Zuko is the Fandom Bicycle: Everybody Gets a Ride

Chapter 9: Steaming Mad

"I don't get it." Katara swung her legs, a slow, rhythmic motion. "It's obvious that you love Mai. And she, well, she was willing to die for you, willing to suffer Azula's wrath. That's big."

"I know." Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose. He was exasperated. Little tendrils of flame wrapped themselves about clenched fists. "Mai gets me, you know. She understands my moods and my fears and she knows my life and what I've been through. She won't take crap from me either. And," he blushed then, his face a dramatic red, "she's so smart and beautiful and…" He wanted to say sensual and sexy but chewed on the words instead. Sometimes it was good to keep things just for him and Mai.

"I know she seems kind of aloof and disinterested but not everyone is a talker and not everyone feels at ease expressing their emotions. Some people keep things inside." Katara was a talker and loved telling everyone just how she felt. She mothered and she hugged and she wept and she laughed, all out in the open. Mai's reticence was strange to her, not bad, just different. Sometimes she envied the older girl her cool grace and elegance. "And if everyone was the same, wouldn't life be boring?"

"Yes, and just because someone isn't all blubbery and weepy, that doesn't mean they don't feel!" Zuko was emphatic. "No offense, Katara." The waterbender shrugged. "Mai feels so much. I can see things in her eyes or the way she stands or the way her mouth twitches. And when we're alone, she shows more. She's like a secret treasure chest that only I get to open." Zuko was pleased with his simile and beamed.

"Mai's good for you and you're good for Mai. No need to convince me; it's them that need convincing." Katara laughed and jumped up from the bench. "I feel like bending. Do you want to spar?"

The palace garden's only fountain was nearby. Katara drew the water to her and coiled it around her arm like a creeping vine wound itself about a tree or a building. She swatted Zuko with a tendril of water, soaking the upper part of his tunic before drawing the water out again, leaving him completely dry.

Zuko called forth a flame, nurturing it in his hand before letting it loose on the young woman. She put out the flame with a huge wave of water. A puddle filled the space between them. Katara called the water, getting some extra from beneath the earth, froze it and threw little ice daggers at the Fire Lord.

One sweep of his arm and the daggers were nothing but droplets of water again, ineffectual. They smiled at each other and in that moment decided to stop. As benders they were pretty evenly matched. Water doused fire and fire melted ice, over and over again.

~~~~0000~~~~

"You guys making steam again?" Mai entered the gardens, standing beneath the shade of the apple tree.

"Steam, yeah," Zuko smiled in return.

They were immediately in their own world, a world that excluded everyone else. It wasn't intentional. It just sort of happened whenever they came together after a time apart, brief or extended.

The intimacy made Katara uncomfortable. She slithered away, returning the water to the fountain, off to find Aang and her own form of intimacy.

When Mai and Zuko sparred, Mai's blades glinted bright and beautiful in Zuko's fire. Kissed by flames, the metal grew warm in Mai's hands.

~~~~0000~~~~

A/N: I happened upon a bit of Mai/Maiko trashing tonight and it just pissed me off. So, I wrote this (very quickly..hope it does not suck) to make myself feel better. I consider this my 'Zutara' entry for this series.