A/N big thanks to beetlebum101 for writing this chapter! Hope you are all loving her take on Asami as much as I am.
Today will be a normal day.
I stared at myself in the mirror and repeated that mantra. My deceptively young features looked marred by stress along the brow-line. Worry lines my mother called them. These were beyond worry lines.
These were life-is-taking-an-unauthorised-detour lines.
Work continued to pile up; more so than was negotiated at the New York Office. This job was always going to be a step up but, right now, it just didn't feel like it was worth moving for. Instead of giving me a house, they gave me an allowance to do with as I pleased. My love of all things shiny and expensive made it harder to settle on a property. By the time I decided on my apartment I was so desperate I would have taken anything… within reason, of course. All things considered, I could have done worse.
Worse than wearing a fur coat out in midsummer?
Right from the word go that whole day was a write off. She was late. Late enough to make me late. I wanted to leave at 6:10am, which was the absolute latest I let myself leave for work. But I couldn't seem to make my body leave until I heard her in the hallway. I heard her footsteps along the corridor and I was suddenly flustered. I groped for the coat rack attached to the wall beside the door and fumbled my arms into the sleeves of the most inappropriate coat I owned, not realising until it was too late.
I had purposely made myself late just to catch a glimpse of Korra and now I wanted nothing more than to get away from her.
"Have you had breakfast?" She asked me. What the hell kind of question was that? A brown paper bag was outstretched towards me and when I refused it she said something that haunted me for the rest of the day: "Come on, I do this for my friends all the time."
For my friends. She thought of me as her friend. Was it even possible for her to think that? She barely knew me.
"Are you always this pushy with your neighbours?" I asked, taking the proffered bag, hoping it would help me get away quicker. I must have sounded a bit harsher than I intended because she almost seemed to recoil at my words and nervously pulled a hand through her hair.
"Just the ones I pass at six am."
It bothered me that her mood had shifted and, annoyingly, it bothered me even more that it was my fault. "Thank you," I said, smiling, hoping she would perk up again. Korra grinned back and I was satisfied I had done enough to leave. I walked away without another word.
"If you like it there's more where that came from," she called after me but I just kept walking, closing my eyes and letting out a breath. I instinctively tightened my grip on the brown paper bag until it became painful.
Said bag sat beside me in the passenger's seat as I drove to work, with me glancing at it every time I was stopped at a red light. I do this for my friends all the time. Korra's voice swirled through my mind again and again so I turned on the radio. It didn't help.
The bag came with me as I rode the elevator to the thirty-fifth floor and passed my slightly over-zealous personal assistant, before being placed at the corner of my enormous desk and ultimately forgotten about.
Hours passed in a haze of endless phone calls and pointless meetings and it did little to ease my concerns that this move was a big mistake.
"Zhu Li, can you come in here for a moment?" I said into the intercom and waited for my PA to come bounding in.
"Asami, what can I do for you?" Zhu Li asked, in a ridiculously upbeat voice, her pen poised.
"I need you to schedule a video conference with the office in Chicago. And I also need you to try and make sure Varrick doesn't find out about it."
Zhu Li glanced up at me and looked uncomfortable. "I'm not really sure I can do that…"
"Please, just try," I said. "It'll be easier for me to do this without his interference."
My assistant simply nodded and scribbled on her notepad. I went back to reading over the proposal in front of me when Zhu Li spoke again. "Do you want some coffee to go with your lunch?"
I frowned and looked up at her. "I'm sorry?"
She pointed her pen in the direction of the brown bag still sitting at the corner of my desk. "That's your lunch, right?"
My eyes were drawn to the bag and everything from that morning suddenly came flooding back to me. If you like it there's more where that came from. "I suppose it is, yeah," I replied quietly, my gaze not moving.
"So, do you want some coffee?"
Her voice snapped me out of my brief internal musings. "Oh, um, yes," I said, straightening myself in the chair. "That would be great, thank you." Zhu Li looked at me strangely, it was just for a split second but I saw it, before smiling and disappearing from my office.
I stared at the bag again. I hadn't eaten anything all day and I was sure my stomach was about to growl at any moment. I leaned forward and grabbed it, reaching inside without hesitation. I pulled out what looked like some kind of breakfast bagel with bacon and cheese on it. It was a little soggy, the bacon was cold and the cheese wasn't at its best, but as I took a bite, I couldn't help but think that it was the best damn bagel I'd ever had in my life.
A/N Thanks for reading