It was early evening when Qin came back. Zuko had a fuzzy memory that Qin had been here while he'd been sedated, but he didn't remember much. "Fire Lord," Qin said, nodding shortly. "We need to talk. Why did you try to throw yourself out the window?"

Zuko glowered at him from where he sat on his bed, closely sandwiched between Ryu and Sharyu. He still felt a bit drug-addled, but he'd had as much as he could stand of this stupid situation. "I didn't. I just wanted to get a better look at the outside of the tower."

Qin looked at him. "Cut the crap. If you weren't trying to kill yourself, what were you doing?"

"Fine!" snapped Zuko. If Qin wanted a fight... "I got really bored and wondered if I could climb down if I needed to. Happy now?"

"You got bored," said Qin, looking disbelieving. "You expect me to believe that you were on a 100-foot high window ledge while suffering from severe dizzy spells because you were..." Qin stopped and visibly counted to three. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

"I was barely dizzy at all by then and... it was a lot less dangerous than a lot of things I did during the War."

"Oh really? Name one!"

"Swimming under arctic ice, fighting angry benders, sneaking into Ba Sing Se, telling my father what I thought of him, falling off an airship twice in one skirmish, travelling across the Earth Kingdom incognito, triggering traps in old ruins, sneaking into Boiling Rock, getting caught in a typhoon at sea, fighting Azula, fighting Zhao, rescuing Uncle..."

Qin held up a hand. "I get your point." He then pointed a finger at Zuko. "What you are forgetting is that you are the Fire Lord now, not just a banished prince. You do not have the right to risk your life on a whim, and I will not permit it."

"Some Fire Lord. I might as well be your pet sparrowkeet!" Zuko crossed his arms and glared.

"I wouldn't have to lock you up if you'd just be sensible. But I can't leave you unsupervised for two minutes without you risking your life doing something stupid."

"I was fine."

"You were not fine. You could have been killed. And that's why you're moving."

"Oh?" said Zuko uneasily. "Where to?" Hopefully not the prison – he hadn't liked the look of it when Uncle was there, and surely Qin wouldn't be able to get away with sticking him there. He didn't think he'd be able to break out like Uncle had.

"A room on the second story. All stone, and I've got workers adding metal bars to the windows. It isn't proof against earthbenders, but at least I won't have to worry about you immolating yourself or falling to your death."

"Because a dead Fire Lord would be so inconvenient," said Zuko.

Qin stopped. "Do you really hate me so much that you'd rather kill yourself than see me run the Fire Nation?"

Zuko looked away and shrugged.

"ZUKO, LOOK AT ME!"

Zuko's head whipped round at the sudden shout.

"If you have any care for the Fire Nation at all, you will NOT," said Qin.

"Why not?" said Zuko. "You're making it sound better all the time."

"You dying won't place your uncle in power; it will start a civil war," said Qin. "And it will be your fault. Ryu, Sharyu, get him ready. I want him in the new room in the next hour. And he is not to be alone for so much as one second, understand? Not even in the bathroom."

Zuko's face flushed. Maybe he shouldn't have taunted Qin.

"Yes, my lord," said Ryu.

There was a knock on the window. Mai looked up from the letter she was encoding, and spotted Ty Lee's head silhouetted against the low sunlight. She sighed, then smiled wryly. "You're supposed to use the door," Mai reminded her as she opened the window. "This makes it look like you're trying not to be seen."

"But if I change my behavior, that will just be more suspicious!" said Ty Lee. "Besides, the door is boring." Then her face fell. "Mai, have you heard about Zuko?"

"What's happened?" asked Mai. What had her disaster-prone boyfriend done now?

"Everyone's saying he tried to kill himself, but then I found out he was just on the windowsill and you know how good Zuko is at climbing. I'm sure he wasn't really in any danger."

"He tried to what?" Zuko, you idiot...

It took a couple of tries, but she got a fairly coherent tale out of Ty Lee. Basically, Zuko had tried to go out the window, and been forcibly stopped. She'd have said he was trying to escape, but in the middle of a sunny afternoon? He wasn't that stupid. Though he had probably had a Dai li messing with his head. They'd had her check the body and equipment, and they had certainly looked Dai li.

Mai stood up. "I am going to go see Zuko. Maybe now they think he's suicidally-depressed they'll let me visit." Hopefully he wasn't actually suicidally depressed. Zuko did have a tendency to the dramatic, and Qin probably had a reason to say suicide rather than escape.

"I'll come too!" said Ty Lee.

"I doubt they'll let you in," said Mai.

"True, but sometimes people let me do stuff they won't let you do because you don't smile enough, and I'm good at cheering people up," said Ty Lee.

Personally, Mai suspected Ty Lee got on Zuko's nerves when he was in a bad mood, but Ty Lee was right about people underestimating her. "Then come," said Mai, "but we're leaving via the door, and I'll let my parents know where I've gone."

They were unchallenged until they made it to the bottom of the Central Tower. "You can't go up and see the Fire Lord because he's not here," the guard explained. "He's over there," she pointed across the main courtyard to a room on the second story. "The Regent had him moved for his own safety."

"Right," said Mai, and started walking.

"Thanks for the information," Ty Lee said, before following in Mai's wake.

They were soon at the new location, where they ran into a Dr. Kage coming out of the room. A bit of pleading, and entry for Mai alone was okayed... only for Mai to be ordered to remove her knives first. That took a while, and Ty Lee just didn't stop snickering as the guards' eyebrows climbed higher as the pile grew. Mai smirked as she removed her special hairpins and added those to the top of the pile. They were, after all, useful for throwing in a pinch. She was only following orders.

Finally they let her in. She spotted Zuko sitting on the bed with a blanket wrapped round his shoulders. His eyes were shadowed and he looked sort of lost, but his face lit up as he saw her. "Mai!" he said, standing up, but keeping one hand on the bedpost. "I missed you. What's been happening? They won't tell me anything."

Mai crossed the distance between – thought of pretending coolness, but discarded the idea. She hugged him, and he hugged just as fiercely back, and kissed her. He tasted medicinal. "What's this I hear about you hanging out on windowsills and possibly trying to kill yourself?" she said when they broke apart.

"I didn't!" Zuko almost wailed. "I just wanted to see how hard it would be to climb down later, and Mira came out of the bathroom and freaked out."

"While you were suffering from dizzy spells that could easily have made you fall to your death," rumbled a guard at the door. "And then you followed it up by threatening the Regent with trying for real."

"You do seem a little wobbly and out of it," Mai said, frowning. "Are you being drugged? Zuko, that was stupid." She poked him. "Wait until you're not dizzy before doing anything like that again, huh? And don't taunt your Regent."

"They drugged me afterwards, and it's not like I'll have the chance," Zuko gestured to the window. It was covered with new-looking metal bars, too narrowly-spaced for even Mai to fit between.

"Yes, well, that was predictable," said Mai. "The damsel in the tower is supposed to stay there quietly until rescued, you know."

Zuko looked a little hurt. "I'm not a damsel! And I'm no longer in the tower. Why does no one take my side in this?"

"Because it was really stupid and dangerous, and some of us actually like you and don't want you dead," snapped Mai. Though to be fair... "Ty Lee does, actually," said Mai.

Zuko looked shocked.

"She takes your side about it not being dangerous, I mean," Mai added hastily.

"I'm not sure that's a recommendation," said Zuko.

Mai snorted. Ty Lee might be her best friend, but her attitude towards all things aerial and acrobatic was best not tried by anyone else. Well, except Aang, but he was an airbender. He had an excuse.

"What's been happening while I've been stuck in here?" asked Zuko.

"Political whiplash," said Mai. "The ships with the food got sent off just before Qin cancelled the program, so Ba Sing Se will get at least the first shipment."

"That's wonderful," said Zuko, sagging as if a weight had been removed. He was too heavy for that to be comfortable, so she was glad when he sat back down on the bed. She sat down beside him, snugging an arm around his waist.

Zuko leaned against her shoulder. "How did Hina manage that? Those weren't supposed to go out until tomorrow." Zuko's eyes flicked to the guards and he swallowed, obviously regretting his words.

"She seems very efficient and well-organized," said Mai. "Guess they were just ready early."

"Nice to have a project that isn't overdue and overbudget," said Zuko. "No wonder Azulon and Ozai kept her on for so long. She's too useful to fire." He paused. "Had any unexpected visitors drop out of the sky?"

"Not yet," said Mai. "But I'm sure they're coming." She caught his eyes flicking to the guards again. "What? Even Qin has to know that the Avatar won't like you being locked up like this."

"True," said Zuko.