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“You can just hang out with me the whole time, it’ll be fun!”
Opal’s empty promise swam through Asami’s head as she watched her small bubbly friend make putty out of four different football jocks at the same time. Even from across the room she could practically hear Opal’s sweet, excited voice making the boys’ heads spin. Asami couldn’t bring herself to feel even the least bit surprised. This is how it always went. Opal would beg and cajole her to come along to a party, insisting that she spent entirely too much time studying and that she needed to “get out and live a little, Asami, you’re a damn college student for crying out loud.” And somehow, every time, Asami allowed herself to be persuaded once more to accompany her as far as the drinks table before she found herself left alone again while Opal went off to find her next hook-up.
Asami sighed, lifting her bottle of Mike’s Hard to her lips and taking a long gulp to finish it off. It was her second one and the buzz hadn’t even kicked in yet. She made her way back to the drinks table, tossing the empty bottle into the garbage can and fishing a new one out of the cooler. If the third drink didn’t end up being the charm, there were several rows of jello shots she planned to keep an eye on; being the only sober person in a room full of wasted college students didn’t sound like her idea of a good time.
She snapped off the bottle cap with a nearby bottle opener and made her way back to her secluded spot on the wall. No sooner had she made herself comfortable than the front door opened and in stepped the last person in the world she would have ever wanted to see.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” she whispered under her breath to no one in particular. Her fight or flight response kicked into full gear, her heart pounding hard all of a sudden.
Mako hadn’t seen her yet but it was only a matter of time before his cocky gaze made it around the room to her. She glanced over at Opal desperately, but her roommate was too caught up in entertaining her fixated audience of drooling males to notice that anything was wrong. Asami sized up the situation. In any other instance she would’ve gone straight to Opal’s side and dragged her out the door, but Mako had decided to establish his arrival by hanging out in the entryway, blocking that path of escape. She groaned internally and gave her back to Mako’s general direction, hoping to buy herself some time in case he glanced her way.
Okay, Sato. Don’t panic. Find a way out of this.
She sidestepped a group of wasted girls and moved quickly into the next room over. Her eyes scanned the room, looking for something, anything, that might save her. Her salvation came in the form of a girl in a tank-top, sitting with her arms draped across the back of the couch. There were a great many things that caught Asami’s eye, not the least of which were her tan and muscular arms, but the most promising thing were the multiple rainbow-colored bracelets that adorned her wrists. Asami usually wasn’t one to make assumptions based on fashion accessories, but this was an emergency. She slipped across the room, making her way to the couch.
The girl had short black hair and a pleasant face. Her eyes were closed as her head swayed gently to the rhythm of the music that pulsated through the house. As Asami sat on the arm of the couch, she opened her eyes and looked up. Her eyes were blue. A pure, piercing, color of the sky on the most perfect summer day blue. Asami would’ve been left speechless if she wasn’t so desperate to be one-hundred percent occupied by the time Mako wandered in.
“Hi,” Asami said with a smile, leaning in to make herself heard over the music.
The girl’s eyebrows were raised and a crooked grin made its way across her mouth.
“Hi,” she said.
“I’m Asami.” Asami lifted her hand slightly in the minimal space between them.
The girl took it without hesitation, apparently intrigued and amused. That was a good sign. Asami pressed on, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible.
“Listen, can I ask you a favor?”
“You sure can, Asami.”
She wasn’t expecting the other girl to say her name and it sent a strange thrill through her chest. They hadn’t released each other’s hands.
“I hope I’m not making any offensive assumptions, but my ex just showed up and I’m basically here alone and I would love for him to think that I’m not, so I was wondering if you could maybe make out with me for a while.”
The crooked grin vanished, replaced by an expression bordering on shock.
“Wait...make out with you?”
“If not it’s okay, I totally understand, I just…” Asami backpedaled quickly, though she noticed that the girl still hadn’t let go of her hand.
“Of course I’ll make out with you, holy shit!” the girl exclaimed. “I mean, you’re sure, right?”
“Absolutely,” Asami said gratefully.
The girl didn’t bother answering, only leaning forward to set her drink down before she slid her free hand around the back of Asami’s neck and leaned up and kissed her. Asami stiffened ever so slightly, habitual instinct telling her to brace for an aggressive amount of unwanted tongue. But none was forthcoming. The girl’s lips were soft and tangy with the taste of alcohol, her hand warm where it tangled in her hair. Asami could still feel the throbbing music and hear the mingling voices around her, but her Mako-induced panic was fading with remarkable speed. Now, it seemed, her heart was pounding for an entirely different reason.
Asami tilted her head, leaning further into the kiss. The girl let go of her hand and pulled her gently from the arm of the couch so she was straddling her lap instead. Asami’s breath hitched in her chest. The girl paused briefly.
“Is this okay?” she asked.
Asami nodded vaguely and pulled her back in for another kiss, a low hum on her lips. She let her tongue ghost out ever so slightly, noting with satisfaction the shiver that went through the girl’s body. The gratification only lasted a few seconds because in the next instant she had gently caught Asami’s bottom lip between her teeth. She tugged on it softly for a moment before releasing it and soothing any non-existent pain there with another kiss. Asami felt her eyelids flutter even though they were already closed.
Fucking hell.
She had clearly not gone into this adequately prepared. How many guys had she kissed before? Ten? Fifteen? And not a single bastard among them came within miles of the skill and finesse with which this girl was kissing Asami. She felt a high running through her veins, a tightness in her chest borne of exhilaration. She slid her arms over the girl’s strong shoulders, shifting herself closer as she deepened the kiss. The girl had her hands resting steady on Asami’s waist, and for some reason Asami felt that this was a show of good intentions rather than a strategy to cop a feel.
When their lips parted for a moment, the girl tilted her head to kiss Asami’s cheek, and for a moment Asami thought she was effectively ending the make-out session right there. A moment later, however, she felt her mouth pressing against her neck and she realized she could not have been more wrong. The girl slid her hands higher up Asami’s back, pulling her in as she pressed hungry kisses up and down her throat, pausing occasionally to suck gently on the tender skin. Asami instinctively wound her fingers through the girl’s hair, biting her lip and praying that she wouldn’t say anything embarrassingly inappropriate as she felt a heat blossoming low in her abdomen.
Her eyes fluttered open for a moment, accompanied by a gasp as the girl began kissing along her jawline. It took a some time for her lidded vision to focus, but when it did she found herself staring at Mako. Or rather, she found him staring at her. He was surrounded by his friends, all of whom were talking and laughing, but he seemed to be completely detached from their company, looking right over their heads. His face was slack with shock as he tried to process exactly what he was seeing, and Asami felt a swell of the sweetest satisfaction roll through her chest, compounding the high this girl was giving her.
She looked back down, cupping the girl’s face in her hands. She looked up at Asami, her blue eyes darkened, pupils blown. Asami leaned in and kissed her deeply, noticing now that her skin had a light, musky scent. She could feel Mako’s gaze, but it was only a few moments more before he had gone completely from her mind and she could only think about the taste of this girl and the way her hands were both strong and gentle.
How long they stayed locked together Asami couldn’t tell. But she knew it was a good while before they finally parted, lips slightly swollen, somewhat shocked at the heat between them. Asami let their foreheads drop together, slowly but surely returning to her senses. Her eyes flickered up of their own accord, and she saw that Mako had disappeared.
“Did it work?” the girl asked with a smile.
Asami felt her cheeks heating up and she tucked her hair behind her ear.
“Um, yeah, I think it did, actually.”
The girl grinned crookedly again, although she certainly looked much more hazy than before, and Asami noticed with a combination of pride and embarrassment that her lipstick had left its mark on the girl’s lips.
“Oh, you’ve got lipstick...” she said shyly, not making eye contact as she started to rub it away with her thumb. She could feel the girl’s eyes on her.
“My name’s Korra, by the way,” she said.
“Korra,” Asami repeated. “I’m so sorry, I should have asked sooner.”
Korra laughed, waving away the apology.
“No, it’s fine, I understand. You were kind of in a hurry.”
“That is true,” Asami admitted, wiping the last of the lipstick away. “There, that’s better. I’m sorry about that.”
“Nothing I can’t deal with, don’t worry,” Korra smiled.
There was a pause and then Asami realized she was still straddling Korra’s lap. She sat back with a start, hurriedly scooting off the couch to stand up.
“Well,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear again. “Thanks again. I’d better go find my roommate. It was nice, um, meeting you, Korra.”
Asami hurried away before Korra could reply, her stomach twisting in knots. Something was yelling at her to turn the hell around and get Korra’s number. She resisted the urge, but against her will she started thinking of what it would be like to look into her sky blue eyes again in a place that didn’t reek of weed and booze. Maybe she’d even get another chance to taste her lips and smell her incredible musk while she kissed patterns into her skin…
Fucking hell, snap out of it, Asami.
It was just another buzzed make-out at a random party with a random stranger. To make Mako jealous. Of course. Mako. Asami had nearly forgotten the reason why she recruited Korra’s help in the first place. And besides, Korra probably hadn’t even thought anything of it. To her, Asami was just some pathetic, desperate girl with a shitty ex who couldn’t find a healthy way to cope with her shit and just went around kissing strangers instead. The thought put a pit in her stomach. For some reason, it seemed desperately important that Korra think well of her. That possibility had been shot straight to hell, she was sure, the second she climbed into Korra’s lap without a second thought.
She exhaled heavily, willing her mind to just shut the fuck up for a second. Her fingers combed through her hair as she scanned the front room for Opal. There was no sign of her. Asami pulled out her phone, checking her messages to find that Opal had texted her four different times.
[12:23 - Hey, where did you go?]
[12:41 - Come on, I want to get out of here, these guys are creeps]
[12:49 - Asami, what the hell? Why are you ignoring my calls?]
[12:54 - Alright, listen, I’m going back to the apartment. if you’re not back by two i’m calling the cops. so you’d better hurry with that one night stand or whatever the hell you’ve got going on]
[1:06 - just don’t be fucking dead, please]
Asami dialed Opal’s number, bringing her phone to her ear as she made her way toward the door through the dwindling crowd. The line only rang once before Opal answered.
“Asami, what the hell? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Opal. I’m fine. I saw Mako and I had to disappear.”
“Ooooh. Well shit. Where did you end up going?”
“I’m...I’m actually still at the party.”
“Wait, what?”
“Look, i’ll tell you about it when I get home, okay? Just don’t call the cops. I’ll grab a taxi and I’ll be home soon.”
“Alright, fine. Thanks for not being dead.”
Asami laughed at that, shouldering her way past a cluster of people smoking on the front porch.
“Hey, it’s my pleasure. I’ll see you soon.”
She hung up and opened her app for finding cabs on campus. The nearest one was only five minutes away so she sat on the curb to wait. She heard footsteps approaching but didn’t turn around until she heard a voice behind her.
“Asami?”
She looked over her shoulder in surprise. Korra was standing there, looking somewhat bashful.
“Korra, hey,” Asami said, standing and trying to ignore the way her heart lurched drunkenly.
“Hey, so I know this might be weird, and you really don’t have to accept if you don’t want to, but I was wondering if maybe you wanted to get coffee with me some time maybe?” Korra crammed her hands into her pockets, a hint of that crooked grin playing across her lips. “You know, just so I can repay you for...earlier.”
Asami couldn’t help but laugh. “If anything, I should be repaying you. You really saved my ass in there.”
“So is that a yes?” Korra asked, her voice hopeful.
Asami could feel herself doing a miserable job of hiding her excited smile. “Yeah, I guess it is.”
Korra put her number into Asami’s phone, handing it back just as the cab was pulling up.
“This is my ride,” Asami said. “So, I’ll text you, then?”
“I hope so,” Korra smiled. She gave a small wave as Asami climbed into the taxi, and the whole ride home Asami had her fingers pressed to her lips, smiling as she stared out the window and wondered what kind of beautiful mess she had gotten herself into.