Chapter 15: A New Beginning

.

.

.

"Are you sure this is okay?"

The question was posed on a Sunday morning. Sunlight streaming in from the window at her hip, Korra rose from her half-bent position to face Tahno with a quizzical brow as she balanced a box of books and photo frames in her hands.

"What do you mean?" she asked, shifting her attention from him to move the tape dispenser with her foot. "Tenzin already told you it was okay and he's not the type of person to just take that back, ya' know?"

If she knew anything about her mentor, it was a man of his word, and when Tenzin had invited Tahno to live with them at the island while they worked on a way to restore his bending at her request two weeks ago, he had meant it, and Tahno had accepted. Since then, all the necessary preparations had been made: A room in the men's quarters was prepared; Tahno had already told the landlord he was leaving; and the furniture that could not be brought to the island or stored away somewhere had already been sold. The only reason they were still here was to pack up any lingering small effects that they hadn't been able to grab before. If he was having second thoughts on moving out of his apartment, he picked a funny time to do it.

"I know that," he replied brusquely, "it's just…are you sure?"

The words were strung along a slight waver, spoken with such uncharacteristic concern that Korra felt the slightly-furrowed brows and anxious frown curved around the question before she turned to see them. For a second, Korra didn't know what to make of it. Vulnerability with Tahno was always few and far between, even with her. He hated showing this side of him, this version of him that lacked all his typical confident bravado. Whenever he fell into these moods, he refused to let her look at him until the moment had passed, however long that took. The record had been three days—three days of slammed doors and conversations of shame and self-loathing muffled by wood panels—so for him to show this part of him to her willingly was a shock, and she floundered for a way to respond.

"I mean, are you sure this will be okay?" he repeated, his words smashing through her silence in a rushing flood. "Do your teammates know? Do the other people at the temple know? What if they hate me? I know Mako already does, and Bolin never gets within five feet of me when I go over for dinner. What if I mess up? What if I get into a fight with Mako? He's not going to be happy about this, and what if—?"

One hand pressing a stilling finger to his lips, Korra moved the other to cover the white-knuckled fist pressed against the wall comfortingly.

"Tahno, it'll be okay. Tenzin said yes, and he announced it to the monks last week. Besides, Pema has already given it her seal of approval. I'll work on Bolin a bit more, but Mako will just have to learn to deal. He can't sulk forever."

Tahno's dubious look told her exactly what he thought of that. Gently, Korra brought their hands between them, sliding her fingers alongside his.

"It'll be okay," she reassured quietly, earnestly, then squeezed his hand, "I promise."

At her words, she watched his expression falter and felt his hands slacken in hers. For a brief second, she felt panic settle over her heart—he didn't believe it. He didn't believe her—before feeling him return the gesture, soft and steadfast.

Slipping away a hand, he brought it to her face, gently cupping her cheek. "Alright, I trust you, Korra," he relented, his lips curving ever-so-slightly up into a warm line.

Her mouth split into a grin. To him, it seemed brighter than the sun; at the very least, certainly brighter than anything possible by earthly means. "You won't regret it."

"I haven't yet," he replied honestly and leaning against her, drank in her warmth as he let their fingers dangle together.

Suddenly, the future wasn't so terrifying anymore.

A/N + Afterword: At long last, Secrets comes to a close. I know some of you probably won't be happy with this kind of ending. Actually, I expect most of you won't be, but I want to explain why I chose to end Secrets this way.

Secrets, as you know, was a story about Tahno and Korra, but more importantly, their growth. I tried to include something new to learn every chapter, whether it was Korra who learned, Tahno who learned, or you the reader learned about either of these two (or both of these two). It was the revelation of the secrets between these two and what they learned when those secrets came out. Some of it was cute, some of it was heart-wrenching, but each time, they grew from the experience to hopefully be better, wiser people, and that's why I chose to end the way I did: because the journey of their growth isn't over. Instead, they are embarking on a new chapter of their lives, not only individually, but together. I know I didn't set their relationship status in stone, and I did that on purpose because they don't know if they will stay together. Hell, even I don't know if they will stay together and I wrote this damn thing. And I know you want them to stay together—I want them to too, and in this story, they do too—but the problem with the future is that you never know what will happen and that is a problem shared by all of us involved in Secrets. We don't know where this journey will take us, but it isn't like we're unarmed in this journey because they have hope. It's cheesy and idealistic, but hope is important, and it's the hope that Korra gives Tahno that everything will turn out okay that gives him the power to overcome his fear and move onto the next phase of his/their life.

I know I've left the end open, and I hope if you've read this afterword that you understand why. I also hope that you understand when I say that I will not, under any circumstances, be writing a continuation or sequel to this story in any shape or form. I leave Secrets on this end because Tahno and Korra have a journey, and I don't want to influence or control that in any way that forces them into character roles just for the sake of a sequel.

That isn't to say you aren't welcome to imagine a more concrete ending for yourself, whether it be two weeks or twenty years in the future. I am most definitely indulging in the idea that they do stay together after this story ends, but I feel my role in their journey has ended. I don't control them anymore; I've packed them off for college, basically, and I'm letting go. The future will take them wherever it will take them, and while it's scary and a kind of vaguely daunting experience to shut the doors to what is essentially my elaborate headcanon, I have hope that whatever happens behind those doors will eventually turn out for the best, and at the very least, they will have learned something and become stronger for it. :)

Okay, wow. I honestly didn't mean to let my commentary get this long, and if you slogged through all of that college-induced (meta?) rambling, you deserve a medal. In general, you all deserve matching hugs, since you already have all my love. When I first wrote this story, I honestly expected a few curious hits and no comments at all. I certainly never expected it to explode into the kind of thing it ended up being. As I type this, this story has over 250 follows, 150 favorites, and almost 200 reviews, well-surpassing my perceived-reception of this venture into the Korra-fandom and I can't stress enough how mind-blowing your love for this story has been. For all the praise and love I ended up getting for this story, thank you sincerely from the bottom of my heart. I know you guys probably hear this a lot, but you guys are honestly what make writing worth doing. I write for my own personal satisfaction, but the knowledge that someone loves my story as much as I do is always enough to put a smile on my face on sad days, and sad days are plentiful in my life. So thank you.

Thank you to those of you who recommended this to friends, to those of you who took the time out of your lives to review, to everyone who read. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Also, for those of you interested in reading more Tahnorra by me, I actually have a oneshot collection I'm tinkering with. I still have a lot more work to do, and I haven't even started rough-edits yet, but it will be up and running a lot sooner than the full-length stories I'm toying with in my head. I actually have a poll on my profile related to that project, so if you'd like to support it, please vote on which name you like best. I'm planning on closing the poll on the 25th of January, so you have until then to get your vote in. After that, the first oneshot will be posted. As for what to look out for, the collection will be titled "Canonfire," since I will be drawing heavily from some of the fuckyeahtahorra headcanons and it's my attempt at a really, really bad pun. After that, we'll just have to see if I can keep my pace between the rest of my junior year of college and probably more hours at work.

A happy belated New Year to all. Until next time.