fic: "the heart's desire" -- mai, zuko
Title: The Heart's Desire
Word Count: 390
Rating: g.
Characters/Pairing: Mai, Zuko
a/n: i really need to start writing again. im getting...lazy. and repetitive. :/
prompt: week #32 -- fools idolize fools at avatar_contest. go to ittt.
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Despite what he thinks, she can be passionate.
But there is a difference between him and her-and maybe that’s where it all started. Because Zuko is passionate in a different way than her. It’s something that burns inside him constantly-growing and running and shining-so much that she believes it’s even bigger than him. You can see it on his face, because he glows, and the room would shake if the walls were alive. Zuko has the intesity of the flame he bends when he fights for everything he has ever earned for, when he puts the world together with his raw hands, and as lifts himself from his past. She admires him for it; it’s something that she does not have.
No, because while Zuko trembles with passion from his fingertips, Mai is different. She can feel it inside her, enough to forget about the seconds and minutes and hours. Enough to let her forget that she is Mai and that Mai doesn’t believe its okay to be this vulnerable. She just doesn’t show it as much as him.
It comes in the form of sliding her knives from her sleeves, so gently, so silently angry across her skin. It’s precise and kissing perfection accuracy as slices the air. It glistens down to her eyelashes when she finds his achy lips. The feeling is so strong it makes her cheek hurt from smiling-and her teeth and eyes radiate from this feeling she cannot ignore.
When she lets herself think about it, she knows what the bigger problem is. Mai can see the bigger picture, despite what everyone else thinks.
Zuko is passionate about his people, his work, the world. He is the Fire Lord after all, and this is what he’s always dreamed of. This is what he’s supposed to do-and he’d give up his soul for it, over and over again. The world aches, and he continues to rip open his heart for it, a sacrifice he has to live for.
But, Mai loves him the most. He is what she has always dreamed of, still does, and he is what makes her smile and yell and be somebody she would like to be. She is in love with a fool who's heart is too big for one person.
And that is their greatest problem.