Korrasami College AU

Chapter 11

A/N: Alright so here's 11! This chapter and the next chapter kinda go together, but it would have been a really long chapter so I broke it down into two parts. Hopefully these next decouple of chapters might wrap up some questions for you guys! Let me know if there's anything that needs to be fixed. Happy reading! Let me know what you think!

Asami POV

"So the first one was a complete accident. Freshman year of high school. I was just playing with my friends and I tripped and hit my head.

"The second one happened during a basketball game during my junior year. I was running the ball down the court and I got really dizzy, thought I could shake it off, next thing I know I'm laying in the middle of the court, looking up at the faces of my family and teammates. After that one, I would keep getting dizzy and lightheaded at random times, luckily I didn't pass out again. My parents and I wanted to know what was going on so we ended up going to a neurologist and got diagnosed with a couple of things from the concussions. One of the things explained why I kept passing out and the other explained why I kept suffering with symptoms from the concussions. Even after the usual time it take for a concussion to heal, I was still suffering from them.

"I had a stutter when I was younger and it went away, mostly, as I got older, but after that second one, it came back a little. Just a couple words here and there, but it was still frustrating. I would forget things, like my mom would tell me to go do something and I would head to do it, by the time I got there I would forget what I was doing, so I did what I thought I was supposed to do. It usually wasn't the right thing though. That caused a lot of problems because my mom just thought I wasn't doing the things she asked and would get mad at me for it. Eventually we figured it out though, so that was good. And I would get headaches all the time and I just couldn't focus on stuff, like school or homework or that sort of thing. So the neurologist prescribed me some meds and those helped quite a bit.

"Everything was going well. Mostly. I hadn't had any signs of passing out again or anything like that for a while. Was rocking along in my first semester of college was a little stressed for an exam coming up, so I was sitting in a chair, meditating, trying to clear my head. Then, I got lightheaded and I woke up on the floor and I just knew I had another concussion cause the same feeling came back and I had a busted lip from falling off the chair. I tried to stand up to call my parents and tell them what happened and I just physically couldn't, I didn't have the strength to and I would get super dizzy and nauseous when I tried. So I ended up laying on my floor for a good half hour at least, trying to get it to pass. Finally it did and I was able to call them. Then what happened after was a complete mess, my primary care had missed diagnosed me with a bunch of different things from some tests they had done after that concussion. They sent us on so many wild goose chases trying to figure out what was wrong with me and there was nothing there. I still had the concussion, that diagnosis was true, but all the other shit they said I had, completely false. Didn't have any of them. Not a single one. And we had wasted so much time running from one doctor to the next.

"Then the two of us met a few months after that, which I'm really happy we did. But then the problems I had from my second concussion just got a lot worse. I have my stutter mostly under control now, but I have to stop, slow down, and actually think about what I'm going to say and how I'm going to say it. My memory is basically shot, I have to set reminders and write sticky notes to myself just so I remember to do the stupidest little things, like "Don't forget to grab this out of the car" or things like that. I have to have one just so I remember to take my medicine. Another example is like Bolin could be here and y'all were having a conversation and I sitting here listening to it. In an hour you could come up to me and ask if I remember what Bolin had said during that conversation and I wouldn't be able to tell you unless you gave me some more details like where it took place or the general idea of what you were talking about, that sort of thing. I could be reading and it has my full attention, and I'll forget what I just read. And all of this really does suck. It makes trying to learn a lot harder too, because I have to put in ten times the normal effort just to simply remember what I'm learning to understand it.

"Now I'm worried about what's going to happen with this fourth one, it'll probably take a few weeks for the effects to kick in, that's usually what happens. But it's like, am I even going to be able to speak properly? Am I even going to be able to make new memories? What's going to happen to me, y'know? And I'm just tired of it."

Her shoulders just slumped, and I could tell she was exhausted from the concussions. I had never seen her like this, she was usually so happy and trying to make everyone around her laugh. I could tell she had built walls around her so no one would suspect anything, so no one would worry about her. And she had done a fairly good job at it, no one even knew. But now she had opened a small crack and let me see inside that wall for just a moment. I saw a young woman who had been through struggles, someone who had fought for most of their life, someone who was tired of fighting, someone who was just tired of it all. I saw someone who simply wanted to give up, but didn't because they had to be there for the people around them. But I also saw the beautiful and strong young woman she was. She had survived all of these years, struggling silently by herself. I wasn't going to let her struggle by herself any more. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and pulled her closer. I went to tell her as much, then she spoke up again.