pushing it

[anatural]

WHO: Korra & Hei
WHAT: Korra’s getting restless.

[Korra sits on the ground of Hei's toolshed and tells herself that she should seriously work on that patience thing.

She's alone in the house. Her health has been improving enough that she doesn't need a constant babysitter, so when Asami called to say that she had a last minute meeting at Future Industries, Korra told her it was fine and not to worry about it. She can stand up to reach food in the cabinet. She can walk the distance from the bathroom door to the toilet. She can even (as she knows from testing earlier today) walk around the entire house.

The distance from the house to Hei's toolshed? Not so much. It had seemed like such a great idea, practicing walking while getting the tools to fix the wheelchair ramp. She's been itching for something to do, something physical, something that matters even just a little. But by the time she reached the toolshed, her strength was exhausted, and she had to use the last of it for a controlled fall.

So she sits and meditates on the virtues of patience. After some rest, she tries to earthbend herself back onto her feet. When that results in nothing more than a bruised bum and sore ribs, she tries meditating on the virtues of patience some more.

And really hopes Hei gets home soon. She really doesn't want to have Naga carry her back to the front porch like a cub.]

Comments

[anatural]

[He's always been like that — switching from frantic to slow at the strangest moments, rarely maintaining any kind of predictable speed. Korra doesn't know if that's drives her bonkers or if it's one of her favorite things about having sex with him. Probably both. She tries to focus on the kiss, calm herself so she's not completely frantic with lust and need. It doesn't work particularly well. Her entire body shudders with relief as he finally sets into a hard, heavy pounding.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Where's the fun in being predictable? Despite his sturdy practical side, Hei thrives in volatility. Especially since he's twigged in that when he lets himself take on the flavors of wildness and license, it seems to stoke Korra's hunger even higher. Usually he prefers to go at his partners with nearly brutal intensity, and demands the same from them. But he's figured out, when he can catch Korra off guard, that she comes harder and more helplessly. Then it is as if she starts to spiral down a long corkscrewing tunnel, nothing to grab onto, nothing to slow down the frustration boiling and gathering momentum inside her. ]

[ Cradling her skull in a tensely-fingered grip, he kisses her hungrily, sloppily, licking into her mouth and biting at her lower-lip, then carving kisses from her jawline to her throat, down across her breasts. He bends his head and takes one nipple between his teeth, sucks deeply, long strong pulls without respite, even as his spine flexes smoothly with his reverberant strokes, hips and waist and shoulders carrying the movement. He's in a perfect zone, pleasure sparking electrically through him -- fierce but not brutal, not yet. ]

[ He can think not of coming but of the ride itself -- what to give her, what to deny her -- before letting them both crumble at long last into a wrung-out heap from the waiting. ]

[anatural]

[Next time — next time she's going to turn the tables, make him go through all of this. (She doesn't have the temperament for it and she knows it, but it's still fun to dream.) She'll tie him down and suck him until his balls are ready to explode, then take a nibbling journey over his body, see if there are any sweet spots she hasn't discovered yet. When it looks like he's starting to go soft, she'll rub him between her legs, let him feel her heat without letting him inside. Then she'll rub against him, let him feel her breasts without being able to touch any of her, and see how much he likes constantly being denied release.

Next time, when she's not an instrument in his hands, playing a filthy, raunchy melody for them alone.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ He won't deny a scenario like that would be incredibly hot. Korra can be endearingly unsubtle, explosively short-fused. But Hei knows there's nothing she can't do if she puts her mind to it. And patience is a matter of translating your energies in different shapes as much as it's about rigid control and steely precision. With time and practice, he's sure she can master that as well as any of the four elements. ]

[ He keeps the outstrokes measured, slow -- and makes each thrust as hard and deep as he can. His breath punches out each time, and he abandons the sore points of her breasts to gorge on her mouth with kisses, drawing her greedily closer, hands everywhere, roaming roughly, expressing clearly the gratitude of complete license. Then he's wedging a palm between their damp bodies to play with her clit, fondling it with the pad of his thumb, a soft relentless friction that matches the cadence of his thrusts, of his tongue forcing her mouth open with wet hungry stabs. Because if she's an instrument, then he plans to play out every nuance of sound from her body, until her cries come through loud and exquisitely clear, a wild contralto of penetrating musicality. ]

[anatural]

[Some climaxes are like explosions, earthquakes. Others are like ripples in the water, a gentle unfolding. He rubs her clit, thrusts inside, and it's like being punched with Asami's electric glove except amazing. She clenches around him like a vise, screaming, gasping, almost sobbing. Outside the door, Cat yowls in jealous counterpoint.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Sorry, Cat. You've more or less been tuned out by now. ]

[ Korra comes apart beneath him; her orgasm wild, shuddering, electric-hot -- one distinct quake after another, so Hei can feel her sex clenching over and over around the pounding heft of his cock. The dizzying sensation -- fuck, those wrenched sobs alone -- it's all too much, it challenges his ability to keep control. ]

[ He ends the kiss on a ragged gasp, his mouth wet, clumsy, a line of saliva breaking between them. It's almost embarrassing -- he hasn't kissed that sloppily since he was thirteen -- except it doesn't matter. He's driven off-balance by the bright flickers of pleasure leaping under his skin. But there's an opportunity here, so he takes it. Keeps on fucking her brutally through her orgasm, feeling her body clutch in helpless peristalsis around his. Determined to force her higher, for the crest to fragment, multiply, washing through her over and over -- as if to dissolve any dark thoughts in her mind -- just before his hips go into that final irresistible rhythm. ]

[anatural]

[Objectively speaking, it's pretty gross, and a part of Korra is tempted to wipe the spittle off her chin, except she lack sufficient control over her body. Her climax won't end. She whimpers as his every thrust shatters her into smaller pieces. She's never going to be able to walk again; she hopes at least that he'll have some trouble moving for at least an hour.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ It's her whimpers as much as the slick friction between their bodies that feeds those shivery-red sparkles across Hei's nerves. She's so wet, so perfect, her sex gulping at his cock like a sucking mouth, and from the juddering spasms of her hips, her stomach, he can feel how she is just coming, and coming, and coming. His pace quickens, body sliding across hers with damp sweat and the heat of exertion, but the entire focus of his person is forking between the reverberating tension of his groin, and inside the buoy of his head, which cannot stay level in the deep water he inhabits and which is sinking in a way that it shouldn't, but as bodies inevitably sink. ]

[ When he crests, it's more like drowning: a strangled cry, the slap of skin on skin like water on rocks, the pounding waves of liquid motion, a ragged and horrible breath, a noise like choking, then like nothing, like a silent dark night. Water lapping and stilling, the way his body does -- deliquiescing across Korra's in a salty-wet, shipwrecked heap. ]

[anatural]

MRAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!!

[Cat's cries have become an unearthly, well-nigh demonic sound. Korra laughs, which makes it a lot harder to catch her breath.]

Let's hope she doesn't pee on the floor.

[She's not going to waste time worrying about it, though. Certainly not when her limbs feel like warm pudding and he's sprawled against her like a heavy blanket. She nuzzles him and almost purrs.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ In a way, he almost appreciates that hideous caterwauling. It drags him out from within the swimming depths of head, allows him to refocus on the present. Korra's laugh, a rarity these days, pulls a tiny smile to the corners of his own lips. Dying sunlight lies across the rumpled covers in pale lilac squares; the room is airlessly damp, too hot to cuddle. Carefully, he unfolds onto his back, arms falling out to the sides, fingers unfurling. Drags a hand through his damp heap of hair, before reaching down to tug off the condom, knotting the end perfunctorily and tossing it in the dustbin. ]

[ When he glances at Korra, there's something quiet, satisfied, in his half-lidded gaze. His touch is lazy as he shifts to curl a wayward tangle of hair behind the pretty whorl of her ear. ]

She will, now that you said that.

[anatural]

[Too hot for cuddling, yes, very true. Any disappointment Korra felt when he pulled away is negated by the delicious rush of cool(er) air on her skin. She stretches a little, enjoying the heavy listlessness in her muscles.]

It's not my fault she's madly in love with you. [A feeling that Korra understands all too well. If she really thought about it, she wouldn't understand why she loves him, or how he's managed to draw such passionate loyalty not only out of her, but others too. Like Yin. The path from hatred and violence and fear to sex and passion to love is tangled, nonsensical, inexplicable. Yet it's not in Korra's nature to overly examine the whys and wherefores of her feelings. This moment is enough. Loving him as she does is enough.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ It's not in her nature to obsess over the details. But it is in Hei's. Which is why he's glad she'll never have a clue how often he denigrates their mutual suitability in his mind. How often he goes back over their convoluted history, trying to understand how things have warped so completely between them and unable to grasp it. How he's still halfway convinced what she feels for him isn't love, but the symptoms of a tragic pathology, the need to latch on to anything solid while drowning in muck. How his own feelings for her, enormous and illogically transfixing as they are, signify that he's fallen off the edge of sanity. ]

[ Even so, romantically, he can't imagine loving anyone else, the way he does Korra. Only Amber's star, forever removed from time and space, dazzles that brightly for him. But he's not the same person he was then. Doesn't have the capacity for that pure, bright, ferociously stupid emotion that saw no subtext. With Korra, it's something more conflicted, a patchwork of satisfaction and tenderness mixed with bitter self-awareness. It's raw and imperfect and it kills him, yet he can't do without it. He needs the little things he shares with Korra. The implicit security in the faint curls of smiles and the intimacy of each withering glare. The sexual alchemy. The reflection of himself he sees in her eyes. ]

[ Because, when you strip it down to the barest parts, she's the one who's reconciled him to humanity. (At last? Again?) ]

[ Lightly, he rubs the pad of his thumb across the curve of her cheek. His tone is wry, falling somewhere between idle banter and honest affection. ]

Is that why she leaves those [ hairballs ] 'presents' everywhere?

[anatural]

No, that's just because she's a cat. [He really does know nothing about animals. It can be incredibly annoying but also painfully endearing. She lets her hand rest on his stomach, her fingers tracing idle patterns on his skin. She's about to ask him if he's eaten yet when the phone rings. Korra groans and buries her face in the pillow.]

Couldn't they call before you fucked me boneless? [Because there's no way she's walking over to the phone right now.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hey, can you blame him? The only animals he has a wealth of knowledge about are the two-legged kind. Because even if there are no palm trees or swinging vines or fanged threats, the rules are the same. Well, he amends wryly, reminding himself about the hairballs -- More or less the same. ]

[ Then the phone clamors, like Cat with a grievance. ]

[ The timing -- an echo of his old Syndicate days, when recon warned of circling threats with a specific number of rings -- unnerves him for a second or two, and he hesitates, propping himself up on an elbow, ears subconsciously alert for some sign or sound: steps in the hallway, voices, key in the lock. ]

[ Paranoia passes. Slithering out of bed with a reassuring glance at Korra, he pads barefoot and nude over to the phone. Plucks it from its cradle with one hand, the other reaching with habitual caution to part the slats of blinds at the window, then assess the walkway below. ]

...Wei?

[ Well, do you expect him to answer with a cheery: Hello, Avatar Korra's residence, Li the house-husband speaking. ]

[anatural]

Li! [Korra's mother sounds both disappointed and relieved; there's a thickness in her voice that indicates she's been crying.] Where's Korra? I need to talk to her.

[mortemscintilla]

[ He recognizes Senna easily. She has a heavier version of the rasping edge that comes into Korra's voice when she is sleepy or talking amiable sexy nonsense. Except right now it sounds more like she's swallowed shards of glass and a mouthful of tears. ]

[ A faint flicker of concern rises up inside him. He keeps it out of his voice, replying with a mild, ]

Of course. Just a second.

[ His gaze swings to Korra's: he mouths Your mother, the set of his brows signaling that it might be an emergency, then holds the phone out to her. ]

[anatural]

[Korra doesn't groan. Her parents aren't the type of people to call for no reason, or just to fuss at her — ever since she left home, they've supported her independence. So Hei doesn't need to change his expression at all for her to be certain that something is wrong. Somehow she manages not to fall as she walks the distance from the bed to the phone.]

Mom?

[And she manages to remain standing while Senna delivers her news. Manages to speak without any tremor in her voice.]

It's okay. I'll call Air Temple Island. I can be there in just a few days. Okay? I'll see you soon.

[Perfectly calm. Perfectly rational. She hangs up the phone and starts to dial the number for Air Temple Island — except she can't remember it. Her mind has gone completely blank.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Senna's voice is a staticky buzz. Hei can't make out more than a word or two. But he doesn't need to listen to get the sense that something is definitely wrong. It's in the quality of the silence. It's in Korra's body language: whatever she hears has the effect of a stun gun set on high. Gaze unfocused, eyes flickering, like her thoughts are white noise. He reads it all -- the subtle signs from a sturdy girl who rarely shatters to pieces. ]

[ He watches as she sets the phone down. Her movements are sluggish, as if she's mired in glue. He waits for her to speak, or to make a second phonecall. Do something. Except she's frozen in place. ]

[ Frowning, he reaches out. A cool touch on the back of her neck. ]

What's wrong?

[ A crisis at the Poles? Bad news about Katara? Her father? It could be any number of things. ]

[anatural]

The Red Lotus is still active. They attacked my dad. [Break things down into smaller, manageable pieces. Stick to the facts. Focus on what needs to be done.]

How do I call Air Temple Island? [She still can't remember and she can't wait around forever for the number to pop into her brain. She needs to go home now. Her mother said he's expected to pull through, but the tribal council is still talking about who will step into his place if he doesn't.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei blinks with little expression. He and Tonraq are nominally family now -- the older man had said as much -- but his capacity for concern doesn't extend that far. It's the word Red Lotus that pings off his brain, activating internal alarms. Since Zaheer's imprisonment, he's amassed sketchy bits of info about the surviving group's activities and agendas. Everything had suggested that, without a firm leadership to shape their cause, their attacks would be small-scale, sporadic, eventually petering out as they were systematically hunted down by the authorities. ]

[ Clearly, he'd miscalculated. If they can do something as dangerous and blatant as attack the Water Tribe chief, then he never should've treated any of that mess as concluded. ]

[ He doesn't ask Korra How? or Is your father all right? He can gather those details by himself -- and more, once he contacts the right liaisons, gets the ball rolling by establishing the facts, developing a strategy and preparing a counterstrike. Not for Tonraq, but for Korra. Her safety -- especially during this recuperating phase -- is imperative. ]

[ Quietly, ]

I'll call them. You get dressed. [ A beat, then, in a tone that brooks no argument. ] If you're heading home, I'm coming too.

wrap this one here?

[anatural]

[Like she'd fight him on that. The only thing she'd fight is if he tried to stop her. There's no question that she's going home. Her parents need her. And, with the chief incapacitated, her tribe needs her too.]

<3

[mortemscintilla]

[ There's no question. He knows that. But it's the possible risks and logistics he's concerned with. The Red Lotus will be monitoring Korra's movements. The attack on her father would be the best way to flush her into the open so they can kill her. In which case, by insisting on traveling to the South, Korra might be giving them exactly what they want. ]

[ But Hei knows he can't force her to lie low. They will have to take the chance. Because if he and Korra keep their movements discreet, if they keep the Red Lotus guessing, they can get them to depart from their game plan. Otherwise they will always be one step behind on this thing, all the way to its bitter end. ]

[ And he refuses to play by those lopsided rules. ]