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Wu's face flushes hot, staring pointedly down at the drink.

"I-- maybe. Yes? I didn't know that was why at the time!" He protests, shoulders hunching. "He's just. A very attractive man. Who seemed very capable."

He chuckles, flashing Wu a smile.

"Nah, I mean. I'd do the same thing, if it was me. I'd hire Raleigh cause he's hot."

Wu holds his eyes for a moment, then breaks into a laugh.

"Well. Good. Don't tell Mako about that, please? I don't know if he knows, and if he doesn't, well. It might make things even worse. He hated working for me," the laughter peters off and he takes another deep sip of the hot toddy. It burns down his throat. "I hope he doesn't hate me, now. I, I don't know what I'd do if he did. All I want, I want something like you and Raleigh have. That's what I want. And I, I just don't know if I can have it."

"Nah, your secret is safe with me." He'd never spill that secret.

"He could never hate you." chuck feels very sure of that. Even if Wu kissed him, Chuck doesn't think that would sever things between them. Just...going off how Mako had blushed at the party when Chuck teased him about being Wu's Mako.

"Why wouldn't you be able to have it? You mean with him, specifically?"

"Thank you," Wu says softly, for the secret, for saying that Mako couldn't hate him. That means a lot, the faith in Chuck's voice.

"I, both? I don't know, Mako has only dated these incredibly beautiful, talented women. Korra, you met her, and Asami. They're both just, just amazing," Wu sighs, leaning on a hand, "in my world, men don't really date other men. Well, I'm sure they do, but it's not really allowed, at least not in the Earth Kingdom. I never thought I'd be able to. And I know Mako doesn't want to. He, we experienced something, back in December, that made that very clear. He's afraid, of what dating a man would mean about him."

He bites his lip, looking up at Chuck again, "I probably shouldn't have told you that, either. But I trust you. And I feel like you understand?"

Chuck furrows his brow. He does understand, and it feels good to be trusted, but...well.

"What do you mean, he's afraid of what dating a man would mean about him? That he's gay? Is that what he's scared of?"

"Well, yes," Wu says simply, nodding, "I think so. It's, the way he grew up, it wasn't acceptable. The way I grew up, too. But I've always known that I liked boys, but he's liked girls, too, so I suppose it's a bit different."

He sighs, fingers drumming on the counter, "there are a lot of things, making this difficult. I just, I'm still worried. That he'll be mad at me."

"Yeah, I've heard that story before." Shit, he sort of lived it. His grandparents were rural bogan types, throwing politically incorrect words around like confetti. Aussies just do that, though. Still...Chuck sort of always knew who and what he was, and when the whole world is at stake, shit like that stops mattering. So what if he likes dudes?

And then he realizes maybe he should say all that shit out loud, because maybe Wu needs to hear that, too.

"Aussie's in general - that's me, I'm Australian - are pretty coarse. They'd say some pretty shitty things sometimes when I was little without realizing it, so for a while I didn't think it was okay to be gay. Like, I always knew, but I wasn't gonna tell them. Or my parents, not for a while. But then the kaiju shit happened, and it...I dunno. I guess it stopped mattering. We're trying to save the planet, who gives a shit what I do in the bedroom? So I just kinda embraced it and moved on with my life. And," he adds thoughtfully, "sometimes people like boys and girls. I used to be half in love with Mako - our Mako, not yours - till we realized we were just...fundamentally incompatible people. Too. competitive. Too...angry."

Wu nods along as he listens, the alcohol in the toddy making him feel warm and looser, a little less tense.

"So they don't care? Now? That, that's good. So they wouldn't care that you're with Raleigh? Do you think the press would care? But I suppose you're right, if you're at war, things are different," He watches Chuck for a moment before going on.

"It, he grew up in a gang," Wu shouldn't be saying this, any of this, but he can't stop himself now. He hasn't had anyone to talk about this stuff with, and Chuck understands, and that is revolutionary in a way Wu didn't know he wanted. "That, I think it really hurt him, the way that people talked. The way people acted. I think he really would have been in danger. And now, with me-- it's different here, but back home? I'm the King, it would be impossible. My Kingdom, it's not okay, at all, to be with a man. It's illegal," he sighs, slumping again.

"I don't want it to be, but I'm already changing so much, and Mako is so afraid of the press, he hates it. They hounded him and Korra. I can only imagine what it would be with me. I, I don't blame him. It's complicated. It's messy. I'm," not worth that. But he doesn't say that part out loud. "I don't know, how he feels. I think that's the problem with all of this. I don't know, and I don't think I'm allowed to ask."

"Yeah. It's a little different cause of the war. But we'd probably still manage to make headlines, I'm sure. I know Ray's a pretty private person, he'd have hated it, all the attention."

It's all pretty personal shit, what they're discussing, but they're in overshare mode, Chuck included, and he's listening.

"That does sound complicated," Chuck says slowly, "and backwards. But in Aus, it was illegal to marry, if you were same sex. Up til pretty recently, actually. It's dumb as hell. But I don't reckon 'not being allowed to ask' isn't in the cards, here. You're allowed to ask. Now...if he answers you, that's up to him."

"They are pretty similar," Mako and Raleigh, that is. Wu smiles a little, thinking about it.

"It's legal now? If you wanted to marry a man?" He blinks. That's actually pretty surprising, to him. He's never considered that as a possibility. "That, oh. Oh."

He was supposed to marry a princess, have plenty of heirs, carry on the family line. But if the monarchy is gone, perhaps he doesn't have to do that anymore.

"I, I think I sort of did ask. Or at least, I told him how I feel. I don't want to push him."

"Yeah, it is. Finally." That doesn't mean there's no longer problems, that redneck bogans aren't pissed about it, but it's legal so they can fuck right the hell off into their backwater hillbilly Deliverance cabins.

"That's about all you can. do, I reckon. Let him process it, marinate on it a couple days." Chuck and Raleigh are a little different in that Chuck sorta bullied Raleigh into admitting shit and then just told everyone they were dating, but. You know. Communication is good too, he guesses.

Edited 2021-03-14 16:06 (UTC)

Wu looks up at him with wide eyes and a pronounced frown. "But that's so hard!"

The King, everybody.

He lets the frown go with a sigh. "Yes. You're right. I just, I miss him. And I'm worried. If he decides he never wants to see me again, can I come stay here with you and Max?"

"I know it is." His lips twitch, but he does not let himself smile. It's not funny, Chuck.

"Course you can. But I really don't think that's gonna happen."

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