[Kana] Sparring Match

[Konei Kozuki]

Man, it wasn't even that wet up north, and there, it's all covered in snow.

Konei chuckled. "Yeah. You’d think Water Tribe people would be used to being wet, but unless you dive into the sea you stay pretty much dry." Even waterbenders stayed dry. Well, in the poles staying dry was a cardinal rule. Survival out there wasn’t about keeping warm, it was about not being wet. Sure, you were surrounded by snow and ice, but you wore huge mukluks and giant parkas and about five layers of clothing to keep in bodily heat. If you were cold, then it wasn’t the end of the world. Water Tribe people could handle the cold. But if you got wet then you were about to get a hell of a lot colder, and if you didn’t dry out quick then frostbite followed. The kind that couldn’t be healed. Stay dry, stay alive. Every kid up north knew that, and they all knew it down south too.

Konei clenched his hands into fists, squeezing out the rainwater from his wet wrappings. Once water started to drip from his hands, he wiped them down his chest to soothe the faint burns.
"Why’d you feel bad? It was my stupid decision," he said. In a sparring match, charging straight into the fire had been an idiot move, especially after he’d ditched his shirt. In a real battle, his clothes would take most of the fire damage, even if they burned in parts he’d mostly be fine, and the pain after running through fire would be a small price to pay if it meant being able to disable whoever was hurling fire at him in the first place.

Why? Trying to get me to go get more noodles with you? Spend the rest of the day with you?

"I’m sure we could find a few more bridges to jump," he shrugged jokingly, hanging the towel around his neck. He for one wasn’t up for more bridge jumping quite so soon. The last time had been quite enough. He had memories to last him quite a while, but he wasn’t going to say no to any other kind of stupid, reckless stunt. That was what he was good at, after all.

He grinned at her suggestion of a massage. He wasn’t about to refuse having her hands all over him, but then she reached out, touched his skin, and Konei’s breath jumped in his chest. He had expected it to hurt, hot firebender flesh again his burnt skin, but instead her hands felt cool. It was an odd kind of cool, like her hands were instead sucking the heat right out of—Oh. That’s what she was doing. He’d completely forgotten that firebenders could absorb thermal energy.

I was hoping I'd get to spend the rest of the day with a certain non-bending fellow Tribesman, but, if that fell through, I'd probably just go home and read a book or something.

A droplet of rain had seeped down one sodden strand of his hair and had reached the tip of his nose. Konei wiped it away with the back of his hand. "Well, say hi to him for me."

[Kana Saitou]

Why’d you feel bad? It was my stupid decision,

"Cause it was my fire? We were sparring. It didn't need to be that hot." She half-shrugged as she spoke, simply shaking her head again, her slow-drying bangs falling back into her face, where they were supposed to be.
He spoke again, and she let out a quiet snort of sorts, her eyes rolling off to the side. "We already did that once. I think if we tried it again, it wouldn't have even half the charm as the first time. Not to mention, I have a feeling the cops would not be very happy. 'Might actually try and stop us this time." The fresh memory of the night flashed through her mind,... The chilled air, the darkening sky, the people watching as they vaulted off the bridge, Kana's fire giving them that extra boost they needed to get across the gap. It had been... fun. Kana simply grinned off to the side, thinking about it.

She felt the other's chest bounce the slightest under her touch, drawing her attention back to him as her palm flattened against his skin without much thought, her hand drawing back the warmth the slightest.
His words met her ears, and she snerked, sliding the hand down his chest about half way, before dropping it to her side.

"Hi." She put a little more emphasis on the short word, lips tugged into a grin as she eyed the other, eyes burning gently.

[Konei Kozuki]

"It’s fire," Konei said, laughing. "Being hot is pretty much the entire deal." Being bright and burning things wasn’t even most of it. "I was an idiot and I didn’t think it through. Don’t kick yourself over it." Smiling at her from under a curtain of damp hair, Konei looked down to her palm flattened to his chest. Her touch was cool, as close to a healer as he would get, and for him it was more than good enough. The pressure of her hand lessened, though, and her fingertips trailed off down his chest as she pulled her hand away, tickling and tingling as they went. Every muscle in his chest tightened for a moment; he was accustomed to punches, but touched lightly was a somewhat newer thing for him.

He cleared his throat to distract himself from the new mental images floating to the front of his mind and looked down. He began to unwrap his hands one by one, winding the wet bindings around the fingers of the opposite hand to form a nice neat roll. It wouldn’t dry out too well that way, but that could always be fixed with a quick clean and hanging them from the towel rail when he got home.

She was right when she said the metalbender cops might pull them in for it. Especially if they tried it during the middle of the day. He’d never been arrested before, and didn’t want to start now. He’d been down to the station multiple times, though; he made cable reels and armour parts for the police force. But he wouldn't like to go there for any reason other than business.

Konei looked up at her, his gaze flickered from her eyes to her lips and back again in one fleeting second, and he smiled that killer smile. "Hey." And suddenly he got the urge to kiss her, but that would’ve been a bit inappropriate, right?

[Kana Saitou]

"Oh shut up. Fire can be hot without actually burning, if you do it right." She raised her able hand, a small, dark red flame appearing in her hand, the core of it more orange than white or gold. It gave off a heat, of course, and if you held your hand over it long enough, it very well might still burn. Why someone would intentionally hold their hand over fire (If they aren't a fire bender, that is), Kana wasn't sure. "Color of the flame tells you how hot it is. Sometimes size does too." As she spoke, the flame in her hand brightened, the reds turning orange, oranges gold, golds white. Just before the flame disappeared, it seemed to flicker purple, then blue in some areas, before disappearing completely from the air.

Kana fell silent then, giving up on the subject for the most part. His chest was burned. It didn't really matter whose fault it was.

His eyes flashed over her face, and in that brief second, she managed to catch the movement, the grin on her lips slipping more to one side in a smirk, eyes lidding half-way. Her head tilted just the slightest to the side, her own gaze lingering on the other's smile--that damn perfect smile that made her mind wander more than she expected it would.
"Careful with that grin there, Konei. I might have to follow you home just so I can see it all the time." Her gaze slowly wandered back up, glancing over his scar before she met his gaze again, lips parted this time in a small, but still slightly toothy grin.

She stood there only a few heartbeats more, before finally side-stepping away from the other, grabbing her boots and things that she'd brought in from the rain before the last round, silently glad that they'd managed to stay... mostly dry the whole time. Particularly her boots, which were only wet by the moisture in the air.

[Konei Kozuki]

He was aware that different fire colours existed. He’d heard in passing of green fire and purple fire and the characteristic blue fire of Princess (Fire Lord?) Azula way back when. But since all he’d ever seen firebenders produce was the normal yellow-gold stuff he’d assumed that other fire colours had to be learned specifically, and that they certain benders had a signature colour of flames.

Careful with that grin there, Konei. I might have to follow you home just so I can see it all the time.

His smile still in place, Konei inhaled and opened his mouth to respond with some witty remark. But then... his mind replayed just what the hell she’d just said and... he couldn’t find any words for it. His smile slid from his face like butter off greased paper and his brow wrinkled. One eye crinkled up in mind-boggled thought. Was she threatening to stalk him - did he hear that right? Was she going to follow him so that she could see him smiling all the time? But smiling wasn’t his default expression. What then? Would she make him smile?

Thankfully, she’d turned away before Konei’s face displayed that eye-crossingly confused expression, and all he managed to say in return was a quiet, flat, "What."

He was trying so hard to make sense of it that he didn’t start collecting up his clothes immediately when Kana picked up her boots.

[Kana Saitou]

As she turned away, gathering her things, her brows furrowed, her movements beginning to slow. She sat on one of the benches not many feet from the other, slowly pulling on one boot, then the other, before finally just stopping.

She looked at the other, her brows knit tight, though a rather confused smile pulling her lips apart. "I have no idea what I just said." She began to laugh then, shaking her head as the sound came out rather carelessly.
A slight rosey blush appeared over her cheeks, and she had to duck her head down, the laughter still escaping her without reserve.

"Oh my god. Okay. Can we just---" She paused, having to forcibly stop herself from laughing, taking two, quick, heavy breaths, before continuing. "Can we just pretend I didn't say that and go back to you thinking I'm not a total idiot?"

[Konei Kozuki]

Konei watched her pull on her boots one by one with that quizzical expression still plastered to his face. It seemed to take her until she had her footwear on before she realised just which words had come out of her mouth.

"Yeah, I have no idea what you just said either," Konei said, his voice cracking up as he begun to laugh. He stooped briefly to pick up his shirt and shrugged on the garment, doing up the frog fastenings one by one. Then, sliding down the wall to pull on his boots, still chuckling to himself, he added, "I’d say something dumb to balance it out but I don’t think I can quite match that."

He tried to bite his lips together, but the laugh won over as he pulled on his last boot. "Seriously, I have no idea where that comment came from but I’ll try think of something to match it. Sound fair?"

He stood up, pulled back his hair into a rough ponytail again and began to fold up his towel. He didn’t even think it possible to come out with something that bizarre, but he’d try if it would make her feel better. Maybe now he had a free pass to get out of a weird comment.

[Kana Saitou]

Her laughter subsided finally, as she moved back to her feet, grabbing her belts, and her shawl, pulling them around her waist and fastening them, before finally grabbing her gloves, pulling them over her hands right after.
Kana's head shook, and finally her laughter ended entirely with short, under the breath chuckles. "Yeah. Sounds fair."

She fixed little things here and there on her outfit, rubbing her legs to fix her stockings, patting her shawl to unwrinkle it, stretching her gloves so they didn't bunch around her wrists. Finally, she looked back at the other, raising her good hand to brush away her bangs.
"So, fellow tribesman. Am I going home to read a book, or do you have anything planned out?" She strode back over to the other slowly, dropping her hand to her hip.

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[Konei Kozuki]

Konei picked up his water bottle and stuffed that, the folded towel, and his wet hand wrappings into the bag before folding the bag flap over the contents. He shrugged on his coat and slung the bag over one shoulder so that the strap crossed his chest diagonally. His eyes moved over Kana as she wrapped her normal blue shawl around her waist and couldn’t help but appreciate the curves of her waist and hips.

He wrenched his eyes away to look down as he picked up the wet wooden training sword, and he propped it against one shoulder as he waited for her to put on her gloves and be ready to leave. She had a rather fiddly outfit, what with her belts and gloves and shawl and stockings. Konei dressed as simply as he could; easy to put on and easy to take off again. He’d never really been into the more elaborate fashions of the city, not when the other outfits he was used to was basic water tribe clothing.

"Well, that’s up to you. Is the book more, or less interesting than heading over to mine?" he said, still smiling.

[Kana Saitou]

Kana's attire was, in a sense, quite randomly assembled. Bits and pieces of her attire from the north, with a few parts removed, as they were no longer necessary in the considerably warmer temperatures of the Earth Kingdom.

To be honest, she'd more than once considered changing her usual wear to something much less... water tribe-esque. Though to what, she wasn't sure. A longer coat, shorter gloves. Pants, perhaps? More neutral colours, no doubt.
The furs and fabrics of the north were simply most comfortable for her. It wasn't surprising she clung to them.

Well, that’s up to you. Is the book more, or less interesting than heading over to mine? She pursed her lips slightly, humming as she feigned deep thought, raising a hand to tap an index finger to her lips, eyes wandering off. "Well, let me think about what book I'd be reading... Hm. Well. All the books I have at home I've read once or twice anyway, which means I wouldn't be discovering anything ultimately life changing. Your place, however, is completely foreign to me, opening doors to many more possibilities. Guess that means I'll be following you, then." Once again, her calm, smug little grin found it's way onto her lips, as she slowly strode right back over to the other, the laughter and lack of composure from moments before now completely absent, replaced with Kana's typical, calm exterior.

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