The next morning, Mai found her concentration broken by a soft knock at her door. She looked up from her papers with a slight scowl on her face. "Zuko, what did I tell you about-" her words broke off as the door slid open to reveal Katara, Toph, Suki and Ty Lee, all huddled together with expressions ranging from pure excitement (Ty Lee) to self-satisfaction (Toph). Mai was immediately on high alert –experience had taught her to worry when Ty Lee looked like that, and she also had a sneaking suspicion that the expression on Toph's face did not bode well for anyone the petite earthbender faced while wearing it. "Oh, hi guys." She rose from her cushion and walked over to the door. "Sorry, I thought you were Zuko. He always insists on barging in here like he owns the place. Which, technically, he does," she shrugged, "but since I'm still staying in the guest wing you'd think he'd respect the space."
"Well, I guess Zuko always did have a problem with personal space," Katara smiled. "No surprise there. But I'm sure it must be stressful to have him distracting you when you have so much to do."
Mai did not point out that the four girls were currently doing just that. "I guess," she said noncommittally.
"…Which is why we were wondering if we could help you!" Ty Lee announced. Oh no. "There must be somethings you can delegate. You can't do it all by yourself. And just think, it would go so much more quickly with five of us working!" The acrobat grinned, and for a moment Mai resented her oldest friend for making the proposition sound so simple and hard to refuse.
The future Fire Lady let out a breath as she quickly thought of a way out of the situation. "Thanks, but I can't let you do that. You're here for the wedding, and I wouldn't exactly be a good hostess if I put you to work."
Toph chose this moment to speak up. "Then it's a good thing we're here as your friends, not guests, eh, Mrs. Sparky?" the blind girl asked, tossing a friendly punch as she elbowed her way past Mai into the room.
Mai blinked, surprised. Friends? she wanted to ask. She felt as though she had hardly ever even spoken with Toph. But what came out of her mouth instead was, "Mrs. Sparky?"
"Eh, you're right. It doesn't really sound right, does it? Must be because you're not actually married to Sparky yet." And with that, Toph plopped down on a cushion and propped her bare feet up on the table. She stared vacantly around the room that Mai had taken over as a temporary office of sorts as the other girls filed in and seated themselves as well. Soon Mai found herself standing at the center of a half-circle of expectant faces.
With a sigh, Mai resigned herself to allowing the girls to help her. She could certainly use it, after all. And wasn't she trying to bond with these people? Hadn't her spirits lifted just a moment ago, when the earthbender called her a friend? Yes, Mai decided, if these girls were her friends, she'd have to be more than simply polite and distant to them. She'd have to let them into her world.
Not that they were giving her much choice in the matter, anyways.
She walked around behind the table that was currently serving as her desk and sank down to the cushion she had been occupying before the interruption. The girls' gazes – excepting Toph's – followed her. Silence reigned for a moment.
Suki was the one to break it. "So what are all those papers for anyways, Mai?"
Let them in, let them in, she was chanting in her head. These girls are not Azula. You want them to be your friends. They want to help you. Let them in.
Mai pursed her lips slightly. "There are a couple of different things here. These are the words I'll need to have memorized for the ceremony-" here Mai held up a long scroll – "and these are the thank-you letters I've already started on, since they'll be difficult to do once I've assumed full Fire Lady duties. Some of this pile-" here she indicated a stack on the side – "is regarding the Fire Lady duties I've already begun. Social work, helping the people; that sort of stuff is the Fire Lady's job," Mai added for the benefit of the non- Fire Nation natives. "I took some of it on early to get it off of Zuko's back. Agni knows he has enough to worry about. And this-" here Mai patted the largest scroll – "is my to-do list." She sighed, folding her hands in her lap. "And it just keeps getting longer."
"Well, it's a good thing we're here then!" Katara exclaimed, sitting up a little straighter. "Where do you want us to start?"
"Well…" Mai cast about. An idea struck her. "Actually," she said, untying a knife holster from her left forearm, "I'll need someone to go and convince the royal tailors to make room for this underneath my ceremonial robes."
"I'll do it," Toph volunteered quickly. "I wouldn't be much help with the paper stuff, but I can be very… convincing… when necessary," she added with a wicked smile and a crack of her knuckles.
Mai found herself returning the smile as she handed the holster to Toph. The crass girl was growing on her quickly. "You might need to go to the Fire Sages for approval… it's fairly unconventional for the bride to be armed at a royal wedding, I guess. But bonus points if you can get them to agree to a holster for my right arm as well."
"Bonus points?" Toph asked slyly.
"We can work out what exactly that means later," Mai promised, arms crossed. "If you can do it. The Fire Sages cling to their traditions harder than a baby rabiroo clings to its mother," she explained, eyebrow quirked.
"Ah, a challenge. I see. Don't worry, I'll figure out a good way for you to pay me those points," Toph grinned as she departed. "See ya later, Mrs. Sparky!"
Mai turned back around to see Suki, Katara, and Ty Lee staring at her. "What?"
"It… just… it's a dangerous thing to challenge Toph," Katara said.
"Yeah, who knows what she'll end up making you do for payment!" Suki exclaimed, laughing. "Public humiliation is her favorite currency, just wait and see. One time, she made Sokka serenade the Northern Water Tribe representatives with a tavern song in the middle of an important meeting… you should have seen their faces when he started singing about lady parts!"
The Kyoshi warrior dissolved into snorts, and Ty Lee was giggling so hard she was holding her stomach. Katara merely had a hand to her eyes and was shaking her head, although Mai swore that the waterbender's back was convulsing with repressed laughter. Even she had to break a smile at the thought.
Soon enough, Katara was looking over the to-do list as Suki began drilling Mai on her incredibly lengthy wedding vows. Meanwhile, Ty Lee was pushing furniture around the room with the insistence that it would improve the room's energy and help Mai's ability to focus. Mai smiled inwardly.
Maybe she was worrying too much. Maybe a friendship with these young women wasn't something that would be affected by her family's history. Maybe everything would be just fine after all, and dinner that night would pass without incident.
Then again, maybe not.
Author's Notes: We'll just have to see what dinner brings, hm? :D Thank you so much for reading! A:TLA/LoK is seriously the best fandom out there. I love you guys.
I had a little bit of trouble with this chapter. I feel like Mai might be a little bit out of character here. So… reviews and criticisms are always appreciated… but they're *extra* appreciated for this chapter, as I may be altering it slightly in the future.