It started, as so many other things started, with a taunt.
Pushing Mai was Azula's forte, a game that obeyed neither rules nor logic and had no definitive outcome. Azula liked seeing how much Mai would take. Usually, the stoic girl would only acknowledge insults with a shrug. Sometimes she ignored them altogether. And sometimes, Mai wouldn't take it any longer. She would stand up to Azula.
Those were the times Azula liked most. When Mai stood up, after all, it meant that Azula could crush her down.
"You're such a coward. Look at you." Azula laughed while she said it, like it was a joke, like she didn't mean each of the deadly words falling from her lips.
"Mmm." Mai didn't really respond. She kept staring out the window, as if trying to keep her thoughts fixed elsewhere.
"You wouldn't stand up to anyone. You always take the easiest road out."
"Please stop, Azula," Ty Lee murmured, resting one hand on the princess's shoulder, though she was looking at Mai. As usual, Azula paid no attention.
"You can't even tell me to stop yourself."
Mai turned away from the window, her eyebrows furrowing. The show of emotion was more than she usually displayed, and just that simple victory sent a rush through Azula.
"I can stand up for myself," Mai said, her voice level and even, no matter what her face said about her emotions.
"Oh?" Azula's painted lips curled into a dangerous smile, her eyes gleaming. "Prove it."
The words, it seemed, triggered something in Mai. Her face was no longer perfectly controlled, but contorted into a mask of anger. She stepped forward, bridging the gap between herself and Azula so quickly that the princess barely had time to react. Mai fixed clawlike hands on Azula's shoulders, spinning her and pinning her against the wall.
It hurt. Azula's head met the stone. She didn't cry out, but her eyes narrowed. This game wasn't as amusing, and she would have to teach Mai a lesson for acting out—
Mai's mouth met Azula's, not gentle, but feverish, biting down on the princess's lips until she drew blood. The taste filled Azula's mouth with a familiar metallic tang. She had drawn her own blood before, but nobody else had ever dared touch her this way, except—
Mai wasn't done. Her fingers were reaching under Azula's armor, dancing across her upper torso, and then her other hand slipped under the waistband of Azula's pants, and then—
It wasn't a game any longer.
It was only Mai, Azula knew. That was what all of her physical senses were telling her. It was only Mai, and she could push her away at any moment, burn her, punish her, make her regret she had ever thought of this…
But the logic didn't help, because this did not feel like Mai. This felt distinctly like someone else, someone who came and took whatever he wanted from Azula, who touched her however he liked and never bothered with gentleness. And instinctually, despite her own will, Azula felt her eyes going glassy, her mind disconnecting from the present, and her body going limp.
"Mai, stop it!"
Ty Lee broke them apart.
Maybe she had seen the look on Azula's face. Maybe she had simply known that there would surely be repercussions. And now the princess was coming back to herself.
Mai didn't meet her eyes. She was staring vacantly to one side, her lips dripping blood, as if she couldn't quite believe what she had just done.
"Don't ever do that again." Azula advanced on Mai, igniting a blue flame in her right hand, her golden eyes gleaming dangerously. "You're going to be sorry."
And Mai was.
And yet, when the time came, she would stand up to Azula again.
