*** EXTRA ***

It was a while before the two benders felt they had found a place no one recognised them. The giant of a man and his steely-eyed petite girlfriend were easily adjusted, pleasant company and hard workers. None of the questions the couple had feared were thrown at them. The community welcomed them. People wanted to know when the wedding was, to trade kitchen secrets and show them around. The lava bender found work as a smith in the hospitable village and he build a home from the native rock in the earth an hour walk away. For safety, Ghazan covered his tattoos during the day. The thought of starting an eatery hung around in his head as he worked and shaped the ore Ming-Hua chiselled from the ground. It would be nice to own a place where they could live and cook to sustain themselves. Despite their distance they had continued to become quite popular in the village. Quality metal goods were hard to come by this far out. Country life seemed simple in comparison to their past experiences. No one asked too many questions, everyone pulled their weight. Things were really coming together and before they knew it, it had been almost a year since they had settled.

Ghazan had woken before sunrise, earlier than usual. He turned his head to look at Ming-Hua, still fast asleep. Gently he kissed her lips and she twitched, stirring gently. He kissed her again and her eyelids fluttered open. She started kissing him back, hands moving across his body in passionate caresses. She straddled his hips, not letting him inside her just yet, allowing his eager hands to massage her breasts – a little plumper with her improved health. He devoured her, aching to touch her more deeply but was teased all the more. Her clit was grinding against his hard shaft in circular gyrating motions. A cold grip that he never got used to squeeze the head of his cock, making precum weep onto his belly.

"Come on, let me in." he groaned deeply.

"Not yet." she purred.

In a fluid motion she sank down his body. Ghazan peered down his rugged body and watched her take his cock into her mouth and begin to suck. Her tongue swirled around and a loud moan rumbled in his chest and over his lips. Gentle hands played with her hair and massaged her scalp reassuringly. Her head bobbed rhythmically, quite sucking sound infiltrating the silent air around them, devoid of even bird song. His noises urged her on. As aroused as she was, for a moment as she woke up her stomach had felt uncomfortable. She had decided to ignore it, throwing herself into a passionate make out session with her lover. More or less convinced the discomfort was gone now, she crawled up his body, manhandling Ghazan's flesh with vigorous strokes before slowly letting him push inside her. She rocked in his lap, demanding more kisses before throwing her head back to cry out with the pleasure from his thrusts. Using his weight, Ghazan rolled her underneath him, thrusting harder and deeper from the change in position. The fevered groans came to an abrupt halt.

"Get off, let me up, now!" she burst out suddenly, hand cupped over her mouth. The stomach discomfort came back with a vengeance as fully fledged nausea. Ghazan rolled off instantly and she threw herself towards the window looking onto the paved area behind the house. Ghazan winced as he saw his lover thrown open the shutters and lose her stomach contents out the window.

"Damn… Are you alright?" he said, holding her loose, long hair out the way as her empty belly contracted angrily.

"Ugh…" she groaned. "I don't know. It felt strange when I woke up but I thought it was gone."

Ghazan rubbed her back until she felt well enough to sit down. She sipped some water but did not want to eat. The sun rose and Ghazan realised that he needed to head into the village soon.

"Are you going to be alright on your own?" he asked, tying her hair back as one last kind gesture before he had to leave.

"Yeah, I'm fine." she croaked, throat burned. "I'm probably just sick."

Ghazan looked concerned.

"I don't think I have anything. Did you eat something strange yesterday?"

"No idea." She wretched again, shuddering. "I'll see you in the afternoon."

"Alright, but only if you feel better."

Ming-Hua did not make it to town that day. After his shift finished at three o'clock he picked up some ginger root to make tea and hurried home a little faster than usual. On his way Ghazan's eye was caught by a new sign hammered into the ground on the plot of land down the road from their home.

FOR SALE

It was a much larger house than their accommodation, built by real craftsmen. He was a smith, not an architect. The house sat on four acres of unused land. It would be so nice to have a real house – a home with real windows and real plumbing and all the things they had almost grown used to not having. That land had potential in the hands of determined owner. Most people would be too intimidated by the work required to move all the rock and tend the soil… Most people.

He mentally made a note to speak to the town official about the property. He had to get home. If Ming-Hua was worse, she would need him. He found her sitting inside, still sipping water and cradling a bucket in her lap. A book of paper was upturned on the table next to a pen. She had jotted down a few recipes until the thought of food became too much. She did not smile when he greeted her. She looked dazed.

"How are you feeling?" Ghazan asked sitting beside her. He pressed the back of his hand to her forehead. "You feel a little warm still."

He rubbed her back gently offering to make some bread for her to pick at if she wanted it. She stiffly shook her head.

"Ghazan, I… Yesterday I wasn't feeling so good," Ming-Hua confessed, looking at her feet. She had come to a realisation. It could no longer be ignored. "Or the day before, but this morning I couldn't stop throwing up."

Ghazan's dark eyes became saucers.

"Do you think… Are we…?"

"I didn't think it was possible, after what prison did to my body… I think I'm pregnant."

Ghazan's face broke into the broadest smile she had ever seen.

"That's wonderful!" he beamed pulling her into a hug. He held her tightly until she started to sob. Only when he pulled away did he see that she was smiling too, tears of happiness.

"I thought we'd missed our chance." she hiccupped, rubbing the tears in her eyes away on his shoulder. "It's like a miracle."

"It is a miracle." Ghazan whispered.

Disorder is the natural order.