A/N – And thus, the fluff begins! I noticed that in previous chapters, the line breaks that I put in between scenes when writing the fic didn't show up when I published them. So, I'll get to editing that as soon as possible. I'll probably put the little star thingies at the line breaks. However, on with the story! In this chapter, we've had a little bit of a time skip, so things will start about one year after the Equalist Revolution has ended. In these first few fluff chapters, there will be plenty of cute Mako feels, as he'll be having interesting conversations with Tenzin, the bloodbending bros, as well as Korra's dad, Tonraq (tee hee), about what to do for Korra for their anniversary. For now, we'll see him asking the bloodbending bros for advice, with a few Korra and Asami antics thrown in as well. ^.^
"I NEED YOUR HELP."
"HOLY SHIT, WHAT," Tarrlok woke up with a start to find a hyper, anxious Mako in front of him. Realizing he had fallen asleep on the living room couch, he immediately fell silent when Rohan stirred in his sleep, sprawled across his lap. "What happened?" he asked in a hushed voice, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"It's about Korra," Mako said frantically.
Tarrlok's eyes widened. Careful not to wake him, he picked up Rohan and set him next to him, letting his small head rest on the fluffy orange cushion on the couch. He stood abruptly, "What happened?"
"Our anniversary's coming up, and I don't know what to get her."
Tarrlok let out a sigh of relief, "Spirits, I thought it was something bad."
"THIS IS BAD! Just tell me what to get her," Mako was a jittery mess.
"Right, right. Wait, why are you asking me for advice!? I'm half asleep, and I'm single."
"Not according to Ikki, you're not."
"That's just . . . creepy."
"Oh believe me, I know. She won't stop with the 'Ponytail man is cute' thing."
"She still calls me that?"
"Only when she's calling you cute."
"Again, creepy. Adorable, but creepy. Anyway, shouldn't you be asking Bumi for girl advice? He's the one who got Iroh to man up and ask Asami out."
"Trust me, you don't want to know what advice Bumi gave me," Mako shook his head and shuddered in disgust.
". . . Yeah, probably not. But, you'll think of something. Ask my brother, he's better with this stuff."
"Fine. Anything except talking to Tonraq."
"He doesn't hate you as much as you think."
"Yeah, sure. Well, I'll go ask Noatak, he might know what to do. He's probably sparring with Asami and Korra as usual, but I don't think he'll mind."
Tarrlok smiled as he knew what an awkward turtleduck his brother could be when it came to situations like these, "Well, have fun. You might want to talk to Asami as well. Korra's her best friend, she should have an idea. And Mako?"
Mako was walking away, but stopped and turned, "Hm?"
"I think you already have your gift for Korra. You just don't know it yet."
A confused Mako blinked, shrugged his shoulders, and left to find Noatak, Asami and Korra.
After Mako left, Tarrlok plopped back down on the couch to find Rohan barely awake.
"Hey, buddy," he ruffled Rohan's dark brown hair and smiled. Rohan giggled and yawned, crawling into his lap and falling asleep once again.
It amazed Tarrlok to see little Rohan grow. Being the younger sibling in his family, he had never really experienced seeing a child grow up. But the already powerful little airbender, as well as his brother and sisters, had become one of the biggest parts of his life, along with Korra, her friends, and Noatak.
Finding their own homes after they had recovered, Tarrlok and his brother had since rebuilt Republic City from the ground up, earning back their place in it with Korra's help, and even going so far as to giving a public apology. Tarrlok had since regained his position in the council thanks to Tenzin, and Noatak had become Lin's second-in-command on the police force. Even with their schedules, they made time to go to Air Temple Island to see Bumi embarrass Tenzin with awkward childhood stories. To see Lin and Pema listen to Jinora and Ikki say how gross boys are and tell them that they won't think so in a few years. To see Meelo run around the temple on his air scooter shouting at everyone to "be the leaf," and Rohan already learning how to airbend. To see Mako and Bolin fight over the last dumpling, Korra and Asami giggling and pulling pranks on everyone as usual, and to see Noatak finally go back to being good-natured and happy like he used to. It felt good to be part of a family again. A real family.
Meanwhile, on the shore of Yue Bay…
Korra and Asami always looked forward to sparring with Noatak because he never went easy on them. Even though his waterbending skills were unmatched, he rarely used bending when sparring, teaching Korra to be powerful even without hers, and making clear that even if he did use his bending, Asami would still be able to take him on. He had also made it his mission to teach both of them chi-blocking.
"Bender or not, you need to know the human body and its weaknesses, and use them as your weapon," Noatak knew they could already defend themselves, but he didn't want to take the chance.
He was dodging each of Asami's quick jabs, but just barely. Each punch was aimed precisely at each of his pressure points and would have temporarily removed his bending had it not been for his unmatched agility. Gradually being pushed to the shore of Yue Bay, Noatak smiled his signature half-smile and caught Asami's fist inches away from hitting him square in the jaw.
"You're getting much better. I'd have a broken jaw had I not caught you."
Beginning to relax as he released her hand, her upper arm suddenly went limp as he hit a pressure point in her shoulder.
"But, you can't let your guard down," he stuck his tongue out playfully as Asami just pouted.
Korra was standing on the shore smiling, running her fingers through her now much longer curls, princess curls as Mako called them.
"All right bitch, it's your turn," Asami motioned to Korra.
"It's about time, you whore," Korra flipped her hair with a sassy expression, until both girls began giggling incessantly, as usual.
Mako, who had just run down the hill to the beach, heard their usual banter and once again rolled his eyes and smiled.
"I'm used to it by now. Half the time, they're not even sparring, they're just calling each other names and giggling," Noatak sighed.
"Oh shut up, you know it's funny," Korra teased.
"It's entertaining on occasion."
"Yeah, yeah," Korra winked before jumping into Mako's arms and wrapping her arms around his neck, her legs around his waist.
He firmly held her waist and lifted her in the air before kissing her nose, "I need to talk to Noatak and Asami for a minute, okay?"
"Oh shit, am I in trouble?" Korra pouted.
"Nah, that's Tenzin's job. And now that your parents are here, they can cover for him now and then. But it's important."
"Oh, fine," Korra sighed before slowly making her way up the hill.
"So what's up?" Asami asked, as she gathered her ink black hair into a high ponytail.
"My anniversary with Korra's coming up, and I don't know what to get her," Mako rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Hmm. Well, I think you already have the right gift for her."
"Tarrlok said that too, and I have no idea what it means."
"Well, I'm not sure how he meant it, but I was referring to the gift right here," she patted her groin as she and Noatak thrust their hips in a forward motion before laughing uncontrollably.
Mako's face quickly reddened, "T-that's not funny!"
"Yeah, you're right. You probably gave her that gift already, anyway," Noatak snickered.
"H-how did you know that!?" Mako quickly clamped his hand over his mouth after what he had just said, causing his friends to laugh even more. He and Korra had tried to keep the physical aspect of their relationship a secret, but to no avail, as everyone already knew what was happening based on them tip-toeing out of each other's rooms every morning with very guilty expressions. Mako was lucky that Korra's parents weren't aware of that side of his relationship with their daughter, as far as he knew.
"Trust me, my friend. It's been obvious for a while now," Asami sighed, still laughing.
"Shit. But seriously guys, what should I get her?"
Asami put a hand to her chin, "Well, it needs to be something that suits Korra. It has to be one of a kind, and something she'll never forget. But like I said, you already have the perfect gift for her."
"That's still not funny."
"I don't mean it like that," she put a hand on his shoulder. "Trust me, you'll figure it out."
Mako just pouted. "Do you have any ideas?"
Noatak just raised his hands and shook his head, "Nah, I'm kind of an awkward turtleduck when it comes to stuff like this. I'm not the best at getting girls."
Korra suddenly reappeared and yelled, "CANNONBALLLLL!" she slammed into Noatak and knocked both of them into the frigid Yue Bay.
"HOLY MOTHER OF SHIT, IT'S FREEZING!" having discarded his shirt earlier, Noatak felt the extreme chill of the bay directly on his bare skin.
"YOU CAN'T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN, NOATAK. YOU CAN'T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN!" Korra squealed. Not as affected by the water, her fluffy coat muffled the cold slightly.
"Neither can you!" he yelled back, pushing her head into the water.
"You are so lucky I'm a waterbender, otherwise my hair would be about as puffy as your eye."
"I tremble in fear," he playfully shot back, though as he shakily stood up, it was obvious he actually was trembling, albeit out of the intense cold.
As he was bending the water out of his thick black hair, Asami quickly ordered, "STOP!"
He froze in place. Asami casually walked up to him, and curiously began poking his broad shoulders, muscular arms, and hard stomach. "You're telling me . . . you are an awkward turtleduck when it comes to getting girls. I officially call bullshit."
"As a hormonal, teenage girl, I can officially say . . . hot damn sir, you aged like a boss," Korra giggled. "No wonder you were able to do all those backflips and shit."
Mako just stood, arms crossed, clearly not surprised, even with a desperate look from a red, embarrassed Noatak. "If you're wondering, yes, they already had this conversation with your brother."
Noatak just sighed, bent the water off of him, and slowly began walking up the hill to the Air Temple, his hand to his face, still red with embarrassment.
Suddenly, a large torrent of water rushed towards him from Korra's direction, splashing into his back and once again covering him in ice cold water from head to toe. He turned to a resigned Mako and a giggling Korra and Asami, and glared.
Korra pouted, "What? You look good wet."
"That just sounds wrong in so many ways," in a matter of seconds, all four of them could be heard laughing uproariously from the temple.
And the end of the first fluff chapter is upon us! I actually had a lot of fun writing this chapter. It was really cool to finally get the bloodbending brothers to act less serious. Plus, the sexual humor was so entertaining to write. xD In this chapter, I wanted to include something really important that I had wanted for Tarrlok and Noatak. I wanted them to finally experience what it was like to have a REAL family. It had been what they were lacking their whole lives, and it was what pushed them to become what they were. I think that if they had gotten the chance to be a part of a family, we would have seen their true personalities, which I think would have been really good personalities (seriously, did you see what happy children they were!? If Yakone wasn't a prick, Tarrlok and Noatak would be running around Republic City spreading joy and rainbows and giving out free candy and puppies).
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Chapter 5! I think the story is really starting to improve. Hopefully you think so too. Thanks for reading! :D