After years of writing for the ATLA fandom, I decided to take a crack at a Korra fic! I started this in between episodes seven and eight of Korra. Here's my attempt at comedy!
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It was a beautiful afternoon on Air Temple Island. It had been about a week since Asami, Mako, and Bolin had been brought to the temple to live, and everyone was getting along great. As fun as it was to have her friends living with her, Korra sometimes found herself growing very bored.
It was early in the afternoon, and Korra was lying in her bed staring at the ceiling, Naga asleep in the corner. Figuring she wouldn't find a cure to her boredom in her bedroom, she walked out hoping to find one of her friends; maybe even one of the children.
"Hey Korra!" the Avatar turned and saw Asami in the hallway, apparently on her way to Korra's room.
"Asami! Thank goodness! I'm sooo bored!" she whined.
"Well, we can hang out," Asami shrugged. Not like she had a lot to do.
"Okay... what kinda stuff did you have in mind?"
"Wanna bake something?" Asami asked.
"You bake?" Korra asked.
"Sure," Asami smiled, "I used to help my mom when I was little. Learned a thing or two from her," she put her arm around her friend, "So, what do you say?"
"I-I dunno..." Korra said, "I've never really done anything like that before."
"Really?" Asami's eyes widened in surprise.
"No," Korra looked down, "The Order of the White Lotus never really thought it was important for the Avatar to know how to cook. They figured my parents would teach me. Not that they ever had the chance to."
"Well, I'll teach you!" Asami said brightly as she grabbed her friends hand and led her to the kitchen.
"So what are we going to bake?" Korra asked as she and Asami entered the kitchen.
"Hm..." Asami grabbed one of Pema's cookbooks to find something simple. "Aha! How about chocolate chip cookies? It's pretty easy and, if it turns out okay, we can share it with everyone."
"Okay," Korra said, "Sounds good. I just hope I don't mess this up. Cooking isn't something I've had much practice in."
"So... you've never tried to cook?" Asami asked as she got out some bowls.
"Oh, I've tried," Korra said. "About a month ago, I wanted to make breakfast for everyone..."
"What happened?" Asami asked, a little afraid of the answer.
"I... I kinda almost burned down the kitchen." Korra's cheeked reddened in embarrassment. "Technically, I'm not really allowed to be in here. Tenzin has given me a lifelong ban from ever entering the kitchen with any intention to cook..."
Asami couldn't help but laugh. "What did you try to cook?"
Korra's cheeks got a little darker as she answered quietly. "Toast."
"How... how do you burn down the... You know what, never mind," Asami shook her head and consulted the cookbook. "We need some flour."
"Flower?" Korra asked, a little confused, "Should I go pick some from the garden or...?"
Asami sighed. "No, not that kind of flour," she then pointed to a small bag on the counter. "This kind of flour."
"Oh..." Again, Korra's cheeks reddened. "I'm really not stupid. I just... never learned to cook being cooped up in the compound for most of my life. I always had people take care of this kinda stuff for me."
"That's quite alright," Asami said, taking out a measuring cup. "This is a measuring cup. You use it to measure ingredients."
"Thank you Asami. Never would've figured out you measure things with a measuring cup," the Avatar rolled her eyes.
"What you do," Asami continued as if Korra hadn't interrupted, "is to fill this cup three times with flour. You do that while I look for the sugar." Asami couldn't possibly see how Korra could mess that up.
Asami couldn't have had her back turned for more than ten seconds when she heard the sound of Korra coughing. Turning back to the Avatar, she saw Korra, as well as half the kitchen, covered in flour.
"I said three cups!" Asami said, highly exasperated. Maybe teaching Korra to cook wasn't the best idea after all. "What did you do?"
"I... I tried to pour the flour into the cup. That obviously didn't work out too well," Korra started patting the flour off her clothing.
Asami sighed. "And you didn't think to put the cup into the flour?"
"Well, I did at first, but just pouring it in seemed faster!"
"Just..." Asami resisted the urge to sigh yet again, as well as rolling her eyes. "Just... here..." Asami put the cup into the flour and then poured it into the bowl. "Do that two more times. Just two. More. Times. Do nothing else."
"Okay," Korra said as Asami watched her fill the measuring cup with flour and pour it into the bowl before turning around again.
"Ah, here it is," she said a few seconds later and turned around, a bag of sugar in her arms, and looked suspiciously at Korra and into the bowl.
"I did what you told me," Korra said, "You don't have to check."
"Alright. Now we need three-quarters of a cup of sugar. I'll do that," Korra scowled at her friend. "While I do this, we're gonna need butter next. That would be in the refrigerator."
"Gee thanks Asami," Korra said sarcastically, "I really had no idea where that was."
"Just get two sticks of butter."
Asami was surprised that Korra managed to do at least something correctly when she turned and saw Korra with the butter.
"Alright. What we need to do now is put both of the sticks of butter in a separate bowl and then beat them." Asami said as she took out a new bowl.
"Can I do it?" Korra asked, looking very excited suddenly.
"Uh, sure," Asami watched as Korra put the butter into the bowl and started beating it... with her fists.
"Korra!" Asami said with her eyes wide, "What are you doing?"
"You told me to beat the butter," Korra said with a confused look on her face.
Asami couldn't hold it in any longer. She burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" Korra asked her friend, a little hurt that she was being laughed at.
It took almost a full minute for Asami to stop laughing enough to speak.
"I'm so sorry Korra," Asami said, wiping a tear from her eye, "But that's not what I meant. At all."
"Oh..."
"How about this, I'll beat the butter. While I do that, I want you to get two eggs from the fridge, and get some salt."
"Okay..." Korra said sheepishly as she headed to the fridge.
Asami shook her head, still smiling as she beat the butter— the correct way.
"Alright," Korra said, turning away from the fridge with two eggs in her hands, "I got two—" splat! "Oops..." One of the eggs had fallen out of her hands and cracked on the floor. "Sorry."
"That's alright," Asami said, setting the spoon down and grabbing a towel, "Just get another one."
Korra placed the un-cracked egg by the bowl and got another one before going for the small jar of salt.
"Okay, now crack the two eggs and put them in the bowl with the flour and sugar."
By the time Asami had finished cleaning the egg off the floor, she turned to see that Korra had cracked the eggs into the bowl... and added the shells.
"Very good Korra, but we don't add the shells," Asami grabbed the shells out of the bowl and threw them away.
Korra didn't say anything this time, just nodded. Asami could tell that the Avatar was getting upset and frustrated about her lack of knowledge when it comes to cooking.
Asami looked back at the cookbook. "Now, it says to add one teaspoon of the salt. Why don't you do that while I—"
"No," Korra said, looking down sadly.
"What?"
"No, just forget it. I give up," Korra started to walk out of the kitchen, "Ikki was right. If cooking were brains, I would have none."
"What? That... that makes no... Korra, wait!" Asami grabbed the Avatar's arm as she tried walking out of the kitchen.
"Come on Korra! You can't give up! It's only your first time cooking," Asami pulled Korra back to their cooking.
Korra made a noise of frustration. "Fine. Just... when I burn down the whole island, you're telling Tenzin that it's your fault."
"I will," Asami said with a smile
"Now what do I do with this again?" Korra said, picking up the salt.
"Put in one teaspoon."
"Which is...?"
"Here," Asami handed her a small spoon from one of the drawers, "One of these. I'm going to go get the baking soda and vanilla."
"We're making vanilla cookies? I thought it was chocolate chips," again, Korra looked confused.
"No, it's... it's a different kinda vanilla," Asami smiled as she turned to leave Korra to her work.
Asami had just grabbed the baking soda when she heard an "Oops!" from Korra.
"What," Asami said, hiding her exasperation from her frustrated friend. She turned around to see Korra holding a spoonful of salt over the bowl.
"I spilled a bunch of salt into the bowl. Sorry..."
"Stop apologizing Korra," Asami looked into the bowl to see how much salt had spilled from the spoon. "Well, that looks about one teaspoon. Just pour the salt in the spoon back into the jar."
While Korra did that, Asami added the baking soda into the bowl before going back for the vanilla.
"You're not gonna have me do anything else, are you?" Korra asked.
"Sure am!" Asami said, turning around with a small bottle of vanilla, "You gotta have some faith in yourself, Korra!"
Korra sighed. "What can I mess up now?"
"Just put another spoonful of this vanilla into the bowl," Asami smiled as she put the teaspoon back into Korra's hand, "Be careful when you pour it into the spoon. And don't do it over the bowl."
Very slowly, Korra poured the vanilla on to the spoon. To both the teenagers' surprise, Korra didn't spill a drop.
"Great Korra!" This time, Asami was honest in her praise, "Now, we just need to add the butter and mix everything."
"Want me to beat it for you?" Korra asked with a smile, holding up her fists.
The two girls burst out laughing.
"There you go Korra; you don't need to take things so seriously! You gotta laugh at yourself every once in a while."
"You're right Asami. Thanks," Korra smiled at her friend.
"Okay, I'm gonna add the butter, you mix it in," Asami handed Korra a wooden spoon, "and then we can add the chocolate chips before baking it.
Within a few minutes, the cookies were baking in the oven.
"So how long are they supposed to bake?" Korra asked.
"Hmm," Asami consulted the cookbook once again, "It says eight to twelve minutes. We'll check on it in a—"
Suddenly, the door to the kitchen opened and Ikki walked in. The second she saw Korra however, a look of pure terror appeared on her face. Before either Korra or Asami could say anything however, Ikki ran from the kitchen.
"DADDY!" They heard Ikki scream, "KORRA'S IN THE KITCHEN AGAIN!"
The two teens looked at each other before losing themselves completely in laughter.
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"Do they look okay?" Korra asked ten minutes later as Asami opened the oven to check on the cookies.
"Yeah. I think they're done," she turned off the oven before grabbing a thick towel to take them out.
"They smell good," Korra said once Asami placed them on the counter to cool, "Can I try one?"
"You gotta wait for them to cool first," Asami slapped Korra's hand away from the cookie sheet, "They're very hot!"
Korra instead leaned in closer to the cookies to smell them, "You know, I think we did a pretty good job."
"Yeah," Asami agreed, "I think we did."
"Can't wait to try one," the Avatar side-glanced at Asami, who was busy getting a plate out to put the cookies in once they cooled, "Maybe if I just try— ouch!"
Asami turned around with a plate in her hands. "What happened?"
"Burned my hand on a cookie," Korra pouted.
"I told you to let them cool first!"
"Eh, I was never one for patience," Korra shrugged.
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"Wow! These cookies are really good!" Jinora said as she helped herself to another cookie.
Once the cookies cooled, Asami and Korra called everyone into the dining room to try them out. So far, everyone seemed to be enjoying them. Most of all, the children.
"Yeah, did you bake these yourself Asami?" Mako asked, taking a bite out of his cookie.
"Well, I had a lot of help from Korra." Asami smiled, nudging the Avatar who sat next to her.
The reaction was instantaneous. The kids froze for a second before abandoning their cookies and spitting out whatever they had in their mouths.
"She's trying to poison us!" Meelo yelled.
"Daddy, I told you she was in the kitchen!" Ikki yelled as the remainder of her cookie fell to the floor.
"Guys, they're fine!" Korra yelled over the chaos that had erupted in the room.
"Daddy! Can you take us to the hospital?" Ikki asked, holding her stomach.
Bolin and Mako surveyed the pandemonium with amusement on their faces as the children ran out of the room screaming, followed closely by Tenzin, who was yelling for his kids to stop their shouting.
"I think you girls did a great job on these!" Pema said as she carefully got up, one hand on her pregnant belly, "I'll try to calm the kids down."
And so, the four teenagers sat alone in the dining room with the rest of the cookies.
"Awesome!" Bolin said, grabbing yet another cookie, "More for us!"
Korra laughed as she reached for a cookie.
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Totally forgot about the brown sugar. Ah well. We'll pretend they added it... Thanks for reading! Please review!