Dinnertime rolled around and Mako didn't show. Korra wasn't surprised.

She was the only one though.

"Where's Mako?" Ikki asked as they all sat down. "We can't start without him."

Tenzin and Pema both looked at Korra. Pema gave Korra sympathetic smile, she'd probably seen Korra's foul mood that afternoon and guessed the reason.

"He—uh, I don't think he's going to be able to make it tonight," Korra said. "He had a rough day at work." Technically, that was true. Mako should be at home resting, even if it meant he missed dinner. He'd looked like he had a headache when she'd stormed out, it'd be better for him is he stayed home. Korra just wished she could believe that was the reason he hadn't showed.

"I heard there was a malevolent spirit in the city today," Tenzin said, picking up his chopsticks. "Were you two involved in that?"

"Yeah," she said, focusing on her food so she wouldn't have to see the empty space beside her.

"Ooh, what happened?" Ikki asked, clasping her hands beneath her chin.

"Is Mako okay?" Pema asked.

"He's fine," Korra said, conscious of the edge in Pema's voice. "Managed to get himself knocked out, but he didn't get hurt badly."

Ikki's eyes practically glowed. "Was he trying to save you? Were you worried? Did you have to heal him? Was it romantic?"

Korra shook her head, refusing to answer Ikki's questions. She didn't want to talk about it right now. Didn't want to even think about it. She shouldn't have stormed out. What was Mako going to think about that? This is exactly how things had started spiraling last time—just minus a war. The whole situation scared Korra.

The truth was, Mako had a point. So did she. She was the Avatar. There were things that only she could do—like deal with feisty spirits or convince block-headed rulers that they had to get along. Thankfully, things had settled down since Kuvira, so Korra wasn't needed as much. Most of the time, people needed her to solve simple problems. Today's encounter was the first dangerous situation she'd dealt with since Kuvira.

The speed with which the encounter had gone south scared her though. If she had been hurt, what would that have done to the baby? Korra resisted the urge to wrap her arms protectively around her stomach. No one at the table knew—well, maybe Pema, Korra couldn't quite make up her mind about that one.

Pema's voice broke through Korra's clouded thoughts. "Mako, you did make it. How're you feeling?"

"Much better."

Korra's head shot up. Mako gave her a small smile when their eyes met. Korra took a quick breath and then stared back down at her food with twice the intensity of before. Every nerve under her skin tingled as he passed behind her and took his usual seat.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey."

He came.

Warmth bubbled up inside of her, threatening to spill over. She wanted to grin, but she also had that feeling that told her she was about to start crying. Korra didn't want that. If she wanted to make it through dinner, she needed rein her emotions tightly in.

Stupid hormones.

"Sorry, I'm late. Bolin and I were talking and I lost track of time."

Bolin? What sort of excuse—Oh, crap. She had completely forgotten that Bolin was home when she'd arrived at the apartment earlier. Aware of her last words, Korra blushed. Well, that's one less person to tell.

"How'd the rest of your day go?" Mako asked.

"Pretty uneventful," Korra replied. She hadn't concentrated this much on eating since she had to relearn how to use her hands.

Under the table, Mako's hand brushed against her knee. A silent question. She glanced at him side long and tried to offer him a little smile. He was staring at her so intently, apology written so plainly on his face that she knew he thought she was still mad at him.

Korra put her chopsticks down. "I just realized I forgot to feed Naga, I'll be right back."

"Korra, surely it can wait until after we've eaten," Tenzin said.

"Tenzin, weren't you just telling Meelo how our animal friends depend on us and we have to put them before ourselves?"

Bless you, Pema, Korra thought. But she said, "It'll only take a minute, please keep eating."

With that, Korra shot to her feet and left the room. Keeping herself in check made her throat burn and her chest tight. She managed though until she confirmed that there were no footsteps following her. Finally, Korra relaxed and let the tears slide down her face, though she avoided the really ugly crying until she got to Naga's stall.

The polar bear dog wasn't even surprised to see her. She snuffled Korra's hair once, then settled down again as Korra leaned against her friend, the soft fur muffling her tears.

# # #

Mako came looking shortly after that.

By then at least, the most violent part of the crying fit was past.

"Hey," he said, letting himself into Naga's stall. She seemed slightly more interested in Mako than she had been in Korra, but she didn't get up.

"Hey," Korra said. She kept her head down, embarrassed to still be crying. It was so odd to her to be bawling over something that had made her happy. Korra understood tears of joy, but this? This felt a little over the top.

Mako knelt in front of her, his fingers curling over her forearm. "Korra, I know you're still mad at me…"

"I'm not mad anymore," she said. Korra wiped away the rest of the tears before resting her head against Naga's side. She kept her eyes closed.

"Okay, but you are still upset." Mako shifted, so he was sitting next to Korra, his side pressed close to her, his hand still resting over hers.

Korra sighed, her head drifting to his shoulder. "Nope."

"You're not mad and you're not upset." Mako scratched at his ear. "Care to tell me why you ran off in tears?"

"I did not run off in tears."

"Nearly."

"You came," Korra said. "It made me happy."

"So…you're crying because I came to dinner and that made you happy?" Mako sighed. "I am so confused," he muttered, hanging his head. He smiled though when Korra laughed.

"Well, you did have a concussion. Confusion is normal." Korra reached up to trace her fingers over his temple. The healers had done a decent job of speeding up the healing process, but the skin was still slightly discolored. Like an old bruise. "You came."

"You didn't think I would show up?" Mako pulled away.

"It was a pretty bad fight."

"We've had worse. At least you didn't send any furniture flying this time," he said. They grinned at each other. Then he blushed, fiddling with the buttons on his jacket as he looked away. "Of course I came. I've realized it's not about how much we fight—though I don't think either of us should make a habit of it—it's about what we do after the fight. You and I—we're both too hot-headed to expect smooth sailing all of the time."

"That's the truth," Korra said.

"We're always going to fight," Mako said. He took her hand, gazing back at her. "But I'm always going to come back and work things out."

Korra felt tears pricking at her eyes, though they weren't as overwhelming as earlier. Grabbing Mako's arm, she pressed her face into his shoulder until the urge to cry lessened.

"You are right," Mako said, slouching against Naga, holding Korra so she could curl up against him. The polar bear dog gave a little groan and thumped her tail a couple of times, sending dust and straw flying into the air.

"About?" Korra asked after she'd sneezed once or twice.

"Being the Avatar isn't something you can't just turn off." Mako sighed. "But…"

Korra felt, rather than heard the growl of frustration that rumbled through Mako's chest.

"But it's not just me anymore," she whispered.

Her boyfriend nodded. "No, it's not."

His arm around her shoulders shifted, sliding down her body hesitantly, curling around her waist. He was so tentative about the way he touched her sometimes. Acting like just touching her bump was taking extreme liberties. And while Korra appreciated this when they were in public, here, with only Naga watching, she found it ridiculous and maybe a little bit adorable. She pulled his hand over the all of the way, resting her own on top.

"People are going to notice if I suddenly start staying out of fights," she said.

"We're not going to be able to keep this secret for much longer anyways," Mako said. His voice was so soft, his breath teasing with the stray hair by her ear. He watched as their two hands rose and fell with Korra's breathing. "We should tell the chief, she can help us."

"Or I could just start calling for back-up right away and letting them do most of the work without involving Lin yet."

Mako bit his lip, avoiding her eyes again.

"Say it. I promise not to set you on fire or earthbend you into an early grave."

"It's just…" Mako ran a hand through his hair and Korra really wanted to reach up with her own and further muss his hair. That would have been counterproductive though, so she sat still. "Won't it get harder the longer we wait? Maybe we should just get it over with and hope for the best."

"Mako, you and I are already the bread and butter of every seedy gossip rag in the City. Do you really want to see our picture with the words 'Love Child' plastered over half a dozen papers."

She stood. She hadn't realized how warm it was sitting next to Mako until she was surrounded on all sides by cool air. Mako watched her, eyebrows raised and his mouth deliberately schooled into a straight line.

"Telling Lin makes you that nervous?"

"Yes," Korra said. "And no." Korra realized she was pacing and stopped, leaning against the stall door. Mako got up to lean on the wall beside her. In the dim light of the stall, his eyes were bronze instead of golden. "The decent papers are being civil, but I can feel them just waiting like piranha koi and here I am handing them the biggest meal they'll ever get. The press is going to have a field day with this Mako."

"I know."

"This would all be so much easier if things weren't so crazy. I could disappear to the South Pole for a few months, keep everything quiet. Voila, no scrutiny, no censure, no stress."

"You'd have to leave our baby there," Mako said.

Korra leaned out a little, checking to make sure that no one was nearby.

"Unless you had some magical way to explain why the Avatar was returning with a child. Could you do that, Korra?"

Korra shook her head.

"I need some time to figure out how to do this," Korra said. She held up her hand as Mako opened his mouth. She knew what he was going to say. "A few days. That's it. The end of the week we start telling people whether we have a plan or not."

Mako nodded. "Fair enough."

"We'll still need to keep it quiet until I can tell my parents," she said.

"You haven't told them yet?"

"This isn't something you tell someone while trying to scream over static. I want to go to the South Pole and tell them in person." Korra looked down, reaching to tug at her wolf tails before she remembered that no, her hair was short now. She settled for wrapping a few strands around her fingers. "I want to do it right."

"I'll talk with the Chief, see if I can't get some time off," Mako said.

Korra blinked, squeezing his hand lightly. "You don't have to do that."

"But I want to," he said. "And it's the right thing. Besides, it'll save your dad the trouble of coming all the way to Republic City."

"You're not worried, are you?"

"I've seen him fight, Korra. Your dad is…intense."

Giggling, Korra said, "Well, I had to get it from somewhere."

"The end of the week?"

"The end of the week and then we tell all the important people: Asami, Tenzin, Lin, Pema…"

"I'm pretty sure Pema already knows," Mako said.

She sighed. "Yeah, me too."