As you both crawled into bed, as far from each other as possible, Tahno decided he had to come clean.

"I'm nervous about tomorrow." He whispered. "Can we do the thing?"

"Really, Tahno? Ain't ya outgrow it yet?" You turned to face him across the ocean of blankets between your bodies.

"Guess not..." He reached an arm across the wide expanse; like a dove with an olive branch, or a white flag.

"Fine... Just once." You grumbled, but reached out and met him halfway. 

"Bad luck turn and bad luck flee." You both touched your four fingers together to the rhythm. Then, you took them away one at a time to the rhythm again. "Only good fortune comes to me."

At the end you both formed half of a heart with your hands, to create the shape together.

"I've got you and you've got me." The song ended with you holding each other's hands. "Together is all we need to be."

After a few seconds of pause, you tried to retract your hand.

"It makes me feel better." Tahno's deep, sleepy voice rumbled over you. He hadn't released his grip.

"It's hard ta sleep stretched out..." You whispered back. In response, there was some shuffling and the air under the blankets felt just a touch warmer now.

"Is this okay?" Tahno's voice tickled your ears.

Against your own wishes, you felt your cheeks flush.

"Yeah... it's good."

And although neither of you would admit it, it was some of the best sleep you'd had in days.

Tahno woke up before you today, excited for the championship game. Carefully, he extracted himself from bed, not wanting to wake you. Although he very much expected to see you at his game, he didn't particularly want to get into a fight this morning; especially after an actually good night. Grabbing an orange, he rinsed it off and took a bite into it. With a smile, he thought about what you would say if you witnessed said act.

Ya MONSTER! Was the usual response. And he knew that he ate oranges a bit oddly, but who were you to judge? You ate kiwifruit with the fuzzy skin still on it, so didn't that make you both equally weird?

By the time he finished his citrus nightmare, he had arrived at the tournament arena.  Ming and Shaozu were in the gym area already; stretching out and warming up. They were always here before Tahno; it was a rule. Tahno refused to be the most dedicated on the team.

The day would go like this; stretch and warm-up until lunch. Go out and eat a protein-packed lunch together as a team. Come back to the gym and do more stretching and strategizing. Eat a light dinner. Win their match. Rinse and repeat.

"Good morning, Tahno." Ming greeted him politely.

"Hey, man!" Shaozu waved as he pulled his leg to his head in a show of flexibility.

"Are you both ready to do some Uh-vatar crushing today?" Tahno asked with a devious grin on his face.

The whole team chuckled at this. They might have been the top ranked pro bending team, but no one said they had gotten there fairly.