Disclaimer: This work of fiction is a transformative work based on Bionicle, which is owned by Lego. I make no profit from the creation or distribution of this work, and have no plans to do so at any time. The words of this story are, however, definitely mine.

Contains: One (1) cotton-candy-sweet canon-compliant story about Hahli and Kopeke becoming friends, with a dash of headcanon. And shy people.

Notes: This was actually written for a prompt I myself posted to fic_promptly on Dreamwidth, that prompt being "Bionicle, Hahli and Kopeke, Shy." Hey, the rules didn't say anything against it! Also it was a challenge week and one more prompt to the count is never a bad thing.

Hahli still can't quite believe she's in Ko-Koro. She especially can't believe she's in Ko-Koro to challenge their team to Kolhii, but the towers and long bridges carved out of the glacier's ice are overwhelming enough without thinking about how crazy Turaga Nokama must have been to choose her for the team. Sure, she'd managed to beat Onepu and Taipu, but that didn't mean she could be anywhere near as good as Kotu.

Her breath steams out in front of her, and the air is almost cold enough to hurt coming in. When she looks up she's not sure if the white sky above her is actually clouds or just an unimaginably high roof until a snowflake lands on her upturned mask. "Wow," she says, and another white puff of water vapor leaves her mouth and dissipates into the air.

She really, really doesn't know where to start. The silence of the Ko-Matoran rubs off on her, leaves her words stuck in her throat when she tries to ask where Turaga Nuju's hut is, so she's been going from door to door trying to find someone who isn't so... cold. The idea's suddenly funny. A warm Ko-Matoran would be like a Ta-Matoran who thought things through... then again, she knows one of those. Maybe she can find someone here she can actually talk to.

Ko-Koro's mostly made up of a series of bridges and ladders, all practically identical; only the impressions she's made in the light dusting of snow can tell her where she's already been. She finds the Kolhii field, but the match hasn't been scheduled yet so the only sound in it is the faint echo of her footsteps. She backtracks, climbs a few ladders, tries not to look down when she crosses the narrower bridges, and finally stumbles into the hut of an ice carver.

The Matoran himself, gray and white with a Matatu, doesn't notice her; he's too hard at work making what looks like a frozen version of a kolhii ball from a hailstone, intricately detailed down to a surface crack that runs under what would be the metal banding of the ball. Small chips of ice litter his worktable, and Hahli is facinated by how gently he can tap his chisel to break off such tiny pieces.

His work amazes her. On a shelf she sees a Muaka and Nui-Jaga in miniature being challenged by six tiny Matoran with discs. She recognizes one with a Huna and another with a Ruru as Macku and Taipu, as well as two with Pakaris - it's hard to tell with the colorless ice, but she thinks they're Hafu and Kapura. That would make the last two Tamaru and Kopeke, and the sculpture itself one of the Chronicler's Company. Maybe the carver knows Kopeke and made it for him...

Tucked away in a corner is a Kolhii staff, and Hahli frowns. She'd overheard Macku telling Kotu about how Kopeke had gotten hurt practicing Kolhii and broken his mask, and how he wore a Matatu now. She'd said something about how he'd changed color when he was rebuilt, too...

The Matoran sets his ice Kolhii ball down and sighs. He puts away his tools, turns around, and nearly stumbles into his precious carving from being shocked to see her. "Hello," Hahli says. "Sorry for, uh, spooking you. That's a… a really nice Kolhii ball you made."

He nods shakily, still clinging to his table where he caught it to stop his fall, and smiles. He doesn't speak, and Hahli thinks about saying goodbye and finding someone else to ask or just wandering until she finds what she's looking for, but she thinks she knows who he is and is too curious to not ask. "Are you Kopeke?"

He nods.

"I'm Hahli," she offers. "I was, um, chosen for the Ga-Koro Kolhii team, as its forward. You might remember my teammate, Macku?"

Kopeke nods again, still silent, and glances at the carving of the Chronicler's Company.

She can do this. Really she can. Turaga Nokama saw something in her, and she can't let her Turaga down. "I'm supposed to talk to Turaga Nuju and tell him I'm, er, here for the match, but I don't know where he is…"

Kopeke nods a third time, hesitates, and finally makes a gesture towards himself and leaves his hut. Hahli follows him as he backtracks through her footsteps, climbs down a ladder, winds his way around a few tall pillars of ice with what look like spiral staircases inside them, and eventually takes her across a long bridge with a longer drop under it that leads to another great glacier, a tall door that swallows up the end of the bridge embedded in it.

He stops in a pillared hall with Matoran studying the walls. At the far end are Turaga Nuju and what must be his translator Matoro, and Hahli smiles at Kopeke. "Thanks."

He nods, takes a step back, and lingers in the doorway. He examines her, opens his mouth, closes it again, opens it… and says, after a long moment, "You're welcome, Hahli."

Her smile blossoms into a grin. "Goodbye."

Kopeke just nods and turns to leave, but Hahli's too happy he finally said something to care. She practically skips over to Turaga Nuju, and remembers just in time to talk to Matoro instead. "Hello," she says. "I'm Hahli, the forward on the Ga-Koro Kolhii team…"

After the match – which she and Macku win, like Nuju (through Matoro) had said they would – Hahli meets up with Kopeke. "That was a really good defense, you know," she says with a smile. "I'm lucky I managed to get that third goal past you."

He nods, not quite meeting her eyes. She won't hold it against him when she recognizes that shyness from the inside, and can't help but let her smile widen when he says, "Well played."

"Too bad we couldn't have played with that Kolhii ball you made out of ice," she jokes, too cheerful to worry about the words coming out of her mouth. "That would have been really cool."

Kopeke shrugs. "Its ice isn't dense enough." He looks thoughtful and adds, "Toa Kopaka could make denser…"

"Probably." Hahli grins. "Could I see some more of your ice carvings?"

Kopeke nods and leads her back to his hut. There he sets his Kolhii stick aside and tells her in a few words about various ice sculptures, of Rahi, other Matoran, even one of Toa Kopaka. One Hahli recognizes as Ga-Koro near the end of the Great War, with the palisade around it and Amaya and Shasa guarding the gate.

"Did you do that from memory?" she asks, knowing he couldn't have done it any way else but incredulous at how she recognized it as being exactly what Ga-Koro had looked like just after Takua had recruited Macku into the Chronicler's Company.

He nods. "Most of them are." He contemplates a large brick of ice on his worktable, then examines Hahli's open-mouthed look and smiles. Before she realizes what he's doing he goes to work, chipping away to make a wall, two forms, a smooth floor…

She doesn't know how long she stands there and watches, but when Kopeke finally stops she sees the winning goal of her match against Ko-Koro formed from ice, including how the ball scraped over Kopeke's shield and her look of determination. "Amazing," she breathes.

He gently dusts off the last bits of ice and carries his creation to an empty spot on one of his shelves, where he settles it into place and steps back to admire it. "So you were."

Hahli laughs, and the sound echoes like they're in a bell. "I meant what you can do, Kopeke."

He smiles at her again. "I guess."

On a crazy impulse she hugs him. "You're incredible," she says. "Always remember that."

After a moment he hugs her back. "And you."

She just nods and pulls away. "Thank you for thinking I was worth commemorating."

"Thank you," he retorts.

Hahli isn't sure what he's thanking her for, but she nods and, after a pause, replies. "You're welcome, Kopeke."

He grins, and it's like the sun breaking the clouds just in time to watch a sunset after a long rainy day. "Goodbye."

She just nods and grins back, and really does skip as she makes her way out of Ko-Koro.

Notes: The things I started with: Hahli and Kopeke are both shy, but Hahli largely overcame it starting with the events of MNOG 2. They played against each other in the Tournament and so probably interacted before and after. Kopeke is a really good ice carver. The thing I ended with: a new ship that conflicts with my OTP of Hahli/Jaller. Argh!

... Then again, I'm sure in another two and a half months I'll have thought up a prompt for those two and written it as well, and I'll be back to status quo.

NOTE AS OF 18 AUGUST 2012: "Sasha" as originally mentioned in the story should have been Shasa, and I've corrected the story to reflect such. Whoopsie-daisy!

NOTE AS OF 12 MAY 2018: My fanfic can also be found on the Archive of Our Own, AKA AO3.