Chapter Text
The Ember Island Players are hacks.
That’s what Mai decides when she watches their critically panned follow up to The Boy in the Iceberg. They portray her as some gloomy, pathetic girl who spends all of her time pining after a boy who is too busy playing war to notice her. Then when her big moment arrives, her sacrifice at the Boiling Rock, it’s overshadowed by bad puns and Sokka’s actor hogging the spotlight.
Even more strange is how they depict Azula as the poster child for heterosexuality.
But whatever.
It’s not that Mai craves the attention. Or even needs it. She actually quite prefers the anonymity that civilian life provides her. Working in her aunt’s flower shop. Spending her evenings at the palace library.
Dating Zuko on the sly.
There’s no reason it has to be a secret. Things have been good these past few years. Great, even. Not counting the time they broke up and Mai dated this other guy named Kei Lo, who was in cahoots with Mai’s father, Ukano.
Who, in turn, was in cahoots with…
It’s a long story.
Ty Lee visits all the time. Between assignments. On days off. After her short-lived flings run their course. Always happy to see Mai, always happy to sleep over, always… happy.
When she’s not looking over her shoulder, that is.
She thinks Mai doesn’t notice. But they’ve been through enough trauma together for one lifetime, so Mai doesn’t bring it up. Instead, they just talk about Ty Lee’s latest crush or how the flower shop is doing or how big Tom-Tom is getting.
This way the past stays in the past.
Where it belongs.
But the past has a funny way of haunting people. Often when they least expect it. So Mai counts her blessings every night in the hopes that it doesn’t come back for her one day.
If only she was so lucky.
“Mai, you have a customer!”
“I’m coming,” Mai calls downstairs, where her Aunt Mura awaits. She scrambles to get dressed. Normally, she wouldn’t bother to rush, but if someone is asking specifically for her, then it’s probably Zuko.
She hasn’t seen him in days. He’s always in meetings and strategizing new ways to repay the world for the damage the Fire Nation caused over the last century or helping his friends find lost children and whatnot.
It’s time consuming.
“Mai!”
“I’m coming!” Mai yells, but the damn buckle on her boot isn’t working and she’d rather not walk down there barefoot for the Fire Lord to see. Even if he is her boyfriend. Even if he’s around a barefooted girl all the time. It’s still weird.
She makes her way down to the shop, fumbling to put her apron on, not paying attention to whoever awaits her.
“Sorry,” she mumbles, “I was busy.”
“Too busy coming?” the mystery customer asks.
To her dismay, it’s not Zuko. It’s Ty Lee and she’s grinning like an idiot. Go figure.
“Stop making innuendos and help me,” Mai says, gesturing to her boot.
“Why don’t you just take it to the cobbler?” Ty Lee asks, assessing the damage. “Oh. Kei Lo. Does he still work there?”
Yes. He most certainly does. And given how things ended between them… Mai’s probably the last person he wants to see. Too bad they cross paths more often than she’d like.
“I’m pretty sure,” Mai tells her.
“Then have Zuko buy you some new ones! I know he can afford it because I’ve been inside the treasury. I just had the worst shift guarding it.”
“Why? Someone try to break in?” Mai asks, amused.
“No! Literally nothing happened. That’s why it was the worst.”
“Sounds terrible,” Mai says, humoring her as she so often does, “but I can buy my own shoes.”
“Yeah, but that’s what secret boyfriends are for! Buying expensive presents and meals and trips and stuff.”
She would know with the way she spends other people’s money.
Mai means that in the nicest way possible, of course.
“I don’t need expensive things,” Mai tells her, picking up her gardening shears and making her way over to the plants in need of pruning.
Sure, it’s strange to hear herself say that given her upbringing, but material possessions have somewhat lost their appeal. If Mai had to pinpoint when, she’d guess it was after prison and before her brother was kidnapped.
Actually-kidnapped-and-not-accidentally-wandered-into-an-enemy-encampment, she means.
“Nobody needs expensive things, Mai.”
“What about you? Still dating what’s-her-name?” Mai asks, more out of boredom than curiosity.
“No, turns out she had a boyfriend,” Ty Lee tells her glumly. “So now I’m dating him.”
Mai sets her shears down. “Ty Lee!”
“Gotcha!” she giggles, unable to keep a straight face.
“I hate you,” Mai breathes a sigh of relief.
Sure, Ty Lee’s gone through an assortment of folks over the last few years, but not even the spirits could interfere if anyone else were to joke about it in Mai’s presence. She is, not for nothing, still extremely protective of Ty Lee.
Maybe too protective.
But that’s neither here nor there.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s, like, the cornerstone of our friendship,” Ty Lee proclaims.
A friendship built on hatred. What a concept. A frighteningly familiar one given their childhood. But that goes against Mai’s rule of never ever bringing up the past.
Especially pertaining to Azula.
“Was that Ty Lee I saw in the shop earlier?” her mother asks her that night at dinner.
“One of her sisters wanting to buy a fern,” Mai lies, moving the dumplings around on her plate.
It’s good food. Way better than anything she was served at the Boiling Rock. She just can’t bring herself to stuff her face. Instead, she likes to savor it like it’s her last meal.
In case it’s gone too soon.
She’d never known hunger like that before prison. The only hunger she’d known was all the times she was sent to bed without supper. Usually for minor offenses like letting her hair get tangled or forgetting to bow to her mother’s high society crowd. Once for not excusing herself when she sneezed.
“No, it wasn’t,” Michi says, with her petulant need to always be right. To know everything. To invade every single aspect of Mai’s life. “I don’t know why you always hide your friends from me. I’d like to see them, too, and so would Tom-Tom. Wouldn’t you, darling?”
“Yeah,” is all that Tom-Tom contributes to the conversation, because he can get away with speaking in incomplete sentences, whereas Mai would’ve probably been shunned for such an offense at his age.
“Ty Lee is my only friend.”
Michi titters. “What about your gentleman caller?”
She must be referring to Kei Lo since Mai hasn’t exactly told her mother about their breakup. Even though that was, by Mai’s calculations, over a year ago. And Mai certainly hasn’t brought up the fact that she’s seeing the Fire Lord again.
She’d never hear the end of it.
“I’m just saying she’s here all the time. If you want to talk to her, just talk to her. You don’t have to wait for me to reintroduce you. She knows who you are,” Mai says, opting to change the subject.
And steer it far, far away from Mai’s love life.
“That’s not how we did things when I was your age. Your generation has no manners. Back in my day…”
“Back in your day, your father sold you off to the first scumbag who paid a reasonable sum,” Mai scoffs.
Sure, that scumbag is her father, but he’s a scumbag nonetheless. Or at least he turned out to be one. He wasn’t always. But a series of questionable decisions, financial and otherwise, had changed him. Radicalized him. Had him advocating for the return of Fire Lord Ozai.
And aligning himself with Azula in the process.
Hence the title of scumbag.
“And what price do you think I’d get for you?” Michi fires back. “Certainly not enough to move out of your poor aunt’s house.”
Mai has never wanted her own place more than she has in this moment. A place where she can move about freely, coming and going as she pleases, without her fucking mother wondering where she is and who she’s with.
To be… independent.
Someone is tossing pebbles at her window.
It’s the middle of the night and Mai races to see who could be – and Zuko waves at her from down below. Of course. She creeps down the stairs, careful not to wake anyone else, and exits through the flower shop.
“Hi,” she says, greeting him with a kiss. “I kind of missed you.”
Kind of is an understatement, but understatements are kind of her thing, so she lets him wrap his arms around her.
“I kind of miss you, too. In fact, I couldn’t wait any longer to see you, so I ditched my bodyguards,” he says giddily.
“Bold move,” she replies. “I guess I’m not the only one who snuck out.”
“You’re worth it,” he says, planting another kiss on her.
“I wish there was someplace we could go. Somewhere we could be alone,” she laments.
“Spend the night with me at the palace. You can sneak back in the morning. Before the rooster-lizard crows,” Zuko offers.
He keeps the invitation open, if she wants to, never minding when she says no. And she’s said no a lot. She’s had her hang-ups about sex, and how intimate it is, and he respects that.
And as much as she longs to…
There is a certain implication if they were caught. One that wouldn’t affect his reputation. She doesn’t need another reason for people to drag her family’s name through the mud. So she abstains.
But she’s not sure how much longer she wants to abstain.
“Next time.”
“I was thinking,” he pauses, like he expects her to make fun of him for thinking, and she would if he didn’t look so serious all of a sudden. “Maybe it’s time we took our relationship to the next level.”
“You mean upstairs?” she teases.
He blushes. He was quite oblivious as a teenager. Especially when it came to girls. And noticing his sister was gay.
“No, I meant like, an engagement.”
Well, that’s… unexpected.
Not unwelcome, but definitely unexpected.
In another life, they’d already be blissfully wed. Perhaps they’d have a child. Perhaps there would be another on the way. But things didn’t work out the way she’d always imagined they would.
“Is this a proposal?” she asks point-blank.
“N-n-not exactly. I just want your opinion. If you’ve thought about the future,” he stammers. “Our future.”
He looks scared that she’ll reject him in an instant, but he’s still the same boy she’s had a crush on since she was a kid. The same boy she fell in love with as a teenager. And now that they’re both adults… it makes sense that he’d be the man that she marries.
“I’ll need to think about it,” she admits, and as much as she hates to disappoint him, she has a lot to sort out.
Because it’s not as simple as just marrying Zuko. Marrying Zuko means becoming the Fire Lady. Helping her husband lead a nation. Being an ambassador to the other kingdoms who were devastated by a century of war.
And helping the people of the Fire Nation heal as well.
Her people. Many of whom served as soldiers in the war. Some, like herself, even served as children.
And while she loves her anonymity and staying out of the public eye, she’d be in a much better position to help… if she accepted Zuko’s proposal. But is that even what she wants? Shouldn’t she know what that is by this point? Why doesn’t she know?
“Of course,” he says, trying not to appear dejected, but he’ll still love her no matter what she decides.
That’s the hardest part.
“I had a feeling you two would find your way back to each other.”
Kei Lo.
It’s been a while since she’s seen him in the flesh. But he’s always nearby working odd jobs. Most recently as an apprentice to the shoemaker.
And Mai knows it’s not a coincidence that it’s across the street from the flower shop.
“If it’s any consolation, I didn’t break up with you for him,” she says, turning to face him head on.
“Whatever you say,” Kei Lo replies nonchalantly, because he doesn’t believe her, but he also doesn’t have the gall to say so.
Smartass.
He was a good boyfriend though. Sure, their relationship began under false pretenses, but he was caring. And kind. He even made her laugh once or twice. The problem? The problem was that he isn’t Zuko.
And that whole false pretenses thing didn’t help.
“I guess you heard our conversation.”
Kei Lo nods. “Bits and pieces.”
“He’s going to ask for my hand,” Mai says, trying to ignore the fact that she’s having this conversation with her ex-boyfriend while in her nightgown.
But here they are.
“He’s a lucky man,” Kei Lo replies before turning around slowly and making his way back inside the shop.
And if he didn’t annoy her enough with the way he always hangs around, his assumption that she’ll say yes really seals the deal.
Because she has yet to agree to it –
– and she’s not even sure she will.
Ty Lee accompanies her to Tom-Tom’s school for pickup. It’s nowhere near the same caliber as the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, but it has enough security measures that Mai’s reasonably sure he won’t get abducted in the middle of class.
Still she likes to be the one waiting for him when it lets out for the day… just in case.
“So he asked you to marry him?” Ty Lee inquires.
It’s her day off, so thankfully she’s not wearing that gaudy Kyoshi makeup, but she is walking on her hands, drawing way more attention than necessary.
Show-off.
Mai bites her lip. “Not exactly.”
Ty Lee thinks on it for a moment, before putting her feet back on the ground where they belong, although her hands are now caked with dirt.
“Ooh, maybe he wants you to move in with him. How scandalous would that be!” she teases, grabbing playfully at Mai’s kimono.
Mai pulls back and swats her nasty hand away. “Stop it. We were only talking about the possibility of an engagement and he asked my opinion.”
“It’s sweet how considerate he is of your feelings,” Ty Lee points out, like Mai doesn’t already know that.
But it’s true.
Zuko is a lot of things, but he saves his tenderness for her. As Fire Lord, he must act as though he is infallible. He must be decisive and cunning and always one step ahead.
As a boyfriend, he is patient and kind and forgiving… and loving.
“I didn’t give him an answer.”
Ty Lee sighs. “Why do you always do this? He practically told you he wants you to marry him and have his babies and live happily ever after. Just say yes!”
“And just how many proposals have you turned down?” Mai counters coolly.
“Seven or eight. No, nine,” Ty Lee says as she adds them up in her head. “That’s not right either. Ummm, let’s just say more than I can count on my fingers, but less than I can count on my fingers and toes.”
“Exactly,” Mai says, her point made.
“That’s different and you know it,” Ty Lee insists. “You and Zuko are meant for each other. I date. Dating is all about having fun and being carefree and not getting emotionally attached.”
They both know how her last emotional attachment ended. With them in prison and Azula seeking revenge. And then suddenly Azula disappeared, never to be heard from again.
It’s kind of a touchy subject.
“You know, it would be okay if you wanted a serious relationship, Ty Lee,” Mai tells her gently.
“I don’t! Otherwise I’d have one,” she claims, and while Mai knows that much is true, there’s also a fair bit of denial on Ty Lee’s part. Azula’s departure left her in an emotional standstill. She can’t move on as long as Azula is missing because she never got any closure and perhaps she never will. “Besides, I can’t help it if zillions of people are attracted to the energy I put into the universe – and I hate to remind you, Mai, but you’re not really my type.”
“Wasn’t offering,” Mai retorts.
“I’m only nineteen.”
Mai shrugs. “That’s practically ancient according to my mother.”
And Mai is twenty now.
So Agni only knows what Michi thinks of her.
“What if I found someone and we were crazy good together, but then it all fell apart? I just don’t think I could handle doing that all over again,” Ty Lee says with a frown.
Mai can’t blame her for not allowing herself to be vulnerable with someone. Rejection hurts. But holding onto a relationship that ended long ago hurts even worse. Especially when that relationship was doomed from the beginning.
“You deserve to find the love of your life,” Mai tells her.
“I already did…” Ty Lee replies, “a long time ago.”
Mai grits her teeth. This is bordering on breaking the rule. The rule that is in place for this very reason.
“Then you deserve a better one.”
The Mom Friend in Mai is coming out again. The one she tries to suppress when it comes to her relationship with Ty Lee. But it’s difficult when they’ve known each other for so long and been through so much together.
Somehow the line became a bit… blurred.
“Yeah, easy for you to say!” Ty Lee huffs, before turning on her heel and storming away.
At least she’s on her feet this time.
Mai sighs and glances over at her brother who stares back at her like she hung the moon. He always looks like that. Like she is The World’s Best Sister. Although Mai couldn’t think of a single thing she did to deserve it.
“How was your day?” she asks him with a sigh.
“We learned about you in history class,” Tom-Tom tells her. “My teacher said you turned the war around, but you told me that you spent all your time cleaning up bear poop.”
“It was a little of both,” Mai explains.
He was bound to find out about her role in the war sooner or later. She just wished it was later. But at least his teacher didn’t make her out to be a gothic, dramatic mess.
Unlike those hacks.
“Can I bring the bear for show and tell?”
“Bosco and I didn’t exactly keep in touch,” she tells Tom-Tom, wrapping her arm around him and guiding him slowly back to the flower shop. “Anything else happen?”
“I ate a bug.”
Nice.
They continue on in silence, and as much as she usually enjoys their walks, she can’t help but think about where her conversation with Ty Lee went wrong.
But Mai is right about one thing, however.
This school is definitely no Royal Fire Academy.
“Mai, honey, can you hand me that watering can?”
Her Aunt Mura got the green thumb in the family. Michi tried, of course, but she was always better at critiquing than actually doing anything. And now Mura’s teaching Mai how to prune away the dead branches. How to restore something on the brink of death. How to keep everything from all falling apart.
It’s a lot of pressure for a plant.
“Hmmm?” Mai asks, lost in her own thoughts.
“The watering can, girl! I swear you’re always too busy daydreaming about your secret lover.”
That catches her attention.
“I don’t have a secret lover,” Mai refutes.
Mura snorts. “You think I haven’t noticed you sneaking out? Or all the times I pretend not to hear you and Ty Lee cackling? Who is this guy anyway?”
“I love Ty Lee,” Tom-Tom chimes in.
Mai ruffles his hair. “I know, buddy.”
“No, you don’t get it,” he pouts. “I’m in love with her.”
“You and half the population,” Mai snorts.
“She’s an outgoing girl! You should strive to be more like her, Mai,” Mura chides.
“But then who would read my library books?” Mai says dryly. She frowns. “You sound like my mom when you say things like that.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Mura replies. “My point is that your friend puts herself out there. She doesn’t have to hide under the cover of darkness just to get a little action.”
If Mura knew what Ty Lee’s teenage years were like she might recant that statement.
“Do you mind?” Mai says, covering Tom-Tom’s ears. “He’s too young to hear about… that.”
“I didn’t find out until my wedding night,” Mura recalls. She chuckles. “Boy, was I in for a treat.”
“Oh, gross,” Mai says, fighting the urge to vomit.
“When you marry Zuko, then I’ll marry Ty Lee,” Tom-Tom says hopefully, and Mai didn’t even know that he knew. Or maybe it was a guess. Or wishful thinking.
And apparently he’s angling for a double wedding.
Mura raises an eyebrow. “Zuko, huh?”
“Fine,” Mai admits. “We’ve… reconnected.”
Reconnected everywhere except at the pelvis.
It took time, of course, to reach the mutual decision that they should be together. Mai was in no rush after their last breakup, in the early days of Zuko’s reign, when he’d had so much stacked against him. His father’s loyal minions – eager to seize power – took it upon themselves to plot against Zuko. The New Ozai Society, despite the stupid name, posed a real threat to their new way of life.
And tore Mai’s family apart.
But their desire for one another never faded.
It withstood a war... among other things.
“Let me tell you something. The world has known great Fire Lords and it has known horrible, corrupt Fire Lords, too. Either way, it is not without its dangers,” Mura says wisely. “Do you want my advice?”
“Not particularly,” Mai replies, but she knows her aunt is going to tell her anyway.
Mura sets down the watering can and looks Mai in the eye.
“Don’t wind up in the crossfire.”
That night she dreams of babies getting picked off by Yuyan Archers.
One… by… one.
Mai’s not one to believe in the prophetic nature of dreams, but it is a strange coincidence that the next morning she catches her brother heedlessly playing with her knives.
“What are you doing?”
She grabs his wrist and wrangles the shuriken from his hands. She checks him for any nicks and cuts. The poor boy has survived a kidnapping and a hostage situation so the last thing she wants is for him to bleed out.
“I’m sorry!” he sobs. “I’m really sorry, Mai-Mai!”
“These aren’t toys, Dum-Dum,” she reprimands him, using her nickname for him when he’s being particularly stupid. One she picked up from… someone else. “You could’ve hurt yourself!”
“Oh, he’s fine,” Michi tells her from where she sips her tea at the breakfast table.
No thanks to you.
“Don’t touch my stuff,” Mai warns her brother.
“He said he was sorry, Mai.”
“Sorry he was caught,” Mai replies. “Maybe if you actually paid any attention to him, he wouldn’t go to such desperate lengths to be –”
Children should be seen and not heard.
“Never mind,” Mai says, shaking her head.
It doesn’t matter. Her mother doesn’t care what she has to say. Especially not when it comes to parenting. And while Mai’s glad that Tom-Tom is a lot more free-spirited than she was ever allowed to be, he still needs some boundaries.
It reminds her of the time she, Zuko, Azula, and Ty Lee all sat around the bonfire on the beach and bared their souls.
You want a teary confession about how hard my childhood was? Well, it wasn’t. I was a rich only child who got anything I wanted as long as I behaved… and sat still… and didn’t speak unless spoken to. My mother said I had to keep out of trouble. We had my dad’s political career to think about.
Looking back, maybe her childhood was harder than she thought. Yet another reason not to look back. And to keep pushing forward.
No matter what.
“You’re so dramatic,” her mother scoffs, as though Mai is prone to outbursts instead of holding back from saying whatever comes to mind. “That’s just what little boys do. They snoop through their sister’s things. They make messes. They get into trouble.”
You had a controlling mother who had certain expectations and if you strayed from them you were shut down. That’s why you’re afraid to care about anything and why you can’t express yourself.
“I’m going back to bed,” she tells Michi, because she just wants to be left alone, and her mother doesn’t understand that.
She doesn’t understand anything about Mai.
Not that she’s ever tried.
The house Mai grew up in is covered in some invasive plant species.
So much so that it hardly looks like a house anymore, and more like a gigantic green blob placed randomly in the middle of Capital City. It all started with a cutting Michi brought from the Earth Kingdom that she swore looked so elegant.
And now it’s swallowed an entire mansion whole.
Not that Mai ever liked this house anyway, but it does kind of ruin Azula’s idea to make it into a museum about how desperate Mai is or whatever. The memory makes Mai smile now, barely, but that has more to do with the fact that she foiled one of Azula’s plans.
And not about how she misses her.
Because she doesn’t.
“I like it better this way,” Ty Lee says brightly.
She’s on her break and met Mai here for a quick apology. They always apologize after they fight. Usually with long hugs, friendship proclamations, and lots of hair sniffing.
On Ty Lee’s part, anyway.
“It has a certain charm,” Mai retorts, prying the Kyoshi Warrior off of her.
It’s funny.
There were so many evenings when her parents left her here while they were campaigning or socializing or both. Evenings she spent alone in the library. Or playing with dolls alone. Or wishing her friends would show up at her door so she wouldn’t have to be… alone.
And now these clumps of ugly weeds make the place livelier than it ever was.
“Zuko thinks it’s an eye sore,” Ty Lee adds. “I guess he would know.”
“Hilarious,” Mai says dryly.
“Oh my gosh! I didn’t mean it like that, I swear, Mai. I just meant that he’s in charge of beautification now,” Ty Lee swears. “Well, normally that’s the Fire Ladies’ job, but…”
“But what? You think I should marry him just so I can spend the rest of my life making things pretty?”
“That’s not what I’m saying at all!” Ty Lee argues.
“I’m kidding,” Mai deadpans, since she’d rather not pick a fight with Ty Lee after they just made up.
Lest she be hugged again.
“I totally knew that. Your aura was this mischievous melon color. Very you,” a relieved Ty Lee giggles, standing up. “I have to get back to my post now. Suki says I can’t just wander the palace grounds looking for ghosts anymore. Who knew that stations meant you had to stay in one spot?”
“Everyone,” Mai says, but Ty Lee flits off anyway, undisturbed.
“See you later!” she calls over her shoulder, leaving Mai to stare at her mother’s idea of landscaping by herself. “Oh and try not to be too anxious about how well things are going in your life!”
Yeah, Mai thinks, I’ll try not to.
Zuko is a romantic.
Even if his idea of a date is a candlelit picnic in the gallery. While pictures of former Fire Lords loom over them. It’s not exactly the ambiance Mai expected, but at least he tried.
Mai has to give him credit for that.
“It’s like they’re staring at me,” she observes with a shiver. “Following my every move.”
Zuko gazes at the rich tapestries that tell the history of their Nation. Their triumphs. Their defeats. All woven into the fabric in rich reds and goldest golds.
“I know what you mean,” he admits, and it’s no secret he’s plagued by his father’s actions. And his grandfather’s. And his great-grandfather’s. “One day I’ll be up there.”
Alongside them.
“Every Fire Lord leaves a legacy,” Mai says, thinking back to the conversation she had with her Auntie Mura. “What kind of legacy… that’s up to you.”
“I want to be better than all of them.”
“You will be,” she assures him gently.
He may not possess the ruthlessness of his predecessors, or build machines created for destruction, or ever harness the raw power of Sozin’s Comet ever again, but he has something the rest of them lack:
Compassion.
He turns away from her in shame. “What if I’m not?”
“Don’t doubt yourself now, Zuko. Look at what you’ve already accomplished just by ending the war,” she says.
“I feel like I’m letting everyone down. I can’t – I can’t do everything by myself. Aang and Katara and Sokka and Suki are great, amazing really, but even they can’t help me with some stuff. And my uncle is in Ba Sing Se working at his tea shop–”
“You’re stretched too thin,” Mai summarizes.
She can empathize, but the weight of the world is on his shoulders.
“I thought I was ready for this responsibility, but now I’m realizing I had no idea what being Fire Lord entailed,” he says. “Yesterday I had to decide which ceremonial robes to wear and it nearly killed me. It was such a simple decision and I sat there, looking at the two of them, for what felt like hours. It made me so angry!”
Irrational anger.
That’s a sign of the old Zuko. It’s something that he’s worked so hard to avoid. The outbursts. The fits. The needless display of male aggression.
Mai cups his cheek. “Hire a stylist and learn to delegate. Let them decide for you.”
“I-I, uh, I fired mine,” he says sheepishly. “I didn’t think I needed any help picking out my clothes. I’m a grown man!”
Mai rolls her eyes. “Clearly you do. It’s not a bad thing having people make decisions for you. When it comes to those types of decisions, anyway. Seriously, Zuko, if you spend all your time wrapped up in these inconsequential things, the rest of the Fire Nation will surely suffer for it.”
“I know! I just don’t know where to start.”
“It’s okay,” she assures him, comforting him as he clings to her. “How about we take a trip? Just you and me. Leave Aang in charge for a while.”
What could go wrong leaving a peace-loving airbender in charge of a bloodthirsty country still licking its wounds?
It’ll be fine… probably.
“It’s funny. I know just the place. You’ll love it,” he tells her.
“I love you,” she says sincerely, gazing deeply into his eyes.
She could get lost in those eyes.
And despite all their ups and downs, there is a certain comfort in being here. With Zuko. On the floor of the palace where they played as children. Where they stole kisses from each other as teens. Where they fell in love a second time as adults.
If they ever truly fell out of love to begin with.
“The floor is cold,” she continues. “Maybe we should retire… to your bedchamber.”
“Really?” he asks, trying to contain his excitement, but he is way too dorky to ever pull it off.
Mai smiles. “It’s about time you deflowered me, my lord.”
“Only if you’re ready,” he replies.
For this?
Yes.
A thousand times yes.
For marriage?
To be determined.
When she wakes, nestled in his arms, she can’t remember ever feeling more at peace.
Her first time had been gentle, and awkward, and everything she’d wanted. The intimacy was welcome, despite being the thing that had held her back for so long. But she wasn’t afraid because she knew it was with the right person at the right time in their lives.
And how magnificent was he?
He’d trembled at first, nervously, but gained confidence with each touch. And she enjoyed watching him take his time, exploring her body, discovering what she liked and what she really liked.
Although to be honest there wasn’t anything she didn’t like about it.
But her favorite part?
“Good morning,” he murmurs, and she responds with a kiss. “No regrets, huh?”
“None,” she tells him, because she understands now why so many stories revolve around it. Why everyone is so eager to try it. Why Ty Lee can’t go without it.
He yawns. “Not even wishing we’d tried it sooner?”
She punches him in the arm for that one and he just laughs, flipping her onto her back and staring down at her.
“What?” she asks, feeling suddenly self-conscious underneath him.
“You’re so beautiful.”
She blushes. She hadn’t anticipated a compliment. She leans forward to give him another kiss, and then another, until he’s breathless and… ready.
It’s a perfect moment until it’s ruined by a knock on the door.
“I beg your pardon, Fire Lord Zuko, but I have an urgent message for you.”
“I’m busy,” he calls, still hovering over Mai, panting in her ear, undeterred by whoever is outside.
“I’m afraid I must stress just how urgent this matter is,” the messenger says, his voice muffled. “Please.”
“Maybe you should see what it is,” Mai tells Zuko, who sighs, because he knows that his duty to his nation comes first.
Even if it means he can’t.
“Slide it under the door,” Zuko commands, sighing before rolling off the bed and throwing his robe on. He walks over to the slip of parchment and picks it up before reading it to himself. A troubled expression follows. “No… it can’t be. There’s no way!”
All sorts of options flash through Mai’s mind. Disease. Famine. Another kidnapping.
Another war.
Did someone declare war on the Fire Nation? After all the hard work Zuko has done to rehabilitate its image? After all of the progress he and his friends have made?
It couldn’t be…
“What is it?” Mai asks. “Zuko, what does it say?”
Zuko’s face is grim when he turns to her and there’s a sinking feeling in the pit of Mai’s stomach.
“To the Fire Lord regarding his sister,” he reads aloud. “We have confirmed multiple reports of a sighting…”
Mai gasps.
It’s worse than she feared.
Azula is back.
TO BE CONTINUED.