DISCLAIMER: Still don't know who owns them.
WORDCOUNT: 1106
RATING: PG.
SUMMARY: Zuko. Mai. And their version of compromise.
be sure of the terms. I did check Wikipedia, but if you find something out of the norm (ex: Earth Nation instead of Earth Kingdom), please tell me?

Written for cornerofmadness at July Requests.

THE MEANING OF COMPROMISE
by Leni

Fear was not allowed to Fire Lord Zuko. Neither was hesitation.

Caution, however, was a concept that any firebender worth their salt understood. The higher and brighter the flame, the more respect its master had to show towards it.

"Mai?"

Seated atop a small mountain of pillows, his wife made no response.

Zuko stifled a sigh, glad that he and Mai were alone in the room. Ty Lee had jumped to her feet when he appeared at the door, and after a quick look at her two old friends, the former circus performer had thrown her body into a complicated pirouette that ended in a small bow - a small, neutral bow, Zuko had noticed. Moments like these, where Ty Lee knew better than to give an outward show of deference to either, reminded Zuko that the carefree girl had indeed been raised as Azula's companion in the intricacies of life at court.

"Mai," he repeated, striding into the chamber.

Mai's fan fell onto the pillow.

He halted. There was only one reason for Mai to prefer that her hands were empty. In Zuko's opinion, their time in different sides of the battle had made him acquainted enough with her daggers. "We should be able to discuss this as adults."

She arched a skeptic eyebrow.

That was better. He'd held many a discussion with her eyebrows before. "It is only one meal." Zuko noticed her eyes starting to narrow, probably trying to choose a target. "I wouldn't ask if I didn't feel it was necessary for the continuing good will between the Fire Nation and the Water Tribes."

The fabric of his sleeve rustled for a moment, before a piece of it was shredded away.

The dagger's encounter with the wall behind him echoed in the room.

Zuko took a deep breath. In the five years since the reconstruction, Mai had been a very reasonable woman. She'd accepted that her father was to be pulled from his vantage position in foreign land and brought back to near anonymity in the capital. She'd pressed her lips tight, but nodded when he announced to his private circle that servants from other lands and their descendants would get the same wages as a Fire Nation purebred. She'd stopped all contact with those who backed Azula, even though those same people had been her closest acquaintances since childhood. She had allowed Toph's presence in her private dressing room before the wedding ceremony, as a nod to the new alliance between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom.

It had helped, Zuko had contemplated both then and now, that Toph's origins were of much more elevated status than what the girl's behavior suggested.

But the time for allowances seemed to be over. Mai had put her foot down, and despite all the messengers Zuko had sent to his wife, she still refused to break bread with a Water Tribe commoner during the harvest festivals.

Not before the eyes of the whole nation.

Not during the most important celebration in the land.

Her pride, she'd said calmly in her husband's rooms three days ago, did also have a limit. She'd stood beside the bed and, uncaring that her hair would be unbound when she left, had informed Zuko that if the Fire Lord had no care about what the people thought of his wife, the Fire Lord's wife didn't have such a liberty. Lady Ursa had had no followers and no friends to help her in her time of need, and Mai did not intend to follow his mother's steps.

She was to be respected.

Zuko, open-mouthed and still holding a fistful of hairpins in his hand, had watched her leave.

Now, all his gifts returned and his pleas for reconciliation sent back with their seal unopened, Zuko was retorting to the best, and most tried, weapon in his arsenal: face-to-face confrontation. It'd served him well enough during his quest after the Avatar; how hard could it be to face the woman he loved?

The sharp arch of Mai's eyebrows was answer enough.

Zuko sidestepped the discourse he'd half prepared the last night, forgot about the imprecations of what a good wife should be like. "There's a solution."

Her eyes met his.

"We announce Aang's and Katara's betrothal at the beginning of the harvest season." Mai took that in, and when her mouth lost the straight line between her lips, Zuko knew that the repercussions had been noted. "That way you won't just be sitting next to a tribal chief's daughter, but also the Avatar's future wife."

"They'd do that?"

Zuko wasn't surprised at the question. Unlike he and Mai, Aang and Katara had decided to give their relationship more time to grow and mature before a public engagement. Their situation didn't require any drastic measures, unlike his own when he'd found himself lord and master of a nation and yet unable to stop the sudden river of feminine attention. Mai, he remembered with fondness, had kept her silence and watched the spectacle, until the night two ladies, both firstborns of equal-ranking army generals, had made a scene about whom the Fire Lord should ask for a dance first.

If he waited any longer, Ty Lee had enlightened him during a practice, bodies would start making their appearance around the palace. And, she'd laughed as she dodged a fireball, nobody would be surprised at the shuriken daggers imbedded in them.

Two weeks later, he'd been married.

"They would," he answered. Once he'd made his decision, he'd even asked the couple first. Then he smiled. "In fact, I think Aang is happy to have a good excuse to speed things up. Now, Sokka may try an assassination attempt or two, but he'll get over it."

There, Mai's lips had twitched.

Zuko beamed in response and inched closer. This time, no unsaid threat stopped him. "So -" He sat next to her, trying to find balance on the soft pillows. "- does the new arrangement suffice?"

Mai gave a slow nod.

He scooted a bit closer, covered her hand with his. "And I'm forgiven for my shortsightedness?"

She nodded again.

"And you won't try to kill me again?"

Her eyes flew to his torn sleeve, and her fingers followed suit to examine the slashed silk. Instead of contrition, though, her hand fisted around the remains and her lips broke into a smile. "Not today." Her shoulders were no longer tense, her eyes soft and accepting. Her eyebrows had lowered into a find, reposed line, and her entire expression spoke of….

When she opened her mouth, Zuko covered it with his own.

He needed no translation.

The End
20/07/09

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