This is all probably really boring, isn't it. Who: Asami and Korra Where: Future Industries When: Late June What: Asami gives Korra a tour of FI! Warnings: None Status: Complete
Korra grunted as she took a seat, knee stretched out in front of her. It was giving her hell today, but even she could admit that it was kind of her own fault. Varrick had said that the extra pushing she’d subjected herself to a few days ago had set her back at least two weeks, and had ordered her to use her crutches again. She was pissed, but there wasn’t much she could do. She wanted to heal, and he was the doctor.
Trying to get her mind off of her persistent injury, she looked around the Future Industries lobby, excitement building up in her again. This place was already awesome, and the idea that she was getting to tour it with Asami Sato herself was just… beyond. She couldn’t imagine a better way to spend her afternoon.
Really, Asami should just start having people come down to R&D. At least those she wanted to befriend. But this was also Korra and she felt a great deal of things in her stomach. Giddiness, nervousness, guilt.
Asami was used to guilt, it was a Feature(tm), but this was a new version of it. She suddenly felt like she might understand what had happened with Mako. Just a little bit. Not that she expected anything to happen. Even in the early girl-crush stages she'd only ever wanted to be close to Korra. To be her friend. What had grown from that had been unexpected, and was something that had to be pushed down and ignored.
And if Korra dreamed? Asami would be there for her. Especially when Zaheer came into the picture. She prayed to whatever gods would listen that nothing from that battle transferred across the rift in spacetime that was Orange County. She was positive Lena would understand that. Asami would just have to not fall in love with Korra again. Easy.
Deciding to start with a tour of the offices (A lot of brainstorming happened here, but it was mostly the business side of things), Asami stepped out of the elevator and paused.
Crutches were not a minor injury, but it did fit with what she'd learned doing some googling. Her heart went out to Korra as she approached, smiling kindly as she pushed her hair back over her shoulder. "Korra? I'm glad you could come."
As embarrassing and entirely mortifying as it was, Korra had to admit that, when she saw Asami coming toward her, she gaped a little. It took her a full five seconds to realize and reclaim her jaw, and another two for her to force herself to blink, instead of staring dumbly. But really - could anyone blame her? The woman was gorgeous. Sure, she’d seen pictures, but those hardly ever did anyone justice, and for Asami? They certainly did not.
“Um, yeah!” She said after she’d gathered herself, grabbing her crutches so that she could work herself into a standing position. “That’s me. Hi. Yeah. Thanks for inviting me!” She smiled widely, trying to keep the sheepishness out of her face. That would definitely give her away, if staring like a dope hadn’t already.
Asami knew better than to insist that Korra not need to stand. Korra was nothing if not self-sufficient, and even in the dreams she'd tried to shrug off people helping her. Though there'd been times Asami had had to ignore that. In time between Korra's injury and her travelling to the South Pole, Asami had barely left her side. She'd learned things about caregiving she'd never expected she'd need to know.
Memories aside, Asami had a hard time not staring, herself. Though Korra never believed it, she was beautiful too. Strong and confident and cocky and kind. All things that made it impossible not to like her. But Korra was here, in the flesh, and a part of Asami felt like a missing piece of herself had been found.
"It's not a problem. You seemed really interested and honestly I figured you should get to meet the object of your study."
That came out wrong, but Asami just waved for her to follow. "I'm going to show you the offices real quickly, before taking you over to the research division. All the office work is kind of boring for me, but I don't really trust enough people not to screw me over."
Korra nodded enthusiastically, trying her best to seem older than she was. Twenty-one wasn't that young, but it was younger than Asami, and, considering the air of sophistication that the other woman gave off, the last thing she wanted to do was seem like a kid.
Furrowing her eyebrows at Asami’s comment, she followed on her crutches, catching up to walk beside her as best as she could. “Why would anyone betray you? I mean, not even on just a moral level - though considering the stuff you've done for technology and women and girls, that would be bad enough - but on a business level. You're one of the most powerful women in the world. The likelihood of them succeeding in any attempt to take you down is like, minuscule.”
"After my dad went to jail, there was this battle behind the scenes for the company. Because he'd named me the inheritor I had full control. I had to... purge a lot of holdouts and people who weren't happy about the direction I wanted to go in. And legally, I had to make sure some of those people were gone anyway, to avoid more scrutiny. He'd embezzled a lot of money, and some of the causes he donated to hurt, on a personal level. And on principle."
Asami kept her pace slow but steady, trying to match Korra's so she didn't topple over trying to keep up. "There's still some resentment among the old guard, the ones I can't easily get rid of. There's fewer of them than there used to be now."
She turned her head and smiled at Korra. "This is all probably really boring, isn't it."
Oh. Right. She hadn't forgotten that Asami's dad was in prison, per se, she'd just kind of… not focused on it? Asami in of herself was larger than life, and it was sometimes hard to believe that she hadn't been in charge since she’d been, like a baby. But it was true - Hiroshi Sato had once been in charge, and if reports were to be believed, he'd kind of left things in a mess. Of course Asami would want to be careful about who was still around. “That's really smart of you, to change the company’s whole image the way you did. That couldn't have been easy.”
At Asami’s question, she shook her head vehemently, honestly surprised. “What? No! Not at all. Knowing that things changed for the better here was interesting enough, but learning how? That's what I'm all about. I mean, if my soccer career is cut short, or maybe even just after, I plan to be involved in international diplomacy of some kind. Learning about regime changes is part of that, and honestly? That stuff fascinates me.”
“I got called lots of names about the rebranding to Future Industries. Hopefully people have forgotten the old name by now.” She gave Korra an almost flirtatious wink. “That’s good to know. I suppose running a business can sometimes be a little like waging warfare.”
The elevator she chose was open glass, and she took Korra up to the top floor. “Up here is my office, and the war room. I’ve also got a tiny workshop but it doesn’t see much use anymore.”
Her hand touched the small of Korra’s back to guide her.
Korra blushed at the attention Asami was giving her, clearing her throat. Okay, so, besides thinking Asami Sato was awesome, she also kind of had a little bit of a crush on her. It wasn't anything that she ever planned to do anything about - how could she? She'd never thought she'd even ever meet the woman - but it was enough to make her hypersensitive to what was clearly just Asami being friendly. She needed to calm down.
Looking around the lobby of the top floor, Korra couldn't help but be struck by the gravity of where she was. How many people had been to the top floor of a multi-billion dollar company’s headquarters? Not only that, the view from the glass that surrounded them was just… breathtaking.
“This is so cool. Do you show people this often? I mean, do you give a lot of tours?”
It was difficult not to hug her. Asami really, really needed to hug her. But she could wait. She was patient. She’d only waited three years. What was a little longer?
“Not really. When I do tour it’s for friends or people that are interesting. I hardly ever take anyone up here, usually it’s R&D.” She grinned a little sheepishly. “That’s where all the cool stuff is anyway.”
There was a part of Korra that wanted to ask what made her so interesting as to have earned such a private tour, but she refrained. What was the phrase? Don't look a gift horse in the mouth? Super weird phrase, but totally a good point. If Asami wanted to give her this tour, she wasn't going to talk her out of it.
“Cool stuff? I'm up for that.”
Asami gave Korra a tour of that floor, including the conference room and even her personal office, before ushering her back into the elevator. She wondered if Korra’s crutches would fit in the Cobra, and decided they might have to take a company vehicle. She leaned against the wall of the elevator and tucked some hair behind her ear. “Have you eaten yet today?”
Watching dutifully, Korra took in the things that Asami showed and told her, impressed, but admittedly a little bored. As they headed toward the elevator, she found herself excited to see what came next.
Korra nodded. “Yeah. Two apples, a bowl and a half of cereal, and two string cheese… things.” Mostly healthy stuff, but quite a bit nonetheless. Korra couldn't help it - she had a fast metabolism; it required a lot of food. And it hadn't slowed down much since her injury. “But I could eat, if you're hungry?”
“I just didn’t want to keep you from eating or anything. You’re an athlete, you probably have a metabolism I’m jealous of.” Asami winked at her. “We can grab a bowl of noodles on the way there? There’s a place on the way, if you like that sort of thing.”
“Noodles! Noodles are like, my favorite meal.” Korra said enthusiastically, suddenly very hungry. Man, her metabolism worked fast. “I'm absolutely up for that, if it wouldn't distract from the tour too much? I mean, I know you're busy, so…” Korra trailed off, smiling shyly at Asami. Man, she was pretty. And cool. And Korra was just so. Freaking. Embarrassing.
Asami couldn’t help it, she giggled. Crap. She felt that same tightness in her chest from the conversation Lena. “It won’t distract from a thing.”
She just had to control her feelings and make sure nothing came of them. It wasn’t fair on Korra, and it wasn’t fair on Lena. Asami didn’t think about how unfair it was for herself. The elevator took them below ground to the garage. They passed Asami’s cherry red Cobra, and she ran her hand along the trunk. “Do your crutches fold up at all?”
Korra’s eyes widened when she saw the Cobra, enamored smile forming. “Are we riding in that?” She said, already too excited for rational thought.
Which was exactly why it took her a full ten seconds to realize what Asami had asked her. “Oh! Yeah, they do. Easier to travel that way.”
Well, if Korra was going to smile like that, they were going to have to take the Cobra. Asami felt her heart leap into her throat, and she nodded as she unlocked the car. "Then we'll take the Cobra! Honestly, I'll show this car off to anyone and everyone, so don't feel too special."
There was that wink again as her hand brushed down Korra's arm, which felt like a spark to her. Alarms went off in her head but she kept herself smooth and calm and focused. This was fine.gif.
“Too late!” Korra laughed, pumping a fist into the air to proclaim her excitement, and then blushing and bending to collect the crutch that had just fallen to the ground. With that distraction, it took her a moment to process Asami’s wink. When she did though, her blush intensified and she tried to focus on getting into the car.
“S-so, how far away is this noodle place?” She said with an embarrassed smile, trying to talk herself out of the blossoming crush she had on this woman.
As long as necessary to talk to you, Asami thought, and out loud she said. “Not too far, but maybe we can take the scenic route. Enjoy the car.”
She slipped into the seat, checked her hair in the mirror, then started the car. She immediately felt less nervous, except for that sinking feeling in her gut as she watched Korra buckle up. It wasn’t fair.
“Sounds good to me.” Korra said, giving Asami a lopsided grin as she folded up her crutches, closing the door behind her when she was finished.
Once the car started, she buckled in, bouncing a little in excitement. “So… how fast can we go on this scenic route?”
A wide grin crossed Asami’s face. “I used to street race. So I know all the tricks.”
She decided she was going to have to blow Korra’s mind.
“I'm not surprised, but I am mega psyched.” Korra replied, sincere. She hadn't known what to expect with this tour when she'd arrived, but she'd never imagined that it would be this fun. She knew Asami had be busy with her company; how did she even have time to spend with someone she'd never even met? And, really - what made her so special as to get the really cool tour?
Both good questions, but not ones that Korra was going to dwell on right now. Not only was she not a cynical, skeptical person that doubted everyone's intentions, there was also the simple fact that she was about to go street racing (or something?) with someone who'd been on the cover of Forbes Magazine. Not that she was star struck, because she wasn't, really. But seriously. Forbes Magazine.
Work would probably be the sort of thing that Asami should do, but she’d never been one to immerse herself in it entirely. Especially when it came to Korra. Once the company was stable? She’d preferred inventing and helping the Avatar to actually running a business.
There was a long stretch of road leading away from the building, like a rear entrance drive-way, and Asami floored it. “Hold on to your butt.”