Dream ♣ oo2
It's an endless plane of black, marred by a door, oddly standing there. Standing in front of it is a boy, a scar over one eye--some might recognize him as Zuko. Slowly, he opens the door, revealing nothing but white, contrasting against the blackness.
"Leaving?" He whirls around at the voice, only to see Mai. Her face is as passive as usual, but the perceptive might note the way her fingers are tight, with her arms crossed over her chest. Zuko relaxes, but isn't quite meeting her eye.
"Yeah," he says. "... Sorry."
Mai can still remember the sting when she read his letter, can still remember how hurt she was by his betrayal. The same feelings are resurfacing, but she pushes them back down. She's done with being angry--and a part of her thinks she should've been a long time ago, so that their time together in this world wouldn't have been just full of anger. Even so, she can't let him off too easy.
"And here I thought you'd learned your lesson about not saying goodbye in person," she replies, a touch of bitterness in her tone. Not nearly as spiteful as it was back at the Boiling Rock, though. Zuko looks away for a moment, before returning his attention to her.
"It's not like I had a choice." And this, Mai knows. For a while, she's silent, not knowing what to say anymore. He's leaving her again, taking away one of the few things that mean anything to her. And, in a way, she hates him for doing this to her--yet not as much as she loves him.
"Try not to get killed by Azula," she says nonchalantly. He's strong, she knows, but Azula's still stronger. She doesn't want this to be the last time they ever speak, so he has to live. Live, so that she can see him again when she returns home as well, as sappy as it might sound. Vaguely, Mai wonders if Ty Lee is rubbing off onto her, or if he honestly affects her that much. It doesn't take her long to decide it's the latter.
"I won't," he answers. Mai knows better than to take his word for anything, but it's enough for her. He turns around again, about to step through the door. A second passes, before Mai speaks. Not stalling, because she knows she can't drag this on, but she just needs to say one thing--something she never had the chance to tell him.
"By the way..." He faces her once more. A small smile breaks out on her face, the kind she reserves only for him.
"... I forgive you."
He smiles back, and then he's gone.
---
[Mai's not one to read much into dreams, but upon waking up, there's one thing she needs to check. Running through the contact list, she doesn't miss the fact that Zuko's name is no longer there. She stares at it for a few moments, her expression unreadable, before she calmly places the Dreamberry down.
It hurts.]