Ch. Summary:

The vine issue in the city gets personal for Asami

Notes:

I'm still in need of a beta reader...

Chapter 2

"So was he slimy? Did he smell bad? I had to stay in the house so I didn't get to see him good but he looked like he'd be slimy - "

"Meelo! For the last time, no, my uncle Unalaq did not turn into a slimy spirit monster. Just a regular one. Now will you please leave me alone, I'm trying to meditate."

"No you're not. You're getting up and moving around. You're not supposed to move around when you're meditating."

Korra sighed and opened her eyes to shoot Meelo a pretty convincing you'd-better-leave-me-alone-or-else look, which of course didn't phase him.

The torrent of questions was unleashed. Again.

She knew Meelo was just curious and wanted to hang out with her but spirits it took a lot of patience to not just airbend him right back in the house.

Even if she had ten more hands she still wouldn't be able to count on her fingers how many questions he'd had asked her about her vanquishing Unalaq.

At first it was pretty flattering and fun; it's pretty cool to brag about manhandling a spirit monster, but enough was enough days ago.

"Meelo, kid, you're driving me nuts."

"You're welcome for that!"

Okay, patience worn thin.

Before Korra could earthbend Meelo across the island, Bumi (and Bumju) caught her eye walking up the hill towards the meditation pavilion.

Instantly her spirits lifted – Meelo adored Bumi and was infatuated with Bumju; the both of them together was definitely enough to get him off her hands.

"Oh hey! Bumi! What's up?"

Korra tried to give Bumi her best please-save-me-this-kid-is-driving-me-up-the-wall look from over Meelo's shoulder.

"Oh hey, Bumi! Right on time, just the guy I wanted to see!"

Bumi walked up to them with a quizzical look on his face, clearly directed at Korra.

"Oh. Hey there, kiddos. Just came by to say you got a phone call. Some official avatar business."

Korra knew full well this "avatar business" Bumi spoke of was probably something to do with the vines, but really at that moment it couldn't have mattered less.

Well, really it's moving from one annoyance to another but hey….

Korra sat up and dusted her pants off as Meelo ran over to Bumi and made grabby hands at Bumju.

"Can I hold him uncle Bumi? I won't squeeze him."

"Well that's not up to me, it's up to Bumju! And he says no."

"That's not fair!"

"No, whats not fair is you squeezing poor Bumju to death. How can he trust you again?"

With a derisive snort Meelo conjured up an air scooter and ran a ring around Bumi before taking off and sticking his tongue out at Korra and his uncle.

"That kid is nuts! Cute as a button, though" Bumi said, stroking Bumju behind the ears.

"He reminds me of me as a kid. Not as cute of course, but still there's family resemblance."

"Uh huh. So, where's the avatar needed for some avatar business?"

Bumi opened his mouth to say something then paused.

"Hm."

"Hm?"

"Yeah, hm. I forgot."

Korra was beyond exasperated.

"Okayyyy….well…that doesn't help me much. Or at all."

"Yeah, I'm sorry, kid. I'm getting forgetful in my old age!"

Bumi said this with a grin and a sweeping gesture Korra thought was supposed to be humorous but the only thing running through her mind was president Raiko dragging her over coals about being absent from the city's problems.

Ever since the vines first burst into the scene at Republic City everyone turned to Raiko for answers, which of course he had none of, so he dumped the entirety of the situation on Korra.

But, to honest, she did have a hand in causing the problem, and she was the avatar.

Originally she thought she'd be done with them in days; how much trouble can some vines be?

Lotsof trouble as she soon found out. Nothing was working – firebending, trying to cut the vines at the root, trying to unearth them – Korra was at a complete and utter loss and therefore so was Raiko.

What a pain….

Korra thanked Bumi for his "help" and headed back to the house. She'd grab her glider and head over to Raiko's office, as she was pretty sure he was the one who called (as far as she knew not everyone in the city had Tenzin's phone number).

The day was nice so she'd at least be able to enjoy the fly over before facing Raiko's transparent anger.

Reaching the house she took off her shoes (as Pema had let her know on multiple occasions how often she forgot to do so) and headed for her room, stepping over one of Meelo's lemurs which was asleep in the hallway.

"Oh, Korra! Did Bumi tell you about your call? And can you please throw that lemur outside, the last thing I need is more animal hair coating this house…."

"Hey Pema. Yeah he….kinda told me" Korra said, picking up the lemur, which chattered and thrashed violently before flying further off into the house.

"Auuugh! I keep telling Meelo to keep those things out; I swear once one gets in it takes days to get it out." Pema started off down the hallway, presumably to start her days-long lemur extraction, and paused to look back at Korra with a confused expression.

"What do you mean he 'kind of' told you?"

"He just said that someone called about some avatar business. But he forgot who called."

Pema's look of confusion changed instantly to one of amusement.

"Really? How could he have forgotten, he was just here…well it was Asami Sato who called. Something about a vine…. I can't remember, sorry. I wish I could help more."

"No, no, that's great! Thanks Pema!"

"Thankyou Korra for taking off your shoes."

Korra snagged her glider and stepped out, hoping to maybe catch Naga and give her a good scratch behind the ears before she left.

Naga was nowhere to be found (probably with Jinora), so she took off immediately for the city.

It would be fun to talk to Asami again, even if it was due to the vines.

The two of them had been hanging out pretty frequently lately; sometimes with Bolin but mostly just them.

Their main haunt was the racetracks – it was dead easy for Asami to get great seats, and there were even a few times when Korra watched Asami participate, just like last year when they met.

Asami kept asking Korra if she wanted to race, but that never really reached any fruition. As much as she hated to admit it it kind of embarrassed her how she was supposed to be the most powerful person in existence but couldn't drive to save her life.

She was looking forward to seeing Asami, but it was pretty tempting to take a bit of a detour and fly over the city.

Despite the huge heap of problems they were causing for her and everyone else in the city, the vines were actually pretty cool.

She liked the view of the city from above - all the buildings and vines wrapped up together looked so unique.

Jinora had told Korra before numerous times that she should just leave the vines be; obviously they weren't going anywhere, and why would she want to get rid of them anyway when they were where the spirits lived?

While Korra did have a bit….of an issue with "displacing" the spirits who lived there, the comment about them obviously not going anywhere irked her badly.

If I can vanquish Unalaq and Vaatu I can pick some huge spirit weeds….or I should be able to anyway…

As she approached Asami's backyard she saw she was already outside on the balcony in her room. She was sitting at a round tea table with her legs crossed, reading the newspaper.

She was wearing a brooch in her hair Korra hadn't seen before and it caught her eye instantly; Asami was so good at choosing things like that, like jewelry and makeup.

To be honest at first Korra thought it was kind of pointless to care about those things but that's just another thing that changed when she started to befriend Asami.

There had been a few times recently when she'd been out in the city and seen jewelry – bangles and whatnot and thought they looked nice but didn't really know if she could pull it off.

Truth be told Korra didn't really want to wear any of them herself, but she liked the thought of buying something like that for Asami.

Or more like she liked that thought if she had any idea of how to pick something like that out…

Korra swooped down and landed with a flourish, hoping Asami would notice (she'd been practicing this landing, it looked really cool) but she was still glued to her newspaper.

"Heyyyy Asami. I heard you called. Avatar stuff, and whatnot."

Asami glanced up and smiled at Korra (she was wearing a darker shade of lipstick today, too) and said she'd be ready to leave in just a minute.

"I guess Cabbage Corp is planning to unveil a new airship design…This is all very timely..."

"Timely?"

Korra propped her staff up against the railing and moved to take a seat next to Asami. Maybe they could catch a bite to eat later?

Noodles? Noodles sounded pretty good but it'd been a while since she'd had dumplings.

"Yeah. Turns out Future Industries has been hit by a bit of an issue. Or three issues. This morning when one of my engineers was doing inventory in one of our storehouses, and suddenly three huge vines sprouted up and tore through the roof."

Asami set down her newspaper and sighed deeply, massaging her temples.

Korra couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt at this.

She knew Future Industries was struggling to get back on top after the whole Varrick debacle even though that was more or less sorted out.

That on top of property destruction via vines was such a double whammy she couldn't help but feel awful for Asami having to deal with so much.

"I know you've got a lot on your plate with this vine situation, and I know nothing you've been trying so far has worked, but I'd appreciate it so much if you can try and help me with this. I haven't been to see the damage yet but from what I was told it's pretty substantial."

Asami ran her fingers through her hair and checked her watch before yet another deep sigh.

"Well I haven't even dealt with this yet and I'm already feeling like I've been wrung dry. Do you want to get something to eat after this? There's this dumpling stand I've heard about from my attendant that I've been wanting to try. And I know I'm going to need some comfort food after this."

"You had me at dumplings, Asami."

Korra was trying hard to suppress the grin threatening to break out on her face. Despite the bad news she was pretty pleased she and Asami were on the same wavelength about the dumplings.

"Well alright…we should get going" Asami said, standing and straightening out her skirt. "I'm driving, do you want to come with me? I don't think your glider is built for two."

"No it could work; I could totally just hold you - "

"…?"

"Uh… ha! Haha! What am I even talking about? Now's not the time for….jokes…."

What on Earth am I talking about!

Asami raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly before beckoning Korra to get up and join her.

"As tempting as the offer sounds I'm pretty sure it's not a good idea for me to be flying above the city in a skirt, showing off my underwear to the populace. I'll drive."

Korra gulped and stood to join Asami, almost walking out and forgetting her glider.

Okay, Vine Mode, Vine Mode….keep my mind on the vines, gotta figure out how to fix this….

As they headed out of the Sato mansion and into the garages to start up Asami's car Korra couldn't help but think about holding Asami in her arms and flying around the city like a hero.

They drove off towards the Future Industries storehouses and still the image was stuck on repeat in her head with no signs of stopping.

Seriously, what on Earth am I thinking…..