Disclaimer: I do hereby disclaim all rights and responsibilities for the characters in this collection. Kudos to Bryke, indeed.
Word Count: 2,844
Author's Notes: 6/2/13. Surprise! I have decided to break a very long chapter into smaller parts. Also: I have been waiting for this story arc for a long, long time.
Musical Inspiration: "Oh my!" by Haley Reinhart. (Love this song. I've literally had it on repeat for every single one of these chapters.)
Bonus!
(A.K.A. Filler Chapter.)
That one night
they dealt with the consequences.
"Hey," Mako sat up. "There you are. I was about to come looking—whoah, you weren't kidding about being thirsty, were you?"
What just happened? Her mind wondered uselessly. It was the same question she'd been asking herself for the last fifteen seconds or so, at least, but she seemed no closer to finding the answer. Through an absurdly disoriented haze, Korra realized that she was back in her room, with the door shut, and an amused but boggled Mako lounging invitingly beneath the covers of her bed. Still a little stunned, Korra followed his quirky gaze to the water filter clenched in her grasp.
"Oh," she whispered. "Fuck."
"What, forgot a cup?" he smirked, settling further back into the pillows. "Or is that just another convention that you and Asami choose to ignore in the privacy of your own home? It does seem a little counterproductive though, that you go through so much trouble to purify the water just to drink straight from the container, doesn't it?"
Absently, Korra set the water filter down onto the nightstand next to the bed. Without much feeling at all, she dropped onto the mattress, collapsing back onto the pillows. Mako's face immediately fell.
"What just happened?" she repeated aloud.
"What?" he asked, leaning over her. "What is it?" Her gaze was blank, set pointedly on the ceiling above. He began to grow agitated. "What just happened?"
"I... don't know," she responded weirdly, honestly, as confusion twisted her features.
"Well, are you all right?" he demanded.
Was she? It was hard to tell. I feel... Actually, Korra could feel Mako looking over her, no doubt inspecting her for any trace of physical injury—or possibly any visible sign of insanity. But what else did she feel? What she felt was a tingly sensation spiking all over her skin, from her head down to her toes. She could feel her breath filling and expanding her chest, then the soft breeze of air as it was released from her lungs and flew over her skin. She could feel the sticky warmth of the room clinging to her hair, could feel the dryness of her lips. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. I feel... She felt like she was ready to run. Like she wanted to punch someone in the face, and feel the crack of her knuckles sliding across someone's cheek. She felt like she could climb a mountain or swim through the harbor and keep going. She felt alive. She felt ready to fight or fly or fuck, or maybe do all three. Especially fight. (And especially fuck. Especially fuck.) She felt great.
Wait.
No, she didn't. No. She felt very aware, that's what she felt. This weird, prickly sensation was just a result from her recent bursts of adrenaline—the lingering after effects of the earlier rush of afternoon sex and, just now, the lung-clenching and heart-pounding concentration needed for an undesirable confrontation. It had nothing to do with anything, and especially not anything to do with her supervisor—who she may or may not have still harbored some latent attraction to. (Her supervisor, who was here, shacking it up with her roommate.) Nope. This was simply the unfortunate case of a leftover head rush that must have been ignored for too long, and was now starting to affect the rest of her senses. That was all. And if she did feel any sort of greatness, then it was because she'd just spent the whole afternoon with Mako, who was still here—very naked and very much in her bed—and because she'd just shown up her arrogant, selfish lab boss—and without wearing any pants, even! Okay, so she did feel pretty great, but not because of him. She felt victorious. She felt a renewed sense of vital energy, a fierce sense of control and power surging through her veins, a warmth spreading through her limbs, a hypersensitive awareness of physical space and time and skin and—fucking hell, there was a shirtless Tahno in her kitchen.
"There is a shirtless Tahno in my kitchen," she said.
"..."
"..."
"... what?"
"Mmm," Asami woke with a pleasant, groggy hum, turning to meet the face nuzzling her neck. "I fell asleep?"
"You did."
Asami's frown was undeniably adorable. "Why didn't you wake me?"
"I did," he smirked.
She shifted a little to the side, lifting the covers so as to invite him underneath, but he didn't bother. Instead, Tahno laid himself alongside her, over the blankets, and continued the intriguing task that had roused her from sleep. She let the blankets drop with another sleepy, satisfied moan. "How long was I out for?" she asked, languidly stretching her limbs as Tahno settled over her, holding her warmly in place with his heavy weight.
"Long enough."
She laughed beneath him, but the rising and falling of her chest was stunted by the pressure of his own. She tried to push him off, laughing harder, but Tahno was not so easily deterred, and soon her laughter gave way to breathy moans. Long nails dug into him, scraping against his skull, trailing down his back... Abruptly, she pulled away.
"You had time to put on jeans?" she asked curiously. Her tone wasn't necessarily accusatory, but the delicate brow that raised high said otherwise.
"Like I said," he replied huskily, already feeling the effects of his... wake-up call. "It was long enough." He leaned back in, but Asami tilted her head to the side, locking onto his gaze.
"Don't you ever rest?" she teased, but he could tell she was flummoxed.
"I hear most women appreciate this kind of stamina."
"Most women might appreciate men returning to bed without having put their pants back on."
"Fair enough," he acknowledged, easing into another smirk. He picked up right where he'd left off, but apparently Asami wasn't quite done. Tahno tried to be patient, but really, the last thing he wanted to do at this point was talk. He had a point to prove. (What, exactly, that was—he wasn't sure. But he had one.)
"So what else did you have time for whilst I slumbered?" she asked through a smile and—to Tahno's relief—another number of soft sighs, courtesy of his focus and determination.
"Well, I did happen to run into your roommate." As he'd expected, Asami froze; as he hadn't expected, she reacted with horror.
"What?" she breathed, quickly sitting up. Tahno lifted his head and leaned back, allowing her room to move—and allowing him a rather enviable view of smooth skin as the sheets shifted lower onto the swells of her breasts—but then one of her hands rose up to her temple, no doubt easing a violent head rush, and Tahno sat back, waiting.
"Apparently, there was some miscommunication about this evening's location assignments," he told her. His gaze wasn't accusatory, per se, but the drollness of his tone hinted otherwise.
"Korra's here?" she gasped, raking a slender hand through her long mane of hair.
In the flesh, his mind supplied, no longer able to keep his irritation in check. "And her little dog, too."
"But—how did she—oh, god," Asami dropped her head into her hands. "I have to go talk to her!" She moved to slide out from under the covers, but his hand stayed her.
"Wait," Tahno sighed, fighting his impatience. His skin was practically alive with electricity, and this was getting him nowhere. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Tahno, do you have any idea how angry she probably is with me?"
Funny, but she seemed to be much angrier with him. He shook the thought from his mind, ignoring the tightness in his chest. "Something tells me that now is not the optimal time for an apology. She's already back in her room." I will not have you interrupt mine simply by being your—
"I can't just sit here! What did she say? Did you already apologize?"
"Not... in so many words."
"Oh, god. Tahno!" She wiped her hands down her face, but Tahno merely watched from his spot a little farther down the bed, one eyebrow perched shrewdly over the other. "This is a disaster."
"I think she'll survive," he replied dryly, eyeing the door resentfully.
"But will I? Goddammit, I knew I shouldn't have let you convince me to come back here! I'm surprised she hasn't already broken down the door to come after me yet! I didn't even put up a courtesy bra because I was so sure that she was going to be over at—wait. That's it, isn't it?"
Tahno frowned. "What is?"
"Ahh, and her little—damn, Tahno, what is it that you have against Mako so terribly?"
"Um. Excuse me?"
"Ughh, this all makes sense now," Asami groaned, flopping back onto the pillows. The impact did wonderful things to her anatomy, but he couldn't fully appreciate the vision she made, not now. (Well. A little bit. He leaned closer, but resisted the urge to grab.)
"What does?"
"Mako's over again," Asami concluded aloud, releasing a tiny sigh of not-quite relief. "Hopefully things are already heating up enough between the two of them so that she can cool down a little before we talk."
Heat up? Cool down? "Sato, you're not making sense."
"Well, then listen more closely," she eyed him, taking hold of his shoulder and pulling him all the way back down to the bed. This time, he did join her under the covers, though the sternness in her eyes prevented him from venturing any further with his plans. Yet. "Korra's going to be pissed off that I didn't end up going to your place like I said we would—and admit it, she has a right to be—so all we need to do is wait a little while until Mako does his thing and—"
"Thing?" Tahno repeated snidely. "What thing?"
"—distracts Korra a bit from how angry she is, and then when she's relatively sedated and endorphin-filled tomorrow morning, I'll swoop in with another gushing apology and grovel and … and hope for the best."
"Which would be...?"
Asami sighed. "Look, this may be kind of hard to wrap your head around, but Korra is a scary creature when she's angry. Yeah, she'll yell and shout and fight when she's mad, but when she's well and truly angry—when she feels like she's been betrayed in some way—she's impulsive. Unpredictable."
"She's always unpredictable."
"Yeah, but even more so," Asami said very seriously, watching him carefully. She laid her head upon the pillow, and—for lack of anything better to do—Tahno followed suit. He'd almost forgotten how green her eyes were. "She's a pretty reckless person by nature, but... she can make some really rash decisions sometimes."
Tahno wondered if she was speaking from personal experience, but there were more important curiosities to be had, and Tahno's scowl only deepened when he warily asked, "So what does that mean for us?"
"We need to abide by that contract from now on, for real," Asami urged him, but it was so hard to focus on her words when she moved that sensuous mouth in such an enticing— "We need to actually get her permission in advance, as promised. Don't forget: you were the one who created it."
"Ugh," Tahno covered his eyes. "Don't remind me."
"So I shouldn't have to be reminding you to abide by it," she pointed out, pulling his hand away from his face. "I signed it, too. Just this morning. And just look how much of a poor showing we're making."
"Probably still better off than that engineer," he muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing," he sighed. "So now what? We pretend not to exist while carrying on with our evening, then do damage control in the morning?"
"Tahno, I don't think you understand," she said quietly, holding the blankets more tightly around her. "The damage control starts tonight."
"Right. So we actually attempt to be quiet for once and be reclusive and not go barging in on—on whatever, and that's that. Apology tomorrow morning, problem solved."
"No, Tahno," she told him. He didn't like the look in her eyes. "The damage is done. The apology starts now."
"I don't follow you. What are you—?"
"No more sex. For the rest of the night."
"..."
"..."
"... what?"
"I don't fucking—believe—that—motherfucking—!"
Korra sighed from her spot on the bed, absently playing with one of the buttons still holding together Mako's shirt. Lazily, she tilted her head to the side on the mattress, watching him pace about the room. He was wearing a very particular pair of gym shorts.
"Mako," she said evenly.
"I mean—how dare—if he thinks for even one second that—"
"Mako," she tried again, more sternly.
"I should—I should just—right now, I should go over and—"
"Mako," she snapped, reaching out to take hold of his wrist. He stopped, but his arm was still tense, as stiff as an iron rod. "I told you, I'm already over it."
His nostrils flared. Well, she thought. Obviously, you're not.
"I can't believe that guy!" he hissed, staring back at the door. His restless energy wasn't affecting her too directly, but it seemed to be eating away at his common sense. "I mean, to think, if you'd—if you hadn't taken my—naked!" His eyes were wild with the possibilities.
"Yes," she nodded, standing tall to meet him—most of the way, anyway. He was tall, which she loved. She reached her arms up to his shoulders, twining them around his neck. "Naked."
"And you were—"
"Not naked," she shook her head, looking him very carefully in the eyes. One wrong move and she'd burst into uncontrollable laughter. Probably not what his ego needed, she thought.
"Nearly naked," he complained.
"And—oh, look," she reached down, pulling open the few meager buttons that had kept the shirt in place. "Naked again."
Mako's eyebrows looked dangerously close to merging, but she could see the slight wobble of his Adam's Apple as her only covering fell to the ground. Bingo. He was determined, but willpower had certainly never been Mako's strong point.
"Korra, how can you be okay with this?" he asked, protectively wrapping his warm fingers around her waist. "This asshole just keeps barging in all over your life whenever he feels like it—he bosses you around at work, he shows up at our bars, he invades your home—you just nearly flashed him right now, and yet—you're not the least bit unnerved by this?"
She wondered what he would do if he knew just how much flashing had really gone on between them. Well, technically Bolin saw just as much as I did, but—Ugh. This was so not what she needed to be thinking about right now. "Honestly?" she asked, pressing herself closer. "Not at all."
Liar.
"I mean... maybe it would be better if we just went back to my place," he shrugged, biting his cheek. She could see the whirlwind of thoughts behind his stormy expression. After squashing her brief surge of panic, Korra reclaimed her senses.
"Mako," she began very seriously. "This is my apartment. I live here. I eat here, I sleep here, and I'd like to continue fucking here." He gulped. Ah, she smirked. There's that wobbly Adam's Apple.
"But—"
"Listen to me," she ordered, touching her fingers to his lips. "In about two minutes, you are going to pick me up and throw me back down on that bed, and then we're going to finish that group project of ours." And we won't be done until the proofreader says we're done, she privately vowed. She resisted the urge to gloat when she felt him harden against her.
"So... what?" he asked, a new, involuntary hoarseness to his voice. Unconsciously, his thumbs began to draw small circles into her stomach. "We just... we just go for it and... pretend they don't exist? Like they're not even here?"
It was on the tip of her tongue: Precisely. But then a distant noise from beyond the door—and it could have come from anywhere, from anyone, really—made her pause. She licked her lips in thought, staring at the wall.
"No," she replied slowly, eyes darkening with intention. A soft noise came from him when she looked back up, deep from the back of his throat. When she kissed him, his mouth responded eagerly, pouring his hot breath into hers. His hands slid up and over her ribs, crushing her against him, and her fingers pulled unforgivingly at the hair at the base of his skull. He shuddered as she pulled his bottom lip between her teeth.
Almost unwillingly, Korra pulled away, just enough to see his face. He was fighting to catch his breath just as much as she, and the look in his eyes seared into her, all the way down to her core.
"They're here," she whispered, and licked her lips, lovingly. "And they can hear all they like."
