Chapter Text
Tuesday morning dawned cooler than usual for this time of year in Republic City. As Asami strapped the final pieces of her jacket on she thought about how busy of a day she had ahead of her, starting with school, which she was going to be late for if she didn’t hurry up. Glancing at the clock above her fireplace she grabbed her keys off the counter and headed out the door. She brought her phone out of her pocket to confirm her coffee date with Iroh later and walked briskly toward the stairs.
A few clouds hung above and the smog from the big city kept the sky out of focus. It was cold at the moment, but it would be warm and muggy by mid-afternoon. Asami was glad that she had chosen one of her lighter jackets even though she was a little chilly currently. She locked the door behind her and headed towards the stairs. As she was about to begin her descent she noticed a pair of gentlemen carrying a couch up towards her. She paused at the top, waiting for them to continue up the stairs.
I wonder who’s moving in, she thought to herself as she glanced back, looking around her floor for any clue. The door next to hers was open (how had she not noticed that) and she assumed that was probably where the new tenant was moving in. She hoped they weren’t loud. She had enough trouble concentrating on her blueprints and designs with her neighbors on the other side whose kid hadn’t quite figured out that he didn’t need to yell to be heard.
The men finally passed her and after nodding to them she headed down the stairs quickly on the way to the parking lot and her scooter. She had class in 20 minutes. Hopefully there wasn’t much traffic, but even if there was Asami was confident she could get there on time. Although, she glanced down at her watch one final time, it may be exactly on time.
Mounting her scooter she saw the truck that was unloading her new neighbor's things. There was one more man standing and talking to someone in the truck. Asami wondered if he was the new neighbor, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it. With one final glance at the truck she took off in the direction of the university.
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Asami weaved in and out between the traffic toward Republic City University. She passed by the docks, with their large cargo ships and small shipping boats, and through the financial district, passing by Future Industries tower on her way through the city. Satomobiles drove next to and around her with people heading into work and beginning their days. After 22 years in the city, Asami was used to the quick pace of life there. She pulled into the parking garage near the engineering building, locked up her scooter, tightened the straps on her backpack and walked towards the door of the building.
She sat down in her usual seat at the end of the fourth row and took out her notebook and a pen. Most of the students around her were pulling out laptops, but she found that if she didn’t write the notes herself she retained less. It didn’t matter as much for this class since she had already learned most of this stuff in her own exploration of engineering, but one never knew when something learned would come in handy.
Once the class finished she packed up and began the walk across campus to the university coffee shop to meet Iroh. They had gone to this coffee shop often over the course of the nine months that they had been together. Iroh was the first serious relationship she had had. Prior to him there were a few people who she went out with, but nothing ever seemed to take.
After she turned 18 her dad had begun pushing her to find something more serious. “You can’t keep bringing a different person to every event. It’s not the image of the family that we want to present to the city,” he had said. Iroh had been a family friend for a while. The son of the royal family in a neighboring nation, he had been introduced to Asami by her father. They hit it off well enough Asami had thought and so they had started dating.
At this point Asami was content. Iroh treated her well, but after nine months she found that she still didn’t love him. Not that this was a requirement at this point, but she felt like she should at least have begun to move in the direction of that at this point and she hadn’t. She wasn’t unhappy, but she could remember the love that her mother and father had once shared and she couldn’t imagine ever loving Iroh like that.
A bell rang as she opened the door to the coffee shop. She didn’t glance around as she headed to the counter and ordered her usual drink. Waiting for the order she looked toward their usual table. Iroh was sitting with his head down scrolling through his phone. It looked like he hadn’t seen her yet. Hearing her name she grabbed her drink and moved to sit across from him.
She took a sip from her drink, waiting for him to notice her presence. A moment later he glanced up, his eyebrows raising slightly as he did. “Hi,” Asami said glancing past him as the coffee shop door opened.
“Hey,” he replied, looking at her for a moment and then when she didn’t immediately speak going back to scrolling through his phone. Asami looked back until the silence became more uncomfortable than companionable. Recently it always seemed to get this way between them. She wasn’t sure when they ran out of things to talk about but they had.
“How has your morning been?” she asked, taking another sip of her coffee.
He looked up from his screen for a moment. “Alright. And yours?”
“It was ok. I was almost late for class because someone is moving into the apartment next to me.” Asami stated, trying to start a conversation.
“Oh, really? At least you made it on time,” answered Iroh glancing up to her momentarily before continuing what he was doing. Asami sighed reaching down to take out her latest design to continue fine tuning the propulsion system. She had a few hours to kill and since this was as good a place as any to spend them she started to work.
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Asami pulled her scooter into her parking spot in the garage of the Future Industries tower. She did not necessarily have any explicit responsibilities today, but after spending time with Iroh she felt like she needed to get her hands moving and the best place to do that was the garage.
She took the stairs two at a time, stopping to ask the employee in the foyer about how his kids were doing (They were just starting school again.), and then heading into the elevator to make her way to the basement. The doors opened to reveal a huge warehouse-like room. She convinced her father to let her customize the basement space of the tower to house her inventions and anything she was working on.
As she started walking towards the back corner and her current project her assistant, Zhu Li, approached her with her tablet and drafting materials.
“Good Afternoon, Ms. Sato,” she said as she fell into step with with Asami.
“I’ve told you, just Asami is fine.”
“Ok… Asami. I have a message for you from your father.” Asami shut her eyes for a moment longer then necessary. Zhu Li did not continue as she glanced at Asami waiting for the ok to pass along her message.
They continued to the back corner in silence where a half assembled engine hung from chains. A toolbox meticulously organized was sitting nearby. Asami set her tablet and papers on the waist-high table to the left of the tool set and turned to face Zhu Li.
“Alright,” she said, resigned.
Zhu Li passed the message along, speaking quickly and clearly “Your father has expressed a desire to meet with you to continue the discussion that was begun last week.” Asami’s brow hardened as she continued. “He knows that he requested that you reconsider your stance and he would like to know the result.”
“My stance hasn’t changed. You can let him know that there’s no need to discuss any further.”
“But, Asami, he…”
Asami cut her off. “I know and it doesn’t change my thoughts on the matter. If you’re not comfortable letting him know don’t worry about it. He’ll know that I haven’t changed my mind if he doesn’t hear from me. Thank you for passing along the message Zhu Li. I’m sorry he pulled you from your other work. Please let me know if you need anything further from me.” As she finished speaking Asami turned to retrieve her tablet and began an intricate combination of keystrokes to bring up her digital renderings and begin her work, sparing Zhu Li no further attention.
Zhu Li stood for a moment looking as if she might have more to say and then turned and walked swiftly back to her original location.
Asami’s shoulders fell as Zhu Li retreated and she took a deep breath. She knew that she was going to have to address that more directly in the future, but at the moment she didn’t want to worry about it. She set down her tablet and went to work. Requiring all of her concentration and the movement of her hands, her work allowed her to clear her mind, refocus, and attempt to forget about her father for a bit.
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It was dark as Asami walked up the stairs towards her apartment, exhausted. She had made some good headway on the system she was working on and she was excited to hopefully have it ready in the next couple months for production. As she reached the top of the stairs she noticed that her neighbor's door was cracked open. As she passed she glanced quickly in and saw a sparsely furnished living space with what looked like a large white rug lying across the front walkway.
Suddenly the rug began to move. Asami stopped in shock as the large white beast came barreling out the door at her. “Naga!” a voice yelled from within.
Asami threw her arms up to her face to defend herself as she heard a loud thump and muted cursing from the apartment. She was surprised when she wasn’t immediately attacked. She slowly opened her eyes and looked down at a large dog that was now sniffing at her pants and boots. “Hello…” she said hesitantly to the creature who barked timidly as it continued to explore.
Asami looked up as the apartment door opened the rest of the way revealing her new neighbor who immediately grabbed the collar of what could be concluded was a dog. The first thing Asami noticed were the girls eyes. They were watering (Maybe caused by the thump I just heard, thought Asami.) her brow was furrowed in order to attempt to stop them from continuing, but this could not stop Asami from noticing the color. They were bright blue and her breath stopped momentarily as she tried to register where she had seen the color before. After a few moments of silently going through her catalog of blues she came to the quick conclusion that this specific shade she had never seen before and in addition, it was the most striking she had ever come across.
As this conclusion faded (but not the color) from her head, she began to look at the rest of the girl's face and noticed that she was talking. Not knowing how long she had been breathlessly staring she attempted to pick up on what the girl was saying.
“… doesn’t normally do this, but we’re new and she likes to meet everyone and I forgot to close the door when I came in because I was carrying so much stuff and …”
“It’s ok,” Asami chuckled, watching as the girl stopped mid-breath, her cheeks reddening. Asami could tell she would have continued to talk until Asami fell asleep on her feet if she hadn’t stopped her.
“I don’t mind. She didn’t hurt me.” Asami smiled, drawing a similar, but shy smile from the girl. “I think I saw you moving in this morning. I’m Asami. I live right next door.” She pointed to her door as she spoke and watched as the girl turned her head, drawing Asami’s eyes down her neck to her shoulders and finally down her muscular arms and hands which were still holding the dog’s collar.
The girl cleared her throat quietly and Asami’s eyes were brought quickly back to her face. The girl was smiling crookedly at her and Asami could feel her cheeks heat. “I’m Korra.” the girl smirked. “And it’s nice to meet you, Asami.”
“You as well.” said Asami, smiling and beginning to walk in the direction of her apartment. “Have a good evening, Korra,” she called over her shoulder, unlocking her door as she attempted to prevent further embarrassment.
As the door shut behind her Asami thought about how much she appreciated that new color of blue and how much she liked the way her name sounded when said by her new neighbor.