Korra wiped water off of her face. "Not cool, Tahno," she told him. The waterbender was too busy whirling and spinning water around him in arcs and swirls, enjoying watching it and being able to manipulate it again.
"Says you, Uh-vatar," he said, dousing her with another little splash of water. "I'm quite enjoying myself."
She felt a little anger welling up when he pronounced her name. She swore he did it like that on purpose. She picked up some of the water he had splashed her with and returned it back via her own bending, directly at the Wolfbat's face. Some of it got in his hair, and he looked excited for a moment.
Tahno gave Korra a smile. Not that sleazy smile he had given her at Narook's, not the competitive smile he had plastered on his face during the finals, but a normal, human smile. "Here. Watch this." The water in his hair was what helped him to get it into that style evidently, because it stood up into its old ridiculous shape again. The Avatar looked a little unimpressed.
"Seriously?" she asked. "You use waterbending to style your hair?"
Tahno laughed a little bit, the baritone chuckles ringing in her ears. "It's a technique I picked up from my… er… family traditions. It's cheaper than going for the usual techniques, anyway."
The Avatar laughed. "Great, Tahno. You're the world's first hairbender."
He gave Korra a withering stare. "Oh, yes, laugh. But I'm willing to bet that I can do something with waterbending that you can't," he challenged.
Korra crossed her arms defiantly. "You're on, pretty boy."
Tahno cast about for something he could use effectively. His apartment was devoid of most plant life, but there was a bonsai tree sitting on the coffee table in front of him. With a wave of his hand, the bonsai tree's leaves began to wiggle and bend. He pointed to the little plant. "See? Can you do that?"
Her eyes lit up. "You can bend plants? Something to do with the water in the plant, right? Katara taught me about that, it's…" Realization dawned on her face. "You're from the Foggy Swamp Tribe!"
He rolled his eyes, groaning loudly and pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. "Yes, Uh-vatar, I am in fact from the Foggy Swamp. I went to great lengths to cover up the accent, by the way. Accent coaches are wonderful people. That's why I'm pale and not darker like most native waterbenders," he said, holding up his arm next to Korra's to indicate the difference.
"But you can plantbend, right? Can you teach me how to? " she asked eagerly, apparently having pushed the rest of his story out of her mind. "It seems like it could be useful at some point."
Tahno laughed. "Oh, it's wonderful for sneaking out of bedroom windows if there's a vine nearby." Korra gave him an unamused look, and he cleared his throat. "I suppose I could. It's the least I could do. Alright, so, first, feel for the water within the plant…"