Zuko trudged through the palace grounds. He had just returned from his firebending lessons, which did not go so well. Unfortunately, he and Azula had the same instructor, and the fact that Azula was more advanced and younger than him made the teacher expect more out of Zuko.
He didn't know what to do with himself. His mother was having tea with some of her friends and his father was at some war meeting. He figured he'd head to the turtle-duck pond, which was secluded and usually unoccupied.
His mind was racing with words his instructor had said minutes before. "You're doing it all wrong, Prince Zuko." "I don't understand why this is so hard. Princess Azula mastered this form weeks ago." "Why can't you be a quick learner like your sister?"
He kicked a pebble on the ground out of frustration. It hit the wall with a loud thunk. It wasn't fair. Why did Azula have to be the prodigy? She wasn't expected to be a big firebending prodigy like her father. She was expected to just sit there and look pretty. No, she had to take all of his glory. Zuko didn't think she deserved it. She wasn't even nice!
He was so consumed with his skulking he almost didn't notice the girl coming from the hallway who would've run into him if he hadn't seen her and stopped. She must've just noticed him out of the corner of her eye for she quickly turned her head from wherever she was gazing off to and flinched, as if expecting to be trampled over. That would've made it the second time that week he tackled her.
"Oh, hey Mai," he greeted. Mai glanced at him briefly before looking away. Zuko could've sworn her cheeks were red.
After she regained her composure she bowed to him. "Prince Zuko."
It felt weird. No one besides the servants ever bowed to him. He especially thought it felt weird that one of his sister's friends was showing him respect at all. He didn't like it though. It felt as if she was a subject rather than an acquaintance. "You don't have to do that you know."
Mai looked at him curiously. "What?"
"Bow. Or call me Prince. My father isn't even going to be Firelord. My uncle is," he stated.
Her response was only rolling her eyes at him. That seemed like something one of his sister's friends would do. A silence drifted over the two. Neither one knew what to do. They didn't know if it would be rude to just leave, but they didn't know what to talk about either.
Zuko took the time to eye the girl. That was when he noticed she was all covered in ash and had a leaf in her hair. Before he could stop himself - "Why are you so dirty?"
Mai was suddenly conscious of her appearance as she plucked the leaf out of her hair and brushed the dirt and ash off of her clothes. "Azula made Ty Lee and I play hide-and-explode with her."
Now it was Zuko's turn to look at her curiously. "But you two aren't even firebenders. How can you play?"
"Azula is the seeker every time no matter who she finds first."
That sounded stupid, but he didn't feel like arguing with her. "So, what are you doing walking around?"
Mai shrugged. "Azula just found me, so she told me to find somewhere better to hide for next time." She honestly didn't know how many more questions this boy was going to ask. Although, she couldn't say it bothered her to talk to him.
Mai didn't bother Zuko either. The girl was easy to talk to. She never had much to say and usually got straight to the point as opposed to Ty Lee. But part of him hated to talk to her. He didn't know why, but he was always afraid of saying something stupid, which he usually did anyway. And his hands would always get sweaty. Another awkward silence came over the two until Zuko remembered- "Oh, I'm sorry for pushing you into the fountain the other day."
Mai blushed at the memory. "It's okay…I guess that was better than my head burning off." It was a lot better. Especially since Zuko was the one who saved her.
Zuko was oblivious to her blush, since he was looking to the side, trying to not let his own embarrassment show. "Yeah, that was a stupid game. I can't even believe Azula did that." Actually he could, but he wasn't able to think of anything else to say.
Mai held her arm with her other hand as she looked down at her feet. She felt ridiculous for acting this way. "I probably should actually be thanking you for saving me, even if I did end up getting drenched."
Zuko shot his head up at the girl, regretting it afterwards. He had to admit she was very pretty. "Well, I couldn't let you get hurt. I had to do something…" he replied sheepishly.
Bang!
Mai jumped back, and Zuko actually fell onto his back from the surprise of the explosion that occurred right next to where they were standing.
"You aren't very good at this game, Mai," Azula's voice came from behind the smoke. When it cleared the two could see a mischievously grinning Azula and a giggling Ty Lee, who was actually rolling on the ground laughing.
Zuko stood up, embarrassed that he was the only one who fell and about the whole situation in general. "It's NOT funny Azula!" he said with clenched fists.
Azula looked over to Ty Lee, who was starting to recover from her fit of laughter. "Did you think it was funny Ty Lee?"
The girl in pink managed to squeeze a "yes" between her giggling.
After laughing herself Azula looked at Mai still smiling. "Come on, Mai. I'm done with this game anyway. It was too easy."
Mai glanced back at the prince and gave him a quick, small smile, which he returned. Azula started walking away with Ty Lee in tow. Mai turned back around and ran off with them, trying to catch up.
Zuko stalked off again, heading towards his original destination. This time though, he was in a slightly better mood. And instead of thinking about his earlier firebending lesson and Azula, he was thinking about another young girl…
Okay, so there's today's addition. Takes place in the memories of "Zuko Alone". The next chapter will probably be up tomorrow. There's a reason I'm updating a whole lot this week, but I'll explain it tomorrow. (Hint: school starts next week :P)
Thanks for the reviews, I appreciate them all.
By the way, I have no idea how Hide-and-Explode works. This is just how I imagined it would be.
