This had not been the greeting she'd expected from the woman at the bar. Her searing lips almost made Korra forget why'd she'd come over in the first place. The woman's slender frame was surprisingly demanding: the way that her nails had dragged along her skin and pulled their bodies close; the commanding movements of her mouth, ensuring Korra knew exactly how she wanted to be kissed; the way that her body began to arch into her own. Or was that her own doing? Her hands were on the slender woman's lower middle of her back, was holding her flush against her, whimpering slightly as the woman bit her lower lip and then slid her expertly deft tongue into her mouth.

She had to remind herself that she wasn't actually making out with this beautiful stranger and kept her hands rooted in place in spite of how tempting the woman's body in her hands felt underneath the soft, silk-like fabric of her blouse and how the woman's skillful lips and tongue made her head spin and something pull hungrily between her legs. This was all just for show. She had come over to help her get away from mister creepy who didn't seem to understand the slender woman's polite rejections and even her more firm rejections that she'd seen from across the bar. But spirits this felt amazing.

This wasn't at all how she'd imagined her night going. Aside from never having kissed a complete and total stranger before, she hadn't gone out tonight looking to meet someone. She'd gone out with some friends of hers, poised to have a good time only to be left an hour into their pub crawl because her friends had run into some of their old friends from high school and were invited to a different party. She'd simply gotten a text as she'd exited the bathroom telling her not to worry about catching up and that they'd see her another night.

She had been beyond annoyed with them. She was so busy with her training schedule lately that she hardly had time for fun outings anymore and tonight had been her first night free in what felt like ages. And not to mention her chance to drink casually had been severely limited once she'd landed a professional MMA sponsorship. Her coach was a hard-ass and didn't believe in cheat days, but she was on a two-week vacation while her coach went on a press tour to learn about all the other rookie fighters that would make their debut this season, and her debut press event was set for when he got back.

When she'd come out of the bathroom, she almost immediately saw the man and the woman she was currently kissing from across the somewhat busy bar room. The man had reached out and grabbed her wrist and placed it on his stomach and the woman quickly pulled her hand away and shook it out, looking incredibly uncomfortable. She had wanted to come up and intervene then, but she didn't know the context. She heard her persistent coach's voice chime in her head understand the situation before you rush in. But her coach was right. She didn't know the relationship between the two people despite knowing the look of uncomfortableness strewn across the woman's face. Her gut reaction was to go over and punch the guy, but that was probably her irritation with her friends being projected towards him. And besides, if she started a fight with a random stranger in a bar, she could run the risk of being barred from competition. Definitely not the start she wanted for her debut season.

Instead of being her usual hot-headed self and rushing in she'd gone to the bartender and asked for a marker and took a stack of napkins. She'd been surprised when the taller woman had picked the lover option, but now she was glad that she had. She was happy to be helping the woman out of an uncomfortable situation, first and foremost, but she'd be lying if she tried to say that the kiss was anything other than amazing.

The slender woman in her arms slowed the kiss down, starting to draw away. Korra wanted to keep kissing her, to pull the woman into a corner booth and continue letting the slightly taller woman explore her mouth and let her hands explore wherever they pleased. But she hadn't come over for that. She was acting the part. Maybe the woman didn't even actually like her or women in general. Maybe she was so desperate to get away from this creep of a man that she thought this was the only option.

She ignored her own desires to pull her back into the kiss and let the woman pull away at her own pace. The taller woman pulled away briefly and then kissed her again, smiling into her lips before sucking on her bottom lip and pulling away with Korra's lip between her teeth.

Holy fuck, Korra thought. She almost wished she was sitting down as an ache pulsated between her legs with how incredibly turned on the slender woman had made her with her lips alone and in such a short span of time. She felt slightly short of breath and finally opened her eyes to see the slender woman's bright green eyes and a proud smile humming on her lips.

Was she proud of her handiwork?

Did she know the effect she'd had on Korra's body?

Was this the outcome she'd wanted to render? If so, Korra was all too happy to let her keep going if she wanted.

"I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me," the woman said, winking with her left eye so that the man to their right couldn't see.

Korra wasn't sure if the tone of her voice was meant for her or if she was playing it up for the man to the right. Her head was so foggy from the kiss that she felt like she needed a minute or five to remember what she was doing over here.

Korra blinked a few times forcing the momentary fog to dissipate and then smiled. Right. Play the part. She had to play the part of the girlfriend. Lover? Girlfriend. She knew how to be a girlfriend. Being a lover with no attachments wasn't something Korra had ever experienced.

She couldn't stop the smile that spread on her lips. She felt like she was coming off of a high after kissing this woman. She leaned in and brushed her nose against the taller woman's, nudging slightly as she bit the corner of her own lip.

"How could I forget about you?" Korra asked. She remembered to ask louder than she normally would speak when she was this close to a person. She wanted to be whispering. For that whispering to invite another glorious kiss from the woman in her arms.

Out of her peripheral, she could see that the creep hadn't moved at all and was still very much watching. She suppressed a groan and a glare simultaneously and added: "It just took me a bit to get away from work."

She panicked a little. She was the world's worst liar and doubted that she sounded at all convincing. But that didn't matter because the taller woman in her arms smiled and she looked so sweet that Korra had a momentary lapse, forgetting that they had an audience. Her green eyes shined with a glint that simply struck Korra speechless. The woman was breathtaking. Her long, voluminous black hair spilled over her shoulder and made the brightness of her smile that much more noticeable.

"Heh, well my night just got a whole lot more promising," the man to their right said in the most disgusting, self-assuming tone Korra had ever heard.

Right. She still had to deal with creepo. She could get lost in this woman's smile later if she was interested of course. But right now, she had a job to do. A job she'd volunteered to do. Time to get the skeevy creep of a weasel-slug to leave.

She arched a disinterested eyebrow and looked, making direct eye contact with the creep, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Uh, do we know you?"

"What? Oh, no," the creep said, a sneer pulling on the edge of his mouth. "But I was just about to ask your girlfriend to come home with me. Why don't we make it a party and you both come?"

She glared at him before she could stop herself. His sleazy double entendre didn't go unnoticed as it was accompanied with one of the lewdest winks she'd seen since her early gym days when she was still a teen.

The slender woman moved one of her hands from behind Korra's neck to rest on her clavicle. The movement stalled the slurry of curse words and insults that had been forming at the back of Korra's throat. She took in a quick breath and pressed her lips together. If she started yelling at the man she knew herself well enough to know that that had a high chance of leading to her punching him. And punching him and possibly getting an assault charge on her record would get her barred from competition for sure. And the woman had had the option to have her start a fight and she'd specifically picked otherwise. So she had to keep her temper under wraps.

She forced a smile and turned back to the slender woman. Looking into her green eyes calmed her enough to quell her hot temper. She searched for face for a moment and then blinked hard.

Priority number one was getting this guy to go away. She could gawk later.

"I'm not sure about you, babe, but I'm not at all interested," Korra settled on saying in what she hoped was a disinterested tone. Acting wasn't something she had any practice with. Punching, kicking, and flipping? That she could do without any active thought. But this whole playing nice when all she wanted to do was ram her palm against the man's nose was proving to be difficult.

She turned slightly away from the woman to face the man more. She wanted to be able to put herself between them should he try anything in an attempt to change their minds. But before she could fully pivot her position to be front facing to the creep next to them, the slender woman moved forward and kissed her. The kiss was simple, but her lips were still incredibly soft and took the remaining hostile edge off of Korra's mind.

Spirits, this woman had no right to feel this good, Korra thought as the woman leaned away, breaking their kiss. The green-eyed woman moved her slender hand with meticulously painted red fingernails that was on Korra's clavicle down, skipping over Korra's chest and then raking her nails along her stomach. Korra had to make a conscious effort to not let her eyes flutter or let any sort of noise to escape her throat. Her nails gave a promise of much more sensuous actions as they moved down the plane of her abdomen, even though it was still through the cloth of her shirt.

After a moment, the addictive stranger gently grabbed the front of her tank top, leaned into Korra again and placed the most a gentle kiss on her jaw, causing a shiver to run throughout her entire body.

"She keeps me coming almost more than I can handle. So, it's a hard pass from us," the slender woman said as she turned away from Korra's ear.

I do what now?! Korra thought, feeling her eyes go slightly wide and her cheeks grow hot. She blinked to keep her expression from ruining their cover. She tried to smile but then tried to make it look like she knew exactly what the woman was talking about and that she was definitely capable of doing what she'd said as she slid her arm around her waist, letting her hand fall simply on her hip.

Before Korra's mind could get away from her, imagining just how much more than she could handle could be or what that night of passion would look like with the goddess in her arms, the creep in front of them licked his lips and grinned himself.

I hate this guy, she thought as her grin faltered. She couldn't stand the look on his face as he looked the slender woman up and down, causing Korra to instinctively hold her a little tighter and closer to herself.

"Oh yeah?" he started, licking the front of his top teeth. "I'm sure I could make you come in ways she's never even tried with you."

Don't punch him. Don't punch him. Do not, for the love of fuck, punch him.

"Are you kidding me?!" Korra challenged.

The creep shrugged, his grin spreading wider. "We could make it a competition if you'd like." He took a step forward, reaching his hand out to touch the slender woman's hip.

Not today, you sleazy weasel-slug, Korra thought as she quickly moved her arm from around the woman's waist to stand completely in front of her, blocking the man's extended hand. She had half a mind to grab his wrist and bend it back but refrained. Her coach would be so proud of the restraint she was showing.

"We're not interested," she said sternly, articulating each syllable slowly and purposefully.

"Why's that?" he asked, bringing his beer to his pompous lips and taking a quick sip. "You've never had a guy like me before."

"Last time I checked," Korra said, bringing herself to her full height. "Women didn't need to explain themselves to clueless idiots like you." She was still the shortest one of the bunch, but that didn't stop her. She knew she could wipe the floor with his face with minimal effort if she allowed herself to resort to violence. The constant chirping of her coach in the back of her head kept her fists to herself, though.

He let out a singular laugh. "I think you're confused. I know I'm good. I could get any girl in this bar if I wanted." He gave a smile that made Korra's skin crawl. "Your girl should feel flattered that I chose her."

"She isn't some rabaroo that you can pick out and take home from the pound because you picked her," Korra spat back. "She told you no, and that's that."

The creep grinned and leaned in close to Korra, dropping his voice slightly. "What? Are you concerned that you won't get any attention? I mean, if you're a good girl, I'm sure I can take care of you, too."

Korra felt her face twitch in anger. Before she could stop herself, she pushed his chest with one of her hands, forcing distance between them again.

"Are you fucking dense?" Korra shot at him, making sure to pull her hand back before she was tempted to make further contact with her fist or grab him by the collar. "In what fucking universe does this interaction end with you getting laid by either of us?!"

"Hey, hey," the sleaze-ball said, bringing both hands up to his chest, putting his palms out. He smiled, like a car salesman trying to salvage a sale. "No need to get haughty. Calm down."

The calming demeanor of the woman behind her had long since left, and she could only faintly hear the cautioning cries of her coach in the back of her head about not flat out punching the man in the face. Or nose. Or cervix. Or punting him square in the junk.

"Calm down? Calm down?!" she exclaimed, raising her voice as she repeated herself. She felt the blood pulsing in her neck and was sure her anger was beginning to make her flush. She didn't care. This guy had obviously never been told no before, and Korra felt it was high time he was. "She's told you no. I've told you no. And you're still thinking you can wiggle your way into getting either of us to go home with you. The answer is still no, you delusional fuck-twit!"

The weasel-slug frowned, furrowing his eyebrows and letting his shoulders fall as his expression changed from smug to angry. "Alright, well if she wasn't interested, then why did she let me buy her a drink?"

"Because she was being polite?" Korra offered, shrugging her shoulders reflexively. "Maybe because she took pity on you since no one else apparently wanted your goddamn company?" Korra balled her fists and remained rooted in front of the slender woman. She felt like she would need to apologize to her later for causing a scene. She had picked the lover option, not the fight option. And here Korra was, her stubborn hotheadedness winning out. Again.

"And just because you decided to buy her a drink doesn't mean she owes you a damn thing!" she added. If she was going to teach this guy a lesson, she might as well teach him that women didn't owe him a damn thing regardless of what he gave them. Another lesson apparently no one had taken the time to teach him.

"Sure she does!" he spat, his voice finally rising.

"Excuse you?!" Korra was practically yelling now.

"That's how this works," he said angrily. He then used his hands to articulate the apparent universal procedure of events. "Guy and pretty girl meet at a bar. Guy buys a pretty girl a drink. Pretty girl goes home with him. Guy gets to fuck pretty girl to his heart's content for the night. Guy and pretty girl go their separate ways in the morning."

How did men like this exist? How had his parents raised him to be so entitled and completely unaware of how consent worked. How had this guy not gotten a broken nose before for acting this way around women? Her previous thought of possibly having projected her original anger with her friends onto him dissipated completely.

Korra's arms shook as her fingernails dug into the palms of the balled fists. She could no longer hear the voice of her coach in the back of her head and was about ready to move forward and grab the sorry excuse of a human in front of her by the shirt and threaten him within an inch of his life. But she felt something tug at the back of her shirt. Vaguely familiar fingernails moved along her lower back before the fabric of her tank top was grabbed.

Korra took in a quick breath and took a small step back, her butt coming in contact with the woman's legs. It felt like her knees. Apparently, she'd sat down.

Worry unexpectedly halted the angry thoughts in Korra's mind, making her take a pause – had she frightened the woman?

Shit, she thought. That was the last thing she wanted to do. The woman had done nothing wrong. Her only fault tonight was not declining a drink from a possibly, at one point, charismatic stranger. A simple misjudgment, and no more a fault than picking out an outfit to wear for the day. And here she was, hiding behind Korra's back as the two adults argued at progressively increasing volumes.

Korra clenched her jaw and lowered her voice, locking hostile eyes with the weasel-slug. She then, very calmly, said, "I don't know where you're from, but that is not how it works around here."

"Well, that bitch of yours should have thought about that before leading me on!"

Something snapped in the back of Korra's mind. From everything she'd seen from across the bar room, including what she'd seen and overheard once she'd made it to the bar, at no point did it seem like this woman had been leading him on. She wanted to call him out, but that was bound to ruin the cover story of the two of them being together or that Korra had just arrived at the bar when she'd come up.

"I doubt my girlfriend was leading you on, dipshit," Korra finally settled on, tightening her balled fist further as she felt her nails dig deeper into her palms. The pain from them kept her hands where they were instead of moving forward to cause the much deserved harm to the weasel-slug.

Her anger stopped rising when she felt another hand grab at the back of her tank top followed quickly by something against her back, just beneath her shoulders. She blinked and slowly looked over her shoulder to see that the taller woman was holding onto her and had leaned her forehead against her back. She could hear the man yammering on about something, but she wasn't paying attention to him anymore. She couldn't see the woman's face, but something didn't seem right. She focused on how the woman was holding her shirt, and she could feel a slight tremor.

She was about to ask her if she was alright when a loud booming voice forced her to look up.

"Everything alright over here?"

Korra looked up to see a large, muscular southern water tribe native who was wearing a black shirt with white lettering that read bouncer. The bouncer looked familiar, possibly someone she'd seen at the gym or someone she'd gone to school with.

"No, actually," Korra admitted. She reached one of her hands behind herself and gently held onto the woman who was clutching her shirt. Her skin felt clammy. Korra frowned and then motioned her free hand to the weasel-slug. "This asshat won't leave my girlfriend alone."

"Hey!" the creep protested.

The large bouncer crossed his impressively large arms over his chest and arched an eyebrow as he looked down at the creep. He then looked to the bartender.

"I was just about to call you," the bartender said simply, grabbing the abandoned glass that the woman had been spinning on the countertop and the half-consumed pint of beer.

"I haven't done anything—"

"Uh-huh, sure," the bouncer said, interrupting the weasel-slug and grabbing him by the collar. "Time for you to leave, bud."

"Hey! Hey, I have rights!"

"And we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone," the bouncer said, his tone completely devoid of any emotion.

The weasel-slug tried to pull the bouncer's massive hand off of his collar. The bouncer's flat expression sighed and pulled the man forward, his other hand reaching for the back of his pants and firmly grabbing his belt.

Korra was impressed with how the bouncer moved the creep, quickly lifting him in the air and carrying him away towards the entryway of the bar holding him by the pant-line and collar, almost like a battering ram. She watched just long enough to see the bouncer use the man's face to push the exit door open and allowed herself to smile. The man deserved much worse treatment, but she was glad that he was getting some sort of humiliation at least. And she was glad that the bouncer had come in when he had.

Korra turned around fully, letting her hand move from the slender woman's wrist to both of her hands touching either of her shoulders. She kneeled down slightly, sitting on the back of her heels and looked up at the woman. She looked pale, and her eyes were shut tight.

"Hey, are you alright?" she asked gently, her thumbs caressing the outside of either of the woman's arms, moving from touching the soft silk of her blouse's short sleeves to touching her skin. She wasn't nearly as warm as she had been when she'd first embraced her. She definitely felt clammy.

The woman's hands moved and grabbed either of Korra's biceps, slowly shaking her head. "I don't feel right."

Feel right? Korra pondered as she felt her brow furrow as she continued to search the woman's face. The woman took in a shaky breath through her nose and let it out through her mouth, just as shaky before swallowing hard.

"How can I help?" Korra asked, her grip on the woman's shoulder's firming.

"I," she started. She took in a few more breaths and then opened her eyes, blinking several times before her green eyes focused on Korra's face. Her green eyes looked slightly dull, and her pupils didn't look right, like they were too large for the amount of lighting in the dim bar.

"You…?"

The woman swallowed and tightened her grip on either of Korra's arms. "I think I need to go to the restroom."

Korra nodded. "Can you walk or do you need help?"

"I'm not sure."

Korra narrowed her eyes. There was a slight slur to the woman's speech. Was she just drunk?

"I'm going… I'm going to try and stand," the woman said slowly. Korra wasn't sure if she was trying to convince herself or was simply telling Korra what she was doing.

Korra nodded and stood from her semi-seated position.

"Oh, hey! Here's your hoodie," the bartender said abruptly.

Korra looked to her left just in time as the bartender tossed her hoodie across the bar top to her. On pure reflexes, her hands left the slender woman's shoulders to catch it, part of the hood smacking her lightly in the face.

Korra grumbled and decided that she was probably going to need her hands and quickly moved to put it back on instead of holding onto it or tying it around her waist. She'd handed it off because she had hoped that showing off her muscles would have been a subtle warning to the creep to back off, but it hadn't seemed to have any effect.

Just as her head came through the neck hole of the hoodie, she felt two very unsteady hands on her stomach, just under her bra-line.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Korra said, letting her hoodie fall the rest of the way on as her hands hastily went back to the now standing woman as she swayed slightly to the right. "Easy. I've got you."

"I'm sorry. I just need a second," the woman said as she leaned forward, resting her head on Korra's shoulder.

Korra stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to do. She effectively had a woman with her hands up the front of her hoodie because she'd placed them there before she'd gotten the garment on fully. But the woman being so close to her and no distraction of her lips or an on looking creep let Korra register that the woman smelled heavenly, too. She couldn't quite place the scent, other than it was subtle perfume, probably expensive, and reminded her of a beach after a thunderstorm; it was crisp yet demanding, despite its subtleness.

Ignoring the uncomfortableness of her hoodie bunched on her chest, she moved her arms from the woman's outer arms to gently on her waist, ensuring that she was steady while also trying not to place her hands anywhere that could be interpreted like she was trying to feel her up or anything like the creep-weasel had done.

"You've got nothing to apologize for," Korra said softly.

The woman stood there, her hands moving to ball the fabric of Korra's tank top in her hands again, her nails lightly running against her person. She took in several steadying breaths, but she felt like she was leaning away and to the right.

Korra moved her hands so that her arms were around her waist and held her upright, coincidentally pulling her closer. She might have imagined it, but she felt the woman relax into her and more of her body weight went into her as their bodies became flush.

"Sure I do," the woman said, her words sounding more slurred. "I'm sure you had other plans for your evening."

Korra shrugged gently. "Well, don't worry about it, okay? I'm just glad I'm here to help however I can." She moved her hand, rubbing the woman's back to try and reassure her.

It wasn't that she was lying – she wanted to help. Not because the woman was attractive, smelled inviting, and was an amazing kisser; she wanted to help because she'd seen how uncomfortable she'd been. She agreed that something wasn't right. She had no clue how much alcohol the woman had consumed today, but something was a bit off, and she didn't think the woman was drunk. She'd tasted a slight hint of something on her tongue when they'd kissed, but not any amount that suggested she'd been drinking for hours or pounding back shot after shot. And she'd seemed, well, sober when she'd first come up. How had she gone from poised to plastered in mere minutes?

"Let's get you to the bathroom, hmm?" Korra offered.

The woman nodded into Korra's shoulder, the movement causing her hair to cascade forward exposing her neck and sending a waft of her perfume directly towards Korra's nose. She swallowed hard and tried not to let her body rise to the enticing scent. There were far more pressing matters to focus on than all the wonderful things this stranger did to Korra's faculties.

They moved, Korra putting one arm firmly around the woman's thin waist and guiding the woman's arm up around her shoulders, keeping a hand gently on her wrist after quickly moving her hoodie the rest of the way down. The woman placed her free hand on top of Korra's hand that was holding her at the waist, and they began walking to the restroom.

It was an interesting time of night at the bar. It early enough that the typical waiting line for the restroom was nowhere to be seen, but late enough to have a steadily filling bar room. They made their way across the bar with relative ease, people sidestepping them as they went. Korra saw a few people smile, like Korra had seen when she used to party out at the bars and people saw someone was drunk too early in the night. A few men looked the slender woman up and down and then made contact with Korra and immediately looked away. The smarter option. She was glad, as she didn't think she'd have the patience to wait for the bouncer again if a guy tried to start something over the beautiful woman in her arms.

They passed a girl as they entered the bathroom who looked at them with a judgmental expression and gave them a wide berth to the bathroom door. Korra was surprised to find the women's restroom completely empty but was glad for small favors. She was sure that the woman in her arms didn't want an audience.

They got in front of a stall and Korra paused.

"Uh, do you want me to go in and… uh, hold your hair?"

The woman shook her head as she slowly started to withdraw her arms from Korra, making an unsteady grab for the bathroom stall door.

"No, no. I'll manage. Thank you for getting me this far."

Korra frowned but didn't hang on and let the woman go. To her credit, she only stumbled slightly, even in the impressively tall, pencil-thin heels that she was wearing, but quickly rebalanced herself on the door that Korra held firmly in place.

"I'll hang out by the sinks, just in case. Okay?"

The woman tucked a large section of her voluminous hair behind her ear. "I appreciate it," she said slowly and then started to close the stall door behind her.

The stall door closed and Korra could hear the woman's hand slap against the divider wall of the stall as she made her way further in.

Korra couldn't help but frown as she started to hear the woman dry heave a minute or so later, the sound echoing outside of the stall and radiated in the tiled restroom.

She waited for what felt like forever. Well, not literally forever. But a handful of women came and went from the restroom, all making scrunched faces of distaste when they'd hear the heaves coming from the stall and then look awkwardly at Korra, who had resided to leaning against the sink with her hands buried deep in her pockets to keep her from fidgeting. A few asked if she was waiting to use the restroom and she'd shake her head and say she was waiting on a friend. Almost on cue every time, the beautiful tall stranger would heave unproductively into the toilet, causing the newcomers to flinch.

It was probably ten or fifteen minutes later, several minutes after the woman's last unproductive bout of trying to expel whatever was in her stomach, when Korra heard a different noise come from the stall. It sounded like the woman's heels scraping against the floor, a hand banging against the side of the divider, and a solid thud of something else against the floor.

Korra swallowed, quickly pushing off from the sink and gently rapped her knuckles on the stall door.

"Everything alright?"

She didn't get a response. Putting her ear just in front of the door, she listened intently, trying to listen to the subtle sounds within over the pounding of her own heartbeat in her ears. She could hear the girl saying something, her voice quiet but steadily rising in pitch, but Korra couldn't make out what she was saying.

She tapped her knuckles again on the stall door. "Hey, are you okay in there?" she asked a little louder.

"I," the woman said, her voice incredibly shaky. "I can't stand."

"I'm going to come in, okay?"

"Okay," the woman said, her voice breaking as what sounded like a sob broke in her throat.

Korra took a step back, looking over the door to see how she could open it. Her instincts told her to simply kick the door in, but the hinges opened outward, not inward, making kicking it in unviable. She looked to see what kind of lock the door had but it was all internal, nothing outside that could be manipulated or turned. Looking down, she abandoned the idea of sliding underneath the stall door, as it was barely six inches off of the ground. She looked up and saw that there were a few feet between the top of the dividers and the ceiling.

Up and over it was going to be.

She backed up to the entrance of the restroom and then went at a running start towards the wall. Parkour wasn't a talent she really had but her coach had made her do several sessions with a local parkour troupe because "it was a good training tool for learning when to proceed because you're sure of your abilities and footing, and when to stop because it's too dangerous," or something along those lines. She jumped at the wall and immediately used one foot to push her further up and towards the stall dividers.

She landed higher than she thought she would, her hip bones hitting the top of the metal divider painfully as her hands scrambled for something to hold onto. Here she could see that the woman had stumbled into the wall and was holding onto a bar that was bolted to the wall as she was seated on the ground, her legs folded underneath her. The muscles in her forearms were engaged as if she was trying to pull herself up, but no progress was being made. Her breathing was frantic like she couldn't quite catch her breath. She looked up to see Korra bent over the top of the stall and tears fell from both eyes, her bottom lip quivering.

"I can't stand," she sobbed.

"I'm coming!" Korra assured her.

She threw her weight to her front and made an uncoordinated summersault over the stall divider and landed ungracefully, her hands going out in fast circles to keep herself from toppling over to the left as she landed on one foot.

As soon as she was balanced, she pivoted towards the woman and put her hands on her shoulders. "I'm here," she cooed, rubbing the woman's arms slightly as her frantic breathing was starting to increase and sounded extremely panicked.

"Please don't let go of me," the woman begged. She moved her hands from the bar on the wall and made a grab for Korra, but for some reason, she was unable to reach her.

"I've got you," Korra responded, moving a little closer.

The woman tried to touch her again and was able to grasp her hoodie. Korra could feel the woman trembling through the fabric as the woman balled the fabric in her hand, trying to pull her closer. Korra frowned sadly and scooted forward, reflexively moving some of the woman's hair out of her face.

"I don't want to sound like an asshole," Korra started hesitantly, placing a steadying hand back on the woman's arm. "But, does alcohol normally affect you like this?"

The woman shook her head, bringing her other hand up to try and hold onto Korra but the hand missed. Korra's frown deepened, and she moved to gently grab her wrist and helped her move so she could hold onto the front of her hoodie.

"No, I had one drink," the woman said frantically, her voice rising in pitch as her hands desperately held on to Korra's front. "I can hold my liquor." She started shaking her head, her voice continuing to rise. "I drink more than that all of the time and am fine!"

Korra knelt further down, searching the woman's face. Her eyes were moving to look all over the place like she was thinking a million things all at once.

"He couldn't' have… I never took my eyes off of my drink."

Korra narrowed her eyes. "He couldn't have what?"

The woman was quiet as her chest heaved up and down at an increasing rate, her eyes darting around the bathroom stall in a panic.

Korra got as close as she could, kneeling on her left knee just in front of the woman's folded legs while her right leg was out at a ninety-degree angle, her foot placed just to the outside of her butt. This put her face mere inches away from the panicking woman's face, but she was worried that she was about to hyperventilate and wanted to calm her down.

She moved one of her hands up from the outside of the woman's arms, firmly across her shoulder until her hand cupped the side the woman's neck, her thumb caressing the mound of muscle at the hinge of the woman's jaw. She reminded herself to keep a loose and gentle grip. She wanted to place her other hand on the woman's sternum to try and calm her breathing, but she was still very much a stranger, and that sort of physical touch seemed far too intimate. Her hand stayed on the outside of the woman's arm.

"He couldn't have what?" Korra repeated softly.

The woman's green eyes stopped looking around and met Korra's. Tears were still streaming down her face

"I think he… he slipped something in my drink."

Korra felt anger flash across her face, her jaw muscles tightening. "He drugged you?! That fucking wea—I'm going to go—"

Any movement that she was about to make was stopped as the woman held tighter to Korra's hoodie, her voice breaking further as she weakly pulled her back and placed her head on Korra's shoulder.

"Please don't leave," she begged. "Please don't let go of me."

Korra swallowed hard. The vengeful energy in her muscles still pulsed, commanding her to dash from the bathroom, find the weasel-slug outside, and beat him within an inch of his life. To hell with her sponsorship!

"Please don't let me go," the woman pleaded, her voice broken and small. "I know we're practically strangers, but—"

"I'll stay," Korra said gently, forcing herself to breathe out of her nose and calm herself down.

She moved forward, moving her hands to wrap around the woman and hold her in a tight hug. She felt the slender woman shake in her embrace and could hear her sob into her shoulder, her hands moving from clutching the front of Korra's clothes to her sides, trying to get closer. Korra moved her thumbs in small circles on the woman's back as she tried to comfort her.

Spirits this is a nightmare, Korra thought angrily as the woman continued to weep into her, her hands shaking in their hold on her clothing. How could someone do something like this to another human? How can someone be so desperate to get laid that they'd drug an unsuspecting person?

She pulled her tighter, putting one of her hands on the back of the woman's head and simply held her. She was livid. But right now her anger was inconsequential. The woman in her arms narrowly escaped something that could have been devastating.

Over the last few years, stories of women saying they'd been raped and no one believing them because they'd been out drinking, stumbling drunk, and laughing with the person who they'd said sexually assaulted them had been on the rise. Some of those women left town to escape threats from people saying their sexual assaulter wasn't capable of such malicious acts. Some women tried to fight the system or make their way into local politics to affect change at the political infrastructure but hadn't won in their elections. And, just a few months ago, a woman had committed suicide and speculation from the media linked the suicide to a rape case she'd fought and lost against a prominent man in town.

It was a rising problem in the area, but no one took it seriously. Not law enforcement. Not the politicians. And not a lot of citizens, either. They always stuck to victim blaming, saying the woman shouldn't have worn what she wore or drank where she'd drunk or flirted without the intention of anything further than casual conversation.

Korra had never experienced it, probably due to her well-known reputation throughout town that she wasn't afraid of a fight. But she'd never seen it occur in her group of friends or anyone she'd known. She was always disgusted with those who put the blame back on the victims but never did anything to help them.

Here, holding this woman, she felt guilty for not speaking up or protesting with the women on the capital the month previous. For not getting involved in the election that occurred six months ago to try and help get some of those women elected into local offices. She'd put her head down and stuck to her training, focusing on her and her alone.

Minutes passed, and Korra could hear people come and go from the bathroom, but no one knocked on their stall door, which was a relief. She was a little upset that no one even asked if everything was okay, given that the woman in her arms was crying. She wasn't wailing or anything, but she knew that the woman's crying wasn't inaudible.

"T-thank you," the woman said. Her voice sounded cracked, raw, and slurred. "Thank you for stepping in when you did, too."

"Of course," Korra said softly, leaning her head against the top of the woman's soft black hair. "I'm just sorry I didn't step in sooner."

"You couldn't have possibly known what he was doing. I'm just thankful you stepped in at all." The woman sniffed as her breathing started to settle down. Korra could feel the tension in the woman's body start to ease, almost as if she was relaxing into her.

"Me too," Korra said. She chewed on her lip and then leaned back slightly, catching the woman's eyes. "Is there someone you want me to call? A friend?"

The woman shook her head. "I don't know anyone here except business associates."

"No one?"

"I'm from Republic City," the woman said with a sad half smile. "I came into town for work yesterday."

"Do you want me to call the police?" Korra offered. "That guy should be reported!"

The woman shook her head again, and then stopped abruptly and closed her eyes, clutching tight to Korra; her grip adjusted against the material of her hoodie as she grabbed more fabric. Korra could feel her tank top move and the fabric bunched in her hands.

"No. I just… please. I know we're strangers and you probably have a million other things you'd rather be doing," she paused. The woman's words were slow and over-annunciated like she'd heard her slurring before and was consciously trying not to anymore. She opened her eyes, squinting up at Korra. "Please keep holding me? I'm so dizzy that I can't see straight."

"I'll hold on as long as you need," Korra said, nodding and rubbing the woman's back with her hands. "I'm Korra, by the way. We can't be strangers if we know each other's name, right?"

The woman gave a small laugh, taking in an unsteady breath. "Asami."