[ He's sure it must be strange, even in the lifetime of strangeness Korra's endured, for him to be back in her world like this, sharing their same-old, same-old rackety exchange, long after they've all seem to have written him off as dead. Hei's own history is intervowen with strangeness: unexpected separations, reunions, intrigue, deception, coincidence, all blended with a tinge of the unreal. You'd think a past so layered would shore him up. Lend him the fortifications necessary to deal with this latest crisis. ]
[ It doesn't. All he feels, under the calm surface, is a crushing fatigue. What does it all mean, his life, his losses, his leaps from one disaster to another, one dimension to the next, if it is just going to come down again to this rock-and-a-hard-place? If he can't hold on to those who are valuable to him, because they're either snatched away, or he is, by time or trouble or terrible circumstance? ]
[ Except Korra's still here. She came to see him, even though she had every right to stay away. It's been three years. She can't possibly feel the same way about him. Can't possibly have waited for him. At the most, he's a pitiful burden. Someone she feels responsible for, the way that tender little heart of hers would feel responsible for a wild animal accidentally abandoned at her doorstep. ]
[ The idea ploughs up his anxious mind over and over. He has no peace in his body, but he has practice at making his words, his expression, light, unthreatening. ]
It's enough to tide me over. [ For a few minutes, anyway. The soft gurgling of her stomach gets a look mixed with curiosity and care. Ghosts of a once shared home and bed. ] You didn't have breakfast?
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[ It doesn't. All he feels, under the calm surface, is a crushing fatigue. What does it all mean, his life, his losses, his leaps from one disaster to another, one dimension to the next, if it is just going to come down again to this rock-and-a-hard-place? If he can't hold on to those who are valuable to him, because they're either snatched away, or he is, by time or trouble or terrible circumstance? ]
[ Except Korra's still here. She came to see him, even though she had every right to stay away. It's been three years. She can't possibly feel the same way about him. Can't possibly have waited for him. At the most, he's a pitiful burden. Someone she feels responsible for, the way that tender little heart of hers would feel responsible for a wild animal accidentally abandoned at her doorstep. ]
[ The idea ploughs up his anxious mind over and over. He has no peace in his body, but he has practice at making his words, his expression, light, unthreatening. ]
It's enough to tide me over. [ For a few minutes, anyway. The soft gurgling of her stomach gets a look mixed with curiosity and care. Ghosts of a once shared home and bed. ] You didn't have breakfast?