Work Text:
“Mai?”
Zuko whispered into the wind as he watched his reason on the edge of the roof. Her dark hair let down as it swished in almost perfect harmony with the long, light ribbons on her nightgown.
“I’m not going to do it Zuko.” She whispered back.
“I know I talk about it sometimes and I know I joke about it a lot. I’m not going to go. I’m here. Weird enough I am, it’s comforting that I could. The possibility adds meaning, you know, to being here. Still. Maybe I would’ve done it. If I were brave enough. Maybe if I had the right tools or the perfect timing. I almost did, sometime, sort of. Boiling Rock? I wanted to do it that time, for real. But you were there.” Zuko could hear the smile her lips formed, changing her tone slightly. “You were there then too. But when it was either your time or mine, I didn’t think about it. I could’ve left, right there. If it wasn’t for Ty Lee I was gone. I had nothing ahead, you had the whole world to change, to make better. I wanted to allow that for you. That’s so old now but, then you found me. Again and you shared it with me. I broke up with you, I picked someone to make you jealous, I was mad only because you wanted space, but you still trusted me. You asked for me back. I came back. You took me back. I owe it to you to be here. It’s weird being here. After everything, after Azula, the war, all the politics, rumors, attempts on our lives and we’re still here. Still dealing with all of it and it’s so tiring, it’s so doomed it’s so… forever. Sometimes I still doubt if I want to be here, sometimes I still want to go. It’s inescapable, it’s scary. It’s so scary. It’s like the stupid war ended but nobody told me it did and it goes on and on in my head. It’s right there before I sleep, I don’t want to sleep just because I don’t want to see it and I don’t want to wake up because time won’t stop and Agni knows how sharp the sun will sting my eyes tomorrow and I don’t want to wake up the next day but I want to wake up next to you. You dim the brutal candlelight before I sleep and then you’re there when I have to face the sunlight. I can’t leave you. I don’t want to go where you are not. If I leave, and you’re not there I don’t want it and I don’t want you to go. I won’t leave you. I won’t go Zuko. I won’t do it.”
Zuko was right there when she looked behind. His hand reached her. She took it. He slowly walked closer, close enough to hold all of her.
“Me either.” He whispered in the dark of her hair right before he let her body go, leaving only his gentle hand, guiding her back inside.
Neither would go tonight. Not when they had the other.