Originally written for Avatar_500, for the prompt "Neglect". Contains spoilers for "The Boiling Rock" duet.
Frozen
It was cold in prison. Mai could feel it deep in her bones. She could feel it all over her skin, in her hair. She could taste it on her lips. She could smell it all around her. Her breath comes out in little white clouds, slower and slower as time - days? weeks? - go by. She had stopped counting long ago.
At first, Mai had been huddled in with Ty Lee. That had been nice, since Ty Lee was still her best friend, and she, too, had gone down for the right reasons. Ty Lee's ability to smile through the bleakest moments and add small joy to the worst times helped Mai stay afloat. Occasionally, Mai would even get a laugh out of Ty Lee with a few dry jokes of her own. Ty Lee knew her well enough to realise that if left to her own devices, Mai would merely focus on the bad.
Apparently, Azula knew this, too.
"I can't have you both spending your days in here chipper like a pair of cat-birds," Azula declared that horrible day, her hands on her hips, her smile wide - almost too wide, Mai remembered thinking. "I think you both need to spend some time apart, figure out where your priorities lie. Don't you?"
Mai opened her mouth to say something, but then she closed it. The spark in Azula's eyes burned her tongue. I won't rise to this, she promised herself. She wants me to break. She wants me to pay.
She looked over her shoulder, where Ty Lee sat, her eyes huge on her face and already full. But then, when her eyes met Mai's, they hardened to something steely. Mai recognised that same look from that fateful moment on the Boiling Rock; determined and unstoppable.
Mai envied her that. She tried to keep it tucked with her. She tried to remember it when she was throw into the cell of her own.
But she eventually forgot. It was so cold, so lonely in the cell. She spent her days curled up on the floor, legs pressed to her chest, her cheek on her knees and her eyes shut. When she was tired, she would lean to the side and sleep for a while. When she was hungry, she picked at the flavourless food they gave her until it stopped.
Sometimes, she thought about Zuko. She wondered where he was. She wondered if he missed her. She wondered if he would come back, and it made her yearn for him.
She thought of those long days alone together, nestled together, and it made her weep. She missed him. She didn't regret what she had done for him, but she missed him so much.
Eventually, she was lost to her own despair. She wondered if anyone remembered her. She wondered if she would ever be free.
She wondered if she would ever feel warm again.