Wednesday, March 4th

Asami yawned and stretched her back out as she sat at the desk in Korra's bedroom. She rolled her shoulders a moment later, rubbing the strain that had developed on one side of her neck. She huffed and closed her textbook with a loud thud, looking over at the bed with an apologetic smile when she heard Korra grunt in protest.

"What was that for?" Korra grumbled, rubbing the side of her face with the pillow, "That was loud."

"Sorry, I'm a little frustrated."

"Mmm," Korra nodded, "Textbooks frustrate me too."

"I have a test tomorrow," Asami laughed, rolling her eyes, "But I'm done for now, it's starting to give me a headache."

Korra grunted a sympathetic apology and turned onto her stomach, her face in the pillow.

"Are you going to fall asleep?" Asami smiled, glancing at Korra's cellphone on the bed as it began to ring.

"I might," Korra huffed, raising her head up and reaching for her phone, "It's mom, hold on."

Asami stood up and stretched before nodding at Korra and walking out into the hallway to give Korra some privacy. Opal was in the living room, laying on the futon with her laptop on her stomach, frowning

"What're you doing?" Asami raised one eyebrow, sitting in the chair and watching her.

"I'm supposed to read this online article for class tomorrow," Opal huffed, glancing up from her computer, "It doesn't make any sense. I need a break."

"Well good luck," Asami chuckled, "I'm ready for a break too."

"What's Korra doing?" Opal sighed, closing her laptop and putting it on the coffee table.

"Talking to Senna, she called right before I came in here."

Opal nodded, sitting up and pulling her legs underneath herself.

"I'm going to Zaofu this weekend, since we don't have classes on Monday," Opal told her, stretching her arms above her head and yawning, "Do you want to come? Mako and Bolin are. I haven't asked Korra yet."

"Can't hurt," Asami shrugged, "Have you told Bataar you're going? He's not bombarded me with offers to work together yet."

"No," Opal laughed, "I told mom though. You can tell Bataar later if you want."

"I will," Asami nodded, "We can get some more work done."

"Are you always working, 'Sami?"

"Not always," Asami grinned, "But I get a lot of work done with your brother. We're productive."

"You nerd," Opal smirked.

"I can ask my dad if we can take the airship," Asami offered, laughing, "It's faster than the train."

"If Korra goes, yes," Opal giggled, "We know how much she hates the train."

Korra came padding down the hallway as Opal said this, and she looked at Asami and Opal tiredly, a slight frown pulling down the corners of her mouth.

"What?" Opal asked before Asami could.

"Mom and dad had to push back their visit," Korra huffed, sitting on the futon next to Opal, "Dad has to go to the Fire Nation and meet with the Fire Lord the week they were going to be here."

"Are you mad?" Opal raised her eyebrow.

"No," Korra shrugged, "It's his job as chief. It'd be like if he got mad at me for doing avatar stuff. I'm just a little disappointed is all. They're still coming, so that's all that matters."

"You wanna go to Zaofu with us this weekend?" Opal offered, "Will that perk you up?"

"Yeah," Korra grinned a little, "Lin doesn't want me doing anything with her this weekend. She's being weird about juggling me around. I'm supposed to go with her when she goes on patrol tomorrow though."

"She wants you to help but wants to keep you safe," Opal nodded, "It's probably hard to make the decision."

"Well, she can make some more of them when I'm in Zaofu," Korra shrugged, her grin spreading across her face.

"You just want to see your other girlfriend," Opal teased, laughing when both Korra and Asami's cheeks turned red.

"Whatever, Opal," Korra huffed, "What time are we going to leave?"

"After we get out of class on Friday."

"Plus I'm going to ask my dad if we can take the airship," Asami added with a grin, "We know you hate the train."

"You both know me so well," Korra grinned again, "You guys want to go grab dinner?"

"I can't," Opal told her, "I'm supposed to go out with Bolin later."

"Asami?" Korra turned to face her and raised her eyebrow.

"Sure," Asami smiled, "Where sounds good?"

"Do you like hotdogs?"

"Not something I eat a lot of," Asami admitted, "But I like them."

"There's a guy who runs a food truck a few blocks away from here. Best hotdog I've ever had. We can walk over there if you want, we can even take Naga."

"Sure," Asami agreed, "Want to go now? I'll go grab my coat."

"I'll get Naga's harness then," Korra's face had lit up with excitement, "You're going to be impressed by this guy's food truck, I promise."

Korra sat down on the curb next to Asami with a hotdog in each hand and grinned.

"Here you go, sunshine," she said, offering one of them to her, "They taste better than they smell, I promise."

Asami giggled and rolled her eyes, pulling the foil off of her hotdog and examining it. Korra was watching her, grin still plastered on her face as Asami bit into it tentatively.

"Oh my gosh, this is so good," Asami groaned, covering her mouth with one hand after chewing for a few seconds.

"I told you," Korra nudged her with one elbow, "Me and Bolin, we know where the good stuff is."

"At this point you could tell me you made it your mission to eat everywhere in this city and I would believe it," Asami teased.

"We tried," Korra laughed, biting into her own hotdog a moment later.

"What stopped you?"

"Money, time," Korra shrugged, "We went to enough places to know where to stay away from and where our favorites were."

Asami nodded and took another bite, suppressing a giggle as Korra unceremoniously began devouring what was left of her own hotdog. They sat quietly on the curb together, watching the few cars that passed by while Asami finished eating. When she finished, she crumpled the foil wrapper up in one hand and passed it to Korra to throw away.

"Do you want another?" Korra offered, "I'm going to get Naga one."

"No thank you," Asami smiled as Korra stood, brushing the dirt off her pants.

"Ok, hold on," Korra grinned down at her, "I'll be right back."

Asami nodded and turned her attention to Naga, who was lying next to her, watching the road.

"Are you hungry, Naga?" Asami asked, grinning when the dog's ears perked up.

When she repeated the question again, Naga sat up and looked at Asami expectantly, her tail flopping side to side eagerly.

"Way to get her worked up for a hotdog, sunshine," Korra laughed, looking back over her shoulder at Asami.

"What can I say?" Asami giggled, "It's going to be a good hotdog."

"At least she's going to enjoy it now," Korra smirked, coming back over to her and unwrapping the hotdog before offering it to Naga.

Korra tossed the wrapper away a few seconds later, and when she came back, Asami held her hand out to Korra, smiling when she pulled her to her feet.

"Where to now?" Korra grinned, intertwining their fingers.

"Well I need to finish studying," Asami shrugged, "As much as I don't want to."

"We can go back to the apartment then," Korra offered, "I need to meditate at some point today, anyway. I can do that when we get back."

When Shady Shin saw Korra and Asami walking on the sidewalk together he grinned to himself. He had been wanting to talk to Asami again, so this was as good a time as any. He pulled his car up to the curb a few yards past where they were walking, parking the car and climbing out of it. The pair of them saw him as he stepped onto the sidewalk, and they both stopped, watching him. He sauntered toward them calmly, he knew he was only there to talk, and he wanted them to see that. He smirked when he saw them holding hands, and barely heard Korra give the command to sit down to the dog at her side. Korra was wary, and stood her ground as he approached them, her eyes boring holes into him. Asami was much calmer in appearance, interested yet cautious, one eyebrow raised.

"What?" Korra scowled at him.

"Ms. Sato," He smiled, ignoring Korra. He didn't need to talk to her. "I wanted to thank you for what you did for Viper."

"No reason to thank me," Asami shrugged, "No reason to let him die in my garage either."

"What do you want?" Korra raised one eyebrow, "Haven't you figured out that Asami doesn't want to deal with you?"

"Not here about that," he shrugged, "Just wanted to talk to her. Privately, if I could."

The crease that appeared between Asami's eyebrows was a very clear no, and he glanced from her to Korra. Korra had tensed and released Asami's hand, in favor of putting one arm lightly around her waist. Korra was staring Shady Shin down, her jaw clenched slightly. He got the message loud and clear. He held his hands up defensively and shrugged in response.

"Fine," he said smoothly, "We can talk later. No rush. I'll call next time and set something up."

"I think I'll pass on that," Asami replied, "I don't think we have anything to talk about."

"That's where you're wrong, sweetheart," Shady Shin called over his shoulder as he walked back to his car, "That's where you're wrong."

Asami took her things into the kitchen and set her textbook and notebook out on the table. Korra was lingering in the hallway somewhere behind her, Asami could feel her watching her.

"Why didn't you want to go to Air Temple Island and meditate?" Asami asked, looking back at the door, "Do you feel safe at the pavilion?"

"No," Korra shook her head, "So I'm just going to meditate in my room."

"I'm sorry about what happened," Asami sighed, "I know Mako's arm is still sore."

"It happens, I guess," Korra shrugged, "At least, anymore it does."

Asami sighed again and walked over to Korra, putting her arms around Korra's neck.

"Well, at least you get to see the kids in a couple days?"

"You're going just so you can see Bataar." Korra grinned, sticking her tongue out.

"And you don't want to see Kuvira?" Asami teased.

"I'm more interested in you right now than in who I'm going to be seeing this weekend," Korra smirked.

"What time did you want to start meditating?" Asami felt a blush creep onto her cheeks.

"Any time suits me, why?"

"Well," Asami bit her lip, breaking into a grin when she saw Korra's cheeks turn red, "Maybe we could postpone that a few minutes."

"Why's that, sunshine?" Korra grinned, if only slightly.

"I just really want to kiss you again," Asami replied quietly, drinking in the excited light in Korra's eyes.

"That's a good reason," Korra nodded, putting her arm around Asami's waist and pulling her closer.

Asami smiled and cupped Korra's cheek in her hand, leaning forward and brushing her lips softly against Korra's. Several light kisses followed, and Asami sighed with a smile as Korra ran her fingers through her hair. She pressed her fingers into Korra's arm, shivering slightly when Korra traced her tongue across Asami's lips. She almost pouted when they separated, but couldn't bring herself to do it with the way Korra was smiling at her.

"I guess I should let you study now, huh?" the lopsided grin came out when Korra took a step back, "I'll come back and check on you when I'm done meditating."

"I'll still be here," Asami laughed, her cheeks burning, "I have a lot of reading left to do.

Hiroshi answered the phone on the second ring, rubbing his temple tiredly as he glanced up from the work on his desk.

"Hello?"

"Hey, dad. What're you doing?"

"Just looking over the new contracts."

"Oh," Asami sounded as disinterested in them as he felt.

"What are you up to, Asami?"

"Studying, I have a test tomorrow. I actually called because I wanted to ask you something."

"What's that?"

"Can I take the airship to Zaofu again this weekend?" She sounded nervous, "I wanted permission this time. We don't have class Monday so we'd be back by then."

"Are you going to be working with that Bataar fellow?"

"Probably, I haven't called him yet. If not, I'll be with Korra."

"Oh, your friends are going?" he knew he should have expected that. He was surprised to realize he didn't mind.

"Yeah, we're going to take the train if I can't borrow the airship. We just wanted to get there a little faster. The train takes a good chunk of the day away."

"That's fine. You can take the airship as long as you take someone like Ishan to help you pilot it. I know you took him last time."

"Really?" Asami's voice was bubbling with excitement, "Thanks, dad."

"No problem, sweetheart. I'm going to get off of here though, I need to finish this."

"Ok, do you want to go to dinner when we get back from Zaofu?"

"I'd like that, Asami." Hiroshi felt himself smiling.

"Ok, I'll call you tomorrow."

"That sounds fine, I love you."

"I love you too," Hiroshi heard her hesitate before she answered, and the line went dead a few moments later.

He put the phone down and took a deep breath, looking around at his office, illuminated by the fading sunlight. He was going to have to make sure the airship got to Zaofu and back safely, and he was willing to do everything in his power to do so.

"Korra?" Asami looked at Korra's phone on the table and raised one eyebrow, "Your phone is ringing."

"Answer it!" Korra called from the bathroom.

"Korra, hurry!" Bolin huffed, propping his feet on the coffee table, "We have a race to finish! I've even kept your controller warm!"

Asami laughed and answered the phone, rolling her eyes as she did so.

"Hello?"

"Oh, Asami, hey," it was Kuvira, "Where the hell is the avatar?"

"She's in the bathroom flossing," Asami laughed, "She got a popcorn kernel stuck between her teeth."

"Ugh. I wanted to talk to her."

"Sorry, Kuvira," Asami grinned, "No zombies today, she's been racing Bolin for an hour."

"I didn't want to call about that, Sato," Kuvira snorted, "At least not this time."

"Well she'll be out in a second I'm sure. Until then, maybe you can tell me why you're in her phone as 'the great shithead'."

Instead of responding, Kuvira roared with laughter, laughing so long and so hard that Korra had returned from the bathroom by the time she finished.

"Here," Asami grinned, offering the phone to Korra, "I think she's almost finished laughing at you calling her a shithead. She may start up again."

Korra rolled her eyes and smirked, holding the phone up to her ear a moment later.

"What, Kuvira?"

"So…" Kuvira coughed, her voice still tinged with laughter, "Did you kiss her?"

"Kuvira!"

"I have been waiting for twenty-four hours at this point and you have not updated me," Kuvira huffed indignantly, "You told me I was invested, so if I am that means I should have been told. I could have asked her you know, she did answer the phone."

"I'm not having this discussion with you right now, ugh." Korra groaned as she felt her neck and ears get hot.

"Fine, wuss," Kuvira was smirking, Korra knew, "I guess I'll be nice and quit pestering you."

"You're an awful liar, even if you are a shithead," Korra teased.

"I'm the great uniter, avatar," Kuvira snorted, "You're just going to have to get used to it."

"Well when I get to Zaofu you're going to have to get used to me punching you in the throat," Korra warned, sitting next to Bolin on the futon.

"I'd like to see you try. I should make a list of how many times you've used that threat, and then compare it to how many times you follow through."

"Ugh."

"Ugh yourself, Korra. I need to go though, I have rounds tonight."

Korra rolled her eyes and laughed when Kuvira hung up, putting her phone on the coffee table as she did so.

"Is your entire friendship with Kuvira based on insults, threats, andrenaline and zombies?" Asami grinned from the kitchen table, "Because you two really are awful to each other."

"Well I have to be mean to someone," Korra grinned, "She's just as mean to me, I promise."

"I'll take your word for it," Asami laughed, "I think I got the nicer of the two, being friends with Bataar."

"I think I'll have to agree with you there," Korra snorted, "At least I'm not taking my motorcycle to Zaofu, I don't think we'd survive driving off the edge of the domes when they're open."

"Nope," Bolin chimed in, "But the motorcycle would live to tell the tale. Now are we going to race or not?"

"I hope you're ready to lose," Korra smirked, elbowing him roughly.

"Bring it on, avatar!"