三十

[anatural]

[She's woken up by an incessantly cheery tune. It takes her awhile to place it as her network device -- and another while to figure why, because it's not the two beeps of a message or the tune Hei recorded to let her know her battery's dying.

It's a little calendar notification. One year in the City! She stares at it uncomprehending (always a little slow in the mornings).

One year.

Shaking her head, she takes a minute to figure out how to make the stupid notification away and then shoves that thought -- One year -- out of her head. She's just going to go about her day as normal. Ayup.]


[ video/action - late morning - option 1 ]
[Korra is out on the beach. You can only really see her face, but the sound of the waves is unmistakable.]

Hey Chekov, get over here. Bring swimtrunks. [It's time you learned how to swim, Spaceboy.]


[ action - late afternoon - option 2 ]
[Another day, another session of physical therapy. The hospital's practically a second (third?) home to her at this point. She walks through the front door, waves at the receptionist, and then makes her way towards the PT's office.]


[ action - evening - closed to Hei ]
[She's run out of ways to distract herself, but it's still too early to sleep. So even though she's tired -- and she's always tired, reason #754 why she hates that lunatic who shot her, because just being alive never used to be this exhausting -- she heads over to Hei's apartment to say hello and maybe be distracted.

Knock knock.]

Comments

[ at the hospital ]

[unflagging]

[It's be design, not accident, that there might be a familiar face passing by in the hallway. Such a pattern, such regular appointments, make it easy to identify comings and goings. Don't even need a crystal ball for this one.

And so, putting on a familiar face and a few choice bandages (not so many this time, since it was only a small fight this time), "Rowena" puts in another appearance...]

[anatural]

[Korra almost walks past Rowena. It's been awhile since she's seen the other girl, after all. But something about her catches the young woman's attention.]

Hey! What are you still doing here? [Korra's not sure whether she's surprised Rowena's not out of the hospital or whether she's surprised the girl's still alive.]

[unflagging]

[Perfect.]

Oh... Well... It's not "still." I'm sort of...back.

[And the most blase of shrugs.

A stretch so that sleeves ride up and show bandages wrapped around palms and wrists and forearms.]

It's not too bad this time, though. Maybe he's giving up. I don't know.

[anatural]

Wait, he's still after you?

[unflagging]

Well, yeah. It's not like he's just going to...give up, you know.

[anatural]

And there's nobody who can help you?

[unflagging]

[Shrugging...]

Everybody thinks I'm lying or crazy. Or both. I mean, you thought the same thing, didn't you?

[anatural]

I don't anymore.

[She hesitates, then on impulse blurts out]

What can I do?

[unflagging]

Really?

[A glimmer of hope (well-acted hope, but...).]

I need my dagger back--the one I told you about before. If I have that back, he won't have so much power. And I can defeat him. Can you help me get it back?

[ action - evening ]

[mortemscintilla]

[ The general aura of Hei's apartment is one of absense. Flat and nearly featureless, the surfaces scrubbed clean and vacuumed spotless, the scents of laundry, cooked food and detergent almost impersonal. This isn't a home. It's a tidy way-station. ]

[ But today, as the door clicks open, the interior lacks that sheen of well-kept detachment. In the kitchen, something fizzles in a frying-pan, smoke spiraling so the fire-alarm gives off shrill metronomic beeps. The livingroom is a mess of colorful shopping-bags with crinkled tissue-paper scattered everywhere. Little shoes and slippers tossed about, blouses in pastel shades heaped together with patterned jeans and white summer-dresses that swirl across the couch like licks of whipped cream. (Hei had bought Pai what he called "a few clothes to start with" while assuring her that they weren't really shopping, that he'd give her money, tomorrow, to really get what she liked without an annoying boy hovering nearby.) In its cage, the lizard seems to catch the strange energy vibrating in the air. It's been doing a funny dance all morning. (Hei has a vague suspicion that Pai fed it something she shouldn't have). ]

[ Leaning a shoulder against the doorjamb, he regards Korra with a blank look. It's not affront so much as surprise -- a mix of I wasn't expecting you and You've caught me at an odd time. His eyes seem like black holes in the dim light, but that's just because they're all pupils. It isn't that he's detached or disengaged as he always is. It's the fact that he's horrifyingly, monstrously there. (He's killed people like this, in Heaven's War. But of course Korra doesn't know that.) ]

[ Eventually, ]

...Something wrong?

[ As if he's completely oblivious to why she always drops by. (He's not. But there's a flare of reluctance, at the idea of this relationship, so convoluted and personal, opened up to Pai's scrutiny. ((Or is it the other way around?)) ) ]

[anatural]

[For a moment, Korra's pretty sure she's knocked on the wrong door, even though Hei answered. She can hardly see inside, but the very energy of the place feels different. Almost lively.

She glances between what she can see of the room and his face. Seriously. Did she knock on the wrong door?]

N-no. [The weirdness throws her off; she forgets for a moment what she was going to say.] I just thought I'd stop by. [You told her she could. She hadn't made that up, right? He told her she could.]

Is this a bad time?

[mortemscintilla]

[ Is this a bad time? ]

[ She always asks him that. Always edges around the circumference of whatever implosion-or-explosion-site his mind has disintegrated into on that particular day. Like her nerves are violins, playing out a high-strung wail of all the ways he'd hurt her if she dared to be spontaneous. He's almost sorry for it, but the damage is done. The most he can do is try to rectify his cruel behavior. Maybe at some point she'll stop looking at him like he's a walking psychic scar. Maybe one day she'll think nothing about him but what he is in her present-tense. ]

[ Maybe. ]

[ Which is why, instead of snapping, Yeah. Bad time. Get lost and shutting the door in her face, he says, ] No. [ A beat, then two, before he takes a step back. ] Come in. [ It's not a Bad Time at all. It's dangerously close to the opposite. (Maybe that's the problem? He wasn't expecting the muddy well of his life to bubble anew -- especially not at this point, after a scorcher of so much loss and disappointment.) ]

[anatural]

[Her lips twitch in a smile that's equal parts relief and uncertainty. She steps inside and doesn't bother being subtle about checking out the place.

Girl's clothes. Lots and lots of girl's clothes. Clearly too small for her, which means...well...]

Shopping for your secret girlfriend?

[Teasing, of course. She's not jealous. Jealousy would be ridiculous, considering they'd agreed not to be exclusive. She's not petty. (Spoiler: a part of her is.)]

[mortemscintilla]

[ At the question, Hei bristles. ]

[ But only for a moment. He's still not sure how to explain Pai's arrival to her. He's not stupid enough to imagine avoidance and deflections will work. Not here. Pai has the power to reshape his whole world, just by existing. He can't hide the changes in his flat -- or in himself. Changes that are a thin underpainting for the others that will follow, on and on in bright impasto strokes. Shutting the door behind him, he takes care to only hit the primary lock. He's given Pai an extra key, and a deadline (a curfew?) for when to return home. Since her arrival, his need to look at her has been a thirst, and the sight of her, constantly surprising in her solid, quiet thereness, goes down like fresh clear water. Still, he knows Pai is growing tired of his hovering. He's been trying to moderate. ]

[ To Korra, he says, measured and careful, ]

Someone from back home showed up. [ The Someone Important is unsaid but blatant. ]

[anatural]

[The "Someone Important" is loud as a siren's wail, and not reassuring. She could be his girlfriend from his world. (Again, not jealous. At all. Nope.)

She could be that important person he couldn't save.]

You must be excited. [It's an unspoken invitation to share more. Maybe also reassure.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Again, that knee-jerk bristling. ]

[ He's been surly and sharp and uncommunicative plenty enough before, so it stands to reason he'll be more so now. None of that interferes with how ... inadequate Korra's remark makes him feel, though. He listens to the smoke-alarm beep, the frying-pan spit and sizzle. Wants to say something reassuring. He's taciturn by nature, but also seldom at a loss for speech, if it's needed. But he can't come up with anything. Nothing's changed about how he feels for her. Nothing is gone, or diminished -- even if clarity has lent it an unmistakably sordid whiff. But with Pai's arrival -- Korra, everything else -- has moved so far down the queue that any number of other heavy things have to shift around before it can be reinstated. ]

[ He doesn't want to have to explain that to her. Hopes he won't. Almost certainly she'll be glad most of his attention is focused elsewhere. A handful of fucks and an occasional almost-conversation -- ideally, that's all she ought to want from him. ]

[ Too bad nothing in the City is ideal. ]

I am. [ His voice drops a little, like his gaze. He leans against the counter, arms folded. ] But the flat feels a little crowded. [ Because it's only slightly larger than a rat's ass. ] I might have to move to a bigger one.

[anatural]

[So this important girl is going to be living with him. Well that makes things.......different. How will that work? Can it work? Korra's gotten used to them being secret, only ever having to worry about explaining to her own housemates where she's been. Now there's another person in the equation.

Don't think about it don't think about it don't think about it.]

If she's anything like Asami [and the number of clothes scattered all over the place certainly seem to hint at that], you'll have to.

action;

[candothat]

[He doesn't bother with a response--why is she calling them swimtrunks when they're not trunks in any sense of the word?--because it's too hot to not be at the beach. It seems rude to go flounder around in the ocean with Nyota and Kirk feeling unwell, but they have McCoy; he will undoubtedly be more helpful than Chekov. Besides, learning how to swim is important.

After slathering himself in sunscreen so he doesn't bake, Pavel meets Korra at the beach. (If there were any doubts that Chekov is one of the scrawniest, palest people in the entire City, they're probably gone now.)]

Hello, Korra.

action;

[anatural]

[Korra's lounging in her swimsuit where the waves meet the shore. She leans her head back when she hears Chekov approach and smiles.]

Took you long enough! [She gets up -- carefully, but without as much difficulty as in the past -- and looks him over.] You ready to learn how to swim?

action;

[candothat]

[Lookin' good there, Korra. If they weren't bros and there wasn't an assassin boyfriend-friend involved... nope. Too far into the friendzone to even entertain flirty thoughts.]

I had to purchase swimtrunks, that isn't my fault. [Look, he even bought most hideous pair available! Chekov looks from Korra to the ocean and sighs in mock fornlornness.] I suppose now is as good a time to drown as any other.

action;

[anatural]

[Look at Korra not laughing at your swimtrunks, Chekov. BE PROUD.]

You're not going to drown. [Moron (with all due affection)] Come on.

[She wades deeper into the water, heading for that sweet spot where it's deep enough to float but not far enough offshore to catch a riptide.]

action;

[candothat]

Don't underestimate me, Korra. I have always been an overachiever.

[He follows her without any real fear of drowning, as he does know enough to stay afloat and, anyway, Korra wouldn't let him drown. The biggest threat is looking like an idiot. Or being dragged underwater by a seamonster, but it's so hot and the water's so cool that death-by-monster is a perfectly acceptable risk.]

Re: action;

[anatural]

Which means you're going to be a great swimmer. [She will brook no arguments.]

You know how to float, right?

action;

[candothat]

I should be. It's in my blood; Russians invented swimming, you know.

[No one can disprove that, okay.]

Yes, I can do that much.

action;

[anatural]

Not where I'm from they didn't. [Sometimes she wonders if Chekov actually believes half the shit he says.]

Okay, then first thing we'll do is teach you how to kick. Float on your back.