[ There's a tremor, bubbling just under Hei's skin, when she kisses back. It takes him a moment to recognize what it is. Gratitude. He didn't come here for comfort. As terrible as he is at offering it, he's a thousand times worse at accepting it. The kiss is hot, soft, damp, possessing a lovely feverishness, but that isn't really the point. The touch isn't sensual; it's just that. A touch, graphic in its sheer, snatching physicality. He's not sure if he's trying to reach Korra or just trying to reach anything. He doesn't know how she can respond to someone like him. But he's too busy leaning in, angling his chin as his lips skim hers. Touch, flutter, retreat. Repeat. It was the way he'd kissed her the first time, in that creaky shed with its flickering lightulb. But this time it's not voltage-hot. Just tender, a little unsure maybe, but welcoming the excuse to close the lid on his unnerving array of thoughts. ]
[ He keeps the kiss going for a long time. Breaks it, at last, to tuck her head in the crook of his neck. He's done this with her so seldom. Has always resented any intimacy, has kept a lid on all softness. Refused the few questions she dared put to him over the course of their head-on collision affair. And who knows if this interlude is an apology, or a genuine act of warmth. But Hei's voice is calm and quiet, his thumb rubbing small circles into the indent above Korra's hipbone. ]
I'll stay until you go to sleep.
[ It's many things. An offer, a request, an assurance, and perhaps a promise. ]
[ He feels the vibrations of her voice, full of a tipsy sadness, muffled in his jacket shoulder. Can feel her breath through the fabric when she exhales. He passes his arms more securely around her, rocking her very slowly from side to side. It's what he'd do, sometimes, for Pai. Like during the night when she was too wired for rest, her bloodstream crackling with post-battle adrenaline. Or when there'd be bombs erupting nearby, rattling the ground and gnawing at even Hei's superheated concentration. He winces at a flash of recollection -- the sound of the shelling he'd experienced in South America, the blasts and rumbles that drove him to tuck Pai deeper into the crook of his arm as they lay in a pallet, a few miles from the action. ('Pretend it's a thunderstorm,' he'd always tell her. 'It can't hurt you.' '... Unless it hits you, Carmine would mutter, slouched dull-eyed in her corner. 'Then you won't feel anything,' Amber would say, arch and singsongy, peering past the tent flap into the explosions coloring the dark night.)
[ (A lie, of course. Nothing died painlessly. Even a limb that's long gone keeps hurting.) ]
[ He wonders if that's how Korra feels, in the wake of Naga's death and resurrection. He wants to ask, but what's the point? What's done is done. Cradling her against him, her hair tickling his cheek, he lets a hum of energy buzz from his skin instead, heating his clothes, suffusing Korra's cooler skin. Right now, he has to concentrate on fixing this mess. ]
[She doesn't know how long they sit there, lost in feeling. Maybe even lost in thought, but she couldn't tell you what she was thinking about. Everything's in a fog.
But she does fall asleep, with a dull sense of sadness. It's easier to fall asleep against him than against Naga now; she's always preferred the warmth of a living body to even the softest and thickest blankets. But Naga's not warm anymore, and Korra remembers how lonely it was to always be cold.]
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[ He keeps the kiss going for a long time. Breaks it, at last, to tuck her head in the crook of his neck. He's done this with her so seldom. Has always resented any intimacy, has kept a lid on all softness. Refused the few questions she dared put to him over the course of their head-on collision affair. And who knows if this interlude is an apology, or a genuine act of warmth. But Hei's voice is calm and quiet, his thumb rubbing small circles into the indent above Korra's hipbone. ]
I'll stay until you go to sleep.
[ It's many things. An offer, a request, an assurance, and perhaps a promise. ]
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Thank you.
[Her voice is small & tired, but she's not sure she'll actually be able to sleep.]
no subject
[ (A lie, of course. Nothing died painlessly. Even a limb that's long gone keeps hurting.) ]
[ He wonders if that's how Korra feels, in the wake of Naga's death and resurrection. He wants to ask, but what's the point? What's done is done. Cradling her against him, her hair tickling his cheek, he lets a hum of energy buzz from his skin instead, heating his clothes, suffusing Korra's cooler skin. Right now, he has to concentrate on fixing this mess. ]
[ By any means necessary. ]
no subject
But she does fall asleep, with a dull sense of sadness. It's easier to fall asleep against him than against Naga now; she's always preferred the warmth of a living body to even the softest and thickest blankets. But Naga's not warm anymore, and Korra remembers how lonely it was to always be cold.]
I have to help her.
[It's her last thought before falling asleep.]