Chapter 9
First Date
"Absolutely not!" Tenzin's face was quickly becoming purple with rage.
Korra grimaced, this wasn't fair at all. Knowing whom she was meeting up with, she had attempted a nicer dress for the occasion, but her thoughtfulness had turned against her when the whole island wanted to know why she was dressed up.
If not for that, she would have been able to sneak away like she had many other times. She had no idea why they chose this particular night to be so vigilant.
Tenzin had decided to interrogate her about the whole thing, which of course made him late for his meeting with General Iroh.
At first she had tried to make an excuse about it as a simple night on the town, but her ability to lie wasn't much better than Bolin's.
After that she decided to come clean. If she had been smart, she would have said she was going with Asami. Tenzin may have suspected something but he would have let her go. Instead she had opted for honesty, figuring that talking politics with his fellow councilman would sound better than whatever he imagined.
She really should have known better.
The moment she told him her plans were with Tarrlok, all hell broke loose. Tenzin was yelling so loud that the entire island could probably hear him.
"We're just discussing council business," she tried to tell him.
"Korra do you take me for a fool, look at how you're dressed," Tenzin waved his hands furiously at her.
Korra couldn't believe him, her outfit was incredibly modest even by water tribe standards. It was nicer true, but she had seen Asami in things a thousand times more risque than what she was wearing.
"And besides you have no business discussing council matters to begin with," he continued.
"I'm the Avatar!" Korra exploded. "And I need to know what's going on to be a good Avatar," she continued her tirade.
"You are supposed to be learning airbending," Tenzin shot back.
"I'm doing that, that doesn't invalidate everything else," she shouted. This was ridiculous, Tenzin had just been telling her a few days prior that she should be learning how things are run, but now that it involved Tarrlok he was suddenly against it.
Tenzin reached out to grab her shoulders, his eyes searching hers. "Korra, Tarrlok is using you," he told her seriously. He shook her slightly as if to punctuate his sentence.
Grabbing Tenzin's hand from her shoulder she backed away from him. "He's not," she told him her eyes burning with frustration.
Throwing his hands down in frustration, a burst of wind hit the ground, and Tenzin turned to face away from her. She could tell that Tenzin was trying to get his temper under control. He was just too blinded by his dislike of Tarrlok to see reason.
After a moment of meditative breathing Tenzin turned back to her. His face no longer the ugly purple it had been.
"Korra, don't you remember your lessens with the white lotus?" he asked. "They talked about how so many people would want to hurt and use you for their own ends?"
Korra knew exactly what he was talking about, but he was wrong in this instance.
"But I know Tarrlok," she told him. She knew that Tarrlok could be manipulating, but she also knew that he really did want to be a good guy. He was the only one besides herself that knew what kind of danger republic city faced.
"You don't, you really don't," Tenzin beseechingly told her. "He is power hungry to an extreme that you could scarce comprehend," Tenzin added.
"You'll just have to trust me, Avatar senses right," Korra told him with a small smile. This would usually be enough, but Tenzin just looked at her sadly.
"I don't want you to go," Tenzin tried one more time to convince her to come to his meeting with Iroh instead.
"Too bad, I'm not just going to stay trapped her forever," Korra bit back. She figured she would deal with Tenzin later.
She could hear his protests, but he didn't try to stop her. And soon enough she was left to her own peace. Hopefully his meeting with Iroh went better than his argument with her.
She used her waterbending to take a small boat off the island, and was pleasantly surprised when she saw Tarrlok waiting for her at the pier.
Arriving she tried to set earlier events to the side as she smiled up at him. The first thing she noticed was that he was dressed nicely. The dark blue suit, definitely looked a bit nicer than his normal light blue councilman robes. Apparently her instinct to dress up was a good one.
Trying to get out of the boat proved a little more difficult when she found herself tripping over the long dress. A strong hand caught her mid fall, and Korra felt her face heat up with embarrassment. "Thanks Tarrlok," Korra tried to sound confident as she righted herself. The man merely gave her one of his trademark smiles and gestured to the car.
As he had last time he opened the door for her. It was such a gentlemanly thing to do. Something that Mako had tried to emulate, but seemed to come almost second nature to the councilman. It was honestly something she really liked. Tarrlok would do these little gestures but she never got the impression that he believed her incapable.
In fact he seemed to respect her decisions more than anyone she knew. During her days on his task force he would often let her take control of the situation. Just as he would let her say her piece to the press, and he even allowed her to challenge Amon.
At the time she had almost felt betrayed, especially after her devastating loss. Now looking back, it merely looked like respect. He respected her enough to do as she asked. He wasn't above trying to direct her, but once she made her decision he would accept it. For lack of a better word, he treated her as an adult.
If only Tenzin did the same.
The restaurant he took her to was remarkable. The ceiling looked to be made of crystal, which bounced different lights across the whole area. There were four area's each representing one of the four elements decorated and catered to match.
"It gives variety for future visits," Tarrlok told her softly.
"Have you been to all of them?" she asked.
"I have," he said.
The waiter led them to the water themed section, their booth was fairly secluded from the other tables yet she could still see out into the crowd.
The other patrons were also dressed nicely, and Korra was left wondering what the food would cost at such a place. She may not have had much knowledge of the price of things, but she did know what the fireferrets were able to get away with buying. Bolin had once told her how much he spent to buy noodles and beans at the start of each month, so she supposed she could use that as a basis.
Turning over the menu however Korra realized that she wouldn't get the answer to her question. There wasn't a price on the thing. There were a lot of seafood options however, and she wondered briefly if Tarrlok really liked seafood. "He is a northern man" she remembered as she looked up at him. The north was famous for it's sea based exports, perhaps it reminded him of home.
Not that the south didn't have fisherman, but it was more pronounced in the north. In fact, the south tended to favor in-land fishing while the north favored the deep sea kind. And Tarrlok did seem to embody all the best qualities of the north.
She wondered what it was like growing up in such a place. The northern lands were said to be a thing of beauty.
Catching her eyes he smiled. "do you know what you want, or are you content to stare," he asked. Korra felt her heart skyrocket with embarrassment and his smile widened further. Looking back at the menu she debated on what to get.
It was hard to focus after being called out like that.
"If you don't know, I'd recommend the buffalo-deer, it's to die for," he suggested.
"So, not the seafood," Korra murmured.
The buffalo-deer did sound good though, and so she followed his lead. To her surprise he also ordered his rare. She had assumed he would be a bit too prissy for rare. Obviously she had been mistaken, as his eyes shown like a wolf-cat's when it was delivered.
She couldn't help but admire the ferocity he sometimes displayed. For the longest time she thought of him as a weasel-snake but she now believed she had been wrong. The man was more wolf-weasel than snake.
Before she could internally debate what animal he reminded her of more, he turned his eyes to hers. And she focused on her own food.
It was frustrating that he seemed to be able to read her mind. How was he always aware when she was looking at him?
The two discussed their upcoming plans, and he went over a new strategy to pull more people from the equalist. It was a risky strategy, but she could see the appeal. Hiring chi blockers could easily lead to sabotage, but it would also show their commitment to the non-bender working problems.
They also spoke of her upcoming announcement, something he had already been made aware of. The new rules were going into effect on that day as well, and she hoped that people would associate the two.
She desperately wanted her presence to be seen as a herald of the good things to come. Tarrlok seemed to agree with her, and had even held off on a couple of measures to make the day even more eventful. She could only imagine the kind of media attention she was going to be dealing with. Not that it mattered, she had gotten pretty good at dealing with them during her time on the task force. They wanted bravado and that was something she could give them in spades.
After dinner they talked about their plans in some detail, until Korra noticed that Tarrlok seemed distracted. Not by the conversation, but by something else. His eyes casually seemed to be scanning the area around them, and if she didn't know better she would have thought he was merely admiring the décor.
But his expression was too serious. Something that she didn't normally see on him in social settings, but had been common during his days on the task force. His hand moved to his cheek, his elbow on the table, something he would never do while in politician mode. A habit he only seemed to resort to when he wanted to obscure his expression, and though he looked bored he seemed tense.
His eyes finally landed on something, and narrowed just slightly.
Looking over, Korra could see a man sitting at a distant table. Unlike most of the patrons he seemed to be alone. He was dressed in a common black and gray suit and appeared on the bigger side. He was watching them by the looks of it, and the moment he noticed their attention he smiled. It was not a friendly smile, it was too wide and too toothy. It actually reminded her a lot of Tarrlok's smile.
He seemed familiar, but she was having trouble placing him. He definitely looked sleazy, and his staring was getting on her nerves.
Not one to leave things alone, Korra stood up and began to make her way over to the man's table. On her way over, she saw a staff member give her an alarmed look, but she carried forward anyway. Behind her, she could hear Tarrlok follow after her.
Stopping in front of the man, she asked, "did you want something from us?" The man seemed to lean back surprised by her boldness. Tarrlok came to stand beside her, and Korra raised an eyebrow at this other man.
"And what makes you say that little lady," the man asked her.
"You were staring," Korra told him bluntly ignoring the childish way he had addressed her.
"I can see why you like this one," the man told Tarrlok.
"Enough Zolt, I'd warn you about messing with a councilman," Tarrlok growled.
Korra glanced over at Tarrlok, it was unusual that he would immediately go to aggression. A snarky insult was about as far as he normally went, even with people that annoyed him. Korra's confusion must have been plain, for the other man merely chuckled at her reaction, and Tarrlok bristled slightly.
"I didn't mean to offend council-man," the man seemed to draw out the word councilman.
Korra could see a slight tick in Tarrlok's cheek and wondered just what the two men had against each other.
Instead of escalating things any further Tarrlok gently put a hand to her lower back and whispered. "We should probably be going."
"Oh yes, don't let me ruin your lovely night," the man Zolt said with a hint of insinuation. He then winked at her, and Korra felt her skin crawl with revulsion. Tarrlok's knuckles turned white and for a brief second the water on the table seemed to rise, before splashing back down.
Instead of attacking however Tarrlok led her away from the man, and summoning one of the servers informed them that he wanted to leave.
"I completely understand sir, and we apologize for any disturbance to your evening," the server basically groveled. His eyes shooting fearfully over to the other table.
"No disturbance, the atmosphere was merely a little off tonight," the councilman replied tightly. "You did enjoy dinner correct?" he asked her softly
"Oh, yes," Korra agreed, her eyes flittering to the nervous looking server.
The man continued to apologize to the point that it was beginning to grate on her nerves, but the restaurant was prompt in getting their car for them.
On the way back, Korra could tell that the councilman was still annoyed by the evening. His hands gripping just a little too tightly to the steering wheel, and his face completely masked.
She honestly did not understand why he was letting the little incident bother him so much. The man had been sleazy but not something she hadn't dealt with before.
"It really was a nice evening," she murmured.
Tarrlok glanced over, and his grip on the wheel loosened just slightly.
"I'm going to have to deal with them," Tarrlok said. "The triple threats are getting far too bold if they think they can intimidate me."
Korra suddenly knew where she had seen the man. It was the same man who had his firebending stolen the first time she attended Amon's rally. He was a gangster, and one that had been dealt with by Amon the first time.
She had been so focused on the equalist that she had nearly forgot the problems the city had with benders as well. Well that just wouldn't do.
"We will deal with them," she said resolutely, and Tarrlok glanced at her once more.
"In fact, should we go forward with the task force, this could be a good way to show the city that we're here for everyone," she continued.
"The police certainly aren't doing it," Tarrlok replied his eyes already alight with ideas. His posture once more relaxed.
Korra smiled as she kind of liked this daring, hopeful side to the councilman. The two continued to discuss idea's on the matter, and before long they reached the pier. Korra was a little hesitant to get out of the warm car, but she knew that she would have to face Tenzin eventually.
Before that however, Tarrlok turned to her. "May I ask you something."
"Of course," Korra said with a shrug.
"What sort of partners do you see us as?" he questioned.
That was an odd question. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"I mean," he said evenly "do you see us as business partners." "Or perhaps as something more?" he covered her hand with his own.
Korra's heart skyrocketed with the inquiry. She was well aware of how much their evening had felt like a date, and the evidence of that wasn't lost on her. Still she had ignored those feelings and went along with the thing.
Did she want to be with Tarrlok. He was older than her by not an insignificant amount. He was also a blood bender, who had at least a questionable morality. She was well aware of their fight, the bloodbending, and the kidnapping, but that was all in the past. It quite literally hadn't happened, but to them it had. A lot of things had happened to just them.
Searching his face she would admit that he was handsome. Not in the same way that Mako had been, but in an older almost roguish way. He had many of the best qualities of a water tribe man, and his long hair styled traditionally was appealing to her. In many ways he was the opposite of Mako, both in looks and personality, perhaps that was for the best.
And in a way she felt like she had already made her choice on that cliff. It also reminded her how short life could be, the future was never promised.
"What is it you want," she asked softly with an emphasis on him .
"I could be happy with either," he told her his voice equally as soft. Despite his words he leaned in and brushed his lips against her own. It wasn't really a kiss, it was far too fleeting with just the lightest touch, before he pulled back his intentions clear.
After the light very dry sensation Korra instinctively licked her lips, which amused the councilman who had been waiting on her reaction.
"Why don't you take time to think about it," he suggested.
And like that the date was over, she made her way back home to the island, her mind still reeling from what exactly had occurred.
At the entrance she was greeted by Pema.
Looking up at the older woman Korra decided to be honest, "I think Tarrlok likes me." The sentence must have sounded as stupid as it felt, because Pema merely raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I'm glad you figured that out," she said with a shake of her head and a smile.
Okay there we go
I honestly had no intention for the date to end as it did, but as I was writing it just kind of happened, and I honestly like the way it went. Tarrlok being 37 I just don't see him playing around, he would want to make his intentions clear and that fits better with his character.
I also think that he would be okay with a simple professional relationship, instead of a romantic one. Either would work out to his advantage, and the first has far less risks involved. I do think he would opt for the romantic one if it was available however, and Korra desperately wants that kind of affection, though she may not have thought of Tarrlok initially. Without her friends in her life, I do not think she would be as opposed to it as some might be, though that is my read on the situation.
Anyway
Until next time
