Mai was mad. No, that wasn't right, she thought. She was beyond mad. She was right livid was the truth of the matter. The papers that littered her deck, the papers she should be going over, were virtually discarded and forgotten as she mentally raved. But, she couldn't keep at it for too long. No, that was far to selfish, and due to what was coming, she couldn't possibly give in to her emotions.
Zuko was almost here, and she had to make herself presentable. Leave it to Azula, beaten and chained, almost helpless, to throw a wrench into the gears and make her life hell. It wasn't enough that Zuko had to lie to her because of Azula, now she had to actually go and set something in motion that could very well cause problems for him, and beyond that, the Fire Nation as a whole.
Maybe Zuko was right. If they had just left Azula chained up in the dark, never to be seen by anyone other than soldiers again, then none of this would have happened, and things would have just continued on as they had. With a little luck, Zuko would have gotten the hang of things and they would have been able to set the world right.
Her usual calm demeanor cast aside for a moment of rage, she slammed her fist down on the table and leaned over it, bracing herself as she slowly inhaled, calming herself down. It was, as her luck would have, this state that her husband returned to find her in. The door opened and she had scarcely enough time to drop the emotions from her features as the Fire Lord walked through the door.
She immediately stood up straight and happiness displayed on her calm features for a brief moment before flashing to concern, and then back to its usual neutral. As this was happing, her legs carried her past the desk, leaving her work and worried behind for a moment, and she embraced her husband, happy to see that he was indeed alright despite the attempted assassination.
"Oh Zuko." She said softly, pulling him against her. "I heard what happened. I'm so glad that your alright." She pushed away slightly and looked him over, noticing the small scar his cheek, opposite of the much more obvious one. As lucky as he was to be alive, she didn't think that the reminder of it would be fading any time soon.
"And I'm glad to see that your ok, Mai." He looked into her eyes and smiled slightly, leaning in and placing a small kiss on her lips before pulling away. As he did though, his look became more concerned. "I heard that my father was dead...but, more than that, I heard that you were almost attacked when someone went after my sister. Was it true Mai?"
She nodded slightly. "Yes Zuko. I was... there visiting one of the war criminals that was in for supporting your father when the assassin attacked. I don't think he was expecting to run into any serious opposition so I was able to bring him down without any harm coming to myself. If I hadn't been there, your sister would probably be dead." And we'd be better off, she thought, her previous unease now coming back to her.
Zuko pulled away and he walked to the window he had been staring out before he had left, holding himself with a slight uncertainty. When he finally spoke, his voice had a degree of worry in it, tense. "Mai...which particular criminal were you there to see?" Someone he was worried to hear, and Mai knew what he was asking. He was worried that she had seen Azula. Zuko wasn't the type to plan ahead much, he hadn't given any thought to how this would go.
She had, however. She had thought several moves ahead, but regardless of how she knew things would go, she had steeled herself to confront Zuko on it and attempt to make things right. But with what had happened...her plans were blown away. If Azula hadn't gone and messed things up, she would have eventually convinced Zuko to have her treated a little more humanely. But now.... if he didn't just have her killed Mai would be surprised. "I was there to see Azula, Zuko."
His entire body seemed to stiffen, and he stopped. After a few moments, his voice now cold, he finally spoke. "I see." Another pause that seemed to hang like eternity. "And?" Nothing more, nothing less. Zuko knew that she would come out completely honestly about her thoughts, so there was little point in specific questions.
"And...I think you were wrong, Zuko. She deserved to be punished, deserved to be locked away for probably the rest of her life, but she didn't deserve to be slowly tortured to death." Zuko went to speak, but she help up her hand to silence him. "No Zuko, hold on for a moment. There were other ways to go about this, ways that would have been more politically acceptable while still getting what you wanted. Its that kind of emotional thinking thats causing issues with diplomacy."
She sighed and stopped, looking into his eyes. He was furious. She could see his thoughts without him actually voicing them. The first thing that would run through his head was being furious at her daring to go see Azula when he had explicit rules against it. The next would be the very slight fear that she might be upset with him, and then the last would be actual rage at her daring to suggest that how he handled his sister had anything to deal with how he was handling the other nations. Which meant the next thing he said would be...
"How dare you." He took a few steps towards her and then stopped, his features overflowing with his anger. "How dare you go to see my sister without my permission? How dare you question my actions? And most of all, how dare you question my ability as the Fire Lord?" He was actually made to the point that he reflexively breathed a little fire from his nose.
For her part, she crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head slightly. "Look, Zuko. This really isn't time for us to go through the usual you getting mad, yelling a lot, me getting upset, and us doing the back and the forth until we eventually work things out." Another moment of Zuko trying to interrupt her and Mai stopping him. "If things hadn't worked out like they had, eventually I would have convinced you to Move her to a slightly better place. But we don't have that option right now."
Zuko, to Mai's surprised, actually faltered for a second, and the anger died down. Something in her look or the way she was talking must have caught his attention for a change. "Why is that, Mai?" His voice was still cold, but his eyes suggest that he was actually listening. Concern had returned to them as well. He must have realized that if Mai was being this blunt with him, there was a real problem.
"Ty Lee has gone to find the Avatar and bring him in to make sure that Azula is treated better." Zuko froze. Rage. Fear. Confusion. All of them ran through his face for a moment before settling on anger finally. Almost as embedded in him as his ability to bend fire was his anger, emotions. Though Mai felt the two were probably linked.
"Thats fine. It doesn't matter. The avatar doesn't have any control over what I do in my nation, let alone what I do with criminal of war." Was what he finally said, and he probably really believed that. But Mai knew better, knew what the avatar coming and seeing that would cause. He would step in, and despite liking Zuko, would demand that things be set more right. Zuko would, of course, refuse out of pride and things would just deteriorate from there.
"We need time Zuko. We need to consider how to handle this. You can't just approach every situation with fire blazing and expect things to work out." She walked closer to her husband and rested her hand on his arm, looking in his eyes with a slightly pleading look in her own. "Please Zuko. Listen to your wife, who cares for you and this nation above all else. Maybe your right about Azula, maybe she deserves everything your getting."
She shook her head slightly. "But Zuko, what you haven't figured out that everyone but maybe the Avatar has is that being right doesn't always matter. If your right and no one else cares, or other people get angry because of it, it has no value. Its not the answer that you present that matters, its how you go about presenting it."
Zuko started to speak but then stop, and she could feel the tenseness leave his body. "We need time to figure out how to present this. Please, Zuko, send some men to escort Ty Lee back under the grounds of her having sensitive knowledge about our nation. And have Azula moved elsewhere, maybe somewhere a little better than she is now. If Ty Lee reaches the Avatar, it needs to look like we realized that maybe theres a better way to handle Azula and are working towards that."
He stared into her eyes for a moment before dropping his and looking away, and she knew that she had finally managed to get through to him. "Your right...Mai. I can't let my personal problems hurt the Fire Nation, and, more importantly, I can't let my Family be the cause of any more suffering for the world. I'll have Azula moved to the boiling rock and placed in the highest security cell there. After that, we'll figure out what we're going to do with her."
Mai smiled and hugged him, overwhelmed for once with good emotions. "Zuko...things are going to work out, really work out now. If we just keeping working towards things like this we'll actually get things turned around." She pushed away and looked seriously into his eyes. "Just promise me that you won't have Ty Lee hurt. Shes an innocent girl whos just doing what -she- thinks is right."
Zuko nodded. "I won't have her killed, Mai, but if she resists being brought back, I will have to have her brought back with whatever force it takes. But I promise I won't allow any more to be used than is absolutely necessary." Mai was relieved, but worried at the same time. She knew Ty Lee wouldn't let herself be brought back. She very well might get hurt. Really hurt.
Just then, there was a knock at the door, and they quickly pulled away from another, straighting themselves out to look more proper before announcing that the person may enter. The door opened slowly and one of the guards stepped through. "I have received word that the ambassadors from the Northern Water Tribe are here. Should I send word back the you are on your way?"
Zuko nodded curtly. "Yes, send word that I will be there momentarily."
The guard nodded and turned, closing the door behind him as he left. The Fire Lord straightened his armor out and retied his hair, glancing in a mirror to make sure he was presentable before heading towards the door. "Just one other thing Mai. If Ty Lee took off to see the avatar, how did you find out?"
Mai shrugged. "Azula slipped up. Maybe she was having one of her little bouts with madness, but she told me that Ty Lee had run off towards the Earth Kingdom to find the Avatar and how you and I would be going down when she got them. She was practically raving."
Zuko laughed as he left, and Mai was left with her own thoughts once more. If it hadn't been for Azula's own slip, Ty Lee would have made it unhindered and Azula might have been released to the Avatars custody. How ironic that she had sunk her own ship.