Teenage Dream
two.
"The guys made a nice tribute to Noatak, didn't they?" Korra asked as they were on the deck of the boat.
Tarrlok sipped his drink. "Yeah, it was… I'm glad they did that for him."
Korra was the one who reached out to Tarrlok first. After catching up over coffee, he was even more surprised that she said yes when he asked her if they could go to the reunion together. Makes up for the prom years ago.
Korra had a fiancé who was in the army, but he was killed in the line of duty. Tarrlok held her as she had tears in her eyes. She was there for him when Noatak was gone.
"I saw that you were on the cover of Empire," Korra began. "Congrats. I'm so glad you're doing well."
His lips made a small smile. "Thank you. If I'm completely honest with myself, I never wanted my dad's company in the first place, but since I was around after Noatak was in the accident… I was all that was left."
"You know, you could have done something with yourself," said Korra.
Tarrlok turned to Korra. "What?"
"You're always doing what people tell you to do. If you actually had a backbone, you wouldn't be where you are right now," she scoffed. "And I'd thought you'd change after all these years."
"This isn't you, Tarrlok," she gestured to him. "Armani suits, a girl on each arm. The Tarrlok I knew would have thought this was over the top, put his foot down and have a life that was his own."
His brow narrowed. "You think you know me, Korra… I was invisible. I was invisible to everyone around me, I was invisible to you…"
He looked into her piercing eyes and they were sixteen again.
"All that time, I wanted to be closer to you, tell you how much you meant to me…" he felt his eyes grow heavy. "But I didn't. The only thing that got me through boarding school in Switzerland was you."
He reached for her face. "I've never stopped thinking about you since then."
He felt her frame on his chest. "Oh, Tarrlok… If I only knew…"
Their lips met, and he wondered why it took so long for them to do this.
