Epilogue 21: Sunset Burn
Casually they relaxed on a soft red blanket, content from the fill of their picnic dinner. Zuko leans back on his hands and Mai snuggled close with her head on his shoulder. They looked out as the sky's hues shimmered varying shades of dark orange burning the cliff's edge and reflecting on the mirror of the calm sea. Zuko carefully raises his nose to smell if a storm was coming.
She snuggled closer sighing, "Orange is such an awful color."
She had said it so smoothly and calmly that it made him snicker. "You are so beautiful when you hate the world," he mused.
"I don't hate you," she shifted so their eyes could meet.
"I don't hate you too," he replied just before their lips met. If only the little pangs of guilt were not ever present in moments like this. If only this didn't feel as right as it was starting to feel. If only something could happen to disrupt this and save him for betraying Faelin's love.
"Eh-hem!" Azula cleared her throat loudly before them.
If only that distraction were anything but his sister. Both Zuko and Mai frowned at the rude interruption.
"Zuko. Can I have a word with you." She never really asked. Her question was formed more like an order that left no room for saying no.
Zuko intended to say no anyways, "Can't you see we're busy." Bugger off and be cruel to someone else, Azula. Mai was thinking the same thing as she dared glare back at Azula. They kissed again ignoring Azula just to spite her.
Azula rolled her eyes and chose another tactic that she knew Zuko could not understand and thus could not refute. Addressing Zuko was the wrong tactic. Zuko didn't seem to fear her like everyone else. "Oh Mai, Ty Lee needs your help untangling her braid." Get lost Mai or I will make you pay for it.
"Sounds pretty serious," Mai commented drably. She knew what Azula was actually saying and it twisted inside her as she admired Zuko's courage to stand up to this frightening young woman. She stood and walked past Azula, smooth deadly grace that didn't have Zuko's inner strength. It ate at her to think that she was a very fine assassin, willing to do just about anything, and yet Azula controlled her better than her own parents ever did. Her eyes slid sideways with distaste when she knew Azula would not see. One day, Azula, one day…
Azula crossed her arms and grinned with her sly plan, "So Zuko, I heard you went to visit that old fatso of a traitor, out uncle."
"That guard told you!" Zuko stood fists clenched as he planned ways to seriously hurt the man for disobeying him.
Azula shrugged, "No. You did… just now." She smiled so pleased with the spider-mouse that was so easily snapped in her trap.
She reveled in the sag of Zuko's shoulders as he sank back to sitting on the blanket, "ok, you caught me." He looked away from her defeated. "What is it that you want Azula?"
"Actually, nothing." Zuko was sure that was just another lie. "Believe it or not, I'm looking out for you. If people find out you've been to see Uncle, they'll think you're plotting with him. Just be careful, dumb dumb." Only then did she leave him alone to think about what she said.
He stared at some fraying threads on the edge of the blanket for a long while. Azula always lies. Azula always lies. She needed him to take the fall when the avatar returned. He needed to know if the avatar was alive. And if he was, when he was going to show up. He needed to know the timing. He needed to drive the avatar away. The Day of Black Sun was a bad time. Azula would be waiting for Aang to make sure she really killed him. He wanted to plot with his uncle. That was partly why he was here. He just didn't know how to be that subtle. He stood and incinerated the blanket and basket remains of the picnic with a yell. Then his shoulders sagged again. He hated Azula. He needed his uncle.
To the nine hells with her. I'll see my uncle if I want to. She can go right ahead and interrogate the guard if she likes. She'll not find any plotting happening at all. Uncle won't even speak…
He stared at the sunset as the orange hues were changing to dark red of hot coals. Sometimes even benders get burned. He thought about how he was burned on his feet when he was just ten and walked the coals. He walked them anyways, all the way to the end without crying. That was when his father stopped regarding him as worthy. It was his uncle that picked him up and carried him to the bath where his cousin Lu Ten was waiting. Lu Ten ran for bandages, while his uncle held him as his father ought to have. Sometimes even benders get burned.