Chapter 2: Light to my eyes
Mai shifted her earth Kingdom robes and picked up Tom-tom. Though she didn't enjoy carrying a toddler around through a dense city crowd, she knew that if she set him down again he would take off running. Again. So she balanced Tom-tom on her hip and pulled her hat lower, hoping no one had was staring at her for sprinting after her brother like a madwoman. Oh, how she hated this city. Or at least this part of it, confined to the lower ring with the poor and the lepers. She had a faint notion that the smell would never wash out of these clothes. She once again thought back to the brainstorming session between her, Azula, and Ty Lee.
"Sources tell us that my brother and uncle are refugees in the Earth Kingdom city, Ba Sing Se," said Azula; "we need to find a way in without alarming the people of the city."
"We could sneak in," suggested Ty Lee brightly. "You know, like, quick capture them and sneak back out!" Ty Lee seemed very proud of herself.
"Oh, and how do suggest we sneak in?" Azula remarked coldly.
"Well, we could dress up like refugees!" Ty Lee grinned unfazed by Azula's negative attitude.
For the first time Mai spoke up, "There is no way we could sneak three people in to a city as well guarded as Ba Sing Se, besides the city is huge, we could search for months and never find Zuko or the Avatar."
All of a sudden Azula adopted an almost evil grin, "but we could probably sneak one person in, and that one person could probably locate Zuko and the Avatar and then send for the rest of us. And what reason would the guards have to question a young woman seeking refuge in the city while her husband is away at war, especially if that woman had a small child with her?"
Ty Lee started to clap her hands in celebration but Mai stopped it short.
"There is no way I am going to sneak in to the Earth Kingdom capitol with Tom-tom," she leaned back and crossed her arms.
"Fine," snapped Azula, "then we can have Ty Lee sneak in with Tom-tom. Either way that child is going to be the key to getting into the city."
Needless to say there was no way Mai was not trusting her brother to Ty Lee's care. Ty Lee couldn't take care of herself, much less a toddler.
Mai blinked at the sudden onslaught of maternal feelings for the child in her arms. Odd.
But as much as she hated to admit it, Azula had been right, the guards where practically trying to carry her bag for her when she told them her sob story.
As she came to a fountain, she exhaustedly collapsed on the bench. In her arms Tom-tom was squirming to get free, finally she turned him around in her arms.
"Tom-tom, if I set you down will you promise not to run off?" She spoke slowly so the toddler would be sure to understand. As he nodded with that false child sincerity she reluctantly set him down.
To her relief he simply splashed in the fountain and called out baby gibberish to the ducks.
She vaguely wondered if there was anywhere she could get some tea in this city. After years of the girl's academy she had acquired a taste for it, and found it to be quite soothing.
But her musings where short lived, for when she opened her eyes, Tom-tom was gone.
She jumped out of her seat. Where could he be!? Frantically she searched the surrounding area, but he was nowhere to be found.
She started running. She had no idea where she was running too, but only that she had to find him. An incredible sense of panic began to overwhelm her as she ran, sprinting through the crowds with abandon. Barely hearing the townspeople exclamations as she dashed blindly through the city.
Then she collided with something hard.
Both she and the man where knocked to the ground when she smashed head-on into his chest.
"Hey!" came his interjection one of haughtiness and hurt pride.
If it had been any other person in the world, she would have drawn herself up to full height and snootily told them where to step off, but this was no ordinary person. It was Zuko, Prince of the Fire Nation.
So all she could do was stare.
"Hey," He repeated, "who do you think you are?"
All she could do was stare.
"Hey, Woman," he said it as an insult, "I'm talking to you."
All she could do was stare.
Stare at the boy she had once known from the idyllic days in the palace. Stare at the person who had been her child-like obsession for years. Stare at the man who had replaced the sweet child of her past, with a proud, bitter, screaming adult who probably thought she was a complete idiot.
Yet strangely she found him even more attractive.