"Gin and tonic, no ice, two wedges of lime sliced in the center please," Asami told the barman as she slid heavily onto the stool.
"You look as bad as I feel," Tahno said, looking up and down her long, long legs in her red mermaid-cut dress. "Nope. Wait. Got that backwards."
Asami accepted her drink and began squeezing the limes into her gin and tonic.
"Y'know," Tahno slurred, "right now, you're pretty much just drinking an alcoholic lime soda. You, miss, look like you need something with a bit more kick."
Tahno had always been good at reading people, particularly their posture and body language. It was one of the things that made him such a successful pro bender before his forced retirement after the fourth championship. He could see the weight Asami had wanted to shed at the bar creeping back into her shoulders before she turned her poster-girl smile to him.
"Tahno, I don't know what you're talking about," Asami Sato said, squeezing lime wedges with a white-knuckled fist.
"You did a great job not crying during the ceremony," Tahno said, throwing back another shot of his drink and then sucking on his salted wedge of lime. "Perfect businesslady face, not a flaw, not a hair out of place. But that's the thing—nobody's that perfect unless they're hiding something."
"Mako and I haven't dated in years," Asami replied. "I'm really happy for him, and the Avatar."
"You know, it's kind of cute how you think I'll believe that," Tahno replied. "You going to stop squeezing that lime? I think it's learned its lesson."
Asami dropped the lime wedges, right into her gin and tonic with a splash.
"I'm telling you, it's good stuff," Tahno said, pushing her a spare shot, a fresh lime wedge, and a salt shaker. "Now, like I said, it's cute that you think I'd actually believe that. There's about… ten, very hopeful, men in this room who'd actually believe that. About twenty besides who wouldn't believe it, all of whom are just as hopeful."
"Oh?" Asami said. "And what class are you?" She mopped up the spill of her gin and tonic with a bar napkin and sipped from the highball with the lime wedges inside.
"'Won't readily admit he's pining for the bride, but can damn well say what he pleases about the groom while he's looking for for a good time at the bar,'" Tahno answered, taking another slug of his drink before shaking his head briskly and then rubbing his face. "That's enough of that."
Asami eyed the shotglass and lime in front of her. Something with a bit more kick than her mildly alcoholic lime soda would be nice right about then.
"I thought you and the Avatar hated each other," Asami said.
"I thought you'd been a year on and a year off with Mako the Lady Killer, not 'off' for years," Tahno replied.
The touché spoke for itself, so Asami didn't mention it. Maybe, just a little, she could relax a bit.
"So, how many others in here are pining for her then?" she asked, motioning to the barman for a second of her drink.
"Hell if I know," Tahno answered. "Thing is, watching a wedding of a woman you really don't want to see getting married, kind of looks like every other poor sap in the audience is either enjoying this way too much, or he's got the same look that's on your face."
"You could ask her to dance," Asami said. "It's not like she can only dance with her husband at her own wedding. Best to leave it all here."
To her surprise, Tahno started to laugh. It was a good laugh, deep and honest and full. And long. So long that people began to stare.
"Oh, ho ho haha heh… No, but in all seriousness, I'd need a lot more than just a dance to 'leave it all here,' but can't say I've ever gone after a married woman before." And instantly he was sober and humorless. "What about you? I'm assuming it's customary for a man to share a companionable golly-I'm-glad-we-can-still-be-friends dance with an old flame?"
"Hmm. Maybe," Asami said. Maybe Mako had wanted to. There's been a few times when he'd been around the reception and had made eye contact with her, and maybe he had wanted to dance, but every time someone else had broken into her field of vision to introduce himself or propose a dance or talk business, and when she'd looked back up he'd been gone.
And then it struck her, and she ordered a finger of aged stone cask brandy for herself and for Tahno each.
"Tonight, no regrets," she said. Tahno accepted the toast, and they tossed back the brandy in unison.
"Meet me outside in ten minutes," Tahno said, slipping off his barstool without waiting for confirmation from Asami.
Asami calculated the likelihood that he was about to get kicked out of the party and decided to go find Mako and say goodbye.
She saw him in a knot of well-wishing pro-benders, and made eye contact with him, facing straight on and unattached so he'd see she was waiting for him. He extricated himself from the conversation and came to her.
"Asami. I'm glad you came," he said.
"I am too," she lied. "Congratulations."
"Thank you," he said with an undeniable joy. "Really. That means a lot coming from you, Asami."
She smiled, as she should, and said a truth that had made his leaving her for Korra as bitter as possible: "I'm sure you wouldn't be with her unless you were her soul mate. Best wishes, Mako."
He hugged her then, warm and brotherly and fatherly and like a best friend who had just received a precious gift. "Thank you Asami."
From the other side of the reception, there was the sound of shouting and a lot of water splashing.
"I should go check on my wife—only Korra could manage to find trouble at her own wedding reception," Mako said with a smile, and walked off towards the commotion.
"Eh-heh," was Asami's reply as she waved to him and discretely left to call her driver. Not too long later, a soaking Tahno joined her.
"Totally worth it," he said. "Oh, and I grabbed this at the bar for you." It was a shotglass of that unnamed spirit and a fresh salted lime. Asami eyed it before she took it, swallowed it in one gulp, and then sunk her teeth into the lime wedge so that the sour, salty bite could cover the awful taste of whatever she had just put in her mouth.
"No regrets?" Tahno prompted. Asami's car arrived, and she allowed Tahno to open the door for her.
"No regrets," Asami replied, and they left together without regrets.