He said, "One day, you'll leave this world behind
So live a life you will remember"
My father told me when I was just a child
"These are the nights that never die"
My father told me
-Avicii
The Nights
Chapter 18 - The Room Where Everything Began
Korra has walked these halls hundreds of times. She's never thought twice about them. They're nothing special. When she rounds a corner, she stops in her tracks at the sight and sound.
The scene is one she's all too familiar with. One by one, weary students make beelines out of the classroom. She knows all too well how they're feeling. Fierce reminders and farewells travel to where she stands, sending a shiver down her spine.
Is that how I looked last semester after the first few weeks? Damn, I must've looked terrible and there Asami was looking as beautiful as ever even after working at Future Industries.
Last but not least is Beifong. She makes her way down the opposite hall, oblivious that one of her former students is rooted to her spot at the other end.
Considering it's after nine in the evening – no surprise there – Beifong being the last to leave doesn't say much. Korra always made a beeline out of Beifong's class or was too distracted by Asami to pay any attention to her, but she has a feeling Beifong is the type of professor who'll stay until all her students have left.
The hard exterior and occasional snarls are only her face value. Those who truly appreciate her and respect her will see her true value.
That reminds Korra of someone else she knows.
Like a spider moth to a flame, Korra's drawn to the classroom. She doesn't immediately gaze into that room. Instead, she takes in the room plate for a reason unknown to her. She slides her hand over it, committing the number to memory, then moves onto the room.
Her grin grows wider, all the memories rushing back. She can picture her class from last semester – well, the important parts. Beifong in the front lecturing on and on for three hours, herself trying to pay attention and get a passing grade, and Asami in the front right corner playing with her hair and secretly scheming and distracting Korra.
Korra doesn't like that picture and changes it. Asami sitting right next to her instead of the front right corner of the room looks so much better, so right. It gives her the opportunity to observe all her cute mannerisms and see firsthand how she thinks, something so few can do. Having a front row seat to soak in her beauty is a wonderful benefit too.
Korra prefers the later classes. She doesn't exactly like being in class or at school this late at night though. But tonight, she elects to stay a little longer.
Nostalgia overtakes her as she makes the short trek to the area she'd sit in. Sitting in a desk has her grinning like a fool to an empty room. It's better than bumbling like an idiot in front of Beifong and everyone else. Without anyone to judge her, she can let her thoughts wander without punishment or teasing.
It's actually nice to be back in the room where everything began.
There are dozens of classrooms that look identical to this one. But none of them will ever tell the story, ever hold the memories that this one has. Damn, I'm getting all sentimental because this is where I met the love of my life for the first time.
The trip down memory lane and thinking how much her life has changed makes Korra initially miss the vibrations from her phone. When she looks at the screen, her smile splits her face in half.
"Hey, Sato." Korra leans her elbows against her desk with a dopey grin.
"Hey, love. Did you get lost? You're always ready to get as you claim, 'away from this shitshow' before me."
"Nope." She glances up at the front right corner, wishing Sato could manifest there with just one look. "Hey, can you come meet up with me? I'm in room S257."
Asami either doesn't remember the room number for their Civil and Criminal Law class or doesn't believe it's a big deal. Korra believes it's the former and is proven right when Asami halts in the doorway.
"Hey, Sato," Korra greets, relaxing back in her seat. "Remember this place?"
"Remember?" Asami snorts, bypassing Korra and taking a seat in the front right corner. She faces the front and assumes the role of a diligent student. It's not complete without playful hair twirling, deep red nail polish catching Korra's eye.
"I might not have realized what you were up to until I started walking here, but best believe me, I'll always remember this place." With no warning, she swirls around and shoots Korra her best mischievous expression and winks. "I'll always remember and cherish our shenanigans in this room. I remember how shocked you looked when Beifong announced we'd be paired up together."
"Then you stalked me like I was your prey and acted all innocent," Korra grumbles and pouts. The look she sends Asami tells her that only her pride was wounded for not reading the signs. "Can't you come over here? You belong here instead of up there." Korra pats the desktop to her right.
"I have a better idea, love."
Asami sashays over to the door, making Korra believe she's going to leave and calls to her. Faster than Korra can comprehend, Asami adjusts the desktop to as far out as it goes and settles herself sideways in Korra's lap.
Like it's second nature, Asami's arms wrap around Korra's neck while Korra's arms go around her center to support her. It's not without Korra trying to form words and blushing as if they're defiling the classroom.
They're being perfectly innocent…well, depends who's watching and if they know what shenanigans they got into during the previous semester.
"Ah, much better." Asami sighs happily, burying her nose in Korra's neck. "I much prefer this seat."
"So, it's my ass that has to sit on this cheap plastic while you get to sit in my lap?"
"Best seat in the room. My ass deserves the lap of luxury, doesn't it?" Asami teases in a husky voice into Korra's ear, going so far as to tug on her lobe and cause her knee to jerk into the desktop. "I think it's only fair given you shamelessly gaped at me last semester. It's a shame I couldn't sit here during the semester."
"You're not entirely innocent in all this. One of these days, Sato, one of these days," Korra mutters, getting tangled into kisses by girlfriend. "But seriously, do have any urgent business meetings tomorrow or some complex late-night projects? If you do, you need to stop kissing me so we can go."
"I'm sorry. The words 'stop' and 'kissing' do not belong together. Ever." A smoking kiss proves her point, followed by several shorter kisses. "I have something a little more exciting in mind."
Asami gives no more hints to her intentions and gets up from her lap of luxury. Korra immediately pouts and receives a consoling kiss and a whispered request to remain seated.
"No blindfold?" she jokes, relaxing back again.
"No blindfold for you." What's that mean?"
When Asami collects her hair and pulls it into a professional bun, Korra's mind goes to the gutter and looks out into the hall.
"Love, as much as I'd enjoy a snack right now, getting caught by campus security in the room that Lin's monopolized doesn't spell out good publicity."
Asami smooths her clothes down, touches up her lipstick, and takes her position in the front of the classroom. The finishing touch is slipping on her glasses.
"Miss Waters, class is in session." She taps the front desk to draw Korra out of her stupor, picks up a marker and begins drawing something on the board, all with a smirk on her freshly done up lips that are hidden from Korra's view.
Are you freaking kidding me?! She's pulling out the Professor Sato attitude now and really looking the part in her fancy Future Industries clothes. The glasses! The hair! The lipstick!
With her backside turned, Korra's eyes drift down to stare at Sato's – erhm, Professor Sato's – lovely ass in that fitted black skirt of hers. Unless Sato has the ability to know the future, she couldn't have methodically planned on this exact scenario. Only that Korra would be staring at her ass which isn't a farfetched speculation.
How calculating and strategic that woman is. I love all of her, but this part of her posterior in this setting is doing things to m-
"Waters!"
Korra's sightline snaps up to meet the gaze of the annoyed professor. Her arms are crossed, a judgmental eyebrow raised, and impatiently tapping one heel. Spirits, she's beautiful.
"Yes, Professor?" Korra says it as a reflex, thinking back on all the times she was in this exact situation with Beifong. At least now there aren't spectators to witness her humiliation.
"What do you make of the scenario?" Sato points to her illustration on the board. Asami's no artist, but Korra has to give her credit, it's a lot better than Beifong's. Though, she still can't make any sense of it.
"Can you repeat the scenario…Professor?" Korra drawls the last word with a cocky grin, leaning forward to give her utmost attention.
Asami huffs, keeping in character. "Waters, does there seem to be a problem in my classroom that removes your full attention from my teachings?" You devastatingly distracting me.
"No, Professor. Please, I'd like to hear your scenario and work through it."
Asami does her best Beifong impression and begins pointing to various depictions of her scenario.
"You are exiting your vehicle when an infuriated woman slams the door on your hand. Your hand is now crippled. You do not know this woman and have not seen her before. She forces you out of your vehicle, severely injures you in a struggle, zip ties your hands behind your back, blindfolds you, and locks you in a vehicle. She drives you somewhere until you're brought to a building and locked in a room without windows and no apparent escape route. What offensives have been committed against you and what does the law say about this?"
"Why am I always beaten and bloodied?" Why can't I ever be a subject in a nice scenario where I'm not a victim or dead?
"Waters, I'm not asking you again!" she snaps, playing the part perfectly. "Demonstrate what you have learned from me." I've learned how insanely hot you are roleplaying as a professor in a classroom.
No matter how hard Korra analyzes Asami's drawings, she cannot come up with an answer that she knows will be satisfactory to her. She'll have to make due with her half-assed answer.
"I've been assaulted, kidnapped, and held hostage."
"And?"
"Emotional distress charges?" she stutters, yielding to the fierce professor's gaze that cracks after a moment and gives way to a smile pulling at her lips.
"I'd hope you would experience emotional distress at being held captive against your will and restrained in a strange place, Waters. This doesn't even consider the psychological after effects assuming you'd get rescued or find an escape route. If not, I'd be worried about your well-being beforehand."
"I'll take that as a compliment, Professor."
"Waters, you have been victim to battery and false imprisonment, intentional torts. You mentioned assault which is the intentional causing of fear or apprehension of imminent offensive touching of another individual. Battery is the intentional, unwanted offensive touching of another. Because you have never seen this woman before and she pounces on you, there is no assault. There is only battery, the actual action of injuring you."
"Sounds like a lovely woman," Korra mutters, thinking how unlikely this scenario would be. "But I could take her down."
"It is all hypothetical, Waters. However, it's reassuring that you could defend yourself in such a situation if it were to arise. Moving on, false imprisonment is the intentional confinement or restraint of person for an appreciable period of time against their will. The loophole that varies from situation to situation is if there's a reasonable way to escape that is known. If available and known, then it would not be false imprisonment."
"That's a very misleading legal term, Professor. False implies it is not true, doesn't it? Shouldn't it just be imprisonment?"
"I did not create law or its terms, Waters. But if you must know, the false is in reference to it being unlawful imprisonment. My job is to merely teach it to you and your peers and take advantage of any legal loopholes for professional and personal purposes." Asami smirks when Korra's jaw goes a little slack at her strategic confession. "What? With my daily responsibilities, I am well versed in legal proceedings to stay within the law and ethical so my stakeholders can achieve maximum value. After all, they're the ones who keep us in business."
"I'm sorry. Am I talking to Asami Sato, heiress of Future Industries, or Professor Sato?"
"Who would you like to be speaking to, Waters?"
It's a simple enough question. It's playful, but it has Korra pausing. Not because it's a tough question, but because she wants to find the right words to express what she desires from her.
"Asami. Just Asami, the woman I love and found in this very room where everything began."
The act of Professor Sato and the hardships of Asami Sato instantly wash away. Taking their place is a young college woman having the best time of her life. She swipes her glasses off and retakes her seat on Korra's lap, smiling into their kisses.
As Korra tastes her smile, their kisses make her recall a faded memory. An event that was at the bottom of Korra's priority list all things considered.
"Hey," she says quietly, pulling away just enough to speak, "did you happen to write a review for Beifong online?"
That has Asami pulling back to a respectable distance with a perplexed look. "No?" Confusion morphs into amusement. "That's not exactly something a woman wants to hear when she's in her girlfriend's lap and kissing her."
"I swear, none of the Beifongs do anything for me in that regard. Only you do." The two share a chorus of laughs before she continues, one hand slipping down to where a faint scar lies. "It's just, before the whole appendix crisis, Opal found a review online that sounded like me, but I never wrote a review for Beifong."
"We're calling a useless organ trying to kill me a crisis now?" Asami argues with a smile then hands Korra her phone. "Show me. Maybe it's Kuvira yanking your chain again."
It takes Asami less than two minutes to solve the seemingly unsolvable mystery.
"You wrote this when you were trashed on Four Nations Fusion night. I distinctly remember that date because that's the date I was cooped up in my room all day fixing my teammates' errors."
"What?" Korra says, shocked Asami can deduct that just from a date. She whips out her own phone and pulls up that date. And what does she know? Asami's right. Of course. "Fuck! I'm surprised it's not riddled with spelling errors."
"Me too, love. But it's kind of adorable too." She giggles, bringing their lips together again. "Whoever wants the inside scoop of Beifong will now be searching for love in her classroom."
"Asami!" Korra gazes at her with a serious expression. "You can't ever tell Beifong about this. Don't show her this review. Don't tell her I gave this review. Take this to the grave!"
"Am I really the one you should be worried about? Shouldn't you be more concerned with Kuvira?" At Korra's realization, Asami softens up and cradles her face, showering her in kisses. "Don't worry, my love. I will protect you from all of the vicious Beifongs. Free of charge."
"Free of charge? I can't possibly accept such terms and conditions. Please, let me offer something else in exchange for you to accept."
"Very well," Asami muses, playing along in their little banter. She lays a kiss on Korra's cheek. "Seeing as how we're not negotiating a contract, there's no need to evaluate the validity of our terms and conditions. But all I require of you is all the love you have to offer me."
And just like that, Asami's able to sum up where they started and where they are now. Unable to resist any longer, Korra smashes their lips together and takes another swing of vanilla bean lips. Yet another reminder of how far they've come. But no matter how much time passes, Korra will never tired of their lips together or having her body pressed against hers.
For some time, the two remain there, complaining about classes and unreasonable colleagues. With no academia mandated time together anymore, they don't get to see each other as often as last semester, but they make it work. It makes the time they do get to spend together all the more precious.
Even if it is at school and in the most uncomfortable furniture known to man. It's a small price to pay to be here and together right now.
"This may be the last time we're in this classroom together," Korra mentions as they collect their things to head back to her apartment.
"Love, my father has made substantial donations to this university. Granted, a majority of them were designated for the engineering and business departments, but, nonetheless, the Sato family has connections. If I have anything to do with it, we'll have the right to visit this room whenever we please."
"Of course, you do."
In the doorway, the two take one last look at the room where everything began. That's the funny thing about college. One semester seems like a lifetime ago, but is really mere months ago.
Everything fell into place perfectly for them.
Now, it's time for them to move onto the next chapter of their lives together.
You were good to us, S257. May we meet again someday.
Hand in hand, the two walk of the doorway and begin their walk to Asami's car. They're welcomed with the winter's cold. Clear skies are above them, the stars and full moon greeting them.
Her heart stumbles at the sight of Asami. As beautiful as the stars and moon are, neither are as stunning as Asami. Their light accentuates her soft features, highlights her gorgeous green eyes. When their light is mixed in with the lights of her dashboard, Korra swallows.
How did I ever get so lucky to have her?
"Ready?" Asami asks after letting the engine warm up some, shifting into drive but not lifting her foot yet.
"With you, I'm always ready."
"Then let's go."
Asami loudly revs the engine, speeding out of RCU's parking lot. Korra laughs, remembering her doing that after that fateful night. Now she just does it to show off even if she knows it's not good for her vehicle and knows her father would give her a stern lecture about it if he ever learns about her misdeeds.
She's claimed it's worth it to see the shocked – with a hint of terror – expression on Korra though. Each and every time, it's not without her freely laughing and occasionally a joke. If that's the best Asami's got, Korra will gladly accept it. It's worth it to see her so free from the driver's seat.
"You hanging in there, Waters?"
"With you, I always will, Sato."
That woman's name is Sato before anything else to everyone else. Though Sato will always have a special place in her heart, she is Asami before anything else for Korra. And Korra can't wait for what else the spirits have in store for them.
As Korra and Asami.
Posted and Completed: July 10, 2022
We returned to where Korra and Asami's story began and another story complete.
I don't know if I'll be back, but for now, this is farewell everyone. The biggest thank yous go out to each and every one of you who's supported Our Times That Never Die. All of you are the best.