A little Maiko one shot of the night before the day of black sun. Warning! I haven't written a Mai/Zuko fic for a lo-o-o-o-ong time!
DISCLAIMER- I don't own Avatar or anything else, for that matter.
THE TASTE OF TEARS
She knew he was going to help the avatar. She knew he was going to leave a note explaining everything.
She knew because he had told her.
All he really said was that he was going to help bring down the wrongs of the fire nation and would tell her through parchment and pen.
And she accepted it.
Silence has always been a virtue Mai had been praised for. She kept it and acted like she knew nothing. Mai could hold onto waiting for his explanation, in which she would receive as he would be leaving the very next day.
This was why the two were up at three in the morning, just holding onto each other, watching stars and not saying a word. Zuko was holding onto her so tight...almost as if he thought if he let her go she would drown in the tears each wanted to cry.
Stupid pride.
He gently nuzzled his head against hers, pausing to give her a kiss to her forehead, letting his lips linger there.
"Come here." Zuko's low voice reassured Mai, pulling her gently into his lap, each looking deeply into each others eyes for a clue of the true emotion the other was feeling.
Little did they know they were feeling the exact same.
Angst, devastation, foreboding, loss, and hoping, praying, wishing that they would be able to see each other again.
"I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you too."
That's when it happened.
Mai squinted her eyes to try and stop the on coming tears.
It wasn't working.
One slipped from her eyes, than two, and another was threatening to reveal it's self.
"Mai, don't cry." Zuko's voice cracked, trying to comfort his beloved girlfriend.
He leaned in to kiss her, which she took from him willingly. He could taste her tears, salty and warm, running down her cheeks to his as he could now feel the hint of his own.
She broke it, tearing their lips apart from the other.
"I love you." Her eyes watered, shimmering teary eyes looked up into his.
"I love you too."
Screw pride.
He threw his arms around her, each had their head in the others shoulder as both of them...
...cried.
Flame away, my duckies! Flame away!