Chapter 16
Asami sits at a table next to Korra, directly across from her father, who hasn't said a word since meeting Korra. The tension in the room is so thick Asami can practically feel it, suffocating her as she tries to breath.
She looks between Hiroshi and Korra, and can't help but be amazed at the look on Korra's face. She's staring at Hiroshi with just as much intensity, as he is her. Then Asami notices, that Korra is nervously fidgeting with her bracelet. She discretely grabs her hand under the table, and Korra grips it in a death lock.
Running her thumb over the back of Korra's hand soothingly, Asami feels bad for her. She glares at Hiroshi slightly.
Feeling he had seen enough, Hiroshi sighs, leaning back in his chair. "This is a surprise. When you said you might have a date, I wasn't expecting Chief Tonraq's daughter." He says, rubbing his chin.
Korra looks shocked. "You know who I am?"
Letting his eyes rest on Korra, without moving his head, Hiroshi simply looks at her before answering. "Of course I do. Anybody with political knowledge knows who you are." He says, causing Korra to smile. "The loud mouthed, hot headed, and short tempered daughter of Chief Tonraq." Korra's smile instantly falls.
Having heard enough, Asami downright gives her father the coldest look Korra had ever seen on her face. Just as she opens her mouth to speak, Hiroshi says something. "Who also is strong spirited, and has a good heart. Nothing you've ever said has been for personal gain, and you always thought of the people of your tribe first. Although you may be a little idealistic at times, your heart is always in the right place. I like someone who isn't afraid to speak their mind, and fight for what they think is right." Hiroshi lowers his head, being reminded of his own passion to avenge his wife, and why he was in there in the first place. "Although you're not what I had imagined for Asami, from the things I've seen and heard of you throughout the media, I think that I can live with the thought of you two being together." He winks at Korra.
Showing all thirty-two of her teeth, Korra beams at Hiroshi, in response. "That means a lot. I- thank you."
Korra's attention is drawn away, when she hears sniffling. She looks to Asami and sees her wiping her face. "Asami? What's wrong?" She gently pulls Asami's hands away from her face, so she can see her clearly. Asami's eyes are slightly wet, but she's smiling.
"Nothing at all." She chuckles. "Thanks dad."
He simply closes his eyes, smiling as he shrugs. "How did you two meet anyway?"
Korra snorts, in response, causing Hiroshi to look at her curiously. Asami blushes, as his eyes turn to her, awaiting an answer. "I um, hit her with my car." She mumbles.
"Excuse me?" Hiroshi blinks.
"I hit her with my car!" Asami huffs, crossing her arms, as Korra bursts out laughing.
Looking between the two of them with shock clear on his face, Hiroshi chuckles. "How did you manage to do that?"
Slinking down into her chair, Asami's blush darkens. Korra answers instead. "I wasn't looking both ways." She says, after catching her breath just to, fall into a fit of giggles.
Watching as Asami, punches Korra in the arm, causing her to rub it while pouting, Hiroshi decides, that Korra really was good for Asami. For now at least. "When are you two going to the President's party?"
Shrugging, Asami corrects herself in her seat. "In a few hours."
"Is there some kind of crazy dress code? You never really know with the First Lady." Hiroshi says.
Asami shakes her head. "Not that I know of. I think it's just formal attire."
"Oh crap!" Korra exclaims.
Tilting his head, Hiroshi raises an eyebrow at her. "What is it?"
"I completely forgot, I left all my formal dresses in the Southern Watertribe."
"That's alright. We can find you something to wear."
Korra pouts. "Really? I wanted to show up naked."
Hiroshi watches, as they bicker lightly back and forth. It warms his heart to see Asami, so happy and full of life again. He hadn't seen her like that in a while. He didn't necessarily like, same sex relationships, but he didn't dislike them either. But he was in no position to say anything about who Asami dated. She was just being nice, by bringing Korra here. And if Korra made her happy and treated her well, who was he to try and discourage them?
"You know..." He starts, gaining their attention. "You two can leave. I doubt this is the best place to have a date."
Asami looks from him to Korra, who only shrugs. She looks back to him. "Are you sure? It's no pro-" She's interrupted.
"I'm positive. Don't let me hold you up. Go have fun." He waves her off.
Looking from him to Korra again, Asami is thinking about her options, when she feels Korra's hand grip her thigh. Korra starts rubbing it in soothing circles. She gets dangerously high, and just lets her hand rest where it is, gripping Asami's upper thigh.
Taking a deep breath through her nose, Asami watches as Korra looks around the room, seemingly minding her business, but Asami can see the slight smirk on her face.
"I- I mean… if you insist." Asami says, swatting Korra's hand away before standing and hugging her father. "Love you, dad."
"I love you too, Asami." He says as they pull away. He watches as Asami holds the door open for Korra, who is shaking his hand. "And you," He says tightening his grip, not enough to hurt her, but forceful enough to get his point across. "treat Asami well, yes?"
Giving him an uneasy smile, Korra nods. "You got it, Sir."
Once they leave he shakes his head, chuckling at the door.
"I don't know about this, Asami." Korra says, looking at her reflection, in the body length mirror, in Asami's room.
They had went shopping, and eventually found a few dresses for Korra to wear. But now that they were actually getting ready to go, nothing looked good enough, and Korra was getting more and more agitated.
In her defense, she had a lot on her mind, not only was she scared about the entire country ruining her and Asami's brand new relationship, she also had to worry about the Triple Threats trying to attack Asami. It was all too much to process. And this tight dress wasn't making it any better.
Not liking the slight frown on her girlfriend's face, Asami steps behind her and wraps her arms around her waist, placing her head on her shoulder. "I really don't see what the problem is. You look great, trust me. I wouldn't lie." Asami places a soft kiss, to the side of her neck.
Looking at Asami's reflection, Korra quirks an eyebrow? "If I looked bad, you wouldn't tell me I looked good? Even if I thought I did?"
"Nope." Asami says stepping away, looking for her earrings.
"How sweet." Korra says dryly, still examining her outfit.
She was wearing a form fitting blue dress that was so dark it looked black, and shimmered slightly when the light struck. One side of the dress stopped just above her knee, while the other side slanted downward, almost reaching her ankle. Her hair was up in the usual bun she wore, whenever she went somewhere that required more than a ponytail. The only differences, were the two stray strands falling to the side and framing her face, done at Asami's insistence. She finished it all off, with some open toed heels, and diamond earrings that her mother had given her years ago.
Asami was wearing a similar all black dress, that stopped right above her knees, with red bottom heels. Walking to her jewelry box, she opens it and looks for her earrings. Staring back at her, is the necklace she bought for Korra all those weeks ago. She pulls it out and walks over to Korra.
"Here." Standing behind Korra once again, she clasps the necklace around her neck.
Once the necklace is secure, Korra gently touches the blue stone hanging from her neck. "What's this?"
Stepping back, Asami shrugs. "A present."
"What?" Korra spins around, facing Asami.
"Remember when I bought everyone those gifts, a few weeks ago? I had bought this for you, but you weren't there. I forgot about it until now." Asami shoves her wrist through a bracelet.
"Why?" She cocks her head to the side. "Why me, I mean. I can understand the others, you guys have been friends for a while."
"I originally bought them to show how much I appreciated everyone. Considering how I had been treating everybody, including you, I felt it was deserved. Well, you all deserve much more than a few gifts, but it's the thought that counts, right?"
Korra pulls Asami into a hug. "Did you know that blue, just so happens to be my favorite color?"
"Oh really, I haven't noticed." Asami chuckles.
"Mhmm, it's weird right, how coincidences work. But seriously, I love it. Thank you so much." She gives Asami a quick peck.
Pouting, Asami's face rests in a slight frown. "If you wanna thank me..." She pulls Korra into a deep kiss by the front of her dress, causing her to moan, seemingly unsatisfied with the earlier one. "Kiss me like that." She suddenly backs out of Korra's reach, leaving her shaken form grasping for the wall so she doesn't fall.
Asami looks at Korra as she gets herself together, and when their eyes lock, Korra's darkened orbs have an intense look in them, and her face is flushed. Asami has to look away immediately, unless they want to be late.
"Asami..." Korra says, with longing dripping from her voice. To Asami, it nearly sounded like she was begging.
Clearing her throat, Asami returns her gaze back to Korra. "I'm sorry baby. If we don't leave now we'll be late. Payback for earlier?" She chuckles wryly. Payback isn't supposed to be like a two-edged sword though, she thinks with a sigh.
Taking several deep breaths, Korra straightens herself out. She gives Asami a crooked smile. "I'm your baby, huh?"
"Yep. And I'm yours. I already know, I don't have to ask." Asami says, grabbing her keys.
Laughing, Korra pushes Asami out of the door. "So full of yourself..."
"Am I wrong?"
"Of course not, baby." Korra says, leaning over about to place a kiss to Asami's lips, before thinking better of it and sliding into the passenger seat.
"Did you just-" Asami says, shocked.
Rubbing the back of her neck and grinning, Korra shrugs. "I'm still a little shaky. I don't want to make it worse. We did say we were going to take it slow. That'd be kinda hard to do with me actively wanting to rip your clothes off..."
Asami's breath catches and her entire body heats up. "… Good point."
Over the past couple of weeks, it was getting harder for the two to keep their hands off of each other. It seemed as though Korra was having a harder time than Asami. But that wasn't true, Asami was just much better at hiding it. Even now as they're sitting in the car heading to the President's party, Korra's cheeks are still tinted pink.
"Maybe we should've left earlier." Korra huffs, watching the traffic ahead of them go nowhere.
Checking the time on her phone, Asami nods. "Agreed. We're already gonna be late, but at this rate we won't get there until thirty minutes after it's started."
"Is there any way you can bypass the traffic?" Korra asks, hopefully.
Asami sticks her head out of her window, getting a good look at all the cars up ahead, before she settles back into her seat, shaking her head. "There's no room. I guess we'll just be late."
"Damn." Korra curses under her breath. Just another thing for the media to use against them. She pulls out her phone and starts scrolling through her feed on Instagram, when a picture catches her eye.
Exiting the app she goes to her contacts, clicking a name and raising the phone to her ear.
"Hey, Kya."
…
"Nothing much, just stuck in traffic."
…
"Well, that's actually why I called. You guys wouldn't happen to be in her work car, would you?"
…
"Great! I'm uh, here with Asami and we're heading to the President's party, and we reeeally don't wanna be late."
…
"Heh. Something like that!" She rubs her neck.
…
"It's a black SatoMobile. You can't miss it. I don't even think it's been released yet."
…
"Thanks, Kya you're the best."
Hanging up the phone, she looks over at Asami who's watching her curiously.
"We might not be late after all." Korra beams.
Confused, Asami tilts her head slightly. "What-"
Behind them police sirens sound, and cars begin pulling over. Asami gets ready to do the same, until Korra places a hand over hers, shaking her head.
Beyond confused, Asami complies and waits until a cop car pulls up on the side of her. She rolls down her window, and comes face to face with the doctor they had seen after Korra's accident. "It's you!"
Laughing, Kya waves. "Hello, Asami. How are you?"
Before she can answer, Korra leans over the center console. "Hey guys! I really appreciate the help!"
Lin grumbles something about professionalism, not even looking their way, while Kya laughs again.
"Lin's being a grouch as usual, but we're glad to help." Lin scoffs.
Finally facing them, Lin looks at Asami. "Just follow me." And then she rolls up the window.
Stunned, Asami simply watches as Lin turns on her siren and clears a path for them. "Was- was that the Chief?" Asami asks, still confused.
"Yes it was. You should probably follow her, before she shoots us." Korra gestures at the car in front of them.
Wasting no time, Asami does as she is told.
Finally outside of the party, and only five minutes late, they sit in the car holding each other's hands.
"Are you ready?" Korra asks.
"No. What about you?"
"Not at all. I feel like I'm gonna throw up." Korra groans.
"Me too, actually." Asami releases a shaky breath. She grabs Korra by the back of her neck and brings their foreheads together. "You're my baby, right? We'll get through this. Together. Forget these people. Even if we get the worst response ever, we have a pretty nice group of people supporting us back home. So, what do you say?"
Giving Asami's hand a firm squeeze, Korra nods. "Let's do it."
Exiting the car, Korra links her arm with Asami's, as they walk up the steps to the building. Just outside the doors, they get bombarded by thousands of camera flashes, and questions.
"Asami! Asami! Hey Asami, over here! Is this your girlfriend?! Is it true you've been dating for a while?! Care to make a statement on the rumors that you've been visiting your father?! Sources tell us, that they've seen Viper leaving Future Industries! Are you working with the Triple Threats?!"
Having heard enough, Korra forces her way through the crowd of reporters, and clears a path for them into the building.
Once they get inside, Korra's mind is blown. There are people everywhere, all kinds of food, and even performers dancing around, playing with fire and knives, and one was even wrestling a bear!
"Wow. All this for a birthday, huh." Korra says, into Asami's ear, over the loud rumble of chatter.
"Well in her case, you only turn thirty-five four times."
Korra snorts in response. "Where is she anyway?"
Looking around for a while, Asami points upwards. Korra looks in the direction of Asami's finger, and sees the First Lady seated, high above the ground, on some sort of overhang, watching the party play out.
"That isn't creepy at all."
"Korra?" Someone calls out to her, from behind. She spins around and finds, Tenzin with his arm around Pema. "What brings you here?"
Korra pulls both of them into a hug. "Hey guys. I'm here with, Asami." She says, motioning behind her as she pulls away.
"Asami Sato?!" Tenzin says, highly confused.
"She didn't threaten to run you over again, did she?" Pema teases, causing Asami's cheeks to redden.
Wrapping her arm around Asami's hip, she shakes her head. "Nope."
Pema covers her mouth, as a high pitched noise of excitement escapes her.
Tenzin simply gives the two a warm smile. "I'm happy for you both. You should come have dinner with us soon. The kids miss you. And I'm sure they'd love to meet Asami."
"I miss them too. I'll come by soon, I promise. I'll bring the guys and Opal with me too."
"Please do. Oh by the way, you haven't seen Suyin, have you? I need to speak with her."
Korra shakes her head. "I didn't even know she was here."
Frowning slightly, Tenzin nods. "Ah well, we'll keep looking. It was nice seeing you. Korra. Asami." Pema smiles at the two, as she and Tenzin leave.
Rubbing her neck, Korra turns to Asami. "Sorry about that."
"It was no problem at all. They're really nice." Asami assures her.
"You don't have to go to that dinner, if you don't want to. I'd understand."
Shaking her head, Asami smiles. "No, I wanna go. Sounds like it'll be fun."
"Well prepare yourself. Their kids can be a little much, but they're very sweet. I think you'll like them." Korra bumps Asami lightly, with her shoulder.
"I hope so." She sighs, as she studies the room. "I'm already tired of being here. I wanna go home."
"How much longer do we have to stay?"
Sighing once again, Asami checks the time on her phone. "At least an hour."
"Welp… we might as well make the most out of it. Let's try the food!" Korra drags Asami to the food table, and looks over all the choices.
"Oh my Spirits, they have authentic Watertribe food. It better taste good or I'm complaining." Korra says, as she stuffs some kind of cooked sea creature into her mouth.
Asami watches in amusement. "Complaining to who exactly?"
"You're the only person who cares, so you."
Raising an eyebrow, Asami snorts. "Who said I cared?"
"You're the only person, who'll pretend to care." Korra corrects herself.
Laughing, Asami places a swift kiss to Korra's cheek. "Of course, baby."
Korra doesn't have time to react to the feeling in her lower stomach, because she hears something that catches her attention, over the rest of the chatter in the room.
"Carpet munchers."
She turns toward the direction that she heard the voice in. "Somebody got something to say?"
"Yeah. You two are gross. Go take that shit somewhere else!" A man, looking to be in his mid twenties says, causing a few people behind him to laugh.
Highly annoyed, Korra walks up to him and grabs him by his collar. "Maybe if you would mind your own business, there wouldn't be any problems. Or are you too stupid to figure that out on your own?"
"Get your hands off of me." He growls.
Korra simply throws him onto the ground. She turns to leave, when she notices Asami quickly moving towards the group of people. Spinning around, she sees Asami stop one of the men from throwing a drink at Korra, causing it to spill over her hand and his shirt.
"What the fuck?" He shouts.
Korra grabs Asami by the wrist and drags her away from the growing crowd of people. "Come on, lets go clean your hands off. Thanks for that."
"It was nothing. It just sucks that people have to go through that all the time." Asami sighs as Korra puts her hand under a running faucet.
"You're one of those people now, you know." Korra chuckles.
Asami smiles at Korra. "Yeah, you're right. We both are."
"I wouldn't have it any other way." Korra rests her forehead against Asami's.
Closing her eyes, Asami pouts. "I really wanna leave now. Are you staying the night?"
"No."
"What why?" Asami asks, beyond shocked.
Korra laughs at her. "Because you're staying at my place. I don't wanna leave Naga alone again, tonight."
"Oh. Yes, that's perfect." Asami laughs.
"How long are we gonna hide in this bathroom?"
Playfully rolling her eyes, Asami scoffs. "We're not hiding. I'm just enjoying some alone time with you." She says, lightly placing her lips on Korra's.
"Oh you'd better stop before they call us gay again." Korra jokes, before returning Asami's kiss.
After breaking away from each other, Asami catches her breath. "Technically, he called us carpet munchers."
"I'm sorry to tell him that he's misinformed, because I haven't munched your carpet. Yet."
Asami's legs wobble slightly. "Yet?" She croaks.
Just as Korra's about to respond the lights go off, and shortly after a scream follows from the main room.
"What the hell?!" She hears Asami say, followed by the bathroom door opening and closing.
"Asami? Asami?!"
A/N: So here it is after 3 months. Ik im the worst. Send me all your hate mail, I understand.
But ignoring my negligence, the chapter is here. Tell me what you think, I feel like I'm a little rusty. Too much? Not Enough? Let me know your thoughts, please!