Asami doesn't mind, not really, no matter how many times the reporters ask her. Their eyes go comically wide, sly smirks and smiles disguised as an earnest need to simply understand - "How do you keep up with the Avatar and her friends?"
Korra usually steps in, if she's around, that heavy hand settled on her shoulder, dark mouth set in a firm line. "You don't have to be a bender to be a hero."
"Of course, of course," One of them pipes up, excited to extract any sort of reaction from the water tribe girl. "But how?"
There are security cameras attached to nearly every building now, in Republic City. The technology is still weak, the footage fuzzy, the images barely discernable when captured at night. Asami kicks off her shoes and collapses on her couch, settling in for the evening news, where two male anchors shuffle their papers and clear their throats before excitedly pouncing on their favorite subject of late.
" - such a beautiful girl, that Asami Sato."
"Oh, yes, no one is denying how pretty she is. Do you think maybe that's why Team Avatar keeps her around?"
"It does come off as a bit of a publicity stunt, I must say. An attractive face goes a long way in the polls, and the fact that she's a non-bender makes it seem like Avatar Korra is a friend to all of us."
"But you think perhaps not?"
"No… no… I'm sure her heart's in the right place. Who can say? Perhaps it was Miss Sato who bought her way onto the team, in order to clear her family name after her father's disgrace."
"The Avatar does seem to travel in luxury, doesn't she? All those airships."
"Those are from Future Industries. So, who knows? All I can say is, you can tell at least on the battlefield, Miss Sato doesn't appear to be pulling her own weight."
They roll a clip, hazy footage from the streets of Republic City, in Triple Threat Triad territory. Asami watches a fight break out just outside a poor shopkeeper's storefront. He'd been heavily in debt to Two Toed Ping, who'd come to collect, willing to take lives in place of monetary compensation.
Mako and Bolin fight as two halves, jumping and ducking, twisting and weaving out of the other's way, attuned to the other's instinct. A waterbender recoils from the sting of flame licking his cheek, distracted from an entire chunk of the building beside him lurching forward and collapsing on top of him, pinning him to the ground.
The silent footage can't echo the mocking laughter Korra had delivered between well placed kicks and punches, but the corners of Asami's lips twitch upward as she recalls the sound. Korra bends with her whole body; her feet are rocks, her hands are flames, her tactics change like the wind, and the opposing attacks are absorbed like the ocean, bubbling and angry before she spits it out with the overturning current.
She takes out two earthbenders before tackling a firebender, both of them rolling out of the camera's sight.
Asami lets out a quiet sigh, sinking a little deeper into the plush cushions while she watches her footage-self stagger onto the scene, having just engaged in a lengthy duel with Viper off-camera.
"Duck." Asami mutters, but the events play out on screen just as she remembers, another waterbender slamming her against a lamppost, freezing her in place, arms locking against her sides.
She'd been useless for the remainder of the fight, patiently waiting until Mako had hobbled over, soot masking his pale face, melting the ice with a low flame dancing on his fingertip.
"You can tell she tried her best." The anchormen return, chuckling through their sneers.
"There are plenty of capable non-benders out there who could no doubt keep up with the Avatar. You have to wonder why this is the one they've invited onto the team."
"I really couldn't say… and the Avatar can't seem to explain herself either."
Asami turns off the tv before they air her friend's interview, Korra's annoyed expression briefly flashing across her screen.
"YAY! You made it!" Bolin's crushing hug lifts her off her feet, causing her to swing from the narrow hallway, across the threshold into the apartment.
"Of course I did." Asami laughs, red faced from the tight grip her ex-boyfriend's younger brother has around her. "You invited me three hours ago."
The apartment is small, but very comfortable, covered in soft rugs woven in the Northern Water Tribe, and beautifully crafted arm chairs scattered the adjoined dining and livingroom, bartered for in Ba Sing Se. The walls have been left a dull peeling yellow but covered with several posters of Nuktuk, family portraits and a painting of the previous Team Avatar resting side by side with a caricature of their own, enthusiastically attempted by Bumi.
The windows are cracked open to bely the summer heat, helped along by the fountain of heady scent and spices erupting within the kitchen. Bolin lets her down and Asami kicks off her sandals before joining the rest of her friends in the extremely cramped kitchen.
"Goodness," Asami covers her mouth, but it stretches far too wide for her hand, dark eyes glittering with mirth as she takes in the scene before her, "what on earth have you two done?"
Mako and Korra both point accusingly at each other, before erupting into laughter, sauce and noodles dangling from their hair, the two of them wrapped in the scent of some sort of exotic fish.
Asami reaches out for the avatar, gently tugging the pasta out of unruly locks of hair. "Get out, I'm making dinner."
While Bolin whimpers at the state of his kitchen, Pabu nuzzling his master's cheek with the tip of his wet nose, Mako retreats into the bathroom to wash the fresh stains on his shirt, and Korra lingers beneath the kitchen archway to watch Asami prepare a simple soup dish for the four of them.
"How do you know how to cook?" Korra arches her brow suspiciously, leaning against the wall.
"The servants had every sunday off. Dad made me learn how to prepare at least one dish each for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We can either have soup, salad, or cereal."
Korra snorts, the sound aggressive but pleasant to Asami's ears. Most things about the avatar are.
"I don't know why you're feeling so superior." Asami gestures at the state of the room around her, Bolin still clutching his chest and gasping in the background. "This is no culinary master feat."
"Uh, nope, not my fault. I can cook traditional water tribe food just fine. Mako thought it would be a brilliant idea if he cooked traditional fire nation pastries right beside me. Surprisingly, the two don't mix."
Asami tucks a curl behind her ear, grabbing a rag and scrubbing away at the oven and adjacent wooden counter, cleaning just enough of the kitchen to feel comfortable setting down vegetables. "It's obvious he still cares about you, Korra."
"Aw, geez, I wasn't talking about us, I only meant the food." Korra huffs, dark skin reddening just a bit, embarrassed by the implication. "Here, let me help."
"Help Bolin." Asami smiles and shakes her head at their friend practically wheezing in the living room.
Korra draws him into a game of Pai Sho, instantly cheering him up by losing the first five rounds.
"Hahahaha, you'd think the almighty Avatar would have a little more game." Asami smiles as she listens to her friends boast and quibble, stirring the vegetables into the broth and chunks of chicken.
Korra grumbles from her cross legged position on the living room floor. "This isn't fair, the water tribe has completely different rules."
"But as the Avatar - master of all four Pai Sho rulebooks - you need to know how to - "
"Shut up and set the board, Bolin!"
He chortles but does as she commands, the sun setting behind them, casting them both in a brilliant haze of red and orange. Mako emerges from the bathroom, checking in briefly on Asami before returning to the living room, content to watch his brother and ex-girlfriend ardently compete.
"Food's ready!" Asami finally announces, smiling brightly as she balances a tray of sliced bread and four bowls of soup. "Can you guys set the ta - what? What is it?"
Her friends look up at her, their expression stricken, Mako and Bolin's faces paling to a sickly shade. Korra leaps to her feet, scattering the Pai Sho board, pieces flying across the carpet, disappearing beneath the one lumpy couch in Bolin's new apartment. The bowls shake upon the tray, soup sloshing against the ceramic sides. Asami's hands tighten reflexively, trying to steady it.
"Guys, what's the matt - ah!" Asami stumbles backwards with wide eyes, at the sight of Korra suddenly charging towards her, fire in her eyes, and is only dimly aware that something scuttles right across her bare feet.
"LOOK OUT!" Bolin shouts, and abruptly he and his older brother are on their feet too, panicked but going into professional fighter mode, the three of them forming a bending triad as they encircle Asami and start blasting at an invisible enemy their friend can't see.
The bowls are tossed in the air, soup scalding hot against their skin, Asami escaping the worst of it as she falls forward in order to avoid the panicked swipe of Mako's fire whip.
"IT'S OVER THERE! KILL IT! KILL IT!" Bolin's high pitched shriek alerts them all to a tiny shadow scrambling beneath one of the low seated chairs.
"GROSS! GROSS! GROSS!" Korra is practically crying, hopping onto a kitchen school, her bare feet vulnerable if kept on the ground where the roach might be. "DIE YOU STUPID BUG!"
She and Mako blast fire at it, encouraging the summer heat, beads of sweat rolling down Asami's skin, dangling off her chin and traipsing through the parted valley of her breasts. "G-guys?"
"WHY WON'T YOU DIE?" Bolin tears bits of rock and stone from the walls, attempting to crush the roach with them. "Makooo, why won't it die?"
Asami stares at the puddle of soup her ex is currently still standing in, shirt once again freshly stained and soaking, a wedge of broccoli tucked inside his ear. Two of Bolin's chairs have caught flame, and the floor is a mess, upturned and punched through with holes. Asami can't imagine what his downstairs neighbors are experiencing.
"Korra, use your waterbending! Flush it out!" Mako and Bolin cheer her on, but the sound is quickly drowned in agonized horror as she rather overzealously showers them with still too hot broth. "Watch it!"
"You guys got in the way!" Korra winces, defensive. "Sorry!"
The light in the apartment has dimmed, candles flickering dangerously, kept alive by Korra's frantic uncontrolled airbending and Mako's fear stoking them. The posters flap against the walls and the portraits tilt at odd angles.
"Enough!" Asami yelps, diving out the way of a chunk of earth beckoned through the window, sailing just above her head. "It's just a bug, calm down!"
The three benders gasp and shake and warn her away, but Asami just takes a deep breath and locks in on the scuttling roach, its shell strong enough to have withstood flame and repeated blows of stone. Cradling an empty bowl against her chest, Asami settles into position, creeps forward a little, keeping low to the ground, and then pounces.
"Asami!" Her friends chorus in fear, jaws dropping in astonishment when she straightens up with a proud smile, windswept hair settling naturally across her shoulders.
"Trapped it." She gestures for a plate. "Hand me something to slide beneath the bowl."
Together, with the fearsome Avatar, they slip the plate beneath the bowl and lift it up, Korra blanching at the sound of six frantic limbs running around their newfound cage.
"Can we kill it? We're gonna kill it right?" Bolin sniffles, gazing around. "Look what it did to my apartment!"
"It didn't do anything to your apartment." Asami scolds him, and takes the bug outside, releasing him near the sewage drains while Korra stands a few feet behind.
"Gross, that's one thing I'll never not miss about the water tribe." She shudders. "All our pests are of the cute and cuddly kind."
"I know it's not the most beautiful of creatures…"
"Not even close!"
"But it just held its own against three powerful benders trying to kill it for simply existing." A light frown dips her lips. "There's something admirable in that."
Korra looks at her for a few moments, and then groans and rolls her eyes. "Ugh, please don't compare yourself to a roach."
"I wasn't!" Asami protests. "I was only talking about - "
"Now everytime I see one of those horrible things, I'll imagine your puppy dog eyes on it and it'll ruin me trying to kill it."
"I think you've already proven you're incapable of killing it." Asami teases, the frown melting off her lips, faced with the Avatar's gruff playfulness. "Come on, let's go back inside."
They clamber up the stairs, back towards Bolin's apartment, where hopefully soup can still be salvaged. Korra grasps her arm and pulls her back, just outside the door.
"Yes?" Asami arches a singular dark brow.
"Um… I see your point about the roach, and - uh - you know, I hope you know that… we see you too."
The evening news flashes across the forefront of both minds.
"I know, you guys keep me around for 24/7 pest extermination." Self-deprecating jokes are an odd color on the young engineer, it doesn't quite work for her.
"No… I mean, yeah, that's an unexpected bonus." Korra smiles, and it reaches her eyes. "But, no, you know - we see you. We need you. You keep us together."
Bolin pokes his head out. "Yeah, I see you both too, and I see that you're not helping to clean in any way. C'mon! This place is a mess!"
Korra and Asami roll their eyes and giggle, stepping across the archway and helping to clean up.