Mai didn't know what or why it had happened, but all she knew was that her boredom was becoming so bad that she was willing to try nearly anything at that point. So when Aang offered to spend time with her, she had said yes to that.
Spending a day with the Avatar didn't seem like a too bad idea, and as the morning rolled into a noon, she found that she actually liked hanging out with this kid.
Although, granted, some of his airbender moves were cheesy.
She rolled her eyes when he showed her the marble trick, and then rolled them even harder when he showed her the air scooter. But he wasn't a dorky twelve year old anymore; no, he was a dorky seventeen year old now.
And for all his enthusiasm, it couldn't last all day.
When sunset came, Mai found him sitting cross-legged, facing the outer world at an open balcony, his eyes closed and his breath steady.
Mai arched an eyebrow; she had heard about meditation before, but never actually seen it.
"Aang?" she asked almost shyly. "What are you doing?"
She knew what he was doing, but didn't care enough for phrasing it differently.
"I'm meditating," Aang replied calmly. Calmer than he had been all opened up an eye to look at her, casting a sideways glance. She stood still as a statue, with a look of curiosity in her eyes and her head tilted.
"Would you like to try?" Aang offered.
Mai's eyes widened as she thought about it, and discovered that actually, yes, she would like to try it. Why ever not, she reasoned? With a shrug, she walked over to Aang's side, and then sat down next to him, crossing her legs and folding her arms just as he did.
Looking ahead, she closed her eyes, and waited for a few minutes.
If boredom had a activity, this would be it.
Mai opened her eyes again with a sigh, and turned her head to see Aang watching her closely.
"So what exactly is this supposed to do?" Mai asked him, leaning forward and resting her chin flat on her open palm.
Aang seemed to light up at the question. "I'm glad you asked," he said with a grin. "Meditation can do a lot for both the mind and the body. The first important step to meditation is to find your center, and find your calm. You need peace and tranquility when meditating, quietness too, and then you can begin!"
Mai listened as he continued to talk on and on. Her expression remained stoic the entire time.
"The effects on the body are beneficial too! It can help calm the mind and give you better patience, and reduce stress. And with reduced stress your body becomes healthier. It can also get rid of headaches. After a long time meditating, you become so absorbed in your own sense of being that you forget to be bored!"
Mai still didn't seem entirely convinced.
"Just trust me on this!" Aang said, and spun back around. He straightened his back, folded his hands together once more, and closed his eyes. Mai copied him, deciding to give this meditation one more try.
Mai took deep, long breaths as Aang instructed her to do. He told her, "With each breath you inhale, focus on the feeling of your lungs inflated. Try to gouge the exact size of them with every breath. When you exhale, do the same."
So Mai did, taking slow breath after slow breath.
Her lungs expanded in her chest to the point where it hurt. Her lungs were bigger than she had originally imagined. After the pain in her chest became too much to bear, she took shallower breaths, still focusing on the size of her lungs.
"Good!" Aang exclaimed when she had finally gotten the hang of it. He let her continue on like that for some time, letting her focus on her breathing. Minutes passed, and a smirk passed Aang's face. He was a good teacher, he thought to himself.
"Next!" he said gleefully, startling Mai. She jumped slightly. Aang made to clap his hands, but then stopped, remembering himself. If he clapped his hands, he would break that focus that Mai had had.
Of course, he already had with his voice.
"Next," he said, quieter this time, "I need you to focus on sound. What do you hear?"
"I hear…" Mai made to answer his question, but Aang cut her off.
"Don't tell me; tell yourself."
Mai cracked an eye open at him; he was serious. With another sigh, she listened. Quietest sounds eventually came to her ears, filling her senses. Now that she was paying attention to how much she heard, it was like a symphony. At first, birds chirping and the slight shush of the wind and leaves rustling both on the trees and on the ground. But then newer sounds came to her; vaguely, she was aware of a faint hum going through the air. She tried to place it, but couldn't.
Pricking her ears, she listened harder, trying to figure out where the low, soft humming was coming from.
Nothing came to mind.
But she could hear Aang's intake of breath, and his hands leaving the fabric of his pants. When he spoke next, she was ready for it.
"Okay, now that you've gotten that much down, try this: focus on the size of your lungs at the same time as focusing on sound."
That proved more difficult than Mai anticipated.
Every time she focused on her breathing, the sounds went numb to her ears, and when she noticed this she started focusing heavily on the sounds. Only to find that she had forgotten her breathing. She alternated between the two of them, focusing on her breathing as much as she focused on sound, but finding that she could do only one at a time.
"You're putting too much energy into one goal," Aang's voice came from beside her.
Mai didn't respond; didn't even open her eyes.
"Toph taught me this back when she was my teacher….and long before her, the monks at the Air Temples used to teach little kids this way…" Shaking his head quickly, he focused back to the topic at hand. "Look, what I'm saying is that you're putting too much focus on one thing. You're trying to hear so strongly that you're forgetting to do one thing, and then you're trying to breathe so accurately that you're forgetting to listen. What you need to do is put only a little bit of effort into both of them, so that you can do them both at the same time."
Mai didn't like the sound of that. All her life, complete and undivided focus had been how she had trained herself. All those times she was bored and locked in her room, throwing knives and sais and darts at walls and score boards, it had been because she had focused so much. Complete and utter focus, that was what had caused her to be so good.
But now, Aang was telling her not to put too much focus into one thing.
Mai had never trained that way, but she was willing to give it a try. After all, this kid could placate himself for hours at a time, so obviously the advice had some merit.
Just a little bit. A small focus on her breath, and a small focus on the noise. At the same time. Felt like sitting in a conference room, being told by her mother to sit still and be quiet and behave. Mai focused harder to forget that memory, and the bitter, vile feeling that came with it.
A small bubble of hate rose up; she squashed it down.
Suppressing emotions was the one thing she was a master at.
Breath and noise, breath and noise. Those two words circled in her brain and drowned everything out until it was the only thing left in her mind. She could feel each deep breath she took, and could hear better to the point where the humming came back to her.
"Congratulations," Aang said to her in a low voice, "you've done well."
Mai opened her eyes a sliver, then flung them open. It was nighttime; the world was completely dark and the moon was high in the starry sky. When she had began, it had been early sunset. That was how long she had been sitting there, focusing.
Her jaw actually dropped open.
"See? Meditating isn't so boring after all." Aang gave her a small smile, then stood up. "It's late, we should probably get heading to bed."
Mai silently agreed. She pushed herself up off the floor, making her way out the door. Before she left, she turned back around to Aang, already regretting what she was about to say.
"You know…I wouldn't mind doing this again some time."
"Neither would I!" Aang returned, just as Mai closed the door behind her. When exactly, neither of them knew. But being patient, they would both find out sometime again.