Work Text:
Asami already heard the groans from her fellow classmates before she even entered the door to her Senior Health class, taking a seat in the front row as she walked in.
“SEX ED” was written on the chalkboard in big letters, and there was an overhead projector that displayed a large picture of the male reproductive system on the white wall.
Asami took this all in stride, resolving to stay collected while everyone else around her made crude jokes in an effort to feel more comfortable. She’d be the first to agree that learning about sex alongside her class mates was a less than ideal situation, but she also knew that it was important stuff. Stuff that maybe a lot of the kids didn’t know about, since parents didn’t really do the whole “birds and the bees” talk these days. They figured that kids learned everything on the internet, and from their friends.
Which was true. BUT Asami thought that there was an argument to be made for traditional instruction for this kind of thing, as long as it was done right.
As she settled in her seat, taking out her pencil pouch and a fresh notebook, the teacher, Mr. Beifong, handed her a pile of papers to pass along. It was titled Sex: Better Safe than Sorry, with a picture of a cartoon banana with a condom on it’s head.
Asami grimaced. They’re only making things worse by trying to baby us, she thought as she handed the papers over her shoulder without turning around.
After a few seconds, she noticed that no one was grabbing the papers, and shifted in her seat to face the person behind her.
She was met with the sight of a boy in backwards baseball cap, smirking at her. His arms were crossed as he turned his nose.
“Pervert. I don’t want those,” he said, and Asami’s eyes flashed with anger.
Why did people have to be so damn immature about this?
“Just take the papers,” Asami sighed as she placed the stack on his desk. She was going to try her best to tackle this class with grace and respect for the subject matter, teenaged boys be damned.
She heard a girl snort to her left and whipped her head around, expecting to deal with more assholes, but it was just Korra. Beautiful, funny, and down-to-earth Korra.
She shot Asami a grin before throwing a thumb back at the guy behind Asami, curling her lip in disgust, mouthing, “Really?”
Asami laughed in agreement, shaking her head before taking a look at her work sheet. She didn’t actually care too much about the work sheet, but she didn’t know how to hold a conversation with Korra, even after all these years of attending the same school together. They’d been partners on projects a few times, and Asami had grown to really admire Korra for the way she carried herself.
Korra wasn’t the most popular girl in school, but she had a small, loyal group of friends, and always stuck up for kids who were low on the cruel high school food chain. Asami had seen Korra ditch her friends plenty of times to sit with a loner in the lunch room, or work with someone who was awkwardly sitting alone in class when the teacher gave the dreaded request of “Everyone partner up.” She was kind, smart, idealistic, and really pretty.
Asami could admit to herself that she found Korra to be really good-looking. She wasn’t gay or anything; definitely not. But…she did often find herself admiring the girl’s nice jawline, and clear blue eyes, and bright smile, and…..
Yeah. Strictly speaking as a straight girl who wasn’t afraid of acknowledging the beauty of other women, Asami thought Korra was a perfect 10 out of 10.
And even though she herself wasn’t, like, attracted to Korra or anything, no way, she almost always found it difficult to say more than a few words to her, which was very unlike Asami. She could be personable as hell when the situation called for it. But when it came to Korra, that just wasn’t the case.
Korra would often try to strike up a conversation with her. Things like, “I saw you kick ass in the hurdles at your last track meet,” to which Asami would just reply with a “thanks”, or, “You know, I don’t know much about robotics but it’s pretty cool that you’re president of the club,” to which Asami would, again, just reply with a “thanks”. She basically said “thanks” every time Korra tried to initiate a conversation with her.
She didn’t know what it was about Korra that made her brain shut down and refuse to think of coherent sentences. Maybe it was the way that Korra looked at her when she said stuff. The way that her mouth turned up into a cute little half smile, and she’d lean forward, her voice lowered a bit like she was telling Asami a secret. Or the way she…
“ALL RIGHT, everyone!” Mr. Beifong said as he slammed the door, quieting the classroom full of seniors. “It’s time to learn where babies come from.”
“Your mom!” Someone shouted from the back of the classroom. Asami rolled her eyes.
Mr. Beifong tilted his head a bit. “Technically speaking, yes. But I’m going to ask everyone to refrain from any inappropriate comments. Sex isn’t an easy thing to talk about, and believe me, it’s as awkward for me as it is for you, so let’s just try to get through this together, shall we?”
A murmur of agreement ran through the class as Mr. Beifong pulled up a chair next to the overhead projector.
“All right, now if you’ll flip your work sheets over to the word search, we can start off with reviewing some terms.” Beifong said as a rustle of papers filled the room.
Asami flipped hers, staring at the word bank of words like testes, scrotum, and penis.
There were a few token giggles throughout the room as the class surveyed the sheet.
When Asami looked up at the projector, she turned her head a bit to look at Korra, just for fun, and almost jumped out of her chair to see Korra already looking at her, her fist to her cheek as her elbow rested on her desk.
Why was Korra looking at her??
Korra’s eyebrows jumped in amusement. “Oh, hey!”
Asami looked at her in confusion, a bit flustered. “Uhh…hey?”
Korra smiled and turned away from Asami in a flash, her attention now on the overhead projector.
Um...what was that about?
Asami decided to brush off the weird incident. It wasn’t the first time that she had caught Korra randomly staring at her. She figured that Korra was probably day dreaming and her gaze just happened to land on her for a prolonged amount of time. People did that, right? That was a thing. It had to be a thing.
After Asami had convinced herself that the whole episode was just an accident on Korra’s part, she tried her best to listen to Mr. Beifong, who was still talking about the male reproductive system.
“So class, after a man gets an erection, that means he is physically ready for sexual intercourse. This is not to be confused with being emotionally ready for sexual intercourse. But I’ll save that for next class. Now. Time for a pop quiz. And don’t be embarrassed if you answer wrong. Certainly no one in this room is perfect.”
Asami’s eyes flitted to Korra for just a second at that last sentence, like it was some kind of internalized reaction to automatically seek out Korra when the word perfect was mentioned. She thanked the stars that Korra hadn’t caught the look, or else she might’ve thought that Asami was flirting with her or something. Which she definitely wasn’t trying to do. At least, not intentionally.
“I am going to point to a part and then call on someone to answer for me. Okay? Okay.” Beifong said as Asami came back to reality.
Asami didn’t have to look around the room to feel everyone tense up. No one wanted to say these words aloud in front of the class but Beifong seemed oblivious to that as he pointed to a part on his projector slide and called on a poor boy towards the back.
He looked side to side nervously before saying quietly, “Urethra.”
Of course, Beifong, being the quack that he was, didn’t hear the kid. “Say it again?”
The boy coughed. Asami felt embarrassed for him. “URETHRA.” He said louder, and Beifong tapped his pen in approval.
“Yes, yes, Bolin, good job.”
Beifong moved his pen around on the slide again before landing on another part on the chart. He looked up to survey his students, preparing to pick his next victim.
The entire class was holding their breath, because Beifong’s pen was pointing at the penis. And no one wanted to say penis in front of the class, not even Asami.
She felt her heart stop as Beifong’s eyes landed on her for just a moment, scared to hell that he was going to pick her. But she relaxed as he moved on to scoping out a different student.
Asami uncapped her pen, now in the clear, and was about the begin doodling on her work sheet when her name rang out in the classroom.
“Asami,” Mr. Beifong said. “Can you name this part?
FUCK. Beifong had totally juked her. Why, out of all the parts, did he have to pick her for this one?! No, of course it couldn’t be the epididymis or something that sounded science-y instead of penis-y.
Now, cool as ice, mature, collected Asami Sato had to say “penis” in front of the class. In front of Korra. No. Big. Deal.
She took an inaudible breath. “Penis.”
“Yeah, Asami knows that one, doesn’t she? She knows how to take it real good,” a boy said as his friends snickered, giving him a high five.
Asami’s face burned at the comment of her asshole ex-boyfriend and she stared at the floor, frozen in shock. Noatak was so disgusting.
The crack of books slamming to the floor forced Asami to look up as Korra sprung up from her desk, stalking towards Noatak’s chair with absolute death in her eyes.
“You piece of shit…you fucking---“ she reared her arm back for a punch, but right before she was about to land it, Bolin grabbed her arm.
“Korra, he’s not worth a suspension!” he said, straining to hold Korra back.
“Oh, he is. He definitely is. He can’t talk about Asami like that.” Korra finally relented, though still obviously seething anger. She pointed at Noatak, who looked like he was going to shit himself.
“You fucking say anything about her again I won’t hesitate to beat you to the ground.” She warned, kicking his chair as he tumbled off before returning to her own seat, eyes flashing dangerously.
“Beifong, did you not hear what he said?” Korra said incredulously, gesturing to Noatak, still sprawled on the floor.
Mr. Beifong didn’t respond for a second, lost in thought at the paper in his hand before looking up at Korra.
“I’m sorry, what?”
Korra rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, leaning back in her seat.
Asami, meanwhile, was staring at her in open admiration. Korra had put that bastard in his place, for her.
Strong, kind-hearted, gorgeous Korra had stood up for her. To say she was flattered was an understatement.
Beifong cleared his throat and tapped his watch. “All right, 5 minute break everyone. Go get yourself some water, stretch out your legs. Be back by 1:55.”
As the kids filtered out of the classroom, as well as Mr. Beifong, Asami was soon left with Korra alone.
“Hey, Korra?” Asami said, and Korra turned to look at her, anger still evident in her eyes, though they softened when she looked at Asami.
“Yeah?” Korra said, her voice quiet.
“Thanks,” Asami smiled.
Korra started laughing. “Asami, you say that every time.”
Asami blushed. “I know, I know. I’m sorry. I’m not good at the whole talking thing."
“Really? You give speeches in front of crowds when you demonstrate your robotics stuff all the time! And they are always super good, if I might add,” Korra said appreciatively.
“Thanks!” Asami said before her eyes widened at her monotonous response.
Korra raised an eyebrow, amusement written plainly on her face.
“Wow, quite the wordsmith, I apologize, again,” Asami said with a shake of her head, smiling. “I just don’t know how to respond to all of your nice compliments.”
And it was the truth. The only way she could respond was by complimenting Korra back, but she didn’t want Korra to take it the wrong way if she said something like, “Oh yeah, I really like the way your face looks.” I was better to just stay with a safe “thanks”, but Asami knew she’d have to snap out of it if she ever wanted to get to know Korra better.
“Well, you’ll have to think of something, because I’ve got an endless list for you!” Korra said as she took a sip from her water bottle, causing Asami to blush. Again.
“I gotta say though Asami, how did you ever put up with Noatak? He’s such a dick!” Korra said.
Asami shrugged. “You know, he wasn’t always that way. He used to be really sweet. But then he kinda gained a following after he started some grassroots campaign to make lunch time longer, and he let the popularity get to his head. And then he cheated on me. So I dumped him.” Asami said, thinking back to the time when she walked in on Noatak making out with some girl she’d never seen before. She hadn’t been exactly surprised by his actions, but that didn’t make the sting of betrayal hurt less at all.
“That’s bullshit.”
Korra’s voice brought Asami out of her thoughts as she looked at the girl beside her. Korra’s eyes were intense as she fixed Asami with a serious look.
“I mean, you don’t deserve that kind of juvenile crap. He should have been treating you like a queen. These high school boys, I swear,” she shook her head, looking away from Asami.
“I don’t even really like them that much,” Asami said abruptly, before she could stop herself.
“What do you mean?” Korra tilted her head inquisitively.
“High school boys. Boys in general. I don’t really like dating them. I just dated Noatak because I felt like I had to, or like I should try to date him just to see what It was like. I mean, I have always liked girls better. To me, girls are smarter, more emotionally in touch, they smell better, they look better, and…”
Korra had started to look at her differently with a small smile beginning to form on her lips, and it dawned on Asami what she was actually saying. She probably sounded gay or something. She needed to backtrack.
“But I’m totally physically attracted to strictly men. I’ve never felt attracted to a woman before.” It was a total lie. She was kind of really attracted to Korra but it didn’t mean anything, did it? Girls probably thought other girls were pretty all the time. Girls probably imagined running their hands over other girls’ biceps all the time. Right?
“So I’ve come to the conclusion that I should probably just be alone for the rest of my life. Maybe dating just isn’t for me.” Asami finished her spiel, her cheeks coloring a bit at all the things she had just told Korra, things she hesitated to even tell herself.
“Maybe you just haven’t dated the right person yet,” Korra said with a grin, and Asami couldn’t help but smile back genuinely as kids began coming back into class. Maybe she’s right.
Once the last of the students had shuffled in, Mr. Beifong closed the door and stood in front of the class.
“All right class, so now that’d we’ve covered the male reproductive system, I’d like to talk about safe sex. Please flip you worksheets over.”
Asami flipped hers over and found herself face to face with the banana with a condom hat again.
“Now, men and women can have sexual intercourse with each other multiple ways. The most popular would be through vaginal penetration and oral stimulation. Both of these methods can result in horrific Sexually Transmitted Diseases if not prepared for properly. The best way to prevent STD’s are making sure you and your partner have been screened for STD’s prior to intercourse. And then, of course, there are condoms, which are also very useful in preventing pregnancy.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t feel as good with a condom on,” someone murmured and a spatter of giggles ran throughout the classroom.
Somehow Beifong heard it. “You know what else doesn’t feel good? Getting a girl pregnant and ruining both of your lives.”
Korra raised her hand, and Asami wondered what she was going to say. What could she possibly have to ask?
Beifong seemed surprised as well, nodding to Korra. “Yes?”
Korra cleared her throat. “Well, Mr. Beifong, this is nice and all, but I can’t help noticing that this work sheet, and, I’m assuming here but correct me if I’m wrong, your lesson plan, is focused only on heterosexual safe sex. What if I want to have sex with another woman? How can I stay safe?”
The room suddenly felt very, very hot. Korra had actually said the sentence “What if I want to have sex with another woman?” and Asami’s mind had ran with that sentence, imaging herself and Korra in various states of undress, touching, kissing, and…
NO. Asami, NO, she thought, taking a sip of water to try and cool down. What is wrong with you?
Mr. Beifong’s face had turned beet red, and the class was dead silent, until a girl with dark hair, dark green eyes, and impeccable eyebrows chimed in.
“Yeah seriously. What if I want to do the do with a girl? All this stuff about condoms and stuff isn’t going to help me, will it?”
Korra nodded to the girl in thanks for adding her thoughts before turning back to Beifong with a smirk on her face. “Mr. Beifong?”
“I…uh…I suppose, well…the curriculum doesn’t…” he sputtered, looking like he wanted to run out of the classroom.
“Maybe I can help,” Asami said aloud, surprising even herself. She wanted to try and save the poor teacher from his obvious embarrassment, but an even bigger part of her wanted to see Korra’s reaction to her words. Just for fun.
“If I were to have sex with a woman, I would probably try to stimulate her clitoris with my tongue and fingers. So, in order to practice safe sex, I should make sure that my finger nails are trimmed and my hands are clean to avoid transferring harmful bacteria. Only then would I be able to safely…pleasure her.” Asami said, straightening her posture into that of an A+ student awaiting a gold star.
Mr. Beifong looked even worse for wear than before after Asami’s words. Meanwhile, Korra’s mouth was hanging open, staring at Asami with a look halfway between utterly surprised and utterly aroused.
The rest of the class just seemed very, very uncomfortable, but Asami didn’t care. Korra was right. In this day and age, it shouldn’t just be about heterosexual sex education, and Asami had simply wanted to help out. And/or see what Korra’s response would be. Just for fun.
“And…” Korra began, swallowing so that her voice wasn’t hoarse before continuing, keeping her eyes on Asami. “And, if you wanted to put your fingers inside of her, that would be another good reason to take care of your nails and hands.”
Asami began to sweat, her heart pounding, and caught herself before she almost licked her lips. Why did the idea of Korra’s fingers inside of her sound so fucking appealing?
Mr. Beifong finally snapped. “All right, that’s enough. This is veering into inappropriateness rather than educational purpose. In fact, I’d like both of you to leave class. You’ve completely interrupted my lesson plan with your innuendos and lesbian agenda.”
The girl with the immaculate eyebrows spoke up. “Are you kidding me? Kicking them out? For what?! That’s bullshit”
“Watch your language or you’re next,” Beifong said with a glower as he fixed his eyes on Korra and Asami again.
“You two. Out. Now.”
Korra and Asami didn’t need to be told again as they quickly gathered their belongings and made their way out to the hallway, closing the door behind them.
Asami had not expected to get kicked out, but then again, she probably should have. Any kind of sexuality other than heterosexuality wasn’t exactly acknowledged, or even accepted, in their town. So of course the school wouldn’t bother to touch on homosexual sex in addition to heterosexual sex. Because in their eyes, it didn’t, or shouldn’t, to some people, exist.
But Korra had done that thing again, where she stood up for what she believed in, and Asami had supported her. So now, they were there, alone in the hallway. Crusaders for the gay brigade.
“Well then,” Korra said as she slid her back down the wall to take a seat on the floor. “That was fun.”
Asami laughed. “Yeah, check us out. Republic City Rebels all right.”
Korra chuckled, turning to look at Asami with a smile.
“Asami, I don’t mean to step out of line, and you totally don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but would you ever consider dating a girl?” Korra said, her eyes open and expression curious and kind.
Asami shrugged, averting her gaze. Of course she had thought about it. But she’d always pushed the thoughts away as soon as she’d gotten them. Her father had always told her that bisexuality wasn’t real. Homosexuality was a sin. That none of it was right. And it seemed that the whole city reflected his thoughts. So Asami had grown up hiding her true feelings, scared of complimenting girls or even talking to them for fear of slipping up and god forbid, becoming attracted to them or something.
But while she found girls attractive, she’d never felt a particularly strong pull from one before. That was before she’d met Korra her freshman year. And know Korra was here, like really right in front of her face here, smashing down all of the walls she had built up so carefully over the years in a single class period. Well, to be fair, if Asami was being honest with herself, she had been harboring a crush on Korra for a while. No point in denying it now. Not after her body’s reaction to Korra’s words earlier. So today had really been something of a breaking point for Asami, and so after some thinking, she found it quite easy to reply to Korra.
“Yes,” she said, and with that one simple word she felt like the weight she had been carrying around for all these years had been untied and left to drift away, leaving her free. Yes. She wanted to date girls. She’d finally said it.
Asami smiled at Korra, who returned her smile.
“Good,” Korra said, reaching up to cup Asami’s chin. “Because I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but I kinda really want to take you out on a date. Have wanted to for like three years. But I never knew if…you know…” Korra shrugged, laughing off whatever doubts she had in the past.
Asami wanted to kick herself for hiding from Korra so long, but she reached up to pull Korra’s hand from her chin to hold it in her own.
“Well, we’ve got to make up for a lot of lost time now, don’t we?” Asami said, staring at the image of her and Korra’s hands clasped together, as if it wasn’t real and this was all a dream.
“How do you feel about starting now?” Korra said, and with those words she leaned forward and placed a light but lingering kiss on Asami’s lips before pulling away, still holding her hand.
Asami’s heart was pounding as she reached her free hand up to ghost over her lips where Korra had just kissed her. It felt so right. She locked eyes with Korra, smiling softly before she leaned forward to kiss Korra herself.
“Sounds perfect.”