Here's chapter 2.

Again I apologize for the delay.

Thank you, duckman12, for reviewing. I forgot if I sent you a message thanking you or not (curse me and my bad memory), so I'll just do it now instead of sending another one (if I sent one in the first place)

Zuko knew what to do next. Unfortunately, he had to wake up Mai very early in the morning, just before sunrise. Luckily for him, her family was already up.

"Mom! Make it stop already!" Mai was covering her head with not one, but two pillows to help prevent the horrible sound that was coming from her brother. He had been wailing for almost half an hour now, and it was way too early for that.

"I'm sorry, Mai. Do you think you could do any better?" her mother was about as aggravated as Mai was.

"I'm not his mother!" She spat back. "Why do you have to be right outside my door? Can't you go to the other end of the house?"

Her mother was about to reply, when they heard a knock at the door. "Who could that be at this hour?" her mother asked herself. She turned to her husband who was sitting on the couch contemplating on whether to leave or not and asked, "Look out the window to see who that is. If it's a guard then you deal with it."

The former governor obediently and sleepily looked out of the window to see who the visitor was. "It's Prince Zuko," he answered. "I'll go get it." He started making his way downstairs, when his wife stopped him.

"No, we'll have Mai get it," her mother said, actually sounding pleased in the midst of everything that was going on. So, her father knocked on Mai's door.

"Mai, get the door," he said groggily.

"I'm not getting out of bed," she replied.

Her father shouted back angrily due to the lack of sleep. "You WILL get that door! I'm not going to deal with this right now. You understand?"

Not wanting to put up a fight she responded with an unapproving, "Fine."

She got up and put her robe on, and walked down stairs to get the door, glaring at her parents in the process.

Zuko could hear the baby inside and the yelling coming from the residents of the house and wondered if he had come at a bad time. He was about to leave, if he hadn't seen someone coming to the door.

Mai knew better than to open the door without knowing who it was and peeked out the window. She sighed when she saw him, and opened the door.

Zuko blushed when he saw her. Her hair was pulled back in a low ponytail and flowed over her right shoulder. She was wearing a robe overtop of her nightgown, which she pulled tighter around her as she noticed him gawking at her.

"Can I help you?" she asked, slightly annoyed.

"What? Oh, I'm sorry," he replied stupidly.

"Mhmm."

"I was just wondering if you wanted to go on a walk with me?" he asked nervously, not quite sure of her response.

She stood there for a moment or two pondering this over. She heard her mother yelp and something crash upstairs and looked back at the prince. "I need to get changed before I go. You can come in if you'd like." She paused for a moment. "Although you're probably better off out there," she added as she heard an ear-shattering wail come from upstairs.

Zuko followed her in and decided to sit on the couch in the entry hall than risk going upstairs where all of the commotion was. Mai appeared from the top of the stairs only a few minutes later. Her hair was in its normal style, but a little messier than usual, and she looked liked she rushed to get ready.

"Are you ready?" he asked her.

"Please, let's get out of here. Now," she said.

To Mai, it seemed like they were wondering the city aimlessly. Just staying on the same road, and would only change directions if the road ended. Zuko was not wondering aimlessly though. He knew exactly where he was going.

Mai stopped after a while of following him. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"You'll see," was his only reply.

She looked at him with one eyebrow cocked questioningly. He ushered her to keep following him, and she reluctantly continued.

As they got to the path that lead up the sides of the crater, overlooking the ocean on the other side, Mai realized where they were going. When they got to the ledge at the end of the path that overlooks the ocean and the sun that was rising behind it, Zuko sat down and Mai followed suite, keeping her distance and sitting a few feet away from him.

After a moment of silence, Mai produced a sigh.

Zuko looked over at her and smiled. "I know orange isn't your favorite color but-" He started to speak but was interrupted by Mai.

"Why did you want me to come here, Zuko?" she asked, not sounding in any way amused.

Zuko took in a deep breath before answering. "I just want everything to be the way it was."

Mai closed her eyes. "I don't think it'll ever be the way it was."

"Why not, Mai? Why can't it be? Everything in my life was hard except for you. You were always just easy for me-" Zuko was cut off again.

"I was easy?" she asked angrily.

"No! Not like that! Let me word this better." He paused for a minute or two trying to think of how to say what he wanted to say without getting her more upset with him. "When Azula set us up on that 'date', it felt so natural being with you. We didn't struggle or anything. I mean the thing with Jin was pretty awkward, but after that…after that it just went so smoothly. Why can't it be like that now?"

Mai shook her head and leaned back against the rocks behind her. "You have no idea how bad you hurt me."

"Well then, give me one." She looked at him. She wanted, for two months now, to tell someone how she felt. Just to scream it at someone, but she couldn't. She didn't know why, but she couldn't.

"Look, Zuko, I just can't." Mai got up to leave, but Zuko grabbed her arm and pulled her back down.

"Why not? Why can't you tell me? You can't keep everything bottled up inside you forever. You have to let it out sometime, Mai. I'm giving you the perfect opportunity now. No one is here to hear you except for me. Please," he pleaded with her.

She relaxed a bit and took a deep breath. "Fine. You want to know what's wrong? I have never felt so alone in my life. Never. My best friend was killed by my other best friend, who is insane and on the loose running around, who knows where. The guy who I was in love with, ran off without telling me, and obviously didn't think twice about Azula raiding my home before I got back after the invasion. I've had nobody to talk to, not even about what was irking me, just no one who I could just hang out with. If people who I actually want to concern myself with are not around, I should have some time to myself right? Wrong. My parents are home, and all they do is nag me about everything. They don't even try to find out what's wrong with me. All they do is worry about my brother, and worry about finding some rich, pompous idiot for me to marry. God forbid, I actually like this guy." Mai let out a deep breath and turned towards the prince. "Are you happy now?"

He was stunned. He had never heard her talk like this. To be so passionate about something, and to be so hurt. "Mai, I'm…I'm so sorry. I didn't know…"

"Zuko, I don't want you to take pity on me. I want you to understand," she said.

"I do, I just never thought about it. I guess I forgot that Azula and Ty Lee were the only other ones who you actually liked being around." They just continued to stare at the sunrise, in quiet tranquility, before either one spoke again.

"You weren't there when she died, were you?" Mai asked.

Zuko looked at her. She looked genuinely sad and hurt. "No. We didn't come until after we heard Azula strike her. Katara tried to heal her, but it was too late." Mai's vision started to become blurred and her eyes grew cloudy. A single tear slid down her cheek.

"Did you know she was going to kill me next?" she asked, with no hint at what she was feeling other than that tear.

"No," was his only response.

"I had always known Azula was cruel, but I never thought she'd actually kill Ty Lee or I. I mean, we were supposed to be her friends," she paused as another tear came. "How could she even convince herself to do it?" Zuko realized this is what Mai wanted to talk to someone about. This was why Mai needed someone. She couldn't talk to her parents about it, they wouldn't understand. She needed to talk to someone who could understand what it was like to lose someone close to them. Then he realized, from what she just said, he almost lost someone else.

The thought came over him. He almost lost Mai. If they came any later, they wouldn't be having this conversation. They wouldn't be having any anything, even the heated glares he had gotten at the party a few days ago, and he would rather have those than nothing.

All the sudden, he embraced her. He took her in his arms, not wanting to let go. Instead of squirming out of it, like she would've done at the beginning of their 'walk', she cuddled up against him and started crying on his shoulder. Not sobbing, just crying.

They sat there in silence for what seemed like forever. Zuko holding onto Mai as if he was never going to let her go, and Mai, with her head buried in his shoulder, having silent tears streaming down her face one after the other.

Wow, that was longer than I expected, but I liked it. When I had Zuko mention about their 'date' in Ba Sing Se, I was referring to the one in the Avatar magazine, which is really awesome. I wish they would've shown it on the show instead of in comic form though.

Yet again, no guarantee when the next chapter is coming. The only reason this one came today was cause of snow and a bomb threat.