"Mai?" Zuko prompted. "I know you're almost asleep but...mind if I ask you something?"
"Mm?" Mai propped her head up on her hands and opened her eyes. "What's on your mind?"
Zuko sighed.
"Today wasn't such a good day. I got a good look first hand at just how bad things got since my great-grandfather Sozin started the war...and I got to thinking about myself, how it took me sixteen years to get my head out of my butt. I've done a lot of bad stuff over the years, Mai," he said, and she frowned.
"Zuko, don't start this again," she yawned. "It's water under the bridge, you're different now and so's the Fire Nation."
"I know, I know." He chuckled ruefully. "But sometimes I wonder, after I barely wrote to you during my exile, after I ditched you with a note, all the times I annoyed you...how can you still like me so much? You stood up to my sister, you're not someone who lets people push her around and forgives them for it."
Mai rolled her eyes and moved over to lean against him.
"Believe me, Zuko, if you were as bad a guy as you think you are I wouldn't have fallen for you in the first place," she said. "Yeah, you might be stubborn and slow to learn, you're a hothead, you're a total dweeb..." She smiled and pressed a kiss to his chin. "But you're also a sweet guy who stayed in a place he was miserable just to be close to me..." Her lips moved upwards, this time pressing against his cheek. "And cared enough about the fate of the world to ditch me. And just so you know, if you'd explained your reasons I would've understood."
Zuko blushed, wrapping his arms tightly around her and brushing his lips against her hair.
"So in other words, you love me because I'm an idiot?"
"No." She pulled him close for a brief kiss. "I love you because you're my idiot, and don't you ever forget that."