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[badgermolebender]

I have a game for you guys. What are Korra and Wu whispering? wrong answers only

[badgermolebender]

A truly magnificent fic! I had the honor of beta reading for most of the chapters and I am continually blown away by @kingwuko

Secret

A fanfic written by yours truly, KingWuko aka Sweetorangepoptart Fandom: Legend of Korra Pairing: Mako/Wu Rating: Explicit Content Warnings: References to homophobia 9 chapters, 90,301 words, COMPLETE

Summary:

Mako and Wu find comfort in each other’s company following the events of Guan’s election coup in Gaoling. A secret relationship ensues.

Excerpt from chapter one below the cut:

“Yeah. Probably. I mean, I remember doing some stuff… you don’t seem phased.” Mako awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, not making eye contact with Wu.  “Stuff?” Wu raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, like I remember dragging you to Guan’s machine? It’s a little fuzzy but I’m pretty sure it was real.” Mako glanced at Wu to see his reaction, but Wu wasn’t reacting much at all. He just seemed to think for a moment. “Oh, is that why you’re acting weird…? Don’t even think twice about it! Like I said. It wasn’t you. I could tell, you were all—” Wu melodramatically made his eyes go blank as he spoke in a monotonous voice. “Yes-Mas-ter-Guan.”  Mako rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but in my dream, memory, whatever it is, you were struggling.” Mako shrugged. “Sorry. You probably don't want to talk about it.” “No no no! It’s okay! I can talk about it. I mean—yeah, it was scary and spirits know it's impossible for me to struggle against you, tough guy!" He furrowed his brow and put his thumb to his chin. “But you wanna know something weird? Maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe the brainwashing leaves some muscle memory or, or maybe there was a small part of you in there listening, or whatever. But when I was struggling, I told you that you were hurting me, and your grip loosened and you stopped. So, you know. All things considered, you actually were gentle.” Mako looked at him skeptically. He didn’t remember being gentle. Maybe Wu was lying to protect his feelings. Or maybe Wu was right, and it was unconscious or muscle memory. “Hey…” Wu reached over and placed a hand on Mako’s shoulder, more delicately than usual. “It was all scary, but I’m not scared of you. So if you are being weird because you think I might be frightened of you, just stop! You’re my best friend. I totally trust you! And I’m hoping we won’t ever get brainwashed again, so it’s never going to be an issue in the future.” Wu folded his arms, concluding his speech.

Read the whole fic here!

[badgermolebender]

Windswept

Chapter 3: The Earth Queen

Please enjoy the next chapter of my Airbender Wu AU!

[badgermolebender]

Hello Wuko Nation please accept this humble offering of the next chapter of Secret 🧡

[badgermolebender]

What’s this? Airbender Wu? Character studies for both Mako and Wu? Book 3 Rewrite? Slow burn????

Rating: Mature

Summary:

Air is the element of freedom, but when he suddenly begins airbending, Wu finds himself more trapped than ever by his Auntie and her Dai Li. He wishes he could fly away like the sparrowkeet outside his bedroom’s tiny window. Mako’s helping to rebuild a culture on the brink of extinction, while also rebuilding his friendships with Korra and Asami in the wake of his mistakes that hurt them both. He wishes he could figure out who he is beyond the heavy weight of his past.

[badgermolebender]

I am a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of buddy comedies. And there are some fantastic fan works. And I have my own world of headcanon and thoughts. And one doesn’t even have to squint to see the subtext in Ruins of Empire. But what I love so much about Wuko is how well it works within canon and how well Wu and Mako actually fit together. Their character arcs and motivations blend together so well and they influence and care for each other in a way that I just think is really lovely.

Because Mako’s influence on Wu is fairly obvious and stated in the show. He’s there to help bring Wu down to earth and help him be ready to take over the Earth Kingdom. He’s the first person to treat Wu as a person and not royalty or fame and really makes him question his beliefs and values. And Wu relies so heavily on Mako in Book 4 and is so explicit in his affections.

But Wu is also so good for Mako and really compatible with his characteristics and arcs. Arguably the most important, or at least most obvious, character trait of Mako’s is Mako as protector. He raised Bolin and kept him alive on the streets. He joined a gang to protect Bolin. He did probending to have money to protect Bolin. His main motivation throughout the show is to protect the people he loves, the city he loves, and the rest of the world — in that order. I think his need to protect is one of the big things that led to the downfall of his relationships with Korra and Asami. For him, caring for and loving someone means protecting them — in a way that Korra and Asami did not need. But if you pair him with Wu, who not only needs but also wants this protection, then he’s not going to be in a place where he’s constantly undermining the independence and ability of his partner.

But even beyond that, Wu is a really good partner for Mako. Korra (and Asami to a lesser extent) showed care for Mako the same way Mako did for her, and in consequence they undermined and undervalued each other. But Wu takes care of Mako in a different way than Mako takes care of him. Forcing him to relax with smoothie breaks and encouraging him to talk and (and I can’t emphasize this enough) listening to his advice and opinions. Wu lets Mako give him advice and actually listens to his thoughts, something that Korra just didn’t do when they dated (not Korra slander — Book 2 was a lot). So even while Wu clings and plays damsel in distress, he lets Mako be more than his role as protector, without demanding that he abandon that core part of his identity.

And I just think that’s really neat. There aren’t many other non-canon ships that I think are so compatible within canon. Even with how underdeveloped Wu’s character is in Book 4, I think their characters work unbelievably well together. They just fit and lift each other up.

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When Wu is a child, he has a big family. Mother and father, grandmother and grandfather, great auntie. Family means love, laughter, joy, time spent together, and the warmth of a hug.

Then mother and father die. Grandmother and grandfather follow not long after.

When Wu is a child family comes to mean a revolving door of people, Nannie’s and tutors and servants, and Great Auntie.

As Wu grows up he has memories, a stuffed badgermole from his parents, a couple of photographs, and Auntie.

Family is the tense silences that follow one of Auntie’s explosions. It’s the tears shed into the worn fur of an old toy. It’s loneliness and duty and distance.

When Auntie dies—is killed, murdered, has the air stolen from her lungs—Wu has no family. He still has the badgermole and his photographs, as he took those to university before the riots in Ba Sing Se, but he is truly alone. He’s supposed to get a new bodyguard soon, which he supposed is something, at least.

Wu of the Hou-Ting Dynasty, King of all the Earth Lands, and Glorious Defender of Ba Sing Se, 54th Earth Monarch has a big family. It took a while—change comes slowly to the Earth Kingdom, and it’s people—but family has come to mean love and laughter and joy, in the way it did when he was a child.

He and Mako, his husband, spend evenings listening to probending games on the radio and take daily walks through the city. Bolin and Opal visit often, bringing their children, who run through the palace, playing games and tracking mud through its halls. When Korra and Asami visit, Korra and Mako disappear to spar while Wu and Asami play Pai Sho. They all gather in the evenings, gossiping over a glass of wine, forgetting the cares of their positions for a night. Pema can’t visit as often, but she writes, offering advice and sending stories of her kids. Mako’s family, his Grandma Yin and Cousin Tu and all of the others, accepted Wu with open arms and continue to treat him as one of their own.

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A day in the life of Wu of the Hou-Ting Dynasty, King of all the Earth Lands, and Glorious Defender of Ba Sing Se, 54th Earth Monarch

Morning

* Wake up

* Get out of bed

* Get out of bed

* Come on, you really have to get out of bed now, you have responsibilities

* Get out of bed

* Breakfast - look over the day’s meeting schedule

* Read over reports from yesterday

* Consider writing Mako, he still hasn’t responded to your last letter

* Attend first meeting, with transportation ministers, discuss the new trains constructed by Kuvira and the funding needed to maintain the system

* Try not to freak out at the mention of Kuvira and the war, succeed — mostly

* Wish Mako was there, you could really use some of his straight-talking, no-nonsense comfort, he doesn’t need to put up with you, he doesn’t need your problems

* Attend second meeting, with financial ministers, argue with them over the new tax structure

* The next time one of them implies you are too young or inexperienced to know what you are doing you are going to scream

* NO! that’s what Auntie would do, you are not Auntie, you won’t let yourself be

* Succeed — for now

Midday

* Lunch - breathe, you can get through the rest of the day

* Consider writing to Mako, the worst thing that happens is he doesn’t respond, it’s not like he isn’t already annoyed with you

* Attend last meeting of the day, with cultural ministers, try once again to convince them to use their funds for a memorial for the victims of Lake Laogai rather than finishing The Earth Queen’s Temple, that it would be good to commemorate the history of the people not just the Royals

* Make no progress, argue them to a standstill

* Consider introducing legislation to undo centuries of discrimination against same-sex relationships

* Your ministers/the aristocracy/the remaining Dai Li would know, they would know

* They’d go after you, your reign, your life

* Decide to start small, tomorrow

Evening

* Dinner - try not to cry staring at the empty table

* Wish that your parents were alive

* Wish that any of your family were alive, so you weren’t king, so you didn’t have to do this, so you weren’t alone

* Feel guilty for thinking this, you’re doing good work, you know you are

* Read over reports from the day

* Wish you could run away to The Cave of the Two Lovers and live with the badgermoles

* Make notes for tomorrow’s meetings

* Consider writing to Mako, he hasn’t written back because he hates you

* He’s always hated you

* He’s always going to hate you

Night

* Go to bed

* Wish you weren’t so alone

* Wish he didn’t hate you

* Wish he could love you the way you love him

* Try not to cry yourself to sleep

* Fail

[badgermolebender]

Once he gives it an actual chance, Mako is a better dancer then Wu. Yes, Wu had lessons and all the trappings of aristocracy, but Mako’s bending has made him precise in his movements, agile, and good at multitasking. After being forced to dance at enough banquets and events (some of which occur in a Team Avatar context and Wu isn’t even there), Mako is just a superior dancer. It annoys Wu (who has no coordination) to no end.

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So in a fit of absolute projection and an attempt at coping, I looked at a character (Wu) who carries a walking stick once (“After All These Years” S4E1) and receives a lot of massages and sauna treatments and I assigned him fibromyalgia. And it makes a weird amount of sense (I say attempting to justify my projection). Wu just fits the vibe.

But I can’t stop imaging Wu with chronic pain. Mako would get really good at identifying when Wu is flaring up, and just pick him up, so he doesn’t have to walk while he’s in pain.

Everyone else is confused, but eventually learns to just accept this. Essentially the whole winter, especially if it’s snowed, anytime the rest of Team Avatar sees Mako, he’s carrying Wu. They would be hanging out at Air Temple Island, just talking to Pema or something, Wu would look uncomfortable for half a second, and suddenly be in Mako’s arms.

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Wu and Mako have started dating. One day while Wu is off in Ba Sing Se, being king and all, Mako is really struggling with the distance. Korra, Asami, and Bolin take him out to distract him, and the conversation turns to “how did you and Wu even get to the point of dating.”

Cue, the whole love story, beginning with Mako as Wu’s bodyguard, and the long process of learning to see past the others facade and their (really only Mako’s) own annoyances.

Korra, Asami, and Bolin interrupt in the same way that Wu, Tu, and Grandma Yin do in S4 E8 Rememberences. Frankly this conversation does so much for the three of them understanding and befriending Wu—mostly bc they are roasting the crap out of Mako for how he handled falling in love and realizing/revealing his feelings. The next time they see Wu he is so confused bc they are so much nicer and closer to him than they were the last time he saw them.

Mako has to tell him that their newfound respect comes from the fact that Wu still loves him after he said thank you after their first kiss.

[badgermolebender]

So a large part of why I ship Wuko is that even while Wu clings and plays damsel in distress, he lets Mako be more than his role as protector, without demanding that he abandon that core part of his identity, which leads to a lot of opportunities for fluff.

- [ ] Wu, back in Ba Sing Se, overwhelmed with reforming the Earth Kingdom, writing to Mako looking for advice and reassurance that he’s doing the right thing. Mako is surprised, given how rarely people come to him for advice that isn’t related to policing, but is able to give Wu the reassurance that he needs.

- [ ] Wu continues to cling to Mako for “protection” when they’re together, but it takes a long time for Mako to learn what actually scares Wu and his real anxieties. Once this happens, Mako takes real pride in being able to protect Wu.

- [ ] Wu is used to being underestimated for his intelligence and understands how much that grates on Mako. They understand each other in a deeply fundamental way even though they have such different backgrounds.

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Wip thingie

suspicious and weak

Not quite suspicious, here's suspicion:

Wu frowned, and Mako got the suspicion that he’d said the wrong thing.

Weak (oh dear all my options for this one were sad)

He couldn’t exactly blame Mako, either; Wu had been stupid, useless, weak, pathetic…

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Losing my mind on the “the Fire Nation loves Zuko” tag on AO3 this morning, as you do. And I can’t get an image out of my head:

Zuko, post Sozin’s Comet, shot full of lightning laying in bed, looking at the maid who brought him tea (a maid who has just lived through the end of the war, but also who has worked at the palace long enough to remember Zuko at the tender age of 8 feeding turtle ducks),

“Leaf me alone, I’m bushed”

Thereby endearing himself to the entire palace staff.

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!!!!

I beta read for this chapter, and it is absolutely amazing!

Go read it

Secret Chapter 5

Chapter 5 is up y'all. Enjoy!!!

[badgermolebender]

I saw someone post about how they hope the writers got rid of Sokkas “stupid humor” for the live action show and like damn I don’t think someone had fundamentally misunderstood a character more.

Sokkas humor is a huge part of his character and shows a major aspect of his growth. At the beginning of the show Sokka is NOT the funny guy. In fact, he’s the most serious dude in his village. In the pilot, Aang and Katara are off playing with penguins while Sokka is literally putting on war paint and preparing to defend the rest of the village from a Fire Nation war ship. He has been the only man in his village for like four years. And he’s only fourteen. Sokka doesn’t make jokes at first, and when he does they’re usually sexist because his whole thing is about how much of a man he is. Sokka developing humor signifies his growth is a thousand ways. How he learns to respect others. How he starts to make friends. And more importantly, how he turns from a man back into a boy.

[badgermolebender]

I’d also rather the comic focus on other aspects of his story. Don’t rush a romance (especially if it involves creating a new character), when you can explore the complex and interesting character you already have.

i'd rather mako remain single than have a hastily written romance only in a comic tbh. or maybe i'm just too invested in wuko. don't judge me. @kingwuko