A/N: "Dead Oaks" by Now, Now sets a pretty good tone for this chapter if you're looking for a song
As the Sato-mobile smashed into the pole accompanied by the crunch of twisting metal and breaking glass, Asami's head slammed against the steering wheel. Agonizingly she lifted her head, noticing that she left a sticky wet spot on the wheel as she did. She must have cut her head. Lights danced in front of her eyes and her head swam, not in the pleasantly warm way it had been moments before, but in a twisting unfocused way and for a stomach-churning second or two Asami thought she might be sick.
The sensation passed and she was eventually able to find the door handle and haul herself out of the wreck. The first thing she noticed was that the car was totaled. It was halfway twisted around the telephone-pole and nearly all of the windows were smashed in, littering the pavement at her feet with glittering glass.
The second thing she noticed was the police sirens growing steadily louder. She winced at the noise, and realized someone must have called the police already. Weren't these people in bed, and couldn't they mind their own business for once? Still, she rationalized as she rested her back against the remains of her vehicle; they would probably give her a ride home.
The police car pulled up and as the officer stepped out, he visibly paused for a second upon seeing who was leaning against the wreck with blood streaming down her face. Asami struggled to repress a smirk. Everyone in the city knew who she was and this particular patrolman was going to have one hell of a story to tell when he got back to the station tonight.
"Ma'am are you alright?" He asked, wiping the star-struck look on his face and returning to his previous professional demeanor "Were you in an accident?"
This time she actually let the corners of her mouth twitch up a bit "No officer, I just decided that I would try my hand at modern art" she drawled gesturing with one hand at the mangled Sato-mobile behind her. The officer cocked his head slightly to the side with a frown. Clearly not one of Lin's best and brightest she thought ruefully. "Yes, I was in an accident, and I would be very appreciative if you could give me a ride home. And if you could please call a tow-truck to handle this mess."
Finally understanding the situation, the patrolman moved to help assist her "Okay ma'am, if you would just step over here, I have to check and see if you have a concus-" a few inches away from her he stopped dead in his tracks, hands paused inches above her shoulder and looked at her with a penetrating glint in his eye. After lowering his hands to his sides, in a low and serious voice he asked "Ms. Sato, have you had anything to drink tonight?"
Asami frowned. What business of it was his if she was drinking? She was a legal adult. Then she made the connection. She'd been in a car accident, in the middle of the night. And after finishing what she now reasonably assumed to be an entire bottle of gin, she probably smelled like a distillery. She was going to have to be smart. "Listen officer…"
"Mei" the patrolman responded with a nod, but without stepping away from her.
She put on her silkiest voice, the one she used when flirting with old rich men at galas. "Officer Mei. Since you clearly know who I am, you know that I am a very rich woman. What you might not know is that I'm also a very charitable woman and I would be more than happy to double the winter bonus of a Good Samaritan who drove me home without asking too many questions." Deep inside her, a voice that had almost been killed off by alcohol and neglect screamed at her for throwing around her money and power like this, like her father would. But as she'd grown so accustomed to doing, she thoroughly squashed the niggling voice of her conscience.
Officer Mei was unmoved however. "Ms. Sato, I'm just going to ask you to stand on one foot for a few seconds, can you do that for me?"
"I don't think that's necessary" Asami started, taking a sharp step backwards. This was not going her way.
He took another step towards her, palms out in a placating gesture "Ms. Sato, if you refuse to take the field sobriety test then I'm going to have to administer a breathalyzer test." Asami took another step backwards, red-rimmed eyes darting around, this was not going her way at all. "Ms. Sato if you could just remain calm for a moment." Mei said as he grabbed her upper arm.
"Don't touch me." Asami spat, trying to shake free which only caused him to increase his grip. Whirring around with her free hand, Asami threw a left hook aimed directly for Officer Mei's face. Her knuckles connected with a satisfyingly wet crunch and she saw blood gush out of his nose in the split second before his head spun around.
Trying to shake the vibration the impact had caused out of her arm, Asami made to run but Mei wasn't going to be so easily shrugged off, and he quickly grabbed both her shoulders. She may have been the more experienced fighter, but Mei had the weight advantage, and her inebriation didn't help her cause either as she was quickly pinned to the ground with her arms behind her back.
With her face planted into cold and wet concrete, Asami felt her shoulders being violently wrenched back and a moment later cold metal clamped around her wrists. She let out a huff of air as Mei began to quickly recite her rights. She was sore, cold, drunk and exhausted, and now she knew that the night was far from over.
She felt like crying, but closed her eyes instead, inhaling the scent of pavement, sweat, blood, and the motor still trickling out of her destroyed vehicle.
About an hour later The proud CEO of the most powerful and influential company in the world sat on a cold metal chair covered in dried blood, handcuffed to a table in one of the RCPD's interrogation rooms.
She wasn't entirely sure what she was doing here. She'd given her statement, been checked over by a doctor, and after a bit of debate, decided to admit that she'd been drunk. She could have denied it but they'd have just run a few tests and figured out that she was lying, and she didn't want to stay here all night. At best they should have had an officer drive her home, court order in hand. At worst they should have thrown her in the drunk tank to sleep it off.
Except now it seemed like they'd been content with leaving her to freeze to death in this clammy room. Two officers had locked her in here fifteen minutes ago, placed a hot cup of tea in a Styrofoam cup in front of her and told her to behave. Despite all her loud demands to be told what was going on, both had kept their poker face and left without saying a word.
Now, Asami had nothing to do but slowly count the cinderblocks on the wall. She'd gotten all the way up to forty-seven when the door slowly creaked open and in walked a very tired and grim looking Mako carrying a thin folder.
She had to laugh, of course it had been Mako. What other RCPD officer would have been insane enough to keep Asami Sato locked up in an interrogation room in the middle of the night when with a well-placed word she could have any one of them fired the next day?
He sat down, dropping the folder unceremoniously on the table as she reigned in her giggles. "If I'd known this is what you were into, you could have told me about it when we were together and things might've been a bit more interesting." She said with a curved eyebrow, lightly shaking the cuffs. Predictably, he didn't rise to the bait.
"You look like shit." He said, looking her dead in the eyes with what Asami could only assume was his "scary cop glare."
"Sorry, your henchmen didn't exactly give me a chance to put my face on. If I had known I'd be seeing you tonight I would have worn that red lipstick you liked so much." Once again, there was no response to her barb. That was a little disappointing. She was hoping she could at least make his eye do that cute little twitch it did when he was angry.
"What were you thinking Asami?" She sighed, with Mako here she should have expected a lecture coming her way.
"I was thinking that it had been a very long day at the office, and I was looking forward to crawling into my nice warm bed as soon as possible."
"You were drunk."
"Like I said, very long day." He looked down at the table and pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a low exasperated groan. Still got it she thought with a smirk. "Listen Mako, I'm sorry. You know I'll gladly pay the fine" she thought for a moment "And I'll make a donation to the RCPD retirement fund tomorrow, but I have to get to work in the morning and it's already late. Could you just take me home so I can sleep off my buzz?" She could already feel the hangover building behind her eyes, and her short fuse growing even shorter.
Mako picked his head up and shot her a glare hot enough to make her squirm in her seat "Your buzz? Asami you're off your ass!" she rolled her eyes.
"You're being dramatic."
"Dramatic? You bent your Sato-mobile around a pole! You, Asami Sato, who I have personally seen take hairpin turns at sixty miles per hour, got into an accident on a straightaway."
"A cab cut me off!"
"Really? Because according to Officer Mei's report you ran a red-light!" That made her pause. Was there a red light? She certainly didn't remember one, but she had closed her eyes, lost in blissful memories of happier days. She probably shouldn't tell Mako that though. Mentally, she tried to retrace her route up to the scene of the accident, but she was still a little drunk and after a moment she gave up entirely. "How much have you had to drink tonight?" Mako muttered softly.
She turned his head, she could never lie to him when he was being all quiet, and sincere. It didn't suit him in her opinion. "It doesn't matter. I drove drunk, I got caught. What's the fine?"
"Y-you got caught. You got caught? You were trashed Asami! You could have gotten hurt, you could have killed someone, you could have been Killed!"
"But I didn't"
"That's not the point, what if you hadn't been so lucky? What if there had been someone in the car with you?"
"There wasn't Mako, and I'm fine. You're honestly making this into such a big deal when-"
"I can't go bury any more friends!" He roared, rising from his chair slightly. Asami flinched visibly, and Mako quickly realized what he said. Drawing a deep breath he sat back down and continued in a much quieter tone "I can't Asami. I can't lose anyone else…"
She seethed with anger. As if he was the only one who had lost someone. Did he think she'd forgotten what it was like? What it felt like during the funeral? How the hot July air sat stagnant and dead on her skin, as if they were burying all the life left in the world along with the tiny emaciated body in the coffin. Did he think she forgot the horribly slow creaking of the ropes as they lowered Korra into the ground?
She closed her eyes and clenched her hands in front of her, gripping her palms together so tightly that the cut opened on her thumb and fresh blood wept out of the wound, leaking down white knuckles. She couldn't relive that again. She wouldn't break, not here, not in front of Mako. "So then don't." She whispered.
"What?" He asked leaning back in his chair.
"Don't. Stop worrying about me. Stop calling to check up on me, stop coming up with half-assed excuses to drop by my office, and stop having cops sit on the corner outside my house every night. I'm not going to run away like some teenager." He opened his mouth as if to contradict her but she continued before he could say a word "And don't lie about it. I know what it's like to have someone watching me, or did you already forget what my father was like when we dated?" He quickly closed his mouth.
"Quit pretending like you have to protect me. Just leave me alone and you won't have to bury any more friends, because we're not friends anymore Mako. In case you hadn't noticed, the city is as safe as it's been in years. You don't have to pretend that you're still part of Team Avatar, we buried that the day we put Korra in the ground." The words tasted bitter in her mouth, and she knew that they hit home. Mako's expression hadn't changed, but his eyes showed the truth behind his flinty façade. Looking into them Asami could see all the hurt, loneliness and betrayal that she'd gotten so used to seeing in her own reflection these days. Regret bubbled up at the back of her throat like bile, but she bit it back and scowled at the floor.
The silence dragged on for a few moments and Asami's emotions were running riot. She wanted to apologize, wanted to tell him that she didn't mean it. A larger part of her though realized she did mean what she said, and that all she really wanted tonight was to be left alone, and to crawl into bed and try and grab two or three hours of sleep.
When he did speak, it was so soft and low Asami almost believed that she was imagining it. "Sometimes, I miss the Fire Ferrets."
"Yeah Mako, we all miss being a part of Team Avatar." Her anger hadn't burned itself out yet and she practically hissed the words through gritted teeth.
"No, not Team Avatar" he said with a shake of the head "I mean yeah, I miss Korra, I miss her every day, but I meant I miss the Fire Ferrets. Back, before The Red Lotus, before Unalaq, even before we really started fighting the Equalists. I miss practice, I miss the games, running to Narooks after each match, spending lazy days by your pool just the four of us. I miss back when pro-bending was the most important thing on the planet. Hell," he coughed out with a shaky laugh "I even miss that disgusting old locker room."
Asami managed to look up at him behind a curtain of hair "I remember when we used to sneak into that locker room in the middle of the night to make out." Mako guffawed out-loud at that, a real honest laugh from Mako was so rare that it even made Asami chuckle a little.
"Yeah, we did, until Bolin caught us."
She picked up his story instantly "I almost died I was so embarrassed, he couldn't look me in the eyes for a week!" He was now grinning at her fully. She hadn't seen that look since…
He seemed to pick up on her failing mood and a little sadness returned to his eyes though the smile remained
"You know what I miss most?" She indulged him and shook her head "I miss actually having friends. Yeah, I always had Bolin but he was my little brother, I had to take care of him you know, had to protect him from the world. But with you guys I could just be… honest, be myself."
His confession seemed to be draining him as he started to sag in his seat, for the first time since he sat down he lost a little bit of his perfect posture and Asami could almost see the street-rat she'd hit with her scooter what felt like a million years ago.
"After Korra, we all split apart. Bolin ran off for the Earth Kingdom to help clean up that mess. I think he couldn't be in the city anymore, not without her around. And you, well," he swept a hand at her current predicament before putting it up defensively "not that I'm one to talk, I threw myself into case after case, barely leaving enough time to shower and eat in between. But I think we've spent long enough alone. I miss my brother, I miss my friend, I miss you Asami."
She'd returned her gaze to the floor, drawing in one ragged breath after another, trying desperately not to let the emotion leak out of her eyes. She may have been pretending not to notice it, but in these past six months she'd been lonely, so cripplingly lonely. There'd been so many nights where she'd sat with a glass of wine in one hand, the telephone clutched in the other, just wishing she could call Mako. They'd once been so close, but after the breakups and the fights… at the wake and funeral they'd hardly said two words to one another when they should have been each other's shoulder to cry on. She'd always put the phone down, she didn't know if Mako would even want to talk to her, and had been too afraid to learn the answer.
Eventually she murmured a quiet "I miss you too."
"That's why I won't give up." The Iron in his voice forced her to look up. His jaw was set and he was staring at her with the kind of fire in his eyes that would have made the eighteen year old Asami weak at the knees, but now just kept her in respectful silence. "I won't stop calling and I won't stop coming by your office. I won't stop being your friend Asami because you're important to me. You're… All I have left."
As he trailed off towards the end of his sentence Asami realized that without Korra, and his brother fighting a war thousands of miles away, she was likely the last friendly face the firebender had left in the United Republic. Her thoughts drifted briefly towards her father sitting in a cell probably not too far away from this room, before she swiftly shut them down. No. She'd cut him out of her life and had no intentions of reconciling. Mako was the only person she had left too.
She reached as far across the table as the handcuffs would let her and splayed her fingers out flat on the cool metal. "I-I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean it, I've just been so… angry and so… so tired. Mako I'm so tired. I'm trying to fight, trying to hold on but I'm slipping. I feel like I have nothing to hold on to, for a while I thought I could bury myself in my work like you did, but at the end of the day I always have to go home. And my home is so… I'm lonely. I haven't been this lonely since I was a little girl and it's like I have this whistling hole inside me where she used to be and it just keeps growing. I feel nothing Mako, I just wake up and go through my day in a daze, like I'm not even there anymore. I-I'm falling apart..." She hung her head as she finished, hiding behind her raven locks.
Mako's warm fingers wrapped around hers and she leaned into the feeling of genuine human contact, one she hadn't felt in too long.
"You really loved her didn't you?" he asked in a way that implied he already knew the answer.
She let out a noise that was halfway between a laugh and a sob "Was I really that obvious?"
"Please. I think the whole Earth Kingdom could see the way you two made polar bear-puppy eyes at each other when you got back from the desert" he replied with a smile in his voice.
Asami smiled into her lap. They sat together for a few minutes in a happy silence broken only by her sniffling softly, both surrounded by warm memories of friends gone by. Then she felt the comforting pressure of his hands release and looked up to meet his soft gaze.
"Have lunch with me tomorrow." The timid question earned him a sideways glare from the engineer. "Not like that!" He backpedaled, "Just as friends. Like I said, I miss you and I want to spend time with my friend. I want to know what you've been doing, I want to help."
"I'd like that" she replied, relaxing the tension in her shoulders. It's not that she didn't trust him, it's just that in the past Mako hadn't been the most "aware" individual when it came to emotional matters.
"Great," he said as he pulled a key from his pocket and reached across the table to undo her handcuffs. "Let's get you cleaned up, then I can have an officer drive you home."
Asami nodded as she stood from the table, rubbing her wrists. At least now she had something to look forward to instead of just another day of endless paperwork and a hangover.
A/N: And we have chapter two! If you came here looking for more overt Korrasami... sorry? I just really wanted to play with Asami's character a little I love her so much. There's probably only going to be one more chapter in this story. Like before, any reviews would be greatly appreciated!
