Mai had never been more disappointed in herself. She'd known from the day she left new Ozai exactly how Azula would spring this on her. She thought she'd prepared herself. Judging by the sudden acceleration of her pulse when she entered the former Earth King's throne room, she had failed.

"Ah, Ty Lee, Mai, glad you're back. All the prisoners have been taken care of?"

Zuko turned to his right to leave the throne room when he saw two figures walking towards him and realized Azula hadn't been joking. There were a few seconds of silence in which he tried to obey the immediate, instinctive reaction to turn around but found that he couldn't move.

"I'm sorry, Mai," he finally heard Azula say once she was done savoring the effect. "Looks like you won't get to bury a knife in the idiot's chest, after all." He felt her hand on his right shoulder. "Pity you couldn't get it back in the same condition you lost it, but can't be helped, I'm afraid. I'm sure you can still have fun with it before you find a new one, of course. We've all earned a little vacation after all our hard work – I do hope you two enjoy it." She patted her brother's shoulder again before turning her attention to Ty Lee, evidently finished with them now and ready to move on to matters of the kingdom she'd just conquered. Mai wondered if it was preferable or not to know that Azula didn't intend to use up the fun of messing with her brother and friend all at once.

Even when the other two girls had walked out together, Mai at first did nothing but continue to look expressionlessly at Zuko. She would not do him the dishonor of looking away. She'd been wrong – no amount of wanted posters could have prepared her for this sight. She remembered the reason he bore that scar. She thought of his position, hers, his sister's, his father's, and their nation's, and realized she couldn't tell him here how well such a sign of courage suited him. She could only show him by the boldness of her glance that she didn't despise it.

Zuko was surprised when Mai remained behind after her friends left. He didn't suspect he was the only one of the two who had to resist the urge to look away. He stepped closer to her until they were only a few inches apart to force himself to see as clearly as possible how beautiful she looked. He deliberately looked at the reflection of his scarred face in her eyes. He was determined not to look away before she did.

Neither of them said anything – words, especially unnecessary ones, were never their favorite style. The silence and stillness began to make Mai wonder if she was only dreaming. Zuko was shocked when her first movement was to reach out and touch the left side of his face. Without planning to, he put his hand over hers, terrified she would pull it away. They each heard the other's silent confession in that touch.

If the first sight of each other had caught them off guard, that was nothing compared to the discovery of how much pain the other had endured for three years.