a/n: Prompts:

Hearts

(object) playing cards

(dialogue) "It 's funny how things turn out the way they do"

(emotion) disbelief

(AU) Non-bending!Bender

element: air

Word count: 1,203

After Equalist activity picked up and Air Temple Island became a refuge for Mako, Bolin, and Asami, Korra had come up with a conclusion:

Asami was a no good, overly done up, perfectly prissy bitch.

Her hair was always shiny and smooth and black, no matter how much it whipped around on her satocycle. Her eyes were bright and green and long lashed with makeup so expertly applied that it was barely noticeable. And she was filthy rich. And she never stumbled over her words. And she was tall and slender and curvy and brilliant, and pretty damn hot if Korra had to say so herself.

But she was still awful.

The four teens sat in Korra's room, using an overturned crate as a table while they played poker, gambling with lychee nuts. Bolin was attempting to show off his mad "street" skills while losing almost every playing card, bested by everyone but Korra. Mako was slightly better, but Asami...

Asami was creaming all of them.

Spirits, was this stupid girl good at everything?

And worst yet was the fact that Mako decided to give her a disgusting little kiss each time she swept another pile of nuts onto her massive mound of treasure. Which was quite often.

Korra excused herself to go to the bathroom.

She stared at her face in the mirror and saw only a plain southern hick with nothing exceptional except a family full of connections.

Korra was not a bender. She was not exceptionally beautiful, or intelligent, or gifted at anything other than wrestling and blurting out awkward things at inopportune times. Meanwhile, her cousin in the north was chosen to be the Avatar, and her father and Uncles were both chiefs and deadly waterbenders, while she couldn't even learn how to freeze an ice cube manually.

Korra pouted at herself and wondered what she would look like with long eyelashes and crimson lips and tame hair and an elegant figure. Perhaps Mako would want her then.

She sighed and stomped back to the room, forcibly telling her brain to stop being jealous.

Three months later…

"Hey Korra, come here."

Korra walked over to where Asami was driving a wedge into a lock on the door to one of her father's former secret workshops. She was slightly breathless from pushing too hard.

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to need a bit of muscle here." said Asami, scooting over to make room, "Can you help me pry this door open?"

Korra grabbed the wedge and gave a savage pull, causing the entire door to collapse inwards, carrying Korra and Asami with it.

"Ow." muttered Korra as a piece of metal jabbed into her back, the pain magnified by the fact the Asami had landed on top of her.

Korra absently noted that Asami's curves fit perfectly between her legs. Then she scowled and gave herself a mental punch in the face for thinking something so stupid.

"Oh, no," cried Asami, scrambling up to extend a hand, "Are you okay?"

Korra took the offered hand and heaved herself up before releasing it quickly.

"Um. Yep. I'm okay. You wanna check out what's in this ware shop, er, house, I mean?" she said quickly, almost tripping over her own words.

Wow Korra. Wow. Real smooth there.

Asami raised a thin eyebrow.

"Sure." she said, the corners of her lips lifting up slightly.

Asami walked ahead, attempting to find a light switch while Korra rubbed the back of her neck with discomfort.

Why was she acting like such a moron? She'd already made her peace with Asami; neither of them were dating Mako anymore, so there wasn't really anything to be bitter over anymore...so why did she still feel so uncomfortable around the other young woman?

Perhaps Korra was still jealous of how pretty she was.

Korra's thoughts were quickly cut off as the lights in the building suddenly came on, flooding light over the room full of dusty airplanes.

"Woah..." said Asami, eyes lighting up, "These are awesome..."

"Hey, I thought you already had planes in the other warehouse." said Korra, walking up to inspect the planes more carefully, "How are these any different?"

"Well, a few weeks ago, I found some blueprints that were made with the intention of having a plane that could fly at high altitudes," said Asami, holding up a large sheet of paper, "I think these are it."

"Ah."

The two girls paused and looked at the airplanes for a bit before Asami turned to Korra with a grin.

"Hey, you wanna take it for a spin?"

"Sure!" said Korra, "Uh, have you ever used it before?"

"Well, it should be the same to operate as the planes before." said Asami, climbing up to the cockpit.

Korra followed. "Hey, there's only one seat." she said, slightly disappointed.

"Uh, it shouldn't matter." said Asami, glancing inside the airplane, "It says here that the weight limit for this is five hundred pounds, so unless you weigh like three hundred pounds, we should be all good."

"Hey, if I do weigh that much though, it would be pure muscle!"

"Haha! I don't doubt it." laughed Asami, settling into the cockpit, "You wanna get in now, miss bodybuilder?"

Mere minute later, Korra found herself crammed in a tiny cockpit, back pressed to Asami's front while the other girl shifted constantly to manipulate the controls.

Korra peered to the side and saw the entire world spread out underneath her, blues and greens blending into the wispy white clouds. Cold air blasted into her face, contrasting with the warm body behind. Her ears rang with the roar of the engine and she felt breathless in the high altitudes. Or perhaps that was from being in such close proximity with Asami.

Was this what it felt like to be an Airbender? It seemed that the freedom the two of them had up in the clouds was indescribable.

And Korra still couldn't quite believe she was flying, with the Sato heir, no less.

If somebody had told her three months ago that she'd be twenty thousand feet above the ground, flying around with the girl who stole away her first real love interest, she would've punched them in the face then laughed. But now...it was almost like she relished this moment they spent together in the sky, although her stomach was fluttering from the altitude, though not in an unpleasant way.

What was this feeling? It was so light and pleasant, and Korra hoped that it would follow her to the ground and stay for hours, weeks, months, after Asami lands the plane.

"Y'know," Korra shouted behind her, "It's funny how things turn out the way they do."

"What!?" Asami shouted back into her ear.

"It's funny how-" Korra paused, "Never mind, I'll tell you when we get back."

"Okay."

Korra smiled slightly to herself. Being up in the sky with Asami wasn't bad at all. It was almost like up here, all of the troubles and shortcomings had fallen away.

She could get used to this.