"You're already good at getting through the gates, Korra. Are you sure this is a good idea?" Jinora eyed her critically, but Korra waved her off.

"Look, Jinora, I've mastered the gates with my eyes mostly closed and I still can't airbend, so maybe I have to make it harder for myself, and that will be the key to unlocking airbending," Korra said as she strapped training weights around her ankles.

"Makes sense to me," Meelo said, zipping around Korra on his air scooter.

Jinora threw her hands up in the air. "But the whole point of being an airbender is to be light on your feet. Weighing yourself down is the opposite—"

Ikki jumped down from the tree she'd been hanging in and airbent to cushion her descent. "Don't listen to her, Korra. Jinora thinks she knows everything just because she's the oldest."

Korra stood and pushed up the sleeves of the stupid, baggy airbending garb Tenzin swore would help her feel the air currents better, but usually just got caught on the swinging edges of the gates. "Spin 'em, Jinora."

The younger girl frowned as she prepared to send a gust of wind at the training device. "Korra, are you sure?"

"I'm the Avatar!" Korra jabbed a thumb into her chest. "I got this!"

As soon as Jinora set the gates to spinning with a blast of air, Korra charged forward. And at first, she was fine; she found her inner leaf. Sidestepping the initial rotating panels was easy, even with the extra weight pulling at her ankles, and Korra didn't even come close to getting an elbow smashed or a shoulder clipped.

She grinned and progressed forward a little faster, pivoting and swiveling on the balls of her feet, only wavering slightly as the weights through her spiraling off by a few degrees. It was easy to compensate though; her leg muscles were sure and strong. With every passing second, though, Korra realized she felt no different than the other times she succeeded at passing through the panels. Maybe this wasn't challenging enough.

The other side was visible now. She was going to make it, no problem. Take that, Jinora! So close, she could see the individual tiles of the training courtyard. All she had to do was make it past three more and…

The moment she spun on her left foot to sail past the remaining obstacles, Korra knew she'd done it too quickly in excitement. The training weights tugged one way from the momentum of her previous spin, while her body followed through with her new motion. Her right elbow bounced off one panel. Her left knee hit another, setting her off balance and stumbling over her own feet. She gasped as she tripped right into the path of a rapidly twirling wooden panel. The ancient, carved board swung towards her face with alarming speed, too quickly for Korra to move. She raised her hands to do something but no air rushed to help her as the panel swung to smash her in the face. "Oh sh—"

Asami hit the breaks as hard as she could, and even leaned to the side to try and avoid the person who bolted right into her path, but it was too late. His tall frame bounced off the side of her scooter, sending him tumbling to the asphalt with a shout. She came to a screeching halt a few feet away, but before Asami could hop off her scooter, an aching sensation shot through her from her navel to the crown of her head.

She moved in a daze towards the boy as he sat up in the roadway, still reeling from the jolt of feeling someone else's injury and the fact that she just hit some innocent person, all within a second in between each event. As soon as her scooter was out of the way and she was close enough for the boy to hear hear, she let her panic seep out. "Oh no! I'm so sorry, I didn't see you!"

"How could you not see me?" The boy rubbed the back of his head, mussing up his black hair further, and glared up at her. "I mean I was ju-juuuuuuuh…" Amber eyes expanded, the boy's jaw dropped, and Asami had to bite her lip at how cute his face was as he flushed red.

That face. Strong, sharp features were smudged with dirt. He was also sweaty, his clothes were rumpled, and he looked worn out. She realized the boy could be hurt, though he didn't appear to be. "Are you okay? Did I hurt you? Ugh, I'm such an idiot." She bent down, hooked an arm around his left one, and helped him to his feet.

His face flushed anew at the contact. "Don't worry. I'm fine!" He brushed himself off. "My brother hits me harder than that every day in practice."

Every day? Practice? Asami squinted at the boy as he straightened the red scarf around his neck. His face was familiar. It struck her in an instant. "Wait, I recognize you. You're Mako, right? You play for the Fire Ferrets." A member of one of her favorite pro bending teams was standing right here, in front of her. She ran over one of the fabulous bending brothers.

Something clicked all of a sudden. If this was really Mako, he was a pro bender, and pro benders got beat up a lot in matches and practice, which would explain why she felt like she'd been tapped in the chest with an earth disk on more than one occasion in the past. How many had she seen Mako take this season alone? She remembered the unpleasantness that flooded her body a moment ago, which happened immediately after she hit him with her scooter. Could Mako be…?

"Yeah, that's me." He responded as if he was a little reluctant to, but his chest puffed out and he smiled all the same.

Wow, way to go, Asami. Run over a famous professional athlete and your possible soul mate. Heat tickled her cheeks. "I am so embarrassed!" Asami blushed as she stuck out her hand. "My name's Asami. Let me make this up to you somehow. Uh," she looked him up and down.

Quick, she had to think of something. This could be her soul mate standing in front of her. This could be her chance to get to know him, find out if he really was the one. She had to take him out somewhere and see if this was the real thing. At the very least, she'd make it up to him for mowing him down, even if he had run out in front of her without looking. "How about I treat you to dinner? Tomorrow night. Eight-o-clock. Kwong's Cuisine." She turned and started walking towards her scooter, not giving him an opportunity to turn her down, though judging by the way he looked at her suggested he wouldn't dream of it.

"Uh, Kwong's?" Mako looked down, hesitancy lacing his voice. "I don't have any clothes nice enough for a place that classy."

Asami bit her lip as she suddenly recalled the bio she'd read about the Fire Ferrets' team. Mako and his brother, Bolin, were from the streets. Guilt washed through her, but she fixed an assuring smile to her face. "I'll take care of that. All you have to do is show up." And she would, she thought as she slid on her goggles and climbed back on to her scooter. "So, it's a date?" A date with your possible soul mate?

Mako broke out into a ridiculously wide grin. "Uhh, yeah. I guess so. I'll see you tomorrow night."

The scooter fired up beneath her and with a swift nod, she was off. Asami glanced over her shoulder as she sped away and caught the unrestrained smile on the firebender's face. She couldn't wait for tomorrow night.

Hope you liked this chapter! As always, comments/questions/constructive feedback is appreciated!