[ Hei barely has time to enjoy her little hum, before her eyes flutter open. He'll never tell her, but she looks lovely on awakening, the way a child does, her gaze so blue that it hurts his eyes. Makes the rims of them sting. Still, too, and soft -- but only for a moment. Then her expression hardens and she shoves him off. He nearly topples off the bed. Rights himself almost at once with a neat motion, one arm behind him, the other half-raised defensively, looking merely off-balanced for a split-second. He ignores the yapping dog which scurries into her lap. Shoots a glance over his shoulder, instead, as if he expects to see Mako hovering at the end of the hall, an axe in hand. ]
[ Which is ridiculous. But a peculiar fear runs through him, outlining the monster within in a corrosive green that burns like acid. Not at being caught. At the idea of coming here at all. He should've left her alone. Should've done that, right from the get-go, knowing that anyone Korra befriended, anyone she knew, couldn't emerge from the places Hei has. All the blood and suffering of Heaven's War were merely the setting, the superstructure, the prelude to and aftermath of this creature who plays at being human, but was anything but. His life, his self, can't juxtapose with hers. ]
[ Yet in his deflated, exhausted world, she gives off a pinprick-glow of something. Not much, but after decades of nothing, that something stands out. ]
[ Eventually, he says, ] I missed you. [ It'd be sweet, if it didn't sound like a flat accusation. ]
10/08
[ Hei barely has time to enjoy her little hum, before her eyes flutter open. He'll never tell her, but she looks lovely on awakening, the way a child does, her gaze so blue that it hurts his eyes. Makes the rims of them sting. Still, too, and soft -- but only for a moment. Then her expression hardens and she shoves him off. He nearly topples off the bed. Rights himself almost at once with a neat motion, one arm behind him, the other half-raised defensively, looking merely off-balanced for a split-second. He ignores the yapping dog which scurries into her lap. Shoots a glance over his shoulder, instead, as if he expects to see Mako hovering at the end of the hall, an axe in hand. ]
[ Which is ridiculous. But a peculiar fear runs through him, outlining the monster within in a corrosive green that burns like acid. Not at being caught. At the idea of coming here at all. He should've left her alone. Should've done that, right from the get-go, knowing that anyone Korra befriended, anyone she knew, couldn't emerge from the places Hei has. All the blood and suffering of Heaven's War were merely the setting, the superstructure, the prelude to and aftermath of this creature who plays at being human, but was anything but. His life, his self, can't juxtapose with hers. ]
[ Yet in his deflated, exhausted world, she gives off a pinprick-glow of something. Not much, but after decades of nothing, that something stands out. ]
[ Eventually, he says, ] I missed you. [ It'd be sweet, if it didn't sound like a flat accusation. ]