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"Mako is being weird," Bolin declares the moment Mako steps away to get them more drinks.
They're at their weekly-ish (Avatar schedules being what they are) brunch-ish (again, schedules) Team Avatar reunion. Asami had started organizing them once she and Korra got back from their Spirit World vacation after listening to Bolin gripe one too many times about never seeing everybody anymore.
Mako had lost a vicious game of rock paper scissors against Korra and had been sent to the bar to collect their breakfast-adjacent themed cocktails. Well, Korra, Asami, and Bolin's breakfast-y beverages. Mako has to work in a couple hours because Lin doesn't understand the concept of weekends so he's stuck drinking tea.
"Mako's always weird," Korra says, taking a massive bite out of the mango garnish from her last drink.
"No, but this weird is different weird."
"Different weird?" Asami asks skeptically.
"Like...hmm," Bolin ponders, "you know how, deep down, Mako is basically a feral pygmy puma?"
Asami blinks at him. "You lost me."
"No, no," Korra says, "I get it. He's all neat and tidy but..."
"But he once slept on the floor for two weeks to avoid an awkward social situation," Asami admits.
"And he sets parking tickets on fire instead of paying them," Korra agrees.
"And he ate a sandwich out of the garbage once, right after telling me not to dumpster dive for snacks anymore," Bolin emphasizes.
"Oh spirits, not the sandwich story," Asami sighs.
"'It was still in the take out box'!" Korra quotes.
"'It was a perfectly good half of a sandwich - no one had even taken a bite out of it!'" Asami grudgingly recites.
"You get it," Bolin gestures emphatically.
"So how exactly is he being weird?" Asami tries to drag them back on track before Mako gets back.
"He's acting like a normal person. Or at least, a normal-ish person. I have Examples," Bolin declares when both Korra and Asami look skeptical.
Asami hopes it takes Mako a very long time to get back with those drinks.
...
Example 1: the phone
"A phone?" Bolin goggles at the shiny new monument to modern technology now taking up residence on the cracked plaster of Mako's apartment wall.
"Yes?" Mako looks at him, one eyebrow raised as if it were the most natural thing in the world for Mako, who gripes about spending even half a yuan on anything other than the bare essentials, and communicates primarily via eyebrow twitch, shelled out who knows how much for an expensive contraption dedicated solely to communication.
"You got a phone? You?"
"Yes?" And there goes the classic Mako eyebrow.
"You hate talking to people!"
Mako just stares at him, further proving his point.
"Oh I get it," Bolin realizes that he's basically talking to himself at this point but he's charging ahead anyway, "you need a phone number to hand out to the ladies." He wiggles his eyebrows for emphasis. See, Mako, two can play at the eyebrow game.
Mako's face scrunches up in disdain, "Why would I give strangers my phone number?"
"Uh, why wouldn't you?"
"Because I only want to talk to two people and one of them is currently in my living room?"
"Ooh, I'm telling Korra and/or Asami they didn't make the 'Mako's willing to talk to you' list."
Mako rolls his eyes skyward, "Fine, there's only four people I want to talk to and one of them is in my living room!"
The phone, as if waiting for the most dramatic timing possible, rings. Mako doesn't hesitate, darting forward to grab the receiver. "Wu?" a long pause then, "yes, I have a phone now." another pause, "of course it's my phone, what do you think I'm talking to you on?" A third pause, then, softly, "yes, I bought a phone to talk to you. It's too quiet without you."
Bolin sits on Mako's ragged couch, brain whirling.
...
"He bought a phone," Bolin says, "to talk to someone! On purpose! That's weird!"
"I think it's sweet," Asami says with a small, private smile.
...
Example 2: the cooking
Bolin knows from years living together, that Mako can cook. But Mako can cook in the same way that Bolin can technically sing. Mako can hold a spatula the same way Bolin can hold a tune - functionally but with no real flair or skill.
Or at least that's what Bolin thought. But then he walks into Mako's apartment only to nearly clothesline himself on the telephone cord strung from the living room to the kitchen. The kitchen where something smells...good?
Bolin peers around the corner to see Mako standing in front of the stove, telephone receiver sandwiched between his cheek and shoulder, steam drifting around his hands as he works.
"Now take the - no, not cabbage. Wu, not all leafy greens are cabbage. Did you buy cabbage? No, it's supposed to be bok choy - yes it's a real vegetable. Wu, I'm not going to make up vegetables just to mess with you." a paise, a little laugh, a laugh! from Mako! And then, "you have definitely had bok choy, I fed it to you at the hotel - Wu, did you just eat whatever I put in front of you? Wu - fine, we'll adjust the recipe."
And Bolin watches as Mako, who never uses more dishes than the bare minimum, sprinkles something in a pot, then grabs something off a cutting board and drops it into a pan before opening a steamer basket and poking at the contents, all the while walking Wu through every step over the phone, chuckling or groaning over Wu's increasingly absurd substitutions.
Bolin, feeling oddly like an intruder, sidles back down the hallway and through the door.
...
"Odd! It's odd!" Bolin argues.
"Yin's been teaching Mako recipes," Asami says, "it's nice he's been teaching Wu."
Bolin is not listening, "And another thing-" he continues.
...
Example 3: the clothes
It's a well known fact that Mako owns about three outfits. This is including his uniform, which shouldn't count in Bolin's opinion. He recognizes that Mako's absurd frugality and absolute refusal to throw out or replace anything that could possibly be mended comes from the fact that, for about a decade of their lives it was the only thing they could do if something broke or tore.
But here's the thing: Mako likes nice things. Bolin knows this. Bolin has seen the way Mako runs his hands over the fine fabric of the one and only suit he owns (a gift from Asami, of course). He's seen the way Mako lingers over beautiful art, tilts his head slightly to catch the faintest strains of music, pauses and savors a good meal. Mako likes nice things.
But even now, with his salary and semi-settled life, Mako won't spend a fraction of a yuan on anything other than the essentials. And not Bolin's version of the essentials which includes mover tickets and the occasional spa day (hey, Wu is right, spas are nice). Mako's version of the essentials is food, shelter, the occasional book picked up at a rummage sale, and apparently a weirdly expensive telephone.
Which is why, when Bolin opens Mako's closet to borrow a hat - which is Mako's fault in the first place, it's not even that cold outside, Bolin's ears won't get frostbite if they aren't covered every second he's exposed to the elements - he's shocked by the wall of fabric in front of him.
"Uh, Mako, I think someone reverse robbed you."
"What does that even mean?" Mako asks, sticking his head through the doorway, "hurry up, we're going to be late."
"Mako, your closet is full of clothes!"
Mako gives him a Look, "Yes. That is traditionally where we keep clothes. In closets."
Oh great, sassy Mako is coming out. "You have clothes!" Bolin gestures to the rainbow if fabric (well, not exactly a rainbow, more a sliding scale of warm colors interrupted by the occasional flash of black or gray, whoever stocked this closet knows what looks good on Mako, at the very least) "a closet full of clothes!"
Up goes Mako's eyebrow. "Yes?"
"Where did they come from?" Bolin demands, feeling like they're having two very different conversations and not 100% sure why.
"Mostly Wu," Mako says with a shrug, "I told him not to, but that just made him send more." He frowns at Bolin, "I've been wearing the clothes, is this really the first time you've noticed?"
Well yes, it is the first time Bolin has noticed, but in his defense Mako's personal style hasn't exactly changed. He favors clean lines, rich colors, and good quality fabrics. The only real difference has been a subtle improvement in the cut and style of the pieces. Like someone is shopping for Mako and not some idea of Mako.
Interpreting Bolin silence as judgement Mako folds his arms defensively "Wu has good taste. If he says something looks good I kind of just get one in every color. Now come on, we're definitely going to be late now."
Bolin never does remember to grab a hat.
...
"See," Bolin gestures vaguely, "weird."
"What's weird?" Mako asks behind him, nearly sending Bolin jumping out of his skin.
"You," Korra says bluntly, grabbing a new fruit filled alcoholic monstrosity from the tray in Mako's hands. She takes a long sip from the curly straw before continuing, "Bolin thinks it's weird you have a phone. And friends. And an actual wardrobe."
'Traitor' Bolin mouths at her. Korra shrugs, unrepentant.
"Honestly, though, you and Wu are acting just like my parents," Korra continues, "Dad will wear literally anything mom picks out for him. They cook together too. And talk all the time. Mom says the house feels emptier when Dad has to travel for chief stuff," another gulp of her drink, "it's like you and Wu skipped the dating part and went straight to being married."
Bolin...did not expect this line of reasoning. He tries to reconcile the Mako he knows - rigid, untrusting, but fiercely loyal and deeply affectionate in his own way - with a Mako would date Earth King Wu of all people. And, he has to admit, after turning it over in his head a few times, it does kind of make sense. At least a little.
He takes a sip of his own drink and tunes back in to the conversation just in time to choke on it when Mako frowns and says "Who said anything about skipping the dating part? He was my date to Varrick's wedding last year. We're not exactly hiding it."
Asami is smiling serenely like she already knew all this and Korra is shrugging in a 'yeah, that makes sense' sort of way.
Well. Bolin never claimed to be a detective.