TahnoXReader The Jerk and The Loser 4

Part 4 – Whose side are you on?!

“You boys smell something in here? Wait, I know what that is. That's the scent of losers.”
-Tahno


    Mako allowed one of the waiters to lead him to a table where the charming looking girl named Asami sat. He couldn’t help but glance around because he was quite sure that he had lost his mind. You would never hang around with an arrogant jerk like Tahno, much less actually kiss him. Not after how he treated the Fire Ferrets. He flashed Asami a smile as he lowered himself into the booth beside her. With one last glance around you caught his eye. Across Kwong’s Cuisine in another booth sat you and Tahno. He wasn’t sure if he should feel this angry or if he should wait to question you first. His logical line of reasoning told him to wait to talk to you tomorrow but he couldn’t help but clench his fists. When a hand was placed lightly on his shoulder he looked up at Asami in surprise. She soon made conversation with him.

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    The two of you had already ordered food and you had to admit that it looked delicious. You couldn’t remember ever eating food this exquisite looking and you knew that this was why the place was so expensive. Carefully you broke your chopsticks and couldn’t help but give Tahno an appreciative smile. “Thank you for the food… and the dress,” you mutter and refuse to meet his gaze. Your cheeks were a light shade of pink due to how embarrassed you were about thanking Tahno of all people.  You narrowed your ___ colored eyes instinctively at sound of Tahno giving a soft snort. Now you raised your eyes so that you now they now met his own pale ones.

    At the sight of the look that crossed your face, a full smirk crossed the water bender’s face and he coughed lightly while adverting his gaze. “Don’t give me that look loser,” he told you and gave a shake of his head. His wavy black hair fell into his face a bit as he did so. “___,” he amended when you stabbed a piece of food with your fork violently. Tahno leaned his face closer to yours and you eyed him suspiciously. “What?” you demanded. The arrogant bender pointed towards your plate. “What did your food ever do to you?” he whispered in your ear. His pale eyes were no longer watching your face but instead looking somewhere else.

    When you turned your head to follow his gaze, he caught your face between his hands and for a moment you thought he would kiss you again. Instead he had raised his chopsticks into your view and raised his eye brows. “Say ah~” he said in an odd but extremely serious manner. You shook your head. “You can’t possibly expect me-,“ you started to disagree but he had shoved the small piece of food into your mouth. You couldn’t help but automatically chew the delicious food. “That wasn’t too hard now was it?” Tahno asked and picked up another piece of food from your plate. This time he ate it himself and you lightly whacked him on the back of his head. The arrogant bender nearly spit out the piece of food in surprise and he almost face planted into his own plate of food. “Eat your own food,” you scolded.

    Rather than getting angry like you expected him to, he only laughed and his laughter was a rather charming sound to listen to. “You took me out to eat but you keep looking somewhere else? Who are you looking at?” you asked and sadly couldn’t keep from chuckling yourself since his laughter seemed to be contagious. Tahno set his chopsticks down and lightly intertwined his fingers before resting his chin on his hands. “Are you calling this a date ___?” he asked and his signature smirk crossed his face. Your ___ colored eyes widened and you quickly shook your head. “No! N-Not at all. You said so yourself yesterday that this was only to pay me back for being so rude the first day we met,” you sputtered. Tahno couldn’t help but notice your jittery response and there was a slight twinkle in his pale eyes.

    “What if I wanted it to be considered a date?” he asked smoothly and his pale eyes met your own ___ colored eyes relentlessly. A small frown crossed your face. He had to be lying right? You struggled with a response and said just the first thing that came to mind. “You hardly know me,” you replied. Tahno reached over and tugged lightly on a strand of your ___ colored hair. “Then tell me about yourself,” he told you as if it were obvious. You blinked several times. “I… what?” you asked. Tahno flipped his wavy black hair out of his face with a chuckle. “Tell me,” he repeated and surprisingly you did. You told him about how you were born and raised in Republic City, how Mako and Bolin were your only friends for a very long time, and you even told him a little bit about your parents and how they moved to the Earth Kingdom. Whether or not Tahno really cared and was listening, you weren’t sure but if he didn’t care then he was doing a good job of pretending.

    Tahno on the other hand seemed a bit more reluctant to talk about himself. Finally he did explain about how he was from the Northern Water tribe, about how he is an only child of rich parents, he told you about how he first got into probending and recounted stories about a few matches to you (though you felt he wasn’t telling you the stories truthfully, you felt that perhaps he was leaving a few facts out), he told you a little bit about his teammates, and lastly he gave you some facts about himself like his favorite color and such. He was more interesting than you had originally thought and you wondered just how much you had judged the water bender. Tahno could actually act decent and polite. Just to bust his chops and tease him, just as the waiter came around and collected your empty plates, you decided to ask, “How long does it take to style your hair Tahno?” You grinned when Tahno pulled out his wallet to pay the bill and narrowed his eyes at you.

    Lightly you flicked the wavy hair that fell into Tahno’s face and laugh when he reaches up and grabs your wrist. “Too long for you to go around flicking it and messing it up,” he answered without giving you a specific answer. Tahno stood from his seat and tugged on his jacket before offering his arm out to you. Carefully you hook your arm through his and allow him to walk beside you and outside of the restaurant. Now you peered up at the sky to see it had become dark and some stars were twinkling above, dark clouds drifted across the sky. Tahno followed your gave. “In the North, the sky looks much more beautiful. The sky is much cleaner and the stars twinkle more brightly. Also there are the Northern lights, spirits dancing in the sky. You should see it one day, maybe I’ll take you,” he said more to himself than you in a wistful tone. You glanced at him in surprise. “You sound like you miss the Northern Water tribe,” you said slowly as some clouds drifted across the sky. He gave a shrug and the vulnerable look on his face vanished.

    Tahno walked you home and to your surprise, he didn’t give your small apartment a look of disgust. You invited him in seeing as it had started pouring while the two of you had been walking. Tahno looked rather funny with wet straight hair and you made sure to tell him so. Now he refused to bend the water out of your hair and dress but you didn’t mind. You grabbed two towels from your bathroom and returned to the front room to find Tahno completely dry. “Jerk,” you accuse him light heartedly and toss the towel you had grabbed for him. He easily caught it and smirked. “You’re just jealous. Water is the best element,” he told you. Carefully you run your towel through you hair to dry the wet mess. You couldn’t help but roll your ___ colored eyes. “Earth is the best element,” you scolded him and he only looked around your apartment in response. Tahno had no idea how someone could live in such a small, compact place.

    You couldn’t figure out a way to make this situation any less awkward. Mako and Bolin were the only guys you had ever come to your apartment and you weren’t sure just what to say. Instead of breaking the silence you simply continued to just dry your hair and the ___ colored dress. You glanced up when Tahno started making movements with his arms and the water was pulled out of your hair and clothing. “I thought you said that you weren’t going to do that,” you said and pointed a finger at him accusingly. Tahno flipped his hair as he studied a picture of yourself, Mako, and Bolin when the three of you were younger. “I lied, can’t have you getting sick because of me.”

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    “Bolin, how many times have I told you to spread your feet out a bit more?” you asked your friend with a laugh. Bolin pouted and once again spread out of feet before bending the earth disks into a net. “That’s much better Bolin, now you have a lot more control and precision. Just remember to be light on your feet,” you instructed him and stood beside him in the same position. You glanced over at the door at the sound of it opening and grin over at Mako. “Hey, Mako. You are here late,” you told him and raise your eye brows. You could tell right away that he wasn’t happy at all so you stood upright and placed your hands on your hips. “What’s up?” you asked with concern. Mako rubbed the back of his neck and then he frowned. “We need to talk,” the fire bender muttered then motioned for you to follow. Lightly you give Bolin a pat on the back before reminding him to focus. Korra’s eyes met yours and you gave a shrug as if to say you didn’t know what was up with Mako. You stepped out of the gym and watched as Mako paced up and down the hallway.

    “What’s up?” you repeated. Finally Mako spun on you with his hands clenched at his side. “Why were you hanging out with him?” he asked with anger obvious in his voice. You opened your mouth then shut it several times. “What… who are you talking about?” you replied with confusion obvious in your voice. You stumbled back a few steps as Mako walked towards you and he punched the wall beside your head. “Tahno, why were you out with Tahno last night?” he snapped and you narrowed your ___ colored eyes at him. You placed a hand on his chest and gave him a hard shove so that he was forced to give you some space. “Calm down, how do you even know I was out with-?” you started then it clicked in your head. Tahno had kept looking at someone last night and seemed very happy about kissing you last night. Had he really been doing all these things just to piss Mako off? “You.. you were at Kwong’s Cuisine?”

    Mako crossed his arms over his chest and gave a reluctant nod. “___, you know how arrogant and rude he is. He treats the Fire Ferrets like trash and he doesn’t care about you – he only cares about himself,” he snapped. Who was Mako to say who you could hang out with and who you couldn’t? “You don’t even know him,” you started to retort but it was obvious that Mako didn’t want to hear it. He pointed a finger in your face and you were quite tempted to earth bend at your friend for being so demanding and accusing. “Oh, and you do? How do you know he wasn’t lying to your face ___?!” he shouted and you winced. Korra popped her head out the door of the gym to see what all the ruckus was about. “Is everything alright?” Korra asked quietly,

    You glared at Mako and glance over at Korra.”Everything is fine, sorry to worry you Korra. I was just leaving,” you stated before Mako could say anything to Korra. Now you turn and walked past Mako, purposely bumping your shoulder against his. Mako winced and rubbed his shoulder as you walked off. “Whose side are you on?!” he called after you. When you turned to face him you threw your hands up in the air. “There are no sides!” you answered. Once you were out of sight Korra frowned and looked at Mako. “What was all of that about?” Korra questioned. Mako simply shook his head and walked into the gym.

    The open air allowed you to catch your breath but did not soothe your nerves. It wasn’t like you and Tahno were together or anything of the sort. It was unlike Mako to just jump to conclusions like this which really signaled to you that you had just pissed him off. What the heck did he mean which side are you on? You truly couldn’t understand why he had jumped so such exaggerated measures but you didn’t like it one bit. Just because you were talking to Tahno didn’t mean you liked your friends any less. With a bad mood on the rise, you stormed down the cobblestone sidewalk. You rushed by many stores and accidentally walked into someone with a cart. The cause the teenager to stumble and bump into his own cart. Cabbages began rolling down the street and you mentally scolded yourself for bumping into the merchant once again.

    You reached down to pick up one of the cabbages only to have someone else grab it before you. “Making a mess again loser?” someone asked and your gaze snapped up to look at Tahno who seemed to be the center of all your troubles. The sobbing merchant was scooping up as many cabbages as he could and placing them back in the cart. “Cabbage boy,” Tahno snapped causing the teen to look up. The water bender tossed the cabbage causing it to lightly hit the man in the chest and fall into his hands. When you went to open your mouth and tell Tahno that his actions were rude, said bender grabbed you arm and pulled you close so that your faces were only inches apart. “What is bothering you loser?” he asked staring into your ___ colored eyes. ‘Jerk’ you thought and tugged your arm out of his hold. Was it really that obvious that you were upset?

    “You, you are tilting my world upside down and making my life complicated,” you snapped before you could restrain yourself. The arrogant bender blinked his pale eyes but his calm and conceited look on his face remained intact. “You knew Mako was at Kwong’s Cuisine last night, and you kissed me just to make him angry,” you accused him. Tahno flipped his black wavy hair out of his face. “Yes,” he responded, not even bothering to deny it. You reached up a hand and slapped Tahno hard across the face. “My friends are a very important part of my life, I told you that last night. You only kissed me to make him mad, you don’t have any feelings for me. Everything I told you at dinner was the truth, was anything you said true? Answer me!”

    Tahno grabbed you chin between his finger and narrowed his eyes at you. “I did kiss you to make that fire bender friend of yours mad, but just like you everything I said last night was true. Even when I mentioned taking you to see the northern lights. I had fun yesterday and yesterday was one of the best days of my life. All the people that call me friends like me for my money but you hated me from the start. You were different than everyone else and you made me smile and laugh. Alright?” he hissed quietly. You could tell by the look in his pale eyes that it was hard for him to say these words and it shook your soul. Just as suddenly as he grabbed you, he released you and shoved a hand in his pocket. He pulled out some sort of paper and shoved it in your hands. “Come or not, the choice is yours,” he said and turned on his heels before walking away.

    Utterly confused, you slowly looked down at the paper in your hands to see that it wasn’t just any sheet of paper but a ticket for some kind of ferry to the Northern Water tribe. How much did this cost him!? What should you do? The fire ferrets had another probending match coming up and with Amon becoming stronger, you feared for your friends. Tahno would never agree to buy tickets for all of your friends, you knew that. A little note was attached to the ticket and when you skimmed through it, according to the note you would be in the northern water tribe for three days then return to Republic City. Nothing terrible could happen in just three days. Who could turn down the opportunity to go to the Northern Water tribe?

    Did this mean you really had to pick a side? Tahno’s or the Fire Ferrets? Friends or someone who caused butterflies to dance in your stomach and was slowly starting to reveal a different side of himself? Someone whom you didn’t know well or friends you trusted? Couldn’t you just choose both?