(Untitled)

[pyromatics]

When; March 15
Rating; PG?
Characters; pyromatics, hatersbehatin
Summary; After a certain few events over the past week, Zuko decides it's time to seek Mai out to talk. To really talk. And to give her back her communicator that he broke by smashing against the wall...
Log; Complete

Comments

[hatersbehatin]

It's been a pretty rough few days for Mai. Since the moment she woke up in the City and got her first glance of the strange world outside a strange window ... things have just been really, really crazy. An emotional ride like she has never experienced before in her life. All the Avatar stuff and Zuko stuff aside. What happened to her this past weekend... was... she wasn't sure what it was, but she was far from happy about losing control of herself. It was an awful feeling, and she's been doing everything possible to forget about it since she woke up Monday morning and realized it wasn't just a dream

[pyromatics]

As Zuko approached the apartment door, he noticed that it stood ajar. He assumed that Ty Lee had left it open for him and hesitantly let himself in, first peeking his head into the apartment and looking around. He didn't spot anyone at first and pushed the door open further to completely step into the front area, closing it behind him.

Apartments were new to him; Zuko was always so used to the tea shop and the gardens and ponds, the fish swimming around peacefully in the water. Everything about this world was still new, particularly the tall, towering buildings made up entirely of glass. Such things... he'd never imagined them existing.

Making his way along the hall Zuko came to the living room and paused just in the threshold of the doorway, golden eyes making a sweep around the room to find the dark-haired girl hunched over and... drawing? Zuko wasn't sure what it was that she was doing, but opted to remain where he was standing.

[hatersbehatin]

A little enthralled with her task, but not so consumed that she didn't hear the door close. Mai knew that Ty Lee had left some time before, but she hadn't lost sense of time to not realize that she had not been gone long. Moving without any worry to rush herself, she finishes several more lines before she lifts her head

[pyromatics]

"Uh-- hey..."

And that was all Zuko had to say. What else was there for him to say anyways? He was only there to drop off her network device and that was that.

Okay, not true. Zuko was there to talk with her. He'd made the mistake himself of acting hostile in the beginning to a few certain people, as had she days ago in the tea shop with Aang. The incident still made Zuko a little uneasy on the inside. The root of the problem was him, him walking out on her with only a letter. He had to fix this, that was the only way.

[pyromatics]

Of course she had to bring that day up. The war meeting in which his father had, to his surprise, delayed until Zuko's arrival. The war meeting that had Zuko rethinking everything as the seconds had passed into minutes and then into the hour.

Zuko let his eyes drop down to look at the ground at the space between his legs. He contemplated the question, her words. Who was he?

"I'm... Zuko." What else was there for him to be? What did she expect him to say? His destiny, all that time, had been clouded, mixed, a conflict of good and evil. What was wrong was right, what was right was wrong.

"What more is there to be or say?"

[hatersbehatin]

Her eyes narrowed and Mai brought her head around to face him better. "I know what your name is, dummy. That wasn't what I was asking." She moved her hands to lie on the cushions beneath her and paused to think of how to rephrase her question. "You figured out who you are and what you have to do..."

Her voice drifts off into silence just as her eyes lower from his face. "That's who you are now." Not a question.

"Helping the Avatar to stop the Fire Nation, that's the kind of person you are now?" Okay so that was a question, even though she already knows the answer.

[pyromatics]

Zuko tensed on the edge of the table, watching her; was this... was this progress? Were they actually getting somewhere? No - nothing ever came this easy...

Dummy... That was a name Zuko hadn't heard from her in a while. He remembered the last time she'd spoken it, the fondness in her tone, the small moment they had shared. They had shared many. "Otherwise known as a traitor to my country."

Zuko nodded curtly.

"To help the Avatar stop the Fire Nation and the war, it's more than that - it's my destiny."

[hatersbehatin]

No sooner was the word 'destiny' said that Mai let out a heavy sigh. Quickly her voice followed. "See. Your mind is made up. I wouldn't have been able to talk you out of it, but still..." She lifted her head, still not looking at him directly. "It would have been nice to have at least had a chance to try."