nothing's right and everything hurts
Jun. 9th, 2015 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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fuse_boxWHO: Korra & Hei
WHAT: Everything hurts.
[Korra feels like she hasn't breathed in almost a month, not since she came home to find Mai alone, choking on her own vomit.
Of course Hei would choose to abandon them just when their daughter gets sick -- the kind of sick that requires doctors and a long term stay in the hospital. She would have taken Mai with her to mediate the dispute (a simple case between the city government and a group of protestors, all of whom were willing to be reasonable once there was a third party around), except Hei walked through the door just as she was leaving, and it just seemed more practical to hand the fussy baby over to him. If she’d just known that Hei was going to leave, and that Mai’s fussing was the sign of a terrible illness...
She’s been holding her breath ever since, terrified that any movement could send Mai down the path of no recovery. When she gets word from Asami that Hei has been found in a hospital at the edge of Republic City — that’s when her heart stops beating.
She walks slowly into his hospital room, feeling disjointed and detached and hardly real. She’s already forgotten what the doctor had said about his condition; she was in too much shock to listen. She’s never seen Hei like this: bandaged, hooked up to beeping machines, helpless. She feels herself start to tremble. He’s always known when to bail from a fight, how to make a strategic retreat. The only way he gets this banged up is by intention. He wanted to be beaten to death.]
You fucking bastard...
[Anger burns deep in her belly. His familiar smell, and the accompanying twinge of arousal, only add fuel to the fire. Biting back tears, she slaps him hard. It makes her palm sting and her clit twitch. So she slaps him again.]
WHAT: Everything hurts.
[Korra feels like she hasn't breathed in almost a month, not since she came home to find Mai alone, choking on her own vomit.
Of course Hei would choose to abandon them just when their daughter gets sick -- the kind of sick that requires doctors and a long term stay in the hospital. She would have taken Mai with her to mediate the dispute (a simple case between the city government and a group of protestors, all of whom were willing to be reasonable once there was a third party around), except Hei walked through the door just as she was leaving, and it just seemed more practical to hand the fussy baby over to him. If she’d just known that Hei was going to leave, and that Mai’s fussing was the sign of a terrible illness...
She’s been holding her breath ever since, terrified that any movement could send Mai down the path of no recovery. When she gets word from Asami that Hei has been found in a hospital at the edge of Republic City — that’s when her heart stops beating.
She walks slowly into his hospital room, feeling disjointed and detached and hardly real. She’s already forgotten what the doctor had said about his condition; she was in too much shock to listen. She’s never seen Hei like this: bandaged, hooked up to beeping machines, helpless. She feels herself start to tremble. He’s always known when to bail from a fight, how to make a strategic retreat. The only way he gets this banged up is by intention. He wanted to be beaten to death.]
You fucking bastard...
[Anger burns deep in her belly. His familiar smell, and the accompanying twinge of arousal, only add fuel to the fire. Biting back tears, she slaps him hard. It makes her palm sting and her clit twitch. So she slaps him again.]
no subject
Date: 2015-06-18 11:17 pm (UTC)It's getting late. Korra glances out the window. She needs to meet the sky bison at dawn tomorrow; she needs to put Mai down for the night and get packing.
She reaches out and takes the baby back, ignoring her whimpers and protests.]
Take care of yourself. [No invitation, no promises or even suggestions for the future. But maybe not, perhaps, a permanent dismissal.]
no subject
Date: 2015-06-19 11:13 am (UTC)Yeah.
[ Just like that. Yeah. Like there isn't an immeasurable weight settling in his chest. Like it doesn't feel as if Mai has left the bright welt of her shape in his empty arms. Just Yeah, like she might have told him the time or the date. He's not that unfeeling, at least not entirely. It's just that there's nothing else he can say. Thank you? I'm grateful? I'm sorry? No; those would be words for Korra-and-Hei, and he's under no illusion that this means things will melt back into place. It is what it is. Mai's well-being and Korra's life first. ]
[ He wishes he could hug Korra. Wishes he could kiss the squalling baby; gather her in and inhale her warm powdery scent. Instead he nods, acknowledgement, acquiescence, then turns to walk out the door -- feeling like he's leaving all eight layers of his consciousness behind. ]