Author's Note: No, this story is not dead, but it has been awhile since we have updated it. Things get crazy; I have had this chapter half written on my laptop for a while, and I never got around to finish it till now. We truly apologize, like always please comment and let us know what you think!

Grey Eyes and White Lies

"And this is true?" The man said with an astonished look on his face, "Straight from the source right?"

The broken looking man glanced up from his hands, his eyes shaking as his head fell into a slight nod. The man had his black hair pulled back in a ponytail that fell on the back of his neck, clean face, and he was dressed up in a suit and tie.

"And how did you come across this information? Did you hear it straight from the Avatar's mouth or Zaheer's mouth?"

The man looked him straight in the eyes with his prominent grey eyes, and without a second's hesitation, he nodded once again.

"I used to be close friends with the Avatar herself, and I am still good friends with Zaheer." The man gritted his teeth as he spit out his own name with such hatred and regret. The other man across the desk had a huge smile on his face and he already was reaching for the phone that was sitting on the desk.

"This is amazing news!" The man yelled as he picked up the phone and began dialing a number, "We will have this printed in every newspaper by tomorrow morning! This will improve the Avatar's rating, and finally that trash Zaheer will be erased from any ties from her."

"That is all that I have ever wanted." The grey-eyed man said with a sad smile on his face as he slowly stood up out of his seat. He bowed in front of the man and thanked him before he turned his back on the man and left the room without another word.

Korra sighed as she numbly allowed the pond water to dance around her fingers as she stared into nothing. It had been days since she had last heard from Zaheer, and the last thing she told him was to leave. Korra knew she couldn't leave the island to look for him, because tension was high inside the city and she had kids to look after. She had asked some of the White Lotus guards to look for him, but she knew none of them really cared if he came back alive.

"Avatar Korra!" A voice screamed from behind her; Korra let the water she was playing with fall back into the pond as she turned around with hope in her face as she hoped it was news of her missing lover. But that all hope fell from her face when she just saw it was another deliveryman, except this once was carting a rather large package. She was receiving a lot of packages today and Korra couldn't think of an explanation as to why people liked her again.

"Yes?" Korra questioned as the young teenager ran towards her as fast as he could pushing the cart in front of him; she almost chuckled at how this skinny twig was bent over and panting. "You okay there?"
"I am after I heard the amazing news!" The kid stood back up with a huge smile on his face; Korra gave him a weird look, but decided it wasn't worth asking about. "I need you to sign this." The teenager said as he handed Korra a clipboard; Korra grabbed the pen and quickly signed her name in script.

The young man put the clipboard back into the large satchel that was hanging from his shoulder. He reached inside of the wheel barrel and pulled the rather large box out, but he didn't do it as smoothly as he thought he could. The kid had almost dropped the box on himself trying to raise it out of the wheel barrel, and if it weren't for Korra reaching forward and grabbing it, he would have been crushed.

"Oh, thank you, Avatar." The younger teenager said with a rather dark blush covering his face. Korra just laughed at the kid.

"It's a mother's reflexes" Korra winked at the kid as she flexed her arms; the teenager almost fainted at the sight of how large Korra's muscles actually were. This caused Korra to laugh once again.

"I am glad to hear the news about your children as well." Korra's laughter cut short and she just stared at the kid with a confused look on her face, "Actually, everyone was excited to read about it in the papers. Well I have more deliveries to make today! Goodbye, Avatar!"

Before Korra could question what the kid had said he already had used earth bending to propel himself forward with great speed. Korra was taken back, why didn't he simply use earth bending to propel himself to Korra instead of running? Maybe he didn't want to break what was in the package; Korra questioned as she stared at the rather large box.

Sighing she bent down, wrapped her arms around the box, and prepared herself as she used all of her might to lift the box up. Korra took deep breaths as she pushed herself forwards towards her building. What in the name of the spirits could be in this box Korra thought to herself as she was making her way up the steps to her house. Korra's foot tipped against the top of one of the steps and she could feel herself falling forward. Clenching her eyes shut, Korra quickly blew a large portion of wind out of her mouth.

The air kept Korra from falling to the ground, but it propelled the large box to the ground even harder. The box fell to the ground, and the sound of something cracking caused Korra to cringe. The loud noise caused San and Noren to come sprinting out of their rooms.

"Mommy are you okay?" San asked as he ran to his mother's side as Noren jumped out in a fighting pose.

"Is there any bad guys for us to beat up?" Noren asked looking jumping side to side with his fists in the air. Korra laughed as he reminded him of her when she was younger and full of fire.

Korra leaned down to kiss the top of San's head and then ruffled Noren's hair as she walked over to the other side of the box that had ripped open at the amount of pressure that Korra had forced towards it. She inwardly cringed as she recalled that Tenzin always told her that she was too rough sometimes.

"What is that, mommy?" San questioned as he walked towards the opening of the box with her. Noren wasn't completely satisfied since his mom never answered his question so he never moved out of his fighting stance.

"I don't know, honey." Korra mumbled as she bent down to look inside of the box.

The boys screamed with happiness when inside of the box was toys upon toys and Korra was grateful for the gift, but she also was very annoyed that she would now have more toys to clean up.

"Can we play with them?" Noren asked as he already had a toy airplane in his hand and then Korra looked closer at the toy.

"I have never seen toys like this mommy!" San squealed with excitement as he pulled out his own plush toy penguin.

"Well, these toys are all handmade," Korra pulled one out of the box and swallowed hard as memories filled her mind, "these are made from the southern water tribe."

"Well can we play with them then mommy?" Noren asked again as he was almost drooling at the sight of the amount of toys that were still in the box.

"Sure, baby. Go ahead." Korra mumbled as she examined at the plush polar bear dog that was sitting in her hands. Her fingers numbly ran across the fur and smiled when she saw it was true fur. These really were hand crafted from the southern water tribe, it was just like the one she had when she was a young girl.

"I really hate how all of these toys are manufactured in big factories in these cities." Korra grimaced as she picked up yet another broken plastic airplane off the ground. Zaheer chuckled as he went over to rub his love's back as she bent back up and looked at him with a look of disgust on her face.

"See!" Korra exclaimed as she shoved the broken toy in Zaheer's face, "They don't last as long as the ones that are handmade. Geez, I was a rough kid and my toys didn't break this easily."

"Well not everyone is as lucky as you." Zaheer said as he reached down to pick up another toy off of the ground. Korra snorted at the comment and twirled her one finger in a circle.

"Oh, yeah, because my childhood was amazing." She mumbled as stared at the plastic toy that she was twisting in her hand, "Being locked away from everyone, including my own parents."

Zaheer frowned as Korra sighed and threw the toy into the garbage at the very edge of the room. Zaheer smiled as he walked up behind his love and wrapped his long arms around her smaller torso.

"Well, my love, why don't we get them some real handmade Southern Water Tribe toys?" Zaheer kissed the back of her head, "That way that they will last longer, and you know what?' Zaheer asked as he twirled Korra around to face him; he leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on her lips before pulling back. "Our children will never have to go through what you went through; they will always be with us and I will never allow anything to happen to this family."

Korra wrapped her arms around Zaheer's neck and pulled him down for a kiss; it was full of passion, but it was not as rough as their kisses usually get. A sound of disgust caused the two to pull apart; the two of them turned towards the door to see Noren standing there making a disgusted face as San stood there with his hands covering his eyes and a blush on his cheeks.

"Oh, what's wrong, boys?" Zaheer laughed as he stalked towards the two boys whose eyes were now wide, "I can't kiss your mom? Well if I can't do that, then I might turn in to a monster."

Zaheer covered his face for a moment and stood completely still; against every nerve in their small bodies, San and Noren took a couple steps towards their dad. But once they were in arms reach, Zaheer lurched for them.

"I'm the tickle monster!" Zaheer yelled as he grabbed both boys and tickled them relentlessly.

Korra stood back where she was with a huge smile on her face as the shrieks of laughter were filling the room.

Korra's eyes grew wide as she forced herself to take a deep breath to calm herself down. Korra closed her eyes as she took two more deep breaths, but someone tugging at her sleeve cut off her last breath. Korra opened her eyes and turned her head towards her son staring at her with wide eyes.

"What's wrong, San?" Korra questioned as she ran her fingers through his short hair.

"I found this inside the box," San said holding out a small black pouch, "It was behind all of the toys."

Korra held out her hand and for some reason, deep in her gut, she didn't want to open this little pouch. Korra grabbed one of the small strings that held the perfect little bow together and watched as the small pouch opened. Her hand clamped over her mouth as she dropped the pouch.

Once it hit the wooden floor, a bright blue stone with the smooth carvings of passion on a dark blue ribbon fell out of the bag. With a trembling hand, Korra reached down to pick the necklace up off the ground. The design was of waves and air meeting and melding together in the middle, but a crack through the center of the stone separated where the air and the waves finally touched.

Korra's hand fell from her mouth as she used both hands to hold up the necklace in front of her face. Her eyes gently closed as she remembered grey eyes melting into hers when he offered this to her a couple weeks ago. Her throat grew dry as she swiftly brought the necklace in both hands and squeezed until her fingers grew white. A loud snap caused Korra's watery eyes to shoot open and her jaw began to tremble as she slowly opened her hands. Her breath was lost when she saw that the gem had entirely cracked down the middle. She knew this was a sign that he was not coming back; she just couldn't bare to allow herself to lose it all once again.

"Mommy?" A small voice ripped her from her thoughts, Korra glanced up to see both of her boys sitting in front of her with worried looks on their faces.

"Did daddy go away again?" Noren asked as he watched a tear fall from his mother's eye.

"Why do you say that, sweetie?" Korra sniffled as she rubbed the tears from her eyes. San placed his hand on Korra's cheek and she gave him the best smile she could, but she knew that it wasn't fooling anyone.

"When daddy was gone before you had that same look on your face and you cried a lot…" Noren whispered as his own bottom lip began to tremble. Korra's eyes grew wide and realized that she was being selfish.

"Oh, babies." Korra whispered as she wrapped both of her arms around her boys, and pulled them to her chest. The necklace was still encased in one of her fists as she tried to regain her composure.

"Everything will be okay." Korra pulled back and smiled at her boys, "I promise. Do you trust me?" The boys nodded their heads with sorrow in their eyes, "Then go play with your toys and mommy will figure everything out."

Korra gave the boys one last squeeze before they grabbed their new toys and brought them into the playroom. Sighing, Korra bent down to grab the small black pouch on the ground and carefully she slide the necklace back inside. Sniffling, Korra wrapped the silver ribbon back around the top of the pouch, sealing it off from anyone to see it.

"Korra!" A frantic yell came from behind her; Korra tucked the pouch in her pocket as she turned around as fast as she could and then she began running towards the voice. After turning around the bend of the house she saw Mako running towards her with Tenzin, Asami, and Bolin right behind him.

"What's wrong?" Korra yelled as she ran towards the ground with concern filling the blank spaces between her words.

"You need to read this." Tenzin said as he stepped up to Korra with a newspaper in his hand.

Korra gave him a confused look, as she grabbed the newspaper out of his hands and her eyes scanned the black ink that was deep in the parchment that had already been seen by hundred of eyes. As it finally clicked in her brain, she lost her will to breathe.