And the warmth of your smile starts a-burnin'

And the thrill of your touch gives me fright

And I'm shaking so much, really yearning

Why don't you show up, make it all right?

Yeah, it's all right.

And if you promised you'd love so completely

and you said you would always be true

You swore that you would never leave me, baby:

What ever happened to you?

Avatar: The Last Airbender is owned by Nickelodeon.

"Fool in the Rain" is owned by Swan Song Records.

This story is owned by me.

The events of this story take place after The Promise. If you haven't read that yet, then hand in your fan card.

Zuko hated rain

It wasn't enough that he hated being wet in general. All the tiny impacts always felt like insects crawling all over him. Not to mention that when the cold started to soak in, it would lower his body temperature and handicap his firebending. He wasn't exactly planning on setting anyone or anything on fire at this moment, but it was always good to have the option open.

But he had brought this on himself, and he was more than willing to stay in this rain until he drowned if he had to.

He was standing on a street corner in Capital City. He was all alone, with no royal procession, no bodyguard, no formal robes or crown to indicate who he really was. Abusing his power is what put him in this mess in the first place.

He thought he was done doubting his morals when he helped Aang defeat his father, but the crisis with the fire nation colonies changed all that. After being confronted by the lives he was uprooting, he had to change his mind on the Earth King's plan that he had so naively agreed to. In the tension and near-bloodshed that followed, he had felt more alone than he ever had in his life, like no one understood the position that he had been put in.

No one, that is, except for the man that he had put in prison and helped depower. The man who, even now, still knew exactly what to say to manipulate Zuko into doing whatever he wanted. The man who he hated more than anyone in this world.

And the man who he, for some reason, had asked for advice from. That decision had almost cost him all of his friends, the peace he had worked so hard to achieve, and even his very life.

But worse than all of that, it had cost him Mai.

Now here he was, dressed like a commoner, drenched to the bone, standing outside her house. She had moved recently. After her father refused a position in the new regime, her family's incomes had dropped significantly. He had knocked several times with no answer, and waited out here for hours, but he was willing to wait forever to talk to her.

He knelt down to get a pebble out of his shoe when he heard the voice he was so desperate for, just as disinterested and annoyed as ever.

"What are you doing?"

He stood up and her saw her. She was holding an umbrella and wearing a simple red and black dress with the large sleeves, so he could tell she had brought her knives. Well that's not a good sign. He wondered why he hadn't heard the door open. He knew that if he hesitated for one second then he wouldn't be able to say any of the things he wanted to.

"Mai, I know why you've been keeping me waiting out here for so long. Believe me; I know that I deserve that and whatever else you can come up with." Crap, maybe I shouldn't have said that. She can be quite creative where punishments are involved.

Mai frowned, looking from back to the house to him, "Zuko, I don't—"

"Please, Mai, please just let me finish, and then if you want you will never see me again. Mai…I know we've never said this very often, but I love you. I love you so much that I still feel the need to protect you, even after everything that I've seen you do and knowing what you're capable of, even though you're the strongest, smartest, most independent person I've ever met. You're much stronger than I'll ever be, in fact," he said this last with sadness and shame, "I will stay out here until I drown if that's what it takes to get you to understand that."

"Zuko, that isn't—"

"Please, Mai. Because I was protective of you, I felt the need to protect you from the burdens and stresses of my position. I'm sorry I didn't trust you with that, especially since I've shown that I'm not good enough to bear these burdens on my own. When I try to handle these things myself, I end up doing things as stupid as asking my father for advice. I defeated Azula, not by relying on myself, but because I had friends there to help me. You would think that after that, I would have learned my lesson. But my friends aren't good enough. I need you, Mai. No one else is as supportive and trusting in me when I deserve it, or more critical and tough on me when I don't. Without you, I don't even know who I am. When I'm not around you, the whole world goes to hell, apparently. I know that I can't take back the mistakes that I've made. I can only promise you that if you can forgive me, then from here on out, we're a team. I trust you more than I will ever trust another person, and I swear that I won't forget that again."

He had reached the end of what he had rehearsed, so he paused awkwardly to take a breath, "That's what I needed to say, but if you still hate me, I understand."

The expression on Mai's face was completely unreadable. Zuko held his breath. She looked at the house they were standing in front of, and then back to him.

"That's not my house, you moron."

"…Sorry?"

"That's not my house. I live down there," She pointed to a house across the street and a few houses down, "I saw you standing out here an hour ago and just thought you were some crazy homeless person. It wasn't until I came out here to tell you to scram that I recognized you. That house is unoccupied."

"…Oh"

Zuko didn't know why he bothered planning things anymore.

Mai sighed and rolled her eyes, "Come on inside before you freeze to death, genius. I don't need my relationship problems causing a power vacuum and a civil war."

She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him under the umbrella. Zuko saw the corner of her mouth twitch up just a fraction of an inch. To anyone else, it would have appeared like her usual dour expression, or maybe a sarcastic smirk, but to Zuko she might as well have been giggling.

He pressed closer to her to get completely under the umbrella, and she responded with wrapping an arm around him, getting wet herself. Maybe rain isn't all bad after all.