Disclaimer: I own nothing. I do not own Avatar: The last Airbender or The Legend of Korra.
A/N: I've had this Idea for a while, but never got around to writing it, cause I knew I should be studying, like I should be right now. OTL Proof-read twice by myself, so I hope it's alright. I find catching my own mistakes is quite difficult.
Music Inspiration: Tom Odell- Another Love. No seriously, I played it on repeat the whole time I was writing this.
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He shoves another shirt into the bag, not as nearly as neat and tidy as he had prided all things he owned before. He pauses for a moment, considering how heavy all his thoughts are on him. How it is difficult to move, but he has no choice.
She doesn't care about you personally. She only felt pity.
He shuts his eyes in frustration. He knows it's true, he wishes it wasn't, but there's no denying the truth. It can't be helped right? He can't be helped. He doesn't have anything left in this city. No bending, no friends that understand, no Avatar able to undo what has been done.
He wonders if she will miss him. Whenever she's walks by, whenever she needs to just leave Airbender Island, whenever she just wants someone other than that firebender or his brother to talk to, she had just dropped in on him. Not that he had bothered to be anywhere else other than his flat. And as much as he wishes he could appreciate the effort she's put into seeing him these past few weeks, he knows he has to leave.
And so he goes back to visit where he's from. He has decided he'll start at the foggy swamp and catch the first boat heading out after he's let them know he's not dead, despite what some headlining newspapers stories had fabricated.
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The snow falls lightly now, large flakes topping the snow that he has just pushed away from his temporary home. He huffs at the sight, the fringe of hair still in the way, but not as long as it used to be. The storm has subsided, leaving the village covered in snow for the week, again.
A small boy makes his way through the snow with the latest newspaper, and any mail that might have made its way this far. He thanks him as the boy waves, leaving for the next village on his way. He looks back to the Inn where he is helping the elderly waterbendeing couple that owns it to fix it up. He had nothing at the moment, all his funds spent of the traveling these past few months. Kona, the innkeepers son, comes out of the entrance, having finally woken up.
Tahno orders Kona to fetch his tools, handing him the mail to put on the counter inside. It's not Tahno's job to move the snow anyway. He's not a waterbender. Not anymore.
But instead of grabbing his tools for repairing the windows, like he had asked, Kona comes out with a letter in his hand, envelope carelessly ripped open. Tahno glares at him, but continues shoveling. He never bothers to read any of it, but the young man next to him is always curious as to who would go through the trouble to send mail all the way out here.
"You know the Avatar!?" Kona nearly screams, his voice reaching an especially high pitch in disbelief.
Tahno's head whips around, forgetting that he had forgotten to edit out those ones.
Kona inspects the letter further. "Wow, she has pretty messy hand writing. But still! You gotta see this!"
"No, I don't kid!" he yells, turning back to the job at hand, the job that wasn't even his. He was just impatient.
The younger man takes a step back, startled by the harsh words of the ever silent repairman. Tahno regrets it immediately, taking a deep breath to bring his composure back. He is still attempting to repress his old ways, but all the traveling in the world can't change his reaction to the current topic. He's avoided it thus far everywhere he's been, always moving too soon before people start to ask more questions. He knows she's better off without him.
Kona glances down at the paper in front of him. "It says she's coming to look for you."
Tahno's eyes widen and all he wants to do is just run. Escape. Hide. Be anywhere but here. But before he has a chance to put together even a semblance of a plan of how to get out of here, the sound of crunching snow becomes audible to them both.
In the distance, he sees the sight, impossible to mistake for anything else. It's not exactly common to see crazy Avatars hurdling towards you on their wild Polar bear dog. He is unable to move, stunned, and it feels like a dream. This was a dream, right? Why would the Avatar come all the way out here, to this God-forsaken place? Why would she still care about him of all people?
The first thing he feels is a jab to the chest, and glares are the offending appendage belonging to the Avatar.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Huh? Are you better than every single other person that regained their bending? Too lazy to show the human decency to show up to any of the healing sessions held?"
Tahno's mouth hangs agape, while Korra continues her tirade, not able to put two words together to even begin. How could he? No one would understand. No one knew just how sorry of an excuse for a human being he used to be. He doesn't want to go back to that. And as much as every river, every snow storm, and every cup of water pain his body, which still had not broken from the motions and habits of waterbending, he is afraid to have it back. He's come so far, and he wants nothing to do with it.
So he turns, and runs, but not before his ground became ice, and he slipped.
A moment passes, and Korra and Kona look at each other, not sure if what just happened had really just happened. Did Tahno really just fall and black out? On a little puddle of ice?
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When Tahno wakes up, the first thing he sees as a wall of water approaching, and his body takes over, knowing all too well the movements, the weight of the water, and how it should feel.
Surprised is an understatement, when he sees the water suspended above him, and he strains under the weight of it. His bending is back.
The water is taken away, revealing Korra, with a smile plastered on her face.
"You've still got it! But that was a pretty slow reaction time. Looks like running away from me has made you a little rusty, hey pretty boy?" Her smile turns into a grin, as she dramatically places a hand on her heart. "But maybe I can find it in my heart to give a certain selfish wolfbat some private lessons hmmm?"
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A/N. It has been YEARSSS since I wrote anything! I hope it was bearable. Sorry if it's really bad. I just needed to get this plot bunny out. I think it would be a really interesting turn of events if Tahno was the last person to get his bending restored. Also, Tahnorra is my OTP of TLOK. But alas, my writing skills are not that great so as to explain how it would all happen in my head, so this little oneshot will have to do.
p.s. Since when did formatting stories on this site become so difficult?