'Mako' and Other 'M' Words

One. Mako has no parents.
Two. Mako lives in Hong Kong; Ranger Sevier has cancer; Mako lived with her and Ranger Pentecost for two weeks in Medical and then two weeks at Disney; Ranger Pentecost won't look Mako in the eye; and Mako has two sketchbooks full of Jaegers.
Three. The Marshal of Hong Kong has welcomed Mako into her family with open arms (Mako moved in the day after she returned from Disney) ....
"But you don't want that," says the psychologist.
Mako's eyes fall to her lap, to the new damp spot on /Laser Sword Ripper.
The psychologist doesn't press the issue.
Another wet spot.
They spend the rest of the hour in silence.
"I'll see you next week," the psychologist says kindly.
Mako nods, drags herself from the office—
"Mako!" cheers Tamsin.
Mako almost drops her sketchpad.
Tamsin wheels herself over. "Fancy seeing you here! Not like I was waiting or anything, which I totally was 'cause I was here for my own appointment—it's over now—then I saw the time and was like, 'hey, Mako's got an appointment around now! I'll wait for her!'"
Mako hugs her sketchpad.
"Come have a seat. I need to work on my upper body strength."
Mako sits, tentatively, and puts and arm around Tamsin's shoulders.
Tamsin carries on chatting; Mako nods occasionally, when it seems she should, but doesn't speak. It doesn't seem to bother Tamsin, and gradually it bothers Mako less. The loudest noise she makes is an undesired growl of her stomach.
Mako flushes.
Even though Tamsin laughs—tells her to go on, get food, gotta learn to tell chatterboxes like Tam when t' shut their gobs—Mako doesn't want to.
"I'll see you tonight, how's that?"
Mako nods.
Tamsin nudges Mako with her nose. "On with thee, child!" 
Mako fights a smile, slides to her feet, gives Tamsin her best bow, and runs off to the cafeteria. 
.
That night, Tamsin, in a magenta shirt, knocks on the door to the marshal's quarters with her forehead.
""Come in,"" calls Xiong.
Tamsin pushes the door open with her foot.
The Marshal and Mako sit at the table finishing dinner.
"Good evening, Ranger," greets Xiong.
Her husband nods from the kitchen, their baby fused to his shoulder.
"I have," Tamsin says, juggling her bundle, "'Mean Girls', 'Mononoke-hime', M&Ms, and would like to make a motion to meet with Miss Mori."
Mako looks at Xiong.
She inclines her head.
Mako twists back to Tamsin, sparkling, then shoots off for the nursery.
Fei Yen makes grabby hands for Tamsin.
"May I?" asks Tamsin.
"Please," says Xiong.
Mr Xiong settles Fei Yen in Tamsin's arms.
"You are still just the most adorable thing ever," coos Tamsin.
Fei Yen beams and wiggles, then burps up more than a few milliliters of her supper.
A moment of quiet.
"Muke," Tamsin says finally, handing Fei Yen back to Mr Xiong. "Love—/magical."
"My most sincere apologies," says Xiong. "May I offer you a maternity mou-mou-like garment?"
"Real—may you?" Tamsin bounces on her toes a bit.
Fei Yen giggles.
"My ... mid section! would be most appreciative."
"One moment, please." Xiong leaves.
Mr Xiong smiles apologetically as he rubs Fei Yen's back.
"It's more than fine," Tamsin assures him.
He huffs a laugh—
Fei Yen spits up on his shoulder.
"If you wouldn't mind excusing more of us."
Tamsin gives a thumbs up.
Mr Xiong takes himself and his passenger after his wife and Tamsin is alone in the marshal's quarters.
Tamsin eases into a kitchen chair.
Is it weird to make a note of what they had for dinner? Not if it's Mako. Lasagna and chocolate milk. Same for the Marshal.
The Marshal drinks chocolate milk.
Tamsin feels the same as when she learned her sixth-grade teacher took iron supplements and, again, she figures she shouldn't care and yet this is somehow 'noteworthy' information.
This is so—/more than weird.
"It's mouse-coloured," says Xiong. "Mayhaps your midsection won't mind?"
"My midsection will totally not mind," says Tamsin, snapping to her feet. "Did you practice that?"
"Maybe."
"You are the most awe—magnificent Marshal to ever—" /Fuck—!!! "You are the most magnificent Marshal to ever marshal."
"M—" Xiong frowns.
Tamsin holds the nightgown a little further from her shirt.
"May your copilot not make noise about this."
"Pfft." Tamsin heads to the washroom—"May I?"
"You may."
"Stacks isn't a Marshal yet. Won't be for months."
"But when he is—when he may be Marshal?"
"Then maybe he'll marshal better than you."
"You make me envious of his cheerleading squad, Ranger."
Tamsin grins, closes herself in the washroom, and changes.
Mako and her /Coyote Tango overnight bag wait anxiously on the couch.
"Ready?"
Mako nods.
Tamsin asks the Marshal, "When should I make Mako come back?"
Xiong considers. "Monday morning?"
"We get a whole Thursday!" squees Tamsin. 
Mako beams.
"Onward, Mako!"
They race to the door.
"Bye, Marshal!" chirps Tamsin.
"Bye!" squeaks Mako.
"Have a nice time, you two."
...
Mako and Tamsin curl up in Team Coyote Tango's room with Mako's cats. 
Tamsin notes there's something on Mako's mind, asks, "Shall we enter the Most Awesome Question Period?" 
Mako queries.
"The Most Awesome Question Period," Tamsin explains, "is when you ask a question and I have to give an honest, non-judgmental answer to whatever you ask."
"It's nothing."
"Non-judgey answers to anything you could possibly ever want to know."
Mako shakes her head.
"You knooow you waaaant to."
Mako smiles.
"I mean it! And really, how can one judge seriously with cats?" Tamsin grabs The Stacking, settles him on her head. "You can't take anyone seriously with cats. Look: it me! I have a cat on my head!"
The Stacking makes a noise of bemused protest.
Mako rescues him. Scratches him under the chin until he's calmed down enough to sit purring in her lap, eyes half-closed.
Tamsin settles against the pillows. 
Mako determines, at length, that a straight answer deserves a straight question. "Is ... is he avoiding me?"
"Stacks?"
Mako looks away.
The Stacking butts her hand; she scratches again.
"Okay, the short answer is going to sound bad until I finish the long answer. You good?"
Mako nods.
"Short answer: yes, Stacks is avoiding you. Long answer: when Stacks ends up in a situation he doesn't know how to deal with, he gets uncomfortable and clams up. I gave him a birthday card with a clam on it—had googly eyes. So he's kinda freaking out because 'aiyee! child!', 'aiyee! child of a different culture than I!', 'aiyee! child of a different gender than I!', 'aiyee!'. He's working to resolve the issue."
Maaau bats at Shubin.
"Or he's buggering off with Herc." 
The laugh's out of nowhere. Mako covers her mouth.
Tamsin snickers.
Ruby Glittershine, the First, settles behind Mako's knee.
"What about you?" she asks.
"I'm very happily gay."
Another laugh.
"Why am I avoiding you or what do I think about the situation?"
Mako pinks—"Second one, I didn't mean—"
Tamsin bumps her shoulder. "I'm trying quite hard /not to avoid you, actually." Flops back. "I really need a friend now and my old ones are all 'aiyee! dead gal walking!' and making things awkward so—" She smiles at Mako. "—I made a new one."
Mako busies herself with petting The Stacking.
"Besides, I don't want you being alone right now."
Mako leans cautiously, bumps Tamsin's shoulder.
.
The following Wednesday night, Tamsin, in the same (but clean!) magenta shirt, stops outside the marshal's quarters. "Hey, Mysterious Voice?"
""Yes, Ranger?""
"Will you unlock the door for me?"
""Why?""
"I want to kidnap Mako."
The AI sighs heavily but the bolt retracts.
Tamsin tiptoes to the back of the suite, to the nursery, and finds Mako's bed empty of Makos, blankets, and stuffies. She wonders, 'if I was a painfully lonely preteen, where would I be?' and her eye lands on the empty crib, so she peers under. "Ey, c'mon, kiddo! We're going shopping!"
Mako jumps—whacks her head. Freezes.
"You know no one's actually sleeping in there? I think the Marshal co-sleeps—"
Fei Yen squalls next door.
Tamsin throws herself under the chesterfield-sized /Horizon Brave plush and its Wei dragon crest.
Footsteps; Fei Yen's snuffling comes closer.
「「Hush now, love,」」 says Mr Xiong soothingly.
Fei Yen grumbles.
Tamsin snickers.
Mako giggles into her fist.
Fei Yen huffs, but quiets down.
「「There you go, sweetheart.」」
Footsteps return to the marshal's room; a minute later, Mr Xiong eases into the nursery. He glances at Mako's bed, then pads to the crib, and peers under.
Mako stares back, eyes huge and bright.
"Were you crying?"
Tamsin stifles a laugh—
Mr Xiong investigates the gigantic /Horizon Brave.
"'ey!" Tamsin says cheerfully.
"Why am I not surprised," he sighs.
Mako giggles.
He smiles. "Out, both of you. I won't have you waking the baby."
Tamsin wiggles out and to her feet. "You got it!"
Mako slithers from under the crib.
"Have fun," says Mr Xiong.
Tamsin gives him a thumbs up, and she and Mako scamper from the marshal's quarters and into the hall.
""I see your kidnapping was successful,"" drawls Mysterious Voice.
The lock /sniks into place.
Tamsin grins, pulling Mako close. "More than successful! We got permission!"
"To go shopping," adds Mako.
""Fun,"" says Voice.
Mako looks up at Tamsin. "Where are we going shopping?"
Tamsin—frowns. "Quarter—Master of Quarters, I guess. Nowhere else we're really allowed to go this late."
Three heads poke around the corner.
Hu grins. "Did someone say—"
"'Allowed'?" Jin wiggles his eyebrows.
Which is how Mako in her slippers, Tamsin, Cheung, Jin, and Hu wind up in a very loud bar in Kowloon, which is where Liu finds them and marches them out by their ears (the triplets at least. Mako and Tamsin are permitted to leave under their own power.), and is also how Mako and Tamsin end up on an outdoor Shatterdome mezzanine, a carton of mango juice and two glasses between them, watching the sunrise.
Tamsin frowns at her cup. "I have to say, I don't like mango juice."
"We can get something else."
"Nah." Tamsin takes a gulp, swallows. "Hard—" Clears her throat. "Hard to tell if this is actually mango juice or that 'tastes like mango juice but actually isn't because it's Ranger Boost'."
Mako looks in her glass.
Tamsin nudges her.
Mako looks up.
"Drink up, my magnificent Mako, you'll need it!"
Notes: 
For Vongchild, who asked, "We know from Beacham's tumblr that Tamsin was "like an older sister" to Mako as she was growing up, and that little "bring it" head tilt in the kwoon match is something Mako learned from her. I would love a piece about these two and their friendship, whether a missing moment or something longer." so I did my best to deliver. 
Cherno Alpha's cat, Shubin, is named for the mythological spirit of the mines. The legend of Shubin is distributed mainly in the mining towns of Donbas, Ukraine. In the north one can hear several legends about the spirit of the mines. There is no single point of view about the etymology of the word, but for this context refers to the nickname of a miner, whose soul, according to legend, walks in a fur coat at the bottom of the mine with a torch in his hand and burns the gas (firedamp). ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shubin_(ghost)| source)
Category:Ficlet
Category:Mako
Category:Tamsin
Category:Hong Kong Shatterdome (setting)
Category:Mako (ficlet)
Category:Tamsin (ficlet)
Category:Cats of Lin
Category:Ukrainian mythology (reference)
Category:Cheug
Category:Jin
Category:Hu
Category:Cheung (ficlet)
Category:Hu (ficlet)
Category:Jin (ficlet)
Category:Liu (ficlet)
Category:Liu
Category:Cats of Lin (meta)
Category:The Kaidanovskys (mention)
Category:Studio Ghibli (reference)
Category:Xiong
Category:Mr Xiong
Category:Fei Yen
Category:Xiong (ficlet)
Category:Mr Xiong (ficlet)
Category:Fei Yen (ficlet)
Category:Mean Girls (reference)
Category:AGNIS
Category:AGNIS (ficlet)
Category:Stacker (mention)
Category:Herc (mention)
Category:Mako designs Jaegers
Category:Fei Yen spits up
Category:Team Horizon Brave (merchandise)
Category:Team Coyote Tango (merchandise)
Category:Team Coyote Tango (setting)
Category:Team Xiong (setting)
Category:Ficlets with images