Thanks for the support, my readers! It really means a lot when I'm in this sort of experimental field! I was recently looking up the amount of Suzuki fics, and I think that there were like thirty-something to count!

This chapter's sorta short just like the one before it, but I'm thinking of later condensing the chapters into one once the story gets started.

Also, I know that the last book of The Promise is coming out later this month. Despite that, the direction the story is going to take isn't going to change—it was originally written as a fanfiction for the events to follow the second book. I've already seen a few excerpts from the book that were released already, and I can admit that my interpretation is substantially different from what the creators had in mind, lol! As a disclaimer, any sort of similarities that pop up are just coincidences!

Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter Two:

chasing the sun, he neglects her heart for those of all the others

They were quickly whisked away by some of the palace servants, the Fire Lord slipping away down a long narrow hallway without another word. And so, the Kyoshi Warriors were subsequently taken on a tour of the entire palace, becoming familiarized with all the security features that the opulent building offered.

Suki couldn't help her slightly agape mouth as they were led through the grandiose complex. This was definitely outside of her comfort zone. She had been in the Fire Nation before, but the only glimpse of the tropical country she had been given was behind prison bars at the Boiling Rock. With every step she took, she was rewriting her memories of the once enemy nation, receiving a very different impression of it through the veil of royalty.

Hell, I might even come to like this place, she thought to herself.

And as if the lavishness of the Fire Lord's home wasn't enough to leave Suki in awe, she was just left breathless at the very well moneyed state of the palace. Her home was a simple fishing port, a temporary stop full of traders and merchants, always with people coming and going, moving and changing. The finely detailed and monumental architecture that they were to be hosted in completely astounded her—so large, magnificent, and permanent that it would surely always be standing.

"This is amazing," she remarked softly to herself, but Ty Lee's sharp hearing heard her, and even the Fire Nation-native agreed:

"My family had always been close to royalty, but this is totally above my own life!"

"I'll never be able to live in a place like this."

"Well," replied her companion, "you technically are now, so enjoy it while you can!"

While I can, huh?

Ty Lee was being optimistic, thinking that they were only going to be there for a short while.

But that gut feeling was still chewing at Suki, who thought it more likely that the Warriors were going to be in the Fire Nation long enough for them to get past just enjoying the palace.

divider

It wasn't just the architecture Suki would have to get used to either, something she realized as her eyes turned as wide as the plates that were scattered all over the grand table. She could barely contain all the foods—many of which she had never seen before; what attracted her attention most was the tray of colorful fruits at the center, a true delicacy in her usual seafood-rice-and-legume diet.

One spot at the end of the table was empty.

Before any tongues were lifted to ask about the Fire Lord, his raven-haired counterpart, who had decided to join them for their first dinner, excused him.

"He skips meals a lot...busy," she said softly. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind if we went ahead and ate."

Ty Lee folded her arms over her chest before sitting cross legged, not caring for table etiquette and tired of sitting on her knees. "Well that isn't rude of him at all!" she deadpanned loudly, stretching back her arms. "Where is he?"

Mai fingered the edge of her plate, tracing circles over the porcelain. "I don't know," she replied, going ahead and taking a set of chopsticks in her hand.

"But he can't even just come down and say hi or something?"

"No," she firmly repeated.

Her old friend didn't seem to catch the hard edge at Mai's frustrated voice and continued, "Agni, does he always do that?"

Mai didn't answer, taking a few slices of meat from the serving plate in front of her.

divider

Suki eventually found him leaning over a wide table. Judging from the dark brown bangs that had fallen from his topknot and were now shadowing his face, he must have been standing there for a long time.

"Fire Lord Zuko," she said, shattering the silence.

He looked up briefly. "Hello Suki. Is everything being catered to your liking?"

"Yeah, very much so."

Geez, his gaze was painfully intense—it almost made her forget why she had even come to try to find him in the first place.

"You don't need anything?"

"No."

"So...you just want to talk to me?" he asked in a statement, with perhaps a bit of disbelief. Most conversations directed to him had probably up to this point ended with him rushing out of the room to attend to some other matter.

He looked so vulnerable, she stammered. "Uh, if you don't mind."

Zuko sighed, turning his face back to the table, and replied, "I'd love to, but we should save the conversation for later."

She wasn't about to lose her resolve. It wasn't right that his relationship with Mai was suffering while he was carrying the weight of the future on his shoulders.

"You haven't talked to Mai in a long time," she thus said.

He didn't react, and she stepped forward, continuing, "We're all concerned about you, Zuko."

The Fire Lord was still being unresponsive, so she walked right up to him to see what the hell could have been so much more important than his disintegrating relationship with his girlfriend at the moment.

But maybe she had spoken too soon, she realized upon seeing the complete map of the world that covered the table.

She didn't know it was the world at first, until she saw the four distinct colors, dividing the map up into territories—names of some that she knew. The words 'Kyoshi Island' pointed out a miniscule island at the border of a large brown block of land.

She had never really taken a look at the world like this before—she knew the world was large, but she hadn't realized just how much larger than her homeland it was. Her responsibilities were solely to the one island that she knew.

And her island was so small compared to the red shaded chain of islands at the corner of the map. The island world that she knew all her life was nothing compared to the sea of after-war

Even if she was the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors and therefore the head figure for the Avatar's legacy, that difference between the dot of a single island compared to the empire of fire represented how much liability the Fire Lord carried than her.

He watched her eyes graze the map for a while.

"You see this, Suki?" he finally responded. "Compared to this, I'm nothing to be worried about."

Her mouth involuntarily twisted. "You can't really expect to be able to do this all on your own."

He didn't hesitate: "I think that my title does."

Suki found nothing to retort from this.

"Look, I really appreciate everyone's concern, but there's a lot going on right now, and that's my priority," the firebender explained.

She was quiet for a moment and then repeated, "You should talk to Mai."

"I don't want to bring her into this," he said, visibly crumbling.

"She can help you. She's been at your side since the beginning of all this."

He closed his eyes and clenched his hands, lightly wrinkling the paper under his fists. "It's not her responsibility."

"That doesn't mean that she can't give you advice," Suki insisted. Seeing him shaking his head and denying her words already, she blurted, "She's worried about you, Zuko."

He switched the subject. "Did she ask you to talk to me?"

"No, I...came on my own accord," she said, taken aback.

"Then I'm going to ask you to stop troubling yourself."

divider

Suki watched the black, red and white paint cry off her face for a moment before wiping away the cold water off her skin. When she had turned the faucet shut, she suddenly realized that the sobbing was not coming from the running water and quickly stepped out of her room to the one right next door.

There weren't any tears, but there were several wrinkled foreheads and furrowed eyebrows, emotions Suki was not used to seeing on the usually expressionless raven-haired girl.

"I'm just so worried about him," said Mai, a frown clearly cut over her fair complexion. "He hasn't been able to sleep well and I'm so worried about his safety."

Ty Lee, who hadn't even begun to get ready for dinner, put her hands over Mai's shoulders. "But you did something about it, and now we're here. And I promise we'll keep him safe!"

Suki slowly joined them, sitting down on her knees on the mat beside the two of them.

"I knew that becoming a Fire Lord would be a lot more work," Mai continued, "but I wasn't expecting this at all!" She took a deep breath. "I just wish that I could help him, but he's not letting me help him and he's just distancing himself, just excusing himself...he's not answering any of my questions, accepting any of what I say.

"He keeps telling me that he's just fine all the time, but I know he's not and I know he isn't," she cried. "I don't know why he keeps everything to himself."

I don't want to bring her into this.

She bit her lip back, remembering this from a former conversation, and didn't interrupt, wishing for Mai to completely spell out her thoughts.

She continued, "From the beginning...when he became Fire Lord, I was naïve enough to think that it was all over after the Hundred Year War."

"I think we all thought it was over," Ty Lee reassured her. Ty Lee hadn't even begun to take her makeup off for the night, choosing instead to comfort her old friend.

The distraught girl shook her head, angrily. "It's different," she said. "I was stupid enough to think that Zuko and I were just going to live happily for the rest of time. I neglected to realize that he had duties beyond his personal life." She put her face in her hands, muttering, "Agni...six assassination attempts on his life already."

"So...what happened during the last one?" Suki asked, slowly.

"He was attacked by a girl—the daughter of a nobleman from Yu Dao, Mayor Morishita," Mai answered. "He subsequently went to Yu Dao to figure things out—I don't know what happened beyond that."

"And that's when you called us over to bodyguard him, right?" Ty Lee concluded.

"I knew I could rely on you guys to keep him safe." And then almost as an afterthought, Mai added, "Thank you," before continuing, "And he's doing everything that he can. I don't know what he's doing, but I know at least that much...he's not the type to carelessly throw aside his own country."

"So you don't know anything about what's happening?" asked Ty Lee, who was rather bothered already by the fact that Mai hadn't even known where Zuko was during dinner earlier.

"I've heard bits and pieces about something called the Harmony Restoration Movement..." she defended. "The Avatar is helping him establish it with the Earth King...but I heard rumors about a revolution happening in the Earth Kingdom itself too—I don't know," she admitted finally. "I did all the research I could, but Zuko doesn't even seem to trust his official advisors, let alone trust me!"

Suki couldn't leave the Fire Lord unrepresented when she had wasted a few moments of his time. "Maybe he just doesn't want to bring you into the whole mess," she suggested, adding the 'maybe' to soften her supposed suspicion.

Mai burst. "But I want to be part of that!" she sobbed, red rims at the bottom of her eyelids. "I want to be able to help him and figure out what's the next thing to do! And it's not that I want power—I just don't want him shouldering the world that his father left for him to bear alone! I want to help him carry the burden."

They could hear her heart whimper in the speechless moments afterwards.

"And...I just...if I had become Fire Lady—no, I'm just wrong for thinking this; but if I was the Fire Lady...I'd be able to help him since it'd be my responsibility too, right? If we had just married..." and she trailed off, rectifying herself in a bitter spit, "Ugh, this is just stupid—there wouldn't have been a way; I don't know what I'm even thinking."

The two Kyoshi Warriors exchanged a quick look and Ty Lee put on a strong smile, suggesting that Mai go back home and get some rest.

"It'll all work out," Ty Lee promised. "We're here now, and we can protect Zuko and we're here to help out as much as we can."

Suki pursed her lips, almost scolding the other girl for giving any sort of false hope.

But she settled it, thinking it was probably own self being too negative.

As long as she can fall asleep to that, she thought.

I know Mai might seem OOC in this, but she's legitimately concerned about Zuko and it's not like she's a completely emotionless freak .

Anywho, hope you guys haven't found the story too terribly boring yet! (I'd hate to put a bad name to this pairing!)

So besides dropping a review, you guys should help me decide what I should make this weekend. It's a really hard decision; be warned!

Tiramisu or tres leches?

thir13enth