It was fun. [Korra grins at him, picking up one of the smaller stuffed animals.] I haven't done anything like that before, and never on my birthday.
[Her eyes drift from toy to toy as he explains, expression softening.]
If you'd told me that, I would have tried to find something a little bigger when I gave you the deer toy. [She runs a finger through the soft, fake fur, on the toy she's holding.] I miss her a lot. She's been with me since she was a pup, and I was still in the compound...
I don't think we've ever been separated this long before. It's hard to believe I've almost gone a year without seeing her.
[Korra, you're asking the guy who struggles with that thing called self-confidence in anything besides machinery (and Haven's been trying to attack that with a sledgehammer too, for that matter).]
... I'm not gonna hesitate, if that's what you're worried about.
[And she proceeded to drape herself in a similar manner, taking great joy in the relief that came with it. Both the plan they'd come up with to handle...things...as well as the moment of peace. In the company of a good friend.]
[Her reflexes save her in the end, her hand shooting up to snatch the small toy out of the air before it bounces off of her face. Korra looks down at it with a smile.]
It's not allowed, huh? So you're the one who calls the shots today?
[He sticks his tongue out at her before rolling to get to his feet and bending the water off of him and out of his sandals. Then he set his hands on his hips and shook his head.]
Look at all of these. Do you know how hard it will be to carry them all back through the tunnels?
[He clicked his tongue in a mocking 'tsk tsk tsk'.]
So do I. [He doesn't know what he'd do with himself if he couldn't help others. It's all he has left, in the future.] But be aware, that sort of behaviour can also crop up as a way to avoid your own problems.
[That wasn't a bad idea. And they were in a sports complex, so...]
There should be some equipment bags near the basketball court. We could grab one of them. And maybe bring a basketball back, too. A couple of people I used to be housed with played that. Most of them are gone now, but, I learned from one. It can be a fun game.
02.26 OOC - after Wan learns about storage | Phone for now
[Wan eventually calmed down after picking up a few crumbling buildings near the barrier and tossing them against it. And late in the evening he returned to their house. But he didn't go inside. He sat on the roof in the remains of the first garden he'd started. The broken stone trellis room giving him shelter under the cloudy night sky. He stared up at it for at least an hour before he opened his phone and called Korra.
He knew she was probably trying to get to sleep. He didn't care. He needed to know if this was yet another secret she'd been keeping from him.
The phone was on video, but it showed nothing more distinct than the clouds in the sky because Wan set it to the side and spoke just loud enough to be heard, leaving it on loud speaker.]
Storage.
[Nothing else really needed to be said, did it?]
Edited (page three claim! \o/) 2015-03-01 01:20 (UTC)
[The silence on her end probably speaks for itself already, but her words, softly spoken, and riddled with guilt, make it difficult to overlook her prior knowledge of it.]
I know. [A beat.] It's not how I wanted people to find out.
[Wan's response to that came after his own silence. The anger boiled up again, but it was tempered with simple anguish. Hurt. Betrayal. And he couldn't keep the last out of his voice when he responded, tone bitter.]
How did you want them to find out? They stumble upon it and find a friend, a wife, a daughter. Their bodies laying there, lifeless in boxes when for a months the only thing that got them through the day was the knowledge that if someone wasn't here anymore they were at least outside Yao Corp's grasp? Is that how you wanted people to find out?
[Korra winces, drawing her legs up to her chest, suddenly feeling cold. She's never heard him use that tone with her before, and she knows she deserves it for keeping it from him, though she's still conflicted. Part of her is telling her Wan and the others are right, that they deserved to know earlier. The other part, suspicious and weary after a year in Haven and supported by the other friends who knew, still says it was for the best. She doesn't know anymore.
She sounds tired when she replies.]
No, I--I knew it would be almost impossible to get in there right now. [No one would be able to just stumble upon it. Korra's words gains a hesitant quality when she talks again, voice sounding a little small, even to her own ears. ] I was kind of hoping we'd just...tell everyone once we knew how to get there and break them out.
[Unknowingly, Wan mirrors her position. His own legs drawn up and his arms over his head, fingers curling into the hairs at the nape of his neck. He was fighting tears now and his lungs were starting to burn from the effort to keep from shedding them. His breathing noticeably heavier.]
We were just expected to sit in ignorance until you and whoever else you decided was worth telling figured something out? You didn't think that maybe telling people might get you new ideas on how to do that? Might give them something worth working toward?
I didn't tell anyone else. Someone else told me about it.
[Though that doesn't exactly make it better. She curls into herself even tighter, knowing she's at fault for his anguish. She'd felt the sharp tug of the Avatar State earlier, almost immediately after Nagachika had sent his words out over the phone.]
They--[No that's not right. She had a hand in making this decision, too.] We thought... keeping this quiet was the right thing.
[He had thought the only secrets she kept from him were ones she felt ashamed of. Ones like how she got her scars and the accidental breaking of the revival machine. But this, letting him think all this time that Raava had gone back to their worlds? That Aang had. And Jet. And Katara. Sokka, Zuko, Tenzin.... Lizzie. The girl he'd adopted in another life. Fake memories or not, he'd treated her as his daughter. He'd loved her as his daughter. And he thought she was safe.
All of them being safe gave him hope.
Wan finally broke at the words, tears falling and a sob wracking his chest while he tried to muffle it in his knees.]
[Korra hears him despite his best efforts to keep quiet, and it hits her hard, the tears that had started to well up earlier finally rolling down her cheeks.]
I'm so sorry.
[Once the words are whispered, Korra covers her mouth with her hand, muffling her own sobs. Normally, she would go to him, giving what comfort she could, but she doesn't think she's the right person to do it right now. If he would even want to see her at all. So she sits there, phone pressed to her ear, and waits--for what, she's not even sure.]
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