A/N: Flashback time! This entire interlude is more info about Mako and Lin. Will include cute mother/son bonding time. You're welcome.
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Lord Mako and You: Why it Will Never Ever Happen
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Mako was a smart boy – all his tutors said so – so when Asami had asked to hang out while her father was in town, cheerfully said "It's a date!" when he had agreed, and then driven off on her moped before he could properly react, Mako knew the smart thing to do was ask himself; Did he want to go on a date with Asami Sato?
The answer to that riddle was no. So his new question was; why?
Asami was great. She was sweet and funny and ferociously protective. She was understanding and spunky and witty and brave. Mako could go on for hours – literally hours – about all the fantastic things that made up Asami Sato and still find things to say. She was his best friend, not counting Bolin or mom, of course. He should want to date her, and he didn't.
"What's up, kid?"
Mako looked up to see his mother standing in the doorway.
Once again, he wished for his family's ability to see through rocks.
"Aren't you supposed to be at a poetry reading?" Mako asked rather than acknowledge zir question.
"Kid, look," Mom said, making zir way into his room without invitation. "If those people were dumb enough to expect me to sit through a poetry reading, that's their problem." Ze pulled out Mako's desk chair and made zirself comfortable. "Now, what's wrong with you?"
Mako looked away. What is wrong with me?
"Kid?"
Well, who better to talk to about it than mom? Wu was annoying, Bolin was still reeling from an assassination attempt the previous month, and Asami was the problem. Or not the problem, which made her the problem, or made him aware of his own problem, or something, whatever.
"Come on, Mako, I can tell something's up."
Mako looked to his mother.
"Asami asked me out," he finally said. "Well, Asami asked to hang out, then said it was a date after I said ok, then drove off before I could say anything else."
"Is that it?" Mom asked. "Just tell her she looks nice and keep your hands to yourself. You got that? Hands. To. Yourself."
"That's not the problem, Mom." Mako took a deep breath. "I don't want to date her."
"Why?" Mom asked, zir voice nowhere near accusing, but Mako felt it sting somehow anyway. "You like someone else?"
"No."
"You don't like girls?"
"That's not it, either."
"Then what's up?"
"I don't know!" Mako burst out. "I. Don't. Know. Asami's perfect! In every conceivable way! And she likes me! Why don't I like her? I should like her!"
Mom stayed calm, carefully watching his face as he spoke.
"Let me tell you a story."
"I'm a little old for stories, Mom."
"Shut up and listen." Mom built zirself a footrest and kicked zir feet up as ze began to talk. "Once upon a time, a long long time ago, there lived a bunch of nosey bastards who wanted two certain people to date. And they didn't."
"This is a bad story, Mom."
"So-o, when the two people who didn't date had kids, the nosey bastards decided those kids should date instead. The kids grew up together, they became best friends, they spent all their time with each other, and by the time they hit their twenties, most people thought they'd been dating for years.
"One day, the man friend decided they should date for real and asked the woman friend out. The woman friend said yes, but she had a secret; she didn't want to."
"Then why'd she say yes?" Mako asked. It seemed like a really bad decision on the woman's part.
"You see, kid, when enough people tell you the same thing, you start to wonder if you're the one missing something. Everyone – even their families – thought the two would make 'such a cute couple', and it's hard to believe so many people can all be wrong about the same thing, so the woman started to think, maybe this was what was supposed to happen. From what she knew about dating, the two had basically been seeing each other since their early teens anyway. The only difference she saw was that things would be more… physical – something she was not exactly opposed to."
"Oh, Mom, gross!"
"You are sixteen, you don't get to say 'gross' to this stuff anymore." Mako made a face at zir; ze made one back.
"Anyway, she decided to give it a try. She did care for him, after all. Maybe dating was just what best friends did eventually, so they became a couple. It lasted for years, very fun years. Very nice years. Years she really enjoyed and hoped he enjoyed, too, but at no point did she ever feel that 'spark' that people in love always talked about. She still cared for him in the same way she always had. He, on the other hand, started talking about marriage and children and settling down into one big happy family – all things she had no interest in.
"Eventually, they realized they were too different – their longterm goals too opposed – and went their separate ways. It was mutual and amicable, and he said he wanted to remain friends, so after a few weeks, she called him and invited him to get tea together. One of his servants answered, said he was doing paperwork, and told her they would pass along the message. After a few days with no reply, she called again. Again, a servant answered and said he was busy – a meeting or something – and said they'd pass along the message."
Mako listened closely, feeling they were finally getting to the point of the story.
"Again and again she called, and every time, a servant answered, said he was busy, and told her they'd give him the message. Eventually, she decided to go and see him herself, and what do you think she found when she got there?" Mom asked.
"A tigerdillo?"
"Haha, kid. No, she found that he wasn't busy at all. He was just sitting there, reading a book and drinking tea with a much younger woman beside him, and you know what she realized?"
"The two were dating?"
"Well, yeah," Mom agreed, "but also, she realized that finding out he'd been lying about wanting to remain friends hurt a fuck ton more than when they broke up, and she destroyed the home's courtyard and gardens and gazebo and went on her merry way and never spoke to him again."
Mako waited patiently, but Mom simply looked back at him. "And?" he finally asked. "What was the point of that story?"
"The point was, she never wanted to date him. Ever. She just did because she thought she was supposed to, that there was something wrong with her for not wanting to be in a relationship and she thought if anyone could fix that about her, her best friend could, but he didn't. Because she wasn't broken. She just didn't want anything to do with romance. She'd given it a shot and nothing had changed. All that happened was she'd spent years of her life in a dead end relationship and lost her best and oldest friend." Mom crossed zir arms decisively and looked at Mako, waiting for him to get it. He thought he did, but before he admitted to it;
"And what happened to her?"
"Well, she never tried dating again, I can tell you that," Mom said. "It lead to a lot of rumors about her still being hung up on her ex, and after many many attempts to explain that no, she just didn't want to date, no really, she didn't, and she wasn't a lesbian either, and please don't try setting up a blind date, she wasn't going to snap out of it once she 'found the right person', she decided to just let them think that and moved on with her life." Mom paused for a moment and smirked. "Then she realized she's a 'ze', found some kids who managed to grow on zir somehow, and got that big happy family crap anyway."
Mako smiled cheekily. "And does ze love zir kids?"
"More and more each day," Mom said sincerely, making Mako look away to hide his blush. Ze smirked. Ze won that round. "So! If you don't want to date Asami, don't date Asami. If you don't want to date anyone, don't date anyone! Just don't string someone along in the hopes your feelings will change, because that's not fair to anybody and it will have longterm repercussions. Got it?"
"Got it."
"Good. Now go call Asami."
That was not was Mako was expecting.
"But–!"
"Go."
"Fine," Mako groaned. "But if she kills me, it's on your head."
"I'm ok with that."
Later…
"So, how'd it go?"
"We're still friends."
"Yes! High-five!"
"But she told me I need to stop being so nice to her so she can get over her crush sooner."
"Don't worry, kid, I'm sure that won't last long."
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A/N: So, Mako and Lin are aromantic, which is someone who has no interest in romantic love or romantic relationships. We exist, people! My headcanon for Lin is the story ze just told and my headcanon for Mako is that he was so intimidated by how pretty Asami is – and later how powerful Korra is – that he mistook his feelings for what other people describe as a crush. That's also why he kept fucking up his relationships; he kept thinking well, if I date so-and-so, maybe I'll actually feel something for them this time.
Mako is also asexual, someone who does not experience sexual attraction, but I had no way of fitting that in here. Mako just doesn't want any non-familial human contact, ok? And he totally gets to still say "ew" about sexual things.
Yes, there is a shot at Toph/Aang shippers in this interlude. I have nothing against the ship, (though I personally don't ship it), I just feel Toph and Lin would've fucking hated all the people that expected Toph and Aang to get together. That there are people in the Avatar Universe who ship various members of Team Avatar is canon. Remember the Ember Island Players? That shit happened. And it had to have happened to the other members of Team Avatar and it pissed off Toph, and later Lin.
We will continue our story next chapter! Please don't kill me.
In the mean time, please enjoy the stories which inspired this one;
Grounded by FoxGlade on AO3
("Royals!") by LizBee on AO3
Forced To Be a Family and its sequel Ties That Bind by AJedistuckintheMatrix on FFN (sequel is WIP)
And, though they didn't necessarily inspire this story, here are some other great Mama Lin stories;
Of Ramen and Roses by DarkPriestessOfHyrule on FFN
By Blood or Bond by AJedistuckintheMatrix on FFN