To Keiki, Bolin seems to be purposely making a lot of noise as they ascend the stairs to his apartment. And really, he is.
"Bolin…" she asks, her voice slightly muffled by the box of food she's carrying. It's twice her size.
"Yeah?" he takes a couple more elephant-gorilla-silent steps before he realizes that she's stopped. "What is it?"
"Are you…" she studies him carefully for a moment, then shakes her head and continues to climb the stairs, "Never mind."
Bolin reaches the door first and knocks, which Keiki finds strange, before entering the apartment yelling, "I hope you two are hungry!"
A big smile appears on his face as he sees the table set and Mako and Korra both sitting, apart, at the table. Keiki plasters a smile on her face as well.
"Hey Bolin." Mako says, standing up to acknowledge their entrance. "Keiki I presume." He bows slightly.
"Yes, I am. It's great to meet you," she puts the food on the table and stands awkwardly for a moment, not sure whether to bow, curtsey or hug him. She decides to just bow her head. Korra chuckles a bit and draws Keiki's attention.
"I'm sorry about Mako," Korra says, rolling her eyes slightly. Keiki looks at her slightly confused. "He's a bit formal around new people." Korra glares at Bolin, clearing her throat.
"Oh, right, Keiki, this is Mako's girlfriend Korra. Korra, my girlfriend Keiki." Bolin rubs the back of his neck, but no one pays attention to his discomfort.
Korra sticks out her hand for Keiki to take, and when she does, Korra gives her a firm shake. "It's good to meet you Keiki. It's always nice to meet a friend of Bolin's."
Mako sends Korra a glare, but Bolin is the only one to notice, and he gives Mako a strange look in response.
Keiki's eyes widen slightly and stay focused on the girl in blue in front of her. "Korra… like… Avatar Korra?" Keiki asks, a little in awe.
"Yup, that's me, but really, just Korra, please." Korra fakes modesty and opens the box that Keiki had placed on the table. She takes a deep breath. "Mmmm water tribe food! My favorite!" She sends a thankful look to Bolin, who puts the rest of the food on the table, before backing Keiki's chair out for her and finally taking his own seat across from Mako.
"Bolin's too!" Keiki chirps in, adjusting her chair slightly. "It's a good thing I get such a great discount or this would have cost us a fortune!" She starts pulling all the dishes out of the boxes and spreading them on the table.
"Discount?" Korra and Mako look at each other, and Bolin blushes slightly when Keiki turns to him.
"You didn't tell them?" she asks.
"No… I… um… no…" Bolin stutters then quickly pours some noodles on his plate and takes a bite with his chopsticks.
She rolls her eyes playfully at him before she directs her attention back to the brother and the avatar. "I work at Narook's Noodles, Bolin's favorite restaurant… that's how we met… and that's how we can get such delicious food without having to pay a fortune." She smiles and starts filling her plate with the array of food.
"That's cool, the noodles are delicious there." Mako puts in before taking a bite of a sea prune.
"Agreed!" Bolin cheers with his chopsticks.
"Yeah, it is," Keiki laughs "Though if I'm not careful, it'll make me really fat."
The others laugh appropriately, though Korra stares a bit tightly at her, not that Keiki notices.
Wow… this is going well! Keiki smiles to herself.
Korra takes a swig of her drink before starting, "So what's your story Keiki?"
"My story?" Keiki questions, "I-I'm not sure what you mean."
"You and Bolin's story!" Korra enthuses, "It must be a cute one!"
"Oh I'm not so sure I should tell it…" Keiki blushes and sends a look to Bolin who is avoiding her gaze.
"Aw, come on! You're among friends! And I'm just trying to get to know you better."
"We met at the restaurant, that's that." Bolin states definitively, trying to end this line of questioning.
Korra smirks; what's he trying to hide?
"Bolin it's okay; she's right; it's cute," Keiki looks at him reassuringly before turning back to Korra. She takes a deep breath, and then begins, still blushing, but now grinning as well. "It was at the restaurant; I'm a waitress there, and I had seen him there quite a bit, but I had no idea who he was. Anyway, I happened to be his waitress one night when he ordered enough food for a polar-bear-dog to eat…"
"Korra has a polar-bear dog!" Bolin interrupts, trying to change the subject, but to no avail.
"Anyway," she continues as if he hadn't spoken, "It was taking him so long to eat that he didn't even notice when it was time for us to close… or ten minutes past close, or twenty."
"Bolin!" Mako scolds, "That's way too late for you to be out!"
"Mako…" Bolin whines, but still stares only at his food.
"It's okay," Keiki reassures Mako, "If he wasn't being such a bore-pig, we wouldn't have ever really met."
"Continue, continue!" Korra prods, waiting, impatiently, for the juicy stuff. Spirits, she takes forever to tell a story.
"Anyway, so little old me was supposed to tell not so little him that he had to beat it" she gestures to her small frame and then his bulging muscles. "Suffice to say I was a little shy about going to talk to him." She fiddles with her chopsticks for a moment as she recollects.
"And then?" Mako is now the asking for her to carry on, mostly for conversations sake over interest.
Keiki nods and Bolin slouches a little more into his chair. "So I went to talk to him. I tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention and opened my mouth… and then he turned to face me… and he had a huge slimy green noodle hanging from his nose!"
"No!" Korra giggles.
"Really!" Mako slaps the table and looks from Keiki to Bolin. "That's hilarious!" Korra slightly scrutinizes Mako, a little surprised from his sudden outburst of emotion, but she turns her attention back to Keiki, still giggling.
"I know, right!" Keiki laughs now; then she returns to the story. "I was laughing so hard I had to sit down at his table and he looked so worried! He had to give me his water to help me calm down. Anyway, that's how he won me!" She looked at Bolin and patted his hand. "And I've been smitten ever since!"
"That's so cute!" Korra pinches Bolin's cheek. "I can't believe he never told me about it." Actually, I can't believe he never told me about her… Korra's expression drops.
"Korra… are you okay?" Keiki asks, "Do you want some more food or drink or something? Or are you feeling sick? Was some of the food bad?" She starts to inspect the food on her plate.
"No it's just…" she plays with her food for a moment.
"Korra… don't…" Mako knows where her mind is… or at least he thinks he does. He grabs her hand and squeezes it. Not now, he begs with his eyes as his lock with Korra's. And she seems to get the message; she nods. And a smile finds its way to her face.
"Nothing, never mind!" Korra grabs one of the containers of noodles and lops more onto her plate.
"So how did you and Mako meet?" Keiki asks right as Korra takes a big bite.
"Wha?" Korra emits through a mouthful of noodles, her eyes wide.
Keiki concedes and turns to Mako. "How did you meet Korra, I mean, the avatar! It couldn't have been by chance! Did you meet at a banquet or something?"
Mako gulps, "I uh… I met her right before a pro-bending match." He answers just to be polite, but he's trying to shield his brother. Why hasn't Bolin told her anything about Korra?
"Really? That's so cool! Was it love at first sight?" Keiki folds her hands under her chin and Mako loosens his scarf.
"No, he thought I was just another fangirl," Korra grumbles.
Keiki leans back to get a good look at her. Korra, the avatar, a fangirl? She didn't look like a fangirl, or at least what Keiki imagined a fangirl would look like. "Why?" She questions aloud, but it comes off a little harshly. Everyone looks at her. "I mean," she smooths her skirt under the table, "Why did he think you were just a fangirl? Were you falling all over him or something?"
"No, I…" Korra starts then bites her lip and looks at Bolin.
"I used to bring fangirls up to watch the meets…" Bolin sighs, "One day I found Korra trying to sneak in and she almost got kicked out. So I vouched for her and said she was with me, and brought her up to the pre-game room," Bolin admits and gives a small I'm sorry I didn't tell you shrug.
"Oh." Keiki readjusts herself on her seat. "Did you at least win?" She smiles at Bolin and Korra wants to puke.
"You bet!" Bolin says proudly.
"No thanks to you!" Mako juts in. The two brothers laugh for a second but Korra cuts them off.
"So I take it you never followed pro-bending?" Korra asks Keiki.
"No… I didn't… otherwise I'm sure I would have recognized him at the restaurant," Keiki answers then takes the last bite of her food.
"Hmm that's strange…" Korra looks her up and down. She's a smaller girl, with a thin frame. Keiki has dark green eyes like Korra's earthbending masters had had. But she's pale, well, more 'peaches and cream' in complexion, which Korra had only seen in some of the maids of her firebending masters. And her hair was curly, short and tight… and red. "Is that your natural hair color?" she blurts.
"Yes, it is" Keiki beams, "Isn't it unique? You'll never lose me in a crowd!"
"Not unless they were all really tall," Mako lends.
"True, true," Keiki acknowledges by twitching her chopsticks in his direction.
"It's odd; I've never seen a redhead before… or at least not a natural red head."
Keiki doesn't know how to react. She looks for help from Bolin, but he seems just as clueless as she is.
"So what do you bend?" Korra asks suddenly.
"Hmm?" Keiki refocuses on Korra, whose lip seems to twitch slightly at her reaction.
Korra cocks her head to the side, "Bending? You know as the avatar I'm master of all elements. What bending are you the master of?"
Korra's lips definitely turn into a smirk now, but Keiki doesn't miss a beat. "Paper." She states in a serious, 'what of it' tone. Her face is deadpan as she takes a sip of her tea. The room drops to a dead silence.
"Paper?" Korra finally asks. A second later Bolin burst out laughing and Mako quickly joins him.
Keiki takes one last sip of tea before responding, "mmmhmmm." She sets her cup down, "Like origami."
"Like boats and planes?"
"More like turtle-ducks and air-bison." Keiki smiles at being able to stop the avatar in her tracks.
Korra smiles, okay, this girl is good. She raises her glass "To our new friend the paperbender!"
"To Keiki, the noodle bringer!" Mako raises his glass as well.
"To the newbie, my girlfriend!" Bolin chimes in too.
They all look expectantly at Keiki who cracks her fingers before standing and raising her glass. "To the sneaky Pabu! Who just stole the last fish!" She giggles a bit as everyone's attention is suddenly drawn to Pabu in the middle of the table, clutching his loot. He'd stopped with his mouth hovering above it when everyone suddenly stared at him. He puts down the fish and scampers onto Bolin's shoulder, stealing a sea prune from his plate on the way.
Korra laughs, she's really good. "Cheers!" She clinks Keiki's glass and they all tap each other's. Keiki and Korra share a look and a smirk as they sip from their glasses.
I always loved a good competition. Korra tips her glass one more time in recognition.
HERE YOU GO! Finally a longer chapter... has almost all of the aspects I wanted to get in.
I hope you like Keiki... this is only one part of her personality... so you'll have to give her a little time to grow... but she really is a cutie... I've sketched her but I've enlisted one of my friends to help because I can't for the life of me draw anime faces.
Anyway... there's much more to come, but probably not tonight...
I really need a life...
Anywho, I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading! It means a lot to me :)
