Chapter Text
The Heartbeat
The music wasn’t Korra's taste at all and the drinks weren't as good as she would have liked. Luckily the soft skin of the omega in her arms made everything bearable. He smelled like a sweet winterbell and his kisses were mind-numbingly good.
Being back in Republic City nightlife to suppress any worry and having cheap booze was a big help too. It made her forget the grueling reality of everything.
Tomorrow was for work and responsibility, now all that was important melted in her arms, with soft gasps. She sucked a little harder on the neck in front of her. The omega let out a small moan.
“I really would like you to fuck me.” he tried to whisper in Korra's ear, his hand stroked uncoordinated over her arm. “Do you want to go somewhere else?”
“No, she will not.” Someone screamed over the bass intense music.
“Mako!” Korra yelled. She was happy to see him after her long trip. She was also pretty mad, he wrecked her fun time. Her cute arm candy had already recoiled to the other side of the booth.
Mako found the gaze of the young man. “You should find your friends.” He didn’t even finish the sentence and the guy was gone. He seemed mistakenly under the impression that Mako was Korra's partner.
Korra whined annoyed. “Why did you do that?”
To prevent her from following the guy, Mako pushed her back onto the seat and plopped down next to her while putting a bottle of water in front of her.
“Korra, he is too drunk.” He gestured for her to drink up. “And honestly, you are far too drunk too.”
She took a big sip while mumbling “Always the proper policeman.”
Mako didn’t react, instead he observed her with his ever annoying deduction look.
“I take it your trip to Zaofu wasn’t as successful as you hoped?”
Korra rolled her eyes, only Mako would think that a dingy nightclub would be a good place to have a serious conversation.
“Did you deduce that by yourself, officer? Or did you just ask Bolin?” One could almost taste Korra's irritation.
“I figured it out myself.” Mako took a sip from the beer he seemed to have bought before ruining her one-night-stand. “I haven't seen Bolin since you both came back, he had to get back to work instantly. Seems the counsel and Raiko want to use Republic Cities new starlet to deepen the relationship with the Zaofu Beifongs’. There is a lot of talk, about the benefits, since -”
“Yeah, Yeah, Yeah." Korra tried forcefully pressing her hand over his ever talking mouth. But she was far too intoxicated, so she kinda hit his nose. He shook her cold fingers from him. “Could you please shut up? I came here to drink and have fun.”
“Korra.” Now it was on Mako to feel irritated. “Running away won’t change anything. If you don’t want to do your fathers work, at least tell him. Then he has a fair chance to fulfill his responsibility as chief and appoint a dip-.”
“Are you starting again?” Korra spat angry. Mako still was able to make her as angry as in their teens, before their friendship died and had to be revived. It felt strangely good. At home. “How often do I have to tell you that I do not secretly despise helping my father. One night out doesn’t ruin anything. Stop interfering.”
“I will not.” he hissed, trying to keep his voice down. “I promised your dad to help you, so here I am, reminding you that you have an important meeting with the city council tomorrow. And smelling like sex and a hangover will not help to convince them to send more aid.”
“Oh thank you, officer.” Korra replied sarcastically. “Just for your information, the appointment got moved to another day. Enough time for me to clean up, you asshole.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“What do you need to look over my work again? Do you need to see the message yourself?” She angrily fished for her phone and slammed it onto the table. While unlocking it, she angrily said: “Here you go, Mr. Secretary.”
Korra watched how Mako looked at her with an exhausted face, but of course he picked up her phone. His compulsion to check on everyone always won. If she wasn’t as drunk as she felt, she would have shoved him from the booth, to either find another fuck for the night or just to go home. But she knew that in her condition she had a hard time controlling her strength and as overstepping as he was Korra knew it was just his way of coping. His guilt did not allow him to breathe.
“Uhm… Korra?” He held her phone in his hand, staring down in disbelief. “You have an appointment at Future Industry at 7:20 am?”
“WHAT?!” She snatched her phone back, letting it almost slip out of her fingers. She had to squint and concentrate on the screen in front of her. She was drunker than she thought, she was hardly able to read the message. But Mako was right.
There it was, an appointment reminder for an in person meeting with someone from Future Industries. She had no memory of ever contacting anyone from the biggest engineering corporation worldwide.
Maybe it was her father who made it originally? It would not be too odd, from what Korra heard, getting to meet any of the higher ups easily meant waiting for at least half a year. But if so, what did her father make the appointment for?
Unfortunately her dad just went on an expedition deeper into the ice tundra and would be unavailable for weeks. There was no way for her to get answers in time.
“Korra.” She startled, her phone fell hard onto the table. She somehow forgot Mako was still next to her. “You need to go home and sleep. You only have a few hours to sober up!”
She was not able to say anything in return. Mako already took all her things and dragged her from the booth, determined to get her out of here. Somehow even in this rancid night club the seriousness of life caught up with her again and there was no room for care-free, party alpha self. Responsible, diplomatic Korra had to emerge. She was so sick of responsibilities.
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The throbbing headache was ignorable, her mild nausea not. There was also a familiar numb tingle in her left foot, that always triggered an underlying deep seated fear. She took deep controlled breaths. The worrying gaze the cap driver gave her through the rear view mirror did not go unnoticed. Sadly she couldn’t really reassure him, since the lingering alcohol made her still feel slightly foggy in her brain.
While she was able to sleep for two hours, every method she tried for sobering up did not work as well as she would have liked. Furthermore she looked over her fathers papers in hopes to find some hint on what this appointment was about, but came up with nothing.
At least she was able to put together some proposals. One was regarding resources and the main reason her father was on his way to survey the eastern lands. With heavy hearts the council of elders had decided to sell the oils and metals buried deep under the frost. The other one was in case the Future Industries PR department wanted to include aid to the South as a charity case. New year was coming up, so she got a lot of such inquiries.
Sorting the papers was interrupted by the appearance of the Future Industries Tower at the horizon.
It was not the biggest of Republic Cities Skyscrapers, but it was the most impressive of them all. Modern red detailing ran around the black main part, forming FI’s sleek logo.
And as impressive as the outside was, the entrance hall outdid it. The modern design of black and gray marble, with red accents made Korra feel very out of place. Even the security sported shiny boots and expensive earpieces. Korra never felt so frumpy. Her jacket was well worn and held the lingering smell of a cheap nightclub, her backpack was lumpy, thanks to the carelessly stuffed papers inside. Not to speak of her dark circles and slightly messy hair.
In front of a waterfeatur, sharply dressed reception staff were waiting at a counter for her to step closer.
“Good Morning.” One of the reception models with perfect brown hair, interrupted her shameful self reflection. “How can I help you?”
“I have an appointment at 7:20?” Korra fumbled with the straps of her backpack. “Ehm, I am Korra… of the Southern Watertribe.”
“One moment please.” His green eyes starred into a screen, while perfect manicured fingers flew over the keyboard. Then he smiled brightly, while getting up. “Miss Korra, if you would follow me please.”
Korra stumbled after him to an assortment of lifts. There he opened one with his card and punched some numbers into a keypad.
“The elevator will take you directly to the main floor.” He gestured for her to step inside, while bowing slightly. “The COO’s assistance Mrs. Sai Be will be waiting for you.”
Korra barely stepped into the golden interior, before her brain made sense of the spoken words. As she wanted to ask, why the hell the COOs assistant would wait for her, the doors already closed. There she stood alone with her disheveled mirror image in the fast moving elevator. With the speeding of the lift, her heart too started to race. It was clear that this appointment was very important and she had no idea what it was even about. Maybe she should had tried to contact her dad after all.
With a soft sound the elevator stopped and opened its doors. Revealing a young woman with the same skin tone as her and short wavy hair, dyed deep red and perfectly arranged on her head.
“Good Morning Miss Korra.” She greeted bowing. “I am Sai. Thank you for attending our appointment this early in the morning.”
Sai helped Korra out of her jacket. The picture of a secretary, dressed in high end brands, handling her worn out jacket and scarf with utmost care was just bizarre.
Everything screamed at Korra that she was at the wrong place. Not even Zaofu felt as luxurious as this office. Besides, she was much more prepared for Zaofu’s splendor and dressed herself accordingly. She also had not been hungover and as in overwhelmed as she felt right now.
“Miss Korra?” Sai gestured to follow her down a short corridor. They stopped in front of a heavy wooden door, which almost instantly swung open.
“Miss Sato is waiting for you.”
Miss Sato?!
Before Korra was able to explain her unpreparedness, she was already shuffled into the big, bright modern office. On the right side were shelves, full with books and models of cars, ships and engines. The back and the left side had big windows, through which she could see the morning sun slowly crawling over the mountains. Coloring Future Industries factories and workshops in warm fresh orange.
The desk at the window corner was full with papers and blueprints and the sofa arrangement in the middle was spilling over with machine parts, papers and files. There were weird modern designer sofas around a coffee table in the middle of the room, both of it full with parts and magazines.
Miss Sato herself stood next to a 3D Printer, handling a coil of … something.
Korra knew of Asami Sato.
Everybody knew of Asami Sato. She was in almost every paper and magazine. Hiroshi Sato’s genius and beautiful omega daughter made headlines wherever she went. Korra remembered how even the younger Asami always looked perfect in front of the ever following cameras. She remembered young Asami always poised and perfect, tagging along with her father a sponsor for the Martial Arts Club Korra almost championed in.
The Asami Sato in front of her was definitely the one smiling from finance magazines, but she also wasn’t. Her perfectly styled hair was put into a messy bun with a small hair clip, her perfect eye makeup was hidden behind her thick rimmed glasses and while she did wear an expensive skirt suit, she had opened some of the buttons on her blouse and the blazer laid carelessly on the ground. All in all, in all her perfection Asami Sato’s office was surprisingly messy.
Korra's observation finished the same time as Asami finally looked at her smiling a shy smile.
“I am sorry. I did not had time to clean up.” She clicked something on her machine in place. Wiping her hands on a rag, she gestured to sit down. Korra carefully made herself comfortable on the small part of the sofa that was not occupied by chaos. The door opened and Sai brought in some Cups and drinks, before bowing and hurrying away.
“Do you want coffee or tea? Or anything else?” Asami sat down on the opposite armchair, pouring herself a cup of coffee herself.
“Coffee is fine.” Korra answered, while she tried her hardest not to look into the gab of Mrs. Sato’s blouse. Under her flowery perfume, Korra could detect a hint of citrus and almond. She did not know if she ever smelled such a delightfully mild omega scent. She busied herself with getting the papers out of her backpack. With a heavy sight she looked up to the perfectly elegant women sipping her coffee.
“Miss Sato. I am sorry to say, but I am unsure what this meeting is about. It seemed my father inquired about an appointment a year ago, but I could not find when it had become a fixed date and what it was about.”
Asami set down her cup, her cheeks showed a small tint of red, then she softly cleared her throat and a business-like face took over. “I have to apologize. Your father never fixed an appointment. I asked my assistant to make it look like something long in the making.”
Korra put down her papers, raising her eyebrows in confusion.
“I wanted to talk about a possible marriage between us.”