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The Thing They Didn't Talk About

Summary:

This is a story of missing scenes from the show. Mostly written from Asami's point of view, but some from Korra’s. The story describes how the relationship developed to more than friends between Korra and Asami.

Updated on 7/22/2023 (fixed typos and other basic edits).

Chapter 1

Summary:

Takes place around Book 3, episodes 1 and 2. Traveling on the airship through the Earth Kingdom.

Chapter Text

It became “The Thing They Didn’t Talk About.”

It started out innocently enough. Asami was so happy that her and Korra were friends. Finally! Real friends. Asami was teaching Korra to drive and they had talked – aired out all the past awkwardness in their love triangle with Mako. They decided it wasn’t going to come between them. Asami was elated. Korra had said she never had a girlfriend before, and truth be told, the same was true of Asami.

So when Korra was kicked out of Republic City, the plan had emerged. They were all to journey into the Earth Kingdom and find more air benders. Asami provided a state-of-the-art airship for the journey, which everyone was grateful for. She was just glad to feel useful amongst all the benders. She was contributing to the cause in a meaningful way. She may not have been able to help much in other ways, but she could transport them, at least.

The first night on the airship was when it started.

Bumi relieved Asami at the helm, and after a quick dinner, Asami went to find Korra. On a whim, she decided to grab a bottle of sake to take with her. She knew it had been a long few days for her, so she could only imagine that Korra would want some as well.

Asami knocked, and a faint “come in” greeted her.

“Hey, I’m glad you’re still awake. I brought some sake. Thought you might want to hang out for a bit?” Asami asked, as she entered Korra’s cabin.

Korra was sprawled out on her bed, her blue eyes glazed over, but she wasn’t asleep yet. “Yeah, that sounds nice. Thank you.” She said, sitting up slowly and making room for Asami to sit down.

“Great. This sake is supposed to be warmed, if you want to…” Asami trailed off, gesturing for Korra to heat the bottle.

“Oh, yup, can do!” Korra lit a small flame with her hand and warmed the sake.

“Perfect, thank you.” Asami said. She poured them each a cup, handed one to Korra, and indicated they should clink their glasses together. “Kanpai,” Asami said, and Korra followed suit.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, both sipping their drinks. So much for not being awkward anymore, thought Asami. But Korra finally broke the silence.

“This is nice. I’ve never had this before.” Korra admitted, with a half smirk on her face and a look Asami couldn’t quite decipher. Bashful?

“Oh, this and fire whiskey are what I was raised on,” Asami says. “But you know how I was raised, only the best…” Asami trailed off again. With the implied mention of her father, she felt even more awkward. Korra, however, either didn’t notice this or just ploughed right through.

“We had fire whiskey, mostly. Sometimes we would get shipments of other things, usually vodka. But most of the people in the Southern Water Tribe prefer fire whiskey.”

“Interesting. Isn’t there a drink the Southern Water Tribe makes themselves?”

“Not really. We would ferment some of the things that were imported, but we really couldn’t afford to most of the time. Needed the food for food. Plus, there isn’t anything native to us to ferment, not in enough quantity anyway. Except seaweed. Ugh. And believe me, people have tried to make fermented seaweed drinkable.” Korra said with disgust.

Asami laughed at this. “No way, that sounds disgusting.”

“Oh, it is. Believe me. I was told about this one time that Sokka…” Korra started in on a story about Katara’s brother, Sokka, and how he had made himself sick on his own fermented seaweed drink. Asami was cracking up. After that, the conversation flowed easily between the two. Asami sighed inwardly. Finally, this is what I wanted. Laughing and talking, being friends. Taking our minds off the serious situations. They swapped stories of growing up, little glimpses into what life was like for both of them. Asami knew Korra had been sheltered, growing up in the White Lotus compound, but it started to hit her just how much. Asami was sheltered too, but she at least went to school and had some friends, even if she was never close to them.

After a while, and several refills of their glasses, the subject that was a common thread for most teenagers came up: relationships.

“So wait, Mako was the only boyfriend you’ve had?” Asami couldn’t believe it. Korra has so much going for her, even besides being the Avatar, surely she could have had her pick of the tribe?

“Yeah,” Korra admitted. There was that bashful look again, as Korra looked away from Asami. “I mean, there was a boy from the village I liked when I was eleven.”

“What happened with that?” Asami asked, curiously.

“Well, he was my first kiss. He was new in town, son of a fisherman I think. We met at the market one weekend, and we hit it off. We had a great few weekends together. We would spend the day together, doing normal kid things, and then we would go behind one of the fishing huts and make out for a while.” Korra sighed as she remembered. It was a half happy, half sad sigh. “And then, one weekend, he suddenly wanted nothing to do with me. He had finally found out who I was.”

“And so he stopped seeing you? Just because you were the Avatar?”

“Yup. That’s why I never had many friends, let alone boyfriends. There were some boys that would tolerate me, let me hang out with them as ‘one of the guys’ because they had known me since we were all toddlers. But they never really thought of me as friend.” Korra finished, again not looking at Asami.

“I know how that goes…” Asami says quietly.

“What do you mean?” Korra looked up, clearly surprised by this. “I guess I just assumed you had a lot of friends.”

“Ha.” Asami let out a dry laugh. “Maybe for my looks and money. Remember how you had me ‘pegged wrong’ and thought I was a ‘prissy girl?’ Well, there were a lot of people who assumed that as well. It didn’t make me a lot of true friends in school.”

“Oh. Well I’m still glad I had it wrong, I don’t think we would be friends if you were that prissy girl.” Korra said.

“Thanks. But yeah, I had friends. They came over to use the pool, drink out of my dad’s liquor cabinet, you know, typical kid stuff. I went to a private school, so the kids were all rich and used to acting a certain way. They were perfect in front of my dad, so they were allowed over, but we all secretly wanted to rebel against all the rules set on us.”

“I can relate to that feeling.” Korra said and smiled.

“I would never call these people friends now, and I don’t think I’ve heard from any since I finished school even. But we had some crazy times, and some of them were definitely my boyfriend here and there. Mako was not my first boyfriend, but he was definitely my most serious.”

“Ha, you can say that again.” And they both did their mock salute that they had started to associate with him and broke into a fit of giggles again.

“So…how many boyfriends have you had? How many boys have you kissed?”

“Well, before Mako, three boyfriends, I think. I’ve kissed more people than that though, maybe a dozen? I can’t remember, none of them really mattered.” Asami admitted.

“People?” Korra asked.

“Oh, yeah, well…” Asami started awkwardly. “My dad was out of town one weekend, so I had people over for a pool party. I’m not sure how it started, but I did make out with this one girl for a few minutes. We were trying to turn on our boyfriends, or maybe we were trying to get the attention of boys we wanted to be our boyfriend? Like I said, I don’t remember the specifics all that well.”

Asami had never really told anyone about that incident. Everyone at school knew it happened of course and she wasn’t ashamed. Still, she waited nervously for the sheltered girl to react. After a moment or two of a puzzled look on her face, Korra finally spoke. “So wait, you did it for a boy? You didn’t do it because you wanted to?”

“Yes, that is true.” Asami admitted, and was thankful that Korra wasn’t ostracizing her for this admission. “That is how it started. But I actually liked it. It was nice, she was a good kisser.”

“Oh, ok, good. It seems really silly to kiss someone to make someone else feel good. Isn’t kissing supposed to be about you and the person you’re kissing?” Korra said in response. Asami didn’t know how to process that. It made perfect sense. And it made her admire Korra more. That she was concerned about her well-being and happiness, and couldn’t care less about any of the other circumstances.

“No, you’re right. I was, fifteen, I think? I didn’t think about it that way at the time.” Asami says.

A silence stretched between them once more. Korra again, broke this silence. “So…” she started nervously. Asami nodded encouragingly, but stayed silent. “Have you ever…yah know…had sex?” Korra finally got out.

“Oh.” This was not what Asami was expecting. What was I expecting her to ask? She thought to herself. “Yes.” She answered. “With three of my boyfriends before Mako. And with Mako.” She says the last part quieter.

“Oh.” Korra says. And looked away from Asami.

Asami was afraid she said something wrong. She knew she shouldn’t ask, but she couldn’t help it. “So did you and Mako have sex?”

Korra, still looking down, said, “Nope.”

Asami waited patiently again, knowing that Korra would probably divulge more information without prompting. Asami was correct. Korra continued, “It’s not like I didn’t want to. And we did other things.” At this, a memory Asami had tried to suppress of Korra and Mako in the next room at Air Temple Island, making noises while Asami was trying to sleep. She had eventually given up on sleep and went to have some tea. Thankfully, all was quiet when Asami returned to her room later.

Asami was pulled out of her reverie by Korra’s continued explanation. “We almost did once. Tenzin almost walked in on us, but we were able to hide him in time. It was a close call though. After that, he would barely touch me in public, and he wouldn’t come to my dorm unless he knew Tenzin was fast asleep. But, to be honest, we were already on the outs before that. I think we were going to have sex only because it was what you do after you’ve been together. But it was for the best, I think we broke up a week or two later.”

“The first time or the second time?” Asami couldn’t stop herself from asking.

Korra snorted. “The first time. Oh, that’s right, I tried to get him to do it when I had lost my memory, on the way to the South Pole, and he flat out refused. That rejection makes a lot more sense now.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, you’re not missing a lot.”

“Really?”

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun and everything. But, teenage guys, um, they don’t last very long. And depending on the guy, sometimes they just care about themselves.”

“What?” Korra looked shocked and confused at that statement. Asami wasn’t sure where to start, she knew Korra was sheltered, but she had no idea how much the Avatar knew about how things worked.

“Well, boys get better at it with time. I couldn’t really believe it either, but some of the girls a few grades ahead of me came back from university during a break and told some of us girls how much better older men were in bed. They can go a longer time and most of them know that sex is about both people finishing, even if they are bad at it.”

Korra still just started at Asami, not quite believing it. So Asami continued. “Well, my first boyfriend, we only did it once. It lasted all of thirty seconds, and I didn’t even really know it had happened. Then he passed out.” Asami chuckled at the memory, but it made Korra laugh hard, so Asami laughed harder. “Yeah, it was pretty terrible. He definitely just wanted me for my money and looks. When he woke up and didn’t even try to pleasure me, I dumped him. My second boyfriend was a lot better. He wasn’t the smartest or best looking, but he was a decent enough guy. We just never really clicked. He at least tried to make the sex last. He got to where he could go about five minutes eventually, and he was usually able to make me finish. I rewarded him for good effort sometimes though,” Asami said, with a slight blush. Again, Korra found this all hilarious, which Asami had to admit, it was now that it was many years later. “My third boyfriend was a little older, so he was better at things. But that was all we had in common. I found out he was cheating on me, I was actually the other woman, and his real girlfriend told me so.”

“Oh, that is awful. Did you punch her? Better yet, did you punch him?” Korra asked.

It was Asami’s turn to snort. “No, not everything can be solved with a fist, Korra. I just told her, ‘Fine, he’s all yours’ and I walked away. I guess I used him for sex as much as he used me, so I wasn’t really attached to him.”

Another beat of silence passed. Korra found her voice, “And Mako?”

Asami hesitated, not wanting to make Korra feel any worse, and not wanting to ruin any friendship they still had with the guy. “He was decent. He was probably the best in bed only because I cared about him the most.”

“Sorry.” Korra whispered.

“Hey, we are past that. We are just two friends talking. Like I said, he was decent. He was attentive and sweet, but he was always just so…” Asami couldn’t think of the right word.

“Gentle?” Korra offers.

“Yes! That is exactly it. Like I was made of glass or something.” Asami exclaims.

“Mmmhmm. Same thing with me. I always thought he was scared because I was the Avatar, because that is what most boys had always thought. But I guess that might just be the way he treats women?” Korra pondered. “I don’t want things rough all the time, but come on, look at me, he wasn’t going to break me or anything.”

Asami laughed harder. “Exactly. I just wanted him to take a little control and not have to be told every step. But I guess it is better than the alternative.”

“True.” Korra agreed with her on this.

They spent the rest of the night poking fun at Mako, while trying to come up with women to set him and Bolin up with. The subject eventually moved on to other things, but Asami was glad they confided in each other.