Korra has to suffer again this chapter, but in a good way.

A Good Time For A Talk

"Spirits, I'm going to kill Mako when he gets back from Zaofu." Korra groaned, gripping the toilet bowl like a downing man clutching a lifebelt, "He'll die slowly and painfully for doing this to me."

"Well, you did ask him to." Asami sat on the bathroom floor beside her wife, rubbing her shoulders, "And if you want to get technical, you kind of did this to yourself."

"Not helping." Korra lamented, "No; the rubbing my shoulders was helping. It's the being all calm and logical and right and not letting me kill Mako that isn't helping."

Asami laughed, leaned forward and kissed her wife on the back of the neck. After Korra had sobered herself up and got her life back on track, they had agreed to give it one last shot at her having a baby before they started to look at other options. Destiny, fate, or some other power that was far beyond Asami's understanding seemed to have stepped in, because two weeks later, something hadn't happened. It didn't happen again four weeks after that, and they'd gone to see one of the White Lotus healers to conform what they didn't dare say out loud, less they somehow jinx it. The elderly doctor had examined Korra for half an hour, then nodded with a smile. Asami had leapt to her feet, screaming as loud as she could, then wrapped her arms around her wife's neck so tight the Avatar had trouble breather. For her part, Korra had simply wept tears of joy, unable to put into words the pure, unadulterated joy that filled every fibre of her being at that moment. Mako had been ecstatic when they told him, while Kuvira had been understandably more restrained, but happy for them none the less.

Indeed, all their friends and family were happy for them, but there was an unmistakable edge to their joy that had not gone amiss by Korra.

Her dalliance with the demon drink hadn't been a secret for very long; simply too many people worked at or visited the Sato estate on a regular basis, which coupled with the ongoing interest in the relationship between the Avatar and the Heiress, both of them very public figurers, meant that there was always someone with a story to tell and someone with a envelope full of used 50-Yuan notes they were willing to pay to hear all about it. Thus her shame had been both public and private, forcing her to give a long and emotionally painful press conference where she openly admitted to her alcoholism. There had been questions, many of them aimed at finding a chink in her armour, but she remained resolute in her stance that her weakness was as a person, and that she was still fully capable of fulfilling her duties as the Avatar. One brave, or possibly foolish reporter had produced a bottle of vintage Omashu Brandy, the same liquor that had been her personal vice, and offered her a drink. She'd been about to react when the bottle suddenly smashed, all eyes turning round to where Lin stood, reeling in one of the metal cables built into her uniform. The scowl on her face was darker than usual, the scar on her right cheek throbbing a deep red, a sure sign to any that knew her that she was on the edge of losing her temper. Fortunately the crowd reacted by mocking the brandy-soaked reporter, defusing the situation and turning what could have been an nasty incident into a win for Korra, when she first waterbended from a nearby fountain to wash off the reporter, then airbended him dry.

This earned her a round of applause from the crowd, who cheered her as she left the stage with a wave.

Asami had been waiting in the wings, offering her silent support the entire time. She had taken to working from her home office, only going into the Future Industries headquarters when absolutely necessary. Officially, this was to help Korra through her pregnancy, but the Avatar had noticed that her wife was, for want of a better word, mothering her. And she understood it, she really did; Asami cared for her, and had seen her at her very lowest points, whether she wanted to or not. She had also seen just how badly Korra handled setbacks and failures, and seemed terrified that, if anything were to happen to the baby, she might lose her wife for good. Korra had been to see every expert and specialist the White Lotus had been able to find, and followed every piece of advice they gave her on everything from diet to exercise to what sort of music she should listen to. The Society was being especially paranoid after an incident with a Red Lotus sympathiser who made the mistake of trying to grab Senna and Yin. He was lucky that the Sentries had responded as quickly, as he had sorely undetermined Asami, who had started taking chi-blocking lessens from a retired member of the Kyoshi Warriors. It had been the work of moment for her to disable the would-be kidnapper, Naga arriving to see what all the commotion was, and almost savaging the terrified man before Asami brought her to heel. She had the Polar Bear Dog under her total control the entire time, but had been taunting him by keeping Naga on the very edge of eviscerating her paralysed prey. The Sentries quickly arrived and took the man into custody until the Metalbending Police could take him away, Naga growling at him the entire time with her razor-sharp teeth on full display. Korra was under no illusion that, had the man actually hurt either of their daughters, Asami would have had no qualms about letting Naga lose to do the worst she could. And having seen what a wild, undomesticated Polar Bear Dog could do to someone who hadn't been chi-blocked, she knew well enough that there would have been little for the White Lotus to do but clean up the mess. Still, between the ever present shadow of her now official protective detail following her whenever she left the estate and a wife who almost never left her side, Korra was starting to feel somewhat claustrophobic.

There had been one new experience for Korra, aside from pregnancy, even if she was still unsure how to class it.

Senna and Yin were approaching the age when they would soon be starting school, and Asami was keen on them attending Yu Dao Elementary, the same school she had attended at their age. It was one of the most exclusive schools in the entire United Republic, with very high standards that were only matched by the fees it charged parents to send their children to be educated there. Money was no problem, but Korra and Asami had been called in to see the headmistress for an interview. This was all new to Korra; she had been educated by the White Lotus Society, something she could have easily arranged for her daughters, but Asami had insisted that they have as ordinary a childhood as possible. But what they had thought was a mere formality proved to be a virtual inquisition, the veteran educator unmoved by their positions as the Avatar and the head of Future Industries. Indeed, she had been more concerned with the impact the presence of the two girls would have on the rest of the school, given that they too would have their own protective detail, fully sanctioned by Lin and President Raiko. There was also the inevitable press interest in the girls now they would be leaving their parents side for extended periods of time. There was a fear, justifiably, that the press would attempt to gain access to the school to get close to the children in a bid to ask them questions about their parents. They were still too young to truly understand why so many strangers were interested in their home life, even if Korra and Asami had spent a lot of time explaining to them why they shouldn't talk to someone they didn't know, no matter how nice they seemed. There was also, inevitable, the issue of Korra and Asami's unconventional relationship and the polarizing effect it could have. While the headmistress herself seemed not to care one way or the other, she had made it clear that the parents of several of their students had threatened to take their children out of the school if they were exposed to what they saw as an immoral relationship. While the law was clear that the school couldn't refuse to accept Senna and Yin just because they were being raised by a same-sex couple, they could refuse them on the grounds of how their being there would affect the education and security of the other students. Korra had racked her brains looking for an answer, but Asami had read between the lines and simply asked how much. The headmistress had remained silent, and never taking her eyes off of the younger woman, slipped a leaflet explaining the schools plans to expand their sports facilities, should funding become available.

Asami had simply looked at the rather large number at the bottom, closed her eyes and nodded.

Fortunately, that rather expensive hurdle was gotten out of the way just before Korra's morning-sickens had started, and for some reason, she suffered far worse that Asami ever had. It hadn't started too bad at first; just a slightly upset stomach and a sensitivity to certain smells. But within days it had escalated to the point where she was finding it hard to keep down anything more than rice-cakes and tea. The White Lotus doctors had tried everything, consulted every expert and text on the subject, and even brought in waterbenders to see if their healing skills could provide any relief. But nothing had worked, forcing Korra to simply endure as best she could with Asami's support. And for once, Korra didn't object to her wife's fussing.

"You know, this might actually be a good time to talk about something I've been thinking about for a while." Korra slumped down next to the toilet, her face ashen grey, "I was going to bring it up a while ago, but things kind of got out of hand for a while there."

"I don't like the way this is going." Asami eyed her wife suspiciously, "What is it?"

"After this little bundle of joy is born," Korra rested a hand on the swollen lump that was her belly, "when I have to go do Avatar things... I don't want you going with me if it looks like it might be dangerous."

"What!?" Asami lurched backwards, "What are you talking about? I've always been there for you in the past?"

"And there is no one I would rather have watching my back. But we're parents now, 'sami, and we have to think about what would happen to the kids if the worst was to happen to us." Korra placed her other hand on the side of her wife's face, "As much as they might love being grandparents, my parents are getting a little old to be raising a family, your father is still in jail, the only other close family either of us has are Desna and Eska, and I don't see either of them as the paternal type. Mako and Kuvira have Sen and carers of their own, so dumping three extra kids on them would be kind of unfair. Opal and Bolin have an entire temple to run. I can't think of anyone else, asides maybe Tenzin and Pema I'd trust, and they have four kids of their own as it is."

"And I'm the one being all calm and logical and right?" Asami pouted, "You do realise that, if you weren't pregnant right now, I'd kick your arse."

"I have no doubt." Korra managed a weak smile, "Just don't expect me to get pregnant every time I have to tell you something I know you'll not want to hear."

"I'd kiss you, if I didn't know where your mouth has been." Asami covered her wife's hand with her own, "Look at the two of us; all grown up with responsibilities and everything. So much for Team Avatar..."

"You'll always be a part of Team Avatar." Korra reassured her, "You are the centre of my wheel."

To Be Continued...