A/N: This can be read separately or as a sequel to #78: Bedtime Story.
Thank you so much to everyone for your favorites and alerts and reviews! Reviews are my favorites; I love to hear what people think. It's very very motivating, and I think this is the farthest I've gotten with a story so far.
Words: 956
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Kai is screaming.
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Mako breathes deeply, letting Korra's scent wash over him.
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Kai is screaming and there is smoke everywhere and he can't see anything except for the red-orange of fire burning in his peripheries.
'Korra?'
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Kai is sleeping soundly, safely ensconced in-between he and Korra, but he still can't get the sounds of her screams out of his head. They remain there, ringing in his ears over and over again.
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'Korra? Kai?' he is stumbling through the smoke-filled hallway, heading in the direction of Kai's terrified screaming. The heat is so oppressive and the fire is so strong that he is unable to bend it to his will.
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They should have seen this coming, they both have so many enemies; the Triads were always out for blood of some kind, and even thirteen years later there are still Equalist sentiments floating throughout the non-bending communities.
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The screams are louder now and Kaikala finally, finally, comes into view. He feels relief at first, to see her safe and relatively unharmed; then his relief turns into dread, fear clawing at the pit in his stomach when he realizes that Kai is trapped, pinned down by the protective cradle of her mother's arms, who is lying unconscious in a pool of water, which is quickly dissipating under the intense heat.
'Korra!'
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His fingers ghost over the raw, red, angry burns on her arm and the side of her abdomen. She sighs in her sleep, her head burrowing further into his chest as she pulls Kaikala a little more securely into the safety of her arms.
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'Korra!' He is kneeling at her side, coughing as he unravels his scarf from around his neck, pulling Kai into his arms and quickly but gently wrapping it around her face to protect her from the smoke and the heat. Her screams have lessened, dying to frightened, choking sobs in her father's sudden presence.
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Mako rests a hand protectively on the top of his four-year-old daughter's head, thoughts of how close he had come to losing them both rolling around in his over-active mind. A gentle hand touches the side of his face and he lifts his eyes to meet the clear blue of his wife's, still hazy with sleep.
"Hey," Korra whispers; her throat is still sore from all of the smoke.
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'Korra!' He yells again, clutching his frightened daughter to him with one hand as he uses his other to check for a pulse at Korra's neck, allowing himself to breathe a sigh of relief when he finds one, weak and feeble, but there. But there is no time for relief anymore because the house is threatening to crumble around them and he knows that he can't carry them both out.
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"Hey," he whispers back, placing a feather-light kiss to her forehead, "you should be sleeping."
"So should you," she replies groggily, attempting to adjust her position so that Kaikala's leg isn't leaning against the stark white bandages covering her thigh and hip. She winces and he does it for her, gently transferring the little girl so that she is leaning against him instead.
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Korra groans and her eyes flutter open.
'M-Mako?' he nods and she tries to sit up by rolling onto her side; she screams in pain and that's when he notices the fresh bright red burns covering her right side, knows that they are close-contact burns, and knows that this was no accident. His eyes harden with determination.
'We need to find a way out.' He can hear the police sirens but knows that there is no way that they will be able to get here in time and he sees the way that Korra is gritting her teeth in pain as she manages to sit up, coughs wracking her body.
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His eyes are stuck, glued to the angry red marks now marring her perfect skin.
"Katara arrives this morning," she reminds him, trying to provide him with some kind of comfort, "with her here, the healers should have no problems finishing."
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'There's no moisture in the air, no water to bend,' he hears Korra mutter, 'cover Kai!' Mako does, shielding her tiny frame with his, her sobs muffled as she clings to the front of his shirt.
Then the smoke is gone and he can finally breathe again, and he looks up to find that Korra's eyes are glowing eerily as she simultaneously bends the air into a protective sphere around them to rid them of the smoke while slowly, oh so slowly, bending the flames to her will, forcing their burn to become less intense. He doesn't know how long it lasts, but suddenly there are waterbenders dousing the flames from outside and metalbenders are breaking down the front door to check for people inside and he barely has enough time to catch Korra awkwardly in one arm as she collapses into unconsciousness once more, exhausted.
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Korra's wrist flicks and the candles on the bedside table spring to life. And just as quickly as she has lit them, he has snuffed them out.
"The sun will be up in a few hours," he states. She gives him a questioning look and then the realization dawns on her and he can see in her eyes that she understands; he doesn't want, doesn't need a reminder right now of how close they almost came to losing absolutely everything.
"Okay," she agrees, running soothing fingers through his hair, resting her free hand on top of his on Kaikala's back.
The screams are still there, still echoing in his head, and Mako vows to make sure that he never has to hear Korra scream like that, that neither of them has to hear their baby girl scream like that ever again.
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A/N: OMIGOD THE ANGST