tushanshu_logs | Whoa, slow down.

"It's a kind of soft cheese. I don't eat meat."

"Yeah, good point. Can I order a pie for me with that stuff and meat? All of them I guess." She had no idea what they served here. All her pizzas have been made by turtles.

Zatanna chuckled a little. There was an old New York saying that you never truly got to know a person until you found out what pizza toping they liked. Or were willing to put up with.

(...okay, that wasn't true, but it should've been, given how serious some NYers took their pizza.)

"You can order whatever toppings you want. How's this: we'll split a pie. Half mushroom, half meat lovers' delight. That, plus the bowls, plus the candy, plus whatever else I've got in my kitchen should carry us through the night."

"Deal." The sound of an empty bag being crumpled was the last of that bag of chips. Good thing she brought more than one. "You don't have work in the morning or anything, right?" Getting Zatanna in trouble once had been an ordeal and not one Korra was ready to repeat so soon.

"Nope!" She called from the top of the stairs.

One of the perks of working in the field she did. Her boss was a bit of an eccentric. She didn't believe in 9 to 5, and flexibility was only a matter of guarantee. Plus, she was allowed to use magic around the shop to help with her tasks. Encouraged, even. Good for business.

A few minutes later, Zatanna headed back down with a satisfied grin.

"Twenty minutes. I guess tonight must be a slow night for them."

Deciding this was more important than her groggy state at the Welcome Center, Korra gave a thumbs up on the food’s ETA. She’d have to ask Jack about changing her hours sometime soon. "That’s good. Gives them time to make it right!"

Instead of sitting up, Korra folded her legs in so she could still lay down and Zatanna could sit. Taking off her shoes with just her feet, Korra casually asked "Is it okay if I sleep over?"

Well. Your boss is right next door, Korra. (Maybe. Unless he went out, or was crashing at Spock's again. It was hard to keep track of him sometimes.) You could always ask when he comes back.

"Of course it is. Does this mean you don't have work tomorrow morning, either?"

She’s avoiding any and all previous romantic interests for as long as possible.

After a split-second’s consideration, Korra shrugged her shoulders and pushed her boots off the couch and onto the floor. "Staying up this late? I wouldn’t think about it too hard."

Curling her toes, she reached over to grab the last cookie and open up the other bag she brought. "Cookie? These are the double crunch ones."

Her reaction was...slightly unexpected. A simple 'no' would have been enough to satiate her curiosity, but the fact that Korra very deliberately avoided the question altogether...

Zatanna's brows furrowed together for a fleeting moment. She glanced over at the wall, where Jack's suite resided on the other side. Jack was Korra's boss. That much was pretty obvious, given that Zatanna had been the one to help cover for the mass Time Off being taken at the fish shop.

She wanted to ask. She really wanted to ask.

"I guess working at a fish shop requires slightly less concentration than having to light a room full of candles with only your mind." She reached over to grab one of the aforementioned cookies from the offered bag. "Thanks."

"Welcome Center." Why she felt the compulsion to correct Zatanna, she didn’t know, but it was said it off-handedly. Korra avoided looking over at the wall and nestled her head onto one of the couch cushions.

"I could fish in my sleep." Partially true, she came close to doing it before; but all of it was in humor. "Just don’t tell any waterbenders. I don’t need any competition."

"Well, I don't really consider helping out over there work. Which...probably explains why I never seem to get much done."

Whoops.

(In her defense, she really did do her job at the other locations. It was just the Welcome Center where she ended up slacking off most.)

"I'm pretty sure you're the only other water bender I know, Korra, assuming magic users don't count. Secrets don't get much safer than that."

A few twitches of her fingers, and an extra blanket appeared, draped over the back of the couch. There were enough cushions that pillows wouldn't be necessary.

"Thanks." Letting Naga sleep outside was probably best, so Korra didn’t even ask to let her in, though she might spook the delivery guy. Something that made Korra smile when she reached for a cookie.

Her sleeping schedule had been sliding back to what it used to be: sleeping in, so she didn’t see her staying up late doing any more damage than she normally had. "But yeah, the work can be easy at times." She personally assumed Jack put most of the work on himself.

Zatanna didn't usually like to sleep in late; for Korra, she would be willing to make an exception.

"There's only so many new bits of information we can gather. Besides that, it's mostly just answering questions. Talking to people who need help. Playing Nice."

Rolling onto her back, Korra propped both the cushion and her head against the arm of the couch. "I can sleep through that." said lightly as she stretched her legs out to put her feet in Zatanna’s lap.

"There’s almost no one in the mornings anyway, so I don’t think me missing tomorrow would be too bad." Jack usually didn’t ask for an excuse, and this would be a bad one. The old ‘I stayed up all night with Zatanna and ate myself into a food coma because it felt like the right thing to do.’ excuse.

"You can always just tell your boss it was my fault. I'm an expert in getting out of trouble."

Seeing her partner in sleep deprivision for the night getting so comfortable, Zatanna, too, opted to reclaim a small area for herself. The sofa recliner was made of the same material, with the added bonus of a lever to tilt her back and pop up a footrest for her. A single pillow over her stomach offered the perfect arm rest.

"Did you want to start something else before dinner gets here?"

"After that movie? I think I’m at my limit. But I’ll figure tomorrow out, don’t worry." Pulling down the blanket, Korra covered herself just enough so that her arms were free.

"Did I miss anything while I was-" gone? out? "n't here?"

She shook her head, assuming Korra was just talking about work. "Not unless Jack was somehow keeping something from me the whole time. And he knows better. Things were pretty uneventful." For them. "I did gain a whole new appreciation for the distinct lack of raw fish smell in my life, though."

"I kind of missed it actually." Those little things that Korra never noticed, taken for granted because it was always there and now things were sliding back to normal. Well normal for her life in Republic City, not so much for Keeliai. "I’m sure Naga did too."

Deciding to not rectify or rephrase the question, Korra propped herself up a little more against the arm of the couch. This entire night had felt like a marathon of finding ways to not bring up anything related to relationships or boyfriends. They were both suffering in those departments.

"Is it all right if Naga sleeps in here too?" Thinking on it made her not want to sleep alone after dinner. Enough to forgo the more reasonable option of the polar bear dog sleeping outside.

"Would it make you feel better if she does?"

Not that Zatanna would have said no in the first place. She liked Naga, and she was a fan of large, wild animals. The wilder the better.

Getting a question instead of an answer made Korra turn her head fully to look at Zatanna and give her an uncertain look. There wasn’t anything Korra had said to hint at it, but that was just her words. Both Jim and Kyle had told her she wasn’t hard to read otherwise.

Uncertainty melted away into an apologetic droop of her posture, practically sinking into the couch.

"Yeah..."

She wasn't that hard to read, no, but it was also one of those intuitive leaps that didn't take much effort to make. Recent events, plus events of the night, plus overall context...

But, because she had a very strong idea where Korra was coming from, not to mention caught that apologetic look, Zatanna had a good cover-up story all set.

"Of course she can stay. If she were my polarbeardog, I'd worry about her being alone outside all night, too." Then, in a continued show of sympathy for poor Naga, Zatanna got up and started contemplating the layout of the room. "We should probably move some of the furniture back, to give her more space. I'd hate for her to feel cramped all night."

The cold wasn't a problem for Naga. Even winter in Keeliai couldn't compare to the temperatures of the South Pole and her animal companion was very capable of handling herself. She was being humored, and indulged; something she desperately wanted. In fact it was one of the reasons she came over.

"All right, I'll help."

Sliding out from underneath the blanket, Korra began to move the coffee table closer to the couch and pulled one of the chairs to make more room. She felt a little more awake now, and lifted up from the fact that Naga would be there as well. "Think that's enough or should we-"

A knock at the door could only mean one thing. Actually, with Zatanna; it could mean a lot of things.

Zatanna had been mid-levitation spell when the knock caught her off-guard. Not enough to drop the table, fortunately, but certainly enough to draw her attention away from the giant slab carrying the majority of their sustenance.

"...you know, if people are going to start getting in the habit of using the door, I might have to start locking it." She momentarily ignored the table (it would be fine up there, so long as nobody ran into it, and opened the door. A moment to assess what she saw on the other end, and she grinned over her shoulder. "Food's here. And, judging by the look on the poor guy's face, Naga intercepted for us."

Snickering, Korra waved Naga inside to get her away from the deliver guy. "You ate already." Burying her fingers into the animals fur, Korra roughly scratched back and forth before going to help bring in the food.

"So you prefer people to use the window too?" Once she had the pie, Korra airbended it upward to set on the hovering table. She didn’t mean herself, Korra’s become accustomed to windows thanks to having the turtles as visitors and more so after living with them for a while.

And Jack.

Edited 2014-02-08 18:22 (UTC)

Money was exchanged, and more than one apologetic glance was thrown as the poor guy--who looked a cross between nervous and excited each time he looked to Naga--and there was food in Zatanna's hand. Multiple medium to large size boxes that immediately filled the room with a delicious scent.

Honestly, she didn't blame Naga for getting excited. She was pretty excited, too.

"I'm not sure 'prefer' is the right word. It's just a thing that everybody around here I know does. Robin was first--" her heart pained as she thought back to her first day in Keelai. He'd been her first visitor, of course, because why wouldn't he come the moment he knew she was there? "--and there was Batman and Superman and the younger Robin, too. People from my world don't seem to like doors very much. Not to mention, Jack's over so often that he practically lives here too. And I'm not sure he even knows what a door is."

She lowered the coffee table (finally), and pushed aside some of the lesser food items to make room for the actual food items.

"Dinner is served."

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