unrestraint | then i'm left in bits, recovering tectonic tremblings

Korra is lucky she's found Naruto there. Normally, he wouldn't spend much time at home indoors, unless he was sleeping (though fairly, he did a lot of that.) But the weather lately's been cold rains, and while Naruto is the sort to go looking for trouble, he isn't the sort to go out of his way to be devoted to being some kind of vigilante. Shitty weather was shitty.

He crosses the apartment slowly from the couch he'd been sitting on, trying and failing to study some maps of Darrow. A visitor is a pleasant surprise, and he opens to peer out with a groggy, curious blue eye before opening the door to Korra, still groggy, but more cheerful.

"Is ... something wrong?" he asks, hesitantly, not sure if he'd rather hear that something is and he can help, or that nothing is, and she'd just been thinking of him. He feels a little awkward about the state of his apartment, now that a girl is standing in it. He's just wearing sweatpants and a wrinkled white shirt that still manages to be too big for him, and though the place isn't a pigstye, there are several emptied plastic bottles of soda sitting around on the coffee table, alongside a styrofoam cup of dirt-cheap instant noodles.

'Dirt-cheap' is a good way to describe most of the stuff in the apartment, that hadn't been there when Naruto got it.

Edited 2013-12-16 06:29 (UTC)

Korra's eyes widen expectantly when she hears the door start to open, a smile lighting her face before she breaks and dissolves into laughter, not expecting to see Naruto in such calm, casual wear. For some reason, she's started to expect him to always show up with more than a splash of orange in his outfit. A white t-shirt and modest gray sweatpants break the pattern in such a mundane way.

It's nice.

"No," she answers, finally remembering his question as she steps closer, plucking teasingly at his shirt with another huff of warm laughter. "Well, not really. I woke up from a dream. Not a bad one or anything, but I couldn't fall back asleep after that, and I felt a little lonely."

Cheeks pinking, Korra's eyes narrow good-naturedly. "I thought of Naga first," she says, tilting her head with a cheeky look. "But you were a very close second. Mind if I come in? I was hoping to, I don't know, swap stories or something, but if you're about to head to bed, I don't want to keep you up."

"Close second is way better than dead last," Naruto says, stepping out of the way of the door good-naturedly, scratching at the hair over his temple, soft and hanging in his eyes without any tending to. "I was just looking at maps of the sewer systems and things here, it was really boring actually, so I'm glad you came." Other than the fair number of houseplants Naruto has already managed to gather, the messy research, and a small stack of short fiction magazines, the apartment shows little other sign of hobbies. The television is untouched, and a little dusty, and other than a blanket and pillow tellingly situated on the edge of the couch, there isn't much in the way of clutter.

He smiles a little apologetically at Korra anyway. "That ... explains the robe, though," he adds. "You want something to drink?"

Edited 2013-12-16 06:55 (UTC)

Stepping inside when invited, Korra raises herself onto her toes and curves a hand over Naruto's jaw before pressing a quick peck to his lips, a sign of affection always freely shared between her parents at home, and one that she wants to adopt in her relationships as well. Smiling broadly enough to wrinkle her nose, Korra runs a hand through her own hair, not held up by ties, and hopes that it isn't too messy or tangled.

"Definitely not dead last," she agrees, before wandering further into Naruto's apartment, a pleased grin on her face as she surveys the area. It's fairly spartan and plain, not much in the apartment beyond what Korra remembers being there when she first moved into her own. Plenty of trash left over from food, though.

She makes a mental note to buy him some proper groceries when she gets the chance.

"Sorry, I should have dressed better before coming," she says, sheepishly pulling her robe tighter and blushing as she sinks down onto Naruto's couch, reaching for the blanket and draping it over herself. "Um... do you have any tea?"

Naruto doesn't remember ever being kissed like that by someone before. It had been close, the one he'd gotten from Tsunade, but even then, that had been more like the kiss of a mother than anything. He'd never been kissed like that before by someone who could see him as more than a reminder of something good and long past. It makes him smile, hard enough that it hurts his cheeks a little, as he shuts the door behind Korra and traces her with his eyes as she walks to the couch and settles happily in.

"What's wrong with what you're wearing?" he asks, not minding the soft-looking robe, or the way it hugs the roundness of her hips when she wraps it more tightly around herself.

He glances to the kitchen a little guiltily. "I have milk, and plain iced tea, and soda, and coffee," he admits. All of it caffeinated; it honestly helps his concentration.

"Well, it's not... I don't know, it's what I sleep in, not what I'd normally wear to see my boyfriend," Korra says, glancing down at her robe again. Something about not wearing pants makes it feel suddenly very revealing, and she wonders how she managed to step out of her place without thinking to at least pull on her normal pair of pants. She'll have to walk carefully, she decides. That's all.

Fortunately, she's soon distracted from the thought of her robes when Naruto lists out the beverages he has in the apartment, leaping up from the couch to quickly dart into the kitchen.

"Iced tea sounds fine," she says, slipping in before Naruto and opening the fridge out of curiosity. Inside, she finds bottled drinks, an open carton of milk, and containers of takeout still left in their boxes. Arching a brow, she turns to look at Naruto.

"Wow."

"It's not as bad as all that," Naruto says at the look on Korra's face as he lifts a half-drank bottle of soda off of the kitchen counter and opens it again to start re-working on it. It's warm and flat, but he drinks it anyway; half of his attention is on the stretch of her legs beneath her anyway, the color of her skin making it glow a little in the light of the refrigerator. He catches himself looking, choking on the soda with a short cough and setting it aside to wipe his mouth off with the back of his arm.

"There's celery sticks," he defends. "Anyway, how much harm could it be doing?" He gestures pointedly down at himself, more on the skinny side of things than anything, in his own opinion. He always had been; Kakashi and Sakura alike had commented on the state of his metabolism more than once.

Edited 2013-12-16 07:30 (UTC)

"No, I think it kind of is," Korra replies, though she does reach in and break off a stalk of celery before closing the fridge door behind her, leaning against the counter opposite Naruto as she takes a small bite of the stalk and chews. "Celery sticks aren't going to completely outweigh everything else, I mean — there are a lot of nutrients you need. Vitamins, protein, fiber... you have to get that from somewhere."

Pursing her lips, Korra pushes away from the counter and reaches forward to pat Naruto's abdomen lightly, unable to contain a slightly satisfied grin at the flat planes of muscle clear even with such a brief touch. "I'm not just saying this because your metabolism might slow down. When you eat healthily, you get the energy you need to do everything else better, too. Believe me, after I got here and discovered pizza, I ate that for about a week straight. Going back to my regular diet felt really good afterward. Felt like I was cleansing myself."

"I don't have an energy problem." He gives her a slight frown, more petulant than anything, although he sets the soda aside sheepishly a second later. Drinking soda at past eight at night says otherwise, of course; true, maybe he doesn't have an energy problem, but he has a problem directing his energy. Restlessness isn't the same. Instead, playing with Korra's hair gives Naruto's hands something to do. He runs his fingers through it, surprised at how silky it is, for such a thick texture. He was expecting something closer to the coarseness of Jiraiya or Chouji, rather than what he finds. But Korra's a girl, and maybe that makes all the difference. Still, he smiles to himself, both for the pleasant feeling and the pleasant thought.

"It's not an excuse," he quickly qualifies, "I know I need to stop being picky, and I need to eat some fresh vegetables every day. But I need more to eat and more sleep than other people, because of being how I am. I have a friend, Gaara, who's the same way. Except the seal he had on him wasn't as strong as mine, so he never got enough sleep. He was crazy strung-out, it was awful."

Edited 2013-12-16 07:52 (UTC)

Though tempted to fire a retort back when she spots the frown forming on Naruto's face, Korra's quickly placated by the fingers in her hair, comforting and warm. There aren't many people who've played with her hair in her lifetime, so Naruto's actions right now remind her of her years as a little girl, being shown by her mother how to put her own hair up in a manner that wouldn't get in her way. After a full day of being tied up in a topknot, having her hair down now results in a slight ache in her scalp addressed well by skillful fingers.

"Feels good," she murmurs, exhaling deeply and wrapping her arms around Naruto's thin waist, closing her eyes to help lose herself in the sensation.

"Let's go grocery shopping together next time. Or you can come to my place for dinner and we can figure out what healthy foods taste good to you," Korra proposes, eyes still closed and enjoying the weave of fingers in her hair.

Her mind quickly grabs onto the mention of someone else from Naruto's world — she remembers him mentioning that he liked to tell others stories about his friends, and so grabs onto every opportunity. It feels like getting to know Naruto better in turn. "I didn't know that you had friends who were the same as you, though. Tell me more about him? Did he grow up in your village?"

Since she responds well to the hands in her hair, he takes it as a good sign, one that he can keep following his instinct, sweeping his thumbs in lazy circles over the skin behind her ears. The idea of shopping with her again is, weirdly or not, one that makes him happy enough to allow the idea of maybe branching out to broccoli and cabbage one he's more open to. When he feels her hands at his waist, he leans forward, dropping a quick kiss against the curve of her cheek.

"No," he says, worrying a little at his bottom lip. "I only really knew two people like me at all well. Everyone else was killed by the same people who were after me. But I met Gaara years earlier, when his village came to mine during the chuunin qualification exams. Gaara was from the Hidden Sand. We have a lot in common. Our histories, I mean. Other than that, though, we're pretty much night and day. More like," Naruto says, finding a more accurate way to put it, "Air and Earth. Although funny enough, I think his affinity is for wind, too. And there's Killer Bee, he was an old dude, like in his middle fifties. But also the coolest guy I ever met."

Edited 2013-12-16 08:18 (UTC)

Quick to react to the press of his lips on her cheek, Korra smiles, broadly enough that her cheek presses back against the bow of Naruto's lips. Her skin feels warm where he's kissed her, and she opens her eyes again after he pulls back, deeply pleased but unsure how to express it beyond the blush on her cheeks and a slight squeeze of her hands on his waist. She's always liked the little romantic gestures, both in theory and now in practice.

As always, his stories are sobering, but Korra's learning to face them rather than get lost in the emotional consequences Naruto must have ridden out ages ago.

"I don't think that's really weird. Mmm... sandbending is a type of earthbending, where I'm from. Those people still have all of the strength and stubbornness of earth, but it's a little more flexible than your average earthbender, because the movement of sand is a lot more like air or water. You have to be able to think like an airbender and an earthbender in order to understand sandbending, or so I'm told," Korra muses, tilting her head. "I'm not good at it. At all, actually, even though I can bend both air and earth. I'm also not good at metalbending, which is the opposite — you have to be incredibly focused to bend metal."

Slowly starting to trace a small circle on Naruto's hip with a thumb, Korra wrinkles her nose. "Killer Bee sounds like a funny name."

"I guess it is," Naruto answers, with a look of vague concern that flutters away a half second later as he carefully, and a little reluctantly, extricates himself from the embrace Korra had him in. It isn't that he wants to get away from her; more that he's not totally sure he'd be happy just doing that all night without sort of wanting to go a little further. And he is really, really not sure Korra is ready for that, no matter if he is.

"Couch?" he says, wrapping a hand over hers and pulling both of them back toward the living room, coaxing. Curling up on it with Korra and a blanket sounds like an ideal night, with the miserable weather outside, and the emptiness of the apartment before she'd arrived.

"Not all of the Hidden Sand ninja can bend sand," he tells her. "Although a lot of the powerful ones can. I guess it's smart to be a Sand-nin with a terrain advantage. And then Gaara had Shukaku in him. Bee-occhan had Hacchan. The One-Tail and the Eight-Tails. That's just three out of nine. I actually think it's sad I never got a chance to really get to know more."

As quickly as they'd wound up in the position, Naruto starts to pull away, leaving Korra blinking at the sudden loss of warmth down her front. Did she say something wrong? Is he that distraught over her pointing out that the name is kind of unusual? The hand that wraps around hers gets another look of confusion before she notices that the both of them are heading towards the couch.

Maybe he just wants to cuddle.

"Are you able to connect to them through their spirits somehow? I mean, there's only ever one Avatar living at once, but each Avatar is able to connect to their past lives through the spirit connection that binds us all, all the way back to the first Avatar. We're even able to attack using all of the knowledge and powers of the Avatars combined, in what's called the Avatar State," Korra says, settling down on the couch next to Naruto and immediately sliding close to his warmth. "I haven't really had a chance to talk to most of the Avatars, though. At all, actually. Aang, the Avatar before me, tried to communicate by sending me memories while I meditated, but we haven't had a proper conversation."

"It didn't work that way. At least, I don't think it did. Bee-occhan was the first person who showed me how to do it, and you have to be in physical contact with another jinchuuriki, at least long enough to meld chakra, in order to communicate with the spirits inside of them. So if I was touching Bee, any one of us four could be part of the conversation. They were all originally part of something called the Ten-Tails," he explains, shrugging down deeper into the arm of the couch and the soft warmth of Korra's body beside his own.

"I'm really bad at stuff like this, but what I remember is, the Ten-Tails' body was sealed into the moon, and its chakra was sealed inside the Sage of the Six Paths, the very first jinchuuriki, and the son of the first person who could use their chakra to create spells. While the Ten-Tails was inside him, he split it into nine parts. Kurama is one of them. I can't talk to any of Kurama's old jinchuuriki, but Kurama knew them. So the Avatar State reunites you with all of your past lives?" He asks, making an impressed and slightly nervous expression.

"Just how many is that, anyway?"

Edited 2013-12-16 16:54 (UTC)

It's hard to follow Naruto's story, although Korra does her best to try, shifting under Naruto's arm and feeling the thrum of his voice against her side. There are so many pieces to Naruto's world, where Korra's own has felt relatively simple.

Then again, Korra wonders now if the pieces to her own world are more numerous than she'd assumed for so many years, and it's the subtleties that she's yet to find and address. After all, until arriving in Republic City, Korra had no idea that the Equalist movement even existed.

"So... I guess that the Ten-Tails was split up because it was just too strong?" Korra muses, glancing down at Naruto's abdomen with a furrowed brow. Kurama's already so strong; she can hardly imagine what it's like to have eight more of him in the world. "It must be strange to have been part of something bigger and then split up like that. And even weirder to face some of your other parts after you've been separated."

Narrowing her eyes, Korra offers a small, hesitant smile. "The Avatar State kind of reunites me with past lives, yeah, but it's not like a conversation. It's more like having those memories available in the back of my head. At least, that's what I've heard — I haven't been able to manage it just yet," she says, ducking sheepishly. "It's something that the Avatar achieves either out of desperation, or through enlightenment. I'm trying to get there through the latter, obviously. Been meditating. It hasn't worked yet. It's kind of a dangerous tactic, though. If the Avatar dies while in the Avatar State, the cycle of the Avatar stops. There have been hundreds of Avatars so far, maybe even more that we don't have a record of, so it's a huge legacy to live up to. I don't want to be the one who breaks that."

"It was too strong. And it kept attacking humans," Naruto says, not really knowing much more detail than that. For all he'd listened, only the broad strokes, as ever, had sunk in, when Obito had been the more important, more relatable thing to focus on.

He drums his fingers a little awkwardly over his belly.

What Korra's explaining now doesn't sound totally out there to Naruto. Desperation and enlightenment he knows well enough. He'd originally relied on Kurama's power only out of anger and desperation. It had taken enlightenment to let them both stop being slaves to that tug of war anymore. But what Korra's describing also sounds seriously dangerous, more than Naruto might have thought it was. "So it's not just some super-mode," he says. "If you die when you're like that, the Avatar just goes away forever, then?" Naruto gives Korra a look of quiet comprehension. It explained, in part, why she'd given him so many talks about her responsibility. Her responsibilities really were completely different than his own.

Edited 2013-12-17 05:53 (UTC)

Eyes drawn to the rapid drum of Naruto's fingers, Korra reaches out to lace their hands together, resting them on his belly and turning to press her side against the back of the couch. She's not sure what he's thinking, though there are clearly thoughts churning through his mind; actually, she's afraid of asking. Afraid of hearing anything that might force her to revisit her thoughts from months ago.

"I think so. I mean, no one knows for sure, right? Because the Avatar still exists today in me, so there can't have been anyone who's died in Avatar State mode before. Or at least not as long as history dates. But all of my masters have warned me of that, and they were told of the danger by Avatar Aang, who heard it from Avatar Roku before him..." Korra draws in a breath, holding it for several seconds before sighing heavily, shaking her head. "Whether it's true or not, it's not something I want to test. I accept it as being true, just in case."

Shoulders slumping slightly, Korra leans her cheek against the back of the couch, expression slightly dejected. "Not that it matters, because I haven't reached the Avatar State to begin with yet. I need to start meditating again."

The more Korra goes back and back and back in history, giving Naruto a list of who said what, the more his brows furrow, but it really isn't his place to object and, less because he wants to remain neutral and more because there's no reason for Korra to bother after it right this minute, he says nothing. Naruto leans forward instead, squeezing Korra's hand in his own and pressing a kiss, first against her forehead and then against her lips, softly.

"Maybe I can help with your meditation. I don't know if I'm a good teacher, or a good Avatar tutor, or anything like that, but I am, technically, a sage, for whatever that's worth. Fukusaku-ojiichan taught me how to get complete calm and clarity. It's the only way for me to gather the chakra from nature."

Not one to enjoy going on about history anyway, the kiss to her forehead, and then against her mouth, calms Korra's frayed nervous as she smiles against the kiss. Easily placated by a sweet touch and a calming word, Korra's eyes narrow curiously at the idea of Naruto achieving complete calm, but she remembers their pursuit of the band of thieves some days ago, and how he'd been able to partition clones of himself off to grow more attuned with the environment around them.

If nothing else, it can't hurt.

"You're better at it than me, so it's worth at least trying to share those learnings, right?" Korra says, lips pursed as she traces her fingertips over Naruto's knuckles, enjoying the warmth of his palm. "I'd like that. Kind of funny, too. I don't think most girls expect their boyfriends to be the ones to help them find complete calm."

Grinning, she leans forward, brushing the tip of her nose against Naruto's and pressing another kiss to his lips, softly searching.

What's so funny about her final assessment is still a little beyond Naruto, even as Korra molds their lips together. Naruto is quick to dive into the kiss, making it deeper, and more heated; less and less sweet. By the time he stops himself to pull back again, his breath is a little hard, his position on the couch beside her, a little twisted.

"I wanna know what's okay with you," he says, one hand finding Korra's knee and rubbing slow circles. "I mean, I want to know what you're comfortable with. Because I'm pretty sure I'm comfortable with more than that."

Letting out a gasp of surprise, Korra's body tenses for a couple of seconds before slowly relaxing, melting into the kiss, her cheeks flaming hot in a matter of minutes as her body shifts to try and find the right angle. The only question she's torn over is whether that angle should mean turning towards him, or away to cool down. She can hear the break of their kiss, loud in the otherwise silent apartment, vision feeling slightly blurred as she glances up to meet his gaze.

He's staring right at her.

"U-um," stammers Korra, raising a hand to brush her hair back behind an ear, feeling goosebumps travel up her neck at the sensation of his hand on her knee. "I've never done more than kiss a boy before, and I know — I know where things end up, but not that much about... in between. So. I don't know?"

Pulling her lower lip briefly between her teeth and worrying it, Korra's brows knit with a sudden thought. "Are you picturing things right now?"

"Uh," Naruto stammers, before answering with complete honesty, dropping his hot face to bury his forehead against the soft fabric of her robe and the cool back of the couch. Naruto gives her knee an apologetic squeeze.

"I mean, you're pretty hot. And I'm just ... hoping this can keep working out and I don't screw something up, so of course I'm imagining things I want to do with you." He gives her a look that suggests he's of the opinion that everyone thinks like that. Whether or not they openly admit to it. "What's wrong with wanting to fool around?"

With Naruto's face pressed so close to her chest, Korra feels like she doesn't quite have the room to breath, staring down at the strands of his hair with a curious, unfocused gaze. No one's been this bold with her before. And even in her most driven pursuit of Mako, she'd never allowed her mind to wander to stuff like this. Hadn't had the time for it, hadn't had the time to learn and imagine.

Her lips part briefly, an unguarded expression on her face as Korra tries to figure out if her discomfort is with Naruto or more within herself.

"I didn't say there was anything wrong. This time," she says, piecing together broken thoughts before reaching up to brush her knuckles faintly over the heated skin of Naruto's cheek. "What are you imagining right now?"

She's asking; he takes it for granted that she really wants to know, and gives her a confused, intent, studious look, clear blue eyes taking on a laser-focus before he reaches both hands out to wrap his fingers around Korra's hips to pull her closer, thumbs stretching dangerously close to the hem of the robe she'd worn up to his place.

He dips his head closer to hers again, mouth near her ear, with hushed tones like the confession of a particularly good secret. "Well, a minute ago, it was you in my lap, without your shirt on, so that we could press ours chests together." Which is, in Naruto's opinion, actually kind of boyish and tame, but it's true. "Except now I'm wondering if you never even touched yourself or anything when you were all alone at the South Pole Didn't you ever? Not even once? I've gotta imagine things, when I do that."

Edited 2013-12-17 07:44 (UTC)

Korra wonders if she'll dry her lips out at this point, still worrying her lower lip as she blushes, fights off a laugh at the brush of Naruto's breath against the shell of her ear. The first request is oddly straightforward, and not something Korra's especially bashful about. She's confident in her body, and unafraid of nudity, too many days spent in locker rooms that were easy to confuse when without close attention.

"I didn't," Korra says, wrinkling her nose and shaking her head. "By the time I was old enough to even think about stuff like that, I was constantly training in the different bending arts, preparing myself to be a fully realized Avatar. Plus, I lived in a compound of mostly older guys. Like... seriously older. Then, when I got to Air Temple Island, I was sharing a wing with little girls. There was never time for any of that, and I don't regret it or anything, or feel like I missed out. It wasn't my priority."

Cheeks briefly flushing over how she's let her words run away with her again, Korra leans forward, pushing one of Naruto's shoulders firmly until his back is pressed against the couch. From there, she easily slides on top of Naruto's thighs, knees on either side of his hips, though she glances down with no idea of where exactly to place her hands.

"You can take my robe off," she says quietly, her shoulders trembling in a soft shiver. "I think I'm fine with that."

"None of that stuff ever stopped me," Naruto says with an expression that reads plaintive confusion. He'd spent two and a half years on a lonely mountainside with a pervert nearing his sixties, working as many hours of the day as his body could physically take; which was, frankly, a lot of fucking hours. He'd not been so bashful about getting what he needed, if only from himself, unlike Jiraiya, who'd gone looking for a woman for the night on a weekly basis.

It hadn't been different for those girls, but maybe it was different, for girls like Korra.

He stops squinting when she's suddenly stretched across his lap, and he can feel the soft skin of her thighs pressing in on the thin material of his sweats. It is, already, maybe a little better than he imagined, because everything about Korra is just firm in all the right places, and yielding in all the best ones. His breath catches in surprise, before he recovers himself. He slides his hands up along her sides, before finding the tie of her robe with hands that are quietly fumbling, but confident enough.

"Well, maybe you should do it," he says, pulling the tie loose before moving his hands to the hem of his own slept-in t-shirt to pull it up. It's fair. Fair's fair. Especially since they've already been swimming together. She's seen him in less. "When you go home tonight, just get comfortable in your room and try to think about something that gets you all worked up, and just do it. That way you can find out what you like or not."

Edited 2013-12-17 08:12 (UTC)

"Yeah, but you're a guy. I think the mechanics are a little different," Korra points out with a good-natured grin, before falling suddenly silent at the tug of Naruto's hands on the sash of her robe. It's different, suddenly, when the reality of intimacy is so close and near, the energy palpable in the air. Not unpleasant, just frenetic, in ways that are surprising to Korra given the stillness of her breath and the unmoving nature of her hands, which simply rest near her own knees.

There's no sudden desire to pull back, which Korra finds relieving. Just a soft buzz of anticipation that has her squirming a little on the seat, silent again. He tends to her robe more gracefully than he does his shirt, easily pulling it up with a snap of static that makes Korra jump to attention.

"It feels kind of... pointless going at it myself," admits Korra, cheeks flushing darker as she wonders if he'll find her somehow immature or too unlearned for saying so. "What exactly am I supposed to do? Where do I even — it's not half as exciting as being here. With you."

Reaching up with a hand, Korra carefully nudges a single sleeve of her robes down, until it starts to fall over the curve of her shoulder.

"Maybe it's twice as good or more when you have someone else," Naruto says, eyes flickering to the slip of Korra's robe off of her shoulder, revealing the smooth, pretty skin underneath. His eyes fall next on her collar, to the curve of her breasts beneath it, and back up again. The delicate skin there is oddly attractive, enough that he lifts a hand to stroke his thumb across the lines of her collarbone. "I don't actually know. I've never been with anyone like that. Like with you. Other priorities. But it was still good with me. Now I know what I like. If you have to figure out what you like with me ... " He isn't sure how to describe it. He's not the sort of guy who feels 'special' about something like that, but.

"I'll try not to screw it up too bad, Korra, I promise. I just seriously don't get it. I really want you to be able to get it. I just want you to feel good," he admits, a little helpless, before sliding both warm palms down the stretch of her abdomen, and lower, to stroke at the sensitive skin on the inside of her thighs, face growing hotter. He feels a little like he's going to shake apart, from excitement and nerves, but mostly he's fond. A weirdly tender feeling.

The words start escaping her when the touches start, every single thought conjured spilling like water over a brimming cup, her entire world shifted until all conscious emotion cascades over into something warm, soft, and more pervasive. She holds still for the brush of his thumb, shoulders pulled back and chin raised, tall, almost proud of the line that he draws across her skin. Maybe, if she could only remember the way that he looks at her now, it can be good. With herself. Alone.

Only when his hands skirt lower does she start to buckle slightly, a warmth building between her legs and rushing from the way she's seated, knees spread apart, bracketing him loosely.

"Sometimes I feel like I still don't... quite get you," she murmurs, brow furrowed in concentration, on the palms he smooths over her skin. "But I want to."

She finally finds a place for her arms, looping them over Naruto's shoulders and leaning forward until her nose nudges against his again, lips hovering over his mouth with fluttering breath before she leans in and closes the distance, pressing a hard kiss against the curve.

He takes her kiss, swallowing it down as fiercely as she gives it to him, teeth pressing her full bottom lip gently between them, tongue darting past her own until he smiles broadly against her mouth, breath heavier and deeper.

"You know what, it's fine. I been with me my entire life and I still don't get me. I just ... want to be with you until just the idea of you is enough to send me over the edge. Do you get it? It's like ... "

Naruto meets her eyes directly, shuffling her on his lap until he can snake a thigh between her legs, pressing up against her. The look on his face dares her to look away bashfully. One hand finds Korra's hip again, holding her in place, but the other he doesn't use to touch her. He touches himself with it. Slips it down the length of his own flat stomach to rub gently at the skin just above his cotton pants. When that touch does about all it can manage, slipping his thumb between his lips before pressing it against a pink nipple. It's easy as anything to think of it as her hand. Hers would be better, by far, but that's really not the point. And she won't tell him what she's in for, so he's going to have to let her test it out herself.

Edited 2013-12-17 09:02 (UTC)

The fervor of Naruto's words breaks the softness of his previous touches, punctuating them with a brightness that demands attention. Demands to be seen and understood. Lips still throbbing in the wake of the kiss, Korra watches Naruto's movement, staring down at the pale hands gripping her hips and shifting her to the side, until—

"A-ah," she gasps, curving over slightly as his thigh presses up between her legs, up against where the warmth had been pulsing only moments before. Her legs tense in response, gripping around Naruto's thigh like she might be able to hold him in place, even as some other part of her brain begs for movement, for friction, in ways she's yet to fully understand.

With a shuddered breath through her teeth, Korra watches the movement of Naruto's hand with a clouded vision, back and forth over his abdomen, then up to the pink fullness of Naruto's lips, then down again to where it presses against the soft circle of Naruto's nipple, the pink bright in contrast to her own.

"I think," she stammers, throat tight as she bears down slightly on Naruto's leg with a soft whimper, curiosity getting the better of her as she draws a hand up to pay attention to his opposite nipple, massaging down with avid interest. It's not at all the same as her own, softer and flatter, loose as she presses in a slow circular motion. "I think I may need to return to my place... soon."

"Now you're in such a rush?" he laughs, teasing Korra a little, but meaning it only warmly. There's nothing he's wanted less from the very beginning than to make her feel like she's being judged for any of the ways in which she's different from him. She just makes him feel delighted, delighted and warm and buzzing. He leans in to find Korra's mouth again, placing a softer, fonder kiss there. They're both worked up now, maybe, but he's reluctant to let her go, even if she's going to try and make herself feel good. He does think it's important.

When they finally do it, he wants them both to do it because they want it, and they know what they want.

"We'll just do something really boring for a little while. Chill out. We never really hung out at home before, so that's something I wanna do, and you're here already. I usually settle down by thinking of something totally unappealing."

"Don't laugh," Korra pouts with a sharp exhale, frowning faintly as she slides slightly forward against his thigh, arms reaching out and resting on his shoulders when he kisses her again, close enough for her breasts to press lightly against his chest. It's new, and exciting, and Korra's reluctant to let it go, even if the nervousness on her side makes her aware that she probably should back off for the time being.

Pressing her forehead against Naruto's, Korra's face continues to be pinched in a slight frown before she starts to tug her robe up, reaching around with the sash and wrapping it tightly around her waist.

"I don't know what's unappealing. You aren't unappealing," she says stupidly, before expressing a sudden thought with a snort. "Unless there's a frog coming out of your mouth, I guess."

That thought is pretty unappealing to Naruto too, actually, who makes a slightly sickish expression as his hands reach to Korra's waist to help tie her robe back around her. He wonders if he shouldn't offer her his t-shirt before she leaves, or something.

"That works. Imagining my friend Chouji from home at the onsen usually works for me," he adds, shaking his head before sliding out from beneath Korra to give the both of them a little space on the sofa. Breathing room. "We could do something to help you get sleepy. Do you like hot drinks? Or board games. Board games work for me."

Naruto's expression suddenly mirrors that day perfectly well, enough so that Korra barks out a laugh as she's tying her robe closed again, briefly taking Naruto's hand in her own and giving it a soft squeeze as she climbs off and sits at his side.

It's still a little uncomfortable, the tension and warmth she feels low in her body, but she bites down on her lower lip and tries to follow Naruto's words instead. It helps that he's not all that she sees in her field of vision now.

"I don't know what an onsen is," she admits, leaning fully back and closing her eyes with a contented sigh. "What would you even have to drink that's warm? Coffee or milk? I hope the milk's not expired." She glances over with a teasing smile.

"You don't know what an onsen is?" Naruto asks in genuine, worried surprise. He never considered that somewhere like the South Pole wouldn't have any. but it does make sense. It's still ... sort've depressing. The onsen was one of Naruto's favorite places. Even if his voice was always too loud to seem polite when he visited.

"It's like .. a public bath? Around a hot spring? Well, I mean, you don't get a bath in the spring with other people. That'd be weird. You shower first and then you get in the springs for a while. The minerals are really good for your skin, or at least, that's what I've been told. It might have just been one of Ero-sennin's two excuses. Either way, it feels like the best thing in the world. I usually end up staying in too long and end up with low blood pressure for the rest of the night," he admits.

"There were tons of them in my country. I guess I never really considered that other countries would be different, even at home."

"Of course you'd stay in warm water too long," Korra laughs, leaning back when Naruto doesn't seem to take the hint, focusing instead on whatever it is about the hot springs that he's so shocked by her missing. "I've heard of hot spring resorts before, though. The South Pole didn't have any, so I've never been — although I did get to stay in the Sato's heated pools in Republic City — but for us, the Fire Nation had a lot of springs. The Earth Kingdom, too. We didn't call them onsen, though. Just hot spring resorts."

Nestling against the couch again and hooking one leg over Naruto's knee, Korra shrugs a shoulder. "If it's the hot water you like, I could always adjust things with my firebending. You felt it when we were at the pool, we just need water that isn't so... chlorinated. I'll even make sure you don't stay in too long."

then i'm left in bits, recovering tectonic tremblings

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