Hey There.

Thank you so very much for reading this far. This chapter should be a little (or a lot) more fluff. I hope you're having as much fun reading as I was writing!

Dedicated to anyone else who sits around thinking about what Iroh's teas taste and smell like. You know who you are! Wink wink! It's all for you!

Enjoy!

"They Forgot!"

Chapter 3 - Aftershocks!

(Mai's Perspective)

I couldn't get over it, I just kept replaying it over and over in my head. Sokka whistling and Appa floats up carrying Ty-Lee, Suki, and Zuko. When I just knew Zuko was far away today. I ran to him and when he caught me… we just stood there like that for the longest time. Just holding on to each other, I didn't want to let go. I don't think he wanted to either. He'd let me hug Suki and Ty-Lee... but then picked me right back up again.

When he put me down and the others climbed back onto Appa. I hugged Ty-Lee and Suki again. I'm not a hugger, but I was so glad to see them all, I think I could have hugged Former Fire Lord Ozai if he'd been there. And told Sokka I owed him one when he wasn't driving.

He called back to me, "I'll hold you to that!"

Then I sat close to my boyfriend in Appa's saddle and I put a hand on his face and asked him, "Why are you so cold?"

He'd laughed, "How are you so warm? It's like we switched for today."

"They forgot again," I told him.

"I know, I'm so sorry." He'd tried. Pulling me to him and letting me rest my head on his shoulder. He even rested a hand on the back of my head to pull me even closer.

I'd told him, "It's not like you could help it. They always do… I thought you were gone."

"I know, tricked you, didn't we?" He said so proud of himself.

"I should have known they would never remember. But you! You never forget my birthday. Not even when we were kids and Azula was always calling you lame for it. Not when you were banished, not when I was in jail. You always sent me a letter and made sure it arrived on the right day."

Zuko looked down and said, "Well… I knew no one else would do it right. I wanted to make sure someone said Happy birthday, on your actual birthday. Even when you were in prison and swearing you didn't want anything to do with me. I wrote hoping at least one person said it to you at the right time."

"You always did and you always came through… and I -" I lowered my voice to whisper in his ear. "I just love you so much. Thank you for coming to get me."

"I love you too." He whispered back, before realizing our friends were all a little too close to us for this reunion. So I settled for kissing his cheek and just saying, "Later."

He nodded, "Definitely, Later. When I'm not in this get-up and can move a little easier." My boyfriend complained tugging on his high collar and stiff attire. Then he went on to ask, "I'm probably terrible for asking, but what would you have done if you really were stuck there today?" Zuko asked and tacked on at the end. "I'm just curious."

"Can a girl keep a little mystery?" I asked.

"No," He insisted, "Let the other girls keep me guessing. I want you all figured out."

"Where's the fun in that?" I asked right back.

"It's only fair, you already think you have me all figured out." He insisted.

"Why is there a 'think' in that sentence? Do you doubt me?" I asked.

"No, but I did just surprise you, didn't I?" He reminded with way too much male satisfaction.

I turned myself around and faced the other way. As much as we were teasing each other, I still couldn't get over it, I was still shocked. He had gotten me so good and I never saw it coming.

Even as we headed back to the Palace so everyone could dress a little more comfortably for this supposed party that my boyfriend was throwing. I was still dazed, I wasn't a damsel in distress. I wasn't the type of girl who gets rescued or swept off of her feet. I was the kind of girl who always got herself out of her own problems. I was even the girl others turned to in a pinch. I was liberated and independent, so why was I so speechlessly stunned? By my boyfriend and a pack of friends stealing me from my house on my birthday? Riding a sky-bison and dressed like royalty and warriors? While I'm the most normal and underdressed person here? Still wearing house-slippers and hardly any makeup at all. How?

Because stuff like this just doesn't happen. Not to me, not to anyone… but as my boyfriend tugs on my hand and tells me, "We're here. Come on, let's go."

I somehow get handed off to Suki, and Ty-Lee who lead me into another part of the palace where all of the warriors who protect the Fire Lord live, train and dress for duty. In these quarters there were several more of my Kiyoshi warrior friends waiting. We all got ready together and headed out together. They'd dolled me up in a new outfit, that was commoner clothing. But the floaty material was all black, shiny like silk, and beautiful. I noticed everything all of them wore was either burgundy or black. They knew what I liked. They did my nails put on just a little makeup, did my hair, and made me feel like a million gold pieces even though I was dressed so comfortably. It turns out even this had been planned by them and my boyfriend.

There were airships waiting alongside Appa. Suki, Sokka, Ty-Lee and Zuko were all changed from their armor, warrior garb and finery to all be wearing more comfortable clothing. Zuko took my hand and pulled me up with him claiming. "Appa wants the birthday girl riding with him."

"Apparently he isn't the only one." I teased.

"No, he's not alone." Zuko was still smiling ear to ear. But I could feel myself smiling right back. I couldn't seem to stop.

As my cheeks started to sting from all of the smiling, I thanked Appa with an appreciative scratch, and he seemed to like that. When I sat back, normal (from reaching for fur to scratch), Zuko was openly staring at me to the point that I asked Ty-Lee, "Is something on my face?"

"No. Why?" She asked bluntly. When I explained that my boyfriend had been staring. Ty-Lee asked me, "And why shouldn't he? You're hot!"

"What?" I asked her, not sure I wanted to know the answer.

"You're a total knockout, babe. And it's your day, live it up a little… or a lot. It's YOUR day!" She told me. Before a weird fog horn blew and she took off. Off of Appa and onto one of the airships. The only people remaining in Appa's saddle were me and Zuko.

Sokka climbed back onto Appa's head and said, "Thank you for choosing Bison-air, we hope you enjoy your flight! Please be sure to thank the Avatar for this service when you see him next. Which by my guess should be a good hour from now."

I asked Zuko, "Why aren't more people riding up here? Is Appa tired?"

"No, Appa's been napping since yesterday afternoon getting ready for today. I made sure of that." The Fire Lord didn't realize his commanding tone was showing when he said this. But he switched back to his normal speaking voice when he explained. "We're up here alone because I wanted a little more time alone with you before I have to share you so much. And Sokka's driving so I can give you, my undivided attention."

Zuko did just manage to finish saying before Sokka said, "That's right ladies, money in your front pockets and feel free to slap any daring shlub who has the audacity to get a little too fresh."

Zuko reached forward and swatted the back of Sokka's head. Swishing his wolf-tail, "Don't worry Mai, my sister smacks better than him. He's no threat."

Zuko asked me, "What'd he say?"

I said, "He's just saying Katara's meaner than you."

Zuko had to agree, "Katara is a beast."

"You still haven't told me, where we're going?" I said as I pulled Zuko back into his seat.

"You still haven't told me what you would have done today if you were stuck at home." He brought up again. "You tell me, and I'll tell you."

"You go first." I tried, but Zuko was not buying.

"Uh Ah! I've been holding out on you for all of an hour, tops. You've been holding out on me for years. You gotta go first, or no deal." He insisted.

"I don't get why you're so insistent on this." I had to say loudly over the wind. No one ever warns you about how loud the wind howls when you're up that high.

"Because I know you told me once in a letter. But it's like the one letter I lost, I can't remember what you said your ritual was. But I know before I lost it, I read that letter like twenty times." He explained.

"You're telling me you read something I wrote that many times?" I asked, even though I knew there were letters he'd written me already cracking hundreds of times being read. They were so loved they were starting to yellow and deteriorate.

"I'm waiting?" He insisted crossing his arms.

So I caved, "Fine. Whenever this happens, which is every year. When I'm stuck at home, like I used to be every year. I would pull out this certain box of letters."

"Why does that sound so sketchy?" My boyfriend asked with a grin.

"Because I'm managed to keep, most of them. From you, from Ty-Lee and Azula as well as all of our newer friends-"

"Wait a minute?" He interrupted, "You kept all that stuff? All of it?"

"Not all of it," I corrected. "Just everything that I could keep or salvage I did. So I had to have a few boxes just to hold it all in the end."

"Azula started making boxes in her art therapy sessions. Was that all for you?" Zuko had put together.

"It was, I was completely shocked when she sent me a bunch of hand-painted boxes. Claiming 'I needed to throw out all of my old and shabby ones. All wooden and clunky like treasure chests. That her designs were much more appropriate for that stack of letters I refuse to toss.' She swore I was 'dead to her,' but I think she secretly still counts me a friend sometimes."

"I know she does," Zuko agreed, "I'll have to thank her for doing that when I see her next. She didn't even tell me a thing about that."

"She sent me a painting as a birthday gift this year. I hung it in my room, I'll have to show it to you later." I let him know while we were on the subject of Azula.

"Are they all still about murder?" Zuko asked sardonically.

"That's the beauty in art, all of us look at it and can all see something different." I told him while I pretended not to notice him lifting me to drape me across his lap.

"Did you look at it and not see murder?" He asked knowing the unlikelihood of it meaning anything besides the bloodlust she usually expresses.

"It was there too, but it wasn't the only thing I saw." I maintained while Zuko looked too much like he'd won."I'll have to show it to you later, you'll see what I mean, there's more to it than her usual deathwish-themed art show.

"I doubt that, but you keep dreaming." My boyfriend retorted, before getting back to his original question. "What letters helped you feel better, the most?"

"Yours, of course. The letters from you, Azula, and Ty-Lee used to do when we were all younger. But since then all of our newer friends have done an amazing job of keeping me cheered up too. So I had to start a box of nothing but birthday things, then another of regular letters."

Zuko asked, "Do you still have that old box you used to keep?"

"I do," I confessed, before letting him know. "But I had to start keeping all of our letters from before we were together in that box and had to start a new one for the letters since then."

"Why did you have to do that?" He asked so simply, and obliviously.

"Because the sense we gotten together the way you write letters to me isn't exactly the same is it?" I asked him. Then I got to watch it dawn on him what I was getting at. Before his letters were friendly and kind. Since we'd gotten together, some were still innocent as before. Others were straight up love letters. I couldn't just mix those with everyone elses.

"Oh! Right." He grinned, "If you wanted to burn some of the earlier ones I'd understand."

"Never." I said a little too firmly. But I think he was okay with it. I reached inside of my overnight bag and pulled out the box Sokka had stashed for me. "So I didn't have to combine them all anymore. This box, the one I was looking at before all of this happened. Is just the letters you sent me on my birthdays. There's one for every year sense we met. Even the ones from your banishment and my jail time are in here."

"You kept them all?" He said sounding somewhere between touched and impressed.

I nodded my head up and down.

He took my hand and said, "Thank you for telling me, and showing me this. In the letter I lost, I remembered a box of letters from people who didn't forget. But I was fuzzy on the rest of the details. Thanks for reminding me."

"Thanks for all of this," I told him.

But he told me, "Don't thank me just yet. You haven't seen any of what I've got planned yet. You could be penning me to a wall with your knives by the end of the night. I would be having a very hard time not enjoying it, acting like it really was punishment."

I told him matter a factly. "Oh no! You got way too excited the last time, that I tried that. I will simply have to find a new method of punishing you."

Zuko didn't even try to hide his smile, "Then I'll try very hard not to enjoy that either."

"You're impossible," I told him.

"And you love that." He said as he leaned his chin on my shoulder.

I pulled his face closer and kissed him quickly. He wasn't wrong. When I pulled away, he pulled me back and stole several more kisses. Ignoring the "WHOO!"s and "OHH-LA-LA!"s from the surrounding airships.

When we stopped I leaned my forehead against his and whispered, "I know today is gonna be great. But really, even if this was it, just you and me. It still would have been the best birthday ever."

"I know," he grinned freely, before admitting. "You haven't seen all I planned. We're just getting started.

"Tell me where we're going?" I reminded him. "I told you what you needed to know. Now you've gotta tell me where we're having this party. You said it's a secret location and only people I like were invited?"

"Yes, Ty-Lee helped out with the guest list, double-checking my handy work to make certain I only surround you in people you really like and love today. Who like or love you. Katara, Aang and a bunch of our friends are already there setting up. My Uncle's even brought one of his chef friends who's making dinner and another who's making all of the desserts. I made a list of all of your favorites and they'll all be there." Zuko explained. While I couldn't believe any of them had gone to all of that trouble.

"Sokka said Katara and Aang were off on Avatar business today," I repeated.

Zuko validated, "Yep, Sokka just skipped the part where that Avatar business was you. They've been there getting ready since early this morning. Toph too."

"Where is 'there?'" I tried again, but Zuko still wasn't talking. I should have known better than to trust he would keep his word. When it comes to birthday surprises, anyways. He knew just how to keep me distracted though till we were arriving at our destination. Which appeared to be an island that we had all to ourselves. Surrounded in crystal clear blue water that you could see through straight to the bottom of the ocean like glass.

I asked him again, "Where are we?"

"Don't ask," He said as he stepped down off of Appa's saddle and held his hand out to help me step out of it. "Just go with it, trust me."

"I do trust you." I told him.

But before he could say anything else, Sokka appeared between us shouting, "It's Party Time! Let's GO! WHHHHHHHOOOOOOOO!"

Before taking off to smooch and carry off Suki. Who only laughed merrily at her boyfriend.

Ty-Lee was already playing with the waters washing up in the shoreline and Appa was already eating some tall dried grass, that was more like hay. Zuko took my hand, and said, "Yeah, that's pretty much gonna be the way they are all day and night. But it'll never get boring."

"Now I understand why you guys made this happen out here. So Sokka won't get in trouble with his big mouth."

"If only that could be the case," my boyfriend laughed, "But no. Come on, let me show you what we've planned.

I let myself be led away, and worked on trying to convince myself that this wasn't a dream. That I really was here with him and he really did have my hand.

If it was a dream I hoped I never had to wake up.

That's all for now.

I'll try to get the next chapter posted as soon as I can. Thank you for reading this far and hope you enjoyed it. Please write in and review if you can. Hope you're having a great day!

~DarcyBeDippy85