Firelord Zuko had a secret fear.
Okay. He had a lot of secret fears, and just secrets, because he didn't like opening himself up to people.
But this one was a BIG secret fear.
He didn't think even his Uncle knew about it.
But his Uncle did.
He saw the flicker in Zuko's eye every time he was faced with his fear. Then he saw how his body stiffened ready to over come it and go into battle.
With a spider.
His greatest fear.
Zuko'd always been afraid of spiders. But when he was younger he didn't have to deal with it. His mum or a servant would take the spider and put it outside.
When he was banished he had to deal with his fear on a larger scale. When camping out in the woods, many spiders decided that near the fire him and his Uncle had built was a terrific place to sleep. Zuko kept having recurring nightmares of spiders crawling over him and, to his horror; he could never prove it hadn't happened. It was better on the ship; spiders rarely crawled onto the ship for them being at port so little and at sea so long. But the occasional spider did get on from hiding in the packaging of the food stores.
But Zuko couldn't really say, "Men there is a spider in my room, go deal with it." He had to deal with it by himself.
Then the house in Ba Sing Se was absolutely crawling with spiders, and the nightmares returned.
Then after that he was so confused and caught up with what was happening he didn't have time to fear his secret fear.
But now, a month after his marriage to Mai he had to face his fear again.
And he just couldn't.
The spider was huge, about the size of the ring his thumb and finger made when put together.
It was just sitting there, staring at him, daring him to make a move.
Zuko's move was to back away from the sink where it was, and run back into the bedroom.
Mai lifted an eyebrow as her husband came zooming back into the room, crashing into the bed and falling onto his stomach, breathing heavily into the blanket.
"Do I wanna know?" Mai questioned, Zuko decided to suck it up and tell her.
"There's a huge spider in the sink" He answered, keeping his face in the blankets, a red spreading over the back of his neck.
Mai shook her head and got up, picking up a cup and a piece of paper that was on the bedside table.
She walked into the bathroom and Zuko heard the plink of a glass settling down and the rustle of paper.
A window opened in the bathroom and then Mai came back into the bedroom.
Zuko rolled over to her back and caught Mai's look.
"Oh shut up" He said rolling onto his side away from her, his blush deepening and spreading over his face, ears and neck.
Mai chuckled and kissed his cheek, settling down behind him wrapping an arm round his face.
"I'll protect you from the scary spiders Firelord," She cooed in a baby voice, into his scarred ear.
The blush deepened over his neck causing Mai to chuckle some more as Zuko mumbled,
"Go away or I'll tell the world of your fear of ants."