Mai didn't remember falling asleep. She had been sitting in front of the open window listening to Aang talk, then she blinked and the next thing she knew she was waking up in an unfamiliar bed, sunlight peering through a gap in the curtains to shine directly in her eyes. She groaned and rolled over, but it was too late: she was awake. Swinging her feet out from under the covers, she paused on the edge of the bed, assessing herself. She was sore from the fight yesterday, but nothing unbearable. One of the would-be kidnappers had jabbed her in the collarbone, and she absent-mindedly rubbed at the emerging bruise. Otherwise, she was fine. Really, a best-case scenario for an attempted kidnapping. She knew she should be terrified or traumatized by the events of the previous evening. But honestly, it had been kind of exciting to fight for her life again. Not that she was looking forward to more strangers attacking her in her home, but other than her and Aang's initial spy mission, she hadn't been in a battle in years.

Of course, Aang had overreacted and insisted that she stay at the palace with him. Which she had agreed to only because she didn't want to argue with him about it every day, and had nothing to do with wanting to spend more time with him.

Her mind drifted back to her last memories of the night, and a faint blush rose to her cheeks when she realized that she must have fallen asleep while Aang was telling his story, and that he must have carried her to bed. It was a little embarrassing, but she couldn't keep hiding in the bedroom, so she finally got to her feet and padded out into the living room.

Mai froze, mid-yawn, when she caught sight of a shirtless Aang making tea in the kitchen. She supposed he must have been shirtless when he had come to sit with her by the window, but it had been dark and she hadn't been paying attention. And even though she definitely didn't like him, and was only here out of necessity…well, there was nothing wrong with looking, she supposed.

Aang moved confidently around the kitchen, stretching up to snag a couple of mugs from a high shelf in a very appealing way. Her eyes traced down the blue streak that usually disappeared in the back of his tunic. Now, she could see it crawling straight down, between his broad shoulders, interrupted by an dramatic red scar that spiderwebbed across his back. That was Azula's work, Mai realized. She had killed him, and Mai had celebrated the Avatar's death with the royal family at the palace.

She glanced away, no longer enjoying the view.

Aang, unaware of her scrutiny, was now in the final stages of pouring two cups of tea. He spun around to bring the mugs to the table and finally saw her. "Good morning!" he beamed, and Mai was reminded of their first morning together, after the wedding. It was strange now, thinking how she had invited him over for wine on a drunken whim. She hadn't known much about him out of the context of him being a friend of Zuko's. She knew him much better now. She knew that he didn't really like black tea, but would drink it if someone else offered it to him. She knew that he hummed songs that were a century old, and that he never got cold, and that he named the spider that lived in the corner of the ceiling in her office. It was a stunning revelation to realize that, in the weeks he had been staying here, he had become her best friend in the city.

That was far too heavy of an insight to have first thing in the morning, so she sat down at the table and accepted the tea without a word, knowing that Aang would assume her surliness came from waking up early. He settled in the chair across the table from her. "How'd you sleep?"

"Good. Really good, actually," Mai admitted.

"Are you working today?"

"Yes." The idea of going to work, the morning after being attacked in her home and moving back into the palace, was absolutely ridiculous. But that was life, she supposed.

"Oh." A pause while Aang took a sip of tea. "Do you have to go right now?" His tone was hesitant, and Mai was again reminded of that first morning together, when she had kicked him out of the apartment so she could get ready.

Something in her warmed, and her tone softened. "No, not right now." She met Aang's eyes and his delighted grin, and thought that yes, she could spare some time this morning for him.


Aang hadn't particularly wanted to sit in the interrogation of the Phoenix Authority members, but he considered it part of his Avatar duties to hear them out and figure out what they wanted. It was early evening, the four men having spent the day resting and being healed. Zuko treated prisoners very different than his father had. Where previously, the men would have been interrogated in chains in a cell, they were now in a small, warm room, sitting across from the first man at a table. The only indication that this was an interrogation was that the man had both his wrists chained to his chair.

The man, who gave his name as Yusei, was surprisingly careless with his information. The reason for that became clear: he didn't know anything about the inner workings of the organization, and so he had no useful information to give. Zuko and Katara asked question after question, from every possible angle, and the man shrugged them all off. He had joined the Phoenix Authority through a friend of a friend because he thought Zuko was an embarrassment of a Fire Lord (a fact he took grotesque pleasure in throwing right in said Fire Lord's face). He had received a note to go to Mai's apartment, and that he would meet up with three other men. They were to take Mai, leave a note, and bring her to an address. Zuko immediately sent a scout to that address, but Yusei snorted derisively. It went to an abandoned building owned by the city, whoever they were supposed to meet with their captive would be long gone by now, leaving nothing useful behind.

Something about the instructions bothered Aang. "Why go after Mai?"

"Daichi recognized her when the two of you attacked him," Yusei explained. "She was with the Fire Lord at his trial." His tone turned mocking, his lip curling into a sneer. "We didn't expect her to be with the Avatar though. I guess she has a type."

Both Aang and Zuko took a threatening step forward. Katara grabbed each of them by a shoulder and tugged them back, like they were misbehaving children. "Control yourselves," she murmured. Aang's hands were curling into fists, and he reminded himself that, whatever their intentions were, none of the men had actually hurt Mai. Speaking about her disrespectfully was not worthy of a reprisal, no matter how much it angered him.

The rest of the interrogations passed the same way. Four random men who joined a rebellion because they were unhappy with Zuko. Four men who knew Daichi's name, but not where he was or what his overall plan was. Four men who had never met before the previous night, who had been instructed to kidnap the woman in the apartment and leave a ransom note behind. Four men who had been drastically misinformed about said woman's fighting ability.

Four men who had spent the day getting their concussions healed.

The last prisoner was led away, and, like a puppet whose strings had been cut, Aang slumped down in his chair. Katara put a comforting hand on his back. "We'll figure this out. Mai is staying with you, right?" There was none of that teasing in her tone, which Aang appreciated.

"Yeah. She should be back from work by now." The interrogations had lasted longer than any of them had thought, and the sun had set at least an hour ago.

"So she's in the safest place she can be," Katara said matter-of-factly.

"I'll post more guards around your quarters too," Zuko added, stretching and poorly stifling a yawn. At Aang's annoyed look, he sighed. "Don't worry, I'll make sure they aren't suffocating you or following you everywhere. Just to have a few more eyes on the windows and door." Aang supposed he could live with that.

"I'm going to update Mai on all of this. Do you mind if we skip dinner tonight? I think we'd rather just eat in the room." Aang clambered to his feet, feeling everyone one of his hundred and twenty two years. The couple nodded, and they stepped out into the hallway. Aang gave them a glum wave goodbye before taking off. Zuko and Katara watched him go with matching expressions of concern, but eventually they made their way to their own room.


Zuko was exhausted. Truthfully, he was always exhausted, but he felt exceptionally drained now. He flopped down in his favorite chair in their room, tilting his head back to allow Katara to remove his crown and comb her fingers through his hair. When she walked past him on the way to her own seat, he reached out and captured her by her wrist, pulling her onto his lap. She came willingly, lightly kissing him on the temple at the edge of his scar before he buried his face in her neck. They sat quietly like that for a minute; him breathing in her familiar scent, her soothingly stroking the back of his neck. Finally, he reclined back in the chair, Katara loosely draped across his torso, her head on his shoulder.

"I can't believe Mai got tangled up in this," Zuko sighed.

"You can't possibly blame yourself for this."

Zuko scoffed. "Watch me." He settled further back in the chair. "Although I do kind of blame Aang too."

"Hey!" Katara sat up, looking at him reproachfully.

"No, that's not…I don't mean anything bad by that." He really didn't; Zuko had nothing but love and respect for Aang. "But Mai has her own life now. She was safe. And now…" he trailed off, because she was decidedly not safe now.

Katara hummed, lying back down against his chest. "Maybe she doesn't want to be safe," she suggested. "You have to admit, she's pretty dangerous. Maybe she wanted to get involved."

Zuko couldn't argue with that, but he didn't have to like it. The way his relationship with Mai had gone was still one of his biggest sources of guilt. His first few years as Fire Lord were challenging, and he had been overwhelmed by his responsibility to not only the Fire Nation, but the world. It was only now, a decade later, that he could truly appreciate having had Mai to help him, and how ungrateful he had been for her at the time. He loved Katara more than anything, and he didn't think that it would have worked with Mai in the long term. But that didn't mean that he didn't care about her and want her to be happy.

"Still. I don't know why he thought of her to help, out of everybody he knows in the city," he grumbled.

Katara gave him an arch look. "You don't?"

Zuko got the feeling he was missing something. "No? I didn't think they were that close."

"Oh, Zuko," she mockingly patted him on the cheek. "I love you, but you are so oblivious."

He rolled his eyes. "Alright, what super obvious thing am I missing now?"

"Aang likes Mai."

"What?" Zuko exclaimed. "No he doesn't."

Katara raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think he goes to see her multiple times every day?"

"Well…wait, is it really every day?"

"She's staying in his room, Zuko. We have enough guest bedrooms here for her to have one for every day of the week, and she's staying in his room that only has the one bed."

"That…is a very good point, actually."

"And what did you think Yusei meant when he said that Mai has a type?"

"Honestly, I had no idea."

"Then why did you get so upset about it?"

"The way he said it sounded really insulting."

Katara snickered at that while Zuko considered the wild news that she had just dumped on him. He had noticed that Aang and Mai seemed friendly on this trip, but he had had no idea that it had gone that far. The couple seemed unconventional to him, but he trusted Katara's intuition.

"Do you think she likes him?" Katara asked clearly trying to sound casual.

"I'm not sure. But I know we're going to leave them alone to figure it out themselves, right?"

"I know, I was going to," Katara pouted.

Zuko caught something in her tone and grinned. "You've already written to Toph about it, haven't you?"

"…Maybe."

He laughed and kissed her on the nose. She returned the gesture, then stood up. "Let's hope they figure it out before we're driven out of the city," he said nonchalantly as she pulled him up out of the chair. Katara hummed in agreement as she led them to their private dining room, where dinner was waiting for them. Zuko still didn't quite know how he felt about the Aang and Mai news. He supposed he wasn't too surprised that Aang would develop feelings for Mai. He had never been very cautious with his heart, and there was something about Mai that fascinated and enticed people. Something about how captivating it was to be around someone who genuinely didn't care what other people thought of her. He had no idea if Mai would return those feelings, but he hoped so. If there was one person who would treat Mai the way she deserved, it would be the Avatar.


They had gotten into a routine in the morning. Aang woke up before her every day and made tea, and ensured that there was something for her to eat for breakfast. They would relax around the dining room table for about 20 minutes, then Mai would go get dressed in the bedroom. They would finish getting ready in the washroom together, each standing in front of their own mirror. Aang shaved his head every morning, while Mai washed her face and did her hair. It was a nice routine, as long as Mai didn't think too hard about how domestic it was. It made sense, for two people living together, to have a schedule, she told herself. That was it.

This morning, Mai was absentmindedly brushing her hair, brain still fogged over from sleep.

"Do you want me to do that?" A voice spoke from behind her, and she realized that Aang had finished shaving and was standing over her shoulder.

"Hmm?" she hummed distractedly. "Do what?"

"I can do your hair." There was a faint hint of red on his cheeks. "If you want."

She craned her head over her shoulder to squint at him, but supposed there wasn't any harm in it. It meant she didn't have to start thinking about her appearance quite yet. "Okay," she said, handing over the brush. He gathered her long, straight hair in his hands, gently running the brush across it. Any knots he encountered were carefully worked out, without tugging on her scalp. She closed her eyes, trying to guess what he was doing without looking at him in the mirror. She felt him divide her hair into sections and begin braiding, first on one side then the other.

"Done!" He announced a few minutes later, sounding pleased. Mai opened her eyes and turned her head back and forth, examining his work. Of course, it was perfect. A braid started at each temple, curling around her head like a crown. The plaits met in the middle and continued in a singular glossy braid down her back. He had left a few pieces of hair in the front out to artfully frame her face. Truthfully, it was the best her hair had looked in a long time.

"How are you so good at everything?" she pondered out loud, somewhat resentful. "You don't even have hair."

Aang laughed, not in the least put off by her grouchy tone. "I'm the Avatar, it's part of the job."

It seamlessly became a part of their morning rituals. While she sat in front of the mirror to wash and moisturize her face, Aang would brush and style her hair. He never really seemed to have a plan, but somehow, she always liked the result. One day, she found that he had recreated her hairstyle from when they were teenagers: the top half of her hair pulled into two buns, the rest left flowing over her shoulders. She gave him a quizzical look, and he shrugged.

"I like it," he said, and didn't elaborate further. She scrutinized herself in the mirror. She could remember tying her hair up like this every day. There was no particular reason that she had stopped, but her life had changed and her appearance changed with it. She was no longer a teenager in a war zone, or the future Fire Lady. Still, for whatever reason, she didn't mind wearing her hair like this now. Maybe enough time had passed that it didn't make her feel like a child again.


"Oooh, Mai, I like your hair!" Rika cooed when the cataloguer walked past her desk in the morning. With very little to entertain her at work, Rika had been puzzling over Mai's hair for the past week. While the other woman was generally always neat and put together, she had started coming in with professionally-styled hair. It baffled the receptionist; nothing that she knew about Mai made her think that she was the type to go to a salon first thing in the morning. Especially not every day.

Mai simply inclined her head, but didn't say anything, so Rika kept probing. "Did you get it done at that new place downtown?"

"No, Aang did it this morning." Rika gaped, like the wind had physically been knocked out of her.

"What?" she wheezed, but Mai was already gone, having hurried down the stairs to her office. Rika snatched a piece of paper and began scribbling a message to her friend Chiyo, who worked down in the archives. The poor thing was locked away in that dark, creepy space, and they had taken to using the museums pneumatic tube communication system to send notes to each other. Lately, their gossip had been exclusively about Mai and her mysterious relationship with the Avatar. It had gotten a bit stale, as weeks went by without anything new to report. The Avatar came to take Mai to lunch almost every day, Mai insisted that they weren't dating, the Avatar flirted with Rika but it never went anywhere. But him styling her hair, presumably every morning? For a week?

Rika finished her note, addressed it to Chiyo, and sent it off. She sank back into her chair, mind buzzing over the new development. And here she had thought it would be another boring day in the office.


Katara had known instantly, from the second she saw Aang and Mai hand-in-hand, running out of the banquet hall at her wedding like a couple of rebellious teenagers. She had been baffled to say the least, by the unlikely pairing. The more suspicious parts of her brain considered that this might be some ploy to try to get revenge on her and Zuko, but she had shaken those thoughts away. While she didn't know that much about Mai (the two had only ever exchanged formal pleasantries), she knew that Aang would never intentionally do anything cruel or out of revenge. She was very aware of Aang's propensity to fall for people much too soon, and she privately hoped that both of would be careful.

As time went on, it became more and more apparent that this wasn't one of Aang's quick flings. Though she was dying to talk to Aang about it, she had learned over the years that it was better to wait for people to come to her for advice than to dish it out unsolicited. And so she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

She had been positive that, once Mai moved in with Aang in the palace that the airbender would finally break, but still nothing. He artfully dodged around her queries and sly glances, refusing to ask for her opinion. And so Katara sat back and watched. She had no idea how Mai could miss the rapt, adoring way that Aang would stare at her. Katara still fondly remembered when he used to look at her like that; it felt like the sun was shining for you, and only for you.

The protective part of Katara worried that Mai was stringing Aang along, to the point where she got angry if she thought about it too long. Aang was, without a doubt, the best person that Katara knew, and it wasn't fair on him if Mai didn't appreciate him. She brought up her concerns to Zuko, who would simply shrug and say that just because Mai didn't wear her heart on her sleeve didn't mean she didn't have one. Which was not the point that Katara was trying to make, but Zuko was adamant that he had no insight into what Mai was thinking.

And so, Katara waited.

One afternoon, having had one of her meetings cancelled last minute, Katara decided to seek out Aang and see if he wanted to spar. She checked for him in his room (well, 'his and Mai's room,' because they were living together), but it was empty. She wandered across the grounds, knowing that Aang preferred to be outside more often than not. A couple of figures lounging on the grass caught her eye, and she slowed, hidden from view by a hedge.

Aang was laying on his back on the grass, with Mai sitting next to him, pulling pieces of grass from the lawn and sprinkling them over Aang's face. Aang had his lips pursed and was gently blowing the blades of grass in a lazy vortex in the air. As Katara watched, Aang inhaled, accidentally sucking the grass directly into his mouth. He sat bolt upright, coughing and hacking dramatically, and Mai was…

Mai was…

Katara had never seen it before, and if somebody described it to her afterwards she wouldn't have believed them, but Mai was giggling. A high-pitched, girlish giggle, barely dampened by the hand she had placed over her mouth. If Katara weren't spying she would still have been speechless as the normally taciturn woman slapped Aang on the back a few times, trying to ask if he was okay through her hysterics. Aang finally managed to clear his throat and rasped, "That was not my best idea."

"Implying that you ever have good ideas," Mai's mocking words were in contrast to her tender gaze as she brushed the rest of the grass off Aang's shoulders. Aang had his head down, trying to refill his lungs, and by the time he looked back up Mai had schooled her expression back to its usual detachment. Katara finally crept away, vindicated. If Mai isn't stupid in love too, I'll eat my crown, she thought smugly as she silently made her way back into the palace.


Sugar Queen,

Keep the updates COMING! I still can't believe Twinkle Toes and Gloomy are a thing. Our boy is dumber than a pile of rocks though, I bet you five gold pieces he doesn't make a move for a year.

- Toph

P.S. My beautiful, wonderful girlfriend says hi, and that she can't wait to meet you!

P.P.S. That last post script was unauthorized, and Jia has had her scribe privileges revoked.


Toph,

You underestimate Aang. Five gold pieces they get together by the end of fall.

- Katara

P.S. Tell your scribe we can't wait to meet her either!


"Thanks, you're a life-saver!" Kohei gushed as Mai presented him with a refurbished and rebound book. "This book is over 200 years old, I thought it was a goner after those merchants kept it in a leaking crate for six months."

"You're welcome," Mai replied, already turning her attention to her schedule to see what else she had to do today. To be honest, she genuinely liked restoring old books, but this one had been exhausting. It had come to her in ruins, having sat in an inch of sea water for half a year. Bringing it back to life had occupied much of her work time the past few weeks. It didn't help that Kohei, the historian that had bought it, had taken to stopping by her office every day to check on the book's progress. He seemed interested in the painstaking process of peeling the pages apart, drying them out, removing mold and brightening the text so it was legible again. He was nice enough, but it was a little difficult for Mai to concentrate with him hovering on the other side of her desk, and she was grateful to get some peace and quiet on her next project.

Mai glanced up from her planner to see that Kohei was still standing there, fidgeting awkwardly, his fingers tapping on the cover of the book. "Did you need anything else?" she asked carefully, hoping to prompt him to spit it out or leave.

"No? Yes! Well…" he sputtered, turning bright red. "I guess I was just, uh, wondering…is that guy that comes here all the time your boyfriend?"

It took a second for Mai to register that he was inquiring about Aang. "No, he's not."

Kohei's entire demeanor changed. A big grin spread across his face, and he stood up a little straighter. "Oh! Cool! I mean, not cool, he seems nice. But when I asked around, nobody seemed to know—"

"You were asking around?" Mai interrupted, her deadpan tone not giving away how she felt about that. It was flattering, she supposed, and Kohei was sweet, but he wasn't really her type.

"Yeah! Well, not in a weird way, just in like, a normal conversation." Kohei was saved from further explanation by a knock at the door, followed by Aang sticking his head into the office.

"Hey! Are you ready to go? Zuko pointed out a new noodle place I wanted to try—" he paused, finally noticing that Mai wasn't alone. "Oh, hi!" he greeted brightly, stepping fully into the room and giving a short bow. "I'm Aang."

Kohei eagerly returned the bow, apparently only just now recognizing Mai's frequent visitor. "The Avatar! It's an honor to meet you. I'm Kohei, I work here at the museum with Mai."

"Well aren't you lucky," Aang drawled. "I hope you guys aren't working too hard. It's important to still have fun."

"Ha, too right!" Kohei glanced at the clock on the wall behind Mai and sighed. "Unfortunately, I should be going, I was supposed to get this to my boss before noon." As he walked past Mai, he reached out one hand to brush his fingers against her elbow. "I'll see you around, thank you again." He bobbed his head cheerfully at Aang, awkwardly squeezed by the taller man to reach the door, then took off down the hallway at a brisk walk.

Aang turned back to Mai, looking suspiciously amused. "Lunch?"

They made it halfway through their meal before Aang paused, lacing his fingers together in a ledge that he could prop his chin on. "So when are you going to put that poor guy out of his misery and go on a date with him?"

Mai didn't look up from her current task of searching through her broth for the last pieces of fried tofu with her chopsticks. "What are you talking about?"

"That guy! Kohei. He's definitely into you."

"You can tell that from meeting him for thirty seconds, huh?"

"Yes! Also, I've seen him lurking around your office door before."

That was news to Mai. Regardless, she didn't really feel like discussing her dating life with Aang. "Doesn't matter, I'm not interested."

"Why not?"

Spirits, what was happening? Mai had no idea why he was pushing this now, when they were eating in a restaurant and she had to go back to work in fifteen minutes. She cast about for a good enough reason not to go out Kohei. "I don't date coworkers."

"Why not?"

Mai audibly groaned. "Because when you break up it makes your job harder. I try to date Kohei, and the next thing you know the only work I get is transcribing ancient Fire Nation grocery lists until I die."

Aang chuckled. "So pessimistic! What if you don't break up?"

Mai snorted. "Unlikely. The men here are…" she took a minute to think of the right adjective. "Boring."

"Well that's not fair, you think everything's boring," Aang said dryly.

"I mean, they want girlfriends who agree with everything they say and only care about running the household staff. You have to be well-read enough to seem smart, but not enough to have any real opinions on anything. And Agni help you if you try to have a real discussion or argument." Mai didn't mean to sound so bitter, but to be fair, Aang had brought up the topic.

The airbender, shocked by her tirade, frowned. "You're right, that does sound boring."

Desperate to redirect the conversation, Mai said, "Anyway, when are you going to date Rika? She's been bothering me about you for the past month."

"Has she now?" Aang laughed. "Probably never. I don't really date."

"That's not what I've heard," Mai muttered as she popped the last square of tofu into her mouth.

Aang looked confused for a second, then seemed to understand what she was hinting at. "Right! Well, I mean, sex doesn't really count as dating." He was completely unabashed discussing the topic in public. Meanwhile Mai, who had never considered herself very prudish, found herself ducking her head and hunching her shoulders, trying to hide the flush that was creeping up her face.

"No?" she asked, trying to hide how puzzling that statement was to her.

"Not really." He shrugged. "If everybody knows that it's casual, then it's just a couple of people having fun. Very different from being compatible with someone and making a real connection."

Mai didn't really think she understood, but she was also eager to move the conversation along. She supposed she could ask why Aang didn't just sleep with Rika then, but she didn't want to go putting ideas into anyone's head. "So you don't think your…compatible? With people?" Which was an insane question, because Aang got along with everybody, and everybody liked him.

He grew pensive, staring down into his mostly empty bowl of noodles. "No, that's not it." He paused, searching for the right words. "At some point, every village runs out of Avatar problems, and I have to move on. So the only options are for someone to sit around and wait for me to come back, or join me. And most people don't want to drop everything to travel around the world with someone they've just met." Aang's tone didn't grow bitter the way that Mai's had when she was talking about her dating life; rather, he sounded sad, wistful. Mai tried to imagine making a connection with someone, knowing that you would be gone the next week, and asking them to come with you.

"They were stupid," she said absently. Aang looked up at her, raising his eyebrows. "I mean, to turn down traveling the world. I miss doing that." He was getting a weird expression on his face, and Mai was incredibly out of her comfort zone, so she veered back into more well-trodden territory. "Maybe they were just sick of you."

Aang childishly stuck his tongue out at her. "Rude. I thought you were done being mean to me."

Mai considered that, then reached across the table with her chopsticks to steal a chunk of tofu from Aang's bowl. "Not yet."


All it had taken was for Mai to casually mention that there was a bakery in a town just outside the city that she hadn't been to in a few years. That was all it took for Aang to, in an embarrassingly short amount of time, rearrange his afternoon plans, call Appa, and have the bison fly them over to the town. Mai had rolled her eyes and insisted that she hadn't meant that they go right now, but it was worth it to see the excited look on her face when they swooped down just outside the village.

It wasn't long before they found the lauded bakery, and to come out each holding taiyaki, Aang having declared a fish-shaped cake to be acceptable vegetarian fare. They took their time wandering through the market, stopping every so often in shops that caught their eye. Aang was thinking about a way that he could buy a necklace that Mai had been lingering over without it being weird when Mai stopped dead in her tracks. Aang was about to ask what was wrong, but a second later he saw it.

Well, not it. Her.

Aiya was doing an admirable job of going incognito, but there was no way to hide her height and build. Towering a head above the crowd milling around the market, the Yuyan archer had a large cloak draped over her form, hiding the armory of weapons she likely had on her. She had a wide-brimmed straw hat tilted down over her face, which couldn't fully hide the red tattoos across her eyes.

Without a word, Aang and Mai simultaneously ducked down behind a food cart. It didn't appear that Aiya had seen them; the archer was still looking over the produce that a local farmer had set out. The farmer nervously waited for her to pick out an apple, then waved away the coin that she offered, a fake smile plastered across his face. Aiya moved on without acknowledging his charity, the farmer exhaling in relief as she walked away. Aang and Mai exchanged a glance, then began following Aiya, sticking close to the buildings to stay out of view.

Having apparently finished her shopping, Aiya walked purposefully down the street, creating a ripple in the crowd as people instinctively got out of her way. She paused at an intersection, giving Aang a moment to whisper to Mai. "Maybe Daichi and the others are nearby."

Mai considered that. "It makes sense, they'd want to get out of Caldera City once they knew they were exposed." Aiya started to walk again, so they melted back into the shadows to follow.

Aang started to get suspicious when Aiya turned down a dark alley, devoid of any other people. He peeked around the corner of the alley to see the archer whip off her cloak and turn to face them, her bow already nocked in her hands. Aang pulled his face back just in time to avoid getting shot through the eye. The arrow hadn't even buried itself in the wall behind them before Mai grabbed his hand and pulled him back the way they had come, dodging around other shoppers. Aang dug through his pocket as they ran, triumphantly extracting his bison whistle. He blew on it as hard as he could, hoping Appa was still close enough to hear it.

"What's that going to do?" Mai panted, clearly not impressed with the silent whistle.

"You'll see. We need to get higher." Aang chanced a look over his shoulder to see Aiya barreling after them. Whatever moral code she followed apparently didn't allow for her to fire wildly into civilians, so she hadn't loosed another arrow. Still, Aang didn't want to put other people's lives at risk. He bounded upwards, one foot kicking off an awning to give him the momentum to get onto the roof. Mai was close behind, only taking a few extra jumps to catch up. Aang couldn't help but yell when he saw the familiar shadow of Appa passing by overhead. The bison circled above them, growling as an arrow bounced off the thick, leathery skin on his stomach. It wasn't safe for him to get any lower, so they would have to meet him up there.

"Ready?" was all the warning Aang gave before he clutched Mai around the waist and bent them up in the air, wind whistling past them as the ground receded behind them. They reached the peak of the jump and had a few seconds of gut-churning free fall before Appa caught them on his back. Aang peered over the side of the saddle to see Aiya staring up at them, an arrow ready on her bow but still in her hands. Appa turned to carry them back to the capitol, and Mai collapsed next to him on edge of the saddle, her eyes glittering with exhilaration. Giddy with relief and the thrill you could only get narrowly escaping death with someone, Aang laughed.

"So, who gets to tell Zuko?"


Mai and Zuko were lounging on the ground, watching Katara and Aang spar. The two benders were standing waist-deep in the shallow end of a beautiful marble pool that had been built specifically for waterbending. It was oppressively hot, the humidity plastering Mai's hair to her sweat-drenched skin. She was slowly fanning herself with the book she had brought out to read, before she had been distracted by the battle. It was fascinating to watch the waterbenders, their movements flowing more like a dance than a fight. She found her eyes drawn to Aang more often than not. He was shirtless and soaking wet, and the water that beaded on his skin reflected the sunlight, making him glitter like a jewel. It was very eye-catching.

It was also the least tense she and Zuko had been in years. Mai had been a little hesitant to go watch the training session, afraid that sitting alone with Zuko in the sun would be unbearably awkward. But they were both relaxed, flopped on the stone patio in the shade of a large awning. They were mostly quiet, but it was a companionable silence, focused as they were on the bending display. Zuko leaned towards her makeshift fan, and she obligingly began flapping it so that it would fan him as well.

The battle had already been raging almost an hour, and Mai had no idea who was winning. Finally, Katara drew her hands up, in a move that, from what Mai could tell, sent a sheet of ice down through the liquid water to settle under Aang's feet. Not expecting the sudden change in terrain, Aang slipped, which was apparently what Katara had been hoping for. In a flash, she brought the ice sheet up and tipped Aang onto his back, then secured both his hands and feet to the bottom of the pool with ice. The move left Aang lying on his back with his entire body, including his face, submerged. He struggled for a moment, then relaxed. Taking that as him admitting defeat, Katara released him, and he burst up out of the water, already laughing.

"That was amazing! You have to teach me that!" Aang shouted enthusiastically.

While the two waterbenders chattered amicably about the match, Mai stood up to head back into the blissfully cool palace.

"Where do you think you're going?" Aang called out. He had made his way into the deeper end of the pool, and he was propped up on his elbows at the pool's edge. Zuko had taken his shirt off and hopped into the pool, swimming over to join Katara.

"Inside. It's way too hot out here," she answered, continuing to fan herself with her book.

Aang hauled himself out of the pool (Mai glanced away, knowing that she would be caught ogling, and that he would get way too smug about it) and strolled over to her. His movements were deliberately relaxed, in a way that made Mai wary. "I think there's a faster way to cool off," he said mischievously.

Mai's eyes narrowed. "Don't you dare—" was all she got out. Quick as a flash, Aang snatched the book from her hand and threw it on the grass. Then he picked her up around her waist and twirled her around, slinging her into the pool. Mai gasped at the sudden shock of the cold water, but she had to admit that it was wonderfully refreshing after baking in the sun all afternoon.

Still, such an act of betrayal called for retaliation.

She swam over to the side of the pool, grabbing onto it so she could glare at Aang. He was laughing, but it petered out when he saw her expression. Katara and Zuko, who had also started to giggle, quieted down as well, exchanging nervous looks.

"What—Are you really mad?" Aang frowned, kneeling down next to her, leaning over the side of the pool. "I'm sorry, that was too far, I—"

That was as far into the apology that Mai let him get before she reared up out of the water to grab both of his arms, tugging him down into the pool with her. He fell in with a shout, long arms and legs comically flailing in the air. Katara was laughing so hard that she had to hold onto Zuko to keep from falling over. Aang surfaced, sputtering with exaggerated rage.

"Traitor! Fiend! Villain! See if I ever apologize to you for anything ever again."

"You should know better than to let your guard down like that," Mai replied dryly. Her clothes were beginning to weigh her down, especially her loose long-sleeved shirt. She peeled it off and bunched it up in a ball, tossing it out of the pool where it landed on the marble with a satisfying smack. Aang was definitely eying her, now clad only in her chest binding and pants, but considering she had been doing the same to him all afternoon she let it slide. She swam past him, making sure to splash him with a kick as she went by, which started a splash fight. The waterbenders promptly teamed up and cheated, dousing Zuko and Mai until the Fire Nation duo surrendered. Mai couldn't remember the last time she went swimming. She certainly never went swimming like this, goofing off with other people her age like they were reckless teenagers. Friends, she reminded herself, her inner voice derisive. People your age you go swimming with are called friends.

Eventually, they dragged themselves out of the pool. Exhausted from the heat and the exercise, the four of them lazed out in the sun like scorpion-lizards, having wordlessly decided to dry their clothes the natural way rather than use bending. Mai was sitting cross-legged, propping herself up on her arms behind her. Aang had unceremoniously dropped down with his head in her lap, at an angle that her torso blocked his eyes from the sun. She flicked at his nose, but otherwise didn't complain about the arrangement. Closing her eyes, she let her mind drift away in the stifling air.

She heard giggling next to her, which broke her out of her reverie. Turning to the source, Mai realized that Katara and Zuko were in the same position, his head resting on her lap. Katara was twisting wet strands of his long hair around her fingers then draping them across his face. Zuko angled his head back, and Katara bent down to kiss him, the two smiling beatifically as their lips met.

Mai abruptly felt cold and uncomfortable. Her still-damp clothing clung to her skin, especially where Aang's head was pressing the fabric into her legs. She jumped to her feet, Aang's head hitting the stone with a painful-sounding thunk.

"Ow," he groused, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head where it had banged against the marble. "Are you okay?"

Mai couldn't articulate exactly why she was suddenly so ill at ease. "I'm fine," she snapped. "I just remembered, I was supposed to stop by my apartment today. Kayda was doing some research, and I have a scroll that I thought could help her." It wasn't entirely a lie; her coworker had asked to borrow the scroll on Earth Kingdom mining practices, but it wasn't something she had to get right away.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Aang asked helpfully, starting to get to his feet.

"No, it's fine. I'm going to change really quick and then head over." She hurried back into the palace, and missed both Aang's wounded expression, and the shrewd glance that Katara and Zuko exchanged.


Aang knew that he was helplessly, stupidly, head-over-heels in love with Mai when he came across her sitting in the grass next to Appa's stable, diligently cutting moon peaches in half and removing the pits. She had a pile of about thirty peaches that she was going through, the halved fruits getting tossed into a basket. Appa was lying in the grass next to her, pretending to sleep. He looked relaxed, but every few seconds one of his eyes would open and he would evaluate Mai's progress before closing it again.

"What are you doing?" he asked, sprawling on the grass next to her.

Mai looked up. "I'm cutting out the pits so Appa won't choke," she explained, as though it were common sense and he was the one being irrational.

The gesture was so astonishingly sweet that Aang couldn't speak. He could have told here that Appa would never be able to choke on something as small as a moon peach pit, or that he had once seen the bison swallow an abandoned Fire Nation soldier's helmet without a problem, or that Appa regularly swallowed rocks the size of a human head to help him grind up the plants he ate. Instead, all he said was, "Appa's a lucky bison."

Mai gave him a half smile, then returned her focus to the peach in her hand. After deftly removing the pit with a twist of her knife, she offered one of the halves to Aang. He accepted it, staring at her as she bit into her half of the peach. A shiver went down his spine as he watched her trace her tongue up her forearm, chasing a droplet of juice that had spilled down from her hand. Oh man, his inner voice said sympathetically. You're doomed.


Mai rarely let herself admit that maybe her feelings for Aang weren't completely platonic. It was usually the quiet moments, when it was just the two of them. The first time was when he had hobbled into their room, looking guilty. Mai's gaze was drawn down to the foot that he was favoring, which was red and swollen and bleeding a little. She waited.

"Sooooooo," he started. "I might have been goofing off around the cactus garden…"

Mai couldn't help it; she burst into laughter. Aang looked a little affronted that she was reacting to his misfortune with such glee, although even he couldn't help but crack a rueful grin. "I know, I'm an idiot. Can you help me get all the spines out? I can't see my foot."

They got situated with Aang laying on his back on the couch, his injured foot in Mai's lap. The bottom of his foot was full of inch-long spines; he explained that he hadn't been watching where he was landing and had stepped directly onto a dead cactus that had blended in with the soil. Mai was carefully pulling the thorns out with a pair of tweezers and dropping them in a bowl.

"Why don't you have Katara or any of the other healers do this?" she asked, carefully working out a particularly long, hooked spine. "I'm sure they could do a better job than me."

Aang winced as she pulled the spine out. "This is not my first cactus injury," he admitted. "The healers make fun of me way more than you do."

Mai shook her head and opened her mouth, then stiffened. She had been about to say, in a teasing tone, "I love you, but you're a moron."

The words turned to ash in her mouth.

"I love you."

She shut her mouth so quickly that her teeth clacked together. Aang studied her as she quietly and quickly pulled the rest of the spines out, but he didn't comment on her change in mood.


They only slept in the bed together once. A landslide had buried several acres of farmland, and Aang had gone to help clear the thousands of pounds of rocks and dirt so the farms could be re-tilled. He had returned late in the evening, completely shattered and covered head to foot in so much dust that Mai could barely see his tattoos. Before he could collapse on any of the furniture and spread the dust cloud, she marched him to the washroom and made him sit in the bath. His eyes were flickering shut, and Mai had a suspicion that if she left him alone he would either fall asleep in the empty tub, or try to fill it and drown himself.

Her solution was a bucket of warm, soapy water and a towel. She had him strip down to his pants, then sat on the edge of the tub and gently wiped the dirt off his skin. A good portion of her energy went to working efficiently and not lingering on the toned muscles of his arms, or the sharp planes of his back. The rest of her energy went to snapping her fingers in his face every time he drifted off, determined to keep him awake until he was clean. She found herself spending a lot of time on his hands, wrapping them one at a time in the towel and massaging them, making sure there was no dirt between his fingers. At one point, he tilted his head back against the edge of the tub and sighed, low and content. She was glad he had his eyes closed so he couldn't see the fond smile that returned every time she wasn't actively focusing on keeping it away.

Finally, she deemed him clean enough to exist in the rest of the apartment, and helped him out of the bath. She was, oddly enough, reminded of the night of the wedding, when she had practically carried him from the palace to her apartment. They were in a similar position now, one of his arms draped around her neck, her own arm tight around his waist. Her shoulders supported most of his weight, trying to ignore that his head was lolling dangerous close to hers. She led him to the bedroom for privacy and briskly shook him awake, instructing him to change into his pajamas. After waiting for him in the living room for ten minutes, she peeked into the bedroom to find that Aang had successfully kicked off his other pants and pulled his pajama pants on. That was about all he had accomplished; he was now laying across the bed, fast asleep.

Mai lingered in the doorway, unsure of what she should do. Try to wake him up? Sleep out in the living room? Neither of those options really appealed to her, and she decided that if Aang didn't want to share a bed with her, he shouldn't have fallen asleep in hers. She slipped under the covers on the other side of the bed from where Aang had collapsed, curling up on her side and facing him. She watched him, feeling oddly voyeuristic but unable to look away. He was on his back with his head tilted towards her, one hand loosely curled up by his face. The sky blue of his tattoos was a welcome, cooling contrast to the harsh red of the bedspread.

His altruism astounded her. He had spent the past 20 hours helping people, probably with a smile on his face. She could see him now, standing out in a field buried in rubble, bending it away, refusing to take a break. When others faltered, he would take their place, unable to stop until the job was done. He had worked himself beyond exhaustion, and he would do it again tomorrow if they asked.

She thought about him slumping down in the tub, letting her clean him. She wondered how many other people he let help him.

Suddenly uncomfortable with her own staring, Mai quickly turned around so her back was to him. It had been a very long time since she had slept in a bed with someone else, and she was positive she would have a hard time falling asleep. To her surprise, she woke up the next morning feeling alert and well-rested. She looked over to the other half of the bed, only to find it empty. She was unsure if he had just woken up in the morning before her like usual, or if he had gotten up in the middle of the night to finish his rest in the living room.

Aang was waiting for her in the kitchen with a bright smile and a cup of tea. Neither of them mentioned the bed.