(A/N)- Right, so back at it with another scheduled break from the linear storyline to jump ahead for an interlude. And then we'll get back into things next chapter and booooooy we're gonna be getting to some good stuff.

I think this interlude is actually my favorite so far. Be forewarned it does involve the process of childbirth so there is a depiction of labor and also mentions of blood and other related pregnancy fluids. Squeamish among you be aware.

Disclaimer: Nah mate I don't own Avatar. Alas.

Interlude: Birth

His fingers dipped the cloth into the frigid water, swirled it around with the ice in the bowl. He lifted it, wrung the cooling cloth out and carefully transferred it to the sweat-sheened forehead of his wife.

Angka looked up at him with a tired but bright smile, humming gratefully as the water trickled down into her hair.

Warmth thrumming in his chest, Katar returned the smile, stroking a hand down her cheek tenderly.

"How you feeling?" he asked.

She shifted on the fur-lined cot, thinking a moment. "Nervous and excited?" she guessed. Her left hand lay across her swollen round stomach, the baby bump almost overpowering on the slight frame of the Air Nomad woman. "I'm not in too much pain yet, but they're definitely growing closer together." She gave a little laugh, marveling. "I can't believe we're finally going to hold them," she breathed.

Katar beamed at her, at her excitement and anticipation. He let his hand settle across hers atop the baby bump. The little one inside wasn't extremely active, probably due to its steady course towards the exit. Angka had grimaced every so often as a contraction came, breathing slowly and steadily through it.

"You're doing great," he told her, speaking from experience. Gran-Gran had made sure that he knew how to deliver a baby, long before he'd even met Angka. He was impressed at her pain tolerance; by now most Southern Water Tribe women would be begging for numbing agents and sedatives.

Angka's hand closed around his. "Do you still think it's a boy?" she asked.

Katar's face scrunched. "I dunno..." he allowed. "There's an old Southern Water Tribe suspicion that if your strongest pregnancy craving towards the end is for sea prunes, you're carrying a girl." He looked towards her. "And you haven't stopped eating them since we got here."

She looked sheepish. "Heh," she chuckled. "You... wouldn't happen to have any right now, would you?" she asked hopefully. "I'm really hungry."

He patted her hand indulgently "The midwives said not to eat before labor," he reminded her.

She raised her other hand to snap dramatically. "Drat," she quipped.

From the doorway came a rustle of furs. The couple looked towards the entrance, spying two pairs of eyes looking in on them.

"You can come in the room, you know," Katar said flatly.

One of the visitors coughed as they both came in the room, the smaller Earthbender immediately crossing his arms and leaning against the wall in a bored fashion.

His sister, on the other hand, fidgeted as she came further into the room.

"So uh..." Sokki asked awkwardly, looking anywhere but directly at Angka. "Any uh... progress?"

Angka rested her head back on the cot. "My water broke two hours ago," she reported.

"That's... good, right?" Sokki strained. "Means it won't be that long?"

"Depends," the Earthbender said. "Some women labor for hours after water break." He turned his head with slight concern towards Sokki, milky sightless eyes pinching. "Are you okay? Your heartbeat's really fast."

Sokki flapped her hands in overcompensating gestures. "I'm fine! I'm totally fine, I can totally handle this." She looked desperately towards Angka. "Seriously, do you need anything?" she asked nervously. "A blanket? Ice? Incense?"

Angka waved the girl off. "I'm okay for now."

Katar pinned a worried look at his sister. "Sokki, you don't need to be in here if you're not up for it," he told her.

"I am one hundred percent up for this, don't even worry about it!" she insisted, though her blanching face and wide gestures said otherwise. "What kind of aunt would I be if I couldn't even be here for my niece or nephew's birth?"

"You're not gonna faint again like you did with that baby at the Serpent's Pass are you?" the Earthbender asked.

Sokki flushed briefly then rushed to defend herself.

"That was one time, I have helped deliver lots of babies since!"

Toph scoffed with affection, letting his lips play at a smile. "Sure you have, Miss Sensitive."

Angka sat up a bit, anxiously. "Is everyone here yet?" she asked, peering towards the doorway.

Toph flapped a lazy hand. "Re-lax, Twinkletoes, Zuka and Mao said they'd be by later."

The Airbender softened at that, sinking back into the cot.

True to Toph's words, the Fire Nation royal pair made their way into the healing hut shortly, Mao draped casually and affectionately over a fidgeting Zuka's arm. Zuka looked as though she felt extraordinarily out of place, eyes darting away not unlike Sokki's.

"You uh... you're okay right?" she asked awkwardly. "Not in any pain?"

"It's childbirth, Zuka," Mao reminded her patiently, his normal drawl softer and oddly affectionate. "Of course she's in pain." The Fire Nation regal pinned Angka with a serious stare, softened by his smile. "I'm here for whatever you need, okay?"

Angka beamed. "Thanks Mao," she said, grateful. She was so glad the frigid anti-social boy had blossomed into such a surprisingly caring and considerate, gentle man. Angka supposed she had Zuka to thank for that; Mao always seemed so much happier around his better half. They were an adorable couple and Angka thrilled for their understated marital bliss.

Small talk was exchanged for a while. Her friends caught each other up with what they'd been doing, and Angka drifted in and out of the conversation sleepily, fatigue dragging her down, weighing down her body despite the sharpening contractions in her her gut. Suko came by at least once, she knew—Sokki's voice got very shrill and happy-sounding for a few moments—and various others wandered in and out, offering their congratulations. Angka didn't remember much, her exhaustion pulling her into a semi-delirious state for a long hour or two as the only sensation she registered was the sharp pain in her stomach, pulsing with rhythmic regularity, bringing her back from the edge of sleep every time.

She stirred suddenly, feeling a sense of foreboding, some kind of warning tingle. She couldn't tell what time it was, but the sunlight was streaming brightly through the hole in the ceiling so she guessed about midday.

Her contractions had been clustered close together for a long hour, sharply painful each time, seeming to drag on unbearably long as her muscles clamped and clenched. But now she also felt a strong urge, a feeling in her body like she needed to squeeze.

"Katar?"

He alerted, twitching forward in his seat. "Is it time?" he asked anxiously.

Through a pained grimace, Angka nodded, her jaw tense. "I need to start pushing," she told him.

Nerves dancing inside him like firepoppers going off, Katar quickly rose to his feet and took hold of Angka's arm to support her. Sokki darted forward as well, taking her sister-in-law's other arm, and together the Water Tribe siblings eased the young woman out of the cot, standing her carefully on her feet.

Zuka watched from the entrance, biting her nails. Toph stood next to her, alert but playing casual, leaning his shoulder on the wall and listening with some fascination.

"All right, here we go," Katar directed, beginning to steer his wife and sister towards the healing pool.

They went slowly, gingerly, as Angka hissed through her teeth and moaned softly.

"Owwww..." she whimpered. "Ow... ow..."

One bare foot slipped into the water. Mao snuck in from behind to help as well, sliding hands under Angka's armpits, whispering encouragement to her as the three of them maneuvered her into the water. Her short thin dress billowed out a bit as it slowly soaked through.

The pain of her contractions eased significantly the moment she was seated on the warm stone bottom, and Angka let out a breathy, relieved, "Oh..." as she leveled her arms on either side, flat on the rims.

Two pairs of hands left her, Sokki backing off and Katar getting room to maneuver as he extended his arms out over the pool to activate its healing properties and gently direct the water to slosh back and forth across her lower body. Mao remained behind the pool, steadying her head, hands under her neck and tangled hair.

"You're doing great," he assured her. "Just listen to your body. Let it tell you what needs to happen."

Angka melted into the words and the feel of the sloshing water as it mingled with the strong painful tightening of her abdomen. She groaned a little, closed-mouthed, raising her chest and head, curling her torso towards her middle and her knees towards her shoulders.

She concentrated on the feel of the large something in her lower gut, the stretched sensation in her nether regions. She rolled with the contraction, inhaling slowly and deeply but not relaxing until it had passed.

She slumped in the water, sloshing it against the sides, panting up towards the ceiling and laying her head on Mao's palms with a lazy smile.

"Ohhhh the healing pool makes it so much easier," she told them.

Katar grinned with pride. "I told you," he quipped at Sokki.

She rolled her eyes, letting Angka grab her hand and grip it tightly as she breathed heavily, waiting for the next contraction.

-ATLA-

It was a long forty minutes. Angka moaned and cried out with each contraction, pushing as hard as she could, yet felt like her progress was horribly slow, her body stretching so very slowly around the solid mass that was her baby's head. She panted and gasped, almost forgetting the rhythm of her breathing as she labored, squeezing Sokki's hand tight, arching her head into Mao's hands and thanking the spirits for her husband's patient and potent healing powers, sapping away the sharpness off her pain and helping her feel better, more in control.

She squirmed around in the pool, shifting this way and that. Being back down was starting to become uncomfortable; her face twisted and she hissed through her teeth.

"Angka?" Katar asked, worry tracing through his voice.

"I gotta turn over," she just said, letting go of Sokki's hand, lifting up and sloshing the water as she moved into a kneeling position. She needed a gravity assist. Air Nomad woman typically gave birth standing up, or leaning against a table. She didn't think her legs had that kind of strength or endurance but she had to move how her body wanted, and her body demanded her torso upright, half out of the water, clutching onto Mao's arms with desperate fever as she grunted and groaned, straining, pushing.

She arched her rear up, heaving, struggling against the pressure holding her baby in. She knew she almost had it. Just a little more. Just a little...

Her next contraction pulsed through her, starting from her stomach and moving down into her groin, and she tightened and tightened and pushed with a closed-mouthed wail.

"Mmmnnnnnggghh!" she cried. Almost... almost...

She relaxed for a moment, recovering, panting hard. Then she tightened again, straining and straining until she finally felt a loosening, a sudden ease of pressure, a feeling like something stuck in her was slipping free.

Katar dropped his hands and grabbed into the water, immediately bringing up the grimy precious bundle that was their child.

The little body gave a gurgle, then a cough, then an unhappy wail as its lungs expanded for the first time, cold and unpleasant, protesting all the new uncomfortable feelings.

Angka gasped in relief, shuddering, almost crying with joy as she heard her baby's crying. Grunge and gunk trickled into the healing pool, staining it red.

Sokki had been hovering close to Angka's back, trying to hold the girl's shoulders, but at the outpouring of blood and fluids felt her stomach become slightly ill. She clapped a hand over her mouth, trying to quell the rising nausea.

"Oh, nope," she declared through her fingers. "Nah-uh. I... I gotta..."

She cut herself off with a retch, flinging herself upright, running at a low keel towards the doorway. They could hear her heaving outside, muffled by the distance.

Toph grinned with smug cheekiness. "Wimp," he quipped.

"Just be glad you can't see it," Zuka said, half-covering her own eyes as she stayed against the wall, watching with horrified fascination.

Katar was rubbing their shrieking infant down with a towel, the baby's skin reddening under his attention, the little one still crying out in protest, a wonderful sound like bells in his heart.

It was a boy. He was gangly and lumpy and chunky.. and he was perfect.

Katar drew the knife from his pocket, severing the umbilical cord close to his son's stomach, letting the other end float in the water for now. They could tug out the afterbirth later. Right now he just wanted to hold his son tight to his chest and never let go.

He cried a little as he wrapped the flailing limbs in a clean blanket. "It's a boy," he told Angka, his eyes shining with pride and love at her.

She laughed shortly from her position slumped on the head of the healing pool. She inhaled with thick breaths, hiccuping, tears and sweat streaming down her face as she turned herself over in the water, reaching for the bundle in her husband's arms.

"I want to hold him," she said.

Katar happily obliged, gingerly passing the wrapped bundle into her arms.

She marveled with affection at the tiny face, tucking the bundle against her bosom. The water of the healing pool was starting to feel cold and gross, her afterbirth slowly leaking out of her, but the baby against her side was nuzzling against her in contentment, recognizing mommy, and the joy pinging through her head was like heady wine, intoxicating and thrilling.

This warm pocket of perfection was all that mattered, nothing else taking her attention off the little perfect face and tiny body wrapped in its blanket. Elation pinged all through her. If she'd had her glider, she knew she could fly.

"Hi Bumi," she said, using the name they'd picked for a son. "It's nice to meet you."

Warm tears of joy trailed down her face as the tingling emotions rushed through her.

(A/N)- Introducing our first glimpses of genderbent Toph and Mai! I do tend to headcanon that Mai and Aang would develop some kind of easy friendship so I wanted to bring a little of that in here.

Also, embarrassingly, I could not remember whether Bumi or Kya was the older cloudbaby and I had to look it up. So I guess the sea prune suspicion remains an old wives tale lol.