"Congratulations Korra, it's a boy!"
The Avatar huffed out a humungous sigh of relief. "So he's out? No more pushing? Afterbirth done too?"
"Yes, your son is healthy, too, by the way. In case you wanted to know," Mako teased, but a warm smile on his face nevertheless.
"Ha. You are so funny," she deadpanned.
Katara and Kya, who had been the midwives, chuckled at the young couple. "Yes, it's done," Kya told Korra.
"Now give me my baby!" Korra said with an excited giggle
Katara handed Mako the blue bundle, he looked at the boy with an expression that could only be classified as true happiness, and then handed it to Korra.
"We'll leave you alone in case you want some privacy," Kya said, smiling warmly, her mother trailing after her.
The boy clearly took after Korra's side of the family. Even under chubby cheeks, angular bone structure could be seen, much like her father's side of the family. Traditional water tribe mocha skin and chocolate hair, too. The only indication that he had any of Mako in him were his eyebrows. Unmistakably Mako's. But what really set Korra off were his eyes.
Those water tribe eyes.
Not a shade of turquoise like her own, or her mother's, or her father's.
Not sky blue like Katara's.
Not cerulean.
Not any kind of violet or periwinkle or anything.
And as Korra stared into the pools of ice blue, she was hypnotized. Entranced, confused, laughing at the bitter irony. She knew those eyes were inherited from her paternal grandfather, but they reminded her of someone else.
Two people, actually, one more so than the other.
Tools for their father's revenge against the Avatar. One was manipulative, and stayed that way. One changed for the better. It was too bad. His body was found in the Mo Ce Sea a few days after the war. The other hasn't been seen since. They were two scarred, confused, and broken boys.
The universe had played a cruel trick on Korra. She loved her son, but whenever she looked at him, she was staring into the eyes of what once were her enemies, heck-one of them still was.
"So, what do you want to name him?" Mako asked, breaking Korra out of her reverie.
Without even thinking, Korra said excitedly, "I wanna name him-" But she caught herself and stopped talking.
"What was that? Go on, what were you saying."
"Nevermind, Mako. It's a stupid idea. You'll think I'm an idiot."
Mako sighed. They'd been married for seven years, and kept no secrets from eachother. Why was she starting now? Besides, nothing that Korra said surprised him now.
"Korra, nothing you could ever say or do would make me think that. Even if you stopped loving me, I'd never think of you as an idiot. You know that."
She did know that.
"You're going to think I'm crazy, though."
"I already know that you're crazy. Besides, I named our first born and that's not fair. You gotta name this one."
Korra thought fondly of little Kyomi, her five year old. She was a non-bender, but that would never change the fact that her whole family loved her unconditionally.
"O-okay. I want to name him Tarrlock."
Mako was wrong. She surprised him, alright.
She saw the shock and surprise on his face, and her heart fell, but then she saw something else, and was that understanding?, and then he smiled and it turned into a full blown grin and then he said…
"Then let's name him Tarrlock."
She flung the arm that wasn't holding little Tarrlock around Mako's neck, pulling him in closer to kiss his cheek.
"Baby, you're my forever boy."
"I love you too, Korra. Now, I think it's time we introduce our adorable son to the rest of the world, cool?"
"Yeah." She sighed dreamily.
14 Years Later
"Come in Tarrlock, we made you your favorite noodles!" and ecstatic Korra exclaimed, as her teenage son walked through the door of their home on the outskirts of one of Republic City's richer districts.
"Correction, Dad and I made you noodles, mom just sat there giving us 'motivation' and what not," muttered her daughter.
"Thanks, Mom, Dad, Kyomi," Tarrlock said, managing a smile.
"Well, don't just stand there like an idiot, bro, eat up!" the young non-bender woman told him.
"You must be hungry from firebending training, huh?" his father asked.
"I…uh…not really. I got a lot on my mind," he answered.
"What is it?" his Mother asked, genuinely worried.
"Um, can we talk…alone?"
Mako was stoic as usual, so Kyomi cleared her throat, and said, "Dad! I have to show you this new trick I learned with my knives!" She was obviously better at taking a hint than her father, who suddenly caught on, and replied, "Sure, sweetie."
Once Tarrlock and Korra were alone, she asked the inevitable question, "What's the matter?"
Tarrlock took a deep breath.
"I've always wondered where I got the name Tarrlock. Up until now, I just thought it was another Water Tribe name, just like Kyomi's just another Fire Nation name that you and Dad liked. But I was in the school library today, and I saw this book, talking about this bloodbender, and he was evil, and he was the younger son of Yakone, the guy who terrorized the city in the time of Avatar Aang. He was Amon's brother. His name was Tarrlock. It said that he had captured you before, he had bloodbended you. Wouldn't you have remembered that? So why did you name me Tarrlock?"
Whatever Korra was expecting her boy to say, it was certainly not this.
She sputtered, but regained composure. She smiled, distant and painful, but not forced.
"There's a lot of stuff that they don't write in history books. But if you must know, I'll tell you."
Tarrlock nodded for her to go on.
"It all began when a manipulative man with a secret past met a sweet, innocent woman…"