Story - Secret Origin
Title: Secret Origin
Rating: T
Characters: Zuko, Mai, "Lady Rei!"
Notes: Mai gets Meta about something other than her rival ships and reception with the fandom.
Secret Origin
Fire Lord Zuko liked to think of himself as a pretty worldly guy, but somehow, the world still continued to surprise him.
He had traveled the entire globe, lived on a ship with Navy sailors for three years, worked the Earth Kingdom as a refugee, lived like a peasant in the great city of Ba Sing Se, been in prison for a day, and even joined what was technically a terrorist cult at the time (although whoever decided that Avatar Aang's followers were his "cult" has definitely never met Toph). He had witnessed humanity's heights and depths, and knew the kind of casual evils that lives were built on.
Still, he didn't expect to see a picture of his wife's bare derrière on a display stand in Shu Jing's marketplace during a much-needed vacation.
Zuko had been walking through the open-air marketplace with said wife and their friends Sokka and Suki. Given the nature of their group, they were mainly checking out all the weapon-vendors, but as they passed between stalls Zuko's eye was drawn (perfectly innocently!) to a stand with various drawings on display. They were "picture novels" as the printers liked to call them, although Zuko knew them by the term the Fire Navy's enlisted men preferred: "comic books." And the specific genre of all the comics on display before Zuko had an even more notorious term attached to them: "smut stuff." Hence one of the covers bearing a drawing of his wife in nothing but her chest-wrappings, with her back towards the reader.
And there was no question it was supposed to be Mai. For one thing, the title of the book was, "Lady Mai!" For another, the character wore her hair in the exact Odango style preferred by his wife. And finally, she was holding throwing knives in each of her hands. If there was more than one woman in the Fire Nation who fit those characteristics, Zuko definitely wanted to know about it.
(But not like that.)
Another thing Zuko wanted to do was immediately grab the book and see what slanderous content it was applying to his wife, but at the same time, the idea of being caught with the book in his hands scared him like nothing else. Mai might hear him out, and even believe his perfectly innocent reasons once he finished the inevitable tripping over his own tongue, but he'd never hear the end of it from Sokka and Suki. No, best to act casual for now, ignore the whole stand of smut stuffs, and move on to the next merchant stall.
But tonight, the Blue Spirit might just come back looking for some reading material! (For perfectly innocent reasons.)
The problem was that the Blue Spirit didn't exist anymore.
Zuko and his friends were staying with Sokka's teacher, the Swordmaster Piandao, in his mansion just outside of Shu Jing. That was no problem; Zuko snuck out of his guest bedroom without even waking Mai, and managed to get away from the mansion without seeing so much as the butler, never mind his host or friends. Zuko already had the black clothes (never leave home without them!), but he was fresh out of Blue Spirit masks ever since he tossed the last one into Lake Laogai a few years ago. But Shu Jing was a big trading settlement, so he figured finding the appropriate Opera Mask wouldn't be a big deal.
He hadn't counted on most of the mask shops not being open this late at night. Of the few that were, the mask selection was frankly horrible. Goofy monkeys, parody masks of his own face (for some reason, there was an ancient Fire Nation law protecting works of parody), masks of Aang, and fierce-looking Lionturtles were the order of the night, it seemed. The Lionturtle one wasn't bad, but it turned out to be more expensive than Zuko had cash for, so he wound up with a mask of a painted face he only realized later was supposed to be a classic courtesan from the ancient Fire Nation. (It also looked a lot like Suki's Kyoshi Warrior paint, something that he intended to never bring up. And people wondered why no one ever listened to Avatar Kyoshi in all the stories.)
And so the Courtesan Spirit went out into the night on a mission. (For perfectly innocent reasons.)
The stall with the smutty comic books had been closed up for the night, but the simple lock was no problem for Zuko's dao sabers. The stand with the display of books was within, and the "Lady Mai!" publication was still prominently featured. Zuko grabbed it and stuffed it in his belt, left enough coins to pay for both the book and the lock, and disappeared into the night. Or, at least, he intended to. He only got as far as climbing up to the nearest rooftop when a stiletto knife buried itself in a roofing tile right next to his right foot.
Oh, ashes. He knew that knife.
He couldn't see her features in the tepid moonlight, but a very familiar figure was running across the rooftops for him, complete with flowing robes and Odango hair.
Ashes, ashes, ashes, ashes!
Zuko ran.
Zuko ran like his wife was after him and he had a (technically) stolen book of porn tucked into his belt. Which was all true. (For perfectly innocent reasons.)
Mai flicked her arm forward as she chased him, and a flurry of darts whizzed right by Zuko's head. He only avoided the last one by twitching to the side, but on the slanted roof, that was enough to unbalance him and send him slipping down the tiled surface. Zuko windmilled his arms and twisted his feet just in time to stop himself at the roof's edge, and he just barely managed to keep his balance. The downside to that development was that Mai had taken the time to get up close to him.
The first thing she did was grab for the comic book sticking out of his belt.
Zuko panicked and drew his dao sabers.
He twisted the first blade so that he was only swinging the flat side at his wife, and when she leaned back out of the way, he shoved out with the handle of the other sword in hopes of knocking her off balance. She was ready for that, though, and not only caught the incoming handle on the blade of the knife she held in her hand, but maintained enough balance to kick out at Zuko's knee.
It was only a glancing blow, but Zuko was still standing precariously on the edge of a rooftop, and the force was just enough to topple him out into the air. He twisted as he fell and managed to grab the edge of the next building over, then kicked off the other building and bounced up into a run up the rooftop. Zuko barely got five steps before a very familiar whistling reached his ears, and he quickly threw himself into what probably looked like a series of convulsions that were the only way to avoid the whirling razor disks that were suddenly filling the air around him. Once he got a line on them, he began using his swords to smack them out of the air, but it was really hard to do that while running, and his slowdown allowed Mai to reach him again.
Zuko was ready for knives, for miniature arrows fired from her launchers, for flying razor discs, for stabbing stilettos. What he wasn't ready for was Mai casually grabbing his shoulders and yanking him around her to go sliding down the roof and back into the air between the buildings.
He fell to the ground below with a brief scream.
Fortunately, he had a lot of practice with blunt trauma.
When the dizziness stopped, he found himself lying on his back in a dark ally, with an Odango-haired shadow leaning over him. "Zuko? Is that you?"
Sighing, he lifted the mask from his face.
The shadow shifted, then said, "Aw, I thought I was making my crime-fighting debut. And why are you wearing a mask that looks like Suki?"
"It's a courtesan from the classical era, and it was the only thing I had coins for. I need to get a new Blue Spirit mask. And a bigger coin purse." Zuko got himself to his feet, shifting his perspective so that his wife was no longer backlit by the moon and so revealing her blank features. She looked him over and, apparently satisfied that he was okay, reached over and nabbed the comic book out of his belt. "Hey!"
"Oh, wow, you did steal it," she breathed. "Here I was going to, and you did it for me. That's the last time I just assume you're making a midnight snack run when I wake up alone. Thank you."
Zuko felt a brief pang of guilt upon hearing that Mai noticed his absence from their bed and thought the comic was a gift for her, but it was quickly overcome by a dumbstruck sensation that was all too familiar when dealing with his wife (and other world leaders... and his friends... and Uncle, too, come to think of it). "Wait. you were coming back to steal it?"
Mai nodded in the dark, and although her face retained its usual blankness, Zuko could hear a smirk in her smoky voice. "Of course. A comic book about me? I saw it when we were shopping before, and had to have it. But if I bought it while everyone was around, you probably would have made a scene and Sokka would have been begging to read it. Especially when he saw the cover."
"The cover!" Zuko whipped his mask off so that he could display his full level of outrage. "That's why I was going to steal it! They're making smut stuffs about you, and I had to protect your honor!"
Mai quirked an eyebrow at him. "Zuko, it's just a silly parody. I don't mind."
"Parody," Zuko spat. "That's just a made-up word that people use to do whatever they want."
Mai went still, eyeing him for a moment. Then she burst out in that light laughter she usually hid from the world. As much as he liked the sound of it, being the cause in this instance had Zuko blushing in humiliation. "What's so funny?"
Mai got herself under control, and the smile she turned on him lacked any sharpness. "I suppose a guy like you wouldn't know about it. But I can show you. Come on." She waved him along and walked out of the ally. It was just a short journey down the deserted street, back to the book vendor that had been selling the "Lady Mai!" comic in the first place. Mai moved gracefully through the formerly locked portal, and Zuko followed her into the stall.
Within, she moved with knowing purpose, to another rack of comic books at the back of the stall. She motioned to them, and Zuko found himself blushing again- for reasons very much different than humiliation- at the covers. Every single one of them depicted a lady wearing, at most, her chest wraps. She was usually posed so as to obscure her detailed indecency, but somehow all those postures simultaneously flaunted her rather improbable figure.
Once he got over that part, Zuko noticed the title that all the books shared: "Lady Rei!"
Zuko shook his head. "I don't understand."
Mai stepped past him to pick up one of the books, and flipped through. "The 'Lady Mai!' comic is a parody of this 'Lady Rei!' character. They've been publishing books about her for decades in the Fire Nation. She's the most famous porn character around. You ever hear of Xiangyu?"
"Of course. He's a folk hero, a swordsman who's featured in all kinds of adventure stories. I used to like him as a kid. That's..." Zuko scratched his hair self-consciously. It would sound silly to admit, but this was his wife he was talking to. "I was actually thinking of him when I decided to teach myself the dao blades."
Mai nodded. "Lady Rei first appeared in a smutty comic book about Xiangyu. He was protecting a friend, and Lady Rei was the assassin trying to kill the guy. They fought, but then Xiangyu seduced her in what was the longest and most detailed scene in the whole book, and afterward she acknowledged Xiangyu as her better and gave up on the contract."
Mai put the book she had been holding back on the shelf, and once again motioned to the full display. "The story was published a little before we were born, and the character turned out to be so popular, they started doing stories about her, too. Of course, she was an unapologetic smut character. Lady Rei for some reason wore a slit skirt into battle with nothing underneath, and every story about her found some way to get her fully out of her clothes. But still, the adventures weren't bad."
As Zuko watched, Mai produced a knife from her sleeve, took a battle stance, and began stabbing the air in front of her like she was fighting someone. "Lady Rei was a knife-thrower, and although she was born in the Fire Nation, she traveled the Earth Kingdom selling her skills to worthy clients. Inspired by Xiangyu, she opposed warlords, bandits, corrupt kings, and any obvious villain the writers could come up with. No one could beat her in a fight, but as the most beautiful woman in the country, she sometimes- okay, pretty often- found it easier to seduce her way to her goals."
Zuko stared at his wife in shock. "How do you know all this?"
Mai tossed her knife from hand to hand and quirked her favorite eyebrow at him. "Obviously, I was a big fan as a little girl."
"Of a smut comic?! How did you even- ?"
"Oh, my uncle was a big fan, too. He had a collection in a hidden drawer in his office, and I found it during one of my visits. I, uh, kept my own collection secret from him and my parents. I thought the sex scenes were the price I paid to get to the good parts where Lady Rei started killing people."
Zuko shook his head. "Wow." Pushing the thoughts of Mai reading such stuff out of his head, he turned to look at her again, and then noticed the knife she was playing with. He hadn't made the connection until now, and he might be wrong with what he thought she was implying, but... "Wait. Lady Rei was a knife-thrower?"
Mai's face reddened, just a little. "Yes. I admit it. I started training with knives just so that I could be like her."
"Mai, I remember when you started your training. You were six!"
"And now you know how much trouble I would have been in if my parents knew I was reading these things." She shrugged, and turned to look at the rack of comics again. Her voice grew softer, and lost some of the false apathy she liked to project. "Zuko, she may have been intended as a fantasy for men- and yes, there are some really unfortunate implications in her becoming a hero only after being seduced by a guy- but she was a tough, beautiful woman. Except for that first story, she was the seducer, and no man could resist her.
"And sure, her stories were all about this fighter from the Fire Nation helping poor incapable Earth Kingdom people by saving them from the evils of their own chaotic country, but that was a lot less blatant than all the other propaganda they were pushing into our stories back then. I didn't even realize what it was brainwashing me to think.
She sighed, and brushed the salacious covers with a hand. "What little girl wouldn't want to be a sexy warrior shaping the world according to her own sense of justice?"
Zuko stared at his wife, utterly flabbergasted. How could he have never known something so... fundamental about the woman he loved? "When did you stop reading them?"
She sighed. "When I grew up and realized that heroes are fantasies. So, right after you got exiled, which is ironically when I probably would have started enjoying the sex scenes more." She glanced back with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, then relaxed her face once again. "Besides, it was around that point when I got better than she ever was."
"Better?"
"Oh yes. I can do stuff with knives that these smut-artists couldn't even dream of. Plus, I wear practical pants, so I'm not giving up my dignity every time I jump or kick. And I don't need to seduce anyone to get the job done." She turned to face Zuko fully, and reached out to grab his hand. "When it comes to you, I just like to. Never mind how my turn to the side of the so-called heroes left me fully clothed and came with what Sokka and Suki still say is the biggest batch of butt-kicking they ever saw. So yes, I'm better than Lady Rei could ever hope to be." With her other hand, she patted the "Lady Mai!" comic tucked into her belt. "But she's my predecessor, and it's nice that people think I've honored the archetype. This is going in my trophy room."
She pulled Zuko out of the stall, and into the night air. As they began the walk back to Piandao's mansion, Zuko squawked, "Wait, you have trophy room?"
"Yes. And incidentally, if you ever find it, you'll finally realize where that missing pair of your underwear disappeared to." Mai might have meant that in a perfectly innocent way, but Zuko, knowing his shyly perverted wife, doubted it. Then he realized something else about the woman whose life he had irrevocably intertwined his with.
Mai was, apparently, what the guys in the Fire Navy called a "comic book geek."
Huh.
END
Rating: T
Characters: Zuko, Mai, "Lady Rei!"
Notes: Mai gets Meta about something other than her rival ships and reception with the fandom.
Secret Origin
Fire Lord Zuko liked to think of himself as a pretty worldly guy, but somehow, the world still continued to surprise him.
He had traveled the entire globe, lived on a ship with Navy sailors for three years, worked the Earth Kingdom as a refugee, lived like a peasant in the great city of Ba Sing Se, been in prison for a day, and even joined what was technically a terrorist cult at the time (although whoever decided that Avatar Aang's followers were his "cult" has definitely never met Toph). He had witnessed humanity's heights and depths, and knew the kind of casual evils that lives were built on.
Still, he didn't expect to see a picture of his wife's bare derrière on a display stand in Shu Jing's marketplace during a much-needed vacation.
Zuko had been walking through the open-air marketplace with said wife and their friends Sokka and Suki. Given the nature of their group, they were mainly checking out all the weapon-vendors, but as they passed between stalls Zuko's eye was drawn (perfectly innocently!) to a stand with various drawings on display. They were "picture novels" as the printers liked to call them, although Zuko knew them by the term the Fire Navy's enlisted men preferred: "comic books." And the specific genre of all the comics on display before Zuko had an even more notorious term attached to them: "smut stuff." Hence one of the covers bearing a drawing of his wife in nothing but her chest-wrappings, with her back towards the reader.
And there was no question it was supposed to be Mai. For one thing, the title of the book was, "Lady Mai!" For another, the character wore her hair in the exact Odango style preferred by his wife. And finally, she was holding throwing knives in each of her hands. If there was more than one woman in the Fire Nation who fit those characteristics, Zuko definitely wanted to know about it.
(But not like that.)
Another thing Zuko wanted to do was immediately grab the book and see what slanderous content it was applying to his wife, but at the same time, the idea of being caught with the book in his hands scared him like nothing else. Mai might hear him out, and even believe his perfectly innocent reasons once he finished the inevitable tripping over his own tongue, but he'd never hear the end of it from Sokka and Suki. No, best to act casual for now, ignore the whole stand of smut stuffs, and move on to the next merchant stall.
But tonight, the Blue Spirit might just come back looking for some reading material! (For perfectly innocent reasons.)
The problem was that the Blue Spirit didn't exist anymore.
Zuko and his friends were staying with Sokka's teacher, the Swordmaster Piandao, in his mansion just outside of Shu Jing. That was no problem; Zuko snuck out of his guest bedroom without even waking Mai, and managed to get away from the mansion without seeing so much as the butler, never mind his host or friends. Zuko already had the black clothes (never leave home without them!), but he was fresh out of Blue Spirit masks ever since he tossed the last one into Lake Laogai a few years ago. But Shu Jing was a big trading settlement, so he figured finding the appropriate Opera Mask wouldn't be a big deal.
He hadn't counted on most of the mask shops not being open this late at night. Of the few that were, the mask selection was frankly horrible. Goofy monkeys, parody masks of his own face (for some reason, there was an ancient Fire Nation law protecting works of parody), masks of Aang, and fierce-looking Lionturtles were the order of the night, it seemed. The Lionturtle one wasn't bad, but it turned out to be more expensive than Zuko had cash for, so he wound up with a mask of a painted face he only realized later was supposed to be a classic courtesan from the ancient Fire Nation. (It also looked a lot like Suki's Kyoshi Warrior paint, something that he intended to never bring up. And people wondered why no one ever listened to Avatar Kyoshi in all the stories.)
And so the Courtesan Spirit went out into the night on a mission. (For perfectly innocent reasons.)
The stall with the smutty comic books had been closed up for the night, but the simple lock was no problem for Zuko's dao sabers. The stand with the display of books was within, and the "Lady Mai!" publication was still prominently featured. Zuko grabbed it and stuffed it in his belt, left enough coins to pay for both the book and the lock, and disappeared into the night. Or, at least, he intended to. He only got as far as climbing up to the nearest rooftop when a stiletto knife buried itself in a roofing tile right next to his right foot.
Oh, ashes. He knew that knife.
He couldn't see her features in the tepid moonlight, but a very familiar figure was running across the rooftops for him, complete with flowing robes and Odango hair.
Ashes, ashes, ashes, ashes!
Zuko ran.
Zuko ran like his wife was after him and he had a (technically) stolen book of porn tucked into his belt. Which was all true. (For perfectly innocent reasons.)
Mai flicked her arm forward as she chased him, and a flurry of darts whizzed right by Zuko's head. He only avoided the last one by twitching to the side, but on the slanted roof, that was enough to unbalance him and send him slipping down the tiled surface. Zuko windmilled his arms and twisted his feet just in time to stop himself at the roof's edge, and he just barely managed to keep his balance. The downside to that development was that Mai had taken the time to get up close to him.
The first thing she did was grab for the comic book sticking out of his belt.
Zuko panicked and drew his dao sabers.
He twisted the first blade so that he was only swinging the flat side at his wife, and when she leaned back out of the way, he shoved out with the handle of the other sword in hopes of knocking her off balance. She was ready for that, though, and not only caught the incoming handle on the blade of the knife she held in her hand, but maintained enough balance to kick out at Zuko's knee.
It was only a glancing blow, but Zuko was still standing precariously on the edge of a rooftop, and the force was just enough to topple him out into the air. He twisted as he fell and managed to grab the edge of the next building over, then kicked off the other building and bounced up into a run up the rooftop. Zuko barely got five steps before a very familiar whistling reached his ears, and he quickly threw himself into what probably looked like a series of convulsions that were the only way to avoid the whirling razor disks that were suddenly filling the air around him. Once he got a line on them, he began using his swords to smack them out of the air, but it was really hard to do that while running, and his slowdown allowed Mai to reach him again.
Zuko was ready for knives, for miniature arrows fired from her launchers, for flying razor discs, for stabbing stilettos. What he wasn't ready for was Mai casually grabbing his shoulders and yanking him around her to go sliding down the roof and back into the air between the buildings.
He fell to the ground below with a brief scream.
Fortunately, he had a lot of practice with blunt trauma.
When the dizziness stopped, he found himself lying on his back in a dark ally, with an Odango-haired shadow leaning over him. "Zuko? Is that you?"
Sighing, he lifted the mask from his face.
The shadow shifted, then said, "Aw, I thought I was making my crime-fighting debut. And why are you wearing a mask that looks like Suki?"
"It's a courtesan from the classical era, and it was the only thing I had coins for. I need to get a new Blue Spirit mask. And a bigger coin purse." Zuko got himself to his feet, shifting his perspective so that his wife was no longer backlit by the moon and so revealing her blank features. She looked him over and, apparently satisfied that he was okay, reached over and nabbed the comic book out of his belt. "Hey!"
"Oh, wow, you did steal it," she breathed. "Here I was going to, and you did it for me. That's the last time I just assume you're making a midnight snack run when I wake up alone. Thank you."
Zuko felt a brief pang of guilt upon hearing that Mai noticed his absence from their bed and thought the comic was a gift for her, but it was quickly overcome by a dumbstruck sensation that was all too familiar when dealing with his wife (and other world leaders... and his friends... and Uncle, too, come to think of it). "Wait. you were coming back to steal it?"
Mai nodded in the dark, and although her face retained its usual blankness, Zuko could hear a smirk in her smoky voice. "Of course. A comic book about me? I saw it when we were shopping before, and had to have it. But if I bought it while everyone was around, you probably would have made a scene and Sokka would have been begging to read it. Especially when he saw the cover."
"The cover!" Zuko whipped his mask off so that he could display his full level of outrage. "That's why I was going to steal it! They're making smut stuffs about you, and I had to protect your honor!"
Mai quirked an eyebrow at him. "Zuko, it's just a silly parody. I don't mind."
"Parody," Zuko spat. "That's just a made-up word that people use to do whatever they want."
Mai went still, eyeing him for a moment. Then she burst out in that light laughter she usually hid from the world. As much as he liked the sound of it, being the cause in this instance had Zuko blushing in humiliation. "What's so funny?"
Mai got herself under control, and the smile she turned on him lacked any sharpness. "I suppose a guy like you wouldn't know about it. But I can show you. Come on." She waved him along and walked out of the ally. It was just a short journey down the deserted street, back to the book vendor that had been selling the "Lady Mai!" comic in the first place. Mai moved gracefully through the formerly locked portal, and Zuko followed her into the stall.
Within, she moved with knowing purpose, to another rack of comic books at the back of the stall. She motioned to them, and Zuko found himself blushing again- for reasons very much different than humiliation- at the covers. Every single one of them depicted a lady wearing, at most, her chest wraps. She was usually posed so as to obscure her detailed indecency, but somehow all those postures simultaneously flaunted her rather improbable figure.
Once he got over that part, Zuko noticed the title that all the books shared: "Lady Rei!"
Zuko shook his head. "I don't understand."
Mai stepped past him to pick up one of the books, and flipped through. "The 'Lady Mai!' comic is a parody of this 'Lady Rei!' character. They've been publishing books about her for decades in the Fire Nation. She's the most famous porn character around. You ever hear of Xiangyu?"
"Of course. He's a folk hero, a swordsman who's featured in all kinds of adventure stories. I used to like him as a kid. That's..." Zuko scratched his hair self-consciously. It would sound silly to admit, but this was his wife he was talking to. "I was actually thinking of him when I decided to teach myself the dao blades."
Mai nodded. "Lady Rei first appeared in a smutty comic book about Xiangyu. He was protecting a friend, and Lady Rei was the assassin trying to kill the guy. They fought, but then Xiangyu seduced her in what was the longest and most detailed scene in the whole book, and afterward she acknowledged Xiangyu as her better and gave up on the contract."
Mai put the book she had been holding back on the shelf, and once again motioned to the full display. "The story was published a little before we were born, and the character turned out to be so popular, they started doing stories about her, too. Of course, she was an unapologetic smut character. Lady Rei for some reason wore a slit skirt into battle with nothing underneath, and every story about her found some way to get her fully out of her clothes. But still, the adventures weren't bad."
As Zuko watched, Mai produced a knife from her sleeve, took a battle stance, and began stabbing the air in front of her like she was fighting someone. "Lady Rei was a knife-thrower, and although she was born in the Fire Nation, she traveled the Earth Kingdom selling her skills to worthy clients. Inspired by Xiangyu, she opposed warlords, bandits, corrupt kings, and any obvious villain the writers could come up with. No one could beat her in a fight, but as the most beautiful woman in the country, she sometimes- okay, pretty often- found it easier to seduce her way to her goals."
Zuko stared at his wife in shock. "How do you know all this?"
Mai tossed her knife from hand to hand and quirked her favorite eyebrow at him. "Obviously, I was a big fan as a little girl."
"Of a smut comic?! How did you even- ?"
"Oh, my uncle was a big fan, too. He had a collection in a hidden drawer in his office, and I found it during one of my visits. I, uh, kept my own collection secret from him and my parents. I thought the sex scenes were the price I paid to get to the good parts where Lady Rei started killing people."
Zuko shook his head. "Wow." Pushing the thoughts of Mai reading such stuff out of his head, he turned to look at her again, and then noticed the knife she was playing with. He hadn't made the connection until now, and he might be wrong with what he thought she was implying, but... "Wait. Lady Rei was a knife-thrower?"
Mai's face reddened, just a little. "Yes. I admit it. I started training with knives just so that I could be like her."
"Mai, I remember when you started your training. You were six!"
"And now you know how much trouble I would have been in if my parents knew I was reading these things." She shrugged, and turned to look at the rack of comics again. Her voice grew softer, and lost some of the false apathy she liked to project. "Zuko, she may have been intended as a fantasy for men- and yes, there are some really unfortunate implications in her becoming a hero only after being seduced by a guy- but she was a tough, beautiful woman. Except for that first story, she was the seducer, and no man could resist her.
"And sure, her stories were all about this fighter from the Fire Nation helping poor incapable Earth Kingdom people by saving them from the evils of their own chaotic country, but that was a lot less blatant than all the other propaganda they were pushing into our stories back then. I didn't even realize what it was brainwashing me to think.
She sighed, and brushed the salacious covers with a hand. "What little girl wouldn't want to be a sexy warrior shaping the world according to her own sense of justice?"
Zuko stared at his wife, utterly flabbergasted. How could he have never known something so... fundamental about the woman he loved? "When did you stop reading them?"
She sighed. "When I grew up and realized that heroes are fantasies. So, right after you got exiled, which is ironically when I probably would have started enjoying the sex scenes more." She glanced back with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, then relaxed her face once again. "Besides, it was around that point when I got better than she ever was."
"Better?"
"Oh yes. I can do stuff with knives that these smut-artists couldn't even dream of. Plus, I wear practical pants, so I'm not giving up my dignity every time I jump or kick. And I don't need to seduce anyone to get the job done." She turned to face Zuko fully, and reached out to grab his hand. "When it comes to you, I just like to. Never mind how my turn to the side of the so-called heroes left me fully clothed and came with what Sokka and Suki still say is the biggest batch of butt-kicking they ever saw. So yes, I'm better than Lady Rei could ever hope to be." With her other hand, she patted the "Lady Mai!" comic tucked into her belt. "But she's my predecessor, and it's nice that people think I've honored the archetype. This is going in my trophy room."
She pulled Zuko out of the stall, and into the night air. As they began the walk back to Piandao's mansion, Zuko squawked, "Wait, you have trophy room?"
"Yes. And incidentally, if you ever find it, you'll finally realize where that missing pair of your underwear disappeared to." Mai might have meant that in a perfectly innocent way, but Zuko, knowing his shyly perverted wife, doubted it. Then he realized something else about the woman whose life he had irrevocably intertwined his with.
Mai was, apparently, what the guys in the Fire Navy called a "comic book geek."
Huh.
END