Ty Lee twirls and twirls, and twirls... and twirls some more.
"I get it. I get it. I can't even see the dress at this point. It's just nauseating," Mai comments with a sigh, waving her pale hand for Ty Lee to stop. To please stop with the endless spinning.
"Well, what do you think?" Ty Lee asks brightly with her hand placed firmly on her hip. She grins, staring at Mai and expecting an answer.
Mai sighs. "It looks... like clothes."
The only valid response to that is a nearly painful roll of Ty Lee's grey eyes. "Like clothes."
"What do you want me to say about it?" Mai sighs, lying down on her bed and gazing at the ceiling helplessly. She hopes Azula dies in a horrible accident for leaving her to deal with this. It is cruel that Mai feels this way about her friend, and she does care about Ty Lee a good deal, but Ty Lee's prep for the Victory Parties is absolutely needless.
"I want to look sexy this time," Ty Lee says fiercely, nearly pouncing on Mai.
For a moment, Mai thinks that perhaps Ty Lee is coming on to her. She glances at the bed beneath her and wonders if she should flee, but then it immediately makes sense. Ty Lee is adjusting her bra, her chest beneath her fingers. She is most definitely aroused by her own body, and Mai thinks that perhaps that is one of the many reasons she and Azula would be sickeningly good together.
"You want Azula to seal the deal, huh?" Mai sighs, rubbing her temples. She wishes she did not find this so funny.
"Of course," Ty Lee says, spinning again.
"By attracting the attention of every male and a couple types of females in the entire Upper Caldera?" Mai suggests with a cocked eyebrow. "Azula is jealous and she's just going to be pissed off."
Ty Lee rolls her eyes. "Maybe that's the plan, Mai..."
Mai would ask, if she actually cared at all.
The party is stuffy, hot and utterly frustrating. Zuko's hand on Mai's knee is making her damp and uncomfortable with sweat, and she assumes her head is doing the same thing to his neck. They are curled quite proudly in the corner, watching the party. Zuko seems quite afraid of answering any questions directed at him, and Mai is comfortably allowing Ty Lee to have the spotlight she has always dreamt about.
And Mai and Zuko get to discreetly make out. Everybody wins.
"Are you looking at Ty Lee?" Mai asks teasingly and Zuko's eyes widen. He looks genuinely startled as he tries to place them somewhere other than her and her dress and what is barely contained in her dress.
"No, no, I would only look at you," Zuko stammers, and Mai's knee becomes significantly more sweaty.
"I think it's working. Whatever her ridiculous plan is this time," Mai says, shrugging and wiping Zuko's hand on her skirt. That certainly removes any of his attention lingering on Ty Lee. Azula, however, simply cannot look away.
"Ridiculous plan?" Zuko asks as Mai is slipping his hand underneath the fabric of her formal clothes. He is then extremely grateful when Azula walks over and Zuko has no need to think about mathematics and Pai Sho. It is literally impossible for him to be aroused with her staring at him, or looking at him, or generally being in the vicinity of him.
"Well, it looks like you two are hiding from something," Azula purrs and Zuko squints. Something is off about her, but he cannot quite place it. "Unlike certain people, who accidentally mistook this political and formal party for a gentleman's club."
Mai nods at Zuko as subtly as she can, but he does not notice.
"We can make out all we want!" Zuko snaps at Azula and people at a nearby table stare briefly before returning to their conversation.
"I am completely uninterested in your certainly dull and unfulfilling sex life," Azula says, turning. Zuko follows her gaze and suddenly Mai's comments make sense.
"No one is stopping you from... actually don't. Azula, please don't ever do what she is doing right now. I will never be able to have sex again. At least don't do it in front of me."
"As much as I would love to destroy your happiness, I have to go show how much I do not care about her inappropriate and prostitute-esque behavior." And she is gone, sauntering away as quickly and arrogantly as she came.
Mai leans to kiss Zuko, but their solitude is interrupted by another one of their only two friends bumping into their table.
"Azula was here?" Ty Lee asks as she ducks out of sight of the men she was hitting on as hard as she could.
"Yes. She seems really disinterested. She's over there talking to Admiral Outdated-Haircut," Mai says dryly, pointing in the general direction of Azula.
"Oh, she keeps stealing glances." Ty Lee grins in a way that Zuko had never imagined on her face before. It is maniacal, not cute and fuzzy. "See her jealousy, Mai? See it? I feed on that..."
And then Ty Lee is also gone.
After dinner has begun and the tables have settled, Zuko and Mai escape the party and go for a walk in the beautiful courtyards and gardens surrounding the Caldera Country Club. The long talks about the fall of Ba Sing Se are all the same at this point, and Mai can tell that they make Zuko uncomfortable.
Whatever happened there was hard and upsetting for him, even more than just betraying his Uncle. Mai holds his hand and kisses him, and has to admit, while she was told by Azula and Ozai both to try to keep Zuko's head screwed on and focused on the Fire Nation, she doesn't hate spending time with him.
"Oh, Zuko, look away. I want to have sex with you again," Mai says quietly as they pass an alcove in the elaborate stone garden that is filled with sculptures depicting major victories in the One Hundred Year War. This party was intended to celebrate the unveiling of the new one based on Ba Sing Se.
"Why do ─ oh." And Zuko does look away.
"I think she's smarter than we give her credit for," Mai says as she tugs Zuko behind a statue and drags him on a quick and quiet escape.
She is pretty sure Zuko just saw more of his sister than he ever wanted to in his life. Well, the parts that were not covered by Ty Lee.
"Well, Azula didn't get the nickname the Gold Eyed Monster for nothing." Mai shrugs.
"I thought it was because she has gold eyes and is terrible and probably hiding fangs and claws somewhere."
"I wonder where she's hiding her fangs and claws. Would you like to go back and spy?"
"No, no... no."