First off, I'd like to thank TeaBender for being an amazingly faithful reader/reviewer and just an awesome person in general. I have no idea who you are, since you are anonymous, but I'd just like to say thanks. Hopefully you're reading this.

Secondly, I apologize for not updating in a while. I'm on a roadtrip right now and it's kind of hard to find time to write and post new chapters while on the road.

WARNING: this chapter contains mentions of sexual situations. If you don't like the idea of Korra and Tahno doing 'stuff' together, feel free to skip it. But what kind of crazy person doesn't like that, right?

Tahno can't get her off his mind. Korra. The name feels right rolling around in his mind, a sweet cadence that he can't stop thinking about. He tries it out, whispering,"Korra," into the pressing darkness of his one-room apartment.

It's been two days since the party at Zhang's, and he can't stop thinking about the beautiful, naïve escort. Korra.

Everything else about the party pales in comparison to meeting her-and that's alarming, because he thinks that he's finally broken into the Monsoons for good. Lao offered him a job, several thousand yuan for an undisclosed task, and he can't think of anything but Korra.

Damn it, he thinks. Tahno has never felt like this, not about a girl. Why can't I stop thinking about her?

He pictures what might have easily happened in that ally, had she been more willing, more pliable. Hands, groping, wandering across her lithe body, her hands on him, stroking him. Her mouth, hot and wet and tight, around him. His hands tangled in her hair, his head tilted back against the brick wall, eyes rolling back in pleasure. Shuddering, spasming in her mouth as he came, moaning her name.

Tahno shivers as he thinks about this, he can feel himself becoming aroused and he tries to put his mind elsewhere because it's not right, he doesn't even really know her. In the end he gives in, sliding his hands beneath his waistband, stroking himself in long, languid movements, becoming rougher as he draws closer to climax. He comes into his hand, her name on his lips.

"Korra," he moans into the darkness. He goes and washes his hands off, feeling pangs of guilt at what he's done. Jerking off to the mere idea of some girl he barely knows? He chalks it up to the stress of his new job (which he hasn't even started yet, but who's counting?).

Korra returns to Air Temple Island early in the morning, her feet aching from standing around all night. She hasn't really found any incredible information about the Monsoons, but she thinks she's found a way in.

Tahno. It's a funny name, but she likes the way it sounds on her lips. She whispers it aloud into her darkened bedroom and a smile creeps onto her face. She remembers the way his lips felt on hers. He knew what to do, she thinks, recalling how his tongue tried to find its way inside her mouth. He would know how to make a girl feel something. But what, exactly, does she want to feel?

Special, Korra thinks. Wanted.

She pushes the thoughts from her mind at once. She's already special-she's the Avatar, for God's sake-and she's already wanted. By…by who? By her family, back home? Sure, but they had no qualms about locking her away in a remote compound for most of her young life. By Tenzin and the airbending clan? Yeah, but Korra knows that she was more of a burden to them than an honored houseguest. By Tarrlok? She shudders at the thought that Tarrlok might want her for anything more than his task force.

Flipping over and burying her face in her pillow, Korra tries to remember how Tahno's lips felt on hers-and how he's her new way into the Monsoons. What she needs, she decides, is a distraction.

Tuesday night, eight o'clock. The moon hangs full in the sky, a fat orange lantern. Eerie shadows skate across the warehouse wall, and Tahno stands nervously between two hulking Monsoons enforcers. Lao, decked out in a pinstriped suit and fedora, paces back and forth before a man who is tied to a chair.

"You owe me money, Wu. Ten thousand yuan. Are you planning on paying me?" Lao snarls, and then man's shoulders hunch in fear.

"Please, I have a family, children to feed! Business hasn't been good lately…I promise that I'll pay you when I get the money!"

A sick grin twists Lao's face and he turns to his muscle.

"Rough him up."

One of the giant brutes moves forwards, but Lao holds up a hand.

"No. Tahno."

Tahno's stomach twitches in anxiety, but he swallows the lump that's building in his throat. He brings some water into his hands and whips it out at the man in the chair. It leaves long red welts across his face, and he cries out in pain. Lao's mouth twists into a dark smile.

"Good. Keep going."

And so Tahno keeps going, striking the man again and again, ignoring his pleas and cries of pain. He switches up his methods, going from water to ice and back again, until Wu is a bloody, sobbing mess, hanging limply from his restraints. He's alive, Lao has ordered Tahno not to kill him, and he doesn't think he could take a life anyway. Not like this.

"I'll-I'll give you the money," the man whispers. Blood bubbles from the corner of his mouth. "Anything…you…want."

Lao walks forward and grabs Wu's hair, forcing his head upright. A pair of dark eyes, terrified and pained, meet Tahno's grey gaze. Tahno looks away, he can't bear the pitiful sight.

"If you ever cross me," Lao says. "This is what will happen to you."

And he draws a long silver knife out of his coat and slits Wu's throat. Blood sprays across the room, ruby flecks landing on Tahno's face and ruined shirt. He doesn't make a move to wipe them off, he's too stunned. Lao has just murdered a man in cold blood, right in front of him. Like a warning.

One of the thugs slices the ropes with a jet of ice, and the corpse slumps to the floor. The eyes are wide and staring. Tahno nods.

"Understood, sir."

Lao kicks Wu's body with the toe of his polished dress shoe as he and his thugs leave.

Tahno stands there for a long moment, feeling frozen, numb. Then he turns and leaves the warehouse, wondering what will happen to the body. Will someone come and remove it, maybe dump it into the river? Will they clean the bloodstains from the floor, or leave them there, like some grotesque memorial to the murdered man?

Outside, in a narrow ally behind the warehouse, Tahno leans against the wall and retches violently. He can't believe what he's just done, all he knows is that he feels disgusted with himself.

He starts walking home, hands deep in his pockets. He's done it. He's broken into the Monsoons. But at what price?

Thanks for reading this chapter! Please review, my dears. Much love to all of you!