Chapter Thirteen

Four Nations High Chatroom

. i . hate . you . has signed on.

SPARKELZZ101 has signed on.

daddys_perfect_princess has signed on.

SPARKELZZ101 mai how cum ur un is sooooo dpressng?

. i . hate . you . Because I despise this assignment. Seriously, who decided it would be a GREAT idea to make it a major grade to use this stupid thing?

daddys_perfect_princess I agree. I only wish I could change my name.

SPARKELZZ101 yyyyyy azula is sooooooooo pretty!

. i . hate . you . She means her username, idiot.

SPARKELZZ101 w/e.

SPARKELZZ101 do u 2 have prom dates?

daddys_perfect_princess Yes.

. i . hate . you . No. Not going.

SPARKELZZ101 OMG AZULA WHOOOOOOO?

daddys_perfect_princess That's my little secret. You'll see when we get there.

Zuko's Playlist

Song: I Miss You

Artist: Blink 182

There are any number of things I thought I'd walk in on Azula doing. Murder, dismemberment, torturing small animals, sacrificing her classmates to summon the dark lord Satan….

I was not, in any decade or parallel universe, expecting to come home from hanging out with Mai to find my baby sister making out with a guy on the couch.

I mean, they didn't even look up when I opened the door. I had to clatter around loudly in the kitchen, heating up cold pizza, before she would even unstick her face from his.

"Hey, Zuko," she greeted, and to her credit she didn't sound at all flustered. However, when I walked around to get a good look at her new boyfriend (as I assumed he was), her face was bright red, and she was arranging her shirt and her hair in a way that screamed awkward. Her kissy-face partner, I was shocked to see, was Jet, who still had his arm thrown around her. His hair was sticking up even more than usual, and he had fire-engine red lipstick smudges all over his mouth, his jaw, even his neck. I held back the urge to both projectile vomit and beat the tar out of Jet. I honestly couldn't think of anything to say; I just stared, my mouth open like some kind of idiot, pointing wordlessly at Azula, then Jet, then back at Azula.

"I suppose now would be a good time to tell you I have a boyfriend?" she asked, turning to Jet and kissing him again.

"Cut that out," I said, my voice rough with shock. "Look, Jet, could you get out of here, please? Geez." I returned to the kitchen, ignoring their entirely physical goodbye, and didn't look up from my pizza until I heard the door slam. I looked up at Azula, who seemed to be unable to look at me. She was halfway through picking the pineapple off my pizza (which would normally irritate me, but I was still too much in shock to do much of anything about it) when I finally spoke.

"So…Jet," I said, and she glanced at me, a slight smile on her face.

"Yes."

"How?"

"Psychology," she shrugged. "There's a thin, thin line between love and hate, brother, and I'm afraid we crossed it." She patted my arm. "I apologize if our antics have permanently disturbed and scarred you, and would advise that next time you call ahead to give us time to make ourselves presentable."

"Azula," I groaned, "just—just promise me that you won't get too physical too fast, okay? Things are weird enough without throwing some teen pregnancy in the mix."

"Point taken," she grimaced. "How did you sleep last night?"

Azula was in on my dreams; I couldn't tell Iroh about them for fear of him shoving some ungodly herbs down my throat. I felt guilty, sure, but...Uncle had enough on his plate. "Well enough," I grunted. "First night off of Nyquil since last Tuesday."

"'Well enough' isn't the same as 'well,'" she pointed out. "Did you have the dreams or not?"

I didn't answer. I couldn't tell her about the dreams themselves for fear of drawing her into them, and last night was one I would rather keep to myself. It was simple enough; a girl in a sea of mist. I assumed she was Aeng. She was the spitting image of Aang (which would make sense, if she was femme-Aang), floating around in the darkness like an oversized bat, watching me with her creepy eyes. They were the same color as Aang's, but infinitely sadder. That surprised me. If she was pure evil, why would she be sad?

Of course, it went downhill from there. She showed me a picture of Mai lying in a puddle of her own blood. I couldn't see the wound, but I could guess from the way it pooled around her head. I didn't blame Aang for nearly coming apart; one dead friend was bad enough, but to see three of them like that….

"Oh, about me and Jet," Azula drew my attention back to the present, "I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't say anything about it. We're trying to keep a low profile."

"Sure," I said wearily, leaning against the counter. "So, do I need to give him the 'hurt my sister I remove your lungs' talk, or have you already gotten to that?"

She slapped my arm, and I grinned with her.

"Jet fully understands the dangers involved in dating me," she said innocently. "Homicidal fathers, over-reactive brothers, and tea-guzzling hippie uncles and all. Not to mention that if we break up in a messy fashion, I'm not afraid to pull sucker punches."

"Just make sure he won't," I warned. "I gotta say, it makes me a little nervous. He's kind of a head case." A second later I winced and elaborated. "I mean he's paranoid about everything. He's convinced everyone's out to get him, he disrespects authority, and he absolutely hates firebenders, especially anyone associated with Ozai Incorporated. This puts a huge target on my back and on yours, so just be sure he's not…you know…using you or whatever."

"Your concern is touching," she smirked, "but unnecessary. I know what I'm doing."

"Not to be mean, but you didn't exactly have the most illustrious dating career…you know…before," I pointed out, and she just stared at me until I shrugged. "Okay, okay. Just putting my two cents in there."

She quirked a smile at me again before crashing on the couch again and turning on the TV. I joined her, pausing when I felt something shift under my cushion. I dug underneath it and extracted a green button-up shirt. I was about to toss it at the laundry when I realized it wasn't mine. I balled it up and tossed it at Azula, who merely tucked it into her backpack and didn't look at me for a full half-hour.

The next day in Weapons class (the fact that it was still around had to be a miracle; one kid had already gone home with his thumb almost completely severed because he was dinking around with a dagger) we had a test, each one specialized about our own specific weapons. I breezed through mine, not even fully reading the questions, and turned my head to look at Mai.

She was dressed all in black today, as usual. She had a childhood as messed up as mine, with parents who gave her anything she wanted so long as she shut up and stayed still. Once her brother was born, she was pretty much ignored. She told me she liked it that way, but I knew full well it hurt her more than she wanted to admit.

I looked at her, and remembered Halloweens filled with pranks and black lipstick smudges from her awkward ten-year-old lips pressing against my cheek. I remembered fake bloodstains that came from my zombie costume rubbing against her spider princess tutu when Azula set her hair on fire and I tackled her into the fountain inside my old house. I remembered one Halloween back, when she glared at me, hurt accusation in her eyes as I locked her in a broom closet to stop her from helping Azula while Aang took care of my father. I remembered the dead look in her eyes when she saw me and Katara holding hands at school a few weeks later, and how she didn't talk to me for close to four months. Maybe if I'd known what she'd done, I wouldn't have been so eager to jump into Katara's arms.

After I locked her in that broom closet, she broke out in under five minutes (I'm not sure why I thought it would hold her). She found Azula herself, and held her off from getting to us. Her swift betrayal, followed immediately by Ty Lee's, was the final straw Azula needed to send her over the edge. She calmly had the security guards arrest Mai and Ty Lee, then went and blew a hole through my chest. If I'd known that, before the mess with Katara...there wouldn't have been a mess with Katara. I watched the security tapes of Mai fighting Azula off a couple weeks ago, and I heard what she said. That hurt. I thought we were over, but, as it turned out, Mai didn't think so.

"I love Zuko more than I fear you."

I'm pretty stupid, aren't I?

And now we were in this new mess. She kept taking her test, unaware that I was staring at her, but I didn't know how to tell her I wanted her to take me back more than anything else right now. I loved everything about her, from her metal-studded dog collar to her steel-toed boots to her black fingernail polish. I loved her courage and her determination, I loved how she hated everything in sight on the outside and secretly loved kids on the inside.

I remembered a Halloween with pumpkin-gut bombs and smeared mascara and a secret kiss in a garden stained with soot, and I knew she thought about it every time she looked at me, too.

Her eyes flicked towards me, and I was abruptly caught in her gold gaze. Her eyes were the same color as mine in that they were in the same color group, I guess; hers were more of a metallic gold, more versatile. They seemed to switch between yellow and amber and silver more easily than anyone's eyes I knew. Mine were more of a flame-yellow. Monochromatic. She raised an eyebrow at me, and I chanced a small smile, trying hard not to let it grow when a sprinkle of color flushed across her cheeks. She directed her attention back to her test, stabbed her last period, and turned it over, doing her best to not look at me. Periodically her eyes would wander back to me, and then flick back to the front of the classroom.

This kind of awkward flirting was just the kind of thing we did before; it was our style. Silent, not obnoxious like Ty Lee and Haru (spirits, I couldn't even be in the same hallway as them when they were first going out; it was disgusting) and not wildly passionate like Azula and Jet (man, I was still trying to wrap my head around that one). We were the background characters, the backburner romance that took a seat to the more epic tales (like Toph and Sokka—that was getting to be an interesting topic of conversation) and the overly fluffy Facebook fodder (Aang and Katara, anyone? It was only a matter of time after all the puppy-dog eyes they kept shooting at each other). School ended eventually, and I stood to walk her to her car.

Once there she rounded on me. "Do you want to explain the stalker eyes today?"

I fixed her with a stare I hoped was intense and not creepy. It seemed to work; she did that breath-catch thing she used to do whenever I looked at her like that before, like a tiny gasp somewhere in her throat that I used to and still did find adorable. I stepped up closer to her, close enough to kiss her if I moved my head right. Her hesitant hands came up on my chest, to push me away, I imagined, but there was no strength behind them; I felt safe enough to put my hands on her waist and lean against her forehead.

"What's wrong?" she asked quietly, and it struck me she might just think I was coming to her for no other reason than that we'd been together before and I needed some comfort. I shrugged.

"Nothing," I said simply, and she let me hold her until I drew back a little, looking her in the eyes.

"Feel like going to Prom with me?" I asked softly, and she sighed.

"You know it's not fair when you ask like that," she murmured, putting her hands back against the car (I weighed my options and decided that then was a good time to let her go). "I wasn't planning on going. I don't have a dress."

"Yes, you do," I called her bluff. "You have an entire closet full."

"None that I feel like wearing," she conceded. "I hate Prom."

"So do I," I shrugged, "but I figure if I was going with you, it wouldn't be so bad."

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked me flatly. I sighed through my nose, leaning against her car next to her.

"Being stupid," I said honestly. "Look, Mai…what I did last October was the wrong thing to do. It felt right, but it was probably the most idiotic thing I've ever done, closely followed by dating Katara." She crossed her arms jerkily, and I knew I was losing her fast. "Okay, listen, can we just…start over? It took me too long, but I know that there's no one I want, nothing I need, more than you." I looked at her and was startled by the brimming tears as she determinedly didn't look at me. "You don't have to if you don't want to, but would you at least go to Prom with me?"

She swiped furiously at her eyes, smudging her makeup (it was too heavy, anyway; she looked better without any). Then she turned, grabbed my shoulders, and kissed me like she used to. Kissing her was different from kissing Katara or any other girl I'd dated; it was almost a religious experience in how passionate and powerful she was, and she made me feel the same way every time. It was like swallowing fire (which I'd done…quite a few times). She set my lips ablaze; from there it travelled over my skin, crackling like electricity in my blood. I felt myself warming from the inside out, pulling her closer to soak her in, one arm around her waist, one hand snaking through her short, dark hair….

She ended it first, pulling back.

"Does that mean yes to Prom?" I asked, and she smiled, nodding.

"I can't believe you're making me do it, but yes, I'll go to Prom with you," she rolled her eyes. "I'll text you later."

I was halfway across the parking lot when I turned around, realizing something.

"Does that mean I can call you my girlfriend again?" I yelled, and she shot me a smile and a thumbs-up as she got into her car. I turned back around, a huge smile crossing my face, to be replaced by a frown when I saw Azula lounging in the driver's seat of my Camaro.

"Good day?" she asked lightly as I glared at her through the rolled-down window. She reached out and wiped something off my face and showed me the black streak on her finger. I shrugged.

"Pretty good," I conceded. "Move over."

She pouted until I pointed out a suspicious red mark on her neck, at which point she blushed and was in the passenger-side seat before I could say "hickey."

"Hey, invalid," I greeted Sokka as he strolled into school (or as easily as one can stroll using a crutch). He knuckle-bumped me and almost fell over.

"Hey," he returned. "Seen Toph anywhere?"

Said midget appeared not two seconds later, punching Sokka in his uninjured-side shoulder. She grinned at me and made to punch my own arm, which I blocked by catching her fist.

"No fair, Sparky," she pouted.

"Morning, Short Stuff," I returned. "Hey, I'm not sitting with you guys at lunch today, okay?"

"Making kissy-face with Mai?" Toph asked, and I stared at her until she answered. "What? It was only a matter of time with how flutter-hearted you two get around each other. Not that it's a sign of getting together quick, if two someones I know are any indication." She jabbed her thumb at Aang and Katara, who were walking up and laughing at something Aang had just said. "By the way, did I sense right when I saw Azula making out with Jet?"

"Keep it down," I muttered, and a wicked grin plastered itself on her face. "Seriously, she asked me not to say anything, so pipe down, pipsqueak."

"Yes?" Pipsqueak, a huge guy and one of Jet's friends who was passing by, looked over his shoulder at me. Toph took that opportunity to punch me in the stomach, and he shrugged and kept walking.

"Why?" I wheezed at her, and she shrugged.

"Short Stuff I'm okay with. Pipsqueak, I am not," she explained. "My lips are sealed. Oh, hey, Lee Yu! 'Scuse me, guys." She left just as Aang and Katara walked up, and a dark look passed between them.

"That guy's bad news," Aang said fervently.

"You think?" Sokka said scathingly. "Let her dig her own grave. See if I care."

"Sokka…" Katara trailed off and reached for his arm, and he flinched out of the way, a deep scowl on his face as he slouched off. I sighed. Mr. Grouchy was back. I watched Toph and Lee Yu on the opposite side of the courtyard. She was girly and giggly like she'd never been with Sokka, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and smiling at him so sappily it was gross. I switched to Lee Yu. He was eating it up, leaning his arm against the wall next to Toph's head, looking at her like….

I'd seen that expression before, on more faces than I cared to mention. It was the kind of face the women Dad used to bring home had, the faces the young men Azula used to court had whenever she wasn't looking. It was pure, unmitigated greed, and I knew he wasn't just looking at her when he smiled like that.

Toph's parents were gazillionaires. He was circling her like a shark, waiting for her to bleed some green before he pounced on her.

I turned back to Aang and Katara, who were watching them with equal distaste.

"If she doesn't watch herself," I said slowly, "she's going to find herself in some bad trouble."

"No kidding," Katara said darkly. "Her only hope is if someone reaches her, someone who cares about her more than even we do."

"You mean like her bestest friend Sokka?" Aang asked, and then his face became horrorstruck. "She's doomed."

We laughed, but it was a hollow sound. Toph and Lee Yu were going to give us all ulcers before the year was out, I sighed as I went to Firebending PE with Aang. Lee Yu had just better realize who he was messing with before either one of them got hurt.

A/N: Hmm. Rather pathetic chapter, but this chapter is still the only decent kiss I've ever written for Mai and Zuko. Drink it in. XD

Oh, well, gotta keep on truckin'...