pabugotmoves | Deer Country IC Inbox

pabugotmoves

Huh? Oh-- You've reached Bolin!
Yeah, I'm a pretty busy guy but leave me a message and I'll beep you back

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

arclightning

Seriously?

[ How did he... not notice that....... maybe he needs to rethink his detective skills. ]

Whatever, it doesn't matter. Yeah, come meet me at the Raccoon Room, I'm making scallion pancakes and eggs.

[ Read: he's stress-cooking. ]

From:

pabugotmoves

[Read loud and clear and actually this is… not as scary? Meeting Somewhere To Talk is way more ominous. He feels better about it and shrugs into his outside clothes, finally back to his old shape.]

On my way

[ Stopping only to grab a smoothie from the fridge. Hunk is so useful, it’s wild. Bolin is so well fed. Give him a few minutes and he’ll be knocking on the door with Pabu on his shoulder. Don’t worry, he lets himself in and heads right to the kitchen.]

Scallion pancakes, huh. In winter?

From:

arclightning

What? Oh—

[ Mako, wearing some slacks Wu found, his usual casual tank-top, and an apron that Wu also got him, is standing in the kitchen currently flipping a pancake over with chopsticks. A small mountain of them rest in a steamer basket with the lid cracked beside him. The whole kitchen smells like scallions and chili oil, and something else is bubbling on the stove.

He offers Bolin something like a sheepish grin. While his shoulders are tense—the knowledge of what he's going to tell Bolin is kind of a heavy and terrifying thing—his smile is relaxed. Zuko immediately bolts off the counter where she was trying to steal an egg to go chitter excitedly at Pabu. ]

Manabu found a whole crate of 'em a month ago. Look in the freezer. There's tea on the counter. It's just getting colder out there.

[ Listen he's Bo's big brother he cannot HELP fussing just a little; warm yourself up, Bolin! ]

From:

pabugotmoves

[Yikes, whatever it is that's got Mako all worked up has had him at it for a while.

Bolin nods and crosses the kitchen to do as he's told. He is cold and will never say no to a cup of tea when it's available.

But what would Mako so..

...

Bolin hasn't spoken to Wu for a while outside of the musical.. and not much since that ended.

Maybe-- did he--

Better go on the offensive, first.]

So.. listen, if this is about the Lance thing, I'm over it. That isn't a thing we have to talk about.

From:

arclightning

From:

arclightning

[ The... Lance thing?

What Lance thing? It can't be Mako's weird fallout with Lance, Bolin doesn't know about that, so it has to be... something with Bolin and Lance, and all Mako knows there is that they're friends. Did Lance get mad at him too? ]

From:

arclightning

[ No, it can't be that because Bolin would be probably talking about that, he hates it when people are angry at him. He wouldn't try to ignore it.

And look, he called Bolin here for a very specific reason but Mako has no idea what The Lance Thing could possibly be and he's pretty tired of being in the dark about Bolin's life, so— ]

From:

arclightning

[ Mako lifs the pan to slide his latest pancake out onto the pile, casual as anything. ]

You want to tell me what happened with that?

From:

pabugotmoves

[Oh it’s about to get so much worse.

Bolin stills his hands, one on the teapot and one on his cup, knowing that if he glances back it’s all over.]

From:

pabugotmoves

[Mako wouldn’t know, would he?

Did Wu tell him? Who is he kidding, he probably told Mako right after and Mako has been biding his time because of the musical and the skin shedding and everything else.]

From:

pabugotmoves

[But so much time has passed between then and now, that’s crazy, right? Mako is patient but is he that patient? He isn’t sure.

So maybe Wu didn’t tell him.

Bolin say something, you’ve left this too long now. You look guilty. You look guilty and Mako clearly knows, look how casual he’s being. Look how much stress food there is.]

From:

pabugotmoves

[He takes a breath and lets out out but doesn’t dare try to pour the tea. He’ll spill or drop it, he knows he will.

A beat and Bo turns, waving the question off before crossing his arms over his chest. He’ll just. Be okay with it. It’s not a big deal, it’s not that deep.]

Well it’s. It’s really not that big of a deal. I was confused, you know, classic Bolin~

He hasn’t mentioned it so I think we’re just pretending that nothing happened. Pretty boring.

From:

arclightning

You're evading the question.

[ Mako says dryly, watching him. This really wasn't at all the point but now he's so intrigued. The more evasive Bolin gets—especially after that long and very pointed pause—the more important the thing probably is. No way is Mako giving up. ]

Bolin, come on, just talk to me.

From:

pabugotmoves

[S i g h. He isn’t ready to be having this conversation. There isn’t a conversation to have! This is such a non issue.

He made all this up in his head with Ryan and now apparently Lance so why talk about it. It’s just.. embarrassing.

But it’s clearly been bothering Mako a lot if he’s been stressing like this and Bolin doesn’t like that, either. Things have been so rocky lately, and largely because they weren’t communicating, so it just isn’t worth pushing back.]

It was just a kiss.

From:

arclightning

[ It

was

Mako's reaction—which is to stop swirling the pancake he's working on now and just kind of stare for a second, wide-eyed and empty-headed—probably gives away that he did not in fact know what the Lance Situation was until this exact moment. It takes his brain a long, long time to come back to itself, flare to life like fire catching, and then inform him that his pancake is burning.

Hurriedly, clearing his throat, Mako flips and waves his hand to pull the heat down on the stove, and only then does he fully turn to look at Bolin. ]

You, uh.

You kissed Lance. Lance... Lance. The one we know. Here.

From:

pabugotmoves

[It occurs to Bolin in this moment that his brother is absolutely full of shit and had no idea.

It then occurs to him that Wu did not, in fact, narc on him, and that Mako has once against masterfully guided the moment into getting Bolin to narc on himself.

Betrayal!

When will he ever learn!?

Wide-eyed shock turns into bristling hackles but it doesn't go too far. Good, burn your pancake. That's what you deserve, you brother betrayer.]

The one I live with. Yeah.

From:

arclightning

[ Mako... just kind of flips his pancake in silence.

Does that mean.

Is Bolin...? ]

So.

You, uh.

[ Mako swallows. ]

You don't... want to talk about that. At all.

From:

pabugotmoves

[This is a trick question, he just knows it. Bolin sighs and drags his hands down his face. Okay, okay okay okay-]

If I thought there was anything worth talking about then I would- I would tell you. You're the most important person in my life, you know that. But I didn't want to make a big deal about this maybe being a thing until I had facts.

From:

pabugotmoves

[Mako likes facts, right? Right. So here they are.]

When I started the whole musical thing and was spending a lot of time with Ryan he was flirting with me a lot and.. I don't know it was really flattering and really nice and I thought hey- maybe. You know? Maybe this could be a thing for me.. everyone I know who is happy is in a same sex relationship and all my relationships have been garbage so maybe I'm missing something.

[Garbage, he really has been spending a lot of time with Ryan. Steaming right along, he just has to let it all out. If Mako wants the full, boring story, then he can have it. It's amazing Bolin can breathe and talk this much at the same time without pausing.]

From:

pabugotmoves

And I don't know, one night I was hanging out with Lance and we were drinking and I carried him up to the roof to watch the stars and we were talking and stuff and he was pretty messed up about this friend of his who just got here and.. he said they'd kissed before and I said I'd never kissed a boy and so we kissed.

[See? Nothing special. In another world it could have easily been a drunk high school party. A drama club cast party. A nothing encounter in a bathroom with beer pong and clattering solo cups that definitely didn't mean anything and definitely isn't making him question himself very intensely.]

From:

pabugotmoves

But uh. I mean he hasn't mentioned it since...

And I have since had it pointed out to me that the Ryan thing was just a misunderstanding that I made up because of the musical.. and clearly this Lance thing is too.. and I probably just thought I had to feel this way. So. That's what happened. And it's not a thing. I was just confused.

From:

pabugotmoves

Yeah.. just.

False alarm.

From:

arclightning

[ Mako listens with the patience of an older brother who has spent a lot of time listening to Bolin reason through his own thoughts aloud. He slides the most recent, slightly-burnt pancake onto the pile, turns off the stove, flips around to lean against it, and listens.

And it... hurts. Just a little, like a splinter in a finger. Not because Bolin didn't tell him, but because Mako understands so well the confusion of poking your foot into that space, unsure, waiting to be proven wrong or proven right and kind of afraid of both outcomes. The light that comes with understanding yourself can be a searing thing, illuminating curves you didn't know you had and maybe didn't want. It sucks. It's hard.

And Bolin thinks he needs to come to Mako with surety and facts instead of uncertainty and questions. That hurts a little too, but Mako swallows that, makes himself listen instead.

For once, he doesn't have to think about what to say. ]

It doesn't have to be a false alarm, bro. Maybe it is. Maybe it's not, but.

It's okay. That you don't know.

[ Mako shrugs, casual and easy, and steps forward to lean on the island instead, watching Bolin. ]

I didn't.

From:

pabugotmoves

No.. I know. And I think it's something I would be...open to? If I met the right person?

You kept striking out and then you met your person and it all made sense... right?

[Because that's what Shiro said happened to him and Bolin sure doesn't remember Mako giving any indication of liking men back home. Maybe that was something he started getting into once Bolin was away with the army. There's a worry there, but not worth dissecting. He doesn't ever want to be the reason Mako holds himself back.]

And he loves you, Mako. Wu is so perfect for you, I literally couldn't pick someone better and I know a lot of people.

From:

arclightning

[ Well that's. That's good, considering what Mako actually brought Bolin over to tell him. That's probably a perfect segue, if Bolin is looking for an out, if Mako wants to let him take it.

Does he?

Because Bolin doesn't just keep things like this to himself unless they're really bothering him. Maybe that's not strictly true anymore: they're adults, Bolin is his own person, Mako isn't going to always know every detail of his life, and it isn't like he told Bolin about his own secret thoughts shoved firmly into the back of his head.

Huh.

Mako swallows and pulls the lid off a pot at the back of the stove full of bubbling rice porridge. Might as well dish up brunch while he talks about this still-very-hard stuff. ]

Kind... of. If I'm really honest with myself, the... being into guys stuff isn't really new. I just didn't, you know. I figured... I had other stuff to worry about, so I didn't think about it, and it wasn't like you could just do that so I ignored it whenever it came up but, uh.

[ Spirits this is still so hard to talk about, maybe he needs to talk about this more? Or... less? Never? Ugh. Mako clears his throat. ]

Let's just say. I met Wu, and I didn't know even then, and then when I admitted I was into him a lot of things about myself that didn't make sense suddenly did, but it wasn't like I didn't know before. I just didn't let myself know. If that... makes any sense at all.