[ The fabric of Korra's shirt -- the heat radiating under it -- makes Hei's palms tingle. He keeps his arms clasped around her, drawing her closer against him. Their bodies don't fit together the way his and Amber's did; they cut into each other at unlikely, intimate angles. It's good, better than Hei could have ever expected it to be. Keeping one hand splayed on her belly, he slides the other across her hip, scraping his thumbnail along cloth and denim, until his thumb is hooked neatly in the waist of her jeans. Around them, no one notices. The spectators hurl cheers and insults as the fight continues. On the edges of the ring, bright orange, flashing halogen discs are screwed to the horizontal beams. The intermittently blinking lights brighten the spectators' faces in ghostly yellows: a pack of bloodthirsty crazies waving money. ]
[ High above, moonlight pours through holes rusted in the roof, silver shafts gilding the crossbeams and glossing feathery shapes roosting in the latticework. The hypnotic sound of music underlies the hollering crowd. It matches every muscle poised; every strike of elbow, of hand, of shin, of knee; each place the blow lands and leaves its ruddy mark. ]
[ Wrapped around Korra, Hei is lulled by the crowd's buzz and frantic ocarina music. Watching the diminutive but deadly bodies -- machines more than men -- and the thrill of close combat. The pureness of it all. ]
[ But perhaps equally mesmerizing is the look on Korra's face. Her eyes, he thinks, are the blue life would be, if it got to choose a color. ]
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[ High above, moonlight pours through holes rusted in the roof, silver shafts gilding the crossbeams and glossing feathery shapes roosting in the latticework. The hypnotic sound of music underlies the hollering crowd. It matches every muscle poised; every strike of elbow, of hand, of shin, of knee; each place the blow lands and leaves its ruddy mark. ]
[ Wrapped around Korra, Hei is lulled by the crowd's buzz and frantic ocarina music. Watching the diminutive but deadly bodies -- machines more than men -- and the thrill of close combat. The pureness of it all. ]
[ But perhaps equally mesmerizing is the look on Korra's face. Her eyes, he thinks, are the blue life would be, if it got to choose a color. ]