He sincerely hoped Jinora would forgive him for being late. It wasn't everyday that an airbender received her tattoos. He climbed the steps with a stuffed animal in hands, finding no one around to greet him. He searched for a few moments until he heard a strange sound come from the gazebo around back.
Mako followed the sounds of distorted laughter and a trail of shriveled balloons on the ground, each step leading to more confusion and worry. He rounded the corner of the temple and stood in bemused silence as his brother sat between their friends with the airbender's children in front of them, all sporting rosy red cheeks from laughing so hard. He was about to open his mouth to ask what was going on when Meelo handed another balloon to Bolin, the girls clapping excitedly. Jinora sat directly in front of Bolin, eyes shining with mirth as she proudly displayed her blue tattoos.
The earthbender quickly sobered up enough to pinch the bottom of the balloon and, with a deep inhale, sucked in half of the contents. He looked at his audience with wide green eyes, the others leaning closer and closer until Bolin flashed a dimpled grin and spoke.
"Mister Sandman, bring me a dream~ make her the cutest that I've ever seen~ give her two lips like roses and clover~ and tell her that her lonesome nights are over~"
The others erupted in laughter, but Mako just gawked in shock as Bolin's voice gradually returned to his normal tone. It was only with Pabu's curious chirp in his direction did everyone look at him and smirk.
"Look who's late to the party." Asami said teasingly, already reaching for a balloon of her own. Mako gave her a pout before handing the plush to Jinora and listening to her talk about how nervous she was about it all. He was about to speak when a high-pitched voice cut in.
"I'm Mako. I'm always frowning and don't like to have fun."
The firebender slowly tensed up as the children laughed at Asami's poor impression of him, and as he tried to grin Bolin joined in.
"Bolin, don't do that! Bolin you can't feed Pabu chocolate. No Bolin, you can't laugh around me or else I'll laugh along with you and ruin my bad boy reputation."
"Look at me! I can do all this amazing stuff except keep an eye on the time."
"You eat your vegetables or else you won't get your dumplings after dinner, young man."
By now, Mako was sure he was about to burst a vein in his temple as the others roared in laughter. He whipped his head around to get onto them when his eyes widen in horror as Korra held a balloon up to her face and took a deep breath. Oh no…
"I'm Mako. My eyebrows are shaped like a bat and I sleep with the closet door open so monsters don't get me even though I'm almost twenty. I'm a big bad firebender."
She looked directly up at him and grinned cheekily as everyone around laughed hysterically, a challenge gleaming in her eyes. No one expected him to stand abruptly and storm across the grass until he was practically in Korra's face. Her eyes widened slightly as he reached past her for a balloon of his own, no one daring to speak as he took a minute to tear a small hole in the bottom and suck in a huge breath. The corner of his mouth quirked upwards before he let it out.
"Can you be-lieve that I had to get up this morning? I didn't even know there was such a thing as 'sunrise'! Oh, and then I had to swim across the bay to go to practice but it's sooo worth it because I can blatantly stare at the captain when he thinks I'm not looking. He's sooo dreamy~" Mako put his hands under his chin and sighed loudly, batting his eyes at no one in particular.
At first there was deafening silence, not even Pabu dared to make a chirp as all eyes fell on Korra, whose face had turned ten shades of red and closed her gaping mouth quickly.
"You don't want to do this, City Boy. I'll have you running home crying." She warned, tossing her old balloon to the ground and reaching for another. He smirked, taking the string out of her hand and shaking his head.
"Trust me, I'm just warming up. I haven't even gotten to you two yet." He said, looking at his brother and Asami with a devious grin as he brought the balloon up to his mouth. After minutes of each friend throwing jabs at one another with laughs and altered voices, Ikki looked at her older sister and blinked innocently.
"Aren't you mad they're using up all your balloons?" She asked.
Jinora shook her head and grinned as Mako and Korra went back and forth on each other, the firebender alternating between throwing fake punches and swishing his hips while Korra struggled to maintain a stoic face.
"Nah, you kidding me? This is worth it." The airbender replied, laughing along with the others as Mako cracked up uncontrollably with his helium-induced voice. "Totally worth it."