A/N: Here, time is kind of squashed— there are characters from Aang's time and from Korra's time at whatever age I decided would best help the story. Families and timeframe are kept intact, however, and most of the adults are younger than in LoK. Thanks for reading and please enjoy!
Chapter One: First Impressions
"A personal trainer? Seriously?"
"Yes, Ty Lee, a personal trainer," Asami sighed around the rim of her coffee cup.
"That's stupid, I could teach you anything you needed to know," Ty Lee pouted as she slowly stirred sugar into her cup of tea.
"My father insisted that I get a professional," Asami rolled her eyes as she made air quotes with her fingers. "He read about some girl who was nearly kidnapped on Eighth Street but was able to beat her attacker half to death before he could shove her into his car."
"You never really go anywhere without me or Ty Lee," Mako interjected from the side, "and we're both pretty capable of defending you. No one would so much as look at you the wrong way when I'm around. Plus, I'm kind of a cop."
"Cop in training," Asami reminded him with a smirk before leaning in to peck him on the cheek.
"Will becoming a cop keep you from being part of the Fire Ferrets? Bolin would be super upset," Ty Lee wondered.
"We already lost Hasook and, honestly, I don't feel like trying to find someone to replace him," Mako huffed, a scowl crossing his features.
"Try. For Bolin," Asami said. The boy's expression softened as his sighed and gave a stiff nod.
"So, Asami, when do your lessons start? I wanna watch," Ty Lee grinned mischievously as she took a sip of her tea.
"This afternoon, before my first class. And you will not be present."
"For class? Most likely not," Ty Lee snickered.
"You know what I meant."
The friends sipped their warm drinks in silence for a moment. Asami watched as the sun began peaking from behind the mountains surrounding Republic City, bathing the dark blue sky in a gentle orange glow. It was an extra chilly winter morning, but Asami preferred the cold to the heat anyways. Cars flew past at dizzying speeds— no matter what the time was, Republic City was abuzz with life and activity. Asami subtly wondered about life outside of the city; she'd never left before and had never really considered it. She'd read about the great deserts of the Earth Kingdom, the volcanoes that dotted the Fire Nation, the icebergs that sailed across Water Tribe seas, the abandoned temples of the Air Nomads. Great statues and architecture and exotic animals… She'd only seen a tiny fraction of what the world had to offer and Asami was filled suddenly and inexplicably with wanderlust. The world was out there, ripe and ready for exploration and discovery. She gazed once more upon the mountains and, rather than admiring the sunrise as she did before, wondered fervently what was beyond them.
She was brought back to reality as a waiter came by and set a fresh mug of coffee in front of her.
"You excited for semester two of college life?" Mako asked, breaking the comfortable silence.
Asami hummed in response, pouring creamer into her new cup.
"I'm gonna set a new shot record for myself," Ty Lee grinned.
"Ty, you said that last semester. Remember how well that went?" Mako smirked.
Asami broke into a giggle fit, eventually spouting, "You puked all over that Northern Water Tribe guy. He was so into you, too!"
Ty Lee turned bright red, as she spat, "That doesn't count! I know someone spiked those drinks. I literally had only four shots!"
"You prepared them yourself."
"Someone did it during the party, duh," she grumbled, crossing her arms as she slid further into her seat. "I don't want to talk about it. Change the subject."
"What're your aspirations for this year, great Asami Sato, brilliant prodigy?" Mako inquired.
"Definitely to go to more parties. I was too worried about my classes last year and I didn't even need to. They were all so easy in the end."
Ty Lee and Mako exchanged playfully annoyed glances.
"Shut up, smart ass. Don't you have some lessons to get to soon?" Ty Lee rolled her eyes.
Asami glanced at her watch. Ten till eight. She figured she should probably be heading back home. With a sigh, she pushed her chair back, grimacing slightly at the scuffing sound the legs made against the tiled floor, and rose, grabbing her coat from the back of her seat and slipping it over her shoulders.
"Have fun in class. See you two later," she smiled as she gave Mako a quick kiss before walking around the table to wrap Ty Lee in a hug.
"Bye," her friends called in unison as she pushed the glass double doors open and moved to the parking lot.
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"You're late."
"I know, I'm sorry, father. There was a wreck on First and the traffic was pretty bad," Asami explained, her head bowed slightly.
"I understand, but you've made your instructor wait nearly twenty minutes. And she was here early. Be sure to apologize to her when you meet her," Hiroshi instructed sternly. "She's already in the gym."
"Yes, dad," Asami grumbled as she hung her coat on the rack and turned to the stairs.
"Punctuality is a very important trait in business leaders," Hiroshi called after her.
She shook her head as she quickly made her way up to her room and changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top before heading to the backyard towards the estate's gym. She crossed the freshly mown grassy expanse, shivering slightly as the cold nipped at her mostly bare skin, and stood before the doors to the gym. She gazed at them, suddenly feeling meek. She could somewhat defend herself but she wasn't very strong. What if her instructor thought she was some weak, prissy little rich girl? She was already late to their first session— Asami could not see this first encounter going very smoothly. She steeled her nerves, exhaled sharply, and entered the gym.
Her breathing kind of stopped.
A woman, with her back turned to Asami, was doing chin-ups as she counted quietly to herself. Asami stood, almost mesmerized, as the muscles worked and rippled beneath the woman's pale blue shirt. She hadn't even began to break a sweat, though, from her counting, she had already preformed thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four…
Asami flexed her arm and scowled a bit when nothing significant happened. This woman was going to laugh at her, for sure. She cleared her throat, figuring that she might as well get it over with. The woman ceased her reps with a start and jumped down from the bar. She pulled an arm across her chest as she turned to greet Asami. Now, this woman looked good from behind. From the front? Wow, Asami had never seen such beautiful blue eyes. The stranger's caramel skin was smooth and clear. Her face was framed with dark brown hair that was tied into a high pony tail and bound into two separate ties around her face. As she approached, Asami could see that she was a good couple inches taller than the trainer.
"I'm—," Asami began, but was cut off.
"Asami, I know," the stranger grinned as she extended a hand. "I'm Korra."
Korra? That sounds kinda familiar.
"Well, I'd like to begin by apologizing for my tardiness."
"Nah, don't worry about it. It gave me time to warm up. So, where do you want to start? How much can you bench?"
Asami froze. Korra didn't care at all that she was late? Most people would've thought Asami rude.
"Uh, not much," she sputtered. "I thought you were going to teach me to fight?"
"Yeah, but first you should build some strength. More muscle means more power which means less time to take down your opponent."
Right, should've though of that.
"Alright. You're the instructor, so, you know… instruct me," Asami grinned, waving her hands in the space before her.
Korra smiled in response and they began some stretches before moving to the equipment. Korra assisted Asami for about forty-five minutes before they decided to take a break. Asami was nearly dripping with sweat but had decided that, while it was pretty grueling and taxing, working out was nice. Relaxing, even. She took a long swig from her water bottle before turning her gaze to Korra.
"So, tell me about yourself," Asami said as she raised an eyebrow curiously.
"Me? Uh… well, I'm from the Southern Water Tribe. My dad's the chief. I don't have any siblings but I do have a polar bear-dog named Naga— she's actually somewhere in your yard right now. She's kind of my best friend."
"Southern Water Tribe? So you're a waterbender?"
Korra raised a hand to scratch her ear as she grinned sheepishly at the ground.
"Yeah, you could say that. What about you? Firebender?"
"No, I can't bend."
"Oh! Sorry, that was rude of me."
"Not really. It's alright," Asami assured her.
"Still sorry. I think you've done great for today; you blew through the exercises faster than I anticipated. We can call it quits for today and I'll see you again the day after next, yeah?"
"Sounds good to me," Asami smiled as she rose. She walked Korra to the door of the gym and out into the backyard. The waterbender stopped, raising her fingers to her mouth before letting out two short, sharp whistles. From behind her, Asami heard something big and heavy hurrying in their direction. She turned to see a giant mass of white fur bounding towards them and let out a startled speak despite herself, blushing as Korra chuckled behind her and the polar bear-dog slid to a stop before them.
"This is Naga. Naga, this is Asami."
The dog bowled into Asami, knocking her down and licking her face several times before Korra was able to pry her off.
"She likes you," Korra said as she patted the dog's head.
"Shouldn't you, you know, restrain her? I don't know about the Water Tribes, but people in Republic City don't always take too kindly to having giant mutts attacking them," Asami remarked rudely as she lifted herself to her feet, wiping grass from her clothes and dog saliva from her face.
Korra's eyebrows pulled down in offense as she said, "Hey, she just got excited. It's not like she hurt you."
"Yeah, well maybe you should—" Asami stopped herself. This is not how their first encounter should end. She sighed before continuing, "Never mind. I apologize for losing my temper."
"And I apologize for Naga's behavior. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again," Korra said, patting her dog's side. "Right, girl?"
The animal gave a loud bark in response, her tail thumping wildly against the ground. Asami watched as Korra mounted the beast, waved goodbye and rode off towards the front gate, which was opened by the guards standing watch.
"I don't think we're going to get along very well," Asami murmured to herself.
"I'll say! You looked ready to skin her little bear!"
Asami cried out, startled, and turned to see Ty Lee hanging upside down from a tree branch above the gym.
"Ty Lee?! Why-what're you doing up there?" Asami demanded, her face burning red in a mixture of anger and embarrassment. That was twice in one day she'd squealed despite herself.
"Just… hanging around."
"Not funny. How long have you been up there?"
"Hmm… since about five minutes before you showed up."
"What? How did you get here so fast?"
"Circus freak trick," Ty Lee grinned as she flipped down from the branch, sticking a landing before Asami. "So tell me about the instructor."
"There's not really much to tell," Asami groaned, massaging her temples before continuing. "She's a waterbender from the Southern Tribe and she has a stupid monster of a dog named Naga."
"Why are you so frustrated? She was really nice to you. So what if her dog knocked you over? That's just what dogs do. At least it didn't try to bite your face off."
"No, just licked it off," Asami grimaced. Ty Lee was right, though; she didn't really have a reason to be so upset.
"I was pretty sure you grew out of being rude to people you were jealous of years ago," Ty Lee teased as she hopped atop a ledge and stretched.
"I am not jealous of her," Asami gritted out, arms crossed.
Ty Lee scoffed through her nose in disagreement as she folded her arms behind her head, popped one leg up on the other and began inspecting her nails.
"Sure you are. She's pretty and toned and… wait."
"Wait what?" Asami asked as she pivoted on her heel, squealing for the third time that day as she found herself unexpectedly face-to-face with Ty. The chi-blocker was studying her features intensely.
"What?" Asami repeated, somewhat annoyed.
"Your aura kinda did a flippy thing for a second. Probably nothing," Ty Lee murmured as she returned to lounging on the ledge.
"You're so weird."
"I aim to be."