like bluebells in the late december

[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.

Comments

[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."

[outfoxy]

"You're confident," Naruto murmurs, more of a criticism of himself than anything else, now that he's gone and acted without really thinking, and somehow it feels like he's lost some of the confidence he did have in it. But he still smiles, and gives a sheepish little laugh, before grabbing the side of the pool and hauling himself up to sit on the edge of it, legs still dangling into the warm water.

"I was worried they were totally gonna kick us out after that, but ... " he nods to the lifeguard, who's gone back to reading a magazine from his post in the high chair.

"So ... maybe we could do this again. I don't mean this exactly necessarily, just, you know, you and me, swimming. At the pool. Or whatever. I mean we could just chill out together, too, right? It doesn't have to be a whole thing, right?"

[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."

[outfoxy]

Thank god, Naruto thinks, relaxing immediately as Korra continues. When she'd brought up that she still had two types of bending to introduce him to, he'd started to worry; worry that he'd end up stuffing himself into another situation like with Sakura, where he clearly liked her more than she liked him.

She loved him, but it felt more like the way you'd love a brother, than what Naruto wanted out of things. And she didn't always like him much.

But Korra wants to do stuff. Just stuff, normal people stuff. Not that he's not normal, which he isn't, but whatever. It's just that, he's been focused so much on his work as a shinobi and the goals he's set for himself, he doesn't think he's ever just ... gone to see a show with someone. Anyone.

Pretty girl or otherwise.

"I've never been to a movie before," he admits, finally working up a smile with a little more wattage in it. "So you'd be my first again. Keep it up and we can call it a pattern."

[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."