"Mai, you really should get someone to clean in here," her mother scolded her, running her finger across the kitchen counter and grimacing.
There was a part of Mai's brain that seemed dedicated to the migraine brought on every time she was with her parents. "The building has a cleaning service that comes in once a week, Mom," she replied evenly, carrying a tray with three cups of oolong tea and one cup of hot chocolate to the living room. Her family had made a rather annoying habit of dropping in on her with very little notice, so she was always prepared for it. A clean apartment, plenty of food, and tea headed off the worst of the criticism. She set the tray down on the low table in front of her father, who gratefully accepted one of the teacups. Tom-Tom ignored the drinks; he was sitting on the floor, sorting through one of her boxes of knives and shuriken. Their mother left the kitchen to hover over Tom-Tom, her mouth pursed in disapproval.
"Nasty business with this new Phoenix coup," her father, Ukano, said conversationally. Mai's expression stayed neutral as she set the tea and hot chocolate out on the table, each one with a small napkin. It had been about a week since her and Aang's reconnaissance mission that had gone so spectacularly wrong, and the whole city was buzzing about the rebellion. Zuko's scouts had found very little; the members of the Phoenix Authority seemed to have vanished into thin air. Mai's parents didn't know about her involvement, and she planned to keep it that way.
"So disrespectful and cowardly," her mother sniffed, leaving the kitchen to perch on the couch next to her husband. "There's a right way to express your opinion, and threatening the Fire Lord is not that." She maintained eye contact with Mai until, with an almost-inaudible sigh, she went back to the kitchen to get the forgotten sugar bowl.
Ukano hummed in agreement. "Too right, Michi. How is Zuko handling all of this?" He asked Mai, who placed the sugar bowl in front of her mother before taking her own seat on the chair.
"I'm sure he's worried, but he'll be fine," Mai responded coolly. Zuko was still a sore subject among the three of them. Her parents were firmly convinced that everything that had gone wrong there had been Mai's fault, and that she should have tried harder. "Both him and Katara are excellent benders, even without the contingency of palace guards." Her face didn't betray the bitter satisfaction she felt at her mother's grimace. Unsurprisingly, her parents were not fond of Katara's presence in Zuko's life, which meant that Mai brought her up whenever the conversation veered dangerously into another Zuko argument.
"Still, they need to be careful," Michi sniffed, spooning sugar into her tea. "They aren't the only ones in danger, you know. This rebellion could begin targeting anyone in the government with ties to the Fire Lord."
Ah, of course. They were worried about themselves. Ukano was on the governing board for the education department of the Fire Nation, a position that Mai had managed to obtain for him after the war. It wasn't as prestigious as being a governor, but it was better than being banished. Not that Mai ever thought her parents were genuine Ozai supporters, they were just desperate to maintain their image and be on the 'winning' side. They had switched over to supporting Zuko quickly enough. Mai cynically thought that, if the coup was somehow successful in overthrowing Zuko, her father would find a way to wrangle a promotion from the new Fire Lord in exchange for his loyalty.
The conversation was disrupted by a knock at the door. Mai froze, praying to every spirit that she could name that it wasn't who she thought it was. She recalled a certain airbender that knew that she wasn't working today, and had offered to take her out to lunch.
"I'll get it!" Tom-Tom announced, eagerly running to the door. Mai slowly rose to her feet, ignoring Michi's judgmental glare. Tom-Tom opened the door to reveal Aang, confirming Mai's belief that the spirits, if they did exist, were not on her side.
The airbender looked startled to see the young boy answer the door, and his eyes roved across the living room, taking in Mai and her guests, all of whom were staring at him. A look of recognition seemed to flash across his face, and he turned his attention back to her brother. "Are you Tom-Tom?" he asked in a suspiciously cheerful voice.
"Yes?" the boy answered, suddenly shy in the face of a stranger.
Aang broke into a wide grin. "I knew it! I kidnapped you once."
Mai winced and slapped the palm of her hand into her face.
Her parents became visibly alarmed at that, both moving to stand behind Tom-Tom in the doorway. Tom-Tom had an expression that matched Aang's delighted one, exclaiming, "Really? Cool!"
Aang seemed to pick up on the tension from her parents, and backpedaled. "Well, technically you followed my lemur and kidnapped yourself. And then I brought you back," he explained, sounding more nervous than she had ever heard.
"You brought him back?" Michi said faintly, and Aang nodded. Her parents exchanged one of those glances that they used in place of actual conversation, then reluctantly stepped aside to allow Aang into the apartment. He stepped over the threshold, leaning his glider against the wall by the door. Mai thought he would be better off keeping it closer to the balcony, in case he needed to make a quick escape.
"I'm Aang, the Avatar," he introduced himself, bowing respectfully to them.
"I'm Ukano, and this is my wife, Michi," her father said, wrapping one arm around his wife. "We're Mai's parents." Neither of them seemed sure what to make of the Avatar appearing at their daughter's door. Mai decided to help everyone out.
"Thank you for stopping by, Aang, but as you can see I'm a little busy today," she said smoothly, putting a hand on his back to not-so-gently guide him out. He gave her his hurt puppy-dog eyes, and she returned with a "this is for your own good" glare.
"Mai!" her mother exclaimed. "Is that how you treat a guest?" Her display of poor manners appeared to be enough to shake Michi out of her confused state, and she had settled right back on criticizing Mai. Michi gave Aang an apologetic smile. "Please, have a seat." She guided Aang over to the living room, calling out, "Mai, go make another cup of tea for the Avatar." Mai's jaw clenched tight enough that it popped, but she wordlessly made her way to the kitchen to comply.
"No, that's fine, I don't need any tea," Aang protested. He seemed uncomfortable, which Mai didn't blame him for. Her own coping mechanism for dealing with her parents was to just go along with whatever they said, which was why she was already pouring another cup of tea as her mother tutted, "No, don't be silly, Mai doesn't mind."
Mai returned to the living room to find that, to her amusement, Michi had settled Aang on the couch between her and Ukano. Mai handed Aang his teacup, unable to hide a smirk at his bewildered expression. It didn't take long for Aang to settle in, and predictably he set about charming both of her parents. Mai eased back into her chair, content to observe rather than be targeted, for once. That small smile flickered around her lips as she watched Aang regale them with tales of his travels, his hands weaving pictures in the air. Tom-Tom had put aside the weapons for the moment to sit on the floor by the table, sipping on his hot chocolate and staring at Aang with awestruck eyes. At one point, Mai laughed aloud at his story. He paused, beaming, and looked at her with such warm, unbridled affection that she had to turn her gaze to the cooling cup of tea in her lap.
Eventually, the dialogue turned back to the Phoenix Authority. Aang shook his head, explaining Zuko's frustration with how little headway they had made in stopping the coup. "Ever since Mai and I got caught spying on one of their meetings, they've gone completely underground."
Mai's head snapped up, at the same time that her mother gasped. "You and Mai? And…spying?" she half-whispered.
Aang, who didn't appear to have sensed his misstep, enthusiastically elaborated. "Yeah, last week. I can't believe she didn't tell you! She was amazing, she took on a Yuyan archer by herself."
Tom-Tom's jaw dropped. Ukano cleared his throat, and Michi had fixed Mai with an icy stare. "Excuse me Aang, do you mind if we speak with our daughter in private? It will only be a minute."
Mai tried to communicate with her eyes that Aang certainly should mind, but of course he gave her mother his most charismatic grin and said, "Not at all! I'll hang out here with Tom-Tom." Michi rose first and walked past Mai, grasping her elbow in an iron grip and yanking her to her feet. Her mother steered her into her bedroom, with Ukano close behind. Mai chanced a look over her shoulder and saw Aang and Tom-Tom move over to where he had laid out her knives before the bedroom door closed.
"I don't even know where to begin!" Michi fussed, wringing her hands together. "Let's start with you explaining why the Avatar is dropping by your home unannounced." Her mother spoke in a way that Mai wasn't sure what part of that situation was upsetting her: the Avatar himself, a man coming to her apartment, or that he had done so without telling her. She didn't really care to ask for an elaboration. Nor did she care to explain that they had been perfectly fine with Aang being there a minute ago. "Are the two of you…?" she trailed off, giving Mai a meaningful look.
Mai sighed. "No, Mom. I'm not dating Aang."
Michi did not look pleased with that answer. "I know you like to think your father and I are oblivious, but we're not idiots. You have a man visiting you in the middle of the day—"
"He's a friend, that's it—"
"—and now the two of you are going off on…on secret spy trips—"
"That was a favor for Zuko—"
"—and really, you should know better at your age than to go off running around with strange men—"
"He's not a stranger, you've met him multiple times—"
Ukano stepped between the two women: one of them bright red, hissing angrily between her teeth, and the other speaking in her usual dry cadence. He put a calming hand on his wife's shoulder, before addressing Mai. "Dear, we know when you were younger we encouraged your…" he hesitated. "unique hobbies. But it is unbecoming for a woman of your age and stature to be running off in the night like a crazed vigilante. Now, if you intend to make this commitment to the Avatar official, we might be able to overlook some of these transgressions." His tone was soothing, condescending. Mai wanted to scream and wipe the patronizing looks off their faces. Remind them that they had encouraged her "unique hobbies" because the royal family viewed non-benders with disgust unless they could prove themselves able to make up for their shortcomings. That the first time she tried to spend time with Azula, the princess had knocked her to the ground and lit her hair on fire, and was told in no uncertain terms that if she couldn't defend herself she wasn't welcome back. That there wasn't a problem until she had broken up with Zuko and they had shifted to offering her up to the local nobles, who wanted meek, beautiful women to show off to each other. That they had groomed her into a warrior and then tried to undo those years of work to make her weak and malleable again. That she would rather die than be some pathetic politician's silent trophy wife.
Of course, she said none of that. Instead, Michi turned to Ukano, her eyes glowing. "A commitment to the Avatar, now that would be something," she mused. "He's not Fire Nation, but there's no denying that he has influence."
"Precisely. I was just speaking to Hisao the other day…" Ukano droned on, Michi nodding along and hanging on to his every word. They bent their heads together and lowered their voices conspiratorially, forgetting that Mai was still in the room. It would be cute if it wasn't so blatantly disrespectful; no matter what was going on in the world, her parents were always on the same page, in each other's minds. When they got like this, an explosion wouldn't be enough to distract them, so it wasn't hard for Mai to slip out of the bedroom without them noticing. She surveyed her living room, pleased to find it still in one piece. Aang and Tom-Tom had set up a few of her targets against one wall, and were now taking turns throwing knives at them. Tom-Tom was berating Aang for cheating and using airbending, and Aang claimed that he would never stoop so low. Both were giggling. She was not at all surprised that he was good with kids, nor that Tom-Tom was looking at him like he was a god.
Mai took the opportunity to observe, and entertain the crazy life choice that her parents were discussing without her. She'd be lying if she said that Aang wouldn't make an excellent companion. He was kind, and smart, and he made her laugh in a way that very few people could. Being with him was a reminder that life was dangerous and exciting, and that she herself was dangerous and exciting. She still dreamed about their flight on the sky bison, and the way being above the clouds made her feel freer than she ever had before. It certainly didn't hurt that he was effortlessly gorgeous, confident but not cocky. He gave his heart freely and openly. It would be very easy, she thought, to fall in love with him.
And that, in itself, was the problem. Mai was not so careless with her feelings. With every year that passed and every breakup, she could feel the scandalized gossiping of the Fire Nation high society pressing down on her, probing her for weaknesses. Aang could very well decide that he liked her, and then disappear the next day. And if anyone could have his heart, how could she hope to keep it for herself?
She shook her head as though that would be enough to dislodge the train of thought, wondering when she allowed her parents' insanity to infect her. None of that mattered, of course, because Aang didn't feel that way about her. They were friends, and Mai was happy enough to have that. Turning her attention back to the scene in the living room, Mai was glad to see that her younger brother's target had most of the knives clustered around the middle. Aang's were a bit more haphazard, with one knife embedded in the target dangerously close to the wall.
"Can you really bend all the elements?" Tom-Tom was asking, his eyes shining.
"Of course, I'm the Avatar," Aang responded good-naturedly. "Are you a bender?"
"No, nobody in our family is," Tom-Tom sulked. He picked up another one of her knives by the handle and threw it, cheering when it struck the bullseye.
Aang finally seemed to see that she had entered the room and winked at her. "That's fine. Mai is way scarier than any bender I've ever met."
"Mai isn't scary," Tom-Tom argued, turning to look at her and giving her a sunny grin. "She's funny."
"Really?" Aang was obviously skeptical, which Mai didn't blame him for. Then again, her baby brother saw a very different side of her than any of her peers did.
"Yes!" Tom-Tom replied, sounding offended at the implication. "She tells the best jokes, and she has great ideas for pranks. Also when I was younger she used to read me stories and do all the funny voices." He had his most innocent face on, but Mai could tell that he was no longer defending her and had moved on to trying to embarrass her. She walked up behind him and stuck her fingers down the back of his shirt, tickling his neck. Tom-Tom yelped and swatted at her hand.
Aang's mouth dropped open. "Really?" he repeated gleefully, turning his full attention to Mai. She refused to look at him, instead settling on the floor next to Tom-Tom to help collect the knives.
"Tom-Tom, what did I say about telling people about the funny voices?" she asked, poking him in the stomach when he scrunched his neck down so she couldn't reach it.
"You said I'm not allowed to tell your friends," Tom-Tom obediently replied, without a hint of remorse. "Is Aang your friend?" Before Mai could answer, a thought seemed to occur to Tom-Tom, and his eyes widened, a devious grin spreading across his face. "Is he your boyfriend?"
An awkward silence descended on the trio. Her parents' discussion and her earlier speculation left Mai tongue-tied, unable to answer. After just a beat too long, Aang was the first one to speak. "No, just a regular friend." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Right?" he directed the question at her, one eyebrow raised.
"Right," she echoed, looking away.
Tom-Tom sucked in air through his teeth and muttered, "Yikes." Aang chuckled at that, which got Tom-Tom to start laughing, and whatever tension was in the air was broken.
"Ahem," Ukano cleared his throat. Her parents had finished their unsolicited discussion of her romantic prospects, and were now watching the scene from the bedroom doorway. Though they weren't doing anything inappropriate, Mai still took a couple steps back, distancing herself from Aang.
"Well, I don't want to intrude any further on your time with Mai, so I think I'm going to go," Aang said.
"Nooooooo," Tom-Tom moaned, causing Mai to roll her eyes at his theatrics.
Michi also didn't look too happy about this development. "Oh, you don't have to do that! You're welcome to stay." Mai wondered exactly what arrangement they were planning to propose to Aang, and thought it would be in her best interest to get him out as soon as possible.
"No, he's right. I'll see him out." Mai led the way to the front door. Aang trailed after her, waving goodbye to Tom-Tom. It wasn't until they were both on the other side of the closed door that Mai let out one big exhale, propping herself against the wall. "I am so sorry about that. They don't really announce when they're going to visit. I found out about fifteen minutes before they showed up."
Aang laughed. "Don't apologize, it was fun." Mai threw him a scathing, disbelieving glare. "Well, hanging out with your brother was fun," he amended.
Mai's mouth twitched into a smile. "I'm pretty sure you made his day. He's going to be bragging about throwing knives with the Avatar at school for the next year." She decidedly did not bring up her parents' conversation; if she was lucky, Aang would never know about it. "They should be gone by six, if you want to stop by after that."
"Yeah, okay, I'll come back then." He wrapped her up in a comforting hug, and Mai let herself relax into it for a fraction of a second. When he released her, he gave her a contemplative look that made her question if he had been able to feel her pounding heart. Instead of commenting on it, he gave her one of those dazzling, sunny smiles. "Good luck in there!" he called out, before disappearing down the hallway. Mai had no choice but to return to her apartment's oppressive atmosphere, though it felt a little less oppressive now.
"Nothing," Zuko growled, crumpling up the latest message in his hand. "Two weeks, and there's been nothing. How is that possible? Aren't they trying to overthrow me?"
Aang blinked in confusion. "You're upset because the Phoenix Authority hasn't tried anything yet?"
Katara snorted into her wine glass as Zuko glared at the monk. "Of course not! I'm just sick of this…waiting around." He waved one hand in wild circles over his head. "I would have thought that once Daichi knew we were onto him, he would want to strike before we could stop him."
"He's a cautious man," Aang offered. "The others in the Phoenix Authority were frustrated with how slowly he was moving, but he knows to wait and strike at the perfect opportunity."
"Aang's right, he won't make a move until he can catch us off guard." Katara encapsulated Zuko's hand in hers, reassuringly running her thumb against his palm. "We're just going to have to be patient, and stay alert."
Being patient was not the Fire Lord's strong suit. He sighed, no more encouraged than he had been before dinner. The reports from the scouts throughout the city came in steadily, one every few hours, throughout the day. All of them said the same thing: Daichi and the Phoenix Authority were nowhere to be found. In any other circumstance, Aang would have been frustrated about being stuck in one place for so long doing nothing.
"I'm going to head out," he said, standing up from the table.
"To see Mai?" Katara asked, every night, in the same knowing, teasing tone. This battle of wills had been going on for the past two weeks: Katara refusing to ask him about his feelings towards Mai, and him refusing to go to her for advice. Aang couldn't fully explain why he was so reticent to ask Katara for guidance on the matter. Maybe he was embarrassed, that he clearly felt so strongly about Mai while she gave no indication of returning his feelings. Or maybe it was that he didn't want Katara to bluntly tell him that he was wasting his time. Either way, if Katara wanted information, she was going to have to wrangle it out of him herself.
"Yes," he answered shortly. Minutes later, he was flying out his bedroom window.
Aang had a bad feeling in his gut the moment he saw that Mai's apartment door was ajar. He peeked through the opening, but couldn't see much from this angle.
"Mai?" he murmured, rapping his knuckles on the partially open door. No response, and his unease grew. Carefully, he pushed the door open further, waiting. When nothing happened, he slipped inside, his hands up and ready for a fight. He scanned the room, and gasped.
Both the table and chair in the living room had been knocked over, and the couch had several slashes in it. One of Mai's knives was embedded in the wall. Most concerning of all was the trail of blood leading into Mai's bedroom.
"Mai!" Aang shouted, heart in his throat. He fought to quell the panic that was trying to overwhelm him. He started towards the bedroom, bracing himself for what he might find in there. Before he could reach the door, it opened, a figure looming in the doorway.
"What?" Mai asked, far too calmly considering her apartment looked like a crime scene. Aang had to grab onto the wall to keep from collapsing, his legs turning to jelly in relief at seeing her unharmed.
"I…you…what…" Aang stuttered, gesturing to the chaos in the living room. "What happened?"
Mai beckoned him to follow her into the bedroom. Aang did so with trepidation, wondering if this was perhaps a bizarre nightmare that he could wake up from. His stomach turned as he inspected the bedroom.
There were four men laying on the floor, all knocked unconscious. Two of them were bleeding from the knives embedded in their legs, likely the source of the blood out in the living room. All of them had been pinned to the floor by their clothes, their figures circled around Mai. Aang's instincts kicked in and he went around the room to check that each man was still breathing. They were all still alive, although the bruises on their foreheads from the blows that Mai had used to knock them out indicated they would not be happy when they woke up.
Before Aang could work out which of his thousand questions he wanted to ask first, Mai held out a scroll to him. "This is for you," she said in that same dispassionate tone. Aang unraveled the scroll and began to read out loud.
"Avatar, we have taken your partner. Do as we say, and she will be returned to you unharmed. Further instructions will follow. Regards, the Phoenix Authority." Aang let the message fall from numb hands. It landed in a pool of blood and began to absorb the liquid, the red spreading across the pristine white surface.
"I'm fine," Mai answered, anticipating his fretting. "It was barely a fight. I didn't have much on hand in the living room so I led them in here." Aang was aware that Mai's bedside tables were full of weapons, which he had never fully appreciated until now. He looked her over shrewdly, aware that if she were injured she would probably try to downplay it or even hide it from him, but she really seemed to be completely unharmed. There were no bruises or cuts on her face to indicate that she had been hit, even her clothes still seemed perfectly pressed.
Mai caught him examining her and scowled. "I'm fine. Honestly, I'm a little insulted they only sent four people after me." She contemptuously kicked one of the unconscious men on the arm, and he groaned in response. "And don't start with the self-indulgent 'oh, this is all my fault, what have I done' bullshit. I'm really not in the mood." Ironically, Mai's sour disposition made Aang feel a little bit better. It was similar to their usual dynamic, and was something that could ground him and keep from spiraling off into panic.
"Okay, I won't," Aang replied dryly, his mind trying to analytically decide what their next steps should be. "Do you have any rope?" At Mai's odd look, he hastily elaborated. "We'll need to get them up to the palace so Zuko can talk to them, and it'll be safer if they're all tied up."
Mai didn't have anything on hand they could use, so she brought out an old sheet and they began tearing the fabric into strips and binding the intruders' hands and feet together.
"So," Aang broke the silence first. "We need a plan."
Mai hummed in agreement, but didn't say anything.
"I think," he spoke slowly, already anticipating the imminent argument. "You should come stay at the palace."
Mai, predictably, said, "No."
"Come on, what are you going to do if they send ten people next time? Or twenty?"
"I'll handle it."
"So you're just going to fight off waves and waves of potential kidnappers forever?"
"You're being dramatic. They don't care that much about me. They were just trying to upset you."
Aang wanted to scream, to say that they were right, that they couldn't have picked a better person to target to hurt him. If he had found an empty apartment and the ransom note he would have torn the city apart. "Still, they'll definitely send more. Especially once these four don't come back."
"No," Mai said again, a little more forcefully. "I hate staying there. Everything in the guest rooms is bright red with the flame insignia, they look like a parody of what other nations think of Fire Nation interior design. And there's portraits of Zuko literally everywhere. One of them has a picture of him in the bathroom." She emphasized her displeasure by aggressively tightening the bindings on one guy's ankles.
Well, Aang couldn't really argue with that. He speculated, for the thousandth time, on what had really happened between Mai and Zuko. Both were reluctant to share details. They were clearly still friendly enough for Mai to get invited to their wedding, but she only seemed to go to the palace when Aang brought her there.
They diligently worked quietly for another few minutes while Aang pondered his next move. Leaving her here alone was unacceptable, no matter how great of a fighter she was. Daichi had underestimated her once, but Aang didn't think him the type to do it again. Maybe we can clear out one of the guest rooms… he mused, before remembering that there was, in fact, a very tastefully decorated room already available in the palace.
"You could stay with me," he tried to sound casual, head down and heart pounding.
A pause. "What?"
"I have plenty of space in my quarters, and there are zero flame insignias or portraits of Zuko. And that way the next kidnappers can hand me the ransom note directly," he added in an attempt to lighten the gravity of the situation.
He had braced himself for rejection, and thus was startled when Mai abruptly said, "Okay."
His head jerked up, eyes wide. "What?"
"Okay, I'll stay with you," Mai repeated herself. She finished her work tying up the last of the intruders and rose to her feet. "Give me a few minutes to pack, and I'll come over with you. I'll leave my apartment key with the guards so they can come over and take these guys."
Aang was suspicious. Not that he wasn't absolutely thrilled, because he was a pathetic idiot who was excited about seeing Mai even more, but he thought there must be a catch.
Mai finally made eye contact with him and sighed. "I'm guessing it's either I go stay at the palace with you, or you try to follow me 24/7, and that seems like a waste of your time."
Aang couldn't keep the elated grin off his face. "I appreciate you being so respectful of my time. I am a very important man."
The ghost of a smirk danced across Mai's lips. "Humble, too."
"Hey, I'm a monk. 'Humble' is my middle name."
While Mai packed, Aang busied himself cleaning up the spilled blood on the floor. He also checked on the thwarted kidnappers. Though he was furious about what they had done, it wasn't in his nature to let people sit around suffering under his watch. They were starting to come to, so Aang moved them so they could each sit up against the wall. He also healed the wounded men as best he could. Mai was deadly accurate with her knives, and so all of the blades expertly avoided hitting any major blood vessels. Aang continued to find it fascinating how she used her incredible skill specifically to do as little harm as possible. If Mai wanted to, she could easily have killed the four men, and probably felt a lot safer for it.
"Ready." Mai interrupted his musings. Aang stood up and nodded.
"We'll send the palace guards to come get you in a few minutes," he informed the kidnappers. He wasn't quite sure if he was intending to sound threatening, or reassure them that they wouldn't be left to die, tied up in Mai's apartment. Aang picked up the bag that Mai had packed and slung it over his shoulder, before leading the way to the palace.
"You said there was enough space," Mai's tone was accusatory. Aang scanned his living quarters, trying to figure out what she meant. It was the same size it had been when he had left. "There's only one bedroom," she elaborated.
"Yeah, you can have the bedroom, I'll sleep out here," Aang gestured towards the couch. Truthfully, the plush, over-stuffed palace beds made him feel weird and weightless, after so much time sleeping on the ground or in simple cots. He often found himself sleeping on the couch anyway, even without any guests.
Mai's eyes narrowed and she looked like she wanted to argue. Instead, she sighed and rubbed her eyes with one hand. "Fine, we'll try it out. If it gets too crowded, I can leave. If you want." Aang could not think of a single situation where he would ask her to leave, but he nodded anyway. He followed Mai into the bedroom, dropping her bag off at the foot of the bed.
"I guess I'll let you go to sleep. You've had a long night," Aang said gently. He could still feel the stress and tension of the evening coiled in his shoulders, he couldn't imagine how Mai felt.
"Okay." Mai looked unsure of herself. She stepped forward to hug him, her arms snaking around his chest. Surprised, Aang didn't need any prodding to return the hug, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing as tightly as he could. They stood like that for a moment, her head buried against his chest and his chin resting in her hair. Aang let himself close his eyes and relax, appreciating the small moment of vulnerability for what it was.
"Goodnight, Aang," she murmured, before carefully extricating herself. He lifted his hand in a small wave goodbye, before returning to the living room, carefully closing the door behind him so it wouldn't slam shut.
Aang woke up in the middle of the night to the creak of his window opening. He sat bolt upright, looking around frantically as he tried to identify the sound. His eye caught the open window and he tensed at the dark shadow that was crouched there, expecting another Phoenix Authority member to have followed them. He blinked, and the shadow resolved itself into Mai, sitting on the window seat with her chin resting on her arms, which in turn were resting on the windowsill. He rubbed a hand across his face, willing his rapidly beating heart to slow down.
"You snore," Mai said brusquely, not looking at him. It wasn't the first time Aang had heard that.
"I prefer to call it night airbending," he joked, swinging his feet out from under his blanket to stand up. He joined Mai at the window, noting that she had the quilt from the bed wrapped around her shoulders. He wondered how anybody could be so cold all the time in the Fire Nation. Mai scooted over to make room for him, and he obliged.
"Can't sleep?" he asked redundantly, trying to break through Mai's pensive silence. Her mouth tightened.
"No," she replied shortly.
"Are you worried about the break in?" he asked, trying to coax her into talking to him.
"No," she said again. Aang waited for her to continue on her own, turning his attention to the sleeping city so she wouldn't feel so pressured. "I have really bad insomnia," she finally explained, hunching her shoulders. "I always have a hard time going to bed. I only get about four hours of sleep a night, If I'm lucky." She finally looked at him, if only just out of the corner of her eye, and smiled sardonically. "Why do you think I'm such a bitch all the time?"
Aang started at that. "I don't think you're a bitch."
Mai wasn't expecting that. "Oh," she said in a small voice, before drawing the quilt tighter around herself. "Well. Anyway. I wanted some fresh air, and the window in the bedroom doesn't have a seat."
They lapsed into silence. "Maybe I could help you get to sleep?" Aang offered.
Mai raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How?"
"Hmmm," He thought a moment, tapping his chin with a finger. "What if I tell you a story?"
"Ha ha," Mai intoned sarcastically.
"I'm serious!" he protested. "It'll distract your brain, and might help you relax. At the very least I could bore you to sleep."
She studied him for a second, before sighing and saying, "Okay, fine."
Aang began to speak, his low soothing voice blending seamlessly into the balmy night air. He told the story of the first airbenders, who found and befriended the sky bison and learned to bend from them. It was a comforting, familiar story to Aang, one that he had told many times. Sometimes it was to curious historians, who were trying to piece the story of the four nations together after one hundred years of lies and propaganda. Sometimes it was to children, who had never met an airbender before. He could tell it perfectly by now, knowing exactly when to pause for emphasis or change his tone to increase the drama.
There was no gradual change in Mai from her being awake to being asleep, no yawning or drooping eyes. One second, she was sitting upright looking over the city, the next her head had dropped onto his shoulder, eyes closed and breathing deeply. It threw Aang off and he stopped talking in the middle of a sentence to look down at her. He had never examined her this closely before, and he took his time to do so now. He marveled at the contrast between her black hair and pale skin, and how much younger she looked when the harsh lines of the neutral expression that lived on her face were smoothed by sleep. There was a scar on her cheek, just a pale vertical line that had long since healed. He could see the faintest hint of a bruise on her neck that he hadn't caught earlier. It looked fresh, and Aang realized with a jolt it was probably from the kidnappers earlier that day.
Mai shifted against him, but Aang didn't have the heart to wake her up. He carefully maneuvered the arm that she was propped up against so that it was braced against her shoulder, then slipped his other arm under her knees. He slowly rose, the blanket she was wrapped in trailing on the floor and her head still tucked against his shoulder. He carried her into the bedroom and tucked the sheets around her. Without overthinking it, he brushed a few strands of hair from her face, then bent down to kiss her on the forehead. "Goodnight, Mai," he whispered. He returned to the couch and laid awake for much of the night, wondering how it was possible that he could still smell her on his skin.
