Korrasami Jamboree

100 Bucks or Bust

"Wouldyougoonadatewithme? Um, please?"

Asami looked up from her phone to see a dark-skinned woman with bare, muscular arms standing to her right, dark hands folded on top of the empty high-backed bar stool beside her. Her head was bent, leaving her face hidden behind short hair that barely reached her chin.

"Did you just ask me, or the chair, on a date?" Asami asked. She'd spent the last forty minutes fending off potential suitors who possessed varying degrees suaveness and/or obnoxiousness and she wasn't particularly interested in fending off another one. She just wanted a couple of drinks while she sorted through her work emails.

The woman's head came up and beautiful blue eyes met hers for a moment, dark cheeks tinged with pink, before she ducked her head again and managed to say, "You."

She looked so shy, so embarrassed, and so miserable, Asami couldn't help but feel bad for her. "What's your name?"

Blue eyes met hers again and, somehow, the blush darkened. "Korra. Um, couldyousaynosoIcanpretendthisneverhappened-"

"Slow down, please," Asami couldn't help but laugh a little before she stifled it. "Did you just ask me to turn you down?"

Korra nodded and took a breath. "Just say no and I'll go away."

"So you don't want to go on a date with me?"

Korra blinked at her, obviously at a loss.

"We're in a bar, you know," Asami leaned in to whisper conspiratorially. "Most people just offer to buy me a drink."

"Miss?" the bartender asked with a gesture at Asami's drink.

Asami met his eyes and held up two fingers with a nod to the woman beside her. Asami turned back to Korra who worried her hands on the back of the empty chair. Asami held out her own hand with a smile. "I'm Asami."

"Korra," she said, taking the hand hesitantly.

"I know," Asami said, smile widening but she realized she only made it worse when Korra pulled her hand back and ducked her head again. "Why do you want me to say no?" She had to admit, this was a first.

"Um. Everyone's been bothering you since you came in and I'm really sorry to bother you, too, I just ..."

"You just?" Asami prompted, and nodded her thanks to the bartender when he slid two whiskeys in front of them.

Korra looked at the whiskey then looked again at Asami. She looked ready to bolt but she closed her eyes and took another breath. "I made a mistake, okay? I told my friends I'd never been on a date and then I admitted I never even, you know, um, asked anyone out."

Asami thought Korra was about to snap the back of the chair with her white-knuckled grip, so she reached out and took the whiskey and held it out to her.

Korra took it, sniffed it, then threw it back, swallowing it in one go. She gasped, coughed, and wheezed for breath. "Sorry *cough*cough* sorry *wheeze* Ungh."

Asami tried desperately not to laugh again but Korra was adorable. She was gorgeous too, if terribly shy and prone to hide her face, and it was hard to imagine her never going on a date before.