Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Is this thing on?” Korra slurred as she unleashed a series of taps on the lens of the camera. When her hand finally left the lens, the view it presented was quite an oddball, truly. A bunch of people sat together, most falling onto each other and grumbling as the recording started rolling.

“Why do we even want to record this?” came a high-pitched whine from Bolin as he leaned onto Huan, a small huff elicited by the other man at the sudden shift in weight.

“Blackmail. We didn’t do it last time but we did have a lot of gossip material. Not going to miss out on them this time! So come on! Introduce yourself!” Korra cheered, only for silence to befall the whole circle.

“But we all know each other! Why should we introduce ourselves?” Opal asked.

“What if we have an audience? They have the right to know who they are seeing!”

“Are you going to post it? Is this live? Korra, no!” Mako shouted as he came and switched off the recording.

“But Mako! It will be fun for us to watch, too! Who said anything about posting it online?”

“Nope. Not going to do it. Whatever happens in this room, stays in this room. No recording, no nothing. You know the rules.” Baatar droned as he willed Wu to settle down.

“You’re no fun,” she pouted as she strode back towards the cot on the side. “Asami! Tell Mako it is fun to record! And Junior too.”

“Baby… we are here to have fun. Just without the cameras this time, yeah? The last time didn’t go all that well.”

Korra pouted but stumbled back over to her girlfriend, slumping onto her shoulder with a sigh. “It would be fun to record it though.”

“Nope. You are not going to. We have enough blackmail material as is.” Iroh said as he patted her knee. “But we will have fun though.”

“How are we going?” Opal asked as she snuggled up next to Mako, another hand trying to pull her eldest brother into her space.

“Spin the bottle?” Wu asked.

“Nah, it focuses too much on a few people and the rest barely get a chance.”

“How about the new app you downloaded? The one which picks up names randomly?” Huan perked up at that suggestion.

“Are you sure? Last time you had some… complaints about it, Wu?”

“That was because the questions it had were completely boring!”

“How about this?” Bolin proposed as he leaned forward. “We use the app to select a name and any one of us gets to choose what you have to do based on a chit draw?”

“Sounds… reasonable. Also not biased, really. It is just pure luck.”

“That settles it then. Huan, you were the one with the app, right?”

“Yep. Wait a minute, I am just changing the names here… and done.”

Huan slid the phone to the middle of the circle they all had formed, catching everyone’s eye as he glanced around. Bolin was busy pulling his brother’s leg into a position where he could lean against it, Iroh sandwiched between the knees of his girls, Baatar trying to resist Opal’s pull while pulling Wu to the ground and Opal snuggling next to Mako. He smiled. “Ready to start?”

A chorus of “YES!” followed, and the game night started. 

“Never have I ever… been thrown out of a cricket stadium?” Korra asked as she immediately took a shot.

“We are playing never have I ever? I thought it was truth or dare?” Asami leaned down and whispered to Iroh, who just shrugged. 

“Not really far off from how it goes, really. I know you and Korra are kind of new to the setting but trust me, it gets worse from here, typically.”

As the night progressed, the gang had gotten progressively relaxed and more drinks into them as they snuggled up close to each other, occasional shouts of indignation and protests when people chose too many truths or when people tried to skip the dares by drinking, to the most ridiculous and outrageous dares and questions one could ever think of.

Wu nudged at Iroh. “I dared you to take off your shirt!”

“But I didn’t even ask for a dare?”

“Of course you did!”

“Wu, that was me. I was the one who chose dare.” Mako deadpanned.

“Oh… oh… Then I dare you to exchange clothes with Iroh!”

Opal, by this time, had a nearly naked Mako settled on her thigh as she nestled next to her elder brother, who was nudging Wu as he raged at Iroh, who had just asked Asami to give him a lap dance. Asami, in accordance, got up from her place on the cot beside Korra, and gave a quick slap on Bolin’s head, who was sitting next to Huan and trying to get Mako to laugh by tickling his feet, courtesy of a previous dare.

“Mako, I dare you to do seven minutes in heaven with Wu,” Bolin suggested with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“Really? Don’t you have anything else to give me?” he glared at his brother, who just cheekily grinned back.

“Well bro, dares usually don’t faze you all that much so I am going to give you one that fazes you.”

“I mean, it’s just gonna be the two of you in a closet for seven minutes and you’ve been in the same room without anything happening before. What could possibly go wrong? Right?”

They got their answer ten minutes later as Opal opened the door to the closet to find them fisting each other’s shirts as they were kissing each other. Hard. She wordlessly slammed back the door and opened it again to reveal the startled duo, staring like they’d been caught doing something they shouldn’t, a shame burning in their faces as they practically raced to sit as far away as possible.

“What happened in there?” Korra asked with a grin, almost knowing as she clocked onto the embarrassed faces of the three of them involved.

The atmosphere, which had been quite relaxed until that point grew a little tense as they waited for a reply, each expecting the other to give information on what had transpired.

“They did what the dare asked.” Opal finally snapped, the tension coiled in her muscles visibly relaxing as she let it out.

“They what?” Huan asked, barely able to believe it.

“Ok, I didn’t expect that when I gave the dare.”

“You two actually…” Baatar trailed off, eyes wide as a weird feeling settled in his chest. He knew he had experienced it before but… never like this?”

“Oh no! It was an accident! We weren’t really trying to— We don't have any feelings or anything!” Wu rushed in a panic.

“What’s actually going on?” Korra whispered in confusion to Iroh.

“Wu and Mako used to be a thing before. It is a whole other landmine. Don’t ask.”

“Huh… And Wu and Huan were a thing too, right? At least from what I heard?”

“Yeah…” Iroh said, not really sure where the line of questioning was headed.

“Alright…” Korra nodded decisively, waiting for her turn to come. A few more rounds passed as she patiently waited on, which was hard for her and it showed with the way her legs started bouncing, enough to make Iroh move away from her. And when her turn finally came, she jumped right into it.

"You know… since you chose truth, Wu. Why exactly did you break up with Huan? You refuse to talk about it. I mean, yeah, there are speculations but I want to know the truth." Korra leaned down.

The whole group froze in unison as Wu glanced around frantically, trying to see if he could escape the question, trying to reach out for his glass, only for it to be snatched away by Korra.

It was known to most of them, an unsaid rule to never ask Wu about his previous relationships, especially in front of Baatar. They all knew it was a messy and absolutely horrid showdown and no one wanted to be reminded of what went down, especially since the exes were in the same room. Not that Korra really knew that. Or Asami for that matter. And sometimes, curiosity does kill the cat.

“You are answering this today.”

“Korra, if he doesn’t want to, don’t force him to,” Iroh warned, but she was stubborn as she stared into Wu’s eyes. He sat there in silence for a while before glancing at his boyfriend, unsure if he should answer it or not. Baatar just squeezed his hands and shrugged, a silent “I love you” leaving his lips.

"Because… This was one of the many reasons, but Huan assumed that I was dating him to get information about his company and his brother's weaknesses because he heard it down some grapevine."

"Actually, no. It was because I saw you kissing Mako in the bathroom the day before," Huan deadpanned.

"What?" Came the twin response. "We didn't kiss while we were still dating each other!"

"You did. Want some proof of that happening? Wu was fucking draped over you and you guys had been eating each other’s faces without a care for the world. Actually, just like you did today."

"It was a dare!"

"Today. Not the other day."

"When was this?"

"The year-end party. Also, I was quite offended you'd assume I broke up with you cuz I heard a fucking rumour, Wu. And for the record, I was the one who broke up with him and not the other way around.”

Things took a turn down after that, all questions were quite guarded so as to not poke the sleeping bear, or issues anyone had. At one point as they all wound down, eventually getting ready to retire or drifting off on the spot as the alcohol consumed took its effect, Iroh turned towards Asami and hugged her from behind. “I think I might have a crush.”

“Want to add another name to the list?”

“... No. I think… I think I want it to be more.”

Asami frowned as she turned to face her boyfriend. “What do you mean?”

“I think… this crush might just not be a crush… but I don’t think it will work out either way.”

“Why not?”

“Because he is also dating and I am also dating you and I love you! Don’t get me wrong but-”

“Darling, is this about Mako or Wu?” They had had these discussions before, trying to get Iroh used to the idea of open relationships and polycules. At the beginning of their relationship, it had been especially tough. Iroh had been reluctant to confess his feelings for Mako and Wu to Asami, fearing that she might leave him. It had caused a lot of friction during that time too.

“No… it’s… not.”

“Then who is it about?”

“It’s… Huan,” he whispered lowly, not meeting her eyes.

“Oh…” Asami whispered back, unsure of what to say. She had noticed the frequent glances to the other man, the enamoured tone as he answered the questions… and maybe not so surprising as Huan was an enchanting man in general, even if some people thought he was an… acquired taste.

“Yeah. Oh …”

“We’ll figure it out in the morning,” Asami decided, curling even closer to Iroh, “when we are sober and clear-headed.”

Chapter Text

Two days had passed since the game night and none of them elected to talk about whatever had happened during that time. Mostly because they were drunk, partly because they were in denial, and partly just to not cause further embarrassment, or worse, further problems.

Some people didn’t seem to get the memo though as Opal gently kicked the door open to the shared bedroom of Mako’s barely furnished apartment which she had recently moved into, right as Mako woke himself up.

“Mako! Breakfast is ready and it’s your favourite — dumplings and rice!”

“Smells lovely. You made this yourself?”

“Yep. Like it?”

“I will have to taste it,” he said, quickly pulling her into a kiss.

“Ew. Your breath stinks. How many times do I have to tell you to brush your teeth before you do that?”

“Baby, you love it though.” Mako winked as Opal threw a pillow at him.

“Go. Now.”

“Alright, alright, fine!”

A few minutes later Mako walked back out, towelling his face. “What is the occasion though?” 

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Is… is there something you want to ask me? Because you never put in this much effort unless you want a favour. So spill.”

“Hey! I do it because I love you!” Opal denied but then sighed. Honestly, Mako knew her too well sometimes.

“Ok, fine. So… you and Wu…” Opal prompted as she sat down beside Mako, the tray kept aside on the bedside table as she handed over the bowl to him.

“There’s nothing going on, I swear! It was just that we were talking one second on how ridiculous this was and then we —”

“You kissed.”

“But I know we don’t feel for each other that way and —”

“You both were hot by the way.”

Mako paused in the middle of apologising and blinked hard. “What?”

“Well, I had been wondering how to broach this with you, but I had been thinking of trying to date Wu as well. At least I think I have something for him but I wasn’t sure if you would be ok with it and… if you do have feelings, all the better. Or worse,” she amended as she saw the look on Mako’s face.

Mako paused stirring the rice for a moment. “Ok, can you rewind just a bit and elaborate, please? Because I don’t think I heard you right. Or understood what you exactly want.”

“I think I might be having a crush on Wu, due to a lot of indicators which I have been taking into consideration for a really long time. I have been meaning to talk to you about it due to your past relationship with him and well… if you still have feelings for him, maybe we both can date him!”

“Wait. One step at a time. You have a crush on Wu .”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“I don’t know… the past year? A little less than that?”

“Ok, ok.” Mako nodded for a second, trying to reevaluate the situation in his head.

“So, you want to experiment dating with Wu and want my permission to do so?”

“Yes. Because I love you too and I don’t want to mess things up more, especially since he is also your ex in this situation.”

“Ok, that’s alright. I understand and I might’ve needed some time to process this except…” Mako trailed off, looking at Opal again. “He is already in a relationship. With your brother.”

“Yes, and?” Opal shrugged. “It’s not like I am fucking him and marrying him, it is just a trial run! Who knows? It might be short-lived!”

“It is with your brother. They are committed. They have their own issues.”

“I just said I wanted to date Wu, not fuck my brother!”

“I can hear what you are saying! What I am saying is that you are not seeing the complete point! If you are to even try this, you have to talk with your brother first!”

“Will you be ok in the first place? What is your stance on this? Are you deflecting?” Opal suddenly stood up as she set her own bowl aside, shoulders stiff and eyes narrowed as she faced Mako.

“No, Opal. I am not deflecting. I am just speaking about the logistics of the whole situation. You aren't just going to barge in and say ‘I am going to Date Wu’ in the face of your brother, are you?” Mako raised an eyebrow at that.

“I am going to talk with him! I am not that stupid or naive, Mako. I know that I can’t just barge in on them like that! I will sit down, have a nice talk and then decide what to do!”

“Which is the problem! All you’ve been complaining about in the past six months is the fact that Baatar is feeling insecure about his relationship and unsure of his place! And Wu and I definitely aren’t helping matters with what happened at our last game due to that! And now you want to talk to him about you, his sister, potentially dating his boyfriend and causing them to break up?” Mako asked, exasperated.

“No! I am not going to break them up! That will never happen… right?”

“At the rate you are going, you might as well not let them recover their relationship. As for your original question, Wu and I broke things up a long while ago. On mutual terms. There are no residual feelings between us.”

Mako shrugged and got up, making his way towards the door. “And by the way,” he turned back to her. “I am not saying this because I am belittling your crush on Wu, or not recognising it. It is alright to love someone apart from me. I get you. But, just please think about it before you actually talk to Baatar or Wu? They have something wonderful going on in the making and I don’t want you to unintentionally be the cause of it tearing apart.”

He let out a shaky breath as he finally closed the door, head gently hitting the door as he sighed. Hands, which he hadn’t realised had tensed up, were fisted and trembling from it. He knew he had said the right things, that it was the right thing to do. But yet, there was this voice in the back of his mind that just seemed to fixate on the fact that he had lied to Opal about a few things, twisting facts to manipulate her and he knew the voice was wrong. He knew it. But still, there was a doubt that he couldn’t shake off. He needed to talk with someone, but who?

They were right. His and Wu’s relationship had gotten off to a rocky start. The whole whirlwind of an experience with both of them getting off on so many wrong feet and trying to find their place. It was a known fact that it was bound to fall apart, but they refused to let go until things took a nasty turn. It had taken quite a while to even build back the friendship, even if the break up had been mutual and peaceful.

Definitely not Opal, though probably she was the one he needed to talk with about this mainly. Not with Bolin, who was the reason for all this in the first place. Not with Huan, who had a weirder history and might be biased. Asami and Korra didn't know much about the situation in the first place, not that they’d really understand…

Iroh was another mine waiting to explode and another thing he had to talk with Opal because at this rate, he couldn’t be sneaking around the topic anymore. There was Baatar, but he was sure he wouldn’t take things very well, which left him with Wu. And boy, did it not make sense at all.

He picked up his bike keys, he still needed to get to work after all, and headed out, hoping that it would clear his head enough to make much saner decisions — decisions which would not result in him confronting his feelings about an ex with the said ex.

Mako rings up another order and lets out a sigh. Peopling was hard and customer service was worse. Especially when it comes to the peak hours of a fast food restaurant with impatient customers lining up, cranky from hunger never managed to go well and he wondered why he’d even taken up this shift. Oh yeah because he had a debt with Jin and she had cashed it in today.

Baofongs, honestly, he didn’t know why Lin had even chosen the name because it was so odd and out of place and never sold bao in the first place. It was a relatively small establishment, more like a cafe than anything so he never knew why the lunch time had the most crowd than any other time of the day. One would think that it would be the evenings with the rush hour but no! It’s the lunch hour.

“So, what’s bothering you today? You’ve got that face, again,” the proprietor, Lin asked. Ex-law enforcement and present owner of this little outlet, she was a force to be reckoned with and in some ways, the one he saw as his mentor figure.

“Set your record straight, Mako,” she had said. “You have a lot of opportunities. I have faith in you.” He hadn’t been in a good place at that time and honestly, he was glad that he was caught by Lin and nobody else because this community service was the least he could get in the chain of punishment for what he had done. True, he could say he was young and brash and thought the whole world was against him at that time (which it kind of was, to be honest) but if Lin hadn’t intervened at that time, he didn't know where he would be.

“You and Opal having issues again?”

“No… not really. I mean, sort of?”

Lin patted the seat nearby. “No customers. The last one just left. You can sit down for a break now.”

Mako gingerly sat down and faced her.

“Now, talk.”

“Opal just confessed something to me and something happened a few days ago that kind of makes me think that something weird is going on?”

“I need more elaboration, Mako.”

“Opal said she had a crush on Wu.”

“Your ex, Wu?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok…”

“And I kissed Wu during a round of seven minutes in heaven at a party?”

“As you are expected to.”

“But I don’t have feelings for him?”

“You don't need to have feelings to kiss.”

“But I feel guilty for kissing him because he’s committed to a relationship and we didn't expect to kiss each other and now I am confused! I didn't think I had residual feelings for him after the breakup…” Mako hesitated for a second at that. “But I also think I liked the kissing part of it.”

“Let me tell you something,” Lin said immediately. “When in doubt, talk to the person in question. Have a discussion because it is easier to clear this stuff out sooner rather than later. People can change over the years and it’s not that hard to fall back in love with someone who you’ve loved before.”

“Speaking from experience, Chief?” Mako winked.

“Yes, actually.”

“Did you take your own advice?”

“We are figuring it out,” Lin replied honestly. “Take some time, introspect where you stand a little before you take a step forward. You and Wu kissed, talk it out. If you have feelings, talk it out between the four of you. Talking is better than assuming. That’s all I’ll say.”

Mako sat in silence for a while before looking up at Lin. “Maybe I need to speak with Junior before I talk to Wu about this. Not because I want to avoid it but… more because I want to check in with him so that he isn’t really left out on everything.”

“Then talk to him.”

Mako let out a long sigh before nodding at that. “Do you think he will…”

“He will what, Mako?”

“He’ll be mad if I were to talk to him about this? I know that they’ve been having problems and I don’t want to feel like I am just… increasing it all the more.”

“If there’s one thing I know about my nephew, Mako,” Lin said as she stared down at him. “I think he would really appreciate your honesty and straightforwardness than you hiding and avoiding talking about it. Trust me, avoiding and pretending it never happened, never helps. I’ve done it and have destroyed some wonderful relationships I could’ve had. All because I was… shy.”

“You? You were shy?”

“And career driven to the extent that I forgot I had an equal weight in my relationships. So yeah, don’t make that mistake too.”

Mako poked at the noodles as he tried to take in the advice, still unsure if approaching Baatar was the best thing to do. But he probably had to try it sometime. It wouldn’t do good to keep him out of the loop and while he was sure that Opal would keep her promise about talking to her brother, he wasn’t sure how well it would go over, considering her and Baatar’s kind of strained relationship after his short relationship with Kuvira.

Another customer walked in right as he finished his thought and barely held back a groan. Time to people again. 

Chapter Text

Baatar sat in his car for a moment, trying to catch his breath. What were they actually doing? What was the actual situation? He didn't know. Were they dating? Were they just… what was it they were called? Friends with benefits? A filler sort of thing? He honestly didn't know. 

Like, it was true that the two of them barely had a difference between their ages but Wu was admittedly the more… well-versed of the two of them when it actually came to experimenting and exploring relationships and while he didn’t really take care to know the different types of relationships that exist, now he wondered if he should’ve taken more care when Wu occasionally ranted about the pride parades and the developments in the LGBT community.

Did Wu still harbour feelings for Mako? Was Wu going to leave him? Was this whole thing just some sort of a time pass for Wu? Because for all that people commented on how they were a lovely couple… they had never actually discussed being one. Someone referred to them as a committed pair, Wu went along with the flow, never correcting them, and that was it. 

But who was he to Wu, really? Where did they stand in this spectrum? He shut the door of his car when he heard the honking behind him. The stupid driver, he was still in the parking lot with the door open and not in the middle of the street! Rolling his eyes as the honking persisted, he started the engine, hoping that he would head back home soon enough and actually have a conversation with Wu that day.

At this point, it was starting to feel more and more like the relationship he’d had with Kuvira, and he hated this feeling. Just give and take -- more give in his case -- act as necessary and then they were done. He didn't like it at all. And he didn't want to be stuck in a vicious cycle with Wu just because he loved him, though he was afraid that it was too late because he did really love Wu enough to stay in a borderline toxic relationship.

And Wu was still refusing to talk about them. He wasn't opening up, he wasn’t sharing… anything. It was almost like they were “Wu and his side piece” rather than “Wu and his engineer Baatar” or even “Wu and his boyfriend”. Almost like he was the go-to person just because he couldn't find anyone.

No. Not really. It had been a mutual agreement between the two when it had started, hadn’t it? Wu would have his plus one while Baatar could make social connections a lot easier. A mutually beneficial agreement essentially. It had worked too. But when had transformed into whatever is happening today?

He stood up and finally walked out of the car. Overthinking was not going to help him in this case. He was going to have to talk to Wu because honestly, he was sick and tired of all this dancing and would really really love some answers from the other man.

“Pool party! Come on and get ready!” Wu shouted in excitement the moment Baatar stepped into the house, not at all improving his mood on the whole situation.

“Not interested, Wu. We need to talk.”

“Aw! But you love pool parties!”

“Well, you are the one who loves the pool parties, not me. I am just the side-piece you seem to show off every single time we go to one and I indulge you with it.”

“What— B, what do you mean? What’s wrong?”

“I am sick and tired of this dancing around we are doing, Wu. Tell me, do you really love me?”

“Of course I do! Why do you even doubt that!” Wu said and Baatar could swear he saw something in his eyes before the mask came back up again.

He scoffed. “Because you don’t even really show it at all. It’s been three years and every single time I’ve asked you about what we are, you refuse to answer me. You don't consider my opinions, respect my wishes or even sit down and talk to me before taking a decision that affects the both of us!” He took in a deep breath in a futile attempt to calm down.

“Boo—”

“I mean, look at Hou III. The kitten you had saved and wanted to adopt because you became attached while I was away and never told me about until I came back, giving me no choice but to say yes—”

“Oh….” Wu asked hands crossed over his chest with an eyebrow raised. “It is on me now, is it? Maybe you are right. It is not like someone else had suggested that I raise the kitten and help him instead of taking him to the shelter. And then proposed that I should keep him so that I don’t get lonely even though I was doing perfectly alright at that time. No, it is on me. Alright.” the pitch went up higher with every point.

“No, but that’s not the point! Do you even consider us as equals, Wu? Or is it just a business partnership that you took to the next level, just for the fun of it? Am I just someone you want to show off to people to tell them you have someone by your side? Eye-candy? Just some… possession you take out when you need and ignore when it’s served its purpose?”

He releases another shaky breath, voice starting to waver a little as the rant continue on.

“What do you even want from me? Because honestly, it’s almost like you are becoming Kuvira each day and as much as I love you… I don't think I can do this anymore if you keep going this way, Wu. I just feel like I am stifled, cornered and desperately searching for an out if this is going to continue. You are moving away from me every day for some reason and I… I can’t—”

“Boo, B, Baby- Is this about-” Wu became defensive, flinching back as if he had been stung as the minutes passed by, an odd expression crossing over his face slowly.

“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” Baatar yelled as a tear slipped out of his eye. “You were the best thing to happen to me in my whole life and I love you so much. But I just want to know where I stand with you, Wu. Because I am grasping at straws at this point, trying to salvage this as much as possible but you aren’t willing to cooperate at all. Are you in love with someone else? Do you want to be with someone else? Because I wouldn’t be mad if you break up with me to do so because at least, you’ll be happy and not stuck in this… whatever it is that we are having that is stagnating.”

He hated the way his voice was quivering and how he was stuttering and how his eyes were stinging from holding back his tears. But what he hated more was the stoic expression on Wu’s face, looking down, coupled with a heartbroken “Oh”.

“Just… please . Let us sit down and talk. We both have questions we want answers for and for once, let’s answer. Please. Wu? Wu? ” he whispered, tone increasing as he saw Wu slowly walk away from him without a word, head bent low, arms behind his back.

He felt heavy and like his heart had seized in his chest. He’d overstepped and now Wu was going to leave him too. He had fucked up really badly and he didn’t know if they could even salvage this. He had overreacted and— oh god did he mess a good thing up ! Why did he have to do that?

He finally took in the state of the living room, taking in the haphazardly thrown-in decorations, streamers and paper bits on the ground and in a far corner, incomplete lettering of what he supposed was to be “Happy Anniversary.” 

Oh…

As he walked up the stairs, slowly heading towards the bedroom- no, their bedroom really because he couldn't deny at this point that Baatar had been sleeping with him every single day, in the same bed. He took in the small cutouts that were pasted on the railings, small direction pointers, an occasional flower or two… 

He had everything planned to the last detail. Servants would put up the rest of the decor while he distracted Baatar with a date, after which they’d come back and Wu… would finally tell him. Or rather…

He pulled up his pantleg as he sat down on their bed (when had he reached there?) and the fabric slid over an intricately shaped geometric heart, inked in their colours, a skyline with buildings behind it. A symbol of how dedicated he was, really. 

He knew he had a past of rushing to do tattoos on impulse because he wanted to memorise moments… but this was special. This was why its colours stood apart from the other black and white tattoos on his skin, a fire lily scarred out of desperation from his immature attempts to remove them and an infinity that was failed to ink over.

Wu... didn't know where it all had gone wrong. All he’d known was that he was so sure about his relationship with Baatar, of letting go of his insecurities. It had been hard, trying to move on from his years of experimentation and… dallying around, as people liked to call it, getting into all sorts of situations and relationships, only to leave them to dust at the end of the day. Baatar had been the most stable relationship he’d had in years. And he knew he'd been keeping him waiting for the past three years but he had to be sure before anyone got hurt again because of fickle-mindedness when it came to love. 

His relationship with Huan was a quick one, quick to start and quick to turn to ashes. His first one too, really, considering their relationship had started off on a mutually experimental basis before it spiralled as they never really knew the actual definition and the reasons behind their boundaries. Primarily. 

Mako... was better but not that much better, considering they had gone too fast and... Yeah, even that hadn’t really gone all that well. It was nice at the beginning but they had their own ideas and Wu was, if he was going to be honest, still trying to get over why Huan had broken up with him. 

Well, now he knew it was because he had drunkenly kissed Mako, but not then and the constant fear of Mako leaving if Wu didn’t meet his expectations, even if Mako didn’t really have many, to begin with, had taken its toll on him. 

It had taken him a really long time to even admit he had feelings for Baatar, even a crush, to be honest, because what if it wasn’t real? What if he made a move and that flame just… went off? He was thankful when Baatar had said they could take it slow, maybe even start off as friends with benefits at most before climbing up the stairs.

He had to work himself up for each decision he made, guessed and second-guessed himself because as he grew sure of his feelings, he didn't want this to end because he didn’t know what would happen if it did.

But it seemed like he'd made the decisions too slow. Technically he knew this was slow because he’d wanted to be sure, but if Baatar had blown up about it, then he'd definitely screwed this up. 

He knew he’d been confused over his feelings for a really long time now, still was, if he was honest with himself, especially after he initiated the kiss with Mako… But he loved Baatar and he didn't really know of a better way to actually admit it to him, try to broach the topic of their “what next?” finally…

Maybe it was his fault, really, trying to avoid any conversation with Baatar after the last truth or dare session because, at this point, he knew that his feelings lingered for Mako, not completely gone, but avoided because of their mutual breakup. Because Mako wanted it and he hadn’t been able to completely get over it. Much less the crush he’s had on Opal, for years probably in all honesty, which he didn’t act upon because she was with Mako and he was with Baatar at that time. And his fear of Baatar leaving him was too great to actually consider talking about his other feelings and how to manage it.

Wu groaned as he hid his face in his hands. There had to be a way to fix this, right? There had to be. This wasn’t the end for the two of them. Baatar wanted to talk to him, even though he didn’t really seem to be in the mood to listen. Should he try to talk to someone else? If yes, then who should it be?

Chapter Text

The loud and insistent knocking startled Huan out of his thoughts and he frowned. He hadn’t been expecting anyone today and Bolin hadn’t told him about any guests, either. Plus it was a really awkward time of the day, considering it was in the afternoon so it couldn’t be Bolin, who wouldn't knock anyway, or any of their friends. Probably some door-to-door salesman then. Huan sighed. He didn’t want to deal with this today.

He got up and went to get the door anyway as the knocking just seemed to persist. “What do you want?” He asked as he opened the door, only for the person to slam into him, push him aside, and walk in.

“Excuse me? What are you — Oh, it’s you.” A neutral tone took over the initial confusion.

The smug bastard gave a slight grimace which he was sure was supposed to be a grin, considering Wu never grimaced at anything.

“Love is stupid, messy and complicated!” Wu exclaimed as he flopped onto the sofa, and Huan blinked. They haven’t had this conversation in years and he didn’t know what had brought it on today, all of a sudden. He certainly couldn’t imagine what could be so messy or complicated enough to make Wu want to talk about it to him of all people.

“What do you want, Wu? Is it about the game night? Because if it is about that, I don’t have time for this.”

“NO! It’s not about the game night! …maybe it partly is. I don’t know.”

“Why are you here?”

“To talk.”

“To talk about what?”

“Well, most likely to hammer something into my mind because you are the only one who is blunt enough to tell me what’s wrong straight to my face, unlike so many others. And I trust your judgement.” Wu added with a sigh.

“And… what does that have to do with ‘love being messy, stupid and complicated’? I thought we closed that conversation ages ago, right before we started… whatever experiments we started, might I add?”

“I know! But Baatar just took it to a whole new level!”

“Are you here to gossip about my brother to me instead of talking to him about whatever is troubling you?” Huan asked in disbelief, hands thrown out on top of his head.

“He is the reason I am in this mess in the first place!” Wu shouted hands widely gesticulating. “I don’t know what’s wrong- all I know is that I was planning on taking him out to a pool party —”

“Baatar hates pool parties.”

“It’s an inside joke. I mean, I wanted to take him out to do something fun, give him a surprise, but all of a sudden he comes in and starts ranting on about if I am serious in the relationship with him or if he was just another plaything! And that I was controlling and not really communicative. I mean, what have I done wrong?”

“Well…” Huan made a face, “You do have a reputation?”

“I have been in only one relationship in these past three years and it’s been with Baatar!”

“Okay… and have you ever taken him out on a date?”

Wu grew silent at that. 

“I haven’t really, I suppose? I mean, we did start it off as a matter of convenience more than anything because he needed connections and I needed a plus-one. Then it turned into a friends with benefits sort of thing. And then he moved in with me after he was kicked out of his apartment…”

“So you haven’t taken him out on a date?”

“They really didn’t seem to be like dates, the ones at least I’ve taken him to until now. I mean, we have gone out to get a drink, were partners for social parties and all that- correction, I haven’t actually felt them to be dates. Not like I am expecting dates to be all romantic but at the same time I didn’t feel it, you know?” he paused for a moment, gesticulation also coming to a pause with it. “But I was planning to. Today is our... Today was the third year of our… meeting.” Wu silently confessed.

“Then why aren’t you with him? Don’t you have plans?”

“I did!” Wu cried out. “I did have plans! I was going to have the house decorated, a nice dinner at a restaurant with one of Baatar’s favourite show tickets and I was supposed to…” he looked down for a moment. “I was about to ask him today.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Huan asked after a while. “You and Baatar have been seeing each other for quite some time now.”

“Yeah…”

“And you haven’t even asked him to be your boyfriend?”

“Because I didn’t want to make the same mistake as I did with the two of you! I didn’t want to step on invisible lines and triggers like I did with you, nor did I want to speedrun a relationship just because I thought we had to cram it all into one period of time!”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t want to go too fast and regret some decisions, so I took time to think through each and every one of them and —”

“You took too long, am I right?”

“Probably.”

“Look, Wu,” Huan said with an exasperated groan. “I know you came to me seeking my help, but I’m facing a bit of a crisis of my own and I think I might make a cloudy judgement based on that.”

“You are the most straightforward person ever! What do you mean you have a crisis?”

“It’s something Bolin and I had been discussing and has nothing to do with your issue. So, chop chop with the explanation. From the beginning, so that I can understand.”

“So, you know that I started questioning my relationship along with you, right? We said we are going to set boundaries and check in on each other and not overstep and, me being me, being confused over infatuation and love kinda messed things up between us. And apparently I also kissed Mako while dating you without knowing about it myself? And apparently being a playboy during the time we dated and all flirty and stuff? Sometimes kissing you when you didn't want to but you didn't tell me you didn't want it and —”

“Yeah… yeah, I know. Get to the point!”

“And then my relationship with Mako started up soon after you and I broke up, and I wasn’t really moved on at that time because I am a fool who doesn’t know the difference between infatuation and actual love, and we had a lot of on and offs and huge fights because I was flirty, he was moody and frankly, a lot of things which we both didn't want happened and we moved too fast because I thought that’s what we were supposed to do?”

“Ooooookaaaay?” Huan drawled.

“So I took some time off! Got off the dating scene, but then circumstances forced me to have someone to be my partner and Baatar also had a goal that he wanted to achieve, so we kind of negotiated some terms and went along with it. But it was confusing to me all the same because I had been taking a break to flush everything out of my system only to be thrust into this whole new thing because of expectations. For the first year, I was really not sure if I felt anything for him, let alone any friendship!” Wu starts to pace around once again, hands flying as he starts to get more agitated. 

“Then things started to happen and all of a sudden, we are nudging boundaries and bam! Everyone assumes we’re in a relationship and we have to keep that up. Again. While I was still struggling to process the fact that I either loved him or had just a momentary infatuation that will fade as soon as the deal was done! Then I realise that I love Baatar but wasn’t sure if I actually loved him because I still felt like I had something lingering for some other people!”

“What changed then?”

“Asami, Iroh, and Korra.”

“What?”

“Yeah, they showed me that it was not wrong to love multiple people. But then that meant I had to rethink everything all over again because I started having doubts about if it would be considered cheating and how Baatar would take it, and how would the others take it… And so on, while we were actually moving into one bedroom! I really didn’t know how to talk to him about it, and kissing Mako during that game didn’t really help — well, in a way it did, to be honest. Because it sealed the fact that I did love Baatar but I also never really let go of Mako, so it made the conversation that needed to be had a little easier. I had everything planned and set up for our anniversary, was going to ask Baatar out and have a talk with him. But then he blew it all up.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Huan asked after a while. “It’s your anniversary today.”

“Yes.”

“And you were going to officially ask my brother to be your boyfriend.”

“Also yes.”

“And you are worried that you moved too slow.”

“Again, yes.”

“And my brother shouted at you and broke up with you because he was tired of waiting.”

“Kinda, but we didn’t really break up. At least I hope we didn’t break up! I tried to correct my past mistakes, Huan, I really did! I tried not to push anything, I tried not to force anything, I tried to pace things, I tried everything I knew was socially acceptable!”

“And you also mentioned you still might have a lingering… affection for Mako and a couple of others.”

“Yeah.” Wu sighed.

“And out of all the people out there to talk to about this, you chose me. Your very first ex, who you don’t have a good relationship with.”

“I didn't know what else to do, alright! I was panicking and so unsure that I believed that your bluntness would help me a little!”

“Well, if you came to me for my bluntness, stop talking to me and go and find my brother, tell him whatever you told me right now, in detail — yes, also about your crushes — and how you didn’t want to break his heart by being indecisive again. Yes, he might be more suspicious but… you wear your heart on your sleeve, Wu. And an emotional Wu is an honest Wu. Sit him down and talk to him like you wanted to, like he wants you to. I am sure he is out there somewhere panicking about his outburst too.”

“Alright.” Wu agreed, defeated and headed towards the door. He paused with his hand on the doorknob.

“Was I ever controlling, Huan? Demanding?”

A small smile appeared on the other man’s face. “Your demands were the most adorable part of you. Sometimes annoying, but adorable. Controlling? Not really.”

“Thanks.” Wu blushed before sobering up. “And I am sorry for how things ended between us.I’m glad the other night’s game was able to solve that miscommunication between us.”

“Yeah?”

“I missed my best friend all this time too, you know?”

“Maybe we can climb back up that ladder someday.”

Huan sat back down on the couch after seeing Wu out, a sigh barely held back as he hid his face in his hands. The day was going super great. He still didn't have answers to his own dilemma, and now Wu of all people came to him asking for relationship advice regarding multiple partners. He's already shitty enough at deciding his own one, he didn’t need other people’s problems, too!

He frowned. This was going to be a long day indeed…