6 - Strangers

Zuko was once again sitting in a magistrate's meeting room and found himself wondering at what point his life had undergone such a paradigm shift.

It hadn't been when he became Fire Lord, that was for sure. Both before and after his crowning, the big moments in his life usually occurred at such interesting locations as throne rooms, controversial colonies, secret underground bunkers, ice cities at the top of the world, ancient ruins of long-forgotten kingdoms, graveyards, several different flavors of temples, and on one occasion a nice spa in the spring. It was quite a variety, and the only thing uniting them was they could made the Fire Nation's burgeoning theater industry weep in gratitude. They were places that, just by their very nature, communicated the drama of the climactic confrontations that occurred within their bounds, and understandably they were fully booked these days.

A magistrate's office, though, was very much not that. There were no thrones, no intimidating walls of flame, no columns with the bloody history of a nation and culture inscribed on them in case anyone forgot it and needed to quickly remind themselves. The golden dragon carvings were definitely mid-range, the snarls looking a bit more like a lack of fiber in their diet, and there was a noticeable dearth of guards in spiky, face-concealing armor. Zuko's ancestors wouldn't have looked twice at the place, unless it was to set it on fire, but frankly they would have been almost entirely interested in the act of arson itself and not the quality of the building actually being burned to the ground.

And yet Zuko's entire future, even the future of the nation he was leading, rested on what happened here. There was a real chance that he would leave this place in an hour with absolutely no chance of ever experiencing happiness again. And it wasn't even the first time. How had his life shifted this much without him noticing? Since when did offices become so important?

But he supposed it didn't really matter. Part of growing up was realizing that important things could happen in the most innocuous of places. Perhaps they could only happen that way, and any suitably dramatic environments came into play later, when things had already been decided by the earlier actions of the people who still thought they had a chance.

The whole situation was an unpleasant reminder that even though he was one of the most powerful people in the world, even though his father could inflict no new hurts on him, no one was too strong to worry about his future.

How disappointing.

Neither the magistrate nor Advocate Sung Saikit were here yet, once again leaving Zuko without an opposition against which to direct his anxiety. At least Mai was next to him, helping to populate a table that otherwise would have been entirely filled by people with respect for the rule of law. Not that she was against the rule of law, specifically, which would have made this current situation as awkward as taking Aang to a meat buffet. (Never again, Sokka.) No, she merely ignored it whenever possible but aimed for the jugular whenever she happened to bump into it.

Hence her current plan. Which was insightful and dramatic and more than a little mean and also beautiful in a darkly elegant way. The same could be said about her, and he often did, to her pleasure. It was good that Zuko had such a dramatic girlfriend. Most other Fire Lords would be spending the time waiting either going over their paperwork or thinking about lemurs. But here he was, wallowing in romance and fear. He and Mai really were made for each other.

Her gaze flicked on and off of him, and then she shifted to take his hands in her own. "You're worrying. I can feel it from here."

Zuko put a smile on his face in anticipation of feeling like smiling. "And what does my worry feel like?"

"Hmmmmm." She thought about it for a moment, and fixed her piercing eyes on him. "Like the time Ty Lee played a prank on me by switching all my blades for ones made out of a metal twice as heavy and a lot more malleable. I felt weighed down and strangely unable to stab things as effectively as I should."

Zuko's smile grew some actual life. "Did you just think of that now?"

"No, I've been waiting for months to use it. You like it?"

He squeezed her hand in answer, allowing her cool skin to draw away some of his own heat. He realized that could actually be a very clever metaphor for their relationship and was about to say so in hopes of getting a compliment in return, but the moment was ruined when the door at the rear of the office slid open and Saikit rushed in.

"Nobody panic," he barked as he slapped his satchel down on the opposite table.

Zuko looked at Manisha and the other lawyers, finding their expressions just as blank as his head right now. "Why would we panic?"

"I can't fathom," Saikit mumbled as opened the satchel and flipped through its contents, "but I find that it's a handy thing to say as I enter a room. It helps establish an authoritative dynamic, you see? You can have that one for free, Fire Lord." He bowed, almost as an afterthought, and added, "Your majesty, it is once again an honor and pleasure to bask in your presence."

Zuko nodded an acknowledgment, despite the lack of proper decorum. He could have Saikit put to death for such a lack of respect, which was why he didn't feel the need. Knowing he could gave him enough confidence not to worry about it, which had more than once made him wonder if he was adopted. "I hope you don't take it as an insult that after today we will no longer need to presume upon your time."

"Oh, not at all. We are all fine men - fine people - in this room, but I think we can all agree that there's a bit too much of us." He seated himself at the table.

Zuko noticed that Saikit's gaze then went to Mai, lingering for a moment, but then went back to his heaps of paperwork. Zuko looked to his girlfriend and they proceeded to have a long, completely wordless conversation that could be summarized as, "Oooh, check that out. He's worried, right?"

When the time for the appointment dawned, Magistrate Lee came in through the door at the front of the room and took his place behind his desk. He bowed as low as the furniture would let him and said, "Fire Lord, I am of course honored and grateful that you did not keep away as everyone working in this building had so fervently hoped. Yes, fervently hoped. Advocate Saikit, it's usually a pleasure and hopefully will be this time. So, my good people, have we come to an agreement on the matter of the marriage application? There was the issue of the outstanding sentences on Lady Mai-"

Zuko nodded to Manisha. It was time for their duel with Saikit. And as in any duel, they had to keep their balance, fight with skill, and hope that their opponent hadn't brought a bunch of friends with heavy sticks waiting in the bushes.

Manisha started, as always, with a light bombardment of documentation. "Yes, to satisfy the first articles of the hold, we've pursued the completion of the outstanding convictions against her. The first forms show the sentence of death proclaimed for her attempted armed invasion of the palace. Her execution by old age is in process and should be completed, according to the testimony of the Royal Physician and taking into account the average lifespan of her maternal ancestry, within the next 70 years."

"Ah," began Saikit, "I-"

"Here," Manisha interrupted, "are copies of the law that gives the Fire Lord unlimited powers when it comes to fatal assignments. Of course, my client is aware that this will be subject to review and verification, and he eagerly awaits confirmation." She handed out further papers with the intensity of Mai telling Sokka that she can to throw a boomerang, although Manisha's papers actually landed where she wanted them.

Mai herself looked quite proud of her cousin, and Zuko was glad that he had merely thought the metaphor about the boomerang and not said aloud so she could hear.

"Yes, yes," Saikit grumbled, "you have demonstrated an admirable cleverness and knowledge of law. But that was the rather more minor article, I believe, compared to the charges related to her work on behalf of known members of the treasonous New Ozai Society that so despicably engaged in kidnapping, insurrection, impersonation of supernatural forces, and abetting the war criminal Princess Azula, against which our own Fire Lord Zuko was force to take such drastic measures. As well as all the other illegal activities that indicate a concerning lack of respect for both law and honor."

The mention of Azula's scheme gave an unpleasant swirl in his stomach, and the reminder of how poorly he had reacted to it, up to and including ordering his soldiers to break into people's homes in a desperate search for clues, got a good (in a bad way) bubbling going. Thankfully, he didn't need to swallow any strange-tasting powders or drink one of Uncle's medicinal teas, for Mai was here, and the way she leaned against him, to give a squeeze that was almost a hug, was more effective than any medicine. Medicine couldn't erase mistakes, but Mai had a knack for helping Zuko to live with them.

Behind his desk, Magistrate Lee bit his lip. "Yes, I'm rather surprised at how quickly the investigation was- ah, apparently finished. Rather surprised. It's only been two weeks since our last meeting."

"I have a very efficient Justice Ministry." Zuko put on his sternest, best Disgruntled Fire Lord face, one that Mai had helped him develop and that he found more effective than any amount of shouting. "They've had quite a bit of work, dealing with the aftermath of a hundred-year war."

"And to that effect," Manisha chirped, while the other lawyers exchanged anticipatory grins and elbowed each other, "I have overseen Lady Mai's plea bargain. She graciously agreed to a guilty plea in exchange for a lesser sentence, which the Justice Ministry accepted to help relieve the rather extensive backlog this matter was adding to." She passed out another set of papers for everyone try to find meaning in.

"Oh, well, good show." Magistrate Lee scanned his copy of the documentation. "Very practical, very practical. You have our gratitude, Lady Mai."

Saikit blinked at the paperwork in his hands. He blinked again. He turned the paper upside down and blinked once more. "Did I suddenly achieve a strange and disturbing clairvoyance aimed at past eras or am I reading that Lady Mai has been ordered to challenge a dragon to an Agni Kai as her punishment? Did the Avatar have a whole century-old menagerie of extinct creatures in that iceberg with him that he's now slowly reintroducing to unsuspecting ecosystems?"

Zuko chose to ignore that one, and merely replied, "In the past, such a burden was considered a lesser alternative to death or life imprisonment, since there's theoretically a chance of survival."

"Oh, hey, about that," Mai said, pulling her own piece of paper out of her sleeve. Everyone fashionable had sheets of paper, it seemed. "I submit to the magistrate my latest correspondence with the retired General Iroh, who was officially awarded the title of 'Dragon' by Fire Lord Azulon. In this letter, Uncle-" She paused, and then very deliberately and with great relish, continued with, "I mean General Iroh, of course- anyway, he accepted my challenge of an Agni Kai and immediately forfeited the match in the same letter. That means I win. Yay, me."

Manisha and the other lawyers began clapping for her.

Zuko, for his part, didn't even try to hide his grin. Originally, Manisha was going to be the one to submit the letter, but Mai begged for the opportunity, on account of wanting the moment to be smug as possible. He loved how smug his girlfriend could be. "I believe that settles the matter of my not being allowed to marry Mai."

Saikit shot to his feet so quickly that his robes continued on another inch before settling back on his frame slightly askew. "I have to contest this! The law in question is quite clear that the Agni Kai is to be fought against an actual dragon and not merely an honorary title."

"Well, there's no- um, there's no legal definition of a dragon." Manisha stood up as well, but in an entirely deniable way that involved keeping her back as curved as possible. Perhaps if asked, she would say she had merely misplaced her chair. That had happened to Zuko several times, and Sokka was to blame for all of them. "And- um, and there's actually a lot of- um, well, documentation about the 'Dragon' title. It's in the official pronouncements of Sozin, and Azulon had multiple awardings inscribed in the public records."

"Ha!" Saikit crossed his arms. "It's rather drastic to say that no legal definition exists. Two weeks of research was able to determine such a thing? Ha! I, on the other hand, have an entire library of law and history within my memory, years of study and research distilled into snap recollection, and I'm sure that- well there must be- truthfully I cannot quite recall any legal definition of a dragon at this time." He cleared his throat. "But, regardless, this is not a matter for a mere arbitration session. Clearly this needs to go to a full trial! Surely the intent of the law itself is clear enough."

Manisha pointed at him. "Don't get into intent with me! I'll point out that the whole purpose of the Dragon title was to replace actual dragons with loyal people who were just as deadly and intimidating, so newer intent overrides earlier intent! So- um, so there!"

Mai stood up then, but instead of joining the argument, she patted Manisha's shoulder. "Cool those coals down a little, cuz. We don't want to scare the poor man. Yet."

Manisha blushed. "Oh, um, I'm so sorry. This case just gets me so- um, so excited."

Magistrate Lee stared wide-eyed at them all. "Why are you all standing up? Should I be standing up, too?"

Zuko didn't want this to become a real fight, even though if it came down to it the only person in the room who could beat him was Mai, and she'd probably be on his side until things got boring. No, he needed to do this the right way, and that meant flying tackles off of tables were completely off the table, and turning chairs into improvised weapons would be a disastrous indulgence.

He motioned for everyone to sit. "I'm sorry, Magistrate. Perhaps we can all calm down and talk things through. Reach some kind of a compromise."

Mai slid Manisha back into her seat like she was carefully returning one of her knives with all the extra little cutting edges to its sheath, full of respect for the pointy bits and possibility of blood.

Saikit exhaled a heavy breath and ran a hand through his hair, leaving it even closer to almost being a disaster. "Of course. As ever, Fire Lord, you are a herald of peace and deescalation. Yes, by all means, let us discuss things like civilized people, and I mean that in the sense of a harmonious communal dynamic, not in the traditional academic sense of the Fire Nation being civilized and everything else not." He sat down.

"Thank you. Your words flatter me."

"But-" Saikit lurched to lean on his table, his face nearly going bug-eyed with intensity. "Surely, you don't think this is any kind of proper counter? Yes, it's all been very clever, but this whole farce is balanced on the edge of human judgment. Surely you didn't have Lady Mai plead guilty to treason because of a little wordplay."

Zuko spread his hands out. "Why not? The purpose of this, according to you, was the doubts your clients had about her because of the rumors and hearsay brought to them. Well, Mai is admitting to it." He looked to her. "Right?"

She sighed. "My father took advantage of my loyalty to family, temporarily. What your witnesses heard was my realization that I'd been played, and my confession to Zuko about everything. I even fought beside him to help make things right."

Zuko nodded and put his arm around her shoulders. Those were dark times for them both, and not just because most of it had occurred either at night or during gray overcast days. Azula had returned with Mai's father as a minion, their little siblings Tom-Tom and Kiyi had both been kidnapped. Then Zuko had once again come into conflict with Aang and his own people about what was to be done about it, kicking the Avatar out of his palace and sending troops to do door-to-door searches for anything even remotely treasonous. That, even aside from not finding anything and merely spreading fear through the populace, had firmly put him at the bottom of the list of Most Popular World Leaders that year, and there had only been three other people to compete with.

Also, Mai had been dating a young man who had seemed to be fairly nice and more than a little good-looking, which was almost as stressful as all the rest of it. Compared to that, covering temporarily for her father's rebellious activities had been easy to forgive.

Zuko rubbed his hand over her back and said, "I accepted her apology and her amends. But I recognize that the law must be obeyed, so my legal department has found a way to satisfy everyone except the boy she was dating at the time. She's not a stranger to me or the Caldera. She's not our enemy. We know her. I grew up with her. What could possibly be worth extending this and persecuting her for a mistake any one of could have made? That I've made?"

Mai's hand took his under the table and gave what Zuko was interpreting as either a grateful or lustful squeeze, and he would happily take either one. He also noted that he was holding his girlfriend's hand under a table where no one could see, one of those teenage things they had quite gotten around to what with all the banishments he'd been given, so that was nice.

But Saikit put a hand to his brow in evident grief. "Ah, if only it was that easy. But my clients - and you must understand that I am merely acting as their advocate in this - firmly believe that what starts as filching the last dumpling without asking can quickly and most unfortunately escalate into such transgressions as stabbing a Fire Lord in bed in a hysterical fit. Especially when one expresses no remorse for taking that last dumpling, or if I may be forgiven for abandoning a metaphor that is making me anxious for lunch, that long list of crimes my clients are accusing Lady Mai of. In fact-" He went for his satchel. "Quite a few other disturbing testimonies have surfaced since our last session, with thankfully only a few involving illicit use of dumplings, and it is my sad duty to request that the hold on your marriage application be extended until everything has been dismissed or fully prosecuted."

Zuko wanted to be surprised at this latest turn even more than he now wanted dumplings for lunch, but he had a whole childhood's worth of practice at not getting what he wanted and he felt that he could pick it up again now without much difficulty. He looked to Mai, and she gave him a nod with the same deadly grace that usually went into drawing one of her knives. Appropriate, since she was about to go to war.

"I would expect nothing less," she said to Saikit, "considering what your daughter told me."

The words themselves were too dull to draw blood, but they had the very interesting effect of pushing Saikit back until he was sitting with his back as straight as a spear. "Y- Yes, I heard of your visit. A- shame you had to leave before I could return and properly welcome you to my temple of law and habitation. My daughter wasn't quite clear on what, exactly, you wanted to see me about, being a bit more concerned with showcasing that you autographed her bread knife. Aha, ha." He passed a tall, haphazard stack of paper's onto the magistrate's desk that twinged Zuko's desire to make sure all the corners were precisely aligned.

A smile dawned on Mai's face. It was a red dawn, a death dawn, a dawn that would see their enemies wiped from the face of the world.

Zuko got out of the way and let his girlfriend go for it.

He loved this part.

"So," Mai flung the word out like a razor carefully aimed between a man's legs to not hit anything in a very evocative, express, and eloquent way, "were you the one who told her the story of my stand against Azula at the Boiling Rock?"

Saikit must have sensed that the conversation had shifted into something dangerous to him. It was clear from the way his eyes flickered to Magistrate Lee as if scanning a battleground for something to cower behind. Those types always made Mai's hunting instincts flare; she hoped Aang never knew how many times she'd nearly reflexively tossed a blade or two at Momo.

Making matters worse, the Saikit laugh attempted had a certain high-pitched lemur-ish quality to it. "Is it just me, or have we wandered a bit off-topic, as one does when ambling about in the afternoon with a pleasant sun in the sky and-" He made the mistake of looking at Mai's face. "-and fallen into a ditch full of mud and hidden dead bodies? Er?"

Mai started to unleash her Inner Azula - that little voice that was the source of her meanest thoughts about people and the part she usually had to ignore to avoid a self-destructive spiral - and idly used a finger to fiddle with one of her hair-tails while staring at Saikit like he was a bug that had made the mistake of attempting to admire her boots. "I'm just wondering when you went from what Lijing described as such a big supporter of Zuko to pressuring your friends and contacts into becoming your clients to give you a justification for harassing him."

Saikit send nothing for a long moment. Then he added a lot of little silent moments in an attempt to hide how much Moment he was using.

The quiet was only broken by Magistrate Lee looking up for all the paperwork and going, "Eh?"

Saikit leaned his chin on his hand and attempted a smile that was ruined by the sweat breaking out on his forehead. "Am I to be on trial here? Or on arbitration here? Or whatever it is you think you're doing?"

Manisha hummed and said, "Not a denial." Then she did that thing lawyers made look so scary- she wrote something down while the other lawyers nodded.

"Ridiculous." Saikit's forehead got more wet and shiny. "Can we open a window or something?"

Mai put on a show of licking her lips; they tasted like watermelon because of the flavored lip-balm she'd used. "And give you an escape route?"

"From the second floor?"

"It turns out," Mai pressed on while she had the momentum, "that teenage schoolgirls are very good at innocuously wheedling information out of their parents. And Lijing and her friends are very taken with me now that I'm almost a criminal. Enough to find out that the old family friend Sung Saikit has been spreading rumors about me and pressing people to sponsor his antics to do something about it." She flicked the hair-tail over her shoulder and stood up to loom over Saikit. "Kind of gutsy mastermind a conspiracy against the Fire Lord while accusing me of treason."

She felt a warm presence at her side, and found Zuko had joined her in the new sport of looming. Zuko said, "You're using the law to further your own ends. Making it a hollow joke that stands in the way of what's right."

Saikit slapped his hands on the table in front of them. "Exactly! Haha, yes!"

Mai stumbled backwards in reflex, Zuko perfectly in step with her like the good momentarily-terrified boyfriend that he was. As gratifying as it was to have her enemy confess when confronted, she hadn't been expecting him to be so enthusiastic about.

Saikit leaped to his feet and threw his arms out at his sides, laughing again and saying, "You would see it that way, wouldn't you, Fire Lord Zuko?! You make fine speeches about an age of peace, but as soon as you feel a little pressure, it's back to waging wars and oppressing the citizenry! Well, you can't oppress me. The law is my domain, and you cannot defeat me there! I'll hound you for the entirety of your rule, forcing you to bow to the rules you only like when they benefit you, and the only way to stop me will be to kill me! So go ahead!"

Saikit took a step towards forward, arms out like wings. "I know Lady Mai carries knives wherever she goes- my daughter has never tired of telling me since I first shared the Boiling Rock story! I've been expecting you to assassinate me since this whole little business began! So do it! Take me down and show the world - or, at least, your lawyers and the magistrate here - who you two really are! Stab, and let the blood flow!"

"Oh no, oh please no," Magistrate Lee moaned, "this carpet is new, and blood is so hard to get out, so hard to get out."

Mai, for her part, was impressed.

This guy was even nuttier than Azula.

But at least they knew how to shut him up, now. She'd had an inkling before, and this confirmed it.

She removed a tri-hinge blade out of her left sleeve.

Saikit took a step back, but kept his arms out.

Mai raised the blade.

Saikit winced, made little baby sounds, and backed up until he bumped into his table, but he remained standing in his vulnerable position. He didn't even turn away when she held her weapon up, although he did whimper, "Oh no, it's going to hurt, please don't let it hurt-"

Mai kept the blade up and held out her other hand. Manisha passed her one last sheet of paper - the ultimate document of this sordid affair - and Mai proceeded to to nail it to the table beside Saikit with her tri-hinge. Then she turned to Magistrate Lee, put on an Azula-smirk, and said, "Put the damaged furniture on my bill."

Magistrate Lee blinked. "I- I wasn't charging you anything."

"You weren't?" Oops. Mai looked over to Manisha, who nodded confirmation. Ah, perhaps it was time to put the Inner Azula back in her straitjacket "Oh. Sorry. Well, you can send me a bill for a new table. And then I'll send it to Zuko because my job just pays in room and board."

Saikit, meanwhile, was tugging at the paper. "I- I'm not going to be able to get this off without ripping something. Could you maybe-" He motioned at the hinge-blade.

Well, this wasn't working anywhere nearly as well as she'd hoped. She yanked the blade out of the table, freeing the paper for people to actually pick up and read.

Zuko came over and patted her shoulder, saying, "Well, I for one thought it was very triumphant and dramatic."

Mai favored him with a smile. "Thanks. You always know just what to say."

"What," Saikit fluted as he read the paper, "is this ridiculousness?"

Mai gave him a nonchalant, carefully calculated shrug that Azula would have loved to be able to pull off but never would. "Ask my betrothed. After all, it's his powers as Fire Lord that it's limiting."

Zuko smiled his thanks to Mai and motioned to the paper she'd just tried to so climatically reveal. "That is a law. A new law. A law about laws. There's a lot words and I don't understand most of them, since my lawyers made me put them in so that it all works properly. But the main idea is that if the Fire Lord - any Fire Lord, including me - is proven to commit a criminal act, he can be removed from his position."

Mai leaned in an added, "He or she, because that's another new thing being confirmed by this law."

Zuko nodded his thanks. "Yes, it's finally time to clear that up. It also dictates that the Fire Lord doesn't need to be a Firebender. That way, if none of the heirs are Firebenders, there's no succession crisis. And if a criminal Fire Lord is removed, the royal court and the Caldera magistrate will work together to appoint the best possible choice, regardless of Firebending ability."

Mai leaned over stroked Zuko's face. "That same process can also be used if the Fire Lord dies without an heir, so there's no need to threaten the Fire Lady with death if she doesn't have kids. Not that I'm ruling anything out, but it's nice not to have to worry about it."

"Ah," Saikit snorted, "you're using this to protect herself? Making the Fire Lord become your shield."

"Of course not," Zuko intoned. "A Fire Lady can still be removed, either by herself or alongside the Fire Lord, for criminal actions. The Fire Lord and Fire Lady are finally both equally accountable. I had my lawyers working for a long time on this."

Mai leaned her forehead against his. "I love it when you make servants work extra hard for me."

"I know you do." He kissed her, taking his time. Then, having successfully made Saikit uncomfortable waiting for them, got back to the matter at hand. "Well? Have you found any loopholes yet?"

Saikit blinked at the paper. "I- no, it looks- it looks legitimate. Of course, it would need to be fully reviewed, debated, tested, rewritten, reviewed again, debated - actually the debating is never going to stop, that's the fun of the whole thing - and so on. But, yes, the bones of what you're saying are here." He looked up to Zuko. "Amazing. Of course, you'll have to be very careful. A good prosecuting lawyer could perhaps make you look guiltier than you are, hypothetically speaking. You're exposing yourself, in a way that thankfully leaves you fully dressed, to all kinds of power plays and attempts to take you down."

Zuko couldn't hid a smirk. "It wouldn't be the first time my sense of honor has put me in danger. And besides, in that event, I would make sure I have a very good defense team."

A smile blossomed on Saikit' face. "Why, your majesty, I'm honored! I'm a private practitioner, but for a leader as honorable as you evidently are becoming, I suppose I could be persuaded to join a more communal, government- arrangement and subject myself to the foibles of a royal department of fellow lawyers."

Zuko shook his head. "No, not you. I meant my current lawyers. They're obviously better than you." He pointed to Manisha and the others, who waved.

"Oh." Saikit drooped.

Mai rolled her eyes. "Besides, Advocate Saikit, we need you on your own to keep Zuko and me honest. A lawyer as skilled and contentious as you works best outside the system, right?"

Saikit's disappointment was replaced with a grin so quickly that it almost felt like it kicked up a wind. "Well, when you put it that way- And, really, this whole thing has worked out rather nicely thanks to my efforts and seemingly misplaced agenda, hasn't it? A bit of legal excitement to make the romance so much more vivid?"

"Sure," Mai snorted. "Lawyers and romance go so well together."

But perhaps she was wrong. Zuko held his hand out to Manisha. "Then, with everything settled, I think there's one last bit of paperwork to submit, yes?"

Mai blinked. "I thought the law there was the last one."

"No, that needs to be ratified by my Administration Council so that it can become law. That has nothing to do with the Magistrate. This was just a bit of theater. I mean the one last form we need to give to Magistrate Lee here."

Manisha's smile lit up her face. "I, um- I know the one. This form wasn't hard, but I'm- um, I'm proud to have worked on it. Yes." She handed it over with one of the gold-plated stamps of the Fire Lord. Zuko stamped the bottom and slid it over for Mai's perusal.

She looked it over, realized what it was and blushed. Manisha handed her a stamp as well, one Zuko had especially commissioned for this occasion. It was gold-plated, just like royalty deserved, even if it would be a little time yet before she would actually be royalty. But now it would only be a matter of time.

Mai took the stamp of the Fire Lady and put her mark at the bottom of the form.

Together, they handed the certified document to Magistrate Lee.

He nodded, accepted it stoically, and looked to Saikit. "I take it you're not submitting a renewal of your hold?"

Saikit blew out a heavy breath. "No. Just as well, really. My daughter walks around carrying knives, and I was taking my life into my slippery lawyerly hands in antagonizing her hero. Congratulations, Fire Lord, Lady Mai."

Magistrate Lee nodded. "Then my office can accept this request. Fire Lord Zuko and Lady Mai-"

But Zuko couldn't let this be purely about law and paperwork and checks against tyrannical power. He took Mai's hands in his own, looked into her eyes, and said, "Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

"You have to ask?" She blinked against wet eyes.

"No. But I want to." Zuko felt his own eyes tearing up, even the one on his scarred side. He always started crying when people around him did, something that Aang and Katara constantly exploited. But he never thought he'd be sharing tears with Mai in such a happy occasion.

She squeezed his hands. "And I want to marry you. I always have. Even when I didn't want to." They knew each other so well that the statement made perfect sense to him.

He pulled her in for a kiss.

The cheers they got were pretty good, considering it was coming from a room full of lawyers.

And so it ended when Zuko got an idea. It was the same idea as the one that had started it all, namely his intention to marry the woman who he loved and seemed to love him both in return and proportion, but this time he had her help with it, so of course it worked out much better than the first go.

Not that this was any end to their shared troubles. Zuko's fangirls took longer to come around than the temporarily-disillusioned lawyer, for starters. But once they collectively realized that the betrothal wouldn't interfere with their existing non-relationship with Zuko - and that the same comfortable jail cells would be reserved for when they inevitably took things from merely creepy to outright illegal - they settled down to their usual level of inconvenience. Some even decided that shooting to become a Prime Concubine would be easier than the whole Fire Lady thing, anyway, and the job was much less demanding. Not that Zuko was shopping for a Prime Concubine, but none of the girls felt the need to consult him about it, which was for the best, really.

Mai, of course, could not continue sweeping floors in a florist shop now that she was officially the Fire Lord's betrothed. She had homework to do, for one, now that people expected her to obey laws and not help her poor aunt hide profits from the Revenue Ministry. Most of her days saw her in the palace, spending time with Zuko that didn't all consist of kissing him- just a fair portion of it. They shared in his job of listening to people and then telling them what to do, or sometimes the other way around. People even started calling her 'Lady Caldera Yu Mai' again, although her official address was still with her aunt in Harbor City and would be until they got around to the wedding.

And then there was her other hobby.

Every day Mai would leave the palace, often passing by the legal department. Sometimes, she'd have the chance to say hello to her cousin. Other times, she'd slip by discreetly, allowing Manisha to 'accidentally' drop some paperwork in the halls, where General Mak of all people with his four face-covering sideburns would inevitably be passing through. Mak would stop to help pick the documents up, Manisha would blush and thank him, and if there was some brushing of hands as papers were returned, only Mai could say. And she, unlike most people in the Caldera, wasn't a gossip.

In fact, her destination had something to do with dealing with that.

Leaving the palace, she'd quickly and inevitably end up in the Royal Caldera Park, where a sign would be propped up against a tree proclaiming a space reserved for "Lady Mai's Etiquette Lessons for Girls with Bright Futures." Sung Lijing would always be there, and not just because she had made and owned the sign. Lijing's friends, wanting to be dangerous and beautiful and 'sizzling,' made up the initial membership of the class, but it didn't take long to grow. Many families saw the possibilities in sending their daughters to learn etiquette from the soon-to-be Fire Lady.

Most of the girls wound up very confused, because Mai didn't care much for etiquette. Instead, she'd teach them things like where a knife should be balanced to be good for throwing. Some of them came to like that, and others just pretended to and learned a valuable lesson about buttering up their bosses.

Certain students, though, got extra lessons. Lessons in watching and listening and keeping their thoughts in their head. Lessons in honor and law and what it took to create a new era of peace. Lessons in sneaking and advanced combat and sabotage.

Lessons in how to be an active participant in Fire Lord Zuko's age of peace.

After all, Mai had been planning to be Fire Lady since she was twelve. Surely she didn't have to wait to actually be married to get started on the job.

Besides, as she often had to remind him, Mai didn't support Zuko because she loved him. She loved him because he was the most support-worthy person she'd ever met.

And if she could do it without breaking any laws- well, that was just icing on the fruit tart.

END