[ To find alternative solutions -- or find the resolve within himself to carry through on what he needs to do. Hei's moments of lenience are rare and specific, all of them funneling into one goal, nothing superfluous or useless. Yet letting her go is useless. He knows that. Yet he doesn't mind it as much as he should. That is what makes him uneasy. Because it means he's starting to feel involved. Fuck, he'd started way before this, started when Korra was first cursed as a child. But by now his involvement has reached an uncomfortable pitch like a deep laceration, only temporarily numb-able. ]
[ The banter, the sexing, it is involving, it keeps his boredom and ennui at bay, but that makes it worse. He's growing accustomed to it. Whether Korra realizes it or not. A cold voice tells him he's gotten soft. The idea makes his skin itch. Moreso because he's not sure he remembers who that voice belongs to. He just knows it's not Pai's. ]
[ He moves to go, then hesitates, glancing back at Korra. Something is off about her. Or absent. That usual zing of impatient energy. ] Is everything okay? [ .............Is she stoned? ]
No. [There's no point in lying about it. Especially to him -- why try to protect him from things he already knows? Her death, the shed, losing her friends, cursed Chekov, the ghouls... he's been involved in pretty much every terrible thing that's happened to her since coming here. (There's no blame in the thought, only fact.)]
But it will be.
[And she smiles at him, because the moon is bright, the air is crisp, and for the first time in her life (that she can remember), she's made contact with the Spirit World.]
[ Hei feels, bizarrely, like he's intruding on a private moment. Which is impossible. But there's something so -- serene? -- in her gaze, in the clear blue depths of it. She looks almost like Pai did upon awakening after her payment; sweet and calm and guileless, like a child. Except Pai had never known a life without guile in her brief years. It was her own nature that'd kept her separate from the surrounding filth, despite being a Contractor. ]
[ It's that same quality that draws him to Korra. ]
[ He shakes it off. Her words are ambiguous, but not ominous. Whatever's going on in her head doesn't hold a troublesome weight. That much is apparent. ] I see. [ He half-turns, ready to head home. Over his shoulder, he murmurs, ] Don't fall asleep in the snow again. [ That little implication, a subtext, that she had him concerned for a moment. Hopefully she won't catch it. ]
[In another mood, maybe, but no such luck tonight. She catches the subtext and boxes it away with the other little fragments of humanity he's dropped in front of her, safe in a little compartment in her heart.
And then she heads for home & the beach. It feels like the moon is tugging her to the water as surely as it does the tide.]
action - Sunday 2/3
[ The banter, the sexing, it is involving, it keeps his boredom and ennui at bay, but that makes it worse. He's growing accustomed to it. Whether Korra realizes it or not. A cold voice tells him he's gotten soft. The idea makes his skin itch. Moreso because he's not sure he remembers who that voice belongs to. He just knows it's not Pai's. ]
[ He moves to go, then hesitates, glancing back at Korra. Something is off about her. Or absent. That usual zing of impatient energy. ] Is everything okay? [ .............Is she stoned? ]
action - Sunday 2/3
But it will be.
[And she smiles at him, because the moon is bright, the air is crisp, and for the first time in her life (that she can remember), she's made contact with the Spirit World.]
action - Sunday 2/3
[ It's that same quality that draws him to Korra. ]
[ He shakes it off. Her words are ambiguous, but not ominous. Whatever's going on in her head doesn't hold a troublesome weight. That much is apparent. ] I see. [ He half-turns, ready to head home. Over his shoulder, he murmurs, ] Don't fall asleep in the snow again. [ That little implication, a subtext, that she had him concerned for a moment. Hopefully she won't catch it. ]
[ Shaking his head, he quits the park. ]
action - Sunday 2/3
And then she heads for home & the beach. It feels like the moon is tugging her to the water as surely as it does the tide.]
retconning