Summary: Korra visits Asami at work, where Asami hurts Korra with a prototype.
Korra sat on the pavilion of Air Temple Island, wondering when Asami was coming back, her usual work hours were exceeded so far, and she knew Asami said she'd be working a couple of extra hours on some things, but Korra was finding herself very impatient, and finally she decided that she had waited three hours too long, and, folded glider in hand, fell on the slope, over the railings, earthbending to keep herself upright, while at the same time letting gravity pull her down, as it had so faithfully done in the past.
She called this earthskating, and Asami was fascinated by it, so much so, that she said Korra was brilliant, a genius of practical earthbending, which Korra appreciated, but didn't agree on for the most part, saying it was as natural as waterbending for her, and told Asami she was the genius, with Asami countering with a similar argument, which ended in them setting in silence until Asami motioned that they should rent a mover, Korra agreed and the matter was never revisited, simply because they had voiced their opinions, and knew they wouldn't be persuaded otherwise, so didn't attempt to convince the other.
The fond memory soon ended as Korra realized the bottom of the slope was approaching. She kicked off the hill and unfolded her glider, sailing across the water below, then across buildings and traffic, until she spotted Asami's mansion.
She knocked on the door a couple of times before Asami answered it.
"Oh, Korra…I'm sorry, I just got so caught up, all these new ideas-" Asami began apologizing.
"It's fine, I'm just tired of sitting around the island," Korra interrupted, "and I want to hang out with you like we used to…but I respect that you're busier than ever…I know! I'll work with you."
"How do you mean?" Asami inquired.
"Invent stuff with you, or whatever you do all day when you're not at the office." Asami had stepped aside so the Avatar could invite herself in, and followed the trail of open doors to a workshop, it smelled like invention.
"Umm, I wasn't expecting help, I mean, we could cut back office hours-" Asami wanted a compromise, not that she couldn't adapt to the presence of another person in her workshop, but the Avatar presented a special distraction.
"That doesn't work, if you want I could just hang around…more than anything, I just like being around you," Asami almost didn't hear the rest of what the multibender said for that one thing, and wondered if Korra meant it the way she hope she did, but it was probably not the way she did, very highly probable, so she maintained silence, which was easy, considering she could barely form a cohesive thought right now, let alone follow the Avatar's sentence, "so don't worry about me getting in your way." Korra said, sitting on a stool by a table, "I'll stay out of—whoa!" she chuckled as the board she rested her elbow on moved.
She held the board in her hand, on one side there were two sets of wheels, running parallel to each other, on the other was a smooth surface.
"Wow, what is this?"
"I…it's like what you do…earthskating."
"Oh, cool, now you can go earthskating with me!"
"Not quite, I can fall of this thing if I'm not careful, I'm still not any good at it. I still can't find a name for it, but I want something…clever, true to the function, but profound, as well."
"You want a name that says it all? Skateboard…doesn't get any more profound than that."
"Huh." Asami sighed, taking a pencil off the desk, "Do you want to, uh…do the honors?" she held the pencil eraser side up and Korra took it, and scribbled against the surface.
"Here you go!" Korra said, a mischievous grin on her face.
"What did you do?" Asami asked warily, smiling when she was, in bold, heavy hand writing, "Skateboard—deal with it!"
"What do you think?" Korra asked, smiling.
"It's…poetic, very profound, and it does say it all, except the part where you lose your balance and fall." Asami pointed out.
"That's what the 'deal with it' part is for, you can put the disclaimer on the packaging." Korra said, discovering that the stool's seat spins.
"You make it sound like a terrible beast, I honestly couldn't be more pleased with the results." Asami set the pencil and skateboard off to the side and stepped over to another desk.
"Yes! We can discuss my pay later, but for now, it's time for work!" Korra yelled, spinning her seat around.
"Uh, can I have your attention?" the engineer asked. Korra stopped spinning and saw Asami hold piece of equipment that looked to her like a small spirit cannon, only hand held.
"Asami, please tell me that thing's not as lethal as I think it is." She alternated between stares at the hand held object and Asami.
"Korra, what's wrong?" Asami asked, taking a step forward.
"It just looks like a spirit cannon, right?"
"I…didn't think about that. It's a prototype for a hairdryer, I just finished and I was about to test it when I heard that you were knocking."
"Ah, well, sorry, I'm just…that's all I could think of when I saw it. Anyways, I never saw that problem, if a towel doesn't dry my hair enough, I just waterbend the rest."
"Well, this might be quicker than a towel, I wouldn't advise holding it close to you when you're using it though; that'll burn." Asami faced it out in the open and pressed the switch, the hairdryer roared for a brief moment; until Asami switched it back off.
"Yeah, I imagine so." Korra chuckled, "That's pretty loud. What are you doing?" she asked, as Asami took a cloth out of a bowl of water and set in on a metal surface.
"About to test see if it dries this cloth well enough and I'll use that thermometer to figure out how hot it is." She gestured her head to the table behind her and then began the test.
Korra watched Asami for a little while, then Asami set the hairdryer on a metal tray next to her, "Keep this away from water, remind me to stick a label on that."
"You got it, boss!" Korra said, giving her a thumb's up.
"Oh, yeah, that looks dry…hmm, that's pretty hot, too. Korra, can you bend any water out of this?"
"I'll try." Korra extended her hand, trying to find any water to pull out of the cloth, "I can't find anything, it's like a desert."
"Great, and it's not too hot, either, so it's safe for living things. Let me just jot down how many degrees…where's my notepad?" Asami looked around, then found it on the table behind her.
"So…what's next?"
"Well, I figured we should take a break."
"Fine."
"What…alright, look, soak my hair a bit." Korra smiled and waterbent some of the bowl's contents into Asami's hair, Asami then grabbed the hairdryer off the table, and activated it.
Korra was suddenly next to her, and Asami, not having noticed the Avatar's proximity to her, bumped it against her arm.
"Ah, ah!" Korra backed away, backing into the table behind her.
"Korra, I'm sorry!" Asami cried out, horrified.
"It's fine!" Korra yelled, already out the door.
Asami jumped out of her chair and followed after Korra outside and across the lawn, and into the woods beyond.
"Korra!" she called out.
The thick woods here were dense with shrubbery and tall trees and wide trees, orange leaves that were experiencing autumn. She didn't know where Korra had gone, but then remembered that waterbenders could heal injuries, so searched for the lake here.
They had visited it before, a trail wasn't set up, but Asami knew she was close when she heard the stream feeding the lake, from there she followed the soft sniffling as Korra treated her burn.
"K-Korra?" she heard nothing as the woods swallowed the sound, leaving it empty until Korra took a deep breath and glanced at her through the corner of her eye.
"I understand if you're angry, I just—I'm sorry, Korra, it was a really stupid thing I did, and I just-"
"Argh, just go back." Korra ordered, tears gliding down her face.
"But…Korra," she didn't know if she should step back or forward, so ran to Korra's side, the feelings that raged in her grew stronger as she neared the Avatar, she felt like she was in a nightmare, or that she committed a crime, "please, I don't want to do that!"
Korra looked up at her, startled as Asami fell to her knees, not far from where she was, just so far that an outstretched arm couldn't reach her, "Asami, are you alright?"
"No, I'm not, I messed up and I feel like…I don't know; I don't like it!"
"It's just a small burn." She reassured, holding out her unburned arm, motioning Asami to set next to her.
"It's terrible," Asami objected, "it felt like you could hate me for it."
"Asami, this isn't something that anyone should hate anyone for." She moved her arm a little and looked up at Asami, "See, it's just a burn, nothing a waterbender can't handle."
"A burn that I gave you." Asami winced.
Korra gently wrapped her fingers around Asami's arm, causing the engineer to gasp, "Hold my arm like I'm doing, try to find the burn and tell me if it feels different from the rest of my arm."
Asami did as she was instructed, blushing as she did.
"Are you alright? I'm not angry at you…I don't think you could ever really hurt me."
"But didn't I? I felt like I did."
"It's…not going to scar, I think, it'll be alright…thanks for not throwing this on me, though, because I seriously messed up, I mean…did you see how fast I was…just right…right there, right?" Korra asked, leaning up towards Asami's face a little.
"Yeah." Asami concurred, leaning down a little.
"So…friends?" Korra asked, feeling Asami's breath on her forehead, reminding her of that hair drier…she'd have to thank the inventor who threw that together.
"The very…very best." Asami emphasized, leaning forward until she felt their lips connect, their hands still holding their arms, as though they were a statue.
"Asami?"
"Y-yeah?"
"I just had an idea…why don't we invent some snacks and drinks and visit a drive through theater?"
"That's the best idea I've heard all day."
"I don't know about that, but it's the best thing since…the hairdryer." Korra said, kissing Asami's cheek.
"It's the best thing since the kiss…I hate the hairdryer."
"It's like saying you hate fire for burning you, accidents happen, and you're only human, I fact I'm very grateful for." Asami stopped counting, but they must have kissed a dozen more times before they left the woods.
Author's Notes: I destroyed the original, wrote this back up today real quick like, the original was much like this, I wrote this from the ghost of the story and gave it a skeleton, but I like this one better, I think.
I was thinking of calling this "Accidents Happen", but decided to keep it the same as I wanted since I started it a couple weeks back…I can't remember when. Thanks for this prompt, ming!
Speaking of prompts, I want to thank everyone who prompts or comments, it's appreciated…and oftentimes very inspiring.
alexandra (guest): I was worried it wasn't…enough race, or something…the doubt was a challenge by itself! Also, I thought I fried it with the pizza thing, then Bolin and the job thing, and Prince Wu. Me too, especially how she deflected the gratitude out of shyness, saying she doesn't need a road, so bashful! :-}
Reader (where art thou?): thanks for reading this…you really didn't have to…you also don't have to review, though if you did and perhaps left a prompt, comment, critique…I wouldn't mind.
Everyone, enjoy…KHH out!