Chapter 11 - Four Nations Fusion
"You have ten minutes remaining." Fuck, fuck, fuck. Okay, what the hell is the difference between trademark and trade dress again? Did we study that? Oh, we were going to until I stuck my tongue down her throat in the library and got us kicked out. Shit, but I needed my daily fix of vanilla bean. I could use a hit right about now.
Precious seconds are ticking away, but Korra dedicates a few to glance at Sato a few feet away. She's hunched off, biting her bottom lip in concentration, but it's still as appealing as when she does that to tease her. Korra shakes her head and hurriedly scribbles down everything else she remembers about contract law courtesy of Professor Sato.
Sato's as cool as cucumber aloe water, and Korra's as burnt as the fish she tried to help her dad fry one day. She's a decent cook, but doesn't the have the patience to slow cook fish and give it the care it requires. Actually, that's her with all seafood and why her parents cook all the seafood and block off all access to the kitchen when they prep and cook.
"Two minutes remaining. List the remainder of your thoughts with bullet points."
By the time Korra hands in her test, her hand feels like it's going to fall off. Like an idiot, she grabs her bag with said hand and it ends up falling back to the floor with a loud thud and spills some of her contents out. She crouches down and shoves her materials back in and then met with a familiar pair of black peep toed heels. Being so low to the ground, she can see little designs on the red nail polish.
She giggles quietly to not disturb those finishing, and Korra gives her a sour expression. Is she really trying to flirt with me with her feet? Asami must be able to read her mind because she tilts one foot enough to show off her nail polish better then motions to go in the hall with her.
Korra follows like an obedient puppy all the way to her souped-up ride.
"How do you think you did?" she asks once they're one the road.
"Probably better than the first one at least," Korra answers and shrugs a little. "I know I nailed contract law at least. Couldn't remember much about intellectual property though."
"And whose fault is that?" she teases and side eyes her. "You were overly ambitious in the library and got us kicked out. All hopes of studying after that were lost."
"You do it all the time! Narook's, your home, the gym! I try to be smooth like you – and need I remind you, you were a very willing participant in that library – and suddenly it's wrong to want to kiss my girlfriend in public." Asami doesn't say anything, but her smile gets impossibly wider, illuminated by her dashboard. "What are you smiling at, Sato?"
"You." They pull up to a light, and she shifts slightly so Korra can see both her eyes. "You just called me your girlfriend."
"Uhh, i-is that alright? I know we've only been on a few dates and it's only been a few weeks-"
"Waters, shut up," she interjects and begins driving again, focusing on the road. "Time's an illusion outside of the office I say. We may have only dated officially a few weeks, but it feels right and like it's been a lifetime."
"I was also kind of stalking you in class for half of the semester."
"And not very subtly," she teases and pulls into Korra's apartment complex's parking lot. "I'm not completely innocent either, but there's a time and a place for overzealous shows of affections."
Korra grumbles and crosses her arms. Sato's just has good luck. I'll show her.
"Anyway, with it being crunch time in the semester, I have a bunch of engineering projects and exams in the next few days. I might have my phone turned off so don't worry if I don't respond right away."
"Same here. I hate this time of the semester. Why do professors see the need to torture students and cram all the tests and projects into the same three-day period?"
"Just be happy we've got Beifong's test out of the way. We still haven't made much progress on our brief though."
Korra turns on her side in her side and reaches over to rub Asami's skirt covered thigh up and down. "Whose fault is that?"
"Shut up," she laughs and shoves the hand away. "If we survive this week, we need to start working on that."
"Aye, aye, Sato." She gives a mock salute.
Sato leans over and gives Korra her daily fix of vanilla bean with a hint of red lipstick.
"I've got booze!" Kuvira barges into her apartment where Opal and Korra are playing a match of Pai Sho. Korra's losing. Badly. Kuvira marches over to the coffee table and pulls out every bottle of alcohol she's bought.
Earth Kingdom rum, tequila, and cactus juice.
Fire Nation whiskey and red wine.
Air Nomadic champagne and white wine.
Water Tribe vodka and…something that looks like it's from the Water Tribe, but Korra can't identify it.
"What the hell is this?" she asks, grabbing said unidentifiable bottle.
"I don't know. Something new. It looked interesting so I grabbed it."
Foggy Swamp Moonshine
"You think buying something we drink with 'swamp' in the name is a good idea?" Where is Asami with her brain to talk about product liability?
"Hey, you're getting free alcohol! Zip it! You're from the Tribes so why don't you ask your parents?"
"But why'd you get so much, Kuvira? Mom's going to see the credit card bill," Opal brings up and snatches the champagne. "I don't even like drinking that much. All Korra drinks is the vodka and white wine."
"We don't have to drink it all tonight, O," Kuvira says annoyed and heads to the kitchen to fetch some fancy glasses, ice, lychee juice, lychee nuts, and cut up fruit. She makes several trips and plops every down in front of them. "I got the champagne for your lightweight ass, but we're all trying that moonshine. I've been reading up on some fruity cocktails I can mix for you too, sis, so you won't even taste the alcohol. You can kiss my ass later."
"No thanks. I'll leave that to Korra."
"Eww, Opal!" Korra shoves her hard enough to topple her over on the couch. "The only ass I'm kissing is Sato's."
"How is Salami doing? I haven't seen her since she mounted you at the gym yet it seems every few minutes you have, you're texting or hanging out with her. What? Is she mounting you at her home gym instead?" Kuvira begins a fancy display of bartending three cocktails mixed with lychee juice, cactus juice, and rum with little pieces of fruit on the bottom. Opal reaches for it, but gets smacked on the hand. "This is for after the moonshine."
"Asami doesn't like being called Salami."
"She makes an exception for me like she makes an exception for you calling her Sato." Kuvira winks slyly and hears the little growl in Korra's throat. "Waters, I ain't trying to steal your girl. Blame her parents for naming her phonetically close to a deli meat. Is her salami any good? Or is it any fun to smack or bite her plump peaches?"
"Can we please stop referring to Asami and any body parts as food?" Opal pleads and tries reaching for the alcohol again, but is yelled at by Kuvira this time. She pouts.
"Don't pretend you don't want a piece of Bolin's sausage and eggs, O." Opal's face is burning up at this point, and Korra worries she may start a fire.
"Not that it's any of your business, but we haven't gotten that far."
Kuvira's so stunned she accidently overpours the moonshine and spills some of it on the table. She curses the spirits and grabs some towels to soak it up.
"You're shitting me. That little display in the gym was filled with sexual tension not to mention everything you told me about when you were trying to figure out if she was straight or not. There's not a chance in hell Sato hasn't taken you for a ride several times around the racetrack."
"I'm dead serious. I'll admit there may have been some…grinding and some grabbing of sensual places, but no penetration or full nudity."
"So, some nudity then?" Kuvira wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.
"I'm done talking about this. When are you going to find a compatible partner so we can heckle you about your sex life?"
"Whenever Opal tries to set me up with someone again." Kuvira pushes glasses of moonshine towards them and points an accusing finger at her. "Not with any one like Waters. You saw what happened there."
"But now we're good friends so something good came out of it! Maybe we can add a fourth person to our little group. But wait, I think we need someone more like me to balance out our dynamics."
She grumbles about the first part, but it's true. Korra probably wouldn't be nearly as close to Opal as she is now if it wasn't for the whole Kuvira fiasco. And though they get on each other's nerves, she knows her life would be a lot duller without them in her life.
"We can figure out my shitty sexual life and our group dynamic later. We're here after a fucking dumpster fire of tests and projects all week with our booze from all four nations!" she exclaims and holds her glass up. It doesn't pass by Korra that she's taken the glass she overfilled. "Fuck college classes, professors, and assholes. Cheers to a fucking good time tonight!"
"Cheers!"
The women clink their glasses together and choke down all the moonshine.
Korra is laying on her stomach in bed, drooling a little on the pillow underneath her head. She can feel the crustiness and heaviness in her eyes. Her mouth is dry. Her head is pounding. She groans deeply like she's in pain. She hears voices somewhere in the apartment. Using all the strength she can muster, she cracks her eyes half-way open.
She's in Opal's room. In Opal's bed.
"Opal," she gravelly moans. She throws her arm over to the other side of the bed, coming up empty. "Opal, what the fuck happened?"
Against her better judgement, she sits up in bed and feels like she's going to be sick. The whole room is spinning, but perseveres in her quest of piecing together where the Beifong sisters are.
She gets out of bed and kicks a thankfully empty bucket by the bedside. She staggers like a newborn ostrich horse, using Opal's desk, dresser, and wall for support to get to the doorway. Stumbling, she crosses the hall to find Opal and Kuvira in Kuvira's bed, unconscious and dead to the world. If her head wasn't pounding and she knew where her phone was, she'd take a picture of Opal snuggling into Kuvira.
She hears the voices again and forces one foot in front of another. She feels like she's underwater with rocks strapped to her back and feet, weighing her down for the most intense resistance training of her life.
Arriving in the open living room and kitchen setup, she sees three blurry figures.
"I certainly didn't expect you to be the first one up, Korra." Is that their mom? What's her name again? "Fine, here's your money, sweetie. I really thought Kuvira was going to wake up first."
"Wha-what's going on?" she croaks and leans against the wall. She's still a little out of reality.
"Don't you remember, sweetie?" Asami? She's moving again and ordered to sit at a bar stool. Asami forces her to swallow two pills and drink a large glass of water. She obliges and swallows all of it. "What do you remember?"
She blinks down at the counter like she's talking another language, trying to remember, then shakes her head. That's the worse decision she's made all morning and she reaches up to massage her temples, internally yelling at the evil spirits drilling and pounding in her head to leave.
"I don't feel like playing games, Sato," she groans and leans her elbows over the breakfast bar, nestling her face into the darkness. "Why are you here and who I think are V and O's parents if I saw clearly enough?"
"Well, it all started when I turned my phone back on after midnight. I had an influx of texts and missed calls from a certain someone. Then my phone began ringing and I answered it…"
Posted: January 5, 2021