Mai finds that very little intrigues her. By Agni, she better cling to this one. Even if this one has taken to chewing on flower petals.
"What are you doing?"
She shrugs. "Ya know, I've been looking at these things all day but I never thought to taste them."
Mai is quiet for a moment as she fights to finds words that can truly convey the level of perplexion and mild stress that this woman is inducing. "Because they aren't meant to be eaten? You know that some flowers are poisonous, right?"
"Yeah, those." She points to a pot of datura. "These are fine." She stuffs another marigold petal into her mouth.
Mai gawks at the woman.
"People eat sunflower seeds all the time." She shrugs.
"Yeah, the seeds. Not the petals." Her eyes widen as the woman holds up the marigold stem. She winks before setting it upon her tongue. "And not the stems."
"I'm gonna start my own business!" She declares. "I'll serve flower petals and stems. No seeds though, because there's too much competition there."
"You're a menace."
"That's what Mohi says."
The woman leans up against the wooden counter and gazes out at the early morning crowd. She gives a little yawn and stretches her arms. The trinkets around her neck bob and clank about.
"Snapdragon." Mai says suddenly and plainly.
"What?"
"I'll call you Snapdragon."
"Why?"
"You just…" Mai starts. "Something about you reminds me of snapdragons. A snap is fast and sudden, you're impulsive and entered my life out of nowhere. Dragons are fierce and bold. It doesn't get much bolder than willingly ascending a rickety ladder ever day. So I'll call you snapdragon."
"Snapdragon." The woman tests it on her tongue. "I'll take it!" She leans back again. "Say, can you pass me another sunflower."
"It's not time for your lunch break."
"I won't eat this one, I promise."
.oOo.
Snapdragon. Snapdragon. Snapdragon.
She has a name now! She grins. Someone values her enough to give her a name. She was certain that Mai had only said that she was waiting to find the right name so that she wouldn't have to give her one. But she is Snapdragon now and Mai had actually put thought into the name.
Snapdragon reaches the factory. Really, she ought to head home before Mohi starts to worry, but she finds that she is too antsy to just lay in bed. She thinks that it is an excited sort of jitter. The sort she usually only gets upon finding a new building to rummage through.
And maybe it isn't so different. Finding a new person is like scaling a new building; it is new and fresh. There's unforgettable beauty and intrigue to be found and savored. A brand new view with lots of treasures to uncover. But there are twists and turns and hazards and she never knows where they are or when she will find them. Mostly she finds them when she steps upon them and finds herself knocked on her ass.
At least with buildings she knows somewhat, what kind of traps and alarms there might be and how to avoid tripping them. With people it isn't so clear cut. One wrong word and she finds herself ducking under fists.
She doesn't see Mai is much of a swinger though. Decidedly she doesn't think that Mai has many traps to set off even if she were. The woman is so calm and soothing. A strange and amazing, yet nerve-wracking break from the type of rugged company she usually keeps.
Even alone in her factory, she finds her cheeks flushing. Not for the first time, she wonders why the woman is even bothering with her. Mai smells of the flowers she works with and of lavish perfumes. She speaks like one of the educated folk-likely she is one. And Snapdragon...she smells like rust and dirt and, on some days, coal. She picks around in the trash…
Fleetingly, she wishes that she could just give up her ridiculous collection and get a normal hobby the way Mohi wishes for her. How lovely it would be to be able to trade scavenging for firebending, maybe then Zenyul and Kaz wouldn't have so much to jab at her for.
She shuffles up the ladder to her hoard and she wonders how she could have thought something like that at all. It isn't her fault that they can't see what she does. It isn't her fault that they only see broken things.
"Aye!" Zenyul's voice echos through the factory. "You up there somewhere?" She hears footsteps. "Mohi said to come find you."
She scrambles further back into the crevice.
"Alright, we'll check the buildin' over then." Kaz calls.
And she'll beat them home.
.oOo.
"You want to stay here and sell more flowers?" Mura asks.
"Is it that hard to believe?"
"You were very hesitant about the crowd."
"I've gotten used to it." She shrugs. "I know that it's been doing your business a lot of good. Look." She gestures to her growing heap of coins and gold pieces. "You can open a second location if I keep it up."
"Things won't be as busy without the festival." Mura points out.
"But the center of the Capital still gets more traffic than our village."
"And where will you be staying? I hadn't planned on paying for an inn past the festival days."
"Zuko's an...a jerk but he'll let me stay at the palace if it helps the family."
Mura opens her mouth to speak.
"His owes our family after what Tom-Tom went through."
"Mai, your father put us in a difficult position. It isn't entirely on the Fire Lord. His sister…"
"Is the worst person I have ever encountered. Used my father to kidnap children and cause public outrage. Let the Avatar take Tom-Tom in Omashu. Used me to…" She sighs. "Look, I don't care if it was her fault or his. He's not much better and he owes me for being a dreadful boyfriend. He'll let me stay in the palace."
"Do you even want to?" Mura asks. "If you're angry with The Firelord then why do you want to stay with him."
"I don't want to stay with him. I want a place to stay." Maybe she could just ask Snapdragon if she could stay with her and, whatever that woman's name was. Spirits, she wouldn't be entirely opposed to sleeping in that abandoned factory if the woman would keep her company.
"Is this really about the flower shop?" Mura frowns. "Or is this about the Fire Lord?"
It is about neither.
It is about excitement.
It is about feeling alive.
It is about holding on to the one thing in her life that makes her feel something. At the very least, the one thing in her life that makes her feel as though she has a chance to feel something. "It's about the flower shop."
"Speak with the Fire Lord and let me know what he says. If he gives you a place to stay, I'll have some product sent to the palace."
Agni, she hopes that Snapdragon and her adventurous spirit are worth the hassle of opening old wounds. She supposes that at least she'll feel something, even if that something isn't particularly good. At least she'll still have a reminder that she isn't hollow.
Why can't she just feel something?
Why is she still so empty?