Winding Legacies: A 'The Legend of Korra' Rewrite

Adventures in the Earth Kingdom: Chapter 2

Day 2: Oneta

The longer Asami stared at the blank page in front of her, the more the page seemed to taunt her. She didn't know why she decided to take out the sketchbook, especially when having to thumb through the millions of designs just to find a blank page just made her think of everything she was putting off. Including getting ready for her date.

At first, Asami couldn't bring herself to even call it that. She didn't want to seem presumptuous, especially when hanging out with someone for the first time. But after a while, she realized it wasn't worth the stress. Zai was into her and asked her out, plain and simple. Life was too short to wait around for things to become clear.

She tore open a few curtains on the wall opposite to a vanity that she was using in the meantime. It was littered with papers that she told herself she'd organize once Bolin left to watch the twins' tournament matches that day but ended up procrastinating in favor of wallowing about what she might be missing by choosing to rest before her outing later that day.

Sifting through the loose pages, most of them were drafts of what she wanted to say to her mom. Nothing stuck, though, and they just floated around every flat surface in the room because Asami couldn't bear to throw any pages away in case one just happened to have some hidden gem of an idea.

For now, she set them off gently to the side, thinking optimistically that if all went well, maybe she could tell her mom about this part of her trip as a nice way to ease things between them. Nothing too old in Asami's life that it might make her feel sad about all she's missed out on but nothing too impersonal that she might think Asami feels awkward around her. It was a perfect balance.

Asami drummed her fingers rhythmically on the top of the vanity, flickering her eyes over her reflection in the mirror. She pulled at her hair, moving it into different positions, trying to find the best hairstyle to wear.

None of the options felt quite right, so she decided to figure out her outfit first figuring the hair would come naturally later. She rummaged through her suitcase and found various dresses, all of them too warm for the breezy afternoon outside. After intense deliberation, her choice was to wear her most flattering dress because it wouldn't hurt to look her best.

With just a few brushes of mascara, dabs of eyeshadow and her classic red lipstick, and circles of blush, Asami was finally ready. She wrote a message to Bolin in case he came back before she got home and was out the door thirty minutes to eleven.

The walk to the tournament hall wasn't long, but Asami made it so with her ten or twenty wrong turns just to calm her initial nerves. She hadn't gone on a first date in a while, and though she didn't have a record of bad ones, the last one she went on didn't end up how she expected it to.

Zai wasn't dressed in red that morning, but rather a dark green that shined against the black of her hair. Asami figured she couldn't speak when she had decided not to wear red either. As she got closer, she noticed the detail on Zai's dress, its ivory piping along the middle, and the thick silvery pendant around her neck that so cleverly pulled her eyes down to the deep neckline that laid on her chest.

Asami's cheeks warmed as she took a couple moments to stare at the long chain that sat in the middle of Zai's chest. Then, she quickly averted her eyes so that her staring wouldn't be noticed.

However, Zai did notice it.

She sucked her lips between her teeth, smiling wistfully as she gingerly leaned off of the wall of the tournament hall. "I missed you this morning."

Asami pulled her hands behind her back. "Did you now?" she asked, her mouth curling up into a pleased grin as she inched closer to Zai.

Zai chuckled, fanning her eyes over Asami's face, admiring the cute way her eyes crinkled when she smiled. "Mhm," Zai mumbled. Coming closer, Zai dropped her eyes to Asami's lips momentarily as she said, "You look good, gorgeous."