take a tiny step into another world

[anatural]

WHO: Korra & Hei
WHAT: Months after leaving Republic City, Hei tracks down Korra.

[A lot can happen in ten months, Korra had thought as Hei left. And she had been right. Just a few weeks after he left, she'd gotten word that her father had been injured in an uprising in the South Pole. That her uncle's troops weren't there to protect the South Pole, but were there to control their sister tribe. She'd kicked herself for not realizing it sooner — hadn't Jinora warned her?

So against Tenzin's wishes, she had gone home to help her tribe. He'd told her that it was important for the Avatar to be impartial, that she was a representative of the world and not just her tribe. Bullshit. Home is home is home, and her home had needed her.

It had been a brutal slap in the face. Her attempts to resolve the situation peacefully had ended in failure. The Northern Water Tribe soldiers didn't acknowledge her as having any authority. Some people didn't even believe she was still the Avatar. The southern soldiers she fought alongside didn't say anything to her face, but she heard the whispers and knew that they thought she was holding them back, because she went out of her way not to kill any of the northern soldiers, because her uncle is the leader of the Northern Water Tribe.

She'd tried to prove her loyalty by kidnapping her uncle, and that plan had backfired. That's how she ended up his prisoner, brought up to the North Pole to open the northern spirit portal.

And that's how she ended up trapped in the spirit world.]

Comments

[anatural]

It's going to be a lot of weird spirit stuff. [Which she knows isn't his thing. You sure you're up for that, Hei?]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei lets off a huff that's indecipherable -- either amused or dismissive. Reaching out, he touches her shoulder -- a brief, but hard squeeze. A year ago, he'd never have come here. He's always navigated through the world as a loner. Always been self-centered. Always had assets and business associates, but few friends. He knows what he is, and has grown grudgingly tolerant of those facts. Any other time, he'd have left Korra to fend for herself without a qualm. The Avatar isn't helpless. All she'd represent is time and energy that could be refocused elsewhere. ]

[ But somewhere along the line, that mindset has faded. Suddenly he is seventeen again, back in the jungles of South America with Pai. Suddenly Korra's life has a value beyond mere currency. Time is surreal that way. Once she'd meant nothing to him; now he'll willingly go through the bizarre and nightmarish for her. It is the kind of knee-jerk reaction he might once have made spying a child playing on the street in a careening car's path. Instinct. Nothing to second-guess or strategize. ]

[ Letting his hand slip away, he says, ]

We'll deal with it.

[ As far as he's concerned, that's the end of the discussion. ]