"Zuko, wait up!"

Hurrying to catch up to the young firebender in the pouring rain, Mai is jogging as fast as she can in red silk robes, which are a darker, more serious shade than most eleven year-old girls would wear, but that's just Mai's style, so to speak. Zuko manages to just slightly slow down to a jog on the rain-soaked, quickly liquifying gray ground. Both have been racing to make it inside Mai's home before the real downpour starts.

Picking up her skirt and cleverly weaving around the puddles, Mai's steps are much different than that of Zuko's, who is racing to get to cover, recklessly kicking up mud behind him.

"Seriously, wait for me!" Mai calls ahead.

"I can't, my feet will catch onto mud!"

"...And how is that important?"

"If I get wet and muddy Azula will have a field day making me look stupid in front of my parents, that's what!" Zuko shouts behind him in protest.

Responding, Mai yells back, "Well if you're so worried about falling, at least need to look out for the slippery marble, genius."

"I'm being careful, alright? Just because I'm running faster than you doesn't mean I'm going to fall—"

Mai sees Zuko's shoe hit the soaked marble before he even senses it.

One.

Two.

Three.

Almost immediately, twin flashes of silver appear flying through the air from her burgundy robes, pinning Zuko's sleeve to a painted wooden column.

Silently walking to the now shocked and flailing Zuko, Mai admits she's walking slightly slower than necessary, but it is nice to know that her weeks of clandestine target practice have paid off. Might as well savor the moment.

Well, now that I can actually hit a target (for example, the unsuspecting Zuzu, as Azula calls him) I might have something mildly interesting to get better at, or at least less boring than playing with dolls with Ty Lee or watching Azula go through firebending routines.

As Mai walks to the columns so that she is under the shelter of the overhanging roof, Zuko stops his muttering of "How did she do that? What happened?" and says,

"Is this when you tell me 'I told you so,' about slipping on the marble?"

Smiling ever so slightly, Mai responds,

"Eh, seems a bit cliché, don't you think?"

"I wouldn't exactly call it cliché to pin me to a wooden column with, what are these...barrettes or something?"

"Hatpins."

Flailing with indignation, Zuko responds, "But...that's just...insane!"

At this, Mai narrows her eyes and purses her lips into an angry scowl.

"You're exactly like everyone else, aren't you? Wanting me to stay still and quiet and bored!"

In her rare moments of anger, Mai's amber eyes blaze intensely, a sharp contrast against both her lackluster demeanor and dark robes. However, her anger quells, and with a crumbling edge to her voice, continues,

"Well, I'm tired of everyone thinking that I'm helpless, of the mask of being polite and naive I've had to put on every day for eleven years, my whole life. But I thought...I thought you would be different."

As she says this, Mai flings the rest of her hatpins away, but remarkably, they each hit the columns in successive order, her skill showing even when she doesn't mean for it to.

Motionless for a moment, she finally shakes her head, saying flatly, "Never mind, pretend this never happe-"

"No! That's...that's not what I meant!" Struggling more with his own inability to vocalize his thoughts, Zuko says,

"It's crazy in that I've never known anyone be so talented at something and keep it a secret. If you're so good at something, why hide it?"

Taken aback, Mai responds,

"I don't know...my entire life my parents have just treated me like a task on a checklist to make sure I don't cause any trouble, don't make my father look bad politically, don't bother them. Maybe I want to be able to do something interesting, just to know that...I can't be completely controlled. That I can handle myself, not be handled."

Nodding solemnly, Zuko says, "No, I understand. My father expects me to be tougher, more ruthless, like Azula. But you are really talented with knives, it's like you're a...secret warrior or something!"

Not even attempting to hide her smile, Mai replies a bit sheepishly, "Thanks, I'll remember that. So...do you mind not freaking out about me throwing knives at you to either of our parents? It...um...wasn't personal, just target practice. And, uh, hatpins aren't that sharp, so you wouldn't have been hurt. Much."

"Well, I don't mind being your target for knife-throwing. Much," Zuko responds with a trace of a glimmer in his eyes before adding, "Speaking of that, you think you could take these hatpins out of my sleeve? Thanks for keeping me from slipping on the marble, but I'm stuck; the pins really pierced the columns."

Mai's sepia eyes widen in surprise as she more closely inspects his sleeve affixed to the column: two silver hatpins intricately etched with designs are stuck straight out in the wood. Remarking just slightly gleefully, Mai says,

"You're right, they've both got to be at least an inch deep in the wood!"

"Yeah, that's actually really impressive, but what are we going to do?"

Thinking for a moment, Mai responds,

"Count to three, and we'll both pull them out."

Putting both of her hands on the left column, Mai can't help but notice Zuko's one free hand on top of hers: warm and dry, distinctive of a firebender.

One.

Two.

Three.

"Aughhh!" Zuko yelps loudly as his sleeve is finally freed, slipping slightly before catching himself on the wooden column. Handing over the two silver pins to Mai with just a hint of indignation, he sighs in relief.

Crossing her arms in self-satisfaction at the sight of Zuko getting flustered and fully smiling for once, Mai laughs, "Thanks, now hurry up, slow-poke, we have to get my pins before it rains!"

Sprinting before just a moment before slowing down for the firebender, Mai lets Zuko catch up to her, and they stride past the columns to collect the pins, Mai standing on her tiptoes to get some, and Zuko running and jumping to get others.

"He's going to slip on the marble again leaping like that. But it is pretty nice of him," Mai muses as Zuko struggles to get one last pin, this time with the help of brief firebending blasts to propel himself up.

"Zuko! Let me help!"

Just as Mai calls that out to him and begins walking toward him, Zuko frees the last one and skids back on the marble floor after coming down from his jump, the sliver of metal slips down, and again it's as if time slows down.

Three counts for the third time today, that's interesting.

In those three beats, Mai slides down to the floor and twist toward the marble, catching the wisp of silver just before it would shatter on the unforgiving stone. Studying the ornate pattern for a moment on the floor, she rises, flipping the dainty dagger through her fingers before it disappears into her robe.

Zuko watches Mai, astonished, asking, "Where'd the knife go, it just disappeared after you did the...acrobat sliding thing or whatever. That's amazing, how'd you learn to do that?"

Holding her hands up, Mai replies, "Years of practice, and hey, these billowy sleeves are useful for something!" shaking her sleeves happily.

Silent for a moment, Zuko says sincerely, almost desperately, looking at her with those amber eyes that seem too worldly for a boy of twelve, "Don't ever let anyone let you think you're helpless, or meant to just be handled. For Agni's sake, Mai, you've got to know that you're independent, and fearless, and just...worth it."

Mai quietly says, "Thanks, Zuko. Really, thanks." before laughing dryly a few moments later,

"You know, I think that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. Now, 'calm' and 'reserved' I get a lot."

Joining in on her laughter, Zuko responds, "Hmm, wonder why. Though you did without a sound catch a pin in what, five seconds flat?"

Mai grins to her friend and replies, "More like three seconds."

"Sure, whatever you say."

Strolling around the walkway of the building, the pair now has all the time in the world and are as peaceful as the falling raindrops near them.

Or maybe Mai's placidity has rubbed off just a bit on Zuko.