College
The seminar started at 9 on the dot, every week. It was a little annoying to have to fight through the traffic but most of the class made it on time, with one notable exception. Asami didn’t know her name, but she managed to turn up late every single time, without fail. By now she didn’t even bother trying to offer an explanation, just staggering in and dropping into a chair close to the back of the room. Asami was prepared to accept that not everyone would be as dedicated to their studies as her, but there was just something about the way she turned up, looking more or less like she’d come to class directly through a hedge, smelling like a brewery, and just so blatantly hungover that really rankled. Take that morning; she’d turned up twenty minutes late, still wearing sunglasses inside, and hadn’t even bothered to get out her notebook or laptop, just clutching a sports drink like it was a lifeline. And then, just to cap it all off, she actually had to be good at international relations! Asami could have handled it if she’d been just average, but she’d accidentally gotten a glimpse of the marks of the latest batch of essays and it turned out mystery girl was, firstly, called Korra, and secondly was tied with her for top marks. It was unbelievably aggravating. Asami knew how much time she put into preparing for each seminar, each essay, and to have to share first place with someone that had gone green halfway through the last seminar and bolted for the door was a kick in the teeth.
“You seem a little obsessed with this girl,” Opal opined over coffee, and Asami glared.
“I am not!”
“This is about the fifth rant I’ve heard about her this week. You have one class with her.”
“That’s besides the point!” Asami protested, but Opal was giving her the Look again so she let the matter drop. Right up until Korra walked into the coffee shop. “Oh, come on!” Asami moaned, slipping down in her seat so she was less visible. Opal spotted the source of her discomfort.
“That’s her?”
“Yup.”
“...yeah, it’s totally her conduct in class that has you all flustered.” Opal snorted. “Oh, Asami. You never learn.”
Asami was too busy pretending not to be watching Korra to read too much into Opal’s statement.
“She dropped her ID,” Asami muttered, not realising she was speaking aloud. Opal pushed Asami’s chair back with her foot.
“Go on then. Get it back to her.”
Begrudingly Asami stood.
Korra moved surprisingly quickly for a hungover wreck, and Asami had to run to catch her up.
“Hey! Korra!”
She finally stopped, pulling her headphones.
“Yeah?...oh, cheers.” She took back the card, shoving it into her pocket. “You’re um...Asami, right? International relations?”
“I’m surprised you remember me.”
The comment slipped out, more harsh than Asami intended. Korra rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses.
“Right, yeah, I guess I’m not always the most attentive.”
“Or conscious.”
Korra frowned.
“Do you have a problem with me, Asami?”
It burst out. It wasn’t supposed to. Asami had the denial all queued up, but some switch in her brain was set to self-humiliation and the words just spilled out. Korra stuck her hands in her pockets, nodding along with the tirade with an almost insufferable expression of amusement that just made Asami more angry.
“Don’t patronise me!” She snapped. Korra held up her hands, but she was still grinning.
“I’m sorry it’s just...yeah, ok. I sleep in seminars. Maybe I’m just a genius. Maybe I’m sleeping with the lecturer. Hell, maybe I’m secretly a princess and this sort of thing comes easy after being taught it all my life. I just think it’s amusing you get so worked up about it, when me doing well doesn’t affect you in the slightest.”
Asami hesitated. She had a point, it had to be said. Korra gave her another crooked grin.
“Thanks again. See you around!”
Korra gave a little salute as she turned and headed off down to the street.
“Insufferable jackass!” Asami flung herself back into her chair.
“Great ass, though,” Opal said mildly.
“Well yeah, she’s gorgeous, but that’s not...” Asami stopped. Opal was grinning at her. “Oh no. Don’t you even say it.”
“What? She’s hot, she’s smart, and she clearly doesn’t give a fuck. Face it, she’s your type.”
Asami just pouted.
Korra wasn’t any better the next week, stealing Asami’s thunder by peeling her face off the little desk attached to the chair to give an impressively detailed answer, before slumping back down. The only difference was now, after a full week of incessant teasing, Asami was only too aware of the way her gaze kept flicking across to her. Damn Opal. Damn her to hell.
“Did you really have to tell me?” Asami complained, as the taxi pulled up outside.
“It was that or listen to you be utterly oblivious over your crush for an entire term. Again. Now get over it, and get under her.”
“You’re terrible.”
“You love it. Now come on. If mum insists on throwing these swanky dos the least we can do is soak up as much of the bubbly as we can.”
“There are going to be important people here, aren’t there?”
“And?”
Asami was four glasses of champagne down and beginning to feel a little light headed when she heard a familiar voice. She turned.
“You?” She exclaimed, more than a little surprised. Korra was leaning against a pillar, crooked grin in place, a crystal tumbler in one hand. Out of her hangover scruffs Asami had to admit she cleaned up well. The midnight blue military-style jacket and black trousers looked fantastic on her, though the fake decorations were possibly in poor taste.
“Asami. Good to see you.”
“Uh...you too. Bit of a change of scene. How’d you get an invite? Or do you just appear in the presence of alcohol?”
Korra smiled a self depreciating smile.
“You really do see me at my worst. It’s sports night, before IR. My one night a week I can cut loose, hence the uh...state, in the morning. As for how I’m here, well,” the cocky grin was back. “I have my ways.”
“Oh, Asami, nice to see you” Su bustled over, a vision in emerald as ever. “Ah, I see you’ve met the guest of honour.”
Asami blinked. She looked over to Korra’s unchanging grin and back.
“I have?”
“Oh, did nobody introduce you? Asami, this is, now correct me if I get this wrong, please, Her Royal Highness, The Crown Princess of the Southern Water Tribes.”
Asami’s jaw dropped.
“Let’s not stand on ceremony, Su. Just ‘Korra’, is fine.”
Asami hadn’t quite recovered by the time Su bustled off.
“I...you...”
“I did say,” Korra teased, taking a sip from her glass.
“So that...”
“Official uniform, yup. I did say, didn’t I? I flat-out told you I was a princess.”
“I thought you were kidding!”
“I was,” Korra said seriously. “There’s no way I’d sleep with the lecturer.”
“So,” Asami said, filing the awkward silence that had settled. “I mean, now I know your secret...”
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t put it about. I’m liking having a normal life, as much as possible when I’m schmoozing, hobnobbing and generally diplomating four nights a week.”
“...hence the hardcore drinking on Wednesdays.”
“Sports night. Best night of the uni week. So. Still thinking I’m a pompous, undeserving jackass?”
Asami pretended to think about it.
“Jackass? Nah. Great ass? In those trousers? Uh, I mean...” Asami prepared to backpedal but Korra was laughing.
“You know something, Asami?” Korra paused to take two more glasses off the tray of a passing waiter. “I think this year is about to get a lot more interesting for me.” She offered the glass. Asami took it, clinking it gently against Korra’s.
“You might just be right.”