The engineer was speaking with an employee out in the main room. They were discussing promotions since Asami saw that it was fit for them to have one, and she promised she would speak with Varrick about the idea. They continued talking when she turned her head a little to look at the door of a certain someone's office.
She didn't even notice, but a small smile krept its way onto her face just at the thought of surprising the business woman.
Asami faced back to the employee. "I'm so sorry to end this short, but I have to meet with someone else in a few minutes. I didn't even realize the time."
"Oh it's no problem. It was amazing speaking with you, though, truly an honor." They gleamed, shaking Asami's hand rapidly. She grinned with her lips and quickly promised a talk with Varrick, then made her way over to the door she's been eyeing.
She knocked on it twice, softly, waiting for a response. "Uh, come in!" Was bevelved a little too loudly from the other side. Asami opened the door swiftly, expecting to see her friend sitting at her desk working on something, but she wasn't there. The raven haired woman looked to her right to see Korra crouched down on the floor with a bunch of small objects surrounding her.
She couldn't help by laugh quietly as she made sure to close the door behind her.
"Korra?" Asami spoke with a head tilt. Her voice seemed to grab the tan woman's attention instantly, but it also startled her for a moment. She looked up to the heiress with her big blue eyes twinkling.
Her eyes are so pretty.
"Asami, hey! I didn't know it was you coming in."
"And if it was anyone else, how would you explain ... this?" Asami waved her hands around the general area of Korra on the floor with the figurines.
"Not sure." She scratched her cheek briefly. "Guess I was lucky it was you then."
"So, what exactly are you doing?" The green eyed woman decided to pull up one of the chairs that sat in front of Korra's desk. She moved it so she could sit next to her friend who was still scooping up the objects on the carpeted floor.
"My statue things fell." She answered with an faultless tone.
Asami looked up to the wall where the shelves were, but instead of being mounted properly they were each hanging down by one nail. She noticed that one shelf was even on the floor. Asami raised an eyebrow at the flawed details.
"Along with the some of the shelves as well." Korra admitted, slightly embarrassed.
"I can see that. How though?"
"Hey, I didn't do anything to cause this."
"That's the first." Asami joked, nudging the southerner on the shoulder with her knee. Korra looked up to her with an angry pout, of course.
"Hilarious." She snapped with a glare. "Anyways, they just came apart on their own. I guess I didn't mount them properly or something."
"Want my help?"
Korra finally cleaned up the remaining figurines from the floor. She walked over to her desk to set them down for the meantime. "Why would you want to fix my stuff? Don't you have important uh, business to take care of?"
"I'm an engineer, Korra." The CEO stood from her seat and picked up the shelf on the ground. "Putting things together is my strongest suit. I just need some tools, probably."
"Well thanks then. Speaking of suits ..." Korra was silent for a moment, causing Asami to turn around to see what was up. She saw the younger woman staring at her up and down with a hand rested on her chin. The gaze made Asami's body heat up, she swear she could feel her knees momentarily buckle.
Why is she looking at me like that?
Can she please stop looking at me like that?
What Asami wouldn't admit though, is that she kind of liked the way Korra was so clearly admiring her.
"Are you okay?" She ended up finally asking with furrowed brows and a wince.
Korra pointed to the heiress. "Yeah. Is this a new outfit?"
Asami grew more nervous by the millisecond, her cheeks flushing at the observation. She looked down to her clothes and began to fix them, even though there was nothing to fix. She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and stuttered, "Uh, sort of. I um, I just got these pants and the blazer. Do you like it?"
"Of course I do. You look really-" The shorter woman seemed to stop herself from whatever she was about to say. She squinted her eyes then spread her hands out in the air. "Professional."
"That's good because that's my goal."
The friends shared a laugh as Asami quickly examined the shelf pieces, she knew the proper tools that were needed and told herself she would come back to fix them later in the week. Korra moved herself to sit down at her desk chair. The older business woman pulled up the chair she took and sat in front of Korra.
Before Asami could speak, Korra started with a smirk, "So, why'd you come in here? Miss me?"
"I- I- no." Her cheeks burnt pink. "I was just bored. I wanted to bother you but it seems you already had your hands full."
"You just love making jokes today." The blue eyed woman rummaged in one of her desk drawers to find a notepad. She began writing down a few reminders for herself. "But why were you bored? What were you doing? Meetings?"
Asami grew a bit distracted by the mini statues of animals and world monuments. She moved in closer to be able to toy with and study them."I was talking to one of the employees here about them deserving a promotion."
Korra stuck her head up with a raised brow. "You've never talked to me about deserving a promotion."
"If I ever discussed that type of thing with you, I wouldn't hear the end of it."
"Hear the end of what, specifically?"
"Your cockiness." She answered bluntly and smiled.
"You adore my cockiness, green eyes." Korra finished the conversation off with a playful grin and continued to write on her notepad.
It's true.
The heiress looked up to her friend and let out a quiet sigh of frustration. But not frustration with Korra, frustration with herself. For what though? She had not the slightest idea.
They both continued to sit there in the silence. Asami calmingly fidgeting with the statues while Korra worked, occasionally teasing each other though, until the engineer had to actually get back to her job. She was headed towards the door to leave when she felt something hit the back of her head.
"Ow!" She cursed to the crumpled piece of paper on the floor. She whipped her head around and saw the southerner cracking herself up. "And what was that for?"
"Just wanted to get your attention." Korra shrugged her off innocently.
"I have to go, but what is it? Make it quick."
"You wanna come over tonight? I get off early at like three, and I have an off day tomorrow. We can just chill or something."
Lately, everytime Asami was asked to go over to Korra's house, there was a small part of her that felt different. She could never put it into words. Excitement could be used, but it was something stronger. Whatever it was, overall the feeling was oddly comforting. Asami always caught her heart beating quicker at any and every invite that was thrown at her. She couldn't wait to answer yes, but then remembered an important thing that needed to be taken care of.
"You know I'd love to but I have a few calls to take with some of Future Industries' partnerships."
"Are you kidding me?" Angry pout.
Dear spirits, Korra.
"Don't be so sad."
"Of course I'm sad. I wanted to hang out tonight." Angry pout.
Please stop it.
She placed a hand over her heart in sarcasm, but also trying to cover how fast it was beating for no reason. "How flattering, but you can ask Opal or Bolin to come over."
"I wanted to hang out with you tonight. But I get it, you're busy." Korra rolled her eyes and flared her fingers in the air while returning to her desktop. "Sometimes I honestly forget that you're like this insanely important CEO of this huge company, and the heir to it."
"Is that a good thing?"
Korra was quiet for a second, then a faint smile cracked on the advertiser's face. "Yeah."
She sees me as just ... Asami? Like just Asami?
The green eyed woman beamed. "Actually, I'll see what I can do. My first call is at one thirty and if everything goes perfectly then I should be wrapped up around five or six then I can go over to your place."
"Wait, are you sure you won't be too tired, though?"
"I'll be fine, Korra."
Korra switched her attention from her computer screen to the raven haired woman that stood at her door. Asami's breath hitched immediately when the those blue eyes stared at her like that again. It's been happening more and more frequently. She's tried to read behind them, but it was simply impossible. Korra had walls up.
That, or Asami was terrible at reading people's emotions.
It was soundless for awhile, but this time it was an uncomfortable quiet. The taller woman stirred in her place as they failed to break eye contact. Though she wasn't even sure she wanted to. Her stomach felt as if it was lifted out of her body. Asami blinked quickly and finally regained her self awareness. Korra however was still looking intently.
"Um, okay I uh, I should probably- I should um-"
"You should probably get going?" She mocked.
"Yeah that!"
Embarrassing.
"Alright then. I'll hope to see you later."
"I'll let you know." Once Asami closed the door behind her after her departure, she let out an exasperated sigh of relief. Letting out the air that was caught in her throat that she didn't even know was there. Korra was honestly talented in many ways, but her greatest skill was probably being able to make the older business woman so incredibly flustered with such ease.
Asami let herself into Korra's bedroom to find the southerner hunched over on her bed. She was doing nothing but scrolling through her phone, but she hadn't noticed the new presence in the room yet. Asami used this to her advantage, and quite loudly slammed the door shut. This caused Korra's body to jolt as she looked up quickly to see where the noise came from. The green eyed woman let out a mischievous giggle.
Korra did her famous angry pout. "You think you're funny?"
"I do, yes." A pleased look appeared on Asami's face. She made her way over to the bed and climbed on to it, positioning herself to sit up and lean her back against the large pillows. Korra turned her criss - crossed body around to face her again.
"You never told me how your calls went." She began.
"Don't worry, nothing big happened. Just a bunch of middle aged, rich people talking about money and such. You don't want to hear about it."
"Well, I'm just glad you managed to come over tonight."
The business woman moved herself a final time to flop her body in between Asami's legs and wrapped her arms around her waist. Asami shifted her arms to lay on Korra's back, with one hand slowly stroking through her chopped hair. The placement wasn't foreign to them, so they both eased into each other.
Her hair is so soft.
The engineer looked down at their settlement. She felt so comfortable, and just calm in general. Once again, her stomach twisted into unintelligible knots as her cheeks heated up with a faint blush. Being so close to Korra made her feel a sense of alleviation. The younger woman has always had this effect on Asami ever since their friendship began to grow. They dwelled in the silence of the bedroom, with Korra's soft breathing making the smallest amount of noise. It tickled the CEO's bare arm which made her shudder every now and then. Asami continued to create short, loose braids in the hair until a thought came up.
"You know your birthday is coming up, right?"
"How could I forget? You've been saying that for a month, and my birthday isn't even for another two weeks." Korra was mumbling but her words were still audible.
"What do you think you'll do?"
"Uh, last year I just spent it with Bolin, Opal, and a couple other of my friends here actually. This year I was planning on going back home to see my parents, but they're traveling right now so that's off of the list. It sucks though cause I haven't seen them since the holidays."
Asami frowned for a moment at the faulted plans but mainly wanted to focus on the positive so Korra wouldn't be upset. "I like the idea of just hanging out at your place."
"Okay perfect then. Consider yourself the first one on my guest list!" Asami felt Korra's smile form when her cheeks moved.
"I'd hope I am." One more thought came to mind. "And what do you want? Like as a present. You still haven't told me yet."
"You haven't asked."
"Fair point, but I have been thinking about it." The heiress remembered studying Korra's office and apartment recently to try and find inspiration, but not much luck so far. "Seriously though, anything you have in mind?"
"Sami," Another nickname. "I really don't want you getting me anything."
She scrunched her face in confusion. "Why not? You're my best friend and it's your birthday."
"Wait, I'm your best friend?" The blue eyed woman looked up to Asami with a pleased expression.
"Are you trying to make me nervous or something?" The engineer stirred for a moment to adjust a fallen strand of her own hair, breaking eye contact with the woman who laid on top of her.
"Sorry it's easy, and hilarious. But you're my best friend too, green eyes."
She seriously needs to stop looking at me like that.
It wasn't uncomfortable to her, just a bit strange. Asami wasn't used to having this kind of look that was meant for her. It was different than the way Mako, Kai or Wu looked at her. Different from the way any of her past lovers had looked at her, too. She couldn't tell what it was, and she didn't know why it made her feel so delighted and free either. The silence was almost becoming painful, so Asami figured that speaking up and continuing the conversation would change the ... tension that she had imagined.
"Okay so, me getting you a birthday gift is a no because?"
"You already gave me the matching bracelet." Korra jingled her piece of jewelry. "I really don't want more from you. I still haven't even repaid you yet."
"Repaid me?" The older woman asked.
"I have yet to get you a gift."
"Korra, I don't need anything from you. And I am getting you a present, the bracelet was just a friendly gesture because I felt like it."
Friendly.
"Whatever you say, but I don't want a present." Korra resumed her previous position with laying her head on Asami's lap while the green eyed woman continued to think.
Soon enough, Asami looked down again to notice that her friend had fallen asleep on top of her. She sighed to herself and smiled, admiring how peaceful and vulnerable Korra looked in this state. Asami moved a little - carefully to not wake up the shorter woman - so her back was flat on the bed now. She kept combing through the soft brown locks until she fell into a nap as well.
Obviously, the request was gladly ignored by the heiress. Instead of spending the little free time she had with Korra, she used the opportunities to hunt for the perfect birthday present. She just didn't know how difficult it would be, though. Korra was not the most materialistic person at heart. Getting her that bracelet in the first place was a long shot, and Asami was still surprised with how well that went.
She had even gone out of her way to contact Opal and Bolin to see what they were getting for Korra. Opal decided to get her a fresh new set of gym equipment, consisting of new weights and dumbells and other stuff Asami wasn't too familiar with. Bolin settled on a handful of gift cards to the business woman's favorite places; fast food places, clothing stores, shoe stores, and department stores. Though the gifts weren't much, they were still very thoughtful. There was no way Asami could compete with the two co workers, of course they knew Korra better than she does. They've been friends with her for years.
The fact bothered her for some reason.
However, there was one thing that the younger Sato remembered her friend talking about. It was a brief discussion, but she thought back to the way Korra spoke about it. She was so lively and passionate, which is exactly why it would be the perfect gift. Well, Asami could only hope that it would be the perfect gift.