Work Text:
When Iroh woke up with the sun, the other side of the bed was already cold. Mako must have gotten up long before him and went to work already. He sighed, rubbing his eyes. The faint memory of last night's fight slowly came back to his mind, making his insides churned. He didn't want to go to bed angry, they never did, but both of them were too tired last night to keep going. The problem was still glaring, and the echoing sound of them yelling at each other at midnight came back to haunt him. Damn it. He knew he shouldn't have gone that far, he knew it.
Iroh dragged himself out of bed and into the bathroom to brush his teeth. He mindlessly finished his morning routine, the fight with Mako occupied his mind in the whole process. He wished he could take it back, all of it, but it was impossible. He saw Mako's unshed tears as they curled up on opposite sides of the bed, and he decided to ignore it. He wanted to punch himself in the face for yelling at Mako.
It was all because of work. Something so familiar, yet so problematic all of a sudden. Mako's job was taking away all of his time for family, and after he broke his promise of spending time with Iroh on their anniversary, Iroh snapped. He knew, he knew he was also a workaholic, and he spent less time at home than with his army, but it was in the past. He actively retired early from action to get a desk job just so he could build this family with Mako properly. He refused the throne so he could stay in Republic City with Mako. He did everything he could, but Mako's career took off, and they started seeing each other more rarely. Iroh was happy for Mako, he was, but sometimes it felt like he sacrificed everything for Mako and the man wasn't doing anything in return. Yesterday was another bad day at the office, and he took it all out on Mako when he came home.
Now he wished he could sit down and have a calm, friendly talk with his boyfriend instead of lashing out. After all, they both just wanted love.
Iroh finished breakfast without even paying attention to what he was eating, and then drove to work in the same state. He wondered if he should reach out first, call Mako to apologize and ask him to have a proper talk tonight, but then Mako's job was hectic, and he might interrupt the process. And Iroh wasn't really guilty for being angry. He just didn't think he should react the way he did, but Mako forgetting their anniversary still hurt him. Iroh spent the rest of the day with his mind occupied by his boyfriend and their fight, not knowing how it would go down when they came home that night.
Time passed, and before he could notice, it was time to go home. He glanced at the clock to check, and decided to wrap up the paper for tomorrow.
"Hey General, what are you still doing here?" One of his colleagues, Rowan, called from outside of the door, and he went over to open it.
"What? Something wrong?" He raised an eyebrow at the guy, and the guy gave him a cheeky grin.
"Your lover boy is waiting for you outside! He told me it's your anniversary and he's taking you on a date." He laughed and punched Iroh's shoulder. "Work time's over, just leave!"
Iroh blinked. Okay. Was he really-- "Are you talking about Mako?"
"Of course! Cop Mako! Or do you have another mistress somewhere?" Rowan rolled his eyes. "Come on, he's been waiting for you for half an hour!"
Iroh stuttered, but his confusion was ignored as he was kicked out of his own office and pushed out of the building. Well, Rowan didn't know about their fight last night, so he didn't see how strange that was. But Iroh decided to just go and see for himself, and the man was right. Mako was waiting for him at the door, next to his motorcycle.
"Hey." Iroh hesitatingly steps over, trying to guess what was on Mako's mind.
"Oh, hey! Is your work done?" Mako turned around to greet him with a smile, and Iroh nodded. The man reached out a hand and took his, gently pulling him over. "How are you feeling? Are you still mad at me?"
"I'm sorry for yelling at you yesterday." Iroh mumbled as he held Mako close. "Can we talk?"
"Well, we can. At the restaurant." Mako grinned as he kissed his boyfriend's forehead, and turned around to pick up a helmet to give to him. "Come on, I'm taking you on a date to make up for yesterday. Happy anniversary, babe."
"I… You don't have to work? You're never free before 8 pm." Iroh bit his lip as he looked at Mako, but the man shook his head.
"I am today. And I re-organized my schedule. I'll be home earlier from tomorrow, I promise."
Iroh didn't believe him. He loved Mako, but he also understood Mako, so he knew that there was no way Mako would suddenly drop his duty just to go out and have dinner dates. But then his boyfriend was already here, doing his best to make it up to Iroh, and it had been ages since he sat behind Mako on a motorcycle, and it was a very, very sweet gesture.
"Don't go too fast." He said as he put on the helmet and climbed on the vehicle, closing his arms on Mako's middle.
Mako chuckled at the words and revved the engine. "Please, I can only dream of your speed with a sato mobile."
The motorcycle sped away before Iroh could think of a comeback, and he had to hold onto Mako to stay still. The wind was around them, the scenery went past them in blurs, making him feel like they were in their own world while still being shined on by others. He missed holding Mako like this, he missed the warmth, the firm hips and the broad shoulders. He missed the man's body like crazy.
They went past the busy night streets of the city, past the bay, and then finally, when Iroh felt like he could stay like this forever, Mako slowly came to a stop. They were on Crystal street, in the North of the city. Iroh looked up to realize that they were in front of a new restaurant that he had been dying to try since forever, but never had the chance to.
"I already have a reservation." Mako said as he helped Iroh pull off his helmet. "I hope the food is good."
Iroh smiled as the two walked in, hand in hand, and were taken to their table. It was near the large window display, beautifully lit by chandeliers and candles, and they could be closer than ever. The waitress came to take their orders, and quickly left to prepare the food.
"Thank you." Iroh reached out a hand on the table top as they sat down, and Mako took it. "This is amazing."
"I should have done this yesterday." The man sighed, cupping both of Iroh's hands. "I forgot. I'm sorry."
"It's… I understand that your job is busy." Iroh nodded. "You don't have to do this. I just want to spend some time alone with you, we can just have dinner at home. Watch TV or something."
"You deserve better than any random take out or Netflix movie." Mako insisted, smiling. "It's our anniversary. It's important. You're important."
"More important than your cases?" Iroh smirked, sipping on his drink (not alcohol, because he hated alcohol), and Mako laughed.
"Come on, don't make me choose." He sighed. "But lately I have been choosing my work over you, haven't I? It's not fair. You've done so much for us. I promise I'll try better."
"You know, I was wrong for getting mad at you too. I should be supportive of you, not making you choose." Iroh looked at his boyfriend. "So, both need to try better?"
"Yeah, both need to try better." Mako nodded, smiling, and then they started talking about their day, Iroh telling him about what he missed while not home, and Mako talked about the people he met at work. There was a big transition at the precinct, and all of the members had to work extra hours to make sure everything's running smoothly.
It was nice, hearing Mako's voice and laughter again, so close and relaxed. Until Mako's phone vibrated in his pocket, and he quickly pulled it out. One glance at the name and he swiped it silent.
"Who's that?" Iroh asked as he tried one of the onigiri, and Mako shook his head.
"Nothing. Work."
"You're hanging up on work?" Iroh raised an eyebrow, smirking. Alright, that's new.
"Hey, I told you I'm putting us first from now on." Mako put the phone upside down on the side of the table, continuing with his food. "That means not taking calls from work when time's up."
Iroh smiled, shaking his head. He'd like to see how long Mako could keep it up. "You know, the kids at the orphanage near our apartment are going to set up a small performance at the Summer Festival. They wanted to do a firebending sequence and they asked us to help them train."
"Of course! That's amazing!" Mako exclaimed. He looked so surprised yet so excited at the idea. Iroh knew how much he loved those kids. They had visited the place together so many times before, and built a close relationship with each child there. Even when some of them got adopted and left, they still stayed in contact, just so Mako knew they were safe. It killed them that Iroh had to visit them alone these days.
"But fire can be quite dangerous, especially in a big event, so we need to choreograph an entertaining sequence without putting too much firebending in it." Iroh continued. "I've had some rough sketch of how I want it to be, maybe you can take a look at it and give me some feedback when we go home."
"Sure. What do you have in mind already?"
The phone vibrated again. It made the table rumble with how hard it vibrated, and Mako immediately reached over to turn it off. From his expression, Iroh could guess it was work again.
"You can take the call. It's okay." He said softly, but Mako replied firmly.
"No. I already said it, no work."
Iroh shrugged. He went on about the kids and the performance he had in his vision, but stayed focused on how Mako reacted. The man was obviously more fidgetty than before. He just kept glancing at the phone, thinking Iroh didn't notice, and Iroh knew he wasn't really listening. The precinct called Mako a few more times, and he told the man to just pick up to see what's wrong, but Mako was too stubborn to give up. He insisted on listening to Iroh and continuing their date, despite clearly being worried.
"I just want to organize the team to look neat on stage. That's what's been bugging me, there are a lot of them and I want all of their faces to be seen by everyone." Iroh discussed, and before Mako could answer, the damn phone vibrated again.
"God, I swear --" Mako groaned, but as he reached out to turn it off again, Iroh snatched the phone from its spot on the table and looked at it. Still the precinct. He swiped to answer, and handed it to Mako.
"Just ask them what's wrong."
Mako opened his mouth to argue, but the voice from the other side was already right next to his ear.
"Detective! What took you so long?!"
"My shift is over. Can't you just leave me alone for a second?" Mako snapped.
"It's the Sandstorm Triad! They've just broken into the central bank and taken loads of money!"
Shit. Iroh could see color drained from his boyfriend's face with every word he heard. Mako looked like he was one second away from bolting out of his seat to go chase the bad guys.
"What have we done? Do we get where they're running to?"
"They scattered. Each of them keeps an amount and they split to blend in and throw us off course. There are five of them, and we've captured three. One is on the chase, and the last one's escaped. We lost him on the North side."
Mako let out a tensed breath, his eyes stared blindly through the window display behind Iroh. The restaurant they were sitting in was in the North of the city. Iroh could feel the cogs turning in his brain. A plan on how to sweep over the whole area alone in fifteen minutes.
"If we could reach you earlier, we could use an extra hand to find the last one." The colleague sighed. "But forget it, you're in charge of tracking down the rest of the money. You're the detective, after all - just come to the back later to check on the scene."
"Can you at least tell me what the escaped triad member looks like?" Mako grunted, rubbing his temple. "Male or female? Height? Skin, eye, hair color? Is it a bender? Which element? What's he wearing?"
He nodded at each information, biting his lip. Iroh looked at him, wanting to help, but didn't know how. He should feel hurt - all he wanted was just a night with his boyfriend, and these bank robbers had to blow it up. It was work in the middle of their date again - but this time it was an emergency, and it was clear that their dinner was finished. When Mako turned off the call, he would definitely left for the crime scene and--
"God, it's him." Mako's eyes widened, and Iroh turned around to see a person walking by the window. The person looked up, and right when he saw Mako, he ran.
"What--"
"I'm so, so sorry Iroh." Mako looked at him, eyes filled with guilt, and then before Iroh could say anything, he practically rocketted himself out of the restaurant with fire and disappeared along with the bad guy.
.
.
.
The guy was fast, and he clearly knew the way around this area more than Mako did. He was an earthbender, and the ground supported him as he ran, leaving holes and cracks on the street to slow Mako down. But of course, Mako was fast - he managed to get past the obstacles without trouble and used fire to jet himself forward. His head kept on nagging him about leaving Iroh at the restaurant high and dry, but he shoved the guilt down so he could concentrate on shortening the distance between him and the robber. The street was full of civilians, they screamed and fell aside as the robber parted the way and threw rocks at Mako behind him.
Mako dodged the attacks and punched a fireball at him, but the man stopped it with a large rock. Mako tried to stop him with his firebending, but when chasing like this, he needed to focus everything on his speed in order not to lose sight of the robber among the people on the street. They were slowing him down. The robber decided to attack them as a way to cut him off - he even shoved an old lady between them, and Mako almost hit her head on. He had to stop for a second to make sure she was okay, and then when he came back to the chase, the bad guy was already too far away.
"Damn it." Mako growled to himself, trying to get back to the race, but he knew he was out. He cursed himself in his head. Damn it.
"Hey!"
The familiar noise of engines revving behind him getting closer, and before Mako could turn around, a blinding light and a layer of dust covered him. When he opened his eyes, his loyal motorcycle was already in front of him, growling, ready to speed, and his eyes widened.
"Iroh?"
"Get on! Come on, he's getting away!" Iroh yelled, and Mako saw the thug climbing on a sato mobile, almost out of sight.
He just jumped on behind Iroh, and the man rushed away, so fast Mako almost fell backwards. He gripped onto Iroh's waist tightly, grinning as his boyfriend ignored all of the safety precautions he always talked about riding motorcycles.
"You really are something." Mako chuckled as their cycle swerved its way through traffic, crossing red lights and nearly knocking over a stack of wooden crates. The satomobile turned into a different road unexpectedly, a bridge, and before Iroh had to ask, Mako shot a pair of jet fire from his hands to aid his turn. They thought the same thing - and they worked together perfectly.
The thugs on the satomobile threw rocks at them (again, seriously, don't they have anything new to do), and Iroh's skills combined with Mako's fire helped them dodge it all. The bridge they took was getting smaller and smaller, and if they wanted to get close to them, they needed to jump on the pavement.
Mako yelled. "Pave--"
"Pavement!" Iroh said at the same time, and then he took a sharp turn - Mako fueled their cycle up, and pop, they were balancing on the tiny pavement, an inch from falling into the river.
"Some adrenaline for the date might be a good idea." Iroh replied, going faster, and Mako let go of his waist for a second to swing his arm forward and shot a deadly bolt of lightning towards the robber's car, the thundering crack sent chills down his spine.
As always, his aim was perfect, and the thug driving was knocked unconscious from the blast. The side of the satomobile was also severely destroyed, and it swivelled.
Shit. Iroh only managed to grab Mako before the satomobile slammed on their cycle and pushed it over the bridge. They both blasted fire to jet themselves up and into the bridge, falling and rolling on the ground, wrapping their arms protectively around each other.
"RCPD hands above your heads!" Mako yelled as soon as the satomobile stopped, and the two of them ran over to drag the other thugs from the inside. After a few minutes, the police arrived and took them back to the headquarters, retrieving the last amount of money that had been robbed. And then there were only the two of them.
"I think we lost the motorcycle." Iroh smirked as he peaked down to see nothing down the water.
Looking at Iroh's sweaty and dirty smug face, Mako could only laugh.
"Then you need to drive me to work from now on."
"Anytime." The man kissed him, and he could feel the way his heart hammering in his chest from the adrenaline and the chase. He had never thought seeing his boyfriend's messy hair, wrinkled clothes and face covered in dirt was something this attractive.
"Happy anniversary, love."
"We should do this every year."