Author's Notes: Yet another Maiko one-shot. The real Author's Notes can be found at the end of this piece of fanfiction. This piece of fanfiction was written post-"Fury of Aang".
Disclaimer: "Avatar: The Last Airbender" doesn't belong to me. Zuko and Mai belong to each other. ;)
Eat Strawberries
"A pot of ginseng tea for the third table," Zuko muttered.
"Ah, ginseng." Uncle Iroh nodded sagely as he arranged a teapot, several cups and a dish of mochi on a tray. "Always a good choice."
Stars blinked in the inky sky outside the windows, but lanterns blazed inside the teahouse, making it almost as bright as day. More people were coming in to relax, a necessary routine in the busy city of Ba Sing Se. His uncle was still arranging cherry blossom petals around the mochi. Zuko filled the kettle with water and set it to boil, then reached for the ginseng.
"Zuko," his uncle laid a restraining hand on his arm. "Maybe I should do that."
No doubt, Uncle Iroh was remembering the time Mr. Ocha nearly fired them when a customer foamed at the mouth after drinking Zuko's tea. Grumbling, he grabbed the tray his uncle had prepared and brought it to the teenaged boy and girl at the corner table.
He had barely set the tray on the table when the wooden door roughly slid open and banged against the wall, cool night air rushing in. He looked up, along with everyone else in the shop.
A lady entered the shop with quick, dainty steps.Chatter died down. Her keen pale-gold eyes seemed to jump out of a pale face framed by two long black braids, and they zeroed in on Zuko as she weaved through the tables.
The Earth Kingdom style dress she wore didn't fool him. She was a ghost from his past. Mai. Childhood blushes. Fountains. Pretty smiles.Memories from before his first Agni Kai. Azula's friend. Which meant Azula in Ba Sing Se.
Zuko cursed under his breath.
She advanced,a hand brushing her sleeve-covered wrist in a way he didn't like, and said in her quiet, slightly husky voice: "Zuko, by the order of Fire Lord Ozai, I arrest—"
"Who is your visitor, Zuko?"
"No, Uncle!" Zuko shook his head as Uncle Iroh approached.
Mai turned. She reached under her sleeve and Zuko glimpsed her palming a small dagger. "General Iroh, you too are under—"
"Little Mai!" Uncle Iroh cried, practically running towards them. He threw his arms around Mai, who looked shocked, and hugged her tightly. Then he stepped back at arm's length, still holding Mai by the shoulders, and looked her up and down. "Not little anymore, you're all grown up. And prettier than ever!" He wiggled his eyebrows at Zuko.
"Uncle, she's going to—"
"Well, sit down my dear, have some tea!" Uncle Iroh placed an arm around her shoulders and led her to an empty table.
Mai frowned at the retired general. "General Iroh, I'm here to—"
"Zuko," Uncle Iroh waved a hand for him to follow them. "Plump a cushion for the lady."
Zuko grabbed his uncle's arm and pulled him away from the girl. "Uncle, will you just listen to me?"
Mai drew several more small daggers and fanned them in her right hand. The teahouse patrons gasped."You're coming with me!" She declared.
"Uncle!" Zuko tried to push the old man behind him, who ducked and avoided his grasp.
"Ooh!" Uncle Iroh stepped towards Mai. "Such dangerous things for a young lady to be handling."
"Hey!" Mai cried when Uncle Iroh encircled her wrist with one hand and deftly removed her daggers with the other.
"If you think you can just attack us, you're sorely mistaken!" Zuko drew his broadswords. There were more gasps from the unwanted audience and a couple of screams. Several people ran out the still-open door. Mai flinched slightly and pulled her wrist off Iroh's grip, drawing a larger dagger.
"AAAGH!" The customer at table eight screamed, foamed at the mouth, then passed out.
"Zuko!" Uncle Iroh's hand chopped at his wrists.
"Ow!" Zuko dropped his swords. "Uncle!"
"Bad boy," the old man scolded. He held Zuko's shirt and pulled at the fabric, smoothing the creases. "Make yourself look more presentable, will you?"
Mai slashed her dagger through the air. "Hey, I said—"
"Careful with that, dear."
"Ouch!" Mai winced as Uncle Iroh disarmed her. She gasped when the retired general held up the holsters he had somehow unstrapped from her wrists.
Uncle Iroh pocketed the daggers and holsters. "Now Zuko, this lovely young lady said you were going with her."
"Uncle, have you gone crazy?" Zuko growled. "There's no way I will just go with her and—"
"Oh, I'm sure Mr. Ocha will not mind your going out when I explain the reason." Uncle Iroh grinned toothily at the two teenagers, grabbing both of them by the arm and dragging them to the door. "The two of you haven't seen each other in a while; your girl misses you!"
"Miss him!" Mai cried indignantly, her porcelain cheeks turning pink.
"She's not my—"
"The night is young and beautiful!" Iroh nudged Zuko out of the door, and with both hands, pushed Mai towards him. Zuko instinctively caught her in his arms. "Take your time!" The door slid shut in their faces. They could hear the remaining patrons burst into questions about the 'ornery young man' and his 'lovely young lady', and Uncle Iroh shushing them, saying: "Oh you know teenaged love, so many misunderstandings."
After a few moments, Mai murmured: "Unhand me." Zuko hastily pulled away. Then he turned to the door.
"Grr!" He held the door and tried to slide it open. It wouldn't budge. "He jammed it from the inside!" He kicked the door in frustration, then turned back to Mai.
She was dragging the toe of her shoe across the street, pale-gold eyes luminous in the dark as they gazed athim.
"Uncle locked us out," he said.
"I see…"
Neither of them spoke. Mai continued dragging her toe on the ground. He scratched his nose.
"What now?" She asked, rubbing her unarmed wrists. He glanced at her ankles; her skirt ended just above them and there were no holsters, just smooth white skin. He quickly looked up again.
"How should I know?"
She sighed, and ran her hands over her arms. The night was cool and her light cotton dress clung against her slender frame. She was probably cold. And she was completely unarmed.
His crazy sister was waiting for her somewhere in the city. Maybe looking for her.
A memory scratched at his consciousness, about a riddle told when he was a child: a traveler fell off a cliff; man-eating tigerswereon the cliff above him and there wasa deadly fall below—he landed on a ledge halfway down the drop. A patch of luscious strawberries grew on the ledge, death awaited above and below. What should the traveler do?
He had answered climb back up the cliff and fight the tigers to death, but Uncle Iroh had laughed and tugged his ponytail, saying the right answer was that the doomed man should eat the strawberries. It had confused him then.
It was a wonder how the meaning eluded him for so long.
"What do you want to eat?"
Mai blinked, a trace of confusion on her doll-like face. "… What?"
"I said: What. Do. You. Want. To. Eat."
She rubbed her arms again. "Something hot… chowder, I suppose."
"Clam?"
"Sure."
"I know a place," he said, taking her elbow and walking down the street.
"Zuko, Azula's—"
"They have riceballs too. With salmon, seaweed paper, and pickled plums. You… liked those." He looked at her.
There was something akin to distress in her eyes as she looked up at him. She closed her eyes, trusting him to lead her on the way, and took a slow, deep breath. Then she opened her eyes and met his gaze. "Yes, I liked… I still like them."
Zuko wrapped an arm around her, his hand touching the shoulder farther from him. With his other hand touching her arm, he exhaled the slightest of breaths. He felt his hands grow warm and he rubbed them against her cold arms.
Stars twinkled above them, shining brighter in the moonless dark of the night sky.
Author's Notes again : This is the real Author's Notes. Don't read the text between (SPOILERS) and (/SPOILERS)if you don't want toread post "Fury of Aang" spoilers.I'll need to mention them if I'm to make a real Author's Notes. But don't forget to review. (Made space between the review button and the spoilers, thanks for the heads-up, Jade Sabre!)
(SPOILERS)
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I wrote this fanfiction after I was mauled by a cracky plotbunny born of future-episode-spoilers. Now as all of you probably know by now, in the future episodes Zuko and Iroh go to Ba Sing Se and get jobs in a teahouse and Zuko goes on a 'date' with a mystery girl. Description: wearing plain Earth Kingdom clothes, hair in braided pigtails, seems tanned, blurred face. Identity unconfirmed, most likely just a random Earth Kingdom girl. Probably not Mai, or even any other female character we already know of. But (taking off from the principle of Schrödinger's cat) as long as we haven't confirmed anything, it could be ANYONE. So all Zuko ships might as well go wild!
And anyway, even if Mai isn't Zuko's mystery date, that doesn't mean they won't be going on any Iroh-sponsored-dates in the future. :P
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(/SPOILERS)
BTW that strawberry-eating traveler was something I read from American Gods, written by Mr. Neil Gaiman, the God of Modern Fantasy.