Absolution

"Please don't look at me." Tarrlok's voice was low and stripped of its usual smug, self-congratulatory undertone.

"So this is it?" Korra countered, stepping into the dark room where Tarrlok had hidden away to lick his wounds. She approached the councilman slowly, haltingly.

beware when you choose to corner a wounded tigerseal

Still, the once proud Waterbender sat hunched, head in hands. Disheveled hair spilling over his naked shoulders.

Stopping just out of reach, Avatar Korra waited. She closed her eyes and for a long moment, just felt for the man. Her fellow tribesman. She slowed her breathing, mimicking his.

"I'm sorry I called you half-baked."

His voice was so warped by his own hands, it took Korra a moment to properly decode his words. A strange hard lump had formed in the pit of her stomach, a lump that seemed to be feeding of the waves of devastating melancholy that seemed to radiate from this broken man.

He finally looked up at her, his grey eyes glittering strangely in the dim-lit room.

"And I am so, so sorry I hurt you..." Tarrlok swallowed.

"Fa..Yakone always said I had trouble discerning friend from foe." Here, he laughed bitterly. "He was right."

Korra stayed silent. Slowly, ever so slowly she reached in a backpocket of her pants.

In her hand she held an ornate ivory comb.

"This belonged to my mother." Then, reaching out for his hair, she slowly brushed his hair away from his forehead. Gently she ran the comb through his long hair. Almost lovingly, she looked for traces of the man she used to know under the mask of his broken pride.

Then: "I'm sorry too, Tarrlok." Another long stroke of the comb and he sagged a little, leaning his weight slightly into her.

"In all these power-games you and I have been playing, I forgot the most important thing." Her free hand came up, brown fingers squeezing the muscles of his shoulder softly.

" I'm your Avatar too."


Tarrlok sighed and closed his eyes.

"And what now, Avatar Korra?"

The hand on his shoulder squeezed again, and for a brief moment a frisson of energy traveled up Tarrlok's spine. His skin pebbled into goosebumps and he shivered.

Her voice was low. But the command in it was unmistakeable.

"The two of us, we're going to hunt for water." Suddenly, she sounded older.

"I'm taking you home, Tarrlok."


____________________________________________________

Tarrlok's redemption song. I sing it.