An Act of Mercy
By justicar347
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, but I do own a vivid imagination.
Authors Note: This is set a week before Zuko gets his scar. Zuko is 14 and Mai is 13.
Mai had decided that a stroll around the palace would be a good way to kill some time. Azula and Ty Lee had thoroughly worn themselves out practicing gymnastics in the court yard. The two of them were now taking a nice, long nap. This of course meant Mai was left to her own devices.
Mai did not expect to find anything particularly interesting as she let her feet carry her in no particular direction. She just found that moving made it easier to think. Topic after topic floated through her mind. She pandered over her two friends, what it would be like when she returned to the academy in a few weeks, and what would they be having for dinner.
Mai's thoughts were broken as she heard a door opening down the hallway she was about to walk down. Someone was trying to sneak out of a room without making much noise. Mai quietly peaked her head around the corner. She saw that it was Prince Zuko and a slight blush came to her cheeks. She watched as he quietly shut the door and started down the hall.
Her mind raced. What was he doing? Where was he going? Why was he trying to be so cautious in a part of the palace that few people were in? She let her mind mull over these curious thoughts as she watched his back retreat down the hall. She usually only saw Zuko for brief moments. The young prince had no interest, for admittedly good reasons, in playing with his younger sister and her two companions. Mai wished it were not that way. She really would like to get to know him better. He always seemed so sweat and in spite of his sister, he was always determined to do whatever he set his mind on.
After a moment's hesitation, Mai stealthily started after him. Her heart was pounding as she fallowed him down one hall, then another. Her silent feet swiftly carried her from one hiding spot to another as she trailed behind him.
As she started to round the next corner, two hands snaked around and grabbed her. She yelped as she was pushed hard against the wall. The hands that had grabbed her now pinned her arms at her side. As the initial shock wore off, she looked up and saw that her captor was none other than the prince that she had been following.
Zuko looked down at her angrily as his hands tightened on her wrists. His face moved closer to hers and his hot breath washed over her face. She could feel her face burn, not from the heat, but the realization of how close he was to her. "Why were you following me?" he asked as he glared into her eyes that were now wide with fright.
Mai could feel her face flush with embarrassment. She wanted to tell him the truth. She wanted to tell him that she was curious about him, that she wanted to know him better. She wanted to, but could not. What if he was angry, or worse, what if he laughed. Looking at the floor in shame, she lied, "Azula wanted me to spy on you."
She heard him growl and was worried as she felt a surge of heat around her wrists. She knew how much Azula liked to torture him, and it would not be the first time she had enlisted her companions' aid in the endeavor to make her brother miserable. Mai did not believe him to be as cruel as his sister, but bad tempers ran in his family. He could give her terrible burns now if he wanted and there was nothing she could do to stop him. Maybe that's what she deserved. She closed her eyes and braced for the worst.
She opened her eyes in shock when she felt the grip on her wrists release. She watched as Zuko let out a breath and calmed down. He was going to let her go. He really was nothing like his sister. What happened next was an even bigger shock. "Well come on," he told her as he started back down the hall.
"W-what?" she asked in amazement.
He just turned and looked at her. "If you tell Azula that you got caught, she'll be really mad. She might even burn you," he said. She new he was right; Azula did not accept failure lightly. Of course in this case, Azula was not really a concern. "If you don't want that to happen you'll have to keep following me."
"T-thank you," Mai said as her adoration of the prince rose, "but why?"
"I just don't think you should have to go around with some horrible burn scar on your face or something like that just because Azula didn't get her way," he said with a sigh, "Now are you coming or not?"
Mai nodded, unable to speak. She followed after him in silence as they made there way through the palace. Zuko lead her up to the top floor to a closet that contained a hidden ladder. She followed him up the ladder and through a trap door.
They were now standing on the palace roof. The noon sun was beating down on there heads. Mai tried to put her normally bored tone into her voice as she asked, "Why are we up hear?"
"This is why," Zuko said as he walked over to a small pin. Inside the pin was a dragon hawk with its right wing in a sling. "I found him with a broken wing a month ago after a storm. He should be ready to go free in a couple of days. I've been taking care of him since then. I think he was a trained messenger hawk because he is pretty tame," he told her as he fed the injured bird a piece of meat. He held a piece of meat out to Mai, "Do you want to feed him?"
Mai gingerly took the piece of meat, willing her hand not to shake as her fingers brushed his. The two of them spent the next ten minuets feeding small pieces of meat to the hawk.
When they finished Zuko stood up and sighed, "I'll have to find a new place to hide him once Azula knows he is up here."
Mai understood what he meant. She knew that Azula would have no problem harming the bird to cause her brother pain. "You don't have to, I won't tell her that you have him up here", she said in a low voice. Admittedly she was not actually spying for Azula right now, but the idea of defying the princess still made her stomach turn in a knot. Still, even if she was, Mai did not think that she would turn this information over. How could she after the mercy he had show her. "I'll just tell her that you spent your time practicing your firebending."
"Thank you Mai," Zuko said as he looked at her. Mai turned her head to hide the blush of her cheeks.
They parted in silence after retuning to the palace. Mai made her way back to where her friends were still napping. She found a comfortable place to lay down. As she lay there, she let her thoughts wonder to the prince who she had received an act of mercy from and then preformed one for.
Mai looked out her window to the ocean. She was doing all she could to hold back the flood of emotion inside her. She had been devastated when Azula had delivered the news of Zuko's humiliation. Azula had vividly described how her father had scared and banished her brother.
It was all Mai could do not to cry. Zuko did not deserve this. He had always been such a nice boy. She had hoped that she would get to know him better after they had shared the secret of the dragon hawk he was hiding. She had finally worked up the nerve to go and talk to him, only to discover that he had been sent on a quest that might well be impossible.
A few stray tears ran down her cheek till she looked up into the sky. Soaring above her was a dragon hawk. As she watched it, she thought of the secret she had shared with Zuko. His mercy and his determination were the traits that made her so infatuated with him.
As her mind mulled this over she dried her tears. Zuko was determined. He would rise above this like a dragon hawk rises above the land. She would see him again, and she would have the courage to talk to him when he returned. Until then she would have to live with her memories, particularly the one where they had shown each other unexpected mercy.