You Can't Go Home [Open]

[knifeurrib]

When she wasn't with Zuko, Mai needed to find something to do that wasn't throwing knives at the wall. Even that got boring after a while. You could only practice so much before your muscles decided you needed to do something else. So, she'd taken up simply wandering through the city. It was decent exercise and she was less likely to run into

Comments

[kaya_waterwave]

She was still angered at Mai's actions, even if that had cooled after her talk with Nokosi. Once she resolved there was nothing she could do for the situation, it was better to let it be. SHE hadn't killed anyone, and until she did, that would have to weigh in on Mai's conscience.

What did happen, though, was that she had put two and two together, or at least started to think about the aftermath. How exactly was it Ozai was able to get to Hiccup, and then, by association, to Zuko? In fact how did it even make sense that he would have had no contact with his less shamed daughter Azula? He may have had tunnel vision, but surely he would have seen her first, or at the very least, when their fight happened, she would have joined in.

Wasn't that just a little convenient? If Azula had shown up, her temper would have surely had her join the fight, and that alone would have been enough to have her thrown in the brig, or at least more tightly supervised. But it was as if Azula had not even been in the picture, and Kaya found that hard to believe.

Granted, this was just theory, but what wasn't theory was the eventual knowledge that Ozai was dead, and eventually Azula would find out. Once Kaya realized this, she had to ask for a temporary vacation from med bay, if only for a few days. If Azula lost it, she would be there.

Though it annoyed her, Kaya realized what Mai had been shooting for ultimately succeeded. With Ozai dead, no threat would come to Zuko. Specifically, once Azula found out, her focus would now turn to killing Mai herself, and what chance did she have over a firebender as skilled as Azula?

Little. And going into the city was just asking for trouble when it was the place Stacy could not see. Kaya was stealthy, tailing Mai only when she ventured outside of the safe zones on the ship. She was here now, just outside of the home, out of sight.

[knifeurrib]

Mai wasn't completely oblivious to her surroundings. She just acted like it most of the time. She straightened up from her spot on the couch and walked out onto the balcony, arms supporting her weight as she leaned against the railing. Someone had been tailing her - she was fairly sure of it. Not that she'd said anything yet, of course. She was fairly sure it wasn't Azula. Azula was too far gone to be quite that subtle. Besides, the Princess would want to gloat before she killed Mai. If she tried. She took a long look at the empty street and then raised her voice - just enough for anyone in the vicinity to hear it.

"I know you're out there. Whoever you are."

Maybe there wasn't anyone. Maybe she was wasting her breath. Or maybe if there was they'd reveal themselves.

It didn't hurt to try.

[kaya_waterwave]

Grr. She was trying to keep a low profile: if anyone suspected she was here, it would defeat the purpose. Besides, the whole point of this was staying in the shadows.

"Good. Now just pretend I'm not, I have to make sure that no one is watching."

Kaya wasn't stupid. If Azula HAD been involved in the Ozai thing, what was to stop her from getting lackies to follow them? Right no it paid to be paranoid.

[knifeurrib]

Mai rolled her eyes. "I don't need protection, Kaya."

Honestly, how many times did she have to tell people this?

[kaya_waterwave]

"No, of course not," Kaya said, rolling her eyes right back. "You went and killed Ozai because Zuko the FIREBENDER needed protection, but if sadistic prodigy Azula finds out, you'll be all right. You really are going to explain this logic of yours one day."

Because somehow, Kaya didn't think flying knives would do the trick.

[knifeurrib]

"It worked last time," Mai responded dryly. Well, she'd been ready to face Azula down at the Boiling Rock. How that would've ended up, she had no idea. She didn't want to find out, but she also didn't want Kaya to know that she had doubts.

"I'll handle myself, alright?"

I totally thought I replied to this WTH....

[kaya_waterwave]

Kaya her head to her temple a moment,shaking her head. "I wonder why you find it so hard to just let people help you. You definitely didn't mind having us take down Ozai so you could kill him, but actually making sure you're ok is apparently a big deal. Tell me something: if Zuko were to say through all of your efforts to make sure to stay alive, 'leave me alone, I can do this myself,' would you actually listen to him?"

[knifeurrib]

"No. But he's an idiot when it comes to this kind of thing," Mai actually managed a little smirk at that - and then back to her usual blank expression. "And I didn't use you. Or maybe you missed me fighting alongside you and the Avatar."

Well, maybe she had used them a little. Not that she cared.

[kaya_waterwave]

"In case you missed it, he shares that with somebody," Kaya said. "And that is why I'm here in the first place. If you really want to lie and say you could take down Azula by yourself, have fun in crazy land, you can say hi to her there! But I don't live in crazy town, I'm here with everyone else, and I'm not about to let someone from our world make reckless decisions that might get her killed. For goodness sake, you keep saying you look after Zuko but you keep doing crazy stuff like this, killing Ozai and wandering into the city alone! What good is saving him if you were to get killed for that? Can you imagine what that would do to him?"