the humble offering
Tahno sat in a booth at Narook’s, frowning down at his noodles. He hadn’t seen Korra in so long, but she was the uh-vatar. She had better things to do then hang out with a rude former water-bender, what did he really expect?
Not hearing the door open, he jumped when he heard his name being called by her. He quickly masked his surprise. He looked up slowly, trying to focus on her. She if it was real and not a dream. His head hurt from a hungover, drinking was one of the ways he found helped deal with the pain of losing everything he had ever had. “Hi, Uh-vatar,”he replied with a small wave back.
Even with Amon gone, it only eased the pain a little bit. He learned to accepted the fact that he would never be the same again, as much as he hated it.
He was still looking up at her, only allowing himself a small smile. He didn’t want her to know that he had missed her, it would make him seem weak. “I’m doing okay,” he forced a bigger smile, hoping it looked natural. “How have you been? I heard you were busy saving the world,” Tahno said with a slight smirk. He had read all about her saving the world in the newspaper, wishing he had been there to help her. Although, now that he was a non-bender, he wouldn’t have been any help at all. Tahno realized that he had been zoning out, staring down at his noodles again. His smirk had disappeared and turned into a frown.
She hated seeing him like this. They had never been close—ha. Even the idea of calling them friends was a joke. There’d been some kind of kinship born in that moment they’d shared in the police station, but that was about it.
Bender or not, he was still a cheat. And he’d cost her friends the winner’s pot, which would have set them up for life. She was there not because she really liked the young man moping there at the table, but simply because…
Well, he was Water Tribe, and as much a victim as the next person. If anyone deserved their bending back, it would be Tahno. His entire livelihood was taken from him without it—as well as his identity. If only for that, they were kindred spirits. After all, her entire being, her purpose for existing, had seemed to fall away when her bending had been stripped from her.
There was no point in wasting any further time. He’d suffered enough, and the facade fell away as she set her mouth in a line. “Amon’s gone.” That much had no doubt been published in every newspaper printed in Republic City for days. “I don’t know where he went,” or what happened to him, “but what I do know is…” Her voice dropped lower, and she leaned in just a little when she said, “I know how to give people their bending back.”
She figured it wasn’t worth it to delve into specifics. If the fallen wolfbat wanted to know about Noatak’s treachery, how he’d been using bloodbending to steal from people, she could always tell him. But the bottom line was the same: she could make him whole again.
(Source: korralized)
