outfoxy: (chie)
[personal profile] outfoxy
I have an idea.

It had started with that, the last time Naruto and Korra had gone out to the old pumpkin patch to practice. Naruto was getting pretty good at the air scooter. And pretty tired of constant chapped lips and leaking noses.

So he'd said, no, look, seriously, it's a good idea. They go to the local public gym, the one with the biggest pool that's open after hours, and they make sure the place is damn near empty. It's hot and humid in the natatorium, conditions Naruto is far more accustomed to, and it lets him peel himself out of the layers he wears constantly against Darrow's winter air.

They'll practice there. Korra can use her waterbending. Naruto can avoid her attacks. There's no better way, he thinks, to learn one another's reaction style in a fight. It's his goal, after all. He doesn't just like Korra as a friend. She's the closest thing he's got to a comrade, in the sense he best understands, in Darrow.

Although right now, he's feeling a little awkward as he sets his short stack of folded beach towels down on the bench by the pool and moves to stand at the water's edge. There's only one other person in the space other than the lifeguard, so the water is lapping only very gently. He can practically see his own reflection in it.

He hopes his slight butterflies aren't as noticeable to Korra as they are to him. He scrubs at the dark whisker marks on his cheek before turning to stare at the exit for the women's dressing room.

Date: 2013-12-04 08:18 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (expectations)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
When Naruto suggested going to the public pool to train, Korra had agreed at once. Much as she loved the chilly winter air and the way it reminded her of the bitter winds back home, without heavy rains or snow, she couldn't fully enjoy the season in the way she did at home. Given a choice between the cold and water, she'll always choose the latter for its flexibility, easily manipulated to match her mood at the time.

She stumbles as quickly as she can through the dressing room, the bathing suits she'd purchased all tighter than she expected, which seems to be the style of the time. Opting to mimic Asami's style, Korra dons a spaghetti strapped bikini, exposing a little more midriff to allow for easier movement.

Staring at the mirror doesn't seem to help anything, so Korra only double-checks to make sure all of the fastenings are in place before she runs out of the dressing room, earning herself a shrill whistle from the lifeguard that she resolutely ignores. Feet slapping quickly against the tiled floor, Korra runs towards the pool, leaping up when she's close to the edge.

"Woohoo!" she whoops, somersaulting once in the air before diving immediately down into the deep end of the pool, her momentum taking her all the way to the bottom of the pool as bubbles rise up against her skin, tickling her as she resurfaces.

Date: 2013-12-04 08:37 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (faker)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
Bobbing up and down in the water, Korra pushes her wet bangs out of the way, siphoning just enough water out of them with a wave of her fingers to keep herself from looking too much like a wet koala otter. She likes her hair most with a little more volume, one of her few vanities that she isn't afraid to flaunt.

Whens he spots Naruto coming towards her, his feet barely creating ripples as he walks out onto the water, Korra lets out a warm laugh, echoing through the hall as she quickly raises herself up onto the surface as well, not bothering to dry herself off after doing so. The strange look the lifeguard gives them both doesn't escape Korra, but she merely sticks her tongue briefly out at him before running over to Naruto, feet barely slapping against the surface of the water.

"Warm by my standards, but maybe not by yours," she giggles, bending down as she gets close and trying her best to splash Naruto the old-fashioned way. He looks good, clearly built after all that training Korra assumes he's done in the past, tall and lean and with an attractive silhouette. That said, while dry, he comes off as a bit too hesitant for her taste. She prefers when he's loud and raucous, and isn't sure what's holding him back today.

"You can't come to a pool and expect to stay dry, if that's what you're doing," she points out, grinning as she tries to splash him a second time.

Date: 2013-12-04 08:58 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (mockery)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
"It doesn't need to be anything," Korra laughs, both pleased by Naruto's dodges and determined to beat his speed. She skates across the water, kicking up spray behind her as she moves in wide arcs, trying to make her way around Naruto's location so that she can hit him from any side. "You're just being a baby about the cold. Look, if you dip yourself right in, you get used to it in a couple of seconds. This isn't the arctic. This is just a public pool. Kids jump straight into the water all the time!"

Waving both of her arms up, Korra pulls a large portion of water out of the pool, snaking it around her body a few times before sending it looping towards Naruto.

"So, how do you want to do this? Freestyle, or are we setting rules because you want to get used to the water gradually?" teases Korra, narrowing the diameter of the watery ring.

Date: 2013-12-04 09:20 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (launch)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
The shine suddenly in Naruto's eyes is the favorite of all those Korra's seen from him so far, and it perks her up immediately, drawing in the ring of water faster than she should really expect a beginner to be able to evade. However, Naruto doesn't disappoint her in the least, using the surface tension of the water to help him leap high into the air as the ring of water closes in on itself with a splash. Letting out a yell of approval, Korra skates backwards and watches Naruto's acceleration as he comes down from the height of his jump.

"Hey, don't knock the rules. Sometimes limits can be fun — but just remember, you're the one who decided not to have them this time," she calls out, and with another wave of her arm, she's created a path of water underneath Naruto's feet that she quickly freezes over. Hopefully, the slick surface will be enough to send him shooting straight into the water.

For good measure, she coats the surface of the icy path with a constant, steady stream of water.

Date: 2013-12-04 09:46 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (expectations)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
He takes the surprise gracefully — after hitting the water, that is. Beforehand, he flails and looks like an overgrown kid, heels bumping ineffectually against the smooth surface of the ice. It's a trick that Korra finds works well against people outside of the Water Tribes. Being told that someone's a waterbender immediately brings about thoughts of pushing that water one way or the other, but less often calls to mind the reminder that the more skilled of benders can shift water between phases, just as how firebenders can play with lightning, and earthbenders with metal or sand.

Catching the lifeguard's movement on the edge of her vision, Korra smirks and waves an arm dismissively in his direction. If Naruto ends up having any trouble with water or injury, Korra's convinced that she'd be able to take care of it faster than that lifeguard, anyway.

"I am sticking to water for your sake, but you never said it had to be liquid," Korra points out with a cheeky grin, raising another wave of water and smoothing it out into a flat, icy surface in front of her. Using it as her level, she shoots her arms across the ice, sending frozen discs hurtling in Naruto's direction. They're too brittle to seriously injure, but solid enough to sting.

"Now this, you should be familiar with!" she points out, knowing Naruto has a decent background in bladed items.

Date: 2013-12-04 10:03 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (launch)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
"What would you even do with clones?" Korra asks, narrowing her eyes with a grin and genuinely curious to know how she might fare in her home territory against multiple copies of Naruto. "Swarm me and try to keep me still? I guess waterbending does require a little more movement than fire or air."

She tilts her head in consideration, imagining what she'd try to do. Probably pull the ice up over all of them, in the way that Master Katara had shared with her in stories about her childhood. The difficult thing about water is that breath doesn't work for bending unless someone's completely surrounded in the element. And as much as Korra's managed to master it, she can't exactly breathe underwater.

It's the old woman's exclamation that pulls Korra out of her trance, shooting a grateful wink over in her direction before breaking off more discs from the ice. This time, she doesn't let the throw do its own work; sending multiple discs out at once, Korra manipulates their movement with her bending. It requires close diligence, Korra's eyes wide and smile vanishing as she tries to shoot them all at Naruto, reserving a couple to run along where she suspects his blind spot most likely is.

"Come on," she mutters to herself, willing one of them to land.

Date: 2013-12-04 08:25 pm (UTC)
unrestraint: (faker)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
As much as Korra's tried her best to work past Naruto's defenses, she hasn't given nearly as much thought to her own, not anticipating readily yet the techniques only available to shinobi. When a pair of strong hands wrap around her calves, Korra starts, blinking down at Naruto before returning a wild grin of her own.

"I'm not a low-level shinobi," she points out, even though Naruto's already acknowledged that in his own way. "And there are a lot more ways for me to bend than just moving my arms and legs. But you would have had me there; I didn't expect you to go under. Not with your wind affiliation."

Taking a deep breath, Korra blows a frigid wind down towards her legs, freezing the droplets running down her body, as well as the immediate vicinity of Naruto's arms. Standing on the surface, it's easy enough for Korra to tug herself away, laughing brightly as she darts a few yards away, standing between the two copies of Naruto. Gaze darting to either side, Korra decides to be nice to Naruto — the real one — by melting the ice first. Hardly a second passes before she's looping both arms over her head again, raising waves of water that quickly loop into a large ball, with air and both of Naruto trapped inside.

Knowing that the water would distort her words too much, Korra simply snickers, waiting to see Naruto's next move. She finds that she's looking forward to it.

Date: 2013-12-05 01:10 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (launch)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
Seeing Naruto break out of the sphere delights Korra, whose eyes light up as she twirls briefly in the spray of water. Some of it also ends up splashing the old woman at the end of the pool, but she doesn't seem to overly mind, simply dropping her face briefly against the dry side of the towel before looking up again to watch the pair of teenagers.

"I thought we said no rules!" she shouts in return, quickly brushing her palms over the surface of the water, building up a layer of ice as she skates across the pool, driving herself as quickly as possible around Naruto, although she leaves him with an open space for now, waiting to see whether or not he'll want to stand on the water again.

Off to the side, the lifeguard shivers, pulling a couple of towels tightly around his shoulders.

"In which case there's no such thing as fair play," Korra adds, before taking a deep breath and blowing bright red flames across the pool. The fire leaves behind just enough water to skate on as Korra races about, melting the entire top layer of the ice about a centimeter in before growling under her breath, concentrating deeply and raising the thin layer of liquid all at once.

A few waves of her arms and a clap later, the water turns into snow, poofing out in all directions and obscuring everyone's view.

"Think you can catch me?"

Date: 2013-12-05 01:48 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (expectations)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
Unaware of the full extent of the changes Naruto's enforced on himself, and with her vision just as obscured as Naruto's, Korra relies on the sound of his feet — is it his feet? — on the ground to keep track of his movement. Skating easily across the ice, even through the snow, Korra waits until he's significantly far from the hole she'd left in the ice when forming it, quickly waterbending a bubble around her head before diving down underneath the full layer of ice.

Kicking strongly, Korra waits until she's at the far end of the pool before turning to stare in his direction, briefly bending the bubble to the side in order to better see through all the water.

Your move, she thinks, and wonders when she started to enjoy playing defense so much.

Date: 2013-12-05 02:15 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (tenuous)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
She's not expecting it. Not expecting for an arm of fully bright red color to suddenly reach underneath the water and close around her waist. Not expecting it to start pulling her away, strongly enough that she loses control of her air bubble, which releases and rises only to break into a million smaller bubbles that froth underneath the ice. Korra does her best to try and swim away, but without enough air in her lungs and a mouthful of water later, she loses her momentum and ends up getting dragged to the surface.

Coughing as soon as her head's above water, Korra slumps over onto the ice, spitting up chlorinated water and trying to subdue the burning sensation in her nose, shoulders shaking for a few seconds. As soon as she's caught her breath, she turns her gaze onto Naruto, for the first time fearful. Of him.

Date: 2013-12-05 02:36 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (righteous)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
Breathing in shakily, Korra continues to stare at Naruto for a few seconds, glancing from his eyes to the more pronounced whiskers on his face, before finally gathering her courage around herself and sitting up fully, shoulders hunched in frustration. In a moment of panic, it's easy to feel like crying. She doesn't, though. Not yet.

"Why are you yelling at me?" She asks, voice raised and tone accusatory as she briefly grabs at her stomach, suppressing another cough. She can feel the water in her throat, and maybe she could bend it out of there, but not while she still has words to give him. "Yeah, you should have told me that you could do that! You should have warned me that you've got this big power that can yank people without your body moving at all. I know that we're training and trying to make each other better, but how much can I really learn from suddenly getting hit by something I didn't know existed in the first place?"

Taking another shuddering breath, Korra coughs again, but this time gets to her feet, cheeks red in embarrassment. It's not losing that she minds, but losing like this just makes her stomach twist.

Date: 2013-12-05 03:06 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (sized)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
Still forced to take slightly uneven breaths, Korra stares balefully at Naruto, watches as he draws closer even as the ice starts to rot and crack around them. Pulling her lower lip under her teeth, Korra tries to remove herself from the panic that she'd seen only a moment before, and tries to see things from Naruto's perspective. She's made the same mistake before, more or less, with people in Darrow. Used bending when they didn't have the slightest clue what it was or what to expect from it.

The only difference is that she's the one who was scared this time, and what a world of a difference that seems to make.

Punching the center of one palm with the knuckles of the other, Korra exhales, utilizing her firebending to melt the ice until both of them sink back down into the water, warmer now than it was when they first arrived. Warm enough to start and soothe aching muscles.

"I don't need you to make it up to me," Korra says, her shoulders square even as she bobs in the water. "I'm... not used to being surprised like that, that's all. I hate not knowing things, because every time there's something I don't know, I end up in trouble. Sometimes more than others." She wraps her arms tightly around herself, thinking of Amon, scarier than any other time while he was behind the mask.

"Just... warn me. When you think you're about to do something I might not have seen before. Show me before you, I don't know. Use it against me."

Date: 2013-12-05 03:58 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (thumbing)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
Korra surveys Naruto for a few seconds, dipping underneath the water and letting herself get a little lost in the warmth. As much as she loves the South Pole and wouldn't trade it for the world, she appreciates the mix of fire and water most, how the warmth leaves her just a little lazy and drowsy. Comfortable, more than anything else. The pool glows slightly as she applies her healing powers, working the kinks out of her muscles and taking in a deep breath, then swimming closer to rest against the wall of the pool next to Naruto, leaning until the back of her head rests against the tile.

"We don't have anything like you where we're from, no. Actually, most spirits have been closed off from us, and live instead in the Spirit World. We don't try to have spirits and people combine or anything. I feel like... we don't understand spirits well enough for that to happen, and maybe the spirits wouldn't want that, anyway," Korra says, wrinkling her nose momentarily. Everything that she's saying is just a guess, really. "But I do know that I would never feel right about using spirits to make someone into a weapon. That's not right. Maybe it happens anyway without spirits, you know, people becoming soldiers because they don't feel like they have a choice. But that doesn't make it right."

She closes her eyes, letting her body float slightly in the water.

"It's not that I find you scary, Naruto. But, what you do, sometimes I don't know how to respond to it. I just... have to learn, I guess. About you."

Date: 2013-12-05 04:47 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (faker)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
Glancing over at the sound of the splash, Korra gives Naruto's fist a small grin before lifting her own to press against his, knuckles to knuckles. "Alright," she agrees, gaze briefly skirting up to meet his before it drops, catching the movement of Naruto's hand over his tummy, the lines of his seal clear even through the rippling water.

Struck with a sudden whim, Korra darts forward with a quarter turn, hand breaking contact with Naruto's as she reaches fingers out to skate and dart over his abdomen, trying to encourage a laugh with the light scrape of rounded nails.

"Tell me, you aren't ticklish, are you?" she asks, grinning broadly and kicking at the water underneath her feet.

Date: 2013-12-05 05:07 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (mockery)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
"...you are," Korra gasps accusingly, laughing as she redoubles her efforts, watching Naruto's expression as his eyes suddenly squint and his cheeks deepen to a nice, deep red. Maybe he's trying to throw her off by holding his breath, but she can feel the way his body moves to avoid the brush of her fingers.

Personally, Korra thinks that he should just give in already.

"People have dumb weaknesses all of the time. That's what makes us human," she points out, wheedling as she brushes a hand up to tickle underneath his arm, snickering all the while.

Date: 2013-12-05 06:41 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (expectations)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
Only when Naruto starts slipping down the side of the pool wall does Korra relent, giggling as she kicks up some water underneath him to keep Naruto's head well above the water. She finds that it's fun finding his silly little weaknesses, things that are okay to exploit when it's just the two of them.

Well. And a still confused lifeguard.

"You're not going to drown," Korra says with a snort, rolling her eyes for good measure. "You'll never drown, as long as I'm around."

Date: 2013-12-05 07:09 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (tenuous)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
From the short amount of time that they've known each other, Korra's already learned that Naruto smiles easily. Doesn't hold back on expressing how he feels at all, really, be it positive or negative. But as he steps closer, Korra can't help but think that there's something slightly different about this smile, soft where Naruto's usually intolerably bright; warm like a muted fire instead of blazing like the sun. It's a stupid thought, one that she chastises as soon as it crosses her mind, the sort of thing that Ikki probably would have gone on at length about.

And really, she shouldn't be thinking in those terms at all, not when she's not sure that she should be drawn to anyone like this, and certainly not when it's easier to think of Naruto as just a friend. Their friendship is one that she dearly values the stability of with how much he reminds her of home.

"Yeah," she says distantly, without remembering what it is that they're talking about in the first place. Her cheeks redden quickly, and Korra can only focus on the pedaling of her feet as she wonders if he's always been this tall, or if it's just her bending that's pushing him up a little and highlighting the difference in their height. "I guess so."

Date: 2013-12-05 07:44 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (faker)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
Her arm gets trapped between them the first time, a small subconscious barrier raised to reflect the fact that this isn't completely a surprise. The expression on his face, the softness of his gaze, disturbed but not shattered by the impatience behind his movement and the clumsy press of his lips to hers. It's not the press of his mouth that she takes most note of the first time, but instead the fluttering in her stomach, nerves drawn tight as she breathes faintly against the kiss and presses back, less of a pointed action than the simple result of the rise and fall of the water around them, drifting her body closer to his.

His lips are softer than she expected, but warm, the shock leaving her breathless for a moment when he pulls back. Only just. Not even enough for her to meet his gaze.

Yet it's enough pause for her to be ready for him the second time. Korra's never been shy about kissing a boy, even if there had only been two in her life before him, before this overgrown kid with his stupidly matured smile and wide palms. She wraps a hand around the back of his neck, anchoring her as her pulse runs fast, and her teeth bite briefly down on the curve of his lower lip, boyish and full. The other hand traces clumsily over the whisker lines on his cheek, brushing in their same direction until fingertips meet with the line of his jaw.

Before he pulls away, Korra lets out a small hum, nervous and tightly wound, yet somehow content.

Date: 2013-12-05 08:20 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (olive)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
She half-expects for Naruto to mention something about their earlier conversations, about wanting to learn how to grow with someone and eventually come together to make a family. But he doesn't. Relief overcomes her in the first few seconds as she lets out a sigh, careful not to make it too fast, too hasty, lest Naruto think that she just decided to kiss him for the hell of it. Which she did, but... something about the way it went.

It's not that simple.

It quickly becomes clear in the next several seconds as a weight sinks in her stomach, barely there but noticeable. Something like disappointment, or the unease that comes from contained affection. She remembers it well from her early days in Republic City.

She keeps her lips tightly shut on the topic for now.

"Of course I am," she says with a mostly confident raise of her chin, crossing her arms over her chest. "As you get to know me, Naruto, you'll find that I never like settling for only being average. If I'm going to do something, I'll do it well."

Date: 2013-12-07 04:05 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (faker)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
Swimming after Naruto to the edge of the pool, Korra reaches up and rests her elbows on Naruto's knees, smiling faintly up at him and pedaling her feet comfortably in the pool. Glancing over to the side, she catches the lifeguard giving a wink in her direction, arching a brow in challenge before turning her attention back on Naruto.

"I assumed we'd hang out again," Korra admits, pressing her lips tightly together. "I've only shown you waterbending and airbending. We still have two more elements to go."

After a pause, she adds in a quieter tone, "And if you want to grab lunch or dinner sometime, we can do that. Or watch a movie. I don't believe in all work and no play."

Date: 2013-12-07 05:01 am (UTC)
unrestraint: (expectations)
From: [personal profile] unrestraint
The sight of Naruto's boyish grin makes Korra relax from inside, her chest no longer so unbearably tight as she swims back a little, then uses a jet of water to propel her up to the edge of the pool, splashing Naruto a little in the process.

As much as he comes off like a kid, there's a part of Korra undeniably drawn to that abandon, to a willingness to chase after one's goals without too much worry about the how.

"Come on," she says, waving for both of them to head towards the shower rooms. "Let's get out of here. After all of that bending, I'm starved."

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Uzumaki Naruto

December 2020

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