tushanshu_logs | Catch-all for October

"I'd put my name on it if it was me." she added non-nonchalantly. "If someone's affected, then that's their tough luck." Of course, she never really had anything even remotely like an art exhibit of her own so she's not talking from experience.

"But it's good he helped you out. When we talked after- that happened, I was pretty sure Damian needed some more friends." But he had known Jack, and that was a great start as far as she was concerned.

'I wouldn't,' he says, simply. 'I've no use for that kind of recognition.' He worked for hire, and he signed the ones he felt personally proud of, or the ones he was getting paid for. It'd be nice to be recognised, but he sought that in his duty, not his art, which was something he did for a hobby now.

It also speaks of a different association with the word special. Kyle's point of reference is Jim, who's spent much of his life distinguishing himself, but for Kyle it always meant someone was going to hunt him down and hurt him.

'Damian's needs are his own concern, not yours,' he warns. 'Don't tell him what to do or what to want.'

A shrug. Art wasn’t in her realm of expertise and understanding the motivation behind an artist’s works was even more foreign, so she let it drop at that. Recognition was something she wanted and got easily thanks to her Avatar title and status.

“Have you met the kid?” she asked rhetorically as she got down from Naga’s back and stretched her arms upwards. “Way too serious for his age.” She promised the boy that she wouldn’t tell anyone about his dangerous upbringing as an assassin and she wasn’t going to break it any time soon.

“Same thing with another friend of mine. That’s what they need, friends. Plain and simple.” She fetched another snack bag from the fridge and tossed it at Kyle. Now that his art was done, Korra was going to make him hold up to his promise of eating.

Have you? he wonders, as he watches Korra move around. He doesn't analyse the movement as he's sure Damian would: Kyle watches to learn proportions and motion, to put it down in a sketch, Damian would watch for signs of injury, and weakness, to exploit it. A little bit of that has rubbed off - there's an odd sharpness to Kyle's expression as Korra sits - it fades. He never was that good a chess player.

'My world isn't kind to children,' he replies, slowly. Damian hadn't mentioned what his teachers had made him do if he ever got close to anything, but from Cassandra's attitude (when she'd been here, Kyle felt himself missing her terribly, sometimes), they weren't trained to see friends as a good thing. Far from it. Someone becoming close was dangerous to the main point of being an assassin: people were targets. Things.

He catches the snack, and, true to his word, opens it, says grace quickly, and eats.

Satisfied that he was eating, she laid onto the couch now that she had it to herself.

"I think Zatanna turned out just fine." She said as a rebuttal. To her, every world should be kinder to children. They were supposed to have fun and just be themselves, all the things she didn’t get to do. It was one of the reasons she enjoyed spending time with Tenzin’s three kids.

Were you even listening? But Kyle knew he'd been vague on purpose, it just meant Korra wasn't terribly perceptive. He saw Jim's flaws but none of Jim's redeeming qualities.

'Zatanna's from a slightly different one,' he offers, chewing slowly.

"Only slightly?" she asked somewhat amused as she propped her head on the armrest. "What about Dick? He grew up just fine and is pretty happy every time I see him at work. Or Dinah? She’s one of the best teachers I’ve ever had." Korra had met her back when she first started learning English and in person when hydroponics garden needed volunteers. They’ve kicked it off incredibly well ever since.

"Even you’ve got friends." She meant Zatanna and Jim, but she just steamrolled on. "He needs more than just the one he’s got." The only one she knew of was Jack, and that was a great starting point according to her.

The smile that crosses his features at Dick's name is amused, almost a smirk. 'I haven't asked about the differences, it's enough that we recognise each other. Dinah's from my universe.' About the same time he was, actually, and he still felt his stomach clench. He hadn't been able to go to her wedding.

'Excuse me,' he says, affronted. 'What do you mean "even I've got friends"? Are you implying I'm incapable of making human connections?'

(Damian had a lot more than one friend. But Kyle wasn't going there. Not to her, or anyone. Not ever.)

"You don’t make it easy, that’s for sure." Said with all of her mouth squinched to one side of her face and a half-hearted shrug. Of course she was just going off her own experience, and didn’t even venture into thinking of how it must have been for Zatanna or Jack to get to know him.

"But yeah, I know. She told me about the Justice League and your Corps a long time ago." Had the clinic really been a long time ago? She shook her head, and put both hands behind it so it was more comfortable.

Do I?, he wonders, feeling suddenly uncharacteristically cold, mentally running through all the people he has met on the turtle. Most of them, he finds, are generally the abrasive and difficult-to-get-to-know type. (Hell, how had Shayera come to call him family?). According to him, she was just on the list of people he didn't really intend to befriend.

After all, he felt he was right, when he'd told Jim she needed harsh truths rather than a gentle hand.

Her casual response throws him off, he thought there'd be more poking, so he lowers his hackles slowly and goes back to eating. Dinah gets a nod; he doesn't know how much has been mentioned and quite frankly, he doesn't care.

Edited (icon) 2013-11-06 01:28 (UTC)

She watched him eat in silence, ready to make sure he finished the entire meal. Something she had really picked up from helping Pema with her kids. The thought of Jim having to get after Kyle to eat was actually kind of funny and reminded her of when he tried to get her to eat her side dish when they went out to eat.

To which she showed him the half chewed food in her mouth, of course.

But that made her curious, eating was usually done with friends and family. "What was your family like?"

'Define family,' he answers. Usually it's a broad term for him, but he senses that's not the connotation she has. Finishing the last of the snack, he tidily folds the packet to dispose of later.

"You know, family. Like your father and mother." then she added as an afterthought: "Or a brother or sister." Siblings wasn't what she thought of when family came to mind.

"Take my dad, Tonraq, and my mom, Senna. My dad's a good guy. He's been a warrior for the Southern Water Tribe and we got along great." Which also meant they were a lot alike.

"My mom's a great cook and she's smart, keeps both of us in check when she needs to. My dad and I can get pretty carried away with waterbending. But she's probably the nicest person I've known." Daughterly bias of course.

Considering he referred to the Corps as his brothers and sisters, and several others besides filled parental roles, that didn't narrow it down for him at all.

He smiles, missing his own mother, and instinctively her cooking comes to mind, on lazy summer days when they'd still lived in the trailer.

He lets a silence lapse and then replies, 'Biological family, or chosen?'

She can't keep the laugh out of her answer. "Biological first." That was what she meant originally, but now she was curious what there was under the chosen category.

Aside from Jim and Zatanna, Korra had never really known just who Kyle considered family.

He takes a breath to steady himself. He'd never really discussed the state of his biological family with anyone besides Connor, not out of fear, but he was simply deeply private about these things.

'Just Ma and me,' he begins, tone slightly unsure. She worked long hours: we didn't have much money and God knows I gave her a ton of shit about so many pointless things no mother should hear from her son, but she loved me and she raised me right, and I wish I'd told her more of that before she passed away. 'I ran away from home to study architecture, and then went back when I became a GL. She passed away last year. I don't know my father.'

He did, but Gabriel Vasquez was strictly Off Limits.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know." If there was one thing Korra couldn’t fake, it was sincerity, and the sympathetic hurt in her tone said it all. She didn’t press on asking about siblings, he would have mentioned it if he had them or wanted to talk about them.

"Is the chosen family just from home or does that include Keeliai too?"

His first instinct is to snap back did I ask for your sympathy but he just sighs, and shakes his head, concentrating on Jim's face and voice in his mind. 'I didn't tell you that so you could pity me, Korra. Anyway, chosen family's here too, but mostly at home.'

"I know." She lied reticently and folded her arms, moving onto her side so she was facing the couch. Receiving a rebuke for expressing how she felt hurt, and she didn't want him to see that.

Le sigh. She wasn't exactly transparent, and it was stoking his temper. She was the one who was pressing his buttons, and she acted hurt?

'If you're an expecting an honest answer, you should be prepared for all kinds.'

"I was, that’s not the first time someone’s told me that. I just didn’t want you to think I don’t care." Stubbornly answered, even though it wasn’t a question. After a moment she got up from the couch and into her boots in one quick movement. Feeling stung for showing earnest sympathy, she decided it was time to go home.

"I need to feed Naga. See you tomorrow." Which wasn’t a truth either since Naga had a food dispenser in the enclosure made specifically for her. As soon as she took her first step, the polar bear dog rose to all fours and stretched out.

You're running away. It's on the tip of his tongue, the brief, violent moment before flinging it, but he shrugs, wondering if the other person had been Damian, and if so, how that might've gone.

He pets Naga, shoots Korra a Look that suggests he knows what the game is, but nods. 'See you later, then.'

Catch-all for October

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