Summary: Tahno feels a little awkward when his girlfriend can bend four elements and he can't bend any of them. Not anymore, at least. - taken from korraprompts
This prompt really got my attention, so I decided to try it. To whoever submited this great idea, I hope you appreciate it. I'm doing my best for my beautiful OTP. This ship needs even more love, guys!
Disclaimer: I don't own Korra or Tahno, but I'm sure Korra owns Tahno. Okay, this sounded horribly stupid.
Tahno couldn't really tell for how long he had been staring at the newspaper. It might have been just a few minutes, or a few hours. He didn't know really well. His gaze was deeply focused on his journal-self: a small black and white Tahno with messy hair and small bags under the eyes, not looking very flamboyant while holding hands with a girl, a girl he knew very well – her blue outfit looked gray in the newspaper, as well as her blue eyes. He had a somewhat stupid facial expression while staring at the girl, while she was wearing her brightest smile and talking to him.
Finally being able to ignore his journal-self, Tahno folded the newspaper and rested his forehead into his free hand. It's not like he wasn't used to appear on the journal – and he was pretty sure that Korra was kinda used to it, too -, he just wasn't expecting that to happen anymore after he became a non-bender. Actually, if wasn't for Korra, he really wouldn't be there. But being the Avatar's boyfriend seemed important enough to have some crazy photographer stalking them and putting their faces on the back of the newspaper. As much as he stared at it, he couldn't remember very well what the big black letters above the head of his journal-self said – something about the Avatar being seen with her old pro-bending rival in the streets a lot of times. In a few lines under the photograph, there was a brief discussion about her love life, and if Tahno was somehow involved on it.
Resisting to the urge of throwing the newspaper in the air and blaming it for every single shit in the world, he put the paper aside and focused once again on his noodles, taking a few seconds to check his watch. Korra was a little late. Nothing that he wasn't used to – she was the Avatar, after all. It's just pretty much obvious that she would be late here and there, with tons of responsibilities and such.
What annoyed him the most about the note in the newspaper wasn't only the fact that his privacy was thrown away along with Korra's, but also the fact of how the newspaper diligently didn't say a word about him losing his bending. They've noticed Amon's invasion on the pro-bending arena in their first pages, months ago, when all of that happened, but never worried to say a word about what he had to go through that day. Not that he wanted the papers screaming about how the old leader of the Wolfbats wasn't able to bend anymore, but he wanted people to know what Amon could do, instead of just keeping quiet about it. People probably already knew what happened to him, but he couldn't help but feel even more miserable with everyone being unable to talk about it, like it was something forbidden or illegal.
Like he was some weird kind of freak.
"Sorry for being late!" Korra's voice came from some point above his head, and he looked up at the voice source.
"You've put your coat on inside-out", he noticed as soon as he glanced at her. Not the nicest thing a guy could say to his girlfriend as soon as they manage to be together, but he knew Korra wouldn't be upset. That was something really great about her – humor sense.
"What? Oh, Spirits." She sat down and tried to do something about her coat, taking it off and carefully trying to flip it in the best way she could. "You've got some good fashion sense, pretty boy. Thanks. Have you been waiting for too long?"
"Long enough to read this shit." He pointed at the newspaper with a disgusted face. "Did you saw it?"
"Yeah, they've put a picture of us!" Korra had an amused look on her face. "I didn't know that my relationships were this much important to the city. It's kinda akward, huh?"
"They seemed to be quite impressed with the fact of you dating a non-bender", he muttered in an annoyed way.
Korra rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, that's some serious stuff. I'm not going to sleep tonight because of this."
Tahno's eyes met hers.
"It's serious for me."
Korra pouted, giving Tahno the usual excited feeling he had everytime she pouted. Korra's pout usually meant that some serious shit was about to go down, and he liked it.
"Look, stop being so emotional over it. I'm the one who chooses with who I want to go out; the newspapers just have to shut up and deal with it."
She ended her small speech filling her mouth with some of the noodles he got earlier, not worrying herself about looking charming or composed in front of him. That was another thing that Tahno really liked about Korra – she would never force herself to be something that she wasn't.
"Did you told those friends of yours to shut up and deal with it, too?" Tahno asked, trying not to sound very worried about it.
The question was serious enough for Korra stop eating for a while and let out a small sigh.
"Well, it's not like they didn't knew it already. I've told them when we started to… go out." She seemed to have problems saying she was dating, and Tahno couldn't help but find it kinda adorable. "Bolin didn't seemed uncomfortable or anything, but Mako annoyed me for a while after he checked today's newspaper."
"As expected from Mr. Great Firebender", he muttered.
"You can't bring yourself to like Mako even a little, can you?" Korra's voice sounded a little anxious.
"No. Don't even ask me to."
Korra stared at her boyfriend. A wide grin took place in her lips.
"Do I feel jealousy in the air, pretty boy?"
"Don't be so full of yourself, Uhvatar. If that fire ferret guy annoyed you a lot, you just tell me. I could-" He stopped himself, his eyes looking down, both brows furrowed in pain. "Nah, forget it."
"Hey, say it! I don't really appreciate your disgust towards Mako, but you can't just make up a phrase and leave it hanging in the air."
It was Tahno's time to sigh.
"I just… can't get used to it. Even after all these months. I was about to say I could kick his ass if he became a pain, but I don't really think I could. Huh." He said the last part in such a low voice that Korra had to recline herself over the table to hear him properly.
"Why you keep acting like that? Don't let your depressed self take the best of you, Tahno!" The sound of his name coming out of her mouth was quite amusing for him.
"Are you saying you want me to kick your dear friend's ass?"
"I didn't mean it! Oh, Spirits!" Korra glanced sharply at him before turning her attention back to her noodles. "Anyway, it's everything alright between Mako and me. He seemed quite jealous about our newspaper small note, but I think he can get over it. Actually, I don't get him at all. For some weird reason, he seems to think I can't date anyone because I confessed to him once."
"Oh, you can't imagine how much interested I am in your love confession for Mako", Tahno said, using his best annoyed voice for it.
"Well, I guess you are. You always get jealous when I mention it." Korra grinned.
Tahno didn't replied. He kept himself quiet for a while, staring at the empty space between him and Korra. The silence worried the Avatar.
"Hey, is everything alright? I was just kidding-"
"What would you do", he didn't waited for her to finish her speech as he started to talk, "if Mako asked you out? If he confessed to you?"
Korra blinked two or three times.
"What? I thought we were going out, pretty boy."
"Answer me, Korra."
For Korra's surprise, he seemed quite serious about that. She decided to break the tension a little.
"Well, what would you do?"
"What?"
"You heard me. What would you do? I want to know, too."
"But I was the one who asked-"
Korra pouted. Oh, the excitement feeling going through him all over again.
"Answer me, pretty boy."
He couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes.
"Nothing, I guess. There would be nothing I could do, right? Not being the wreck I am now. Not against your first crush, Uhvatar. What would I got against a bender, anyway? I don't blame you for liking him. Back then, I could put him back on his place. But not anymore."
He seemed to be deeply destroyed as he talked, with gray eyes overflowing with sadness. But now it was different from right after he lost his bending. Now, he was even sadder. Now, he was hopelessly in love with a girl who could bend all of the four elements, while he could do nothing but watch.
Korra had shock in her eyes, merged with some pain. She didn't expect him to be feeling that much inferior to everyone else, and she didn't know how she could make him see the amount he meant for her.
She decided to let him see that in her best Korra-ish way.
"Well, do you know what would I do?" He lifted his head to look at her – two light gray eyes working like windows and showing the emptiness inside him. "First of all, I'd punch you. Really hard. And in the face."
He blinked.
"I could do it right now, you know", she added, "You kinda deserve it, after what I just heard. You'd do nothing? Nothing at all? And what about this bullshit about me liking Mako? Do you think I'd go and date you if I still liked him?"
Tahno watched silently as she got angrier and angrier. He was divided between getting excited with her angry face or getting a spot to hide himself.
"I'm sorry-"
"No you're not!" Korra pointed at him. "Frankly, I kinda enjoy it when you get all jealous over Mako, but you're overdoing it! Who said you need some stupid bending to be good? You're great, pretty boy! You're my damn boyfriend! I've come to like you after you lost your bending, and if you had to lost your bend two thousand times, I'd fall for you two thousand times!"
The amount of angst that Korra felt made her raise her voice more with every sentence, to the point that a few costumers of the noodlery were already staring at her when she finished. Korra felt her face burning as she tried to hide her body under the table, leaving a pair of red cheeks and nervous eyes above the wood.
It took almost a minute for Tahno to break the silence.
"Now we'll sure be in tomorrow's newspaper", he whispered as he looked around, expecting to see some crazy photographers coming out from under their seats.
"Your fault, pretty boy. You better buy me some noodles to make up for this."
"Shouldn't we leave these noodles for tomorrow? This place just got a thousand times more awkward."
Korra silently agreed with him, as they stood up and he picked up her hand. As they walked out of the noodlery, Korra pulled his arm closer to her and gave him a somewhat awkward hug.
"What are you doing?"
"Shut up and enjoy it. I just figured out that you need it."
"...You're acting like my grandma."
Korra couldn't help but laugh.
"That's probably why you love me, right?"
"Not really." He pulled Korra away and placed a soft kiss on her lips. "Actually, I don't really know why the hell I like you. But I can't deny that I have a thing for you, Uhvatar."
Tahno couldn't deny that he missed his bending. He couldn't deny he missed his old self. But if losing all of this meant having Korra by his side, he thought he could deal with it.
They could deal with it together.
N.A.: AJJKFDOKGFJGJFH my feelings over Tahorra, guys. I can't even. Pardon me any grammar error, this ship fucks with my head.