the legend of khione || korra

at least she's safe

KHIONE

"I'd just like to state for the record that this room is not perfect," Bolin complained. Khione agreed silently, from where she was sitting tucked up against the far side of the wall, Naga's head lolling near her feet. The room was pretty small, even with Naga taking most of the room.

"Naga!" Bolin yelped, as Naga swatted Bolin's face with her tail.

"Hey!" Khione retorted, squishing Naga's cheeks and scratching her behind the ears. "Don't yell at Naga," She said imperiously.

Bolin pouted, spitting out dog fur.

"There he is," Korra said, staring out of the window from her crate.

"I thought stakeouts were supposed to be exciting. This isn't. At all!" Bolin said peevishly, standing up to circle the room, before being distracted by the bedside table in the corner of the room.

"Ooh, I wonder if there are any snacks in here," He said, before gasping and drawing out something from the second drawer.

"Hey look! A Pai Sho board. Mako, you wanna play?" 

"Kinda busy here, bro," Mako replied, not taking his eyes off of Aiwei's room.

Khione leaned forward.

"I'll play a few games," She said, and Bolin's face lit up.

"Oh well, no offense, but I learned street Pai Sho from Shady Shin, I'm pretty good, so it wouldn't be a fair game," He bragged.

Khione shrugged, smirking.

"So? I literally had a Pai Sho tutor growing up. This will be easy," She said, rolling her wrists. Beside Bolin, Asami grinned at her.

"Well, looks like we have a Pai Sho-down," Bolin said.

They laid out the board, and placed their respective tiles on it. Asami sat beside Khione, watching the game with her chin propped up on her hands.

"Just for the record, I'm betting on Khione here," Asami said, and Bolin looked at her with his mouth open, before squinting his eyes at her.

Khione blew her a kiss as Bolin got over his hurt feelings, gesturing to the tiles.

"Ladies first," He said chivalrously, and Khione slid her first tile into position.

Khione and Bolin took turns, their moves relatively fast, until Khione's hands hovered over a few of the tiles to make sure she wasn't missing anything.

"I don't want to rush you, but let's speed things up a bit," Bolin said impatiently. Khione moved her white lotus tile to the middle of the board.

"Why?" She asked.

"Yeah, why? This game is all about slow, methodical strategy," Asami added.

"No it's not; This is a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat, game of chance. Don't think, just go," Bolin exclaimed.

Khione looked at him blankly.

"I don't think you're right," She said politely.

"I don't know what Shady Shin taught you, but it wasn't the real Pai Sho," Asami said.

"Oh, really? I think our friend Mr Rulebook might disagree with you two," Bolin said, waving it in their faces.

"The origins of Pai Sho date back to over 10,000 years. It is a game of both strategy and chance," Bolin read out loud, looking smug before he realised what he'd said.

"Wait. How could it be both?"

"Let me see that," Asami took the book from Bolin. Khione watched amusedly as Asami recited; "There has been countless variations of Pai Sho throughout the centuries and each culture has its own rules and variations on the game."