"Riiiight," Korra drawled. "And a polar bear dog ate my homework."
There were chuckles from the class. Asami went red.
"Look, just because..."
"Just because there was a spirited genocide and no confirmed sightings for, oh, twenty years or so, doesn't mean the benders are all gone?" Korra suggested, and there was a hint of anger behind the sarcasm now. "Give it up, Sato. They're gone, and they're not coming back. Wiped out, de-bended or just straight up executed. Amon and his Equalist bastards were..."
"Amon!" Asami snapped. "Amon. He was one. That's how..."
"Oh spirits, not that conspiracy bullshit."
The GTA coughed and Korra made a vaguely apologetic gesture. "We're a world out of balance, Sato. Case in point, the big honking spirit wild that exploded downtown last year!"
"That could have been anything. Well...anything spirit-y." Asami amended. "Hell, it could have been the Ava-"
She stopped, because Korra had stood up so fast her chair had toppled over backwards. An arm shot out, catching Korra in the stomach. Korra let Opal pull her back into her seat. She didn't look up from her notes for the rest of the class.

Asami didn't have an infinite amount of patience, and it was definitely running low today. The extermination of the benders wasn't exactly a light subject to tackle before lunch, especially not with Korra in the class. Who was she to set herself up as the great authority on benders anyway? There were dozens of sightings of benders reported every month. They ranged from the downright paranoid 'An old man heated his tea with his bare hands!' to the incredible 'she crushed the car!', and they couldn't all be wrong. They couldn't. People with the powers of gods didn't just up and vanish, couldn't be wiped out so easily. It just seemed too impossible, no matter how much Korra and Opal dismissed it.

They filed out at the end of class. Asami made to slink off when a hand caught her shoulder. She turned. Opal, again.
"What?"
It came out harsher than Asami intended. Opal pulled her to one side, out of the stream of human traffic.
"Look, about Korra." Opal began awkwardly. "She doesn't mean anything by it, it's just..."
"She can make her own apologies..." Asami began, but Opal cut over her.
"You know Korra's Southern Water Tribe, right?"
Asami paled slightly. She hadn't known. It was fairly obvious that Korra at least had Water Tribe ancestry but she hadn't guessed she was native. Despite all they'd covered in the last few weeks Korra hadn't given any personal insight. Opal watched as the implications hit home.
"Yeah. So this is something of a touchy subject for her. Look, we're heading to the bar now. You could come join us. We're not as scary as we seem. And yes, by that I mean that Korra's much less of an ass outside of class."
"It's eleven o'clock." Asami protested, but her heart wasn't really in it. Opal shrugged.
"And? It's Friday. You got anything more pressing to deal with?"
Asami paused. There were essays to write and prep reading to deal with and she'd been meaning to do some maintenance on her bike for a week now. Still, she could spare time for one drink, couldn't she?

Korra stopped short of the table, motioning for Opal to go ahead.
"Usual?" She asked, getting a nod in response. "And you?" Ashe turned to Asami.
"I can get my own drink, thanks." Asami said, still a little colder than was polite. Korra pinched the bridge of her nose.
"I'm not good at apologies." She said bluntly. "Look, this one's on me, ok? If you insist, hang around and get the next one."

It shouldn't have been that easy. Outside of class they'd maybe spoken three times. And yet, with the first drink as the grease on the wheels of social interaction, Asami found herself laughing along at Korra's over-the-top anecdotes all the same, slotting neatly into the conversations like they'd known each other years. Asami ducked out of Opal's reach to get the second round of drinks. On the third round Opal's boyfriend turned up, and Asami was pretty sure she'd finally got a glimpse of what would happen if you turned a puppy into human form. Bolin was about six foot of well-built enthusiasm. He'd lifted Opal right out of her seat when he'd hugged her, nearly overturning the table. Korra had to catch both hers and Asami's drinks, with the sort of ease that suggested this was a common occurrence.
"You still owe me a beer, Bo," Korra called over to him as he headed to the bar, and Bolin waved his acknowledgement.

He returned, with a beer in each hand and a stack of slightly sticky menus under his arm.
"Can't do a proper session on an empty stomach," he grinned. Asami looked up. Proper session? Somehow that didn't bode well.

Asami groaned, pushing her plate away. Korra and Bolin split the remaining fries between them without as much as a word.
"How are you even..." she trailed off as Korra took an overenthusiastic bite of her hippocow burger, cheeks bulging out like a chipmunk.
"Well I," Bolin placed one hand dramatically on his chest, "got used to having to make the most of meals. Korra just has hollow legs and an unholy metabolism."
Korra tried to defend herself, but she couldn't speak around the mouthful of meat.
"Siblings not fond of sharing?" Asami guessed.
"Street kid." Bolin corrected casually. Asami froze.
"Sorry, did you say..."
"Yes, he did." Opal sighed. "Bo, what've we said about just dropping that on people? They either think you're kidding, or they freak out."
"My bad."
"Go easy Opal," Korra had finally swallowed, wiping sauce off her chin. "Seeing as you dropped the whole SWT bomb on Asami after class."
Opal looked embarrassed. Clearly she'd thought she'd been more subtle than that.
"Asami's tried to line up a completely unnecessary apology three times in the last hour alone." Korra added, making it Asami's turn to look sheepish. "Opal, what exactly did you scare the poor girl with?"
"Nothing!" Opal said defensively. "I didn't go into details. I just said you were born down there, that's all. I didn't mention the..."
"Sooo..." Bolin said loudly, cutting his girlfriend off with a meaningful look that would have been a lot more subtle three drinks ago. "Yes, Asami. As hard as it is to believe, this fine creature you see before you was once scraping out a living in the gutters of our fair city with my brother...so actually you were sort of right with the sibling guess, just not the way you'd have thought. He's a cop now. Things have really turned up for us."
"That's great," Asami said sincerely. "Can I ask how your luck changed?"
Bolin jerked one sauce-splattered thumb at Korra. Now that was a surprise.

"One day a couple of years ago I wake up from a comfy nap in my cardboard and Pabu, that's my fire ferret, long story, is being chased around the alley by this giant mountain of fur and teeth. I'm freaking out, Mako is just staring, and then out of nowhere there's some random girl yelling at the monster like it's a naughty puppy, and it just stops. The girl's all apologetic, ends up shimmying halfway up a building to get Pabu down for me, insisted on getting us dinner as an apology, so we went back to the family she was staying with and..." Bolin glanced sideways at a slightly embarrassed Korra. "Well, we just never got round to leaving."
Asami tried to imagine her father's reaction if she'd shown up on the doorstep with two hungry, homeless strangers. Maybe they'd have gotten a meal, some clothes, but he'd never have taken them in. "They're like family now. And Korra's like the sister I never had, which makes that whole thing you had with Mako kinda ewww..."
"That whole thing was ewww on every level," Korra muttered. "We're much better as friends. Much, much better."
"You could hardly have been worse." Bolin said frankly. Korra had to agree.

The conversation lightened again. They ended up taking over the pool table, with both Korra and Opal warning Asami that Bolin was banned from a dozen pool halls in the city because of his hustling. Still, it wasn't like they were playing for cash and Asami was genuinely impressed to find someone who could beat her at pool. She wondered if his talents extended to pai sho, but this was rather too boozy a day to test that. Some other time. And she was confident there would be another time, seeing as Korra had just swiped Asami's phone to put her number in it.

Asami was taken by surprise when they rang the bell for last orders. She hadn't realised just how fast the time had gone. Then she tried to tot up the drinks she'd had and realised exactly where the time had gone, as well as a significant amount of money and quite a lot of her balance. Across the sticky table Korra aimed a finger at her.
"I'm taking you home."
"Uh...I'm flattered, but I generally go on more than one date..."
Bolin snorted. Korra was grinning, but she looked just a shade pinker than she had a minute ago.
"I meant I, or rather we, are walking you home. Its dark out and you shouldn't be stumbling about on your lonesome. I might be a Southern savage, but I've got some manners."

Asami supposed that made more sense. But there was something in the way Korra's gaze had dropped that gave her pause. She looked at that slightly sheepish smile, and felt torn. It would be easier and faster just to summon one of her father's fleet of cars, but there was something touching in the offer Korra had made. Or statement. Besides, she wasn't really ready for the day to end, so she agreed. And if she found herself grabbing Korra's fantastically toned upper arm when she stumbled on the stairs, well, she couldn't really be blamed for that now, could she? Korra certainly didn't seem to mind having to steady her.

It took Korra all of five minutes to remember that she still had a hipflask tucked in her jacket pocket, and they passed it round as they walked. Asami spluttered and choked on the first mouthful, to the others' amusement, but there was nothing cruel in their laughter.
"What the hell is that?!" Asami spluttered. Opal shook her head.
"Rule one when it comes to Korra and food and drink. Do not ask what it is, because most of the time you do not want to know."
"City sissies," Korra laughed, taking the flask back. It tasted like honey and liquid fire. "Bolin will eat a hotdog made of spirits knows what, but I make one plate of tigerseal nuggets..."
"Ooh, hotdogs! We should get hotdogs!"

It was somewhere after the hotdog van that Asami started to feel uneasy. The city at night had eyes, and they made a pretty target; four students with laptop bags and too much drink in their bloodstream. She seemed to be the only one with any misgivings though. Ahead Korra and Bolin had were play fighting, shoving each other off the pavement or into the wall. Then without a word they were racing to scramble up a lamppost, Bolin crowing that he'd be the champion. Opal gave Asami a look, and Asami tried to remember to smile back. Korra reached the top first, tearing down the scrap of material that had hung there with a cheer, sliding down the post like a fireman's pole after Bolin. Asami got a good look at the material in Korra's fist, and the nervousness gave way to true fear. Gang colours. Triple Threat Triad. They'd wandered into gang territory in the dark and Korra had torn down their marker, and seemed completely ignorant of why that might be a bad idea. She was waving it around like a trophy. Bolin was a Republic City native, he had to know the dangers of the gangs, but he too seemed curiously uncaring about Korra painting a target on her back.
"Asami, calm down," Opal soothed, or tried to at least. She wasn't exactly sober either, none of them were. "There's no reason to panic."
"No reason to panic?" Asami echoed, as the gang member emerged from the shadow. He had to have been trailing them for a while, waiting for them to stop. Asami saw him over Korra's shoulder. She opened her mouth to shout a warning, but Korra had already turned, still jovial, delivering a vicious uppercut that sent the man staggering back.
"Hey there." Korra grinned. "Nice night, isn't it?"
He looked up at her, and recognition dawned.
"Oh fuck." The gangster moaned, and Asami's brain ground to a halt.

"Not your night, huh?" Korra said, faking sympathy. "Look, just drop the stash. Don't pretend you don't have one," she warned. "Hand it over now, and there'll be no need for a repeat performance. I don't want to pull another of your teeth out of my knuckles. Do you know how dirty someone's mouth is? It got all itchy and infected. It wasn't pleasant."
The man looked from Korra's face to her clenched fists, and then began emptying his jacket of wallets and phones and a small amount of jewellery, piling it at Korra's feet.
"Smart man. You want me to give you a nice shiner, so the boys think you put up more of a fight?"
"Sure..."
Korra's fist was moving before he even finished. He yelped, clutching his face. "There you go." She said, still in that affable tone. " And hey. Consolation prize." She tucked the gang colour into his belt. "Blame a rival gang, maybe you guys can spend some time bloodying each other up instead of innocent people for a change. Oh," She paused, and although her voice did not change Asami could have sworn the temperature dipped a few degrees. "Next time I see you, I won't be nice. Now get the fuck out of here."
He took off at a sprint.

Korra stooped, gathering the stolen items carefully into her rucksack., Bolin crossing to give her a hand.
"Asami? You ok?"
"What?" Asami jolted. "Oh. Yeah. I just...I never saw a reverse mugging before. Gangs scare the shit out of me. Been robbed by them before." It wasn't exactly a lie, but it was far from the full truth.
"Recently? Because that's the third idiot to try Korra this month alone. There's a chance the cops have your stuff."
"You do this a lot?"
"Not exactly. Or at least, not intentionally. Korra just...oh, you done?"
Korra came over, swigging from her hipflask. "He had quite the haul. Must have been a good night for him. Two engagement-looking rings that I imagine their owners will be very glad to get back."
"I'll call Mako in the morning. But I suggest we get moving, because I doubt you want to fight the whole triad tonight."
Korra seemed to consider it for a moment. "Nah, I'm good. 'Sami, you ok?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. How's the hand?"
Korra examined her reddened knuckles as they set off again. "Nothing to worry about. I'm sorry about...all that. It wasn't supposed...This wasn't claimed territory last week. The Agni Kais must be pushing west."

They finally reached the Sato house. Or rather, the gatehouse of the Sato mansion. Bolin and Korra let out a synchronised whistle. Asami looked embarrassed.
"It's a little big, I know."
"Asami, there are towns in the South Pole smaller than this." Korra told her, making her blush more. "Shall we walk you to the door, my lady?" Bolin asked, with an exaggerated bow. It could have been annoying, but Asami had to fight back a laugh.
"Yes. Because if you think I'm letting you three clowns go traipsing back through the territory of a pissed-off gang you must be mad."
"You really don't need to." Opal said. "We'll be fine. We can skirt Triple threat turf, we've just got to get to the harbour." She said it with much a blasé voice that Asami didn't work out what was worrying about the statement for a moment.
"The harbour...no, no, no, that's like, Red Monsoon heartland! No. Not at this time of night. I've got more than enough space. As you can see."
The three exchanged a glance. Asami might have been a little the worse for wear, but it seemed to her they were checking with Korra.
"I'll need to make a quick call. Just to reassure the folk at home we're not dead."

Asami set them up with two of a seemingly infinite number of guest rooms. Korra flopped down onto the bed, pulling out her phone. She fumbled the lock screen a few times, and realised she was probably drunker than she'd thought.
"Damn it." She groaned aloud, not wanting to leave the stupidly comfortable bed. She paused, listening for sounds of life from the house, but it was quiet. It was safe. She moved her hands with less precision than she was used to, drawing a stream of water from the en suite tap over to her. Most she drank, the rest she splashed over her face. That would probably revive her enough to send a legible message to Tenzin, enough to keep him from sending out the White Lotus to find her this time. With that taken care of she crawled under the unfamiliar blankets and let herself drift off, trying not to think too much about raven hair and dark red lips.