Just Like Waterbending ::Tahorra::

Just Like Waterbending

Genre: Romance/Friendship
Pairing: Tahorra, Masami, slight Makorra (if you tilt your head and squint)
Word count: 1,101
Disclaimer: The Legend of Korra and all affiliated characters belong to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

Korra stared at her reflection in her drink. Really, she'd have focused on anything so as not to subject herself to the scene across the table from her. Around their small round table, people chatted and danced, and any space that wasn't occupied by a person was thick with smooth saxophone music. The lovebirds across the table didn't seem to notice anything besides one another, though.

Korra was happy for Mako and Asami, really she was. After all they'd been through, they deserved each other. Sure, she was still a little jealous of their relationship, but she could accept it. What she didn't enjoy was feeling like a third wheel. Bolin had wandered off almost as soon as their arrival at the jazz club, leaving Korra attempting to make herself scarce while Asami and Mako spoke under their breaths to one another, their faces only inches apart, foreheads nearly pressed together.

Korra glanced at them again and frowned. The way the couple's eyes met made the waterbender's heart tighten with longing. She was happy for them, really she was.

She downed the amber liquid in her short glass in two gulps and excused herself from the table quietly, making her way to the bar for a refill. Sliding onto a stool, she nodded her thanks to the bartender and looked out at the couples on the polished dance floor. She liked to watch this new dancing that had been born in Republic City in the last few years.

They had dances in the Southern Water Tribe, but those were traditional dances that her people had been doing for centuries. This, this was something else entirely. She was so transfixed on the spinning and quicksteps of the dancers that she hardly paid any mind when someone slid onto the stool beside her.

"Fancy seeing you here, Uhvatar."

Korra tore her eyes from the dance floor and turned to regard the former waterbender. Despite the smirk he wore, which might have made her believe he was back to his old self, he still looked like something the catypus dragged in.

"Don't look at me like that," he reprimanded her. "Everywhere I go, there's somebody pitying me. I don't need it from you, too."

Korra frowned and returned to watching the dancers. "How have you been, Tahno?"

"Pretty good, actually—all things considered. You?"

She still didn't look at him. "Fine—all things considered."

Tahno hummed to himself and followed Korra's gaze. "Need a partner?" he asked. At the girl's puzzled face, he grinned and tilted his head toward the dance floor.

Korra's face flushed. "Oh, no, I don't know… I can't dance."

He snorted and stood, taking her by the hand, and pulling her along with him. "If you can waterbend, you can dance," he stated simply, as he stopped and turned toward her, taking her left hand in his right, and using his other hand to pull her close.

Korra blushed and stared at their feet as he began trying to lead her. When a guy treated her like an opponent, she was all piss and vinegar, but as soon as he started treating her like a girl, she clammed up. She hated that about herself.

"You're too stiff," Tahno pointed out. When her muscles only tightened, he put his mouth next to her ear and whispered, "Relax. I've got you." He heard her swallow hard, but she slowly did as she was told, and slowly she started moving to the music with him.

There's was something natural to Korra about feeling his body's movements and reacting with matching movements of her own. Their rhythm was perfect, the air between them buzzing with electricity.

She smiled at him as they continued to gyrate. "This really isn't so hard."

"Glad you think so, because now we're going to do a spin." He didn't give her time to react before whipping her body away from him and allowing the momentum to twirl her twice before she pulled safely back to his arms.

"That was fun!" Korra laughed. "Let's do it again."

Tahno chuckled and complied, twirling her again. He loved seeing the euphoria in her crystalline eyes as the world blurred around her. She looked like she was in a completely different world in those fleeting seconds, and Tahno was glad to be able to give that feeling to her.

He subtly maneuvered them to the center of the dance floor, confident that they wouldn't be in anyone's way now that Korra knew what she was doing. The avatar didn't seem to notice the change in position, but the other dancers certainly did. It wasn't long until the others had all stopped dancing and had turned their attentions to Tahno and Korra.

Mako paused midsentence as something over Asami's shoulder caught his eye, and Asami turned to see what her boyfriend was staring at.

"Is that Korra?" the heiress asked. "Look at her go. But who is she dancing with? He looks so familiar…"

"Tahno," Mako muttered, glaring daggers at the ex-waterbender's head.

They were panting, out of breath from the exertion, but not wanting to stop. A thin layer of sweat had Korra's bangs plastered to her brow, and Tahno didn't look much better, but they kept dancing, only stopping when the jazz music accompanying them came to an end.

All at once, reality came back to Korra, and she found herself standing nose-to-nose with Tahno—not unlike she had been the night she had met him. Their breathless pants intermingling; their eyes locked. And then Korra slowly head applause, and realized that people were standing around them, clapping.

Tahno, ever the showman, stepped away from Korra and led her in a bow for their audience. It was only once he released her hand that she realized that he hadn't let go of it once since pulling her away from the bar. Korra's skin tingled pleasantly where he had been touching her, and she clutched the appendage to her chest.

Tahno walked with her back to the table she had been sitting at with Mako and Asami, where he left her with a wave and what had become his customary, "See you around, Uhvatar." Korra sat dumbly in her seat as she watched him leave, wondering if any of that had actually happened as soon as he was out of her sight. Mako's scowl, however, was proof enough that it had.

"I didn't know you could dance like that," Asami praised the waterbender excitedly.

Korra came out of her haze and smiled a big goofy grin at the other girl. "Neither did I."