shake it out

the confusion asami had felt throughout the day only increased when the woman said her name as if she knew who she was. “have we met before? i’m sorry, i go to a lot of meetings, so i sometimes forget faces.” now she just felt rude, convinced she must have met her in passing and somehow forgot. it was a little crazy, even to asami. after all, the girl in front of her at the very least was ridiculously pretty. but sitting there staring at her asami couldn’t find any recollection of her. “nothing’s happened to me, not that i’m aware of. sorry, if this is um weird for some reason i can go ask someone else.” she didn’t know why she was so uncomfortable. after all, there was nothing wrong with asking a stranger for directions, but asami had an odd feeling she had upset the other in some way and now couldn’t help but try to look for a way out of the conversation.

korra was clinging on a little tight, but asami found that she didn’t care at all. if anything she was relieved, relieved to know that wherever she was it really was her korra that she had wrapped herself around. “oh no, definitely not. you don’t get away from me that easily.” asami said lightheartedly. still, there was some truth in that. she had spent three years without korra, and now, right when things were supposed to be calm and working out. she wasn’t going to let whatever was going on here pull her life apart. she’d need korra to want her to be gone before she disappeared. “well i’m glad your meltdown is over.” asami said. without thinking she leaned down, pressing a quick kiss to korra’s cheek, only hesitating afterwards. should she have done that? sure, it wasn’t a big gesture, but they were in public, and she didn’t want to make korra uncomfortable. before she could overthink it or her face could get too red asami pushed on with conversation. “although, unless you happen to know where we are there might be reason to still be a little nervous.” 

asami couldn’t help but feel completely out of place in this town. not that it wasn’t nice, but she had been used to the city, and to suddenly be displaced here was unsettling. she almost wished she could enjoy it more like a vacation instead of wandering around confused. instead she found herself doing everything she could to find answers. without much of an idea for what to do she wound up going into a nearby police station. “excuse me.” she said, walking about to the first person she spotted who appeared to be an employee. “i’m sorry, if you’re busy or anything, i just have a few questions that i thought you could help me with. like, um, what the name of this town is, and if people have a tenancy to wake up here despite being fairly certain this isn’t where they were currently living.”

asami huffed, staring at the stack of papers in her hand. she had found them in the house she had woken up. they all seemed to relate to future industries and her, but she couldn’t figure out how. finally, she had decided she would just find the building these were coming from, get to the source of the issue. mayb( e then she could figure out what she was doing in a small town like this. the only problem was, despite having mapped out where she was going before she left she seemed to be lost. without many other ideas she decided to approach a pretty stranger she spotted nearby. “excuse me, miss?” she put on the most charming smile she could manage at the moment. “could you help me, just for a moment? i’m trying to find the future industries building. i think it should be around here somewhere.”

“excuse me, could you help me? something isn’t right. i think i’m supposed to be in the city.”

“It’s hard to say. We still just recently got out of a war. Don’t get me wrong, I think she’s amazing, I just also think it’s important to take things one step at a time. With the way things are going there’s definitely potential there.”

asami was...intrigued, to the say the least, by her surroundings. it wasn’t frighteningly new, but it wasn’t quite like any town she had seen either. she did find it slightly distressing that she had just showed up here with no recollection of what had happened but asami was doing her best to remain level headed. the first thing to do was explore, see if there was anything dangerous looking or see if there was any way to get home. she had been walking for about half the day, finally giving in and heading to more busy areas despite wanting to avoid people. she had been just about to give up, to find somewhere for tea and a bed for the night, when the spot of a passing familiar face had her head snapping to the side. “korra?” she wasn’t loud enough, not with this many people around. she immediately took off, pushing through the other people in an attempt to catch up. “korra! oh thank god i’m so glad you’re here.” she said, quickly wrapping her arms around the other as soon as she caught up. 

She wasn’t surprised that he was hesitant. After all, as far as Asami knew being able to do something and being able to teach something were two completely different things. Not to mention she had just sort of sprung the idea on him out of the blue. Still, she had already made up her mind about how she wanted to do things, and she did have a habit of being rather stubborn. “I don’t need to learn anything fancy.” She reassured him. As impressive as it would be that would take time and effort, and she considered herself impressive enough without being able to do some spins on the ice. Not to mention that was when it became a real injury risk. “I just want to be able to know I can make some laps around the rink without falling flat on my face, which embarrassingly enough, I can’t really do.” She said, letting out an weak laugh. She didn’t really like admitting she was bad at things, but she had and end goal here. “Well I’ve got to give you something in return.” As nice as Yuri seemed she didn’t want to risk owing him anything. “Like a coffee or a tea. Or if my company ever decides to start sponsoring athletes you could be our first pick.”

Asami sat in a cafe, paperwork everywhere in front of her. She usually prided herself for being more organized, but she had just been so tired lately that she couldn’t seem to keep track of things. At least her work for the day was almost done. She just had to get through this report and then she could go home and take a long nap. Despite downing half of her coffee the second she got it she was still nodding off. She was jolted awake however when her arm drifted slightly to the side. “Oh my god!” Asami quickly jolted up, doing her best to grab all of her papers into her arms. Of course this would happen to her while she was doing her work. She rushed over to the nearest table, paper still scooped up and pressed tightly to her chest where it was dry. “I’m sorry, but I think I need to borrow like all of your napkins.”

asami knew this was weird, sitting at the ice rink waiting for a guy she didn’t really know, but she couldn’t quite help herself. she had wanted to skate, had gone out and bought ice skates and everything, only to find out she was awful at it. she knew she needed lessons, but she was used to learning from the best. she couldn’t just figure it out from some teen with a part time job at the rink. she was snapped out of her thoughts when she spotted him and asami quickly walked up. “hey, you’re yuuri katsuki right? the figure skater? i’m asami.” she couldn’t help but hold out her hand, doing a weird formal introduction that didn’t quite make sense in the location. “i need you to help me figure out how to skate. just like one lesson, so i’m not falling on my face in front of people. please? i will pay you.” or give him a car from her company, or any material good really, just as long as she could stand up straight on skates for longer than a few minutes.

Asami couldn’t help but chuckle slightly at the enthusiasm in the card. It was almost if she could feel the high energy from the words alone. “Well I don’t know if I deserve better than a sweater.” She commented to herself, tone light. Still, she couldn’t help but be thrilled by the gift. She had been working rather hard with the company lately and it gave her the perfect reason to take a nice break. Not to mention it had been ages since she had gone to the spa even though she loved going. Now she’d just have to wait until she had a free weekend to enjoy herself.

asami’s first thought after hearing about secret santa was to go the easy route and give her person a car from her company. after all who wouldn’t want a car? and a brand new model? still, she held herself back, figuring that may come off as showing off. despite that decision she kept a set of key in her back pocket as she went to find prue, just as a backup in case the real present she picked out wasn’t appreciated. she had kept it fairly simple, including several different sweaters and a new pair of mittens. in addition there were a few assorted history books. she had been able to figure out that prue was a curator, and though she wasn’t sure what sort of history she would have liked asami was sure at least one of the books she got would be good. and well, if it wasn’t she could always go with the car. “prue! sorry for just coming at you from out of the blue but here. happy holidays.” asami said, handing over the present.