It was like her brain was made of bricks that had been haphazardly built into many walls sitting on tracks, and then blown through by a freight train. And that freight train rolled back and turned those bricks into dust, only for the dust to be rebuilt into bricks and pulverized again over and over. Light had taken a physical form, vibrating at a frequency that turned her mind to jelly. Asami could swear by everything she breathed that she could actually hear her own cells replicating. She slowly became aware that her body was cocooned inside of her duvet and the bed surely had swallowed her up. This had to have been what death truly felt like. Her eyes sluggishly cracked open with the slightest squint, seeing the tiniest sliver of light at the edge of a curtain against a window. But that sliver of light felt like a spotlight shining right into her very soul. At some point Asami was able to move her arms with enough strength to push the covers off her body, and painstakingly sat up.

Even through the intensity of her hangover, by some means she could smell the magnificent scent of coffee in the air. It was like heaven for her senses and Asami crawled from her bed, making what felt like a ten year journey from her bedroom to the door leading to her Holy Grail. She noticed her clothing was still of jeans and that red v-neck shirt and it all started to tug at her uncomfortably. Taking another ten year journey she managed to pull on baggy sweatpants and a tank top instead, not even bothering to summon any strength to take her bra off. Removing the other two pieces had already stunted her energy supply for the whole day. The woman cracked the door open and Asami could see the full, fresh pot of coffee with one squinted eye. It beckoned to her from the other side of the apartment like a longtime lover. Opening the door the rest of the way she started through the hallway towards the nectar of the gods, but her step faltered. Wait. Why is there even coffee made?

A few more steps and Asami noticed someone was sitting on her couch, a brown beanie and tanned skin was scribbling something in a book. The familiar woman turned to look over at Asami with those bright blue eyes. That stare was more divine than coffee for her post-apocalyptic hangover. A slim smirk crept to her lips. "Welcome back from the dead,"

Holy shit what? "Korra stop screaming in my ear," Her throat felt like it had been stripped raw by paint thinner. Asami squeezed her own face together with her pale hands. Korra? In my apartment? Witnessing my walk of death? "What time is it even?"

"Like 5 in the evening,"

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Korra laughed at the unpleasant expression that formed on the hungover individual across the room and took a long look at Asami, not seeming to care at all to hide the clear up-down trail of her gaze. "Are those sweatpants Dior too?"

Asshole thinks she's funny. A middle finger flew up in Korra's direction. Asami didn't make eye contact or say a word as she slowly crept into the kitchen. The tiles were freezing against her bare feet. She pulled a bare white mug from a cabinet and filled it with water, downing the cup quickly. The second refill was the warm fresh liquid from the coffee pot. Asami savored the fragrance and warmth in her hands as she made her way to the loveseat across from Korra. The cushions felt as though they would swallow her up just the same as her bed.

A very quiet noise floated in the air as Korra was bouncing her knee faintly, their visions locking. How was she this lively? Asami was absolutely certain she had just as much, if not more to drink last night. The way she woke up this morning, there was no way Korra could have been awake longer than her, coherent enough to even think to make coffee and sit around her apartment with a cheerful look in her face. "How are you no hung over as shit right now?"

She looked around in a slight nervous manner, "I think I might have like four livers or something, I don't ever get hung over regardless of how much I drink,"

Is she a robot?

Korra put her pen down and shifted, rubbing the back of her neck. "So I –,"

A sharp throbbing was attacking her brain. "Korra, I'm sorry, but if you value your life you will not speak any amount of volume until I've finished this drink,"

Clear amusement settled across her striking face and they simply sat in the moment to stare at each other, not requiring any words to be said. The blue flannel Asami remembers from the previous night was draped across the back of the couch Korra was sitting on, leaving a simple white t-shirt on the woman's torso. The bright white against her tan skin seems to deepening the color, enriching and enhancing the already attractive hue of skin. Without that button up, Asami could indeed confirm that her tattoos did extend up past the elbow, but was lost again under the short sleeve. The newfound discovery only caused Asami to wonder more where the rest of the tattoos laid. The woman was simply breathtaking in so many different ways. Asami wasn't even going to bother to convince herself there wasn't an attraction there. But she was also a cautious woman and considering Korra was still much unknown to her, Asami had no intentions. Yet.

Korra tilted her head slightly and moved to pull her book in front of her. She grasped her pen in hand and began scribbling something down on the pages, yet her focus mostly stayed on Asami and she only glanced to her page a few times. Somehow Korra's look seemed both distant and fixated at the same time. This continued for a few long moments until the black haired woman sunk in cushions finally reached the bottom of her mug.

She placed the ceramic ware on a table placed between then, and shifted her legs under her. "So what are you doing?"

"Come over here and look?"

Her question was returned with a warm smile that was quite inviting, she couldn't say no to all the deep blue staring into her. Unfolding her legs, Asami swept across the way to seat herself next to Korra. She was drawn into an atmosphere surrounding the body next to her that was filled with warmth, and a pine scent still lingered. Asami was sure she would never tire of it.

The book in question was filled with moderately weighted unlined paper, and rather being used for writing there were marks and scribblings filling the page. The forms took shape into a face, and it only took a very brief moment for Asami to realize that it was her own face she was looking back into. Lighter pen strokes mixed with darker shaded sections captured her persona remarkably, and somehow Korra had been able to measure her facial features and translate them onto the page with a precise proportion. The amount of accuracy was breathtaking and Asami was lost in the lines of her own eyes, staring back from the page. It read of curiosity and fascination and a bit of play.

"Wow…this is..," Her finger lightly tranced over the lines in the drawing, lines that had been just placed by this woman beside her. "Is this was I look like hung over? God,"

Korra chortled and her movements became animated as she gestured to the image. "Are you serious? Look at you, you're beautiful!"

A flutter formed in her stomach and heat crept to her cheeks. Asami pushed the feeling down, but never letting it disappear. "Seriously though, you hardly even looked at the page. And in pen? How?"

The woman's pen was put in the crease where the pages met in the sketchbook and she moved to place a foot above her knee in a relaxed position. She thought for a moment and shrugged. "It's like a form of blind contour drawing I sort of adapted, where I'm able to use both my center field of vision and peripheral at the same time. It's kind of hard to explain I guess but it's a nice exercise,"

Who even was this woman? Asami couldn't even fathom how she came about this. But she was certainly impressed. And she is hardly ever impressed. Her fingertips ran over the drawing again and Asami was faintly aware Korra's eyes were intensely tracking her hands over the page. "So is this what you do?"

She shrugged again. "Not really. It's just an area I studied while in school. I felt like it was necessary to 'master the elements' per se. But it's not what I'm passionate about,"

"And what are you passionate about?" Asami's curiosity was spoken a little more libertine than she was expecting, yet oddly comfortable.

The sketchbook gently closed and Korra waved a hand about in the air, "Jeez Asami, I can't give away all of my secrets," She raised an eyebrow. "So now that you've seen something of what I do, what do you do?"

At this proximity Asami could see there were light flecks spread through Korra's deep eyes, and she was sure any closer and she'd be able to pick out constellations in her irises. "Well I work at Future Industries, if that counts,"

"Ah isn't that some technology corporation? Or something close to that?" Asami was surprised Korra barely knew anything considering how huge the company was. Korra looked over to the empty mug and back to Asami. "Do you want a refill?"

Asami nodded, watching Korra moved up and into the kitchen with a unique grace. She wore slims jeans of a medium shade of brown and black high top Converse. The way she walked was completely natural but Asami found it enthralling, not bothering to care if Korra would have turned back around to catch her glances.

After a few moments Korra returned with two cups instead of just one. Somehow she had noticed to not put anything in Asami's drink at all. "So what do you do there?"

Asami waved a hand around, obviously mocking Korra's response. "Jeez Korra, I can't give away all of my secrets,"

Korra's eyebrows shot up and she gave a sincere laugh. Asami was sure she would never tire of that sound either. "Wow you have a sense of humor too," She sat back in her previous place next to Asami, mug in one and her free arm was draped across the back of the couch behind her.

The motion could have been considered uncomfortably bold by some, yet Asami found it soothing and warm. "So what exactly happened last night? There's quite a bit I can't seem to place," The mug came up to her lips as she waited for an answer to the question she's been thinking of since awakening.

Korra slowly leaned closer until there faced were mere inches apart, and a sly smirk was upon her lips. "We made passionate love all night,"

What the fuck!

Asami practically inhaled her drink, choking on the dark liquid and felt the burning sensation in her throat and sinuses. Her eyes watered and she saw Korra doubled over in laughter at her reaction, barely managing to set her own cup down to prevent it spilling over. Korra wiped a tear from her eye as she recovered from her amusement. "I'm so sorry but the opportunity was there and I couldn't let it pass!"

"Fuck I almost had a heart attack!" She punched Korra in the arm, finding the form her hand connected with was quite solid. Her fingers twitched at the thought of touching that arm again in a more explorative sense.

Korra let out a laugh again, grinning into her mug she recovered from table. "I'm pretty sure that would technically be non-consensual anyways. Fuck that, I'm not a dick," She paused for a moment and seemed to search through her memories before continuing. "Okay here's the truth. We got really trashed really fast. For some reason you thought it was some kind of competition on who could drink the most," Asami cringed at that thought, seeing Korra's clear amusement at the whole ordeal. "Granted I was impressed for awhile, buuuut you didn't last as long as you think you could,"

"Nobody ever came back except for Mako, which I'm not surprised at considering how Opal and Bolin's faces were basically morphing into one being on the other side of the bar. Mako was so far gone all he could do was sing sad love karaoke songs and cry. Or I'm pretty sure he was crying. I couldn't tell very well because I was mostly watching you rake in the free drinks from random people while they spewed pleasantries like 'Miss Sato' this and 'Miss Sato' that. Jeez like how do you know so many people?" Was she actually being serious?

"Anyways, we mostly talked and drank and you laughed at my stupid ass jokes you probably don't remember at this point. Eventually the bar closed down for the night,"

Between the warmth of her coffee and Korra, Asami was in a very relaxing state after nearly dying from asphyxiation by caffeine. "So how did we end up back here then?"

Korra studied her for an instant. "Well. I had to practically fight you for your ID so I could figure out what address the cab guy had to drive to. You were almost passed out on me in the cab so I had to carry you up here, somehow dig out your keys from your jacket and try every single one because you swore they all were the same key. And the whole time you insisted we had to watch shark documentaries to we could 'educate Mako about his relatives',"

Asami placed a hand over her face and groaned. "Wow that's pretty embarrassing I'm sorry,"

Korra smirked at her comment, "Not really, you weren't bad at all. You were actually quite adorable," That light fluttering feeling came back to Asami at her words. "So we're on the couch and you started up Sharknado you found on Netflix or something, thinking it was a real documentary. But you barely lasted five minutes before you went into a sleep coma and there was no waking you. So I put you in your bed and sat there for a few hours to make sure you wouldn't throw up or die or something. And came out here to finish that movie," '

Now that's what was actually adorable.

"How was it?"

Korra looked up and thought for a moment. "Absolutely terrible,"

With an elbow positioned on the back of the couch, Asami rested her head on her fist and turned her body to face Korra. They both seemed to just sit and observe the other's expressions. Korra appeared calm and more or less curious. She showed no signs of seeming rushed or uneasy. Content is what Asami thought of when trying to place an emotion on her visitor. "Well I should thank you for staying. To make sure I didn't die or something," she smiled, partially quoting Korra's words.

Asami wasn't sure if it was a slight blush she had caught on the woman's face or not. "Ah you don't need to thank me, it's no big deal. But as much as I would like to keep talking to you, I probably should go. There's lots of work I still have left to do,"

Grabbing her empty mug, Asami watched Korra move across the room and heard her place the cup on the counter. A jingle of keys and Korra had returned to take her book and shirt. Asami felt a twinge of disappointment to see her go. "Don't think this counts as that coffee you owe me,"

Korra smiled brightly, "Glad to know you're not trying to get out of that one," Her face seemed to be pondering thoughts for a moment and she disappeared back into the bedroom, coming back out with Asami's phone in hand. A few audible clicks later she placed it from her hand into Asami's, fingers slightly touching at the motion. "I uh, put my number in there. In case you don't feel well or need saving again, I mean from dying and whatnot, and, ya know cause I suffered through Sharknado by myself and-,"

She really was fucking cute. "Korra you're rambling again,"

Korra let out a breath and smiled, her blush quite apparent this time. "Okay you get my point. And you should think about coming by my studio sometime in case you want to find out what I really do,"

With a last smile on her lips and a wink, Korra was out the door and gone. Leaving Asami's normally empty apartment filled with a strange and unfamiliar sense of loneliness. It was loneliness Asami hadn't seem to have felt in a long time. She took a last look at her phone, the new number still visible on the screen, and wondered less of what had just happened and more on where everything was going from here. But wherever it was, Asami knew she wanted to be there. As long as Korra was there too.