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After endless years of sneaky looks, reddened cheeks and ragged excuses stuttered, the two had finally admitted they liked each other. There was not enough time - nor courage - for them to think about love, but there was a feeling. A feeling that made Zuko's heart pound in his chest and the legs of the always stoic Mai turn into pudding.
A frightening feeling, which left them both with the sensation of being on the edge of an abyss, with their feet sliding, their hearts in their mouths.
A bad feeling, which made the boy want to run whenever he saw her, and which made Mai cut off the petals of the countless flowers in her mother's vases.
A good feeling, which instigated Zuko to always be better, to always try harder. Getting up when the big guy on the team pushed him to the ground and studying when he failed. A good feeling, which led Mai to be more understandable, to swallow her pride and realize that perhaps - only perhaps - considering other people's feelings was not so futile.
Seven years later, Azula had given him a ride on her expensive, state-of-the-art motorcycle to the best jewelry store in town, where Zuko had spent all of his savings from his last three months of work at his uncle's tea shop - and Azula's. And Aang's. And Sokka's, and ... well, he would stop there. As a matter of fact, Zuko was perhaps not even the most nervous of them about the engagement. He felt good, incredible, honestly. As he had never felt like before. It had been Katara who had been pacing the apartment he shared with his sister, arranging each piece of furniture in millimeters and making sure that no cupcakes were overcooked and no chocolate not sweet enough. It was Aang and Ty Lee who made sure that everything was an absolute surprise and dragged Mai into the building on some pretext - which the other girl probably didn't believe for a minute.
And it had been Azula, on a cold and silent night, who had found him on the balcony staring at a picture of his girlfriend on the phone screen, and said:
"You should marry her".
Zuko had never thought about it before. They had been together for so long, it all seemed natural. But the thought made butterfly wings flutter in his stomach, and although his knees were shaking, he knew it was the answer.
For what, exactly, he didn't know.
He had what appeared to be a natural ability to hurt himself.
She was not the best of advisers - or listeners - but, somehow, they worked.
They functioned as friends, and then as lovers. They functioned as two people who loved each other (he could say that now) and as two people who wanted, above all, the best for each other.
Because it was love. It was love that drove Zuko in the most random moments, to go to the flower shop across the street and buy a bouquet that he had no idea of the meaning of and give them to the receptionist with a silly smile on his face.
And it was love that led Mai to ignore the complete second-hand embarrassment, accept them, and kiss her silly boyfriend on the lips in front of the other customers.
And later, while Zuko ran his fingertips delicately through Mai's fine, silky strands of hair, watching his girlfriend's face lit only partially by the light coming from the street lamp that passed through the window glass, it was love that made Zuko lose his breath and view it as the most beautiful work of art ever made in history.
It was love that made her chest tremble when he looked at her like that, and it was love that made her kiss him to hide her shyness. And it was love that made her whisper, softly, without even the shadow of aggression and coldness that were so characteristic in her tone of voice:
"Azélias means 'I hope you are financially successful', not something romantic, you idiot".
And he kissed her again because Zuko loved her and Mai liked to be kissed between conversations.
In college, people had a hard time believing that they were a couple. No one doubted Aang and Katara's love. No one questioned the kisses exchanged between Sokka and Suki when they thought no one was watching. No one even suspected the relationship between Azula and Ty Lee - although their personalities were so opposite.
But they doubted them. Zuko was too emotional, Mai was not enough. He was friendly and popular, Mai was closed and reclusive. Zuko was Aang's best friend - the most sociable and dearest boy in college. Mai was Azula's best friend - who, though as popular as she was, was nowhere near as dear (and didn't want to be).
They are only together for convenience, someone wrote on a social network.
I bet Zuko must have already cheated on Mai with half the girls at this college, someone else added, in a graffiti on the wall of a bathroom.
Some of them went so far as to question in person. Azula had almost kicked the teeth off a boy who had pressed Mai at a bar about her relationship with Zuko, but the older one had gotten rid of him alone.
And when Zuko returned with a plate of food and a bottle of expensive beer, he made a point of kissing her.
Except for their eccentric group of friends, everyone insisted that Zuko and Mai were not made for each other. They agreed.
They were not. There was no such thing as soul mates or premeditated love. Love takes time, and effort. They could have ended in the first fight. Or the second, third ... but they were together. And they loved each other.
Zuko and Mai had found each other in an ocean of people, and did not intend to drown again.
When he parked his car in the usual spot, Mai, as always, checked her makeup in the mirror. He decided to be brave and stretched his neck to kiss her on the temple. The wife was not red and ashamed, as she would be, so many years ago. She just rolled her eyes and sealed her lips to his briefly.
The kiss ended a few seconds before the back door was opened. Izumi jumped into the backseat, wrinkled clothes and dirty glasses as usual. She had definitely taken on her father's personality - and the ability to trip over air and get up as if nothing had happened. Bumi, Aang's eldest son, was always saying that Izumi would end up getting hurt for real someday.
But she also had her mother's temper. And like Mai, Izumi didn't give up easily.
"How was school today, dear?" Zuko asked.
They made their way home, with Izumi recounting every detail of her day, while Mai watched her sweetly - and pretended very skillfully that she didn't.
Their love was not perfect, but Zuko and Mai liked that kind of imperfection.