Author's Note: Hello! This is my first fic that I'm going to try and keep up with… I hope you enjoy. In this, Tahno is 11 and Korra is 8, and both of them are living in the Southern Water Tribe.
Korra walked out of her house and immediately headed towards the village. It was one of her weekends off from training, and she was at her parents house. She preferred this to the compound for two reasons. One, she missed her parents and liked seeing them. And two, it meant she got to go play with her best friend, Tahno. Even though he was three years older than her, they got along better than they did with the other kids in the village. Often, if they weren't playing in the snow, they were teaching each other waterbending techniques, or in their secret hideout, which was a tiny cave a little ways away from Korra's house.
Korra found Tahno's family's hut, crouching down behind a snow bank and waiting, watching the door. Tahno always came out around this time to check the animal traps a little ways away from his house. While she waited, Korra began forming snowballs so she would be ready. Tahno had beat her last time, and this time she was determined to get her revenge.
Ten minutes later, Korra heard a door opening and closing. Grinning from her hiding spot, she sees Tahno come out, looking around cautiously before deciding that the coast was clear. As he turned to start walking to the traps, Korra threw a snowball, hitting him directly in the face.
He stands there, stunned for a moment, before a snowball comes out of nowhere and hits Korra. "You always seem to forget that I have a stockpile of snowballs waiting, uh-vatar." "Oh shut it," Korra replies back, standing up and bending a volley of snowballs at Tahno. He manages to dodge most of them, and soon enough he's bending some snowballs back at her. "You know waterbending the snowballs is cheating," he points out, both of them dodging and bending snowballs back and forth at each other. "So? It's more fun this way!" Korra shouts back, laughing as a snowball almost hits Tahno's face. "You know the rule about the face! It messes up my hair!" He says indignantly, dodging another snowball aimed at his face. "You're eleven years old, why are you so worried about your hair?" Korra teases, getting hit in the shoulder.
They go on like this for another hour before Tahno's mother comes out and tells him to go check the traps. "Come on, let's go. Then we can go back to your house for hot chocolate, right?" Tahno says, motioning for Korra to follow him to where the traps are. Korra follows him, bouncing in the snow,"Yup! My mom told me she'd have it ready whenever we wanted it!"
As they walk along, they begin to chat. "So you're home for a few days, right?" "Yeah, finally. I feel like it's been forever since they let me take a break. But I suppose it's just cause I started earthbending training since the last time I saw you." "Oh, that's right. How's that going?" "Fine. I can move the rocks at least. Not very well, but it's something." Tahno stops walking and pulls a small pebble out of his pocket. "Can you show me? I wanna see you earthbend, uh-vatar," he says, grinning at her and watching. She nods, rolling her eyes. "Come on, a pebble? I can move boulders at this point." "Shut up and move the pebble then." Korra easily makes the pebble go flying, lightly hitting Tahno's chest, "There, see? Earthbending." Tahno rolls his eyes rubbing the spot where the pebble hit.
"You're such a five year old," he says, rolling his eyes and beginning to walk again. Korra's face turns red. She hates it when Tahno calls her a five year old, seeing as she is eight now. It bothers her that she's so much younger than him, and often worries that he'll find friends his own age and stop hanging out with her. "Hey! I'm eight now! Shut up!" "Calm down, Korra. I was kidding. Spirits, you really are touchy about your age, aren't you?" He teases. "Well, it's better than worrying about my hair all the time." "Hey, don't diss the hair."
They've finally reached the traps, which yield nothing. Tahno sighs. "I hate that this is the best I can do. It's never good enough," he mutters, kicking one of the traps. "Hey, it's alright. My dad can give you some seal meat to take home. He always hunts down too many. And it won't be that long before you can go hunting yourself. Just another couple years, right?" "Yeah. Two more years. Then I'll be thirteen. It can't come soon enough." They stand there for a few minutes, staring at the empty traps that Tahno's family relies on for their meat. Ever since Tahno's father died, his mother has had to stay home, trying to make a little money by sewing clothes for people. It's never enough though, and they can barely afford to pay for their hut, never mind food. Tahno constantly berates himself for the fact that all he can do is set up traps, for the fact that he's too young to go out and actually hunt on his own. The village has a rule that a boy must be at least thirteen before they can hunt without their father, and Tahno hates it. He hates watching his mother go hungry, giving her food to him when there isn't enough.
"Come on, let's go have some hot chocolate," Korra murmurs, tugging on Tahno's arm, pulling him away from the traps. He just nods, turning and following her through the snow and to her house. They walk in silence.
