Avatar character analysis, sequential short stories (cannon and beyond)

'The icy inferno'

Set just after the final episode of season 2

Part 1

Mai and Ty Lee

((( - Hello Hello, one of the reasons I like Avatar so much is the complex cast of contrasting characters. Considering the impact Mai has on the story, I felt her relationship with Zuko, and particularly how it came to be, was just passed over. I thought the whole thing would be worth a considerably deeper analysis, as it had to be an interesting turn of events as far as I was concerned. So here is my first part in a series of small sequential stories focussing on the characters and relationships. It will stay cannon until the end of the series, were it will turn into a continuation, and then, who knows who ends up with who . )))

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Mai sat by one of the many royal bathing pools. She calmly brushed her long, silky black hair as she watched clouds drift across the sky through their reflection from the perfectly still, dark waters. Looking up, she let her eyes drift across the skyline of the recently conquered city of Ba-Sing-Se; the buildings seemed so far away across the ridiculously large expanse of royal compound. The bathing pools of the central palace were set slightly away from the main buildings. They were roofed and with removable timber walls, so as to still allowed the bather privacy without hindering the magnificent view of the city in summer. Like everything else in the royal palace, the pools themselves were large and isolated; Mai wondered how anyone got anything done in the Earth Kingdom, when it took almost and hour to walk from the main gate to the first of the palace buildings.

'No wonder the earth king had no idea what was happening in his own kingdom, the fool' Mai thought to herself.

Still though, she couldn't help but appreciate the architecture and style of the bathing house.

Having come from a rich family, Mai was not often impressed by royal opulence, one of the reasons she always claimed to be so bored of such superficial things. But even she had to admit that the setting she currently found herself was stunning.

'If only they had some proper fire nation soaps and oils' she thought to herself, frowning. Her long delicate fingers quickly worked her thick hair into a simple bun. Fixing it with a long hair-pin, she stood up. She let her bathing robe fall from her tall athletic body, before slowly walking into the water. Her cat like motions barely made a ripple in the water's surface as she submerged up to her neck.

Swimming across the pool with a technique so perfect, it made any manual on the mater seem amateurish, she lazily swam her way to the other pools edge; leaning on it, she rested her head against her arms, staring out at the city.

A rare smile appeared across Mai's lips, melting her usual cold façade as she let herself relax. It was strange, she normally didn't enjoy bathing. Well, it wasn't that she hated it, a simple bath was actually quite soothing, but that was the problem, it never was just a simple bath, there was always a process. Skin treatments, hair treatments, or a whole assortment of massages against different things, or for different things… Mai had been told often enough that she should be grateful, most girls would kill for the chance to be treated like that for a day, let alone every day… but that was the problem, it had been like this… every day… since she was a little girl. There was no way to avoid it, if she wanted to or not, it was simply what was expected of her, and like the rest of her life, she had little choice but to go along with it. It took so much time, always the same routine… any enjoyment she ever had with the pampering had long been buried under a deep seeded resentment of 'having' to be pampered… no wonder she was often bored, it took a lot of time to be flawless, every day of every second. It was… draining.

'Well look at little Miss smiley' said a voice from above.

Mai's smile evaporated in a second, looking up with an annoyed glare she stared at the beaming face of Ty Lee.

'Oh don't be like that' said Ty Lee, pouting, 'it's not everyday I see you smiling. Not even when you're bathing.'

'This is different' replied Mai, her smile not returning.

Kicking off, Mai swam backwards a bit.

'How so?' asked Ty Lee, placing down the few bathing soaps she had brought along.

'I'm not here because I have to be' replied Mai, watching the pretty ripples of sunlight as the filtered through the water, 'it's because I want to be.'

'Really? Well do you want me to be here?' asked Ty Lee.

Mai turned in the water to arch an eyebrow at her friend's strange question?

'Because if you want me here, there is no reason for you to lose your smile' stated Ty Lee.

Mai smirked, and then let the half smile sit as she moved backwards to the side of the pool, leaning against it.

'That's better' said Ty Lee happily. Taking off her own bathing robe she scrunched it together before throwing it to one side roughly. Standing on her tippy toes, Ty Lee stretched her arms above her heads before rolling her head from side to side and shacking her shoulders loose.

Ty Lee smiled dangerously; Mai's half smile disappeared immediately.

'Geronimo!' screamed Ty Lee happily as she launched herself high above the pool, before coming down in a tight ball and causing a massive explosion of water. Ty Lee erupted from the water a second later, diving in again and splashing around. After a while she looked back towards Mai, who, despite her best efforts, had not been able to keep her hair from getting wet.

'Perhaps I was too hasty with my smile' said Mai dryly.

'Come on Mai' challenged Ty Lee, 'you're always complaining about having to be prim and proper, but when you finally get the chance to let your hair down, you don't use it?'

Mai gave her a warning glare. Ty Lee simply smiled and dived under water again, swimming the length of the pool underwater.

Sighing to herself, Mai removed her hair-pin, allowing her hair to fall into the water unceremoniously, with a flick of her wrist the iron pin sailed across the room, spinning, before imbedding itself in a wooden pillar next to Mai's discarded robe. Diving underwater, Mai followed Ty Lee to the other side of the pool before resurfacing more roughly.

'That's more like it!' said Ty Lee happily.

'You could ask next time' said Mai dangerously, running her hands through her thick hair to squeeze away some of the water.

'I'm just helping you to loosen up' replied Ty Lee.

'Maybe I don't want to loosen up that much, maybe I like the quiet' retorted Mai, and then stopped as she considered her own words briefly before Ty Lee continued.

'I can't believe that! Not with how much you always say you hate having to be stiff and elegant.'

Mai thought about this for a second before replying.

'I don't hate all of it,' Mai replied, 'I just hate having to do it, 'so much', all of the time… it's complicated.'

'So it's like you with your knives then' suggested Ty Lee absentmindedly, while she ran her fingers across the surface of the water.

Mai looked over questioningly.

'Well, your knives need hours of practice, precision and lots of preparation time to put on all those little gadgets and hiding places each day. And you do that willingly, despite how much you complain about tedious routines and such.'

Mai took in Ty Lee's bit of physiological analysis.

'You've always enjoyed your knives, or at least you always seemed to.'

Mai turned to lean back against the side of the pool, looking out at the city.

'It was just something I was good at I suppose…'

Ty Lee stopped trailing her hands through the water to look at her friend.

'Ha!' Mai suddenly half-laughed to herself ironically, 'At least all that drilled posture and gymnastic training turned out to be good for something…'

Ty lee turned to float on her back, making small splashes with her feet as she looked worryingly at her friend.

'I always had to be flawless in everything I did, and throwing knives was perfect for the accurate, emotionless, precision existence I was in…'

Mai wasn't really talking to her friend anymore; she was just voicing her thoughts out aloud, the approaching sunset putting her mind in a less guarded mode.

'I suppose knives are ok, at least they're something just for me, it's nothing my parents would ever have thought I would need.'

Mai's expression hardened, her eyebrows creasing to make her naturally dangerous looking features look even more deadly.

'And at least they have given me a way to get out of that place, a way to experience something different from the routine, something exciting.'

'Azula sure has done that' interjected Ty Lee as she came to a stop. She was looking out towards the city, and for once, there had been little to no joy in her voice.

Mai looked over at her normally over-chirpy friend, brought out of her own thoughts be Ty Lee's uncharacteristic neutral tone.

'I heard what happened at the circus' said Mai sympathetically.

'Azula has a very unique way of being persuasive' voiced Ty Lee, still neutral.

'At least I'm using this to escape something worse…' stated Mai, 'How do you remain so upbeat all the time when you're here against your will?' Mai asked, honestly interested.

'Well, it's not all that bad, now is it' replied Ty Lee, the spring in her voice returning.

'There's always something exciting going on, it's definitely something not everyone does' she continued. 'What about you? You're not much better then when we were at the academy? Surely this is much more exciting then being at home. Shouldn't you be even happier then I am?'

Mai gave her friend an ironic smile.

'I don't think I'll ever be 'that' happy.'

Ty Lee repaid the ironic smile with her own.

'Sure, it's better then being with my parents' replied Mai, 'but I didn't say that it was a great improvement over my life before.

'hu?'

'It's not like I have much more freedom here, now is there?' continued Mai, 'Azula makes every decision, dictates every action. She's even more demanding then my own mother for god's sake…'

Ty Lee giggled.

Mai smiled.

'Well that's why you should enjoy these moments all the more…'

'I am' said Mai with a smile, slipping further into the water and placing her hands behind her head.

Ty Lee watched her friend half float away. She moved forward to swim around a bit, this time with far less splashing. The two swam around in silence for a moment, Ty lee waited for Mai to bring her ears back out of the water.

'And if you get bored again, there's always Zuko' said Ty Lee cheekily.

Mai's lazy smile disappeared for a second, then returned even larger then before.

'There is always that nice distraction' admitted Mai, though her smile faltered a bit.

Ty Lee noticed the sudden lack of confidence in her friend's voice.

'Have you seen him yet?' she asked, her voice still suggestive.

'No' replied Mai, her normal dead pan expression returning. 'He eats in his room and just trains all day.'

'So will you go and see him?' asked Ty Lee, a hint of impatience, it had already been two days.

Mai frowned; she didn't appreciate the extra pressure. Particularly about something she was uncharacteristically unsure about. Zuko had always been the one thing in her life that had not been a routine, around him she simply could not be elegant, cold and flawless, it was infuriating as well as excruciatingly exciting… Mai's cheeks coloured as a mixture of feelings began to well up inside of her. Grimacing for a second, she quickly locked the feelings away, she didn't want to have to face them now.

'Zuko can wait' Mai said darkly.

Ty Lee raised a surprised eyebrow in the direction of her friend.

'After all' said Mai, the smile returning to her face, and her expression softening, 'I'm not bored yet.'

Ty Lee gave Mai a dangerous smile before shrugging her shoulders and floating backwards into a backstroke.

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((( Just a little something, I hope you like End part one, next off, Zuko and Mai meet again. )))