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Mako had two tickets to the Police Officers’ Charity Gala—one for himself and one for, in Chief Beifong’s words, “someone who’ll keep you from standing around in corners frowning all night.”
Honestly, Mako was surprised to get a ticket at all. Counter to what one would think from the name alone, the Police Officers’ Charity Gala wasn’t for police officers at all. It was for the rich and well to do in Republic City. The upper class would come, eat, drink, dance, and then open their pocketbooks to write out checks for charities that supported the families of officers killed in duty and that provided aid to disabled officers.
“You’ve been in the paper enough that the checkbooks will want to talk with you,” Lin Beifong had said with customary cynicism as she handed off the tickets.
Mako had two tickets to the Police Officers’ Charity Gala, and he didn’t know what to do with the second one.
He’d asked Bolin to come, but Bolin had said, “Oh, no! I wish I could, but I already agreed to participate in a spiritual retreat with Opal that weekend. Sorry!”
The idea of Bolin going to an Air Nomad-style spiritual retreat for an entire weekend without combusting from boredom had unsettled Mako so much that he temporarily forgot that he was supposed to be finding someone to foist his second ticket off on.
The afternoon of the gala, Mako was about ready to break down and call up an old flame from when he had been a Fire Ferret. His dress uniform, newly provided by the department, was laid out on his bed along with the two taunting tickets.
Korra and Asami were already attending—Asami as a notable member of the Republic City’s upper echelon and Korra as her date.
He was tugging his hair out at the roots trying to remember if anyone still owed him a favor from his time in the triads when the phone rang.
“Hello, Mako my man!” Wu called down the line like Mako wouldn’t be able to hear him if he didn’t shout.
Mako flinched from the noise. “Wu? What’s—”
Wu talked over him. “So it’s like this, big guy. I’ve been in the State of Hong for the last two weeks, and we’re heading back to Ba Sing Se tomorrow. We’ll be going right by Republic City. So I was thinking, what if I swung into town tonight? We could hit the town just like old times.”
Mako’s gaze dropped to the tickets on his bed.
“Do you have a tux with you?”
“Oooo,” Wu exclaimed. “Got something high class in mind?”
Mako swallowed down his nerves and asked the Earth King to be his date to the Police Officers’ Charity Gala.
Logistically, it made sense to meet outside City Hall. Wu was getting off a zeppelin, and with traffic, it would take Mako an hour just to get to the private berth.
Wu arrived in a limo—he wasn’t the first to do so, and there was a whole line of them behind his waiting their turn to deliver guests to the gala.
The single reporter who had been sent to cover the event (no one expected much in the way of news from a charity event) snapped to life when she recognized Wu as the Earth King.
Wu straightened his tuxedo coat just in time for the reporter to get her camera pointed his way. She set off a bright flash of firebending and snapped a picture of the Earth King preparing for an evening of hobnobbing with the best of Republic City.
Mako felt his stomach land in his feet as he realized what a terrible idea inviting Wu had been. He looked wonderful. He was dressed in a typical dark green tuxedo. His shirt was a lighter shade of green and covered in little gold Earth Kingdom emblems. Wu looked like a modern take on the traditional motif of The Spirit of the Earth Kingdom—trading out robes and scholar’s cap for a tux and tophat.
Sweat sprang up under Mako’s arms and at the small of his back as the slight attraction he’d felt for Wu back when he’d undergone an entire lifetime of character development over the course of a single political upheaval returned with twice the force of the first time around.
“Wu,” he croaked. Mako coughed to get his voice under control. “Wu! Over here.”
Wu beamed at him, and Mako knew he was screwed.
“Hey! There’s my favorite firebending hero! Look at you! Looking sharp!”
Wu came right up to him and tugged on the lapel of his dress uniform to straighten it.
Another flash went off, and Mako looked up sharply. The reporter held out a thumbs up.
“Looks great, gentlemen! Your majesty,” she said, shoving her camera under her arm and pulling out a ragged notepad, “would you say that comprehensive healthcare for disabled officers in Republic City is a cause particularly close to your heart.”
“Why, I do believe I have been known to say that a time or two,” Wu said without missing a beat.
He shot a look at Mako, and Mako’s bodyguard training kicked in.
“Pardon us, Pri—the Earth King won’t be taking questions at this time,” Mako said, stepping between Wu and the reporter.
“Talk to Yona at the Palace’s press office!” Wu called cheerfully as Mako steered him up the sidewalk to City Hall with a hand on his lower back.
Mako ripped his hand away as soon as they were inside. Wu wasn’t acting like he had done anything out of the ordinary, but the skin on Mako’s palm seemed to tingle.
The conference center’s ballroom was decorated with swags of fabric in the colors of the United Republic. There were tables for the guests and an open area for dancing. At the front of the room was a stage.
Wu clapped his hands together. “Oh, this is going to be fun! You know, I never got an invite to one of these shindigs while I was living in the city.”
“The invites are normally reserved for locals,” Mako said.
“Pity. You know I thrive in this sort of environment.”
And Wu did. As the evening progressed, Mako watched him charm every person they came into contact with. He was still the socialite of the past, capable of entertaining all but the toughest of cases, but he was also completely changed. No longer did he dismiss attempts at serious topics of conversation (politics or economics or the like) with a well-timed, if frequently off color, joke. If Prince Wu hadn’t had a single significant thought in twenty-three years, then Earth King Wu had opinions. And as the Earth Kingdom had quickly learned, the Earth King’s opinions were good as policy.
Mako realized during dessert, as he listened to Wu passionately argue for policy emphasizing restitutions not only for citizens that had been affected by Kuvira’s warpath but also for those affected by more than a century of apathy from Ba Sing Se, that falling in love with Wu would take little to no effort. He could already feel himself slipping into that sappy, empty-headed state that always led to a world of teasing from Bolin.
After the speeches, the band began to play and people began to dance.
Mako was just about to ask Wu if he thought they should dance when Wu took hold of Mako’s wrist and tugged him from the table.
“Come on!” he cried as Mako helplessly trailed after him. “The dance floor is calling!”
There was some fumbling as they negotiated who would lead and who would follow. Both wanted to lead, and they were nearly mowed down by the elderly CEO of a chain of greengrocers and her date.
“You lead the next dance,” Mako insisted, tugging Wu into a foxtrot and joining the undulating crowd.
“Next time I’m wearing heels, and then there will be none of this ‘I’m taller, I should lead’ nonsense.”
Mako frowned as he tried to figure out how many inches tall the heels would need to be for Wu to easily see over his shoulder.
After the initial power struggle, they settled into rhythm.
“Wu,” Mako said, interrupting the easy silence that had fallen between them after a few songs. Wu was leading so Mako’s mind could wander a bit more. “Would you ever want to do this for real?”
Wu shot him a weird look. “Do what?”
Let it never be said that Mako was a coward. “Date.”
Wu brought them to an abrupt halt. “Hold up. Isn’t this a real date?”
“You thought it was a real date? And you said yes?”
“Wasn’t it? And of course I said ‘yes’! You’re like the hottest man I’ve ever met.”
Wu was a bit flushed, and Mako felt his own cheeks heat.
At that moment, the song ended and the emcee returned to the stage to invite people to return to their seats for a special performance by Ruu of the Republic City Opera Company.
Wu took the lead again to pull Mako back to their table, but this time he held his hand and didn’t let go for the rest of the night.