IC Contact

[mortemscintilla]

ψ messages | ϑ text | ⊕ action

Comments

[mortemscintilla]

[ What makes you so sure he didn't plan it that way, sweet sister? His reply isn't reluctant, although he does make a show of rolling his eyes. ] Fine. [ It would be tempting to leave a message to Chekov, just for the sheer horror of his reaction. But Hei's given the young man enough unpleasant shocks to last a lifetime. Instead he leaves the message to someone who'll shrug it off as a random obscenity. Perhaps it's even a petty sort of needling on Hei's part. Who knows? ]

[ When he's done, he offers Pai a crooked half-smile. ]

Happy?

[sleepingstar]

[Pai smiles, almost but not quite giggling.]

Who did you leave it for?

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei knocks his forehead lightly against hers through the bars. His eyes slip shut, but there's still traces of a wry smile hitching up the corners of his mouth. ]

No one you know. [ That, at least, is half-true. The message was ridiculous and juvenile. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have bothered with it. But Hei's noticed it before; he has a habit of regressing to a more basic personality with Korra, same as with Amber. The brief spikes of possessiveness and resentment make him forget himself. It's bothersome, but he tries to shake it off. ]

[ Quietly, he murmurs to Pai, ] Try to sleep, okay?

[sleepingstar]

[She'll have to find out. Maybe she can get Chekov to hack Hei's device and find out for her. Hei had made the message too purposefully for it to have been someone random.

The very word "sleep" makes her yawn again.] No. It's your turn. [The curse demands what it demands....and her body will demand what it demands, soon enough. She may not even stay awake through him asking the question.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei knows Pai's patterns perhaps better than he understands his own. The little yawn, muted, kittenish, signals that she'll be drifting off eventually. In the meantime he brushes the hair from her face with a free arm, the other clasped tight around her, one pale hand starfished on her stomach, possessive, protective. ]

All right. Truth or dare?

[ He's interested in seeing whether or not she'll zonk out before even settling on a choice. ]

[sleepingstar]

[The word barely comes out, mumbled. barely audible, certainly not conscious.]

Truth.

[She's out like a light.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Maybe it's just as well. Hei has no idea what he'd ask her, that wouldn't break up the peaceful mood. The atmosphere is kind that way, grunge, cockroaches, drunken warbling and all. It's easy to get lost in the stillness -- easy to get complacent, easy to lose track of the time. It's a habit that Hei tries not to fall into (he can't, after all -- he's not built for it, and ugly things happen when he sinks into the trap of relaxation) but from time to time, it's an indulgence that he'll take. Especially for Pai. ]

[ For her, indulgences, sacrifices, risks, cruelties -- they'll always come so easily. ]