Chapter 6: Broken

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Asami Sato, if anything, was incredibly brilliant. At twelve years old, she graduated high school and the following autumn, went to school at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. She graduated with two undergraduate degrees, one in mechanical engineering, and the other in aerospace engineering, and also a minor in international business, when she was sixteen years old. After she finished her undergrad, she moved on to complete her Masters in international relations, and by the time she was nineteen years old, she was the CEO of her own company, Future Industries. It had not come to her completely on her own; the company had been started by her father, but while she had been completing her Masters, her father had made some poor choices, resulting in debt, and imprisonment. Saving her father's company had been Asami's final project in completing her Master's degree.

As equally brilliant, Asami Sato was generous, kind, and beautiful. Everyone wanted a job at Future Industries because Asami always ensured her employees had outstanding health, dental, and education benefits, as well as advancement opportunities for themselves and their families. She also awarded numerous scholarships and grants to the kids of her employees so they could pursue higher learning regardless of their family's financial background. She was one of the most influential and powerful individuals in the country, yet she made sure to keep a low profile, more often than not, being represented by someone close to her rather than appearing in person for any publicized event, and almost nobody knew what she really looked like. In doing so, she was less often recognized when she went out in public, and she wanted to keep it this way. She had appeared several times on the cover of business and science and times magazines, but either her back was to the viewer, or only a portion of her face was shown.

Asami owned several properties; a penthouse just above her company headquarters where she worked, a few vacation homes outside of the country, and two houses in her home town. One, she had inherited from her father; the beach house were a former marine plagued with nightmares of her past was being housed to recover. The other, she inherited from her deceased mother. It was a ranch, just outside of town, where she had a handful of people who lived there and helped tend to her horses. There was the main house, where she lived when she was home, and there was the workers' quarters, a cluster of houses each big enough to house a family of four. The stable hands lived in apartments just above the barn and had worked the ranch since before she had been born. After her father was sent to jail, Asami had had a garage built just for when she felt like tinkering on her old car and motorcycle projects.

It was here where her best childhood friend found her. Her hair was pulled back and she was covered head to toe in protective clothing as she concentrated hard on the piece of metal she was welding.

"Asami!" Opal had to call out several times and jump up and down while waving her hands at a distance before she finally got her attention. Asami shut off her tools and lifted her helmet. Opal noticed she looked exhausted, even though she smiled at her. "What are you doing? I got your text; I thought you had a meeting this morning."

"Oh…" Asami rapidly blinked her tired eyes as she took off her gloves and came around her work center to Opal. "Um, no, I called Zhu Li and had her meet with Varrick instead. I… I was busy this morning."

"Busy?" Opal repeated folding her arms and lifting an eyebrow. "What were you doing?" she gestured to the shop. "You weren't in here the whole time were you?"

"Um… no." she set her gloves down and removed the rest of her gear then motioned for Opal to follow her. "It's a…" she took a deep breath and rubbed the back of her neck. "It's a long story."

"Can't be that long. I just saw you last night." Opal pondered for a short moment then frowned slightly. "Does it have something to do with that soldier girl? Korra?" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her friend turn the most delicate shades of pink. They were on their way down the path which led to the house, when Opal stood in front of Asami and put her hands on her shoulders, stopping her in her tracks. "What happened? Did she hurt you?" she asked, her eyes flashing protectively.

"No!" Asami exclaimed. She shook her head and removed her friend's hands. "No, she didn't. She…" she hesitated.

"What? Asami I'm your best friend, what?" Opal pried, not failing to notice that Asami was avoiding meeting her eyes.

"She… she kissed… me." She said with some difficulty.

Opals eyes widened and Asami felt her heart beginning to sink. "What?" she raised an eyebrow and folded her arms. "Shit, did you tell her you have a girlfriend?"

Asami nodded. "Yeah," she said weakly.

"And?"

She continued to avoid Opal's gaze but she could feel the younger woman's dark green eyes burning a hole in her cheek. "Well…" her cheeks grew even warmer as she recalled last night and this morning; everything from Korra's hands on her body, her lips on her skin, how she had made her feel so, fucking, good, and how she never wanted her to stop… She bit her lip, and she knew Opal understood even before she said anything.

"Gaawwwwdddd….." Opal groaned. "Asami…"

"I didn't… I just… I," she stuttered not able to find the right thing to say. Opal hit her arm. "Oooowww! Bitch?!"

"Bitch?! What the fuck Asami! You had sex with her! Actual, consensual, you both, not just her, but you too, fucking, wanted it¸ sex with her!"

"Goddammit Opal, could you not?!" Asami hissed, glancing around to see if any of her ranch hands was within listening distance.

"This is so fucked up, you know that right?" Opal continued on, ignoring her. "Zhu Li is going to be devastated."

"I'm not going to tell Zhu Li!"

"Yes you fucking are!"

"How could I?!" Asami cried, throwing her hands into the air. "You know what she's done for me, what she means to me, I can't just-,"

"You should've thought about that last night, Asami!" Opal scolded. "God," she lowered her tone and sighed exasperatedly. "I mean I could sense it I guess… that you didn't really want to be with her anymore. But I thought you'd at least have the decency to end it first before you moved on."

"I didn't plan this, it just happened!"

"YOU could have prevented it!"

"But I didn't even think it could happen! I didn't see any reason to break up with Zhu Li before, just because we aren't spontaneous and passionate and-," her voice cracked, "even in love anymore… we're good together. We're comfortable. We know each other. I still cared about her and I never ever imagined that I would ever meet someone who-," she paused and licked her lips. "I… I'd never wanted to cheat on her with anyone before. I don't know why, Korra, was different, I don't, I…" tears began to prick the back of her eyes and she looked up to force them back down. "I thought if I just stayed with Zhu Li, that this stale phase we're going through… that it would just…. eventually come to an end. And we could be… more. Just more. Again. I just didn't feel like I had a legit reason to break up with her."

"Even though you're not in love anymore?" Opal asked quietly.

"Couples fall out of love all the time," one of her tears fell, as her gaze shifted to Opal's shoes. She wiped it away. "That doesn't mean they just quit on each other."

"Yeah… but honestly Asami," Asami felt Opal's fingers on her chin and she looked up at her friend. "I don't believe you and Zhu Li were really ever in love. Not the way you wanted to be. You were nineteen when you started dating. Remember? That was when your father was sent to prison. You were devastated. Zhu Li helped keep you on track, and you leaned on her a lot. I never wanted to say anything before because you seemed to make each other happy, but… Asami you were broken. Broken just, is not a good state to start a healthy relationship in."

Asami sniffled and wiped her nose on the back of her hand. "How would you know…" she kicked the dirt and peered up at her friend. "You've never been in a serious relationship."

"Yeah well… shit, I read a lot of books and watch a lot of movies, what can I say?" she smiled slightly and the corners of Asami's mouth turned up a little in return. "Come here." She pulled her friend into an embrace, and squeezed her gently. "It'll be okay. But you will tell her. She deserves better and you know it."

Asami groaned into her friend's shoulder, but she knew she was right. "Fuck…" she mumbled, when they pulled apart. She wiped her eyes again. "Do you want to get coffee?"

Asami had to return to the city that night. She had too much to do, and she never liked to leave her company to other people for too long; especially when Varrick was in town. Varrick was a brilliant and extremely flamboyant businessman who served as Asami's most capable rival. The two of them had struck up a partnership and drawn up mutual understanding, but Asami never trusted him.

It was nighttime when Asami arrived at her penthouse, exhausted, and dreading both meeting with Varrick and Zhu Li, the latter being inside, waiting for her as she unlocked her door and stepped inside.

"Zhu Li? I'm home!" she heard movement in the kitchen and smelled something spicy cooking.

"Asami?" Her girlfriend appeared in a plain green dress, her forehead shiny with a thin layer of sweat, an apron tied around her middle, and tongs in her hand. "Hi honey," she said giving her a kiss and taking her bag. "How was your trip? Come in I'm almost finished making dinner." She disappeared into the bedroom to dispose of the bag while Asami slowly made her way to one of the barstools.

"It was good," she said, when Zhu Li reappeared. "I saw Opal's family again for the first time in years. Wei and Wing are running the restaurant now. How did it go with Varrick?"

"Oh you know Varrick…" she started plating the food as she talked. "He wanted to fly in his helicopter to have breakfast at his mansion in the mountains and wouldn't talk business until he had finished showing me every aspect of his new silkworm farm." She pushed her glasses up on her face. "Which reminds me; I have a gift for you from him. It's a red dress, he said it was the first thing he made from his silkworms and he would like you to wear it to the gala tomorrow night."

"Right, that stupid gala…" Asami muttered rubbing her forehead.

"Oh you know you secretly love them," Zhu Li teased, placing the food down in front of her. She untied her apron and produced a bottle of wine and two glasses. "And it's a very sexy dress, you'll look good in it."

"You know, I think he knows that I rarely ever attend those galas, and always send you in my stead. I'm pretty sure he was hoping to see you in it tomorrow." She jabbed her fork into the food. It was bucatini with spicy marinara and ricotta cheese, one of Asami's favorite dishes, but now it only made her stomach churn.

Her girlfriend scoffed slightly as she poured the wine and took her seat next to Asami. "Please, you know he's much too direct for that."

"I dunno, breakfast in the mountains is pretty romantic," she took a bite of pasta and felt Zhu Li glance at her.

"He just does that stuff. You know that." Asami shrugged, and took another bite. They ate the rest of their meal in silence, and Asami drained the rest of the wine left in the bottle.

Zhu Li looked at her, but didn't say anything as she took the empty plates to the sink.

"Zhu Li," Asami said, breaking the silence.

"Yes?" she replied without turning away from the dishes. Asami stood and came towards her. She wrapped her arms around the shorter woman's middle and put her face in her neck. Zhu Li craned her neck to give her a look of surprise. "Are you alright?"

"Eh." Asami replied.

Zhu Li put the sponge down and rinsed her hands before turning to face her girlfriend. "Are you sick?" she felt Asami's pale forehead, and the other woman swatted it away before she kissed her and ran her hands down to Zhu Li's backside.

"When was the last time we had sex?" Asami asked, her lips right at her ear.

"A few weeks ago maybe? I- Oh! Asami what has gotten in to you?" She pulled away, surprise decorating her usually placid face.

"Three months, two weeks, and a day."

"What?"

"The last time we had sex, was three months, two weeks, and a day ago. I remember because I'd just gotten back from my business retreat, and you looked really good in that yellow dress when I got home."

"Okay… so you like this dress too then?" She wrapped her arms around Asami's neck. "You want to have sex?"

"But why do we have to discuss it?" Asami pressed. "Why can't we just have sex? And why don't we do it all the time?"

"Because we're grownups, who work, and get tired, and don't always get home at the same time," Zhu Li shook her head and frowned. "Asami is something going on?" She studied her girlfriend's exasperated face, and ran her fingers through her hair. "What… what's this?" she pushed the hair off Asami's shoulder and studied a purple bruise on her neck. She touched it lightly with her fingertips, and Asami felt her heart plummet into the pit of her stomach. "That… woman. The Marine, from the trail. She's staying at your father's old beach house isn't she?" her voice was steady, and Asami nodded. "How is she?"

"She's fine," Asami whispered, not trusting her voice.

Zhu Li's fingers undid the top three buttons of the woman's shirt, and she pushed aside her collar, finding more, similar bruises decorating Asami's porcelain skin. "She must be more than fine… Amazing, I'd gather."

"Zhu Li-,"

"I guess it makes sense," her voice still calm and steady. "She's beautiful, tall, dark, strong, and complicated." She pushed her glasses up on her nose and stepped around Asami. "I'm plain, boring, small… and all I have ever done… is serve you."

"Zhu Li, please, it was just a mistake," she reached for her but Zhu Li backed out of her reach.

"I don't want to do this," she said. "I'm not going to." She turned away and headed for the door.

"So you're just going to leave?" Asami demanded, going after her. "You're not going to ask me why, or listen to me, or even try and fight for us?!" She jumped in front of the door barring her way.

"Let me go," Zhu Li demanded.

"No, this is bullshit. I cheated on you, I slept with someone else and you're just walking away; after three years, you're just walking away without trying to fix it; do you really not care why I did it?!"

"I know why you did it," Zhu Li snapped icily at her. "Because you don't love me. You needed me once, yes, and you might have grown fond of me at some point but you never loved me the way I loved you. I thought that if I stayed around long enough, and just kept loving you that one day you would feel the same way, but it never happened. I was so stupid to think that it would. So if you don't mind, despite the fact that I always knew this day would come, my heart is very, very broken right now, and I can't stand looking at you for another minute, so get out of my way."

"I did love you Zhu Li," Asami pleaded, tears springing to her eyes. "Please, don't go, we can talk about this, we can make this better-,"

"I am not going to tell you to move one more time," her voice was low and dangerous, and she no longer met Asami's gaze.

"Please," Asami whispered, but she stepped to the side, and Zhu Li grabbed her keys. "Please!" the door slammed in her face and Asami crumpled to the floor and screamed.

This couldn't be happening. Zhu Li was so good to her, too good to her. Why hadn't she just appreciated her? Why hadn't she just learned to love her the way she should have? She had never run Future Industries without her; what would happen now?

"FUCK!" She cursed Zhu Li for running away so easily, she cursed Korra for kissing her, and she cursed herself for allowing herself to end up here. She cried and she cried, until finally, it felt like her body was rid of all her tears. Slowly, as if her body was a rusted machine, she got to her feet. She went to the cupboard and her eyes darted from unopened bottles of wine, to the loose leaf green tea. She breathed, deeply, and sniffled, wiping her face on her arm.

She would not let herself fall to pieces. She couldn't. She was Asami Sato. She would make things right. She reached for the tea. Holding it, she recalled how many years ago her mother had made this exact blend for her after her first day of kindergarten. She smiled softly.

Asami Sato has to make things right. The first step in doing so, is taking care of herself.

She pulled out a mug, and set to work.


Hey, thanks for reading :) I'm too tired to put an actual note down here... Review?