[There's a chance she misstepped; she can see something dark mixed in his smile. But when he pushes against her, dick pulsing and needy, she knows she's won. She kisses him hard, biting his lip before pulling back just enough to whisper]
I promise.
[It's not like she's looking forward to the wait either. It's going to be the longest three hours of her life. She starts stroking him again, faster and harder, watching closely to make sure she's hitting all the right spots. Her break's going to be up soon and if she's going to sneak out early, she can't afford to come back in late.]
[ All things considered it's a little juvenile, standing fully-clothed at the corner of the lot like they're a pair of skittish teenagers. The scenery is all red and shadows and there's a snaky pulsebeat of music present even in the stillness, overlapped by Hei's breathing that quickens into sighs and soft hums. It's too incongruous, too messed up, but the rhythm she sets is perfect. Each time her thumb swipes over the head of him on the upstroke, there's a twitch to his hips, a low sound pulled past his teeth. His hand is still tucked under her bra. He squeezes insistently, the fingers of the other hand gripping the fence's cold diamond mesh. The chilled air isn't enough to cool him down; he's partways balanced on the edge already. ]
[ But it's not enough. ]
[ For a long breathless moment, Hei leans in and kisses her, and then he has to pull away, shivering. Against her lips, he breathes out: ] I want your mouth, Korra. Just a little -- d'you think you can manage that? [ And he tugs that lower-lip between his teeth, because this is good, more than good. But it could be even better. ]
[She hesitates, hot and breathless but nervous too. What if somebody sees them? She peeks over his shoulder, trying to see if anybody's watching.
She licks her lips, feeling the sting from his teeth.]
Okay.
[But he better make sure he shields her from view. She sinks to her knees and wraps her mouth around his head. She runs her tongue over it, tracing every crevice as her hand continues to pump the rest. She doesn't want to try going deep -- she's already trying to figure out how to keep his come from getting all over her clothes.]
[ As she sinks to her knees, Hei reluctantly breaks his grip from under her shirt. His knees feel rubbery; he leans heavily on one bent forearm against the chainlink above her. The pattern against his cheekbone, cold metal, is a wicked contrast to the heat of her hand. And --oh fuck -- that mouth. He grits his teeth around a groan, jaw clenched, dimly surprised by the gravel in his voice. The muscles in his stomach tighten, body reacting to each touch like tendrils of electricity are flowing from her tongue and fingertips. ]
[ He spreads the fingers of his free hand through her hair, clutching it into a thick dark bunch. His hips tremble with restraint, but apart from that he is perfectly still. Even as he takes in the sight of her, big eyes and kittenish flicks of tongue and hollowed cheeks, his mind forks in two. One part, speechless, arms dangling empty, consumed by greed and impatience. The other, on an equal priority level, keeping a cold focus on their surroundings. ]
[ It's an effort not to thrust into her mouth, to accidentally hurt or choke her. But all he wants is to drop reservations and let go, push deeper and harder until the tip presses against the back of her throat, let her swallow every drop. It's selfish, but isn't that the way Hei lives his life, always on the edge of cruelty, kindness and a slow-motion fall. ]
[She appreciates the restraint. It's awkward enough for her being on her knees in an alley, knowing she has to go back to work soon and trying to make sure she'll leave no evidence of her current activities behind. (There's really no way to keep it off her clothes. Well, there's really only one way to keep it off her clothes. And if it doesn't work, she'll...have to figure something else out.)
He better appreciate this. She moves faster, scrapes her teeth across his head, trying to get him off as quickly as possible.]
[ Hei's grip loosens and tightens in Korra's hair, almost like kneading. This is it, the home stretch, his body vibrating like a plucked steel string as it comes apart. There's a low sound in his throat at the edge of her teeth -- not discomfort but encouragement. (Quick little learner; it doesn't take her long to figure out what he likes.) Sucking his lower-lip up beneath his teeth to stifle louder sounds, he watches her as she plunges him into her mouth again and again. No artfulness, but boundless enthusiasm, and somehow that adds a sheen of novelty to an otherwise common experience. ]
[ Distantly, he senses every line in his body go taut. Korra can probably feel the quality of his erection change in her mouth and hand. The lot is bright-red and sets the edges of Korra's dark hair alight, but he's the one who feels close to burning. He tries his hardest not to shove her head down too much, tries not to force this, even as he chokes back a full-throated gasp, shivering as the waves hit and he dissolves in a helpless gush. ]
[She sputters, chokes, but keeps her mouth around him as he comes. For one frantic moment, she forgets how to swallow and is afraid she's going to spit it out all over her shirt, but at the last moment she gets it down. Most of it, at least. A few dribbles leak out of her mouth, which she quickly wipes away with the back of her hand.
She can hear someone shouting her name. Oh no. She quickly tries to straighten her shirt and hair, and for one insane moment considers asking him to punch her so she can blame her current state on a brawl.
[ Gulping in air like a drowner, Hei wonders hazily if the pulsating lights in his peripheral vision are real or not. He lets his body sag against the fence, relenting his grip on Korra's hair as his breathing settles into a slow in and out. But he recovers fast (instinct; training), piecing the disjointed shellings of his mind back to a smooth whole. There's a vague twinge of guilt at not offering Korra a warning before he shot off. But he can't summon the apology because this was so so worth it. ]
[ Taking her by the shoulders, he draws Korra up, even as she goes through that flustered damage-control routine. Someone in the background is calling her name, but there's no haste in Hei's movements as he leans in. A silent tip of the hat; his mouth covers hers, the mildly astringent taste of himself given back on a lazy kiss. ]
[ After a moment, he detaches on an exhale. There's a wry curl to his mouth. ] Duty calls. [ It's a dismissal, but not. He knows the timings of her shift. He'll swing by once he's sure it's over. He should feel done in, but he isn't. The encounter has left him satisfied, yet wanting more. ]
[She hums quietly, releasing some of her tension into his mouth. Not an experience she particularly wants to repeat, but she doesn't regret it. (Yet. Tomorrow, once the heat has left her bones, she'll bury her head in her pillow and roll around in her bed, unable to believe she actually did that.) The pleasant burn from his mouth and hands leaves no room for embarrassment.]
I'll see you after work?
[And then she hurries back to the bar for a lecture from her boss, which quickly negates any relaxation she might have gotten from that little encounter. Luckily, nobody seems to notice the state of her outfit...except for the bartender, who saw her leave with Hei, and asks casually in his strange lilting accent whether her boyfriend whacked her with his shame branch. (Jokingly, of course. Nobody who knew the little Ballbuster would believe she'd suck off a guy while at work.) She gets a shot of juice from him to get rid of the last of the taste and heads back to the front door to wait for this endless shift to end.]
[ Hei lets her go, watching her rush back to the bar while he conducts a slow eighty-degree sweep of the area, in case he'd missed any voyeurs. So far, so good. Personally it's an experience he wouldn't mind repeating. But next time he has no intention of choosing such an open venue. He exits the lot quietly, and there's enough for him to do that the hours slip by unnoticed -- a trip to the safehouse, surveillance equipment to assemble, a second package to pick up, an errant contact to trace down, a few not-empty threats to make, a few blows to exchange. ]
[ By the time he's outdoors again, the crescent moon above is the only company he can stand. But Korra asked to see him later. While typically Hei shuns any behavior that might be used to fix him to a time and place -- repeatedly visiting the bar where she works definitely classifies as that -- an occasional spur-of-the-moment decision is something he's learning to live with. ]
[ He doesn't wait for her outside the bar like a pining puppy. Instead she'll get a message to stop by a derelict old building a few blocks off. Neither a homely nor a romantic venue. But it's a test, to gauge just how much she trusts him, if she lets him lead her into such an ominous place. ]
⊕ Friday! (and assuming she worked an early shift so this is before midnight XD)
[Disappointment. Irritation. Confusion. Suspicion. Korra runs quickly through all those emotions as she finally gets off of work and finds a message instead of Hei waiting outside. She's worked in the Underground long enough to have a general sense of the area, enough to know he's not giving her directions to someplace with a nice bed and soundproof walls.
So why? There doesn't seem to be a curse today. She can't think of any reason he'd lure her someplace to hurt her. But being in the City, working in the Underground, has taught her some measure of caution. While her first instinct is to just go and ask what on earth he's thinking, she instead fires off a message in response, typing so nobody can hear her. Somewhere with a bed or I'm just going home.]
⊕ Friday! (unless he's already cursed, dun dun duuuuun! xD...No he isn't x3)
[ To be frank, Hei isn't sure why he chose this spot. He's heard rumors about the building -- that it's haunted, that it's infested with all manner of creepies, that you can't enter unless you have someone 'pure of heart' with you. The latter, it turns out, might be true. He's barely set one foot on the threshold before he was jerked off by some repellant force. A cool inner-voice warns him he shouldn't bring Korra out here. The Underground has at least a hundred little buildings -- the equivalent of Tokyo's Rabu Hoteru and often as tacky -- to slip into. ]
[ (He suspects that blowjob outside the bar did it; triggered a long-dormant itch for adrenalined post-battle encounters that were the sum of his sex life during Heaven's War. After such a history, last-minute check-ins at hotels tend to seem pedestrian in comparison. What's that phrase? Be careful... abnormal pleasures kill the taste for normal ones.) ]
[ (He won't tell Korra that.) ]
[ To her message, he types back. ] Scared. [ A deliberate statement, not a question. Then, marginally more sincere. ] You know I won't hurt you. [ After all, Korra got her cherry busted in a fucking shed. With a man who, weeks ago, threatened to kill her and her friends. A disaster-zone if there ever was one. It's not a judgement of her morals or her common sense. But he suspects she grasps, at an unspoken level, that Hei's tastes in cruelty don't extend to sexual sadism. Not entirely, anyway. ]
[Scared? Oh he did NOT. If she wasn't already irritated from everything else, she'd hold fast and text him back, but her temper is too short for typing. Faster and easier to just go there.
Scared. Being cautious isn't the same thing as being scared. (It's a new thing to her; she's still a little defensive about it.)
It doesn't take her long to get there. She doesn't bother trying to open the door; she just kicks it in.]
I'm not scared. [She looks around.] And I'm not impressed.
⊕ Friday! (by the strike of midnight, he'll be a possessed little thing ;;)
[ Well, that worked better than expected. She's already here. Five Foot & Small Change of Fury, just like always. Impassive except for a slight twitch at the corners of his mouth, Hei steps closer. He has no gift for sensing preternatural omens -- magic tends to leave him feeling severely out of depth -- but his instincts are finely-tuned. A tingle at the back of his neck warns him the building isn't empty. There's something -- several somethings -- in there. ]
[ Don't go in, that same voice warns. ]
[ He doesn't understand why he ignores it. (By midnight, he will.) ]
Yeah. It lacks ambience. [ He draws closer, his hand coming very softly at the back of her neck. ] Don't want to see what's inside?
[ Good question. There's a myriad of answers he could offer, but none of them rings of reason, much less truth. Hei does very little by accident -- how can he, when every part of his mind is honed for precision and calculation. It's his job to be prepared, enough that it's sunk in as second-nature. This deviation -- breaking a pattern that's kept him alive -- should disturb him. Why isn't it? ]
To try something new.
[ There's an archness in his manner, a nonchalance, that used to make enemies' hackles rise back home. But he already knows he's not going to hurt her. This is more of a test -- one she can best pass with indulging his whim. (The back-and-forth between them is all about whims and indulgences in the end.) ]
[ His eyes drop half-shut, and he leans in to kiss her -- almost sweetly. No angles or agendas. He runs his fingers along the nape of her neck, stroking the soft skin behind her ears, feeling out the beads of her spine. ] Come on. I doubt it's too scary.
[She sighs a little into his mouth, half-pleased, half-resigned. She should be resisting more, asserting herself. But she's always been a strange combination of stubborn and people-pleaser; refusing to do what she doesn't want to do but also bending over backwards to please the people around her. And after everything with Chekov, she's been skewing more "people-pleaser" and less "stubborn insistence."
She leans back slightly into his hand and just Looks at him.]
What's to be scared of? It's a ruined old building.
[Her tone is annoyed, but it also indicates her willingness to go in.]
[ A ruined old building I couldn't set foot in until you showed up. He keeps that to himself. The hulking structure seems to glower down at him, at once grand and obscure. Part of him is a little surprised by Korra's grudging compliance. But he intuits that has less to do with Korra and more to do with the recent traumas she's undergone. The lenience is temporary, but he can't decide if it's an improvement or a deterioration. ]
[ His hand slips to the small of her back; he guides her through the arched entrance. The interior has an empty echo to it, like the inside of a massive seashell. Thin streaks of light shine through the broken panes of the windows, silver motes dancing in their beams. The glow illuminates the rich colors of mosaics and tiled floors here and there. The furniture is dark lumps, and there are portraits on the walls too obscure by twilight to make out. ]
[ This could make a useful safehouse. The thought drifts through Hei's mind as he drifts with Korra thought what feels like a mile of drafty hallways and corridors, all crenellations for ceilings and cool marble for floors. He stops by an ancient cage lift with manual controls, a steep stone staircase winding around it, up and up into blackness. He can't tell how many storeys the place has -- but he wants to find out. ]
[ He opens the creaking doorway of the lift. Spends a moment checking if it's sturdy and functional, before glancing over to Korra. ] Let's go up.
[......okay, she'll admit to herself that this place is kind of creepy. She tenses slightly as they walk through, and she stops leaning into his touch, instinctively aligning her body so she's ready to defend herself if necessary. Not from him...not from anything she can even pinpoint.
She eyes the contraption warily. She doesn't have a problem with elevators, but that? Is not an elevator.
She looks at Hei -- are you serious about this? -- and then steps inside with an irritated huff. (The sulkiness will pass. She's just a little tired and stiff and this isn't what she's spent the past three hours trying very hard not to think about.)]
[ Hei is distinctly aware the he's skewed her expectations for the evening. She's tired. She's unsatisfied. She's wary. She's frustrated. He doesn't have to be proficient at decoding body-language to catch the cues she telegraphs. This is hardly a building to meet up for a 'romantic assignation.' But somehow, despite the creepy quotient, he likes this place. It has personality; there's something weirdly encompassing about it, as if you can whisper all your secrets to its cracks and facets, and they'd be kept for safekeeping forever. ]
[ (It's strange, how the place also excites him in another way -- a way that is purely visceral. (He can't pinpoint why, beyond the fact that his first time was in a building of similar grandeur and eeriness, but he suspects Freud would have a field day with those subconscious undercurrents.) ]
[ His expression is quiet, reassuring; he runs a thumbnail over the notches of Korra's spine under her shirt. Locking them inside it with a clang, Hei yanks the lever to make the lift begin its painstaking climb. The mechanism whines, the cables heave, but he can tell they're perfectly stable. About halfway there, he feels that tingle again -- in his bones and across his skin. Stop. ]
[ Without questioning it, he halts the the lift between floors, silently unnerved by why he feels neither particularly startled, nor afraid of the premonition he's just obeyed. He just knows -- knows -- it's unwise to go further. ]
[Korra's not sure if she's unnerved or relieved when he stops the lift. She gets that same feeling, that they shouldn't go further, but she doesn't like being stuck in this limbo.
Doesn't like this strange, incomprehensible behavior from Hei.]
Seriously. What's going on?
[You never make sense, Hei, but this is weird even for you.]
[ What's going on? Good question. He's not sure he can summon the right answer. He shifts to face her, leaving his hands relaxed at his sides, and tilts his head, keeping his eyes fixed calmly on hers. He wonders if she can understand that his open stance signals reassurance. Except his eyes, which, even in the gloaming, hold an air of aggression. ]
[ Something about this entire place is making his skin prickle; it's not excitement or even arousal, but it's close. Deja vu, maybe. At least it's not a set-up for an assassination; his bodily reactions are genuine -- if not confusing. Not honest, not yet, but a step towards it. ]
[ When he moves, it's fast; not combat-speed, but telegraphing it enough so that it's not a full shock. All at once he's up close to her, wedging her against the rear wall, hands on her arms as he darts in for a kiss, transitioning from almost-apologetic to hungry to filthy. When he breaks away it's with a tug of her lower-lip between his teeth; he breathes into her mouth, ] Maybe a hotel room was a better idea. [ Not that it's stopping him, much less slowing him down. ]
[She almost fights back when he pushes her against the wall, instinct and suppressed aggression at war with common sense. She channels that energy into their kiss, pushing herself against him, her arms around his neck, pulling hard on his hair, nails digging deep into his neck. She hooks one ankle around his so she can tug his thigh between hers.
He pulls away and she glares murder.]
Make up your mind. [Here, a hotel -- at this point, it doesn't really matter to her. She just wants to get going.]
[ He welcomes the aggression, his breath catching somewhere in the back of his throat, a sharp noise like a growl. He rocks against her, his thigh wedged between hers while his hands slide along her sides and behind her, plastering her against the length of his body and feeling her breasts warm and soft against his chest. ]
[ Make up your mind, she tells him, and he obliges. It's all strain and heat and want, sensation after sensation so Hei just falls into it, goes after what his body tells him to take. ]
[ Lips on hers, he uses a hungry pressure to coax her mouth open. His hands slide up the backs of his thighs, cupping her rear, smoothing the muscles of her back, before clutching her hair in tight fistfuls. Her body pulses with warmth, despite the chilly air. The temperature surges through him like an amplifier, heat pooling fast beneath his skin. He slides his palms down her again, the front this time: collarbones and breasts and warm curve of belly, before slipping them up under her shirt, fingertips brushing and closing around each breast while he grinds against her, kissing her hard, upping the force, tectonics sliding into a rougher landscape. ]
[Her thighs lock around his, trying to pull him more tightly against her. She claws his neck and shoulders, less because she knows he likes it and more because it feels so good to just let it out. Out there, in the real world, with normal people, she feels like a mooselion in a china shop.
Her breath catches in her throat as he reaches under her shirt and she bites his lip hard. Breaks away to bite his neck and shoulder, her teeth sinking deeper with every grind of his leg.[
⊕ Friday!
I promise.
[It's not like she's looking forward to the wait either. It's going to be the longest three hours of her life. She starts stroking him again, faster and harder, watching closely to make sure she's hitting all the right spots. Her break's going to be up soon and if she's going to sneak out early, she can't afford to come back in late.]
⊕ Friday!
[ But it's not enough. ]
[ For a long breathless moment, Hei leans in and kisses her, and then he has to pull away, shivering. Against her lips, he breathes out: ] I want your mouth, Korra. Just a little -- d'you think you can manage that? [ And he tugs that lower-lip between his teeth, because this is good, more than good. But it could be even better. ]
⊕ Friday!
She licks her lips, feeling the sting from his teeth.]
Okay.
[But he better make sure he shields her from view. She sinks to her knees and wraps her mouth around his head. She runs her tongue over it, tracing every crevice as her hand continues to pump the rest. She doesn't want to try going deep -- she's already trying to figure out how to keep his come from getting all over her clothes.]
⊕ Friday!
[ He spreads the fingers of his free hand through her hair, clutching it into a thick dark bunch. His hips tremble with restraint, but apart from that he is perfectly still. Even as he takes in the sight of her, big eyes and kittenish flicks of tongue and hollowed cheeks, his mind forks in two. One part, speechless, arms dangling empty, consumed by greed and impatience. The other, on an equal priority level, keeping a cold focus on their surroundings. ]
[ It's an effort not to thrust into her mouth, to accidentally hurt or choke her. But all he wants is to drop reservations and let go, push deeper and harder until the tip presses against the back of her throat, let her swallow every drop. It's selfish, but isn't that the way Hei lives his life, always on the edge of cruelty, kindness and a slow-motion fall. ]
⊕ Friday!
He better appreciate this. She moves faster, scrapes her teeth across his head, trying to get him off as quickly as possible.]
⊕ Friday!
[ Distantly, he senses every line in his body go taut. Korra can probably feel the quality of his erection change in her mouth and hand. The lot is bright-red and sets the edges of Korra's dark hair alight, but he's the one who feels close to burning. He tries his hardest not to shove her head down too much, tries not to force this, even as he chokes back a full-throated gasp, shivering as the waves hit and he dissolves in a helpless gush. ]
[ Fuck. Fuck. ]
Re: ⊕ Friday!
She can hear someone shouting her name. Oh no. She quickly tries to straighten her shirt and hair, and for one insane moment considers asking him to punch her so she can blame her current state on a brawl.
He owes her big time.]
⊕ Friday!
[ Taking her by the shoulders, he draws Korra up, even as she goes through that flustered damage-control routine. Someone in the background is calling her name, but there's no haste in Hei's movements as he leans in. A silent tip of the hat; his mouth covers hers, the mildly astringent taste of himself given back on a lazy kiss. ]
[ After a moment, he detaches on an exhale. There's a wry curl to his mouth. ] Duty calls. [ It's a dismissal, but not. He knows the timings of her shift. He'll swing by once he's sure it's over. He should feel done in, but he isn't. The encounter has left him satisfied, yet wanting more. ]
⊕ Friday!
I'll see you after work?
[And then she hurries back to the bar for a lecture from her boss, which quickly negates any relaxation she might have gotten from that little encounter. Luckily, nobody seems to notice the state of her outfit...except for the bartender, who saw her leave with Hei, and asks casually in his strange lilting accent whether her boyfriend whacked her with his shame branch. (Jokingly, of course. Nobody who knew the little Ballbuster would believe she'd suck off a guy while at work.) She gets a shot of juice from him to get rid of the last of the taste and heads back to the front door to wait for this endless shift to end.]
⊕ Friday!
[ By the time he's outdoors again, the crescent moon above is the only company he can stand. But Korra asked to see him later. While typically Hei shuns any behavior that might be used to fix him to a time and place -- repeatedly visiting the bar where she works definitely classifies as that -- an occasional spur-of-the-moment decision is something he's learning to live with. ]
[ He doesn't wait for her outside the bar like a pining puppy. Instead she'll get a message to stop by a derelict old building a few blocks off. Neither a homely nor a romantic venue. But it's a test, to gauge just how much she trusts him, if she lets him lead her into such an ominous place. ]
⊕ Friday! (and assuming she worked an early shift so this is before midnight XD)
So why? There doesn't seem to be a curse today. She can't think of any reason he'd lure her someplace to hurt her. But being in the City, working in the Underground, has taught her some measure of caution. While her first instinct is to just go and ask what on earth he's thinking, she instead fires off a message in response, typing so nobody can hear her. Somewhere with a bed or I'm just going home.]
⊕ Friday! (unless he's already cursed, dun dun duuuuun! xD...No he isn't x3)
[ (He suspects that blowjob outside the bar did it; triggered a long-dormant itch for adrenalined post-battle encounters that were the sum of his sex life during Heaven's War. After such a history, last-minute check-ins at hotels tend to seem pedestrian in comparison. What's that phrase? Be careful... abnormal pleasures kill the taste for normal ones.) ]
[ (He won't tell Korra that.) ]
[ To her message, he types back. ] Scared. [ A deliberate statement, not a question. Then, marginally more sincere. ] You know I won't hurt you. [ After all, Korra got her cherry busted in a fucking shed. With a man who, weeks ago, threatened to kill her and her friends. A disaster-zone if there ever was one. It's not a judgement of her morals or her common sense. But he suspects she grasps, at an unspoken level, that Hei's tastes in cruelty don't extend to sexual sadism. Not entirely, anyway. ]
⊕ Friday! (gaspu!)
Scared. Being cautious isn't the same thing as being scared. (It's a new thing to her; she's still a little defensive about it.)
It doesn't take her long to get there. She doesn't bother trying to open the door; she just kicks it in.]
I'm not scared. [She looks around.] And I'm not impressed.
⊕ Friday! (by the strike of midnight, he'll be a possessed little thing ;;)
[ Don't go in, that same voice warns. ]
[ He doesn't understand why he ignores it. (By midnight, he will.) ]
Yeah. It lacks ambience. [ He draws closer, his hand coming very softly at the back of her neck. ] Don't want to see what's inside?
⊕ Friday!
Not really. Why are we here?
⊕ Friday!
To try something new.
[ There's an archness in his manner, a nonchalance, that used to make enemies' hackles rise back home. But he already knows he's not going to hurt her. This is more of a test -- one she can best pass with indulging his whim. (The back-and-forth between them is all about whims and indulgences in the end.) ]
[ His eyes drop half-shut, and he leans in to kiss her -- almost sweetly. No angles or agendas. He runs his fingers along the nape of her neck, stroking the soft skin behind her ears, feeling out the beads of her spine. ] Come on. I doubt it's too scary.
⊕ Friday!
She leans back slightly into his hand and just Looks at him.]
What's to be scared of? It's a ruined old building.
[Her tone is annoyed, but it also indicates her willingness to go in.]
⊕ Friday!
[ His hand slips to the small of her back; he guides her through the arched entrance. The interior has an empty echo to it, like the inside of a massive seashell. Thin streaks of light shine through the broken panes of the windows, silver motes dancing in their beams. The glow illuminates the rich colors of mosaics and tiled floors here and there. The furniture is dark lumps, and there are portraits on the walls too obscure by twilight to make out. ]
[ This could make a useful safehouse. The thought drifts through Hei's mind as he drifts with Korra thought what feels like a mile of drafty hallways and corridors, all crenellations for ceilings and cool marble for floors. He stops by an ancient cage lift with manual controls, a steep stone staircase winding around it, up and up into blackness. He can't tell how many storeys the place has -- but he wants to find out. ]
[ He opens the creaking doorway of the lift. Spends a moment checking if it's sturdy and functional, before glancing over to Korra. ] Let's go up.
⊕ Friday!
She eyes the contraption warily. She doesn't have a problem with elevators, but that? Is not an elevator.
She looks at Hei -- are you serious about this? -- and then steps inside with an irritated huff. (The sulkiness will pass. She's just a little tired and stiff and this isn't what she's spent the past three hours trying very hard not to think about.)]
⊕ Friday!
[ (It's strange, how the place also excites him in another way -- a way that is purely visceral. (He can't pinpoint why, beyond the fact that his first time was in a building of similar grandeur and eeriness, but he suspects Freud would have a field day with those subconscious undercurrents.) ]
[ His expression is quiet, reassuring; he runs a thumbnail over the notches of Korra's spine under her shirt. Locking them inside it with a clang, Hei yanks the lever to make the lift begin its painstaking climb. The mechanism whines, the cables heave, but he can tell they're perfectly stable. About halfway there, he feels that tingle again -- in his bones and across his skin. Stop. ]
[ Without questioning it, he halts the the lift between floors, silently unnerved by why he feels neither particularly startled, nor afraid of the premonition he's just obeyed. He just knows -- knows -- it's unwise to go further. ]
⊕ Friday!
Doesn't like this strange, incomprehensible behavior from Hei.]
Seriously. What's going on?
[You never make sense, Hei, but this is weird even for you.]
⊕ Friday!
[ Something about this entire place is making his skin prickle; it's not excitement or even arousal, but it's close. Deja vu, maybe. At least it's not a set-up for an assassination; his bodily reactions are genuine -- if not confusing. Not honest, not yet, but a step towards it. ]
[ When he moves, it's fast; not combat-speed, but telegraphing it enough so that it's not a full shock. All at once he's up close to her, wedging her against the rear wall, hands on her arms as he darts in for a kiss, transitioning from almost-apologetic to hungry to filthy. When he breaks away it's with a tug of her lower-lip between his teeth; he breathes into her mouth, ] Maybe a hotel room was a better idea. [ Not that it's stopping him, much less slowing him down. ]
⊕ Friday!
He pulls away and she glares murder.]
Make up your mind. [Here, a hotel -- at this point, it doesn't really matter to her. She just wants to get going.]
⊕ Friday!
[ Make up your mind, she tells him, and he obliges. It's all strain and heat and want, sensation after sensation so Hei just falls into it, goes after what his body tells him to take. ]
[ Lips on hers, he uses a hungry pressure to coax her mouth open. His hands slide up the backs of his thighs, cupping her rear, smoothing the muscles of her back, before clutching her hair in tight fistfuls. Her body pulses with warmth, despite the chilly air. The temperature surges through him like an amplifier, heat pooling fast beneath his skin. He slides his palms down her again, the front this time: collarbones and breasts and warm curve of belly, before slipping them up under her shirt, fingertips brushing and closing around each breast while he grinds against her, kissing her hard, upping the force, tectonics sliding into a rougher landscape. ]
⊕ Friday!
Her breath catches in her throat as he reaches under her shirt and she bites his lip hard. Breaks away to bite his neck and shoulder, her teeth sinking deeper with every grind of his leg.[
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!
⊕ Friday!