(favorite cop. mako just glowers at him, as if the heat of his gaze could convey the surge of annoyance he feels at that. glowing proclamation. that's not even touching on all the other things he says. foreplay? never knew her. )
Look, I appreciate what you're trying to do. But all you're doing is making me look bad. My boss is breathing down my neck every time you skip out on us. You want to make a difference? Why don't you just come be a cop? Obviously you've got the skills for it. And if you're worried about being a non-bender, we've got plenty of those on the force.
( he doesn't want to be tailed, he doesn't want to be protected. he's one of the most dangerous firebenders in the world, tempered by time and his proximity to korra and all the dangerous goings-ons that surround her like a cloying smoke. mako is nothing if not secure in his skills, but this? this is a whole other... thing.
lin actually offered to assign this case to someone else. but the idea of anyone other than himself cuffing this guy... he doesn't even want to think about it. a lot of the other cops are rougher than he is. mako doesn't want to hurt him, he just wants him to play by the damn rules, same as everyone else. )
( his mood is a little dampened. it's not that he isn't aware that he's been a thorn in the police force's side since he started this whole shindig, but he - doesn't want to make mako's job more difficult. he's one of the good ones, and all that. he actually helps, instead of sitting idly by, or getting paid off by thugs wreaking their havoc on the city folk. it's not fair that dick is making him look like a joke to that mean old lady.
an unfortunate reality, he guesses. he actively chose to keep pursuing vigilantism, and all the unfavorable things that come along with that. for as thoughtful as dick is, he's also a little ... naive. it's been good fun, for him. for mako, it's his job. )
Can't do that. I'm terrible at following orders.
( clearly. that he's here at all is evidence enough of that.
with an overly dramatic flip, he levels the playing field between them, landing on the ground with hardly a pitter patter between his two feet. he shrugs, loosely. )
What if I help in your investigation into me? ( the portion of his brain that's supposed to form a conscience, although it generally just sounds like bruce's reproach, firmly says hey, maybe don't do that. the devil on dick's shoulder quietly tells it to fuck off. ) If you let me hang out with you, I'll give you a name. Fair?
( it's the detective in him. a name. not his name. for all mako knows, he'll cheerfully chirrup fire lord zuko before he disappears again, quiet as a shadow and twice as hard to pin down.
that flip is a marvel of physiological engineering. he's never seen anyone move like that. not even tenzin, who by all rights is the most graceful person he's ever met, or asami, who's a close second. mako wants to. pin him down, and take him apart, and figure him out in all the most infuriating ways.
he's never gotten a read of malice off the guy. nothing mean, nothing sadistic. even the criminals he drops off are just... banged up. but it's never in places that intersect with massive pain-points. the broken bones are never compound. never any significant damage to the trunk, the sort that leads to internal damage that leads to death. mako knows he's decent, which is one of the reasons why he's so damn up the wall about it. because if this guy would just. take five minutes and work with him, he thinks they could accomplish a lot together. )
Look, I practically invented this hustle. 'A name' means you aren't going to give me anything even close to yours. And I already know, your version of 'helping' would just be to throw me off the scent.
( it's foolish. but mako is so tired of this. he just pinches the bridge of his nose. )
I know you're connected. I know you either come from wealth or have a wealthy benefactor. I know you must've had some experience in your past that makes you want to clean up the city. I know you hate violence. You know the city, so you're either from here or you have the resources to learn it, and I do mean all of it, so... full access to city planning somehow. And I don't think you're a firebender.
( he didn't have the right. reaction. to the flames. he's not sure how to really articulate it. it wasn't like his body language changed massively, or that he said anything about it, but there was just... something. mako's instincts are sharp, and he's been relying on his ability to read people since he was a child. he knows when to listen to his gut. )
( he cracks a sheepish smile, utterly caught. but he's learned something about mako now, too - he wasn't always a cop, or even always on the morally white side of things like he is now. a street rat, in all likelihood. the term hustle has some connotations to it, and honestly, that's probably why dick has taken such a shine to him. he's not like the rest of them. he's lived in the dirt and still knows how to shine.
he leans from foot to foot like he doesn't know how to stay still for too long, weighing out his options. angel and devil at his shoulders again, hissing don't do it or do it respectively. dick pretty much always goes with the devil, it's a wonder why the other one keeps trying.
so, he tugs the scarf down. yanks it off his neck, tucks the middle of it into his back pocket so it drapes down his leg. ta-dah. he gestures. )
Can't hustle my way out of that, right?
( face is a face. anyway, it's not one mako will have recognized, unless he happened to see a travelling circus in the earth kingdom about ten years ago, but. even then, dick was prepubescent, and looked a lot different. he's grown into himself at this point, matured. )
Anyway, between us, my birth name's been out of the public eye for years, so it probably wouldn't turn up anything if I gave it to you.
( but. it'd turn up enough. the flying graysons, a mother and a father, murdered by earth kingdom mafia on a trick stunt. his parents, caught between saving their son or unveiling their airbending secret to the world. without question, they died, so dick could live. by the time anyone discovered the arrow tattoo his father kept concealed with a bandanna, dick was well on his way into bruce wayne's care, stolen without a word. )
Maybe you can ask me some yes or no questions? And then we can be buddies, right?
( mako is ready to argue his face off when dick... does. all of that. the scarf flutters when he peels it away, revealing the man underneath, and he. stares.
he doesn't know what he was expecting. his only prior experience with people concealing their face was amon. but dick is nothing like that. he's beautiful. sharp-featured, incredibly comely, you could cut glass with the line of his jaw and mako. swallows hard. every protest he might have had just dies on his tongue and his hand, which he'd raised, drops back down.
korra, a while back, had offered to set him up with wei beifong, and he'd turned her down. he didn't really look at men that way. he hardly looked at anyone that way, but dick makes him realize maybe he should. rethink that stance. he snaps his attention elsewhere when he realizes he's staring, trying to unstick his tongue from the roof of his mouth. )
I don't want to be your buddy. I want to do my job.
( dick notices, of course. he's a fairly observant person, because that's how bruce trained him to be. but. his birth parents raised him to have manners and be polite, so he doesn't call mako out on it. just smiles, warm and friendly as ever, although it feels a little more honest with the mask out of the way. it was a barrier between him and the rest of the world, a wall of confidence keeping him safe. now he's. just himself. a little more sheepish, but a little more kind, too. )
Well, here's the thing.
( there is no thing. mako, just hang out with him.
it's also blindingly obvious that he isn't water tribe, now. dick has tan, sunkissed skin, but it's nowhere near the caramel of water born children. )
I'm kinda just a citizen now, if you squint a little. Isn't part of your job ... I don't know, to help the people? Help me, I need help.
( mako spools himself up into a little knot of tension. which isn't hard, it's like his version of the avatar state. except he's in it. all the time. the thing is, dick's giving him a loophole. only mako doesn't do loopholes. once upon a time he would have looked for them, exploited them, come out on top of whatever bargain was being struck, but he is very meticulously by the books, now.
not water-tribe, no. he could be a child of two nations, like mako himself is. he may look obviously fire nation, and bolin obviously earth, but cultures have been intermingling now for over a hundred years. but it's one more detail mako files away in the open logbook he's got running in the back of his mind. categorizing every detail. bruce really missed the boat on collecting this orphan prodigy. )
Why are you doing this?
( it's all he can think to ask. he isn't going to play along. he'll be nice, to certain values of the word, but. he's aware it could well be a trap. something designed to distract him or throw him off his guard. )
( there's a fluster of a laugh, dick nervously bringing his hand up to rub the back of his neck. )
C'mon. Don't ask me that.
( he likes you, mako. and he's never had a friend before, unless you count jason or tim, though - dick doesn't. they're more like siblings, probably. and mako should really be considered closer to his enemy, but dick doesn't really work in lines like that. he wants to see the good in people, and mako wears good like cologne on his neck. dick could smell it a mile away.
he teeters, vaguely. )
I feel bad you're getting in trouble because of me. Really, I mean it. ( he'll have to ... cut back, or something. or stop altogether, but then. people would suffer and dick - wouldn't get to see mako anymore. ) Don't you want the chance to pick at my brain? Do your whole detective thing, you know, uncover my tragic past and secret life.
You'll probably learn a lot. I'm a really bad liar, promise. ( this is a lie!! )
( he's so abjectly frustrated that he seriously considers just swiping a fiery kick at a standing ring of cattails near the water. what is it with him attracting people like this? he doesn't know what the end-game is here, why this guy is playing at being friendly, what he's after.
mako's pretty sure that even if he picked this guy's brain from here to the end of the next harmonic convergence, he still wouldn't know anything about him. he's as evasive as an airbender. mako. draws a deep breath. lets it out. )
Okay, you know what? Sure, fine. Let's do this. But we should get out of the park, because the last thing I need is any of the other officers seeing me colluding with a known criminal.
( a little fist bump in the sky - if he were with his siblings, he’d fly up a few feet in victory. with mako, he’s earth borne, stationary if light footed. )
Alright. My secret hideout?
( it’s less secret hideout and more abandoned warehouse, but it suits for a quick change to evade law enforcers. probably then, not the best idea to bring one back home with him. more important than that, he doesn’t want mako to suspect mischief behind his innocent intent, so. bringing him to a secluded, off the books place is probably more than cause for suspicion.
he holds his hands palm up, blatantly submissive. )
Actually, why don’t you pick? I’ll buy you dinner, if you’re hungry.
( no, hold up, go back to that secret hide-out thing. mako's eyes narrow suspiciously, and he just looks at dick, like the force of his gaze can strip him down to the barest components of his being. mako wants to unmake him. and probably arrest him, and possibly kiss him, and definitely pretend he didn't just think that. )
We aren't going on a date. And I'm not hungry.
( he's starving, actually. being a cop doesn't leave much time for... anything else in his life, since he's modeled himself and his lifestyle after beifong. who, if you believe the rumors, doesn't sleep, doesn't eat, and eats criminals for breakfast. mako has taken up smoking just to curb his appetite, and usually when he's at the station he'll carry a plate of pastries out of the kitchenette to his desk, where they become the rations for his next few days of work.
it's neither pretty nor glamorous, nor particularly healthy. he knows all that. he just keeps telling himself, one more case and then he'll worry about it. then another one, then it's whenever he makes sergeant, then it'll be whenever he makes captain... whatever mako wants to be the best at, he utterly loses himself in. this is no exception.
it's not. living. it's just surviving. that skinny street punk he's got tucked away inside still ruling his life after all these years, pushing him to be better, harder than everyone else. if the chief works overtime, so does he. if she can live off pastries and caffeine, so can he. if she eschews personal relationships for the job, he will too. he doesn't even remember the last time he saw bolin or korra or asami, now.
he flexes his hand. the left, where those fractal scars tell the story of the lightning that nearly killed him and left the nerves damaged all the way down to his fingertips. )
( it’s one of those things where he realized a second later he really shouldn’t have offered to take mako there, and the shoulder angel says a very mean told you so, that has dick and the devil pouting appropriately. it’s just an unnecessary risk. it compromises a safe house, which means dick will just have to find a new one - a lot of needless work. he huffs, lazily.
but he doesn’t say no, because mako is giving up something and he can too. it’s not the end of the world and, mako will find, it’s really not much at all. )
Fine, fine. ( he waves his hand in front of his face. ) It is kind of a date, though.
( maybe it isn’t. but. dick’s a natural charmer. he waves mako in a general thisaway direction, setting them off. )
And we’re at least stopping for snacks. I’m a snacky guy, and it’s been a long night. You like hot chips? ( kind of. assuming. since he’s fire nation. )
( too bad. think before you speak. mako has absolutely zero sympathy, and even though it's almost definitely a trap... at least he's ready for it. he stalks after dick, not quite willing to fall into step beside him. there isn't much backstabbing you can do from the front. ... well, so to speak, anyway. )
It's not a date. You're a criminal. I'm tolerating your presence so I can learn enough to arrest you, and when I do I'm going to get a metalbender to put you in a box you can't get out of no matter how many fancy tricks you have up your sleeve.
( at least he's honest about it. bruce will never be able to say, i told you so. it's as a grumpy, tossed-out afterthought that he says, )
And I hate chips.
( he does not, in point of fact, hate chips. but he's sure going to say he does. )
It's like, 2% a date. 2% is practically not a date at all.
( but it also is a little bit, which is enough for dick. mako doesn't have to admit it. dick knows.
he stays closer to the shadows while he leads them down a certain pathway, taking a detour on the main road to visit the local quickie mart. he's sure footed but twinkle toed, hardly making a sound even in mako's direct line of vision. just how he walks, apparently. )
Maybe the problem is thinking metalbenders can catch me. ( bruce has all these gadgets to combat it, using powerful magnets and stuff like that.
more importantly, ) You'd have better luck all on your own.
( he tosses a cheesy smile over his shoulder, endlessly flirtatious. really, he's about to show mako his secret lair - that's telling enough, isn't it?
into the small mart they go. dick holds the door for him like a gentleman, following shortly behind. ) What about kale cookies? Noodles? Only if you like them cold, I don't have anywhere to cook them. ( after a moment of thought. ) Well, I guess with you around, I do.
( if he folds his arms and looks surly enough, no one will ask him any questions of note, right? at least he's in plainclothes, so it's not so obvious he's a cop. and he's nowhere near as famous as bolin these days. people aren't as likely to pick him out of a crowd and he likes it that way, honestly. once upon a time, when his pro-bending days were at their peak, he might have reveled in the attention. now? not so much.
he stands by the door more out of habit than anything else, attention roving over the store. it's one of the more modern ones, with high metal shelves. there aren't many people in it at this hour, but.
besides his strange companion, there are three others. huddled at the back of the store, whispering among themselves. he doesn't need metalbending to know that they're tense, it's evident without reading what their pulses are doing. he can feel the heat of their bodies, and the scent of fear-sweat in the air, and the shop-keeper... he's trying way, way too hard to smile.
they just interrupted a robbery. and he can't use fire inside a citizen's shop without a swath of paperwork afterwards, so. hand-to-hand it is.
dick, he's sure, can handle himself. but. mako needs an excuse to get closer to the action. he slides up close to dick, slips a hand around his waist and leans in to nuzzle at his throat. )
You asking me to light your fire?
( he hates this. he's bad at it. honestly, bolin is better at going undercover than mako is. 'i'm a cop, i don't have a backstory'. but while he's wedged in against dick, who is a handspan shorter, he might add, he murmurs in against his ear, three guys in the back, forth is behind the counter.)
( a blind man could see the tension in the room. it's evident once they've stepped inside, the air all heavy with malicious intent, every figure in the shop drawn taunt with their shoulders cringing with suspicion. dick gets it. they walked into the right place at exactly the right time. any other occasion, and he'd be positively ecstatic about mako stepping into his personal bubble - right now he's just aware, acting the part, propping a hand momentarily on mako's jaw. )
Anytime you like, handsome.
( or, i'll follow your lead, as he means it.
but right. getting as close as possible before the thieves turn around on them. dick takes a languid step backwards, acting the part of a lovesick honeymoon couple, sliding his hand down to catch mako's. pulling gently. )
I think I want some of those coconut cream things? You know, with the flakeys on the outside. ( dick is good at this though, where mako flounders. he drags him forward, very much invested in the snacks down the aisle, one hand propping up his chin while he hums thoughtfully. the thieves make the first move, but at least it's on them instead of the shopkeeper - dick could tell just by looking at the three that one was an earth bender, the other two nonbenders, and the fourth was still a mystery. it's the earth bender that comes at them, of course, roaring up the ground beneath their feet. dick shoves mako out of the way, pressed up against the aisle, and then it's all hell breaking loose. he goes after the bender, lets mako tend to the other two, while the fourth makes an escape. it isn't particularly hard - most of these low level thugs aren't especially skilled, relying too much on bending and not enough on form. dick wrestles with him, throws punches, ducks under the onslaught of rocks. when the opportunity presents itself, he pushes rapidly on all his pressure points, effectively blocking his chi.
once he's been punched out, he looks back at mako, holding his own against the sluggers but needing a helping hand - dick wraps the middle of his scarf across one of their pounding fists, catching him off guard enough for mako to catch the final blow. )
Mako, I'm pursuing the forth!
( he shouts before racing out the door. he catches a glimpse of fluttering fabric up the outside ladder, and makes quick work of climbing up the railings, looking side to side for the perpetrator. )
( the fight's over in a matter of seconds. mako slaps cuffs on all three of the downed assailants, hastily trussing them to one-another to impede any escape. he flashes his badge at the shopkeeper. )
Call the cops!
( he doesn't identify himself, but it'll come out anyway, since dick very definitely and loudly called his name. he'll get asked later, who was he with? and he'll have to write this up in his report, worked with a criminal to secure four other criminals. no getting out of it, and mako is too painfully honest by far to lie. plus, he's pretty sure lin would be able to tell.
so he just. bolts out the door. he'll worry about it later. he scans the ground, and then looks up. dick's scarf is fluttering from the top of a fire escape, tied there. breadcrumbs.
but how in the spirit realm did he get up there? there's no ladder. mako propels himself up to the first of the escapes with a jet of fire, and then he climbs the rest of the way. his left arm is killing him, one of the perps had twisted it pretty badly on top of the damage it already has, and he's relying wholly on adrenaline to keep from nursing it as he sprints across the roof.
up ahead, he can see it — the flashes of a fight. dick's engaged with the forth, which is throwing wide curling tendrils of water at him. mako has no idea where the guy is getting the water volume from until he sees it, a burst rooftop reservoir nearby. the waterbender must have ran for it. mako jumps across a gap in the roofing, rolls, comes up soaked to the knees. he hates the idea of fighting a waterbender like this, especially with a civilian. oh, he knows dick is capable, but. mako's still the cop, here.
the bender is backed up to the edge of the roof, multiple tentacles like arms arced above him. mako's only ever seen real masters manage that, and he sets his mouth in a hard line. two-on-one odds are always a good thing, but he isn't about to get cocky. it'll be harder to maintain fire soaked through to the bone, the nearby reservoir still guttering a fine mist over all of them. if the bender even thinks about icing them it's all over.
he heats his skin, an old trick to stay warm, and it vaporizes the majority of the water on contact before he dives into the fight. it. surprises him, how naturally he and dick come together. it's like being back-to-back with anyone on team avatar, they move together in a fluid, instinctive way that transcends training. dick's always where mako wants him to be, always doing what mako wants him to do.
the waterbender's good, but he's not good enough to face off against one of the top firebenders in the world and the most skilled acrobat mako's ever seen. he distracts the guy with shots of fire, pouring it into the air around them, creating a veil of steam the waterbender has to either deal with or endure, and dick kites in, jabs a few pressure points and flips away without breaking a sweat. it's going well.
right up until the waterbender takes a step back. he doesn't mean to, mako can see it in his eyes, the precise moment when he realizes he's about to fall. he flings out a hand to summon the water to stabilize him, but dick's turned off his bending to that arm, and gravity does the rest of the work.
mako wanted to bring him in, not kill him. he lunges after the guy, but dick's a shade faster, and he jumps into the open air without even looking back, leaving mako standing on the edge of the building with an outstretched hand. he's about to watch two people die, messy and splattered on the ground several storeys below. lin's going to want to know how it happened, where he fucked up, and so he just. watches. he watches the whole way down.
except. at the last second, dick... airbends, and rather than hitting the ground at terminal velocity, he lands as gracefully as mako's ever seen tenzin at his best, the waterbender in his arms.
mako stares. and then, after a few seconds of that utter disbelief, he heads for the ladder down. he can propel himself upwards, but the downward force over that distance would still mean he'd hit the ground hard enough to break both ankles, and he's cold and wet and not at his best right that second. better not to risk it. he's half-expecting dick to be gone by the time he gets to the bottom. )
( it's just numbers in his head while the waterbender falls. statistics. likelihood of a mattress resting in the middle of the road to catch his fall. angles and half circles, pulley systems he can construct in a second to carry the brunt of his weight. potential outcomes. reasonable expectancy of survival, various injuries. gravity, equations of weight and force and acceleration. the seconds counting down before it's too late to make a decision.
it's only when his body goes horizontal to the roof, that dick imagines his parents.
and then it's not numbers at all. it's flesh and blood, the broken remains of the graysons, with limbs bent in all the wrong directions, with the splatter of human fat like maggots on the ground from the explosive force. dick watched it. there wasn't any slow crawl of life from their eyes - they hit the ground and they were dead, flattened but bent together, lovers even in death. no one expected it, so no one thought to turn his gaze elsewhere. when something terrible happens, it's a shock to the senses. you don't think what about their son? until after the smell of blood is gone from the air, and the adrenaline of their dead bodies runs cold. dick carries that with him like a pack mule, the scent of the circus and disembodied flesh, popcorn and blood intermingling in a way that still makes him sick when he smells butter. the sight of his parents and all their bones crushed, lifeless, swollen eyes expanding from their sockets, blood, god, blood everywhere. dick wanted to jump right after them, and plunge to his own buttery, soda stained death.
he plunges now, unthinking. not to die - to save. he was a young airbender at the death of his parents, untrained and incapable of protecting anyone. now, he just. he doesn't want to see anyone die, ever, ever again. that might be childishness, or the cold fears of a lonely child clawing up his throat, but. he can't watch this guy die. it doesn't matter how terrible he is, what awful things he's done. no one should be splattered on the ground.
it's amazing. he's tried so hard to unlearn airbending, but it's written into the very fiber of his being, etched on the raked leaves of his soul. he doesn't leap off the building thinking he'll airbend to safety - he just knows. this man is not dying. i won't let him die. i'll figure something out.
when mako comes down, dick is just sitting on the ground. knees bent, elbows resting on top of them. the criminal has been apprehended with a makeshift restraint made from dick's belt, and he just looks. exhausted. he lightens up once he sees mako, though, cheery smiles covering up eternities of grief. he waves a hand. )
Worst part about this is I didn't get my snacks. ( c'mon mako. crack a smile. ) We made a pretty good team, don't you think? You're an amazing firebender. Though, I'd expect as much from the great Mako!
( the fire ferrets, come on. he and jason snuck into a match once. it was amazing. )
( he's ready to do a thousand things. arrest dick on the spot. yell at him for the foolish recklessness that reminded him altogether too much of korra. tell him that if it's between him and a criminal, he should pick himself every time.
it's what mako would do. it's what he has done. he's a survivor, at the core of him. it supersedes being a good man, sometimes. and there is absolutely no contest, ever, if it comes down to someone else and bolin. if shutting down kuvira's machine had been something only bo could do, with a high risk of dying? mako would have said, fuck the city, let it burn.
instead, he just finds dick sitting quietly. looking about a hundred years old, some trauma written in the faint wrinkle of his brow, cast all in the rich pale amber of his skin. mako opens his mouth, to lecture, to... something, and then he just holds out a hand. no smile, just. an offer of support. )
Come on. We should get out of here before the PD arrives.
( an airbender. it explains a few things. more than a few. the lightness on his feet, the surety of his acrobatics, the way he twists in the air, the absolute elegance of everything he does, as if motion is his default state, and anything else that isn't that is. unnatural. heavy. wrong. it's wrong now, seeing him sitting, unmoving, barely breathing, something mako recognizes as grief racked up in every line.
he can't let him get arrested now. they just need to get out of here, and he'll. sort the rest out later. mako, rather like lin, plays by the rules when they suit him, and his own rules when the other ones seem unsuitable. he trusts his own judgment above the law, these days. )
( he only looks at mako's outstretched hand long enough to note the importance of the gesture, and then he's quick to grab it, effortlessly tugged up to his tiptoes. he's in big trouble, he knows. soaked to the bone with water, the power to rid himself of it at his very fingertips, but he just. doesn't. that much is unnatural, showing off in front of someone who isn't jason or tim is just - uncomfortable. mako's going to have to tell his boss about this, which means bruce is going to learn about this, which means dick. compromised their situation. put them all in danger.
not only that, but it means all the new airbenders in the convergence will be under scrutiny, too.
it's a bad situation, but dick isn't one to let that damper his mood. if mako isn't mentioning it, then neither is he, quietly chilling in the early night air, rocking back and forth on his heels for a brief moment. )
Okay, you're right. Follow me.
( the leisurely pace from before is gone - dick sets off running in one particular direction, speedy but effortless, following twists of alleyways and cobblestone paths. it's faster if they run on rooftops, but dick doesn't make any effort toward elevation - he's not sure how mako would fair, not that he doubts his abilities, but there's nothing that attracts trouble like the fire of a bender lighting up their path, shouting that they're here, and here, and here. subtlety is the name of this game, the two of them melding in with the shadows, untraceable without the char marks of fire, or the tussle of leaves in man made wind. they're naturally gifted without bending, anyway - no one will catch them.
dick slows down on his block, holding a pointer finger up to his lips to keep mako quiet. surveying the area, making sure there isn't anyone of note to compromise their safety. once dick is assured the coast is clear, he approaches a worn down warehouse that's been out of commission for years now - the structural integrity of it is in question, which is why there aren't any other squatters occupying the building. it used to be a facility where earth benders would make bowls and cutlery, and other simple things like that. since a workplace accident, it's been vacant, and dick. well. occupied that vacancy.
he busted the lock on the door ages ago, so he opens it up for mako now. inside is a mess of a caved in roof, wooden structures sticking up to cracked ends in the night air. all in all it is ... not impressive. mako probably had something else in mind. dick rubs the back of his neck, sheepish. )
Welcome, welcome. I sent the butler home for the night.
( he grins, brightly. alfred would absolutely glare at him for it.
dick leads them further in, towards a more stable area, a more private room he imagines was once the boss's office when this business was operational. it's the only place in here that shows signs of someone living there - an oil lamp and a few articles of clothing, a few trinkets and gadgets they've had in development to fight against benders. there's no bed, no area of comfort. it's clear he doesn't live here. )
( in all honesty, this is pretty much exactly what mako thinks about when he thinks 'shady back-alley hideout'. the street has him tense, shoulders up, guard ready, but once they're in the bolt hole he comes down from that, a little. his posture unfolds like a rare flower in bloom, and he lights the way with a small guttering candleflame nested in the palm of his hand. he's sure to shield it from any windows or run-down openings to the outside world, because the last thing they need is anyone else seeing them in here.
he ducks under a beam from the wall that's crumbled down, and once they're inside the old office mako lights the oil lamp at a distance and extinguishes the flame in his own hand.
the building's run down. decrepit, almost, and it wouldn't surprise him to learn it was condemned. he gets the feeling it was one of the buildings that was torched during the equalist uprising, but — probably for insurance reasons, it's never been fully demolished. it's just rickety and unsafe and it feels more like home than the apartment he and bolin still share. it doesn't matter how long he's been off the streets, it doesn't matter how long he's been away from the life. it's what he knows.
he casts a critical eye over the room. no booby traps, at least. no tripwires. and his gut instinct tells him that dick didn't bring him all the way here just to overwhelm him with superior numbers, an ambush doesn't really seem like his style.
as for attacking him alone? he doesn't know who'd come out on top in a fair fight, mako doesn't have a lot of experience fighting airbenders, but he's had a lifetime to master firebending. it's been a few years since harmonic convergence, though, and the way he moves can't be understated. zaheer was a natural at it, why can't this guy be the same? he resolves not to think about it. )
Did you do it about a century ago?
( it's what passes for humor in mako-land, dick, it's okay. because no butler, clearly, has ever been here. he gives one final look around and then sinks down onto his knees, hands resting lightly on his thighs. if dick were anyone but a criminal that's very nearly ruined his good name, he'd ask him are you okay? or. something. to show that he's a real person with real human emotions, and not just a soulless automaton masquerading as a cop.
( he smiles at the joke. a part of him is sure there's a sideways jab there about airbenders in the hundred year war, because their temples were worse for wear, too, without anyone there to maintain them but. maybe that's just how it is. airbenders need something to tend to, and when they aren't around there's a disclosed chaos that fills the void. something could be said about the world, in that respect - growing messy and disconnected from the spiritual field without natural born air nomads to help maintain the balance, the way the other three do.
anyway, he's pretty sure mako didn't mean it like that, because for all mako knows, the harmonic convergence is what gave dick his airbending. it's better to let that stay, instead of ... explaining. his history, and the story with bruce, and why he lives far away instead of under the republic city's roof. )
Uh.
( likewise, he takes a seat, although it's on a diagonal beam that's sunken in, merging from the corner of the floor to the middle of the roof. he could worry about the weight, but dick is, in essence, weightless, so it doesn't so much as shudder under him. )
I mean. You reached for him too. ( he's trying not to answer the question head on, playing through words like skipping rope, ducking and jumping. ) If someone's about to die, and you have a way to save them, don't you think you should do it?
( 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.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Look, I appreciate what you're trying to do. But all you're doing is making me look bad. My boss is breathing down my neck every time you skip out on us. You want to make a difference? Why don't you just come be a cop? Obviously you've got the skills for it. And if you're worried about being a non-bender, we've got plenty of those on the force.
( he doesn't want to be tailed, he doesn't want to be protected. he's one of the most dangerous firebenders in the world, tempered by time and his proximity to korra and all the dangerous goings-ons that surround her like a cloying smoke. mako is nothing if not secure in his skills, but this? this is a whole other... thing.
lin actually offered to assign this case to someone else. but the idea of anyone other than himself cuffing this guy... he doesn't even want to think about it. a lot of the other cops are rougher than he is. mako doesn't want to hurt him, he just wants him to play by the damn rules, same as everyone else. )
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an unfortunate reality, he guesses. he actively chose to keep pursuing vigilantism, and all the unfavorable things that come along with that. for as thoughtful as dick is, he's also a little ... naive. it's been good fun, for him. for mako, it's his job. )
Can't do that. I'm terrible at following orders.
( clearly. that he's here at all is evidence enough of that.
with an overly dramatic flip, he levels the playing field between them, landing on the ground with hardly a pitter patter between his two feet. he shrugs, loosely. )
What if I help in your investigation into me? ( the portion of his brain that's supposed to form a conscience, although it generally just sounds like bruce's reproach, firmly says hey, maybe don't do that. the devil on dick's shoulder quietly tells it to fuck off. ) If you let me hang out with you, I'll give you a name. Fair?
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that flip is a marvel of physiological engineering. he's never seen anyone move like that. not even tenzin, who by all rights is the most graceful person he's ever met, or asami, who's a close second. mako wants to. pin him down, and take him apart, and figure him out in all the most infuriating ways.
he's never gotten a read of malice off the guy. nothing mean, nothing sadistic. even the criminals he drops off are just... banged up. but it's never in places that intersect with massive pain-points. the broken bones are never compound. never any significant damage to the trunk, the sort that leads to internal damage that leads to death. mako knows he's decent, which is one of the reasons why he's so damn up the wall about it. because if this guy would just. take five minutes and work with him, he thinks they could accomplish a lot together. )
Look, I practically invented this hustle. 'A name' means you aren't going to give me anything even close to yours. And I already know, your version of 'helping' would just be to throw me off the scent.
( it's foolish. but mako is so tired of this. he just pinches the bridge of his nose. )
I know you're connected. I know you either come from wealth or have a wealthy benefactor. I know you must've had some experience in your past that makes you want to clean up the city. I know you hate violence. You know the city, so you're either from here or you have the resources to learn it, and I do mean all of it, so... full access to city planning somehow. And I don't think you're a firebender.
( he didn't have the right. reaction. to the flames. he's not sure how to really articulate it. it wasn't like his body language changed massively, or that he said anything about it, but there was just... something. mako's instincts are sharp, and he's been relying on his ability to read people since he was a child. he knows when to listen to his gut. )
no subject
he leans from foot to foot like he doesn't know how to stay still for too long, weighing out his options. angel and devil at his shoulders again, hissing don't do it or do it respectively. dick pretty much always goes with the devil, it's a wonder why the other one keeps trying.
so, he tugs the scarf down. yanks it off his neck, tucks the middle of it into his back pocket so it drapes down his leg. ta-dah. he gestures. )
Can't hustle my way out of that, right?
( face is a face. anyway, it's not one mako will have recognized, unless he happened to see a travelling circus in the earth kingdom about ten years ago, but. even then, dick was prepubescent, and looked a lot different. he's grown into himself at this point, matured. )
Anyway, between us, my birth name's been out of the public eye for years, so it probably wouldn't turn up anything if I gave it to you.
( but. it'd turn up enough. the flying graysons, a mother and a father, murdered by earth kingdom mafia on a trick stunt. his parents, caught between saving their son or unveiling their airbending secret to the world. without question, they died, so dick could live. by the time anyone discovered the arrow tattoo his father kept concealed with a bandanna, dick was well on his way into bruce wayne's care, stolen without a word. )
Maybe you can ask me some yes or no questions? And then we can be buddies, right?
no subject
he doesn't know what he was expecting. his only prior experience with people concealing their face was amon. but dick is nothing like that. he's beautiful. sharp-featured, incredibly comely, you could cut glass with the line of his jaw and mako. swallows hard. every protest he might have had just dies on his tongue and his hand, which he'd raised, drops back down.
korra, a while back, had offered to set him up with wei beifong, and he'd turned her down. he didn't really look at men that way. he hardly looked at anyone that way, but dick makes him realize maybe he should. rethink that stance. he snaps his attention elsewhere when he realizes he's staring, trying to unstick his tongue from the roof of his mouth. )
I don't want to be your buddy. I want to do my job.
no subject
Well, here's the thing.
( there is no thing. mako, just hang out with him.
it's also blindingly obvious that he isn't water tribe, now. dick has tan, sunkissed skin, but it's nowhere near the caramel of water born children. )
I'm kinda just a citizen now, if you squint a little. Isn't part of your job ... I don't know, to help the people? Help me, I need help.
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not water-tribe, no. he could be a child of two nations, like mako himself is. he may look obviously fire nation, and bolin obviously earth, but cultures have been intermingling now for over a hundred years. but it's one more detail mako files away in the open logbook he's got running in the back of his mind. categorizing every detail. bruce really missed the boat on collecting this orphan prodigy. )
Why are you doing this?
( it's all he can think to ask. he isn't going to play along. he'll be nice, to certain values of the word, but. he's aware it could well be a trap. something designed to distract him or throw him off his guard. )
no subject
C'mon. Don't ask me that.
( he likes you, mako. and he's never had a friend before, unless you count jason or tim, though - dick doesn't. they're more like siblings, probably. and mako should really be considered closer to his enemy, but dick doesn't really work in lines like that. he wants to see the good in people, and mako wears good like cologne on his neck. dick could smell it a mile away.
he teeters, vaguely. )
I feel bad you're getting in trouble because of me. Really, I mean it. ( he'll have to ... cut back, or something. or stop altogether, but then. people would suffer and dick - wouldn't get to see mako anymore. ) Don't you want the chance to pick at my brain? Do your whole detective thing, you know, uncover my tragic past and secret life.
You'll probably learn a lot. I'm a really bad liar, promise. ( this is a lie!! )
no subject
mako's pretty sure that even if he picked this guy's brain from here to the end of the next harmonic convergence, he still wouldn't know anything about him. he's as evasive as an airbender. mako. draws a deep breath. lets it out. )
Okay, you know what? Sure, fine. Let's do this. But we should get out of the park, because the last thing I need is any of the other officers seeing me colluding with a known criminal.
no subject
( a little fist bump in the sky - if he were with his siblings, he’d fly up a few feet in victory. with mako, he’s earth borne, stationary if light footed. )
Alright. My secret hideout?
( it’s less secret hideout and more abandoned warehouse, but it suits for a quick change to evade law enforcers. probably then, not the best idea to bring one back home with him. more important than that, he doesn’t want mako to suspect mischief behind his innocent intent, so. bringing him to a secluded, off the books place is probably more than cause for suspicion.
he holds his hands palm up, blatantly submissive. )
Actually, why don’t you pick? I’ll buy you dinner, if you’re hungry.
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We aren't going on a date. And I'm not hungry.
( he's starving, actually. being a cop doesn't leave much time for... anything else in his life, since he's modeled himself and his lifestyle after beifong. who, if you believe the rumors, doesn't sleep, doesn't eat, and eats criminals for breakfast. mako has taken up smoking just to curb his appetite, and usually when he's at the station he'll carry a plate of pastries out of the kitchenette to his desk, where they become the rations for his next few days of work.
it's neither pretty nor glamorous, nor particularly healthy. he knows all that. he just keeps telling himself, one more case and then he'll worry about it. then another one, then it's whenever he makes sergeant, then it'll be whenever he makes captain... whatever mako wants to be the best at, he utterly loses himself in. this is no exception.
it's not. living. it's just surviving. that skinny street punk he's got tucked away inside still ruling his life after all these years, pushing him to be better, harder than everyone else. if the chief works overtime, so does he. if she can live off pastries and caffeine, so can he. if she eschews personal relationships for the job, he will too. he doesn't even remember the last time he saw bolin or korra or asami, now.
he flexes his hand. the left, where those fractal scars tell the story of the lightning that nearly killed him and left the nerves damaged all the way down to his fingertips. )
Secret hideout sounds fine. Let's go.
no subject
( it’s one of those things where he realized a second later he really shouldn’t have offered to take mako there, and the shoulder angel says a very mean told you so, that has dick and the devil pouting appropriately. it’s just an unnecessary risk. it compromises a safe house, which means dick will just have to find a new one - a lot of needless work. he huffs, lazily.
but he doesn’t say no, because mako is giving up something and he can too. it’s not the end of the world and, mako will find, it’s really not much at all. )
Fine, fine. ( he waves his hand in front of his face. ) It is kind of a date, though.
( maybe it isn’t. but. dick’s a natural charmer. he waves mako in a general thisaway direction, setting them off. )
And we’re at least stopping for snacks. I’m a snacky guy, and it’s been a long night. You like hot chips? ( kind of. assuming. since he’s fire nation. )
no subject
It's not a date. You're a criminal. I'm tolerating your presence so I can learn enough to arrest you, and when I do I'm going to get a metalbender to put you in a box you can't get out of no matter how many fancy tricks you have up your sleeve.
( at least he's honest about it. bruce will never be able to say, i told you so. it's as a grumpy, tossed-out afterthought that he says, )
And I hate chips.
( he does not, in point of fact, hate chips. but he's sure going to say he does. )
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( but it also is a little bit, which is enough for dick. mako doesn't have to admit it. dick knows.
he stays closer to the shadows while he leads them down a certain pathway, taking a detour on the main road to visit the local quickie mart. he's sure footed but twinkle toed, hardly making a sound even in mako's direct line of vision. just how he walks, apparently. )
Maybe the problem is thinking metalbenders can catch me. ( bruce has all these gadgets to combat it, using powerful magnets and stuff like that.
more importantly, ) You'd have better luck all on your own.
( he tosses a cheesy smile over his shoulder, endlessly flirtatious. really, he's about to show mako his secret lair - that's telling enough, isn't it?
into the small mart they go. dick holds the door for him like a gentleman, following shortly behind. ) What about kale cookies? Noodles? Only if you like them cold, I don't have anywhere to cook them. ( after a moment of thought. ) Well, I guess with you around, I do.
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( if he folds his arms and looks surly enough, no one will ask him any questions of note, right? at least he's in plainclothes, so it's not so obvious he's a cop. and he's nowhere near as famous as bolin these days. people aren't as likely to pick him out of a crowd and he likes it that way, honestly. once upon a time, when his pro-bending days were at their peak, he might have reveled in the attention. now? not so much.
he stands by the door more out of habit than anything else, attention roving over the store. it's one of the more modern ones, with high metal shelves. there aren't many people in it at this hour, but.
besides his strange companion, there are three others. huddled at the back of the store, whispering among themselves. he doesn't need metalbending to know that they're tense, it's evident without reading what their pulses are doing. he can feel the heat of their bodies, and the scent of fear-sweat in the air, and the shop-keeper... he's trying way, way too hard to smile.
they just interrupted a robbery. and he can't use fire inside a citizen's shop without a swath of paperwork afterwards, so. hand-to-hand it is.
dick, he's sure, can handle himself. but. mako needs an excuse to get closer to the action. he slides up close to dick, slips a hand around his waist and leans in to nuzzle at his throat. )
You asking me to light your fire?
( he hates this. he's bad at it. honestly, bolin is better at going undercover than mako is. 'i'm a cop, i don't have a backstory'. but while he's wedged in against dick, who is a handspan shorter, he might add, he murmurs in against his ear, three guys in the back, forth is behind the counter. )
no subject
Anytime you like, handsome.
( or, i'll follow your lead, as he means it.
but right. getting as close as possible before the thieves turn around on them. dick takes a languid step backwards, acting the part of a lovesick honeymoon couple, sliding his hand down to catch mako's. pulling gently. )
I think I want some of those coconut cream things? You know, with the flakeys on the outside. ( dick is good at this though, where mako flounders. he drags him forward, very much invested in the snacks down the aisle, one hand propping up his chin while he hums thoughtfully. the thieves make the first move, but at least it's on them instead of the shopkeeper - dick could tell just by looking at the three that one was an earth bender, the other two nonbenders, and the fourth was still a mystery. it's the earth bender that comes at them, of course, roaring up the ground beneath their feet. dick shoves mako out of the way, pressed up against the aisle, and then it's all hell breaking loose. he goes after the bender, lets mako tend to the other two, while the fourth makes an escape. it isn't particularly hard - most of these low level thugs aren't especially skilled, relying too much on bending and not enough on form. dick wrestles with him, throws punches, ducks under the onslaught of rocks. when the opportunity presents itself, he pushes rapidly on all his pressure points, effectively blocking his chi.
once he's been punched out, he looks back at mako, holding his own against the sluggers but needing a helping hand - dick wraps the middle of his scarf across one of their pounding fists, catching him off guard enough for mako to catch the final blow. )
Mako, I'm pursuing the forth!
( he shouts before racing out the door. he catches a glimpse of fluttering fabric up the outside ladder, and makes quick work of climbing up the railings, looking side to side for the perpetrator. )
no subject
Call the cops!
( he doesn't identify himself, but it'll come out anyway, since dick very definitely and loudly called his name. he'll get asked later, who was he with? and he'll have to write this up in his report, worked with a criminal to secure four other criminals. no getting out of it, and mako is too painfully honest by far to lie. plus, he's pretty sure lin would be able to tell.
so he just. bolts out the door. he'll worry about it later. he scans the ground, and then looks up. dick's scarf is fluttering from the top of a fire escape, tied there. breadcrumbs.
but how in the spirit realm did he get up there? there's no ladder. mako propels himself up to the first of the escapes with a jet of fire, and then he climbs the rest of the way. his left arm is killing him, one of the perps had twisted it pretty badly on top of the damage it already has, and he's relying wholly on adrenaline to keep from nursing it as he sprints across the roof.
up ahead, he can see it — the flashes of a fight. dick's engaged with the forth, which is throwing wide curling tendrils of water at him. mako has no idea where the guy is getting the water volume from until he sees it, a burst rooftop reservoir nearby. the waterbender must have ran for it. mako jumps across a gap in the roofing, rolls, comes up soaked to the knees. he hates the idea of fighting a waterbender like this, especially with a civilian. oh, he knows dick is capable, but. mako's still the cop, here.
the bender is backed up to the edge of the roof, multiple tentacles like arms arced above him. mako's only ever seen real masters manage that, and he sets his mouth in a hard line. two-on-one odds are always a good thing, but he isn't about to get cocky. it'll be harder to maintain fire soaked through to the bone, the nearby reservoir still guttering a fine mist over all of them. if the bender even thinks about icing them it's all over.
he heats his skin, an old trick to stay warm, and it vaporizes the majority of the water on contact before he dives into the fight. it. surprises him, how naturally he and dick come together. it's like being back-to-back with anyone on team avatar, they move together in a fluid, instinctive way that transcends training. dick's always where mako wants him to be, always doing what mako wants him to do.
the waterbender's good, but he's not good enough to face off against one of the top firebenders in the world and the most skilled acrobat mako's ever seen. he distracts the guy with shots of fire, pouring it into the air around them, creating a veil of steam the waterbender has to either deal with or endure, and dick kites in, jabs a few pressure points and flips away without breaking a sweat. it's going well.
right up until the waterbender takes a step back. he doesn't mean to, mako can see it in his eyes, the precise moment when he realizes he's about to fall. he flings out a hand to summon the water to stabilize him, but dick's turned off his bending to that arm, and gravity does the rest of the work.
mako wanted to bring him in, not kill him. he lunges after the guy, but dick's a shade faster, and he jumps into the open air without even looking back, leaving mako standing on the edge of the building with an outstretched hand. he's about to watch two people die, messy and splattered on the ground several storeys below. lin's going to want to know how it happened, where he fucked up, and so he just. watches. he watches the whole way down.
except. at the last second, dick... airbends, and rather than hitting the ground at terminal velocity, he lands as gracefully as mako's ever seen tenzin at his best, the waterbender in his arms.
mako stares. and then, after a few seconds of that utter disbelief, he heads for the ladder down. he can propel himself upwards, but the downward force over that distance would still mean he'd hit the ground hard enough to break both ankles, and he's cold and wet and not at his best right that second. better not to risk it. he's half-expecting dick to be gone by the time he gets to the bottom. )
cw: gore
it's only when his body goes horizontal to the roof, that dick imagines his parents.
and then it's not numbers at all. it's flesh and blood, the broken remains of the graysons, with limbs bent in all the wrong directions, with the splatter of human fat like maggots on the ground from the explosive force. dick watched it. there wasn't any slow crawl of life from their eyes - they hit the ground and they were dead, flattened but bent together, lovers even in death. no one expected it, so no one thought to turn his gaze elsewhere. when something terrible happens, it's a shock to the senses. you don't think what about their son? until after the smell of blood is gone from the air, and the adrenaline of their dead bodies runs cold. dick carries that with him like a pack mule, the scent of the circus and disembodied flesh, popcorn and blood intermingling in a way that still makes him sick when he smells butter. the sight of his parents and all their bones crushed, lifeless, swollen eyes expanding from their sockets, blood, god, blood everywhere. dick wanted to jump right after them, and plunge to his own buttery, soda stained death.
he plunges now, unthinking. not to die - to save. he was a young airbender at the death of his parents, untrained and incapable of protecting anyone. now, he just. he doesn't want to see anyone die, ever, ever again. that might be childishness, or the cold fears of a lonely child clawing up his throat, but. he can't watch this guy die. it doesn't matter how terrible he is, what awful things he's done. no one should be splattered on the ground.
it's amazing. he's tried so hard to unlearn airbending, but it's written into the very fiber of his being, etched on the raked leaves of his soul. he doesn't leap off the building thinking he'll airbend to safety - he just knows. this man is not dying. i won't let him die. i'll figure something out.
when mako comes down, dick is just sitting on the ground. knees bent, elbows resting on top of them. the criminal has been apprehended with a makeshift restraint made from dick's belt, and he just looks. exhausted. he lightens up once he sees mako, though, cheery smiles covering up eternities of grief. he waves a hand. )
Worst part about this is I didn't get my snacks. ( c'mon mako. crack a smile. ) We made a pretty good team, don't you think? You're an amazing firebender. Though, I'd expect as much from the great Mako!
( the fire ferrets, come on. he and jason snuck into a match once. it was amazing. )
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it's what mako would do. it's what he has done. he's a survivor, at the core of him. it supersedes being a good man, sometimes. and there is absolutely no contest, ever, if it comes down to someone else and bolin. if shutting down kuvira's machine had been something only bo could do, with a high risk of dying? mako would have said, fuck the city, let it burn.
instead, he just finds dick sitting quietly. looking about a hundred years old, some trauma written in the faint wrinkle of his brow, cast all in the rich pale amber of his skin. mako opens his mouth, to lecture, to... something, and then he just holds out a hand. no smile, just. an offer of support. )
Come on. We should get out of here before the PD arrives.
( an airbender. it explains a few things. more than a few. the lightness on his feet, the surety of his acrobatics, the way he twists in the air, the absolute elegance of everything he does, as if motion is his default state, and anything else that isn't that is. unnatural. heavy. wrong. it's wrong now, seeing him sitting, unmoving, barely breathing, something mako recognizes as grief racked up in every line.
he can't let him get arrested now. they just need to get out of here, and he'll. sort the rest out later. mako, rather like lin, plays by the rules when they suit him, and his own rules when the other ones seem unsuitable. he trusts his own judgment above the law, these days. )
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not only that, but it means all the new airbenders in the convergence will be under scrutiny, too.
it's a bad situation, but dick isn't one to let that damper his mood. if mako isn't mentioning it, then neither is he, quietly chilling in the early night air, rocking back and forth on his heels for a brief moment. )
Okay, you're right. Follow me.
( the leisurely pace from before is gone - dick sets off running in one particular direction, speedy but effortless, following twists of alleyways and cobblestone paths. it's faster if they run on rooftops, but dick doesn't make any effort toward elevation - he's not sure how mako would fair, not that he doubts his abilities, but there's nothing that attracts trouble like the fire of a bender lighting up their path, shouting that they're here, and here, and here. subtlety is the name of this game, the two of them melding in with the shadows, untraceable without the char marks of fire, or the tussle of leaves in man made wind. they're naturally gifted without bending, anyway - no one will catch them.
dick slows down on his block, holding a pointer finger up to his lips to keep mako quiet. surveying the area, making sure there isn't anyone of note to compromise their safety. once dick is assured the coast is clear, he approaches a worn down warehouse that's been out of commission for years now - the structural integrity of it is in question, which is why there aren't any other squatters occupying the building. it used to be a facility where earth benders would make bowls and cutlery, and other simple things like that. since a workplace accident, it's been vacant, and dick. well. occupied that vacancy.
he busted the lock on the door ages ago, so he opens it up for mako now. inside is a mess of a caved in roof, wooden structures sticking up to cracked ends in the night air. all in all it is ... not impressive. mako probably had something else in mind. dick rubs the back of his neck, sheepish. )
Welcome, welcome. I sent the butler home for the night.
( he grins, brightly. alfred would absolutely glare at him for it.
dick leads them further in, towards a more stable area, a more private room he imagines was once the boss's office when this business was operational. it's the only place in here that shows signs of someone living there - an oil lamp and a few articles of clothing, a few trinkets and gadgets they've had in development to fight against benders. there's no bed, no area of comfort. it's clear he doesn't live here. )
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he ducks under a beam from the wall that's crumbled down, and once they're inside the old office mako lights the oil lamp at a distance and extinguishes the flame in his own hand.
the building's run down. decrepit, almost, and it wouldn't surprise him to learn it was condemned. he gets the feeling it was one of the buildings that was torched during the equalist uprising, but — probably for insurance reasons, it's never been fully demolished. it's just rickety and unsafe and it feels more like home than the apartment he and bolin still share. it doesn't matter how long he's been off the streets, it doesn't matter how long he's been away from the life. it's what he knows.
he casts a critical eye over the room. no booby traps, at least. no tripwires. and his gut instinct tells him that dick didn't bring him all the way here just to overwhelm him with superior numbers, an ambush doesn't really seem like his style.
as for attacking him alone? he doesn't know who'd come out on top in a fair fight, mako doesn't have a lot of experience fighting airbenders, but he's had a lifetime to master firebending. it's been a few years since harmonic convergence, though, and the way he moves can't be understated. zaheer was a natural at it, why can't this guy be the same? he resolves not to think about it. )
Did you do it about a century ago?
( it's what passes for humor in mako-land, dick, it's okay. because no butler, clearly, has ever been here. he gives one final look around and then sinks down onto his knees, hands resting lightly on his thighs. if dick were anyone but a criminal that's very nearly ruined his good name, he'd ask him are you okay? or. something. to show that he's a real person with real human emotions, and not just a soulless automaton masquerading as a cop.
but.
well.
he's masquerading a little. and so: )
Why didn't you just let him die?
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anyway, he's pretty sure mako didn't mean it like that, because for all mako knows, the harmonic convergence is what gave dick his airbending. it's better to let that stay, instead of ... explaining. his history, and the story with bruce, and why he lives far away instead of under the republic city's roof. )
Uh.
( likewise, he takes a seat, although it's on a diagonal beam that's sunken in, merging from the corner of the floor to the middle of the roof. he could worry about the weight, but dick is, in essence, weightless, so it doesn't so much as shudder under him. )
I mean. You reached for him too. ( he's trying not to answer the question head on, playing through words like skipping rope, ducking and jumping. ) If someone's about to die, and you have a way to save them, don't you think you should do it?
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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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