For those who have read part 2 of Smoke and Shadow, Zuko mentions to Suki he went on a picnic with Mai a couple of months before they broke up and Tom-Tom was brought along with them. I thought I'd give an idea of how said picnic went. Cover image are images from Part 2 of Smoke and Shadow edited with Paint. Enjoy!

It was around mid-afternoon in the Fire Nation and in the Royal Palace in Caldera City, Firelord Zuko was changing out of his Firelord attire and into his former crown prince robes. He and Mai were going on a picnic and he didn't want to attract any unwanted attention from the palace staff nor the public. He already had a picnic basket ready on his bedside table filled with food and was hoping Agni would be on his side when it was time to sneak out of the palace so he wouldn't be forced to use the royal palanquin as that would definetly attract unwanted attention. He really needed a break from being Firelord with everything on his mind; all the new responsibilites he had were causing him stress and there had been 4 attempts on his life. Apparantely, some people prefer a Firelord that tries to burn down the Earth Kingdom with help from Sozin's Comet rather than a Firelord who helped the Avatar to end a century of fighting between the 4 nations. But it wasn't just the pressures of being Firelord that had him on edge or the assassination attempts; he was also trying to handle the responsibility of running an entire nation without turning into his father as well as dealing with his sister Azula being in a mental asylum for almost a year now, the search parties for his mother all coming up empty-handed (including June and her Shirshu!) and worst of all, he couldn't reach out to his uncle for help. He hoped that this picnic with his girlfriend would take some of the pressure off him. Now that he was ready, he grabbed the basket from his bedside table and began praying to Agni in his head.

Agni must have been on Zuko's side; he was able to get to Mai's house unseen. Either that or the palace staff were acting like they didn't see him in attempt to not anger him. The assassination attempts had made him slightly paranoid which caused him to snap at his guards for not noticing until their Firelord did. He knocked on the door and after a few seconds, the door opened revealing Mai. "Hey Zuko." she said with what sounded like tiredness mixed with disappointment. Zuko looked puzzled, they hadn't even gone on the picnic and she was already cranky. Zuko could tell something wasn't right "Mai what's wrong?"

"Mai! Who's at the door?" came a little boy voice from inside the house. Mai opened the door more to show Zuko her 3 year old brother Tom-Tom playing on the floor with some toys. He looked up from his toy pile to Zuko, who smiled at him a little. Tom-Tom gave a bigger smile to Zuko and waved at him. Mai then turned back to her boyfriend "My mother's busy running errands and I'm stuck watching Tom-Tom until she gets back... and that probably won't be for hours, so I don't think we'll be able to go on that picnic we planned to go on."

Zuko felt sunken at this. He understood that someone had to watch Tom-Tom, but it hurt that they wouldn't be able to go on this picnic. It wasn't easy for the Firelord to find some free time and it could take days, maybe weeks to find another day to do the simplist of things with Mai. But he supposed it wasn't the worst thing in the world. He then sighed "Okay, maybe we could find another day to go on a picnic." He then kissed Mai on the cheek and began turning around to leave. Mai saw how upset he was and came up with a solution of sort. She grabbed his shoulder and turned him around "There might be a way of going on this picnic... if we took Tom-Tom with us, then it should work."

Her solution wasn't entirely flawless to Zuko; he was hoping to have some alone time with Mai and if Tom-Tom was with them, they would have to watch over him. So basically, she was asking him to join her on babysitting duty. Still, this was a rare time of free time and it would be foolish to waste it. Zuko reached a conclusion "I suppose that could work."

Mai then invited him in and went to a desk and grabbed some paper and an ink brush "I'll just write a note for my mother in case she gets back before us; don't want her panicing like she did in Omashu when Tom-Tom got kidnapped."

"Tom-Tom got kidnapped?!" Zuko exclaimed. Mai then realised that this was the first time she told Zuko this. Why hadn't she brought that up before?

"It was when my father was still the governer of Omashu... and well, that's what we thought at the time, Tom-Tom says he followed a flying monkey-rat with big ears over some roof-tops and down a giant slide, so really I don't know what to believe."

Zuko thought over that story in his head. He didn't see how it was possible for Tom-Tom to get on to a roof-top. As he waited for Mai to finish the note, he walked over to Tom-Tom and set the basket down on the sofa. He saw some drawings that Tom-Tom had done. One kind of resembled Aang's flying lemur Momo. It then hit him that that must be the "flying monkey-rat" in Tom-Tom's story. He still didn't get how that was possible, but he decided not to say anything as Mai would probably panic about her little brother's safety. Tom-Tom then looked up to Zuko with a big smile. Zuko smiled down at him, but secretly wondered, assuming Tom-Tom's story was true, how he could be so happy. Mai then finished her note for her mother and came over and picked up her little brother. "Where we going Mai?" he asked as he put his arms around his big sister's neck.

She smiled at him and said "We're going on a picnic with Zuko."

"YAY!"

Zuko smiled at Mai's realtionship with her little brother and she took his hand once he grabbed the basket and they set off. As Zuko closed the door, he thought in his head "And who knows? Maybe having Tom-Tom will make it more fun."

"Are we there yet?!" Tom-Tom asked in a whiny voice for the 11th time after 5 minutes of walking.

"Your turn to answer." Mai said quietly to Zuko so Tom-Tom couldn't hear her. Zuko forced a smile on and said "No, we're not." He then turned his head and whispered "Unfortunately."

After 5 more "Are we there yet?!" and 5 more "No, we're not." , they finally made it to the outside of the capital. Tom-Tom asked with an upset pouty face "Are we there yet?"

"Almost." Zuko and Mai both answered with relief. Tom-Tom brightened up at hearing a different answer to "No, we're not.". Mai the told him "We just need to walk up this path to behind those rocks and then we'll be there."

"Can't I walk up there? I'm getting tired."

Mai and Zuko looked at each other with wide eyes, but, Mai gave in to his request and put him down. As he began walking up, Zuko whispered sarcastically "He must have absolutely no clue how we're feeling about walking all this way." Mai simply smiled and let out a giggly exhale through her nose. She then said "I think the word he meant to say was bored."

Once at the top, Zuko recalled the picnic he and Mai had which was really romantic for him until Azula interrupted them. He hoped as he opened the basket and spread the blanket across the floor that Tom-Tom wouldn't do something like that. Mai helped him bring out the food in the basket and place it on the blanket. Zuko looked to see that Tom-Tom had found the fruit-tarts he had made for Mai. He picked one up, getting lemon curd on his tiny hands and looked at it curiously and asked out-loud "Why does this food has flower petals on it? Do you eat them as well?"

Mai looked up to see that her little brother had a fruit tart with rose petals on top, just how she liked them. She blushed at the thought of Zuko remembering her favourite pastry and that night they had with them, unaware that he blushed with embaressment, but seeing Tom-Tom's hand stuck in them began to throw her appetite off them. She then said "No you don't. It's just sometimes, people dress their food up to make it more fun."

"Why are your faces red?" he asked before taking the biggest bites he could out of the frut tart. Mai and Zuko looked at each other and Tom-Tom was right. Zuko then turned back to Tom-Tom and said "It's probably just the sun." Mai then smirked at his excuse as it wasn't that warm out and that there was even a mild breeze blowing. Luckily, the 3 year old bought the excuse and sat down, continuing to eat the fruit tart in his hand and apparantly disregarding Mai saying the rose petals weren't for eating. Zuko and Mai grabbed some buns and began eating in silence.

This didn't seem to be going well for Zuko. He didn't know what to bring up with Tom-Tom around and he didn't have much experience with young children, even if the Avatar acted like a child. Experience with Azula didn't seem to count either as when she was 3, she enjoyed calling him "Zuzu" and throwing her food at him at meal times. So, it was in a way nice that this 3 year old didn't throw a sticky fruit tart at him. Mai saw Zuko was uncomfortable with her little brother around. Not that she blamed him; she couldn't think of anything to say with him around and most topics would result with him asking lots of questions and that would result with her having to continue to fake smile as she answered his series of questions as simple as possible. Tom-Tom continued eating the fruit tarts. He was having fun being with his sister and her friend and was trying to work out why they weren't talking and just eating. But the food was too yummy, so he just kept eating with a big smile on his face. He reached for a plate with cookies on it, but Mai stopped him and showed him to the plate with some apples on it.

"I don't wanna eat fruit! I want cookies!" Tom-Tom pouted.

"I know, but you know if you don't eat fruit after eating loads of fruit tarts that that dragon inside your tummy will get very angry and make you feel sick." At the mention of "dragon inside your tummy", Zuko looked at Mai with confusion. Before he could say anything, Tom-Tom sulked "Okay." He grabbed an apple, but didn't take very massive bites like he did with the fruit tarts. She then looked at Zuko who mouthed out silently the word "a dragon?!" with a big sarcastic smile. Mai only widened her eyes and raised her eyebrows as a way of telling him with sign language "Not so loud!"

After Tom-Tom had finished the apple, he looked up to Mai with big eyes and asked "Now can I have a cookie Mai?"

Mai sighed "Alright, you can have one." She picked one up from the plate and handed it to him, which he happily munched on.

After some time past, the sun appeared to be setting into the ground. The sky was slowly turning from blue to orange and the food in the picnic was almost gone. Tom-Tom looked up to Zuko and Mai, who were still giving small glances and smiles to each other but were still not talking. Then, he looked between them and saw miny dots with a yellow glow in the air. He then looked around him and saw more of them. "What are those?" he said pointing into the sky. Zuko and Mai looked to see the glowing dots that appeared to be floating. Zuko answered "They're glow moths."

"Wow, they're loads of them." Mai said looking around them to see glow moths in every possible direction.

"It's probably the sunset, glow moths are attracted to anything that's bright." Zuko replied

Zuko then saw one glow moth land on Tom-Tom's nose which made him giggle. It then flew away, but Tom-Tom got up and began running after them and jumping up to the glow moths, trying to grab one while still laughing. Zuko wondered how could anyone get that much excitement from seeing and running after a bug, especially considering what he had been through in Omashu. Zuko then realised both of them had been through a lot in their lives; Zuko had been burned, banished and threatened while Tom-Tom had been "kidnapped" or at least separated from his parents and sister. How could he get so happy about the simplist of things considering what he had been through?

Mai's voice pulled him from his thoughts and gaze "Zuko, are you okay?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine."

Mai then asked with concern "Is something bothering you?"

Zuko sighed and said as he looked at Tom-Tom "How is it possible?"

"How's what possible?" Mai asked consfused.

"For him to get so much joy by chasing a flying bug despite what he went through in Omashu?"

Mai looked at him still jumping upwards and running after others glow moths. "My guess is just because he's still young and probably didn't understand what was going on at the time." Mai saw how hurt Zuko looked. She scooched over to him and held his hand. When he looked to her, she said "Sorry this didn't go the way you planned... I liked that you remembered how I like fruit tarts."

"Big, fancy and with rose petals on top." Zuko said. Tom-Tom slowly came over to them, his eyes half-closed. After he let out a big yawn, he said "I'm tired Mai."

Mai grabbed picked him up by his waist and placed him in her lap. He fell asleep instantly. Zuko then asked "What's it like having a sibling who doesn't try to kill you?"

"He kinda did when I was babysitting him. He made me chase him around the room with 2 of his toy dragons."

"You know what I mean."

"Maybe you'll find out one day." Mai said out of spite.

"Hmph, really? How? I don't ever recall Azula acting the way Tom-Tom does when she was 3 and I definetly don't have any other younger siblings."

Mai sighed "It was just a suggestion... was this picnic about something for you Zuko?"

Zuko sighed. He didn't want to tell Mai the truth as he thought it might upset her, but it seemed to be coming out anyway "It's pretty much about every problem I'm facing ever since I became Firelord. It's really hard handling all these responsibilities I now have and I thought some alone time with you might help bring down my worries."

Mai felt sympathy for him. It wasn't easy to accept a lot of responsibilities at a young age. As a child, it was hard for her to behave, sit still and to not speak unless spoken too. Although, hearing stories about the Kemurikage helped a lot. "I'd give you my method of handling responsibilities, but I doubt the legend of the Kemurikage would help." she said in her sarcastic tone, which made Zuko smile and give a minor laugh "Probably not." He then looked up to the sky, which now seemed completely orange "Wow, I didn't even notice the sky turn orange, maybe this wasn't so bad after all."

Mai leaned on Zuko's shoulder as she looked upwards "Wow, after all this time, orange is still an awful colour."

Zuko gave a weak laugh like he did the first time she said that "And you're still so beautiful when you hate the world."

Mai saw what he was doing and joined in "I still don't hate you."

"I still don't hate you too." They then finally kissed, but after a few moments, a yawn from Tom-Tom caused them to break it off. They looked down at him. He appeared to still be sleeping and it probably was just a random yawn, but Zuko and Mai both decided they should probably go. As Zuko put away the small remainder of food in the basket and Mai wrapped her brother in the picnic blanket, Zuko asked out of the blue "Why would you tell him that there's a dragon in his stomach?"

"It was the only way I could think of getting him to eat his fruit and vegetables."

They then held hands and as they walked back home, Zuko said "At least that interrupted kiss went better than the last one." to which, he and Mai smiled as brightly as Tom-Tom.