Chapter Text
Chapter 6
Asami panted deeply. A shiver crossed over her as sweat dried upon her cooling skin. The world slowed as she came down, the wooden beams of her four poster bed came into focus. A strong arm pulled a blanket over her and tugged her close. She turned her head and met a pair of red-brown eyes. Mako reached forward and tucked a piece of damp hair behind Asami’s ear.
“How was that for you?” he asked quietly.
Asami smiled weakly and kissed him in answer. She rolled over and tucked a fist under her cheek, and tried to convince herself that she didn’t desperately wish that those red-brown eyes were replaced by a pair of cerulean blue ones.
Korra was crazy busy with school. She was working less and less shifts at the diner and Asami was running out of excuses to see her. Korra was fun and beautiful, and understood her better than anyone. Even Mako. However the friendship made Asami uneasy. She couldn’t get the feel of Korra’s slightly chapped lips out of her head. When she had kissed Korra at the bar, she tried to convince herself that she was only experimenting, to see how good of a kisser the other girl was. The only problem was that it didn’t explain last night. Right in the middle of their mover marathon, Asami had had a burning desire to kiss Korra again, to feel those lips against her own once more. This was not normal best friend behavior right? She shouldn’t be feeling this way. She had a great job, a great boyfriend. So why was she pining for something that she just couldn’t have? Korra was off limits. And Asami didn’t like girls anyway, did she?
These thoughts had caused her to have a dark pit of anxiety rolling in her stomach ever since the night at the bar. It had been weeks since that night, and the feeling had not passed. Had she ruined everything when she kissed Korra at her apartment? Neither girl had been drunk, and she had no excuse for her behavior. After the kiss the girls had turned back to the movie, neither commenting on what had just happened. Asami had noticed a pink tint to Korra’s cheeks. An electrical current coursed between the two. When Asami had left Korra’s, she drove directly to Mako’s apartment, and had taken out her pent up sexual energy on him. She felt awful, almost as if she had cheated on Mako, even though he was the one she had slept with.
A few days had passed, and Asami had spent them blissfully alone. Her head began to clear, and she began to think about what, and who, really mattered. Asami glanced at her coffee table. Her phone was hidden under a mess of books and dvd cases. Pulling it out, she saw several notifications from Mako, wondering what she was up to and why she was ignoring his calls, Korra, who continued to send funny memes despite her lack of communication, and Opal, asking her to coffee. She supposed that it was time to come out of hiding, and grudgingly dialed a series of numbers into her phone.
Two hours later, Asami sat at a hip coffee shop, at a table next to a window. The sun was slanting through large windows, and she had to keep her sunglasses on even indoors, as her eyes adjusted from her three day hermit session. The coffee shop was decidedly cool, with vintage tables, mismatched chairs, paintings from local artists, and a general laidback aura. The place even had free books lying about, that you could take and leave as desired. Asami had just settled down with a dog-eared copy of a Stephanie Plum novel when Mako strolled through the doors.
“Hey babe,” he said as he swooped down and kissed her cheek. Her stomach rolled as her anxiety reared its ugly head.
“Hey Mako.” She said quietly, eyes down. How was it that she had decided to do this again?
“You said you had something you wanted to talk about? Where have you been?” Mako asked, eyes worried.
“I needed some space for awhile.” No reason to delay the moment. “Mako, I think we’re done.” Mako’s eyes widened, and his mouth dropped slightly in surprise. Asami took a deep breath and plowed on. “You’ve done nothing wrong. You are and always will be the perfect guy, and I hate to do this to you. But I…I’m just not happy anymore. My heads all confused, I…” Asami paused and pinched her nose. This was harder than she thought it would be. Mako remained silent, and she managed to glance up to his face. He was staring at something over her head. Jaw clenched, face shut down. Tears began to slide down her cheeks. Mako took a deep breath.
“I get it.” He mumbled. Standing up, he reached forward and kissed her forehead. “I’m here if you ever need anything.” With that, he turned and walked out the door.
Three more days passed. Asami spent them once more on her couch, this time much less happy. She felt awful. Mako really had been a great boyfriend, and she would have felt terrible to keep him caught up in her messed up emotions. Thinking back, he reacted exactly how she would have expected. Silently, and stoic, with a promise to care for her. Why had she given that up? Again, she had to argue with herself that keeping Mako while having thoughts about Korra (she wasn’t ready to admit her herself what exactly those thoughts meant). And so she continued in this matter, wallowing in self grief.
On day four, three loud knocks on her door scared Asami out of her wits. She leapt off her couch, scattering empty tea cups and moon cake wrappers. She glanced down at herself. Was she decent? If a sports bra and sports shorts counted as decent, she was golden. She then turned to the mirror and grimaced as she took in her image. Her hair was a mess, her curls crumpled on one side. Her make up was smeared and her lipstick was non-existent. Another loud knock had her running to the bathroom to at least roll on some deodorant.
Asami hurried to the door right in time to hear someone yell her name. She yanked the door open to find Korra, fist raised, ready to knock again.
“Oh. Hey Asami.” Korra said distractedly as she took in her appearance. Asami swallowed thickly. Tears threatened to fall again as she realized how much she missed the girl. She wasn’t just a source of confusion for her, but a best friend. She squeezed her eyes shut and threw her arms around Korra’s neck.
After some time, the girls found themselves on Asami’s couch once more. Asami blurted out everything that had happened with Mako, leaving out the exact reasons that she left him. Korra didn’t question her at all, chiming in occasionally about how her own break up with Mako went, with lots of yelling and bittersweet goodbyes. They stayed up all night, eventually falling asleep, Asami’s head on Korra’s shoulder.