Chapter 1: Zuko and Mai
"Zuko?" Zuko responded to Mai with a completely vague grunt.
"Zuko! I'm talking to you!" Mai snapped at him.
"Mai! I'm looking over very important documents!" Zuko tried to keep his voice level. Suddenly a servant came in. Mai glared daggers at him, while Zuko's eyes widened with excitement and hope.
"Firelord Zuko, we have uncovered those documents you asked for."
"Excellent. All the banishings through the time my father and mother were married to the time Azula was nearly crowned Firelord? And all information that could be found on each person?" The servant bowed deeply.
"Yes, my Lord." then the servant waved in four boys who couldn't have been older than fourteen. They were all hauling absolutely huge stacks of scrolls.
"Excellent!" Zuko praised, taking the scrolls from the boys. After he had the scrolls splayed across an enormous table in the middle of the room he gave each kid a gold piece for their help, then asked the servant if he could arrange someone to come by and filed the scrolls in his office soon. The servant bowed and left to do as he was told.
Mai just stood and glared at all of them. The servant hadn't even looked at her. Neither had the little kids. It seemed to her like the only one who existed around the Fire Palace was Zuko. It was always about Zuko. She had even had to get herself out of prison. Zuko didn't come for her, or at least send for her, no he had ignored her until she'd finally been able to release herself. Zuko started sifting through the piles and piles of scrolls.
"Clues about my mother must be here somewhere!" he was obsessed.
"That's what I'm here about." Mai said through her teeth. Zuko's head shot up, and he finally looked at her.
"Did you find something out?" he asked, his voice brimming over with hope.
"No! That's your problem! You're obsessed! I can't stand it! You hardly even talk to me anymore! No one will pay attention to me! At the beginning all my maids would fawn over me. 'Can I get you anything my Lady?'" Mai imitated her many servants.
"Is that what this is about? You're not getting enough attention?" Zuko asked disgusted.
"Yes! You barely look at me anymore! What's wrong with you? You've live without your mother for years, and now you have one tiny chance of finding her and you'll do anything! Even forget about me. Your true love. Your other half. The apple of your eye. The reason for your being!" Mai rambled on and on creating more phrases symbolizing her important role at Zuko's side.
"Wait! You want me to choose you over my mother. The woman who gave birth to me! The woman who protected me? The only woman I had loved for so many, many years? You want me to choose you over her?" Zuko was beginning to question Mai's sanity.
"Of course! I'm much more important than that lady. I make your life worth living. I make you happy. It's me or your mother. I'm not settling. I need someone devoted to Me." her arrogant expression turned to a murderous glare, "You used to be devoted to me and only me! Then you left! How could you leave? Leave me!? And then when you became Firelord I thought you'd finally have time to focus on me, but then you started becoming obsessed with your mother. I feel I've lost purpose in your life. But I know that that's silly because you of course will choose me. You've always chosen me when it really mattered." Mai concluded with all the confidence of the world. Zuko shook his head.
"But that's a lie. You've always been good at that. Lying to yourself, I mean. But no, Mai. I'm not choosing you this time. Just like when I made the biggest decision of my life, I'm choosing what's more important to me than you. Mai, I think I've realized that if there are things more important than you, then you're not my true love. My other half is still out there. Maybe I'll be able to find her after I find my mother." Mai's face contorted with rage.
"What are you saying! You're... you're... YOU'RE BREAKING UP WITH ME!?" she howled. Zuko looked her strait in the eye – he didn't want any confusion on the subject,
"Yes, Mai, I'm breaking up with you."
"No!" she screeched, drawing out the vowel. In her blind fury, she pulled a dagger from her sleeve and raced towards him. Out of nowhere a rock flung from a corner of the room. It turned into a thick cuff and held Mai to the wall. The three Dy Lee agents who had been watching secretly stalked from their hiding places. Zuko was glad he'd decided the Dy Lee were useful.
"Are you going to press charges, my Lord?" one of them asked as they locked chains around Mai's wrists.
"She just tried to take my life all because I want to find my mother. Yes. I'm pressing charges. She is a danger to all. Put her back in the Boiling Rock. Make sure they keep an eye on her. If she really wants to I'm sure she'll manage an escape somehow." Zuko commanded. Mai's hate-filled glare of death only made Zuko surer that he'd done the right thing. She really would have killed him if she'd been given the opportunity.
"Uncle?" Zuko asked that night. Iroh had already heard of Zuko's potentially fatal break up.
"Yes?" he asked finishing his Jasmine Tea.
"I've decided. I still don't know who I am – personality wise. I still don't know what I'm looking for. I've uncovered enough about my mother that I think I'll search some places, and while doing that I will search for the one who will complete me, but I know I can only do that when I find my mom. So, please Uncle, I know its not what you want, but will you please rule as regent until I return? Please? I need to find out who I am!"
"Yes Zuko. I know what it's like to not know who you are. Of course I will rule in your place." Zuko wrapped Iroh in a tight hug.
"Thank you Uncle."
Author's Note: I'm doing this with a friend, this chapter was by me Emily.
