二十九

[anatural]

[ action ]
[After dropping Korra off for her duties at the Welcome Center, Naga is padding her way through the City, heading back to the Beach House. Her jaw is hinged wide open as she pants to try and keep cool, and her hackles are raised.

Something is very wrong with this place. It's not just the climate, which is too hot for an arctic animal like herself. There is something unnatural going on with the environment and the polar bear dog does not like it. There's too little water. The plants are unhappy. The wild animals she snacks on are fewer in number.

Who, what, and wherefore aren't questions she's capable of asking. All she knows, as she stops by the Fountain to lap up some of the water, is that she Does Not Like This.]

[ooc: Care to run into a cranky dehydrated polar bear dog? You've got options!

option a: run into Naga anywhere in the City!
option b: run into Naga and Korra in the evening when Naga picks Korra up again]

Comments

[anatural]

[He is the weirdest, most confusing, most maddening person ever. She offers him company, he says no, she says she'll leave, he basically asks to tag along. Sometimes she just wants to shake him hard until all his misaligned bits are put back in order.

But for tonight, she just smiles.]

Down, Naga.

[She gently nudges the polar bear dog with her heel and the creature reluctantly lowers herself down so Hei can mount.]

Welcome aboard Naga Express.

[mortemscintilla]

[ Shake him until he's fixed. If only it were that simple. Sometimes Hei can't help but think -- It's so fucked up, living as an animal masquerading as a cyborg masquerading as a human. Always feeling the gears of instinct versus conscience versus rationale -- clanging and eroding as they knock against each other, turning the most vital parts of him into crunched glass. But this isn't the time to put out his mind's fingers, and trace each jagged edge individually. ]

[ There's a moment of surprise -- yet not -- when Korra smiles and sets Naga down. He clambers onto the animal's back with an easy grace, settling behind Korra. Not too close -- no cinch, no motorcycle hug. But as he leans in over her shoulder, assessing the vantagepoint from his position, his eyes drift across her nape, at the border where the upswept hair turns into fuzzy down. There's an impulse to press his lips there. ]

[ Instead, quiet and matter-of-fact, ]

I'm not paying the toll if she throws me off.

[anatural]

[Naga rises again and Korra silently directs her towards Hei's apartment.]

Huh?

[Whatever you're referencing goes straight over her head. (No, it's not because Hei's so close. Not entirely, at least. She's pretty tired.)]

[mortemscintilla]

[ A headshake paired with a rueful exhale. ]

Never mind.

[ There's nothing about Korra that seems frightened -- despite having him at her back. Still, a part of Hei whirrs on and begins cataloguing everything -- the vulnerability of Korra's position, the angles of the buildings overhead, the potential views from their windows and balconies, the pace and force with which Naga lopes down the street. The sunlight strikes fire off the water at the lake. One hand cupped around his eyes, Hei feels a smile bloom. Maybe it's dehydration. Maybe it's the post-adrenaline rush that still fizzles in his bloodstream after Pai's visit. ]

[ But it's the kind of smile that's both tired and free, tailed by a low Huh of a laugh that's so uncharacteristically Hei that he finds himself biting his lip and shutting his eyes, a distant memory of painted carousel-horses he never sat on and fairs he never visited bubbling out of his consciousness. ]

[anatural]

[She feels that laugh and turns her head to look at him, confused. She's not afraid of him right now, no -- nothing about his current mood seems violent and for all his wild unpredictability, she can usually feel his (physical) violence coming.

The laugh is weird, though. Really weird.]

You sure you're okay?

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei succeeds -- nearly -- in smoothing his expression into an impassive mask when she turns. But he can't fight that twitch at the corners of his mouth. Maybe joy is an involuntary muscle? Maybe this is what love feels like for ordinary people, vertiginous and freeing and exhausting all at once? But Hei knows that's not what it is. He's just tired. Coasting on residual dollops of adrenaline, trying to gear his mind back into its normal settings after it's been flipped upside-down, and not doing a very good job of it. ]

Yeah. [ The word stirs tar-thick from his throat. Clearing it, he repeats, more decisively. ] Yeah. I'm fine.

[ A beat's worth of hesitation, before he leans in to drop his arms into a loop around Korra's waist. His head settles heavy and almost-indolent against hers. And he is quiet, caught in a sensation of time slowing down around them, a bubble within which this sort of closeness can happen and be completely good. ]

[anatural]

[She stiffens in surprise. She can't help it -- she wasn't expecting him to wrap around her like that, not after the way this entire conversation started. It takes her a moment to relax, but she lets herself lean back against him. It's nice, if strange.]

You're weird.

[Quiet, matter of fact, more a murmur to herself than an attempt at conversation. Might as well enjoy this.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ It's so easy to get lost in this. ]

[ Maybe it's the lazy jolt and sway of Naga's trot, he and Korra rocking along to it like tiny children on a boat. Maybe it's the heavy orange sunlight and the humid air settling like a layer of weight on his skin. Whatever it is, it makes Hei yawn, quiet and stifled. He offers no response to her comment -- why would he? It's hardly something worth contesting. Instead he focuses on Korra's scent, the small solidity of her waist under his arms, marveling at the familiar shape of her, even as Hei himself feels so altered. ]

[ The journey to his apartment is short. Part of him wants to snatch each minute as the digits melt into each other. The other part desperately craves a cold shower and a resurgence of clarity, so he won't get his head torn off when he heads Underground. ]

[ On a slow breath, he slips off Naga's back. But not before squeezing Korra around the middle -- tight enough to maybe eke out a hitched breath. Maybe enough for her to absorb his mangled attempt at Thank you without anything having to be said -- before he turns and shuffles into the apartment. ]