things left unsaid

[electric_lady]

WHO: Asami & Hei
WHAT: Hei's return throws Asami's world into chaos.

[Days pass, and Mako's words still echo in her thoughts: Li’s alive. With every echo, Asami wishes that hearts were as simple as machines.

She's happy for Korra. Korra and Li — Hei, though Asami's the only one of their group to know that — have been together for almost as long as Asami's known them. And she likes Hei. She'd been suspicious of him once, when that dorky facade of his started slipping, but his devotion to Korra had been unquestionable. Asami appreciated that about him, even envied it a little. She's never inspired that kind of loyalty in anyone, not even her own father. So she's happy for her friend. Truly.

She's also heartbroken, a fact which is as surprising as Hei being alive. His return means the end of the sweet, secret relationship between her and Korra. Not a romantic one — they're friends who share intimacies. But Asami hadn't realized just how much she's come to depend on those intimacies until now.

She wishes Korra would call. They need to talk about what's going to happen between them, what's going on with Hei, whether she's going to tell him. She refuses to let this relationship end like the one with Mako; she needs clarity. At the same time, she understands why it would slip Korra's mind. Of course she's preoccupied with Hei's return. That kind of shock would knock the ground out from under anyone's feet.

When she ends up on Korra's front porch, it's not because she intended to be there. Asami had overseen the loading of some new products at the dock, and instead of going home, her footsteps took her to Korra's place. Korra and Hei's place.

Taking a deep breath, she knocks.]

Comments

[anatural]

[Korra takes his hand, and once she's out of the water, uses a little airbending to both dry herself off and temporarily banish the horde of insects.]

I love you. [Once upon a time, she would've been afraid to say it so openly, for no particular reason. Not anymore.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei, zipping up his pants with efficient quickness, glancing around for his belt, blinks at the words. They are, to him, even now, both a precious gift -- and a terrifying chaos. It is never easy for him to say he loves her, not since that time, in bed after he'd dropped back into this world. He seldom says it directly; more often making himself understood by more oblique means. Korra, on the other hand, seems to have no qualms telling him, straight out. But then her talk is often full of giggly, bawdy commentary and snarky nicknames for him. He still can't bring himself to call her anything but her name. Kiddo, once in a blue moon, but never without an edge of facetiousness to it, even now. Sometimes, in the depths of passion, Korra, breathed in both a prayer and an endearment. But nothing else. ]

[ Still, he's graduated past the stage of amateur hinkiness. Enough that there's only a beat, before his blank, see-no-mush, hear-no-mush, speak-no-mush expression erodes, leaving a soft-eyed wistfulness behind. Affection wells in him. Scooping up his belt, then his shirt, he doesn't put it on. Sidles closer instead, draping it around her like a wrinkled, badly-fitting dress. ]

[ Stooping, he kisses her nose. Smoothes the messy licks of hair from her eyes, which are almost periwinkle in the gloaming, twinkly as stars. ]

Let's get you inside. Before the blood-suckers descend en masse.

[ It's I love you too. In so many unromantic words. ]