Chapter 99 - Izumi

Mai, Katara, Haru, and a beautiful newborn girl look towards Capital City in the morning sun. There are several Dai Li accompanying them, all distracted by the view from the adorable cooing of the infant. Their guard instincts go straight through the roof whenever they are around her. Back in Omashu, one of them even killed a bird accidentally when Mai took her baby out for a walk. The poor bird was swooping down to catch a worm, which was unluckily in the path of Mai's stroll, and the next thing it knows, BAM, slapped to death by an overeager earth glove.

Katara and Haru barely register the picturesque sight of the City, instead focusing on the newest addition to the gang. Resting in Mai's arms, the little girl pouts at the glare of the bright sun and starts snivelling adorably. Mai adjusts her position so she's shaded again, which is all that is necessary. Regardless, Haru and the Dai Li immediately get up and also block the infant's view of the sun. They're all a bit too doting.

Mai pokes her nose and says, "Are you ready to meet your DADDY, Izumi? We're going on a trip to see DADDY! MOMMY misses him so much."

Now unmasked, Mai experienced comparatively less growth than the others over the course of their adventures, but her biggest source of change was from having a child. Her frame is still as lithe as before, but now she's a bit thicker at the hips, and she's rarely quiet and apathetic around her baby. Mai's goal is to get Izumi to say 'mommy' or 'daddy', so despite constantly peppering the poor baby with words, Mai only emphasizes those two words.

Katara is at her wits end with how talkative and distracted everyone is over the baby. Obviously, babies are cute! They're not that big of a deal otherwise! She's also grumpy since she's artificially delaying her labor with waterbending so she can give birth with the help of a waterbending healer. Her bloated belly is sore and her hormones are carrying out a rebellion within her body.

She's already made Izumi cry several times when she blew up on everyone, mostly Mai, to get them to shut up. They snuck judgemental looks in her direction, but otherwise left the grumpy pregnant lady alone. Pushing down the urge to tell everyone to shut up again, Katara desperately ignores the repeatedly overemphasized mentions of "MOMMY" and "DADDY" from Mai.

"KATARAA!" Hearing her name from her lover, Katara's heart beats wildly. "Aang!"

Looking over, Katara sees Aang flying over on his glider in the distance with a big smile on his face. He boosts himself over, lands on Appa, and wraps his arms around Katara for a deep kiss. Katara had been dying of horniness before this. Actually, the moment she heard his voice, she started leaking.

Aang's penis also involuntarily reacts to Katara's presence and bumps on the baby bump, only to receive a bump back from inside. The couple pull away from each other's lips in shock and then burst out laughing. Katara laughs so hard that she loses control of her bending and her water breaks.

Her laughter cramps up to become awkward as she feels the trickle of the amniotic fluid. "Sweetie, I'm going into labor. Get Yue or Nuwa. Dan as a last resort. Hurry! Fucking Northern Water Tribe and their ban on female waterbenders! Fuck!"

While Katara says the most vulgar words she's ever spoken in her life, Aang, Mai, and Haru are panicking. Mai still remembers how painful her labor and subsequent childbirth were just last week, so she fully sympathizes. Katara spent 9 hours coaxing the baby to come out of Mai's slender hips, which she then had to heal. Now, Katara faces the same grueling task of giving birth and Mai has her chance to pay Katara back! "MOMMY's going to help out, Izumi!"

Katara shouts, "IF YOU SAY MOMMY OR DADDY ONE MORE TIME, I AM GOING TO LOSE IT!" Aang gets a jump scare and dives down rapidly with fire thrusters to check if Yue is still in the Royal Palace. As horny as he is, there's more important things to worry about now, like following Katara's instructions, staying away from Katara's rage, and ensuring a safe delivery for their baby.

'Eh, I'm going to be a dad? What the fudge? I'm not sure if I'm ready for this. Hold on.. What if the baby is an airbender!'

Aang gets excited and fully motivated to raise the most diligent little air nomad he can! He forgets what Nuwa had told him before about placing too high of expectations on his air nomad dream when it comes to his family. He even forgets the fact that he ran away from the air temple as a kid because the expectations placed on him were too high. Of course, he'll remember later, but the damage is done. He's already begun to subconsciously expect his kids to take up the heavy mantle of building the air nation, which is bound to be a multi-generational effort, especially after Harmonic Convergence, when airbending awakens among the citizens. Still, that's how dreams are. Despite the huge burden he's dumping on his kids, he won't regret it.

He rushes into the Palace and knocks the locked door off its stone hinges with some accidental earthbending to see Yue and Sokka having morning sex. 'Oops. Great Spirits, Yue is hot. Katara's got a bigger chest though, ehehe.'

Yue screeches and Sokka throws his boomerang and it wedges itself onto the door that Aang barely manages to shut. "What the hell, Aang?!"

Aang shouts from outside the door, "Sorry! The thing is.. Katara's going into the thing."

Growing even angrier, Sokka shouts, "What?"

Aang scratches his head. He forgot the word 'labor'. He says, "You know.. The thing where she has a baby?"

Sokka rages and says, "Well DUH she has a baby. She's had it for 9 months!"

Then he realizes the duration of the pregnancy means it's around that time.. "Shit! I'm going to be an uncle?! Hang on, you need Yue to heal, right?"

Aang leans on the door eagerly and says, "Right! Yeah, sorry again to interrupt."

Hearing a bit of shuffling, Aang puts his ear on the door hoping to get an indication of them putting their clothes on and leaving. Instead he hears Yue and Sokka's muffled moans start up again. Sokka manages to speak in as normal of a voice as he can manage, "Give me five min.. Hng.. utes, Yue needs some help..pphn.. with her makeup."

'How shameless.'' thinks Aang as he sits on the wall next to the door. Normally, he would sic Momo on Sokka right about now to ruin his fun, but Momo's not around and he can't do it himself or else Sokka would do the same to him later. According to Nuwa, cockblocking is only a true art when it's intentionally orchestrated all while avoiding blame.

Thankfully, Yue comes out clothed with her white hair slightly disheveled, along with a huge blush, five minutes later like Sokka had said. She smells like sex still because they ran out of water to wash with. Yue looks around with two hands on her cheeks to cover her blush and sees Aang on the floor nearby. She furrows her brows and attempts to make an angry face at Aang, but she only manages to look cute. Pointing a finger at him, Yue lectures, "Next time, knock before you barge in!"

Aang scratches his head while muttering an apology again and leads Yue over to Katara. She cleans herself of cum and scent in a nearby washroom and follows Aang to the makeshift delivery room. Fire Nation nurses and maids arrive to help and offer advice. Zuko is clearly still not settling into the role of Fire Lord well so he has no idea what's going on until he follows the parade of maids going into Katara's room, but is shoved back outside before he can enter the door. The maid who shoved him is buff and gives no shits that he's the Fire Lord. She says in a gruff voice, "Men are not allowed."

Zuko sees Aang sitting on the floor dejected next to where he fell on the floor and shrugs as he sits next to him. "What's the big hubbub here, bro?"

Aang seems a bit anxious as he replies, "Katara's giving birth, you didn't know?"

"Er.. sorry bro I didn't know." Zuko awkwardly loosens his collar, "Haha, no one tells me anything in this place. So did Mai make it back? I'm supposed to go on an airship trip with her the moment she arrives."

Mai pops out of the door with Izumi in her arms and says, "Where are we going, DADDY?"

Zuko gets up and says "Mai, I missed you so much!" Then he does a double-take on the strangely cute thing in her arms while the "DADDY" phrase registers. Father and daughter look at each other cluelessly for a few seconds, before Izumi sticks her thumb in her mouth and starts sucking.

He squeals, "SHE'S SO CUTE I'M GONNA DIE!"

Mai gives Zuko a slap on the arm with a pout, "Don't say such inauspicious things." Her face softens afterwards and she says, "You're not wrong though. Izumi, MOMMY's going to give you to DADDY. Here, hold her."

Zuko puts one hand on her butt and the other on her head. Mai smacks him harder this time, "Not like that you idiot!"

Izumi starts to cry from the strange position and Mai's loud scolding. Her cry is like a strange cacophony of cicada noises that never gets loud. It doesn't elicit sadness or panic in those who hear it as the cry of a baby is supposed to. A few maids even stop to look around for whatever fantastical musical instrument is playing that sound. Interrupted from his reverie by Mai pulling Izumi out of his arms, Zuko makes an appropriately apologetic face towards Mai. Internally, he really wanted to hear Izumi's cute crying noises again. It is impossible to resist.

Mai walks away and rocks Izumi gently in her arms as she sings a soft lullaby to console her. Zuko follows with the intention of hearing more of Izumi's crying, but seeing the perfect picture of motherhood that Mai paints makes his nose feel sour and his eyes moist. Now he's sure that he wants to be with Mai for the rest of their lives. His love for Mai was always a little iffy because she came onto him so strongly that he only saw her as an easy and safe choice when he lost his virginity to her.

'I had always taken for granted the fact that Mai was infatuated with me. I was always going with the flow, letting things happen, but not playing my fair part in the relationship. How could I not notice how beautiful she is when she smiles from her heart?'

Zuko has always had a soft spot for his mother, Ursa. She is the one who protects him from his father when he scolds him harshly. He gets his kindness from her, which is why he suspects his father never liked him. Seeing Mai's pure love for their daughter sealed the deal for his heart.

After Izumi quiets down and they are most of the way to the kitchen for some food, Zuko taps Mai on the shoulder. Mai looks over curiously as Zuko puts on the most gallant face he can before asking, "Mai, will you marry me? I promise to take only you as my Consort."

Mai puts one hand to her mouth. She had always known that Zuko didn't love her like she loved him. Nevertheless, she didn't let it affect her and she always showed her true self to Zuko, baring it all, along with all of her love. Today, it paid off. She could sense his excitement, yearning, and nervousness for whether she would say yes.

Mai looks into his eyes and based on her intimate knowledge of his mind, she can see that Zuko already knows her answer, but he's finally behaving like he is in love with her by fearing the possibility that she would leave him.

Despite Mai's lackluster first impressions on others, she has one of the most mature personalities out of the entire gang. She wants to marry Zuko and help him in all things. She had always had her future planned out in that fashion and she never deviated from that trajectory. It's all she wanted since she was a little girl. It is this single-mindedness that allows her to know herself and him inside and out.

In fact, she fully intended to leave him if he continued being half-hearted. Neither of them would be happy if they lived like that. She knows that if they have a few fights, he might take concubines or visit prostitutes in the coming years with all the stress of the position of Fire Lord. Even if she will always love him, that doesn't mean she has so little self-worth to accept being taken for granted. She would be fine raising his daughter on her own. Those fears are all behind her now, though.

Mai smiles beautifully and whispers, "Yes, and I will return your vow with one of my own. I promise to always support you."

Zuko breathes a sigh of relief and kisses Mai passionately, but both are careful to tone down the intensity since Mai is still holding a sleeping Izumi. Mai pushes him against the wall and whispers, "Is there a crib into the master bedroom? I need you inside me.."

Shivering with arousal, Zuko gropes her ass and spanks her lightly. Mai squeaks from his erotic touch. They both head off to do their tasks with an unspoken agreement. Zuko runs over to get some servants to move a crib into the master bedroom. Mai heads toward the master bedroom early to prepare herself in one of Zuko's favorites: a sheer babydoll. He dressed her up in all sorts of sheer attire prior to their vacation, so she knows he has them available in his closet. Her body isn't exactly in top form, but none of that matters now that she has all of his heart.

(A/N: I thought it fitting that a babydoll outfit coincides with the arrival of a baby to the story!)

(A/N: https://discord.gg/VD3C2BFPAu)