She hadn't been in Republic City for very long, but Korra was starting to believe that she was getting a handle on what it was like to live in the modern world. There had been some very quick, hard lessons but in all honesty she preferred to learn that way. Obstacles which came at her head-on fit her nature; it was the lessons which required subtle observation that truly taxed her. She was sure that that was why she couldn't master airbending, and she knew that was why she wasn't likely to be mastering politics any time soon either.
It frustrated Korra when she couldn't grasp a technique. Being the Avatar meant that her entire life had been acquiring one skillset after another but once she set foot on the Republic City tarmac she'd been struck by the realization that, inconceivably, there were some things she just couldn't do. At least, not yet.
Partially, her determination to learn her way through the convoluted mire that was Republic City politics was why she gave in to the invitation for Councilman Tarrlok's gala event at City Hall. She knew tenacity when she saw it and Tarrlok had it in spades... but that didn't mean he was going to get what he wanted from her. She was certain that if she showed him to his face that she was a woman that knew her mind then he would respect her decision to abstain from the Equalist task force with finality. She was the Avatar: she wouldn't be bought, and she would not be bullied.
That had been her plan then when she walked into the glittering chamber of elite and influential with Master Tenzin, dressed in her Southern Water Tribe best and brimming with an excited resolve. Here she was, the Avatar, and after years of isolation at the pole she was finally in the world arena that she'd been yearning for. People would be able to look at her and see that the bridge between worlds, strong and proud, was ready to take her place as the guardian of balance and peace.
And then she saw a flash of emerald across the gently meandering sea of bodies.
There are moments in a life which seem at first to be burned into memory but the details of which will, with time, become softer and less distinct until all that is left of the event is the emotion it inspired and Korra would remember the feeling that stung through her for a very, very long time. The woman whom she caught sight of, if only for second, was lovely in a way she wasn't accustomed to. She'd known beautiful women all her life, from every nation, but this woman was incomparable not because of her features alone but particularly the grace with which she carried herself. There was a relaxed confidence in her step, in the way she tossed a cascade of black curls from one shoulder to the other as she swept her attention across the men seeking to charm her. There was status to her too, that was apparent in her dress and jewelry from even a distance, but what caught Korra a second time was the smile that slipped across her narrow, fair features. It was the smile of someone who knew something, and she wasn't sharing secrets.
Then a figure blocked Korra's view and the moment was gone, severed as easily as webbing.
"So glad you could make it, Avatar," Tarlokk was oozing as he swept his way across the floor, demanding her attention. "If you'll excuse us," he smiled at Tenzin behind her. "The city awaits her hero." He made an assuming motion for her to join him and, left with no polite recourse Korra shrugged and walked alongside him deeper into the party. She made sure to keep her chin tilted up with Tarlokk nearby, wanting him to see in her the confidence she was hoping for.
"Korra," he twisted neatly on his heel, his smile a permanent slip on his features as he gestured towards a middle-aged and immaculately dressed man across from them. "I'd like for you to meet Republic City's most famous industrialist, Hiroshi Sato."
"It's nice to meet you," she smiled to the man, deciding that this social navigating wasn't so hard.
Mister Sato nodded graciously back to her. "We're expecting such great things from you."
It struck her at once as an unexpected remark, one which slightly dimmed the glow of her enthusiasm. 'Right. Greatness,' she sighed inwardly, attempting to not recall the sound of Amon's voice on the radio earlier that day.
"Korra," a more familiar voice called suddenly and she managed to pinpoint it through the crowd before her stomach flipped uncomfortably.
She had met Bolin and his brother Mako after being in the city only a few days, when a chance encounter had led her into the waiting room with the fabulous ProBending-brother team. To say that they made immediate friends wouldn't have been the whole truth... Mako took some getting used to and Korra wasn't great at getting used to people, but she found that when the firebender's stoic frown shifted into a sidelong grin he became instantly easier to like. A lot easier.
So, when she saw him weave towards her through the crowd, dressed trimly in a dark suit that emphasized the width of his shoulders, she smiled with excitement which at once became dread when she saw the woman on his arm.
Her.
"This is my daughter," Hiroshi was saying from someplace distant. "Asami."
Korra tried to maintain a socially acceptable smile while she grit her teeth against the twisting in her abdomen. This moment was only getting worse.
"It's wonderful to meet you," Asami Sato insisted. Her voice had a silken quality to it, delicate but somehow firm. "Mako's told me all about you."
'Oh really?' She demanded inwardly. 'Because I had no idea that you existed.'
"How did you two meet?" Korra attempted to regain her former 'cocktail pleasantness'. Her eyes remained fixed on Mako so that she wouldn't have to look again at Asami and absorb details of just how much of a beauty the girl was, even up close.
Mako and Asami shared an embarrassed smirk while Bolin explained that the one had hit the other on a moped. Mako being Mako, he passed off any concern for his physical fortitude by announcing that his crash meant nothing in light of the fact that Mister Sato had offered to sponsor the Fire Ferrets team entry into the ProBending tournament at the end of the week. Throughout his and Bolin's shared excitement of the fact, Korra tried to maintain a similar enthusiasm and swallow back the wrenching in her gut. Mako was with this... Asami... and who could blame him? She was gorgeous.
The conversation was curtailed by Tarlokk reinserting himself to flag down and introduce police chief Lin Beifong, who was giving Korra a look cool enough to pause whatever internal angst she was battling with over Mako and Asami.
"Lin, I believe you know the Avatar."
The chief's lip curled with distaste as she took a stern step past Tarlokk and towards her. This close, Korra could see the scars which clawed down Beifong's jaw. "Just because the city threw you a little party, don't think that means you're special. Remember, you've done nothing to deserve all of this."
Before Korra could react with anything other than a scowl, the police chief had marched away to ruin some other poor soul's night. Tarlokk, unfazed by Lin's brusqueness, was saying something new to her now. He was wanting to lead her to meet another name from some other company but the Avatar's keenness to impress at the party had wavered in the face of the chief's short and cutting remark as well as Mako's choice in party guest. She spared a glance over her shoulder, not meaning to look for the couple but doing so on reflex. Some feet away stood Asami Sato, arm curled around Makko's and chuckling appreciatively at a doubtlessly vain comment but just for an instant, her green gaze flicked almost magnetically to Korra's and the Avatar felt her ears burn before she followed alongside Tarlokk, actually thankful for his distraction.
Asami lay awake in her bed, watching the lights from the garden outside play liquidly across the cloth of her canopy. In the dark, the dim lines melded and drifted across her mind's eye to create patterns both meaningless and significant. A sleepy hum tore her gaze from the lights to the boy in bed beside her, curled with his cheek resting on his wrist and she smirked through the dark at him.
It was adorable how hard Mako was trying to play the gentleman with her. She'd nearly had to pull him bodily into her room, while he protested about disrespecting her father's roof. She had tilted her head and scoffed sweetly while unbuttoning her vest and little more had been necessary to get him to relax on her coverlet but he was still Mako, dour and insistent. They'd kept their clothes on, mostly, and only played enough to satiate their needs rather than enjoy full satisfaction. He seemed to think she was too inexperienced for further steps but Asami was quickly realizing that between the two of them, the firebender was the unsure one. It made him just a little cuter.
However, it wasn't thoughts of Mako's endearing stoicism which was keeping her awake tonight. Asami was thinking about the Avatar, and she didn't know why.
Asami recalled the first moment she'd met Korra, and how her tongue had swelled around something charming to say only to find the most socially uninspired introduction falling out of her mouth. It had been apparent to her even then that Korra didn't think much of her, and why should she? She was the Avatar, while she herself was just a socialite and part-time engineer. Korra was destined to spend her entire life working to create peace in the world, to help all different classes and cultures of people and what did Asami do? She had tea with other rich daughters and read poetry and designed faster combustible engines. Compared to her, Korra was a demi-divine and she was just a girl.
Seeing Korra in action at the ProBending Arena had made this fact harshly clear to her. At first, it was simply mesmerizing to watch Korra bend water in the arena alongside her teammates. She moved the element around her with such a thoughtless grace it was if she were more water than woman. Before Asami had watched Korra spin sheets of spray around her as she danced and dodged across the arena, water had just been a means to her. Korra made it into an art.
And then the attack had come and Asami had felt terrified, for herself and for the people surrounding her. Her first thought once the glitter of chi-blockers filled the stadium had been 'Don't make me watch more people die,' and she'd felt so frustratingly helpless from her place in the champion's waiting room. She had clenched her fists, resolved to do something, anything, simply so that she wouldn't have to stand by as a victim's witness once again but then her vision had filled with bursts of light so fierce that she'd felt the impact in her chest. The bomb had stunned her, leaving her on her backside in fresh fear, but not Korra.
Korra didn't even falter, and she didn't even plan. Asami had a line of sight on her from her place in the box and though the Avatar had no idea she was watching, Asami had seen the utter lack of hesitancy as Korra gathered the water to propel herself impossibly upwards.
And that, in Asami's mind, was Korra. She barely knew her at all, but it only took that single moment for her to understand that Korra was a person of indomitable need to fight back. She would be relentless in her pursuit of defending others, and in accomplishing what she saw was right.
Asami sighed a little, curling her own black hair through her fingers. She had invited Korra to come to the house tomorrow, playing off that she could join her and the boys in relaxing at the pool but all she wanted was another chance at the woman to make some sort of better impression. She wasn't sure why, but she was sincerely hoping that she could win Korra's friendship.