Another short interlude, something that might start happening more often.
It's truly worrying just how many websites there are dedicated to the colour of Mako's eyes.
Nothing To Do But Talk
Mako hated the way hospitals smelt; of fear, pain, grief and antiseptic. They brought back unpleasant memories of the night his parents were killed. And try as he might, he couldn't stop thinking about them, and it wasn't just the smell; family was at the very forefront of his mind.
"Six hours." Bolin commented quietly so as not to disturb Opal, who was curled up at his side, her head resting on his shoulder, "Anyone want to place a bet on hour seven?"
"Not if they want to live to live to see hour eight." Lin warned, "Show some respect."
"I respect the miracle of birth." Bolin insisted sincerely, "I just don't understand why it takes so long."
"Wait until you start having your own..." Tenzin started, then saw the look Lin was shooting at him and stopped.
"I want babies." Opal commented sleepily, her eyes not even fluttering as she hugged Bolins arm tightly, "Lots and lots and lots of babies."
There was a moment of silence as everyone waited to see just how Lin would react to her nieces comment, but after a short period of contemplation, the police chief just shook her head and sighed.
"So long as you're married first." She warned the young man who was her future nephew-in-law, all be it still not officially, going by the continued lack of a ring on Opal's finger "I know there is a family precedent to the contrary, but it will not be becoming a tradition on my watch."
There was a sudden, sharp and above all very loud scream of pain from down the hallway, and everyone looked round in shock.
"Was that..." Bolin swallowed nervelessly, "Was that Korra?"
"If I had to guess, I'd say she made the mistake of telling Asami to squeeze her hand if the pain got too much." Tenzin flexed his right hand instinctively, "I made the same mistake when Pema was giving birth to Jinora; it was weeks before I could airbend properly afterwards."
"Should we be worried that the woman who's actually giving birth to twins seems to be handling the pain better than our Avatar?" Lin asked, only half-joking.
"Korra doesn't like seeing Asami in pain." Mako closed his eyes and rested his head back against the wall, "She'd never admit it, but she feels guilty that she wasn't recovered enough, and was too busy, to even consider having a child right now, meaning Asami had to be the one to go through with it if they wanted to start their family right away."
"You seem very... insightful." Lin's eyes narrowed as she looked at her subordinate, "You've all been very quiet about just what part you played in all this, and I somehow doubt that the graffiti on the men's locker-room wall down at headquarters has the inside track."
"I'm not answering that on the grounds that Korra and Asami would kill me." He replied without even opening his eyes, "Assuming I didn't die of embarrassment first."
"Another one of life's little mysteries, I guess." Tenzin shrugged, trying to find a way of shifting the subject, "Is there any more tea?"
"Yes," Lin glanced at the small hamper that Pema had dropped off before taking the children home for the night, much to their annoyance, "but it's cold."
"Give it here." Mako reached out and took the small flask and held a hand over the open top. He concentrated, and steam soon started to rise from inside. He smiled to himself as it jogged the memory of the time he'd asked Asami for more hot water to make tea for Korra; none of them had any idea just how things were going to work out back then, and if you'd told them, they would have laughed in your face and called you crazy.
"Any words on names?" Bolin asked, "Every time I tried to bring it up, Korra punched me on the arm."
"That's because every time you brought it up, you started with a joke about Asami looking like Oogi." Opal opened her eyes, looked at her would-be-fiancé-if-he'd-only-just-ask-damn-it and punched him on the shoulder as hard as she could, which was nowhere near as hard as Korra, but her aim was impeccable, and she hit the permanent bruise left by the Avatar over the past few months dead centre.
"Ouch!" Bolin protested, rubbing his arm, "What was that for?"
"A taste of things to come if don't learn to be more... diplomatic?" Lin chuckled to herself, happy to see that Opal had inherited the Beifong family trait of not taking shit from anyone.
"Trust me, little brother; some things are best left unsaid." Mako chuckled, only for a fresh scream from a different pair of lungs to bring everyone back to reality.
"Is that a good sign... or a bad sign?" Bolin asked, genuinely unsure.
"It's... a sign." Tenzin shrugged, "There no set rules about these things; they happen when they happen."
"And people wonder why I never wanted kids." Lin muttered.
"Damn it!" Mako stood and started pacing back and forth across the hallway, trying to burn off some of the frustration that was building up inside him. Those where his children being born, and part of him couldn't help but feel that he should have been in there, helping Asami though it.
He wasn't stupid or deluded enough to assume that there was event he slightest hint of a sliver of a possible chance that he'd ever get back together with Asami, and more than he thought he'd ever get back with Korra: they were happily married, and he was genuinely happy for them. But deep down in the back of his mind he could hear what his grandmother had said when he'd told her that she had two new great-grandchildren on the way.
"A man takes responsibility for his children, and their mother, no matter what." She had chastised him when he explained it to her, minus the finer details, "He doesn't pass that on to someone else unless he's dead."
Fortunately, while she was still old fashioned and far to stuck in her ways for her own good, her disappointment had been aimed at him, and she seemed to genuinely relish the idea of doting on her first great-grandchildren. Especially if their mother was Asami, who she whole heartedly approved of. She was, however, still having trouble understanding just how Korra fitted into it all, but Mako put it down to her culture and/or upbringing, and did his best to avoid the topic.
If only the rest of the world had been so easy to handle.
The press had, understandably, gone crazy once Korra and Asami had made his position as the father of their upcoming children public. There had already been more than a little interest in the pregnancy to begin with; they were both public figurers, and the public debate their marriage had generated hadn't gone away. There had been rampant speculation from day one as to just who the possible father could be, ranging from the unlikely to the downright crazy, such as the one reporter who insisted that Korra was somehow the father, using some previously unheard of Avatar power to get her wife pregnant. It was inevitable that Mako's name had come up, and he had become adept and spotting and avoiding reporters, who just made up whatever sold the most newspapers or got the most ears glued to the radio. Bookmakers had been offering odds on the true identity of the father, and word was a lot of money had changed hands after the short news-conference Korra had held to settle it once and for all.
Then he'd had to face the rest of the police force.
Due in no small part to their actions during the Equalist Revolt, Korra and Asami had what could only be described as a cult following in the cities police, many of whom had come out in open support of their relationship without the need to be coerced by their Chief. That, added to the normal banter that was common whenever and wherever a large number of men got together, meant that there had been more than a few questions asked of Mako, ranging from those who'd assumed that he'd been invited into Korra and Asami's bed (and thus considered him to be the luckiest man in the world), and those who'd been far closer to the mark than he would have liked (mainly from the medical and forensic branches). And then there was the graffiti Lin had mentioned: Mako would have been happier if she'd had it removed, but instead she had corrected the spelling and grammar, then instigating a force-wide program of mandatory spelling tests and calligraphy lessons to try and improve the quality of the paperwork. Her only comment on the subject was that if that was how they wrote when it was something they were interested in, then they must need a lot of help when it was something they would go out of their way to avoid.
"Sit yourself back down before you ware and more of a groove in the floor." Lin spoke; it wasn't a direct order, but it carried the same tone.
"Sorry." He muttered as he collapsed back down onto the bench next to Bolin and Opal, just in time for another scream of pain to echo down the corridor.
"Natural child birth my ass!" Lin half chuckled, half muttered, then turned to her niece, "There's nothing natural about unnecessary pain, so when the time comes and the nice man or woman in the white coat asks if you want something to help ease it, you say 'yes please'."
Opal nodded, somewhat regretting her earlier comment about just how many children she wanted.
"Don't let her frighten you." Tenzin insisted, "Meditation works just as well."
"One vote for, one against." Lin smiled like a hungry shark-squid that had just spotted a wounded Turtle seal, "Shall we wait and ask Asami to cast the deciding vote?"
Tenzin was about to say something, when there was a longer, drawn-out cry of pain, followed by a much more high-pitched and unmistakable sound sound.
"That's one!" Lin's face actually lit up.
There was a few minutes and a few more screams, then a second new voice joined the first.
"And that's two." Tenzin nodded, offering up a silent prays of thanks to the spirits.
They all got to their feet and started to edge closer to the doors, only for them to suddenly blow open and an excited looking Korra to half step, half tumble through.
"Girls! Both of them!" The Avatar positively beamed, even if her left hand was wrapped in a cold compress, "They're perfect!"
Mako stepped past her and stuck his head into the delivery room: Asami was laying in bed, worn out with her sweat slick hair a mess, but to him she had never looked more beautiful then she did at that moment with a small bundle of blankets and pink skin in each arm.
"I have to hand it to you, Mako; you made two good looking kids." Korra put an arm around his shoulder, "I just hope they get their brains from their mothers side."
"Stop teasing him." Asami smiled, glad the experience was over, yet happier than she'd ever been in her entire life, including her wedding day, "Now get over here, both of you, and meet our daughters properly."
Somewhat hesitantly, Mako stepped forward, only for Korra to grab him by the shoulders and frog-march him to the bed. Both of his two daughters had their mothers raven-black hair, but while the one nearest to him also had Asami's green eyes, the other had his deep, hazel-bordering-on-amber eyes.
"Mako, I'd like you to meet Senna," Asami raised up her green-eyed daughter slightly, then followed with the other, "and Yin Sato. Girls, this is your father, Mako."
"Hello!" Mako looked like he was about to laugh and cry at the same time, "Welcome to our family."
"Awe, so cute!" Opal stood in the door ways, eyes wide, hands clasped together. Her expression unchanging, she elbowed Bolin in the ribs, "Hurry up and ask me to marry you so we can start having babies of our own!"
To Be Continued...
(next time I need to take a break from playing Destiny)