Title: Test Flight

Word Count: 1,357

Summary: Asami was born to be an engineer… flying was a different story.

Prompt: "That wasn't supposed to happen…" Inspired by the Bryke interview where they mention that Asami developed the air bender's flight suits in season 4.

Asami was born to be an engineer.

Despite her less than ideal history with her father, she was at least grateful to have inherited his company from him. Hiroshi had been a hard-working, passionate man who had put his soul into making his company internationally known, and without his help Sato Industries would not have been where it was now. Every moment she spent managing her business and walking through her factories and inventing new technology, it was drilled deeper into Asami's core that this was what she was meant to do. Her socket wrench fit better in her palm than any boy's hand ever had, and more of her clothes than she liked to admit had permanent grease stains on the elbows from long nights fiddling with machinery.

Engineering Asami knew.

Flying… was a different story.

Unfortunately, this was a conclusion she came to after she found herself hanging upside down from the rafters of her test lab, thirty feet above ground, held up only by a strip of torn fabric connected to her waist.

"Fuck."

It had been ten minutes before her pride abated enough for her to begin calling for help, and another five before the blood rushing to her head made her shut up before she lost her lunch to a floor that seemed to be getting farther and farther away by the second.

Luckily, Jinora chose that exact moment to show up.

With a polite knock on the door frame and a step inside, she called, "Asami? I hope I'm not interrupting, but your butler said I would find you - " Jinora glanced around, clearly wondering where the older girl was. "…not here."

"Jinora!" Asami ground out desperately, still struggling with the straps on her outfit as she slowly turned a frightening shade of green.

Startled, Jinora looked up and gave a gasp of surprise before hurriedly blasting up to Asami's height and landing on the rafter.

After many frantic questions from the airbender and a little finagling, they managed to unhook the offending piece of cloth from the rafter and gently float to the ground where Asami immediately sat down and stuck her head between her knees, taking deep breaths to settle the contents of her stomach.

"Are you alright?" Jinora asked with concern after a few minutes. She had never seen the young engineer so disheveled.

Lifting her head, Asami nodded and swallowed thickly, shakily standing up to assess the damage to her clothing. "I'm fine." She groaned, "Oh, but this is a mess. Crap, how am I going to -" She trailed off.

Moving to her desk, she shoved multiple stacks of paper aside and picked up a folio, flipping it open and scanning its contents before grabbing a pencil and scribbling something out.

Jinora shuffled from foot to foot worriedly. "Asami?"

Asami mumbled vaguely before turning the page and chewing on her pencil thoughtfully.

"Uh, can I… ask what you're wearing?" Jinora leaned over to catch a glimpse of the papers, and had just registered what looked like a design for some type of outfit before Asami noticed her and quickly shut the folder with an awkward laugh.

"Oh! This is… it's nothing!" With a cheery smile, she turned fully to face Jinora. "So, what were you doing here anyway? Not that I mind! I'm really glad you dropped by, I'm afraid I would have been sick if I'd been up there for any longer." Asami fidgeted with the sleeves of her outfit and laughed again.

Jinora gave her a skeptical once-over, but replied after a pause.

"My mom wanted to invite you to dinner tonight. It's been a while since you've visited the Island, and Mako will be there too. But what -"

"Ah! Well dinner sounds wonderful, tell Pema I'll be there around six, thanks!"

With a dismissive wave, Asami moved to the other side of the table and busied herself with shuffling the stacks of paper around a bit in a desperate attempt to look preoccupied.

Jinora waited patiently for about ten seconds before clearing her throat.

"What were you doing though?"

Asami heaved a sigh before stopping her fidgeting and grudgingly turning towards Jinora again.

"I've… ooh, I wasn't going to tell anyone until they were finished! I wanted it to be a surprise." Asami pouted, combing a hand through her tangled hair. "I mean, what with all the new air benders and you having your tattoos for two years now I just thought it'd be nice for you to have something- but I can't really get these designs to work, and I hoped the aerodynamics would be similar to my planes but I have no idea how to even -"

"Asami!" Jinora interrupted. "What are you talking about?"

Asami threw her arms up in defeat and looked glumly down at the girl. "I'm making flight suits. For the airbenders."

It took a moment, but eventually Jinora's eyes widened in realization. "That's… that's amazing Asami!"

"Well, thanks but I'm not really making much-"

"And this explains so much! You've been so busy recently. And that's why your clothes look so…"

"What? They look what?"

"Wait, but how did you end up hanging from the ceiling?"

"Yeah. That wasn't supposed to happen."

"Clearly."

Asami frustratedly grabbed her portfolio again and flipped through a few more blueprints of suits she had drawn in the weeks preceding. "I've been working on them for a couple of months now, but I just can't seem to find a wing design that maximizes the gliding distance without compromising practicality. You can only making the wings so big, and -"

Jinora's hand gently pulled the binder away from her. "Let me see that. Maybe I can help?"

Asami blew a strand of hair out of her face before slumping down into a chair and motioning widely. "Give it a shot."

Taking a seat next to her, Jinora slowly turned the pages, giving each sketch a critical look.

"This one's all wrong." she began matter-of-factly, pointing at a particular sketch with accordion-style wings that Asami had thought was quite ingenious (before testing it, of course).

"Thank you." Asami deadpanned.

"And this one looks really impractical. How would the back fin even pop out? This one doesn't look flexible enough for all our bending forms, maybe change the clothing material? Oh, but I like the collar. Hmm… have you thought about designing something based off of flying lemurs?"

Asami shook her head.

"Well, it's no wonder you haven't found one that works yet!" Jinora giggled, but quickly hid it with a small cough when she caught Asami's look. "I just mean, maybe you should have an actual airbender test it out. I could give you some pointers on adjustments, but I'd need to try it out first and get a feel for how easy it is to move through the air while wearing it. What do you say?"

Asami tapped her chin with her finger, considering Jinora. "It's not such a bad idea…" she admitted slowly. "I'd need permission from Tenzin first, of course."

Jinora nodded eagerly. "That's not a problem. Dad will love the idea, I can tell."

Asami leveled her with a look. "And you can't let anyone else know about this. I still want it to be a surprise, okay?"

"Deal!"

Asami hesitated for one more moment, then sighed with relief, slumping further into her chair and throwing her head back. "Oh, thank the spirits! I don't think I would have been able to survive another flight test."

Jinora laughed. "I'm sure that's an exaggeration."

Asami shook her head. "No. No, it really isn't."

"Well, luckily for you, I'll be doing all the flying from now on. Right?"

"Right."

"And you'll be doing all of the complicated stitch work, right?"

Asami groaned. "Right. I keep forgetting I hate sewing."

"And I'll be the first airbender in the entire world to use a Sato-original flight suit! Can you believe it?"

Asami had to smile at that. "Yeah. This is going to be great!"

Jinora beamed.

"I just have one more important question for you, though." Asami said.

Jinora cocked her head in reply.

"What's for dinner?"

I'll probably come back and edit this one later. Review!