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Disclaimer: This work of fan fiction is not for personal profit. All the characters used in this fan fic are the property of Nickelodeon and/or other designated copyright and/or trademark holders.
Asami Sato had had a very successful meeting. The joint venture agreement had been worked out and in exchange for an infusion of capital, Future Industries would be entering into exclusive supply agreements with the investor corporations at guaranteed pricing for the next several years. Win-win all around, she thought. The suppliers had a steady customer plus a cut of the profits, and Future Industries had fresh cash and could embark on expansion plans to boost production and the diversity of products.
She was near the top of a tall spire that soared gracefully above the surrounding buildings, and from her vantage point could see the entire city sprawled out below. On one side, it was partly surrounded by rugged mountains that reached high into the sky. On the other was an endless vista of calm blue ocean as far as the eye could see. It was heartstoppingly beautiful, and she counted herself fortunate that Future Industries had a major branch office here, which would allow her to return on business if she wished.
By any measure, Asami knew she ought to feel uplifted and serenely at peace in this jewel of a city.
And yet…
Asami looked at her phone and sighed. No messages, no missed calls, no texts, no nothing.
Asami shoved her phone back in her pocket, irritated. She’d been busy that morning reassuring her father, Hiroshi Sato, that things would be fine, and then she’d had to launch into the meeting which had demanded her focus and attention until just past lunchtime after which it was the lawyers’ turn to spend hours behind closed doors.
She knew she needed to unwind, and now she felt… adrift.
It wasn’t Asami’s first time in a new city by far, and she’d had a decent time out the previous night; the sushi bar she’d gone to had been top-notch and she’d even flirted briefly with the cute guy the next seat over, but his sister coming over to remind him she was going off shift and needed a ride home had put the kibosh on anything more than that.
And yet, occasionally, thoughts of a tall, attractive, brown-skinned woman with blue eyes and brown hair who was easy to talk to, had flitted across her mind the night before and even during the meeting.
Asami knew she liked boys and girls, but she’d never really been focused too much on any one person, either in high school or in university.
So surely the chance meeting with that woman, Korra, couldn’t have affected her that much, could it?
She checked her phone again and groaned. “Still no messages, damn it!” she said through gritted teeth.
Asami felt the other executives looking at her, and finally, unwilling to let her esteem drop in their eyes, she left to join the other CEOs for a light lunch. But during the lunch, she kept dropping her eyes to her lap every now and then, where she’d secreted her phone.
It was pretty clear to Asami she would rather be eating with Korra and getting to know her more. Yep, Korra is definitely affecting me, damn it! thought Asami.
Korra stood over her stove, stirring her cream of chicken soup.
She tried not to look at her cell phone, currently sitting on the countertop in case she got a call from her boss at the hotel. Tahno was usually pretty good about consistent scheduling, but there was always the chance someone might call in sick, and as assistant manager (Ha! she thought to herself. More like getting paid a couple bucks extra an hour to be his fix-it woman.) she usually ended up having to wear a half a dozen hats.
One fun adventure of hat-wearing had been yesterday, being an emergency check-in receptionist while the usual person was busy helping get a room prepped because one of the cleaners had been given the day off and somehow nobody’d been told, and then having to rush and do the reconciliations before shift ended because Tahno also had the day off, and so on and so forth.
But Korra couldn’t quit sneeking guilty peeks at her phone, knowing Asami Sato’s business card was burning a hole in her pocket.
Korra rationalized, She’s probably majorly busy with that meeting, and wouldn’t want to be disturbed.
But that’s what setting your phone to ‘buzz’ and letting voicemail do what it’s supposed to do is for, she admitted to herself.
Oh, God freaking damnit. What was it about Asami, anyway?!
She was obviously attractive as hell, with that flowing black hair and those green eyes of hers, not to mention a body that was probably as fit as Korra’s, too.
Korra shrugged and thought, Asami probably slept with someone last night. She must have a zillion guys after her, and she’s obviously rich. That probably means her dad wants grandkids to “keep the family line”.
All that added up to Asami being way out of her league. What CEO wants to get with a small hotel’s assistant manager who’s gunning for manager?
And yet…
Something kept nagging at Korra to call Asami.
Korra looked down and realized her soup was boiling, and quickly took the pot off the stove and poured it into the bowl on the counter, then when that was done, she found a spoon and some crackers. She carefully brought the bowl to her small dining table, and got ready to eat.
As she did so, her eye caught her cell phone again.
It was almost mocking her refusal to call Asami, and she growled, “Fuck off.”
She turned her attention to her soup, which seemed to taste blander than usual.
Asami had almost given up.
After lunch, she had gone back up with the consortium representatives, made sure the Future Industries in-house lawyer had every “i” dotted and every “t” crossed, then signed her name to all the contracts, shaken hands all around and said her goodbyes.
Now, she was in a taxi, navigating its way through busy downtown traffic. The driver, thankfully, was a laconic older man who seemed to have his mind more on the soft classical music that played over the radio than on sparking up a conversation.
And suddenly, Asami’s phone let out a soft burr in her pocket.
She had the phone out almost before she knew it, and the phone number on her caller ID was unfamiliar. She accepted the call, put the phone to her ear, and her heart raced as she said, “Hello?”
Please let it be who I think it is…
A slightly tinny woman’s voice said, “Hi, is this Asami? Asami Sato?”
“Yes! Yes, it is. Hi, Korra!” Asami grinned as relief flooded through her.
“Oh, hey. Um, I’d like to take you up on… well, I guess it’s kinda late to give you a ‘knock ‘em dead’ pep talk, but I guess, I dunno, a coffee?”
Asami frowned. Korra’s tone seemed kind of tentative, as though she thought she was intruding. Asami certainly wasn’t too busy to spend an afternoon enjoying the city, that was for sure!
“Ab-solutely! Where’s the best place near you?”
“You don’t have to—”
“Relax. I’m in a cab.” A note of urgency crept into Asami’s voice. “C’mon, Korra! I just got done being with a bunch of stuffy execs all day and I could do with just kicking back for a while.”
“All right. There’s a place near where I live, a couple blocks away. It’s called the Jasmine Dragon. I’ll give you the address—”
And so Asami found herself finally feeling something uncoil within her as she settled into her seat and relaxed. No suits, no ties, no negotiations, just her and a woman she’d like to know better.
Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, decided Asami.
Thanks to Skeleton-Horse for betaing this!