6 - Endure

Pangfua's big Social Debut wasn't until the afternoon, and Mai spent the whole morning putting on layers of emotional armor. She covered her pain with apathy, cynicism, a dark sense of humor, and an incessant need to annoy everyone around her. She had lots of practice with that, and knew she was good at it. She barely even cared that she was wearing a bright orange outfit today.

Zuko would be there, up on the stage with her and Auntie and everyone else. She would have to endure his presence right next to her, and after last night-

Until that big confrontation, though, Mai still had her duties as an apprentice. With Aunt Mura off gluing rose petals to Pangufa's knickers, their display on the show floor was left completely in Mai's hands. Auntie had given instructions on how to spruce things up for the final day of the show, trusting in Mai to swap the blue flowers for white to impart a feeling of unity and hope or something, and also to trash anything starting to look too wilted. It was a bit annoying to have to do all that work using actual gardening tools (Mai preferred to employ her daggers, switchblades, razor discs, and rotatosharps, but weapons still weren't allowed in the show), but she persevered and went on to smile vacantly at visitors and chat vacuously as required while the event wound down.

The little 'Best in Show' sign that had been stood up in front of their display certainly attracted a fair amount of attention.

Then noon came, and the ringing of a gong declared that the show had reached its informal conclusion. The rabble was shown out and the non-rabble was invited to a Social Debut party. All the arrangers left their displays for one last glass of Cassia wine with Ladies Zuzka and Yuying in the Special Guest pavilion, but Mai headed for the stage that had been erected at the center of the big show tent- or, rather, headed backstage. There, she found Aunt Mura and five tailors with frantic expressions, all in various stages of motion. If she squinted, she could just about make out Pangfua and most of a dress at the center of all the attention.

Mai waved. "So we're all ready for the Debut and don't need my help, right?"

(Sitting on a box not far from the bustle, the Kyoshi guard Chijin sneezed, sending a pile of spare honeyglow petals flying into the air. She mumbled, "I hayg by owahgies.")

"MAI!" Aunt Mura's cry made the tailors wince. "Good, you're here! Quick, help me with the skirt! We need more rose stems to thicken things up or else the poor girl might as well just go out there in her undershorts! Trim the thorns and weave them together. Make five squares of a full handspan each, with loose ends."

As Mai moved to save the day, Pangfua gave a nervous giggle. "So I guess I'll be relying on my new friend Mai to not accidentally miss a thorn that will stick me at just the wrong moment and ruin the biggest moment of my life in front of the Fire Lord."

"I'd reassure my new friend, but-" Mai arched an eyebrow as she used her clippers to snip off a series of thorns. "I'm the most infamous traitor in modern military history - way more than Jeong-Jeong, even - so I doubt it would help."

Pangfua sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm just really nervous. I didn't expect to be, but I don't know if I can- um, Grandmother wants everything to be perfect and everyone important in the Caldera is here, and I really want Zuko to respect me as an adult, and there's the ceremony-"

Mai snipped off another bunch of thorns, one after another, snip, snip, snip. "Maybe telling me about the ceremony will help? Or I could reassure you that you look good in a 'youthful beauty covered in fertility symbols' kind of way, for the people who like that."

"Okay," Pangfua breathed. "Well, first there's all the bowing. I bow to Zuko, and then the audience."

"And we fixed that problem from before, so you won't lose any bits of your dress when you do," Aunt Mura added.

Mai resisted the urge to throw in a cruel, "Probably," and started weaving stems together. She was better than that, and old reflexes never quite died.

"And then I walk up to where Mother Dearest will be waiting, and bow to her, and then she'll give me the big glass flower thing representing my womanhood."

Mai nodded and trimmed another stem. "Is that why they made you wait for the flower show to debut? They wanted to play to the theme?"

"I guess. Then the traditional thing for me to do at that point would be to take the Big Glass Flower Thing to Grandmother, bow to her, and offer her the Thing. And I would say how I'm putting my destiny in her care until she determines the best marriage match for our family."

Mai remembered her own Social Debut. It was kind of similar, except her parents weren't in attendance, Katara had drank too much of the 'really tasty fruit juice' and wouldn't stop telling everyone how much they meant to her, and Mai's whole symbolic thing was to offer a knife to Zuko because she had no imagination. She wondered what he'd done with it. Would it be rude to ask for it back? "So, standard stuff."

"Yeah. And then everyone is supposed to bow to me to show acceptance and then I spend the whole afternoon talking to people like an adult and not just a child." Pangfua nodded with grim determination as Chijin sneezed again and a startled Aunt Mura fumbled flower stems all over the place. "I can do this! I am an adult. I've made adult choices, and sacrificed childish things, and everyone loves me!"

Mai snorted and handed Aunt Mura another of the stem-squares. "Attagirl. Knock 'em dead. Except not literally because Zuko outlawed lethal Agni Kai matches when he also banned children from fighting in them. That's the last square."

"Good," Aunt Mura answered. "Make sure none of the pink petals have fallen off the waist. The orange petals are supposed to be backdrop, just barely peeking through the pink layer. But if that's okay, then I think we're done and-"

"And then I debut! I will no longer be a little girl!" Pangfua clutched her fists, straightened her shoulders, and then looked down at her bodice. "I was hoping to show more cleavage. You know, make it a little 'interesting' when I bow? Can we do something about that?"

Aunt Mura snorted. "Depends. Did you bring any extra you've been holding back until now?"

Mai had to cover her mouth to keep from cackling. Auntie was the best Auntie.

The ceremony began with Ladies Zuzka and Yuying, mother and daughter, stepping onto the stage. Yuying remained at the edge with a small pillow in her hands, on which rested a large glass sculpture of a peony blossom, rendered in a variety of translucent pink shades. It probably cost enough to feed a small village.

At the far end of the stage, Zuko stood in full Fire Lord regalia, Suki and Ty Lee standing behind and on either side of him. He had his Important Business face on, and his eyes only briefly rested on Mai as she escorted Pangfua to her 'ready' position. Mai didn't make eye contact. Instead, she looked out over the crowd of assembled nobility from across the Fire Nation, and beyond them, to where the flower displays still stood. The one that had the dancing poodle-monkey was barely visible at the end of the row, and the really nice one with the gas-fueled fire fountain (still running!) stood directly behind the crowd.

Lady Zuzka continued on to the center alone, announcing, "Before we welcome my granddaughter to our company, I would like to say how grateful I am to reconcile with my honorable great-nephew, Fire Lord Zuko. He is truly a hero for our world, and..."

Waiting just off-stage, Mai tuned it all out. It wasn't that she disagreed with the sentiment, but she'd heard it all before in countless variations, and right now she didn't need a reminder of how hard it was for Zuko to see himself as his supporters did. If only he could-

Well, no point in wondering about hypotheticals.

Beside her, Aunt Mura was making a few last-second adjustments to Pangfua's dress, and Pangfua herself was breathing heavily and looking greener than most of the plants in this place.

Mai leaned over and whispered, "Are you okay?"

Pangfua swallowed noisily. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Do not throw up. And if you do, don't do it near me." Mai thought it was the best possible advice to give in the situation. "Come on, you love it when people pay attention to you. This is just more of that, except on a stage, with flowers glued to your chest."

Pangfua put a hand over her mouth for a moment, breathing even heavier, and then took it away again and looked to Mai. "I lied- or- or misled you, before. The ceremony is- it's going to be a little different than I said."

The royal family sure had a thing for lies, it seemed. Was this what was making Pangfua sick? "Okay? Lean that way if you puke."

"I'm so sorry. I- Grandmother wants me to-"

And with either perfect or disastrous timing, Lady Zuzka called out, "I now present my granddaughter, Pangfua - Clouds in the Shape of Flowers - to you all. Today she is an adult, eligible for marriage and empowered to make agreements on behalf of my family."

Pangfua gave her loudest swallow yet, threw one last beseeching look to Mai, and stepped out onto the stage.

Spotlights, just like the ones used by the Ember Island Players for their performances, lit Pangfua up as she strode into view. Her dress practically glowed in the intense light. Her green skirt, a weave of trimmed rose stems supported by bolts of blue fabric, bounced with every step. Ash-rose buds, deep red except where the tips of the petals turned to gray, made for a scattering of color across the skirt that grew denser as the eye traveled up to the waist of the dress. There, pink petals scattered across a backdrop of orange created an effect that was almost like the shimmering of jewels, and bursting from that like a fountain of color was a dense construction of lily flowers, some solid and some special two-tones, that didn't quite reach Pangfua's shoulders. But rising from behind those shoulders were wings of yellow lily-leaves, vaguely shaped like those of the ancient dragons.

And sitting atop Pangfua's hair, like the shining rays of the sun, was a crown of cloud-like Dragon's Tears blooms, glistening gold in the light.

It was as though a princess of the dragons themselves had stepped out of the past, covered in the blossoms of life.

Mai thought it was a bit overdone, but appreciated Aunt Mura's vision nonetheless.

Pangfua's expression, though, was of someone awaiting an execution. (Mai recognized it because she had, herself, awaited a royal execution at one important point in her life.) She bowed to Zuko, all the way on the other side of the stage, and only rose when he motioned to her. She bowed to the crowd, and then stepped over to her mother and bowed once again. Yuying bowed back, and presented the big glass peony. Pangfua took it, and then continued on across the stage, where, according to her earlier description, she would hand it over to her grandmother.

Pangfua stopped in front of Lady Zuzka and bowed yet again. The poor girl was probably going to upchuck just from the constant up-and-down.

Zuzka bowed back, and Mai heard her say, "Go ahead, child."

Pangfua nodded as she straightened, and then-

-she continued across the stage to Zuko with the flower sculpture still in her hands.

Mai could see him blink in surprise as Pangfua fell to her knees in front of him, held up the glass peony as an offering, and called out, "Please take this symbol of my spirit, and in doing so accept me as your loyal wife forever more."

What?!

Mai reached into sleeves she wasn't wearing for needles she'd left at home.

So she was left to watch as Pangfua continued to hold up the glass flower, blinking tears from her eyes that rolled down her checks to drip off her chin and water the blossoms of her dress. Lady Zuzka drifted over to say, "My Lord, my family offers our youngest, most beautiful daughter to you as a sign of our loyalty. Please, take her as your wife, and let us reunite our lines."

The crowd of nobles murmured to each other.

"I-" Zuko's jaw had dropped, and was looking back and forth between Pangfua and Zuzka. "I wasn't really looking to get married yet-"

Except he had just proposed the Mai the night before. It was one of the most painful things about that whole confrontation. She hadn't even answered him properly, instead destroying both his heart and her own with a neat summation of why they could never be together.

She only realized she was trembling when Aunt Mura wrapped an arm around her shoulders to steady her.

"It's true that you have no current prospects." Lady Zuzka stepped to Zuko's side, and Suki and Ty Lee both visibly tensed at the proximity. "But you get along with Pangfua, do you not? She has been trained from birth to be the perfect bride. She will serve you well as an ally and a woman. Bring the Flame Crown back to my descendants, and all of my influence and alliances will be yours. You can finally unite our nation, bring all the wretched traitors to heel, and forever deny your sister a claim to the Burning Throne. Pangfua will give you strong Firebenders for children, I assure you. You have only to accept, and happiness can be yours."

Zuko looked to Pangfua with wide eyes.

The girl forced a smile through her tears. "I- I love you, Zuko." She pushed the glass flower out so that he would barely have to reach to accept it. "Please, take me as your wife. I w- I- I want this. I- want- y- you."

His hands twitched.

He said, "I-"

And then the ragged voice of a woman called out, "Oi! Get away from my girlfr- my lead pipa-player!"

And Mai finally ripped her eyes away from where Zuko was being ambushed with matrimony to the crowd, where a group of men in woman in filthy, ragged leathers were hoisting the fire fountain from the flower display and throwing it at the stage-

-Zuko was in trouble-

-and Mai threw herself into action.

With the efficiency that even Princess Azula herself trusted to get a job done, Mai shoved Aunt Mura to the relative safety of backstage, used the resulting momentum to sprint across the stage and kicked the back of Pangfua's left thigh to make her collapse into a heap. The glass peony was airborne for a moment, but Zuko grabbed it as Mai wrapped an arm around him and Lady Zuzka each to tackle them to the ground beside Pangfua, and even as they landed in a heap Suki and Ty Lee were skipping over them to put their armored bodies between the group-

-and the firebomb.

There were flames, screaming, and stampeding. Mai peeked up and saw that the weird leather-crowd - who seemed to number in the dozens, somehow - were rioting and attacking the nobility. Kyoshi Warriors were forcing their way to the attackers and Firebenders were trying to control the spreading conflagration, but the chaos continued to spread. The rioters were throwing around pieces of the flower displays, which included some fairly heavy hardware, and the smoke from the flames had no escape in this tent, becoming more dangerous than the fire itself, and-

-and Pangfua shoved her way free of the pileup on the stage, jabbing Mai in the side with an elbow, and crawled towards the front of the stage shouting, "No, Zongying, you don't have to do this!"

Zongying?

Who was Zongying?

While Mai was trying to put the pieces together, Zuko worked himself free as well, and grabbed for Pangfua. That moron was playing hero again!

So Mai followed him-

-and then a secondary explosion scattered them all.

When Mai blinked her vision clear again, and found that she and Zuko were alone in the ruins of the right side of the stage. He helped her to her feet, the glass peony somehow intact in the crook of his other arm, and they both looked at the scene of complete pandemonium swirling around them.

Mai had to admit that this was, by far, the most interesting part of the flower show.

He must have seen something on her face - he was always good at that - because he said, "You were expecting this."

"Something like this." They might no longer be lovers, maybe not even friends anymore, but she still could not bring herself to lie to him. Even if she was flouting every single one of her other foundational convictions by wearing (the remains of) orange robes. "The explosion was a surprise."

His gaze drifted, and he gave a nod. "It caught me off guard, too." He looked up at her again. "But how?"

Mai sighed. She supposed they could talk a little while they tried to find their allies. "Well, if you really want to know..."

TO BE CONCLUDED