Officer Mako x Reader

Chapter 21: Rot & Ruin

(Sometimes I really sit here and go, damn I'm just making all this shit up as I go along lmao. Anyways, Happy Halloween my darlings! Happy reading🧡🖤) –A

[South Republic City] Dragon Flats District

This side of town was more haggard than Shah remembered. More bleak and brutish than any other part of the city. Most of the cobblestone roads, were narrow, wayward, and overgrown yet still littered with broken glass or penniless beggars, most, if not all, nonbenders. This is where the city stuck them, in a crumbling neighborhood of rot and ruin. Next to a merciless river that eats away at the area every spring. To Shah, this is what hell looked like, but instead of fire, it was cold, willful neglect. A haunting existence in a slum brimmed with what he could only assume was everything nobody wanted, and everybody nobody wanted to be,

"I hate it here," Shah hissed softly as he followed Shin on foot, the fractured sidewalks slick with rain and mud,
"I don't know why," Shin chuckled lightly, "You used to live here. Matter of fact, Viper caught you trying to pickpocket his wallet right...over there," he pointed to the time-worn bar in the distance,
"I only did so because he tried to cheat me out of my poker winnings,"
"You were stashing cards anyway," Shin reminded him,
"I know, but he was still $500 short. And I think you forget, I didn't want to live in this wasteland. I was twenty, with very little money,"
"Enter Viper," Shin sighed as he trudged along, "You know he did the same for Mako. Found him and his brother out in the city when they were kids, barely even eight years old,"
"Is that supposed to make me feel sympathy?" Shah questioned sharply, "At the end of the day he's still a cop and will be treated as such,"
"Hmph. Sympathy? From you?" Shin chuckled, "No, I just found it ironic. You both ran into the same man, yet you're as different as night and day,"

[Airship] 12 hours from Ba Sing Se

Mako hadn't convinced you to stop pacing, but he figured a shower would calm your nerves. Though you still attempted to argue with him, he couldn't help but chuckle to himself once he finally nudged you into the bathroom and shut the door, waiting patiently on the other side of it until he heard the water running steadily. Even in tumultuous times as this, his nerves were surprisingly calm, nonetheless a hot mug of chamomile tea for the both of you, never hurt anybody,

"Talking to yourself?" Kuvira asked when she stepped into the kitchen to find Mako muttering quietly while heating a glass tea kettle on the stove with his bending,
"Just going over the gameplan in my head," Mako sighed,
"Hide Miss Popular in the Middle Ring and then stop the circus monkey from flying off with his dad's corpse. Easy,"
"They have names y'know,"
"I know, but where's the fun in being formal?" Kuvira teased,
"Oh, so this is fun for you?" Mako asked curiously,
"Certainly not ideal. Granted, I haven't had much fun these days, considering I spent the last six years in a cell. But on the off chance I get to hurt someone, then sure. I guess this is fun,"
"So choking Zaheer was...a bonus?"
"Hmph. Try a long overdue message," Kuvira scoffed before she took a seat at the table, "But tell me something. If our goal is to catch that flying moron...s-shouldn't we be using Miss Popular as...bait–
Kuvira couldn't even get the rest of her question out before the glass Mako had been heating shattered beneath his fury,
"Are you crazy!?" Mako hissed quietly at her, ignoring the blood on his hands from the shards that managed to cut him, "Why would you even suggest I put her in danger like that?"
"I didn't say in danger. I said bait," Kuvira reminded him sharply, "Obviously, one of us would get her out of there. But moving her dad does what exactly? Give him another chance to try again? To go after her instead?" Kuvira questioned while Mako picked up the large pieces that scattered along the floor,
"As if I'd let him get that close again–
"Look, I know you love her and all, but don't forget, I was dragged out of prison to bring that psychopath in!" Kuvira snapped back, "What if–what if we don't get another opportunity to catch him off guard like this? Out in the open, away from the city?" she asked, watching as Mako stood there with his jaw clenched tight. For a minute or two, she couldn't tell who he was most pissed at, her, or the fact that he knew she was right, but whatever he was thinking, she could tell it only made him angrier, 
"We stick to the gameplan," Mako finally breathed before marching out, the handful of glass still clasped in his fist, forcing the blood to drip down his palm. To Mako's relief, you were still in the bathroom, but not before he could hide everything that had happened,
"Ugh. I feel like I have an entire ocean in my ear," you groaned when you came out wrapped in a short towel, "There's no way an airship has better water pressure than my own apartm–you're bleeding," you breathed as you stepped toward him and took his hand,
"It's nothing," Mako fibbed, heating the broken glass quickly in his closed palm,
"That is not nothing," you scoffed at him, "I was in the shower for twenty minutes. What did you do to yourself?"
"I...I-I used a little bit too much fire on a glass kettle," Mako admitted sheepishly, "Figured I'd try to make you some tea before bed,"
"Tried? Your hands are shredded,"
"It's nothing. Look," Mako reassured you once he opened his palm, the glass he had melted now formed into a shape of a small heart,
"How...H-How did you make this?" you asked when he set it in your palm,
"Well, glass melts at 2400 degrees Fahrenheit," Mako smirked, "Let's just say, I used nearly half that to shatter it,"
"There's blood all over it. And there's blood all over you," you sighed as you dragged him into the bathroom by his wrist and turned on the sink,
"I'm fine. Honest,"
"You keep saying that," you smirked, dabbing his hands lightly with a cool rag until you were able to wash most of the blood away,
"You never can just do what I tell you, huh?" Mako smirked as watched you, only clenching his jaw every so often when his cuts started to sting,
"No. Now sit," you ordered innocently, nodding toward the toilet while you rummaged through the medicine cabinet for a first-aid kit. Though he thought all of this was unnecessary, Mako did as he was told, studying the little dimple above your eyebrow while you concentrated on unraveling the long roll of gauze before cutting it in two. He sat quietly as he waited, listening to you hum softly to yourself after applying ointment to his wounds before bandaging them carefully, "Something funny?" you asked him curiously once you finished wrapping his left hand,
"You're humming. I've...never heard you hum before," he grinned,
"I was?"
"I can pretend I didn't hear it,"
"No, it's just I...I never notice when I do things like that,"
"I do,"
"Because you spend all your time analyzing me like I'm some experiment," you scoffed at him,
"I am not analyzing y–
"Stop moving," you ordered when he tried to stand up, "And you may be a detective, but you are a terrible liar,"
"Fine. M-Maybe I do...analyze you, but it has nothing to do with me being a cop. I swear. M-Maybe at first, when you were being a stubborn brat,"
"Oh? Then why go through the trouble now?"
"Because...I...I-I love you, you know that?" Mako confessed softly as he gently gripped your face,
"I...I-I had a feeling," you gulped when he pulled you into his lap by your thighs,
"A-And I don't care about Viper, or your brother, your past, o-or how much you hate cops," he breathed into your lips,
"The fact that you don't makes you crazier than both of them," you sighed after he stood quickly with you in his arms and carried you to the bed, "Mako, put me down, I wasn't done bandaging you,"
"Hmph. As you wish, princess,"

[South Republic City] Dragon Flats District

"Do you not understand that we're kind of on a time crunch here?" Shah asked in annoyance when they stopped in an alleyway behind an old warehouse, "I don't exactly have all day to stroll down memory lane with you,"
"The goal was to get you there fast, wasn't it?" Shin smirked before knocking loudly against the metal door,
"So you say, yet you've severely cut into my travel time,"
"Just–trust me," Shin sighed, listening closely to the handful of locks being unlocked from the other side. A few seconds later a teenage boy stuck his head through the door, "Hey Ketu. Long time, no see,"
"Uncle Shin!" the boy beamed with a small whip wrapped around his shoulder,
"Uncle?" Shah questioned in disbelief,
"Not really," Shin chuckled as he tousled Ketu's dark hair before following him inside, "I used to date his mother, June. Who, happened to be named after his grandmother–
"Why does this matter? More importantly, when you said you have a guy,  you didn't mention he was twelve,"
"I'm fourteen! You blind oaf!–
"Easy Ketu," Shin sighed with a grin, "Remember what I told you,"
"Ugh, no insulting the customers," Ketu sighed as he continued to lead the way. From what Shah could see this warehouse looked almost abandoned despite the free-range chickens and hundreds of empty cages, some covered with beige tarps and others filled with piles of thick chains. How a kid, nearly a decade younger than him was thriving in these conditions was a mystery in itself,
"I'm telling you this, because, Ketu's grandmother used to be a shirshu-riding, bounty-hunting outlaw," Shin continued while they followed Ketu down a long flight of stairs that led underground, "Taught his mother everything she knew about wild animals, and she, taught Ketu here,"
"Hmph. What a moving story," Shah scoffed sarcastically once they stopped in front of another metal door. This one triple padlocked and stained in what he could only assume was rust and blood, "I still don't see how some punk kid who spends his time shoveling up chicken shit is going to help–
"That's it, let me at him!" Ketu snapped after dropping his keys to the floor and marching toward Shah without fear,
"Ketu, he's a customer," Shin reminded him sharply as he held him back by his shoulder, "A paying one,"
"Hmph. Fine," Ketu huffed before he backed away and scooped up his keys, his eyes still locked on Shah's, "I guess we should see how tough you really are face to face with my lovely beasts,"