One more, and I think this one is probably going to be the last. Written for the Firelord Izumi Week, Day 2 - Motherhood, I decided to try to write a dialogue. Even though i think it's hard to write Mai lines, I'm glad the way this one came out.
Hope you all enjoy reading this one as much as I enjoyed writing. And please, let me know my mistakes so I can correct them.
They sat on the balcony of her old bedroom, with their backs to the Sun.
The two women were hiding from the incessant attention the younger one was getting, now that her belly had grown enough so everyone in the palace outside of it would be aware that the royal family was about to receive a new member.
It wasn't easy to be the mother of the Firelord's grandson.
Her husband was probably caught with twenty old women, receiving the congratulations his first child and also advises on what to do or not to do with newborns - except that they never agreed on anything so it always became a war with him caught in the cross-fire.
She just hoped he could last until the birth.
"If you think this is madness you should have seen how it was when I was pregnant with you." her mother's voice was ridiculously animated.
"You're enjoying all of this." Izumi turned her accusing eyes to the woman beside her.
Mai shrugged.
"I'm just glad I'm finally not the main act of this circus" she smiled.
"So you'll just watch with the audience this time, right?"
"Of course not! I'll be as participative as I was back then. This is my first grandchild, after all." she groaned, "Even though waiting is boring."
"And after that?"
"After that comes the crying, the screaming and the sleepless nights. I wish you good luck."
They were silent for a while before Izumi sighed.
"We're going to mess it up, aren't we?"
"Hardly. You're my daughter and I handled it brilliantly. You two are going to be just fine."
"What about dad?" She didn't have to explain to her mother what she meant. 'How did her father handle the huge and terrifying activity of raising a child?'
A long pause went before Mai answered.
"He tried."
"That's what scares me." Izumi confessed, "I'm his daughter too, after all."
"Yeah, and that's exactly where you got this excessive drama and self-pity."
"Mom, I'm being serious!"
"Exactly. And you shouldn't." she said, exasperated "You're just listening to what those crazy old women told you, that's why you're panicking." Mai placed a reassuring hand on her daughter's shoulder "You're carrying another life inside of you, and that's something big and scary. When this life is out of you, you'll have to raise it, and that's an immense and alarming responsibility." She raised her daughter's chin, so she could look into her eyes "But believe me when I say that everything will come naturally to you, just like it came to me, and just like it came to your father, eventually. But even if you make some mistakes, and heaven knows you will, you'll love every second of it, because being a mother is…"
"One of the best things in the world?"
Mai hugged her daughter and her unborn grandson.
"One of the best things in the world."