Chapter Text
I’ll never understand their weird customs.
I mean seriously, how do they find these things comfortable??
Mako tiredly glanced at Greyson as the boy stepped back to look at him.
“Yeah, still not sure about that.” Grey sighed, then quickly undid Mako’s tie again, which was probably the fifth one he’d worn in the span of five minutes. Mako slumped on a footstool as Grey turned back to the spread of ties laid out on his bed. He had been occupying the little prince’s room for the past while, with Greyson having ushered him in to finalize his tie selection for the dance.
Grey turned around and stepped up to Mako once again, this time holding a deep navy-colored tie in one hand, and a dark tan one in the other. He brought each close to Mako’s vest, then squinted, horribly conflicted, apparently. “Sit up straight, Mako; the attitude has a lot to do with the final look.” Mako reluctantly obliged his order but didn’t bother to hide his complete disinterest. The boy sighed in exasperation, eyes still locked between the two colors in his hands. “Ugh! The tan works better with your shirt, but the blue brings in more color!”
Mako couldn’t care less which one he wore, as they both were simply a tie in the first place- both should be excluded if he was the one to decide. However, he wasn’t the one to make his own choices when it came to his fashion sense, as he’d realized during his stay in the palace.
Looking back at the prince, Mako found it amusing to watch him stressing so much over small details in an outfit. Grey then glared at the ties, tossing them both on his bed in annoyance. “Great. Now I’ve stared at them long enough that instead of debating between two great choices, I’m deciding between two awful ones!” Seeing that Mako was confused, Grey sighed in his explanation; “You see, the tan one brings too much of the tan color to the outfit with the added shirt, pants, and back of the vest; But the navy blue, being the only actual color here, placed next to the blue front of the vest makes too much blue in one concentrated area, throwing the whole thing unbalanced!” Mako still didn’t quite get what the big deal was, but Grey just flopped on his bed with the ties, face-down, and groaned.
Oh, the struggles of an 8-year-old.
Mako then heard a sudden muffled remark from the bed; “Crap, these are gonna get wrinkled!” He snorted as Grey scrambled off the bed and checked to see if the ties were as wrinkled as he’d feared. Seeing they were fine, Grey straightened them and turned, giving Mako a disappointed look as he saw his obvious boredom. “I know you couldn’t care less if you wore a run-down tater sack to the dance with a tuna for a tie, but can you at least pretend like you care about being presentable?”
Mako gave the prince a slightly offended expression, as he in fact, did want to look decent for the evening’s event. He had agreed to and even liked Greyson’s choice for the matching vest and pants, but he didn’t get why the tie was so ridiculously vital to the outfit as a whole. Mako gestured toward his vest, trying to show Greyson what he meant.
I’m wearing this, aren’t I?
I didn’t even complain about it- heck, I actually like this to an extent!
Grey seemed to get what he’d tried to convey, and folded his arms, leaning against the bed’s frame. “Yes, yes, you’re wearing the outfit- But Mako, you don’t understand how important this tie is; It brings it all together for a… kind of finishing touch, or accessory.”
Well you’re right about the ‘not understanding’ part.
How am I sposta know how necessary a little ‘accessory’ is when I’ve hardly gotten used to wearing a stupid shirt? ?
“It just…” Grey searched for the right words to describe the importance of the piece of fabric, and finally found them with a snap of his fingers; “That’s it- A tie adds that pizazz to an outfit.”
Mako frowned, then stood up and marched to the prince’s large closet, rummaging through the clothes to find a specific piece. Grey pushed off the bed’s frame, gesturing his arms in defeat as Mako searched; “Hey, wait- No, what are you doing? Mako, my poor closet was so organized, come on.”
You want pizazz?
Fine.
Finding the piece he’d been looking for, Mako turned and tossed it to Greyson, him fumbling to catch it. “Suspenders? Mako, we’re not going over this again-” Mako mouthed the words he meant to say;
THIS.
HAS.
‘PIZAZZ’.
Mako then folded his arms and promptly sat back down on the footstool, to which Grey sighed as if he was a mother dressing up an uncooperative five-year-old wanting to wear pajamas to church. “While they have ‘pizazz,” Greyson said calmly before launching them across the room, much to Mako’s outrage; “THEY. LACK. POSH-NESS.”
THAT’S NOT EVEN A FRIGGIN’ WORD YOU MINNOW-
“ Pizazz, Style, Spiffy-ness, SURE- But you just can’t continue to hide behind suspenders when avoiding the search for your sense of FASHION, Mako!”
…I mean.
… they wouldn’t make a very good hiding place due to the thing’s kinda-like-a-weird-torso-belt-thing nature, but oke.
They stood there a moment before Greyson broke the silence; “Listen, I guess I need to come to terms that you’ll undoubtedly disagree with my style choices, despite my much additional experience in the field.” Mako rolled his eyes.
Was that supposed to be an apology?
I’m not really sure.
But he has a point when he mentions his experience up here with fancy clothes and such.
“I’m not mad, Mako.” Greyson glanced at the ties again; “I’m just disappointed.”
Mako wasn’t sure what to say, even if his voice hadn’t literally eluded him. “Disappointed that you don’t trust my judgment, but also disappointed in myself in failing to make the right decision for which tie you should wear.”
Mako sighed, and tiredly walked to the bed, looking over the ties, but he couldn’t pick a preferred one either. Grey looked across them until he suddenly grabbed Mako’s shoulder and beamed in realization. “I know!- The problem wasn’t so much the color, but the fact that the ties were literally too much !”
Mako blinked.
What…does that even-
“HAH! I finally get it now! Ties just don’t suit you!” Mako watched as Grey stuffed the ties back in his closet somewhere.
That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you this whole-
“ NOW; ” Greyson blurted out as he dropped about half a million bow-ties on the bed in replacement for the previous accessories; “We can make a decision !”
Ah.
Nevermind.
At this point Mako was just wanting to get out of the situation, so he resigned to Greyson’s begging him to wear one of the hundred bow-ties. He no longer bothered to argue with the little guppy who was half his age, and it made Greyson delighted as he sat Mako down once again to fasten a rich, sandy-tan-colored bow-tie onto him.
“There we go!” Grey stepped back with his fingers splayed like a picture frame, proudly looking over his choices like Mako was a newly adopted son of his. “Ooookay, Mako; You’re free to- Wait.” He noticed Mako’s rolled-up sleeves and unrolled them, then tugged his arm down to ‘fix’ his hair. “ That’s better. Okay, now go sweep Gabby off her feet already- You look sharper than one of Bucket’s canines!” Mako roughly ruffled Greysons hair at his comment, much to the little boy's dismay. “AGH, MAKO- Go on, get out of here already! I gotta go and re-organize my closet before I head in, no thanks to you!”
Mako chuckled and bowed as if to say; Oh, you’re very welcome, young majesty. Before closing the door to the young prince’s room. As he made his way down the hallway to the ballroom, he stopped at a mirror to his right. Mako stood there, his reflection staring back at him, making him feel like a totally different person, but not in a bad way. His thoughts reminded him of how uncanny it was to be living in the palace, on land, and even making good friends during his stay. He looked down at his new outfit bought just for him, the two-toned vest, matching pants, classy shoes, and now Greyson’s own bow tie.
Somehow I’m still not really used to the whole…
Human thing.
Looking back at his reflection, Mako felt like it wasn’t quite himself. He felt like a fish out of water, but also a deer in headlights. A fish in the headlights? Whatever. Noticing Greyson had shifted his hair more to the side, Mako fixed it back to normal, then rolled up his sleeves again.
Better.
Okay, I should really get going.
What time is it, anyway?
And didn’t Gabby say she was the first singer for the night?
Though he doubted that Grey would have decided to pass up watching Gabby’s song to organize his closet, he didn’t want to assume he had plenty of time. So, he decided to sprint.
So far I’ve mainly walked, not tried full-blown running yet-
But hey; Everyone else going is using the main entrance hall, not the random hallways that lead to Grey’s room, right?
Which means;
Mako thought, as he got ready to run;
If I fall flat on my face, there’ll be no one to witness my embarrassment.
….Or death.
Either one.
Mako sped down the hall, and found it fairly easy, except for the slightly slippery floor and cutting the tight turns around corners, which he hoped no one was behind to collide with.
After sprinting the whole way, Mako finally stopped in a hallway he knew had a smaller, side entrance to the ballroom. He gasped as he tried to catch his breath, sliding to the floor to take a breather before heading in. He was exhausted but realized just how long he’d gone just fine while only having legs for a couple of weeks. He felt pretty proud of himself, but decided to head in sooner rather than later when he heard some person talking loudly- It had just started. He tiredly stood up, and stepped through the door, though his lungs were complaining.
There were actually a lot of people there already, and he started slipping through the crowd, heading toward the stage- she’d most likely be somewhere behind the curtain. The person speaking had started up again, and Mako turned his attention to him;
“-And of course, we’d love to thank all those that supported the efforts to make tonight come to pass; Mr. and Mrs. Eving for providing us with the wonderful.... “
Oh,
They haven’t really started yet.
Mako crept away from the crowd and stood beside a window. It was about sunset, bringing a cooler breeze to the air. Mako gladly rested his arms on the ledge and realized he was still having trouble catching his breath. It wasn’t just from the running, though. Usually, as in his time on land thus far, he was sure to wear thinner shirts and avoid the jackets or stupid ties Grey wanted him to wear. Though he was very aware his gills had disappeared, along with the fact that a shirt wouldn’t hinder his ability to breathe, the placebo effect had still lingered with him. As a result, tonight’s outfit with a shirt and fitted vest, along with Grey’s accursed Bow-tie, was not doing him any favors.
Mako knew he wanted to stay at the party, even just for Gabby’s sake, but a part of him wanted to flop down on his bed in a not-so-stuffy room and get rid of the tie and vest. But alas, he couldn’t do that.
…Wait.
Though the vest would be too obvious to lose…
Mako glanced down at Grey’s bow tie.
It’d be pretty nice to get rid of this.
Glancing around, Mako quickly turned his back to the crowd and fumbled with the bow tie. Finally being free of the constricting thing made things easier, but now he wasn’t sure what to do with it.
Hm.
If he kept it on him, Grey would undoubtedly tell him to put it back on. He had to lose it.
Looking back up, he was reminded of the oh-so-convenient window.
…
Grey…
He’s a prince.
He’s got a billion of these, right?
Mako quickly chucked the thing out the window, and slipped away, eyes darting around to see if anyone saw him. Though he felt a pang of guilt, this way he wouldn’t have to worry so much about breathing, so he found it worth it.
What he doesn't know won’t hurt him.
…physically.
He’ll be fine.
And with that, Mako started toward the stage and Gabby again.