7. synchronized
"He's Bolin's brother, you remember him from moms' photos? Mako," Santo was telling Major after they were led to their table.
"Yeah, I tried to find some photos from when they were teens at the house, found a couple," she replied playing with the cup coaster. "He's the one who dated both our moms, right?"
"From what I gathered."
"Weird," Major concluded.
"You think?" Santo joked and they chuckled. "Oh, Maj! Him being Bolin's brother means that you are related to Emerald after all!"
"See?" Major exclaimed. "I knew we had to have some blood relation, we're just…" she snapped her fingers and winked. "You know?"
"Oh, I know," Santo nodded.
Someone approached their table and the siblings looked up to a tall man with fair skin, golden eyes and black hair, very Fire Nation-y.
"Santo?" he asked and the boy stood up, Major following suit.
"Oh, yeah, that's me," he said, offering a hand. "This is my sister Major."
"Hi, I'm Mako," the man said shaking Santo's hand and then Maj's. "But you already knew that, it's just… anyway. Shall we sit?"
They sat down and Major raised an eyebrow at Santo. Now she knew where her brother's awkwardness came from.
"Uh… did you order already?" he asked and they shook their heads.
"Just chai," Major told him. "No food yet, though I'm starving."
"Well, let's order then." Mako looked right at Major and she smiled. "Wow, you look just like your mom," he said with a little sigh. Maj ran her hand on her hair, putting her braid over her shoulder and then playing with the tip of it.
"You think? Lots of people say that, but I don't know. Kinda hard to think you look like the Avatar, you know? Were you good friends with her? How was she when she was my age?"
"Major," Santo warned, but she made a point of ignoring him.
"Well…" Mako started and took a deep breath. "Okay, I haven't gotten an overdose of questions like this since Ikki was like twelve! Let's see… yeah, you look a lot like Korra, and we were good friends, very good friends. How old are you?"
"Fifteen," she answered fast. Mako made a face.
"I met Korra when she was seventeen, so I wouldn't know. Sorry."
"It's okay," Major said clearly shrinking a little in her seat. Mako turned to Santo.
"So, you got into RCU," he said. Santo nodded. "Must be really smart. It's the Asami in you, I guess."
Santo shrugged.
"I got a scholarship with pro-bending in BaSSU, but all my friends live here, so…"
The waiter came with the siblings' chai, making Santo drift off.
"Oh, yeah," Mako nodded. "Yeah, Bo's niece is always talking about you, Baatar's girl. Uh, can you bring me some mint tea and fire crackers, please?"
"Pancakes for me," Major requested raising her hand.
"I'll go with fire crackers too," Santo said and then turned to Mako. "If I could pick a junk food to eat forever, I'd be fire crackers. That shit is so good!"
"So good!" Mako replied excitedly. "It was all I wanted to eat when I was a kid! Whenever we were feeling fancy, I'd have Bo cleaned out, because you know, he was the most likely to not getting kicked out of a store out of the two of us, and I'd give him the money to buy us some."
"Oh, yeah, Bolin said you lived in the streets," Santo said somberly. "Must've been so hard."
Mako shrugged.
"I mean, compared to now…" Major added in. "Emerald told me all about how her uncle had been promoted to Chief of Police, indicated by Lin Beifong herself and all. That's a classic example of started from the bottom."
"Now we're here, yeah," Mako nodded. "I guess we could see it that way, Marj."
That was a little bit of silence in the table. Something vibrated.
"It's Maj," the girl said evenly. "Short for Major. Maj."
"Yeah, of course. Sorry." She just narrowed her eyes at his half ass apology. "What is that?" Mako asked pointing at Santo's Smarty.
"What?" Santo asked, not looking up from the text he was reading. It was from Ean and it was silly. He quickly glanced up at the man sitting in front of him. "Oh, it's a new Future Smarty prototype. Only like, ten people in the world have one."
"Ten people, really?" he exclaimed and the kids nodded. Major even got her Smarty from her pocket.
"Yeah," Santo confirmed and started counting his fingers. "Me and Maj and moms, that's four. Varrick and Zhu Li."
"But not Ean," Major pointed out.
"Yeah, not Ean."
"Because he got second," she said.
"That's not why," Santo corrected elbowing her. "Uh… Grandpa Tonraq, Eska and Desna, and Tenzin, though he hates it and we're pretty sure Rohan is the one using it."
"Cool, I did see Chief Tonraq with a different device, but he didn't tell me much about it. I still have one of the first models of Future Smarty," Mako said taking his Smarty from his pocket and putting it on the table.
"Wow!" the kids exclaimed.
"That's like," Major said. "Really old."
"It is, thanks for the reminder," Mako joked. It was weird when he joked. "So what's the difference from my model to yours?"
Santo put his Smarty on the table right next to Mako's. For a start, his device was a couple of inches square bigger than the other, and it had a full keyboard where he could type his texts more easily.
"Basically, it has more memory," he explained. "You can still do the basic stuff, like calls and texts, but you can also take pics, see?" he turned the device around and showed the small camera attached do it.
"Really? Photos with a Smarty?" Mako said wowed. "And how would you get them revealed?"
"Well," Santo kept on with his explanation. "You see this entry? We put a cable here and connect the phone to a Polaroid camera, or you can connect it to a Varri-comp and keep the picture there."
Mako seemed impressed. Their food arrived and Major drowned her pancakes in syrup.
"That was actually the project I submitted," Santo continued. "Trying to find a better way of synchronizing all your electronic devices. Like your radiovision and your phone and your Varri-comp, everything."
"Impressive and bold," Mako said.
"Technology is evolving at light speed, we gotta know how to read the trends, that's all."
"Okay, now you sounded just like Varrick," Mako said. "Is his kid rubbing off on you?"
Major scoffed on her pancakes and Santo laughed.
"I mean, we are best friends," he shrugged and then popped a cracker in his mouth.
"You said you got a scholarship in Ba Sing Se because of pro-bending?" Mako asked after sipping his tea. "What do you bend?"
"Hm… fire," Santo said. "I'm a firebender."
Major rolled her eyes. Seriously, what's with the question, that one was easy to crack! His mom is a non-bender, donor a firebender, do the math! She stabbed her pancakes maybe a tad too fiercely and started to tune them out.
That brunch sucked.
