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‘Please explain to me why we’re going to Lush, Sokka’, Zuko said, exasperatedly.
‘Because there’s a very cute girl that always flirts with me there’, Sokka said, dragging Zuko along by his wrist.
‘I’m fully aware why you want to go to Lush, Sokka. I want to know why you felt the need to drag me along to your hopeless pining.’
‘Hey, it’s not hopeless. Suki and I have a very special bond!’
‘…sure you do’, Zuko answered, rolling his eyes for show.
‘Listen, one of us has to be the flirty bi. We can’t all be the repressed emo pan’, Sokka said, grinning at his friend.
Zuko rolled his eyes but he let himself be dragged through the shopping mall by his friend.
‘Couldn’t Aang have come with you? You know he’s a better wing man than I am, I’ll just stand around awkwardly.’
‘You’ll be fine. Besides, Aang and Katara have a date night planned tonight, so Aang’s out to get some groceries.’
Zuko raised an eyebrow at that and smiled.
‘So, you’re trying to run away from your own perpetual singleness by flirting with the cute Lush employee?’
‘Shut up, Zuko’, Sokka grumbled, letting go of his wrist to smack Zuko’s arm lightly. Zuko snickered as the two made their way towards the part of the mall that always smelled like a bath bomb had literally exploded. Sokka slowed down a bit, ruffling through his wolf tail a bit, trying to seem presentable and suave as Zuko rolled his eyes good-naturedly behind him.
‘Stop fussing. You look good. Now go talk to the cute soap girl.’
Sokka shot Zuko a wide smile and walked into the shop, immediately zeroing in on the girl with the brown bob who was smirking as soon as she saw Sokka. Maybe, Zuko thought, they did actually have a special bond. Good for them. Zuko followed Sokka awkwardly, trailing behind and pretending to look at the tiny yellow teddy bears that were stacked next to an array of brightly coloured hair conditioner bottles.
‘Can I help you?’, an even, slightly bored voice asked, shaking Zuko out of his bear inspection. He turned around and his higher brain functions must have shut off because the only thing he could think was wow.
The girl who’d talked to him was absolutely beautiful. She had jet-black hair tied up into two buns, her bangs falling artfully into her face. Her eyes were dark brown and warm, framed with eyeliner so straight that Zuko wanted to drop to his knees to ask this beautiful woman how on earth she managed it. She was wearing a simple black turtleneck and a black apron with the lush logo in front. She was looking at him with one eyebrow slightly raised as she noticed him staring at her. Delayed, he realised that she’d asked him a question.
‘Oh! Right, sorry, uhh, I was just looking at these’, Zuko said, panicking because pretty girl and he pointed at the array of yellow bears.
‘Oh, right. Are you just looking for bear-shaped things, or?’, the girl asked, slightly amused.
‘Oh, uhhh… I mean if you have more bears of soap, then sure, show me!’, Zuko said, trying his best not to grimace at his terrible joke. He only dared one glance at the pretty woman in front of him and saw her face shift as she bit her lip to hide a smile. Zuko’s heart did a tiny flip. He really understood what his friend Jin meant when she sent him a random text that only said ✨ women ✨.
‘Do you really want more bear related things or are you just here to distract me so that Sokka can talk to Suki?’, the girl asked, with a faint smile still playing around her lips.
‘You know Sokka?’, Zuko asked, mentally preparing a rant he’d text Sokka at two am about the brocode and how you’re supposed to tell your repressed emo best friend about beautiful goth girls in Lush stores, come on Sokka.
‘A bit. He comes in to talk to Suki a lot. They’ve been dancing around each other for the last few weeks now, it’s honestly getting a bit old.’
Zuko smiled.
‘I know right? I keep telling him to just ask her out but he has yet to do anything about it’, Zuko said, letting his eyes roam over the girl’s face, trying not to be too obvious in his blatant staring. The girl nodded sagely.
‘Suki is the same. It’s so obvious that they like each other, but they’re not doing anything.’
‘Maybe we could topple them over like in those trashy romcoms from America that everyone secretly watches’, Zuko said, chuckling as he threw a glance over to where Sokka was talking to Suki with his one hand twirling a strand that had come loose from his wolf tail.
‘It would be a satisfying end, but I don’t think we have the same luck as those people in the movies’, the girl said, sighing exasperatedly.
‘Anyway, if we must endure this pining until Sokka leaves, I might as well talk to you. I’m Mai by the way.’
Zuko whipped his head back and smiled at Mai shakily.
‘Mai. Hi. I’m uhhh… Zuko. I’m Zuko‘, he stammered, his eyes flitting over her face only to get caught on the earrings Mai was wearing. They were tiny knives enveloped in red flames. Zuko gaped.
‘Did you just forget your own name?’, Mai asked with an eyebrow raised and a smile playing on her lips.
‘What? No. Totally not. Uh… those are some cool earrings you have there!’, Zuko said, wringing his hands. The corner of Mai’s mouth twitched.
‘Thanks. They represent my personality’, she said drily. Zuko snorted.
‘Well in that case, cool personality, I guess’, he said. ‘Or hot, I guess.’
Mai raised both of her eyebrows. Zuko froze as he realised what he’d just said.
‘Oh, shit, sorry, I didn’t mean to- I mean I’m not saying you’re not but I also don’t want to be one of those creepy costumers who hits on the workers… I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking but I shouldn’t have said that’, he rambled, opening his mouth to say more but Mai put a hand up with a strange expression on her face. There was a bit of red high on her cheeks.
‘It’s fine, it’s fine. Don’t make a big deal out of it.’
‘I really am sorry, that was… overstepping some boundaries’, Zuko said, his face burning in embarrassment.
Mai rolled her eyes but there was a small smile on her lips.
‘It’s really fine… I don’t- I don’t mind if you tell me I’m pretty. It’s not every day I hear that’, she said, her voice trailing off and the blush intensifying. Zuko felt his heart race.
‘That’s bullshit, people should tell you that every day!’, he said, suddenly agitated. Mai spluttered.
‘That’s a bit-‘
‘You are very pretty though’, Zuko said, trying his best to ignore the voice in his head that was screaming at him to stop being so fucking weird already.
‘I guess you’re not too bad either’, Mai said, rolling her eyes. Zuko’s heart did another little flip. ‘Anyways, now that we’ve established, we’re both cute, do you want to try out your bears of soap?’
Zuko blinked at her for a short while until Mai grabbed a small bear and held it in front of his face.
‘O-h! Right. We’re in a Lush’, Zuko said dumbly. ‘Sure.’
Mai chuckled under her breath and motioned for him to follow her towards a metal bowl filled with clear water.
‘Alright this is hand soap with a specific moisturizing agent, so if you have very dry skin this is perfect for you. It has a very nice citrus smell.’
Zuko stared at her in disbelief.
‘The bears of soap smell like lemon?’, he asked, incredulously.
‘Yes’, Mai answered.
‘Bears. Smell like. Lemon’, Zuko repeated.
‘Yes. They do.’
‘Not you know… honey or something?’
Mai rolled her eyes.
‘This place is weird’, Zuko mumbled. This earned him a short snort from Mai who was holding out her hand.
‘If give me your hand I can show you how the soap feels’, she said and suddenly all of Zuko’s thoughts about bears and lemon and honey was gone because Mai was cradling his hand softly, washing it carefully with the lemon bear and Zuko had to stop himself from doing something embarrassing like crumpling to the floor in a heap because one of the prettiest girls he’d ever seen was washing his hand.
‘How does it feel?’, Mai asked and Zuko thought for a second that she was some sort of mind reader and had heard him have an internal meltdown because of his own touchstarvedness, when he realised she meant the soap.
‘Oh… feels nice’, he said, his voice even raspier than usual. Mai smiled at him lightly. Zuko couldn’t help but smile back.
‘I’m glad’, she whispered, her eyes catching his. They were still holding hands in the washing basin, looking into each other’s eyes when someone suddenly clapped Zuko on the back.
Zuko jerked violently, splashing some water on himself and on Mai’s apron, letting go of her hand reluctantly to face the person who had dared to interrupt the two of them.
‘Sokka’, Zuko said when he saw his best friend standing behind him.
‘Zuko, we gotta go’, he said, cheerfully, like he hadn’t just stopped Zuko from holding hands with Mai. ‘We still have to pick up those books and Toph from training.’
Sokka was right, of course. That didn’t mean Zuko had to like it.
‘…fine’, he said reluctantly, shooting Mai an apologetic look over his shoulder. ‘Bye, then’.
‘Hold on a second’, Mai asked, as Sokka had already steered Zuko towards the exit. Zuko turned around, looking at her questioningly. Mai hurried behind the counter with something in her hand, fussed with some brown paper bag, finished and walked to Zuko, pressing a small brown package into his hands.
‘Just take the bear. It’s a sample’, she said, her eyes catching his for a second until she turned back around to walk into the shop. Sokka chuckled as Zuko stared at her retreating back, stunned.
‘Let’s go’, he said, when Zuko didn’t seem to want to move, and his best friend dragged him out of the shop and away from the prettiest woman Zuko had ever seen in his entire life.
A few hours later after the two of them had picked up Sokka’s engineering books as well as Toph and Zuko had reprimanded Sokka for breaking the brocode, Zuko finally sat down to open the small bag.
Inside, he found a small, lemony-scented bear and a note. It was a phone number, written in a neat handwriting. Mai had signed her name and Zuko’s heart soared. He scrambled for his phone, quickly saving the number and before his courage could abandon him, he typed out his first message.
To: Mai, 18:45: Thank you beary much for the soap! Zuko
Giddily, he stared at his phone. Mai seemed to come online, and the three dots appeared as she seemed to be typing a response. Zuko closed his eyes, trying his best to remain calm when his phone pinged with a new message.
From: Mai, 18:46: thank me by never saying beary again.
From: Mai, 18:47: if you promise you wont make bear puns, we could grab some coffee sometime this week?
Zuko screamed into his pillow. Maybe getting dragged along to Sokka’s hopeless pining was the best thing that he’d ever done.