My discord is doing another writing challenge this month! It's a weekend thing (more details and stuff on my ao3 acc) so enjoy!

Summer Grounds Prompt 1a: Campfire

"Fuck…"

Korra had barely arrived at this party ten minutes ago and her head was already about to bust. The ridiculous loud chatter and the sound of the music booming and echoing throughout the forest weren't helping. The vile smell of booze and tobacco was making her nauseous. Hell, even the smoky air caused by the handful of campfires was making her skin crawl. She seriously hated being in large crowds.

In fact, she had no intention of coming to this party. It was all her classmates' fault. They caught her on the way home when they were shuffling freshmen into buses to take them to the Spirit Wilds Forest. Despite her protest, she was shoved into the bus like a pack of sardines and just like that, she was stuck far far away from her dormitory.

What she would give for a ride back.

She hadn't even drunk any blood today either. What rotten luck. She woke up late to class and after a long and tiring day, she discovered that she was out of blood when she got home. Then, when she went to her usual local blood supply to get more, they were out of stock until the following morning leaving her starving until the next day. That's when she got nabbed by her upperclassman on her way home.

Korra couldn't help but click her tongue.

She was getting more irritable by the second. With no way of getting home, perhaps if she mingled around in some desolate corner, she could kill enough time until she could hitch a ride back. Yeah. That sounded like the most plausible plan. And so, she trudged through the heat of the party, dodging every high or drunk college student along the way. Someone almost tripped over her a few times but Korra managed to jump out of the way, only to run into another drunk kid with a solo cup in his hand. She was drenched in disgusting beer.

There goes escaping unscathed.

Now that her shirt was ruined, she shot the drunk guy a death glare before hearing a pop in the distance. A fire crackled and it drew Korra's curiosity. It sounded a lot more distant and a lot smaller compared to the ones she had passed along the way. Her legs carried her from there, she wandered off toward the source of the sound. She trudged through the woods, stepping on dead branches and leaves along the way. Walking at a slow and casual pace, she made it there in about fifteen minutes.

Needless to say, this area was far from the 'main' campfire, and if anything, if it wasn't for her good hearing, whoever was at this campsite would've remained alone. When she was finally close enough to this source of fire, the first thing she noticed was the smell of tobacco. Whoever was here was smoking but Korra could deal with it if it meant getting away from the large crowd. Taking a few last steps, Korra could finally see a silhouette. A silhouette of someone with long and black ravenous hair.

"Hey, I hope you don't mind," Korra spoke up to announce her presence. "Just trying to get away from the crowd."

The person turned and the moment Korra laid eyes on those vibrant, light green eyes, she blinked. This human had to be the most gorgeous woman Korra had ever seen in her life. The woman breathed out a puff of smoke before flicking off the ashes from her cigarette. She then eyed Korra up and down before shrugging slightly.

"Help yourself."

Even her voice was lovely.

"Thanks."

Korra gave her a small smile before sitting across from her. Not too close. Not too far. They ended up sitting in silence for a decent amount of time before Korra let her eyes flicker at the human again. She was… she looked tired, bored even. It made Korra curious. Why was someone like her here at this party and so far away from the crowd? If anything, she looked like she would be at the center of the crowd, the star of the group.

It was peculiar really.

The human took the last whiff of her cigarette before dropping the bud on the floor and smothering out the embers with her foot. She breathed out her last puff with a sigh before staring at the small campfire. Korra mirrored her actions and let her eyes take in the whimsical dance of the small flames. The fire waved back and forth and it was oddly calming.

That's when Korra flinched abruptly. Her hand snapped to her head in an attempt to ease the sharp pain that was tearing her head apart. Her jaw clenched and she felt her fangs growing for no damn reason. She knew the cause of these pains and she needed to get away.

"Are you okay?" The woman across from her called out.

Shit. She wasn't trying to attract attention. "Yeah…" her body was beginning to ache in so many places. "I'm okay, just tired that's all."

"You sure? You look a little… under the weather."

Korra's vision was beginning to split. Fuck, I have to go… "Yeah, don't worry about me. Just need some water that's all." She stood up to leave. She had to hide and fast. If this was what Korra was thinking it was, she needed to hide. A step was all she could manage before falling over with a heavy thud.

"Hey, you okay?!" The woman shot up from her seat and rushed over.

Korra couldn't suppress her pained grunt any longer before curling into a ball. "Fuck— fucking god dammit." She shouted in pain as her body snapped slightly. She was transforming and this was the worst thing that could happen in front of a human.

Vampires weren't exactly known to mankind.

They hardly knew about their existence in the first place and particularly in this day and age. They had a peace treaty but that didn't mean they were on good terms. Not to mention most humans would probably freak out if they knew about them let alone see one transform.

"Hey, talk to me! You okay?"

A pained shout was all Korra could manage before she was knocked out cold.

xXx

Asami was currently stunned into silence. One minute, she was decompressing with a smoke that she rarely did in the first place, the next, a fellow student was… was transforming? She was fairly certain that she didn't smoke anything weird so why were her eyes playing tricks on her?

Before she knew it, the cute girl who decided to sit across from her was gone in a flash. She was perpetually confused as she stared at this pile of clothes on the floor. The clothes meant that she wasn't imagining things… right? Her clothes were there. But then where did the girl go? That's when a slight movement caught her eye.

"What the…" she reached down to search through the scattered clothes. "What the fuck?"

What she found was… a small bat? She carefully scooped it up in the palms of her hands. It was… actually oddly cute. The little bat was curled into a small ball in her hands and it was shaking. Was it cold? She instinctively held it closer to her body to give it warmth.

"Asami…! Are you there?"

Asami immediately twitched at the sound of her name. She panicked before staring at the pile of clothes on the ground. What was she supposed to do? Nothing was making sense but she needed to react fast.

"Asami, ah— there you are! I was looking all over for you!"

For some reason, Asami was quick to hide the bat in her hands. She carefully hid it behind her back before facing the source of the voice.

"Hey Opal, what's up?"

"I was wondering where you've been. You're missing out on the party!"

Sighing at that, Asami frowned. "You know I hate these types of parties."

"But it's the only time we get to mingle and have free booze!"

She rolled her eyes at that. "I hardly doubt that. Parties are held basically every week."

Opal scoffed in return. "I meant this is the only one with campfires dummy. Free smores baby!"

Asami glanced at the fire. Free smores were nice. She could honestly finish a whole packet if someone didn't watch her.

"Oh? What the heck is that? Someone's clothes?"

Shit. She forgot about the clothes. "Oh, that? I think someone might have been getting frisky earlier. It reeks of booze." It was the truth. They did smell but Opal didn't need to know that Asami witnessed something weird as shit.

"Hmm, you do you I guess. So, you down for another round, or did you wanna head back?"

"I think I'm gonna call it a night. Pretty tired and all."

"Alright, text me when you get home then okay? I'm gonna hang out with the boys a little longer."

"Sure, sounds good."

"Alright, back into the wild I go, see yah!"

Asami waved at her and once she was out of sight, she held the little bat forward. "What do I do with you?" She shut her eyes to think about it before sighing and giving in. "Guess I'll take you home." She ended up tucking the bat into her shirt, securing it in between her bra and chest. Once it was safely secured, she picked up the stranger's clothes before heading home. By the time she was back at the dorms, she held the bat up with both hands before eyeing it intensely.

"Hmm…"

After observing its features for a brief second, Asami ended up shrugging before grabbing one of her spare pillows and setting it down gently on top. She then grabbed a handkerchief and tucked it in bed before grabbing clothes to take a shower. She was tired and dirty so she'd deal with this bat tomorrow.

xXx

As a child, Korra had always been made fun of for being unable to control her transformations. She was different from her parents and family. Her parents had always told her that she was special. While she couldn't change into a bat at will, she had the best sense of the entire clan so they told her to be proud.

Korra wished she could be proud.

It's just whenever she transformed, it was always in a shitty situation. It didn't help that no one knew the cause behind it. One time, during her birthday, she was about to slice into her fruit cake when bam, she changed and fell right into it. Another time, she was about to have her first kiss with a boy in her village and right when they were about to kiss, bam, she changed. Not to mention that one time when she changed at her cousin's engagement party, now that, was a fiasco and she swore her cousin made a voodoo doll for her shortly after.

The point was, whenever she transformed, it was never a good thing. Aside from the shitty timing and aching pains, it was a whole nother definition of different this time. There were more risks at hand because of her situation. She wasn't in her small village where everyone was a vampire. She was in a human town. Humans believed vampires were a fairy tail and she wanted to keep it that way.

Shivering in her sleep, Korra ended up wiggling around. Her body was sore and she didn't feel good. Hunger was one thing but this wasn't the first time she starved for a day. The problem was her transformation. It made everything worse and her senses were all over the place. She ended up whimpering before finding a warm place to cuddle against. She ended up knocking out for quite some time. By the time she woke up again, her nose was attracted by this sweet smell. Something smelled good and she was starving. Her body reacted on its own. She opened wide before taking a small bite.

She felt alive.

This sweet nectar was incredibly delectable that Korra could get addicted to it. She ate her fill before falling back asleep in this warm and cozy nook. The third time Korra woke up, she finally opened her eyes before immediately getting confused. Where was she? She was buried in this… skin color crevice?

Oh no.

Her eyes widened slightly before she wiggled around. She wasn't in her human form. But there was a human-likeobject in front of her. She fumbled back before flapping around her wings helplessly.

Oh no.

This had to be a dream. Did a human batnap her?! This was horrible. How was she going to explain this to her father? He was very specific about not letting a human blow her cover. Said human ended up groaning a bit before making eye contact with her.

Oh no. Oh no no no no no.

"Ah—"

Korra panicked. She began squeaking out loud as she tried flopping away.

The human gasped. "Wait! You're gonna hurt yourself!"

Completely ignoring her, Korra wasn't even sure where she was. She somehow managed to take a dive off the bed before flying around in panicked circles. If she had to take a guess, it would be someone's dormitory but that didn't help her. That could mean anything.

She was scared.

What if this human was going to lock her up and do things to her? They didn't seem scared of her. So, what was their motive? Why was she even here in the first place? This human took her home with them so that couldn't be a good thing. That's when she crashed into a wall and fell to the floor.

Ow.

"Hey hey hey, it's okay, I won't hurt you." After the human said that, they scooped her up with their hands.

Korra was shaking and shivering in fear when she finally saw who picked her up. Ah, it was the beautiful woman from the campfire.

"Are you hurt?" She held Korra closer to her face with a slight frown. "Can you even understand me?" She sighed before gently checking her wings. "What am I doing… talking to a bat."

Once she was done checking Korra's wings, she surprised Korra by holding her up to her collarbone. By reflex, Korra latched onto her shoulder as she shook away in fear.

"Aww, there there…" The human cooed before rubbing the back of Korra's head gently with her finger. "It's okay, I won't hurt you."

Still whimpering slightly, Korra slammed her eyes shut. She buried her face into this human's shoulder which was… surprisingly warm. Not to mention something about her finger pats felt oddly good. It was soothing and well, it made her fall back asleep. When she woke up for the fourth time, she gasped before freezing up.

She was still glued to this human's shoulder.

Korra frowned before thinking to herself. Oh god… I am so fucked. Dad is gonna kill me…

The human sighed before shifting in place. Her fingers typed away on the keyboard before Korra slowly shifted in place in an attempt to see what she was doing. Of course, the human noticed her movements before glancing down at her own chest.

"Oh, you're awake?"

Korra twitched again before finding herself being pulled off her chest like a ragdoll. Within seconds, she was in the human's palms. She made eye contact with her. The human stared at her with this unreadable poker face and Korra was about to tear up. She still had no idea what her intentions were and if she was lucky, the human would leave her alone when she went off to class so she could plan her great escape.

The human huffed before swooning softly. "God, why are you so cute?"

Korra blinked.

This woman… found her cute? A bat? Cute? Really? Most humans generally found her gross, creepy, or terrifying so this was a first. Sighing yet again, the woman held her toward this lamp post thing that had a makeshift stick attached to it.

"You probably prefer hanging right?"

Well, if Korra had to choose, she would say yes.

"Go on, I won't hurt you so feel free to… hang." She chuckled to herself before commenting, "Pun intended."

Pfft— Okay, Korra had to admit, that was pretty good. She stared at the makeshift stick thing before awkwardly reaching out and latching onto it. In no time, she was hanging onto the post while facing the human. The human who was now staring at her intently. Why was she staring at her? Did she look funny?

"You really are a vampire…"

Korra gasped and all the tension in her body disappeared. She dropped onto the desk with a thud. The human gasped in shock before quickly scooping her up.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?"

Finding herself crying on the inside, Korra let out a sad whimper. Forget about being embarrassed! How was she out? As if this human didn't see her transform into a bat. That's when Korra finally noticed something. There was a red mark on her chest. A red mark that had two tiny little fang marks.

Oh no— Korra did not…

She gulped before realizing something with her body. The thirst for hunger she had been ignoring was gone. Her throat wasn't itchy anymore and that only meant one thing.

She did not fucking suck her blood!

Her dad was going to kill her.

The human gently touched Korra's forehead with her finger. "Are you sick…?" She groaned to herself before bringing the bat back up to her chest. "I should've googled about bats more…" She then set the bat down on her shoulder and Korra automatically latched onto her shirt. The human vigorously typed something on her laptop as she mumbled to herself. "What are the symptoms of a sick bat…"

Ah, was she trying to help her?

But Korra wasn't sick. She was just a fumbling and awkward fucking idiot that's all. She needed to tell this human that somehow. She ended up climbing up her collarbone before standing on her shoulder. After that, she squeezed her eyes shut before smacking her head against her neck. She repeated that a few times before flapping out her wings which immediately got tangled in her long hair.

"Ahh—"

Ahh—

"Argh, please don't move, you're going to get more tangled." The human held onto her awkwardly before heading into the bathroom. Once there, she started untangling her hair from her little bat hands and feet. After a second, Korra was free again and the human set her down on the sink before casually tying her hair up into a messy bun shortly after. "Okay, that should take care of it."

The human scooped Korra up again before heading back to her desk. She then stared at the bat before pointing at her laptop. "Say… if you happen to understand me, do you think you can type something?"

Korra stared at the laptop. Well… she could try? She ended up letting out this little squeak before the human set her down on the keyboard.

"Okay… well first off, what's your name? My name is Asami."

Asami. That was a cute name. Korra squeaked again before walking around on her laptop. As she walked around, her little feet tapped on the metal before she flapped her wings. She stared at the keyboard intensely, trying to figure out how to type out her name. She couldn't exactly type with her fingers. Her feet were basically the same story because it wasn't as if she could jump and type out her name precisely without hitting the other keys.

All that was left was her wings.

Hmm…

Glaring at the keyboard, Korra focused on the keycaps. She flapped out her right wing before awkwardly trying to aim for the right key with the tip of her wing. After a second, she managed to get the tip of her wing on the 'K' keycap. She then dipped her wing forward. Her wing immediately smashed into the keys.

Ah.

She stared at what she typed: klo

How even… Huffing to herself, Korra started tapping the 'K' keycap vigorously. Every time she tried, her wing would she hit multiple keys until she gave up. She whimpered before turning around to look at Asami. She pouted at her with teary eyes. Well, this is a bust.

Asami, who was quietly waiting the entire time, was eyeing her with these unreadable eyes. Korra flapped her wings sporadically trying to inform her that she couldn't do it. When Asami didn't respond, she squeaked out loud in frustration. This was stupid. There was no way she was going to be able to say anything in her bat form!

xXx

Trying to keep herself together, Asami willed herself not to squeal out loud. This was just way too cute and she was about to die from an overload of it. Watching this cute little bat flop around was ridiculously adorable. Even watching her flail around was wholesome but Asami finally stopped herself from staring. She gave the bat a little smile before compromising, "How about you point to which letter you want to hit and I'll type it for you?"

The bat's little mouth parted. It let out this excited little squeak before pointing at a keycap. Asami smiled before watching the bat carefully. She then slowly typed out whatever the bat pointed to and by the end, it formed a five-letter name: korra

"Korra…" Asami cocked her head. "Korra, your name is Korra?"

The bat nodded before sitting down, at least trying to sit down. It kept on shifting uncomfortably before Asami picked it up again. She ended up bringing it back to her makeshift lamp rig and letting Korra latch onto it again. She successfully hung herself upside on the takeout chopsticks she had laying around. It was a good thing Korra was light because that textbook was doing a good job of keeping the chopsticks in place.

"So… Korra. You can just nod or shake your head for these answers."

In response, Korra nodded in her little cocoon state.

Asami stared at her before asking a blunt question. "Are you a vampire?"

Korra twitched and almost fell off again. Asami's hand immediately went up to catch her if she fell but thankfully she didn't. After a moment passed, the bat nodded.

"Huh… well that… explains a lot but at the same time confuses me more…" She sighed before rubbing her cheek. "Are you really that girl I met by the campfire?"

The bat nodded again before staring at Asami with these puppy-dog-like eyes.

Asami cleared her throat before asking another question. "Can you change back?"

Korra was quick to shake her head.

"Interesting… do you know when you'll change back?"

She shook her head again.

"Hmm…" Tapping her finger on the desk, Asami tilted her head. "Well, there's not much we can do now, can we…" Her phone's alarm then went off out of the blue. She sighed before turning it off. "I have to go to class now but I'm worried about leaving you alone…" She looked Korra in the eyes before suggesting, "I'm not comfortable with leaving you alone so how do you feel about going to class with me? You can hide in my jacket."

Korra squeaked some noises before Asami cut her off.

"I know you're probably worried about a lot of things but don't worry, I'll take responsibility for you. I'll pack a spare change of clothes and if you feel like you're going to change, just let me know and I'll run to the nearest bathroom."

Asami decided to ignore Korra's clearly displeased look. She got ready for class and in no time, she was walking around campus with a bat hidden on her personnel. Her hair was cascading around her left shoulder and Korra was hidden in the darkness of her hair and jacket. To her surprise, Korra was oddly obedient but then again, what could she do?

And so, Asami attended her classes for the day. Her lectures were as lengthy and wordy as always and at one point, she could've sworn Korra fell asleep because she fell against the side of her neck. At first, Asami thought it was a sign but when she used her phone as a mirror, Korra was cuddled up against her with her eyes closed.

It was pretty cute honestly.

Korra roused when Asami moved classes and this same pattern repeated for her next two classes. At least until halfway through her third lecture that Korra was stirring, horribly. Korra started squeaking quietly while smacking her head against her neck.

Ah.

Asami's eyes widened before she quickly grabbed her supplies and shoved them into her bag. She got up from her seat casually before grabbing her bag and heading out the door. Once she was in the clear, she went into an all-out sprint to the nearest bathroom. Once inside, she checked the stalls, confirming no one was inside, before opening the biggest one. From there, she set down her bag before setting Korra gently onto it and rushing out the door.

Before Asami knew it, there were a few grunts and huffs before she heard heavy, human-like steps. Korra groaned out loud before unzipping Asami's bag and trifling around for clothes. Asami could hear her dressing herself and in no time, Korra finally spoke up.

"I um… I'm dressed now…"

Asami's curiosity peaked. Korra came out of the stall looking… quite attractive in her clothes honestly. She had noted her appearance the night before and she had to admit, Korra was her type. But looks aside, she had a million questions to ask Korra. Namely who she was at the top of her list.

"Good," Asami answered in a monotone voice, "In that case, let's get you some slippers from the student shop. After that, I believe we need to talk."

Korra winced with a slight frown. Asami was immediately reminded of Korra's cute little bat form and boy, she was going to have fun messing with her. They both clearly knew who had the upper advantage. Chuckling deviously, Asami nodded her head toward the door and Korra followed in her tracks with her head held down.

How should Asami deal with Korra now?

AN: if u go to my ao3 acc there's a little fanart to go with it uwu