Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar or its characters.
A/N: I wrote this not long after The Boiling Rock aired, because I was just desperate for some Maiko-ish writing. The fact that there was all that Maiko love and no actual reunion killed me. So I wrote this...and then it kinda turned into not only a Maiko story, but a Ty-Lee/Mai friendship fic. Hope you enjoy.
Imprisoned
"Hey, you! Yeah, you, right there. You think you're tough, with your armor and your firebending? I've seen old ladies with scarier auras than you!"
I exhaled a long breath through my nose, but I couldn't help letting a small smile touch the corners of my lips. It was definitely an experience listening to Ty Lee test the boundaries of her bad-mouthing skills, which I didn't even think existed until a couple days ago. I was lucky she was here. It felt a little less lonely when you had someone shouting at the guards outside the cell door every few minutes, each time with more original insults. Especially when they were coming from a face much more suited to flirting or pouting. In fact, Ty Lee had used flirting to her advantage for the first couple of days…until the commanding guards had wised up and assigned only older and female guards to the cell.
"Hey, come back, you...uh...thick skulled, numb brained...uh...morons!" I heard the heavy tread of the guards receding, and knew they were walking away. I leaned back uncomfortably against the iron wall.
"Aw, they left." Ty Lee turned away from the tiny window in the cell door and looked at me, her round face pinched with disappointment. I just nodded wearily, absently staring at the floor and tracing my fingernail through the dust.
Ty Lee flung herself down next to me, wrapping her arms around her knees and sighing gustily. She stayed like that for a few seconds, and then she started fidgeting, before flopping down on her stomach and propping herself on her elbows, legs waving idly in the air. Another few moments, and she rolled onto her back with another huge sigh. I just stayed quiet. I had gotten used to Ty Lee's constant, restless movement; she wasn't used to staying still.
I looked down and realized with a guilty, painful start that I had sketched Zuko's name into the layer of dust on the floor. I swept it away viciously with one hand before Ty Lee noticed.
But she always noticed; as ditzy as she seemed, she was perceptive. Her round, innocent eyes looked sadly at me. "Sorry, Mai," she said softly, for the millionth time since we'd been put in here.
"It's not your fault," I muttered for the millionth time in answer. "It was my choice."
"It was the right choice," Ty Lee said, her voice surprisingly serious. "Even if it got us put in here."
"Was it?" I whispered, almost to myself, looking at the clean-swept smear on the floor.
"Of course!" Ty Lee sat up abruptly, looking almost panicky. "You know it was Mai." She looked sorrowfully at me. "You did it for Zuko."
I turned violently to face the wall, my back to her. "Shut up, Ty Lee." My voice was colder than I'd intended, and I snuck a look from the corner of my eye to see if my words had brought on tears, as I would have thought. But perhaps she'd grown tougher; her jaw was set in a stubborn way.
"Zuko loves you, Mai." My jaw almost dropped at her sheer boldness. Usually when I showed such dislike of a topic, she'd drop it nervously and start babbling about something else. But she seemed determined to follow this line of conversation. I, on the other hand, was not. I responded with icy silence.
"He does," Ty Lee insisted. She seemed to want me to understand this.
"I wouldn't be so sure," I said bitterly, clenching one hand into a fist. His face flashed before me, tight with pain and indecision, fierce with sorrow. The hollow words written on the parchment he'd left me echoed in my head...I'm sorry you have to find out this way, but...
"What was I thinking?" I muttered to myself. And honestly, I did wonder. What had come over me three days ago, when I kicked my way out of a locked cell and went to save someone who'd locked me there in the first place?
"You weren't thinking," said Ty Lee gently, but matter-of-factly. "That's not what you do when you love someone."
Agni, where had this wisdom spouting sage come from, and what had they done with Ty Lee?
"Ty Lee." I couldn't imagine why I was arguing with her; I must be even more bored than usual. "He dumped me with a letter, went off to join the Avatar, and then when I finally see him again he locked me in a room. Sounds like love to me." I let the sarcasm seep heavily into my voice.
As always, Ty Lee was unfazed by my cold anger. "He did what he thought was right," she said simply. "Like we did. Look, what else would have made you stand up to Azula? You told her yourself; you love him."
I thought of the icy rage that had coursed through me as when I faced Azula, the sudden power that had allowed me to speak so defiantly to the princess of the Fire Nation. I would have fought her then, I knew, lightning and all. I would have fought her as long as I could, as long as it made that steady hum of the gondola keep moving away from the island. And yet I still didn't quite understand why.
"You would do it again," said Ty Lee very quietly from behind me. I could feel her large brown eyes boring into my back.
I leaned my shoulder against the cool stone and closed my eyes.
She was right. I would. If the choice was given back to me, I would always choose him over Azula. Even if it made no sense.
But all of this lovely, heart-opening talk didn't change the fact that Ty Lee and I were alone and imprisoned.
"Cheer up, Mai." Now Ty Lee sounded more like her chirpy self. "Someone will rescue us eventually. If Zuko can make one prison break, he could probably do it again."
"Sure," I said blandly, letting my monotone voice cover my emotions like a veil.
There was a scuffling, and then Ty Lee was leaning against me. Very carefully, as though she thought I might bite it off, she inched one arm over me. Then the other one around my front. She leaned on my shoulder with a soft, very young-sounding sigh.
Ugh, hugs.
But I didn't pull away.