I don't have time for review responses today because I was in a car accident. Everyone is fine but it ate up a lot of time and money and what not.

Zuko took a step back to appreciate his work. The forest green chip was fixed into the teacup next to one of a bright purple. It had been a pain to not only fit them all onto the tea cup but to get them to stay put. It was a feat that required him to heat each coin up until they were soft enough to bend. More than once he had earned himself a minor burn or two. By month ten, he had gotten pretty good at avoiding that. He set the teacup back on his shelf amid the other knick-knacks uncle had bought for him.

He hurried to dress himself. He could smell the sweet aroma of hot maple splashed with a touch of blueberry. He smiled to himself. She remembered.

Of course she remembered.

Blueberry waffles had been his favorite since he was a child.

It was a meal she had cooked for him on his first day of school until she left. "Good luck today." His mother greeted as took his seat.

"You too." He returned. Today was the day she'd be holding a signing for her second novel. "I'll try to swing by if I have time after class.

"Don't rush, dear." Ursa replied. "I want you to earn your GED, if you miss my book signing you can always come to the movie premiere, like Azula is."

"Azula can't come to your signing either?"

"She has school until two, remember. The signing ends at three."

"Right." Zuko replied. "Well, my prep class ends at twelve so I should be able to make it. I'll see you then, mom."

She gave him a quick hug and with a text from Azula, he was on his way.

.oOo.

"Is your brother dressed?" Michi called from down the hall.

"He was." Mai grumbled. She'd left him for about five minutes and he already had his socks and shirt off once more. "Tom, you're a first grader now. First graders keep their clothes on."

He looked up at her with big grey-brown eyes. "Not this first grader!"

"Yes, this first grader." She forced the shirt back over his head. "You like this shirt, remember? It's the one with the Brontosaurus."

"It's a Apatosaurus." Tom-Tom corrected.

"Right. Apatosaurus." Mai replied as she led him to the breakfast table. She poured him a bowl of cereal and a glass of milk. "Now, don't spill it this time."

"First graders don't spill milk." He said with Mai.

"Good."

"I'm gonna get my whole sticker chart full soon." Tom-Tom declared.

"I'm sure you will." Mai replied as she fixed her own breakfast. She peered and Tom-Tom and quickly slipped up to her room to stuff the rest of her supplies into her backpack. "Azula is going to be here soon, mother." She noted on her way back to the kitchen.

"Alright, let me know when she gets here."

It was progress. Mai still felt as though she was doing most of the hard work when it came to Tom-Tom, but at least her mother was putting in some effort now. It would probably take a few more family sessions to make her understand why she needed to put some more effort into raising her son, but it was a start.

A text appeared on her phone and Mai called up to her mother. She turned to Tom-Tom. "Be good for mom, and maybe next time Azula, TyLee, and I go to the mall, I'll get you a surprise."

"Okie!" He exclaimed, throwing his hands up, nearly knocking his milk over in the process.

Mai sighed and headed outside. It was nice to see Azula's car there again, there was a sense of comfort that came with it. A sense of normalcy. And a bigger sense of that in noticing TyLee in the passenger's seat. "Really, TyLee? One of these days you're going to have to let me ride shotgun again…" her front seat odds didn't look so good, with she and Azula living together. "And let me chose some good music." She added while she was at it.

"How can you, hate this?" TyLee asked as she cranked it even louder.

"I will jump out of this car and walk." Mai replied with an eye roll.

They parted ways where the hall split. Azula had a locker on the opposite side of the school and TyLee had the misfortune of getting a second floor locker. Her phone buzzed and she noticed a text from Zuko. She sighed to herself. One of these days she was going to have to talk to him.

She peered at her arm, the slashes on it were mostly healed, some turning to scars. She decided that it was time to let her relationship with Zuko do the same.

.oOo.

'Tonight is going to be busy. Does the weekend sound good?'

Truth be told, he had plans with Hahn, but he figured that he could put those to the side. Hahn was pretty understanding about things like that.

He texted Mai back with a simple, 'yes, it sounds great.' And then he selects Azula's number. He would tell Hahn about the change of plans in person. He types a small thing or two about how so far things were going pretty smoothly.

For the most part things had been going well for him. They had been since the week after the trial. The first week after the trial was hectic. They had been escorted to Ozai's estate with a police entourage, so that Azula could gather the rest of her possessions that had been left there.

The man had been oozing with cruel things to say to all three of them as they made their way in and out of the house. Mostly his words fell on deaf ears, it was the ranting and ravings of a bitter soul. The sort of thing that wasn't worth paying attention to.

The man had broke the terms of his restraining order several times, contacting he and Azula both and Ursa as well. Even Iroh wasn't spared a nasty word or two. Eventually the messages grew less frequent, and Zuko was left to assume that Ozai was running out of money to blow on fines. The trial was a rather public matter and the outing of how he had led his son to heroine and his daughter to bulimia did hefty damage to his company. One by one, headlines came about various companies breaking their partnership with Ozai's.

Headline, by headline, Zuko felt more at ease.

The man was losing his power.

He had lost his power when Zuko had made his escape.

He stuffed the remains of his lunch back into his lunch bag and hurried to finish the final half of his first day of prep class.

.oOo.

The rest of her day was quite a drag, save for Moo-Chee making a scene about how he was the dark one and he would have respect. Over the summer, the boy had upped his poser game. Taking it from simply leeching off of the goth scene to pretending to worship the devil. The boy was a constant source of entertainment. He was mostly harmless these days, save for the constant threat of secondhand embarrassment.

Only after she found Azula's car in the parking lot, did she remember that the girl was staying later for volleyball practice. She made her way back inside. She recalled that TyLee was going for the poms team again. That left her to figure out how she wanted to spend her time. She considered simply going to the gym and watching Azula.

Instead she found herself wandering down the hallway in search of another club. Poetry didn't sound too awful and they only met on Mondays. It would give her a distraction if she needed one but it wouldn't take up enough time for her mother to pitch a fit.

Naturally when she stepped into the room, she spotted Moo-Chee. Perhaps she could make the boy a side project. Help shape the boy into less of a poser.

The club members welcomed her warmly and the instructor motioned for her to take a seat. "I am Macmu-Ling, welcome to the Five-Seven-Five society. Right now we are working on introductory poems." She paused. "Write a little something about yourself in the form of a hiku, and then we will read aloud, what we have come up with."

Mai nodded. She wasn't a hiku type of person, but she was willing to give it a try.

.oOo.

Zuko helped Ursa take down what remained of her signing set up.

"Thank you for joining me today, Zuko. How about I treat you and Iroh to some tea and coffee?"

It sounded perfectly charming. "I'd love that." He replied as he packed the last of the books away. He would wait a little longer to text Azula, if he remembered right, she was probably still in the middle of practice. But he was curious as to when she planned on stopping by next.

"You think that this book store is hiring?" Zuko asked.

"GED first." Ursa said sternly with a dip of her head.

Zuko lifted his hands. "Just asking."

"That's the last of the boxes." Iroh spoke. "Let's brew some tea!"

"Would you like to invite Hahn, dear?"

"He's already on his way." Zuko hoped that this invitation would make up for cancelling their weekend plans.

.oOo.

Azula had dropped her off at home only a few hours ago. Apparently she had something to take care of before the three of them went to the movies. If she didn't hurry, they'd end up having to watch the midnight show. In which case, Mai was fully prepared to suggest that they see a horror movie instead. Suddenly, she wanted Azula to take her sweet time. She hadn't seen a good horror movie since last year. Of course she would be avoiding the body horror sub-genre. She was in the mood for ghosts and demons, a little something to give her insult ammo. She was going to need it if she was going to pursue a friendship with Moo-Chee.

She received a text from Azula, stating that she was on her way.

"I'm going out, mother." She called.

"Would you mind taking Tom-Tom with you? Your dad and I have an important meeting tonight."

Mai sighed, horror movies might be out of the question. "I guess I can, but next time…"

"Next time, I will bring him along." Michi promised.

"Alright, Tom, c'mon." She picked him up. "Do you like secrets?"

"Mmmhmm."

"If you keep a secret for me, I'll let you see a scary movie with my friends and I."

Tom-Tom gasped. "A scary movie!?"

"Shhh. Not so loud. If you're too loud you won't get to go to the big boy movie."

"I wanna go to the big boy movie." Tom-Tom whispered.

Mai smirked. "Great. When mommy asks you what movie you went to see, tell her you saw the one with the dinosaurs."

"Kay, Mai." He smiled as she fastened his seatbelt.

She strapped herself in. "Tell me all about your first day of school, Tom." She smiled softly to herself as her new partner in crime told her all about first grade.

.oOo.

It was nightfall by the time they reached the cafe. Azula had finally answered his text, she was planning on dropping by either this weekend or the next, stating that she would carpool with Mai. From the sound of it, Mai was doing much better.

It weighed heavily on him to hear that she had contemplated suicide. To think that he might have had a hand in it, though she insisted that it wasn't his fault. He still felt obligated to make it up to her somehow.

He didn't yet have an idea of how to do so, he supposed that he would have to just let things fall into place. That's what Iroh had told him; just let things happen. So far it was a working method. His sessions with Jeong Jeong had left him with similar advice. He had to accept things for what they were.

So he would. He would accept whatever happened with Mai over the weekend. Just like he was accepting that his heroine abuse had happened. He ran his fingers over the small pockmarks, he no longer had a desire to rid himself of them.

A self-respecting man wouldn't try to hide such a large and important part of his life.

And Zuko had decided that he was going to be a self-respecting man.

The sort that would show Ozai that he had completely lost.

The sort that would earn a GED and make something of his life.