Work Text:
Zuko finally found Mai in the Palace kitchen, deep down in the bowels of the palace. She was sitting with the solemn expression on a bench by the wide table, with a giant plate filled with tiny cakes and pastries in from of her.
The cook named Sonam, a large woman, was watching with a satisfied expression as tiny cakes and pastries were disappearing from Mai’s plate.
“Hei! Everyone is looking for you!”
“I know. Azula plays hide and seek with me and Ty Lee, and now it was her turn to seek.”
Zuko turned the new information in his head. “Azula told me that you got lost, and she was worried about you, and your mother will come soon to pick you up...”
“And she did she sent you here?”
“Well, yes. And Ty Lee went to check the balcony by the central spire.” Two of Mai’s favorite places in the palace. Azula’s plan immediately became clear to him. “If she knew you are here, why wouldn’t she come find you herself?”
“Can you imagine Azula in the kitchen?”
No, he could not. “Good point,” Zuko conceded. “So your plan was to go where you Azula won’t follow and just wait? What kind of stupid game it is?”
“It the kind of game Azula wants to play.” Mai shrugged and ate another cake.
“But you don’t have to play her stupid games! You are smarter than this!”
Mai turned and looked him straight in the face. “May be you don’t have to play her games. But I – do. I am her friend, after all.”
“Is it what being friends means? It sounds wrong.”
“It is what being friends with Azula means.”
“But Azula is not your only friend. Ty Lee is you friend, too.”
“Yes.” It was a very quiet yes. “But we don’t play with Ty Lee. We just are.”
“And I am your friend, too.”
“Yes.” She looked at him then turned back to her cakes. “But when Azula starts a game, everyone has to play it. Even you.”
He huffed in annoyance. She was right. And she also wasn’t. Why did they all play Azula’s games? He was her older brother, after all. But he immediately ran when she told him to… only to find Mai perfectly at ease with the cook and the cakes.
“Why are you eating all these cakes, anyway?”
“Huh? They are samples for your birthday party. There are going to be thirteen different types of cakes, for the number of your years, but Sonam made more to choose which cakes make a better, more harmonious combination. They are all delicious.”
“Hm. It’s my birthday, but you are eating cakes…” He sounded petulant, and he knew it, and he knew Mai could hear it, too.
Mai didn’t react to it though. “I was here at that right moment, that’s it. Come, sit here and have some cakes, too.”
Zuko briefly considered all possible replies, but to refuse eating cakes with Mai would have been stupid, so he immediately dropped on the bench near Mai and plopped the offered cake in his mouth. It was amazing. Just right amount of juicy and sour not to overwhelm his mouth with sweetness. He wondered if he would be actually able to eat it at his birthday. The celebratory feast was more of a state affair, with him as the pretext, but may be now, as he would be thirteen he would be able to participate in the state affairs more, including feasts… He looked up to congratulate the cook on her skills, but she was away now, doing something or other, maybe more cakes. Mai was close by though, so he turned to her.
“It was very good.”
Mai nodded, her mouth full, and pointed at another cake. Zuko didn’t wait and sent it to his mouth, then the third one. They were sitting side by side too busy to say anything, perfectly comfortable in companionable silence punctuated by sounds of chewing. Eventually Zuko became aware just how close they were sitting to each other – his arm rubbing Mai’s arm, their knees touching. Zuko became worried, but Mai – she couldn’t possibly not to notice, right? - Mai didn’t remark upon it as if it was a perfectly natural way for them to sit. So Zuko didn’t say anything either, and didn’t move away. It was nice, sitting together with his best friend. Zuko felt comfortable and warm inside. He didn’t even want more cakes, just to keep sitting close to Mai.
He glanced askew at her – he could see hair in a bun tied with bright red ribbon and a round cheek. Usually pale, the cheek now looked pink, probably from the kitchen heat, and Zuko desperately wanted to feel it. So he moved a little bit closer, so his own cheek, as if by accident, could touch it. However something happened in the execution, he turned awkwardly, or Mai turned, and instead of cheeks their lips touched.
Zuko jumped away, as if burned. Maybe he was, he felt his cheek were burning. Embarrassed he glanced at Mai, to see her reaction, and saw her serious eyes on him, without fear or anger. Then she smiled, and Zuko couldn’t help but smiled back. Then she leaned and pressed her lips to his, and Zuko kissed her back. Mai’s lips were sweet and lemony, after the last cake she ate, and soft. They looked at each other again. Zuko didn’t feel burning anymore, just warm and bubbly all over. Mai had a little smile that seemed more pleased than embarrassed. Not that he himself wasn’t pleased – oh, he very much was, but what one does after a kiss? Go back to eating the cake? Talk about it? Pretend everything is normal? What Zuko really wanted was to hug Mai and jump up and down and twirl with her… he shook his head and grabbed a glass with water instead and gulped it.
“That’s not what friends usually do, I think” Mai said in her normal dry voice.
Zuko momentarily felt mortified. Did he misjudged her reaction? “ehhh. I am sorry, Mai”
But she touched his hand and grinned. “I guess it means we are very special friends, aren’t we?”
He grinned back, with relief and joy. “Yes, yes we are!”
After that they both got kind of awkward. Zuko desperately tried to find something else to talk about. Something safe. He looked around. “So, are you coming here often, to the kitchen?”
“Sometimes. I like to watch Sonam work with her knives. They are so huge! But she uses them as if they are a part of her, it’s amazing.”
Zuko looked as the cook was cutting some meat with a giant knife that was more like a really broad sword in its size. The knife flew and struck with precision. It was mesmerizing to watch, he agreed. “Have you tried to throw it yourself?”
“What are you talking about? She couldn't possibly allow me to touch her knife!”
“You can touch mine, if you want.”
She looked at him with doubt. “It’s tiny and not very well balanced. But thanks.” Then turned back to watch the cook.
“I like watching you throw the knives,” Zuko said, desperate to keep the conversation going.
Mai actually beamed at him. “Thank you! I like watching you train with the dao swords. Looks cool. We have weapon practice at school, but a sword feels so awkward to hold and strike, I never know what to do with my hands.”
“I can practice with you, if you want. Maybe two swords would work better for you. They help me with the balance and the fire bending.”
“I’d like that.”
“I’d like that too.” Then, suddenly, as the weapons training theme was done for one, he asked, “Can you cook?”
Mai made a face. “Of course not. I mean, a little. Some old family desert recipes from my mother and grandmother they think a lady should know. And we have a survival course at school, where we learned how to start a fire and roast an animal and not to starve...”
“How do you make a fire?” He had never thought about – what do people do when they are not firebenders?
“There are little things, I strike them and there is a small flame… it’s really quite easy. Not that you ever need it, with your bending.”
“If you can have any bending what would you pick?”
“Waterbending.”
“Why?” He was momentarily upset for his fire – how can one not choose it? And Waterbending? Mai was so unlike those old severe warriors in their ice strongholds.
“I could make a lot of ice, which would be really handy during summer.” Mai thought a little and giggled. “And I could drop the fountain ON you!”
“Would you drop it already! I wanted to help!”
Mai rolled her eyes. “Wasn’t very helpful.”
“Whatever.”
They sat in silence, rather less companionable, and more annoyed. Cakes forgotten, knives lost their appeal. Zuko wondered whether he could put his arm around Mai’s shoulders and whether that would help or not. Then Mai patted him on the back. “I am not really mad. Or something.”
Then with a burst of bright pink and loud noise Ty Lee happened. “I found you! Have you been here all the time? Oooh, cakes!”
“Come, sit with us, here are your cakes.” Mai pushed the plate with the rest of the sweets to her other side, where Ty Lee immediately seated herself.
“Oh! Nice ones!”
With the start Zuko realized that the brightest decorated and sweetest cakes that were left were not the ones Mai disliked, but the ones she thought Ty Lee would have liked, and so she left them deliberately for her.
“Did you knew Ty Lee would come here?” He asked Mai.
Both girls turned and looked at him as if he was an idiot. Zuko shrugged. “Just asking.” He kind liked just the two of them together, talking and everything. But of course, Azula was still out there, playing her games.
Ty Lee happily ate her portion of the cakes without stopping her conversation. “What you two were talking about here?”
“Cooking and bending?”
“Awesome! What about bending?”
“What bending would you have chosen if you could?” Zuko asked Ty Lee.
Ty Lee grew serious and thoughtful. “You know, I always wonder, what air bending looked like… Pity that all Air nomads died, and we won’t ever see it again. I sometimes imagine, when I am jumping, that I can command air to move me… So, yeah. I would totally bend air!” She grinned and moved her hands as if trying to fly. She laughed happily “wouldn’t it be cool if I could just fly away where I wanted?”
Mai smiled. “Flying would be nice.”
Zuko tried to imagine being high in the air, watching everything as the birds do. Why did they have to hunt the dragons out? Imagine getting a dragon for a birthday! “Yeah. Flying is cool.”
He suddenly felt like flying, without dragons or bending. It was so great, sitting here with his friends, Mai and Ty Lee and talk and everything. He was going to be thirteen son, maybe he would get more friends he could talk about all kind of stuff? Would be nice.