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Mai shuddered at the loud clang of the cell door next to hers. The inmates were being shut in their cells after their hour outdoors, and the guards made sure never to complete the process quietly. She tugged at the rough and itchy tunic she wore, flopping down aimlessly on the pallet that leaked straw in the corner. Tapping her fingernail on the wall, she stared into the blackness of the ceiling and wondered how many days she had been in this dump of a prison. She had counted up to twenty days, but somewhere around twenty-three she grew bored of keeping track. If she was going to spend the rest of her life here, knowing exactly how slowly the rest of her life was proceeding wouldn’t make it more bearable. Having her uncle as the warden had eased her time somewhat, sparing her and Ty Lee any extra abuse that they might otherwise have suffered from guards or fellow prisoners, but that didn’t make it any more interesting to live the same routine every day without variation. She almost wished she would get threatened by someone- at least she’d have the chance to get into a fight. It might be fun.
There was a strange stomping from the end of the hall, as if a group was approaching from the direction of the gondolas. The footsteps were unfamiliar, and no one ever came through this cell block at this time save for a lone patrol. Had her uncle’s protection worn off?
She didn’t move, despite her distant curiosity. Folding her hands over her stomach, she closed her eyes and waited. Muffled voices came from outside her cell, and then stopped by the door. One of the voices was lower and huskier than the others. She tensed.
Of all the people she expected to hear, he wasn’t one. She didn’t know anything of what had happened since Azula left them here- had he lost and been brought back here to rot with her? Why was he near her cell? Surely they wouldn’t put them together, not even the incompetent guards in this place were that stupid.
The door opened, and her ex-boyfriend’s shadow fell across her. She cracked an eyelid open, and watched him rush to her side and actually fall to his knees in front of her. At his sudden movement, she sat up, eyeing him.
His cursed eyes were open wide in a familiar kicked-puppy expression that she knew from experience to be entirely genuine. He stared at her openly, a soft smile forming on his lips.
“Mai,” he breathed. “You’re ok.”
Despite her desire to be aloof, she caught herself scanning him for injuries. He was stiff, but hiding it well - to everyone else. She knew him. He’d suffered some kind of blow to his ribs, she guessed. He’d be fine.
“You’re ok too,” she observed flatly. He nodded, awkward.
“I’m going to be Fire Lord,” he explained, which of course clarified absolutely nothing and only left her with more questions.
“You’re still the jerk who dumped me,” she replied, not really answering him. She was in prison. She figured she was entitled to non sequiturs.
“Yes,” he agreed. He had the decency to look apologetic. More than apologetic - almost devastated. Leave it to him to be so earnest. “Mai, I never meant to hurt you. I never expected that you’d- that you’d sacrifice so much for me. I didn’t want to drag you into it at all, but I realize I was wrong to leave you behind, and-”
“Yeah, you were. Idiot.” She appraised him, hoping that it was the light from outside the cell that made his eyes shine like that. She didn’t know if she could handle crying at the moment. Besides, it was her rescue (she assumed) so what did he have to cry over? “So you saved the country, or whatever it was you were trying to do?”
He nodded, serious. “My father and Azula are alive, but imprisoned. It’s not the way I would prefer it, but our people are safer now. Don’t you see, Mai? My father would have destroyed the whole world if he could. Azula would have too. All I want is to bring peace, if I can.”
Mai considered this. “I didn’t see what you meant before. But that was before I told Azula that I loved you.”
His wet eyes boggled satisfyingly. “You told her what?”
Mai’s brittle lips turned upward. “I told her that I loved you more than I feared her. The weirdest part was, it was true.”
He took a breath, looking deep into her eyes. Pride drove her not to break his gaze.
“And is it still?”
“Still what?” she asked to be difficult. She wanted to make him say it. She deserved that much, at least.
“True that you- love me.”
“That depends,” she answered, looking meaningfully around their surroundings. He followed her glance,
and then shook himself.
“Right. Well. There’s really only one way to ask you that question, I suppose.”
The absolute idiot was not going to do what she thought he was, was he?
He backed up, lifting himself to a regal pose on one knee. He offered her a hand.
“Lady Mai. Will you rule with me? And be my- my wife, I guess?”
She narrowly avoided laughing. “You guess?”
He visibly panicked. “No, I mean, no! I know, I mean. But I don’t know! You haven’t told me yet, but that’s not-“
She leaned forward, hands on both his cheeks, scarred and smooth. He stopped short at her devious smile. As soon as he stopped talking, she kissed him decisively.
Slowly, surely. He relaxed in her touch, and she broke the kiss to smile wider as she leaned back.
“Does this mean you don’t hate me?” he asked, still grinning.
She was grateful for the dim light that hid the blood rushing to her cheeks as she answered. “I think it means,” she answered slowly, “I actually kind of like you.”
She kissed him again, more softly, and then pulled back sharply. “But don’t ever break up with me again,” she warned, poking him in the chest.
He stood up, and offered her a hand.
“Is that a yes, Lady Mai?”
Cheeky. She accepted the hand and stood, wiping straw from her uniform. She’d be glad to get into some better clothes, she noted idly, before realizing that Zuko still looked expectant.
“Yes.” It was matter-of-fact, calm, and a far cry from the tearful acceptances in the plays Mai and Zuko both knew well from childhood. She didn’t faint, or sob, or sniffle with gratitude. Mai had never been interested in fulfilling romantic stereotypes.
In this prison cell, dressed in a scratchy red uniform, hair frizzed and boyfriend fresh from a war, this was hardly the dashing and sophisticated moment her parents had always envisioned for her when she made her match. For a strange second, she almost felt regret.
Then, Zuko’s eyes shone wet all over again, and he put a hand to her cheek, and he looked at her like she was the most important thing in his world.
He was the only one who looked at her like that.
“Let’s go home,” he whispered.
---
“I guess we’re kind of made for each other now,” she observed on the boat back home.
“Oh?” he asked, distracted by the way her hair curled around his finger. He’d been playing with it for a quarter of an hour, and she obligingly let him. She snuggled back against his warm chest, stretching her
legs on the couch they both occupied.
“Yeah. Now we’re both traitors.”
She felt him stiffen a little, but he relaxed just as quickly. Progress.
“I never thought I’d be able to go back. Last time I did, I hated it,” he said quietly.
She sat up, hair pulling free of his grip. “Hey. We were dating then, it wasn’t all so bad.”
“No! Not that part,” he exclaimed, voice getting softer the way it always did when he talked about her.
“That part kept me sane. I mean with Father. And Azula. It wasn’t what I expected. I had to leave again, I think. Leaving you behind was one of the hardest things I’d ever done.”
At least he was honest. She respected that. And since they’d spoken more, she’d come to understand his decision to leave the Fire Nation behind and help the Avatar.
He was still a jerk, though. Her jerk.
“I was really mad that you left, and more mad that I had to find out by letter,” she started, and he looked like he was about to launch into heartfelt apologies again. She held up a hand.
“But you know what hurt the most? The fact that you hadn’t explained to me how you really felt until we were at the Boiling Rock. Maybe I didn’t understand why you felt that way about home, but I meant what I said to Azula. I love you more than I fear her, or your father. Maybe that’s dumb. But I want to help you, and I trust you to know what’s right.”
She rarely spoke so many words together, and she could see him slowly taking in each one.
“Do you ever think about the world Tom-Tom is going to grow up in?” he asked softly.
She was surprised, but she listened.
“I was fighting because of kids like him. Kids like me, and you, and Azula and Ty Lee too. We were all so hurt by the Fire Nation- by Father’s hate and power. I know what that did to all of us. I don’t want your brother to have to grow up in a world like that.”
She swallowed. Her parents hadn’t written her while she was in prison. She wondered how her brother was, alone with them. She knew what it was like.
“Mai, you still have a chance with your parents. I don’t with mine. And Sokka and Katara, they lost their mom. Aang lost everyone. We’re all hurt because of the war. But now that it’s over, we have a chance.”
She nodded slowly, thoughtfully. She’d never thought to consider if what her tutors said about the Fire Nation’s glory was true, but her time in prison had been revealing. Some of her fellow prisoners were criminals, but many were honest people from other nations who had simply tried to fight back. The revelation had stung, but she’d never liked those tutors anyway.
“I think,” she answered carefully, “you’re right. Azula was my friend, and she was the model of everything we were supposed to stand for.”
He nodded, sorrowful.
“But it broke her, eventually. I want more than that.”
He nodded again.
“I’d like to invite your family to the palace. If you’re going to be my wife, they should come anyway. Talk to them.”
She grimaced. “You sounds like your uncle. Since when do you care about parents?”
“Since I lost the luxury of caring about my own,” he answered seriously. She didn’t respond, but settled down against him once more, his fingers weaving in her hair again.
“I never hated you, you know,” she murmured.
“I know.”
Lying there, listening to his steady breathing and savoring the feeling of his hands on her scalp, she fell asleep.
At least, she thought when she woke up, he was more comfortable than a straw mattress.