Extended Summary: Korra and Tahno are having trouble sleeping. They turn their thoughts to each other for a grasp at comfort.
xxXDisclaimerXx: I do not own anything of the Avatar series nor the song "Putting the Dog to Sleep." They belong to the genius of Bryke and the band The Antlers.
She's wondering where he is right now - if he's okay. Imagining him still visiting healers that can do nothing but remind him of the truth. She cringes at her dark thoughts, but can bring nothing of the lighter sort. Unable to conjure a healthier image of him now than from a few weeks ago. It felt somehow impossible.
It didn't start out this way, really. She had come out only to bring Naga in for the night when her line of sight caught the glow of the moon and the twinkle of the stars and she couldn't help but feel romantic about it and soon found herself sitting against her pet's warm belly fur; arms around knees drawn up to the chest. Naturally, whenever she got in these rare moods her mind began to drift towards Mako and that inevitably lead to thinking about Asami and then Asmai and Mako together and then -
She'd decided she needed to board a new train of thought.
*Prove to me I'm not gonna die alone.*
He's having trouble sleeping again. The nightmares had lessened a little since that awful event in his history, but that didn't stop the horrible sensation that Amon's thumb was still boring into his forehead and all could feel inside was the hole his stolen bending had left behind. He was forced out on his balcony to escape the suffocating memories to instead flood his senses with the cool, refreshing evening air and the smells of the city.
It helped about as much as catching a virus on an important day.
He paces the small, decked-in area as he seemed apt to do nowadays. He glances back into his apartment now-and-again at the mess of torn memorabilia of his Pro-days he refuses to clean up - not yet anyway. Maybe it reminds that it had all been real, even with the scars now marring his once haughty, 'pretty-boy' image. He finally pauses here and doubles over the railing, another lonely custom he'd taken up whenever he got tired of moving, and flexed his fingers from a habit that never truly went away.
*Put your arm around my collarbone
And open the door.*
Spirituality, Meditation, Tenzin making her meditate, Tenzin himself, Pema, the kids, air bending techniques, the footing to get the techniques right, her past pro-bending training schedule, Bolin cracking jokes about how tedious-it-was-let's-go-grab-a-bite to eat, food, noodles, Narook's Seaweed Noodlery, toe-to-toe, private lessons, black-lined eyes, too-pale skin, and a smirk that could make children cry...
She doesn't realize she's gone into pondering Tahno until she's suddenly comparing his face to the white moon and the guilt of what she could not prevent drops its weight on to her shoulders not long after. She doesn't know if this band of contemplation is any wiser than that of a certain firebender, but she gives up with a sigh and goes into musing of his well-being. If he's okay... She's sure it wouldn't be normal for him for awhile to come... Days. Weeks. Maybe even years.
It's not exactly comforting to envision.
*Don't lie to me
If you're putting the dog to sleep.*
The moon is so blindingly brilliant tonight it's hurting his tired eyes. Rubbing them is no use, so he lowers his gaze to the ocean seprating Republic City from the Air Temple Island. The darkness churns up into froth and sea spray, the crash of waves on an invisible shore like the sound of two Satomobiles in a head-on collision. He scowls, pissed-off again for a milisecond before giving up the ghost and sighing, staring once more.
The roughness of the water doesn't carry the weight of his lost talant but rather insead the Avatar with her stormy personality. He found it aided him to consider her whenever sleep eluded him. He honestly admired the girl. Respected her, too. She had spirit, spunk, and the desire to compete all rolled up in a muscled package. She does not lack in the atttractiveness department either. He wasn't kidding about the private lessons he'd offered, although he had had a much different plan on the brain if she decided to claim it and he got her alone. Unbidden pictures of a pliant, but active body underneath him bestowing desperate kisses on his torso and moaning his name spring about in his head and he doesn't stop them.
She ended up rejecting him anyway and he was rewarded with an admittedly frightening introduction of her polar-bear-dog in which he may or may not have screamed akin to a tiny girl. What bothered him the most about that failed first impression was that no woman had ever rebuffed his advances before. Not that he'd allowed it to show, of course...
*That pet you just couldn't keep, and couldn't afford.*
"You got to get him for me..."
She doesn't know why she had agreed to that. So quickly, too. Maybe it was the pathetic visage he'd sported when telling her his sob story. Perhaps it was the jarring change from a cocky bastard to a humbled gentleman. The blackness in his voice when he greeted her from the bench? Or the sudden determination when he outright demanded her revenge on his behalf? ...The fact she'd been in the same position, the only difference that she was spared? Either way, she feel she owes it to him now. Not even he deserved what Amon did to him. ...Honestly, he hadn't earned it at all. Yeah, he took it too far cheating in the final match, but seriously where did Amon get off ripping Tahno's livlihood away?
She doesn't want to fall into depression over the Equalist leader. It's too pretty tonight.
*Well prove to me I'm not gonna die alone.
Unstitch that shit I've sewn,
To close up the hole that tore through my skin.*
He isn't stupid. He'd seen the way she went misty-eyed over the firebender boy. Did not miss her tendency to hover around him. It disappoints him really. The kid had no charisma in his view. Where was his charm? Directed at the Sato girl? Korra could categorically do so much better. Even the earthbender brother with his stocky build, childish whims, and orange, puffy rat pet has more of Tahno's vote than anyone. Other than himself.
Sad she didn't appear able to see the options.
He'd never considered himself the marrying type, but Korra was interesting. And with everything he had gone and his opinion of himself reduced mayhaps there was a chance for him in the works with her?
...Pfft. Yeah, in his most remarkable dreams.
*Well my trust in you is a dog with a broken leg,
Tendons too torn to beg for you to let me back in.*
She none-to-often tried to dredge up what his scheme indubitably was when he'd proposed his lessons to her in the noodlery. Had she actually looked like one of those simpering females he'd had draped all around him? Did he genuinely think she'd accept? Or had he only been taunting her out of rivalry? She had a inkling that she'd probably never figure out his motives then.
She replayed their initial meeting. All fluid motion close to their natural element and angry tension on her part and his twisted leer that intimidated the paint off of the walls but had little to no affect on her. They'd been close enough to kiss...
She speculated on whether it vexed him that she hadn't been daunted by him at all.
*You said, "I can't prove to you you're not gonna die alone,
But trust me to take you home,
To clean up that blood all over your paws."*
"You got to get him for me..."
Whatever the hell possessed him to ask such a favor of her was far-reaching to say the least, even for him if he said so himself. He was just so mad at the predicament he could not protect his being from that he blurted it out when she showed the first sign of sincere, heartfelt concern he'd heard from anybody. His own teammates were too preoccupied with their own loss that he expected nothing...didn't have the legitimate right to. Korra had been the soul one to come up to him and hand-feed him palpable sympathy, despite pointing out to him mere seconds before that they were not exactly best friends.
It had been the single most sweetest thing he'd ever heard from a woman. Fangirl or otherwise.
And her blue eyes had sparked when she accepted with a curt, solitary nod. Her firebender teammate didn't know what he was letting escape. Tahno sure did.
*You can't keep running out.
Kicking yourself off the ground.*
It is Naga's lengthy, exaggerated yawn that makes her jump back into the reality of the moment and she realizes she's becoming extremely exhausted sitting the way she is. She winces as her knees crack after stretching them, but she's not willing to admit it hurt. She's too proud and stubborn for that drivel. As a substitute she stands up to her furry-booted feet, raising her hands and arms high towards the dark sky; fingers spread.
"Come on, girl. Bed time."
She places a uncharacteristically soft palm under the animal's chin to provoke her to motivation. She waits patiently a beat more as Naga proceeds her own stretching. Front legs primarly ahead of the rear. Then, following a monstrous sneeze and an amused giggle, the two head indoors for the soft feather mattress in the Avatar's bedroom.
*Kicking yourself in the head,
'Cause we give you little.*
He's finally yawning, thank Yue. Removing his body from the balcony fence, he trudges back into his flat, kicking downed photos, cracked framed newspaper clippings, and broken trophies as he went. He is blissfully sluggish by the time he gets to his bare room and he is confident that he will slip into unconsciousness as soon as he hits the sheets.
He is sadly diluded. Sleep is still coming on too slow. He keeps hearing the ocean tumbling about outside and he can't remember if he shut the door to the damn porch and for a terrifying minute, he envisions Amon and his chi-blocking soldiers sneaking their way into his home to kidnap him in the twilight hours. He causes his calm to return when he convinces himself there is really nothing more they can take from him except his life and as of late he's not assured if it is still worth living.
So, he lays there, depressed, listening despondantly to the churning sea as he pushes himself to regard Korra a bit more to cheer himself up.
*Put your trust in me.
I'm not gonna die alone!
Put your trust in me.*
She's not falling into dreamland as she had hoped. She is staring at the moon again through the window beside her bed over Naga's back, marveling how it seemed to slide across the sky to be in two places at once. The stars surrounding it blink a hot silver. She chews her tongue in thought.
"Tahno's eyes...they're silver." She absent-mindedly informs Naga for no particular reason. Her fluffy companion answers with a particularly loud snore.
Paying no attention to lack of audience, she put her arms behind her head to replace a pillow, sinking back into reverie on a specific waterbender.
*I'm not gonna die alone!*
His eyelids are heavy. The ocean is sounding farther away now.
Relieved, he curls into a fetal position, sighing as he is at long last lulled into his haven.
"Good night, Korra..." He whispers vacently to the empty wall ahead of him as everything blurs, smirking tiredly to himself when he visualizes her voice smiling comfortingly in his head.
"Good night, Pretty Boy." She chuckes haughtily.
*I don't think so.*
She, not surprisingly, falls asleep soon enough with limbs all akimbo and snoring in a way similar to Naga, but the stories her dreams tell her say something off the beaten path for her. They were on the beach, he had his old, stupid hair back, as if someone restuffed it with helium. His teasing grin had returned, also, eyes black with make-up as he surveys her in familiar, aggravating superiority.
"Ready for those private lessons, Uh-vatar?" He asks mockingly, getting into a fighting stance. She narrows her eyes good-naturedly in response and copies him.
"Go for it, Chump."
She laughs when he sends a water whip her way.
*I don't think so*
The sun rises over a calm sea.
A/N: Aaaaand there is my first Tahnorra fiction. ^_^ I swear, this ship snuck up on me, then pulled up a chair to have tea. I'm quite certain that nothing will ever come of it. Mako will probably get his act together at the end of the series, but I'm going down with this pair.
Any way, I'm not sure at all if this is any good. I haven't wached the episodes in which Tahno is actually in; only the clips available on YouTube. He might be a tad OOC, as might be Korra, but I've fallen so hard for this couple I couldn't risist the tempation. I hope everyone enjoys it despite that. :)
About the Song: I listened to it and it practically used the word, "TAHORRA!" to slap me in the face. Give it a listen if you want to. They are a good band.