Chapter 1: change
Slow, quiet footsteps echoed through the dense foliage as a young man explored familiar territory that had become something completely different. Spirits watched him as he calmly stepped through the streets, now darkened under the canopy of thick vines.
The young man halted when he heard more footsteps approaching. He turned to find a group approaching him. There were three of them, a middle aged man, a young girl, both clad in orange robes. Then there was a young woman, likely only a little more than 15, dressed in water tribe attire, though clearly meant more for the warmer climate of the city than the frigid winds of the poles. The air nomads and the avatar, he realized. He bowed to the avatar, then raised his head as she addressed him.
"You shouldn't be here, we don't know if it's safe." The young woman said, eyeing him with a mix of wariness and concern.
"Sorry avatar," the man replied. "I just used to live around here. Got curious what the place would look like now."
The avatar inspected the man more thoroughly. He was fairly average, about 5'9, with somewhat pale skin, and a lean frame. His hair was a dark brown, that seemed black in the low light, but became obviously brown as somewhat muted rays from the sun broke in from above the canopy. she could clearly see his sea green eyes, and the subtle smile that seemed permanently affixed to his face.
He wore a grey collared shirt with a zipper instead of buttons, that was completely unzipped revealing the plain white undershirt beneath. His pants were black, and the bottom of the legs were tucked into sturdy work boots. All in all, he was pretty average. He seemed familiar to the avatar, but she couldn't place it yet.
Korra sighed "ok, guess i can't fault you for being curious. But i still have to ask you stick with us as we head out, ok?"
The young man nodded "i was just about done with my walk anyway."
The older air nomad, tenzin, watched the conversation, suddenly aware of how far his student had come. A couple months ago he would have assumed she would scold the young man for possibly putting himself in danger coming in here. He was proud.
As the group made to leave the spirit wilds, the avatar in the lead, the younger air nomad fell behind to speak with the stranger. "So, you used to live around here? Did the spirit vines force you out?" There was hesitation in her voice, as if she didn't really want to hear the answer.
The young man shook his head "nah, i left this side of town a couple years ago. Too far from my job. I'm saren by the way."
"I'm Jinora." She was definitely relieved by his answer.
The man smiled at her, holding out his hand "pleasure to meet you Jinora."
Jinora shook his hand "likewise Saren."
"Saren!?" Saren jumped, hearing his name in the avatars raised voice, but before he could respond, the avatar continued. "I thought you seemed familiar! You're Asami's self defense instructor!"
Saren left out a relieved breath. "Yeah, one of 'em. Though honestly it's more like "sparring partner" now. Not much more I can really "teach" her."
Korra grins "yeah, she's kinda awesome like that." Saren noted that the avatar had done a complete 180 on her view of Asami since the last time he had spoken with her.
Saren remembered meeting the avatar a couple months ago, She and Mako had come to ask Asami for help against the equalists, and they had found Saren and Asami training. The whole time Mako would be the only one who spoke to Asami, and the avatar would attempt to (and fail at) not glare daggers at Asami. Saren had made a swift exit before that ticking time bomb went off.
Saren was brought out his thoughts as beams of light suddenly hit his face, forcing him to sheild his eyes with his arm. The Avatar had moved vines aside with her staff to allow them to leave.
Saren stepped out of the spirit wilds, his arm falling back to his side. He found a strange melancholy envelope him, as he turned to glance back the way they had come.
"Yeah, it's kinda sad we have to stay out of place so beautiful…" Jinora said, noticing Saren's actions.
Saren nodded "yeah… it's a really peaceful place to take a midday walk." He spoke softly. Then he turned to the avatar "anyway, thanks for the escort avatar, my lunch break will be ending soon, i gotta get back. Want me to tell Miss Sato you said hi?"
Korra shook her head "I'm heading to the press conference raiko called, Asami will be there. I just thought I'd try one more time before i told the press that i still can't get rid of the vines…"
"Gotcha. Well it was a pleasure meeting you Avatar. You too Jinora."
"Just call me korra." The avatar said. Jinora just gave him a polite smile.
Saren nodded "gotcha. Korra it is. See ya around korra." He waves as he begins walking off, and korra flew off towards Republic city hall on her glider.
"You and Saren seemed to get along rather well." Tenzin remarked to his daughter. He had watched their conversations, and didn't quite know when the young man would chose to speak with Jinora. Sure Jinora had initiated the conversation, but he expected the teenage boy to brush her off.
Jinora shrugged "we were just engaging in polite conversation. He seemed interested in the spirit wilds, and i was curious as to why. Though i didn't get to ask…"
Tenzin nodded, satisfied with the answer his daughter gave him. He didn't want some strange teenager getting too friendly with his daughter.
Future industries HQ, Gym, 30 minutes later
Saren walked out of the locker-room, having changed into a pair of loose fitting black workout shorts and a simple red t-shirt with the future industries logo emblazoned between his shoulder blades and the center of his chest. He was still wrapping his hands when he saw his co-worker exit the womans locker-room.
In a single word, she was eye-catching. In many, she was the first thing he would notice if he walked into a crowded room with 50 other people. Her snow white hair cascaded gently down her neck and the sides of her head to rest on her shoulders, she kept it that length to stay out of the way in her busy day to day life. Her electric blue eyes seemed to always shine with an unspoken mischievous taunt, as if she was daring any and all to throw a challenge her way, so she could feel the satisfaction of overcoming it. Her lips tilted upward in a confident grin as she marched out to meet her co-worker, whilst tied her hair in a single tail behind her head.
She never wore make-up, finding it to be time consuming and pointless. Saren had to agree, not seeing much that makeup could do to enhance her natural beauty. Reaffirming that idea was her choice of workout clothing, a white sports bra with blue markings was concealing and restraining her ample chest, though it was not really hidden under a white loose fitting tank top that seemed to only have a mild interest in staying on her body, occasionally billowing with her movement, revealing the well defined muscles of her midsection . Her tight sky blue shorts only accentuated her womanly curves, forcing saren's eyes down her well sculpted legs to her grey running shoes.
"Morning naomi. Ya get laid last night or something? You're practically glowing." He joked as he stood up to greet her, their 4 inch height difference becoming obvious as he titled his head down slightly to look in her eyes, which were in the process of rolling in annoyance at Sarens comment.
"No, i didn't "get laid", i just woke up feeling really good today. Thanks for ruining it though." She replied as she lightly swatted his arm.
"It's what I'm here for." He replied with a grin.
Naomi can't help but return the smile, as they bantered "ah yes, our daily reminder that life is a vacuum of never-ending misery and torment! Thank you for doing your job sk diligently good sir! Truely, we would be lost without you." She replies melodramatically
Saren laughs "your quite welcome my fair lady. So, ya know if Miss Sato is gonna show today?"
Naomi shrugs "no idea. But hey, if she wants to keep paying us to workout, im all in."
"Oh? Perhaps i should switch to only paying you when we're actually working out together then?" Both heads turned to find Asami sato grinning at them as she joined their banter. She was dressed in a red t-shirt and grey shorts, both emblazoned with her companies logo.
"see, thing is, then we'd both be homeless in a month. I mean, ya hardly ever come around any more." Saren replied, really only half joking.
"You're right." Asami sighed "it's just that things have been kinda crazy lately."
Noami scoffs ""lately"? You say that like its over." Asami opens her mouth to reply, but naomi keeps going "Girl, you've gone and made yourself part of "team avatar", things aren't just gonna calm down after a couple good adventures."
The mood suddenly got a lot heavier as the truth of those words sunk in to saren and Asami.
"... perhaps," saren said after a pause "Naomi and i should start looking for other clients, after all, you're still sticking to your workout schedule right?"
Asami was stunned by those words. Was this really how it was between them? Had she been neglecting two of her oldest friends? She's shaken from these thoughts by a hand on her shoulder, and looks up to see saren smiling at her
"Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we won't still be friends." He says "i just feel like I'm robbing you when ya pay us to come train without you for days at a time."
Asami nods "right, i get that… alright, you guys look for other clients, and I'll manage my own workouts from here on." Saren and naomi nod sadly. They would both miss this. "But here's the catch. We have one last spar. Right here, right now. And you're both staying on the payroll till you get new jobs."
Saren laughs "one last spar? Ya make it sound like me and Naomi are going off to war."
"Seriously," Naomi agreed. "Didn't ya hear saren? We're still gonna be friends."
"I know." Asami says, as she backs away from them and gets into stance, awaiting the spar "i just get this feeling it won't be the same after today…"
The other two nod. Saren had a similar feeling. Like something was changing today. More than just his employment situation.
Saren and Naomi readied themselves as Asami donned a confident smirk. "Who's frist?" The young CEO asked tauntingly.
Saren and Naomi both looked at one another.
"Ladies first?" Saren asked.
"Of course." The white haired beauty replied as she gestured for saren to step onto the mats. A mischievous smirk quickly alleviating Saren's confusion.
"Caty." He said as he stepped on the mats "ya ready Sato? I figure for our final spar as boss and subordinate I may as well finally take off the training wheels."
Asami chuckled "Riiiiight, cause i haven't heard that one before. Show me what ya got Saren."
And without another word, they begin, the two experienced fighters practically danced around one another as they traded blows, neither really having the edge at first. Saren was fast and precise, but Asami was just as fast, if not faster. More flexible too. Saren quickly found himself on the backfoot.
If he was honest with himself, he was incredibly proud of Asami. Despite her actually being slightly older than him, Saren took to martial arts at a much younger age, since his father was a personal trainer as well. He was actually Asami's first teacher, often teaching both Asami and Saren.
One day Saren brought a friend from school with him. They had a project to study for so he planned to just inform his father that he had to miss that day's training.
But surprising them both, when saren had turned to his new friend to show her to his house, she was staring at Asami practicing with a dummy. A 9 year old Naomi had said,"... that looks like fun. Could i come try it too sometime?"
From there things just fell into place, their friendship, and Saren and Naomi's eventual jobs.
Saren was dragged back from memory lane when Asami grinned and said "don't get distracted in a fight!" She then went for an uppercut that surely would knock Saren flat on his ass.
It did. But not in a way any expected. He reacted, dodging the punch, but not expecting the galeforce that suddenly knocked him up into the air. He flew 10 feet back, and just as he thought he would land on hardwood with a concussion, another burst of air had slowed his decent, allowing him to land on his back with only mild discomfort.
Naomi, Asami, and saren all stared at kne another. "..."
The room was silent.
"W-what was that?" Naomi croaked out, surprised by the cracking of her own voice.
Saren was utterly confused.
But Asami knew exactly what happened. She has seen korra do it many times… she and Saren had just bent air.