Blue Silk

It was like an out of body experience. Actually, it was more like a returning to body experience. Mako made an attempt to open his eyes, but not yet being out of the cage of numbness, only got a half a second of blurry vision before they quickly closed again. After a few more tries, he finally succeeded at opening his eyes and keeping them open.
Still fairly disorientated, he halfheartedly looked around, trying to make sense of his surroundings. His vision still blurred, he turned his head and managed to make out three blobs huddling together on the other side of the room. Their voices sounded familiar, but he couldn’t pinpoint who they belonged to, or make out what they were saying. The only words he managed to pick out were “Hide”, “Wait”, “Tell”, and “Happy”. Everything else was gibberish.
As his vision slowly came into focus, one of the not-so-blobby blobs looked over at him. Their conversation suddenly halted.
“Mako!” one of them exclaimed.
The firebender tried to lift his head, but it was a struggle. Every movement felt foreign, as if his spirit had been forced into another body. He didn’t have much time to think before his three mystery visitors hurried over to him and wrapped their arms around him.
“Who… What…” Speaking was just as much of a struggle as trying to lift his head. “What?”
“Easy, bro,” one of the three of them said, a slight smirk in his voice, “Don’t hurt yourself.”
As the fog in his head thinned out, Mako realized who the voice belonged to.
“B-Bolin?”
“Yep.” He and the others hesitantly pulled away. They were overjoyed that he was finally awake, but the healers had warned them not to overwhelm him too quickly.
“Glad to have you back,” another voice said.
Mako shifted his attention away from his brother. It took another minute for everything to come into full focus, but once it did, he saw that the two others with him were Asami and Korra.
“How do you feel?” Asami asked.
Mako tried to sit up, but quickly realized he wasn’t ready yet.  
“Drained,” he groaned, “What… What happened?”
There was a silence. No one wanted to be the one to explain, but finally Korra spoke up.
“The Dark Spirit took you,” she told him, slight guilt in her voice, “It attacked us… and turned you into its puppet.”
Mako looked at her with a questionable expression. “I… I don’t-”  
Suddenly, it all came rushing back. The Dark Spirit had taken him, forced itself into his body - into his mind - taking over his every action and every ounce of will. He tried to fight it, but it was impossible. The spirit quickly took over, and Mako was forced into a world of darkness.
Closing his eyes and slowly sitting up, Mako rubbed his temples at the memory. As he did, Korra looked over at Bolin and Asami, giving them the agreed signal. They nodded at her, and then looked back at Mako.  
“Well, Asami and I have to…” Bolin said, trying to think of an excuse, “… go… give Pabu a bath. We’ll see you later, Mako.”
Going along with it, Asami nodded. “Hope you feel better.”
With that, they left the room, closing the door behind them and leaving Mako alone with Korra.
Seeing Mako still rubbing his temples, Korra tried to smile at him. “You alright?”
He looked up at her. Now that he was completely out of the fog, he quickly realized that something was off about her. She didn’t look quite the same as he remembered; her hips were wider, and her stomach had a bit more of a pudge. Her breasts also seemed to have gone up at least another cup size, however that was possible. The changes to her body weren’t so dramatic that they changed how she looked entirely, but they were drastic enough to be noticeable.
Knowing better than to say anything about her body, Mako huffed and ran his fingers through his hair. “How… How long did The Dark Spirit have me?”
“About six months,” Korra told him.
Mako’s spine stiffened. “Six… months?”
“Yeah.” Her eyes darted to the side. “I wanted to get you back sooner, but… something got in the way.”
Seeing the guilt in her eyes, Mako nodded in response. Her gaze still avoiding his, he reached out and touched her hand.
“Look, I’m not mad,” he assured her, “The Dark Spirit’s next to impossible to fight. You did what you could.” He smiled at her. “At least I’m here now, right?”
Korra flashed him a small smile. “Yeah.”
She bent down and wrapped her arms around him again, immediately feeling him wrap his arms around her in return.
As the minutes went on, Korra felt a nagging feeling in her chest. She wanted to tell him. She needed to tell him.
“Mako…”
“Hm?” he asked, letting go of her.
Her heart pounded as he looked at her. She started to open her mouth to speak, but instead forced herself to smile and buried her face in the crook of his neck.
“I’m just really glad you’re here.”
Mako smiled and held her close again. “I am too.”
Korra let out a quiet sigh. She knew she had to tell him, but she couldn’t. Not yet.
--
Mako stirred. He didn’t remember falling asleep, only Korra climbing in bed with him, resting her head on his chest as he slowly ran his fingers through her hair. He remembered slowly closing his eyes, and somewhere along the line, he guessed they both fell asleep.
He peaked his eyes open and turned his head, expecting to see Korra lying next to him. Instead, all he saw was empty space.
“Korra?”
He sat up on his elbows and took a look around the room. It was dark, aside from a few rays of moonlight shining in through the window. He assumed it was around midnight. Even in the darkness, he could tell there was no sign of her.
He waited a few minutes, telling himself that she probably got up to use the bathroom or something, but as the minutes passed and she still didn’t return, he knew something was up. Blinking the last bit of sleep out of his eyes, he climbed out of bed and went off to find her. It occurred to him that no one ever said he could get out of bed, but he rationalized it with the fact that no one said he couldn’t either.
As he walked down the hall, he started to hear a faint noise. At first he couldn’t pinpoint what it was, but as he walked farther and noise became louder, he realized it was crying. More specifically, a baby crying. He thought nothing of it at first, having spent months hearing Rohan cry on Air Temple Island, but he quickly realized a few things: the crying wasn’t Rohan’s - this cry was too high pitched to belong to him - and it was coming from Korra’s room.
Unsure of what was going on, Mako wandered over to Korra’s door and pushed it open halfway. Inside, he saw Korra sitting on the edge of her bed, holding and attempting to comfort the crying bundle in her arms.
“Shhhh,” she hushed, gently bouncing the baby, “It’s okay, Eska, it’s okay.”
Mako’s eyes widened. Was that… No. No, it couldn’t be.
“Shhhh,” Korra continued to hush, “Mommy’s here, Eska, it’s okay.”
Mako’s jaw dropped and an electric bolt of shock ran through his body. He desperately tried to make sense of this, but his head was spinning too much to think. His hands felt clammy, and he almost lost his grip on the door.
Confusion, shock, and disbelief taking over, he couldn’t stop himself from speaking.
“K-Korra?”
The Avatar’s spine stiffened. Her heart pounding in her ears, Korra hesitantly looked up to see her boyfriend standing in the doorway. Neither one of them said anything.
Finally, she shakily stood up, trying to think over the sound of the crying baby.
“I, uh… I can explain,” she said. This was not how she wanted him to find out. Not like this.
Mako’s words got stuck in his throat. “That’s… That’s a baby.”
Korra nodded. “Her… Her name’s Eska,” she told him, “She… She’s our daughter.”
Mako was shaking all over. He felt winded and his heart pounded as if it was going to rip out of his chest and fly across the room. The sound of Eska’s cries overwhelming him and not having the slightest clue what to do or how to handle this, he took a few steps back into the hall before hurrying away. He faintly heard his name being called out as he disappeared around the corner.
“Mako!” Korra called, Eska’s cries traveling with her voice.
--
Hours went by. Mako stared out the window as he watched the sun come up. Now a lot calmer, he was finally starting to think straight. Korra had a child. Korra had his child. He still didn’t know how to feel about it, but like it or not, he was a father now.
Mako went to grab his scarf, but realized for the first time that it wasn’t around his neck. In slight panic, he whipped his head around until he spotted it, neatly folded on a table on the other side of the room. Relieved, he got up and went to retrieve it.
As he wrapped the red fabric around his neck, he started thinking about his own father. He wondered if he was as at all scared when he found out that he was on the way. He wondered how he would have reacted to finding out that he was apparently a grandfather now, and what he would have said to him. The more he thought about it, Mako assumed that his father would have been happy for him. He probably would have put his hand on his shoulder, and reassured him with something along the lines of “You’ve got a steady job, a roof over your head, and a lot of people supporting you. There’s nothing to worry about. You and Korra are going to be just fine”.
Suddenly he remembered something. Korra. He left her there. He ran off and just left her there, with a crying baby, without even saying a word to her.
“Idiot,” Mako groaned, smacking the palm of his hand against his forehead.
Knowing he had to fix this, he hurriedly started back for Korra’s room. As he got closer, he was surprised to hear Eska’s cries still echoing through the hall. Had she really been crying this whole time?
He poked his head in the door. Korra desperately paced the floor, still gently bouncing and trying to quiet Eska. She had dark circles under her eyes, indicating that she hadn’t slept yet, and she looked uncomfortable, as if she hadn’t even had a chance to use the bathroom.
“Come on, Eska,” Korra halfheartedly mumbled, “Mommy wants to go to sleep.”
Eska paid no mind to her mother’s plea as she continued to wail. Watching as Korra groaned in near defeat, Mako forced himself to step forward, hating himself for leaving her to deal with this on her own.
“Korra,” he said. He tried to force the nerves out of his voice, but some made their way through.
Korra stopped and looked up at him. Being exhausted and still upset with him, she scowled at him.
“What do you want?”
“I just wanna talk to you.”
“Really? You wanna talk now?” she asked, straining to hear him over Eska’s crying.
“Look, I…” He walked up closer to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m really sorry I ran off like that. Seeing you… with a baby, just… I couldn’t believe… I still can’t believe… we really have a baby.”
“Yeah, and if you could watch her for a minute, that’d be great,” Korra said in a single breath, practically shoving the still crying baby into Mako’s arms.
“But-”
“Mako, I’ve had to pee for hours and I feel like I’m gonna explode, so please just watch her for five minutes.”
Without even waiting for a response, she hurried out of the room. Mako looked down at Eska, in panic. He knew next to nothing about babies, and didn’t have the slightest clue what he was supposed to do.
“Uh…” His voice was shaky. He cluelessly held Eska up to his shoulder and gently pat her back. “There there. Please don’t cry.”
After a few more pats, Eska let out a big burp. With the gas bubble finally out of her tummy, her crying reduced to something of a slight whimper, and then silence. Amazed and slightly confused, Mako shifted her so that she looked up at him as she laid his arms.
“You’re… You’re okay now?”
Eska tilted her head at him. Now that she wasn’t crying anymore, Mako took a minute to get a good look at her. All of her features were distinctly Water Tribe, except for her eyes. Her eyes were gold, like his. Judging from her size, he guessed that she couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old, a month at the most. Her cheeks were very chubby and tinted a pinkish-red, though that could just be from crying for so long.
Suddenly, her mouth began to twitch. Mako tensed up, thinking that she was going to start crying again. Instead, her lips formed into a smile, and she started making happy cooing sounds at her daddy. Feeling something of a tug in his chest at her little actions, Mako couldn’t help but smile back at her. He reached out to stroke her cheek, but before he could, Eska grabbed onto his index finger. Surprised by this, he instinctively tried to pull back, causing Eska to hold on tighter. Slowly but surely, he felt his heart begin to melt as she used her tiny but strong grasp to try and pull his finger into her mouth.
“Are you kidding me?”
Mako turned around to see a slightly agitated Korra walking back over to them.
“The second I leave the room, she stops crying?”
Mako shrugged. “She just kinda burped, and then she was fine.”
“She…” Korra huffed and aggressively ran her fingers through her hair. “She kept me up all night because she had to burp?”
Mako shrugged again. “At least she’s not crying anymore.”
Korra pouted at him, but looking down at Eska, her expression changed. She was surprised to see that not only was she calm, but smiling and happily trying to suckle on Mako’s finger.
Korra couldn’t help but smile herself. “Oh look, she likes you.”
Mako chuckled, slightly. “I think she just likes my finger.”
Still smiling, Korra gave Eska a kiss on her forehead. “Are you trying to eat daddy’s finger, Eska?”
The newborn simply yawned in response. Her eyes began to droop and her grip on Mako’s finger loosened.
“Finally wear yourself out?” Korra asked. She carefully took Eska from Mako and carried her over to the little blue cradle on the other side of the room.
Mako smiled as he watched Korra gently lay her down. He’d never seen her act like this before. Maybe once or twice when Pema asked them to watch Rohan for a little bit, but this was different. This was their child.
Mako walked over to Korra and watched with her as Eska’s eyes slowly began to close, and she fell asleep.
“She’s beautiful, Korra,” Mako whispered, wrapping his arm around her.
Korra rested her head against his chest. “I know.”
They stayed like that for a while, holding each other and watching Eska sleep. After a few minutes, though, Mako turned to Korra, a more serious look on his face.
“Look, I know you’re tired, but… Can I ask you something?”
“Hm?” Korra asked, looking up at him.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Eska? We were alone together for a good two hours, and you didn’t say anything.”
Korra looked down. “It wasn’t like I was never going to tell you. I’m not stupid, I knew I couldn’t hide a baby from you forever.”
“When were you going to tell me, then?”
“Like… later today, or tomorrow. I was waiting for the right time.”
“The right time? Korra, I found out you had my baby by randomly walking in your room and seeing you with her. You… You just should’ve told me.”
“And how exactly was I supposed to do that? ‘Oh hey Mako, glad you’re not possessed anymore, by the way we have a baby now?’”
Mako sighed. “Okay, I see your point.” He thought of something else. “You said the Dark Spirit had me for six months, right?”
“M’hm.”
“Then… if Eska’s here now, that means you were pregnant when The Dark Spirit took me.”
Korra nodded, slowly. “Yeah.”
“Did… Did you know?”  
She shook her head. “No. I didn’t find out until a couple days later.”
She looked up at him. “So… can I ask you something now?”
“Sure.”
Korra hesitated. “How… How do you feel about this?”
“About what, specifically?”
“You know, having a baby,” Korra explained, “Being a father.”
Mako noticed the hint of worry in her eyes, and suddenly it hit him. He hadn’t even thought about how scary all this must have been for her. He couldn’t imagine what it must have been like, finding out she was pregnant just days after The Dark Spirit took him, knowing very well that she may never see him again, that she might have to raise their child on her own.
With that in mind, Mako put on a brave face. “Honestly… I have mixed feelings. I would’ve rather waited to start a family until we were older, or had more money set aside… but since Eska’s here now…” He smiled at her. “Korra, I wouldn’t give up being her father for the world.”
“Do you really mean that, or are you just saying that because you think you have to?”
“I mean it.” He put his hand on her cheek, and gave her a gentle kiss. “You know how much I love you, right? I’m not doing anything because I feel obligated to. I’m telling you that I’m going to help take care of Eska because I want to. I want to be her father. I want to be there for her, and for you. I’m not going anywhere and I’m not going back on that, I promise.”
Korra smiled at him. “Good.”
Mako smiled back at her and went to kiss her again, but before he could, she put her hand in front of his face.
“Just know that if you ever do go back on it, I’m going to kill you.”
Mako snickered. “Don’t even worry about that.”
He moved her hand out of the way, and gave her another gentle kiss.
“So…” he grinned.
“‘So’ what?”
“We’ve still got some time before the sun’s fully up. You wanna try to get some sleep?”
Korra let out a fatigued sigh. “More than anything.”
Without any hesitation, they both made their way over to the bed. Climbing in under the covers, Korra once again rested her head on Mako’s chest, and he gave her one last kiss on the forehead before the two of them fell into a deep sleep.
Their slumber was interrupted a few hours later, however, when Eska decided it was time for breakfast.