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The Prince and the Bodyguard

Summary:

A one-shot collection that takes place before, during and immediately after Book Four of The Legend of Korra, focusing on Mako and/or Prince Wu. These cover the time through Please Excuse My Penmanship.

These one-shots will be kept in chronological order.

Notes:

(Some of these drabbles were already posted in my Bits and Pieces; Dribs and Drabs collection and have been moved here for ease of reading.)

Chapter 1: A Gastronomical Dilemma: Breakfast At The Four Elements

Summary:

Mako's very first breakfast with Wu. Set at the Four Elements Hotel.

Notes:

I asked for a Wuko prompt on tumblr to write myself out of a rotten day.

My prompt from theculturalvacuum was: What to have for breakfast. (Mako hates kale.)

Chapter Text

The bellhop bowed deeply. “Your breakfast, Your Highness.” He paused for the briefest of moments, glancing over at Mako. “Sir.” He straightened the white cloth on the wheeled serving cart before clipping his heels together smartly and walking back out the door, shutting it gently behind him.

Mako stared down at the arrangement of silver domes. How much food did this kid eat, anyhow? Mako’d seen spirits floating around that probably outweighed him. He fought back a yawn. It wasn’t that the bed in what Prince Wu had referred to as the valet’s quarters was uncomfortable or anything. It was damn comfortable and in any case Mako could - and had - pretty much slept on any available surface and this bed was right up there with Zaofu for best sleeping experience ever. He even had his own small bathroom along with the little bedroom and as far as Mako was concerned, as long as he had a bed and a shower he was good to go, so it wasn’t that. It was more that he wasn’t really sure about the job at hand. He wasn’t really a bodyguard, was the thing. He wasn’t even sure what bodyguards were supposed to do. Look menacing? He guessed he could manage that. Protect the prince? He’d asked Beifong exactly what his job duties required and she had made a face and told him to keep the prince quiet and out of everyone’s hair. Yeah. It sounded more like babysitting and he was none too happy about it, either. And the worst thing about it was that he thought he’d been doing well at work! He’d made that bust at the Red Monsoon Triad headquarters and he thought Beifong was pleased with him. So why was he now on babysitting duty? Who the fuck had he pissed off this time?

“So! Mako! Breakfast! I didn’t know what you liked, so I ordered just a little bit of everything! Don’t you worry, either, the food here is just delicious. Day or night, all I have to do is give ‘em a little ring-a-ding and they’ll bring me up whatever I want. Nice, huh? So, tea? You drink tea? How do you take your tea? Me, I like mine black and strong. So how do you like yours?” The prince was fairly hopping around the cart. Mako had assumed that he’d be a late riser - weren’t royals all late risers? - but that was not the case. The prince was up and dressed before Mako had dragged himself out of bed. He’d need to swing by his flat at some point and grab his alarm clock, then. He might not know what a bodyguard did all day but he assumed it wasn’t sleeping later than the person he was supposed to be guarding.

The prince was still talking, a ceaseless stream of babble that he had tuned out completely. So. Prince Wu of the Earth Kingdom was apparently a morning person. Fantastic. Just fantastic. He hated morning people. In fact, he often felt the urge to set morning people on fire and this kid was starting to tempt him. He startled a bit when a tea cup and saucer was shoved under his nose.

“So what do you take in your tea, huh? Myself, I like it black and strong. I bet that surprises you, right?”

He quickly took the tea cup out of his hand before half of it went all over the rug. “Sure.” He fumbled around on the cart before he found the milk and sugar, adding them both to the cup. The prince had filled it too full and some of it slopped over the side into the saucer. He sighed. “I can get my own tea, you know.” He sat down at the table. Was he supposed to sit before the prince sat down? He had no idea. Well, fuck that. If Beifong wanted someone who knew proper etiquette she could just send someone else, then. It’s not like she wasn’t aware of his background. He had pissed her off, hadn’t he? Shit!

“Sure you can! I was just being friendly. I’m a friendly kind of fellow.” The prince started yanking the silver domes away from the food. “So, what do we have here? Well, there’s jook, of course. I told them to send up three different kinds. There’s some with egg and onion, there’s some with mango in it and some with pickled kale. Oh, you have to try the jook with the pickled kale. It’s to die for!”

Mako saw the newspaper on the side of the cart and reached over for it. “Not a fan of kale.” He pulled a pen out of his pocket and set it down on top of the paper.

“What? No, seriously. You don’t like kale? Everyone likes kale! I bet you’ve just never had it prepared properly. Give it a try. I bet you’ll like it.” The prince dished some of the pickled kale jook up and set it in front of him. The smell enough was enough to turn his stomach and Mako deliberately moved the bowl aside. “Oh, come on! Little taste? Just a little one? It’s kale! A taste sensation! I ordered kale smoothies, too. I love those!”

“I don’t want a kale smoothie. I’ll just take some of the regular jook. Non-kale jook.” He leaned over to the cart and dished himself up a bowl of the egg and onion jook, snagging a spoon to go with it.

“What about a bun? I ordered five different kinds. Let’s see…we’ve got picken, bean paste, egg, tofu and kale again. You mean to say you don’t even like kale in a steamed bun?”

“No. I don’t.”

“Well, that’s just weird, Mako, I have to say. What about dumplings? I ordered some of those too.”

Mako sighed. “Look, tea and jook is fine for me. I don’t really make a big deal of breakfast.” Would this kid never shut up? He could give Bolin a run for his yuan, for sure. Except that Bolin would have already made a sizable dent in that cart and the prince hadn’t actually eaten anything yet. “You should eat.”

“You don’t make a big deal out of breakfast? But look at you! You must eat a lot!”

Mako stared at him.

“You’re so big.” The prince did some sort of movement with his arms that ended up with one of his hands grasping at his bicep through the sleeve of his new uniform. “Now that’s what I call muscle, wow!” He squeezed at Mako. Mako removed his hand and firmly placed it onto the table. The prince didn’t seem to notice but just carried on. “I also ordered some pastries. You put a lot of sugar into your tea, so you like things sweet, huh? Got a little bit of a sweet tooth, hmm? Not me, I don’t really like sweet things although everyone thinks I do, I guess because I’m royalty, huh?” He pulled the rest of the domes off of the food. There was a staggering amount of it; the three kinds of jook, dumplings, steamed buns, pastries, several smoothies as well as eggs and even some soup. “If you don’t like anything here we can order something else. They’ll make me anything I want.” The prince snapped his fingers. “Just like that!” He smiled at Mako expectantly. Mako had no idea whatsoever what he wanted from him.

“Yeah. The regular jook is fine.” Mako shook out the financial section from the paper and took a swallow of tea before starting to read it. He’d made it about halfway through his bowl of jook when he realized that all was quiet in the suite. He brought the paper down to look over it at the prince. Wu was sitting across from him with his arms crossed and a pout on his face that was a thing of glory. Great. Now he’d pissed him off as well. Mako suppressed a sigh. All that damn food sitting there and the kid hadn’t touched any of it. No wonder he looked like a bundle of twigs dressed up in silk. “Have you eaten any of that breakfast?”

“Obviously not,” the prince said, refusing to look at him. “I don’t care. I want to go out now.” He thrust out his chin and tried to give him a dirty look. Tried being the operative word. He wasn’t very convincing. Mako was pretty sure he’d be fired if he leaned across the table and thumped the kid a good one upside the head, so he refrained. All of that food he’d ordered! He and Bolin could have eaten for days on that food and been glad for it. It would probably just get dumped in the trash. Well, he and Bolin had dumpster-dived more than once at the Four Elements Hotel, so he’d guess that the current lot of street rats knew to look there.

“Eat your breakfast or we aren’t leaving,” he said, giving the prince the look that had always worked on Bolin when Bo was being particularly stubborn about something. This kid had another thing coming if he thought a few sulks were going to get him what he wanted. “And next time don’t order so much food. It’s a waste to throw all that food away.”

The prince swallowed hard and took up a dumpling, sitting up straight and putting his napkin into his lap. Well, he had nice manners when he chose to use them, at least. He put the paper back up. This wasn’t going to work. He had no idea why Beifong was pissed at him, but he’d have to go and talk to her. He wasn’t cut out to be a bodyguard, especially for some spoiled rich kid. He snuck a glance at him from around the paper. Damn it all anyhow. The prince looked like he was about to cry into his dumpling. Great. Great! He’d gone and done it again, said the wrong thing and made someone cry. This was never going to work. Beifong needed someone diplomatic to do this job and that someone sure as shit was not him. What was she thinking? Oh, crap! Now the kid's chin was wobbling and if there was one thing he did not know how to handle it was tears. Best stop that train on its tracks right here and now. “So. Where did you want to go today?”

The prince looked up at him and tried a tentative little smile. “I was thinking the zoo? I'd like to visit the badgermoles.”

Badgermoles! Busting up triads to badgermoles! Beifong clearly hated him. Nope. Not going there. Just stop the prince from crying. Mako took a deep breath and nodded. “Finish that dumpling and we can go. Okay?”

The prince beamed at him. “Okay! My last bodyguard would never take me, he said it wasn’t safe enough. But he wasn’t a firebender or anything, huh? So I guess if anyone bothers me you can just do the old flaming ka-pow -” here the prince waved his feeble little arms about in what Mako assumed was his interpretation of a punch,“- and rescue me, no problem, right?”

“Sure. Just like that. Now eat your breakfast.”

“No more kale, right? Note to self, the big guy doesn’t do kale!”

“Right. Eat.”

The prince launched into a diatribe about what he assumed was Mako’s prowess at taking down what he referred to as the bad guys. He poured himself another cup of tea. He’d talk to Beifong about transferring him back onto the beat tomorrow.