Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar the last airbender in any shape and or form.
0o0o00o00o0o0o0o0o0o0
Zuko shifted his weight, wiping the sweat from his brow as he waited for the dark hair woman in front of him to finish with her purchase. The two of them had been on patrol for three hours now; it was still quite a strenuous job; as it was only the third week since his sister had taken control of his city. 'Azula and myself' he corrected mentally, his role had been just as vital as hers in capturing the supposedly impenetrable Ba Sing Se.
"Here, you can take the apple" spoke the quiet tone of Mai as she approached him. He took the offered fruit from her and looked back at the man in the stall. He counted carefully a handful of money in his greedy, grease covered hands. Wiping the apple carefully on a spare cloth he carried; Zuko gave Mai a questioning look. "You didn't have to give him so much, in fact he probably would have just given it to you for free" he said taking a bite out of the now clean apple.
She quirked her eye brow slightly and pulled a round grape from a small vine she had purchased, leaving his statement unanswered. Then with a twist of her head they continued on their route.
Zuko sighed in slight frustration at her silence, but he had learned quickly that it was useless to pursue an answer from her if she set her mind against it. He looked down at the apple and wondered why he has so quickly adapted to her oddities, that somehow despite the turmoil of his emotions concerning his sister and his uncle, he had still found time to speak with Mai frequently.
Perhaps it had been the fact that he knew her from before his banishment, or that it had been her alone that had come to him like a soft light during his most darkest period of confusion. Regardless of it, he had unconsciously felt himself drawn to her finding it some personal goal to discover if there was more to her that what she displayed to everyone else, a different face behind the mask that she wore daily.
"Zuko, are you going to continue with patrolling? Or should I leave you and the apple alone for a moment?" Her voice gave only the slightest hint of jesting, but he caught it and snorted in response, taking another bite and moving to follow her.
They walked in a comfortable silence, taking in the sights of the relatively calm marketplace. There weren't too many disturbances today, only a few disputes between buyers and sellers, easily remedied. The people of the great city seemed to adapt to the new control with little resistance, their motto of 'if it doesn't bother my business I don't care who is sitting on the throne.' Although Zuko knew that there were some small signs that there was something growing, an uncercurrent of belief from the earthy people that the Fire Nation rule would not last.
It was most likely due to his constant attempts to find the little discrepancies in Mai that made him more open to looking at the little things around his greater surrounding. He tended to read peoples expressions more closely and find little things in his surroundings that stood out as odd. One such thing was a tiny pendent that hung around the neck of many citizens of both the lower and upper ring of the city. A small lotus bound in a circle, it was a simple design and to most of the Fire Nation soldiers it bore little meaning. Zuko however recognized the symbol almost instantly as a Pai Sho tile.
Memories of his days with his uncle forced their way uncomfortably through his mind, he recalled the odd night he had spent in the cool store room of a flower shop; while his uncle talked in secret with a group of people. He stopped in mid step, that moment, in front of the tea shop that he used to work at; the owners had changed from the looks of it. It was now named Clear Water Tea House; the image of a small pool of water with a lotus flower floating on it artfully surrounded the gold lettering.
A hand on his shoulder stopped him in his movement; unconsciously he had found himself being drawn into the tea house. He looked at Mai, her gaze was calm but he could read questions being asked in her eyes. He suddenly became aware of their close proximity, his faced warmed slightly.
"I used to work here… Before…" He said looking back at the door to hide his odd reaction. Mai removed her hand and walked past him to the front of the building; she turned to him and gave him one of her small uncommon smiles.
"Would you like to go in then? For memory sake of course" he nodded once and placed his hand on the faded cloth in front of the entrance. He had no idea that it would be Mai's uncommon lax in priorities that afternoon that would set about a new fate for him.
0o0o0o0o0oo0o0o
A/N As I said in the previous chapter I am going to following the early events of Shuuryou in this tale (which is turning out to be more of a fiction than dabbles). Shuuryou is a story I am working on that follows my ideas for the ending of the third season and can be found under my profile. You don't have to read it to understand this though. ;)