Image was important to Tahno. Image was crucial. Image in many cases is more important than substance. Because of the importance of image, he was carrying flowers to the Avatar on Air Temple Island.
Or at least that's what he kept telling himself when dark thoughts came to mind and he felt the hackles on the back of his neck rising.
He'd wanted blue flowers, blue roses if possible, though he couldn't remember ever seeing blue roses at any of the florists he frequented. The pretty florist girl—Koko he thought her name was, wore a couple old fashioned geisha hair ornaments—had smiled apologetically as she showed him the bluest of their purple flowers, and apologized for the lack of blue flowers. Then a bushel of pale flowers among the roses caught his attention—not quite white, but a very light green. He inquired about them, and the price—second most expensive type of flower in the shop—was what decided it. One to carry with himself, three to be sent to Kuang's around five o'clock. He tipped well. Tahno always tipped a pretty face well.
The rose would keep well in the special pocket inside his jacket, but Tahno didn't feel like wasting time or interacting with the masses on the ferries. It took about ten minutes by taxi to get to the dockyard, and Tahno tossed the ten Yuan bill in the driver's window as he walked away, listening with a smile to the old man's grumbling. After all, image was important.
He walked directly off the end of the dock to his own ice floe, formed in the shape of a boat's bottom for easiest navigation. He relished the sound of angry sailors' shouts as he darted with a condescending wave in between the ships in the crowded dock. With his other hand he was careful to keep a single droplet of filthy dock water from touching his expensive suit.
He arrived on the west shore of the island, where the water was cleanest, and stepped onto the stone temple walkway without setting foot on the beach. Water he could at least control—he couldn't do a thing about a bunch of grit clinging to the hem of his 55% silk pants.
He grinned as he finally reached the top of the scenic staircase and saw the Avatar alone in the courtyard, lying on her back on a bench with a newspaper over her face.
A flash, all his muscles tensed, and his senses screamed at him Don't think about the headlines. He took a breath, shrugged his shoulders and limbered his limbs to swagger over to the Avatar.
"Avatar Korra," he said in a cordial drawl. "Enjoying the weather?"
He saw her muscles tense the instant before he spoke—good reflexes—and she was on her feet before he'd finished with her title. She landed in what looked like a halfway stance—firebender's arms, earthbender's legs, waterbender's flexible core.
"Tahno. What do you want?" She sounded wary, not suspicious. That was good.
Tahno shrugged again, shoving his hands in his pockets as he gave her an indirect view of his smile—girls loved the crooked smiled. "Come on, now—Championship's been called off, haven't you heard? Not like we're enemies anymore."
Neither of them said the sentence that was hanging in the air: With Amon on the loose, not like any of us are enemies anymore. She stood up straight, as if to shake off the thought.
"Korra," he said, pulling out the green rose and walking towards her. "You saved my life." He offered it to her, just the right mix of honesty and pretty-boy veneer on his face.
"I saved your bending," she corrected immediately, turning away and grabbing the paper to leave.
"Hey, would you look at me? Bending is my life," he said, gesturing with the rose as he followed her. "Come on. You need a night on the town, to relax."
Korra turned around, met his eyes, every muscle a ball of controlled tension. "Sorry to tell you this, but a night on the town is the opposite of relaxing."
Tahno gave her Smile No. 5 "That's because you haven't had a night on the town with Tahno."
"Not interested," she said, spinning around and marching off.
"Come on, Avatar. I can wait all night, and I think I heard something once about airbenders not turning away hungry guests and I can make it all night at least. But then, the reservations at Kuang's is for eight, so it'd probably be better to head out before those go to waste."
She continued to march, ignoring him with visible tautness to the muscles in her neck.
"I mean, it doesn't have to be Kuang's," he continues. "Not everybody can get a last-minute reservation at Kuang's, so you could be making some poor lucky sap's night by wanting to go someplace else. How about that Water Tribe noodle dive I met you in?"
For about the first five minutes, it was cute that she was ignoring him with him trailing behind, talking about dinner, flirting just enough to be Tahno of the Wolfbats. And then it got annoying that he had to keep coming up with words as the most talkative Avatar in memory clammed up at him. And then it got infuriating that he'd come all this way to offer a girl a flower and a dinner date with Tahno of the Woldbats. And then for a few seconds he went back down the train of thought for the debt he owed her, and for a few seconds he was beginning to feel the symptoms of what the healers told him was called "shell shock" when he'd been on the healing cot, curled as tight as he could, unable to shut his eyes or keep from whimpering. (Thank the spirits no press or competition had been there.)
And right then, as a dark place was calling, his perfectly groomed hair went flying in five directions in four seconds, and there were shrill, excited bratlings hanging on Korra asking dozens of questions about him and her teammates and every form of emphasis possible laid on the word "like." He straightened his hair.
Dinner at the Air temple was definitely out.
He discerned one question the smaller of the bratlings asked, and responded with a shrug, waving the rose as he answered "Hey, she just saved my life the other night, and I figured I owed my new friend a dinner, no big deal."
"Yeah, but what about the rose?" she fired off with a faint lisp.
"Girls like roses," he said, kneeling down and handing it to the bratling. Twenty two yuans and change, down the drain. "I figured it might ease the way. Is it working?" Angle the face, cue crooked smile, and then feeling dirty for using the moves on a freaking kid.
She accepted the rose, and inspected it with what looked like real taste the texture, color, and smell of the flower before looking up to examine his face.
"Why are you wearing eye makeup? Isn't that for ladies?"
All right you little brat, let's see how far I can throw your little airbending ass with the water from that planter…
"All right!" Korra shouted to some question from the bigger of the bratlings. "I am going to dinner with him—not a date, and not because I like him, or don't like him, or anything, but because people can be friends, and people who are friends can go out and do things like that and it doesn't mean that there's anything, it's just that people sometimes go out for some noodles when you've saved someone's life or their bending or whatever, okay?"
"Ri-ight…" the bigger one said, before airbending herself away, the other one quick to follow, leaving a few rose petals behind.
"Shall we?" Tahno asked, dramatically offering his arm. Instead, Korra lifted her fingers to her mouth, gave an ear-piercing whistle, and her monster bounded over with an eager rauwarf.