Chapter 1
Zuko was utterly annoyed. Mai was late for a meeting...AGAIN. He would break up with her if she didn't have a glove that shot knives on her person 24-7. She was depressing, annoying, never punctual, clingy, easily angered, scary, and downright mean. He longed to fill the awkward silence that lingered in the room full of elderly fire nation royal advisers. One lay either asleep, or dead. He snored. He was alive.
"I am SO sorry for the absence of my girlfriend mai!" he finally said. Some of the advisers looked annoyed while others just looked bored. Li and Lo both sat happily, acting as if everything was fine. One old man began talking.
"Since Mai is absent for now, I might as well tell one of my famous stories!" It was all Zuko could do to not to scream.
"Well, it happened when I was a little boy! The teachers always said that running with scissors was dangerous, but I was quite the little rebel! I brought all of my friends outside and told them my plan. The next day we got to work on decorating our running scissors! Mine were red with blue flames, Tom-Tom's were white with purple flames, Lee's were green with orange flames, Simon's were yellow with white flames, Cyrus's were magenta with fuchsia flames, dominic's were mint-" The old man was interrupted by the loud squeak of the tall doors opening. Mai walked in smiling, acting as if she was on time and everyone else was early. She sat down beside Zuko and kissed his cheek. Zuko smiled a pathetic grin, and looked expectantly at Li and Lo, who had called the meeting.
"Firelord Zuko, we have called this meeting-" Li began,
"-to discuss a very important matter with you!" Lo finished. Zuko nodded.
"Before you can officially become firelord-"
"-you must take the ceremonial trip to each of the major cities!"
"the western air temple"
"the northern water tribe"
"ba-sing-se"
"Omashu,"
"and you must finish here!" Zuko nodded again, he had been to all of the cities before. Li and Lo looked at each other and said together,
"and you will do it alone!" Mai instantly shot up out of her chair and glared at the two elderly women. She looked down at Zuko, expecting him to refuse, but he remained in his chair.
"ZUKO!" she said through clenched teeth. He pretended not to hear her. Mai looked back at the elderly women.
"There is no way that my boyfriend is traveling the world ALONE!" Li frowned.
"there is, and he must. It is tradition!"
"A moronic one!" she shot back. "You are BANISHED! I thought I could trust you Lo, really! But you turned on me!"
"I'm Li!" she said calmly "and you have no authority over me or anyone else. Only the firelord has the right to banish someone!" Mai grunted and looked at Zuko expectantly. He looked back at her and said,
"mai, sit down" her eyes widened to the size of plums. She fired a knife out of her glove, that barely missed his head. The guards took a few steps forward, waiting for orders to take her away. Zuko sighed and mumbled,
"If you can't behave yourself, I will have the guards take you." She glared and angrily fired five knives through each of his sleeves, pinning him to the floor.
"I was just leaving!" she stormed out of the room as the guards rushed to pull the knives out of the floor. When Zuko got up, he apologized to Li and Lo for her rudeness.
"when am I leaving?" he asked
"The day after tomorrow. We have arranged places for you to stay at each city, and we had a map made for you. You have to take the whole journey by foot, boat, or animal." Zuko nodded.
"I'll take the next ship to the western air temple."
"right now I think you might-" Li began
"have bigger things to worry about than getting the the air temple" Lo finished. Zuko groaned. He bowed to the elderly men and women, and walked out the door.
Zuko slowly opened the door to Mai's room. He was welcomed with yet another knife. This one shot at a more tender area than the head. He quickly spread his legs, avoiding the dagger. He walked into the room, leaving the door open to use as a way to escape if needed. He made a column of fire around himself for protection. Mai was sitting in her bed, her back turned to Zuko, and her arms folded tightly across her chest.
"Mai?" Zuko said slowly. No response.
"this is really hard to say but...we need to break up." He was answered with more knives, which he ducked under.
"WHY ARE YOU SO ANGRY?!" he screamed
"check your last sentence!" she said
"Mai! You made a complete fool of me in there!"
"No! You made a fool of me! You made me get angry in front of the whole counsel!"
"mai, you did that by yourself." Zuko backed out of the room, still keeping his fire column around him. Once he was in the hall he ran swiftly to Li and Lo's room. He burst through the door, which was a HUGE mistake. He had forgotten how early they went to bed, and had walked in on them changing into their nightgowns. He quickly slapped a hand over his eyes as the elderly women screamed. He backed out of the room, and both women screamed "CLOSE THE DOOR!" The women found him puking up everything he had eaten in the hallway.
"Firelord Zuko!"
"your mother would be ashamed!" Zuko stood up, and explained that he didn't mean to barge into their room while they were butt naked, and he was very very sorry.
"So...Could I maybe leave on that trip tomorrow morning?" he asked casually. They nodded. He held two thumbs up and rushed to his room to begin packing.