Korra breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she quietly closed the door to her children's room. Rubbing her eyes with the back of her hands, she made her way back to the kitchen, where Mako was in the middle of making their dinner.
It was much later than they would have liked to eat, but that was what happened when you had a fussy three-year-old child and a newborn baby.
Mako looked over at his wife where she stood in the entryway to the kitchen. He added a few pinches of a seasoning to a pot before asking, "Are they finally down?"
Korra nodded, making her way to the fridge to find a few fruits. "It took forever though. Ren would not stop talking, but Sitka was silent. Why'd you have to get me pregnant again?" she asked, grinning over at him.
"If I recall correctly," Mako said, matching her smile and stirring the pot. "You were equally responsible for both of them."
She rolled her eyes, sticking her tongue out at her husband of five years.
"What was momma responsible for?" a young voice asked, the words almost difficult to understand with young age.
The Avatar placed her fruit on the counter, sighing. "What are you doing out of bed?" she asked, turning around.
The little boy, who was the spitting image of his father- complete with the unique eyebrows- raised his arms in the air, a pout forming on his lips. Korra huffed, picking her son up under the arms to rest him at her hip.
"I don't wanna sleep!" Ren proclaimed, glaring at his mother.
Korra pouted back at her son. He may look like Mako, but he was as stubborn as the Avatar.
Mako chuckled, wiping his hands on the front of his apron as he stood before his wife and son. "Here, switch," he suggested, holding his arms out for the boy.
"But Mako, I-"
"Relax." He cut her off, fitting the boy to his hip like Korra had a moment before. "I'll talk you through dinner."
Mako walked back to their son's room, calling out directions on his way there. The Avatar tried to follow each of the instructions, but it was difficult to find everything, and put it in the pot, and stir the pot, and make sure that she didn't make such a mess.
He finally came back after a few moments, and Korra was about to throw the spoon into his hands when she huffed in frustration. "You're supposed to be in bed." She said, staring at the boy who had followed his father from his room.
"No." Ren said, crossing his arms defiantly.
Mako laughed lightly at Korra's defeated pout. "I got it," he told her, scooping their son into his arms again. "Just make sure that pot doesn't boil over."
Korra nodded, leaning back against the counter. With no further instructions, she shut her eyes, trying to get a moment's peace.
Since their son had been born three years ago, nothing had been the same, and nothing had been easy. Sometimes they had dropped the boy off at Bolin's house for the day, and spent all their free time together, but those days had been few and never often. And ever since Sitka had shown up, who had been born not four months ago, they got even less time to themselves.
Korra grinned to herself, thinking about the young baby that slept in the bassinet near their son's bed. She looked just like Korra, but she was so quiet and reserved. Even at a few months old she wasn't crying often, and whenever she was swaddled in Mako's scarf, she stayed asleep for hours.
It may not be a quiet life, but it certainly was the kind Korra was used to.
"Korra?" She opened her eyes to see Mako in front of her, and thankfully, no child. "Did you watch the soup?" as if to answer his question, there was a loud, ominous pop from the pot. Mako hurriedly looked inside, before letting out a defeated sigh. "It's boiled over. We can't eat that now, it's ruined."
Her husband was never one for wasting food. If they couldn't eat it, then the food was really damaged.
"I'm sorry, Mako." Korra said, frowning as she wrapped her arms around his torso, leaning her head on his chest.
He kissed the top of her head, leaning around her slightly to turn off the stove. "It's not your fault," he told her, wrapping his own arms around her shorter body. He was lying; it was entirely her fault. She got lost in her daydream, and forgot to watch over their dinner.
"Well we can always-" Mako was suddenly cut off by a loud, wailing scream from the hallway. Sitka was awake.
"Daddy, can I have some lychee juice?" Their son appeared in the doorway again, Mako's red scarf dangling off his neck to drag on the ground.
The couple broke apart, both of them holding back groans of frustration. Mako reached down to pick up their son, fixing the scarf so it wouldn't be too long.
He looked over to his wife, who was making her way out of the kitchen towards the bedrooms. "Midnight snack?" he asked her, opening the fridge for the lychee juice.
"Deal," she agreed, jogging to make her way to the sobbing baby.
A/N: I'm so sorry about the inactivity recently. School just started up again, and i've had to wake up really early every day. Hopefully i'll be able to update my other stories soon!
This was an open prompt on Tumblr, and i just decided to go for it. This was posted there a couple weeks ago, but i decided to post it here so you guys would at least know that i was still alive! Again, sorry about inactivity.
