Prompt: "Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri
Characters: Mai, Azula, Ty Lee, Suki, Zuko, Aang
Pairing: Implied Maiko
All of them had scars.
Azula might not have been the first one to hurt her, but she had found the old wounds and dug her fingers in, expertly, to prevent them from healing. Even now that she was free of the princess and her parents alike, Mai still caught herself suppressing a smile, substituting boredom for emotion, and never letting anyone else see anything that actually mattered, lest it be turned against her. Except there was no longer anyone to turn it against her: she was surrounded by people she loved or at the very least trusted, yet she still was not free.
Ty Lee hid also, covering up the old hurt with good cheer, never letting anyone else know when she was angry or sad because she had learned that it would hurt her. On the day of the coronation Mai had listened to Ty Lee babble on about meeting the Kyoshi Warriors in prison and how they had become such good friends even after Azula had had them locked up together with the intention of letting them kill each other but that was okay because it had all worked out in the end and—
"Ty Lee," she had said, simply, and watched her friend's face crumble. A second later the other girl was in her arms, crying into Mai's shoulder while her entire body shook, and Mai wrapped her arms around Ty Lee in turn even though she wasn't normally someone who hugged.
"She has a way," Suki confessed, seemingly at random, over their game of Pai Sho in the Jasmine Dragon, "of finding whatever hurts the most—of exploiting all of your deepest fears and insecurities and convincing you that your hopes are nothing more than an illusion. In the end, she's got you thinking that the only source you can trust on anything is her word." She did not provide further details, and Mai did not ask for them.
Zuko's was one of the most obvious. When the bandages came off for the final time, Mai was there, and she lightly ran her fingers over the hardened, star-shaped mark—an action she had not planned, but which her hand did on its own as if compelled by some outside force.
She had nearly taken his heart.
"Aang has one to match," he said, quietly, as she withdrew her hand.
Mai saw that one too, when he and Aang practiced their firebending in the courtyard for old times' sake. As often happened on hot days when firebending was involved, they trained shirtless, and the angry red mark on the Avatar's upper back was impossible to miss. It drew the eyes more clearly than any target (had been a target), breaking the line of his tattoos, marring the otherwise surprisingly delicate-looking skin on his back.
When he caught her looking—Mai didn't know how, as she was sure she hadn't made a sound—Aang merely turned around with a smile. "I'm just glad to be alive," he said cheerfully, before returning his attention to the form they were drilling.
Yes, alive. No human who'd ever been born made it through a lifetime unscathed, unscarred. Still, Mai could not help but wonder what her life would have been like—what all of their lives would have been like—if Azula had never been a part of it.
A/N: Yet another look at Azula's abuse of her friends and family.
