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[anatural]

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sunday sunday?

[anatural]

[It is too early in the spring for it to be this hot. Korra and Naga, arctic animals, are trying to escape the heat by taking a swim. Since she's on call at the Welcome Center, Korra's device is on the beach. Korra can't hear it beep when Hei's message arrives, but Naga can. The polar bear dog stops, her hears perking up.]

What is it, girl?

[Naga points her snout to the device on the shore, and Korra quickly swims over to see what it is. She's surprised to see a message from Hei. She hasn't gone out of her way to avoid him since the handcuff curse, but the one or two times she's thought about contacting him, she quickly decided against it. That curse had put him in a foul mood, and refusing to let him intimidate her isn't the same thing as deliberately throwing herself into the path of his temper.

Impossible to read his mood in a text message. But the jelly looks interesting, and...well, it'd be nice to have another afternoon like the main lobsters.

She types back] Okay.

/sneaks

[bookbending]

[Not too far away, Jinora's sitting just above the waterline, absently drawing spirals into the wet sand. The heat doesn't bother her much; it's a nice day to spend on the beach.

She looks over at Korra as she responds to the message.] What is it? Work?

\o/

[anatural]

[Korra quickly closes the device and puts it down.]

Just a friend.

[bookbending]

Mm.

[She really shouldn't be nosy. It's been a good day; there's no need to ruin it, and one of them should have a social life.

Jinora's resolve lasts all of five seconds.]

Anyone I know?

[anatural]

Probably not. [She's too distracted right now to remember if Jinora's met "Li", but even so, she'd rather keep it to herself.

The device beeps again as Hei responds. Come by at 5:00.]

[bookbending]

[Jinora has met Li, more times than she remembers. Their last conversation ended with Hei zapping her and erasing that memory.

The girl isn't terribly sneaky when she leeeeans over to peer at Korra's network device.]

A boy?

[anatural]

[Korra squeaks and turns the device away from Jinora.]

None of your business!

[bookbending]

[That's proof enough! Jinora doesn't spin around and say Korra has a boooyfriend like she wants to, which she thinks is very mature of her.]

Now you have to tell me who it is!

[anatural]

I do not!

[bookbending]

[She wilts.]

Please?

[anatural]

[..........damn it. After everything that's happened, how can she say no to that face?]

It's just Li. Nobody special.

[bookbending]

[Oh. Not a boyfriend. Jinora's slightly disappointed. Perhaps she needs to find someone else to live vicariously through.]

Does he want you to visit? [There's an underlying pout. Since Tohru left, the house has felt empty and Jinora has been reluctant to be alone. With Lin at work... but Korra's not allowed to know that.] It's okay if you go. It's not like I need a babysitter.

[Preteen you-are-not-cool-get-out-of-my-space face, go!]

[anatural]

Are you sure? [She can see through that face, Jinora. And as much as she'd like to see Hei and try to move past everything that's happened... Jinora comes first.]

Sunday! \^^/

[mortemscintilla]

[ Her reply makes him smile a little. ]

[ Granted, it's just an Okay. But it's not the content. It's the fact that she's willing to come over at all. His mind makes one of those associative leaps to the lazy afternoon with the lobster too. But he'd be delusional to think it's similar to that. The evening with the lobster was a test, true. A way to gauge his own capacity for patience. A way to gauge Korra's ease around him. But this is different. He doesn't expect her to be easy around him -- not in light of what transpired between them. But he'll do his best to rebuild that tenuous foundation, stone by stone. The dessert is an olive branch. And his offer -- a coded I've been thinking of you. ]

[ His own reply is just as brief. ]

Come by at 5:00

[ It's a freakishly warm day, the kind he associates with Hong Kong's monsoon season. Afternoons where people abandon their coats, where flies spawn inexplicably like alien invaders and buzz into the windows of overheated apartments. Hei can't sit indoors in the thaw. When Korra arrives, she'll spot him on the apartment stoop. Sprawled on a rattan armchair next to his elderly neighbours, in slacks and a T-shirt, slurping a popsicle that stains his lips blue. A game of quan dui is laid down neatly in front of them, and there is iced tea, a bowl of dry fruit and a nutcracker. ]

[ A disturbingly domestic scene, all in all. ]

Re: Sunday! \^^/

[anatural]

[It's hot enough that Korra's even changed her usual hairstyle. She arrives at Hei's apartment building a little after five, her hair pulled away from her neck & face in a messy bun and wearing a cropped shirt. She immediately regrets it when she sees his neighbors.]

Hello. [This is so awkward this is so awkward this is so awkward.]

Sunday! \^^/

[mortemscintilla]

[ Sunk deep in the armchair, fanning himself with a section of newspaper as if he's on a subway platform in July, Hei spots Korra approaching. As she gets up-close, he stops mid-lick on the popsicle. It's an effort not to stare. Of the elderly couple, the wife, almost pyramidical in her big chair, takes Korra's ensemble in with a moue of disapproval. Her husband, predictably, is more appreciative. With a blush, 'Li' endures some jocular ribbing in rapid Mandarin. Finishing the last bites of his popsicle, he brushes sticky fingers on his slacks and rises. Korra gets a small, blue-tinted smile. ]

Glad you made it. [ To the neighbours, in lieu of a proper introduction, ] This is, um, a friend of mine.

[ Yes, meet the brazen hussy corrupting your innocent little neighbour boy. ]

Sunday! \^^/

[anatural]

[Korra waves awkwardly at the couple.]

Nice to meet you. [Except not really. She doesn't like the way either of them are looking at her. She didn't think it was that revealing... (She notices Hei's look too, but that doesn't bother her. She likes getting under his skin, even if it's just a little.)]

So.......I heard there was a taste tester needed?

Sunday! \^^/

[mortemscintilla]

[ For what it's worth, the outfit isn't that revealing. Not by Hei's standards. The old people are just. Being old people. Case in point when Korra mentions the Taste tester, and the old man coughs to disguise a sudden guffaw. His wife silences that with one quick glare. ]

[ Can't you just feel the love? ]

[ Politely excusing himself, 'Li' guides Korra indoors with a barest brush of fingertips on the round of her shoulder, his breath smelling like blue raspberry and his hair curling at the ends in the humidity. Once they're a safe distance away, he says, in his usual tone, but still somewhat amiable, ]

With today's weather, a cold treat seemed like a good idea.

Sunday! \^^/

[anatural]

[Korra knows exactly where the old man's mind went, and her face burns as Hei leads her away.]

It's worse than Air Temple Island. How do people live in this kind of heat?

Re: Sunday! \^^/

[mortemscintilla]

I grew up in worse heat.

[ He means South America -- its temperatures somehow sizzling to boiling point in wake of the landmines, the rotting carcasses, the gunfire, the mosquitoes. In contrast, weather like this hardly puts him in a 'tropical' (read: heatstroke-addled) frame-of-mind. The opposite: it's almost balmy, the warmth settling like a soporific mist over his skin and making him yawn. ]

[ Opening the door to his flat, he leads her in. With all the windows open, the sunrays slanty and golden, the interior is almost cheery. But Hei has an odd feeling about his place. Like somehow, every time he leaves it, it settles into emptiness like that's its natural landscape. Even the pet lizard doesn't alleviate the feeling that the life here has dispersed. (Even Pai's shade seems to be gone.) ]

[ He always wants to turn on all the lights, music, fill the air with the aroma of cooking to stir the place out of its distemper. ]

Sunday! \^^/

[anatural]

[Korra makes a face. She does not envy him that. Ew.

There's a twisting feeling in her gut when he lets her inside. Everything's back to the way it was before she and Chekov messed with it, but somehow that just makes it more disconcerting. She lingers by the doorway, hesitant. As friendly as it looks, there are too many memories for her to feel comfortable.]

Sunday! \^^/

[mortemscintilla]

[ Her anxiety makes the sunlit air vibrate. Hei can't follow the specific thread of her thoughts. But he can sure as hell calculate their general direction. He shuts the door, then steps closer to her, stopping just out of arm's reach, as if kept back by a force field. While there's an impulse to touch her, he's ready to give her all the space that she requires. He doesn't want her to be skittish around him -- no moreso than she already is. ]

[ (Not now, when bit by careful bit, he's trying to make things up to her.) ]

[ After a tick, he extends a hand, a strange facsimile of softness showing in the set of his eyes and mouth. It's not his usual mute order -- Come here. It's something almost like Please? ]

Sunday! \^^/

[anatural]

[She takes a breath before taking his hand. She may be learning caution, but she still refuses to bow her head to fear.]

Sunday! \^^/

[mortemscintilla]

[ There have only been a handful of times Hei was ever overwhelmed by fear. He's certainly never seen it as an excuse to run. But this isn't the kind of fear you just shove to the back of your mind -- not unless you've dealt with all its jagged edges. ]

[ Not unless you want it to leave your psyche shredded to ribbons. ]

[ When she takes his hand, he keeps his grip deliberately light. Non-threatening. Usually it's his habit to yank her in and plant a rough kiss on her lips -- no warnings, no consideration. There's a restraint here -- a watchfulness -- that reminds him of how he works marks into letting him close. Observing their body-language. Broadcasting himself as benign and sweet. But while the methods are similar in this case, the end result is not. ]

[ He just wants to put her at ease. ]

[ Tugging gently, he leads her into the kitchen. Says, with an undertone of irony, ] I promise no Imugis were harmed in the making of this dish.

Sunday! \^^/

[anatural]

Good. [She squeezes his hand lightly.]

So...

[ Now that she's here, she feels at a loss for words. Awkward and a little shy, like her first time here, except instead of babbling she can't think of anything to say.

Maybe this was a mistake.]