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Mako tried to live in the present as much as possible.
Well. That made it sound like he did it consciously.
He’d spent his formative years unable to afford to think or dream much beyond the next meal he and Bolin needed. Half the reason he had joined the RCPD was for the pension. Working for at least twenty years and then not worrying about where the rent money would come from for the rest of his life had been a very compelling selling point.
All that to say, he wasn’t someone who tended to borrow trouble from further afield than tomorrow.
And yet, when Wu got married, Mako felt like he had already mourned it a dozen times over and was left with nothing more than jaded apathy.
First, he had mourned it when he realized that Wu would never feel the same.
Then when he realized Wu would have to marry for his role as king.
Then again when his betrothal was announced.
And again when he met her.
And a hundred miserable nights in between.
Mako was invited to the wedding, because of course he was—he was Wu’s best friend. (Wu would literally have to tell Mako to his face that he hated him and didn’t want to ever associate again before Mako would lose his grip on the best friend title.) Korra had been privileged enough to receive two invites: an official one to the avatar and a personal one as Wu’s friend. And the rest of Team Avatar had all gotten their invites in the mail. There was even one for the newest Beifong, Opal and Bolin’s little girl.
They had arrived the day before the wedding, and Wu had taken time out of his busy schedule to meet them at the zeppelin dock. Ten years of being Earth King had done nothing to damper his glow. There were the faintest of crow’s feet at the smiling corners of his eyes, and he looked the better for it.
Mako had gone to bed that night just waiting to fall apart. He hadn’t. Instead, he had lain awake and sick to his stomach for hours until the rising sun had begun to pull at his inner flame and he had rolled out of bed to start what was shaping up to be one of the worst days of his life.
The ceremony was beautiful.
Mako struggled not to grimace like he was chewing glass the entire time.
Bolin, who was seated next to him, put a sympathetic hand on his knee and it nearly sent Mako spiraling.
Later, at the feast, Bolin had shoved little Juniper Beifong into his arms saying, “Here hold Bao-bao.”
He’d dashed off immediately after, leaving Mako with the baby. Mako had pinched one of her round, meat-bun-like cheeks that had inspired her father’s nickname for her, and settled in for babysitter duty.
He wiggled his fingers in Juniper’s face until she caught hold of his fingers while the new bride and groom made their grand entrance. Juniper bit his finger with all four of her teeth.
Bolin never did circle back around to collect his daughter.
After dinner was cleared away and the dancing had begun, Wu dropped into the empty seat beside Mako. He was a touch rumpled from dancing. He’d been cutting up the floor in a way that traditional Earth Kingdom wedding clothes were never intended for.
He smiled at Mako, bright and broad, and Mako felt it in his chest like the writhing aftershocks of being struck by lightning.
“Spirits!” Wu said, leaning forward to direct that debilitating smile at Juniper. “She’s still the cutest little baby I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Mako hummed an affirmative, watching slightly nauseated as Wu made faces to entertain her. He’d have his own children soon, Mako realized. No one had been shy about speculating that the need for heirs had been what had prompted the Earth King to set aside his bachelor ways.
“Could I hold her?” Wu asked.
Mako swallowed around the lump in his throat and said, “Yeah, sure. Careful, she bites.”
“Wu! Hey, man, congratulations!” Bolin said, swooping in and pounding Wu on the back like they were just coming off a football field.
Wu jolted from the force of the blows. “Bolin! Hi!”
Bolin blew a raspberry at his daughter and scooped her out of Mako’s arms. “Have you met Bao-bao? Oh, right! You got to see her last night. Oh no! I think the little girl here needs a fresh diaper. Mako, could you help me?”
Thrown off, Mako could only say, “Huh?”
Bolin was turned just enough away from Wu that only Mako could see him make a face. It was Bolin’s don’t question, follow my lead face.
“Uh, of course,” Mako said, standing quickly.
“See ya, Wu! It’s a great party so far!” Bolin said as he began to walk away.
“Oh, see you around then,” Wu said.
Mako faltered at his tone and looked back to Wu.
There was an unreadable expression on Wu’s face, and Mako couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Mako felt the urge to stop and ask what was going on in Wu’s head, but then his own pain overrode the urge, and he carried on after Bolin.
“You’re welcome,” Bolin said when Mako caught up with him just outside the feast hall.
It was dark outside the hall, and Bolin was mostly a shadowed figure in the heavy darkness of the overhang above the walkway that led from one part of the palace to the next. Mako looked outside at the gardens instead of at his brother and niece.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said.
“Look, bro, the way I see it he doesn’t need to rub it in.”
Mako sighed and leaned against the wall. The decorative carvings on the wall dug into his shoulder. “He wasn’t ‘rubbing it in,’ Bolin.”
“All I’m saying is that if Opal had married someone else and invited me to the wedding, I wouldn’t have handled it with half the poise you’ve had.”
Bolin would have ugly sobbed through the whole thing.
“It’s not the same. We were… we were never a thing. You know it was always just me.”
“Hey! I’m just saying. You’d think the Earth King would have tact.” Bolin sniffed delicately and then promptly smashed the illusion of prim maturity by sticking his tongue out to make Juniper smile.
“You didn’t have nearly such strong opinions when Korra and Asami had their commitment ceremony.”
“That’s different,” Bolin said. “You dated both of them. It cancels out.”
Mako just shook his head. There was no arguing with that brand of Bolin-logic.
“Besides, you hadn’t felt that way about either of them for years and years. You’re still in love with him.”
Mako had taken physical hits to the stomach that hurt less.
Bolin looked up at him when he remained silent beyond a normal conversational rest.
“Shit, Mako. Are you okay, bro?”
“No,” Mako croaked. His eyes were burning, and he dug the heels of his hands into them to stop them from overflowing. “I think I’m dying.”
“Woah! None of that.”
Bolin shifted Juniper to one arm and wrapped the other around his brother. As if sensing something was wrong, Juniper began to cry. She made the loud hitching noises of an infant in confused distress.
“Okay, you hold Bao-bao and I’ll hold you,” Bolin said.
Once they were resettled, Juniper cradled to Mako’s shoulder and Bolin with his arms around them both, Bolin began to hum snatches of The Adventures of Nuktuk theme song like it was a lullaby.
“This is so pathetic,” Mako complained, still choked up. Juniper was crying right in his ear.
“All part of the process,” Bolin said. “Sometimes Bao-bao needs to cry for hours before she feels better.”
“Agni,” Mako said.
“She gets gas. It’s not her fault,” Bolin said.
“I don’t have gas,” Mako said and then immediately regretted it.
“I know, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Bolin cooed, patting Mako’s back like he was burping him.
“I hate you so much right now,” Mako said.
“That’s alright. I’m a big, tough father now. I can take it.”
Mako stubbornly refused to bury his face in Bolin’s shoulder and weep. He stared off into the night sky, watching the patchy silver clouds trail lazily over the scattered stars. His eyes went blurry, and then he blinked and wept nonetheless.
Mako and Juniper calmed down about the same time.
“Was that good? Did it make you feel better?” Bolin asked, continuing to treat Mako like a child.
“Not really.”
Bolin stepped back and reclaimed the baby. The little girl’s face was red, and Bolin wiped her face with his shirt while Mako quietly did the same to his own face.
For a while, they just stood quietly listening to the sounds of the party filtering out into the night.
“Okay, I think I’m good,” Mako said at last.
Bolin patted him on the arm, and together they returned to the feast hall.
“My lord, what is wrong?” Jia asked, startling Wu out of his thoughts.
Wu pulled his attention away from the middle distance and focused on his new wife. “What makes you think something is wrong?”
Wu was slumped in his chair at the front of the room, so maybe it was a stupid question.
Jia cocked her head and the decorations in her hair jingled like loose change in a trouser pocket.
“I may not know you intimately yet, but I know you well enough to know that something has caused your good mood to sour,” Jia said. “You’re droopy, my lord.”
“Droopy! Well, we can’t have that!”
Wu made no effort to un-droop.
Jia glanced into the crowd before stepping closer. She reached out a hand and cupped his cheek.
“When we were dancing, you seemed to be enjoying yourself. And then you went to say hello to your friend. And now you are droopy.”
“Again with the droopy,” Wu protested. “You better keep your voice down or people will think I can’t get it up.”
“I wouldn’t know, my lord,” Jia said. Then she thoughtfully said, “You weren’t away from me for more than half an hour. What did…”
She trailed off, Wu watched as her mind slid the pieces of the puzzle together. For the first time, he cursed past-Wu for insisting that his wife be clever above all else.
“He’s the one. Isn’t he? He’s the one you told me about.”
“I believe,” Wu said primly, “That what was said in that conversation was said with the understanding that we’d never bring it up again.”
Jia grinned at him, but it wasn’t a mocking smile. She draped herself across his lap like she might if they were really very much in love.
“A firebender,” she said quietly. “No wonder you were recalcitrant with the details.”
Wu was distracted by Mako, Bolin, and the baby reentering the hall. Wu waited for Mako’s gaze to turn his way, but it never did. Just the day before, Wu would have had it for certain.
Jia watched too.
“I’ve often wondered since we talked what sort of man I would be sharing you with.”
“You aren’t,” Wu said.
“No. As the Earth Consort, I am not.” She laid a hand on his chest over his heart to make her next point. “But…”
Wu plucked her hand off his chest and brought it to his mouth. He kissed her fingers.
“Of course,” Jia said, watching him, “I was told that the principle wife of the Earth King is the Earth Kingdom itself.”
“That sounds like Madame Fa-Lu herself.”
“Yes, the etiquette lessons have been… let’s say ‘enlightening.’ I never would have accepted the position if I knew there were going to be so many etiquette lessons.”
“I’m afraid it never ends,” Wu said. “She still sits me down for lectures now and again.”
They fell into silence, and Wu found himself searching for Mako in the crowd once more. He didn’t find him.