Protection Detail

"I understand that you know a thing or two about defending yourself."

Asami nodded slowly. This was a bizarre conversation to be having, but she had come to realise that bizarre was never far away when Azula was around. The old woman had a knack for finding trouble and then setting it on fire. "I can handle myself in a fight."

"I see." Azula flicked her wrist, and a knife just, for want of a better word, appeared in her hand. Asami stared. "Can you handle a knife?"

"How did you do that?"

"An old friend taught me." For a moment, there was genuine sorrow in Azula's eyes, but it passed swiftly, replaced once again by that razor-sharp gaze that Asami had grown accustomed to. "Learning how to do that was one of the many gifts she gave me." Another flicked of her wrist imbedded the knife in the wall beside Asami's head. "As was the skill to do that. It's a pity I'll never be as good as she was. She could have outlined your head with a handful of knives before you'd even realised what she'd done. Ah, Mai was always so handy with pointy things."

Asami tried to wrap her mind around that last big. Mai, as in the previous Fire Lady, had been an expert with weapons? The history books she'd read had left out that particular detail. And given how much respect Azula had for her skills, Mai must have been a lot better than good. She would have had to be legendary for Azula to be impressed.

"Why are you asking me about this?"

"Oh, it's for Korra's sake." Azula shrugged, the gesture not the least bit disarming. Indeed, the deliberate attempt to appear harmless only emphasised how very not harmless Azula truly was. It occurred to Asami then that Azula could probably kill her with less effort than it took for her to sign one of the many documents that crossed her desk each day. "My former pupil has a tendency to get herself into trouble. I believe it's an Avatar thing. Her predecessor got into a lot of trouble too. Admittedly, some of that was my fault, at least early on."

"What are you getting at?"

"If there is one thing that I learned about killing Avatars, and I'm sure it's something you appreciate after everything Korra has been through, it's that overwhelming power can be negated with sufficient levels of cunning, ingenuity, and general malevolence." Azula sighed and flipped one of her knives through the air and caught it, the metal glowing white-hot in her hands. "Korra has many virtues, but subterfuge, treachery, and deception are not amongst them. She needs someone who can help her deal with those things, someone who is good at those things in a way she is not."

"And you think I'm good at them?" Asami leaned forward. She was not going to be intimidated. "I'm not sure whether I should be offended or pleased that you think so highly of my skill in those areas."

"You should be pleased." Azula chuckled. "Doing business has done wonders for you in those areas. More importantly, you're someone that Korra can trust, someone that she will listen to. You're also someone who won't betray her."

"I love her."

"Yes, you do." Azula smiled thinly. "Which is why you need to start thinking about how yu're going to protect her. Korra… Korra is going to change the world and not everyone is going to be happy. You've done your best so far to protect her using legal means, but the time will come when legal means aren't enough."

"And you're offering to teach me some… other means to protect her?"

"Yes. It would be a shame for all of my hard working instructing her to go to waste." Azula palmed another knife and handed it to Asami. "We can start working on how to overthrow a democratically elected government tomorrow. Today, I want to teach you about knives. You'd be surprised how useful they can be, and most benders never see them coming." Azula smirked. "And if you make them yourself using common materials and techniques, they're virtually untraceable. Why you could kill almost anyone, and they'd never know it was you." Her eyes gleamed like molten gold. "You don't have to make them out of metal either, and the split-second it takes a skilled metalbender to notice the difference is usually enough."

"I'm not going to kill anyone." Asami moved to hand the knife back, but Azula stopped her.

"If you could have put that knife in between Zaheer's ribs before he poisoned Korra, would you have?"

Asami took the knife back. "Point taken."

"I thought so."

X X X

Korra was surprised – and slightly terrified – to find Azula in Asami's office. Still, she couldn't see any blood or scorch marks anywhere although Azula could kill people without leaving either behind. However, the pair seemed to be bonding over… knives. Okay, that was still super scary.

"Uh… you two aren't about to start duelling or anything, are you?"

Asami smiled. "No, no. Azula was showing me a few things. Did you know she's actually quite good with knives."

"Yes, I did." Korra shuddered. "She used to throw them at me."

"Those knives were blunt," Azula replied. "Although I suppose I don't have to worry about that anymore since you can metalbend." Her lips curled. "Yes, that would be an excellent exercise. Can you blunt the knives I throw at you before they hit you?"

"I think I'll pass on that." Korra made a face. "Hey, Asami, has Azula shown you that thing with lightning she can do."

"Oh?"

"This." Azula lifted her knife, and the blade was suddenly sheathed in electricity. "It has proven quite useful over the years."

"I can see why."

"Yeah, it's kind of like that glove thing you have." Korra's stomach rumbled. "Do you guys want to get lunch or something?"

"I'm afraid that I have other engagements," Azula replied. "But you two have fun."

"What other engagements?" Korra asked. "You're not going to go bully Tenzin again, are you?"

"I can only do that so many times in one month before it ceases to be amusing. Besides, I already did that earlier this morning." Azula's smile was distinctly menacing. "I'm going to go discuss philosophy with Jinora. It should be entertaining if nothing else."

"Please don't turn her into a megalomaniac," Korra said. "Because that would be so like you."

Azula laughed. "You don't give me enough credit. It would be far more amusing to see if I could somehow get Ikki to conquer the world."

X X X

Author's Notes

As always, I do not own Legend of Korra. I am not making any money off of this either.

I've always thought that out of Asami and Korra, Asami would be the one who is more willing to go the darker route when it comes to protecting the people she cares about. And with Azula offering her some tips… heh. Yeah.

As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.