Closed;

[alphatar]

Characters: Korra (alphatar), Jack Frost (wintershepherd)
Date: Aug. 8th
Location: Metal Sector (For now)
Situation: Fishing business
Warnings/Rating: N/A


After reading Finnick’s network post regarding his absence, Korra contacted Jack about where to take her catch now. She waited at the café she always stopped at after her fishing trips with her usual mug of hot chocolate, now topped with whip cream.

Part of her wanted to just run back home and leave the fish there since they had last seen each other, but that wouldn’t have been fair to Jack, or Finnick. That and she wouldn’t have gotten paid for the day either. With that thought now on her mind, she was dreading the topic of her pay.

Slumping her back against a wall, she began to sip from her mug.

Comments

[alphatar]

Concerned with the change in his usual tone, Korra stopped and baskets went silent. "Was- was that something I shouldn't have brought up?" Everything seemed like a verbal taboo to her now, and she was never the type to walk on eggshells. "I was on Tu Vishan before and I don't remember any of it. Damian had to tell me that."

She pursed her lips and looked down at the ground. "A lot of people don't know what that feels like. To have someone recognize you and you don't recognize them."

A solid beat before she looked back up at Jack and she turned her head to the side, unsure if she was blundering into bad territory.

"...Were you around when I was first here?"

[wintershepherd]

He nodded slowly in response to her first statement. "No, it's... sometimes people here go and come back, yeah. Like Tony has... Zatanna's friend did too."

Then Jack shakes his head. "It must have been before I arrived, I got here right at the start of the new year. Or, what would have been, I don't know. Sometimes knowing exactly when you are is really confusing, here."

[alphatar]

“Tony gave me this thing called a slinky when he left.” Korra admitted. She was quite sure he didn’t remember that, or her. “It helps me think, reminds me of him.” Korra gave the first honest grin all day, and it was a wry one that had more life than she had shown since the last time they talked. “Zatanna has a lot of friends, so that’s not a big clue.”

Giving a defeated sigh, Korra gave a half shrug. “That’s alright; no one seems to have known me back then.” Damian merely saw her posts and had only been a friend of Asami’s.

“Well, I know we’re here right now. Pretty far away from silly English scribbles and a sad emote face that used to look like a moon and stars.”

She gave a small laugh and after a beat, Korra’s lips bunched up under her nose and she gripped the rope, throwing her back into it. The baskets practically hopped instead of skipped and her biceps showed the definition she maintained.

[wintershepherd]

That made him smile. "Slinkies are awesome," he proclaimed. "I guess you don't have them at home, huh?"

( He gave me an air conditioning unit and 12% of SI, but I'd rather he'd stayed than have those things... )

He followed her and before long they made it to the part of Finnick's suite that had been used for the store. "Here we go..."

[alphatar]

"No, never seen one until now. Is it a toy? Because it feels like a toy. The way goes down the stairs." Not that she was admitting to having spent waaaay too much time playing with it when it arrived at her suite.

Once they arrived at Finnick’s suite, Korra blinked a few times and looked at Jack with a squint and a raised eyebrow. She had been so internally involved that she hadn’t even paid attention to the fact that they had just gone along her daily route.

"Wait." Tossing the rope onto the baskets, Korra folded her arms over her chest and leaned back so she could look at Jack in the eye.

"What are you doing?" Her tone wasn’t angry. It was frustrated and confused, but not angry.

[wintershepherd]

"What?" Jack stopped, surprised by the shift in Korra's voice. "I'm... not doing anything? What do you mean?"

[alphatar]

Rubbing the back of her neck she looked from her baskets, to Jack, to Finnick's suite, and then back to Jack again. Her brain was not up to trying to figure out why Jack had agreed to lead her to the store when they just ended going to where she always deposited her daily catch.

"I- You-" She sighed and rubbed her arm. Convincing herself that Finnick's sudden sabbatical coming not even a week after her confession to Jack wasn't some karmic cosmic deity's idea of a cruel joke had failed. "Look. I think I'm getting really confused and I have no idea what to do about it."

[wintershepherd]

Jack was so utterly lost as to what was going on. He glanced at the building and then back at Korra, hoping that metaphorical lightning would strike and explain why she seemed suddenly upset.

"This is the fishing shop..." he said slowly. What he didn't know was that it was also Finnick's suite, the same as Korra apparently didn't know that Finnick's suite was also where he ran the shop from.

[alphatar]

When he looked just as confused as she was, Korra’s shoulders slumped and her neck followed suite so she could hang her head for a moment.

“This is where I go every day, I leave my catch right there in front of Finnick’s suite.” She pointed at the door as she straightened herself back up.

“He takes it to wherever the heck he sells it from after that, doesn’t he?” she had never gone beyond leaving her huge baskets and simply picking them up later when they were empty.

She looked at Jack with a pained and puzzled look. Being so soon after her spontaneous display of affection and friendly rejection made the unnecessary excursion seem like it was some kind of excuse for something.

[wintershepherd]

"But this is--" Jack began, when it finally clicked and he uttered a wry laugh. "It's both, Korra. This is Finnick's suite? He must have been running the store from one side and living on the other. We were both right."

[alphatar]

“You’re kidding?” She looked up at Jack and then over at Finnick’s suite. Not once did she ever ask him how he sold them or where he sold them from. Worse yet, she’s only been inside once to help bring in her last catch before the depowering.

“That explains everything.” Jack didn’t know this was Finnick’s suite and Korra didn’t know this was the store.

“Wow, um. Okay. Sorry I kind of wigged out on you. I was just-”

Being stupid. She stroked her ponytail and exhaled enough to puff out both her cheeks.

“I’ll take these in I guess.” She sure did just kind of make an ass of herself.

[wintershepherd]

He waved his hand, her apology unnecessary. "Don't worry, we both made a mistake. No harm done."