The Great Uniter Chills Out

Chapter II: Part 2

Korra had a reputation for being impatient and now it took all of her Avatar training not to live up to it. Kuvira was supposed to have showed up an hour ago, leaving Korra to pace the backyard – and blow off some steam on the old Earthbending training dummies stashed away here.

"I guess it's a miracle she agreed to meet me at all," Korra muttered. Not that she had actually told Kuvira that they'd be exercising. Still, she was confident she'd know exactly what to say once Kuvira finally showed up.

A moment later the former dictator arrived – leaving Korra completely speechless. It was barely a day since she arrived at Zaofu and yet she could swear Kuvira's belly looked even bigger already!

"Sorry I'm late, I had to... take care of something," Kuvira said. She arced her back as she walked down the stairs, as if she'd fall over if she didn't.

She has to be like... a million months along!  Korra thought, slowly realizing that she had to scrap all her plans.

"Uhhh... no worries, I just arrived myself!" Korra lied through an awkward grin. "You know, I had thought maybe we'd do a bit of Earthbending, warm up with a light jog followed by some proper core training. Of course, we'd have to make sure to get enough reps in, so to pace ourselves I thought we might..." Kuvira couldn't keep up as Korra babbled through her original plan at breakneck speed.

Finally Korra had collected her thoughts enough to take a big breath and finish off with: "So anyways, why don't we take a walk in the meteorite garden instead? What with your... uh... 'condition' and all."

"I guess?" Kuvira shrugged, too perplexed to argue.

"That's the spirit!" Leading the way, Korra made sure to keep a slow pace. "The most important thing is to get moving. Every little bit helps!"

They had barely gotten into the garden before Kuvira was grumbling.

"You're doing great!" Korra looked back to see Kuvira clutching the side of her stomach.

"Slow down, Avatar..." the pampered ex-dictator panted.

"You can do it! Just a few more steps and we can rest for abit." Having to stop and wait made Korra's enthusiastic encouragement falter a little, but she did her best to stay positive.

"I don't... feel so good..." was all Kuvira could manage before she lurched towards the nearest bush and, dropping to her knees, proceeded to vomit into it.

"Shit... are you okay?" Korra offered helplessly, making sure to not get too close.

Kuvira rolled backwards onto her butt, sitting with her legs apart as she looked up at Korra with a disgruntled expression.

"Morning sickness is pretty bad, huh?" Korra didn't know too much about this kind of stuff, but she was pretty sure that was a thing.

"What are you talking about..." Deciding to ignore the Avatar, Kuvira made a half-hearted attempt to get to her feet before throwing back her head with a wail: "Suuuyiiin!"

Thus summoned, the Zaofu Matriarch appeared in a flash and immediately rushed over to where her pet dictator was completely blocking the garden path. Kneeling down, she cupped Kuvira's chubby face in her hand. "What's the matter, my little turtlechonk?"

"The Avatar here made me exercise way too hard," Kuvira pouted, rolling her eyes in Korra's direction.

"I'm sorry, I know she's pregnant, but..."

"Excuse me?" Kuvira turned on Korra with an offended scoff. "Sure, maybe I let myself go just a teeny-tiny little bit. And sure, maybe I had a big breakfast...lunch...snack. But I'm clearly not pregnant!"

"But... what about the, uh, nausea and all that?"

Suyin chuckled at Korra's confusion. "Don't be silly. Kuvira was just being a bit greedy when we were making cookies earlier and ate too much raw cookie dough."

"I was hungry!" Kuvira protested, none too pleased that the tables were turning and she was now being called out.

Suyin gave her huffing protege a pat on the head: "Well, I think that's enough exercise for today. Why don't we all go inside and have some actual cookies. Don't worry, I've made plenty."

Considering what a day she'd had, that evening Korra was even happier than usual to return to the room she shared with Asami. She bit into a cookie from the box Suyin had packed for them – a fitting reward for bringing Kuvira milk and cookies all day while Suyin was too busy giving the former dictator belly rubs.

This is delicious! No wonder Kuvira's been putting on the pounds, she thought, chuckling to herself. Her worries about Kuvira had been replaced by relief upon realizing she had in fact not hurt an expectant mother earlier that day.

Korra entered the room to find Asami waiting for her. While Korra was busy with Kuvira, the engineer had been touring Zaofu with Baatar Sr., studying the city's most recent innovations.

"Guess what!" Korra blurted out as she threw the door open, excited as a kid who had found a frog squirrel. "Kuvira isn't pregnant, she's just really fat!"

At the desk, Asami put away her book and raised an eyebrow at her girlfriend: "Uh, good job, Detective Avatar. You've solved the case."

Blithely ignoring the good-natured sarcasm, Korra threw herself onto the bed.

"What's that?" Asami turned to look at the box in Korra's hands.

"Oh this?" Korra opened the lid and held up a cookie. "This is evidence." She popped it into her mouth. "Want some?"

"Sure." Asami followed her girlfriend to bed, snatching up one of the treats between two slender fingers before snuggling up toKorra.

"Just... don't have too many or you'll end up like Kuvira!" Korra guffawed. "Can you imagine, haha!"

Completely straight-faced, Asami looked into Korra's eyes and took an ominous bite.

Korra's laughter turned into a nervous chuckle: "C-can you imagine... 'haha'... right?"

 "Good night, darling," Asami said matter-of-factly, before turning away with a barely suppressed snort of laughter. She'd let Korra sweat a bit longer before she told her it was a joke.