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- 4th Grade
They are sitting on Asami’s bed and she is drawing a picture of a racecar when she asks, “Have you had your first kiss yet?”
Korra drops her action figures and blushes from the root of her head to the soles of her feet. Asami is her best friend and she’s pretty and smart and nice, and Korra really wants to impress her, but she doesn’t want to lie to her.
“No,” Korra admits, wincing. “I haven’t. Not yet.”
Asami doesn’t look up from her drawing but a small smile curves her lips. “Neither have I,” she says.
Korra’s shocked, speechless, and Asami continues drawing like the world didn’t just implode.
But it did.
They’ve been best friends since diapers–both of their parents have pictures of them in diapers together. It’s embarrassing—and Asami’s the nicest and prettiest girl Korra’s ever met. She has long black hair, and a sweet smile, and big green eyes, and Korra cannot fathom how someone so amazing has not had their first kiss yet.
And then Asami says something that nearly knocks Korra off the bed. “I think we should kiss.”
Korra’s mouth drops open and her heart stops beating and her palms grow clammy. “But… but we’re girls,” she stammers.
Asami stops drawing and gives Korra her signature ‘I’m older than you by a few months so you should listen to me’ look. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have your first kiss with someone you trust?”
“Yeah,” Korra answers matter-of-factly.
“And you trust me, right?”
Korra rolls her eyes because Asami is asking a lot of dumb questions. “Of course I do.”
“I don’t trust anyone more than you, and you don’t trust anyone more than me.” Asami’s smile comes back with a vengeance. “So we should kiss.”
When Korra thinks about it, it makes a lot of sense. Why share her first kiss with some weird smelly boy when she can share it with her best friend? So Korra crawls across the bed, grabs Asami’s shoulder, and kisses her right on the lips. It’s quick and soft, but it sends tingles down to her toes, and she crawls back to her side of the bed, trying to ward off the blush threatening to overtake her.
Asami trains her eyes on the picture in her lap. “See,” she says nonchalantly, blushing so hard she looks sunburnt, “that wasn’t so bad.”
For some weird reason that makes Korra’s heart flutter. “Yeah,” she agrees, biting her lips to contain her smile, “that wasn’t so bad.”
- 7th Grade
“He is so cute!” Asami gushes.
“You don’t even know him, Asami,” Korra points out.
“Of course I don’t know him, silly, he just moved here, but I have a good feeling about him.”
Korra’s tired and sweaty and her shirt keeps sticking to her uncomfortably and Asami just won’t shut up about the new kid Mako. She just finished soccer practice and, like usual, Asami was waiting for her on the bleachers. She’s wearing white washed jeans, a black tank top, and her hair is in a ponytail, and they sit on the steps in front of the school, watching the sunset and waiting for Korra’s mom to pick them up.
“You know, I never hear you talk about liking anybody,” Asami observes, looking at Korra suspiciously.
Korra crosses her arms. “That’s because I don’t like anybody,” she says. “Boys are weird.”
“Mako’s not weird, “Asami says defensively. “He’s tall, dark, and handsome. And he’s in AP classes, like me, so he’s smart too.”
“Whatever you say, Asami.” Korra purses her lips, unsure if she should say more.
Almost all the girls at school like Mako, he’s got that whole brooding thing going on, but Korra doesn’t see the big deal. To her, he’s just another boy.
- 9th Grade
Republic City High School’s JV soccer captain is a sophomore named Kuvira. She’s tough, ruthless, and determined, and Korra’s immediately taken by her.
“Great pass, Kuvira,” Korra says as they enter the locker room. The locker room is brightly lit and firetruck red lockers glint under the fierce light. A swarm of girls follow them in, all disappearing to their respective lockers to get showered, change clothes, and go home.
“Thanks, Kor.” Kuvira smiles and wipes the sweat off her face with her towel. Korra finds herself staring and blushing as Kuvira takes her shirt off. She quickly averts her eyes and refocuses on her locker when Kuvira looks at her with a raised eyebrow. “You played well today too. I saw your girlfriend cheering for you in the stands.”
Korra panics. She looks around the locker room frantically, making sure none of their teammates heard Kuvira. Fortunately, most of them are in the showers or already gone. “She’s not my girlfriend, she’s dating Mako,” Korra hisses, frowning, “and I don’t swing that way.”
“Are you sure? I’ve you seen you checking me out, Korra.” Kuvira is encroaching on her personal space in nothing but a sports bra and panties, and Korra can’t breathe. “It’s okay to like girls. It’s okay to like me.”
“No it’s not,” Korra whispers, all fear and shame. She backs away and grabs her duffel bag. “Look—I… I gotta go.”
“Korra!”
Korra is barely in the school parking lot when she gets tackled in a fierce hug.
“I’m so, so, so proud of you!” Asami words are muffled by Korra’s hair. “You were amazing tonight!”
Korra laughs to keep from crying because damn it, she really shouldn’t enjoy being in her best friend’s arms this much, and maybe she likes girls a bit more than she should. “Thanks, Asami,” she mumbles, lightly rubbing circles on her friend’s back.
Asami pulls back, her hands holding Korra’s arms, her green eyes sparkling. “We should celebrate. McDonald’s, my treat.”
Korra’s uneasiness disappears and she lets out a chuckle. “Wow, McDonald’s? How can I say no to that?”
Asami smirks. “You can’t.”
“Hey.” Korra looks up and her stomach drops at the sight of Mako. He’s got in his hands in his Nike sweatpants pockets and he’s lanky and his voice is starting to get deep, and he’s cool in a way that Korra will never be. “Good job out there, Korra. You’ll be on varsity in no time.”
Korra steps away from Asami and tries to ignore the confusion and disappointment written all over her face. “Thanks, Mako.”
Mako replaces her spot, wraps an arm around Asami’s shoulder, and Korra feels that bitter sourness coat her throat. “Ready to go to McDonald’s?” he asks.
“Uh. Actually.” Korra eyes dart around uncertainly until they land on Kuvira leaving the school and heading to her truck. “I have plans.” She shrugs. “Sorry.”
Korra ignores Asami’s frown and turned down lips, and sprints away to catch up with Kuvira.
- Summer before 11th Grade
Korra’s having the best sleep of her life. Its summer vacation and she just went on her first (secret) date with Kuvira, and they had fun, and her joints ache deliciously from soccer practice, and everything’s right with the world.
Until her cellphone vibrates loudly on her nightstand because she forgot to turn the damn thing off.
She clumsily gropes around for it in the darkness of her bedroom. Finally she has the object in her hands and the screen lights up, blasting her eyes with its intensity. She squints and rubs them before reading the text.
It’s from Asami and that alone makes her heart rate increase.
(3:05): I miss you.
Korra blinks and rubs her eyes again.
(3:05): And I hate you.
(3:07): Why don’t you talk to me anymore?
(3:09): All you do is hang out with cuckoo.
Korra sits up and stares at her phone for several seconds, not knowing how to reply, or what to reply.
(3:11): I take it back.
(3:11): I don’t hate you.
(3:12): I love you.
(3:14): You’re just an idiot sometimes.
Are you drunk? Korra types out and hesitates before sending.
A minute passes. Then two. Then three.
(3:17): No.
Korra rolls her eyes and dials Asami’s number. It’s picked up on the first ring.
“I hate you, Korra.”
Her words are slurred and Korra can hear the muffled chirping of crickets in the background. The statement completely flies over her head. All she can think about is Asami stumbling around in the dark, vulnerable and drunk and alone. “Where are you?” she demands.
Asami laughs, the sound coming out a low rumble. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Asami Yasuko Sat—“
“I’m at a party, Korra,” Asami cuts in. “I would’ve invited you, but… you know… you’re like… never around.”
Korra groans and falls back onto her bed. She contemplates hanging up because there’s no reasoning with Asami in her current state, but then Asami whispers, “Sometimes all I can think about is our first kiss,” and Korra almost drops her phone.
“What?”
A humorless laugh floats through the speakers. “You don’t even remember it, do you?” Asami mutters.
Korra pinches the bridge of her nose. “Of course I remember it.” She pauses and sucks in a deep breath. “I don’t know how to forget it.”
Asami goes silent and Korra wonders where Mako is and why she doesn’t hear any music, just feet shuffling and crickets chirping. “Do you want to forget it?” Asami asks softly.
Korra clenches her eyes shut. “No,” she confesses. “I don’t.”
Korra can almost feel Asami’s smile through the phone. “Good.”
“Is Mako with you?”
“No. I’m alone.”
“I thought you said you were at a party?”
“I was at a party. I left.”
“Oh my god, are you kidding me?” Korra gets out of her bed and starts shedding her pajamas. She rummages through her closet for something easy to wear. “Asami, it’s dangerous out there. You can’t just—“
“Look out your window,” Asami interrupts.
Korra has one leg in her sweatpants and she freezes. “What?”
“Look out your window,” Asami repeats.
Korra frowns and pulls her sweatpants up. She walks over to her window and slants the blinds to look out. There, under the backyard porch light, she sees Asami waving up at her.
“Surprise.”
Asami remembers nothing in the morning and Korra's too embarrassed to talk about it.
- 11th Grade
On a rare day with no after school varsity soccer practice Korra and Kuvira go to Starbucks. They sit down at a corner table next to a window, drinking frappes and enjoying each other's company.
“Prom’s coming up in a few weeks,” Kuvira says offhandedly.
Korra raises her eyebrows and swallows hard. “Oh? It is?”
“Yeah.” Kuvira wrings her hands together. “I was wondering if–“
Korra’s phone blares to life, Asami’s name flashing on the screen, and she winces, smiling apologetically at Kuvira. “Sorry. I have to take this.”
Kuvira nods, well used to Asami interrupting their time together, and takes a sip of her drink while Korra answers her phone. “Hello?”
“Korra. Korra, I need you. There was a fire at her-at her job and-and-and my mom-she’s-I—”
Asami breaks off and Korra can hear sniffling on the other end. She jumps up from the table, drink forgotten.
“Where are you?”
“Republic City Hospital,” Asami says shakily and whimpers. “I need you, Korra. Please come.”
Korra swallows. “On my way.”
She’s out the door before Kuvira can ask her what's going on.
Korra hates hospitals.
She hates the fluorescent lighting and eerily sterile floors and the general smell of sickness, but none of that goes through her mind as she walks through Republic City Hospital with her parents in tow. All she can think about is Asami.
They arrive at the ICU waiting room where Asami and her dad are holding each other, crying. The three of them rush over, Korra’s parents comforting Asami’s dad and Korra wrapping her arms around Asami, holding her securely and rubbing her back.
“She’s gone, Korra!” Asami screams in-between violent body-shaking sobs. “She’s… she’s gone.”
Nothing feels real.
Korra just saw Asami’s mom yesterday.
She can’t speak. Can’t move her mouth. Can’t think. So she just holds Asami tighter, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes and streaming down her face.
Yasuko Sato’s funeral is held on a Saturday morning at a church in downtown Republic City. The church can comfortably seat six-hundred people, but today it overflows. Cars line the streets, and many people have to stand outside around the doors to pay their respects. Korra sits next to Asami in the front row at her request. She holds her hand throughout the service, and Asami’s face is pinched tight and her eyes are bloodshot red under her sunglasses.
In the church it’s quiet, the silence broken by the reverend and sniffles, and there’s no casket, Yasuko’s body was cremated. After the service, people slowly make their way up to the front row, hugging Asami and her father and whispering soft reassurances. Korra stays by her side through it all. Her body numb and her emotions wild.
As they walk out of the church and into blinding sunlight, Asami turns to her, smiling sadly, and whispers in her ear. Korra excuses them and drives them to a tattoo parlor thirty minutes away where Asami gets her mother's name tattooed on her lower back.
- 12th Grade
Korra’s only at the beginning of the year party because Asami talked her into it, something about them being seniors and living it up while they can.
It’s bullshit but Korra has never been able to deny Asami anything, and that’s exactly how she finds herself sitting down in a circle of eleven teenagers like they are about to sing Kumbaya.
Frankly, Korra feels like she is too sophisticated for a game of spin the bottle–she’s a senior, not some pimply middle-schooler–but all it takes is one look at Asami’s big green eyes and Korra is a goner.
“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” she scowls.
Asami side-eyes her and nudges her in a ‘stop being such a party pooper’ kind of way. “Come on, Korra,” she says, her words coming out slightly slurred, “this’ll be fun.”
It’s not fun.
It’s stupid.
Really stupid.
But Korra doesn’t voice any more of her thoughts because Asami looks like she’s on cloud nine with her glassy eyes and small smile, and the girl’s been through enough, she deserves to have some fun.
Even if her idea of fun is stupid.
Bolin puts down a root beer bottle in the middle of the circle and the whole room quiets because fuck, thing’s just got serious.
“Who wants to go first?” he asks.
Asami practically jumps up, thrusting her hand up eagerly. “I do!”
Korra raises an eyebrow, maybe her friend’s a bit drunker than she thought. Bolin waves his hand, giving Asami the floor, and Asami spins the bottle. It lands on Korra.
Everyone gasps, Korra gapes, their exes Mako, who’s sitting strategically across from them, and Kuvira—why is she even here? She’s in college now.—look royally pissed, and Asami’s grinning sloppily like she just won the lottery.
Being the star athlete that she is, Korra has had to think on her feet before, but this time her mind goes blank, the darkness interrupted intermediately by crickets. She’s about to shake her head, make a bad joke, and get them out of this awkward situation. Before she can do anything of that nature, Asami’s leaning in, and her beautiful forest green eyes are lidded, and damn it, Korra can’t resist her.
It happens so fast. Their lips touch and the crickets go silent inside of Korra’s mind. Asami’s lips are soft and smooth, and next thing Korra’s knows she’s on her back and Asami’s on top of her, and students are hooting and hollering around them—except for Kuvira and Mako. Just as fast as it started, it’s over. Asami’s clambering off her, and Korra is slightly dazed, and Asami holds a hand over her mouth and dashes to the bathroom. Korra scrambles after her and holds her hair while she vomits into the toilet.
- Home from Junior Year of College
Korra loves everything about being back home. During college she misses her parents, home-cooked meals, and privacy—her roommate is the nosiest person on the planet. On her first day back from college, Korra sleeps in until ten, which is truly a luxury. When she wakes up, her parents are still sleeping, so she quietly washes her face and brushes her teeth. Just as she's gargling, someone rings the doorbell. She spits the Listerine in her mouth out, goes stealthily downstairs, and checks the peephole.
Her hearts skips and stutters.
It’s Asami Sato.
She unlocks the door and pulls it open. Asami’s wearing daisy dukes and a green t-shirt and she has an undercut on one side, and Korra has to remind herself how to breathe.
Her eyes go wide. “Asami,” she whispers, awestruck
Asami smiles, and it’s shy and sweet and warm and it feels like home. “Korra.”
“Shouldn’t you be in China doing the overseas student thing?”
“I’m done. I just got back a week ago.”
“Welcome bac—“
Before Korra can finish her sentence and give Asami a hug, Asami’s grabbing her cheeks and kissing her right on the lips. It’s nice. Really nice. Kissing Asami is like waking up and getting ready for school and finding out it’s a snow day. When they pull apart they’re equally breathless and flushed. “I’m in love with you,” Asami says against her lips, “and I know you’re in love with me. And since you don’t have the balls to make a move I’m making one for you, okay?”
Korra frowns, not sure whether to be offended or turned on. She opens her mouth to respond but Asami kisses her again, and her lips are soft and sweet, and Korra decides on the latter.
Clapping sounds from behind them and they jump apart. Korra’s parents are standing there in their PJ’s, smiling proudly. “Well it’s about damn time,” Korra’s dad says.
Korra laughs and grabs Asami's hand because it sure is.