He was awoken not by his usual nightmares but by a noise, a soft but audible noise- something was clattering, it was an aggravating sound that could be heard well over the pouring rain.
Tonraq opened his eyes and looked around. The sound came from Korra- her teeth were rattling as she curled up on ground.
He had forgotten that she had ripped up her blanket and spare clothes long ago, not to mention she had used all her extra clothing to improvise garments for him and since she usually made sure he was asleep far before she decided to rest, he had completely forgotten that she now slept on the ground using only her satchel as a pillow, and at the moment without the warmth of a fire and with the summer storm from earlier becoming more and more aggressive and bringing gusts of cold night wind, he realized she must be freezing.
He sat up, determined to do something and feeling somewhat idiotic for having overlooked her sleeping arrangements.
"Korra?" He uttered her name feeling the usually sweetness it left on his tongue.
She looked up slowly trying to not to give away her weakness but shaking visibly.
"Hm? You need something?" Her voice shook a little amidst the clattering teeth.
"Come here." He lifted the covering half of his blanket beckoning towards the empty spot next to him.
"Excuse me?" She was eyeing him with disbelief.
"You are freezing and I suspect the storm as turned into a typhoon so the night will get colder. Come, don't be stubborn." He spoke patiently, like an adult coaching a child and he briefly noticed how accustomed he had gotten to altering his tone of voice.
"I…well, ok." Korra gave in quickly and moved to the free spot next to him, lying woodenly on her side, still she amazed herself, before she would have stubbornly argued and boasted that she was Water Tribe and used to the cold but to him she had simply given in.
"You may relax, Avatar. I won't bite." He used her own bait against her.
Tonraq soon felt her relax so he covered both their bodies with the blanket again and lay on his side as well with his face mere inches from her hair, feeling the scent of rain and the cinnamon oil she used to wash and comb it.
She was silent now but he could still see her shiver with every gust of wind and before he knew what else to do he had his arms instinctively around her body, holding her close enough to share body heat. To his surprise she didn't object, she merely sighed in relief and curled to his body for warmth while she drifted off to sleep.
For a long time he couldn't rest, so he simply kept his arms around her, not daring to move an inch while she cuddled to him and he watched her chest rise and fall in slow delicate puffs.
Her eyelids fluttered a little and he wondered what she was dreaming about- was it some unique Avatar dream? Or perhaps she dreamt of home?
For a single unreasonable moment he wished he could make her dream of him. Not the scarred version of him that she had tended to for so long, but the whole version of him, the one she had only once glimpsed after their fight that ended the war. He wished he could make her dream of him as he really was, not the dark revolutionist but the waterbender kid that had once wanted nothing more than fairness and equality, he wanted her to dream of him as he had been in his prime, not as the twisted mass of distorted flesh.
«What good would dreaming do you?» He shook away the thoughts and sighed, settling his chin over her head ever so lightly, taking in the oddly spicy fragrance of her hair.
She shifted a little and rolled. She was still pressed to him but now she faced him and wrapped an arm around his waist sleeping soundly. Her head was slightly tipped to the side exposing her pretty neck so vulnerably.
«So careless. If I were still your enemy I could have slit your throat so easily and you wouldn't even notice.» He shook his head again, disturbed by his own dark thoughts, but it was not disdain or evil that tainted those thoughts, it was worry. She just looked so very helpless that he couldn't help but imagine terrible scenarios, and in every scenario he was the evil-doer because he was right there and she was in his grasp. «No, she wouldn't be so careless if she did not trust me…» He breathed in cool air of the cave, chuckling once again at the irony of his thoughts, and chased away the horrid images and worries that flooded his mind.
He looked at her again, finding that his spirits lifted and he became less inclined to dark thoughts when his gaze was fixed on her. He noted that her lips were slightly parted and he could hear her snore lightly but it was endearing rather than annoying and her cheeks were gaining a slightly rouged tint as she became warmer.
Some time passed as he watched her, he didn't really know how much, but she soon shifted again. «Restless sleeper.» He thought for a moment, but his thoughts were suddenly taking a dive towards highly inappropriate imagery and the reason was because she was suddenly tangling her legs to his lightly, not to mention the way her torso molded to his making the soft curves of her breasts graze his chest as she nestled her cold nose to the crook of his neck.
Tonraq blinked and felt his breath catch in his throat. Not sure of what to do in the awkward position and fearing that his body would betray him, he simply felt himself become paralyzed on the spot with an arm still stiffly around her. He swallowed audibly but she didn't seem willing to move, resigning him to simply watching her without moving a muscle.
Korra mumbled something in her sleep as she often did, but as usual he did not comprehend what she was saying. He could, however, see her cheeks grow rosier and she was squirming a little uncomfortably against him. He wondered if perhaps she was cold, so he tucked the blanket closer to her body, but she continued to languidly roll against him, making him acutely aware of every spot she touched, every breath she took, every strand of her hair that caressed his skin, every rustle of the blanket and every soft mumbled groan from her lips as she slept.
«What can she possibly be dreaming of?» It all made him notice that his body was responding in ways it hadn't in years and he considered getting as far away as possible before she noticed. Still, he was paralyzed in place, terrified that he'd wake her if he moved.
«Ah…I see now…» He thought to himself in a daze as he closed his eyes trying not to see the way she pressed to him while his mind resounded with all the thoughts he had had since she had lain next to him. «I have fallen for her, haven't I?»
He swallowed hard once again at this realization. «This is…unfamiliar to me. What a time to have such a realization.» He scolded himself cynically.
His eyes opened and he looked at her once again- she looked so innocent and so wanton at the same time, hardly like the rowdy tomboy she was when awake. This time he leaned forward, whispered into the shell of her ear.
"I'm sorry Korra… You deserve better but I won't let you go." His voice was just a raspy possessive whisper but he saw her shift and turn again as he ignored the dark and selfish images that rose to his mind.
~~~~~~.:oOo:.~~~~~~
Korra is watching herself again. She reaches out for the Korra in front of her but can't touch her or make her take notice.
The Korra before her has her hair loose and tossed back as the liquid chestnut tresses snake over her naked cinnamon back. Her eyes are shut as incomprehensibly obscene sounds are ripped from her lips. The woman's body, her own body, is mashed to a familiar male form whose large hands hold her close with almost violent possessiveness but rather than objecting she has her hands in his disheveled dark hair mirroring his rough emotions in harsh tugs.
She notices beads of sweat gliding leisurely from her neck down her back to the curve of her firm naked rear. The flickering light of some weak flame dances over those droplets causing them to shimmer like delicate ornaments emphasizing the lewd curves of her body.
Korra tries to see the face of the male companion that held her other self but it was buried in her neck and the indolent way they move and ripple together makes it hard to focus on details.
"I'm sorry, Korra…" A distant growl echoes in her head almost like waves washing ashore. "…I won't let you go."
She reaches out again, trying to grab the attention of the two bodies while the words still echo in her mind, noticing that the two forms seem perfectly right together but something foreboding, wrong even, hangs in the air, not for them but as a warning to her.
Korra's sight begins to swim in a misty golden haze of flame and blurry bodies.
The Avatar's eyes opened slowly and lazily, the sapphire in them reflecting the vague teal luminescence in the cave. She blinked slowly, vaguely aware of how hot she felt with a slight sheen of sweat forming on her brow.
«Another dream. I don't understand.» She thought to herself still half asleep, comfortably surrounded by a warm musky fragrance. By the noise that filled her ears she could tell it was still raining, possibly with even more force than before, and the little spring that filled the pond in their cave was gushing like a miniature waterfall from the overflowing rain that choked it from the outside.
She tried to rub her eyes but her left arm was trapped under something and the other was wrapped around something warm. She turned and tilted her head up slightly and slowly and had to swallow down a gasp of surprise.
Korra found herself inches from Tonraq's face. He was sleeping, but by the dark shadows under his eyes she assumed he had just dozed off. Her arms were around his waist, her legs were tangled with his and her body was cuddled to his, as for him, he had his right arm pillowing her head and his left was wrapped around her shoulders. His skin seemed just as heated as hers and he slept stiffly but not uncomfortably, making her wonder if it was her constant restless sleep that had kept him from resting.
For one scary moment the she thought of how she could have hurt his healing body with her usual nocturnal thrashes, then for an even more panicked instant she wondered if her dreams had shown through in her movements or words. She felt herself blush and decided to try not to think about it too deeply.
Not wanting to wake him and now feeling completely unable to go back to sleep, Korra simply untangled herself from his arms as slowly as humanly possible but she didn't move away, instead the Avatar simply relaxed with her head now pillowed in her own hand as she examined his sleeping face.
She was happy to see that his face was healed, extremely and completely marked with aggressive scars that would take years to begin fading, but healed nonetheless. There was something familiar about him, something in the shape of his jaw and nose and the distinct but subtle downwards tilt of his eyes…She filed that familiar feeling away though, and focused on what was right before her- when relaxed in sleep he had a uniquely boyish face, as if he became fifteen years younger when he slept, and not even the scarring could distort that.
The lips of his wide mouth had not become permanently twisted or drawn by the burns as she had feared when she first found him and for some reason she just imagined that they would still look quite boyishly sweet if he ever stretched them into a smile. At that moment said lips parted very elusively, letting out a little rush of slow breath while his miraculously unscathed eyelids fluttered, making her smile at how defenseless he looked; it wasn't the helpless pitiful exposure he had had when he was broken and wounded and depending on her completely, instead it was a trusting relaxed vulnerability of a person without a care in the world. It warmed her heart to know he trusted her enough to sleep that way next to him.
He moved slightly. His hands seemed to be grasping at something that wasn't there and she realized he was unconsciously reaching for her, so she moved closer letting herself be enfolded in those warm arms until he calmed. But he didn't stop moving. It was slight and almost imperceptive but she could feel him shake and twitch a little in his sleep.
Korra looked up at his eyes- his lids were fluttering rapidly now and his breath hitched. He was dreaming and whatever the dream was it seemed to disturb him, his peaceful features twisting with some sort of discomfort.
She battled with herself. She wanted to wake from the dream but she also wanted him to rest as it seemed she had kept him awake most of the night. For a brief instant she registered that she didn't mind that he had been watching her for so long as she slept, in fact rather than feeling like an invasion of her privacy, it made her feel protected.
Tonraq began moving more visibly and his fingers dug into the back of her neck and shoulder with alarming force. He began to mumble and groan with his face twisted in agony. Korra had had enough. She tried to sit up but his grip was too powerful, so she stuck with trying to softly shake him awake.
"Tonraq? Wake up. It's just a dream. Wake up."
It wasn't working, he had gripped her more tightly and she was sure she would have bruises in the shape of his fingers. He was muttering senseless words and shaking more intensely now.
The Avatar looked up at his face and what she saw there shocked her almost as much as the day she had found him on the beach- a tear was streaming down his rutted and scarred cheek as he slept and he uttered something. A name. A simple name in a voice that made Avatar Korra's insides turn to spiky shards of ice.
And with that name on his lips he jolted awake, immediately releasing her out of instinct.
