Mai hasn't stopped by yet, Snapdragon supposes that it is just as well, she hasn't finished her gift yet. It is quite simple but she is still proud of it. She hopes that Mai will enjoy it as much as she is thrilled to be making it.
So far the necklace has six charms, a very vividly colored paradise-peacock feather, a small elephant-rat paw bone, a naturally polished and very shiny stone with a hole in it, an aged fork, a clam shell, and one of several old coins that she had found buried in the jungles of Hira'a.
She thinks that the cord can hole at least one more trinket and a few beads. She scampers through her piles sorting through ribbons, thimbles, and empty bobbins. She inspects shards of glass before ultimately deciding that those are all too pointy to wear around the neck. She picks up a crab claw and puts it on its own pile, a candidate for being the final trinket. She finds her collection of beads and plucks out a few black and dark red ones, Mai seems to enjoy the gloomier shades.
She scrambles over to her plant specimens. Mostly they consist of interestingly shaped twigs but there are several dried leaves, petals, and roots. She thinks that the leaves and petals are too frail to be threaded onto the cord. But the roots, those might very well work.
And they would make sense too. Mai works with flowers and plants so the necklace should have at least something to represent that. Snapdragon's current necklace represents her.
She feels it against her chest. It has at least eight charms, a few of them don't mean anything in particular to her. But she has recently added snapdragon roots between the tiger-monkey claw and her a dusty, broken geode. A tiger-monkey claw for her fierceness and her love of climbing and a rusty cog for her love of old factories and abandoned places. There is a coconut chip to remind her of her days in the jungle and a blunt tip of a broken dagger. She isn't entirely sure about the geode but it speaks to her on some level. The coins, beads, and the piece of tattered red cloth are more for show than anything else.
She twirls the root in her hand before ultimately deciding that they will be the perfect final addition to her necklace. She ties it onto the cord with a satisfied smile and holds it up. It is perfect, an asymmetrical cluster of things that don't seem like they should go together. But they are harmonized in their chaos.
Her smile fades, she isn't sure that Mai would like to wear something so odd. Especially in a palace full of watching, judging eyes. She supposes that it's okay if she only wears it around her and then takes it off when she gets to the palace.
.oOo.
It is raining quite heavily but Mai doesn't particularly care. The pounding of the drops drowns out the angry beating in her mind. Zuko is being unbearable. Everything is an argument, everything is taken so personally. And she doesn't care for that Jin girl that he has been bringing around.
She can't quite place it at first but she thinks that it might be a twinge of jealousy one that she wishes she could permanently purge. She isn't sure why she is jealous, she has made it clear that things were over between the two of them. And yet she can't shake that nagging sense that it should be she who is going to be attending Ember Island Players shows with him. That was their thing and now their thing is being shared with some ditzy, doe-eyed, air headed…
Mai tightens her fists in her pockets. Small puddles are gathering uncomfortably in the folds of her robes and she has no one to blame but herself. Why does Snapdragon's factory have to be at the very other side of the city?
Why did she neglect getting herself a palanquin ride? Zuko probably wouldn't have let her borrow one anyhow. Not mid-squabble.
Her feet slosh through puddle after puddle, soaking through to her socks. She shudders, there is no greater discomfort. No greater suffering.
But at least she isn't bored.
She finds Snapdragon, also soaked thoroughly, leaping from puddle to puddle. She, unlike Mai herself, seems absolutely delighted to be dripping wet. She hasn't yet noticed mai. Even in the misty gloom, Snapdragon is a splash of color. The necklace she wears today is particularly flashy as it clanks against her chest. Mai is inclined to believe that she has chosen it specifically to stand out in the drabness.
"I'm glad that you're having fun."
Snapdragon comes to an abrupt halt, kicking up a splash of oily mud. "I like rainy days sometimes."
"You would enjoy playing around in the mud."
"It's too slick for climbing 'n jumping on roofs today." Snapdragon shrugs. "So I'm pretending that the puddles are roofs 'stead."
"Interesting." Mai remarks stoically.
"I ain't realize you liked walks in the rain."
"I don't."
Snapdragon tilts her head, "then why are you walking in the rain?"
She shakes her head, "just...don't worry about it. Can we go inside, I need to wring my clothes and hair out."
Snapdragon flounces over to the door and holds it open, "after you, hotwoman."
Mai rolls her eyes. Normally it would be enduring, today she just finds herself annoyed by the woman's uppity antics. She sighs and gives her hair an overly forceful twist and squeeze. She can't let herself take her frustrations out on Snapdragon. The girl has been nothing but pleasant.
"Hey, stay right there! I gotta go get something!"
She doesn't give Mai a chance to answer before darting off and scrambling up her rickety ladder. It is probably a good thing, she very well might have muttered a harsh, 'where else am I going to go, Snapdragon?' Mai rubs her hands over her face. Maybe she should try to lighten the mood. Maybe she should try to drink in some of the delight that Snapdragon radiates.
The girl comes back down with another one of her gaudy necklaces. She is beaming from ear to ear. "What do you think?"
Mai inspects the jewelry. "It's...uh...it's unique. Very you."
"I was trying to make it more you." She holds it out. "See, the roots are supposed to represent your flower shop."
Mai tries to muster up a smile but it probably looks more like a grimace.
"It's for you." She retracts her hand slightly and thrusts it out again.
Mai takes a deep breath and tries for a joke, "I don't know if I can pull off a trash necklace."
Maybe it is her deadpan delivery, or maybe she has simply uncovered and hit some hidden raw spot, but Snapdragon's face falls. Mai could slap herself. "No, no. I mean it's a cool necklace, I like it. I just wanted to make a joke."
Snapdragon forces a laugh.
She doesn't try to hand the necklace to her again.
"You're not going to offer it again?"
"It's alright, Mai, you don't have to take it if you don't want to." She forces a smile.
"I do want to." She holds her hand out. Snapdragon sets the necklace in her palm. Mai tries to make small talk with her but she mostly answers with simple yes or no's while toying with the charms on her own necklace.
And Mai considers that maybe Zuko isn't the problem at all. Maybe it is her. She does have this amazing ability to drag everyone down instead of allowing them to lift her up. It always happens eventually.
She wishes that she weren't so unremarkable.
.oOo.
By dusk the rain comes to a slow. After an hour or so of getting nowhere in conversation, Mai had declared that it would probably be best to make her way back home before it gets dark and the second round of storm clouds roll in.
She can see them lingeringly darkly on the horizon as she scuttles her way over a heap of wooden beams and crates and shimmies up the husk of an old war tank. She squeezes herself into the hatch and slips behind the wheel. She imagines the war machine roaring to life in a cough of black smoke. Imagines the raw power of it. Imagines being something more than just some downtrodden alley dweller. Maybe then Mai wouldn't be embarrassed by her.
Maybe then, she'd have a chance with the woman.
Her gift was accepted out of pity and nothing more, she knows that Mai is just going to chuck the necklace aside when she gets back to the palace and pretend like she has no idea where it had come from.
Snapdragon gives the rusty metal wheel a turn.
Maybe if she spent less time lurking in abandoned places, people wouldn't abandon affections for her. She supposes that it is hard to love someone who is constantly covered in dust and grime. All the same, she loves her hobby, she can't really see herself without it.
She finds a little corner of the tank to curl herself up in and wait out the storm. It comes suddenly and with a surprising fury. From the sound of it, the drops are thick as they pelt the side of the tank. And the thunder shakes the ground. It is probably a horrid idea to hole up in a metal tank so she hustles out of it and into the rain.
The puddles are no fun anymore and the rain throws itself violently into her face. She thinks of going into the factory but it is entirely metal too. The lightning strikes it over and over again with a terrifying fury. And yet it manages to stand on, powerful and admirable. She thinks that it is what keeps her safe from getting struck; the lightning is so enticed by it that it doesn't bother with her as she heads towards Mohi's home.
The wind lashes at her with a fury and she wonders if and hopes that Mai has made it home.
Maybe if she were a shaper, smarter, noblewoman she would have thought to offer letting Mai stay with her at Mohi's. Would have walked there with her a while ago.
But she isn't smarter. She isn't a noble woman.
But she isn't anything grander than what she is now. Isn't anyone impressive. She's just Snapdragon, a girl who doesn't even have a real name.