A/N- I own nothing.
Bad Behavior
It didn't seem fair, really, that Mai had been chosen by the Great Gods to survive this damn war; she'd been so very bad for so many years, allowing Azula to kill and destroy as much as she had. Mai felt that she deserved, more so than anyone else, to die. And yet, she didn't. She merely lay paralyzed, ill, dying very slowly in a cushioned bed with healers and maids and people to scrub her ass cheeks until she keeled.
For those last few months of goodness, this was what she got back. Her poor intentions in the beginning should have landed her on Destiny's doorstep, rotting away in a prison cell or having her head cut off by that damned Water Bitch. But no, she'd had to go and mess up the status quo.
Instead of a gruesome, dishonorable end, Mai found herself halfway. Alive for her good deeds, but kept a fucking vegetable for her poor ones. Alive to recieve medals and awards, but dead to her family and her people.
To think of it, Mai had been a good girl all her life. Her good behavior had landed her at Azula's right hand, as part of the Fearsome Threesome that had dominated the Fire Academy for Girls. Her good behavior had gotten her the dream Crown Fire Prince to mack with for a month.
Her good behavior had gotten her easy trust from the Avatar and his companions, when the time came for her to fight back.
Her good behavior had landed a spear at the base of her spine, lodged in so tight as to keep her from walking and keep her from dying.
Even Azula and Ty Lee had met fairer ends. Ty Lee had died simply, her neck snapped by a Dai Lee Agent. Azula had died miserable, a death befitting her people skills. Her rotting, charred carcass hung, half eaten, from a post in the Fire Nation Capital square. She had gotten what she asked for, what her life had planned for her. She scared children alive, and she scared them dead.
But no, Mai couldn't get what she truly deserved. She'd been too overwhelmingly good. She'd done what Daddy and Mommy said, and then what Azula said, and then what Aang said. She was cursed to be wheeled around by some pretentious lady-in-waiting for eternity. To be rewarded for her Good Behavior.
Cursed to be alive today.
Today was the wedding of the only man she'd found time to love, to the only woman she'd ever found time to hate. Today was the day they would crown the Fire Lord and Lady, fawn over their beauty, praise their skills as warriors.
Today was the day that Zuko and Katara would get exactly what they deserved...
For their very, very, very bad behavior.
And Mai would sit, cursed to the back row, among the other invalids, watching as the couple kissed and drank wine, and feeling with every bone in her body that once the two were alone...
Mai would sit and smile and be on her best behavior, because this was what good behavior got you in life. It got you misery and it got you pain.
And when they would find Mai wrists cut, laughing hysterically, days after the wedding, they would all talk.
"Such a shame," they'd tell their damned children.
"So terrible," they'd tell their ugly mothers.
"Such a waste," they'd tell their fucking neighbors.
"So undeserved," they'd tell their miserable selves.
But, hey. Mai knew. Only girls with Bad Behavior got what they really deserved.