Three months after Korra's Agni Kai with Shinji

Mako shut his eyes, resting on the couch. It was a tiring job, being a waiter. He'd had nowhere to go after the guys had started up their classes, which were building momentum now, but none of them thankfully had any qualms with Mako staying until he got his life straightened out, so long as he helped pay rent. He spent his free time thinking about Kalla, and Korra, mostly. He always spent an hour every evening in his down time trying to think of ways to get Korra to accept him back into Kalla's life.

But Mako had one big problem; he had hit a block. He had no official deadline to get his excuses straight, so he tried his best not to rush it, but that didn't help, surprisingly. The former commander just couldn't think of any new ways of putting it for the last two months so that Korra would find his plea irrefutable. It all sounded so bad in his head, so Mako was never happy with what he came up with. He didn't want to shove his problems on other peoples' plates, even though Bolin had offered help if Mako needed it. Him and Bolin were back on their previously good terms without a doubt now, but for some reason, Mako just didn't think Bolin would understand him.

Bolin was one of the most well-meaning guys Mako knew, and he had matured greatly since their fight, but he just wasn't someone Mako was comfortable bouncing his thoughts off, even though Bolin was Kalla's uncle.

"I should go see a therapist," Mako murmured, rubbing his temples. "They're a bit more expensive on Sundays, but I can't go to one any other day of the week because of work."

It felt good to say stuff out loud, because so many things were going on inside his head. He had work six days a week, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 8pm, minimum wage. There was a significant bump up in wages on Sunday, but that day was pure torture. There were more than enough people willing to accept the extra hassle, but Mako knew that he wouldn't be able to keep it up after his third week.

Mako heard the door handle rattle. It was half nine on a Saturday night, when the others usually went out drinking, so he was a little surprised. Mako joined sometimes, but he was revolted at the smell of spirits now, and getting drunk brought on feelings that he thought he'd moved past, so he'd decided to try cut alcohol on a regular basis out of his life. Mako was pleasantly surprised when Ling came in through the door.

"Ling!" Mako greeted happily, but was too tired to get up. Then he tilted his head as Ling shut the door behind him, no-one else following behind.

"Sup, Mako," Ling greeted, walking over and collapsing into the armchair opposite the couch.

"Where are the others?" Mako asked. "You guys always come home together."

"They went to town, but I'm just not up for it," Ling explained, yawning. "Sometimes you need to just relax quietly after a long day rather than get pissed and be hungover on your only free day. It's a pity you don't come along to watch us teach, I'm sure you'd be great fun to talk with during the breaks."

"I don't want to be riding off of your guys' coat-tails," Mako told him. "I'm twenty-four, and I need to support myself, so thanks, but, no can do. How are the classes going now anyway?" Mako got up and opened a window, to relieve a bit of the stuffiness of the room, before going back to the couch.

"The classes are going really well," Ling answered. "We've got three sets of students every day now, twenty for each one of us. So I've got to repeat the same thing over and over to sixty people every day, it's the same for the others. We teach two hundred and forty people a day altogether. I love it, but it's just a little overwhelming sometimes."

"That's about…" Mako trailed off, counting the numbers in his head. "That's well over fourteen hundred people a week across the four of you!"

"It is," Ling confirmed, running his hands through his bright blond hair. "We're able to keep the cost low and still make a ton of cash, which is ideal. We should be able to move into a much nicer apartment by the end of the year at the latest, if not sooner, too."

"That's great news!" Mako exclaimed. "Although I've kinda gotten attached this place, funnily enough."

"Me too," Ling agreed. "You know, what I'm about to say is going to sound ridiculous, but… I'm actually a little tired of lavabending at the minute. I don't want to quit it full stop, that's out of the question, but… I'd just like a little break."

"Your initial enthusiasm has burnt out," Mako noted. "That's completely normal."

"Thank goodness," Ling said, relieved, rubbing his eyes. "I just think that maybe a week off would suit me well, then I could grind for another while easily."

"Yeah," Mako said, thoughts about Kalla cluttering his head. Both him and Ling stayed quiet for the next few minutes as they dozed off a little bit.

"Any special ladies in your life?" Ling asked, a smile tugging at the edges of his mouth.

"Not really," Mako replied, as Kalla didn't fit what Ling meant. "Yourself?"

"I've actually got a really funny story about something that happened recently. There was this really fit one," Ling started. "Really nice, met her at a bar a couple of weeks ago, got off great. We were chatting away for about an hour, I thought I was hitting off really well with her."

"What happened?" Mako asked, his mouth twitching. Ling's stories always had the funniest and unexpected turns.

"Eventually, her friend comes over. I don't what she was doing for the past hour, but the main thing is she's back. Now guess what?" Ling continued.

"What?" Mako played along.

"She wasn't fat!" Ling said, and Mako sniggered, but Ling wasn't done yet; "She was good looking too, so I started chatting them both up, and they were responding pretty well. I was positive that I had them practically begging for me. But then, the worst possible thing happened."

"Tell me," Mako said, leaning closer.

"I popped the question if they wanted to go home with me. They get kind of awkward, but I take it as them being shy, which is fine. So I keep on going for it. But after I don't go away, they tell me one tiny little thing they forgot to mention as I've been really flirty with them for the past while. They only find appropriate to tell me that they're lesbians!" Ling revealed. "So I spent the best part of two hours trying to get with a couple of lesbians!"

Mako descended into a series of chuckles, buckling over, clutching his chest as he struggled for breath. It was the way that Ling delivered it that was so funny, the look of disappointment on his face when he relayed that they weren't into men made it so much better.

"I mean, I've got no problem with it," Ling continued, exasperated, but he was cracking up too, "but I couldn't have made it clearer what my intentions were from the beginning! They're way too good looking not to have guys coming up to them all the time, they should be able to tell!"

Mako laughed as Ling elaborated. Only a minute later, when he was genuinely having difficulty breathing, did he calm down.

"Oh..." Mako said, wiping a tear from his face. "That's good!" He loved how open Ling was with how he felt, because he had the funniest ways of telling his stories. He could make an average story sound good, and a good story sound great.

"You ever had a proper girlfriend?" Ling asked after another few minutes of chatting. "I'm not going to judge you if you haven't, I've never had one myself, 'cuz of the lavabending tag, y'know."

Mako was about to reply with a short; "Yeah, but we broke up a long time ago," but then he thought about it. He had been thinking about going to a therapist to talk about Kalla, but here was the friendliest and most open guy Mako knew sitting in front of him. Knowing Bolin, Mo and Nel, they probably wouldn't be back for another while, so he had plenty of time.

"Actually," Mako said, his happy mood rapidly disappearing, "yeah. But there's something I kinda want to talk about. Something serious. It's the reason I came back to Bolin in Zaofu, because things had gotten really dark. I've needed to say it for a while now.

"Something serious?" Ling asked, sitting up. A concerned look replaced the outgoing smile on his face, not minding the sudden mood change at all. "Yeah, sure bro, anything. What's on your mind?"

"It's okay if you laugh at the first part, because it was pretty funny for a while until the events of the last year or so," Mako started.

"Nah, if it's serious, I won't laugh," Ling promised. "I didn't talk about things when I was younger because I was afraid people would laugh, and it destroyed me over the course of a few months inside. When I finally talked to someone, it made things so much better. I swore to help someone out if I can ever since. I swear on my mother that I won't tell anyone."

"Ok," Mako said, and took a deep breath. He'd dealt with all the sadness already, but he needed to give the full backstory to really show how deep his problems went, to get a proper second opinion. "I'm going to go back over five years for this, when I was nineteen. I met Asami Sato, the now head of Future Industries, by pure chance. We started dating, and hit things off pretty well."

"That's some catch," Ling complemented.

"Yeah," Mako agreed, "it was. But one way or another, Korra, the Avatar kissed me while I was going out with Asami, and things got really messy. This was in the heat of the Equalist Movement. Asami found out, we broke up calmly, and I started dating Korra while I still managed to be friends with Asami. I know this is moving along quickly, but this first part isn't really important."

"It's no bother, honestly," Ling replied, paying one hundred percent of his attention.

"But after a little over six months of being with Korra, we broke up because of bigger events interfering. That's all well and good, but then Asami kisses me when something really bad happens to her, and I start dating her again out of pity.

"But then," Mako continued, "Korra loses her short-term memory and thinks we're still together, kissing me right in front of Asami. After a lot of events, Korra gets it back, and we break up permanently a second time. Things are awkward for the next while, but we all make friends and the three of us could have a conversation without anything bad vibes."

"What's the part you said I could laugh at?" Ling asked. "I'm not really in the mood to be joking around, but I'm just wondering."

"I'm getting to that now," Mako said. "Korra comes back after three years, just in time to defeat Kuivera, the head of the former Earth Empire. That's great, and we all get out happily. Then, Asami and Korra realise that they liked each other, as girlfriends. Bolin made fun of me for it, but I didn't mind, it was just a little embarrassing to turn two women the other way."

"Oh, ok," Ling said. "But you're implying that there's more to it."

"Yeah," Mako said. "This is where it starts to go downhill. One night, Korra comes by into my apartment for a visit, and we start drinking. Korra is still with Asami at this moment and time, but we both get smashed drunk, and you know… Korra got pregnant that night. That was well over a year and a half by now. I don't think either of us can claim to be perfect in this situation, we were equally responsible for what happened that night." Mako was speaking really quickly now.

"Wait a minute," Ling said, connected the dots. "You're a… dad!? And Bolin's an uncle?" He realised how much he had reacted there. "Sorry, that was out of-"

"It's okay," Mako excused him. "Bolin promised to keep it a secret, so it should come as a bit of a shock seeing as you've known me for nearly eight months now, and I've always been careful not to let it slip. But you remember the story of how Korra bloodbent the Triple Threats, don't you? It was a huge scandal, so much so that she fled to the South Pole. She hid there for the best part of nine months, and had our kid. Her name is Kalla." He was speaking a bit slower now.

"That's a beautiful name," Ling congratulated Mako.

"It is," Mako agreed. "And she was extremely pretty when I held her for the first and only time. But things weren't nearly as cut and dried as it might seem they were."

"How come?" Ling asked.

"Korra never told me that the baby was mine, Asami told me that Korra was pregnant, leading to why they broke up. During the time when Korra was hiding, a lot of bad shit happened to me. I lost all my friends, and got into a bad drinking routine."

"What about Bolin?" Ling asked. "You two have always… oh wait, you had that fight, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Mako told Ling. "It affected my behaviour around everyone I worked with, which resulted in me getting really bad depression." Mako took a deep breath to compose himself, before continuing. "Meanwhile, as I've mentioned, Korra had our child. The scary thing was though, I didn't remember the night at all."

"Go on," Ling said quietly.

"Ok…" Mako said, his breathing back to normal. "This is one of the most selfish things I've done in my life, easily. When I went to the South Pole on a witch-hunt, because I had to with of my job. I witnessed how enraged Korra got when her eyes glowed red. She was ready to kill-" Mako snapped his fingers, "like that! She took away General Iroh's bending as a punishment for harming Kalla, and then, after that, she put up a smokescreen of fog. She brought me face to face with her and presented Kalla to me. Please wait until I finish to say something!"

"Sure," Ling agreed. He had his elbows on his knees, listening to every word as hard as he could.

"After all the stress she'd taken on of being witch-hunted and taking care of Kalla," Mako continued, "I… I held our daughter in my hands and rejected her! I fucking rejected her!" Mako buried his head in his hands and started crying. He had thought that he'd gotten past the guilt after a few months in Ba Sing Sae, but he was wrong. He sobbed into his arms, unable to continue. Ling didn't say anything for a few minutes until Mako lifted his head up with red, puffy eyes.

"You told me that you genuinely didn't think Kalla was your daughter," Ling stated warily. He definitely had an idea of what he wanted to say in his head, but he was clearly keeping it to himself until he got all the details. "But now, you're speaking like you know it for a fact."

"I went into the spirit world, to a place where I could regain my memory," Mako explained, sniffling. "I know it sounds like a tall tale, but there's no advantage to me lying here. Just please accept that as a fact." Ling thought about it for a few seconds, before he spoke:

"I'll believe you, because we're good friends" Ling told him. "And you're right, there's no advantage to you lying, unless you knew in the first place, and wanted to run away from the pressure of being a dad. But I trust you because you've earned my respect. You've never been one to back down from a hard job or responsibility."

"Thank you," Mako told Ling, sitting up and sighing.

"I want you to answer one question," Ling told Mako. "This is one where I need the absolute truth, or else I can't give you the advice you need."

"I promise I'll tell the truth," Mako swore.

"You've had plenty of time to think about your next moves when it comes to Kalla, since Avatar Korra fought the United Forces ages ago," Ling stated sternly. "What are they? Remember, don't bullshit me, Mako. I want to help, but I also want the truth."

"I really badly want to see Kalla again," Mako began. "So badly. But Korra shouldered all the pressure of her life and taking care of our baby herself. When Korra offered me a chance to be a part of her life, I refused it. I've tormented myself endlessly about it since, which is only fair. I will try desperately to be accepted as Kalla's father figure no matter what, but in order to do that, I need Korra's permission. I grew up harshly, and I will go to any length necessary to protect my daughter from that."

Ling didn't speak for another few seconds, before he asked; "How far?"

"I would lay down my life in an instant," Mako responded immediately. "I'll do whatever it takes to make sure I'm part of her life."

"Let's say," Ling suggested, "that Korra, in her rage, tries to kill you when you see her next, whenever that may be. What will you do?"

"I'd try to talk her out of it," Mako said, "but if she's absolute about it, then, yes, I will let her kill me. It's what I deserve after what I did." Ling thought deeply for four whole minutes before he spoke next;

"You've got your heart set the right way," Ling started. "But you're taking things out of proportion."

"How?!" Mako asked, genuinely shocked.

"Would you really let Korra kill you?" Ling posed the question. "How much of a detrimental effect would that have on Kalla's life? She might get bullied at school for not knowing her dad. Then, she would come home to her mother, and ask why she doesn't have a dad. By that point, Korra would have definitely calmed down considerably by that point, and she would be miserable, torn apart mentally by it. She could see herself as no better than you, and kill herself as she would see it as the only proper punishment. Think about that for a minute!"

"She...!" Mako started, then trailed off, unable to think of a response.

"On the flip side," Ling continued, keeping a calm but steady voice, "Korra could get arrested for murder. I know that she's the Avatar, but she has a conscious too! She's human as well, that's why she's the mediator between our world and the spirit world! You'd be better experienced than me to judge that, but by the fact that she had a boyfriend, and girlfriend means that she feels emotions just the same as we do. But that also means that she recognises that there are potential consequences to every action. Am I wrong?"

"When she was a teenager, she was a bit hot headed," Mako admitted. "But she has matured a lot since then. You're right."

"You're both young people," Ling stated. "You both know that you both make mistakes. But if she genuinely decides that you're even not worthy of even living for one hot headed mistake, when you come back begging, then in no way is she capable of raising a child."

"She's the only one who deserves an opinion here!" Mako argued. "I don't deserve jack shit!"

"Maybe you don't," Ling said passionately, standing up, "but one thing is very clear to me. You're letting your emotions blindly control your decision making. Yes, you need to pour out your heart and grovel at her feet, but keep it real! This is about Kalla, not your and Korra's relationship! You told me earlier that you and Korra broke up twice one way or another, so it's evident to me that you two will never be a good couple! I don't care how low you have to bow down to get Korra to forgive you, but make it happen one way or another!" He finished by pointing a finger at Mako.

Mako sat back, struggling to take in everything Ling had just told him. Beforehand, if Mako had been told that Ling could rattle him, he wouldn't have paid any attention. But his close friend, who had just been spitting the truth, had changed his perspective. Mako had opened up to Ling because he had expected a soothing, gentle voice to agree with him, but Ling wasn't the type of guy to watch his friends mess up in their life because he was too afraid to speak out.

No, Ling was a true friend. He was kind, nice and open to everyone most of the time, but when it came to serious matters, he helped out, with real advice. Mako may not have liked getting it shoved in his face, but they both knew that Ling was helping Mako, by telling him what he needed to hear. By telling Mako the truth.

"That's…" Mako started after a minute of silence. "That's… You've just been more straight with me tonight than I have been with myself for the last eight months." He got up, and walked across to Ling. "Thank you, Ling. I don't know how much that will benefit my daughter's life, but I will pay it back to you some day. I promise."

"Don't sweat it, bro," Ling responded, and was about to say something else, but Mako cut him off with a hug. Mako didn't say anything for the next twenty seconds while Ling returned it, but the hug transmitted a thousand feelings of gratefulness. Ling just patted Mako slowly on the back, appreciating the moment.

When they separated, Mako clasped Ling's hand in a manly handshake. Not the manly handshake of two tough men who could take on the world, but two men of character. Two men who would back each other to the death because they were true friends. Men who admitted they weren't perfect, that they could be broken down mentally, but shouldered their responsibilities.

"Wanna get a drink?" Ling offered, his usual bright smile returning. "It's on me, that was pretty heavy."

"Sure," Mako accepted, smiling meekly, his eyes still red. They broke the hand shake and walked out of the apartment, Ling locking the door behind them.

"If lavabending doesn't work out," Mako said, "you'd make a brilliant therapist. Honestly."

"Maybe when I'm too old to be bending," Ling agreed with a hearty laugh. "How about we drink to Kalla's future, to the happy reunion with her father?"

"That's perfect," Mako agreed, and they made their way to the stairs, to which would lead to the exit, to which would lead the nearest bar. What happened after that is obvious enough.