Chapter 14 – Societal Connections
I could use some whiskey right about now, but I think one of us needs to be sober or sober-ish. Four drunks ain't better than three. What did I think would happen coming to a party past midnight and it was clear Korra was drunk? I can't stay mad at her for too long. She's too cute. The things I do for my adorable girlfriend.
It has not been a fun night for Asami Sato. She should've gone to bed. She should've told her father she was going to get down and dirty with Korra to get grounded and locked in her room.
This is not the kind of connection her father wanted her to have with the Beifongs.
Opal began throwing up in the kitchen sink shortly after Kuvira punched her. Then Korra ran/stumbled to the bathroom to start throwing up because watching Opal throwing up made her need to throw up. Through all the retching, Kuvira coddled her lychee juice and the last of the cactus juice like babies in the recliner. At some point, she found her metal straw and began sucking up the rest of the Four Nations Fusion too.
Good thing Asami had a strong stomach.
Asami helped guide Opal to bed first after wiping her face and brushing her teeth in the bathroom Korra wasn't throwing up in. Throwing up seemed to bring her down from whatever universe she was in though she was babbling about lemurs and flying bison above them now.
Because the other three were in no condition to make any decisions, Asami made the executive decision to tuck Opal into what she assumed was Kuvira's bed, thinking those two could share while Korra slept in Opal's bed. She may not have seen Kuvira as a threat, but she didn't want her girlfriend to sleep in her ex turned friend's bed.
Next was Korra who she found half-asleep with her forehead against the toilet seat. Thankfully, whatever she threw up seemed to end up in the toilet for the most part and not the floor. Asami tried to help her stand up, but her legs kept giving out on her. She wiped Korra's face clean with a wet cloth and brushed her teeth with a new toothbrush she found. This was all accomplished on the floor by the toilet, and Korra used the toilet to spit.
"Korra, you're not sleeping on the bathroom floor no matter how clean it is from Opal's twice a week scrubbings!" Asami groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose.
Korra held her arms out like a child at the woman standing over her. She whined and pouted, using her big blue eyes for sympathy. "Carry me?"
"You have to cooperate and not flail all your limbs at me again if I do. Deal?" Korra nodded enthusiastically.
Asami knelt down and wrapped an arm around her back and under her knees, lifting her up easily. Carrying Korra bridal style to Opal's room would've been a lot easier if she didn't lick up and down Asami's neck and grab her boobs the entire thirty feet it was.
"You're so sexy, 'Sami," she slurred as Asami tucked her in, but kept fighting her off. Her eyes were half-open and glassy and likely the reason she made no comment about her black eye courtesy of Kuvira. Asami had taken worse hits before. It was unexpected and the only reason Kuvira bested her. She was also drunk so her swing wasn't as bad as it could've been probably. Didn't make the throbbing hurt any less though.
"I know, so are you," she cooed back and kissed her forehead. "Very, very sexy and strong. But you're very drunk."
"No, I'm not!"
"Yes, you are. Goodnight." She turned to leave the room to deal with Kuvira, but a hand grabbed her wrist.
"Sleep with me!" she whined and sat up. "Don't you wanna sleep with me? You can grind on my abs! I know you love that!" She said that last part a little too loud, prompting Asami to slap a hand over her mouth to shut her up so Kuvira or Opal didn't hear. She was almost certain Opal passed out in bed, but wasn't sure about Kuvira in the main area.
"Waters, I'm not having sex with you or literally sleeping with you while you're drunk off your ass with whatever alcohol is pumping in your veins." Against her better judgement, as seductively as she could with a black eye and a hand over Korra's mouth, crawled onto Korra's lap on top of the covers. "Or at least the first time." She threw a weak wink through her good eye and smirked. Instead of excited eyes, she got a hand lick instead. "Ew, are you a child?"
"Compared to you, yes," she giggled. "I'm jailbait. You're rocking the cradle, Miss Sato. You've been a naughty girl." Korra's voice dropped much deeper than Asami had ever heard it before, darkening her own eyes. She used what little restraint she had to vacate her lap. Korra tried to reach out to stop her, but in her increasingly inebriated state, completely missed Asami's body and began whining and whimpering like Asami just kicked her puppy.
"Shhh…baby, I'm right here," she consoled softly and gently pushed her back into the bed. She brushed a few strands of her hair out of her face. "You're right. I am a naughty girl, but we can save that for some time down the road when you're not drunk."
It only took a minute of Asami's caresses and sweet nothings for Korra to start snoring and drooling on the pillow.
And then there was one mean, angry drunk left.
She wasn't awake. She was knocked out on the recliner, mouth hanging open. Four Nations Fusion pitcher laying on the floor beside her and forming a small puddle of what was left, lychee juice bottle on her chest, and some sort of alcohol soaking the front of her shirt. Whatever was in the Four Nations Fusion finally kicked in and beat her ass.
First, she removed the metal straw that was dangerously close to slipping down her throat and threw it on the table. Second, she tried to soak up as much of the alcohol off her chest with a towel, but wasn't very successful. She tried to rouse her awake, but all she received was a grunt. And lastly, another mistake was made. She should've learned the first time, but just touching the lychee juice bottle, she nearly got punched again. Does she have lychee juice sonar or something?
Asami did strength training several times a week to keep up with her martial arts, but lugging Kuvira on her back a few dozen feet to her room felt like a marathon with a bag of rocks strapped to her back. She thought about just dragging her along the floor by her arms, but had some decency since the floor was littered with spilled drinks, glass, cups, and cushions.
She haphazardly tossed the woman onto the bed, but her legs hung off the side. Opal's face was being absorbed by a pillow and Kuvira's by the mattress. If Asami wasn't so tired, she would've laughed at the situation, but she was panting and trying to catch her breath from helping – but really carrying – three drunk women to bed.
She situated both Beifongs onto their sides close to the edge with a bucket by their sides in case they woke up in need of a good vomit to expunge the rest of the alcohol from their stomachs. She did the same thing for Korra, but was much gentler in laying her on her side and left a kiss against her forehead and a soothing rub against her back.
That was the end of that.
The oven clock reads 3:12am.
Now she's sitting at the breakfast bar, bag of frozen vegetables against her left eye since they used most the ice with their drinks and the rest melted. She's taking in the disaster that is the kitchen and living room. She may be partially blind without her glasses, but through the blurriness, she knows the whirlwind of a disaster that is the Beifong apartment. Maybe it's better that she's partially blinded from lack of glasses and a black eye.
I wish I wasn't so sweaty, gross, and exhausted. Korra owes me a night where I can get drunk off my ass with Bolin and Mako and she has to take care of us. Wait, one of us might actually end up dead if she babysits though. I can't imagine her babysitting drunk Bolin especially if I get handsy with her or drag her into the bedroom.
A rattle from the front door startles her. It sounds like whoever is on the other side is trying to break in.
Tossing the frozen vegetables to the side and putting her glasses on, Asami springs into action like she's a secret spy. She sprints to the coffee table and prepares to fight with the red wine bottle that Opal spilled all over the floor so no alcohol would be wasted in the process.
She hears muffled voices and crouches behind the breakfast bar, ready to fight whoever thinks it's a good idea to break into a Beifong's apartment. Ironically, they'll be met with a Sato instead, but receive an equivalent, if not worse, ass whooping.
The door cracks open. Asami winds up to toss the bottle, but at the last second stops herself.
"Su? Sr.?" she gasps and nearly face plants into the breakfast bar from her momentum. The elder Beifongs have their own confused expressions on their faces. "What are you doing here?"
"We could ask you the same thing, Asami," Su muses with a smile as she and Bataar step in and close the door behind them. They don't notice the mess behind her or her black eye. That or they politely make no comment. "Oh, have you and the girls found common ground and begun socializing in everyday life?" If that common ground is Korra then yes. We certainly have.
"Kind of," she laughs and rests the wine bottle by the frozen vegetables. "Do you know Korra Waters?"
"We know of her."
"Well, I'm dating Korra now." Su and Sr. both give their congratulations before she continues. "She kind of drunk dialed me and said she and your girls were having drinks and told me to come over. And well…" Asami takes a step aside and shows off the ruined living room.
"Opal drunk dialed us too," Su sighs and shakes her head. She takes a seat by Asami while Sr. remains standing. "Except she used Kuvira's phone and Kuvira never calls us unless it's an emergency. It's hard enough getting a text from her every now and again to tell us she's alive so seeing her name pop up in the middle of the night terrified me. But then hearing Opal out of all my children drunk as a skunk bear saying she could fly, singing nonsense, and something about a mean mushroom, I woke Sr. up to drive here and see what in the world is wrong with her."
"Four Nations Fusion," she chuckles and glances back where the main mess is on the coffee table. "Kuvira mixed all the alcohol together. I tried it and it's very…strong. They all passed out a while ago after puking, yelling, and having their fun."
Seeing all the alcohol, Sr. walks over to the table and Su pulls out her phone and begins typing and tapping. She finds whatever she's looking for and gasps in shock.
"That young woman spent over three hundred yuans on alcohol, Bataar!"
"Honey, I think all those yuans are in the sewer system now," he says, examining some of the bottles. "At least we taught her right, and she got the high-end, quality brands. She even expanded her horizons a little with Foggy Swamp Moonshine."
"Bataar!"
"Oh, it gets better with her." Asami removes her glasses to give Su and clear view of her black eye. Su begins to fuss with her and asks what happened. "Lesson learned: do not try to steal lychee juice from Kuvira."
"Damn right you don't!" Sr. agrees a little too enthusiastically from afar which makes Su reprimand and glare at him. "You know as well as I do, you don't mess with Kuvira and her lychee juice or her metal straw. Don't you remember when Jr. drank the last of it when they were teenagers and she pushed him so hard he fell and sliced his head on the island and he needed stitches?"
Su ignores his remarks and sees how tired Asami is from the night she's had. She and Sr. fix and clean up the couch as best as they can and encourage her to lay down and get some rest. She tries to argue and say she's fine, but they insist. The warmth of the blanket that Su drapes over her pulls her under.
"Are you sure we shouldn't take them to the hospital? Opal's never drank like this before. We cleaned up nine bottles of alcohol. Nine!"
"Honey, trust me. We were in college, remember? Plus, it looked like they spilled more than they drank. At least they did it in the safety of their apartment."
"Bataar, I'm being serious."
"I am too. Kuvira can hold her liquor. Opal will never drink like this again. And Korra, well, I can't say anything about her, but Opal said she's very similar to Kuvira so I'm going to say she's fine as well. They just need to sleep it off."
Asami stretches out on the couch like a cat and yawns embarrassingly loud. She sits up and rubs her good eye. Su and Sr. are sitting at the breakfast bar with cups of tea, but what's caught her attention is the blaring red numbers past them. 4:27pm!
Her feet get tangled in the blanket and she ends up tumbling to the now cleaned up floor with a muted thump. Untwisting herself and righting herself on her feet, she stumbles over to the breakfast bar towards her bag and digs for her phone until Su stops her and places a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry about your parents. We already called them and told them you're sleeping safe and sound here."
Asami relaxes and lets out a sigh of relief. "Thank you." Suddenly, a plate of roasted duck with a side of cabbage noodles is placed in front of her.
"You might not be hungover, but I remember the late nights in college," Sr. says fondly and returns to the other side of Su. "Eat up. While all you girls have been sleeping, Su and I have been busy cooking and cleaning."
Asami's more ravenous than she expects. She snags a kale wrap too that they made specifically for Opal. She tells them of her night more in depth as she eats.
"I know Sr. and I have never really pushed you and the girls to be closer because the Society expects us to and after the Jr. mess, but it would be lovely if you became close. Now that you're all adults, maybe you and the girls can form meaningful, authentic friendships like your parents and us have formed that surpass all the formalities of the Society."
Asami smiles at the thought. It would be nice to have a few friends who know the real her at the functions besides her parents. "You're absolutely right, Su. I think we're all warming up to each other on a sincere personal level, and I think it's the beginning of something great not dictated by the Society. But can I ask something of you in return?"
"Of course. Anything."
"Can you get Kuvira to stop calling me Salami Sato?"
Su and Sr. frown. Before either of them can respond, Korra comes on to the scene and needs brought up to speed by Asami.
Posted: January 8, 2021