A/N: just a little Maiko love. And a short fanfiction, but I'm just kind of going with it. I hope you like!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, all rights go to their proper owners.

Zuko was often ridiculed by his friends that the fire nation would never get a Firelady. He was with Mai, but he had never thought of proposing. He was preoccupied. He was with her whenever he had free time but the thought of marriage? It had just never come to him. Sure, maybe he asked her to move in with him after feeling something stir in him after Sokka and Suki's wedding but that was the biggest step they had taken. He was only twenty-two, and Mai was twenty-one. And it kind of freaked Zuko out to think that Sokka, who was twenty-one like Mai, was already expecting his first child with Suki. Zuko walked down the hallways to Mai's room.

He opened the door to the room. Mai stirred in her sleep and her fingers closed gently around the shuriken, ready to strike.

"Who's there?" she mumbled as she woke up.

"It's me," Zuko rushed. Her grip on the deadly blade slackened. She looked at him.

"You okay? It's not even morning yet," she asked. Zuko came further into the room.

"I'm just…thinking," he muttered

"About…?" Mai prompted, lacking her usual disinterest.

"You. Me. Us," Zuko admitted. Mai's eyes altered to hold all of the secret fears she'd had.

"Zuko?" she asked hesitantly. Zuko sat on her bed and held her in his arms.

"I'm sorry," he muttered.

"What?" she asked sharply.

"I'm sorry for the Fire Nation, and for you. I know why I've been so depressed the last couple months," Zuko explained. Mai frowned, waiting for him to tell her that he didn't love her anymore.

"Mai, will you marry me? Will you be the Fire Lady?" Zuko asked her. Mai chuckled and kissed Zuko.

"Zuko, what I love about our relationship is that we don't have to label it. We've been through so much that it doesn't matter. Do you remember at the boiling rock when I betrayed the girl I thought was my best friend and my uncle? I betrayed the princess and the warden. Zuko I did that because I've loved you since we were children. I don't want you to ask me to marry you because Sokka and Aang tease you. I want you to marry me because you love me," Mai sighed; her voice was both loving and had its normal…dullness.

"Is that a no?" Zuko asked dejectedly. Mai rolled her eyes.

"I'm not going to say no, you idiot. But I just want you to know that I don't care if I never marry you as long as I know you love me," Mai told him. Zuko smiled at her, she let a small smile flicker across her lips.

"We're getting married," he smiled. Mai kissed him.

"You're an idiot," she told him.

"I can't be Firelord and an Idiot," Zuko muttered.

"Then I guess you save all of your idiocy for me," she mumbled happily. Zuko pulled the covers over her again and kissed her forehead.

"Go back to sleep, I don't want you to be cranky in the morning," Zuko teased her. Mai rolled her eyes but then sunk down into her covers. Zuko loved how she grew to be more open around him.

He smiled to himself, soon Mai would be his wife…and that meant the entire world to him, even if the proposal had come from a spontaneous and sporadic moment.

After all, their relationship was a bit spontaneous.