The other day, I offered to write a drabble for the first crack-pairing requested of me. I don't know if my Mai-centric fame had any bearing on this, but I'm not complaining.
It's Called "Denial," Honey
Mai hated Katara.
It didn't matter that the war was over. Really, Mai had never gotten terribly emotional about the century of fighting, or any of the people who took part in it, except for a few she knew personally. She certainly didn't blame Katara for fighting in the war, either. The South Pole sounded like the most boring place on the entire planet, and Mai would have signed up with the first terrorist recruiter who came calling in order to get out of there. Yeah, Katara had once kidnapped Tom-Tom as part of all the conflict, but that had given Mai something to do while in Omashu, so no hard feelings.
No, Mai's hate for Katara was entirely personal. Katara cared about things. Katara wore her every emotion in plain sight, and actually used them to affect other people in ways that weren't intentionally manipulative. Katara smiled when she was happy and bawled like a baby when she was sad, and Katara was perfectly okay with that. Moreover, Katara was driven by her emotions, setting out to change the world, if necessary, in order to appease her sense of justice. When Katara was angry and feeling slighted, whole nations trembled.
Drama queen.
Katara was also a bender. Granted, that wasn't entirely her own fault, but Mai still hated her for it. (Who said life was fair?) Benders all thought they had some kind of advantage over more normal folk, even if they didn't make a big deal about it, and Mai hated being thought of as inferior more than anything else. Her own stoicism hid a disdainful sense of superiority for everyone around her, and anything that challenged that was like a personal attack. Mai took extra pleasure in outfighting Benders, and Katara's expressive eyes made hurting the girl all the more enjoyable.
Knives were fun.
The worst, though, was that everyone liked Katara. Everyone. Even people who didn't really know her. Something about her just made people smile, and that offended Mai. Mai hated smiling. Mai hated things that caused people to smile. Mai hated that she had one and only one reason to smile; Zuko was that reason, and Katara made him smile, too. Mai wanted to knock the smiles off of everyone in the room whenever Katara came to visit, and could have, too, without even using half of her knives. Having to hold back for Zuko's sake was another reason to hate Katara.
That was why Mai hated Katara.
No, not really.
Mai hated Katara because she wanted to be Katara.
Mai loved Katara.
Ugh.
END
