, looking out longingly toward the city.
She sighed. "I get back from one of my expeditions and everyone is too busy to hang out. It's not their faults, it just kind of sucks."
The older man laughed. "Don't I know it? Retiring from the United Forces left me with a whole lot of nothing to do and no one to be around until I got airbending! But where's the lovely Miss Sato?"
Korra's brow rose at the enthusiastic mention of her girlfriend. "She doesn't get back until late tomorrow night from a business trip in the Fire Nation."
"What a shame!" The former commander went and plopped himself into a chair closer to the Avatar, raising his hands in dramatic motions. "Returning home only for the heart to continue to yearn."
If Korra weren't so used to his antics, she probably would've been rather creeped out. "Bumi, I think you sound more upset than I do. I really want to see Asami, but I'll get to in less than twenty-four hours. We've been apart for longer before."
"Of course I'm upset! It pains me to see young love go to waste. Did I ever tell you the story of the Water Tribe girl I fell in love with when I was just a private in the United Forces?"
Korra was tempted to lie so she wouldn't have to hear whatever story was about to follow.
It didn't matter because Bumi just plowed on with his tall tale anyway. "We went to help fight off some raiders that were attacking innocent civilians in the Northern Water Tribe. Eight of them had me backed in a corner but I was determined to protect this girl's life! So with only a bag of fireflakes and a ball of twine I managed to disable all of them. More forces were coming and we were forced to flee on an elephant eel the size of a battleship."
"What does this have to do with me and Asami?" Korra tried to interject.
He ignored her to pursue the story. "We wound up stranded on a glacier only the size of this room for two weeks with no food or supplies. We bonded and fell madly in love during that time. It was the romance of the ages! Until, of course, we were finally found by my fleet and rescued. Then she had to leave me to return to her life as a tiger seal tamer."
He was tearing up at the end of his tale, causing Korra to eye him wearily.
"I think Asami and I will be just fine," the Avatar told him before the former commander excused himself to grieve over his long lost love.
From then on Korra was sure to never bring up Asami around Bumi again. Because every time the airbender heard anything about them he would launch into different story about a "love of his life". And each one would only get more ridiculous than the last.
It wasn't often that Asami stepped inside her mansion anymore.
It had been the house she'd grown up in with her family, which no longer existed. So she had been happy to let Mako and Bolin's family stay there. It put the place to use, not making her feel bad about basically moving into her office and an apartment she was renting just down the block from Future Industries.
But occasionally she had to go and get something from the mansion that had not yet been taken out of there or she opted to keep there to save space.
Some random stranger had crashed into her usual Satomobile while it was parked outside her office building the day before, and would now take a few days to repair. So in the meantime, she decided to go get one of the other Satomobiles she kept in the mansion's vast garage.
It had been a while since she'd been in her childhood home though, causing her to forget exactly where she kept the keys to the extra cars in the garage. This lead her to wander around the mansion for a little while until she remembered that there was probably a spare set in the nightstand in her old room.
The bending brothers' family was downstairs eating dinner, so the wing with all the bedrooms was oddly quiet as Asami walked down it. She had been fully intent on just going to get her keys and leaving, but something through an open doorway caught her eye as she passed.
Immediately she knew it must be the room Grandma Yin was occupying due to the framed photograph of the former Earth Queen. That picture hadn't even caught her eye though. Not even the one of Prince Wu to the right of it.
It was the frame to the left that had caught the engineer's attention.
Behind the glass was an article clipped out of the newspaper.
An article from when Asami and Korra's relationship had first hit the media. An article that had a big picture of the two of them holding hands as they got off the ferry from Air Temple Island.
Asami's hand smacked against her forehead at the ridiculousness.
Grandma Yin considered their relationship to be of royal status.
This was bound to get awkward.
"I'm so happy Su managed to find a project out here for you to help with," Korra told her girlfriend as they sat together out in one of the Bei Fong estate's many gardens, watching the sun go down behind the mountains.
When Asami had heard that Korra was going to have to be in Zaofu for a while helping settle political unrest around there, the engineer decided to contact Su and see if she wanted help with the rebuilding of physical structures and systems there. Asami had been planning to pitch the idea to Su at some point anyway, so she figured she might as well use it to her advantage as well. The matriarch had been thrilled to have Asami bring the work of Future Industries to aid them. She suspected that the CEO partially just wanted to be around her girlfriend, but that didn't discourage the older woman.
Asami wrapped her arm around Korra's and rested her head on the Water Tribe woman's shoulder. "Same. If we both have to be away from Republic City at least we're in the same place."
"It's a shame that it won't always be like this."
Before Asami could hum her agreement, a creaking sounded behind the two women. They both turned their heads to find the source of the disturbance, and were only half-surprised to find Huan there working on a sculpture.
The Avatar's hand clenched into a fist. "I swear he's been following us around all day with that stupid 'work of art'."
Asami found the interference annoying as well. She couldn't quite understand why Huan seemed to be intent on working on his sculpture within a hundred feet of them. But she figured Korra going and bending him out of the garden wasn't going to make the situation any better.
So she gently stroked a tan, muscled arm in an attempt to calm her girlfriend. "Just ignore him. After all, we're the guests here."
That didn't work for long.
Huan kept bending away at his odd-looking statue, the metal shrieking and groaning accordingly. Every time it made a particularly loud noise Asami could feel Korra cringe slightly. The Avatar had gotten significantly better at checking her temper over the years, but it wasn't going to be long before she snapped over this.
"Huan!" Korra finally barked, her patience running out. "What in the name of Kyoshi are you doing following us around with that sculpture?"
The Bei Fong raised his eyebrows at the outburst, his composure not wavering the slightest bit. "You two are my inspirations for this project."
He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What?" Korra and Asami replied in unison.
He rolled his eyes and scoffed. "How do you not see it? This statue is a clear representation of the symbiosis of your love. Your relationship is a blend of spirituality and industrialization that drives this work."
The two girlfriends share confused looks.
"Are we supposed to be flattered or something?" Asami whispered.
"I'm not so sure," Korra whispered back. "Because it kind of looks like a platypus bear if you tilt your head a little." The Avatar then spoke up to the metalbender. "Um…glad we could help."
"If you could just stay there like that for a few more minutes I'm almost done," the artist insisted.
"Okay…" Asami trailed off before turning to Korra and mumbling. "This is uncomfortable."
"I guess we have his approval at least."
Asami couldn't help but chuckle at her girlfriend. "You look so uncomfortable."
"Can you blame me?" Korra shifted anxiously in their cushioned booth at Kwong's Cuisine. "First of all, I'm not used to getting this dressed up just for dinner. Second, people staring at us doesn't normally bother me, but I hate that it's happening while I'm eating. I feel like if I don't eat in the most elegant way it will be front-page news."
In an attempt to help put her girlfriend at ease, Asami took hold of her hand on the table and pecked Korra on the cheek. "Relax. Even if they say you're the slob of the century in the news, so what? I will still be more than happy to continue going out to dinner with you."
That managed to quell the Avatar's nerves for the time being. But to be sure, Asami just kept conversation going with Korra so as not to let her think about everyone else long enough to worry her.
Unfortunately, Asami hadn't been able to stop an uninvited guest from plopping himself down next to Korra in the booth.
"Hellooo, ladies," Wu greeted the two of them, waggling his eyebrows. "What a lovely place for a date. How is my favorite couple doing?"
For whatever reason, Wu had been rather happy to find out they had started dating even though he had attempted to ask out each of them in the past. They could only assume it was just because he loved the gossip it entailed.
"We were doing fine," Asami failed to keep all the bite out of her tone.
Not only did she still find the former prince rather annoying, but his presence was drawing more stares, putting Korra on edge again. However, the Water Tribe woman tended to get along with him better ever since he had decided to change the Earth Kingdom into more of a republic. Korra seemed to want to give him a chance since he was beginning to mature a bit.
So despite her nerves, Korra was able to keep a much more pleasant tone. "Hey, Wu. When did you get back to the city?"
"Oh, I'm just here for a few days to audition a few back-up bands for when I start my tour through the Fire Nation in a couple of months," he explained happily, waving down a waiter and ordering some frivolous drink before continuing. "But I'm sure the two of you will get to hear all about my upcoming performances in the papers. Oh! I have a better idea! I can get you ladies tickets to my first show. That should make a great date night."
That was probably the last way either woman wanted to spend a night.
Asami managed to come up with a response in a fairly polite tone first. "It's doubtful we'd be able to go. We are both really busy with work."
The Avatar nodded in enthusiastic agreement with that answer, thankful for the excuse.
A smirk appeared on the former prince's face. "I heard that work isn't the only thing you two have been busy with lately. If you know what I mean."
"What?" the engineer practically growled.
The anger in her voice was lost on Wu though. "I've been in the Earth Kingdom a lot lately and in some of the bigger cities have this great tabloid that talks about the two of you a lot!"
"Fantastic," Korra replied sarcastically. She normally got along with him better yet he was really beginning to grate on her nerves. "And you actually read that stuff?"
"Of course! I need to keep up to date with all my favorite power couples. I can get you a copy if you want. Now is it true when they say Asami is the more dominating one?"
Before either woman could snap at him a server came over and informed Wu that his table was ready and his date was waiting. Korra and Asami were happy to watch him leave as he went and plopped himself down next to a rather beautiful woman that must have had no idea what she was getting herself into.
"Why are the most random people obsessed with our relationship?" Korra huffed, throwing her hands up in exasperation.
"I don't know," Asami relented, recapturing her girlfriend's hand. "But I guess it's better than disapproval. We already ate our appetizers. Do you just want to get the check for that and head out?"
"So we can go back to 'being busy' with each other at your place?"
"Please never make that joke again."
AN: I know that was an extremely random oneshot. But I just thought it would be funny to get some takes on people's reactions to Korrasami other than the usual (Mako, Bolin, Korra's parents, etc.).
And let's be honest, I think some of these are a fairly accurate portrayal of some of the fandom's actual reactions.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed.