Yeah, I finally ran out of 'talk' titles, but managed to keep the theme going.
Please keep in mind that about seven to eight years have passed since this story started.
You'll understand why later on.
A Little Less Conversation (A Little More Action, Please)
"You know, when you asked me to help you 'blow off some steam', this isn't exactly what I was hoping for." Korra lent into the heavy punch-bag, absorbing impact after impact, "There are far more enjoyable ways to work up a sweat, you know."
"Not. In. The. Mood!" Asami punched and kicked the bag as hard as she could, in her mind, the red target replaced by her fathers face, "And I don't think you'd want me doing this to you!"
She leapt into the air, delivering a vicious spin-kick that knocked the bag out of Korra's grip. She landed like a cat and immediately started pummelling it again, accenting every punch with a war-cry. Korra tried to grab the bag, but it was jerking about too violently as her wife unleashed all her frustration into it, not stopping even when her knuckles started to bleed.
"Okay, time-out!" Korra grabbed Asami around the waist and lifted her away from the punch-bag, the engineer giving it one last kick before she was out of range, her anger clouding her to the pain that shot through her foot.
Korra carried Asami over to a bench set against one of the walls of the estates well equipped gym. Once she was sure her wife wouldn't attack the punch-bag again, she undid the binding around her hands to look at the damage.
"You know, I would have thought that someone who spends their days drawing plans and blueprints might want to take better care of heir hands." She commented as she poured some water out of a bottle and bent it over Asami's hands, carefully healing her, "No prizes for guessing what's gotten you so worked up."
"It's just so infuriating!" Asami complained, "He's been paying more attention to the girls then he ever did to me. He even seems accepting of Aang, and I was worried that..."
"He wouldn't accept a grandchild who he wasn't related to by blood?" Korra asked, "It's okay; you can say it. It's the truth, after all."
"Yes, it worried me, okay? Aang is my son, and I love him just as much as I do Senna and Yin. But my father..." Asami shook her head, "When I was younger, not long after my mother died, he gave me this long talk about the importance of family, of the bonds of blood. We didn't have any other family; a few distant cousins, maybe, but no one we were really close to, and he said that that made the connection between us all the more important. 'Blood of my Blood', he called it. For the longest time, I believed him. But then I met you and the others, and I came to realise that family, true family, is what you decide it is." She looked Korra in the eye, "You are my family. You, our children, all our friends, the people who have stood by us through everything. You're the family I have chosen. But my father? I can't see a place for him in there anymore."
"Your father was very angry for a very long time, and that clouded his thinking." Korra finished healing her wife's hands, the noticed the way her ankle was starting to swell, "I think you sprained that." sending the first lot of water flying over into a sink against the far wall, she drew some more out of the bottle and got to work on the injury, "I'm not making excuses for the man, but he is your father, and you owe it to yourself to at least try and fix your relationship with him. Have you thought about inviting him tonight?"
"To a Pro-Bending match?" Asami sounded somewhat surprised as the very notion, "Oh yeah, I'm sure he'd just love that."
"Consider it a test." The Avatar smiled, "A way of seeing if he really has changed."
"Well, when you put it like that..." Asami winced, "Okay, a little less talking and a little more concentrating on my leg, please!"
"I never have a problem concentrating on your legs." Korra wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, "Among other things..."
"No!" Asami stopped her before she could take it any further, "Not after that time Senna almost walked in on us in the garage!"
"Look at the two of us; not even thirty, and we're having to tone down the kinky, spontaneous sex because we have kids who can walk and open doors and not be relied on to easily forget what they see." The Avatar chuckled, "I always knew that being the Avatar would bring with it responsibilities, but I never really saw parenthood as one of them."
"You didn't want children of your own when you were younger?" Asami asked, then realised the true implications of what she was saying, "Spirits, you were only eighteen when we got married!"
"Nearly nineteen, and you're less then two years older than I am, so it's not like you're a cradle snatcher." Korra laughed out loud as she finished on her wife's ankle and sent the water over to the sink like she had with the first lot, "Yes, we married young, but we've both known people who married younger and it all worked out."
"Damn you and your Avatar Wisdom!" Asami swatted at Korra playfully, "Anyway, hadn't you better go get ready for your big return to Pro-Bending?"
"Promise your not going to murder the punch-bag?"
"I promise."
"Good evening, sports fans, and welcome to tonight special charity match between the all-star Future Industries Fire Ferrets, and the reigning champions, the Ember Island Eel Hounds! Tonight match sees the return of three of the biggest names the sport has known in recent years; Mako, Bolin and Avatar Korra, and is brought to you by Flamey-Os Instant Noodles, the noodliest noodles in the United Republic!" the voice of veteran announcer Shiro Shinobi echoed around the cavernous arena and out of radios around the world, "And what an event it is; it's standing room only here tonight, with a veritable Who's Who of the city turning out to show their support for the new Katara Memorial Hospital being built right here Republic City. From my booth I can see President Raiko and his wife, the lovely Buttercup Raiko, Air Nation leader Tenzin and his family, and down at ring side, Detective Kuvira and Asami Sato with their children and... hold the phone, ladies and gentlemen! Shockingly, we have former Equalist ringleader, Hiroshi Sato, sitting with his daughter and grandchildren in the Fire Ferrets box!"
A noticeable murmur ran around the arena as the crown all turned to confirm what they were being told with their own eyes. There was a certain amount of booing and heckling, but it soon died down as the two teams entered the arena.
Korra waved to the crowd, who went wild at the prospect of seeing her back in the ring after almost ten years. It hadn't taken much for Bumi and Kya to talk her into donning her old uniform, given the cause that they were raising money for, and Boli had jumped at the opportunity. It had taken a bit of emotional blackmail to get Mako to take part, but not too much; part of him still missed the rush he felt during a match and the roar of the crowd. The three of them knew all too well that it wouldn't be an easy match; while they were all powerful benders in their own right, and knew how to work together, they hadn't played in a competitive match together since their abandoned match against the Wolf Bats. Training had knocked off some of the rust, but there wasn't the same as regular, competitive experience. Even having the Avatar on their team would only carry them so far, given the strict limitations placed on Korra to allow her to take part.
They moved even before their minds fully acknowledged the sound of the buzzer, their bodies remembering the moves that they had drilled into their muscle memory with seemingly endless hours of repetitive training. But it wasn't advised to rely too much on training and instinct, as Korra was reminded when a rock disk shot past her face so close she could almost feel it. So they dug down, calling on all their years of experience, both in the arena and the far more deadly world outside. The Eel Hounds had been crowned champions for the previous three years, and were looking for a chance to cement their place in Pro-Bending history.
The two teams faced-off against each other, and the bell rang.
"I'm getting too old for this." Mako lay down on the bench, a towel covering his face, "Why did I let you guys talk me into this?"
"It was for a good cause and you know it." Korra sat rubbing her shin where she had taken a nasty hit from an earth-disk, "And you loved every second of it."
"I didn't love getting slapped around the face with a water-whip." The detective pointed out.
"We won, didn't we?" Bolin asked from his own seat on the floor, "And the crowed seemed to enjoy it."
"They probably thought we were holding back to put on a good show." Korra mused, "Spits know, there were a couple of times I wanted to enter the Avatar State and show them what I can really do."
"That would have gone down well." Mako chuckled, "And I can just hear Tenzin rebuking you for using your powers for something like that."
"Spirits, don't even joke." The Avatar winced, "It was harder to talk him into all this than it was either of you two."
There was a knock on the door, and the three turned to look at each other; Korra's White Lotus guards had been stationed outside to give them a chance to recover before attending the reception already underway upstairs, so it was unlikely to be the press, and their families would have just walked right in. at a loss as to who it could be, Korra pulled herself to her feet and walked over to open the door.
"Kai?" The Avatar looked at the young Air Nomad, dressed in his typical robes but lacking his usual cocky smile, "Something wrong?"
"Can I talk to you guys?" Kai glanced up and down the corridor, empty save the White Lotus sentries who know well enough to let him pass without comment, "In private?"
Korra nodded and stepped to one side, allowing him to enter before closing the door. Much to her surprise, the young airbender flipped the lock and pulled on the door a couple of times to make sure it was secure.
"Okay, what have you done this time?" Mako asked his surrogate younger brother.
"Don't be so quick to judge!" Bolin leapt to the young man's defence, "He's matured a lot over the last few years; he's not the same young scandalous we met back in the Earth Kingdom. He's..."
"Jinora's pregnant." Kai spoke up suddenly, looking very much like a Cat Deer trapped in the headlights of an oncoming Satomobile, "She's telling her parents right now."
"...he's a dead man walking." Bolin's face fell.
"What. The. Hell?" Mako almost fell off of his seat, "Didn't we sit down and discuss this, at length, when you two started officially dating? Didn't I cover just how to avoid this sort of thing?"
"This from a man who also knocked-up his girlfriend by accident." Korra pointed out under her breath.
"...accidents happen?" Kai offered, doing his best to make himself look as small as possible.
"Well... shit." Mako deflated like a balloon with a leak, "You love her, right?"
"With all my heart!" Kai insisted.
"Well then, I'm going to give you the same advice my grandmother gave me, all be it with a few minor alterations." Mako walked over to the younger man and slapped him around the back of the head, "You're going to make sure you do the right thing by Jinora and this baby. And if that means you marry her, then so be it. But if I even think that you're going to try and run out on them..."
"If we think that you're going to try and run out on them!" Korra stood beside her friend, arms crossed, a stern expression on her face. Bolin quickly joined them, an triad of intimidation.
"Then we'll beak your arms and legs so you can't airbend, and carry you to the alter ourselves!" Mako finished just as there was a loud banging on the door. He grabbed Kai by the shoulder and spun him around, "Now, time to face the music like a man."
To Be Continued...
(please remember that Kai and Jinora are in their early twenties by the time this chapter takes place, and are therefore consenting adults)