"Korra, I still don't see why you had to wear a dress."
"And I still don't see why I shouldn't have." She retorted.
"You're cheating," Mako continued to complain about his fiancée's attire. "That's not fair."
"Cheating?" Korra said as if she never heard the word before. "Bolin, what is he talking about?"
"I don't know," The earth bender chuckled. "but I think he might be jealous already."
Korra, Mako and Bolin were sitting in Bender's Palace, their local restaurant, waiting for Tahno and Asami to arrive. The night before, the engaged couple called their ex's and both happily agreed to get together. The plan was to eat and talk for half an hour or so and then afterwards they'd all go to see a movie.
Korra and Mako both agreed it'd be a good idea to bring Bolin along, that way he wouldn't be lonely and he could keep everything going fine just in case there was any tension. That's the one thing that remained the same with him over the many years; his fun-loving, optimistic and funny disposition. That's also the thing that Korra and Mako loved about him the most. But I digress...
Presently, Mako was resting his elbow on the table with his head in his hand. He wasn't a very patient person and it showed in his behavior and on his face. Korra was sitting next to him, a smile on her face and her hands in her lap. She was excited about her reunion with Tahno; it's been a few years since she's last seen him and she was also eager to prove Mako wrong about her being jealous. Bolin sat on the other side of Korra, paying more attention to Pabu than to them. Yes, the fire ferret remained with him all those years.
"I'm not jealous, don't encourage her, Bolin." The fire bender rolled her eyes. "She's cheating and she knows it; she doesn't even like dresses. She wore that just so Tahno would look at her."
"It really sounds to me like someone is jealous." Korra said in a sing song voice. "Nobody's cheating, Mako."
"Nobody wears a dress to Bender's Palace, Korra."
"First of all, were going to the movies afterwards and I want to look nice when we do." Korra explained, "And secondly, if I wanted to wear a dress to the dump, I could because it's my prerogative. You're the one who chose to come casual."
"So, I could've came here in just my boxers?"
"No."
"Why not? It's my prerogative and I'll look nice at the movies." Mako smirked.
"Yeah, but it's also against the law."
He rolled his eyes. "Whatever, it doesn't matter anyway. In the end you'll see it was pointless because I'm not the jealous type."
"We'll see about that." Korra raised an eyebrow and then turned to Bolin. "Bolin, what do you think?"
"I think…you two should've just invited both Tahno and Asami to your wedding." He smiled. "More gifts."
"What is it with you two and gifts?"
"Don't you like free things?" Mako asked. "Besides, it could be money."
"Or a pet, which will be good because Pabu needs a girlfriend." Bolin said and then picked up the fire ferret next to him, on the table. "Don't you, Pabu? I know you're tired of being lonely."
The fire ferret just looked at him and then Bolin nodded his head for him.
"Some things never change…" Korra said with a smile.
"Have him date Naga, she's lonely too." Mako said with sarcasm dripping off his tongue.
"Hey! That's a great idea! How I come I never thought of that?" Bolin beamed. "What do you think Pabu? Are you interested in interspecies dating?"
It was then that a scrawny man with thick glasses and nerdish clothes walked in the door. He had long black hair and looked about their age, and when the group looked at him, Mako smirked again.
"There's Tahno now." Mako laughed. "That's who I'm supposed to be jealous of?"
The man walked right past them and over to a different table and took a seat.
"He needs to clean his glasses if he can't see were sitting right here."
Korra pinched Mako and pointed to the door. "That's not Tahno, Mako…that's him."
Walking in was another man, but this one was the exact opposite of the scrawny man. He was tall, lean and had a pretty face that all the females in the restaurant had to stop and gaze at. Arrogance seemed to seep out of his pores as he walked, demanding attention. His eyes scanned the restaurant, winking at a few females in the process, and stopped on an ecstatic Korra.
"Korra?" He grinned as he walked over to her with open arms.
"Tahno!" Korra giggled like a school girl and gave him a big hug. Of course, it was to help maximize the jealousy level…and it worked.
Mako's face remained indifferent until he saw that the hug lasted longer than it should have. Then his frown deepened and for no specific reason he began making a small fire in his hand and played with it. Bolin looked at Tahno and smiled briefly before returning to his conversation with Pabu.
"How have you been?" Korra asked him when the embrace finally ended.
"Fine; same old, same old. Just doing my own thing as usual…and how about you?" He looked her up and down with a sly grin. "You look happy…and good."
Korra began to giggle again until Mako started coughing loudly for a long minute. Immediately, Tahno, Korra and Bolin stopped what they were doing and looked at him.
"Oh, excuse me, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Please, go on." Mako had a sarcastic type look on his face when he spoke.
"Oh, Tahno you remember Mako, right? He's my fiancé."
Tahno nodded. "Yeah, I remember him very well…he used to try so hard to beat me at Pro bending…but he always failed…"
Using his bending, Tahno then took some water from a nearby lady's drink and put out the fire in Mako's hand. If possible, the fire bender's frown deepened even more and Tahno's smirk slowly but surely turned into a laugh.
"I'm just messing with you, Mako. That's the past and this is the future. You're a lucky guy."
He stuck his hand out and Mako looked at his hand, but didn't shake it. Instead he shook the water off his hand and glared at him. "I know…nice to see you again, Tahno."
Tahno chuckled some more as he took his hand back and then patted Bolin on the back. "Bolin, right? The earth bender and Mako's brother. How's life treating you?"
"Better than before." Bolin said, a hint of seriousness in his voice. "Still doing the whole Pro bending thing?"
"Of course; I never lose..." He glanced at Mako. "Some things don't change..."
Mako clenched his teeth; he knew it was a good thing they brought Bolin because there was definitely going to be some tension. Tahno was getting underneath his skin already and the date hadn't even started yet.
"Mako?" A loud voice called suddenly, near the door.
All four party members looked back at the door and saw Asami standing there with a huge smile on her face, staring at Mako.
"Asami, hey." He said nonchalantly, with a smile and open arms.
Asami ran over to him gracefully and gave him a big hug while Korra, Tahno and Bolin watched. Mako grinned and looked her up and down when the embrace ended.
"Wow, Asami, you look even better than you did before, if that's possible."
She blushed and giggled a bit. "I could say the same thing about you...you went and grew yourself some facial hair and got some bigger muscles."
When Asami started to feel Mako's muscles, Korra caught the same coughing spells Mako just had.
"You okay, Korra?" Tahno and Bolin asked in unison.
Mako smirked. "Yeah, are you okay Korra?"
She nodded and cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, something was in my throat."
"Korra?" Asami walked over to her and gave her a small hug. "Long time no see."
"Yes, I wonder why." Korra forced a smile.
"Me too."
"Oh, Asami," Mako started, "you remember Bolin...and that's Tahno."
She walked over to Bolin first and gave him a hug. "Bolin? You grew up very nicely too."
Bolin smiled and flexed. "I try, I try."
"And you succeeded." She said before walking over to Tahno. "Hey...aren't you one of the Pro bending champions?"
"A fan?"
"One of the biggest!"
Tahno grinned but before he could respond, Mako spoke. "We should probably take a seat and order."
"Good idea." Bolin agreed while patting his stomach.
The group of five all quickly sat down at the table that Mako and Korra had already claimed for them. The waiter came by and took their order a few seconds after. That's when the conversation really got started.
"So, how's Pro bending going for you, Tahno?" Korra asked, as they waited.
"Excellent as usual; I took down the Red Sands Rabaroos single handedly in my last game. If things keep going the way they are I might be going to the Championship...again." Tahno said arrogantly.
"Really? That's awesome. I'll be watching you from my tv."
"I don't know; how can I be sure you're not off saving the world or doing some Avatar thing? I'll have to send you a free ticket so I can make sure you're watching." He slyly managed to get his arm around her shoulders as he spoke.
Before Korra could respond, Mako did with a forced smile. "Free tickets. Did you forget about me already?"
"Of course not, how could I forget about you, Mako? You can have a ticket as well." Tahno's voice seemed mocking.
"Make that three tickets." Bolin added.
"Yes, please send some free Pro bending Championship tickets to us…and by us I mean me, my brother and Korra…my fiancée…soon to be wife…and mother of my children…and grandmother of my children's children…"
The four other party members looked at Mako.
"Okay…"
Asami cleared her throat. "You know, Mako is pretty athletic too."
"He used to be; he's gotten lazy over the years." Korra smirked.
"Lazy? Mako? No, I can't believe it, not with all these muscles."
She put her hands on Mako's arms again which didn't get by Korra at all. In fact, it was beginning to irk her.
"Okay, well we can talk without touching."
Asami chuckled again as she removed her hand from Mako's arms slowly, taking the time to slide her hands down his arm. That also didn't get by Korra but she forced herself to bite her tongue that time.
"Yeah, I don't know what Korra's talking about." Mako scoffed. "I'm as athletic as I was 7 years ago."
Asami spoke. "I'm sure...I mean back then you were great at Pro-bending...on and off the field."
"On and off the field?" Korra looked at Mako. "What does that mean, Mako?"
Mako stayed silent for a minute. "I…don't remember…I'm not recalling..."
"You don't?" Asami asked, surprised. "You used to call it pro-bending off the field because you said there were 'zones' and 'tiebreakers' and even…"
"Where is that food?" Mako asked suddenly. "Getting hungry over here…"
"You remember now?" Asami asked, oblivious to the tone in Mako's voice.
"Oh yeah, I remember." Mako mumbled.
Bolin started laughing, but he was the only one. Tahno stared at Mako, an amused and mocking smile on his face. Korra, on the other hand, was not pleased.
"You'll have to tell me all about it later, Mako." Korra said.
"Why? Is someone…I don't know…jealous?" He grinned a little.
"Not at all; it just sounded…interesting."
Mako sighed heavily; the way she said interesting suggested that he would end up sleeping on the couch that night.
"Yeah, very interesting. You'll have to tell me about it sometime too." Bolin said as his laughter died down, only to receive a glare from his brother.
Tahno spoke then. "If you think that's interesting, you should hear about the private lessons I gave Korra."
Bolin, Asami and Mako, not expecting that, raised an eyebrow as they turned to Korra, who was blushing involuntarily.
"Whoa, they don't want to hear about that." She said quickly, bringing another chuckle out of Tahno.
"I do." Bolin said and when they looked at him, he cleared his throat. "I mean, Pabu does..."
Tahno turned back to the Avatar. "Are you sure? It was pretty interesting to me...in fact, I'd like to give you some more private lessons in Pro-bending if you still need help...because I know Mako isn't the best at it."
He seemed to have almost whispered the last part into Korra's ear which only made her blush furiously even more. Fire flashed in Mako's eyes and it took everything in his power to contain the rage boiling in him.
"You were right earlier Tahno; some things just don't change...like the fact that you're still a manwhore. Maybe you'd still have Korra today if you weren't."
"Low blow...low blow..." Bolin mumbled.
Tahno's face dropped but after a few seconds he was grinning again, as if Mako's words hadn't affected him. He was going to say something else that probably would've gotten underneath the fire benders skin, but was interrupted.
"So what happened when the elephant stepped on a grape?" The earth bender said suddenly. "Come on, guess…"
Nobody spoke at first, the tension was still thick in the air but eventually Asami did.
"The grape got squashed?"
"No…the grape let out a little whine." Bolin started laughing. "A little wine, get it?"
Asami started laughing too and soon after, Korra and it wasn't long before the last two guys were chuckling.
"I should go into comedy." Bolin said when the laughter died down.
"Yeah, you should." Asami agreed.
"Asami," Tahno said suddenly. "you said you're a fan of Pro-bending…have you ever played?"
"No, I'm not a bender." She said a bit sadly. "I wish I was though; I've been a fan ever since I was little."
"So what do you do?"
"My father owned the Sato Mobile Company; so I'm running that now. However, I want to be a professional singer one day…but for now, I'll just keep handing out demo tapes."
"You didn't tell me that." Mako looked back at Asami curiously. "I always knew you could be a singer, but no…you said you really wanted to take over the business, remember?"
"Yeah, I thought I did," Asami giggled. "but it's hard work."
Mako chuckled too. "Do you have a demo tape on you? I'd love to play it in the car."
"I was going to say the same thing; it seems like you have a nice voice." Tahno commented.
Bolin grinned. "And don't forget about me and Pabu."
Asami beamed. "I have some in my car, when we leave to go to the movies I can get you guys one."
"I sing too." Korra blurted out suddenly.
They all looked at her.
"I mean, um, Tahno you heard me sing before, right?"
"You mean outside the bedroom? I'm joking, I'm joking." Tahno thought about it for a second. "Right, right; you had the voice of an angel. Do you still sing?"
"Not really, you know, may be in the shower or when I hear a song."
Mako rolled his eyes just as the waiter brought their order to the table. She set five bowls of Flameo Noodles on the table and then a basket of bread sticks. They each started to dig in immediately and all was silent until Tahno noticed Korra dipping a bread stick in blue cheese.
"Korra," He started. "you still like your bread sticks with blue cheese?"
"Yeah, well, you know something's never change."
"She used to always eat her bread sticks with blue cheese when we were dating." Tahno explained and grabbed a bread stick and dunked it in the blue cheese. "And I used to feed them to her like this."
Before Korra could object, he fed her the bread stick. After chewing a little, she ended up nodding satisfied. Mako frowned and snatched the bread basket.
"That was a long time ago, she's a big girl now...and I happen to know, that she likes them plain." He held out a bread stick. "Open up, Korra."
"But…" She was still chewing.
"Open up, Korra." He said again.
She sighed and reluctantly opened up and Mako jammed the bread stick in her mouth. She coughed a bit before chewing again.
"Well, when she was dating me she liked them with blue cheese." Tahno snatched the bread basket back.
Mako snatched the basket again and glared at him. "Well, she's not dating you anymore is she?"
Korra would've said something then but she had one too many breadsticks in her mouth.
"How about you guys feed me? There's a better solution; I liked them plain and with blue cheese." Bolin suggested.
"You know, Mako used to like his bread sticks with ranch." Asami said, dipping a stick in the ranch.
"Yeah and I still do." The fire bender let the basket go and sat back.
"And do you still like it to be fed to you too?" Asami asked as she slowly fed him a bread stick.
Korra nodded. "Oh, I see how this is…Tahno another stick please."
"Absolutely." He pulled the basket closer to him and dipped a stick in the blue cheese and fed her.
"Asami?" Mako said.
Asami nodded and then fed Mako a stick and they all continued to do it, even switching so that Mako was feeding Asami and Korra was feeding Tahno, until all the sticks were gone. They even tried to do the same thing with the noodles. Afterwards they just sat there, full, in complete silence (well all excpet Bolin, who sat there full and unhappy nobody was feeding him) until Tahno broke it with laughter.
"What's funny?" Korra asked.
"Do you remember when me and you stole money from our random shop in town?" He laughed at the memory. "And then used the money to buy a bunch of Flameo Instant Noodle boxes…"
"Really?" Mako asked incredulously. "Korra stole money?"
"No…I'm not recalling that…" Korra denied it with a guilty face. "You must be confusing me with someone else."
"No! You have to remember that; it was one of our more fun experiences. Besides, you were the one to come up with the idea and you convinced me."
Korra's eyes widened but she didn't speak. She knew she was going to hear it from Mako later on about that. He was going to be calling her a klepto for months…
"Me and Mako had some crazy times as well." Asami cut in. "I remember when we drank so much that…"
"Oh my goodness, we need to get to the theater or we'll miss our movie." Mako stood up suddenly, not giving her time to finish.
"Awe, I wanted to hear the story!" Bolin huffed. "Mako doesn't usually drink too much..."
Korra and Tahno stared at him for a few seconds before blinking and standing up as well.
"Okay," Tahno said, hugging Korra and starting to leave. "I'll meet you all over there."
Korra nodded. "Okay, Tahno, see you."
"Same here." Asami said with a small smile as she headed to her own car.
Mako and Korra walked to their car in complete silence, well they were silent but Bolin wasn't.
It was going to be a long ride to the theater.
How was that update? Was it good? I hope you laughed and enjoyed reading it. Please review if you can; reviews make me want to update faster! Love you guys forever and always!
