Chapter Text
Mako looked over his pile of paperwork one day, saw Wu clipping his nails on the armchair in the apartment they shared in Republic City, and calmly and curiously felt surprise that his reaction of loathing was outweighed by a warm weight in his stomach. Fondness.
"Wu. Dude, that's gross. Do it in the bathroom."
It was still disgusting.
***
It had been two months since Wu had given up the monarchy. Assets had been disassembled. Material possessions- land, summer houses, islands, clothes, jewels- had been sold or donated, after a lot of snot nosed crying. The Earth Republic's new parliamentary treasury was already comfortably full from these sales, and reconstruction and aid had started as soon as possible for those who'd been in the way of Kuvira. Wu had attended, with surprising and temporary grace and silence, the official government memorial of those lost.
He had still needed a bodyguard. It had become less of a joke now that he'd begun attending discussions with provincial leaders for restructuring the country, had been giving speeches that declared his full support of ending the monarchy, and arranging tense meetings with family members who'd lost their titles with Wu's own abdication. There was still the occasional shopping spree, but he could only fit so many things in the small apartment they'd rented in a district near Yue Bay. Wu and his family received a pension in exchange for his support and involvement with the Republic, and while it was enough, it was obviously no longer a king's salary. He'd let go of the extreme end of decadence with all the hysteric abruptness of ripping off a band-aid.
When Chief Bei Fong had told Mako that he could return to the police force, despite Wu's glowing recommendation that he continue his service as a bodyguard, Mako had told her not to worry about it. He'd done the job for years already; he'd might as well see it to the end.
He had then apologized for his phrasing, and clarified that by 'the end' he meant until someone better was found to do the job, and not 'until Wu finally gets assassinated despite my best efforts'.
***
Bolin had joined them in their outing to the zoo in Ba Sing Se; he'd been visiting the family at the same time that Wu was on official business involving the palace. It was a pleasant enough day, with leftover clouds from the previous night of rain and a gentle dampness on the grass. The air smelled clear. Construction work could be heard in the property nearby where an office building had been damaged.
Wu bought an overpriced juice, asked Bolin a lot of poorly veiled questions about how to make it in the mover business, then ran off to give them 'well deserved bro-time'. He left Bolin and Mako on a wooden bridge that crossed over the zoo's river, which was deep enough that koi could be seen swimming under their feet. Mako remembered something a sign at the front had said; Avatar Aang had built the zoo in a day when he was still learning earth-bending, in perhaps under an hour. He could only have been twelve or thirteen at the time, and the zoo was still operational decades later. It was enough to make Mako feel a little underdone now that he was 22 years old.
"Wu's quite a character! I'm, uh, surprised you've been able to keep up with him for so many years," Bolin was trying and failing to hide his surprise that Mako had not set Wu on fire yet. Mako just exhaled and forgot about the shame of being outdone by a preteen a century ago; the fact that he and Bolin were still around after all they'd been through was something to take pride in. It was a truth he'd taken comfort in since they were children.
"Wu's okay."
"Ah, really? I mean, he just doesn't seem… like your type."
Mako loved Bolin, he really did, but he could feel a discussion coming that he didn't want to have, "What do you mean 'my type?'"
Bolin waved off any suspicion with moving hands and a pitched voice, "No offense towards you! He just seems a bit grating, you know? Which is fine! Just not something I've ever really imagined you voluntarily dealing with day to day."
Mako shrugged while keeping his eyes on the former prince, who was lounging at the side of the riverbank several yards away, "It's my job. And he's not so bad once you get to know him."
"Huh… so you've been… getting to know him?" There it was. Mako whipped around to look at Bolin.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Okay, first of all, chill. It's okay to be gay, fly to be bi, you're the man if you're pan. Secondly, I guess it means, does this guy make you happy?"
"I mean I- What? I guess?"
"You guess? Mako. Bro. Real talk, yes or no, do you feel the emotion 'happiness' around him?"
Mako thought about it. Wu was annoying, self-absorbed, and from a completely different world than him. There were the little surprises that caught him off guard though, that were happening more and more since Kuvira. Wu was sweet to hotel staff, to waiters, to Mako's grandmother. None of it seemed insincere or scheming. Wu liked to smell nice, and joke with workers at the counters about what cologne he should use on Mondays. They weren't great jokes but the workers laughed, not out of pity or royal deference anymore but because Wu just seemed happy to talk to them. He didn't bother girls these days- on several occasions since the war, he and Mako had criticized each other over the way they'd treated women. These occasions usually involved a lot of yelling and appalled gasps, but arguably also improvement. Wu grieved for his lost luxuries less and less. Mako scowled only half as much as he used to. It was strange to think that maybe they were both better people for having known each other.
"I guess… I feel a lot of things around him. He worries me, he embarrasses me, he trusts me… it's hard to say."
"He worries you?"
"Well yeah, he's constantly putting himself in danger and he's been kidnapped once before and if anything happened to him-"
"You wouldn't be able to forgive yourself."
Mako inhaled deeply, because it was a scary thing to hear out loud, "Yeah. And not just because the Chief would kill me."
Bolin just threw his arms out wide in a grand gesture, "Mako! This is a great breakthrough! You should tell him how you feel!"
"How do I feel?"
"Bro."
"What? I really don't know," Mako turned away from him and folded his arms on the railing of the bridge, "I feel a lot of things. I don't really know where to go from there. I met Asami when she hit me with her bike, and Korra just kissed me while I was still with Asami-"
"Whoa, let's just hope that disaster doesn't play out again. Look. Just. Look at Wu, right now. What do you feel when you look at him?"
Mako turned his head back to look at Wu, who was now singing to a flock of turtle ducklings floating on the river's surface. Mako half expected the mother to attack him, but she just swam up to Wu and gave him a passive quack. He responded by bowing to her, as professionally as he would to any puffed up diplomat or former royal.
Mako kind of hated himself for smiling fondly at it all, but not as much as he would have a few years ago.
"I feel happy."
"Then just tell him that."
"It's kind of grossing me out."
"Maybe don't tell him that."
"You're right. Thanks."
***