under the stars

[anatural]

WHO: Korra & Hei
WHAT: Their first night in the Spirit World and their first chance for an actual reunion. (nsfw)

[They trek for hours without saying anything, over terrain that varies with neither rhyme nor reason. Sometimes in a desert, other times in a forest, other times across a plain that seems to stretch for miles until suddenly a mountain appears. Hei doesn't ask why they're going the direction they are, for which Korra is grateful because she doesn't know the answer. She doesn't know anything. They're walking not to get anywhere in particular, but to give Korra a chance to figure out what to do, because she can't think while standing still.

Where would Raava have gone? Is there some way she can communicate with the light spirit? Is there anyone in the Spirit World who doesn't completely despise her?

Evening starts to fall, offering no answers, only a reminder that her body is human and, like it or not, needs rest. Luckily(?) they're in a forest. Plenty of material to make camp with.]

We should stop here for the night. [She has to cough a little mid-sentence; her voice rough from disuse.]

Comments

[alittlebent]

[She'd like to return the favor, but she can't keep her eyes open; everything's too intense. She just closes her eyes and holds on as tight as she moves in time with him, slipping effortlessly into rhythm. Had it ever been difficult? (With Bolin, yes, especially at first.)]

[mortemscintilla]

[ With her eyes closed, Hei is free to drink in the sight of her. She feels like a storm's wind underneath him, something exotic and tropical and dark and endless. It fits with how they stir together. Hard liquid motions. Arms encircling, skin sliding on skin. Tidal shapes fused from head-to-toe. ]

[ He shudders as he catches her mouth with his, lips and tongue working her gently. He's broke out in a clean sweat, aching, the hair along his body stiff and articulate with nerves while his fanned fingers grip tightly at her shoulder, the jut of her hipbone. Each withdrawal feels cruel and tortuous; each time he slides back inside her, his brain swims drunk out in dark headwaters. ]

[ Nudging his nose against hers, he breathes, ]

You okay?

[ Maybe he's checking on her. (Or maybe he's just hungry to get tangled again in that blown-pansy blue of her eyes.) ]

[alittlebent]

[Her eyes flutter open, watery blue and blown.]

Yeah. [So much better than okay. She kisses him, then trails more kisses up his chin.] Harder. [She wants to feel more of him.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Her kisses feel brightly-radiocative against his skin. At her words, he shifts his hips, settles into a deeper angle, a better rhythm, and his breaths are hot and choppy, each one different, less controlled. Working her with rapid, timed strokes, stitching the kisses hungrily to the spaces between them –- across her neck, her jaw, her breasts. He tugs at her nipples with blunt teeth, gentles the pressure but doesn't let go entirely. More slowly from his depth-charged body, the realization hits: This is so easy. So wonderfully, dizzyingly good -- the way their bodies meet and know one another, ghosts in the machinery of their everyday skins, as if they've sustained a private dialogue despite their time apart. ]

[ It's a fact that's both deeply commonplace and also, given everything that's gone wrong between them, miraculous. ]

[alittlebent]

[She cries out and clings as tightly to him as she can. She can feel her climax coming; she tries to hold it off, not ready to let go just yet. Once she lets go, he will, and then it will be over, and who knows what will happen then? Right after climax is when Hei is his most unpredictable. Sometimes he'll be sweet; sometimes he'll be cruel; sometimes he'll say he's leaving for 10 months. The longer she can hold that uncertainty off, the longer she can hold onto the connection they share right now, the happier she'll be.

She pushes his shoulders and twists her hips.] Flip over. I want to be on top.

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei doesn't display surprise for this demand, but several tensely knotted muscles in his body relax a notch, leaving an unexpected relief behind. A sharp giddiness in his chest that contrasts with the dull, painful need for release that had been riding low and heavy in his balls. He'd been at a crossroads; wanting to come and take the edge off; wanting to prolong the delicious moment, to take a more leisurely stroll hand-in-hand with Korra. He is so used to people letting him drive, to the natural selfishness of sex, the unilateral decisions. ]

[ But he's also forgotten how pushy Korra can be, how eager she is to give of herself, but also to take, both so avidly that it makes his head spin. ]

[ Obligingly, he rolls onto his back, carrying her around with him. Sprawled beneath her, with her face hanging over him, as darkly-flushed as her nipples, he can't help but smile into her eyes. Can't help angling his head, laying kisses on her face, all around her mouth -- fleeting but somehow almost worshipful, too. ]

[anatural]

[The smile stops her in her tracks; it's hard to move with her insides doing belly flops and weird contortions. Then he's kissing her face and this is more familiar, so she's able to relax and begin rolling her hips in a slow but forceful motion.

She still can't help murmuring against his lips.] I like your smile.

>///<

[mortemscintilla]

[ He exhales a laugh, very softly, the air puffing against her neck. The way she moves makes the electricity in his nerves crest like a needle into the red. In answer he levers himself into a series of slick tight thrusts, greater pressure and a languid friction, moving his hips like a corkscrew kissing a cork. ]

[ His lips brush hers as they part to speak, but it's too light to be a kiss. ]

Careful. You're one of the ... special few who gets to see it.

[ Teasing colors the tone; but his eyes are solemn, dark-ringed. It's true, Korra has a talent for untapping those reserves of lightness and humor inside him; hidden so long they've begun to molder. It makes him wonder how much longer he can retain his isolation, his signature grimness, as his last resort, a soldier's aerie against the tide of messiness and color that washes through him with Korra-shaped brilliance. ]

[ Day by day, that tide is seeping under his skin. ]

OMG IT'S A KATYA HI

[anatural]

Lucky me. [She kisses him, trying to focus just on his lips and not the way he feels inside of her. If she doesn't, she'll lose control entirely. She'll break —

Just.

Like.

This.

She freezes, and then her body convulses as the orgasm breaks over her. She bites down hard on his shoulder to muffle her screams.]

FROM LONDON TO ADEN UR INBOX IS UNDER SMUTTY THREATS >3<

[mortemscintilla]

Fuck.

[ The way she comes makes the entire world in Hei rise and fall, rise and fall, faster and faster. God -- she's so soft. So wet and perfect. He grips her hips bruisingly tight with his hands and just pounds into her, grunting with each upstroke, the flutter of completion building inside him like the stunned feathers of a trapped bird. The slicked heat of her body is exquisite. But it's nothing to the rough kiss inside her that tugs and sucks at the head of his cock. Everything about her seems made to make him come. But it's more than that. It's Korra who's doing this to him. Making that prickling flush of heat creep down his face and throat; tugging at the strands of his control until they fray and snap like violin strings. ]

[ It's her. Everything. ]

[ When he comes it's like breakage, sharply, a missile of release. Hard tremors, shockwaves drenched in blindness. Panting, he slumps underneath her, their arms and legs tangled, as if he wants to shield them in the messy embrace, not inclined to withdraw and bare his sweat-filmed skin to the brittle air even for a few necessary moments. ]

[ His palm fits against the round of her skull; when he kisses her, it's breathless and languid. An unspoken: I missed this. ]

NOT THE SMUTTY THREATS OH NO

[anatural]

[For a moment, her mind is blissfully empty of all thought. She kisses the teeth-shaped bruises on his shoulder apologetically before he pulls her in. A warm feeling of contentment suffuses her. Things are still very wrong — with the world, with herself — but it doesn't bother her as much. Even when it seems like everything is lost, there's still joy and pleasure to be found. Superficial, maybe, but she'll take it.]

ALL THE SMUT >3

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei is always fast to shake off the comedown, a sentinel's attention cutting through the haze of endorphins. But right now, a certain drugging warmth regulates his movements, along with a lingering frisson of excitement from the act. Exhaling, he lets Korra drape herself into the crook of his body, like a kid in a tree, between branches, a soft curl of heat against his hardness. Loving the back of her neck resting on the curve of his arm, its fragile solidity. ]

[ Exhaling, he touches her on the jaw, just another caress of impulse. A beat, then the softness in his gaze recedes and his expression sets into its usual blank-faced order. Still, his voice is soft. ]

All right?

GASPU

[anatural]

Mhmm. [She closes her eyes and wraps an arm around his waist.] 'M just tired. You wear me out. [A teasing poke poke to the area just above his crotch.]

MWAHAHAHA

[mortemscintilla]

What? Already?

[ Almost playfully, he catches her wrist, bringing her hand lower, settling it against the soft heap of genitals, still perceptibly swollen to her touch. Residual, unspent arousal. After ten months, want is omnipresent, a constant baseline humming under his skin. ]

[ Drowsily, he nuzzles Korra's hair. Her lips seem to have ripened during their play, along with her scent; patches of skin on her neck and shoulders and breasts evidence his thorough mauling. For a moment he can only stare at her, knowing it's only incidental that they're in the same place, especially when there are greater hurdles looming at the horizon. Yet the fact of her presence is a submerged happiness, like getting a birthday present, something prosaic but meeting a basic need, a new sweater or a decent meal. ]

[ With a half-smile, he teases, ]

I thought you'd been running a deficit.

[anatural]

Excuse me for being tired after a full day of hiking. [She makes a face at him.] It's not like I've been getting a lot of sleep. [Funny thing about being in the spirit world as a spirit... she got all the exhaustion of being awake, but she didn't know how to fall asleep.

Despite her complaints about being tired, she still fondles him, running her thumb over and around the base of his cock.]

[mortemscintilla]

I think I can help with that last part.

[ A swallow, as he melts a few inches into the furry heap of his coat while Korra's warm little hand commands him from below. He can feel himself twitch, lengthen; a sharp oversenitized ache, overrun by a flaring heat. Humming low in his throat, he presses closer, defining new-old territory with the wrapped closeness of his body across hers. In the dancing orange glow of the campfire, a wistful curiosity darkens his gaze. ]

[ Gently, ]

It's been a crazy few months for you, hm?

[ It's not an apology, exactly, but it's as close to one as Hei gets. ]

[anatural]

[How? By keeping me up? She doesn't end up making the sassy remark; the subject of the past few months is kind of a humor killer.]

Yeah. [She sinks against him, still stroking, but there's a definite thread of sadness in the weight of her.] I thought I could help, but I'm pretty sure I just made things worse.

[mortemscintilla]

You'll get through it.

[ One way or another. It feels true. He recognizes it is, because, even amid all the madness going on in the spirit world and beyond, all the changes that've led up to it, the changes that will follow it, presaging disaster upon disaster –- turning the very air off-key and charged -- she is staying afloat. That is the first step in the right direction. From the point of view of someone already neck-deep in desperate danger, relying on instinct is the best line of defense, while emotionalism and frantic cognition are irrelevant and get set aside. They're slow and clunky; they consciously inhibit the instinctive grid of survival already mapped out in your brain. ]

[ And, reckless and brash as Korra is, her grid is as well-defined as Hei's own. ]

[ He reaches down, curling his fingers around her stroking hand. The mood isn't totally eroded by gravity; still, there's something thoughtful in the way he tips a kiss to her hot brow. ]

Remember: you dealt with worse in the City.

[ Surreal to recall he was part of everything that entailed Worse. ]

[anatural]

[She shakes her head, just a little, without thinking about it. Things had been terrible in the City; she'd even been a part of a war there, but a war against forces holding you captive is very different from a war within your own people. Watching people you've known since you were a child fight and die. Having people you once considered kin become the enemy, or at best look at you with suspicion.

She continues like he didn't say anything.]

I don't know if finding Raava is going to fix anything. But it's the only thing I can do.

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei smiles to himself, a bit wistfully. She's in no mood to be comforted, but that doesn't surprise him. Whether she's legitimately responsible or not for the catastrophe is besides the point. It's natural to blame yourself when something terrible happens. It's comforting in a way; it makes you feel there's something you could have done if you'd been smarter, or faster, or whatever. Sometimes thinking you've failed is less frightening than admitting you are essentially helpless. ]

[ He'd tell her that. But there's guarantee she'll understand. Anyway, he's just her boyfriend, not her goddamn alienist. Action comes easier to him than stringing together pretty words. ]

[ He circles her in, his cheek pressed to the soft tumble of her hair. He doesn't say anything, but the protective clasp of his arms, the slow saw of his breathing, conveys a quiet message: Do what you have to. I won't leave you until it's done. ]

[anatural]

[He's certainly not going anywhere with her hand on his junk. She keeps stroking him, more as a demonstration of affection than an attempt to get him hard again.]

Have you ever had to do anything like this before? Try to find someone in a place you don't know?

[mortemscintilla]

Hm?

[ It's faintly slurred. Hard to concentrate with her warm fingers stroking the curvature of his cock; it stirs as if the flesh is breathing against her palm. At her question, though, something shutters across his face. There's a moment's hesitation, before he nods, once, in a way that appears honest -- but if it is, that's only because Hei is making allowances for her, each one larger and larger as time goes on. ]

I have.

[ He thinks of dozens of undercover ops, to strange countries, in disorienting time zones. Thinks of countless stings in Heaven's War, of being parachuted into the sweltering green chaos of jungles for alien objectives. Most of all, he thinks of Pai. Of trying to wrench fragments of info on her whereabouts, from the gears of the Syndicate's machinery, a deadly grinding blur, at the risk of getting some vital part of him lopped off. ]

[ Quieter, ]

When I was seventeen ... something happened. I lost lots of people. And there was no way of knowing if they'd vanished or died. Xing was one of them. [ It feels odd saying it out loud to someone at last, even in a low voice in the flickering orange glow of flames. ] I spent five years trying to figure out if she was still alive.

[anatural]

[A not-so-kind part of Korra thinks That’s not exactly helpful, especially since as far as she knows, he never actually found Xing — she just showed up in the City. But mostly, she's touched by the insight into his past. She's gleaned some of it, already had the sense of its heart, but to be given some of the details (however few) is still special.]

What did you do?

[mortemscintilla]

[ He doesn't answer for a moment. Instead his hand shifts to curl around her wrist, stilling the caress. The pad of his thumb rests over her pulsepoint, the cluster of veins there; fragile enough for anyone to do damage. That's how the body works. That's where his expertise lies -- and what he used as a bargaining chip to stay alive, so he could find Pai. ]

[ I lied. I plotted. I stole. I killed. All so that I could get information about my sister. He can't push those extra words out. He spares a quick glance at the girl to see if any clue is birthing. Korra's face is just as usual, open and accepting and devoid of any sign that she's heard the silent hint. So many hints dropped over the years, you'd think by now the water level would have risen, that the realization would have surfaced behind those eyes. Her eyes are always on him, reading him closely, usually with bright insight, and yet, in this area: nothing. ]

[ (Except he's sure, subconsciously, that Korra knows all about his background. But to give voice to it would bring the fragile wall of denial crumbling down and expose her to cruel clarity.) ]

[ At length, ]

I did whatever I had to. Bad deals. Questionable things. I justified them as a means to an end. Like they'd be worth it, once I had Xing back. But when I found her ... [ His tone softens, private, dull, held back by an audible restraint. ] I realized we weren't the same people anymore. She was still the most important thing in my life. But not ... essential to who I was. She'd made her own choices. And I had to make mine.

[anatural]

[She brings the arm, still held in his grip, back up to wrap around his waist. She can understand that. She's made a lot of choices like that over the past eight months, trying to protect her people. She's helped arrange weapons deals. She's tried to trick the UN army into fighting against the North. She's threatened people who didn't deserve to be threatened. She's tried to kill her uncle. She's not Aang; she doesn't have a giant lion-turtle telling her how to win without killing. None of her past lives are here to guide her. The world is falling apart and she is on her own to try & save it.]

What's our next step? [She doesn't mean to sound callous or like she doesn't care about what he shared, but what can she say to that? I'm sorry? Would he even want to hear it? Probably not. And this whole conversation had started because she's trying to figure out how to look for Raava. Might as well bring it back to the original subject.]