"Here," Korra says as she thrusts a pink snow cone into Tahno's hands.

"Thanks," he weakly says. Moments of silence that boarders on awkward falls between them. She shifts uncomfortably and nervously licks her snow cone. The hot, humid day is taking its toll on her cone. Without so much as a flick of her hand, she freezes the blue tinted slush, turning it to snow. He stares at the newly formed snow with surprise and a bit of envy.

"How can you do that? I mean, how can you bend with your mind?"

"Hmm? Well since Amon was revealed to be a waterbender who can bend with his mind, I thought 'Hey! That seems cool and I love a challenge' so I learned how to. Though I can only bend a tiny amount of water, absolutely nothing on the scale of what Amon was bending. One step at a time though!" He frowns and she wanted to hit herself for being so insensitive.

"When thinking about him and what happen to you, how do you feel?"

He softly snorts "I feel wronged, regretful, sad, broken, tired, and resentful. But I also feel guilty because I know I have no right to feel this way. It's not like I did particularly good things while I was a bender. But even still, I want my bending back," he discreetly gives Korra a mildly expecting look. She internally debates whether she should just ignore the look.

"O-oh, s-sorry I can't give someone back their bending today," she stutters.

"Why?" he says with accusation in his voice.

"Uhh, I need a certain amount of, um, spiritual connection to bring back someone's bending," she says as she stands up on the bench and listens to an imaginary thing "Nope, today isn't a good day for restoration of bending. Sorry," she apologizes as she lowers herself back onto the bench. He looks confused and concerned but is replaced by a sly smirk.

"I get it why you are so hesitant to give me back my bending. I've been terrible to you and your teammates and you don't want to do me any favors," he sighs as he tosses his eaten snow cone into the garbage can.

"What are you going to do without your bending?"

"I know I may not look it but I survived quite a few years on the street. But," he cocks his head at her "I don't want to bore you with my life story."

"No, it's fine. I'm kind of curious to learn what happen to you that made you such a jerk," she jokes.

"Oh? The sheltered, loved Uh-vatar wants to know what a peon like me had to do to survive. Well I guess I can tell you," he pivots his head to smirk at her "My life story beings very similarly to Mako's, eerily so in fact."

"Wait. You forgot his name five minutes ago and now you know his life story?"

"I almost never forget a face and never forget a life story. I just act like I forget people so I can seem cool to a godlike public figure like yourself," he says with a tone that she doesn't much appreciate "May I continue?" She brusquely nods "Now my parents, whom I remember next to nothing about, were killed by a firebender," he continues.

"How old were you?"

"If I had to put a number on it I'd say," he strokes his chin "five or six."

"And you don't remember anything about them," she says incredulously.

"Nothing. I can't remember their nationality or their faces. Well, I do suppose I remember something about them."

"See! I knew you remembered some-"

"I remember what their bodies looked like, sprawled on the filthy pavement." Korra pales at the image and breaks out in a cold sweat when she puts herself and her parents in Tahno's position.

"H-how did you get away?"

"I ran away and hid the only the way I knew how to. I escaped my fate like a cowardly piece of filth. While the monster was killing my parent I slipped away and hid in the in the dumpster like the trash I was. I didn't come out, not even when the police carted my parents away," he takes a deep breath "which was how I started my days as a street rat."

"I would tell you that I'm sorry but I suspect you'd just tell me to shove off."

"That's right. It would just be annoying and I don't need your apathetic pity," he says bitterly.

"I'm not apathe-"

"May I finish?" She grinds her teeth about ready to pop him if he interrupts her again but gestures for him continue "One of the only lucky breaks I've gotten was when I learned I could waterbend. By the age of ten, I'd worked at a less than legal business for quite a few years and wanted out. I approached the Pro Bending arena hoping that it was my ticket out of the, uh, high risk trading business. However, my mindset at the time was that bending was nothing more than a disposable tool to me, in other words, I could survive without my bending."

"But wait, isn't that true? Isn't bending mankind's tool?"

"Organs are our tools, so is money, and even humans can be our tools. And while all these things are our tools, some are more precious to us than others," he says with a short look at Korra "I met my mentor, Talia while 'exploring' the arena. She was a ruthless woman who was a retired pro bender at the ripe age of 16 due to an injury. The person who taught me that you had to do anything to win was her. At first I was opposed to her way of thinking. I decided to go along with her demands when training but bend my own way during matches. I planned to win the honest way to convince her that you don't need to play rough or dirty to win."

"How'd that turn out?" she said dryly.

"The first match I've ever played, which was a junior match, I lost. Badly. Later, in the locker room she told me 'This is where your noble way of bending will take you Tahno: crying in a grubby locker room. Now if you lose this next match I will tell Bhukha that you've secretly been living in the second attic and make sure you never work in this town as a bender again. Got it?'"

I was so scared. So at the ripe age of thirteen, I got tough. I underwent intense training for 2 years to hone my skills. All the while Mako and Bolin were training with their supportive instructor, Toza," he says with a bitter, airy snort "That's life for you. It's all luck what happens to you. One can only control their future so much."

So at age fifteen I became a 'White Falls WolfBat'. We won match after match by cheating. Then, as we started to get more money, we became emboldened and started bribing the refs. I grew numb to life but Talia insisted that I show no weakness. Eventually I turned into the smug jerk you've been acquainted with. So by the time that she died in a Sato Mobile accident, I was so jaded that I didn't grieve. After that a couple years passed devoid of any meaningful relationships. That's where you and," his face contorts in anguish "Amon come in. Then, well, you know the rest." Turtledoves chirp and the sun shines, seemly oblivious to such a sad story. This new information rolls around in Korra's head.

"How am I supposed to react to this?"

"Do with it what you may I guess." Tahno says as he slinks down on the bench and lays his head on the backboard to rest his eyes.

"You never really answered my question. How did you feel after he took away you're bending? Also, how did you feel about the events that transpired afterwards?"

"You tell me. From what I've heard, you got your bending taken away as well."

"But I got it back," she shot back.

"Are you this unpleasant and uncouth with everyone you talk to or am I just special?" Are you special? Korra thinks.

"In any case you are correct. How did I feel? Hmm," he considers "The day after I got it taken away, I woke up tired and drained. But I wanted everything to be normal again so I did what I'd do on a normal day which was going to the Pro Bending arena. Which was a huge mistake,' he moves so is hand is propping up his head then continues "My fans ignored me. People who I've trained with all my life ignored me. Even the Fire Rats ignored me. Finally, Butakha told me 'Even though the arena is shutting down today, I ask that you escort yourself off the premises. Your presence reminds the other pro benders of what happened and it's making them uncomfortable. Sorry, Tahno.' Beneath my cocky façade, I was devastated. I escorted myself out of that wretched building. I was dragged to the police station to give my statement. And I know" He fidgets some more then stops to crack his back and to rest his elbows on his knees "you might not think much of our encounter at the station but to me it meant the world. That day you were the only person who approached me of their own free will."

"B-but Tahno, you were the one who said hello to me first! It's not like I could've brushed you off," she says as she cringes at her tact, or lack thereof.

"Your ideals about humans and humanity prove your naivety. I was dead weight and a deplorable person, so I had no one to turn to in the end. Looking back on it, I can see the irony. The reason that I dominated the Pro Bending world for as long as I did was because I was ruthless but that very same trait was my down fall. But I digress. That day you could have ignored me, treated me like the trash I was for trying to hurt you," he says as he visibly bites his cheek "I still can't believe the awful stuff I did to you and your teammates during the finals."

"It's over now Tahno. It's fine, you don't have to be sorry anymore."

"No, it's not fine. I am so sorry. That day I realized truly how terrible I was for trying to hurt you and for cheating for so long. I suppose in the since of hurting benders, Amon and I have a lot in common. I'm sorry." He slowly raises his hand like he's about to stroke her cheek. Her breath hitches in anticipation but he recoils as though burned.

"A-anyway, I bought myself a small apartment not far from here and I got a job at the noodle joint across the way. Now that we have caught up to the present, that's concludes my life story up until now," he slumps "Neat, huh? How someone can lose everything when he never really had anything." Korra frowns at this and considers something that's been on her mind. Is he telling me this just so he can get his bending back? He's such a jerk. Why does he want his bending back anyway?

"What do you want with your bending anyway?" She realized it was the wrong this to say once it left her mouth. He distances himself from her in anger.

"You are such a hypocrite!" he says with a coarse laugh "You've had your bending taken away too, so you should know! You're tired all the time but no amount of sleep will fix it. You're disheveled but no amount of acting can cover it up. And, at least for me, getting my bending back isn't what I really want. Granted it would be nice to get it back but more importantly I just want to feel whole again. I also don't want to appear weak in front of the few people who care about me!"

Korra shoots up "I don't think you're weak!" She shouts without thinking. An icky, smothering flush rushes to her face. Tahno's face is a mixture of surprise and his usual smugness. Moments of lethal silence passes between them.