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Asami was sitting on the stands by the racetrack when Korra found her, staring absently at the loops of road, seemingly deep in thought. There was a single car driving round the track, presumably some test driver working late, but Asami didn't seem to be overseeing the proceedings. She was just sitting there, like she wasn't sure what to do with herself. Korra went to sit beside her, and Asami looked up with a surprised smile, like she hadn't noticed Korra approaching.
“Hey, Korra.”
“Hey! I heard you weren't in the house and I thought I might find you out here.”
“You know me too well.” Asami smiled wryly, then sighed. “Yeah, it still gets a little difficult to be in there sometimes. The memories... you know. But out here? Out here, I can remember good things, and it's better. Here was the last place I was really happy before everything that happened with my dad...” She bit her lip and looked down at the ground, and Korra laid a hand on her shoulder, wishing she knew what else to do. “The last place I was really happy for a long time, honestly. In the weeks after, I used to hold on to that memory of us at the racetrack so tightly.” She laughed a little. “Honestly, I don't know how it took me another entire year to realise I was in love with you.”
Korra smiled, unable to stop the little firework of happiness that burst in her chest every time Asami said those words. “Hey, join the oblivious club. I was there that day thinking, 'she's so pretty' and 'wow, I feel understood for the first time in my life' and then went on like that didn't mean anything.”
Asami turned to her with an expression of fake shock. “You think I'm pretty?”
Korra found herself smiling and blushing like she was a teenager with a crush. And honestly, she wasn't far off. She hadn't known you could still have a crush whilst dating someone, not until Asami, but that was what it felt like. “The prettiest. But hey, I know we've got off-topic. If you want to talk about... anything, then you know I'm always here, right? That whole thing about being there for people is a two-way street.”
Asami smiled at her gratefully and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Thanks, Korra. I'll definitely take you up on that one day, but I think right now... right now I could use a distraction.” She glanced from Korra to the track and back again, then grinned, a little spark in her eyes. “So... want me to take you for a spin?” She made her voice low and breathy as she said it, leaning in close, and Korra forgot how to breathe. (And she thought that line had affected her the first time.)
“I... um... let's do it!” she said, quoting her seventeen-year-old self, although this time with significantly more breathlessness and maybe even more enthusiasm.
“So, I see the line still works, then?” Asami got to her feet as she said it, heading down towards the track. Korra followed her, laughing a little at the way their minds had gone in the same direction.
“It works.” Something struck her then, and she stopped dead, halfway to the track. “Wait. Does that mean it was a line the first time?”
“Uh...” now Asami was the one blushing. “I mean... not intentionally? But looking back on it I... kinda... flirted with you by accident?”
“Yeah, it wasn't all that subtle. If I hadn't been so obsessed with Mako...” Korra rolled her eyes. “Well, I guess we'll never know.”
“Sometimes I wonder how our past selves would react if they somehow found out that we'd end up together,” Asami said, shrugging on a jacket with a Future Industries logo, which Korra guessed was better for racing or something. “Because you did not like me back then.”
“Hey, I liked you after we did this the first time!” Korra gestured towards the racetrack. “But yeah, you're right, seventeen-year-old me would probably have passed out from shock or something.”
Asami considered it for a moment. “I think eighteen-year-old me would have taken approximately ten seconds to realise that that actually made a lot of sense.”
Korra grinned. “How flattering.”
Asami elbowed her and then passed her a helmet and racing goggles. “Says the girl who couldn't keep her eyes off me on this racetrack.”
“Guilty as charged.”
The guy who was testing out one of the cars passed close by them again, and Asami waved at him until he drew to a halt.
“Hey, Jian, fancy a race?”
He smiled. He looked younger than many of the Future Industries employees, and he had a kind of sparkle in his eye that made Korra like him instantly. “You're on, Miss Sato.”
Asami waved her hand. “It's Asami.”
Jian nodded like this was an old conversation between them, and Korra got the feeling he kept up with the 'Miss Sato' less out of habit and more as a joke.
They got into position. Korra remembered from last time how small the space inside these cars was. She kind of wished there was a way for her to actually sit next to Asami, because Asami when she was driving was... well. Korra never found the right words to describe her, no matter the situation, but the way she looked when she did the things she loved, the things she knew she was good at... that look never failed to make Korra wish they were alone.
There was no-one to wave a flag this time, so Jian just counted down to three and then they both took off.
Just like she had been four years ago, Korra was caught somewhere between exhilarated and terrified (although she'd never admit to the latter.) Even though she was used to cars now, she'd only been driven like this once before, and the sensation of having left her stomach somewhere behind them was the same, as was the adrenaline rush singing through her veins.
Asami's hair whipped out behind her, almost catching Korra across the face, and she drove the car like it was an extension of her body. Jian was a good driver, that much was evident, but no-one drove like Asami, and he was soon struggling to keep up.
Asami shot the briefest glance over her shoulder and smirked in a way that made Korra feel a little like she'd touched a live wire and a lot like she wished they were somewhere more private and... okay, racing, focus.
Their speed kicked up a notch, and the force of it pressed Korra back against the seat behind her, and then they were tearing across the finish line, easily two car lengths in front of Jian.
Asami drew to a halt and jumped out, still with a hint of that smirk on her face. “So?” she asked.
“So...” Korra said. “Um. Wow.”
“Speechless?” Asami asked, and Korra couldn't count how many times she'd been able to say that. It was easy to get speechless around Asami, okay? “How flattering.”
They were the same words Korra had used earlier, but Asami managed to pitch them in a tone that sent a shiver up Korra's spine. “You're unfair.”
“How?”
“Just...” Korra gestured in the air to indicate Asami generally. “You... damnit, I don't have the words.”
“Then stop talking.”
From anyone else, it might have seemed like they were trying to be hurtful. But Asami's eyes flickered down to Korra's lips as she said it, and the tone of her voice was a certain way, and it only meant one thing. Korra closed the distance between them and leant up into a kiss, pulling Asami in as close as she could like she might have done four years ago if she'd only known a little better.
Asami kissed her back just as fiercely, and Korra didn't know where they would have stopped if Jian hadn't cleared his throat loudly.
“Um, hello? Still here?”
Korra and Asami broke apart, and Korra could feel the heat rushing to her face. “Sorry,” she mumbled sheepishly.
“It's fine, I get it,” he said, grinning at them.
“Thanks for the race,” Asami said to him, reaching out her hand to shake his.
“You're welcome. I think I'll head off now, leave you to it.”
He left, whistling as he walked.
Asami turned back to Korra. “So, me driving does it for you, huh?”
“Just you generally,” Korra admitted. “But yeah. Also that.”
Asami smiled and took her hand, starting to walk in the direction of the house.
“So, are we going to go to dinner like we planned?” Korra asked, silently hoping the answer was no.
Asami turned to her again, that familiar glint in her eyes. “I have something a little more exciting in mind.”