Written for @gobytheshadow as part of the @ffexchange Valentine’s Day exchange! It’s a modern Korrasami Olympics au that doesn’t focus very much on the actual Olympics (oops!). I really hope you like it <3 ^-^
Ten snapshots from the lives of Korra and Asami.
Korra meets Asami Sato for the first time when, two months into her freshman year of college, she gets to the rink an hour and a half early for some extra practice. She messed up her footwork on some drills the day before, and while no one made a big deal about it, she knows she’ll have to do better if she ever wants to move up the lineup.
By the time she laces up her skates and gets down to the ice, there’s already someone there. They have on a helmet, full body spandex, and the weirdest skates Korra has ever seen, and they’re skating big, fast circles around cones set up along the length of the rink.
Korra didn’t know the school had any short track skaters, so instead of being too annoyed, she stays behind the boards and watches the person skate. She doesn’t know much about short track beyond what she’s seen on TV, but she knows they must be making adjustments after each lap, smoothing out the tiniest wrinkles in their movements. It’s the same reason Korra is here, the same reason why every athlete dedicated to their sport puts in every extra hour of practice.
They’re so fast, and so sure of each movement that it makes Korra breathless just watching them.
By the time they coast to a stop and straighten up, Korra is leaning against the boards, a little hypnotized. She wonders how they don’t get dizzy with all those circles.
Then they reach up, take off their helmet, and shake their hair free from its low bun and—
Korra would recognize that undercut anywhere. She may not follow short track religiously, but almost everyone has heard of Asami Sato, the youngest woman ever to win an Olympic gold medal in any short track distance. And not just one, but two at this past year’s Games, when she was only eighteen.
Korra maybe has a bit of a crush. She also has no idea what Asami Sato is doing training at a college rink in the middle-of-nowhere, Wisconsin. Asami probably has sponsors lined up from here to the Gulf of Mexico, and she could have access to the best training facilities in the world.
That’s when Asami notices her.
Her smile is even more beautiful in person.