“You’ve still got a sane hair somewhere in there?”
It’s—a light enough jibe that he thinks he may just be able to get away with it, punctuated by a shit-eating grin over his copy of the Republic City times. It’s a few days old, always is when it has to be transported across the ocean for Mako to be able to read it, but there’s something about the smell of the paper and the cheap ink that rubs off on his fingers that makes him feel like he’s home, again.
There’s something nostalgic in it, just like in the coffee beans he has sent over from his favorite shop at the city’s marketplace. Playing the part of a transplant means he is particular for what he cannot get here. If it makes him old, if it provides additional ammunition for his brother and friends when they see one another again to tease him with, so be it.
He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t damn happy, anyway, and that’s more important than something as droll as missing the charred beans from the city and the senseless need to be plugged in at all times.
He looks across the desk towards her, chest aching at how irredeemably soft her face becomes when she’s this far along. Mako’s had the incredibly good fortune to see it not once but twice now, and every time he thinks he can feel himself falling even more in love with her than before. Her, the Fire Lord, when stripped from her titles and fancy robes—and everything else, too—is reduced to nothing more and nothing less than his Shiko, pregnant with his second child.
The thought sends a thrill down his spine.
He debates what he’s able to say next, what he’s allowed to say, but a comment such as “kids do awful things” would fall flat upon his optimist of a wife’s ears, and it’s hesitatingly that he believes he has the right to say anything about royalty at all. It’s miracle enough he was allowed to marry into the family at all.
“Bending sounds good.” his eyes catch hers, brows raising in a challenge. “If you can move at all. If you can’t, I’ll help.”
He’s at her side in three strides, and helps her to her feet, and pinches her cheek to rid her face of the scowl.
She could've complained, or snapped at his joke, even go as far as sending a spark above the desk to make him pay for the teasing, and she was sure he wouldn't have minded. Mako was just like that, too good to, and for her, and Shiko was irreparably in love with him.
Instead, she just watched him read the newspaper, chin propped on her hand in sweet contemplation, looking for the little movements she already knew were there. How his lips twitched one way or the other depending on what he was reading; the way his eyes sparkled with Pro-Bending, or tightened at the corners with news about crime, or how his whole face softened whenever the Chief of Police was on the paper.
"You do know I have a list of all of these transgressions of yours," Shiko stood, even with his help it was tiresome, but at least this baby allowed her more movement Raeden's pregnancy ever had. That she was not bedridden at seven months was a small miracle all things considered.
She wrapped her arms around his waist. Or well, she put her hands on it, the belly in between them making it hard to actually hug. "And in two month's time I'm going to kick your ass, husband dearest." She threatened with her sweetest smile, fingers twining on Mako's to lead him out to the training field.
The garden looked lovely in the afternoon, Shiko let herself lean her weight on Mako's side as they walked through the roses and snapdragon bushes. It was late enough in the day that Agni's call wasn't as strong, and she could bend without it being too much of a strain for her body, and what was clearly another firebender in her big belly.
Raeden could be heard talking the governess' ear off in the gallery, and Shiko was sure once she saw them bending, she'd be drawn like a moth to the light. They were sure the girl's fire was going to manifest any day now, by the way her temperature wavered whenever she trained with Mako. Shiko knew she'd be most proud of her whenever it happened, but she wasn't so sure she'd be able to handle a baby, the crown and the ball of energy that was their girl.
"She told Nima she wanted to be a policeman the other day." Shiko commented lightly, the slab circle already in front of them. She nudged Mako to help her out of her dress robes with polar bear-puppy eyes. "Said she wanted to be just like her dad. The pro-bending career is also on the table apparently." She shook her head, wondering what her mom would say if the Crown Princess went on to pursue a career in sports.
"We might have to get her a tiny Fire Ferrets' uniform you know, for cuteness reasons. Maybe Pabu's will fit?" A chuckle left her lips.
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