(Please excuse my over excessive use of the dinner table)

Korra was feeding Naga, looking out from the veranda into the rain. Jinora and Ikki were sitting on Naga's back, making loud noises at each other. Jinora sat up straight as she saw a figure in the rain.

"Korra, there's someone coming towards us," Jinora mumbled, a little taken aback.

"Huh!?" Korra squinted her eyes. Sure enough, she saw a reasonably tall figure slowly walking towards them. Whoever it was, they were soo close that Korra could hear their footsteps in the puddles on the ground.

As the strange figure entered Naga's stable he began rubbing his neck with his hand, "Hey Korra."

Korra threw her arms back and stepped forwards in shock, "Tahno?"

"Uh, yeah." Tahno shifted uneasily from foot to foot.

Ikki jumped off Naga's back and stood right below Tahno's chin, looking up at him, "You're wet!"

"Uuuuh, yeah?" Tahno took a step back. Korra ushered Ikki back towards Jinora.

"Tahno, please come in." Korra walked to the entrance of the house whilst Jinora and Ikki ran down the hall to Tenzin yelling 'Dad, Tahno's over for dinner!'

"So, why are you here?" Korra was a little uncomfortable. Tahno looked down at his feet, thought through what he was going to say and looked up again.

"I just wanted to make sure you weren't mad at me and…"

Korra shoved him in the side with a grin on her face, "Why would I be mad at you?"

Tahno gawped at her. Did she really just say that she wasn't mad at him? "Well last night…"

Korra's smile stayed strong, "Oh! Well I think we should put that behind us for the next while and just concentrate on now."

Tahno nodded. So she was trying to forget it. Maybe that was best.

Tenzin walked down the hall to them, "Tahno! Good to see you again."

"Aaah, thankyou sir." Tahno slurred his words slowly together in his usual tone.(some people may call it drawling)

Korra took him by the arm and led him towards the dinner table. Mako looked up in absolute horror as Tahno walked in. Mako stood up with a start as if about to speak but then slowly sat down. Pema brought in steaming dishes most of them being soups and broths of some kind. Korra couldn't help but feel awkward as a silence dragged on through dinner.

Bolin coughed.

"So, Tahno, to what do we owe the pleasure!"

"Um, well I came to talk to Korra about…some…things."

More silence followed. Bolin coughed again except louder this time. Korra could swear she heard the cicadas in the back ground chirping. And when dinner finally ended Korra led Tahno to her room.

Tahno looked at a hand carved wooden picture frame. In it was an image of Korra when she was young and her parents. Tahno sighed. Korra flopped down on her bed, "So, what is it exactly, in detail pretty boy?"

Tahno sat down on a wooden chair, "Well, do you hate me? I thought you might after my idiocy yesterday."

Korra sat up, "Idiocy, huh. You're so hard on yourself." Korra threw a pillow at him, "It was just a onetime thing right? Got caught in the heat of the moment I guess."

Tahno tilted his head. So she wasn't mad at him. Not even a little bit concerned at what he'd impulsively done. She was interesting.

"Tahno, I'm not going to get upset at you over one small thing. We're really good friends, uh, I hope," Korra looked down completely forgetting Tahno was there, "Maybe I didn't mind it. I mean I didn't pull away."

"Uh," Tahno had the feeling he had heard something he wasn't supposed to.

Korra remembered Tahno was sitting right there. Heavy blush covered her face, "You know but, I probably got caught in the heat of the moment," she quickly added in.


When Tahno finally left that night, she let out a deep sigh of relief. She had survived a very difficult conversation even though she had embarrassed herself. And now she was left to wonder, with all the words she had let slip, which were real and which were false? She was afraid of the answer and she didn't know what to do when she knew the answer.

Korra sat down on the chair in her room and looked at the picture frame sitting on her table. At the smiling faces of her parents and her absolute innocence. Innocence was something most people in the world lacked these days. And maybe she lacked it also. The purity of the world, she thought, could now be described as a stain on a white blanket. It was there, just not as much. It was tampered with and spoiled. And as she thought of Tahno, she let her own innocence slip away.

For so long, Korra had wished for nothing more than a happy life. But now she wished for more. And Korra questioned whether it could be found in that man. The same one that caused her to get nervous whenever she saw him, or made her think about things she normally didn't like her own innocence.

Korra closed her eyes. She remembered someone like Tahno from when she was a child, no more than 5. His name was Ronu. Ronu had come from the same water tribe as Korra. Korra's mind raced back to one memory in particular.

"Ronu, I don't think you should be doing that!" Ronu who was leaning over a chair looked up.

"Why?" He continued bending water onto the seat of the chair

"Because it's not nice! How would you like it if someone iced you to your chair?" Korra hit him on the back of the head.

"Ow! Well, I guess I wouldn't. But what if one day I went to ice someone to their chair and I couldn't? Then I'd never have ever iced someone to their chair and it'd be all your fault."

Korra looked down at her feet and watched as she crushed the snow beneath a swivelling foot, "Why would you not be able to bend Ronu?"

"It happened to my uncle's friend. He lives in Republic City. The Avatar took his bending away."

"Really!? I heard stories of that man. Yakone right? But what if there are other's like the Avatar who can take bending away."

Ronu ran up to Korra and took her arm, "Korra, I'm scared! I don't want to lose my bending. I want to be able to ice people to chairs and play with bubbles and do other fun things." Tears ran down Ronu's face.

Korra pulled Ronu into a hug, "Ronu! Don't cry, please don't cry! If you lose your bending you'll still have me, okay."

"Really Korra!" His wet face brightened up

"Always. But tell me, why are we going to ice your sister to her chair?"

"Because… because I wanted to do something fun…with you."

And Korra could tell that he really meant it.


Korra opened her eyes and sighed. She had really liked Ronu. But it was amazing how similar he was to Tahno. Except Tahno was...

Korra stuck her hand in her pocket and shuffled it around. She pulled out a photograph of Tahno she took on one of her visits to see him. He was sitting on a park bench near the Yue Bay, smiling and looking up and the sun with a strand of water falling from his hands. Korra wished that he could always look like this. Always look so happy and relaxed. The Tahno now was so different to the old Tahno.

She opened up one of her work draws and pulled out another hand carved photo frame and slipped the picture of Tahno in it and placed it next to the one of her and her family.

(It's almost there! Just hang on, it's coming)