Chapter 25

Azula

He was so irritating.

It was the way he slouched, leaning against the railing of the gate like a beggar. the way he stared at her lazily, the corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk that spoke of secrets and lies. What's more, it was the way his hooded eyes flashed questioningly at her, silently demanding to know why she reacted to Katara's name the way she did.

But she didn't have to give him an answer. He didn't earn it. At least, not yet. He may have his uses...

However, despite his overwhelming potential, she made sure to put plenty of space between the both of them. And for good reason too. He smelled like the streets of the capital, all too common. He smelled like blood too, faint, barely noticeable, but there all the same. She would have covered her nose to block out his smell, but her noble upbringing and propriety would never allow it. Or...was it not blood that she sensed? Was this what men smelled like? Like a forest, wild and reckless? Or was this just the way that he smelled?

Azula get a hold of yourself! She thought, and then did her best to focus on the matter at hand. Of course, Jet looking so smooth wasn't making it any easier.

Ordinarily, she would never let anyone of common birth converse with her, much less enter the palace, but there was something about the way he didn't grovel at her feet that touched something inside of her. Of course, it could have been his eyes, the rich color of the earth beneath the cobblestones, or the way they lit up when he defied her. It didn't happen very often.

This Jet was another breed of man altogether. Much more interesting than any stuffy old Fire Nation courtier or nobleman. Perhaps she could make a study of him. An experiment, so to speak. Of course, there were other things that he could become. As her eyes raked over him, for a fleeting moment, she wondered if Fire Nation Princesses could have concubines. What were male concubines called, anyway? Was there even a name?

No. Wait. What was she thinking?

Mai stood next to her, giving a curious glance every now and then. Azula ignored them all. She wouldn't explain herself to Mai of all people. But Mai knew her the best out of everyone else. But the reason behind why she was still conversing with Jet and had not punished him for his rudeness was hers and hers alone.

Her reason was...well, what was her reasoning exactly? She thought back to what Jet said only moments ago.

Jet shrugged. "Her name is Katara, and I mean she just told me to come here and I-,"

Princess Katara of the Southern Water Tribe. Of course, it was her. Everything that's been happening in the palace has revolved around her. But Katara wasn't special. And neither was Song. No more special than Azula was herself.

Well...If she had to pick a justifiable and explainable reason, then the one just entering her mind was suitable.

Maybe Jet's friendship was feigned, and he was perhaps an old flame of Katara's looking to break up her and Zuko's relationship. The idea was promising. If it was correct, Mai would become Zuko's bride as she had planned in the first place. And with Mai's higher status, Azula could help her mother with the coup and rule through Mai. The details were still a little bit fuzzy. And maybe, her mother would give up hope of ever becoming Fire Lady. Such things were not attainable for a concubine.

But still, the questioned remained. Why did she care so much about what Jet's relationship was to Katara?

"You want to see Katara?" Mai asked bluntly, harshly. "Why?"

"Without her, I'd be dead right now." Jet's right hand went to his side rapidly, almost as a reflex, feeling it softly, moving across his skin with the most tender of touches. A look of mild bewilderment came across his face before he regained his focus.

"We're not going to ask you again." Mai said with a sneer, a finger under her nose indicating her hatred of Jet's smell.

Jet took a step closer towards her, a sneer on his face. "I just want to see her to thank her. Is that such a big deal?"

Mai stepped forward too, displeasure written all over her face when Azula moved in between them. The last thing she needed was Mai to sully her reputation by getting int a fight in the streets.

"Well...yes." Azula said as he turned to look at her once more. A lock of brown hair fell into his eyes. Azula's hands balled into fists as she tried her hardest not to be unnerved by those stupid, annoying, piercing...warm eyes of his.

"And why would that be exactly?" He asked, those same infuriating eyes roaming all over her face, trying to read her emotions, her thoughts. She wished that he would stop. She didn't need her emotions read, not by anyone.

"Because..." She paused for a moment as Jet's eyes found hers again. She shook her head. "Because she's a princess. And you're...well...a commoner."

"There's no way she's a princess." Jet said adamantly. "The girl I saw wasn't a princess. She looked just like any other girl you'd see on the street. Actually, she looked like a servant of yours or something."

She tried to brush him aside. The sooner she forgot about him, the better. "Then that couldn't have been her. Now leave-."

Jet held up a callused finger. "Hold on. Maybe she works here, and you've seen her." Jet said forcefully. He clearly didn't like Mai's attitude. The pair seemed to be at a standoff, both glaring at the other. "The girl I saw. She had brown hair, and the brightest blue eyes that I've ever seen. She was wearing something like her. Only it was ripped up." Jet pointed behind Azula to the maid waiting faithfully by her side.

"That does sound like her description." Mai murmured contemptuously, half to herself, and half to Azula.

That's odd, Azula wondered. Why would Katara wear a servant's uniform to sneak out of the palace?

But she didn't have to wonder for long. Her calculating mind came up with a reason in an instant. Katara wore a servant's uniform because she didn't want to be discovered with Jet when she was already trying to marry Zuko. She felt something faint inside her, as though the idea that Katara had snuck out of the palace to see a long-lost lover bothered her in some way.

Now Katara had the audacity to try and bring her tryst inside of the palace while everyone was unaware? Azula would have none of it. Azula wouldn't give the Water Tribe girl the satisfaction of having two men under her control. Even if that other person was her oh-so-gullible brother. Azula, for some reason beyond her understanding, didn't want to see Jet and Katara together. She told herself it was because she didn't want Katara to be happy. The waterbender was easily the most annoying thing she'd come across in ages. But, whether Azula wanted to admit it or not, she found Jet attractive. On the smallest level, of course. Still, that attraction was there.

"So, it's true then?" Jet blinked, his eyes wide. "She's a princess?"

"From what I understand…yes. The girl that healed you and the girl that we know are one and the same." Azula said plainly. A sigh of relief came across Jet's face. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, Azula interrupted him, holding up a blood red fingernail. "But don't think that changes anything. You aren't allowed inside."

"What?" Jet exclaimed. "Why the fuck not? She's a princess, you're a princess, and surely, we can work something out. Right?" He shrugged his shoulder suggestively and gave her a saucy wink.

"You should watch who you're speaking to." Mai said blandly, narrowing her eyes.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Jet said, rolling his eyes before dropping his head and kneeling to the ground. Looking up at her, he smirked. "I didn't realize that I was in the presence of someone who is so much better than I'm."

"If you'd realized this sooner, I could have saved myself the trouble of convincing you." Azula said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Jet scoffed and looked at her as though she'd said something incomprehensible. He didn't speak for a moment, before finally glaring at her. It shocked Azula. She had never been glared at before. She had been feared, resented, even disliked, but never so openly hated. "You royals are something else, you know that?" He said scathingly, as though he was actually looking down on her.

Azula barely heard him. She was still trying to comprehend the intense emotion on Jet's face. What exactly was his problem? "W-What?"

"You think you're so much better than the rest of us... You have no idea what it's like in your own fucking city." He said bitterly. "I've seen people die because they were denied food or help based on their class. But they're lucky. The ones that survive are worse off in my opinion. The ones who have to fight tooth and nail just to survive the day."

Her mother's voice screeching at her. 'Do you really think that she'll just give me one? You don't know what it's like to claw and scratch your way to the top. You were born royal. I had to earn it.'

Azula steeled her nerve. "Oh, stop with the dramatics, I know enough." She said her voice only slightly shaky. She had never lost her composure like this before. Perhaps it was because she realized she knew nothing about life beyond the palace gates. But she didn't really want to. She had what she needed, her every whim seen to in an instant... Why should she trouble herself to make sense of a world that she would never understand? "It is not my fault that commoners don't take advantage of the opportunities available to them.

She truly believed that. There several aid programs and Shibai hospital just reported a 20% growth in patient satisfaction over the last month, and if that wasn't a sign that things were getting better, she didn't know what was.

If anything, his glare only intensified. His voice was filled with contempt. "You don't have much faith in ordinary people, do you? You just look at your servants and as if they were the dirt beneath your feet. Well let me tell you, Princess. You're just the same as I'm. You bleed, eat, and breathe just like I do."

She wasn't sure why this statement bothered her as much as it did.

Azula's face burned bright red and her hands balled into fists at her sides. Mai sensed the incoming storm and put a restraining hand on her shoulder, but she couldn't really feel it. For a split second, Jet's eyes filed with fear before resuming their arrogant confidence. No one, talked to her that way. Not her family, not her friends, and certainly...not him.

They were not the same. She took in Jet's face. So unconcerned, so sure, so assuming that she wouldn't burn him to a crisp right there in the public eye. Well he was right. She couldn't do it. Not if she didn't want to cause mass hysteria among the people. But she could always do the next best thing. So, he lacked confidence in the monarchy? She'd show him.

Cutting a glare at the two guards still stationed at their post, she let her eyes flit over to Jet in an instant before back at the pair of them. They got the message instantly. Within seconds, the 17-year-old was surrounded, his arms bound behind his back. One of the guards punched Jet in the stomach. All the breath was knocked out of him and he was brought to his knees. He glared at her spitefully, despite his now submissive position. The guard that had punched him held a spear up to his throat, pressing it into Jet's skin. She could see the line of inflamed skin as Jet's neck reddened due to the sharp spear.

"You think you know me, peasant." She spat. "You don't know anything about me."

"You're right." He said harshly. "I don't know you. I don't know you at all. But one thing that I do know, is that if you kill me, you'd be just like every other uncaring nobleman I've ever met, and the entire city will know it. I thought you were different. But I see that I was wrong."

"You—" Azula started to say, before the sound of a girl's voice interrupted her.

"Jet!" A girl about the age of 13 stood further down the pathway, just before the gates. Her hair was spiky, sticking up in all directions, as though it had never been combed in her entire life. She had a horrorstruck look on her face. There was a small scar marring her cheekbones, but it was almost unnoticeable. She stepped forward...once...twice... before dropping the large bag she had perched on her back and the basket that she carried in her arms. She ran up to Jet, not noticing Azula and her entourage. Mai gave her a questioning look, but Azula had no answers as to who this girl was.

Jet looked up at the sound of the girl's sandaled feet making their way over to him. His eyes went wide, and if Azula didn't know any better she'd say that he was in shock. " Smellerbee!" He cried out, and tried to stand, but before he could get to his feet, the guards pushed him back down onto the cobblestoned pathway.

The girl—Smellerbee, ran up to the guard closest to her and tried to pry the guard's hands from Jet. Her fingers enveloped the guard's much larger ones and she pulled and pulled, but the guard resisted effectively "Let him go! He didn't do anything!" One shake. Another. One last desperate pull. But the guard was unrelenting.

Who exactly was this girl? Jet looked like he wanted to embrace her, his brown eyes were so full of longing and anticipation, but the fact that his hands were tied behind his back made that impossible. Both guards looked towards her for instructions. She waved a hand flippantly at Smellerbee and then the guard whose hand only previously held the spear to Jet's throat too, bound her. And then Smellerbee too, was on the ground.

Jet watched the scene unfold with disgust and Azula frowned. "Let her go!" He yelled at her, and Azula raised an eyebrow. Was she really so important?

Who are you to yell at me?

Smellerbee looked up to see who Jet was talking to, and when her eyes caught sight of Azula, arms folded over her chest and an expression of displeasure written across her face, Smellerbee sank low to the ground, trembling in fear. "Princess A-Azula!" She said nervously, so close to the ground her forehead could touch the pavement.

Jet had no self-preservation instincts. He all but yelled at her, his eyes filled with rage. "She hasn't done anything to you."

"That's for me to decide." Azula said calmly, stepping closer to the prostrated girl on the ground. Crouching to get a better look at her face, Azula placed one sharp nail under the girl's chin and lifted her head up so she could look in her eyes. Immediately, Smellerbee averted her eyes. Azula noticed they were the same shade as Jet's eyes. Perhaps they were related. "Who are you, girl?" She asked calmly.

Jet's eyes were filled with a mixture of fear and anger. "Don't touch her!"

Azula took this moment to taunt him. After all, regardless of her attraction to him, (as reluctantly as she'd like to admit that) she was still the same old Azula. "Your friend here fears me. This is good. Perhaps you should learn from her." She smirked at him, and the hate in his eyes intensified. Turning back to her 'prey', she repeated herself, this time more forcefully. "Now I ask again. Who are you?"

"Don't say anything!"

She ignored Jet and started to speak. Azula's smirk grew. Good. This girl has a brain. Perhaps she possesses preservation instincts. "My name is Mifeng, but I go by Smellerbee mostly, Princess Azula." She cast a nervous glance at the man next to her, who was shaking his head 'no'. Ignoring him again, she continued. "Jet is my brother. I um...I apologize for my reaction to seeing him...it's just that-,"

"That's enough Bee. Don't say anything else." Jet ordered, his eyes zeroing in on his little sister.

"The last time I saw him, he had a hole in his side. We had just gotten off a ship from the Earth Kingdom when—"

"Shut it, Smellerbee." Jet hissed at the thirteen-year-old. She looked between him and Azula, intent on shutting her mouth.

"Tell me the rest of the story." Azula commanded, and she smirked when she saw that she had more influence over Smellerbee than even her own brother. "What happened then?"

Clearing her throat, she started to speak. "J-Jet got into a fight with these guys on our ship to the Fire Nation…someone named Shin and his group of thugs. It was my fault—Shin tried to grab me, but Jet fought him off. He got hurt pretty badly, Your Highness…A-and it was a red and angry cut and there was blood everywhere. We waited for 5 days for the cut to close, but when we realized he wasn't going any to get any better, Longshot had to carry him to Shibai, he could barely stand up."

"Smellerbee!"

"Jet this is Princess Azula!" The girl whispered back at him. The fear in her voice was palpable. It seemed that she'd had enough of Jet telling her to be quiet. "Do you know how much trouble I could get into if I make her angry?"

"She's right, you know." Azula taunted, rising. "She works in the palace. I can make her life very unpleasant for a very long time."

"Well she's not working there anymore. Longshot isn't either."

Who?

"Jet we aren't going to survive on our own." Smellerbee said. Her hair covered her face. "I told you I wanted to stop running."

The two siblings, in identical positions on the ground looked at each other then. But Azula could see their eyes having a conversation all their own. Well that wasn't acceptable. She was losing control of this dialog and she had to get it back. "Get them to their feet." Azula said to the guards. The two of them were brought to their feet, and Azula's fingers rubbed her chin, trying to figure out what exactly to do with them. "Now…" She said. "What am I going to do with you…you did after all insult me, Jet."

Smellerbee's eyes went wide as she stared at her brother in shock. Jet's eyes were still filled with hate. "So, what are you going to do now? Kill us?"

The Princess shook her head 'no'. Her hands fell to her hips. "No…I don't think I'm." She paced back and forth leisurely, the two pairs of eyes following her every step. Turning to them, she smirked and said brightly, "Executions are always so messy…and then you have to clean up afterwards—of course I would never actually have to clean up myself but—,"

"Azula." Mai said quietly behind her. "Your mother is waiting, remember?"

Right. Azula had forgotten about her mother. That wasn't good. And it only made her work faster to get as much information about Jet as she could in a matter of seconds. She liked this rough, rugged, insolent creature. He was amusing in an irritating sort of way, and he wasn't hideous to look at either. She liked a good plaything now and again.

"Right…" Azula said blandly, giving her companion a scathing look. "There's that…"

"So?" Jet asked her. "What happens to us? Prison? The stocks?"

Azula waved a hand, cutting him off. "No—No, none of that. It takes forever for you to die and honestly Jet, I don't think you'd learn your lesson, no matter what punishment I put you through."

"So what now?" Smellerbee said tentatively. Azula raised a perfect brow. Smellerbee immediately realized her mistake and corrected it. "Forgive me…Your Highness?"

"I give you both…your lives. Release them." Azula ordered the guards. "Think of it as a…gift. A reminder of how benevolent I'm."

If she thought that Jet would be grateful, he wasn't.

"What the hell did you do to her?!" Jet roared in outrage. Azula whipped around, shock evident on her face. Jet was cradling his sister in his arms after pulling her up of the ground. "C'mon Smellerbee, get up!" Turning a cold eye on Azula, he said. "The sister I had was as tough as nails. Nothing could shake her. B-But now… she's practically terrified if she angers you. You aren't better than anyone else. You just intimidate and bully people to get what you want." His jaw was set in a grim line.

"And you, are the epitome of a filthy peasant." Azula snapped at him, but then fought to remain calm. Once she succeeded, she smiled all the more pleasantly at Jet. "Now, now. I spare your life, and yet you say this to me? That's not pleasant, and it's not what nice people do—what grateful people do."

"There's no point in being nice to someone like you."

Ouch. That stung quite a bit.

Smellerbee tried to pull her brother away from the Princess. "Can we just go? Come on Jet, please? We've already gotten into enough trouble for today… C'mon!"

Azula's hands went to her hips and she rested all her weight on one leg. "I'm sorry you feel that way." She told him nonchalantly. "But that's the way things are."

"Y-yes we will remember that." Smellerbee said quietly, picking up the bags she carried. Still glaring at Azula, Jet helped his sister. "Thank you, Princess Azula. Let's go Jet."

They turned away from her. The guards that had been holding them walked back to their posts. "Oh, Smellerbee?" Azula said in her most charming voice. Her tone was high, and she was almost sickly sweet. They turned around hesitantly. " You and I shall have a chat tomorrow…just the two of us. What office are you employed under?"

"T-The kitchens, princess." Smellerbee said hesitantly. Jet looked at her with contemptuous eyes.

Azula smirked. "Very well. I will send for you." This time, her eyes found Jet's. Her voice took on a dark, sultry tone, and suddenly she felt as though she wasn't talking to Smellerbee anymore. Jet swallowed visibly. "There are things I need to know."

She turned away from them. Mai did the same, and they started to walk back to the palanquin.

"Oh, princess?" Jet said in the same lilting tone. Azula turned around, shocked to find a surprisingly serene expression on Jet's face. He broke out into a grin before saying, "You shouldn't scrunch up your face like that all of the time. It might freeze that way."

He gave her a little grin before turning his back on her and following his sister down the cobblestone pathway. What was with his behavior? Angry and then friendly? Was this how all men acted? Why would he just—It didn't make any sense. Azula watched him go, and when she could no longer see his form, she turned towards the palanquin she arrived in.

"Azula?" Mai called out to her, Mai's voice holding a bit of worry in Azula didn't say anything. Her mind was moving too fast to pause for speech.

She walked over to the carriage, holding out a hand for her maid to help her inside. When she was seated, she looked out the window partially, trying to catch some glimpse of him in the city streets. She barely registered Mai sitting beside her, and she never heard Mai calling her until her friend was practically screaming her name.

She was too busy trying to piece together these things that normal people called…emotions. Everybody had them…except for her, right? At least, that's what she'd always thought. Emotions are a weakness inside of a palace, where everyone fights to get more power, and lives were based on the whims and fancies of a person who was superior to you. Throughout her entire life she'd forced herself to throw away these human things called emotions. The things that made you happy, sad, or angry…made you able to fear, hate or even…love.

Azula didn't love many things. She didn't love her mother, or even her father, but she respected them. And yet, despite not loving them the way Zuko loved his own mother, or Lu Ten loved Uncle Iroh, she still craved their love in return. She wanted the adoration that her brother and cousins received, based on the fact that she did what she was told, and never backed down. Unlike Zuko of course.

And yet…where did that get her? A life of loneliness, she supposed.

"It's got to be hard," Zuko's mother had asked her before this whole mess began. "Watching your brother and cousin get engaged and fall in love."

Of course it was hard. She'd dreamed of a life for herself once, married to someone who cared about her. But that could never happen. She was a princess. Princesses only married for political reasons. Not personal.

She resigned herself to the belief that for royalty, there was no such thing as true love. Her Uncle Iroh and Aunt Yun Xi's marriage had been arranged. And they had learned to love each other. Maybe she too, could love whoever her father set her up with.

She rolled her eyes. "As if. The only reason why those two would get married is for their status as Princes of the Fire Nation. Love is a joke."

And then she turned away to hide the frown forming on her face at the words coming out of her mouth. But as she turned, she caught Ursa's eyes. The woman actually looked at her with concern. Almost as if she truly cared about her, and her wellbeing.

No.

That was a look of pity, not of concern. And if there was one thing Azula hated more than anything, it was pity, and being pitiful in general. Ursa didn't care about her. No one did. Her mother certainly didn't, and her father only praised her when she learned something new.

Yes. Love was a joke. And she would be the only one laughing when it all came crashing down in the end.

Zuko

When Zuko pulled open the door to his bedroom, he nearly dropped the scrolls he held in his hands.

The last person he expected to see in his room was suddenly there, lounging on his bed as if it was her own. Of course, she'd done it before, but that had been for an entirely different reason…one that he was almost ashamed to admit. She wore a light robe of black, with red accents on the sleeves and hem. He could see her thin form through the material, and he had to confess, at one point in his life she would've enticed him, but now…not that he'd seen Katara…as close as a man could get without being married…she just didn't hold up.

"Zuko, what are you wearing?" She said sardonically. "You look homeless."

"Mai." He said, stunned. "What are you doing here? I thought all of the Hana Matsuri girls went home?"

She looked at him like he was obviously missing something. "I'm not like other girls, Zuko. I'm Azula's friend. Why shouldn't I be where she lives?" Mai asked, closing her eyes. Her hands were folded over her stomach, giving the appearance of sleep, but she looked entirely too calculative. Sighing, Mai's leg bent at the knee, the black robe falling away from her form, revealing the milky skin of her thighs.

"N-No." Zuko replied. "I meant, what are you doing here? In my room?" He knew exactly why she was here. But he couldn't let her know that.

But Mai saw right though him. She always had. "Oh, don't be like that, Zuko." Mai said snappily, uncrossing her legs. She sat up and swung her feet over the side of the bed so that she was facing him. "You know exactly why I'm here."

"No, I don't." He said surely, crossing his room to his desk and dropping the scrolls that he held. He turned to face her, but she was already up, coming around the bed and leaning on the bedpost closest to him. "Surely, it's not to be with me, right?"

"I'm here…" She stepped closer to him. Zuko took a step back. Each word she said, she punctuated it with a step forward and Zuko went the opposite way just as rapidly. "Because there are rumors going around…that you and Katara are an item…that you spent all last night with her."

"Mai…" Zuko felt the back of his legs hit the desk and he sat semi-perched on it. He couldn't move any more. But Mai still could. And she did, coming so close that he could feel the brush of silk against his arms, could look into her eyes and see the hidden anger in them.

But she continued, and a pale hand ran up the clasps on his shirt, fingering each and every one. "But that's ridiculous right?" She chuckled breathily.

"Does that matter if it is?" Zuko asked her. She pried the first and second one open, a finger grazing his chest with her light touch. Zuko grabbed her wrists before she moved to the third. "Mai what are you doing? You can't just—,"

"We did this once before, Zuko." She said, pulling her hands away from him. He let them go, not wanting to hurt her. Mai was always so calm, so composed, so adverse to any physical contact. He wondered what happened to her to make her this way.

"No, we didn't Mai." They had come close—dangerously close—but things have changed now.

"But we still could." She said confidently, stepping closer. Her arms looped around his waist. "I know you better than you know yourself. Admit it. You still find me attractive, you still love me. You still want me."

"Correction, Mai." Zuko told her firmly, placing his hands on her shoulders and pushing her away. Mai's eyes widened in shock and Zuko almost couldn't believe what he was seeing. He knew Mai's mind, knew that she didn't think that he'd actually reject her. But he did reject her. "While you're still a beautiful woman, You and I…it's not going to happen. The girl I loved wouldn't have tried to drown someone she perceived as a rival."

Mai scoffed, folding her arms over her chest. "It was a scare tactic. I wasn't going to hurt her."

"Really?" He asked in disbelief, scoffing at her. "You think I'm that stupid? Like you said, you're Azula's friend. Surely you must have picked up some tricks along the way."

"But Zuko don't you understand?" Mai protested, stepping forward once again. "I did that to protect you. To protect us."

He turned his back on her, hands gripping the ornate chair of his desk in mildly contained rage. His arms were shaking. That was a load of komodo rhino dung. Did she actually think that he was going to forget about the shame and embarrassment he felt? Zuko may have changed for the better, but he was still a prince. And princes, especially Fire Nation Princes, didn't forget any slight. Nor did they forgive.

"My feelings?" He said bitterly. "Yeah, right. You were my world, once Mai. And then you broke up with me. You said you didn't want me. That I wasn't worth the trouble."

"I didn't mean it!" Mai put a hand on his shoulder softly, squeezing but he roughly shrugged her away. She staggered back as if he burned her. "Zuko, I'm serious. I—," Her voice cut off as she was distracted by something else. Her hand slid down his back and left his skin. Zuko was grateful that she did. At least, until he heard what she was going to say next. "What are these? Practical applications of Waterbending and Earthbending? Defensive Bending? What are you planning, Zuko?" Zuko cut his eyes at her as she ran her hand over several of the scrolls he'd brought with him.

"I don't see how that's any of your business, Mai." He bit out, snatching one of the scrolls from her grip.

He had been trying to find information about exactly what Katara had did to Zhao and find out what else she could do. If she could heal the damage done to him…who knew what she was capable of. He'd brought the scrolls containing the most information to his room with the intent to read them and then relay the information to Katara.

Mai gave an unladylike snort. "Do you honestly think she can heal your bending problem, Zuko?" She snickered as if this was some cruel, hilarious joke. "Your uncle hired the best scholars and doctors to help you. If they couldn't, she can't either. You'd be better off having her teach you waterbending!"

"You don't know what she's capable of."

"That's my point. Don't you see she's dangerous?" She said calmly, picking up the other Waterbending scroll and eyeing it carefully. She looked at him curiously. "She attacked me too. I had bruises for days. I admit that she cleared your Uncle of poison…but she could have done something else to him. And now…now she's wormed her way into your heart as well. She's bewitched you…like some seductress."

Zuko gripped the scrolls and yanked them out of her hands. Mai let them go reluctantly and he put them on the desk. "You're delusional." He leaned back on his desk and folded his arms over chest, staring at Mai. "I was always there, waiting for you to take me back. Now…now that I've found someone that actually appreciates me…you and I…we aren't the people you used to be."

"You've become blind." She spat at him, her lip curled up in disgust.

He let out a grunt and turned from her. "Plans change. People change." He turned his head to look at her. Her golden eyes were sharp, brown furrowed and jaw set. Finally deciding to not dance around the subject and just come clean with it, he told her how he really felt. "I love her, Mai. She's…done more for me than you ever could."

"N-No… No that's impossible." Mai shook her head repeatedly, backing away from him, her hands grasping for something to hold onto. Finally, her hand found his bedpost and she collapsed onto the bed, her eyes still not seeing him. "Azula said—,"

"Azula says what suits her interest." He said coldly.

But Mai wasn't listening to reason. She could only plead with him to hear what she was saying. "Zuko you loved me once—I'll be the perfect Fire Nation Princess, I will—."

"You had your chance Mai." He said coldly. "You forget, Mai, that I know you just as well. And I know that you and I would never be happy together. We'd spend the rest of our lives being pleasantly miserable. Katara and I might argue, but there's a reason behind it. I want Katara, and I'm lucky enough to have her." He told her softly, while trying to do his best not to break down in front of her. He did love her once, and it ached inside him like an old wound…Exhaling sharply, he shoved past her across the room and slid open the door with a crack. "Now go. Before you make this anymore painful than it already is."

Mifeng* means "bee" in Chinese, or at least what Google Translate said.