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wukoweek2024 · 8 months

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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.

#wukoweek2024 #wuko #meta #prompt: balance

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wukoweek2024 · 8 months

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Avatar: Legend of Korra Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Mako/Prince Wu (Avatar) Characters: Mako (Avatar), Prince Wu (Avatar) Additional Tags: Wuko Week 2024, Established Relationship, Team Building Exercises Series: Part 8 of TheSingingHoneybee’s Wuko Week 2024 Summary:

Wu convinces Mako to attend a couples’ retreat at a campground.

Day Eight: Balance

#wukoweek2024 #wuko #fanfiction #prompt: balance

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wukoweek2024 · 8 months

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#wukoweek2024 #wuko #fanart #fancomic #prompt: fluff #prompt: remembrances #!!!!!!!! OMG I'm in love with this!!!!!

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wukoweek2024 · 8 months

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Photograph by Emby81

Rating: General Audiences

Summary: Since his parents were killed, Wu carried a small picture of his parent's in his breast pocket everywhere he went. On the day of Kuvira's coup, the smoothies that were throw at him get soaked in his shirt, and into the picture, which is worse than everything else that happened.

#wukoweek2024 #wuko #fanfiction #prompt: remembrances #link shared from Ao3 collection

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wukoweek2024 · 8 months

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Finding Balance: Mako and Wu’s Myers-Briggs Personality Types

The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator is a personality typology framework that classifies personalities into 16 different types. The framework is not perfect, and there’s certainly a lot of room for interpretation. But it’s a fun and interesting way of looking at and understanding a person’s personality!

If you aren’t familiar, it essentially breaks down the core parts of personalities into 4 categories, each with 2 opposite traits. Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I), Sensing (S) or Intuition (N), Thinking (T) or Feeling (F), Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).

I believe Mako and Wu are the “Logistician” and the “Campaigner”. These two personality types are complete opposites in every way. Two people with opposite personalities can have an extremely fulfilling relationship, but they can face challenges if they don’t learn how to communicate and understand each other.

(Please keep in mind these are just my interpretations of their characters and thus it’s just opinions. If you think they have different personality types than this, you’re probably right too! I use https://www.16personalities.com/ and https://www.myersbriggs.org/ as my main source of information on personality types and I’ve linked Mako and Wu’s personality types below.)

Mako: The Logistician (ISTJ)

“ISTJ (Logistician) is a personality type with the Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging traits. These people tend to be reserved yet willful, with a rational outlook on life. They compose their actions carefully and carry them out with methodical purpose.” (from 16 Personalities)

“Quiet, serious, earn success by being thorough and dependable. Practical, matter-of-fact, realistic, and responsible. Decide logically what should be done and work toward it steadily, regardless of distractions. Take pleasure in making everything orderly and organized—their work, their home, their life. Value traditions and loyalty.” (from myersbriggs.org)

Introversion: Introverts prefer to recharge their energy by being on their own and reflecting. Mako seems to retreat into himself when he is overwhelmed and needs to process. Him sleeping under his desk rather than staying at Air Temple Island is a good example of this.

Sensing: Sensing types see the world through tangible experiences. Mako prefers to take in information that is concrete and real. His work as a detective shows this all over, and his frustration with Korra using her Avatar feelings to find Wu is an excellent example of this.

Thinking: Thinking types decide how to act in situations based on logic and objectivity. They are more ‘tough minded’ and use impersonal facts when making choices. Mako choosing to reveal Korra’s plans to Raiko comes to mind as an example of this.

Judging: Judging types relate to the outside world through structure and organization, preferring to have some control by making or being aware of plans-and sticking to them. Mako clearly craves that control and is quick to jump into planning mode, such as when he was trying to help Asami after her company was robbed.

Overall, Mako is responsible, disciplined, organized, practical, realistic, and direct. He can also be stubborn, by-the-book, judgmental and insensitive. He’s a dependable person with deep loyalty to those he cares for.

Wu: The Campaigner (ENFP)

“ENFP (Campaigner) is a personality type with the Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving traits. These people tend to embrace big ideas and actions that reflect their sense of hope and goodwill toward others. Their vibrant energy can flow in many directions.” (from 16 Personalities)

“Warmly enthusiastic and imaginative. See life as full of possibilities. Make connections between events and information very quickly, and confidently proceed based on the patterns they see. Want a lot of affirmation from others, and readily give appreciation and support. Spontaneous and flexible, often rely on their ability to improvise and their verbal fluency.” (from myersbriggs.org)

Extraversion: Extraverts prefer to receive their energy from outward sources. They recharge their energy through social interactions and process things outwardly by talking them out and tend to act before thinking. Wu certainly craves social interaction and is quick to speak without thinking. His eagerness to socialize (and badly flirt) along with his blurting out absurd ideas are great examples of this.

Intuition: Intuition types tend to see the world in less tangible ways, through hunches and insight. They can see the bigger picture and do a good job of envisioning what could be, rather than what is. Wu’s out-of-the-box thinking to have the badgermoles carve a path to evacuation, in spite of having no real evidence it would work, seems to be a good example of this.

Feeling: Feeling types make choices based on values and empathy. They tend to take relationships and people’s feelings and circumstances into account when deciding things. I think his overall choice to abolish the monarchy is a great example of this, as he seems to genuinely believe that this would be a better choice for the people by giving them freedom.

Perceiving: Perceiving types prefer to experience and explore the world, rather than control it. Wu is more spontaneous and seems comfortable to ‘go with the flow’ rather than strictly adhere to a plan. He was quick to adapt in a number of situations, and seems to come up with his best plans on-the-spot (again. Evacuation. Badgermoles.)

Overall, Wu is enthusiastic, a positive thinker, spontaneous, can improvise, and is surprisingly good at communicating. He’s also disorganized, unfocused, a needs a lot of external validation and affirmation. Wu is warm and outgoing, and has an intense desire to form meaningful connections.

Assertive Vs Turbulent

Another facet of the personality type is A or T, which essentially labels how confident or anxious one is in their personality. I think that Wu may be more turbulent, meaning he feels less confident in himself and overcompensates to try and counterbalance his self doubts. I think Mako is more assertive, meaning he is more confident in his actions and is more even tempered in his actions because he is self-assured. I think over time, Mako’s influence pushes Wu closer to being more assertive.

Opposites Attract

Relationships with completely opposite traits in every way can be both fulfilling and challenging. They recharge their energy differently, they see things differently, they make choices differently and they interact with the world differently. With so many differences, there is the possibility for frustrations and misunderstandings, but there is also the possibility for the two people to complement each other and play to their strengths.

What makes or breaks an opposite personality relationship is communication, and what has always struck me about Mako and Wu’s progression of their relationship in the show and comic, is their increased ability to talk to one another and understand each other.

Mako knows exactly how to talk to Wu; during his meltdown in The Coronation, Mako directly appealed to the people-pleaser in Wu when prompting him to reflect on what he’d done for his people to deserve being King. Wu really eats up anything Mako tells him, and even literally says “You always know the right thing to say, Mako”.

Wu also seems to know how to appeal to Mako’s rational thought processes. I know we were absolutely floored by Wu casually saying “Mako, you know I love you”, but that interaction was actually a disagreement between them-Mako thought they should just shut down the election, while Wu felt they needed to let it play out. Wu patiently explained his thought process to Mako (even though he wrapped it up in affection… Classic people-pleaser) and Mako didn’t argue further; he seemed to accept Wu’s explanation for his choices.

Essentially what I’m saying is that Mako and Wu really do communicate well, and because of that, I think their opposing personality traits will serve to bring balance to their relationship, rather than conflict. Wu needs social interaction while Mako needs some time in? No problem, Wu is friends with Korra and potentially the rest of the Krew; he can go hang out with them if Mako needs to recharge with a night in reading one of Jinora's books. Mako can bring Wu back to reality when his imagination gets out of hand, while Wu can prompt Mako to see beyond what’s just in front of him. Wu can prompt Mako to take a more subjective approach in his decision making while Mako can pull Wu back from his people-pleasing to help him make more rational choices. Mako can keep Wu on a more organized and structured path, and Wu can get Mako to loosen up with a little fun and spontaneity.

Balance

In a season titled ‘Balance’, it’s really fascinating that they paired Mako with someone who is his opposite in every way, not just in personality. Wu is affluent, materialistic, somewhat naive, and wears his emotions on his sleeve. Mako is jaded, responsible, grew up in poverty, and struggles to express himself. But when they are together, there is amazing potential for them to bring out the best in each other and achieve a better balance in each of their lives.

#wukoweek2024 #wuko #prompt: balance #meta

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wukoweek2024 · 8 months

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We have a winner!!!!

You'll notice I didn't specify any criteria for picking a Wuko moment. I just kind of wanted everyone to go with their gut and just pick something!!! And it was actually pretty spread out, people seem to appreciate all the Wuko moments!!!

But the blatant parallel with the canon couples is the ultimate winner, and I love it. I mean, look at them!!!!

Thanks for voting, everyone!!

Wuko Week Kickoff!

Reminders of each moment under the cut:

#wukoweek2024 #wuko #poll #we still have one day left for the 'balance' prompt

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wukoweek2024 · 8 months

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i am a couple days late i think but here is a little thing for @wukoweek2024 Day 6: Family, an old lunar new year greeting card

Happy year of the dragon from the family! Mako & Wu, their cat Gochujang, mako's spicy pickles, and wu's kombucha culture or ' the mother' 💛❤️

#wukoweek2024 #wuko #prompt: family #fanart

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Wuko Week Kickoff!

Reminders of each moment under the cut:

#wukoweek2024 #wuko #poll

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wukoweek2024 · 8 months

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Avatar: Legend of Korra Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Mako/Prince Wu (Avatar) Characters: Mako (Avatar), Prince Wu (Avatar) Additional Tags: Wuko Week 2024, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon Universe, bending is still a thing, Kink Discovery, Pet Names Kink, Praise Kink, Blow Jobs Series: Part 7 of TheSingingHoneybee’s Wuko Week 2024 Summary:

Mako’s pretty sure that he didn’t go to college with the kink already installed. He’s pretty sure. Maybe he was just still too much of a kid to realize, but his high school girlfriend had called him “baby” all the time, and it was just another word as far as his libido was concerned.

Day Seven: Nicknames Bonus: Alternate Universe

#wukoweek2024 #wuko #prompt: nicknames #prompt: alternate universe #fanfiction

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wukoweek2024 · 8 months

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Wuko Week Day 7 - Nicknames

Day 7: Nicknames

Mako didn’t want to go to this club. It’s too close to his old neighborhood, just one street away from old Triple Threat territory, and the kind of place people with more money than sense went to get a little dangerous thrill and all too often wound up robbed blind and thrown in a dumpster for their trouble. But Wu had insisted, saying some singer he liked was doing a one-night-only show and Mako couldn’t possibly be so cruel and unfeeling as to deprive him of this unique cultural experience.

Mako has been Wu’s bodyguard for six months. He’s had his fill of ‘unique cultural experiences’.

But what the prince wants, the prince gets so here Mako is, lurking as close to him as possible and keeping an eye on everyone and everything, trying not to flinch when he catches sight of a few of his former associates.

He can hear the whispers. He can hear people saying “It’s the kid,” and “bastard always did land on his feet,” and “’course the kid’s wind up hanging onto the fucking Earth King’s coattails. Always did know how to lick the right boots”.

Mako doesn’t flinch, even as he hears the old nickname, even as the insults slide past him in meant-to-be-overheard whispers. Wu is dancing and drinking and smiling, and, most importantly, untouched, so he lets it be, lets his old rep build a bubble of protection around the prince.

Everything is fine for the next few hours. Slightly excruciating, but fine. Then they’re standing on the sidewalk, and Mako turns away to grab Wu’s hat, which had blown off his head in a sudden gust of wind. Mako turns back just in time to see a familiar figure smirking down at Wu.

“Hey, you’re looking a little posh for this neighborhood, pal, what’s this coat cost,” Shady Shin plucks at Wu’s jacket – an old pickpocket trick Mako knows well, he’s feeling around for a wallet. “a hundred yuan? A thousand? So, I don’t suppose you’ll miss whatever you’ve got in your pockets too much, huh?” Shin flicks open a knife and dances the blade casually in front of Wu’s face.

Mako sees red. He steps forward, dropping the hat, and grabs Shin’s wrist, the one holding the knife, shoving it out and away from Wu’s face. He squeezes, feeling bones grind in Shin’s wrist, until Shin, with a yelp, releases the knife. Mako catches it with his free hand, closes, and pockets it. He glares down at Shin. He can see the instant Shin recognizes him, can see the flicker of fear in that recognition.

“Oh, hey, it’s the Kid,” Shin says in a thin, reedy voice, “Looking good, there, Mako. Made it big, didn’t you? You know this guy?”

“This man is under my protection,” Mako says, voice cold and implacable, even as the fire burns under his skin, ready to be released. “You will leave him be or I will make you. Understand?”

Shin nods frantically. He always was a coward. Mako releases him and he scurries off, off to find some other mark.

Mako turns back to Wu. The prince is frozen, shaking slightly, eyes huge, hands trembling where they sit, half-raised as if he’d gone to push the knife away.

“Hey,” Mako says, intentionally softening his voice, reaching a tentative hand out to the prince.

Wu reaches a jerky hand back out to him and takes his hand. Mako, unsure what to do, squeezes his fingers.

“Come on,” Mako says, “Let’s go home.” It’s the first time he’s referred to the Four Elements at ‘home’, but it feels right. Wu nods jerkily and steps forward. He makes an awkward, half-fulfilled gesture like he wants to go in for a hug but stops himself at the last moment.

Mako doesn’t know what compels him to do it. Maybe it’s the look in Wu’s eyes, big and scared and fragile. Maybe Mako needs a this too, the feeling of another person’s arms around him, grounding him, making the present moment real, chasing away the ghost of his past self. Either way, he lets go of Wu’s hand, opens his arms and lets Wu crash into his chest. He holds the prince close and runs a soothing hand over Wu’s shoulders.

“It’s okay,” Mako says, “It’s okay.”

…

Two years later, after Kuvira

“I never asked,” Wu says, “But why did that man call you ‘the kid’?”

They’re sitting off to the side at Varrick’s wedding, just talking. It feels simultaneously very normal and very strange. Like their day to day at the suite – sitting together, chatting about nothing, has been oddly transposed onto their day to day in public.

“What man?” Mako asks.

“The man who tried to mug me at that club. I’d clean forgotten about it but that song that just played, it was playing that night and whammo! That memory was right there, waiting to be remembered.”

“Oh,” Mako says, gut squirming. He looks away, casting an unseeing glance over the dance floor where Varrick sweeps Zhu Li around in an elaborate dance whose steps are known only to them.

“So, big guy? What’s with the nickname?”

Mako presses his lips together and comes to a decision. He’s known Wu all this time, of all the people here, Wu might actually be the person who knows him best besides Bolin. But the Mako Wu knows is present-day Mako. The Mako of this moment, not the Mako of Back Then. And strangely, that doesn’t sit right anymore. Mako wants Wu to know him, really know him. Especially now that he’s actually asking.

“When we lived on the streets, Bolin and me, I used to work for Lightning Bolt Zolt. Yeah,” he says in response to Wu’s startled expression, “I was in a gang until I was sixteen or so. And Zolt taught me how to lightning bend.” Mako grimaces at his sling and soldiers on, “And he started taking me with him when he needed to intimidate people. He’d have me shoot lighting at stuff just to show that we could do it. People started calling me ‘The Kid’ because I was Zolt’s mini-me. His weapon or protégé or something. I never liked it, but there you have it.”

Wu looks at him with big, sad eyes and Mako looks away. He jumps in his seat, surprised, when Wu reaches out and takes his hand over the tabletop, “Well,” the prince says, “I must say, that is the most unimaginative nickname I’ve ever heard.”

It’s absurd enough it startles a laugh out of Mako. “Really? That’s all you have to say to my tragic backstory?”

“Well,” Wu says primly, “It seemed like you needed someone to lighten the mood. And anyway, I think I’ve come up with much better nicknames for you, darling, and I haven’t even been trying. I’ll have to put my mind to it. Make some really good ones. How do you feel about ‘pookie’?” “Call me that and I’m throwing you in the bay.” “What a brutish thing to say, my sweet polar bear pup!”

“I regret telling you this.”

“No, you don’t, my ferocious sparrowkeet!”

Mako sighs, but he’s smiling all the same as Wu reels off a bevy of increasingly absurd nicknames. Onstage, the band plays on.

@wukoweek2024

#wuko #wukoweek2024 #prompt: nicknames #fanfiction

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wukoweek2024 · 8 months

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Wuko Week Day 6 - Family

Day 6: Family

“Mako, I need you to know I hold your grandmother in the absolute highest esteem. Truly, she is a queen among women. I would dedicate statues and songs in her honor. She deserves the world and I will never forget her kindness, selflessness, and immense generosity to me. I – ”

“We’re not hanging her photo of the Queen in the living room.”

“Oh, thank the spirits.” Wu sags in place with the force of his relief. Wu is like this: every emotion he has he experiences with his whole body. Mako never gets tired of watching him just exist in space. Especially now that the space he’s existing in is their space that they got together.

Their first apartment is a study in compromise: Wu had wanted a penthouse, Mako had balked at the idea of anything he couldn’t afford to pay at least half of the rent on. Wu had wanted to buy them a place outright with his seemingly bottomless bank account. Mako had downright refused to let Wu buy him anything, going so far as to yell “I’m not a courtesan, Your Majesty, you can’t just install me in a little house somewhere to await the pleasure of the crown!” and storm out of the room. (That had been a particularly bad night. Wu had cried, Mako had tried to explain, as best he could, the utter terror that was relying on anyone for anything, how desperately he needed to stand on his own two feet. Wu had tried to explain, as best he could, how he needed to feel useful, like he was giving something in this relationship instead of just taking. Then Mako had cried and then they’d cried together and somehow, they’d met in the middle and held each other and tabled the discussion for another day.).

At the end of the day, Wu was the one to break the stalemate over where they would live. He’d been working with Asami on rebuilding Republic City in the aftermath of first the Spirit Wilds and then Kuvira’s attack and he’d hit upon the idea of affordable housing. Wu bought up a series of battered apartment complexes and set about fixing them up and leasing the apartments out on a rent-to-own basis at affordable rates with the end result of the buildings being owner-occupied within a few years.

(“It’s sort of like the Great Democracy Project in the Earth Kingdom, just on a smaller scale!” Wu had chirped.)

Wu, however, is about as practical as a panda lily when it comes to actually being a building super. This is where Mako steps in. Mako acts as on-call problem solver for all the tenants in all the buildings. If he can’t fix something, he’ll find someone who can.

After all this, it only makes sense for them to live on the top floor of one of their buildings.

And now, after years of waiting for the Earth Kingdom to slowly slide into democracy, after months of waiting for their apartment to be habitable, after all the letters and late-night phone calls and too-short visits, they have a place of their own.

And thanks to Grandma Yin, they have their very own portrait of Queen Hou-Ting to hang in it.

“She meant well,” Mako says awkwardly.

“Oh of course she did,” Wu sighs, “she held my hands and stared into my eyes and very earnestly told me how sorry she was I didn’t have any of my own family here to celebrate and it would be her honor to give me a little piece of one of my loved ones to keep in my home just in case I ever felt lonely. It was beautiful! And I smiled and nodded and now we’re stuck with Auntie glaring down at us from beyond the grave!”

Mako grimaces, “It’s her most prized possession after Dad’s scarf. She ran into her burning apartment at Ba Sing Se to get it off the wall.”

Wu sighs, “She’ll be heartbroken if we don’t hang it up, won’t she?”

Mako groans, “Probably.”

“Maybe we could just…stick it in a bedroom so we don’t have to look at it?”

“You really want her watching us sleep?”

“I didn’t mean our bedroom,” Wu pokes him in the arm, “I do not want my ghastly aunt to see the kinds of things we get up to in there.”

Mako shudders, “Yeah, no.”

They stare at the photo for a long moment. Queen Hou-Ting glowers out at them from her slightly singed frame.

“You know, she threw me and Bolin in the dungeon once,” Mako says.

“She threatened to send me to the dungeon at least once a week,” Wu admits, “when she remembered I was there at all.”

They regard the portrait with gloomy resignation.

Then, Mako has an idea. An awful, wonderful, terrible idea.

“Wu,” he says, voice hesitant as the final details slot into place, “How would you like to put your aunt to good use for once?”

…

It becomes a game. The Hou-Ting scavenger hunt takes over the apartment. Her Majesty finds herself stashed in kitchen cupboards, tucked behind doors, looming down from unexpected shelves. The only rules are these: whoever finds her has to hide her again, and gets one point on the running tally board hanging in the kitchen. Whoever has the most points by the end of the week buys dinner next time they go out.

It’s silly, it’s borderline sacrilege by old Earth Kingdom standards, and it’s exactly what Wu didn’t realize he needed. He giggles when he sees his aunt glaring down at him now. He howls with laughter whenever Mako yells and drops things because he’s stumbled across the late, unlamented Queen lurking in the ice box.

They start calling the portrait ‘Auntie’, something Wu could never have gotten away with to the actual Hou-Ting’s face.

And maybe it’s a bit rude, a bit insensitive. But Wu hasn’t had a nightmare about her since they started this game. For the first time in years, he doesn’t tense up when he smells the perfume she used to wear in a public place.

(People think Mako is grim and humorless, and he can be, but Wu delights in this, Mako’s secret, silly side that comes up with absurd games to cope with how horrible reality can be.)

No one knows about the Auntie game because how exactly do you explain “My boyfriend and I have turned hiding photos of the woman who tormented us around our apartment as part of an elaborate joke that’s slowly helping us heal from our trauma”? Until one night when Bolin decides to stay over.

Wu had honestly forgotten where he’d hidden Auntie. It had been a few days since he’d found her and Mako hadn’t encountered her yet. Mako had been busy with a water leak at one of their other buildings while Wu had been distracted doing polite battle with a real estate developer who wanted to buy up his block and kick all his tenants out in the name of ‘improving the neighborhood’ (“‘Improving the neighborhood’, my royal posterior!” Wu had huffed after he’d gotten home from the latest meeting, “That man wouldn’t know human decency if it walked up and slapped him.”). Bolin had come over for dinner. Opal was out of town, running an errand for the air benders and Bolin had been moping – not that he would ever admit it – around Air Temple Island. Mako, like the good big brother he was, invited Bolin over for dinner.

A bottle or two of plum wine later and Wu, ever the considerate host, was insisting Bolin sleep it off in their guest bedroom rather than braving the street cars in his tipsy condition.

“I’ll be fine, I’m always fine, right bro?” Bolin had waved Wu’s concern off, looking over at Mako, who raised an eyebrow.

“Wu’s right, you’re a mess. Stay in the guest bedroom,” Mako said.

“You’re not the boss of me,” Bolin giggled tipsily.

Mako raised both eyebrows and Bolin relented.

“Okay, you’re kinda the boss of me. You and Opal. Opal’s so smart. And pretty. I miss her.”

“Alright,” Wu claps his hands, taking control the situation again, “Let’s get you settled in the guest bedroom, hm? You’ll feel better in the morning.”

Bolin sighs, “Maybe Opal will be back in the morning.”

“Maybe,” Wu agrees, gently hustling Bolin towards the guest bathroom, “Now, let Mako grab you some pajamas and I’ll find you a spare toothbrush.”

Mako and Wu are settled in the bedroom, Mako reading a history book he’d borrowed from Jinora, Wu flipping through a fashion magazine and alternatively scoffing and humming appreciatively at this season’s styles, when there’s an almighty crash and yelp from the guest bedroom.

Mako, with instincts honed from years of running and fighting for his life, throws the book onto the bed, hurls himself to his feet and dashes for the door. Wu, without these reflexes, jumps in place, gets tangled in the sheets, staggers to his feet, and follows. By the time he makes it to the door, Mako is already across the living room, glowering at Bolin, who is standing in the doorway to the guest bedroom, looking utterly bewildered, holding the photograph of Auntie.

“Why in the name of Raava, is Grandma’s picture of the Queen balanced on the doorframe to your guest bedroom?!” Bolin yelps.

“What was the crash?” Mako asks.

“Her Majesty fell on my head!” Bolin’s eyes are huge, Wu resists the urge to start cackling.

Mako takes the photo from Bolin and looks back at Wu, “Your point or mine?” he asks in his even, no-nonsense Mako voice like nothing untoward or bizarre has just happened.

“He’s your brother,” Wu says, “I’ll be generous and give you the point.”

Mako nods and crosses to the kitchen, where he marks a neat tally on their chalkboard under his own name.

“Does anyone want to explain why I’m being haunted by the ghost of monarchs past?” Bolin demands.

Mako shrugs, “Grandma gave us her picture of the Queen. We don’t want to look at her so we hide her around the apartment.”

Bolin stares at Mako in slack-jawed amazement. “That’s terrifying. You’re terrifying. I’m going to bed.”

Mako nods, “Okay.”

And with that, the floodgates open and Wu is laughing hysterically. He tries to imagine himself as a child, tries to imagine telling that scared, nervous little boy that one day he’ll be living in Republic City, with the stodgy, stiff, surprisingly whimsical love of his life, playing hide and seek with the picture of his worst nightmare. Young Prince Wu would never have believed him. But that’s okay, because he’s here now, and Mako his hustling him into their bedroom, huffing and saying “Go back to bed, I can’t hide her with you staring at me.” And Wu is popping up on his toes to press a light kiss to Mako’s lips and Bolin is still muttering about creepy queens and all is good and light and wonderful.

…

Two weeks later Bolin comes tearing out of the guest bathroom, Auntie’s portrait in hand, saying “I can’t go anywhere in this house! She’s following me!” and it’s Mako’s turn to laugh hysterically.

Wu resolves to keep hiding Auntie in the guest rooms. He likes it when Mako laughs like this.

@wukoweek2024

#wuko #wukoweek2024 #prompt: family #fanfiction

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