bend_it_like | Deerington: 2010 Howard Hill

[ Mako's just kind of sitting on the steps leading out to their backyard, staring red-faced down at his phone. He's been—texting? Is that the word? He needs to look it up again later—David for about an hour in between training, and half the time he's had to just sit like this and stare because he has no idea what to say.

What is he supposed to say to this? Or feel? There's a part of him that wants to ask Korra, but Korra will tease him for years and he isn't even sure he wants to talk to her about that, exactly. Doesn't know what he would say, or if it's worth saying anything at all. ]

[ Oh, look, Korra is here. She was going to head out to do... something. She doesn't know. She's restless and bored and tired, but she can't do anything about any of it. She has her glider in her hand, but pauses when she sees him sitting there. ] Uh... Mako? You okay?

Uh— [ Mako's head whips up. His face is flushed, and his brows are furrowed hard. Before Korra can get any closer he flicks off his Fluid and bends it around his wrist. ] Yeah. Yes. I'm fine. It's fine.

Uh huh. [ Korra narrows her eyes and stomps over to him. ] What're you hiding from me?

Nothing, Korra, it's fine. [ He moves the Fluid a little bit further away. Maybe she could help him with this whole David thing—what to say, whether or not David means this, why, but she's also his ex-girlfriend and that's... a weird thing to ask. That's maybe the weirdest thing he could possibly ask her.

Still, his Fluid isn't that far out of reach, and Korra could very easily steal it. Mako hasn't slept, his reflexes are barely what they should be. ]

[ Oh, she does. She snatches it and skips back a few feet, unlocking it easily. He shared his passcode with her. Maybe that was a mistake. ]

Who's David?

[ SHIT it was definitely a mistake, Mako is even more bright red now as he lunges up off the porch after Korra. ] Another Sleeper. It's fine. And nothing. That you need to read. [ Especially since David literally just said he was flirting with Mako. ]

Wait, he asked you out?! [ Korra dances out of his reach. Yes, it's dark and terrible and their walls are bleeding blood, but Mako's love life is also important here. ] Mako! I didn't know you were interested in anyone. Especially, [ She pulls up his pictures and her brows rise. ] Oh, he's cute.

[ Why is Mako friends with Korra again? He is regretting all his life choices as he hisses, mortified: ] Korra! I don't—is this really what we need to talk about right now?

And I'm not! Maybe. I don't. It's complicated.

Yes, we do! [ She peers closer at the phone ] Wait, I know this guy! We watched a movie together. He's nice.

So, [ Korra sidles up to him with a giant grin ] are you gonna go on a date with him?

[ THE QUESTION OF THE CENTURY, right there. It's not that Mako's worried about disappointing him—well, he sort of is, Wu and Tu weren't exactly wrong when they just read him like that in front of his own grandmother—but Mako has no idea what to do right now and he hates feeling this out of his depth.

He gives up trying to get the Fluid back in favor of averting his eyes and shoving a hand into his hair, uncomfortable. ] I don't know. No. He's a guy.

[ Korra smile drops a little. She lets him take the phone ] Well... yeah.

So you only want to date girls. Then why didn't you just tell him no?

[ Also... the question of the century, a little bit. Mako frowns, looking away yet again to the dead-grass patch that has become their backyard. ] I. You're. You were already interested in Asami, right?

Already? I've been, um, interested in her for a while. [ Somehow it's still hard to say that out loud. ] So, what? You want to go out with him to see if you're interested? I think that's fine to do.

[ Korra peers at Mako, standing a bit too close to him. ] Do you like guys?

[ Mako very clearly does not want to be having this conversation, because he takes a small step back, groaning under his breath. ] That isn't—no. I want to know how you knew.

How I knew I like her? [ Korra crosses her arms, letting him move away from her, but that doesn't stop her from narrowing her eyes at him. ] I dunno. I just liked her. How did you know you liked me?

You annoyed me until you disappeared and then I was worried sick. [ His words are very, very dry. But Mako stops moving away, at least, instead makes a frustrated little sound in his throat. ] How'd you feel about... the whole. Liking another girl. Thing?

[ Why is this Mako's life, this is so awkward, he hates it. He's never talked about this. He doesn't have the words to talk about the half-feelings he squashed when he was younger, the admiration for older benders with the Triple Threats, all young self-assured grace and cocky smiles. Mako's always had a thing for people with a lot of confidence, and it was always safer to channel those feelings into women, because that was what the Triple Threats, with all their ill-gotten power, valued.

He hadn't let himself dwell on the other feelings, really. Didn't know what to do with them, and apparently still doesn't. ]

I didn't really think about it. [ Korra says it simply, and it's mostly the truth. She liked Mako, so she dated Mako. She likes Asami, so, at least Mako has told her, she dates Asami. Maybe that took a little longer to figure out, but she was never upset about it or anything ] Well. I did think about it, a lot. I thought about her, a lot. And after a while I realized that I like her, the same way I used to like you.

Uh. [ Okay, this is getting a little weird. She laughs. ] Yeah. I think it took longer to figure out because she's a girl, and people don't really do that. But I don't see the problem with girls dating girls or guys dating guys. If anything, we're in the right place for it. Everyone seems to do it here.

[ Mako lets out a slow breath. It's almost like he's deflating, some of the fight leaving him. This is Korra. He has a hard time remembering, sometimes, that Korra kind of already knows the worst of him, and wouldn't hold what he still can't help thinking of as an exploitable weakness against him.

Even if he doesn't think that about Korra herself. Even if that logic only applies to him, and he would never hold it against anyone else.

He meets her eyes after a moment, his jaw working silently until he can pick out the right words from the swirling, sleep-deprived mess in his own head. ] That's the thing. People don't do it. [ The Triple Threats made it clear—not through saying it, nothing so blatant as that—that it wasn't normal or okay, that if you were anything other than macho and tough and practically fighting off women with a stick then you weren't much of anything. ] But. You do. And... Chloe does. And David does. Apparently.

So, people do do it. We just don't talk about it.

Uh... [ Korra frowns for a moment, then holds up a hand ] Stay here.

[ She trots back into the house and finds the comic books she stole from the library stashed under her mattress. She flips through them and finds the part that she's looking for.

She brings it back to Mako and holds it out. ] I told you about these, right? The books. About us. In them, Kya told me that she likes women too.

If Aang's daughter likes women, and Aang was fine with that, it's fine, right?

[ Mako waits in silence, scrolling back up through the messages to David, looking again at what he said: that he was flirting, that it was fun, but that he's actually interested.

Mako had sort of figured it was a Wu situation before. That David was flirting just because that's the sort of person he is, or because he wanted something out Mako.

He's sort of grateful when Korra reappears and it isn't just him and the messages anymore, pulls the book closer to himself with a small frown and stares at the page for a long moment. ]

Well, and. You're the Avatar. [ Mako glances up, that frown still firmly in place. ] And. I don't know for sure, but—Wu basically spent three years flirting with me.

Yeah. I am, but he's Aang. [ There's a difference. She's still figuring things out. Aang had it down, at least by the end there.

She blinks. ] Wu flirted with you too?

Wasn't Aang a kid when he did most of his impressive things? It still counts. You've saved the world at least twice now.

[ Look, deflecting! He goes a bit pink at her picking up on what he said about Wu, though, glances away with a little huff. ] Yeah. I think so. He used to... call me weird names. And he was, uh. Very touchy.

Huh. [ She thinks about that for a second, then shakes her head. ] Well, thanks. I do okay with the world saving stuff. It's the other stuff I'm still working out.

But: none of that has anything to do with David. So? Do you want to date him? [ She's leaning in now, an annoying grin on her face ]

I don't know, Korra! [ Mako snaps, a little too sharp, maybe, but his face is redder and this is a sore subject, so. ] It's not that easy. I.

[ Spirits, this is really hard, and Mako feels kind of exposed out here in the backyard with those eyes looming above them. He curls a hand around Korra's arm and tugs her back through the open door into the house and the calming scent of the incense. Even just smelling it calms his nerves a little.

He shuts the door, just to be safe, and pulls her into the living room where they have the most incense going. ]

after he's been texting with David, before shit gets real in October

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