A/n: I don't Avatar. If I did I would do the casting differently for the movie. But I don't own Avatar at all. Please enjoy the story. I love constructive criticism so please review and comment. I'm still thinking of a way to separate Zuko and Mai, I like him partnered with someone else on the show. :D
Mai, expert blade wielder and current administrative minister of the Fire Nation, was approaching the Royal Records Chamber with disinterest. Usually she relegated such mundane tasks to her ladies-in-waiting turned personal secretaries, stupid but nonetheless available and submissive. Unfortunately, only ministers could enter the Royal Chamber and Zuko had asked her personally to deposit the documents.
Zuko. The name that makes her heart go aflutter. Azula would have laughed at the thought of Mai giggling at the mention of a boy's name, much less a political force. After all, the princess had promised her friend the exact same position before Mai had betrayed her. Betrayed. Such harsh words yet they sang true. Ironic, she rejected Azula's offer only to willingly take it up a few months later. The motivations may have had changed her mind she mused slightly amused.
With Azula, the position would become one of hidden agendas and secret plots. Azula had always been paranoid. For Zuko, it was one of endless paperwork and barking out orders. Which one was worse she thought to herself. Nevertheless she reminded herself: nobody forced her into this; she did it willingly and against Zuko's wishes. During the first month after the war, she realized that massaging the exhausted Fire Lord's back at night would do nothing to alleviate his stress. Seeing less and less of him, she decided to work in the newly reformed government. Zuko initially was apprehensive but after feeling his workload lighten, profoundly showed his gratitude through one day together that was far too short. Eventually she rose through the ranks and became the unquestioned minister. Soon after that, her responsibilities rivaled that of Zuko's. She hated irony, bored all her life, now she had too much to do.
Lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice the four pairs of eyes following her movement from the top four giant columns adorning the halls of the palace. They waited patiently, ready to attack at her weakest moment. In a flurry of metal, they bombarded the off-guard maiden with chains and shackles.
Mai surprised, but still sharp quickly evaded all the chains but one. Intentionally she let it loop around her arm and let it pull her off her feet. Unsheathing three knifes, she flung them at her assailant while being dragged towards him, trapping him in place. Upon reaching his body, her suspicions were confirmed. Dai Li.
From the initial attack of chains, she already had a hypothesis. They had used the same method to capture the Five Generals of Ba Sing Se. Effective against idiots, Mai found it uninspired. She had already incapacitated one, only three more. Calculating from where the chains originated, she flung five knifes towards the nearest one. The agent quickly fell, dropping from the pillar like a chick falling from its nest.
If only it were that easy, the man recoiled grabbing hold of the column, dropping of gracefully. Mai followed suit reaching the ground a few feet away. Before the other two could retaliate, she did two jump kicks toward the Dai Li on the ground. Hidden in her legs were stilettos that were sent towards the agent who apparently was aware of her specialty, flinging his rock gauntlets deflecting the stilettos.
No matter, Mai thought. Azula had always reminded her unyieldingly to never underestimate her opponents. At the landing of her jump, she dropped down using her momentum, and spun her body delivering a low kick towards her opponent. After knocking him of his feet, she flicked both her sleeves, trapping the surprised fool to the ground. Two more.
Without delay, she spun around, sending ten of her deadly knives towards another Dai Li running to attack her. Both created a wall, and then proceeded to try to smash her with it. She rolled away. They wasted no time barraging her with flying rock projectiles and earth stumps emerging from the ground. She evaded deftly and upon closing the distance on one of her foes, she began her final assault.
Sensing an opening, she leapt at her opponent, throwing two shurikens in his direction. Just as she forecasted, he formed a thin wall to take the hit. Landing on one of the blades, she stepped on the other and jumped over the wall. Above the unprepared agent, she twirled raining down her infamous blades, impaling his glove and clothes to the ground. One more.
This time she went head-on towards the demoralized enemy. She took out one of her heavier knives and shot it towards him. He blocked with a thin wall that was pierced easily by her blade. She followed it with two more spinning blades, an idea she just recently toyed with. They swirled on the outside of the thin barrier and then returned towards the middle sticking the agent to the wall by his sleeves. Done.
She had long realized that fighting against benders relied more on temperament than raw power. The force of the elements was often subject to the emotions of the wielder. And as such if Mai put on a strong face, and disarmed the enemy with her ferocity, the respective element would be weaker in magnitude or in this case substance. It paid off to always keep a cool head.
Without warning, dust quickly enveloped the hallway. Mai covered her face with her sleeve. There was another agent. And as quickly as she had that thought the dust disappeared along with all five agents. Mai berated herself for her stupidity. Scanning the area, she picked up the papers she had dropped during the battle. What were the Dai Li after she wondered?
Mother!" Zuko called after the formerly banished Fire Lady.
"Yes dear?" She turned to face him, tenderness and calm permeating around her figure.
"The Fire Sages just wanted to know of your decision regarding the designs for the formal coronation ceremony." Zuko answered politely, unable to avoid sounding like a child towards his mother.
"I'll talk to them later. Is there anything else?" She waited, and Zuko shook his head. "Then I'll take my leave, Fire Lord."
"You don't have to call me that mother." Zuko looked down at his feet. He hated it when his uncle and mother called him that. It was true but it nonetheless made Zuko feel wrong.
"Don't be silly. You're the Fire Lord. My Fire Lord." She smiled sweetly and left, walking softly.
Then just like that, it hit Zuko. The same feeling he had years ago, when his mother woke him in the middle of the night. Whispering melancholic words into his young ear, she said goodbye that night, never to be heard of again. It was the feeling that she was going to disappear. Zuko immediately ran after the woman he called mother.
She turned around, her face empty. Then everything went black
"Aaargh!" Zuko sat straight up, pushing the unusually heavy blanket above him onto the cold hard ground. His body was covered in sweat. Clad only in his pants, he could feel the dampness all over his body. Another dream of his mother, another reminder of his failure to find her, save her and to be with her again, he had them every night. It haunted him ever since he found out the truth from Ozai. The man that he used to consider father unflinchingly, told him the truth. Ursa was banished those several years ago, someplace faraway. Where exactly, even Ozai did not know. Zuko never thought hearing the truth would be so painful. It hurt more that even after an entire year, he still couldn't find her.
Even worse was the fact that Zuko could not look for her. He had the responsibilities of Fire Lord now. He barely had time to rest, let alone do anything as time consuming as searching across the world. The Fire Nation was in no better shape than the other countries. He made reparations to help the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes, leaving the Fire Nation in roughly equal terms with the other countries. It was no longer the formidable imperialistic capital of the earth. But then again, the nations lived in peace and the people were happy at the end of the war. It helped too that the Avatar supported him. No one would speak against Aang.
He rubbed his sore neck. He was tired and he could feel it in his body. Endless amount of paperwork, laws and negotiations deprived him of his sleep. He didn't even have time to practice his Firebending. Azula would probably kick his butt if they fought. Then there was Mai, his girlfriend. Instead of complaining or dumping him like he thought she would, she took the position of minister taking a lot of work off his hands. He never thought she would do that for him. Despite that, he still had lots of work. Even during healing sessions with Katara, he slept.
Realizing that he wasn't sleeping but healing with the Waterbender. It wasn't a blanket he pushed off it was Katara. He hopped off the bed to help his comrade. Unfortunately he landed right on her causing him to fall on top of her. Their faces were just inches apart.
"Zuko!" Katara shouted, pushing him off her. Somehow, as if the gods wanted to keep them together, he slipped on the water all over the floor and landed right back into the same spot. His face smashed into hers. Reeling from the accidental head butt, Katara suddenly remembered reading about compromising positions like this in romance scrolls the Fire Nation palace had lying around. Usually in those scenarios, the couple would have their lips touch accidentally, forming into a mind-blowing kiss. Sadly this was not the case for her. Instead Zuko's head slammed into hers, mimicking one of Toph's flying rocks. She had never wanted to kiss him before, but now she'd rather take the kiss than a mind numbing head bash.
"Sorry for that. You okay?" Zuko recovered faster. He stretched out one of his hands to help her, while the other rubbed the growing bump on his head. After getting to their feet, they both sat on the bed.
"Zuko. I know you're tired and I don't mind it all that you sleep while I heal you but please warn me when you're going to attack me." She said jokingly.
"Yeah, sorry about that." He smiled sheepishly. Unconsciously, his hands wandered toward the scar on his chest. Katara had insisted that she heal him the same way she did for Aang. In truth he didn't mind, it offered him some time to sleep.
Noticing his hands, she grabbed them over his chest. "Zuko I promise I'l do my best and heal you. It's the least I can do after you saved my life."
"You've already paid your debt to me…" He stopped seeing the look of determination in her blue eyes.
"Zuko let me do this." And with that she silenced any of his complaints.
Suddenly the door flung open, and Aang appeared. "You done Katara…." He stood there shocked. Katara hands were clasped over his chest over his heart! Not to mention their eyes were gazing at each other until he arrived. "Sossorry! I didn't mean to." And he slammed the door shut at the surprised and perplexed reactions of Zuko and Katara.
Aang was blushing furiously, he didn't think Zuko and Katara had that relationship. Wait, they didn't! Katara was his girlfriend. He blew the door open and jumped in prepared to defend his girlfriend. Again he looked at the perplexed and confused duo. Only then did Aang realize that their hands were over Zuko's Azula lightning scar. "You were healing Zuko?"
"Yes Aang what else would I be doing?" The feeling of confusion slowly being replaced by annoyance in her.
"Oh ok…I'll leave now." And noticing Katara's moody glare he sped off Avatar style. Katara had that 'leave or perish in my hands' look. He didn't want to die yet!
"Weird…" Zuko mouthed to disturb the uncanny silence that was in the atmosphere.
"Aang can really be weird sometimes."
"He's your boyfriend." Zuko shut up immediately after receiving a death glare from Katara. How he wished he could run like the Avatar.
Dinner was a much lighter affair. Zuko was seated at the helm of the table, reading a new provision, while sticking a random piece of food into his mouth. Mai didn't even bother eating, instead had laid out her work area in place of her plate. Aang was excitedly planning his next destination with Toph and Katara. Both of whom nodded when the boy's voice visibly pitched. Despite this disregard for intelligent conversation, dinner was always peaceful for the group.
"Its Royal Fire Flakes next. Who wants." Zuko raised his hand. Mai did as well. The others couldn't stomach the extremely spicy snack. Toph had made it a habit of calling out the approaching food before it entered the room. She then made rock directions for the servers to follow. It always amused her to sense the surprised reaction of the Fire Nation servants. Sokka even schemed to turn her into a restaurant mechanism of which she responded with a punch or more factually a beating. "When is Sokka coming back anyway?"
At this everyone visibly perked up. Katara missed her brother. One week was still the longest time they had ever been separated, ever. Annoying as he is, he was still always there, although not always reliable. Aang wanted direction mainly. Sokka always provided the what, when, where and how of the mission. Zuko usually had good ideas for government reform, much to the surprise of the Fire Lord. When Sokka wasn't busy chasing Suki, he came with great ideas, mechanical for the airships or otherwise for pretty much everything else. Mai let out a sigh; no wonder things had been so quiet. She hadn't even noticed the other couple missing.
"I think he's going to be back tomorrow." Aang answered. "They should be about done in Kyoshi island."
"I think we should welcome them back with a party!" Katara mused happily. "We could invite everybody, have lots of food, have the Fire Nation Circus and…."
"Oh and then we could turn it into a welcome-back holiday that we could celebrate every year! The great Sokka and Suki return!" Toph added sarcastically.
"Fine, I'll just make his favorite sea prunes." Katara glared at Toph, until she realized Toph couldn't see. "I haven't had them in a while either. Good thing I saved up the ones dad gave me."
"YECH!" Both Toph and Aang stuck out their tongue causing Zuko to laugh, infecting everyone. Soon the room erupted in laughter. As it died down, Zuko stood up and went on his way, giving a cursory kiss to Mai who didn't even flinch. She soon followed suit, tailed by several of her secretaries.
"Life's really busy huh?" Toph said.
"It can't be helped Toph, he's the Fire Lord."
"Katara's right, he has a lot of responsibilities now."
"All we can do is support him, and to be there when he needs us."
"I guess so…" Toph finally conceded.
Toph was sitting on the ground of the Royal Gardens inside the palace. Things had changed after the war. And selfish as it may seem, a part of her wished the war hadn't finished. During their travels, they were a family. Now, eventually, they would be separated. Zuko would be Fire Lord, although not spending as much time with him, he was very much her older brother. Sokka and Katara would be returning to the South Pole, a place she couldn't follow. She would be blind and defenseless there, two things she could never allow herself to be, two things her parents always thought she was. Aang would have to do Avatarly stuff and when finished would probably settle to the South Pole. For the first time since her art in the journey began, she felt alone. Hugging her knees closer, she tried to coat herself in her warmth.
Almost too late, she felt an Earthbender launch an attack. Springing into action, she defended herself with a rock.
"Who are you?"
"The greatest Earthbender in the world."
Toph's eyes widened, he wasn't lying.