A/N: I'm so sorry about the wait, you guys. I'll try to be quicker with the next chapter.


3.

"Hiya, Mai!" Ty Lee chirped. "Ready for that history test?"

Mai was, in fact, not ready. She had been busy this past week, mostly with what she had taken to describing as 'cleanup duty.' Strange rock formations had been cropping up in random places in the city. Lines scored into the ground, piles of rubble, that sort of thing. Mai was betting someone with…abilities had moved into town, someone who was confident enough in themselves not to worry about cleaning up. There hadn't been an increase in crime – if anything, the city had seen a decrease, but it was just inconvenient and odd.

She grunted in response.

"Ah, come on, don't be that way. Learning is an adventure and tests are part of that!"

"Joy. School."

Her mutter caused Ty Lee to glance at her, but despite her acerbic tone, Mai really wasn't that troubled. Ty Lee sensed this (probably by way of the ever-present 'auras' that she always talked about) and just grinned.

"Aw, Mai," she said as she slung an arm around her neck, "Don't be a mope on this beautiful day."

Mai huffed and removed the arm. "Your incessant cheerfulness is making me nauseous."

"Just the way it should be; all is right in the world! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and Mai is being a grump!"

Mai tried to flick her ear, but Ty Lee's torso swerved away in an arc that made Mai's back ache just by looking at it. Benefits of being a cheerleader, Mai supposed. Ty Lee had plenty of opportunities to hone her flexibility and acrobatics now, instead of doing something like running away to the circus, like she had threatened to do when she was nine. There is no one more suited to being a cheerleader than her, she thought as Ty Lee dodged out of the way of three pens that Mai had thrown at her in rapid succession.

"Missed me," Ty Lee crowed. She stuck her tongue out.

"Real mature," Mai said, but she was smiling. She knew that Ty Lee was distracting her on purpose, but she didn't mind.

Mai was usually ambivalent about school, considering it boring but necessary, but now that she had a boyfriend and a side job (though admittedly one without pay and stable hours), she found herself longing for it to end.

Mai was startled out of her thoughts by Ty Lee tugging on her arm. "We're going to be late! Come on, onward to learning!"

"Yeah, yeah, let's get this over with."

She did well enough on the test, and pretended to be paying attention in her other classes. Really, she just thought about throwing knives as she took notes. That kept her entertained enough as she hunched over in the appearance of dutiful studying. She was pretty sure that the teachers had marked her as suitably diligent.

She somehow made it to lunch, where Azula was lounging at their usual table and Ty Lee was all but bouncing in her seat. Mai guessed that there was some particularly interesting gossip going around, judging by Azula's self-satisfied expression.

Mai sat down gracefully, always aware of the stares. They were ever-present; Azula was the reigning queen of the school, with Mai and Ty Lee as her two lieutenants.

Yes, lieutenants. Because there was no question that Azula ruled through fear as much as charisma. People wanted to be her, be with her…and be on her good side, or else she could make their lives very difficult.

Ty Lee shamelessly lapped up the attention, oblivious – perhaps deliberately so – to any negativity directed at her as a result. Besides, any cruelty towards her was dealt with swiftly and without mercy by Azula and Mai.

"Okay, I'll bite. What happened?"

"Well, you'll never guess who was caught…"

She let Ty Lee's chatter and Azula's smirking comments wash over her. This was normal. This was familiar.

.

.

.

When Mai had been younger, her parents had forgotten to pick her up from school so many times that she had eventually just started taking the bus home instead. That arrangement continued to this day, even as they faithfully chauffeured Tom-Tom to play dates and such.

Okay, she knew that was a bit of an exaggeration, but they were definitely relieved not to have to remember all of their parental duties. But in any case, it was much easier for everyone involved this way – unless it started raining, as it did today.

By the time Mai got home, it was pouring and she really wasn't in the best of moods. She took a petty satisfaction in tracking mud behind her when she entered the house.

"I'm home," she announced to no one as she dripped on her mother's carefully cleaned floor.

She received no answer, which wasn't a surprise, and found her mother at the kitchen table, reading a newspaper. A few words caught Mai's eye: 'The Blue Sprit: Hero or Menace?' and 'Is His New Sidekick Trouble?'

Not a sidekick, was her instinctive thought, though it lacked venom.

"You're home." Her mother favored her with a distant smile.

Brilliant observation, Sherlock.

Mai blinked placidly.

"Oh! You've brought mud into the house," she said, vaguely distressed. "All over the floors."

"Sorry."

"Nevermind, dear."

Mai felt a stab of annoyance at her mother's magnanimous air, but shoved it down. A good thing too, as she wasn't able to stop herself from frowningat her next words. "Remember, your father and I are going out tonight, so you'll be watching Tom-Tom."

"What if I had plans?"

"Do you?" her mother asked absently, already returning to her newspaper.

"Just fighting crime by tracking down smugglers who work for the Phoenix King."

Even naming the most feared crime lord in the city didn't get any reaction other than a, "That's lovely, dear. Now remember to get Tom-Tom to bed on time."

"Yes, mother."

.

.

.

Tom-Tom had plopped himself in front of the TV and was watching cartoons avidly. Mai thought that she could almost see a string of drool trailing down his chin. She grabbed some textbooks and went to the kitchen, close enough that she could keep an eye on him, but not so close that she would have to interact with him.

She tried to study, but eventually gave it up as a lost cause and called Ty Lee instead, who spent most of her call being very sympathetic to Mai's plight. She was no stranger to family problems, particularly issues pertaining to siblings. Neither was Azula, for that matter, but Mai tended to stay away from topics like that when talking to her. It was a bit awkward being friends with two people who had as many conflicts as Zuko and Azula did. Mai tried not to take sides, and that included phoning Azula to complain about her little brother.

She fed Tom-Tom and got him ready for bed, ignoring his affectionate babbling. "Go to bed, kid. No, I'm not tucking you in."

He turned big eyes on her and let his lower lip quiver a little. To Mai's horror his eyes started gathering a bit of sheen to them.

She knew she was being played.

She tucked him in anyway.

.

.

.

Mai started to gain a reputation.

When a villain had referred to her as 'the Blue Spirit's new sidekick,' she expressed her displeasure in creative, pointy ways. From then on, she was described as "the Blue Spirit's scary new sidekick."

There were whispers now, things like, "It's not him you need to be worried about. It's her."

Mai was inordinately pleased about this. Zuko had just chuckled when she told him about the rumors and said, "Well, it's true."

The public was getting curious, considering that the Blue Spirit had always worked alone, and so there was much speculation regarding her role. She still didn't have a superhero alias, which was just fine, as the public decided to name her. It meant that she didn't have to come up with her own, and fortunately, it wasn't really something that she objected to.

She had glanced down at the paper one morning and saw a blurry picture of her and the Blue Spirit, looking intimidating as always, gracing the front page. Skimming through the article, she saw the sentence: "Inside sources within the superhero community are calling her Thorn."

What inside sources? Mai had wondered. And no one called her that anyway. Or, at least, they hadn't before. Now, a quick Google search revealed to her that the name was quickly gaining popularity.

Thorn. At least it wasn't something like 'Boomerang Guy.'

Expressing this sentiment to Zuko had gotten her an amused snort.

"Well, given the rose motif… You know, it actually does work," Zuko mused, reading the article "You are both prickly and beautiful," he said unthinkingly, then turned red.

A bit pink herself, Mai cut off his flustered attempts at backtracking with, "It's an acceptable name. I thought they would have gone with something like 'Gloomy Girl.'"

Zuko's startled laughter filled the room. "I like it. Gloomy Girl. Hey, you know, it's actually kind of catchy…"

"Don't you dare," she warned him. That only made Zuko laugh harder.

.

.

.

Life went on. Growing recognition from the superhero committee made it easier for her to make her way around the city at night, but she was tired come morning, which led to bags under her eyes. Mai had never cared overly-much about her appearance though. Ty Lee did comment on them, but Mai hadn't been spending as much time hanging out with her and Azula.

Between Ty Lee's cheerleading practice and their own demanding schedules, they hadn't been able to hang out in a while. Azula was busy planning world domination, or whatever it was that she spent her spare time doing. Mai's recent unavailability was explained away as a natural consequence of having a boyfriend.

Ty Lee had squealed when Mai revealed that she had a boyfriend, and then squealed even more at who her boyfriend was.

Azula had grimaced a bit – likely at the thought of her brother in a relationship – but congratulated her all the same. Her exact words were something along the lines of, "It's about time" with a comment about their hopelessness and general ineptitude thrown in. Ty Lee had giggled behind her hand while Mai pretended to ignore them. Just like old times.

In any case, boyfriend or no boyfriend, exams were coming up, and it was understood that Mai's performance was going to be outstanding, as usual. Azula was also under immense pressure from her father to do well, while rather the opposite was true for Zuko. That didn't mean that he wasn't trying to do well, but his father wouldn't acknowledge it. Ty Lee was in a similar situation to him. With the number of sisters that she had, her parents barely knew one report card from the other, so she didn't have much incentive beyond her own to do well.

When they were in elementary school, Ty Lee had taken advantage of this by not trying very hard, but Mai knew that she hated being considered 'the dumb one,' which was what most people tended to label her when confronted with her bubbliness and propensity for the color pink. This wasn't helped by the fact that she was friends with two of the top students in the school.

In short, everyone was busy preparing for exams. Just because Mai didn't care much for school didn't mean that her parents didn't, so she still tried to do well, even though she didn't care much for their opinions either. Staying in their good graces allowed her autonomy, but the minute they suspected that she wasn't reflecting the best possible light on the family, she would find herself the centre of attention, and not the good kind.

Besides, Mai had long since outgrown wanting their attention.

Anyway, even with all that, she still had to mask up and fight crime, though sometimes Zuko went out on his own when Mai had to study or babysit Tom-Tom. Usually, he returned unscathed, since he knew that Mai would give him the third degree if he came back injured.

Sometimes, though…sometimes there were interesting exceptions.

.

.

.

"Ouch. Be more careful."

"You big baby. They're just a few scratches."

"Scratches made from rocks!"

"Pebbles."

"They still hurt," he said sullenly. There were a few minutes of unintelligible grumbling while Mai dabbed at his cuts, perhaps a bit gentler than before. "I mean, there are rules," Zuko suddenly said. "What hero decides that their alias is going to include the word 'bandit?' That sounds villainous, doesn't it?"

"That sounds like you need a lesson in not jumping to conclusions."

"I know, I know, I just assumed…"

"You know what they say about assumptions."

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up."

"I am," she said, completely straight-faced.

"Appearances are deceiving," he defended himself.

"Sorry, I'm still not over the fact that you got your ass handed to you by a little blind girl."

"I told you, she uses her powers in a way that she might as well have sight."

"Mhm."

"Well if you think you could do better…"

"No thanks," she drawled. "Unlike you, I do have some common sense."

Zuko grinned at her. "Clearly not enough to keep you safe at home while your heroic boyfriend roams the city and saves the day."

She smirked back at him. "Clearly."


A/N: As a side note, I did have Mai's superhero name picked out before I saw the cover of the new Mai comic, but it seems even more fitting now.