A late entry for @makorra-week-2023 for Day 4: Parenting and Day 7: Stronger Together. Thanks to @devildogdemon for the idea of the family BBQ.
Out of the corner of his eye Mako saw her start to get up. He dropped the paper plates clattering to the table. “Korra!” he called. “What do you need?”
His wife glared blue daggers at him. Her arms were braced on either side of her rounded belly, her butt half in and half out of the yellow lawn chair already.
“What I need is for you to not treat me like I’m weak,” she said. “For spirits’ sake I have legs, Mako. I gotta pee. Again.”
Asami snorted softly from the chair next to her. Mako met her eyes. “Can you help her?” he asked.
Asami laughed. “No way. I like being alive.”
“See, she gets it?” said Korra. She shoved herself tottering to her feet and it was everything Mako could do not to reach out and steady her. “Women have been making babies for thousands of years,” she huffed. “We don’t need you hovering.”
“I’m not hovering,” he said. “The grass is uneven. Can you even see your feet?”
Korra opened her mouth but Asami hopped to her feet. “I think Iroh is burning the sausages,” she said quickly. “Go help him. I have to go to the ladies’ anyway. Too many margaritas today.”
Mako was about to reply when a shrill screech cut through the air. “Moooooooooooooommm!!!” A moment later Asami was hit in the leg by a whirl of purple and long black pigtails.
“Hi, honey,” she said, dropping her hand to her daughter’s sobbing head. “What’s wrong?”
“San changed m-m-my r-r-r-roooooooooock!” wailed Aika.
“San changed your rock. I see.” Asami looked up at Mako and cocked an eyebrow. “Aren’t you excited?” she deadpanned. Then she popped down into a crouch and cupped Aika’s tear-stained face. “Why don’t you let Uncle Mako here take you to see Uncle Bolin?” she soothed. “He’s an expert with rocks. I bet he can put your rock back the way you like it.”
The little girl sniffed dramatically. “I want Daddy,” she said.
Asami smiled. “Or that. I’m sure Daddy can fix it, whatever it is.” She wrapped her arms around Aika’s back and hoisted her to her hip, then handed her over to Mako with a grunt. “It’s like I’m chopped liver some days,” she muttered. “Would you do the honors of delivering this important package to Daddy while we ladies go relieve ourselves?”
Mako nodded as Aika was passed over, her sobs already fading to sniffles. Her little body felt so hot and light in his arms. She smelled like grass. He knew he’d love whatever came, but a part of him hoped for a girl all the same. Getting to know Aika over the last four years wasn’t a small bit of that, either. Against all odds Asami had turned into a good friend to them both, and through her steady love Iroh had become another. Deciding to buy the house down the street from them once he and Korra got the news had barely merited a discussion. The twins would only be a year and a half older, too.
“Got something for you, I!” Mako called as he walked back over to the grills. In the distance he could hear more children’s shrieks, probably San and his brothers melting all the rocks in the park while Bolin egged them on. At least that’s what he hoped it was. Meelo had joined them along with Ikki, Huan, and Jinora, and the last time that had happened had involved mud tornadoes.
The man at the grill looked up and grinned. He shook out the flames in his hands, wiped them both on his apron, then opened his arms. That’s when Mako spotted the two wide-eyed little boys wrapped around his legs.
“Full house,” he said, taking Aika, who nuzzled promptly into his neck. “I feel like a tree.”
“San bent my rock,” his daughter mumbled.
“I heard,” he said. “I think the whole city heard, actually. Maybe if Uncle Mako can take on these sausages we can go find you a new one?” Iroh looked down to where his sons clung to his pants. “We’ll go slow.”
“How do you do it?” asked Mako.
Iroh looked up. “Which part?”
“The part where Asami didn’t murder you when she was pregnant. I try to be helpful, but all Korra wants is for me to get lost.”
The general chuckled. “No, she doesn’t. She just wants to feel in control.”
“But it’s Korra! What if she hurts herself? Or the baby?”
“I once caught Asami at the top of a ladder with a welding torch,” Iroh said soberly. “I almost pissed myself. I think it was the biggest fight we ever had.” He shrugged, then shifted Aika to his other shoulder. “Then we talked about it. I told her what I needed, which was for her to take her and our child’s safety seriously. She told me what she needed, which was for me to trust her that she knew how to do that. After that it got better. Asami started asking more for what she wanted to keep me from interfering in the things that she didn’t. The fact that a lot of it required I spend all day across town wasn’t lost on me. But the way she’d light up when I came back with whatever obscure pickled thing she was craving helped me feel like I was doing something useful instead of standing around while she did all the work. I gave lots of foot rubs and firebent baths to perfect temperature. I oversaw the contract for the steam room and let her tackle the crib. And in turn she agreed to delegate more at work and hit pause on a couple of projects. It helped.”
Mako nodded. He couldn’t see Korra letting go of anything, but she did like foot rubs. And it made him realize they really hadn’t talked much about division of labor. Mako had assumed that his job was to take care of her. Maybe there was more to that than simply trying to take over. Korra’s strength was one of the things he’d always loved about her.
“Thanks, I,” he said. Then he looked down at the green-eyed purple bundle in Iroh’s arms. “Go find your kids some rocks. I’ll handle the rest of lunch and call you all in when it’s ready.”
Iroh smiled. “You’re going to be fine, Mako. Both of you.” Then he looked down at his legs. “Who’s ready for a colossus ride?” he called. The boys started screaming. Iroh laughed and lifted one wiggling leg high in the air before bringing it gently back down to earth.
