AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Just testing the waters on the whole Mai-and-Zuko-as-kids-thing. I hope it's not too cheesy ^^
And I don't own "Avatar". :)
SOMETIMES
Sometimes, he still thought of her.
Okay, so maybe not just "sometimes". Every day, actually.
.
When he saw a knife, he sometimes did. He thought about how they'd once had a little contest, trying to find out who was better at aiming when it came to that. In the little backyard, behind the library, while the sun made her knives blaze and her black hair glisten. She'd outplayed him so brilliantly that he could just stare at her. Sure, the girls from the "Royal fire academy" were all pretty well trained, but so was he!
.
She just shrugged at his gaze, and raised an eyebrow cheekily. They were eleven, or something, and she wasn't as shy any more towards him. They sometimes hung out together. When Azula was annoyed with her for her "weariness" and would shoo her away, she sometimes sat next to him in the garden. Mostly, they just sat there, quietly. It was kind of cool, though. She was.
.
Sometimes, he thought that she didn't really like Azula all that much, and that she might just be here because that simply was, what her parents wanted her to do. Other times, he secretly presumed that she might want to be here because of him. He liked that thought.
.
Sometimes, when he heard someone laugh now, he thought back to hearing her laugh. It hadn't happened that often, but when it did, it had caused him to laugh as well. He'd liked her laugh. She wasn't like Ty Lee or Azula. When she laughed, it did never sound silly or mean. It just sounded nice.
.
Sometimes, when he lay in bed now, he wondered where she might be. If she ever thought of him. If she really had had a crush on him, back then, like he hoped. And if so, was she ashamed of that by now? Was she hating him, like so many people were?
.
He sometimes imagined what she might look like, now, almost three years later. He sometimes dreamed of her, too. Of seeing that secret smile she preserved for special moments. Of hearing her make some ironic comment or pessimistic joke he couldn't quite remember any more after waking up. Of her being silent, just sitting there, next to him. Near enough to touch her arm, if he tried.
.
If he was being totally honest, she sometimes was one of the main reasons why he wanted to go home and not to be a cast off any more so badly. If he was being honest, he really missed that girl. That silent, pretty, knife-obsessed girl from his childhood.
Mai.
