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 22: Meltdown
AN: There is a potential trigger to some of the readers out there. It occurs around the middle of this chapter, so I am putting up a trigger warning.
Korra groaned loudly into her science book. She closed sat up on the couch and looked over at Asami who was sitting at the other end of the couch, curled up into the side, furiously marking one of her books with a highlighter. Opal was sitting on the floor reading a text on air nomad culture, Kiyoko was curled up in a chair flipping rapidly through flash cards, while Kuvira was seated next to the coffee table grading some papers.
"Asami, may I borrow a highlighter?" Korra asked.
"I broke it," she muttered. The Avatar raised an eyebrow as she watched the girl's jaw clench. She was resting her right cheek on her right hand, her elbow propped up on the arm of the couch, while using her left hand to mark various passages in the textbook as well as a notebook sitting by her feet.
"Is this payback for me accidentally breaking your science calculator?"
"Yes," Asami answered with a curt nod, her eyes still glued to her book. Opal instantly tossed her history text to the side, turning around to face the couch with a giant smile..
"Oh, is this your first fight as roommates?" she asked.
"We're not fighting," the Avatar muttered.
"Yes we are." Korra flinched as she heard Asami closing her text book with a loud snap. She tossed it to the ground, not caring that it flopped open and some pages started to bend. "Korra, I let you borrow it because I thought you could be trusted to take extra special care of my things."
"I'll buy you a new one."
Asami crossed her arms over her chest, pulling her lips into a straight line. "Do you have six hundred and seventy-five yuans?" she demanded.
Korra's eyes slowly widened. She reached into her pocket for her wallet, feebly opening and closing every pocket and zipper. "S…s….six hundred…"
"And seventy-five yuans, yes."
"Who needs that expensive of a calculator?"
"We do," Kiyoko answered. "My parents set up a payment plan for me to pay them back for the calculator."
Korra sighed hard before turning towards her roommate. She rubbed her right arm, looking over at her with a pained expression. "Asami, I'm sorry. I'm just really stressing out right now. When it comes to exams, I either handle them really well or I have a meltdown," she explained with a shrug. "It's kind of why Mako doesn't allow Bolin and I to study together. I didn't mean to put your calculator in the freezer when I was making myself a snack. I just wasn't focusing."
Asami visibly relaxed. She smiled gently before waving a hand in the air. "It's okay. In the long run, it's just a calculator." She pushed up the sleeves of her sweatshirt to her elbows.
"Maybe you can make a new one for your senior project," Korra commented. Her roommate rolled her eyes before throwing a couch pillow in her direction. "Your project is next month. When will I find out what it is? Every day, when you get back from work or school you just lock yourself in that room."
"I am allowed to invite people to my presentation," Asami explained. "If your school schedule doesn't conflict, I'd like for you to come. You too Opal, and the rest of the group."
"Republic doesn't start school again until February," Opal answered with a smile. "One whole month back home in Zaofu. I can't wait!"
"Which also means fun and good times at the South Pole," Korra cheered. She leaned over and lightly swatted Asami on her arm. "You definitely have to come this time. The Summer Solstice Festival will be held at the same time."
"But the Winter Solstice is in a few days," she answered. "Oh, because you're from the southern hemisphere things are switched."
"Please come, it'll be a lot of fun, I promise."
Asami bit her lower lip. "I don't know, Korra," she said slowly. She reached up and started to twist and turn the earring in her right earlobe. "I'm still trying to come up with a way to keep Future Industries open."
"Varrick," she immediately answered.
"What?"
"I've been thinking about your problem with your company, and I think this may be the answer. There is a well-known engineer who supplies boats, submarines, and other technology in the Southern Water Tribe." Korra leaned back on the couch, placing her hands behind her head. "His name is Varrick and he is the head of Varrick Global Industries. Check it out."
"Shouldn't you all be studying?" Kuvira interrupted with a loud sigh. Kiyoko, Opal, and Asami all looked over at her in surprise; as if they forgot she was in the room. Korra lazily glanced over at her. "Especially you, Korra. You have an exam in less than four hours."
The Avatar instantly sat up on the couch. "How do you know that?" she demanded.
"The last time you checked your phone for the time, you said 'only three hours and fifty-five minutes until doomsday'" Kuvira answered without looking up from the papers in her hands.
"Thanks, mom," she muttered.
"Welcome to my world," Opal said with a snicker.
"Asami, my mom would love it if you came to visit, plus this may help keep your company afloat." Korra moved to sit next to her roommate on the couch. She placed her head on the engineer's shoulder, pouted, and slightly widened her blue eyes. Asami immediately turned when she saw the look. It was what Bolin called "A Blue Vortex of Guilt." One look into her sad eyes and she would be able to get most people to do what she asked, even someone as stoic and in self-control like Mako.
"Let me just double check everything with work and school, and then I'll give you a definite answer," Asami sighed.
"Awesome! Christmas here and then the Summer Solstice Festival. This will be great."
Kiyoko frowned when she noticed Asami slightly lower her head. Her green eyes seemed to turn a dull shade. She moved from the chair she was sitting in and took a seat on the floor next to the couch, gently rubbing the girl's knee. "What's wrong, Asami?" she asked quietly.
"Nothing, it's just that Christmas was my parent's favorite holiday," she answered quietly. "They got married around this time."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"It's okay," she insisted. Asami tried to smile but it ended up looking more like a grimace. "After my mother died, my dad didn't really put in too much of an effort as it was. We were always busy around this time of year, trying to come up with a new invention to get out before the holidays for an additional push."
Korra sat up straight and gripped Asami's hands tightly in hers. "Then you have my Avatar guarantee that this year, Christmas will be great." She slammed her hand on her thigh, as if acting like it was a stamp of approval. "When will you be heading back to Zaofu, Opal?"
"Depends on the work on my dad's plate at RITA," she answered with a shrug. "While home, my mom is going to be holding presentations and going through applications for our Metal Guard."
"Are you nervous, Kuvira?" Asami asked lightly. She wasn't too sure but it had seemed like Kuvira and Korra were starting to become friends. Well, friendlier to each other that is. Korra did initially have reservations with Asami accepting Kiyoko as a part of their group, but eventually gave her a chance. Although, Kuvira is a bit older than them and somewhat intimidating like Opal had initially warned, Asami did find herself being cordial towards her, especially with how much they worked on her Senior Project.
"I don't get nervous," Kuvira firmly answered.
"I don't know, your knees were shaking pretty badly when we had that bowling match," Korra taunted.
The metalbender continued to work on the papers in her hands, but she did raise an eyebrow signaling that she had heard the remark. "You only won because you tricked me into thinking Baatar had shown up."
"Hey, it's not my fault you're so in love with your boyfriend," Korra said with a smile.
"He's not my…" Kuvira let out a deep sigh. "Forget it. It doesn't matter. It was just as game and besides, I could easily beat you at everything else."
Korra frowned. She was trying really hard to work up the bender but found her her attempts to be futile. It drove her crazy at how calm and reserved she was. "Oh, really?" Korra huffed. She tapped her foot on the ground in thought. A second later, she snapped her fingers. "I'm thinking of a number between one and ten."
"Seven," Kuvira instantly answered.
"I didn't think of one yet!"
Kuvira finally looked up from the papers she was holding. She gave Korra an amused smirk. "If you had time, would the number have been seven?" she asked. In response, Korra glared before slumping down on the couch. "I'll take that as a yes."
"Well of course you'd win that, you attended one of the most prestigious schools in our city," she mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Prestigious?" she repeated. "Nice word, choice." Kuvira snickered, which caused Korra to exhale sharply through her nose in anger. She jumped to her feet, glaring down at the girl sitting on the floor. Kuvira looked up at her in amusement.
"We need to do something physical," she declared. "First person to spin in a circle twenty times without falling over wins."
Kuvira blinked in response. She looked over at Opal before smiling gently. Gathering up the piles of papers she had in stacks on the floor, she placed them onto the table before walking behind the couch. She stretched her arms across her chest before wiggling her legs, one at a time. Kuvira stared at Korra before holding her arms out in a giant L, bending her knees. She then pushed off with her right foot and began to spin rapidly. Kiyoko gasped in surprise as Opal nodded her head. Korra's jaw dropped as Kuvira continued to spin. She backed away as the dancer's long braid whipped around in a circle. She jumped on top of Asami on the couch and cowered in fear. Asami was too entranced by watching to push her off.
After a final spin, Kuvira came to a sudden stop, both of her feet out in second position. Her breathing pattern was steady as she picked up the papers and reclaimed her seat on the floor. "For the record, I've been dancing since I was eight."
"Opal, why didn't you tell me that?" Korra demanded.
"Because I wanted to see that look on your face," she answered with a laugh. Kuvira snorted.
"Just you wait, I will beat you," she declared.
"I highly doubt it," Kuvira said as she gathered up her things. She turned to Asami and gave her a swift nod. "Thank you for your hospitality. Just let me know when you'd like to go over your presentation one more time. Although, I'm sure you'll do excellent next month." She faced Opal and jerked her head in the direction of the apartment door. The young girl quickly scurried around to gather up her things.
"Okay," Korra shouted as she followed Kuvira to the door. "I'm thinking of another number between one and twenty."
"Three."
"Will you give me time to think?"
"Would it have been three?"
Korra stared at her. "Get out." She grabbed the door handle and swung it open, pointing to the hallway. Kuvira laughed before stepping out of the way, allowing Opal to exit the apartment first. She gave the Avatar one last smirk before exiting the apartment. Korra slammed the door shut behind them. "I hate her."
"I didn't think you two would become friends so quickly," Kiyoko laughed.
"Friends?" Korra's eyes widened in disbelief. "Me and Kuvira? Ha! It's bad enough that I have to deal with this one on a regular basis." She lightly flicked Asami on the back of her head as she passed by the couch.
"The way you two argue reminds me of you and Mako," Asami said teasingly. "Is there something you'd like to tell us?"
"Shut up and study, Asami," Korra demanded, flipping open her textbook.
Rika's right eye twitched as she tightened a screw into the metal frame of a chair. Her hands shook, making it hard to steady the screwdriver held tightly in her hands. After a few seconds, the screw fell out of the small hole and clattered to the floor. She dropped to her knees, scrambling to pick up the piece of metal, but it rolled past her fingers and fell in between two pieces of the wooden floor. She groaned loudly before getting back up on her feet.
She crossed the room to her desk, harshly grabbing the plastic bag filled with more screws. A shower of screws fell to the floor out of the hole in the package. Rika watched as the scattered, rolling around and falling underneath the floorboards. Slowly she dropped the bag, not caring where the rest of them landed. She launched herself onto her bed, covered her face with her pillow, and let out a giant scream. The screwdriver she was holding rolled off of the bed and onto the floor.
"Rika, honey," her mother called gently from the doorway. She slowly stepped in to the room, her eyes scanned over the screws on the floor, the metal frame to a chair, and the general mess of clothing and books scattered everywhere. "Are you okay?"
"No," she whimpered. Rika tore the pillow from her face, her eyes brimming with tears. "Everything is going wrong! Just everything."
"I'm sure it's not that bad." Her mother crossed the room and sat next to her daughter on the bed. Rika instantly threw her arms around her neck and buried her face in her chest.
"Not that bad?" she repeated. "One of my best friends ditched me, my boyfriend breaks up with me, and now I can't finish my project because I'm living in this hell hole!" she cried. "I want things to go back to the way they were."
"Iroh broke up with you?"
Rika nodded. She looked up at her mother before breaking down in sobs. "He said he needed some space, and that I wasn't the girl he fell for," she explained. Her mother listened, running a hand through her daughter's hair. "He said I could be mean for no reason."
"Is that true?"
"No, I have reasons," Rika answered with a pout. Her mother chuckled a bit before slowly shaking her head. "I just want to keep everything the same. I'm tired of things changing for the worse," she admitted.
"Maybe you just don't need to be so controlling. You won't have good relationships with people if you have to tell people how to act and what to do."
"But, what if they only wanted to be my friend under false pretenses?" her voice was suddenly soft and light, like a child's. She leaned down and rested her head in her mother's lap, relaxing in her embrace.
"Your friends stuck around when we hit hard times and lost a lot. Those are some friends to keep."
They wouldn't understand if I told them. "Thanks, mom."
"You're welcome." Her mother looked at the metal frame to the chair in the middle of the room. "How is your project coming?"
Rika slowly opened her eyes, looking at the object in the middle of the room and then to the pile of screws that littered the floor. "Um, could you run to the store and buy me some more screws? I kind of had an accident," she said with a soft smile.
"No problem, honey," Her mother answered with a laugh. She gently pushed Rika up into a sitting position before kissing her on the forehead. "I'm so proud of you. There are so many good things to look forward to: your presentation and your graduation at the end of the year where you'll give the valedictorian speech. If you stop dwelling on the negative you'll see that there's always good things down the road."
"You're right." Rika nodded. She bent down and picked up the screwdriver from the floor. "I should get back to my project. Maybe I can work on the blue prints while you are at the store."
"Keep up the good work."
Rika smiled and gave her mom a kiss on the cheek. Once her mother closed the door, she tightened her grip on the screwdriver, drew her arm back, and threw it across the room. She watched with a frown as it struck a picture frame, knocking it to the floor. The glass instantly shattered and spilled on the floor. She walked over and picked up the frame. Inside was a picture of Rika, Manami, and Kiyoko. Their arms were wrapped around each other and they were smiling brightly at the camera, standing in front of the Senior Parking Lot sign.
She sighed heavily before plucking the picture out of the frame. She pried the screwdriver out of the wall before sticking it into Kiyoko's face in the picture, poking a hole. The girl then ripped the picture apart, leaving only Manami and herself intact.
Rika pulled out her cellphone and brought up the instagram app. She typed in Kiyoko's username and waited for the screen to load. She frowned at the first picture that came up. It was a photo of Korra sitting on the floor with a bowl of grapes in her lap. Her cheeks were puffed up, and she was moving a piece of fruit to her mouth. Opal was seated opposite of her, holding a smaller bowl of grapes, her cheeks puffed up as well but not as much as Korra's. Asami was sitting on the couch, painting her toe nails with one hand, the other hand holding a science text. Kiyoko was in the foreground of the picture, smiling at the camera and giving the peace sign. If this is what we call studying, then I'm sure to fail. LOL; the caption read.
She gripped the phone tightly in her hand, her thumb pressing into the screen. The pixels underneath her thumb turned the screen a green and then purple. She let out a loud growl before walking over to her desk. She plopped down in the chair and pulled out one of the drawers. A math compass was nestled next to a stack of lined paper, a small box of paper clips, and a calculator. She lifted the compass out of the drawer, and ran her hand over the cold surface. As she pressed the sharp end to her arm, a tear slid down her cheek.
"Asami!" Korra shouted as she ran out of the science building on Republic's campus. The art model looked up from the book she was reading, sitting next to Naga underneath a tree. The polar bear dog's ears perked up at the sudden shout. "I did well, I know it!"
"What happened?" Asami closed the book she was reading and got to her feet. She let out a cry of surprise as Korra wrapped her arms around her and spun her around in a circle.
"Once the professor passed out the exam, I looked at every question and marked the ones I knew the answer to." Korra placed her hands on Asami's shoulders and shook her. "A lot of them were marked."
"That's great!"
"I wouldn't feel this good right now without your help." Korra gave her another tightly hug. "You're the best!" she said into her ear. Asami smiled, returning the hug, nowhere near as hard or as tight as the Avatar's.
"I'm nothing special," she said with a shrug once they pulled away. "That was all you."
"So, let's go grab something to eat to celebrate." The Avatar's blue eyes shined with happiness. "Or how about a movie? I need to relax a bit after that."
"Sure, let's go."
"You didn't have to wait for me." Korra frowned as if she just realized that they were outside. "It could have taken a while, besides its December. You could catch a cold." She instantly slipped off her jacket and handed it to her roommate. Asami wanted to decline to offer, but even she had to admit she was cold. She had only been sitting outside for ten minutes after Korra had taken her exam before snuggling up into Naga's side.
"I have a book." Asami smiled graciously as she slipped on the blue jacket. "I've been researching Varrick and his company, so I was preoccupied." She bent down and rubbed the top of Naga's head. "Plus I had Naga with me. She's good company."
"I can see that," Korra commented and reached up towards Asami's hair .A second later, she pulled back and held a small bundle of fur in her palm. Asami felt her cheeks redden before smiling softly.
"Korra, we need to talk," Tenzin said, walking over towards the two of them. His long red cape billowed in behind him.
"No." She shook her head. "Whatever it is, I don't want to hear it. Nothing can ruin my mood right now. I know I did really well on science exam."
"Republic is closing early for the holidays," he explained. "All finals are cancelled and whatever mark you have at the time will be your final grade."
"…I can live with that," Korra said. Asami looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "The only thing I'm worried about is my science grade. I've been teetering in a C+ and a B-. Whatever comes out of it, I can handle it."
"That's not it, Korra." Korra's smile quickly faded when she finally took the time to notice the unpleasant look set upon his features. "While you were taking your exams, Tahno and a few other members of the Wolf Bats probending team where at the city's probending arena practicing for the upcoming charity tournament. Amon attacked them. Lin was able to subdue the chi blockers, but he took away their bending." Korra looked over at Asami who looked just as troubled. "Republic City is at War," Tenzin declared.
"And, there it goes," she muttered.
AN: Many, many thanks to my beta, Rubiks.
Next chapter title: Christmas
