( he knows dick's evading him. now that mako knows he's an airbender, it all makes sense — that's practically their modus operandi. it's one of the reasons korra was so bad about it at first. korra, who meets every challenge head on and entirely willing to use that point of contact to batter it down. mako isn't your average firebender. he isn't all about power and will, he had to learn the ways to make fire flexible. something to warm, something to hurt, a tool, a refuge. he's killed with it, and he hates that he has, but. when he's going for the kill shot, he always uses lightning rather than fire.
it's quicker that way.
now that he knows where that evasiveness comes from, he at least knows how to counter it. and it's by being nothing more than himself. )
Airbender or no, I wouldn't have risked my life like that. I'm a cop. If I die, I leave a part of the city undefended, and it'll be months before another officer can be put in my place without leaving gaps in other areas. A lot more people can suffer in that time than the cost of one life.
( it isn't ego, he doesn't think he's worth another life, but he knows the contributions he can make towards the betterment of society versus a criminal especially are not comparable. he's a cog in a machine. he would have died a thousand times over at korra's side. against amon, against unalak, or kuvira or zaheer. but that's with the fate of the world on the line, or at the very least the fate of people he loves so much that his life is irrelevant next to that devotion. but to save someone who's made their choice to put evil out into the world? no. mako doesn't have much sympathy for the sort who let themselves become subsumed by criminality. he escaped it. if other people have less will than that, then... well. if they hurt others, they get what they deserve.
he knows it's cold. he knows it's a hard way of thinking, and if bolin were here he'd already be arguing about it. but that part of him, the one that's calculating and practical... that's the side that kept bo alive all these years, and he's not going to apologize for having it. )
( it brings a somber tint to the mood. he'd be a fool if he doubted mako's goodness, but there are different levels of good a person can be - air nomads believe in equality and balance. they'd never take a life on their own, when they praise the animals of the world and all the natural things this earth has to offer. moreover, dick would never take someone's life, and would never let someone die if he could prevent it. he doesn't believe anyone has the right to decide that level of judgement on another person - not cops, and definitely not politicians. he's always related to avatar aang, and the story of how he couldn't kill ozai. it's just ... how it is.
he frowns, biting at the knuckle of his thumb while he thinks. he doesn't know jason would take a life, or honestly even tim, if the situation demanded it. he's always been willing to do what needed to be done, regardless of the effects on your own mortality. )
You're forgetting a key difference between us.
( the smile he offers is more solemn, now. he swings on the beam, knees acting as anchors as he falls upside down, gravity pressing his arms above his head. )
I'm not a cop. ( it's harder to tell if his smile is genuine like this. his fingers barely touch the ground. ) And I believe people like you are worth more than your occupation. Who cares about your job if you die? What about your friends, your brother? ( his mouth swivels to one side, a little more emotional now. ) At least that guy's family can still — I don't know, see him sometimes. I'm not going to be responsible for breaking up families, not when I have the option of keeping them together.
( mako pinches the bridge of his nose. he could argue. he's aware of that. only, the thought of it is exhaustive, overwrought. because at the end of the day, his reason for not caring what happens to criminals is a personal one. he doesn't believe in hurting them, causing unnecessary pain, or even killing them unless there's no other choice. it's just that he remembers far too well being a little boy and watching his parents burn. just a job, done by people like that waterbender that they left unconscious and trussed up like a holiday meal. )
I'm glad you saved him.
( it says a lot more about dick's character than any one single thing he's done. he cares. a lot, about everyone. it's the kind of compassionate that mako wishes he could be. the sort that asami and korra and bolin already are. he's not going to say it's a bad thing, because having that... it's something that humanity sorely needs. maybe more than ever, now. )
But I'm sure you know you didn't leave me with a lot of options.
( ah. his face gets a little red in sheepishness, or maybe it's just all the blood rushing to his head. with an elegant toss of his legs, he flips out from the position he's put himself in, sticking the landing and bowing once to an invisible crowd beside them. )
Yeah, I know. Lets see ...
( he's thinking big picture, here. an escape that won't involve bruce, because - it's not like he or the other boys fucked up. it's a mess entirely on dick's shoulders. so he'll. have to run away, is all. maybe to the fire nation. in the dead of night when bruce won't be able to catch him, whenever he gets back from doing ... whatever it is he does, when he leaves the boys at home. honestly, it might not be too bad. maybe dick won't have to hide his talents anymore - just act like one from the convergence. an airbender by a different name, grayson no longer.
no, it sucks. he's trying to make a positive out of a negative, but there just - isn't one. he's going to be more alone than ever, and it's all just. because he couldn't let the criminal die.
dick waves his hand in front of his face, before plopping down in a sprawl, leaning back on his hands, legs kicked out. )
I'll kick town. No worries about that. Those guys saw my face, anyway, so it's pretty much over for me regardless. ( he hums. ) Maybe you could say I kidnapped you? That'd probably work, right?
( his face actually contorts in distaste. what? no. that's not even remotely what he meant. )
I'm not going to say you kidnapped me.
( his standing with the force literally does not need to suck more, okay? he's put up with enough on that front. his once sterling reputation thrashed to tatters by this guy, who by all accounts he should dislike. )
Look, Chief Beifong recruited me after Avatar Korra and I literally went rogue to take down the Equalists. I know you're a good guy who wants to do good things, even if I don't like how you were doing it. Come take the entrance exams for the police force. I'll vouch for you, and no one needs to know you're an airbender.
( he's gone to a considerable amount of trouble to hide it. mako's been on his tail for months and never got the slightest inkling he was a bender of any kind, so... he obviously has his reason for keeping quiet about it. being an airbender is... well, it's a lot more fraught than being anything else. there's a lot more history to it. a lot more pain. mako doesn't feel guilty about what the fire nation did, but he doesn't like what fire's been used for, throughout the years. sometimes it seems like all the ills of the world have been brought about by smoke and flame and ash.
harmonic convergence tore a lot of families apart. most of their recruits for the air nomads were people who had nothing, before, or ones who didn't like their families anyway (something that, quite frankly, mako can't imagine.) he doesn't know dick's name, let alone his story, but mako wants to believe in his inherent decency. )
( he'll just. blue screen a little here, trying to figure that out. mako's tried to arrest him about a million times, dick thinks. he's made his life so difficult in the last few weeks especially, he'd probably be glad to see dick's head on a pike.
working beside him makes no sense. probably about as much sense as bringing the police to your super secret hideout, he guesses? )
Well, why not? You're practically doing my job for me at this point. You care about the city, and more importantly you care about the people in it. I can't think of anyone better to have beside me.
( it's not lip service in the least. mako thinks he'd be a good cop. and that the force could use more people like him. he'd certainly never thought about it, until beifong gave him the chance. he didn't think he was really cop material, but once he was doing the job, making a difference? he loved it. he thought he'd loved pro-bending, but. he realizes now, it was just a means to an end. something he could do well at. the roar of the crowd gave him a high that he didn't think he could ever duplicate. the accolades were incredible. the money was... well, it kept he and bolin off the streets.
but after becoming a cop, he's realized — this is where he wants to be. what he wants to be doing. and he'll do it now until he can't, until he's either killed or too busted down. )
( he guesses he. never really thought about working with them, honestly. it never felt in the cards, because even if they meet at the same end, they never really have the same means. dick works outside jurisdiction, makes his own hours, travels by his lonesome. at first glance, it feels - stupid, he hasn't thought of it before. and it feels good to be wanted, especially by mako, who's about the least corrupt cop and person he's ever met. but.
moment of hopeless hopefulness over, dick ducks his head down, tutting his tongue. )
My, uh. Home situation. I'm not sure how it'd work.
( he'd have about the most specific schedule ever, and they probably wouldn't be flexible to him.
but. then again. he is an adult now. bruce can't keep all of them cooped up forever, right? dreamily, )
( he's a bad liar. he does, a little. mako... he's always attracted to the goodness in people, like an errant moth to fire. he appreciates decency, and that more than anything is something he's always felt drawn to protect, even when he can't espouse the virtue himself. maybe especially then.
the world isn't as black and white as the law. even beifong has gone outside of it when necessary. mako knows he should still arrest this guy, if for nothing else then obstruction of justice, but. he just... doesn't want to anymore. not after talking to him, getting to know him a little better. but he also can't have him crawling all over the city making trouble for the police department, either. )
Well, think about it. I'm not going to out you to Beifong, but we're going to have to have a long talk about what you can and can't do in the city if you keep on like you have been.
( mako likes him. he'll protect him, but he's not... going to do it indefinitely, or risk his career for it. and he doesn't think that dick would ask it of him, either. )
( he holds his hands up in surrender, utterly chastised. )
I'm open to listening.
( listening, keyword. there's no promise he'll do anything that mako says, largely because the safety of people isn't something he's overwhelmingly flexible on - largely because he wants to help, and to do it on his own terms. he doesn't have any particular beef with the cops as an establishment, but he does think a lot of them are crooked in their ways - gang violence is all too commonplace here, and with the police being easily bought off, it's just a recipe for further criminal activities. dick doesn't think he's special when it comes to visions of right and wrong, but he does have a strong sense of justice for the common folk - the people who can't defend themselves, who are making their livings and just trying to get by. the people who get overlooked by the police too often, when they have other threats to worry about.
all that just to say, he'll probably try to listen to mako, to make his life a little easier, but somethings are just not open to changing. well. maybe they are, with this cop job business. dick will have to - think about it, yeah. )
When you say you won't out me, does that mean my face, ( a gesture. ) or the fact that I'm an airbender?
( his fingers flex on his thighs, and mako exhales. there aren't a lot of options. mako has always been a straight bender, he does things above board as much as he can, he believes in the law, maybe not always to the letter but at least to the spirit thereof. he isn't going to lie to beifong, but. he'll omit some of the truth. he owes dick that much. )
People saw your face. That much I can't help. But I can understand why you might want to keep the bending quiet.
( any other sort of bender and he wouldn't care. own it, deal with the consequences. but airbending is different. even now, there are so few of them, and mako in good conscience can't knowingly expose him to the danger inherent in that, given how hard he's worked at keeping it a secret. it's a conflicting choice. he doesn't like it. and he probably won't do it a second time, if their paths cross in the future, but. one chance. he can give him that much. )
Did you ever think about going to join the Air Nomads? Master Tenzin's a great man, if you're worried about that. His whole family is amazing.
( the idea of mako understanding is. novel, and sweet, but entirely impossible. he knows he probably wants to understand, and dick wants nothing more than to - you know, share with someone, confide in them, have a friend who just listens bloodlessly without sense of betrayal. but it's more than just his own secrets he's keeping - bruce and the others all have an unspoken pact with each other, to protect one another above all else. dick wouldn't compromise their safety for anything, and spilling out truth about being an airbender spills a hundred more truths about where he lives, who he lives with, why he lives there.
he goes a little starry eyed at the mention of tenzin - everything that happened with aang was a century old when he sprung up again, and dick's family's bitterness at the loss of the avatar had melted into forgiveness over the years. he only idolizes tenzin, sees him continuing the airbending bloodline where dick, just. can't. )
Uh, yeah. I've only ever dreamed about it forever. ( forever says too much, but. he can talk his way out of that one, if he has to. ) But ... my situation, it's. Complicated. I have too many obligations to pack up and ... kind of selfishly, in a way, pursue that.
(forever is certainly a descriptor that catches his ear. a muscle jumps in his jaw. little things coming together over the course of this and many other evenings, building to an unmistakable finale. mako may not have been trained by bruce wayne, but he's a naturally deductive man. a whisper of suspicion is to him a shout. )
I can understand that. But at the end of the day, you also have obligations to yourself. To live in a way that makes you happy.
( he gets duty, he gets family, he gets money, spirits does he ever get that, but. you also have to follow your own path. and sometimes that means forging it on your own. he didn't like that bolin joined kuvira's army, but he understood why he did it. why it was important to him to do it. and even though it was something of a point of contention between them at the time... he recognizes that he can't. be there for bolin forever. he can't hold his hand. and that was something he had to learn for himself, too.
mako sighs, reaching a hand up to run through his hair. it had been nicely coiffed earlier, now it's in messy disarray with the evening's activities. )
self isn't a concept taught in the school of bruce wayne, perhaps largely because it's a lesson he never fully learned himself. after his parents died, life became about everyone else, centralized around fertilizing the good in life and vanquishing the bad. honestly, he's kind of obsessed. the man in the mountains isn't the same as the man roaming the streets of republic city, million yuan coats flaunting his steps. they all have their various facades to cover up the lingering traumas the world has put them through - bruce in his feigned playboy's lifestyle, the money and the women, the extravagant parties, the politics. jason with his shield of anger fighting off consoling invaders. tim sticks his nose into whatever tech he can find, meddling with security cameras, radio weapons.
dick really isn't all that special. he hides behind a smile most of the time. charming charisma, pleasant brightness. it's not really lie, but it isn't the full truth either. being kind keeps people at arm's length, always a short distance away.
he doesn't do it for himself. really, he doesn't do anything for himself - that's the whole point. bruce raised about the three most unselfish children in the world, because they'd cut and bleed and die for faceless nobodies before they'd defend themselves. three overpowered shields for the benefit of mankind. )
Why?
( he weighs the question on opposite sides of his brain, tilting his head as it travels to either lobe. at the end of it, he just shrugs, smiling at him warmly. )
Because I like you. I wanted to help your investigation. ( a half truth. guiltily, he hangs his head. ) And I knew you'd only hang out with me if I offered up something good in return.
( it's a soft admission. there are layers to it, some truthful, some not. there's a reason that this guy has taken an interest in him, and he doesn't think he was brought here for any investigation.
the part of him that grew up too fast, that became a creature very much spit out of the gutter, the one that did a thousand seedy, unmentionable things, the one that took money from people who were already broke to support an addiction they couldn't break, that guy thinks that this is. part of a larger plan. some seed sewn into a plot of land that will bear fruit one day. not tomorrow, not the next. ten years from now, something. he has a startling premonition — if they were to play pai sho together, mako genuinely thinks he'd lose. dick is sweet and soft and compassionate, but mako is a lot of things a lot of people would love to manipulate, too. one of the avatar's best friends. he's close with one of the most wealthy industrialists in the city. chief beifong's right hand man. the brother to a popular mover star, who can sway crowds with a word, and the only living lavabender in the world. he's nothing on his own, just. a bender with above-average talent, a half-decent cop, but he isn't remarkable like the people in his life are.
and if anyone wanted to hurt those people, he'd be. a weak link. a chink in the armor, something exploitable, something ruinous.
yet, for all that his mind flashes down those avenues, considers those realities, he looks back at dick and he just. doesn't think that's it. )
My investigation ends with me arresting you.
( he says that warningly, although. that couldn't be farther from where he is right now, in his mind. )
And if you wanted to... hang out with me. ( which sounds like such a soft, juvenile thing, but it makes something twist in his belly. ) You could have just asked.
Edited (i had to wax poetic about bolin a bit more okay) 2018-09-03 17:08 (UTC)
( he's as aware as any cop in the city that arresting him is always the end goal, that mako would see to no other end than throwing him behind bars. at yet, at the same time, he thinks that if he offered up his wrists for binding, mako would be sooner to shove him off than actually see it through. there's a variety of reasons, he guesses. firstly, he'd probably assume mischief at such a blatant submission, which to be fair, is a reputation dick has built up for himself. but mostly, now that mako has some deeper insight into the whirlwind area of dick grayson's psyche, he probably recognizes a lot of similar goals between them. what do each of them want more than peace? or if peace is too hopeful, maybe just balance. mako won't arrest him because dick is just trying to right a few wrongs in the dark alleyways of republic city. mako's trying to do the same.
a cheesier grin lights up on his face. dick stands and sets to go through ridding himself of his wet clothes, shirt over his head, to put on some fresh, dry ones. changing is more natural than relying on airbending - he's learned not to use that particular gift carelessly. )
Really?
( he doesn't think mako would've said yes before, but it's a nice thought. having a friend, maybe. )
Alright, well. I'll ask next time. And we'll go somewhere way cooler than this. ( dingy, broken warehouse with no ceiling. not exactly picturesque romantic, but he guesses mako is still vehemently against the idea of considering this as a date. ) Plus, I was running my own little investigation, you know. Very detective of me. I wanted to make sure you really weren't one of those crooked cops before I really started liking you.
( what? no. stop that. mako immediately swings his gaze around to study. something else, some crumbling architectural marvel, where the only marvel at all is that this place is still intact enough that they can occupy it without it crumbling around their ears. a firebender always knows heat, and he can feel the crawl of it on his skin. he doesn't think he's properly blushed in years.
he's in the locker rooms with the other guys all the time. if he can handle it when beifong walks in like she owns the place and everyone jumps to attention regardless of the status of clothing or towels, he can put up with one airbender — a criminal stripping down in his vicinity.
but. he does spare a sideways glance for those scars.
mako's been roughed up plenty. his left arm up to the elbow is a fractured lichtenberg pattern, loudly proclaiming the pathways of least resistance that lightning took beneath his skin as it cooked the meat of him from the inside out. and he has a few others, knife-wounds, places where bolin winged him with sharp little discs of rocks during their training. mostly, what he's gotten in the last few years korra's healed or he's ignored.
dick's body is a graveyard of remembered hurts. a few burns that draw the eye, and make him clench his hands involuntarily. but the vast majority aren't bending injuries at all. and they're sure as hell things an airbender should have been able to avoid, cuts and stab-marks, stuttering suggestions of a blade along the parapets of his ribs. it tells a story, but mako doesn't have the cipher yet. the characters aren't in a language he knows how to read. but he knows suffering when he sees it, and years of pain, and everything else inherent in the map of all this misery. and it's not like they're all fresh, either. dick's his age, roughly, and these date back at least ten years. maybe more.
the reaction that caused him to blush suddenly feels very childish, and completely out of place. mako closes his eyes briefly, pulling himself back to center. )
Even if I were crooked, there wouldn't be much you could do about it. You still can't know for sure.
( beifong runs a tight ship, and most of the officers under her are afraid of her — with good reason. but mako knows there are... things that fall through the cracks. they don't live in a perfect world, and a cop's wages sure aren't as flush as a criminal's. he has his suspicions about a few of his brothers and sisters in arms because he knows how it goes. you take a bribe once, and that's it. the triads own you. and then they remind you again, and again, and again, and if you ever try to pull back from it, they threaten not just you, but your family. everyone you love. and you capitulate, or you die. mako had to walk a tightrope just to stay more-or-less on decent terms with the triple threats even after he became a cop, because he knows that they'd never go after him. it'd be straight to bolin, or asami. they wouldn't touch korra, they know all too well how easily she'd win that fight. but the others... even talented fighters can be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. it's something mako lives in constant fear of. it's. one of the reasons he hasn't gone as hard after them as he could. maybe as he should have. )
Uh-uh. ( dick disagrees, flashing mako a charming grin. ) I'm a really good judge of character.
( he just knows these things, like the wind knows a chill's name on the back burn of a breeze - he could pick a crook out at a hundred paces, just by the look in their eye. mako doesn't have the same type of swagger. that's not to say he radiates a good boy type of personality, because you could see the wear and tear of a burdened life weighing down his shoulders into an expected frown, but there are things that even a life of hardship can't conceal - the genuine gleam of goodness resting in the shine of mako's eyes, something like hope layered on top of it's (un)healthy dosage of exhaustion. he sees a man before him who still wants to see the good in people, despite being shown all the ways in which people have steered off the path of righteous peace. he also sees an orphan who ate up a lot of trauma as a kid, and just wants to spit out something nicer than what he was given.
profoundly, dick relates to this.
clothes settled into place, dick takes lengthy, floating steps over to where mako is seated, and plops down just beside him. dick's attire is humble, but his cologne is expensive. )
I have a present for you. Do you want it? ( blushing, ) I won't get sad if you say no, but you'll want to say yes.
( mako all but throws his hands up into the air. for him, this means: he probably puffs out a breath that's miraculously clear of steam, rolls his eyes very faintly and then just rolls himself up in a full body shrug. in the common vernacular of body language, 'why the fuck not'. )
Sure. Go nuts.
( it could be a thousand things, the least of which is a trap. but. there wouldn't be any point. his guard isn't down, but. he's called for a cessation of immediate suspicion, which is about as close as mako ever gets around someone who isn't bolin or korra and asami on... good days. he doesn't think it's anything dangerous, but given what he knows of airbenders... maybe a prank. the one thing he doesn't think dick is is thoughtless.)
( with a short point to himself: ) Dick Grayson. ( and then he smacks a kiss on mako's cheek.
it's a name he'll be familiar with, just in it's existence rather than any substantial knowledge on the subject - there are easy facts that are well known among gossip tabloids. bruce wayne's ward, a man in the limelight who keeps his kids out of it. really, there's no proof dick has other than word of tongue, but based on mako's earlier criteria - a wealthy benefactor, intimate knowledge of the city - it makes a decent amount of sense that it should be true. whether he believes it is up to him, but you know.
at least he has something to call dick, now. he leans back on his palms again, looking warmly back at him. )
( all non-essential systems just. shut down. mako goes into auxiliary power mode, where his heart beats and his lungs inflate and all the goopy, squishy organs inside his body sluice blood through the meat of him but he's not. home. for a split second.
dick grayson.
he knows the name, he knows the implication. what he doesn't know is the why. he was never going to get that close on his own, because even if he'd guessed that bruce wayne — one of asami's biggest rivals after varrick — was letting his son run around at night capture criminals, he wouldn't have put it together.
and dick seals it with a kiss against his cheek, a spot that feels firebender-hot now to the touch, and mako just. rubs. at it. a little more softly than he might had it been anyone else. because dick just handed him the keys to the kingdom, really. he has everything he needs to march up to wayne manor, kick the door in and handcuff him, drag him out into the street and to the station without so much as a by-your-leave. he knows he's an airbender, and how to counter that.
(chains. you have to put them in chains.)
his brain circles back around to the earlier criteria of date.
then, almost in an accusatory tone, strangled and a little. high-pitched. )
You were serious about that date thing.
( all signs say yes. mako's love life has only three speeds: people throwing themselves at him, people ignoring him, or people hating him after he inevitably fucks it all up. he hasn't quite worked out the whole... attraction thing, because mostly he just crushes hard on people he can't have and that's the end of it. )
Why?
( as if he isn't sure if he should be questioning dick's taste or his sanity. it's so bizarre. bruce wayne's sons could have anyone. this is the thing that feels like a trick, to him. )
( he's minutely proud of his development here, because he managed to both sit very close to mako and give him a little kiss, which he thinks would've otherwise gotten him a face full of fire bombs at any moment prior. but. he's quick to pout after mako makes his confusion known, head tilted to the side, windswept bangs falling into his eyes, which he swiftly rights with a hand sifted through his hair. )
I've answered that already. I like you. You want another answer, is that it? Let's see ...
( there's an evident truth, poised delicately on the tip of his tongue like dick grayson before any of his daring leaps of faith off building ledges. he hesitates to bring it up. it's not - weakness, exactly, but it is an extended hand, an offer that would ... hurt, frankly, if mako were to deny or ignore it. it wouldn't be entirely his fault, to be honest. dick isn't used to the sensation of welcoming people in, all too frequent a friend of misguiding conversations away from the serious, ducking and diving under playful language when the going gets too tough.
he kind of says a mental fuck it to all that, though, and shrugs his shoulders. )
I don't have a lot of people I'm close to, really. I guess I kind of clung to you.
( it sounds. lonely. and sad, and faraway, and if dick thinks mako is some benchmark for goodness and decency in the world, boy, does he have news for him. and several people to introduce him to.
but he's. been handed something precious, and mako just doesn't have it in him to crush it. he doesn't like disappointing people. bolin really had that one right, all those years ago, didn't he? he takes a deep breath. )
Dick... ( he has a name, now. it's a bit of a thrill, using it. ) I'm flattered. Really. But you barely know anything about me, and you're... well, kind of a criminal. Even though I believe your intentions are good, the law's something I've sworn my life to upholding. I can't. Ignore that.
( it isn't disappointing. the term isn't in his mental dictionary when it comes to other people, because the only person he's ever actively disappointed in is himself. and. maybe he is. this whole situation would disappoint bruce, after all, and the thought of it makes unhappiness churn in his stomach like he ate too many bowls cereal in rapid succession. he's putting a lot of people in danger, with this. he wonders if mako knows just how many. )
You know, if you really had to know someone before you were allowed to like them, then no one would ever like anyone.
( he vaguely wiggles his shoulders, countering the foundation of mako's argument. it's not like he proposed marriage, or anything. he's just looked at mako and only seen things that he likes. )
And anyway, I know a lot about you. Obviously I've done my research. ( mako's been fairly in the spotlight in the last few years, with his connections to the avatar, and knack for saving the world as they know it. it isn't, or at least wasn't, hard to find him in the newspaper, first in his pro bending days, and then in his glory day of heroics. dick's read up on every archive he can, really. ) The point is that I've got an entire police force on my tail at any given time, but I've only taken an interest in you.
Conclusion: I like you! You can't tell me I don't. It's obvious, Mako. Open those pretty eyes.
( constantly in motion, on someone else it'd be fidgeting, but on dick it's just. a lace curtain blowing in the wind, following the flow of life. he leans back on his palms, chin on his shoulder, a sleazy smile tugged up his lips. )
And while we're at it, I really don't consider myself a criminal. Alright? What else have you got? I can sling back and forth with you all day, but really, I'd prefer to just kiss you some more.
(who are you trying to convince? except, the answer is obvious. mako's fingers bunch in the fabric of his coat, which rucks up under the grip. he's. conflicted. pretty obviously, by his posture. by his. everything. conflict is the default mako state, he's existed in it pretty much ceaselessly since he was a kid. do the illegal and/or dangerous thing, put food on the (well, rarely a table, but) for bolin. help korra, help asami, save the world. he had to choose, sometimes, which master to serve. love or duty. and duty mostly won.
he's not so good at following his heart. it's gotten him in pretty deep trouble over the years, and rarely out of it. mako can't return the affections, not like this. dick has been nothing but a frustration to him for weeks, he only just learned his name. that's not a basis for anything real. it's barely a basis to be here now, talking to him absent the jangling of cuffs.
not that he has his cuffs, anyway. he used them on the mooks in the store.
but it's. been a long time since anyone reached out to him like this. mako has modeled himself on beifong but he doesn't want to be like her, alone and bitter and buried in his work. he misses love. being in love, having someone to kiss and say soft things to. just because he wasn't good at it doesn't mean his brief experiences with it weren't. some of the best of his life.
he's too controlled to let fire spark under his hands, but he can feel the building thrum of it beneath the skin, coiled like a quiescent thing. alive, waiting. that's what a lot of non-benders don't realize about fire, it's not about letting it out, it's about keeping it in. you have to want to control it. you have to need to endure it, because the second there's an outlet and the slightest slip of your hands, you can burn the world to iron and ash at your feet. he's wished more than once, over the years, that dragons never gave fire to humanity. all they've done is ruin what could have been — should have been a gift. the element of power, but also one of death and war and pain and loss. he wears his heritage like a scar.
and all he can think about as he looks down at his hands is how air feeds it. and how its absence extinguishes. and then he bridges the small space between them, cups dick's cheeks in his hands and kisses him. in another life, maybe it would be a passionate thing, heat and fire and cinders, heat beneath his palms. but this one is just. tentative, like walking a tightrope in a storm. trying to find balance. )
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( he knows dick's evading him. now that mako knows he's an airbender, it all makes sense — that's practically their modus operandi. it's one of the reasons korra was so bad about it at first. korra, who meets every challenge head on and entirely willing to use that point of contact to batter it down. mako isn't your average firebender. he isn't all about power and will, he had to learn the ways to make fire flexible. something to warm, something to hurt, a tool, a refuge. he's killed with it, and he hates that he has, but. when he's going for the kill shot, he always uses lightning rather than fire.
it's quicker that way.
now that he knows where that evasiveness comes from, he at least knows how to counter it. and it's by being nothing more than himself. )
Airbender or no, I wouldn't have risked my life like that. I'm a cop. If I die, I leave a part of the city undefended, and it'll be months before another officer can be put in my place without leaving gaps in other areas. A lot more people can suffer in that time than the cost of one life.
( it isn't ego, he doesn't think he's worth another life, but he knows the contributions he can make towards the betterment of society versus a criminal especially are not comparable. he's a cog in a machine. he would have died a thousand times over at korra's side. against amon, against unalak, or kuvira or zaheer. but that's with the fate of the world on the line, or at the very least the fate of people he loves so much that his life is irrelevant next to that devotion. but to save someone who's made their choice to put evil out into the world? no. mako doesn't have much sympathy for the sort who let themselves become subsumed by criminality. he escaped it. if other people have less will than that, then... well. if they hurt others, they get what they deserve.
he knows it's cold. he knows it's a hard way of thinking, and if bolin were here he'd already be arguing about it. but that part of him, the one that's calculating and practical... that's the side that kept bo alive all these years, and he's not going to apologize for having it. )
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he frowns, biting at the knuckle of his thumb while he thinks. he doesn't know jason would take a life, or honestly even tim, if the situation demanded it. he's always been willing to do what needed to be done, regardless of the effects on your own mortality. )
You're forgetting a key difference between us.
( the smile he offers is more solemn, now. he swings on the beam, knees acting as anchors as he falls upside down, gravity pressing his arms above his head. )
I'm not a cop. ( it's harder to tell if his smile is genuine like this. his fingers barely touch the ground. ) And I believe people like you are worth more than your occupation. Who cares about your job if you die? What about your friends, your brother? ( his mouth swivels to one side, a little more emotional now. ) At least that guy's family can still — I don't know, see him sometimes. I'm not going to be responsible for breaking up families, not when I have the option of keeping them together.
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I'm glad you saved him.
( it says a lot more about dick's character than any one single thing he's done. he cares. a lot, about everyone. it's the kind of compassionate that mako wishes he could be. the sort that asami and korra and bolin already are. he's not going to say it's a bad thing, because having that... it's something that humanity sorely needs. maybe more than ever, now. )
But I'm sure you know you didn't leave me with a lot of options.
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Yeah, I know. Lets see ...
( he's thinking big picture, here. an escape that won't involve bruce, because - it's not like he or the other boys fucked up. it's a mess entirely on dick's shoulders. so he'll. have to run away, is all. maybe to the fire nation. in the dead of night when bruce won't be able to catch him, whenever he gets back from doing ... whatever it is he does, when he leaves the boys at home. honestly, it might not be too bad. maybe dick won't have to hide his talents anymore - just act like one from the convergence. an airbender by a different name, grayson no longer.
no, it sucks. he's trying to make a positive out of a negative, but there just - isn't one. he's going to be more alone than ever, and it's all just. because he couldn't let the criminal die.
dick waves his hand in front of his face, before plopping down in a sprawl, leaning back on his hands, legs kicked out. )
I'll kick town. No worries about that. Those guys saw my face, anyway, so it's pretty much over for me regardless. ( he hums. ) Maybe you could say I kidnapped you? That'd probably work, right?
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I'm not going to say you kidnapped me.
( his standing with the force literally does not need to suck more, okay? he's put up with enough on that front. his once sterling reputation thrashed to tatters by this guy, who by all accounts he should dislike. )
Look, Chief Beifong recruited me after Avatar Korra and I literally went rogue to take down the Equalists. I know you're a good guy who wants to do good things, even if I don't like how you were doing it. Come take the entrance exams for the police force. I'll vouch for you, and no one needs to know you're an airbender.
( he's gone to a considerable amount of trouble to hide it. mako's been on his tail for months and never got the slightest inkling he was a bender of any kind, so... he obviously has his reason for keeping quiet about it. being an airbender is... well, it's a lot more fraught than being anything else. there's a lot more history to it. a lot more pain. mako doesn't feel guilty about what the fire nation did, but he doesn't like what fire's been used for, throughout the years. sometimes it seems like all the ills of the world have been brought about by smoke and flame and ash.
harmonic convergence tore a lot of families apart. most of their recruits for the air nomads were people who had nothing, before, or ones who didn't like their families anyway (something that, quite frankly, mako can't imagine.) he doesn't know dick's name, let alone his story, but mako wants to believe in his inherent decency. )
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You want me to join the force?
( he'll just. blue screen a little here, trying to figure that out. mako's tried to arrest him about a million times, dick thinks. he's made his life so difficult in the last few weeks especially, he'd probably be glad to see dick's head on a pike.
working beside him makes no sense. probably about as much sense as bringing the police to your super secret hideout, he guesses? )
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( it's not lip service in the least. mako thinks he'd be a good cop. and that the force could use more people like him. he'd certainly never thought about it, until beifong gave him the chance. he didn't think he was really cop material, but once he was doing the job, making a difference? he loved it. he thought he'd loved pro-bending, but. he realizes now, it was just a means to an end. something he could do well at. the roar of the crowd gave him a high that he didn't think he could ever duplicate. the accolades were incredible. the money was... well, it kept he and bolin off the streets.
but after becoming a cop, he's realized — this is where he wants to be. what he wants to be doing. and he'll do it now until he can't, until he's either killed or too busted down. )
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moment of hopeless hopefulness over, dick ducks his head down, tutting his tongue. )
My, uh. Home situation. I'm not sure how it'd work.
( he'd have about the most specific schedule ever, and they probably wouldn't be flexible to him.
but. then again. he is an adult now. bruce can't keep all of them cooped up forever, right? dreamily, )
You must really have a soft spot for me.
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( he's a bad liar. he does, a little. mako... he's always attracted to the goodness in people, like an errant moth to fire. he appreciates decency, and that more than anything is something he's always felt drawn to protect, even when he can't espouse the virtue himself. maybe especially then.
the world isn't as black and white as the law. even beifong has gone outside of it when necessary. mako knows he should still arrest this guy, if for nothing else then obstruction of justice, but. he just... doesn't want to anymore. not after talking to him, getting to know him a little better. but he also can't have him crawling all over the city making trouble for the police department, either. )
Well, think about it. I'm not going to out you to Beifong, but we're going to have to have a long talk about what you can and can't do in the city if you keep on like you have been.
( mako likes him. he'll protect him, but he's not... going to do it indefinitely, or risk his career for it. and he doesn't think that dick would ask it of him, either. )
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I'm open to listening.
( listening, keyword. there's no promise he'll do anything that mako says, largely because the safety of people isn't something he's overwhelmingly flexible on - largely because he wants to help, and to do it on his own terms. he doesn't have any particular beef with the cops as an establishment, but he does think a lot of them are crooked in their ways - gang violence is all too commonplace here, and with the police being easily bought off, it's just a recipe for further criminal activities. dick doesn't think he's special when it comes to visions of right and wrong, but he does have a strong sense of justice for the common folk - the people who can't defend themselves, who are making their livings and just trying to get by. the people who get overlooked by the police too often, when they have other threats to worry about.
all that just to say, he'll probably try to listen to mako, to make his life a little easier, but somethings are just not open to changing. well. maybe they are, with this cop job business. dick will have to - think about it, yeah. )
When you say you won't out me, does that mean my face, ( a gesture. ) or the fact that I'm an airbender?
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People saw your face. That much I can't help. But I can understand why you might want to keep the bending quiet.
( any other sort of bender and he wouldn't care. own it, deal with the consequences. but airbending is different. even now, there are so few of them, and mako in good conscience can't knowingly expose him to the danger inherent in that, given how hard he's worked at keeping it a secret. it's a conflicting choice. he doesn't like it. and he probably won't do it a second time, if their paths cross in the future, but. one chance. he can give him that much. )
Did you ever think about going to join the Air Nomads? Master Tenzin's a great man, if you're worried about that. His whole family is amazing.
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he goes a little starry eyed at the mention of tenzin - everything that happened with aang was a century old when he sprung up again, and dick's family's bitterness at the loss of the avatar had melted into forgiveness over the years. he only idolizes tenzin, sees him continuing the airbending bloodline where dick, just. can't. )
Uh, yeah. I've only ever dreamed about it forever. ( forever says too much, but. he can talk his way out of that one, if he has to. ) But ... my situation, it's. Complicated. I have too many obligations to pack up and ... kind of selfishly, in a way, pursue that.
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I can understand that. But at the end of the day, you also have obligations to yourself. To live in a way that makes you happy.
( he gets duty, he gets family, he gets money, spirits does he ever get that, but. you also have to follow your own path. and sometimes that means forging it on your own. he didn't like that bolin joined kuvira's army, but he understood why he did it. why it was important to him to do it. and even though it was something of a point of contention between them at the time... he recognizes that he can't. be there for bolin forever. he can't hold his hand. and that was something he had to learn for himself, too.
mako sighs, reaching a hand up to run through his hair. it had been nicely coiffed earlier, now it's in messy disarray with the evening's activities. )
Why did you bring me here?
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self isn't a concept taught in the school of bruce wayne, perhaps largely because it's a lesson he never fully learned himself. after his parents died, life became about everyone else, centralized around fertilizing the good in life and vanquishing the bad. honestly, he's kind of obsessed. the man in the mountains isn't the same as the man roaming the streets of republic city, million yuan coats flaunting his steps. they all have their various facades to cover up the lingering traumas the world has put them through - bruce in his feigned playboy's lifestyle, the money and the women, the extravagant parties, the politics. jason with his shield of anger fighting off consoling invaders. tim sticks his nose into whatever tech he can find, meddling with security cameras, radio weapons.
dick really isn't all that special. he hides behind a smile most of the time. charming charisma, pleasant brightness. it's not really lie, but it isn't the full truth either. being kind keeps people at arm's length, always a short distance away.
he doesn't do it for himself. really, he doesn't do anything for himself - that's the whole point. bruce raised about the three most unselfish children in the world, because they'd cut and bleed and die for faceless nobodies before they'd defend themselves. three overpowered shields for the benefit of mankind. )
Why?
( he weighs the question on opposite sides of his brain, tilting his head as it travels to either lobe. at the end of it, he just shrugs, smiling at him warmly. )
Because I like you. I wanted to help your investigation. ( a half truth. guiltily, he hangs his head. ) And I knew you'd only hang out with me if I offered up something good in return.
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the part of him that grew up too fast, that became a creature very much spit out of the gutter, the one that did a thousand seedy, unmentionable things, the one that took money from people who were already broke to support an addiction they couldn't break, that guy thinks that this is. part of a larger plan. some seed sewn into a plot of land that will bear fruit one day. not tomorrow, not the next. ten years from now, something. he has a startling premonition — if they were to play pai sho together, mako genuinely thinks he'd lose. dick is sweet and soft and compassionate, but mako is a lot of things a lot of people would love to manipulate, too. one of the avatar's best friends. he's close with one of the most wealthy industrialists in the city. chief beifong's right hand man. the brother to a popular mover star, who can sway crowds with a word, and the only living lavabender in the world. he's nothing on his own, just. a bender with above-average talent, a half-decent cop, but he isn't remarkable like the people in his life are.
and if anyone wanted to hurt those people, he'd be. a weak link. a chink in the armor, something exploitable, something ruinous.
yet, for all that his mind flashes down those avenues, considers those realities, he looks back at dick and he just. doesn't think that's it. )
My investigation ends with me arresting you.
( he says that warningly, although. that couldn't be farther from where he is right now, in his mind. )
And if you wanted to... hang out with me. ( which sounds like such a soft, juvenile thing, but it makes something twist in his belly. ) You could have just asked.
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a cheesier grin lights up on his face. dick stands and sets to go through ridding himself of his wet clothes, shirt over his head, to put on some fresh, dry ones. changing is more natural than relying on airbending - he's learned not to use that particular gift carelessly. )
Really?
( he doesn't think mako would've said yes before, but it's a nice thought. having a friend, maybe. )
Alright, well. I'll ask next time. And we'll go somewhere way cooler than this. ( dingy, broken warehouse with no ceiling. not exactly picturesque romantic, but he guesses mako is still vehemently against the idea of considering this as a date. ) Plus, I was running my own little investigation, you know. Very detective of me. I wanted to make sure you really weren't one of those crooked cops before I really started liking you.
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he's in the locker rooms with the other guys all the time. if he can handle it when beifong walks in like she owns the place and everyone jumps to attention regardless of the status of clothing or towels, he can put up with one airbender — a criminal stripping down in his vicinity.
but. he does spare a sideways glance for those scars.
mako's been roughed up plenty. his left arm up to the elbow is a fractured lichtenberg pattern, loudly proclaiming the pathways of least resistance that lightning took beneath his skin as it cooked the meat of him from the inside out. and he has a few others, knife-wounds, places where bolin winged him with sharp little discs of rocks during their training. mostly, what he's gotten in the last few years korra's healed or he's ignored.
dick's body is a graveyard of remembered hurts. a few burns that draw the eye, and make him clench his hands involuntarily. but the vast majority aren't bending injuries at all. and they're sure as hell things an airbender should have been able to avoid, cuts and stab-marks, stuttering suggestions of a blade along the parapets of his ribs. it tells a story, but mako doesn't have the cipher yet. the characters aren't in a language he knows how to read. but he knows suffering when he sees it, and years of pain, and everything else inherent in the map of all this misery. and it's not like they're all fresh, either. dick's his age, roughly, and these date back at least ten years. maybe more.
the reaction that caused him to blush suddenly feels very childish, and completely out of place. mako closes his eyes briefly, pulling himself back to center. )
Even if I were crooked, there wouldn't be much you could do about it. You still can't know for sure.
( beifong runs a tight ship, and most of the officers under her are afraid of her — with good reason. but mako knows there are... things that fall through the cracks. they don't live in a perfect world, and a cop's wages sure aren't as flush as a criminal's. he has his suspicions about a few of his brothers and sisters in arms because he knows how it goes. you take a bribe once, and that's it. the triads own you. and then they remind you again, and again, and again, and if you ever try to pull back from it, they threaten not just you, but your family. everyone you love. and you capitulate, or you die. mako had to walk a tightrope just to stay more-or-less on decent terms with the triple threats even after he became a cop, because he knows that they'd never go after him. it'd be straight to bolin, or asami. they wouldn't touch korra, they know all too well how easily she'd win that fight. but the others... even talented fighters can be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. it's something mako lives in constant fear of. it's. one of the reasons he hasn't gone as hard after them as he could. maybe as he should have. )
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( he just knows these things, like the wind knows a chill's name on the back burn of a breeze - he could pick a crook out at a hundred paces, just by the look in their eye. mako doesn't have the same type of swagger. that's not to say he radiates a good boy type of personality, because you could see the wear and tear of a burdened life weighing down his shoulders into an expected frown, but there are things that even a life of hardship can't conceal - the genuine gleam of goodness resting in the shine of mako's eyes, something like hope layered on top of it's (un)healthy dosage of exhaustion. he sees a man before him who still wants to see the good in people, despite being shown all the ways in which people have steered off the path of righteous peace. he also sees an orphan who ate up a lot of trauma as a kid, and just wants to spit out something nicer than what he was given.
profoundly, dick relates to this.
clothes settled into place, dick takes lengthy, floating steps over to where mako is seated, and plops down just beside him. dick's attire is humble, but his cologne is expensive. )
I have a present for you. Do you want it? ( blushing, ) I won't get sad if you say no, but you'll want to say yes.
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Sure. Go nuts.
( it could be a thousand things, the least of which is a trap. but. there wouldn't be any point. his guard isn't down, but. he's called for a cessation of immediate suspicion, which is about as close as mako ever gets around someone who isn't bolin or korra and asami on... good days. he doesn't think it's anything dangerous, but given what he knows of airbenders... maybe a prank. the one thing he doesn't think dick is is thoughtless. )
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it's a name he'll be familiar with, just in it's existence rather than any substantial knowledge on the subject - there are easy facts that are well known among gossip tabloids. bruce wayne's ward, a man in the limelight who keeps his kids out of it. really, there's no proof dick has other than word of tongue, but based on mako's earlier criteria - a wealthy benefactor, intimate knowledge of the city - it makes a decent amount of sense that it should be true. whether he believes it is up to him, but you know.
at least he has something to call dick, now. he leans back on his palms again, looking warmly back at him. )
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dick grayson.
he knows the name, he knows the implication. what he doesn't know is the why. he was never going to get that close on his own, because even if he'd guessed that bruce wayne — one of asami's biggest rivals after varrick — was letting his son run around at night capture criminals, he wouldn't have put it together.
and dick seals it with a kiss against his cheek, a spot that feels firebender-hot now to the touch, and mako just. rubs. at it. a little more softly than he might had it been anyone else. because dick just handed him the keys to the kingdom, really. he has everything he needs to march up to wayne manor, kick the door in and handcuff him, drag him out into the street and to the station without so much as a by-your-leave. he knows he's an airbender, and how to counter that.
(chains. you have to put them in chains.)
his brain circles back around to the earlier criteria of date.
then, almost in an accusatory tone, strangled and a little. high-pitched. )
You were serious about that date thing.
( all signs say yes. mako's love life has only three speeds: people throwing themselves at him, people ignoring him, or people hating him after he inevitably fucks it all up. he hasn't quite worked out the whole... attraction thing, because mostly he just crushes hard on people he can't have and that's the end of it. )
Why?
( as if he isn't sure if he should be questioning dick's taste or his sanity. it's so bizarre. bruce wayne's sons could have anyone. this is the thing that feels like a trick, to him. )
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I've answered that already. I like you. You want another answer, is that it? Let's see ...
( there's an evident truth, poised delicately on the tip of his tongue like dick grayson before any of his daring leaps of faith off building ledges. he hesitates to bring it up. it's not - weakness, exactly, but it is an extended hand, an offer that would ... hurt, frankly, if mako were to deny or ignore it. it wouldn't be entirely his fault, to be honest. dick isn't used to the sensation of welcoming people in, all too frequent a friend of misguiding conversations away from the serious, ducking and diving under playful language when the going gets too tough.
he kind of says a mental fuck it to all that, though, and shrugs his shoulders. )
I don't have a lot of people I'm close to, really. I guess I kind of clung to you.
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but he's. been handed something precious, and mako just doesn't have it in him to crush it. he doesn't like disappointing people. bolin really had that one right, all those years ago, didn't he? he takes a deep breath. )
Dick... ( he has a name, now. it's a bit of a thrill, using it. ) I'm flattered. Really. But you barely know anything about me, and you're... well, kind of a criminal. Even though I believe your intentions are good, the law's something I've sworn my life to upholding. I can't. Ignore that.
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You know, if you really had to know someone before you were allowed to like them, then no one would ever like anyone.
( he vaguely wiggles his shoulders, countering the foundation of mako's argument. it's not like he proposed marriage, or anything. he's just looked at mako and only seen things that he likes. )
And anyway, I know a lot about you. Obviously I've done my research. ( mako's been fairly in the spotlight in the last few years, with his connections to the avatar, and knack for saving the world as they know it. it isn't, or at least wasn't, hard to find him in the newspaper, first in his pro bending days, and then in his glory day of heroics. dick's read up on every archive he can, really. ) The point is that I've got an entire police force on my tail at any given time, but I've only taken an interest in you.
Conclusion: I like you! You can't tell me I don't. It's obvious, Mako. Open those pretty eyes.
( constantly in motion, on someone else it'd be fidgeting, but on dick it's just. a lace curtain blowing in the wind, following the flow of life. he leans back on his palms, chin on his shoulder, a sleazy smile tugged up his lips. )
And while we're at it, I really don't consider myself a criminal. Alright? What else have you got? I can sling back and forth with you all day, but really, I'd prefer to just kiss you some more.
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he's not so good at following his heart. it's gotten him in pretty deep trouble over the years, and rarely out of it. mako can't return the affections, not like this. dick has been nothing but a frustration to him for weeks, he only just learned his name. that's not a basis for anything real. it's barely a basis to be here now, talking to him absent the jangling of cuffs.
not that he has his cuffs, anyway. he used them on the mooks in the store.
but it's. been a long time since anyone reached out to him like this. mako has modeled himself on beifong but he doesn't want to be like her, alone and bitter and buried in his work. he misses love. being in love, having someone to kiss and say soft things to. just because he wasn't good at it doesn't mean his brief experiences with it weren't. some of the best of his life.
he's too controlled to let fire spark under his hands, but he can feel the building thrum of it beneath the skin, coiled like a quiescent thing. alive, waiting. that's what a lot of non-benders don't realize about fire, it's not about letting it out, it's about keeping it in. you have to want to control it. you have to need to endure it, because the second there's an outlet and the slightest slip of your hands, you can burn the world to iron and ash at your feet. he's wished more than once, over the years, that dragons never gave fire to humanity. all they've done is ruin what could have been — should have been a gift. the element of power, but also one of death and war and pain and loss. he wears his heritage like a scar.
and all he can think about as he looks down at his hands is how air feeds it. and how its absence extinguishes. and then he bridges the small space between them, cups dick's cheeks in his hands and kisses him. in another life, maybe it would be a passionate thing, heat and fire and cinders, heat beneath his palms. but this one is just. tentative, like walking a tightrope in a storm. trying to find balance. )
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