She quickly stuffed the blue dress Pema bought her in her gym locker where no one could look in. Korra sighed to herself in relief when she managed to close and lock it without anyone seeing her.

"Whatcha got there, Avatar?" She quickly recognized the voice. Tahno.

"What do you want, pretty boy?" Korra crossed her arms and leaned against her locker.

The wolfbat flipped his hair, doing nothing but letting it fall back into place. "I want to know what you've got hidden there."

Her left eye twitched. "None of your business." She replied, leaning on the locker more.

"Oh but it is since I saw you hiding it. Therefore, it becomes my business." He flashed her a smirk. "Let me guess, your dress for tomorrow night's gala? As I recall, all the pro-bending finalists are invited and are required to dress formally."

She remained silent, glaring at him. "I don't get why you have to hide it." He strode closer to her, putting his arms on either side of her. "Or are you embarrassed about it?"

"Sh-shut up." She stuttered, trying to push him off, gently, because if she did so forcefully, they were out of the finals.

"Ooh, I hit a nerve." He countered, unrelenting against her feeble pushes. "Still, I'm confused. You wore a dress that last gala dedicated to you. Why be embarrassed now?"

"Let me go, you bastard or I'll scream and you'll be out of the tournament." Korra smiled triumphantly as the smirk on his handsome face dissipated.

"Whatever." He said as he lifted his arms. "Well, go on. Get out of here, loser." He shooed her off with a dainty hand.

Korra stuck her tongue out. "Douche." She said as she walked away.

The smirk returned to Tahno's lips once more. He quickly bended some water from a puddle in the locker rooms and froze it on the lock of her locker. Perfect.

He gave the ice a kick and the ice broke along with the lock. The locker door swung open revealing a blue bundle of cloth. He picked it up to show its full length.

Now he knew why the avatar was so shy about it. It was in a toga form. It was tight around the chest and there was a ribbon around the waist-area. From the waist down, it flowed freely. On the left side of the dress where her left leg would be, there was a slit that started from her mid-thigh to show off her long legs. Tahno was clearly going to enjoy tomorrow's gala.

Korra sneaked over to the lockers on her tiptoes. She surveyed the locker room. 'Great. No one's here.'

She sighed heavily and walked over to her locker, only to stop short when she noticed her lock was broken.

"What the hell?" She voiced out. Then she noticed a puddle of water directly below her locker. Tahno.

She gritted her teeth both in frustration and embarrassment. "Oh spirits." She thought of every different way to murder the curly-haired waterbender.

She huffed. "Damn that bastard." She walked closer to her locker and wrenched it open, revealing her immodest dress. At least, that's what she thought. She quickly grabbed it and stuffed it into her satchel and hurried off to the bathrooms.

'I told Pema to buy a decent dress! This is clearly not decent!' She thought furiously as she struggled into the dress, thankful that the zipper was at her side and not at the back.

Once in the dress, she surveyed herself in the mirror. She wasn't so sure about what to do with her hair. Shrugging, she bunched up her hair and decided to try and tie it into a bun. Keyword: try. She surveyed herself in the mirror once more. The bun was decent, albeit messy and loose strands fell to her face but it was acceptable. 'No makeup.' She thought as she pursed her lips but quickly shooed the thought off. She didn't use makeup, and she wasn't going to start now.

Korra bunched all her clothes into her satchel and brought out a long dark coat she could use to cover her dress and get out of the gym with no one seeing her dress and hopefully, her. She found it in Tenzin's closet and deemed it unused when it was pretty dusty but after a good washing, it looked as good as an old coat could ever be.

She turned up the collar of the old coat and hoped that it shielded her face enough for no one to notice her. Slinging her satchel back on, she walked out of the bathroom and out of the gym quickly and silently.

As she reached the venue, a large dome-like ballroom with strobe lights everywhere, she slinked to the side and shrugged off her coat and stuffed it in her bag along with all her other clothes. She heaved a deep breath and when she decided that she her heart wasn't feeling too much like a thousand elephants stomping in her chest, she stepped out of the dark and entered the large dome.

She looked around the ballroom, looking for anyone she knew. So far, the closest person she saw to knowing was the feather-hat guy who was serving drinks.

"Huh." The blue-eyed avatar wondered out loud. "No one's here yet."

"Au contraire." Korra whirled around to see a smirking Tahno wearing a tux. "I am."

"Psh. Do I even consider you as someone, jerk?" She countered as she crossed her arms.

"You hurt me, avatar." Tahno flipped his hair as he walked closer. "Besides, there's your crush, Mako, dancing with the rich and beautiful Asami." He pointed over to a couple who looked very very attached with how close they danced.

"Who said anything about a crush?" The avatar exclaimed as a blush danced on her cheeks. She took a quick glance at the couple and felt her heart drop. It was Mako and Asami. And they were dancing very closely.

"Heartbroken?" He teased with a grin on his face as he casually placed an arm around her waist.

Korra surprised him by not making any move to remove his arm from her waist. She looked as if she was too dejected to do so. Tahno graciously raised his brow in confusion for the girl wasn't as violent as he thought she would be. He followed her line of sight, and just as he expected, she was staring at the couple, although, he never thought it would have this much of an effect on her, that it would just defeat her.

"Avatar? Oi, avatar. Avatar! Korra!"

The said person lifted her head, surprised to hear the wolfbat call her by her name. She was even more surprised by the way it nicely rolled of his tongue. "Huh?" She suddenly realized there was on her, no, holding her waist.

"Eh?" She widened her eyes, and then narrowed them as she glared at the person whose arm it was that was around her waist. "Get. Your. Hands. Off. Me." She hissed through gritted teeth.

Tahno gave her a bored look before grinning. "Nope. No can do. But I must say, you look exquisite in your dress." He toyed with the ribbon around her waist.

The blue-eyed water tribe girl flushed furiously but her glare didn't waver. "Like I said, get your filthy hands off me. Agni knows where that's been."

"Oh, up certain places I'm sure you know very well of." Korra made a face at the obvious innuendo. "Well, look what we have here. Avatar, make a nice face because your little crush is approaching us along with your admirer."

"Korra?" She looked up at the voice to see Mako with Asami, along with Bolin.

"Oh, hey Mako, Asami. Hey Bolin." The avatar greeted casually, careful to not let her nervousness seep through.

"Korra, what are you doing with Tahno?" Mako asked, glaring at the wolfbat.

"Oh, uh-"

"She's my date." The said wolfbat finished for her with a lazy grin.

"SHE'S YOUR WHAT?" Bolin exclaimed as his eyes narrowed to slits.

"G-guys! Tahno, he, uh, he-" Korra stuttered nervously as she twiddled her thumbs.

"What she means to say is that I asked to escort her yesterday because she told me that she pitifully didn't have a date."

"Oh, that's great! You're pretty lucky then Tahno, Korra looks wonderful! Don't you think so, Mako?" Asami cheerfully stated, unaware of the hostility between two teams.

The firebender cleared his throat awkwardly as he tried to keep his gaze away from her legs or her chest. "Uh, yeah. She looks nice."

"Are you kidding? She looks beautiful!" The earthbender quickly switched from hostility. "Where'd you get the dress, Korra?"

"Oh,uh, Pema got it for me."

"I've got to give Pema props for this one!"

"Uh, yeah. Uh, Tahno," Mako said the name as if it was poisonous, "could you let me borrow Korra for a bit? I've got to talk to her."

"Don't run off with my date now, firebender." Tahno smirked as the glare of the firebender heightened.

Mako grabbed Korra by the wrist and dragged her over to the buffet tables. "What's up?"

"What's up? Are you serious, Korra? Him? Tahno, of all people, why bring him as a date?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, was I supposed to ask permission from you?"

"Yes!"

"Really? The other teams are bringing dates from other teams too! This isn't against the rules, Mako, but it clearly is against you!" Korra poked the said person in the chest.

"Of course it is! Arent't you supposed to hate him? You told me you hated him just a few days ago!" Mako stood his ground as he glared at her.

"You told me you liked me a few days ago too!" The firebender's glare faltered. "Look, I get you're jealous but you're all lovey-dovey with Asami so you have no right to be!"

"J-jealous? Yeah, this is what you're trying to do! You're trying to make me jealous! That was your whole plan right?"

"Oh please, Mako! The whole world doesn't revolve around you! You want to know the reason why I went with Tahno? Because maybe I find him to be attractive! Maybe I even like him!"

"Yeah right! I know you like me Korra, you can't switch that fast. Besides, you could have taken Bolin with you!"

"Well, it seemed Bolin didn't want to go with me after all that happened a few days ago. And me? Like you? Yeah, dislike you that is. You know what? Just stay out of my business." With that, Korra stomped her way back to Tahno and the others.

"You find me attractive?" Tahno whispered in her ear as she stomped over.

"Yeah right. How'd you hear anyway?" The avatar's breath hitched, thinking how much he'd heard.

"I happened to go over to the buffet tables and heard your little argument, well, until that comment." Tahno smirked knowingly. "And the part where you said you liked me."

"Sh-shut up. That was a joke." Korra reddened considerably.

"A cruel one if you had me believe it." He placed another arm around her, holding her tightly next to him as if someone were to steal her away.

"W-what?" She asked, not noticing the tight hold he had around her.

"Oh nothing." The pompous wolfbat's smirk seemed to grow wider. "Well then, shall we dance?"

He led her to the dance floor with his arm still around hers. "My lady."

"Oh, ew. Don't do that." She scrunched up her nose yet she still put her arms around his neck and he put his around her waist.

"You know, I actually think your little firebender is jealous of us." He made a subtle nod of his head in direction of the couple who were sitting at a table, eating. Apparently Tahno had noticed the subtle glares and glances in their direction.

"Huh." Korra muttered as she unconsciously leaned closer.

Tahno stiffened but his hold on her doesn't waver, instead it tightened as a smirk graced his lips.

They both swayed to the beat of the song, no one else in the world. Korra forgot about everything, about Mako, about Bolin, about their upcoming pro-bending match.

And maybe, just maybe, she couldn't hate the wolfbat too much after this.