just accept this is a soap opera

[electric_lady]

WHO: Asami and Hei
WHAT: They’ve been on a journey for two months looking for Yin. Now Asami & Hei are killing time while they wait for Korra to return.

[It's just about dusk when Asami arrives at the rendezvous point — a little house at the edge of a tiny Fire Nation village that she's renting for this segment of their journey. They'd taken to renting houses instead of hotel rooms to give them more flexibility and security, so they could separate but always maintain a solid home base. It was inexplicably important to Hei that their journey remain strictly hush-hush.

It was more understandably important to Korra and Asami that nobody found out about their threesomes. The gossip rags would eat that information up and they would none of them get a moment's peace, not to mention the embarrassment of facing their friends. Asami knows how self-conscious Korra is about her sexual history, considering both her parents and her past life never dated anyone else, and even Tenzin had only dated Chief Bei Fong before marrying Pema. Asami tries to tell her that in her thousands of lifetimes, surely one of her past incarnations has been happily promiscuous, but without the ability to communicate with them, they'll never know.

Asami lets herself into the house; she's the first one to make it back. Hopefully Hei or Korra will come soon with better news, with some sign of Yin. None of the people she met knew anything. She sighs, sets her shoes aside, and makes a beeline for the sake.

(They'd been drinking sake that first night, when they were still renting hotel rooms. Korra normally refrained from alcohol, but that night she took two shots. As they were folding up the map, getting ready to separate for the night, Korra leaned over and kissed her. Asami was too tipsy to resist, even though Hei was right there. They kept kissing each other, and their clothes came off, and somehow Hei was naked too and pounding Korra while Korra brought Asami off with her fingers. At some point Hei slipped inside Asami too, and Asami remembers thinking dimly Oh no because it's one thing to be in love with Korra; wanting to share her boyfriend is something else entirely.

They woke up sober, embarrassed, and had sex a few more times before dragging themselves out of bed. Then she and Korra had more sex in the shower so that, by the time they got to breakfast, Asami could hardly walk and couldn't count the number of times she'd come. At breakfast, they all decided to not try and put a label on what happened — or a stop. "We all like sex," Korra said. "Let's just...let it happen." And it did, just about every night they were together. This past week, when they all separated to cover more ground, is the longest she's gone without sex since they started this journey three months ago. She doesn't understand how she used to go months without it.)]

Comments

[mortemscintilla]

[ Even the transgressive have their code of conduct. Fucking your girlfriend's best friend -- with both their cheerful consent -- ranks as pretty low on the list of deviances. Hei certainly hadn't gone shopping for it. It had just happened. At their instigation, he might add. He'd experienced a kneejerk twinge of jealousy at watching Korra with Asami, their closeness knitting around them like a fragile but palpable shell -- but he'd put it aside. How many men, after all, had the privilege of fucking the two most stunning women in Republic City -- without paying for it? And how many could boast that their physical desire for him was genuine, a simmering boil for mutual pleasure and nothing else? ]

[ Except it's equally true that cliches like Three's a crowd have a basis in fact. Hei has had threesomes before. Once even with sisters -- although they weren't twins. Each experience was enjoyable. But he can't remember, as he does now, that feeling of alienation afterward. It bothers him. Not because he'd never felt it during his earlier encounters -- but because with Korra and Asami, he couldn't help but pinpoint it with such cold-edged clarity. Like he'd been subtly exiled to the position of a convenient cock. ]

[ It's just fucking, he dismisses. ]

[ Right now, his mind is on Yin -- his silent Unfinished Business, his Unclaimed Baggage, the one person he's kept in sight the whole way across the search, steering toward her as if toward a red X on a map. She's led him a merry chase; months of hunting, of dangling, iffy leads, of dead ends and sleepless nights. But today, the relentlessness has yielded results. From a neighboring village, he's received intel of someone matching Yin's description. A ghostly-pale, white-haired girl -- with a black cat. ]

[ Returning to the house Asami has rented, Hei resolves they'll head out at dawn to the reported location -- a cottage at the outskirts of the village. He's already paid a street kid, all gimlet eyes and grubby knees, to scout out the area in advance. He tells himself the preference is logical, the outgrowth of his usual security concerns. But he knows at some level it is driven also by personal factors. What if Yin and Mao had fled all those years ago for safety reasons? Because his old enemies in Republic City were troubling them? If that is the case, then it's smarter to proceed with caution. ]

[ Stepping inside, letting all five senses scan the perimeter in a perfunctory security check, he determines Asami is here. Alone. Slipping out of his shoes, he lines them neatly at the entry, next to hers. He doesn't go to greet her right away. Without Korra, his inclination toward sociability ... fades, a degree. Instead he beelines for the bathroom, letting the blast of steaming-hot water, soap, and a good scrubbing slough off the concerns of the day. ]

[ Coming out, dressed and dried, he finds Asami nursing a cup of sake. His mind makes one of those quicksilver leaps to the first night they'd all gotten sloshed and fallen into bed together. There's a coiling in his musculature that could be anticipation -- or something else. He wouldn't mind a reprise of all those nights. But he can't understand why, even with Asami riding him and Korra sitting on his face, he'd felt so curiously distant to it all. ]

[ Don't overthink it. The search is stressful and time-consuming. At least the threesomes allow him to vent his bottled-up energies. To dispel them in ways that are benign and human. ]

[electric_lady]

[Funny that he feels alienated afterwards — Asami often feels the same, just a bit. As close as she and Korra have gotten, Hei has so much more history with her; he knows her body so much better than Asami does. Asami had no idea Korra had so much sexual energy — she'd been enthusiastic, but never this insatiable when it was just the two of them. This experience has shown her a whole new side of her best friend.

Asami's also learned quite a bit about Hei; she's not offended when he basically ignores her. She just gets another cup and pours them both sake, which she pushes towards him when he enters.]

Any luck?

[She's trying not to notice how hot he looks, dried yet still damp enough to make her picture him naked and showering. The thought gets her a little hot under the collar.]

[mortemscintilla]

Someone matches her description. In the village three hours away.

[ Hei settles opposite to her on the low table, hands in his lap, like a contained and observant cat. Offers her a terse nod of thanks when she nudges the cup his way, but doesn't yet drink it. In the thin yellow light of the lamp, he can feel her attention. Not precisely flirtatious -- but her eyes linger. ]

[ What, he wonders, is she getting out of this? Helping them on their search, wasting her own valuable time? Even as long as he's known her -- and how much he's gleaned about her nature and background -- Hei still has trouble believing that she isn't a threat, her motives softened by a sweet, fake kindness. She's always looking out for him and Korra -- and he doesn't know how to take that. ]

[ But then, how often has he had anybody looking out for him? ]

[ After a beat, he unbends enough to let his fingers curl around the lukewarm cup. He takes a sip: it's bitter, not very strong, but it gets that taste of ever-present paranoia out of his mouth. He doesn't quite trust Asami. Isn't exactly thrilled by how intimate she and Korra have grown. But here he is in a house rented with Asami's money, on a search for a girl Asami has never been friends with, and it allows his grievances to dissipate, leaving the unfair but more complex world of reality and what he knows to be his bedrock ingratitude. ]

[ Finally, with a quiet restraint, ]

Thank you... for helping. Even though this wasn't your problem.

[electric_lady]

Really? That's great! [Asami perks up, showing far more excitement about it than he does. After so long, it's great to finally have a solid lead. She waits for him to say something else, add more details or outline the plan going forward — but he's silent. Silent, until eventually those broken words of gratitude drag themselves from his lips.]

Of course. I'm happy to help. [Not just because she cares about Korra and Hei, or even because she likes being helpful. It's a chance to travel outside of business, see the world she doesn't normally see. She doesn't want to say it, because it's terrible their friend is missing, but it's an adventure; she's missed those.]

Do you have any idea when Korra will be back? [They can't do anything with this lead until Korra returns.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ He'll elaborate on the plan once Korra returns. In the meantime, he's prepared to keep his silence. Not out of standoffishness or even natural reserve -- but because he doesn't want to explain, how very out of practice he is with hopefulness, excitement, optimism. Even now, the news that Yin might be close -- as little as three hours away -- makes something thrum humming-bird fast in his chest. But he keeps it under control. To speak of Yin is to allow all kinds of pent-up emotions about her -- joy, trepidation, regret -- bubble up and spill free. He doesn't want to risk that. Especially if the search yields another dead end. ]

[ In a way, the tireless sex with Korra and Asami has offered him an outlet. Given him a sense that the fucking is somehow about all his zitzing energies over losing and regaining a friend -- as much as it is about himself. ]

[ Or maybe he doesn't know how to refuse Korra and Asami -- in a way that won't hurt their feelings -- and so he fabricates the reasons why it's okay, weaves a cloak of it, and calls it convenience. ]

[ To Asami's question, ]

I told her to return by nightfall. [ Of course, when has Korra ever been any good at following his strict instructions? There's a beat, before a fleeting smile twitches on his lips. ] She'll probably stay out extra-late. Just to spite me.

[electric_lady]

[...wow, Hei, if you're going to be like that about the awesome sex you're getting, then maybe Korra and Asami really should just take their sexual energy somewhere else.]

Oh come on, she's not bad. [Asami's smile acknowledges that Korra does have a tendency to do the exact opposite when she feels like Hei's being excessively bossy.

She finishes her cup and, after a moment's hesitation, pours herself another. She's not a lush like Korra, and sake's low-proof.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hey, he's not complaining. If anything, he's aware that his own bitter ambivalence is just a shield against the sense of alienation he's experienced. It's strange. Usually, he's accustomed to remaining on the fringes, on the outside looking in. But the recent events are a reminder of how very comfortable he's grown at Korra's side. A constant fixture in her life, just as she's become one in his. Yet never once does the word 'settle down' occur to him. Home. Permanent. Belonging. Those concepts are still strange -- nonexistent -- as if that particular part of his memory is not absent but carved out, like a hole in one's heart. ]

[ He watches Asami drain her cup, the pale line of her throat sliding as she swallows. Objectively, she's exquisite, like a work of art. Her lips-legs-back-front should ignite him like all the rest. A decade ago, it might have. But now he can only look at her and think, Eyes not blue. ]

[ A moment's pause, before he reaches out. Pries the bottle from her fingers, and refills his own glass. The sake is still a piss-poor quality. But all he wants is that radiant weight settling in his belly, spreading hot fingers through his body like a cartoon drawing of the sun. ]

[ He doesn't try to fill the silence. But it's not rudeness. Between fighting off creeping thoughts of Yin, worries of how long he'll be able to keep Korra happy and if Asami is a better choice for her, and a general bemusement at where the trajectory of his life is headed, he could knit a sweater with the wool he's gathering. ]

[electric_lady]

[The brush of his fingers sends an electric thrill straight between her legs. It's both funny and a little frustrating how she and Korra have such similar tastes in men. It makes it almost impossible to get over Korra, because every man she's attracted to reminds her of Mako, which makes her think of Korra. And now she's sitting here in an isolated house lusting after her boyfriend. Sometimes she wonders if she's actually in one of Varrick's tawdry movers.]

You look lost. [In thought, in general. Hei's not an expressive person, but Asami's always been good at reading people. It seems like there may be a few things he really should just get off his chest, and she's willing to listen.

She crosses her legs, silently offering a distraction. Because let's face it, Hei is not a talker and Asami knows it.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ She's not the only one who feels stuck in a mover. If anything, the recent sexcapades remind Hei why it's wiser to keep himself apart. Relationships are poison. And when they're not poison, they're a chaotic mess. They exist to screw with your mind and interfere with your life. They expect you to abnegate your Self and be someone else's creature -- whether it's in the shape of a fucktoy, a crutch, or a confidant. It's invasive and insane. ]

[ He glances up at Asami's words, his attention re-focusing on her, his thoughts still elsewhere, circling a darker spot like vultures round a corpse. It's disquieting that his once-infamous pokerface has dissolved into sad transparency. But it's not as if he's been surviving in an environment that requires him to be on total red-alert, 110% focused, his agendas masked behind an impregnable facade of calm. ]

[ The luxury of living freely, loving freely... They've made him undeniably soft. ]

[ He doesn't answer Asami. But he can't help but think, not for the first time: Why is she so damn nice? Her gaze is so clear and soft; he feels held in place by its mildness. His own eyes drop coolly, absently, to the rim of his sake cup, more tactfully dismissive than uncomfortable. But he can see her in his peripheral vision, her long legs crossed as if there is a tickling secret between them, all big eyes and red-ribbon mouth and her dark head to one side, like a pedigreed listening dog. ]

[ Except it's not conversation she's inviting. ]

[ He ignores the physical cues -- at least for the moment. Reaching across the table, a curl of rough-tipped fingers around her delicate wrist, he draws it toward him. Lets her upturned hand unfurl, revealing the pale palm. It is softer than Korra's; the lines are smooth, articulated grooves. A lucky hand, the palmists in Hong Kong would call it. He circles a thumb over its surface, as if to smooth it over. ]

[ After a beat, almost idly, ]

Not lost. More ... transitioning between purposes.

[ And he's always been able to find a purpose within himself. Eventually. ]

[electric_lady]

[That touch... Asami bites the inside of her cheek. It's weirdly intimate, him stroking her palm like that. She's disconcerted, aroused, and a little warm. She hadn't expected an honest, even if oblique, answer.]

What do you mean?

[mortemscintilla]

[ What seems intimate to her is perfectly offhand for him. Then again, he's always had a talent for conjuring up a spell of closeness, weaving it into warm glittering lines of honesty to suit his purposes. (To his credit, there is no ulterior motive here. He simply wants to read her reactions, the way he would play a glossy harp at different chords. Equal parts curious and clinical.) ]

[ Tipping her a faint, crooked smile, he keeps his focus on the circling pad of his thumb. On the dull flicker of pulse, where his fingertips rest on her wrist. ]

In my world, I had a purpose set for myself. [ Not carrying out the Syndicate's orders -- but unraveling the mystery of Pai's disappearance. Unraveling, by proxy, the secret of his own mystifying (and faulty) Contractorliness. ] I believed in the need for struggle. Because it makes you feel alive. I believed that the only thing I'd got for certain was myself.

[ His thumb presses into the soft divot of her palm, testing the flexion of muscle and bone. ]

None of those rules apply here. It's like starting from scratch. Korra has her own life. But it's dangerous for me to build mine completely around it. [ And it worked out so fucking well, when he tried it with Pai. ] What I need is meaning. Self-satisfaction. The good stuff.

[electric_lady]

[It's intimate in the sense that Hei's never seemed like the kind of person to just casually touch people; he keeps himself to himself. The idly curious stroking of her hand feels uncharacteristic of him, and the surprise is distracting.]

Don't we all. [She can't imagine living her life without some kind of purpose; she's never had to. She's always transitioned immediately from one life goal to another, finding ways to redefine herself without ever having to inhabit those terrifying gray spaces of uncertainty that she saw Korra go through, that Hei seems to be going through.]

So if purpose is what you need... what do you want?

[mortemscintilla]

[ Casual is too generous a word. Especially for him. Nothing is without a purpose: each scrap of physicality carries subtext, whether threatening or otherwise. Right now, his touch conveys a quiet interest: I find you beautiful. But it also poses a gentle warning: How far are you willing to go to distract me? Without Korra to act as a buffer between them, he has no idea how palatable she'll find him, unalloyed, unabsorbed. ]

[ At her question, he pauses, caught in a moody gyre of conflicted thoughts. None of it shows on his face, though: his gaze his sharpened into its baseline cynicism. ]

I'm not sure what I want anymore. Circumstances change plans I've made -- so I'm on my own. [ He speaks without any traces of sadness, and it's the truth. No names, dates or details: no facts but all truths. ] At least I've got my freedom. I didn't think it would feel like this. But --

[ He tips a shoulder, not ambivalence so much as indifference. He's untethered here, yes. Without goals or meaning -- but free. It's a step up from being dead. ]

[electric_lady]

[His indifference concerns her some, but as she heard one of her managers say to another, "that's way above my pay grade." That's girlfriend territory, and Asami is quite happy to leave it in Korra's hands.

So. Distractions. That Asami is more than happy to provide. She's silent for a moment, giving the conversation some closure before making her advance.]

While we're waiting for Korra, I was wondering if you could help me with something. [Her tone is warm but also matter of fact; it's not the way you'd expect someone to ask you for sex. Asami's a pretty big believer in being upfront with people, though, and she's not interested in flirting with him.] Korra told me about some of the things you did together... Some of it she had no interest in trying again, but it made me curious. [She'd suggested trying them as a threesome at one point when it was her and Korra waiting for Hei, and Korra had awkwardly but sincerely said that she could ask Hei to try it, without Korra having to be involved. "I don't want to watch him do it to you," she'd said. "But if I'm not around..." An awkward shrug and a promise that she'd be honest if it bothered her sealed the deal.]

Would you be up for teaching me a thing or two?

[mortemscintilla]

[ If her candor is unexpected, Hei doesn't let on. He stays where he is, his face wiped of all expression except a neutral curiosity. In a way, he should have seen this coming. Tactically, he's a chameleon, mirroring the moods and manners of those around him, whether in the battlefield, or in bed. But personally, he's always been in tune with what he wants, refusing to let his intrinsic nature be permeated by the deviations and perversions he's surrounded by. He is a killer, unashamed. His preferences are patterned on violence and control, and it shows. Strip away his masks, and it seeps from his pores. ]

[ He doesn't know if Asami wants to be on the receiving end of that -- or if she wants pointers on the opposite end of the spectrum. It doesn't matter. Nor does it matter why she wants it. Hei disdains armchair therapy unless he's softening up a mark. Her penchants and why they manifested are her own business. Nor does he ask if Korra's okay with this. It's obvious Asami wouldn't dare to request anything unless she'd checked with her best friend, first. ]

[ So he lets his thumb skim the cluster of pale-blue veins at her wrist. Not soothing, so much as attentive. A non-verbal: I'm listening. ]

[ A beat, then: ]

Depends on what you have in mind.

[ If it's something too elaborately fetishistic, she'll have to look elsewhere. He's no expert in the field; he only likes the things he likes. ]

[electric_lady]

[She blushes a little — sufficient confidence to be direct does not preclude embarrassment.]

She talked about tied up... [The psychology behind her interest is hardly exciting. She's the head of an international corporation, and has been since she was 18. Bondage is the exact opposite of her daily life — restrained in choices, but with total control of whether it continues or not, while in her life she has dozens of things under her control and yet no ability to make them stop.]

[mortemscintilla]

That's all?

[ Not condescending, just mild. Her interest in getting tied up is neither blase nor raunchy. Everyone has different ways of letting go. It certainly doesn't escape his notice how quietly preoccupied Asami can be. Always self-cataloging and assessing, her mind whirring smoothly away like an expensive machine. It's an alertness that is different from his own brand of hyperwareness -- but similar too. And while he can't say that sort of restriction appeals to him personally -- it is worth recalling that people who enjoy it also enjoy circumstances that are born of having reasonable scope in their choices -- past and present. That is not everyone's reality. ]

[ There is a big difference between being a slave and finding peace in brief submission. ]

[ He lets go of her wrist, but only to let his hand settle atop hers, fingers a loose curl. An illusion of intimacy, but such motions are reflex for him. ]

You prefer to mix it with sex? Or just play with restriction for the time being?

[ He's happy to play it by the ear, although he senses she has the former in mind. Her blush is like an intriguing pink semaphore. ]

[electric_lady]

It's a start. [There's also spanking, cutting, and maybe a few other things she's heard about other places, but she doesn't want to overload herself. It's the basis of every scientific test — limit your variables so you can figure out what really does what.

A moment's hesitation, and she leans in to kiss him. That would be a "yes please" to sex.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ There's a blink, almost as if he's righting the balance on a teetering internal scale, before he lets himself sink closer. Kisses her back, readily, steadily, his hand heavier on the pale starfish of hers. It's not like kissing Korra -- but that's not necessarily a bad thing. She's a good kisser: what she lacks in gunfire she makes up for with pure sweetness. Letting his eyes slip half-shut, Hei edges closer, gathering her into the circle of his free arm. Enveloping, possessive, but not overpowering. Exchanges soft tonguey kisses that don't probe too far -- neither too wet nor too aggressive. At least not yet. ]

[ When he breaks away, it's only to gnaw the tender line of her throat, trace its arc with teeth and tongue. Her skin is soft and alabaster-pale; it makes him think, fleetingly, of Amber's. But she smells different. A faint whiff of spicy perspiration and sake. Beneath it like a ghost, something that reminds him of tiger lilies and a tickle of mint. He inhales the mix as he tries to find spots that please her. ]

[ She isn't like Korra: a lit fuse leading to a brilliant firework. This woman is held carefully together with glossy strings. He plans to find out how many knots it will take to tease her apart. ]

[electric_lady]

[Glossy strings of pure steel, thank you very much. He should know better by now than to tread too softly.]

You can go harder, you know. I'm not a delicate flower. [Unlike Korra, she doesn't punctuate this assertion of her strength with violence. Korra delights in fighting, whereas for Asami it's a means to an end. Korra is proud of her strength, whereas Asami is simply proud of what her strength means — that she can take care of herself. And sexually, she's here to test her limits, not prove herself. She doesn't have anything to prove.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Treading too softly and applying an abrupt spearhead of force are too different things. He knows better than to treat her like a porcelain doll. But he also knows that when guiding someone into unknown territory, it's wiser to lay a foundation of the familiar, bit by bit, for them to walk forward upon. ]

[ He takes her words as what they are -- less a challenge than a reminder. Control is about taking responsibility for everyone's experience, not just your own -- and he requires her communicativeness to smooth over the inevitable wrinkles that arise with every early sexual encounter. (Strange, how he's seldom had that problem with Korra. They aren't capable of reading each others' minds. But everything -- at least usually -- flows so smoothly between them. A seamless electric flux.) ]

[ His palm skims up the arch of her spine, the sweep of one shoulder, a teasing clench at her nape, fingers tangled in the dark heap of hair, before he cradles her skull in his palm. Licking a stripe up her neck, he nudges his lips against hers again. Not a kiss this time. More of an openmouthed bite, all black-burn energy and a burgeoning fizz of aggression, held back on an iron leash. It's rougher than he has been their few encounters prior -- but he doubts it'll surprise her. ]

[ She's seen how he and Korra can be. Ravenous, almost feral. This doesn't even come close. ]

i need to get off my butt and get her more icons

[electric_lady]

[Korra's always been an excellent student (in anything physical), and more perceptive than people give her credit for.

Asami's not the type to express her pleasure audibly; it shows in the way she arches into his touch, the clench of her fingers on his shoulders when he bites her. She definitely appreciates the increased force.

She slides one hand down the collar of his shirt and scrapes her nails against his skin, remembering how much he seemed to enjoy the claw marks Korra would leave on him. Otherwise, Asami's in no rush to get their clothes off. For one thing, she likes clothed foreplay; she also asked Hei to show her bondage, and so is happy to take this at his pace.]

yusss delicious asami icons

[mortemscintilla]

[ He's forgotten what it's like to be with someone who isn't a raunchy little noisemaker. Korra, even kissing him, is flatteringly vocal. Her desire telegraphs itself like bright-blue ripples dancing across her gleaming surface. With Asami, it's... not subdued, but sedate. The way she arches into him is languid, almost at half-speed, but in its own way it's extremely erotic. He lets off an almost noiseless hum into their kiss -- appreciation and approval as her nails skitter past his collar, rasping ticklishly across his skin. ]

[ Since she doesn't seem in a hurry to strip, he utilizes the lull to explore. One hand remains cradling her skull with widespread fingers. The other drifts, a slow spidering across the fabric of her blouse, feeling the shape of her under it: the tensile delicacy of an arm, the jut of hipbone, the pinched-in waist and the dainty birdcage of ribs, swell of breast under his coasting palm. All curiously delicate, compared to Korra -- but not enough to make him hinky about bruising or breaking her. ]

[ Sliding a hand beneath the hem of her shirt, a hot press of skin on skin, he lets his hand splay across her breast, muffled by the fabric of her brassiere. Whorls the pad of his thumb across the point of nipple in idle circles, even as the kiss starts heating up, his teeth catching her tongue in wet tugs, a lewd, rough rhythm that matches the hitches in her breathing. ]

[electric_lady]

[Asami feels a brief moment of horror as she remembers that her underwear doesn't match. The feeling evaporates under the growing heat of their kiss. Both her hands slide down to sneak under his shirt and caress the always surprisingly firm muscle of his stomach. They're not seated in such a way that she can feel his erection, and with the way he's kissing her, she can't just look down at it. She's not sure why that turns her on so much - she's not interested in fucking someone who isn't interested in fucking her. It makes her feel almost naked, her desire so transparent in her stiff nipples and soft stirring movements, while his comparatively hidden. It gives him an edge over her... And she really likes it.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ She could be dressed in designer lingerie -- or a frayed sack. It wouldn't detract from her appeal. She may not have Korra's rough-and-tumble zest -- a beauty that exists in its raw, wild-blooming fearlessness. Hers is a polished and classic allure. But it's just as potent. ]

[ His stomach muscles twitch under her stroking palms -- a whipcord tension even as he leans into the touch. The room is so still -- heatless yellow light from the lamp spilling across mussed black hair and wrinkled sheaves of clothes and breaking in spears across the floor: the air disturbed only by glittering eddies of dustmotes and the susurrus of hitched breaths. He can feel Asami's excitement ratcheting. Not the heat-shimmer he's used to from Korra, but something secretive, soft, like a current swirling below a placid stream. Gathering her restless body closer, he swipes a thumb hard across one of her nipples, timing it to a biting tug of her lower-lip. ]

[ Eventually, between a swallow and a small exhale, he breaks the kiss. This time, both his hands travel down her torso, palming her breasts, knuckles skimming over her sternum until they reach her waistband. With a trimmed thumbnail, he traces the pale sliver of skin at the edge -- before his fingers hook under the hem, the rough pads brushing bare skin as he inches it up and off her. ]