Disclaimer: Don't own the characters, M&B do.

A/N: Wrote this in response to an ASN request for some young!Maiko fanfic. I love musing about Zuko and Mai interacted and became friends before he was banished. Plus, Mai has become one of my favorite characters to write POV fics about...her head is extremely interesting to explore.

Knives

"Mai, come here!"

She flinched, as her father's all too familiar hand clamped firmly and harshly around her wrist. She was more or less yanked across the floor and out the door, dragged along as usual on her father's everyday business.

She hated that feeling, despised it with a passion. The feeling of being weak and helpless and towed in someone else's wake. Of being small and defenseless and unable to fight back and make him let go.

That was how she had decided to become a fighter.

How she chose her weapons, however, was another matter entirely.

******

"And…lunge. Left swipe, bring it around…uppercut! Sweep and disengage."

Mai tried to breathe quietly, so he didn't hear her. In truth, she was almost as enthralled with his lesson as he was, but for different reasons.

Every day now she followed him here, to this small, secret corner of the palace where he practiced with such fierce concentration on his face. It was like a guilty pleasure to her twelve-year-old self, watching him parry and thrust, spin and lunge, every day getting smoother and more skillful.

But today, he was doing something different. He straightened out of his battle crouch and turned to face a target on the wall Mai hadn't noticed before.

She could almost read the eagerness in his expression as he spun the knife in his hand, eyeing the round circle of wood.

And then, in one graceful motion, his body drew back, and he threw the knife.

Mai never noticed the fact that the knife hit only the bare edge of the target, or that the throw was unbalanced and didn't fly true.

Everything about it captured her in that moment.

The smooth flow of Zuko's arm and torso as he threw. The clean, soft whistle of metal cleaving air. The raw, beautiful thud as the point struck wood. The liquid flash of silver through space.

Mai's breath came out in an involuntary whisper. It was not loud, but apparently it was loud enough.

Zuko turned, looking afraid and furious at the same time. "Azula? How many times have I told you not to—"

They both froze, staring at each other for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever for Mai. She was poised to run, unable even to breathe. She couldn't believe Zuko had caught her watching him. She wanted to get out of there, but his surprised gold eyes held her fast.

And then, to her extreme shock and relief, he relaxed.

"Oh, hi Mai." He still looked unsure, but nowhere near as hostile as a minute ago.

"Hello, Prince Zuko." Mai remembered enough to bow to him, but she couldn't help the way her tongue tripped over the greeting. She hoped he didn't notice.

He blushed slightly. "Hey, you don't have to call me that, you know. There's no one else here." He rubbed the back of his neck, averting his eyes. "And don't bow either. Azula likes it when people do that, but it makes me feel weird."

"Um, okay Pr—Zuko."

Zuko nodded in brief approval of her save, and just the sight of the small smile that touched his mouth made her stomach drop in a strange way. Then he frowned slightly. "Were you watching me?"

Mai knew she had to recover herself quickly. "Not really," she said, trying to sound offhand. "I was walking by and I saw you practicing, so I was just…glancing in." Which was a massive understatement, but what was she supposed to say to him? Yes, actually I watch you every day, admiring how brave and strong you look when you practice, wishing I was important enough for you to look twice at me, and entertaining the idea that one day you might fall passionately in love with me. What a perfect way to open one of her first one-on-one conversations with the prince of the Fire Nation.

But apparently her answer was good enough. "Just don't tell Azula, okay? I know she's friends with you…but she'd kind of…laugh…if she knew I was doing this."

He looked so nervous and pleading that she answered without thinking twice. "Of course." And even when she did think about it, she realized it was true. Azula was nice to her most of the time, but there was something about Zuko…she would do anything for Zuko. His gold eyes were so earnest; there was nothing calculating or sharp in them, as with Azula.

Then she remembered the reason for giving herself away in the first place, and her eyes flew involuntarily to the knife he still clutched in his hand.

He must have followed her gaze, because he held the knife up. "Pretty neat, huh? Uncle sent it to me from Ba Sing Se." She saw the way his eyes lit up when he spoke of his uncle. "Mom says she once saw a soldier use them for throwing, so I thought that would be a good idea. But I'm not so good at it." He looked rueful.

Mai almost had to bite her tongue to keep from blurting out to him that he was no such thing. As it was, she was distracted when, miracle of miracles, he held the knife out to her.

"Want to hold it?"

She was very nearly struck dumb with awe. Prince Zuko, the Zuko she secretly liked, was handing her the very same knife that had touched her deeply somehow.

She found herself reaching for the knife as if in a trance. Her fingers touched the smooth wood of the hilt at the same time they brushed against Zuko's hand.

A feeling like an electric shock lanced up her arm and tingled down her spine. She had a strange feeling, like something had moved and shifted in the world. She looked at Zuko, wondering suddenly if he had felt it too.

He was gazing at her with a mixture of uncertainty and friendliness, most likely wondering why she was standing there with only her fingers resting on the knife handle.

Quickly, she snatched the knife up, feeling more embarrassed than ever. But she forgot embarrassment soon enough. The knife slid like magic to fit the curve of her palm, settling with an ease that felt almost fated. She looked at in wonder, curving her fingers over the hilt, feeling instinctively how to hold it.

"Do you like it?" Zuko looked eager; the eagerness of someone sharing a treasured possession with another person. Mai realized that this was probably the closest moment she had ever had with him. They were almost like…friends.

The thought made her a little unbalanced.

"It's beautiful," she told him, and it was the honest truth.

"It says, 'Never give up without a fight' on the blade," he said, pointing. "I'm always going to remember that. If I'm going to be Fire Lord one day, I have to be brave."

The resolution in his eyes, combined with those striking words, made her heart pound. She knew that like it or not, she would always remember that phrase too, if only so she could keep this memory of him.

"You know what, Mai?" Her head snapped up, and another tingle went through her as he said her name. "You're a lot easier to talk to than Azula. And less annoying than Ty Lee. You don't say too much, or call me names, or help when Azula tries to play pranks on me." He gave her a genuinely warm smile, and the tingle turned into a pleasurable shiver. Then, as if it was of no consequence, he waved at the wooden target and said, "Do you want to, uh, try a throw?"

Mai swallowed to keep her mouth from falling open. Instantly, to her shame, the response that she thought of, the one she knew her father would have used, rose to her lips. "But I'm a girl."

And to her even greater amazement, Zuko shrugged. "Mom says there are lots of girl fighters. The mother turtleduck in the pond is the one who's always biting me. And Azula…well, I'm pretty sure girls know how to fight too. Try it."

Mai looked down at the knife in her hand. Then at the target. And then, with the tiniest glance out of the corner of her eye, at Zuko. Zuko, who was actually encouraging her to try this.

Feeling more self-conscious than she ever had in her life, Mai drew her arm back, trying to mimic the stance Zuko had used. She closed one eye, trying to do something sophisticated looking. She knew showing off in front of him should be the last thing on her mind…but she couldn't help it.

But when she actually got up the courage to throw the knife…she forgot about showing off.

It felt so smooth, like a dance, like water. She could feel the way the knife left her hand, the way it split the air, as though part of her was flying along with it. The way her body twisted in compensation for the movement.

The knife grazed the edge of the board, nicking it, and then clattered to the floor.

But somehow, that didn't disappoint her. Mai knew there was something right in what she had done, in how it felt. It didn't matter that she had missed. It wouldn't have mattered if she'd thrown it a mile wide.

Zuko retrieved the dagger from the floor, and turned to her. "That wasn't bad," he said, and even she could hear how he purposely deepened his voice, trying to sound like an instructor. It didn't bother her in the least.

"Really?" She was a little embarrassed at how eager she sounded, so she tried again. "I mean, it wasn't that great."

"I don't know. There was something about you when you threw it…like you'd done it before. You just need practice; that's what Mom always says about my firebending. Here, you should try again. Who knows? Maybe you'll get really good at using it, and I'll let you be part of my royal guard when I'm Fire Lord. Maybe you'll save my life or something, someday."

He grinned slightly at her again as he held the knife out so she could try again.

And as Mai reached across and took the hilt, the slim Earth Kingdom weapon making a bridge between them, she knew she'd found her element.