"It's not good for you to keep isolating yourself from your friends. You committed to helping them win this tournament; you should fulfill that promise. The Council and I will take care of the Equalists. It's our job, not yours."
Korra couldn't really argue with Tenzin's advice since, first of all, she had no intention of returning to Tarrlok's task force after her terrifying encounter with Amon, and, second, she did miss training with Bolin and Mako. Avoiding them and, thus, any possibility of discussing what they'd seen at the Equalist rally obviously hadn't made coping with the horrifying scenes of that night any easier. She could only hope now that focusing on the Pro-Bending tournament would help take her mind off things that Tenzin insisted she ought to leave to the Council. Hence, her arrival at the arena early this morning in time to join the two original Fire Ferrets for practice.
The Avatar yawned and stretched as she walked up the stairs to the gym. Early as their practice slot was, she had pushed herself to get here even earlier today, wanting to surprise the brothers when they would walk in and find her suited up and ready to go. Unfortunately, she had a surprise of her own waiting for her when she pushed open the gym's double doors to find a certain green-eyed, black-haired beauty leaning against the wall with her legs crossed and her head bent over the book in her hands.
Before Korra could let the doors swing shut and pretend she'd never been there, the intruder looked up, closed her book, and began walking towards her. "Oh, wow... good morning, Avatar Korra," Asami Sato said with a quick gasp of surprise and the friendliest smile. She was perfectly at her ease... too much at her ease, Korra thought, for someone who had no place here. "I didn't expect to see you here today."
"I didn't expect to see you here today, either," said Korra, not bothering to hide the displeasure in her voice as she crossed her arms. "What are you doing here?"
Asami either didn't notice the hostility oozing off the other girl, ignored it, or attributed it to most people's typical morning grumpiness. "Mako invited me to watch. He said I should make sure my dad knows how hard his new team is working," she answered with a short laugh. "I guess I got here a little early."
"I'll say; it's not like you're on the team or anything," Korra snapped as she walked over to the lockers.
Asami sighed as Korra opened her locker and began putting on her gear. "Yeah... I've always wondered what it would be like to be a Bender. It must be amazing."
"Oh, it is," Korra proudly assured her. "I wouldn't trade it for all the money in the world."
"Which is your favorite element?" Korra had avoided looking at the other girl ever since she'd entered the room, but she couldn't help looking at her now. What kind of a question was that? What was her angle? She could detect nothing in Asami's eyes or voice but curiosity and interest. But it was really a simple question; why did it feel like such a big deal? It suddenly hit Korra that she was having a conversation with a girl her own age for the first time in her life.
As half her brain absorbed this realization, the half left with the responsibility of answering the question blurted out, "Uh, well, Fire, for now, but I still haven't learned how to bend Air yet." What? How could she say that out loud? Asami ought to think she's perfect at everything she does; she didn't want her knowing any of her weaknesses!
"That's interesting," Asami observed. "Avatar Kuruk mastered Air the fastest of the other 3 elements but mastered Firebending even more slowly than previous Avatars from the Water Tribes." Her tone became slightly more solemn as she continued, "He wrote towards the end of his life that it was because he preferred to let problems take care of themselves instead of taking the initiative and actively facing them, that safe and peaceful times made him too cool and calm and complacent."
"You know a lot of about Avatar Kuruk," Korra once again blurted out before she could stop herself; that sounded too much like a compliment.
"I've read a lot about the most recent Avatars," Asami explained.
"So have I," Korra quickly followed up. "The Order of the White Lotus taught me all about my past lives." She didn't mention this was because her aversion to the "spiritual side" of Bending meant she had far less personal contact with her past lives than Avatar Aang had by her age. She better change the conversation before that slipped out, too. "Is that what you're reading now?"
"Yeah, it's the third volume of the account of how Avatar Aang returned and ended the Hundred Year War," Asami replied as she handed the book to Korra, who began idly flipping through it, hoping Asami was reading a more accurate account than, say, Pu Wan Tin's. "Is it true that you know his wife?"
"Know her?" Korra couldn't help but say with a grin. "She's taught me Waterbending since I was five."
"That must have been incredible," Asami said in undisguised awe. "Did she teach you how to Heal?"
"Yeah... I didn't want to, at first; the lessons were so boring compared to learning combat, but she finally convinced me it would come in handy."
"Have you ever had to use it?"
"Outside of training, no, not yet, but I guess that's a good thing."
"Is it true that she... after the Fall of Ba Sing Se, when Avatar Aang... that she was able to..." Asami was understandably stumbling around the subject.
Korra unhesitatingly answered the unasked question to show the subject of death, even involving her past life and beloved mentor's husband, didn't scare her at all: "Yes, it's all true; she used a vial of special water from the North Pole's Spirit Oasis. But Katara doesn't like to talk about that much."
"It must be wonderful to have learned so much from her; she's an incredible woman.
Korra wanted to tell Asami that if she thought flattering her mentor would get her in Korra's good books, she was sadly mistaken. She decided to settle for pointing out, in an appropriate tone of admiration and pleasant reminiscing, "Oh, you have no idea... you've never met her."
Without missing a beat, Asami responded, "No, but I've read so much about her, I feel like I do. She's always been my favorite character in the tales about Avatar Aang's earliest adventures."
This was unexpected. "Really?" Korra asked, genuinely curious to have that explained more. "Why?"
Asami thought for a second before answering. "Well, I just feel like... I understand her the most. It's easiest for me to identify with her... at least when she was about my age."
"You mean you feel you have a lot in common with her?"
Asami shrugged and answered, "Yeah, I guess so. She lost her mother at a young age just like I did. We both can't stand to see anything unfair or unjust happen without doing something about it."
"You both instantly reach out to anyone you find in need." Okay, why did she say that out loud? It was bad enough that the more Korra thought about it, the more Asami did remind her of Katara. Enduring the pain of growing up without their mothers was the smallest part of it. Korra's casual, aimless flipping through the book had led her at this point to the story of how Katara disguised herself as a river spirit to help a Fire Nation village under attack. She'd heard that story over a million times. I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me. She could easily picture the girl who no sooner saw a boy in need of 30,000 yuans than she sought and found a remedy for it saying just that. Asami seemed to have Katara's young need to right wrongs, to help whoever she could whenever she could, and to reach out to people others would avoid. Hadn't Asami befriended Mako during a time when most non-Benders were screaming for Benders' blood? Korra thought of the story of how Katara tried to reach out to Fire Lord Zuko (then Prince Zuko, one of her worst enemies) right before the Fall of Ba Sing Se...
That made Korra think of a horrible possibility: had Asami and Mako bonded that way, confiding in each other about their dead parents? What could be more natural? Katara had often railed about Pu Wan Tin and the ridiculous ideas the playwright's misinterpretation of certain events gave people. For example, everyone seemed so quick to believe that Katara and Zuko fell in love that day in the Impenetrable City's Crystal Catacombs when they told each other about losing their mothers. Well, if a story of Mako and Asami bonding over their common pain of dead mothers ever got out, no doubt everyone would be just as quick to think they were the perfect couple, too.
If Asami said anything else, Korra was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to hear it. One question finally registered: "What's the best story Katara's told you?"
"Oh, I don't know. I like them all," Korra thought she mumbled. Asami looked a little confused. She had to say something that made more sense. "Actually, Katara's always been one of my favorite teachers, but I enjoy training with her more than reading about her."
"Yeah, I guess you would," said Asami.
It seemed to be Korra's turn in the conversation, so she continued with her current train of thought: "Actually, my favorite character to read about in Avatar Aang's earliest adventures is... Mai."
"Fire Lord Zuko's wife?" Asami asked.
"Yeah," Korra answered. "I don't know, I guess... I always identified most with her. She was a wealthy noble's daughter who had an army of servants to wait on her and guards to protect and escort her, but she didn't enjoy any of it; she just felt smothered, like a prisoner. That was exactly how I felt living in the Order of the White Lotus' fortress in the South Pole; I had everything I wanted except freedom. I remember when I first read this passage where she says about Omashu (when it became a Fire Nation colony), even though she got treated like royalty because of her father's position, she said, 'There really is no fathoming the depths of my hatred for this place.' After that, whenever something happened I didn't like, like when the guard for just a short visit to see my parents was doubled, or when I wasn't allowed for whatever reason to take a short ride nearby outside on Naga, I would always whisper to myself, 'There really is no fathoming the depths of my hatred for this place.' I... said that a lot."
"I can't imagine what that must have been like," Asami said with just the right amount of sympathy to keep from sounding like pity.
"Some days, it was almost unbearable," Korra continued. "No wonder Mai jumped at the first chance she had to escape and see some action, even if it was working for Princess Azula..." Korra's voice faded away as the realization of how much she'd just said flooded over her. She hadn't meant to confide so much of her life to Asami. She hadn't expected Asami would want to hear so much about her. Was she even listening to it all?
She must have been, because when Korra paused, Asami said, "Well, I'm glad you were finally able to come to Republic City. I can't wait to see what stories they'll write about you and how you ended the Equalist Revolution."
It was amazing; now that Korra had started talking so freely, she didn't seem able to stop. "Would you believe Tenzin or anybody didn't tell me a thing about it before I got here? I had no idea people hated Benders so much."
"They what?" Asami asked in disbelief. "I can't believe they were able to keep it a secret from anyone. The tension between Benders and non-Benders has never been this bad."
There was a lull as Korra imagined that if she didn't fix the tension between Benders and non-Benders soon, Mako and Asami would have the perfect setting to become star-crossed lovers. And everyone loves star-crossed lovers, she thought. Look at how fast Pu Wan Tin's audience jumped on the idea of a Water Tribe girl and Fire Nation prince falling in love when their peoples were at war. It was a small comfort to remember that the playwright's version wasn't even close to true events, but perhaps it would have been better not to indulge in such a comfort...
"What's so funny?" Asami asked after Korra burst into laughter.
Well, why not tell her the truth? It could be a good chance to get some information. "Oh, sorry, but I was just imagining, what if someone in the future writes a melodramatic play about, say, a non-Bender and a Firebender falling in love during the Equalist Revolution? They could call it the Star-Crossed Lovers of Republic City!"
Asami didn't blush, didn't avert her face, didn't give the slightest impression she was uncomfortable, annoyed, or embarrassed. She simply laughed along before saying, "As if that would ever happen..."
To her surprise, the brothers entering the gym were not a completely welcome sight to Korra. She handed Asami back her book as the two girls walked to meet the two boys. After Korra apologized to Mako and Bolin for missing so much practice and assured them she was ready to make up for lost time and win them the championship or die trying, her last clear thought before practice began and stole all her attention was that this had been the most interesting morning she'd had in a long time.