"I, uh, I'm uh.." she stammered. Korra gulped, hard, looking at the now awake Amon. She tried to force a smile, trying to make things seem better than they were, but it just came out awkward. "I was uh, trying to, um, clean your.. clothes," she chimed. The water she'd used to heal him (or at least try to heal him with) had fallen once he grasped her wrist, causing his whole arm to become wet.
"I was awake when you arrived. Don't ever try something like that again, Avatar," he ordered her, "or I will make necessary sacrifices." Korra gulped, nodding slowly at his statement. "U-Understood," she choked out.
"Now, it seems as if you're able enough to bend, correct?"
"I uh, well, I guess so, but nothing too big," she answered, trying to wriggle out of his hand. He slowly loosened his grip, letting his arm fall back to his side.
"I'm going to move to your side of the island now, before you try anything once you can," he told her, slowly making his way up.
"What? No! You're not going to - no! I deserve privacy!" she retorted.
"I deserved your honesty, which wasn't met, and no amount of fits from you will change my mind," he barked at her. She let out a long, soft sigh, then nodded.
"Fine, just.. keep your distance, alright?"
"I think you should be keeping your distance," he said, gesturing to his half-healed arm. She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," she replied, dropping her shoulders and slowly standing up. "Do you need a hand walking there?"
"I'll be fine," he told her. They walked to the either side of the island where Naga was sleeping. Amon limped there, while Korra seemed to be almost fine. They walked in silence, not speaking a word to each other.
"Don't try something like that again," Amon said harshly while sliding down the side of a tree. Korra nodded, then slowly made her way over to Naga, cuddling against her soft fur. "I won't," she said, "Good night."
Amon turned on his side in response, facing away from her.
About a half hour later, it began to rain. The sudden coldness woke Korra up, making her grunt angrily. She shook Naga awake and guided her towards Amon, who was sleeping under the mass of palm trees where it blocked off some of the rain. Her and Naga laid down in front of Amon, Naga against a tree, Korra against Naga. Amon and Korra's feet were about a half meter away from each other now, and she looked at the sleeping man. His arm was crossed over his chest, almost as if he was clutching it in pain. 'He looks so sad,' she thought, but then quickly shook her head. 'Don't feel bad for him, he's.. weird.'
The rain began to fall harder now, and it crashed against Korra, even thought she was shrouded in the protection of the palm tree leaves. Due to her lack of upper body clothes (since they'd been ripped and it wasn't much to begin with) Korra felt extremely cold. She tried cuddling closer to Naga, but since she was cold too it didn't help much. She let out a long sigh, then hugged herself, trying to keep warm.
The wind began to pick up, which didn't help her much. Amon began to toss and turn a bit, and after a few moments, he woke up. Korra stared at him, wanting to see his reaction to the cold. He gazed at Korra, wonder how long she'd been watching him.
"It's... it's freezing," she said after an awkward moment of silence. Amon hesitated, but then responded.
"I noticed," he said coolly, his arm still clutched over his stomach. Korra looked down, thinking of what to say.
"How's your arm?" she finally asked. He let out a long breath. After a few moments of silence, Korra knew he wasn't going to answer.
"Sorry.." she said, "Aren't you freezing?" she asked, noticing that he wasn't shivering and complaining about the cold at all. He nodded, "Of course I am." She sighed.
"How're we gonna stay warm? My arms are getting numb," she murmured. Amon exhaled, "We can't. We're just going to have to deal with it until morning," he said almost comfortingly. Korra hadn't noticed, though.
"I can't sleep like this!"
He shrugged, "You don't have a choice, you have to put up with it."
Korra crossed her arms and furrowed her brows. An idea came to mind, but she shook it out, thinking about how absurd and downright weird it was. Then she thought about it again, and realized it was probably the best thing for both of them. She was going to regret it, but she asked.
"We could, like.. uh, you know, like.." she stammered. "Okay, so, when I was younger, my mom said that when you're cold you should, like, use the body heat from other people and, like, hug them.." "No, that's ridiculous," he interrupted.
"It's not that ridiculous!" she shouted, not noticing her rising temper. Amon shook his head.
"No, I'm not going to cuddle you to keep warm. I can handle it, unlike you, apparently," he replied in a mono-toned voice. Korra grunted.
"It's not like anyone's going to find out that we cuddled! 'Oh no! The big bad guy of Republic City cuddled with the Good Guy for warmth to make sure his escape route outta here is safe!'" she said mockingly. Amon's face stiffened.
"I am not the bad guy," he retorted, shifting a bit uncomfortably due to the coldness slowly taking over him.
"Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. I don't need to hear one of your monologues right now."
Amon pulled his hood down more over his face, noticing that it had started to slip off due to the rain. He let out a sigh.
He slowly stood up, dragging himself next to her. He slowly slid down.
"What are you-"
"You asked me to," he murmured, scooting closer to her. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her a bit closer, both of them still sitting up. Korra stiffened, shocked at his sudden decision. She loosened up after a moment and moved a bit closer to him, laying her head against his chest. He hugged her harder, moving his arm to wrap around her waist. Korra intertwined her cold legs with his, then put her arm against his chest.
After a few minutes of silence, Korra began to feel warmer. The warmth of Amon and Naga fended off some of the cold.
"I-I'm not complaining, but, why'd you.." she began. Amon was quiet for a few moments, but then responded. "I was cold," he said quietly. Korra slowly nodded.
"Thank you," she said softly, squeezing him in a hug. She slowly closed her eyes, and after a moments, fell asleep.
Amon looked down at her, suddenly feeling disgusted. He wanted to move away, to yell at her for trying to do something so absurd, but part of him wanted to stay there, too, cuddling against her warmth. He'd never taken her feelings into account, never really noticed that she was an actual person. He hated the Avatar with a burning passion, but the Avatar was only what she was. He was slowly learning who she was. And hated that.
He stared at her as she slowly fell asleep. He'd never been this close to someone in a long, long time. He'd never had a relationship or anything like that, never had friends, never had someone to comfort him. Not after he left his home, anyway. The feeling flowing through him felt foreign, felt wrong, but at the same time, was one of the best feelings he'd ever experienced.
Amon slowly brought his other arm up to her face, softly pushing some of her hair behind her ear. He'd remember the first time he ran his fingers through it and was met with the same softness from before. He ran his fingers through her hair, softly scratching her scalp. She seemed to notice, and shuffled even closer to him. She exhaled, tightening their embrace.
Feeling tiredness drown over him, he slowly put his chin on top of Korra's head. He closed his eyes and breathed out, loosening his muscles a bit and resting a bit more against the polar bear dog. He tightened his embrace on Korra for a moment before slipping into sleep, the sound of rain still buzzing in his ears.
Kinda a short chapter, really busy with school stuff since exams are near.
Going to try to update when I'm not too busy though, it's just that there's some other things that I'd like to do and I'm finding it harder and harder to find to write, but I'm gonna try! And once it's Summer, I'll be updating a bunch. Thanks for reading, sorry about the delay and poor excuse of a chapter that this was.