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Korra didn’t notice the change for weeks.
Even with the recent advances in modern technology, pregnancies still carried an element of risk even for Yin women. So when Mako woke up bleeding and in pain in the middle of his second trimester, Korra rushed him to Republic City Hospital East expecting the worst.
“The good news is it’s a simple infection.” The doctor who told them this was an in-between and female – Mako had initially wanted a male doctor of his own orientation but Dr. Zhou was the only in-between in their area of the city and came highly recommended. “An infection of the cervix and rectal passageways, to be precise.”
“Well, that’s gross,” Mako said glumly. Korra stood next to the examination table where he sat, rubbed his back while she listened and tried to hide her own nervousness.
Dr. Zhou smiled. When she spoke her voice was more chipper than either of them could have expected. “Gross, perhaps, but not uncommon in men during pregnancy. I’ll write you a prescription for antibiotics. I also recommend bedrest and no sex until this clears up. Avatar Korra, a little daily healing session on his back can also go a long way. Let’s see what happens in a few weeks.”
The infection actually cleared up quickly, although Mako still complained about backaches that would come back a mere two hours after Korra’s healing. Lin Beifong gave Mako the option of his taking his paternity leave early. Mako refused at first, saying the waiting and boredom would drive him crazy. Then one day he fainted at work.
“Sometimes finding a small problem blinds you to a bigger one.” Dr. Zhou sighed sadly as she took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. Without the thick lens, and given her dark, wrinkled skin and graying hair, the doctor sometimes reminded Korra of Katara in younger years, but Dr. Zhou’s pointed chin and gold eyes marked her as Fire Nation rather than Water Tribe. “The next few weeks are going to be very crucial and dangerous for both Mako and the baby.”
Korra felt her mouth go dry. “How … How dangerous?”
Dr. Zhou gave a comforting smile and pet the both of them on the knee. “You’re really going to need to take it easy, Mako. The pregnancy is stable now, but another round of bleeding and you could lose the baby. It could also be a danger to you if we don’t act quickly.”
Mako sighed deeply, but promised to follow the doctor’s orders. As Dr. Zhou sent Mako with a nurse to try out a few wheelchairs for the purpose – even too much walking could be an issue – she took Korra aside.
“Sometimes Yangs with in-between bondmates thick of them as more self-sufficient and not as in need of care, but we all need help sometimes,” Dr. Zhou said. “Can I trust you to care for Mako in every way you can?”
“Of course,” Korra answered quickly. She felt twinges of pain in her breasts as she said the words, had been feeling them off and on again for the past two weeks. But once again, she ignored them. There were more important things to worry about.
~*~*~
Under their new routine, Korra woke up early every morning to exercise and make a simple breakfast for herself and Mako. Sometimes Korra wished she could stay home for the rest of the day after that, but Mako was usually pretty cranky in his illness so the away time was probably better for both of them.
Plus, Grandma Yin or one of his cousins usually visited during the day, and Korra had a lot to do. There were lots of meetings to go to, consulting with worldly and spirit matters with the heads of state and helping the Airbenders on their new initiatives. The day ended with cooking and cleaning again, plus food shopping every other day. Usually Korra just wanted to roll up next to Mako and sleep when it was all over.
“I could always loan out a maid for you,” Asami said to her one day. She’d invited Korra out to lunch at a very trendy and very expensive restaurant in the wealthiest part of the city, run by a famous Water Tribe cook who’d been trained in the style of the Earth Kingdom’s Upper Ring. The food was delicious – even if Korra didn’t understand why the portions were so small. (The chef’s take on Water Tribe Noodles could have filled a thimble, and she loved the sea prunes marinated in traditional Fire Nation spices but wondered why she only got three.)
But Asami asking the question in a place like this made Korra a bit uncomfortable. “Thanks,” she said, “But after six months sick in a bed and two and a half more years of recovery you kind of never want to have people wait on you again. Actually, I’ve been talking about that with Mako lately, trying to show him it’ll bet better, but it doesn’t seem to help."
“I guess he needs to work through it in his own way.” Asami nodded and thanked the Yang waiter as he placed plates of seal-turtle meat in eel sauce over a bed of rice in front of them. “Have you heard from Bolin?”
“Yeah, he calls every few days.” Korra picked up her chopsticks, mixing the sauce into the rice. “I think he wants to be here, but he’s got Opal and Dorjee to think about.”
Korra hadn’t met their son – her nephew, she guessed – yet, but she remembered his picture. Dorjee was a stocky little green-eyed boy with light brown skin. In the photo he was wrapped in a blanket in his father’s arms, the Western Air Temple in the background. Opal was the sire, even though everyone knew better than to refer to her as anything but a Yin.
“I’m still kind of shocked Opal wanted to do that,” Asami said. “Then again, I’d never heard of someone who changed their sub-gender and then wanted to be with someone of that sub-gender later.”
Korra shrugged. She tried some of the meat. The sauce was surprisingly sweet, although she missed how this dish tasted when it came right off the grill. “‘I like being a Yin and loving Yins’ was how she put it, although I think she likes Yangs, too.”
Korra hoped her telltale blush wasn’t showing. She more than ‘thought.’
“Oh well, I guess their happiness is what matters.” Asami made an ‘mmm’ sound as she tasted the meat. “Isn’t this great?”
Korra was about to answer when Asami looked around the room and behind herself. “Oh, I think I see the arctic hen wrapped in seaweed with hosin sauce coming our way.”
Korra’s eyes widened for the third time in an hour. “The what now? Isn’t this our fifth course?”
“Sixth. The portions are small for a reason.” Asami nodded again as the waiter approached. The waiter – underestimating both his footing and the weight of the dishes – ended up toppling forward, spilling both food and dishes directly onto Korra’s chest. She cried out as the dishes clattered to the floor and the food started to seep into her clothes.
“I’m so sorry!” The waiter was already on his hands and knees, picking the food off her dress. “Are you all right, Avatar Korra?”
Korra accepted his apology through gritted teeth. Her chest – especially her breasts, which the tray had hit directly – still really hurt. As Asami walked with Korra outside – more hen and their dessert packed up in boxes and the bill waived (Asami still tipped the man) – she kept apologizing and promised that they’d go out and she’d buy Korra a new dress, but Korra was still focused on the pain. She knew she’d been hit way harder than that before. Why did this hurt so much?
Korra was still wondering when she got home and peeled off her damp dress. Actually, the stains weren’t so bad. With some waterbending she could probably clean it. Korra went up to the first floor to the sink in the bathroom – her bathroom, their bathroom, right below their bedroom, directly across from their dining room, directly above their basement with spaces to wash and let Naga play when she wasn’t running in the Spirit Vines. Korra and Mako had purchased the row house in the Dragon Flats borough shortly after they got married. Unlike most people in the city, Korra wanted to live near the vines so she got a great price. Yet she still had trouble believing she owned her own house.
Korra waited until the water from the tap cooled before infusing it with her healing energy. She bent the water up, was ready to put it on her chest when she got a glimpse of herself in the mirror over the sink. She stared back at her reflection, shocked, letting the water slosh into the sink.
Her breasts had grown.
Not by much – Korra may have been able to dismiss her perceptions as a trick of the light if not for the dark stretch marks running along the sides of her breasts. How long had they been like this? How could she not have noticed? Korra touched the sides of her breasts gingerly. She squeezed them and winced in pain.
“Korra?” Mako’s voice called from upstairs. “Korra, are you home?”
Korra winced and pulled a towel off a nearby shelf, wrapped it around her chest and felt the coarse fibers scrape against her erect nipples. “Just a minute! I need to get dressed.”
“It’s been a bad day for me,” Mako explained as he sat at the edge of the bed, Korra kneeling behind him and healbending his lower back. “I’ve just felt sick all day. I feel like I can’t even eat.”
“You should eat, though,” Korra said. “I can make you some seaweed noodles – or just the broth.”
“Maybe later tonight.” Mako straightened his back. Korra bent the water back into the bowl at the bedside as Mako collapsed back on the bed. Mako’s stomach had a distinct bump at this point, although he still had many weeks to go. Korra lay down next to him, rubbed a hand along his stomach.
“Are you feeling anything yet?” Her breasts throbbed when she said it, as if in a sort sympathy or anticipation of the quickening. This was so weird.
Mako shook his head. “Dr. Zhou said it would happen soon. It’s apparently not fun and feels weird, but at this point I think a reminder of why I’m going through all this would be nice.”
Korra kissed him. “Only a few more weeks to go. I know you can do it.”
Mako didn’t answer, but he snuggled against her until he fell asleep. By the time he woke up later, ready to eat (Korra let him have her leftovers from the restaurant), she’d already decided not to worry him.
Later that night, though, Korra healbent her breasts for about a half hour. When she was done, she measured her breasts. She’d gone from 39 inches around the most prominent part of her breast (compared to 36 inches around her chest) to 41 inches. Weird how much difference two inches makes, Korra thought. Better she didn’t tell Mako anything at all.
~*~*~
Unfortunately, deciding the problem wasn’t a problem didn’t magically make it so. The ignorable twinges turned into shooting darts of pain or hours of throbbing aches. Korra took a few minutes out of every day to try to heal herself, but the pains always came back, sometimes more vicious than before.
They were still growing, too. Every few days she’d measure herself, and she was usually up by a quarter of an inch or more. Korra tried to stop the growth – she watched her diet, added another hour to her exercise routine, but while that slowed the growth – a bit – it made the pain worse.
When her bust had grown to 44 inches she started to find it hard to squeeze into the tight shirts she liked to wear. One even ripped as she tried to pull it over her engorged chest. (She still got frustrated thinking about how it looked – the tatters of her blue shirt hanging over her still erect nipples.) Korra took to binding her chest, but that made the pain worse. Not only was it now constant but when she unwrapped herself at the end of the day her breasts were covered with red marks and bruises.
But she had to do something, didn’t she? And despite the pain, the binding actually made it easier to move, was staving off the ache that had started to grow in her upper back.
Then things got worse. One day, Mako fainted when she wasn’t home. When Korra got the call from the hospital letting her know, Mako assured her that he was fine, that he just had some vitamin and nutrition deficiencies and needed to take some pills and be monitored for a while. He wouldn’t have even gone to the hospital if Grandma Yin hadn’t flipped out.
Korra was sick with worry after that. She sat through endless meetings with Tenzin, her mind elsewhere, her breasts throbbing and straining against the binds. It was as if her mental distress were just making her physical problems worse. When Tenzin dismissed the meeting, she felt a great relief, almost like breaking loose from an assailant’s grip.
It was only when she stood up that she felt the leak.
Korra shuffled out of the room stiffly, eschewing a hug good-bye as she felt her face turning red. There was definitely milk coming out of her – how much, she wasn’t sure, but she could already feel the liquid cooling her sore, erect nipples. She could feel it seeping through her binds. As she lifted up her glider on Air Temple Island’s dock, away from the Acolytes’ prying eyes, she could feel more squirts of milk come out of her. Two small damp spots appeared on her shirt, and by the time she arrived home and entered her bedroom through the skylight they’d grown huge.
The sour smell of it seemed to pervade her apartment as she tore off her shirt and binds. The clothing made a disgusting wet sound as it hit the wood floor. As she walked to the bathroom she heard Naga padding up the stairs, sniffing the clothes.
“Naga, shoo! That’s gross!” The dog looked at her with a cocked head, but then continued sniffling. Frustrated, Korra ordered Naga down the stairs and locked the bedroom door behind her.
Korra went to the bathroom, sloshed water over her chest and rubbed it dry. It cleaned her up, but she was still lactating, white beads of liquid budding on her nipples until they made the slow journey down the peaks of her chest.
“Maybe I’ve just got to get it out,” Korra muttered glumly. She pinched her right nipple, wincing at the pain, then gently squeezed. Ugh, it was like trying to pop a zit. And yet she kept going, her breathing growing heavier as she forced out glob after glob of milk. Her nipples felt so sore, almost like they were on fire. Without thinking about what she was doing, Korra moved her hand down to her clitoris, stroked its engorged shaft. She was still milking herself when she came, her knot hanging big and low between her legs, the front of her pants sticky with come.
Her body was still taut – nipples tight, clitoris erect – when she took a cold shower, but she kind of liked it that way. After so many weeks of worry it was hard to remember when she felt so good. When she got back to her bed, she stroked herself again and drifted off into the best sleep she’d had in weeks.
When Korra woke up later and measured herself – 46 inches – she realized her breasts were a little less than a foot out in front of her. She couldn’t see her feet when she looked down. She needed to do something.
~*~*~
Korra put on her loosest shirt after trying and failing to put on her coat, and then made her way to the nearest clothing store. On the way, she caught a few people staring at her – not only Yangs whose leering faces turned to confusion when they got a whiff of her, but Yins who stared at her longingly. She brushed both of them off with glares and the occasional growl.
“Who cares what they think?” Korra muttered to herself, but the moment her anger subsided she grew worried again.
The shop had the first thing she was looking for – a large, thick poncho that distracted and at least somewhat masked the size of her breasts. Actually, it was really cute – dark blue with white fringe and a Southern Water Tribe medallion. Even without this situation she might have considered buying it.
The next thing she needed would be a bit more tricky. The clothing store clerk (a female Yin who was clearly interested but mostly blushed and giggled when talking to Korra instead of leered) directed her to a baby store a few avenues away. The clerk there, a female Yang this time, cracked a smile when Korra placed the breast pump on the counter.
“Got a pregnant husband, huh?” The female Yang asked as she counted Korra’s yuans.
Korra groaned. “I guess that’s obvious.”
The clerk laughed. “Don’t worry. It’s a little weird but I really loved nursing. There’s a lovely connection you get that you miss when you’re not carrying the children.”
Korra thought of Mako in pain in the hospital. Well, she was always thinking of that in the back of her mind, even during this crisis, but she hadn’t been thinking about the potential baby the same way. The baby had still felt like a possibility, something that could be gone with the wrong bad luck.
When Korra got home, she pumped herself. But this time, despite her heightened sensitivity, she wasn’t aroused. She wondered how long this would go on, wondered if something happened to Mako and the baby she would go on producing milk anyway, a bodily reminder of a future that wouldn’t exist.
Korra called the hospital, but they told her Mako was asleep. She opened the door to her basement, sat waiting until Naga ran back in from the Spirit Wilds. Then they snuggled up in bed together, Korra trying not to cry. She was going to need a lot of hugs over the next few days.
~*~*~
With the first month of Mako’s trimester over, Korra cancelled all future commitments for the next two months, telling Tenzin to only contact her in case of emergency. Worried, he offered to come or send Pema to come help her. Even Asami called her when she heard the news, but Korra wanted to be alone for the next few days, wanted to make it comfortable for Mako’s return.
The hospital was keeping Mako under close observation, wanted him alone until he could deliver safely, but Korra called him whenever she could. He was comfortable. He was feeling better. He hated the food. He read her the weather report from the same newspaper that came to her door everyday. He missed her and wanted to come home. Korra was always sad when she put down the phone.
She kept pumping herself. For the first few days she only did this once a day, when her breasts felt tight and full. Then it was in the mornings and the evenings. Then it was three times a day. Well, three meals for the baby. That made sense, right? Then came the day when she felt the ache and began leaking between “lunch” and “dinner.” Even as her breasts stopped growing, the angry stretch marks disappearing, she kept producing more and more milk, filling the two-cup pump once every time, then once and a half-bottle more every time, then twice every time.
“I feel like all I do is milk myself,” Korra complained to Naga one day, but in truth she really enjoyed it. The slow, mechanical sucking on her hard, leaking nipples always calmed her. It felt good to feel the liquid flowing out of her, the easing of the heavy, sore weight in her engorged breasts. She usually got aroused when she did this, stroked herself and slept until she woke up and had to do it all over again.
Those were the good days. The bad days happened when she thought, in her erotic delirium, of making love to Mako, or of the future baby, and felt her desire curdle into fear.
~*~*~
But then good news came at last!
She got the call after “lunch” one day. Dr. Zhou said Mako was out of the danger zone and could come home again. Korra couldn’t help but jump and cheer when she heard the news. She got dressed as quickly as she could, pulling her new poncho over her head, and rode on Naga’s back directly to the hospital.
As luck would have it, Grandma Yin (a couple of people asked her if having that name was weird, especially because she was one, but in one of her more lucid opinions, Grandma Yin reminded them that the word always applied to many things) was already wheeling Mako out of the hospital. She smiled and waved when she saw Korra.
“There you are!” she said. “Oh, Mako, I told you she’d be here soon. And what lovely new clothes you have.”
Korra would have been eased by Yin’s general loopiness if she hadn’t seen Mako’s expression.
Oh yeah, he could tell. Korra had been living with her weird body changes for weeks now, but seeing Mako’s shocked – actually, more like horrified – face made her realize just how strange they were.
Korra wanted to explain, but Grandma Yin had a habit for making what should have been simple unnecessarily complicated. Even though Korra tried to tell her Naga could walk steady and she would have no trouble carrying the wheelchair (she may have been more top-heavy now but she hadn’t lost all her strength), Yin insisted that Mako take a cab with her. The wheelchair could stay with Korra … but if they needed it, it should be with Mako. Oh, but Yin could barely fit in the cab with that heavy contraption and maybe Korra should take it. Maybe Korra should ride in the cab with Mako and Yin would ride Naga. Was a polar bear-dog anything like an ostrich-horse? Mako’s grandfather had one of those, used to take her on rides through Ba Sing Se back when she was a child …
Mako looked ready to tear his hear out. When they finally – finally – got everything settled, Mako and Yin went in the cab and Korra followed on Naga at a glacial pace (Yin insisted the driver go slow) that led to a high amount of unnecessary grunting and whining from the polar bear-dog. When they got home Naga tore off into the Spirit Vines in frustration.
Meanwhile, Grandma Yin offered to cook dinner, and Mako kept trying, cajoling, pleading with her to go away. Finally at the breaking point, Mako got up out of his wheelchair despite her entreaties for him to sit down, and steered Grandma Yin toward the door, promising several times to call her every day.
The bang echoed through the house as Mako slammed the door behind her.
“Okay,” Mako said as he turned back to Korra. “Were you just stung by a whole hive of scorpion bees? What happened to you?”
Korra sighed and shrugged. “I know, I know. I was going to tell you, but I was worried about your health, and …”
“My health? What about your health? You have seen a doctor, right?”
Korra bit her lip. Mako groaned and held his head. “What were you thinking?”
“Look, I just didn’t want to put any more stress on what’s already a really frustrating – Hey!”
Mako lifted up the front of her poncho. Korra could hear the breath get caught in his throat as he stared at Korra’s breasts. Korra had taken to wearing her loosest shirt every day but her breasts still strained against the fabric. Actually, despite the situation Korra could feel her nipples growing erect under Mako’s gaze.
“This …” Mako’s voice was quiet. “We have to go back to the hospital. I’m really worried. This isn’t normal.”
Korra pulled the poncho back down over herself, offended. “I’m fine! I’ve even got the growth under control. And lots of Yang women lactate.”
Mako shook his head. “No, I remember my mother when Dad was pregnant with Bolin. She never … never …”
He stumbled forward. Korra instinctively caught him, his head resting on her huge bust while his engorged stomach pressed against her knees.
“Let’s get you to bed,” she said. Korra led him up the stairs, helped him into bed, but when she tried to leave Mako wouldn’t let her go.
It was arousal just as much as exhaustion that had led to Mako’s swooning. Within moments after lying down Korra took off her poncho and shirt, let Mako’s hands stroke and roam over her breasts as she lay next to him.
“I’m sorry,” Mako whispered, his breath tickling Korra’s nipples. Korra could still see the worry in his eyes as he kneaded her breasts, ran his hands and tongue along the length of them. “I think … I think I just haven’t seen you in so long.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Korra said, running her hands through his hair. She was already hard, maybe would have tried to mount him by now if his belly weren’t in the way. “It seemed like a small problem until it wasn’t, I guess. To be honest, right now I’m just glad you’re okay.”
Mako nodded and closed his eyes. His mouth found her left nipple, started to suck. Korra closed her eyes and moaned. She was close to pumping time, and Mako’s lips were perfect, firm and yet so soft compared to the hard, rubbery plastic. She felt a warm, pleasant feeling as the milk flowed to her nipples, was gently sucked out of her.
“More. Please,” Mako begged, practically moaned the words.
Korra adjusted herself on the bed, back against the headboard, lifting her right breast slightly to bring it to Mako’s mouth. “I thought you’d be weirded out.”
“Well, I’m worried about you but … Wow, nothing’s tasted this good to me for weeks.”
Mako drank from her again, his sucking much harder this time. It was hard for her to control herself, her clitoris throbbing as Mako drank from her, her nipple being pulled a little bit with every suck.
When he was done the both of them were drunk off each other’s hormones. It was hard to be as close as they liked, his stomach and her breasts awkwardly bumping against each other as they rolled around the bed.
“Korra …” Mako kissed her cheek, her neck. “Make me pregnant.”
Korra laughed.
“I want to always have your children inside me.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Take me. Mount me.”
It took some struggle. Eventually Korra laid Mako on his back, pinned his legs around her waist with a pillow under his lower back and mounted him. He was as wet as a Yin, and she filled him up and knotted him within minutes. Korra continued to rut him, her hard nipples scraping against his chest until he came.
They couldn’t sleep in each other’s arms, but when they woke again and Korra’s knot had gone down, they held each other.
“Do they hurt?” Mako asked.
Korra wanted to tell him that they didn’t hurt as much as they used to, but her breasts were full again, milk straining inside them like tight drums, so she nodded.
“Doctor. Doctor tomorrow,” Mako muttered, and his mouth wrapped around a nipple again.
Korra moaned and leaned back on the bed, arms folded over her head as she let herself be suckled.
“Yeah,” she muttered. “Doctor tomorrow.”
~*~*~
They did go. They went after another round of sex and feeding in the morning, but Dr. Zhou cleared a few hours out of her day to investigate the problem.
The day involved a long string of tests. She was weighed and measured. Korra’s vitals were checked, then her fluids. Near the middle of the day the doctor watched her pump herself. Dr. Zhou’s eyes widened when she saw the large amount of milk Korra produced, but said nothing. She felt Korra’s breasts for any abnormalities (besides the obvious), then ordered an X-ray. After the X-ray the doctor felt various other parts of the body.
“You’re the type of person to pick at your zits rather than let them heal, aren’t you?” the doctor asked when it was all over.
Korra was sitting in Dr. Zhou’s office at the time, Mako sitting next to her in a wheelchair and holding her hand. She chuckled nervously and shrugged. “I, um … had a steep learning curve in being patient, I guess.”
Dr. Zhou nodded. “I think a few things are at work here. The first is your previous bout of ill health. While you’re in good shape now, I think the poisoning caused a degree of damage to some of your organs, possibly your mammary and pituitary glands, not enough to be fatal or debilitative after your recovery, but enough to make them … overreact.”
Korra looked down at her chest. “This is a pretty big overreaction, yeah.”
Dr. Zhou smiled pleasantly. Then she turned to Mako. “The second problem, I’m afraid, is you.”
Mako raised an eyebrow. “Um … what?”
“Female Yangs become very sensitive to their mates’ needs during their pregnancy. Most don’t lactate until shortly before the baby is born, but given your sensitive physical health, combined with the fact that you’re having twins, Korra’s body began the process in advan—”
“Wait, twins?” Korra turned to Mako. “You didn’t tell me you were having twins!”
“Well, um …” Mako tapped his index fingers together as he turned away from Korra, his face turning red. “I meant to tell you as soon as I got out of the hospital but then …”
Korra scoffed. “And you’re accusing me of keeping secrets?”
“I just … I wanted to see your face when I said it,” Mako muttered.
Korra sighed and reached over to hug him. The doctor cleared her throat to get their attention.
“Also, while I understand why you did so, healbending and your constant milking exacerbated the problem. It seems counter-intuitive but you were basically encouraging the cells to work more through the first action and make more milk through the second action.”
Korra slumped in her chair a bit. Well, that stunk. “Can we fix this?”
Dr. Zhou thought for a moment. “I believe a lot can change after your children are weaned, but at this point I’d just suggest you try to reduce your milkings for now. Not completely. I think it would be good for your children’s health if they’re breastfed, but for now I’d suggest you encourage your body to produce a bit less. I also want to see you exercise more. After that, we’ll look at hormone therapy and possibly surgery. How’s that sound?”
It didn’t sound great, actually. “I guess this is me now,” Korra said later that night as she and Mako lay in bed together.
Mako stroked a hand against her cheek. “Well, sometimes I’ve felt like that with my pregnancy. Like I’ll look in the mirror or wake up sick and think it’s all going to last forever, but it won’t.”
Korra snorted and pushed Mako’s hand away from her face, although she grabbed it and held it close to her heart. “Didn’t I tell you something like that when you first got sick?”
“Well …” Mako shrugged awkwardly. “Well, yeah, but … but I think you also said something about needing to work through it myself, right?”
Korra sighed and snuggled against him. Maybe they were both better in the end at sacrificing for each other than for themselves. Strange, since they used to be so short-sighted.
Sometime after they rekindled their relationship but before their engagement the two of them had a long talk about the possibility of their differences drawing them apart again. They still loved each other, and they had both grown, but Korra still wasn’t sure if they “worked.” The lack of honesty so as not to hurt each other was a part of that, maybe would always be something they had to work against.
“Do you think we’re going to be good parents?” Korra asked.
“At this point we don’t have a choice,” Mako said.
The next two weeks were good ones. Korra let Mako suck from her three times a day, and while she still felt uncomfortably full and often leaked for those weeks, the pains lessened day by day.
Asami threw Korra a surprise baby shower, and Korra let her and Pema know everything that happened. Pema sent her two cribs later; Asami a nifty new nursing bra she’d invented.
Mako went into labor at midnight one night, and as the sun rose, Korra was nursing little San and Senna. They were lovely, and already very different. San was light-skinned, blue eyed and stocky. Senna dark-skinned with gold eyes and a thinness in her face despite her puffy baby cheeks. They weren’t gentle like Mako. Even without teeth they gummed and bit her several times before they could get her milk. When they were done she let them rest on her chest.
“How are you feeling?” Mako asked as his eyes fluttered awake. He’d gone to sleep a few hours ago, right after the birth, and still had the messy hair and circles under his eyes of an insomniac.
“Great,” Korra smiled. “Really, really wonderful.”
Mako shifted on his hospital bed and Korra got in with him. Mako took Senna from Korra and they dozed off again, a child in hand. In the future they’d have time to deal with their health, their wellness, but for now they were a family, and they had their love.
The End.