anatural | PSL: College AU -- Snowball fight

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psl: college au

PSL: College AU -- Snowball fight

[So maybe Korra is more homesick than she'd expected to be. It's the only explanation for her excitement when she woke up that morning and saw that a foot of snow had fallen overnight. She grew up with snow. Snow isn't this magical, mythical thing to her. Most of the time, she liked being able to go outside without a coat on.

But today? Today it's something magic.

She bundles up and rushes outside, ignoring her roommate's sleepy protests. Some of the other students have already started a guerilla snowball fight; she's roped in almost as soon as she steps out the door by a snowball aimed straight at her face. (She blocks it just in time. Hey, she's not a blackbelt for nothing.) They'll soon come to regret engaging her in this battle. They all will.

Grinning devilishly, Korra stalks through the bushes, seeking out her next target. Right... there!

She hurls a massive snowball straight at his head.]

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[Korra. Korra you picked the wrong target.]

[There's a reason that the snow isn't scattered haphazardly across his coat. There's a reason there's only a light dusting of it on him. There's a reason everyone else avoided throwing snowballs at him.]

[Because, though like anyone eyes he stumbles when the snowball hits the back of his head, a moment later, his hand is reaching up in a gesture that Korra probably finds familiar. He's reaching up to adjust his glasses.]

[And the only one who adjusts his glasses like that, the only one who wears his clothes like that - well. It's her RA. Her stuffy, strict, by-the-book RA. The look he throws at her is colder than any snowball.]

[And for a long moment, that glare is all he gets. And then he starts walking towards her.]

[If she's expecting to get off with just a tongue lashing, though, she's in for a surprise.]

[Because in one swift, surprisingly smooth motion, he moves to scoop up some snow himself, packing tight and quick before returning fire, sharp, quick, accurate, and before it even reaches her, he's scooping up more snow for a second, reloading.]

[As if he hasn't had plenty of practice with snowball fights against Kurosaki.]

[Oh sh-

Korra manages to duck the first snowball by sheer animal instinct, but he doesn't give her a chance to dodge the second. Who knew Mr. Stick-in-the-Butt had such good aim?!

Fortunately, she runs fast, even in the snow, and finds cover behind a large tree. It won't buy her much time, but it will be enough to build up an arsenal of small snowballs. If he thinks she'll be scared off by his asshole resputation (and unexpectedly good arm), he is very much mistaken.]

[Maybe his aim isn't so good. Because even if he's pretty fast himself, the next snowball whizzes high above her head, hitting one of the branches above instead.]

[And then the snow starts to cascade down from the branches, right onto Korra.]

WAAAH!

[Korra attempts to dive away from falling so -- and ends up falling on her ass.]

Oh now it's on!

[She hurls a volley of snowballs at him.]

[It wasn't on before?]

[Normally, he might be able to dodge half or more. But he's on snow. And, unlike Korra, though he has experience with snowball fights, dodging in snow is only likely to make him trip and fall. Still, though he takes the brunt of the volley, the first snowball Korra fires off is knocked out of the air - by her RA's snowball. Volleys seem like the way to go - one snowball at a time, and he might just counter her snowball for snowball.]

[Of course, now he has as much or more snow coating him as she does, he at least blocked any from getting on his face, any from sending his glasses askew, so he just brushes it off as he prepares to retaliate, kneeling down go gather up more snow for snowballs.]

[It's on-er, okay? Shut up and eat snow. In fact, thank you for kneeling down and making Korra's job even easier. While he's kneeling down to get more snow, she's running towards him full steam ahead --

And leapfrogging over him, aiming to put enough pressure on his shoulders to knock him face first into the snow.]

[He hears the crunch of snow, knows she's closing - not enough time, not enough time - but he doesn't quite expect what she does next.]

[Though it catches him off-guard, he is able to twist his upper body as he falls, launching a snowball straight at the back of her head from point-blank range. Still, he can't avoid ending up flat on his back in the snow, though only for a heartbeat before he's scrambling to get his feet under him again.]

[Whatever she's heard about him, it's starting to become obvious that in his own way, her RA is as tenacious and as competitive as Korra is, in some ways.]

[Yeah, she's getting that idea. And it's making her like him a lot more, despite the ache as his last snowball hits her with a little too much force. She's never much cared for Ishida - he's a stuffy uptight jerk who's constantly getting on her case for one rule infraction or another. (It's not like she's having sex -- who cares if she has two guys spend the night? Why CAN'T she keep her husky Naga with her? Nobody on their floor is allergic. And yelling at her for an hour for jumping out the third story window was total bullshit because A) she wasn't trying to kill herself, she was just late for class and B) if she HAD been trying to kill herself, his yelling certainly wouldn't have made life seem worth living.) She has a little calendar next to her bed where she marks off the days until she can move into a new dorm and get a new RA.

So it's really quite a pleasant surprise to have him playing along instead of yelling her ear off. She might even let him win this, just to reward him for being a good sport.

Oh who is she kidding, she never lets anyone win anything. She shoves another hapless freshman aside to make room for her behind his meager snowfort and uses the arsenal of snowballs he'd accumulated to launch another all-out volley against her opponent.]

[What Korra never seems to understand is that it isn't always just about her. If he lets two guys stay the night with her, then everyone else is going to expect to get away with the same. He'll let her keep Naga with her if she fills out the paperwork first - like everyone else. And if anyone else had seen her leap from the third floor, Ishida has no doubt someone else would get the idea to try it, possibly even drunk, or worse, try to top her by jumping from a higher floor. It isn't just that she endangers herself with stunts like that. It's that she was endangering others.]

[Something like this, though, is just harmless fun. He can justify this.]

[Or, well, he could. For once, he hasn't actually stopped to think things through, though.]

[And Korra certainly isn't giving him any time to let his head catch up with him.]

[There just isn't enough time, under pressure like this, to counter-attack, not without any ammunition on hand. He barely has time to get his feet under him before Korra starts pelting him. Using one arm to shield his face and his glasses, he scoops up snow with his free hand, flinging as much into the air to give him a curtain of cover. It hangs in the air for less than a second, but it obscures him from view for long enough to him to fall back.]

[But the paperwork means a visit to the vet, and the vet means money that Korra doesn't have, and so on and so forth.

And damn, he's getting away! Korra's not quite foolish enough to leave the safety of the fortress, but she's quivering like a dog who's just waiting for permission to chase after its quarry.

Where did he go?]

[A bush. He'd rather have gotten behind the low wall of the nearby courtyard, but he didn't have the time to cross the distance. He could make a dash for it... but first he makes a pair of snowballs.]

[Then he makes the dash, and as soon as he sees Korra's arm go up, he's ready, answering with a snowball of his own. This time, though, he misses, sailing right by her snowball... and right into her. Well, maybe it didn't miss after all.]

[Maybe he's willing to take the hit if it meant hitting her back, letting her know he's too competitive to just let her go on the offense with impunity.]

[You should be more careful what you put in your snowballs, Ishida. The ball hits her arm hard...as does the rock inside.]

OW!

[She clutches her arm and hisses in pain.]

[He always is. He isn't just meticulous in his schoolwork or his sewing, after all - it extends to most aspects of his life.]

[But he isn't perfect, and it seems Korra is paying the price for that imperfection.]

[Ishida freezes when he hears her voice, turning towards her. The second snowball falls to the ground, unheeded, as he hurries to her side.] Korra?

[Briefly, it flickers through his mind that it might be a ruse, but even if it is, he'd much rather take snowballs to the face right now than find that Korra actually has been injured as a consequence of his actions.]

I DO NOT ADMIT DEFEAT! [She winces as she rubs where the rock hit her.] But I will call for a ceasefire.

[She grins at him as he comes over, half-reassurance and half her natural good cheer.] Clearly nobody taught you the rules of war.

[He wears a small smile; almost anyone might think he seems amused, unless they watch his eyes. The smile doesn't reach his eyes.]

[Whatever brief glimpse Korra might have caught of an Ishida different from the one she knows, those eyes are the ones that he always has whenever he's telling her off.]

[Except there's no yelling, no anger in his voice, oddly enough. A quietness, bordering on softness. Because this whole time, even when he raises his voice, the truth is, well... what's in his eyes is concern.]

I'm sorry, Korra. [Words she probably never expected to hear from him. Words he never expected to say.]

I have a first aid kit, up in my room.

Edited 2014-01-03 21:10 (UTC)

Oh puhleeze. [She stands up and holds the wounded arm out for him to inspect.] Look, no cuts. I'll get an ugly bruise for like a week and then it'll be fine.

[She might've hammed up the injury to anybody else, really made them squirm with guilt, but it's really disconcerting to hear her stuffy RA apologize to her. Not that this whole afternoon hasn't been weird, but. You know.]

Trust me, I've had worse.

[His lips press into a thin line. His brows knit as he inspects the damage before apparently agreeing with her assessment, given the small nod he gives, almost to himself.]

I've never heard you yell like that before. [Certainly not when she jumped off the third story. But, then, he supposes, she had been ready for that. It hadn't been the unpleasant surprise this was.]

Nobody's ever hit me with a rock before. [Oh wait shoot that might make him feel guilty.] Not here, anyway. [Little kids do dumb shit after all.]

[Yeeeep. Guiiilllllt.]

It was an accident, I assure you.

Well that's good. It would have made a pretty terrible assassination attempt.

[Seriously come on, Four Eyes, lighten up. She's the one with the throbbing arm why is she the one cheering you up?]

[Korra, only one of the two of you has 'natural good cheer'. Guess which one that is.]

[Also it's kind of... strange carrying on a conversation with Korra that doesn't involve reprimanding her or disagreeing with her for once.]

A shot fired in a firefight wouldn't constitute an assassination, Korra, when the other party fired the opening salvo. [... Even now, apparently, the only way he really knows how to interact with her is to quibble and correct.]

[... Gee, this isn't familiar at all.]

[....twitch. twitch. No Korra do not fire an opening salvo ON HIS FACE. As tempting as it is.]

ANYWAY. It's fine. You just suck at snowball fights. There are worse crimes.

[...okay, so maybe she did fire an opening salvo. Whatever, he had it coming.]

[...]

... You know, I had been thinking about teaching you to hit a snowball in midair, as an apology. But I suppose if I'm so terrible, you must already know. After all, there's no way someone who would say such a thing could lack that skill - they'd be even worse than I am, then.

[NO THAT WAS A COOL TRICK whatever she can totally figure it out for herself]

Oh puh-LEEZE. That's a cute trick, but checking your snowballs for rocks is a pretty basic skill.

[He opens his mouth, about to snap back - it's almost reflex to him, after years of bickering with Kurosaki.]

[But he catches himself and swallows it. As much as it stings his pride... she is right. He is wrong - or, at least, he did make a mistake.] ... You're right. It is.

[...that was supposed to feel better. Why doesn't it feel better? Damn it, it's no fun when they don't fight back. She huffs a little irritably.]

You weren't actually that bad. But little advice for life -- never get into a snowball fight with someone from Alaska.

[Her good cheer restored by smug superiority, she rolls her shoulders and shoves her hands in her pockets.]

Am I dismissed, Sergeant? I'd like to get some breakfast.

As I recall, I wasn't given a choice in the matter. [Unless you thought he'd just give up after that sneak attack.]

... Yes, you're dismissed, unless you'd like me to treat you to breakfast.

[Free breakfast...extended time with her stuffy RA who may not be as terrible as she thought but is still pretty stuffy... free breakfast... oh who is she kidding.]

What college kid is going to say no to a free breakfast? [And then, because she's not entirely without manners...] Thanks.

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PSL: College AU -- Snowball fight

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Congratulations! First tag I recieved in 2014, and first one I tag I did!

I am honored! \o/

<3

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