Chapter Text
Mako’s eyes burn by the time he gets to the last page of the book with writing. He frowns at the blank page in his hand and opens and closes the book several times as if that might make something appear on it. He flips to the end of the book, finding blank page after blank page until he reaches the hardcover at the back. There has to be more, right? He thinks of this movie his dad used to watch where everything was a clue or secret of some kind, and he feels the cover for a bump, hoping to find a key or something. Instead, he just feels the regular journal cover – no special or weird bumps anywhere.
He closes the book and carefully tucks it under his pillow, not wanting to risk Bolin waking up before him and finding it, and turns off the lantern. He stares at the ceiling and tries to make sense of what he read. There are weird things in the woods, the woods just outside this room, and some of them are friendly, but some aren’t and would probably like to see Mako fashioned into a jacket. He shivers thinking about some forest creature wearing him to protect themselves against the rain. But then again, who’s to say this book is even real? Maybe someone made this whole thing up and everything inside it.
The only thing illuminating the room is the red glow from the clock on the table next to him, and Mako has to squeeze his eyes shut to prevent his brain from making him think he’s seeing a monster in the corner or something.
Without thinking, he says, “Bolin?” And it’s a bit louder than he intended it to be, but it gets the job done because Bolin is awake in seconds.
“Huh? Mako?” Mako cracks an eye open to look at him; he’s rubbing his eyes and propping himself up on his elbow. He looks tired, but Mako feels relief at seeing him, knowing it’s just the two of them in the room.
“Oh, sorry, Bo. I didn’t mean to wake you.” A lie. “Go back to sleep, I’m sorry.”
“Are you okay?” Bolin asks. He’s cocooned himself in his blankets again and Mako softly laughs at the image of his brother swaddled in the giant quilt, only his face visible.
“I’m fine, I promise. I just got spooked a little.” Mako admits and Bolin frowns a bit, “Nothing bad, though! Just… this place is new and not like home. It’s weird.”
Bolin nods in agreement, “Yeah, I get that.” It’s silent for a few moments before Bolin talks again. “But at least we have each other.”
Mako smiles at him, unsure how well Bolin can see him in the dark room, and echoes, “At least we have each other.”
Bolin yawns and mumbles a goodnight to Mako before closing his eyes again and Mako follows suit, trying not to focus on the sounds coming from the forest too much.
§
Mako once again wakes up just as the sun is rising. He stretches his arms up under his pillow and punches the journal. His eyes widen in surprise before he remembers he put it there, it didn’t just spawn or walk under there. He twists around to pull it out, once again looking it over, just to double triple-check that there aren’t any secret compartments or things hidden that he missed last night. He sighs as he comes up empty, and places the book under his blanket as he gets ready for the day.
After finishing his morning routine, his mom likes to laugh and tell him he’s too young to call it a “routine”, he packs his backpack for the day with two packs of fruit snacks, bandaids, a water bottle, his journal, his DS, and a pencil and heads into the shop. He eats toast again, but this time makes an extra slice for Zuko. He sets himself up at the counter in the shop, and waits patiently for the door to jingle signaling Zuko’s arrival.
Not five minutes after he’s sat down, Zuko comes in. He’s wearing the hoodie again, but this time he has black shorts on. If Mako felt more comfortable around him, he’d make a comment like “oh really changing it up today huh”, but instead he just sits and smiles at him.
“Hi, Zuko!” Mako greets him as he takes his seat next to him.
Zuko spins around on the stool to face him, “Goodmorning, Mako.”
“I brought you some toast.” Mako quickly shoves the paper plate over to Zuko and watches him to see how he’ll react.
Zuko’s cheeks tint pink slightly and he smiles a little. “Thanks.”
“Anytime,” Mako tries his hardest to sound cool, but his voice cracks at the end and he winces.
Mako turns back to scratching his name into the counter when he hears Zuko cough a little bit. Mako whips his head in Zuko’s direction and his eyes widen when he sees Zuko clutching his stomach and coughing into his hand.
“Zuko?” Mako exclaims as he jumps off his stool and hovers near him.
“Mako, what kind of jam did you put on the toast?” Zuko asks between wheezes.
“Strawberry! Why?” Mako is still awkwardly standing near Zuko, unsure about what he should be doing.
“I’m crazy allergic to strawberries!” Zuko winces and curls in on himself. “My stomach hurts so much and I can’t breathe.” His face is hidden and Mako silently gives thanks to whatever’s out there because he doesn’t think he could handle seeing Zuko’s puffy red face.
“I’ll find the phone!” Mako runs out from behind the counter. “I’ll call… the hospital? Poison control? Someone! I’ll call someone!” He tries to ignore Zuko’s wheezing as he opens drawer after drawer in the backroom for the shop phone.
“Mako, I really don’t feel good,” Zuko shouts from the front of the shop.
Mako feels himself starting to sweat, and he’s about to give up and just run to wake up Yin when he finds the phone in the back of a drawer next to some batteries and rubber bands. He grabs the phone with his clammy hands and runs out to Zuko.
“Who do I call!” He waves the phone at him.
“You found it! You call–” Zuko drops to the ground before he can finish his sentence and Mako runs over, panicked.
He’s just about to reach the counter when Zuko springs up and yells, “Gotcha!”
Mako drops the phone in surprise, and it clatters onto the floor. Zuko is standing in front of Mako looking… well, looking normal. He’s pointing at Mako and smiling, but Mako’s brain is trying to piece together what happened.
“But… you were… and I was… strawberry jam?” Mako manages to get out.
Zuko drops his arms and sits back down on his stool, and pats the other stool for Mako to come sit on.
“It was a joke! A prank!” Zuko’s saying this as if he had the best idea in the entire world.
Mako picks up the phone and sits down next to Zuko, still breathing a little heavy either from the panic or the surprise of Zuko actually being fine.
“A prank? I thought I killed you!” Mako shouts and shocks himself a little bit. “I thought you were dying, Zuko.” He adds in a much more quiet voice.
“Oh, Mako, I genuinely hadn’t thought of that.” Zuko apologizes. “Sokka does dumb shi– stuff like that all the time so I figured I would try it. It did not go according to plan.” He awkwardly rubs Mako’s arm and tries for a reassuring smile.
Mako slightly blushes at the contact. “That’s okay. I’m not good at pranks, either.” He gives Zuko a small smile back, trying to show that he’s really okay.
“I won’t prank you anymore.” Zuko offers and he extends his hand to Mako, who shakes it gently.
“I don’t think you should prank anyone anymore, honestly.” Mako jests, trying to get the air back to normal around them.
Zuko laughs, actually laughs, and Mako feels the room lighten a bit. The shop has technically been open for ten minutes, but nobody has walked by or come in, and it’s probably a good thing. Mako blankly stares out the window at the forest, imagining what could be staring back, and Zuko sits next to him reading the same book as yesterday.
§
It’s almost 1:00, and Mako keeps pausing what he’s doing to stare at his backpack below him. Yin came into the shop around noon and assigned him the task of making coins from the cash register look old so she can charge people $2.00 for a nickel. Bolin is putting the coins into some weird bleach and water mixture, and when he deems them “tarnished”, he hands them over to Mako who uses an old nail file on them. When he’s done, he gives the coin to Zuko and he puts them in a jar at the counter for people to buy. Mako asks his grandma why they would be doing this out in the open where customers can see, and she tells him to just hide everything if someone comes in, and then after a brief pause, she tells Bolin to sit on the floor under the counter to hide.
He must be looking at his backpack for longer than usual because Zuko elbows him and asks what he’s staring at. He opens his mouth to tell him nothing or make a remark about being tired of smelling like pennies, but his brain has decided to take a different course of action.
“Have you ever seen anything weird here?” It’s a question out of left field, and Mako almost regrets asking it.
“What do you mean by ‘weird’? Like ghost-weird or man-marrying-a-ferret-weird?” Zuko asks as he plops four coins into the jar.
“Who married a ferret?” Mako asks and Zuko tries to answer, but Mako waves him off, focused on his new task at hand, “Nevermind. I mean ghost-weird.”
Zuko seems to really give the question thought before answering, “No.”
“Damn.” Mako cusses and chews on the inside of his lip. “I was hoping for a yes.”
“Why?” Bolin asks from below him. “Do you want to be haunted, Mako? If you want that, I can do it, I can be ghostlike!”
“No!” Mako wrinkles his face at Bolin, “I just wanted to know if there was anything cool about this town, but I guess not.” He sighs and continues filing his coins.
Zuko is one person, he doesn’t speak for everyone in Gravity Falls, he reminds himself. He’ll ask Huan and Korra when they come in today. Someone somewhere in this town has seen things and written them down for Mako to find, he just has to discover who.
“This town is still pretty weird, dude.” Zuko adds, “Like, Sokka claims he’s seen a ghost before, but then again so does Toph.” Zuko laughs to himself and Mako assumes it’s some joke he doesn’t understand, but he doesn’t ask him to explain. “But really, the people in this town are weird on their own. Gravity Falls doesn’t need anything supernatural,” He wiggles his fingers as he says it, “because there’s enough weird here on its own. Like the lady who owns the only drug store in town – she constantly leans to the right and only speaks in rhymes, it’s weird.”
“I wanna meet her!” Bolin muses as he stands up, stretching his legs and arms. The last of the coins sit in the bleach and water, slowly turning darker.
“Next time I fill up my prescription I’ll bring you, Bolin.” Zuko promises.
“Thanks, Zuko!” He leans over Mako as if he isn’t there and fistbumps Zuko.
“You can come too,” Zuko nudges him slightly after Bolin retracts his fist, “on our weird field trip to the drug store.”
“Oh, cool.” Mako nods his head trying very hard to seem like he wasn’t silently waiting for an invitation.
Bolin drops the last few coins in front of Mako and makes a popping noise with his mouth. Mako sighs and begins his filing as Bolin runs to stand next to Zuko to read over his shoulder. Things continue like that for the next hour; Bolin reading over Zuko’s shoulder and making noises when Zuko swats at him for getting too close, and Mako making sure each coin looks ruined enough to sell.
§
Mako knows it’s getting close to 2:00 because he hears Korra’s loud voice coming from the woods. He looks up from his DS just in time to see Bolin rush over to the door to hold it open for Huan and Korra as they enter the shop. Huan’s hair is up in a bun today and there’s a pencil sticking out from behind his ear. As he comes closer to put his stuff down, Mako notices the pencil is pink with cupcakes on it, and he smiles at how funny the image in front of him is: Huan dressed in black and dark green with a pretty pink pencil.
Huan must notice him looking because he sighs and says, “My little brothers gave it to me as a birthday present. It came in a pack of 24 and I’m slowly working through them.” Mako nods in the little-brothers-huh way in response.
Korra and Bolin are standing by the door, laughing as Bolin pulls a few sticks out of her hair. Mako shoves his DS in his pocket and shuffles over to them as Bolin pulls the final stick from her hair.
“Greetings, Mako!” Korra greets him enthusiastically.
“Hey, Korra.” He gives her a little wave back.
“I can’t stay for long today, I have this stupid family dinner with my weird relatives and my mom makes me help set everything up.” She frowns at the ground and kicks at a floorboard as she talks and Mako wants to know how weird these people have to be for Korra to not like them.
“At least we can hang out for a bit! Before you have to go see your insane relatives!” Bolin exclaims.
“I wish, Bo. I only really was able to get away long enough to walk Huan here and see you guys.” Korra shrugs and frowns.
“That blows,” Mako says as his eyes dart over to the counter to see Zuko and Huan talking and he’s reminded of his book under his stool. “Korra, I have a kinda weird question for you.”
“Fun!” She exclaims.
“Have you ever, like, seen something weird in the woods or the town in general?” He whispers the question, and he isn’t sure why.
Bolin raises his eyebrow in Mako’s direction as Korra answers, “Mako, there’s so much weird stuff that happens in this town. Like, once, this kid at school, Tahno, claimed that he saw a werewolf in the woods, but also he lies a lot so who knows if he’s telling the truth.” She rolls her eyes and then puts one hand on each boy’s shoulder and continues, “Weird stuff goes on here, but who knows if it’s true! It’s just fun to think about!” Korra removes her hands and claps them together twice. “I gotta get going now!” She announces to the store. Zuko and Huan look up and wave to her. Mako and Bolin say goodbye and wish her luck with her dinner and she gives them a two-finger salute before dipping through the door.
The two boys watch her run back into the forest before heading over to the counter to bother Zuko and Huan.
“What’s with you asking everyone if they’ve seen weird things in town?” Zuko questions without looking up from his book.
Huan’s eyes fly to Mako’s and he seems a little alarmed for a moment, but before Mako can make anything of his expression, his face resumes its calm, neutral look.
“How did you even hear that?” Mako pouts and crosses his arms. He was trying to conduct a secret investigation, he didn’t need Zuko airing it to the public.
“There was literally no other noise in the shop and it isn’t that big.” Zuko closes his book and tucks it under the counter. “Yin won’t let us have music playing,” He pauses before raising his voice, “Even if it helps the ambiance!” He yells and his face is still facing Mako, but his eyes are staring at the backroom.
“‘Ambiance’! Big word for a short man!” Yin yells back and Zuko rolls his eyes. Mako assumes they’ve had this argument before and smiles to himself thinking about them arguing regularly about it.
“For real though,” Zuko shifts his attention back to Mako, “Why?”
“I’m just curious about the town!” Mako’s voice shoots to a few octaves higher than he intended and he catches Huan stifling a laugh.
“He’s a curious boy, Zuko!” Bolin defends him and Mako wants to thank him and laugh at the same time. Bolin’s hands are on his hips and he looks like their mom when she lectures them for doing something they shouldn’t.
“I would’ve phrased it differently, but yeah!” Mako declares and without thinking, mirrors Bolin, and puts his hands on his hips.
“Alright, alright.” Zuko laughs and shakes his head and begins packing his stuff up finally.
“Well?” Mako looks to Huan expectantly.
“Huh?” Huan blinks a few times, clearly having zoned out.
“Have you seen anything odd or weird, Huan?” Mako asks, putting his elbows down on the counter and putting his face in his hands.
Huan sucks in a breath and then responds in his usual cool voice, “Weird is a relative term, Mako. The word ‘weird’ takes on a new meaning with every person, so my weird might be your normal or vice-versa. I could say I’ve seen something weird, but I might just mean I once saw a one-legged bird.”
Mako sighs and drops his head. “I don’t know what I was expecting,” he mumbles against the counter and then repeats it when he picks his head up to the sound of the bell jingling.
“Sokka!” Bolin shouts.
“Bolin!” Sokka shouts back with just as much enthusiasm.
Mako waves at him and he waves back, walking over and resting his arm on top of Bolin’s head.
“How was work today?” Sokka asks, following Bolin’s movements trying to get away from his arm.
“Good. Mako’s on some journey here to ask people about weird things they’ve seen here.” Zuko points towards Mako with his free arm.
“Really?” Sokka’s face lights up. “You know, I actually have a pretty good story if you wanna hear it?”
Mako turns to Sokka and nods, “Yeah! Please!”
He finally takes his arm off Bolin and uses it to gesture, “Well, one winter when I was around 13, I met–”
“Is that Sokka again?” Yin shouts from the back.
“Yes, but we’re leaving… again!” Zuko yells back.
“Wait, can’t you finish the story, Sokka?” Mako pleads as the two teenagers make their way to the door.
“I wish I could, dude, but Zuko here promised we’d be at this barbeque thing for a friend of his, and it starts soon.” Sokka frowns when he sees Mako’s face drop, “I’ll finish it another time, though. I promise!” He holds his pinky out to Mako, and Mako rolls his eyes but wraps his pinky around Sokka’s.
“Next time I see you?” Mako asks, still holding Sokka’s pinky tightly.
“Next time I see you.” Sokka confirms.
Then he and Zuko wave goodbye to Bolin and Huan and leave the shop, driving away in Sokka’s car. Mako watches Sokka’s Subaru drive down the dirt road before staring into the forest. It’s only a little after 2:00, the sun isn’t going to set for a few hours and there isn’t much else for him to help with today; Mako decides he’s going to explore the forest for a bit.
“I’m gonna go outside for a bit,” Mako tells Huan and Bolin as he grabs his backpack from under his – now Huan’s – stool.
“Have fun, be safe, all that stuff.” Huan says from above him.
Mako shrugs on his backpack and promises Huan he won’t talk to strangers.
“We’ll be back later!” Bolin calls from behind him, and Mako whips around to find Bolin following him to the door.
“No, I will be back later. You’re staying here.” Mako turns Bolin around and gently pushes him back in the direction of the counter.
“But I’m bored! Let me come!” Bolin pleads, continuing to follow Mako.
“No, Bo. I’m doing older brother big kid stuff. It might be dangerous. You’ve gotta wait here.” Mako tries to sound like his dad, he even makes his voice deeper.
Bolin lets out a huff of air and sulks. “Fine. Huan and I will have fun on our own.” He then stomps back over to Huan, sits on the empty stool, crosses his arms and glares at Mako.
Mako rolls his eyes, knowing that by the time he’s back Bolin will have forgotten he was mad and he’ll ask Mako to play with legos or something.
§
As Mako walks through the woods he tries hard to be extra observant of his surroundings. He pauses every now and then to poke at a tree or bush with a pencil he’s brought with him, careful not to disturb anything too much. He can’t shake the feeling that he’s being watched, though. However, when he turns around there’s never anything there, it’s just him alone in the woods. He stops for a snack after a while and sits on the ground to drink some water and eat a fruit snack pack.
First, he hears a crunch, and then he hears a quiet, “Oh no.” And he looks up from his fruit snacks to find Bolin staring at him, smiling awkwardly, and standing on a ring of crushed mushrooms. “Hi!”
“Bo, I thought I told you –” Mako begins to walk towards Bolin, ready to drag him back to the shack when Bo is whisked up into the air.
He shrieks and Mako can’t believe what just happened.
“Bolin!” Mako screams.
He’s looking at Bolin’s arms and his brain knows he’s being held up by something but he can’t see what, it’s like whatever it is is just out of his line of sight. He rubs at his eyes a few times, mouth still slightly ajar, and squints and he finally sees what’s dangling Bolin.
The creatures are small, half a foot tall if Mako had to guess, and when they move it looks like reality flickers around them, bending to accommodate them. Mako stumbles back, tripping over a root he swears wasn’t there before, and looks around. There are dozens of them now, peering at him from tree branches and under rocks and through bushes and blades of grass. They all have either dark blue or dark green skin with iridescent wings and dark hair ranging from short to long in length. Some have leaves wrapped around them, others have flower petals.
“Hey!” Bolin cries from high up above. “Help!”
Mako nods feverishly and crawls back over to his backpack to read through the journal as quickly as he can. He finds the picture of the creature in the book, but there’s nothing more on the page other than the word “PIXIES” and a bullet point that reads “names important!”. He feels all their eyes on him and his panic builds. He’s about to slam the book and just start guessing what they want when a pixie settles on top of the book.
“We won’t hurt him, you know.” They sound bored and like they have a million better things they could be doing.
“Well, then, give him back.” Mako narrows his eyes at the little creature and ignores Bolin’s shout of agreement.
“Ah, we cannot do that, young one.” The pixie sighs and crosses their legs. Mako could close the book right now and catch them, but he doesn’t think the rest would care for that.
“Why not?” They’re a bit annoyed, they could easily just let Bolin go, he’s just a kid!
“We need something in return.” Their tone has shifted into something business-like and Mako doesn’t like it at all.
“If it’s money I have bad news –”
“It isn’t money!” The pixie’s voice is sharp and cutting and Mako shuts his mouth. “We want, no, we need power.”
“Power? What for?” Mako questions and the pixie smiles devilishly.
“To survive, of course.” They explain as if it should be obvious.
“How does that work?”
The pixie sighs and pushes themself off the book, and begins walking along the root tripped over.
“We used to be much stronger, but as more people came they took away more and more of our forest. Our forest is our home, it’s where we live and what we draw natural power from, but these humans have slowly been taking it away year after year,” they lament as they pace back and forth on the root.
“That kinda sucks,” Mako agrees. “But it doesn’t change the fact that you’re holding my brother hostage!”
“Yeah!” Bolin kicks at the air and the pixies hanging onto his untied shoelaces go flying.
“Find a way to get us some of our power back and we’ll give you back your Bolin, fair deal?” They extend a tiny hand with four small claws.
“Hold on, what’s to stop you from dragging us away into your weird fairy den or whatever once I get you power?” Mako raises a skeptical eyebrow at the pixie.
They sigh dramatically once again as if Mako should know all of this already. “We’re good on our word, kid. We get power, you get your brother. And as a bonus, I’ll owe you one.”
“Okay, but how do I know you won’t double-cross me?” Mako clutches his journal to his chest.
They roll their eyes, “We won’t! I won’t! I promise.”
Mako knows he needs some type of insurance for this. He can’t just trust this little pixie thing just because they say so. Then he remembers the note about names and feels himself become a little more confident.
“Just shake their hand! I have to pee!” Bolin yells.
Mako stares at the pixie who is now lounging on the log, hands folded beneath their head. “Give me your name,” Mako states, and they sit up in a hurry.
Before talking, they school their face into their classic aloof expression, “Why do you need my name?”
“I’m not an idiot. Names have power. You know his,” Mako nods towards Bolin, “So give me yours.”
The pixie smirks at him. “Pulling a move like this is risky.”
“It would be, I agree, if you were more powerful. But you aren’t, instead your hopes of power rely on me, a 12-year-old. So,” Mako sits upright and leans in, “Give me your name.”
They lean in close to Mako and whisper, “This name is just for you. If you tell your brother or anyone else, the deal is off.” Mako nods. “Fayette.” Once the name is said, it settles in Mako’s chest like a brick. He isn’t sure how a name can carry weight, but theirs does and now it’s Mako’s to hold.
Mako pulls back to look at Fayette but they’ve vanished, along with the rest of the pixies and Bolin. He feels something land on his shoulder and whisper, “Go!” in his ear. He scrambles around to grab his backpack and put the journal and remaining fruit snacks inside, and then he runs off into the forest. He runs for a few minutes before realizing he doesn’t know where he is and curses himself for not taking a minute to think out a plan.
He’s near a stream that looks like it’s out of a storybook and he sits down next to it, exhausted. He chugs his water and is still thirsty when he’s done. Looking to the stream he wonders if the water would be clean enough to drink here. He knows normally it isn’t, but this forest isn’t normal. Mako leans in to scoop some water out of the river when he hears a voice call out to him from somewhere nearby.
“Dude, don’t drink the stream water!” it calls. The voice sounds like it belongs to a kid around his age.
“Don’t you know your forest basics? Don’t drink unfiltered water, bro!” says another voice.
“What?” Mako drops his hands and squints towards the tree the voices are coming from. He has to shield his eyes against the sun, but he sees two figures drop out of the tree and walk the few feet over to him.
The voices belong to two boys around Bolin’s age. They look exactly the same save for one having a rounder face than the other, and one wearing a dark green tank top while the other wears a light green tank top. They’re both wearing cargo shorts that look like the kind Bolin wears, and they aren’t wearing any shoes.
“Stream water,” one of the boys gestures to the water, “Is a no, always.”
“Even if it’s sparkling clear, it’s a no.” The other one, the one in light green, crosses his arms, and shakes his head.
Mako narrows his eyes at them. “Why’re you just sitting in a tree?”
“Why’re you running through the forest trying to drink bad water?” the light green one asks, ignoring Mako’s question.
“I wasn’t… look, I’m busy. I have to help my brother.” He pushes himself up and grabs his backpack again.
“Why? Where is he?” the dark green one asks.
“He’s stuck. I guess that’s the best way to describe it,” Mako huffs.
“Like… in a ditch?” the light green one chirps.
“No, not in a ditch!” Mako rolls his eyes. “He’s in a tree somewhere in here.”
“Get a ladder!” the boys suggest in unison.
“It isn’t that simple!” Mako lashes out and the boys take a step back together.
“We can help!” Dark Green offers.
“Why would you help me? You don’t even know who I am!” Mako squints curiously at them. “And I don’t know who you are!”
“I’m Wing!” the one with the rounder face and dark green tank top announces as he points to himself.
“And I’m Wei!” The other boy copies his movements. “Now you know us, so let us help!”
Mako looks between the two boys and knows he’s going to mess up their names later, but he doesn’t really care; he just wants to get his brother back.
“Fine,” He agrees after a moment. “I’m Mako and we’re going to rescue my brother, Bolin.”
Mako begins walking into the woods, striding confidently until he realizes he doesn’t hear the boys behind him. He turns to see them standing a few yards back, watching him from the place Mako just left.
“What?” he shouts to them.
“Do you know where you’re going?” Wei yells to him.
Mako opens his mouth to tell him that of course he knows where he’s going before realizing he doesn’t. He’s lost with some weird brothers in a random forest and he thinks there’s a horror movie about this.
“No, I don’t,” he concedes and makes his way back over to them.
“Lucky for you…” Wing begins.
“... We can lead the way!” Wei finishes.
“If you guys keep doing that, I’ll kill you both,” Mako warns as he begins to follow the boys into the woods.
“So,” Wei asks, moving a tree branch out of the way so he can get by, “Do you remember any important, like, landmarks about where your brother is?”
The branch Wei moved now flies back and hits Mako in the face. He frowns and rubs at his nose. “I don’t know, it’s all forest to me.”
“Ah, c’mon Hair Gel, you gotta remember something!” Wing turns back to smile at him, teasing.
Mako lightly touches his hair-- he didn’t think he used that much gel. He falls silent as he thinks back on the spot where Bolin was taken. “Oh!” he shouts and the boys pause to turn towards him. “There were a bunch of little mushroom circles? Like a dozen or so tiny circles of mushrooms lining the ring of trees.”
The other boys share a look with each other and Mako feels like he’s missing out on something, and it pisses him off.
“What is it?” he demands and crosses his arms.
“Is there… anything else that you’re leaving out?” Wei gently prods.
“Nothing sounds too crazy, y’know.” Wing adds.
He feels like they’re trying to coax something out of him, like they know he’s leaving out the pixies. He looks between the two of them and narrows his eyes.
“What are you guys talking about?” he asks.
The boys share a look and cross their arms in sync. “We just feel like there’s something being left out,” Wei says.
They all stare at each other for a few more moments before Mako rolls his eyes and sighs. “I’m gonna sound insane,” he begins and the boys instantly perk up, “But I saw… I saw pixies kidnap my brother.”
“Nice!” Wing reacts instantly and Wei smacks him in the stomach. “I mean, not nice but, y’know, at least we know what we’re dealing with.” Wing not so subtly high fives Wei, and then they turn and continue marching through the woods.
“You’re not gonna call me crazy or anything?” Mako frowns at them and rushes to keep up.
“Why would we?” Wei shoots him a look over his shoulder.
“Because saying I’ve seen pixies take my brother sounds crazy,” Mako admits.
Both boys make a sound dismissing that idea and Mako decides to just shut up and follow them as they go deeper into the forest. He adjusts his backpack a bit and thinks about the journal inside of it. Mentally he berates whoever wrote the book for not including instructions or a step-by-step plan for how to beat pixies, although he supposes he should be thankful the book exists at all. He snaps out of his thoughts when he hears Wing curse at a tree branch that hit the side of his head.
“Why!” Wing shouts at the branch and Mako thinks he sees the branch recoil from Wing, bending in an odd fashion to get out of his way.
He rubs his eyes a few times and when he opens them again, the branch looks as it did before Wing shouted. Mako chalks it up to being full of adrenaline and anxiety about his brother and continues on ahead.
§
He isn’t sure how long they walk for, but Mako’s feet hurt by the time he slams into the back of Wei on the edge of a clearing. He tries to walk up and past Wing at the front, but he’s blocked by Wing’s arm flying out in front of him.
“Mako.” His tone is serious and Mako’s stomach drops, “You do not walk out there first.” He doesn’t know why he trusts his words immediately, but he finds himself nodding along. Wing looks past Mako, to Wei, “Are ya ready?”
“Sure am,” Wei chimes up from behind him. Wing nods at both of them and Mako continues to feel like there’s more going on than he understands.
Wei warns him to watch his step as he follows Wing out into the clearing, and he carefully steps over the small ring of mushrooms, identical to the one Bolin crushed earlier.
“My brother crushed one of these earlier,” Mako points down at the mushrooms.
Wei’s mouth opens in what Mako at first thinks is surprise, but then learns it’s realization when he says, “Okay, yeah, I mean that isn’t good, but it makes sense now.”
“What does that mean!” Mako pleads.
Before Wei can reply, the soft flutter of wings fills the air, and once again the air shifts to show dozens of pixies in the trees. Mako’s eyes immediately scan his surroundings to find Bolin, and breathes a sigh of relief upon seeing him clinging to a branch a little too high up in a tree – at least he isn’t being dangled this time.
“Ah, you’re back,” Fayette materializes in front of Mako’s face. They then look at Wing and Wei and smile, “And you brought them.” The way they talk about Wing and Wei makes Mako think the three of them have met before.
“Yeah, he brought us, he knows extremely cool and tough power when he sees it!” Wing taunts.
“You have got to be kidding me.” Fayette deadpans and turns back to Mako, “Out of everything you could’ve run into here, you found them? I mean, in a way it works, but I would’ve preferred Su or literally anyone else.”
Wei groans and pulls Mako back so he can stand in front of him. “Listen, dude, just tell us what weird deal you tricked him into so that we can help and get you to let his brother go.”
“You two are the least cooperative.” Fayette pulls at their long hair with their tiny hands, and honestly, Mako thinks they look adorable. “I simply told my pal that if he found us power, we would give his brother back.”
“This again?” the boys say in unison, sounding exasperated.
“Again?!” Mako echoes and is shushed.
“You were stingy last time.” Fayette crosses their arms and shrugs. “Look, we didn’t want to involve you again, but it seems that fate, or rather a 12-year-old idiot, has other plans.”
The other pixies flutter their wings in agreement and Mako knows it’s wrong and maybe slightly insane, but he wants to catch one of them so badly. He looks up at Bolin and tries to give him a reassuring smile, but truthfully he's too high up and Mako can’t see his face all that well. He can, however, make out Bolin quickly letting go of the tree to wave down at them, and he feels slight relief.
“So how do you wanna do it this time?” Wing asks, turning Mako’s attention back to the conversation.
Fayette rolls their eyes and gives Mako a look like can-you-believe-this? “Same as last time, obviously.”
“Why not get creative with it!” Wei encourages, “Maybe use a rock! Or a squirrel!” Wing nods along with him.
“Please, for the love of everything living on this earth, just do it the way we did this before.” Fayette’s voice sounds dangerously close to begging.
Wing and Wei each kneel next to a mushroom ring before gently placing a hand in the center, and closing their eyes. Mako watches, mouth falling open slightly, as grass wraps around their hands and begin to pulsate from dark to light green. The pixies around him faintly glow in time with the grass, and something about them seems more real now. Fayette floats in the air, head back, with a slight smile on their face and a silvery glow around them.
Suddenly, both boys open their eyes at the same time, and for a moment, their eyes look entirely white. Before Mako can really get a good look, though, they both blink and their eyes are back to normal. The grass slides off their hands, and the pixies cease to glow. When they stand up, Mako notices the grass is lighter where they had their hands, leaving faint handprints behind.
“All souped up?” Wing pipes as he rubs his grassy palm on his shorts.
Fayette frowns at him, “Yes… we are ‘souped up’.” They’ve returned back to their regular dark blue.
“Then you wouldn’t mind giving me my brother back?” Mako points up into the trees.
“Of course!” Fayette grins and turns towards Bolin.
“Gently!” Wei adds at the last second. “Bring him down gently.” Fayette’s grin turns into pursed lips and a heavy sigh.
Within seconds Bolin is safely set on the ground in front of him. Mako surges forward and wraps him in a tight hug, clinging as hard as he can to his brother. Bolin tries to hug him back, but his arms can’t fully wrap around his backpack and also his face is being squished into a shoulder strap.
“You have your brother, we have our power. You’re a fine boy.” They look Mako in the eye and he feels something akin to electricity run through him for a second. Fayette’s voice sounds louder and feels more solid now. “Be well, Bolin. You were a good pawn.” They nod at Bolin.
“Uh… thanks?” Bolin shrugs as he separates himself from Mako. “I’d say ‘anytime’ but I don’t want to do that again.”
“We’ll see,” Fayette winks and Mako doesn’t care for it one bit. Then they turn to the boys. “And you two. This was the quickest run-in we’ve had, I can only hope they’ll be like this in the future.” The boys both shake their heads, “Tell your mother we say hello.” And with that, they all disappear, leaving only the four boys in the small ring of trees.
It’s silent for a moment as each of them tries to think of something to say until Bolin blurts, “Mako, where did you find twins in the woods?”
“Twins? How do you know they’re twins?” Mako raises an eyebrow at Bolin.
Bolin gives him a blank look, and then uses both hands to gesture to the other boys. “They look exactly the same!” Mako frantically looks between the two boys.
“Wait you didn’t know we’re twins?” Wing laughs.
Mako feels his face heat up slightly. “It’s not my fault! I’m normally very observant and quick, I was just stressed today.” Nobody seems convinced and he deflates a bit.
“Speaking of brothers,” Wei chimes in, “It’s nice to meet the boy we’ve spent the day looking for.” He smiles at Bolin and Bolin gives a small wave back. “I’m Wei, and this is my twin, Wing.”
“I’m Bolin, which you probably already know.” He gives a nervous laugh and Mako narrows his eyes at him. “Thanks for uh, keeping my brother alive.” He lightly punches Wei in the shoulder.
Wei returns the gentle hit and says, “It was no problem. The hardest part was the brooding.”
Mako doesn’t want to listen to three people talk about his tween angst, so he loudly clears his throat and kicks at the ground.
“I’m pretty tired, I guess we should go home.” He shifts the weight of his backpack around a bit uncomfortably. “Right, Bo?”
Bolin slumps forward a little bit as if just hearing Mako say he was tired made the events of the day catch up with him. “Yeah. I could use a nap.”
“Can you guys get back okay?” Wing asks.
“Yeah, it’s just a straight shot back that way,” Mako points in the direction he remembers walking from the first time.
“Get home safe, guys. And if you’re ever bored or anything, Wing and I will probably be just hanging out in the woods if you wanna give us a yell,” Wei offers, looking between the two of them, but mostly at Bolin with the kindest smile Mako has seen all day.
“Or just follow our brother home one day!” Wing proposes.
Mako just nods, despite not knowing who their brother could be, desperate to just get home now. He and Bolin say their goodbyes and walk back to the shack. Bo spends most of the time talking about the pixies and the food they tried to give him and Mako just nods along, relieved he has him back.
§
Later that night, after Bolin is asleep and the only sounds he can hear are the floorboards creaking and the forest doing whatever it does, Mako takes out a pen from his backpack and adds to the page about pixies, hoping he never has to look at the page again, but better safe than sorry. He flips through the book one more time and catches a glimpse of a page talking about ghosts and some haunted manor. He still isn’t sure ghosts are real, but who knows?
He tucks the journal away for the night and closes his eyes as he falls asleep to the sound of Bolin’s breathing.