Model Behavior


Summary: Modern/AU. Korra thought it was an ordinary day of art class at Republic School for the Gifted. But then, the art model Asami Sato walked into the room... Korrasami


Chapter 13: Kiyoko and Kuvira

"You did what?" Korra asked from her seat on the couch. She looked over at Asami as if she had suddenly sprouted wings and became a flying lemur. "Say that one more time."

"I invited Kiyoko over here to study for our upcoming exam," Asami answered while toying with the ends of her hair. "It just made sense since we were already going to study together and I am meeting Kuvira here a few hours after we're done."

"It makes sense?" the Avatar repeated. "What part of this makes sense? You invited a girl who used to make your life a living hell to your house. She'll know where you sleep."

"I kind of agree with Korra," Opal said sheepishly from the chair.

"Not you too," Asami groaned.

"Well, she could easily do something here and report back to Rika to make your life suck even more," she answered. Korra snapped her fingers and pointed over at Opal with a nod.

"You two weren't with us in the hallway last week," the engineer said before looking through a stack of old science textbooks. "I honestly don't think she's as bad as she makes herself out to be."

"Well, you did say you two used to be friends," Opal agreed.

"Pick a side, Opal," Korra snapped. She snatched a pencil off of the table next to her and started to bounce it lightly in between her fingers, trying to perform the trick where the pencil becomes rubber. A science text book was opened upside down on her stomach.

Asami looked over at the Avatar before rolling her eyes. She checked the time on her phone before leaning back to lie down on the floor. "I was thinking after all of our mid-terms are over, we should celebrate," she said.

"Celebrate what?" Korra asked. "The fact that we have even more exams a few weeks later before Christmas Break?"

"No, celebrate that we didn't lose our minds," she answered.

"Check back in with me in a few days," Opal muttered before dragging a big Air Studies book out of her bag. She dumped it into her lap with a grunt.

"We could go back to the Midnight Dragon?" Asami offered.

"Who's we?" she snapped. "Not all of us can go, remember?"

"You want to go back after what happened?" Korra asked.

"I've had plenty of great nights there that easily overshadow what Rika did," the engineer answered. She rolled onto her stomach and started to kick her legs in the air. "I won't let that one night ruin anything."

"Fine, but I think everyone should come this time," the Avatar answered.

"But we all can't go," Opal reminded them, envy dripping from each word.

"We can't if you and Bolin don't have fake ," she said with a smile.

Asami pushed herself up from the ground and shot the Avatar an amused look. "Where can you get a fake i.d.?" she asked.

"From someone I know," Korra answered with a shrug. "Don't worry about who."

"Now I'm interested." She got up from the floor and walked over to the couch, picked up Korra's legs, and then sat down before placing them into her lap. "How did you meet someone who knows how to make fake i.d.s?"

"Don't worry about it," Korra muttered before tossing the pencil back onto the table. She picked up her science book and started to flip through the pages. Asami scanned the cover before plucking the book out of her friend's hands and turning it right side up. She handed it back to the now furiously blushing Avatar.

"Oh, I heard this story from Bolin," Opal laughed. "See, Korra had-"

"Opal, zip it," Korra ordered.

"Let's just say it is high up there on her embarrassment list….and it's not a long list."

"Fine," Asami said with a smirk. Korra looked at her with a raised eyebrow before rolling her eyes. "Question four: what is your embarrassing moment you won't tell me about?"

"Question four?" Opal repeated.

"Oh, we're playing 20 questions to get to know each other better."

"Can't you talk like normal people?"

"It's your choice, Korra." Asami smiled before running the tip of her tongue down the inside of her cheek. "We still both have a pass and a throw out."

"No," Korra said while poking Asami in her side with her big toe. "I have a pass and a throw out, you only have a pass," she corrected. "Don't give me that look," she said when Asami looked at her in astonishment. "When I asked you about your issue with smoke and what happened that night at the Midnight Dragon."

"No, that was a choice and I chose one of the questions. Plus, you've already asked both questions, so I still have a pass and a throw out," Asami answered before sticking out her tongue.

"Leave it to you two to make that game more complicated," Opal commented with a shake of her head.

"Fine, I use a pass," Korra muttered.

"Well, I'm not playing so I'll tell you," Opal said before closing her textbook with a loud snap. "It's more interesting than what I'm trying to read."

"Opal, if you value your life-" Asami silenced her by grabbing a pillow and pushing it into her face. "Hurry Opal, before she break free," the raven haired girl said, struggling to hold the pillow in place.

"Korra had a crush on a past teacher and used a fake i.d. to try and meet up with him at a concert," she said in one breath.

"Opal," Korra shouted as she pulled the pillow away from her face. She snatched it out of Asami's hands before tossing it over to Opal, who laughed hysterically while ducking.

"Are you serious?" Asami squealed. "Which teacher?"

"He left a few years ago," Korra interrupted. "We're not talking about it anymore." With that she picked up her dropped science book before sticking it into her face. Asami bit back a laugh when she noticed that the Avatar was holding onto the book so hard, that her fingers were starting to turn white from the lack of blood circulation.

"That must be Kiyoko," Asami said when she heard a knock on the front door. "Be nice, please," she begged the two of them before pushing Korra's feet off of her lap.

"I make no promises," Korra said without looking up from her book.

Asami paused by the front door and looked at herself in a nearby mirror. She took a deep breath before fluffing up her hair. After a few more seconds, she tuned and opened the front door with a soft smile. It quickly dropped when she found herself standing face to face with someone unfamiliar to her. "May I help you?"

"Asami Sato, my name is Kuvira," the girl said with a short nod. She reached out her hand and gave Asami's a firm shake. The engineer winced a bit at the grip.

"I thought we were going to meet meet later today," Asami answered uncertainly.

"We were, but I took the liberty of stopping by," Kuvira answered with a shrug. "And before you ask, you had all of your contact information at the bottom of your emails so it's not like I was stalking you," she said.

"Right," she said slowly.

"I decided to stop by since I was in the area and thought it would be a good idea to get a jump start on your project," she concluded.

"It's not much of a start, but a continuation," Asami insisted.

"So you say." Kuvira shrugged. She looked past Asami's shoulder before looking her square in the eye. "May I come in?"

"Yes, of course." Asami stepped to the side to let her into the room. Kuvira gave a nod of thanks before passing the threshold. She slipped her shoes off before following the engineer into the room. Asami couldn't help but smile when she noticed Opal and Korra having an arm wrestling competition. Well, it was more like Opal struggling to move Korra's arm who in turn watched her with fake boredom.

"Kuvira, what are you doing here?" Opal asked when she noticed the earthbender enter the room. She frowned when Korra quickly slammed the back of her hand to the table.

"I'm helping Asami with her Senior Project," Kuvira answered. She noticed the other woman and her eyes widened a bit in surprise. "You must be Avatar Korra," she said while holding out her hand. "I'm Kuvira."

Korra got to her feet before looking the girl up and down. She frowned when she took note of her muscular build, which wasn't as impressive as her own but was clearly toned, her height, and her casually aloof stance. "Nice to meet you," she muttered.

Kuvira gazed around the room, taking note of piles of textbooks, notebooks, and scrap paper in three spots. She quickly concluded that the piles were marking their seating arrangement so she took a seat in the last empty chair in the room.

"Are you really here to help Asami or are you here because mom told you to watch over me?" Opal asked.

"A bit of both," she answered with a shrug.

"I'm not a baby, I can handle myself," she snapped. "Bolin isn't here."

Kuvira relaxed into the chair. Korra looked between the two of them with raised eyebrows. She caught Asami's eye and jerked her head in their direction. Asami just shrugged. "Su just worries," she said quietly.

"Well, she shouldn't," Opal spat. A knocking sound came from the front of the apartment.

"That must be Kiyoko," Asami said before leaving the room. Kuvira leaned back in her seat before her legs. She looked over at the Avatar who was rapidly flipping through her science book before looking worriedly at the chicken scratch in her notebook.

"You don't go to RITA," Kuvira pointed out. "Why are you studying here?"

Korra lifted her head out of the book before looking over at Opal, who rolled her eyes in response. "Asami's good with science and she's a great tutor," she explained while picking up her science book to show the cover. "I need all the help I can get."

"An avatar needs help with something as simple as science?" Kuvira snickered. "How ironic, that the world depends on you and you depend on someone to tell you f(x)=mx."

"I hate you," Korra growled.

"Good to know," Kuvira smirked.

"Oh dear god, there's two of them," Opal muttered.

Asami re-entered the room, pulling Kiyoko by the arm. The girl looked a little shaken up and pretty timid, but she smiled politely regardless. "Kiyoko, you have probably heard of Kuvira," the engineer said. Kuvira gave her a soft smile. "These are my good friends Opal and Korra," she introduced. "They go to Republic."

"Hi," Opal said her voice carrying tones of greeting. Korra's said the same greeting but hers was as dry as the pages in her unopened science assignment work books.

"This should be interesting," Kuvira stated.

"So, Kuvira will you be staying for this study session?" Asami asked as she sat back down at the end of the couch. She motioned for Kiyoko to take a seat on the floor by the couch. She smiled graciously before lowering herself to the ground. "It could be awhile before we can get to my project

"Why not?" the earthbender answered with a sigh. "I'm sure you may run into some problems with Korra balancing an equation

"Hey, I'm passing my class with Asami's help," Korra growled.

"Yeah, I can see that." Kuvira reached over and snatched a piece of paper out of the folds of her textbook. "A genius mind helping a public figure keeping her C average," she commented while looking at the heavily marked paper. "Great work."

"Was I just complimented or insulted?" Asami asked.

"I have no idea," Opal answered. "Get used to it. You have to dig around to find compliments from her." Kiyoko giggled softly while flipping open her notebook. Opal leaned over and gasped excitedly as a flier fell out. "Hey, this is one of the posters from the past bending tournament."

"Yeah, it was such a great event," Kiyoko said with a smile. She turned towards Korra. "You and the rest of the Fire Ferrets did a great job."

'You went?" Asami asked.

"Yes, I was in the very back," she admitted quietly. "I had to keep myself out of sight. Rika doesn't like pro-bending."

"She probably doesn't like it because I like it," she muttered.

"That's her reasoning. I didn't tell her I went."

"I thought you all were supposed to be studying?" Kuvira pointed out.

"Why do you even bother with her?" Korra asked. She placed her textbook onto the table before sitting up and crossing her arms over her chest. "She just seems like a dictator."

Kiyoko's smile vanished. She traced a finger around the pattern on the cover of her notebook. "Well, Asami used to be friends with her, with all of us, so she knows that she can be nice…sometimes." She made a face. "I just think something happened in her family. I'm not too sure."

"But why are you friends with her?"

She stopped messing with her notebook before looking over at Asami out of the corner of her eyes. "I didn't want to be alone like Asami," she admitted quietly. "I have to be friends with her," she whispered.

"No one has to be friends with anyone," Opal said gently.

"Yeah, I do," Kiyoko insisted.

"Why, is she blackmailing you?" Kuvira snorted. The room suddenly became quiet. Opal and Korra exchanged looks from across the table. Kuvira bit the inside of her cheek and slowly shook her head from side to side. Asami looked down at Kiyoko from her seat, compassion and hurt filling her green eyes.

No one needed to hear an answer, because the silence was loud enough.


AN: So, i have a few announcements to make. First off, the "hidden reference" to how Korrasami starts will be revealed in the next chapter. This also means, Korrasami will be starting essentially in the next chapter. Thank you all for waiting and being patient as I work on this story to get to this point. It is a slow build, and will still be a slow build because of how long I am planning for this story.

That brings the second announcement. This story will be 50 chapters long. The sequel story, Model Citizen, will be 50 chapters long. That's why i originally said this story was going to be a long one and that i needed to split it into two parts. So, overall, this whole idea's plot will be around 100 chapters long.

Also, i have decided to give a series name for these two stories. The series is called "Model U.N". It has nothing to do with the actual Model U.N. debate but it's more of a play on words with their being four nations in the Avatar series, and then Republic City is like a place for all four of them along with non-benders to live happily, and then the model part has to deal with Asami being a model for an art class.

So here is the next chapter's title: The Midnight Dragon (II)