Chapter Text
Sometimes, and only sometimes, Asami wondered what would happen if she just lost it and frisbee’d her laptop out of the window from her top-floor office.
That sometimes, however rare in the beginning, was starting to get frequent enough that when her brain needed a break from ledgers, proposals, and general business nothingness, she would start doing the math. There was far more physics to it than she really remembered, but that didn’t take away from the fun of imagining. The image of it flailing down 100 stories, and exploding on the asphalt down below, was nicer than she cared to admit sometimes.
But then she would sigh and get back to work. It wasn’t all bad, really. She was able to do a lot down in the factories and throw in some of her own ideas to the engineering department, but a good 95% of her time as CEO of Future Industries was going to meetings, listening to what happened in meetings she didn’t attend, and then reading the meeting reports for both.
Her laptop was closed and in her hands, ready to test out that math, when Asami just rolled her shoulders and took a breath. It really wasn’t so bad. Maybe she just needed a night off.
“Asaaammiii!”
No, not like that.
Her peppy, cheerful, and far-too-loud best friend burst through the door that she regretted giving her a key card too. “So I have an idea,” Opal said and hopped on her desk.
“We both know that I’m not a huge fan of your ideas.”
Opal tutted and feigned interest in a paper on her desk. “Yeah and you used to not be a fan of watching hockey, but now you have season tickets.”
She had a point. “Still, I want ice cream and my pajamas right now, not heels.”
“No heels, I promise.”
"I'm still not buying it."
"Come on, Asami!" Opal gave her the biggest puppy dog eyes. "We haven't gone out in a while."
A while was probably just a few weeks, but she didn't feel like arguing that point. “I don’t know, Op-” and she really didn’t. “I still have some paperwork to finish-”
“And then you’ll have more tomorrow and the next day and the next…you’ll always have work, Sams, but you only get to be young and dumb once.”
“I feel like that's something people say right before they do something dumb and die.”
“You’re not getting out of this.” They both knew it was true.
She sighed, “at least let me write a couple of emails, IT signed off on our new-“
“Nope, that’s not happening tonight,” Opal stated easily.
“I have-“
“You have-“ she cut in, “three minutes to change into the clothes I brought you.”
“But-“
“Yes, your butt is going to look amazing, now chop chop!”
Asami sighed and didn’t fight the clothes being shoved into her arms. “I guess I could use a night off,” and she chose to ignore the amused grunt. “But no drinks!”
Which was also a futile argument, because Opal always pulled a bottle of liquor from somewhere when she was ready.
“Opal - not the Air Nation Absinthe….” she eyed the bottle that was so violently green, it was a wonder how such a peaceful nation came up with it. “You broke your pinky last time we had that!”
After a deep swig, a cough, and a grimace, “we also somehow secured you the Naval contract that night, so it wasn’t all that bad.” Opal passed the bottle over, and Asami could really only shrug in agreement.
It was why they were best friends - where Asami sought the comforting order in the specific actions of work and routine, Opal was the living epitome of ‘fuck it.’ Plans were concocted the moment that her sweet, genius brain decided they would, and Opal never questioned it. Her intelligence truly rivaled Asami’s own, she just used it differently. They had met in college, thrown together because no one could handle their personalities, but they clicked. Their brains were nearly polar opposites, but it just…worked.
Asami saw the world as a math problem: A+B=C. Newton’s third law, if you will, that every action has an opposite and equal reaction. She knew the limits that would keep her alive, even in daring situations, because she was always doing the math of what if.
Opal on the other hand thrived on chaos and what the unknown could bring. She was never crazy, like jumping off a building without a parachute, but she liked to take rules and limits as suggestions and not law. Her tactics were often questionable, but she was the spark that Asami needed to drag her out of her routine every now and then. It was often scary, what the dynamite of a woman could come up with, but they never came to any real physical harm.
They did get arrested once, but that’s not the point.
“So where are you dragging me?” She asked as they left the Future Industries building and straight into the waiting cab. “You’ve never dressed me like this before.” And she thanked the spirits for that, because Opal had stayed true to her word, allowing Asami to wear her ass-kicking boots and not stilettos. At least that meant it wouldn’t be some sweaty, packed club. Right?
“So just hear me out, okay?,” Opal said and beckoned Asami over to fix her makeup. “I got tickets to see this band, Fire Ferrets. ” Asami groaned. “They have never come to Republic City, ever, and I have been dying to see them-” she didn’t like this. “The drummer is the dreamiest guy I’ve ever seen-”
“Oh boy-” she said and just closed her eyes so Opal could do her thing. “I don’t even have earplugs.” Ass kicking boots? This was definitely going to be loud, and she needed something.
“Their lead singer is such a babe and her vocal range is fucking insane,” Opal argued over her arguments. “Also I brought you earplugs, duh. I always come prepared.”
Asami puffed her cheeks and blew out a long breath. Concerts really weren’t her thing, at all, but if they had the tickets and were already on their way, then she would just suck it up for one night. She could do that for Opal…she hoped. Her heart started to pound a little with the nerves and she willed them away.
“If you don’t like it, I promise we’ll leave.” Even in her endless chaos, Opal still knew the limits in which she could push her best friend, and Asami appreciated that.
“Alright,” she said with a nod and Opal squealed.
“Yesss! It’s going to be amazing, just you wait.”
Asami took a deep swig of the absinthe. “Last time you said that, I had to pay 20,000 yuans to fix the roof of that cute little noodle place.”
“I paid you back for that-” Opal huffed and painted on a deeper red than Asami normally wore.
“No you didn’t.”
“At any rate,” she brushed off, “so they’re kind of alt rock-ish, but also-” and she went on a long, one-sided conversation about the band, their music, each member of the band, where they’ve toured, etc. Asami heard bits and pieces of ‘Kana’ and ‘Kyoshi Island’ and ‘sweat.’ It honestly just felt good to have Opal do her makeup and listen to the never ending barrage of words, she hardly noticed them coming to a stop.
“You ready?”
Not really. “Let’s do this.”
______
Asami quickly found herself at the bar once they squeezed into the absolutely packed theater. She needed to get a better buzz going before she could be comfortable being touched by random people. Opal thought that was a great idea, of course, and that’s how she found herself slamming three shots before being dragged out onto the floor to dance. She had tried for the mezzanine, but it had earned her a nasty look and that was that.
Opal was always good at getting Asami to loosen up, so she paid attention to the way the smaller woman wanted her to move, and the way the crowd pushed and pulled as they felt the music. Asami didn’t want to feel the music, she didn’t know how, but after a while she had to admit, it was fun. After an unidentifiable amount of time of swaying, jumping, and listening to Opal sing along with the words she didn’t know, Asami excused herself from the dance floor to get some water and cool down. It might have been the middle of October, but a packed venue tended to be stifling.
At the bar, away from most people and a lot of the noise, Asami took a deep breath.
This was the last band to play before the headliners, the Fire Ferrets, would make their grand appearance. She wondered vaguely about why anyone would name their band that, but Opal had interesting tastes, so she just went with it. So far, she had actually liked a lot of it, and maybe it was the alcohol calming her down a bit, but she certainly wasn’t as anxious as she thought she would be.
It had been years since she listened to anything with lyrics or that wasn’t basically ancient - a little over a decade, to be exact. Eventually the sounds would always lead her back to those warm summer days, those days filled with questioning glances of curious, guarded eyes. Summer days that slowly faded into fall, and slowly faded into lingering touches, into determined eyes and words. Those days that had begun as silent and structured, but ended with plucks of untuned cords and low, raspy vocals.
Those days that started with Korra, and the day when it all ended.
Asami took another deep breath, allowing herself a few seconds of the memory of dark lips against her own, lips that have never met an equal since. She opened her eyes, ready to let it all go for the night and just have fun with Opal. Catching the attention of the bartender, Asami ordered a beer so she could sip and slow down, since her best friend usually seemed determined to push that limit too far. Tonight just wasn’t the night for that, and she knew it.
After fending off four or five people trying to buy her a drink, one of which she almost had to slam into the bar, Asami pushed away and weaved through the throngs of concert-goers, trying to find Opal. It was so muggy and sweaty, but she just gave into it at that point and eventually found her small friend while the headliners were trickling onto the stage.
“Asami!” Opal cried and threw her arms around her neck. “Finally! Look, there he is!” She pointed at the drummer, who was far more muscular than Asami was expecting, but she smiled at his boyish grin as he started to tune up his high hats. “Holy fucking spirits, I’m so excited for this!”
“I never would have guessed,” Asami joked, though she was truly happy to see her friend so excited. A bubble of anticipation started to rise in her throat too, and wondered if she was finally getting over her little decade-long setback.
Strums of guitars sounded next, and Opal pointed out the bass player, Hasook, and the lead guitarist who sported a permanent scowl and had eyebrows that looked like sharks. Brow-boy and the drummer apparently were brothers, which shocked her, since they looked nothing alike and their demeanors were polar opposite. Not that she would know anything about siblings, being an only child, but still. They looked nothing alike, physically or emotionally.
“Kana, the lead singer,” Opal went on, “oh sweet Raava can she sing, and play everything. She’s so active on stage, I don’t know how she does it. Her voice though, spirits her voice and she is such a babe, you are going to love her.” Asami let her go on, she was somewhat distracted by the drummer, who she swore she had seen before somewhere… “Oh look, there she is!”
Asami felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as she followed the path of Opal’s excited, outstretched arm, and the roar of the crowd around her fell away to silence as her gaze found the last member of the band.
Korra.