A Decade in the Life of Mai and Zuko
Author's Note: This chapter, instead of focusing on one event is a series of short vignettes taking place over a few days. They will feature people in Zuko's and Mai's lives that we haven't seen as of yet in the story.
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Year 8
Early in the eighth year of their lives together, Mai discovered that she was expecting her and Zuko's third child. Due in very late summer, Mai declared, "This baby is the last one. You only show up to help make it and I do the rest of the work. I say three children are enough."
Not wanting to argue with her and perfectly content with three anyway, Zuko agreed easily.
"You're not going to fight for more kids?" Mai asked. She looked surprised. Zuko had taken to fatherhood in a way she hadn't expected. She always knew that her husband would love his children and be a good father. Zuko himself had worried for a time about repeating the sins of his father. As time went by and he grew more and more comfortable as a parent, the Fire Lord formed intensely close bonds with each of his daughters, making sure to spend time with both each day no matter how full his schedule. It was Zuko they both ran to when they were hurt or excited or wanted affection. If she weren't so in love with her husband and happy for him, she may have been a little jealous. Her daughters loved her and she loved them. But, at least for now, they were closer to Zuko.
"Mai, honestly, three kids is plenty. We have our hands full now."
"Good," she said, relieved. She turned over in their bed, adjusting the pillow beneath her head. Zuko turned too and molded his body to her back, wrapping an arm around her waist.
"Are you happy about the baby?" Mai whispered.
"Very," Zuko breathed softly in her ear.
Mai's brother Tom-Tom was almost ten years old. She had never been particularly close to him but after she had her own children, Mai looked at Tom-Tom in a different light. She went out of her way to forge a bond with him and he responded, visiting the palace often from across the street where he lived with Mai's parents. Zuko enjoyed spending time with the boy too. At ten, Zuko figured he was old enough to start using swords and Tom-Tom was thrilled. The day after Mai's announcement to Zuko about the impending birth of their third child, her brother bounded into their sitting room looking for a lesson in sword handling.
"Where's Zuko," he asked Mai excitedly. "He's supposed to give me a lesson today. It's the week-end, so he shouldn't be busy."
"Relax, brother. He's playing some game with the girls. He'll be back. He hasn't forgotten about his promise."
"Good," he replied, "Is there anything to eat?"
"You put Sokka to shame and me too. How do you manage to eat all the time?" Mai asked with eyes wide.
"I dunno. I'm always hungry. Mom says it's because I'm growing taller every day."
"I suppose," Mai agreed. "Are mom and dad going to be home later? I have something to tell them."
"I guess," replied Tom-Tom. "Is it something exciting?"
"I think so," Mai answered, and gave her brother a smirk. "Here's Zuko," she declared as her husband entered the room looking slightly frazzled.
"So much for relaxing on the weekend," he complained. "Those girls are crazy."
Mai smiled remembering the time Zuko had made the same comment years ago about her, Ty Lee and Azula. "Yes, we're a crazy bunch, unlike you mellow guys," she said sarcastically.
"You know what I mean, Mai. So Tom, are you ready for your lesson? You're going to start with a wooden sword. I don't need you slicing off your own finger or something worse. Your parents would kill me, unless your sister got to me first." Zuko turned to Mai and grinned.
"That's right," she agreed.
Taking her daughters with her, Mai walked across the street to her parents' house. Both were at home, her father was reading some letters while her mother arranged flowers in vases.
"Mai dear," she exclaimed when her daughter entered the main room of the spacious house. "You didn't tell us you were coming."
"I didn't realize I had to inform you of every visit," Mai said bitingly.
"Now, now, Mai, there's no need for that attitude. I certainly hope my granddaughters aren't picking that up. They must know how to behave properly and keep silent when they are around important people."
Mai sighed. Some things never changed. "My daughters are my worry, mom."
"Of course, dear," she agreed.
Mai dropped down onto a nearby couch and the girls sat on either side of her. "I have something to tell you, mom and dad," she stated nonchalantly. "Zuko and I are expecting another baby. It's due at the end of summer."
"Another sister or maybe a brother, mommy?" Keiko shrieked. "I can't wait!"
"Keiko, lower your voice," Mai's mother said sternly. "We don't scream inside the house."
"Yes, grandmother," Keiko agreed, a frown on her little face.
Mai looked at her mother angrily but bit her tongue. "Aren't you going to congratulate me, mom?" she asked
"Yes, of course, dear. Shen, did you hear?" she called to her husband. "Mai and Zuko are having another baby."
"Oh, yes, that's nice," Shen replied distractedly. "Is Tom-Tom at the palace?"
"Yeah, Zuko's giving him a sword fighting lesson," Mai answered dully.
"Ah, that's wonderful. Your brother is becoming a fine young man," Mai's father stated.
"I just remembered that I have something very important to do…back at the palace," Mai lied, wanting to leave and wondering why she had bothered to come in the first place. "Let's go, girls," she said, grabbing their hands. Neither Keiko nor Emiko argued.
"Okay, Tom, let's try that little routine again," Zuko encouraged the boy. "You're doing just fine."
Tom-Tom went through the moves Zuko had shown him, concentrating hard; wanting to please the man he looked upon like a brother.
"Good, very good," Zuko said, sounding pleased. "If you keep that up, you'll be using a real sword before you know it."
"Really?" Tom-Tom asked, eyes shining.
"Really," Zuko replied. "That's enough for today, though. Do you want to have lunch with us or are you going home?"
"Uh," the boy hesitated. "I have to go home. "I've got music lessons."
"Next time then," Zuko said agreeably. "Oh, did you hear that Mai and I are having another baby?" he asked.
"Wow," Tom-Tom exclaimed. "That's great. Maybe it will be a boy this time."
"Maybe," Zuko agreed. "But it doesn't matter."
Later that day, Keiko and Emiko were taking their naps and Zuko and Mai relaxed outside in the Palace Gardens. They sat at a small table set up under a huge, shady tree and enjoyed a cup of tea together.
"So how did Tom-Tom do?" Mai asked.
"He did well," Zuko replied. "After a few more lessons, he can try a real sword."
"I should teach him how to throw shuriken too. You never know when that can come in handy."
"You went to see your parents?" Zuko inquired.
"Yes. I told them about the baby. They were…indifferent is the word I would use. My mom got more excited chastising Keiko for screaming when she heard about the baby. Nothing changes."
"Mai, don't worry about them. They love you and the kids. They're just too worried about propriety."
"I suppose," Mai said, sighing heavily.
Mai's uncle, the warden of The Boiling Rock Prison, came to the palace for dinner the next evening. Unmarried, ("I wonder why?" Zuko had often sarcastically said to Mai), he thought of Mai like a daughter. He still only tolerated Zuko, though, still not forgiving the Fire Lord for "breaking" his niece's heart all those years ago and ruining his "no one has ever escaped from my prison" record.
Keiko and Emiko loved the man. Though he was normally gruff and intimidating, with the girls he showed remarkable humour and tenderness. He told them stories of the prison and the prisoners, and they listened with wide eyes and open mouths. He told them stories of their mother's exploits with knives when she was much younger. He didn't say anything about Zuko.
Taking Mai aside, Zuko asked his wife, "When is he going to let it go? Why does he hate me so much?"
"Honestly, Zuko, he doesn't hate you. He's just protective of me."
"You don't need protection from me. Can't he see that we're happy?"
"Maybe after a few more years he'll finally realize it," Mai said hopefully. "Just be nice to him."
"I always am. And where does it get me?" the Fire Lord asked.
Mai shrugged. Zuko stomped off, a frown on his face. Waiting until he finished his stories, Zuko pulled the irritated looking man by the arm away from his daughters. "Chao, when are you going to start treating me decently? How can you still be angry with me?" he asked Mai's uncle.
"I don't treat you decently," Chao asked, feigning innocence.
"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about," Zuko replied irritably. "I'm your niece's husband. We have two children together and a third on the way."
Chao looked surprised. "Agni, Mai wanted to tell you that. She's going to kill me," the Fire Lord groaned. "You wouldn't consider pretending not to know when Mai tells you, would you," Zuko asked hopefully, a hint of desperation in his voice. "I hate when Mai's angry with me."
"Hmmm, seeing as you're providing me with another grand niece or nephew, perhaps I'll consider it." Chao stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"Really, would you do that for me?"
"No," Chao replied with a wicked smirk.
Zuko's shoulders slumped. "It's going to be a long night."
A few days later, Zuko was notified that Ozai wished to speak with him. Seeing his father was something that he avoided unless absolutely necessary. Mai sometimes accompanied him and she offered go with him this time.
"Thanks, Mai, but do you really want to spend any time in that place?"
"No, idiot, but for you, I will," Mai replied honestly. Zuko scowled at the word idiot, and then smiled at the rest of her statement. "I hate it there but remember I did spend a few days in prison myself," Mai continued. "And my uncle is a prison warden. Besides, I'm curious."
"Maybe I shouldn't go at all."
"We're going, Zuko. You're just as curious as I am."
"Yeah, you're right," the Fire Lord agreed with a heavy sigh.
The pair walked out of the caldera that contained the palace city and along a rocky path that led to the prison. Enclosed within its own caldera, surrounded by a moat and literally built into a huge overhanging rock, the prison was an imposing place. Zuko held Mai's hand tightly in case she lost her footing.
"You don't have to be so overprotective, Zuko. I can walk just fine. I'm pregnant, not crippled."
"I don't care. I'm holding your hand anyway," the Fire Lord insisted.
"Oh, Agni!" Mai exclaimed, rolling her eyes.
"Roll your eyes all you want, I'm still holding your hand."
Two guards met them as they crossed the drawbridge and reached the steps that led to the prison entrance. Bowing deeply, the guards led the way to Ozai's cell, the same one he had occupied for more than seven years. "This way, my Lord," said one guard, a grizzled old man who had worked there for over forty years.
"I remember," Zuko replied, still gripping Mai's hand; now not out of concern but out of apprehension. She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze as they made their way down the dim hallway, lit only by wall sconces bright with fire.
Ozai sat cross-legged in his cell, with his eyes closed as if in meditation. His eyes opened slowly when Zuko cleared his throat. Meeting his son's piercing gaze directly, Ozai spoke first.
"I see you brought your lovely wife, Zuko. I'm glad that she's here too."
Mai and Zuko exchanged a quick glance and Mai inched closer to her husband who still held her hand.
"And you're holding hands; how very sweet." Surprisingly, no sarcasm laced Ozai's words.
"What do you want, Ozai?" Zuko asked roughly.
"No pleasantries then, son? Alright, I'll get to the point."
"We've never exchanged pleasantries before. Why start now?" the Fire Lord asked.
"I have a request," Ozai stated flatly. "I would like ink and parchment brought to my cell. I want to write a letter."
"You asked to see me for just that?" Zuko responded angrily. "You could have relayed your request to a guard who could have gotten the message to me. Why did you have to drag me all the way out here? I have better things to do with my time."
Placing a calming hand on Zuko's arm, Mai pulled him back from the cell for a quiet word. The Fire Lord's face was flushed and his eyes sparkled with anger.
"Zuko, take it easy. Just hear him out and then we can leave. We're here already so we may as well listen."
"I can't stand the sight of him Mai. After all these years, I'm still furious with him"
"I know, but listen anyway."
Acquiescing, Zuko moved back to the cell and looked at his father. Mai stood beside him watching the exchange between father and son.
"Go on," Zuko said, his voice like flint.
"I would like to write a letter to my wife."
Zuko grabbed the cold metal bars of Ozai's cell, pulling himself forward. He pressed his face against the soothing cool of the metal and glared at his father.
"You want to what?" he asked in disbelief.
"I know that you found Ursa a couple of years ago and that you've been communicating with her."
"How exactly do you know all that?" Zuko hissed.
"I still have a few friends left in the Fire Nation. They provide me with interesting information. Don't worry. I'm not planning a coup. It wouldn't work anyway. Your people obviously love you."
"I find it hard to believe that you ever had friends at all," the Fire Lord said bitingly.
"Perhaps loyal follower is a better term, then," Ozai agreed. "Will you let me write to her?"
"Not without knowing why; why now? What do you have to say to her?"
"She is still my wife and we were happy once. I simply wish to express my regrets to her. I've done a lot of thinking over the last seven years. What else can I do? "
"What makes you think she wants to hear from you," Zuko asked demandingly.
"No one will force her to read it, Zuko. I'm doing this for myself, not for her. Now, will you let me write to her or not?"
Zuko looked to Mai who shrugged her shoulders. "What harm could it do?" she whispered to him.
"I'll think about it," Zuko conceded. "If I let you, how do you know I will even send it to my mother?"
"I don't," the former Fire Lord acknowledged. "I'll just have to trust you."
"That will be a first, won't it," Zuko said, grabbing Mai's hand and pulling her back down the hallway to the prison's main entrance.
Later that evening, after supper and after the girls were asleep, Mai and Zuko talked quietly in their room.
"He still really upsets you after all this time, doesn't he?" Mai asked tentatively, not sure about opening up old wounds that had never completely healed.
"Yeah, he does," Zuko agreed. "This whole letter thing is just weird. I'm not sure what to do. I can't help but think he's planning something."
"Honestly, I think he's telling the truth. It's up to you, but I would let him do it. Maybe the letter will bring your mother some peace too."
"Yeah, maybe; in that case, I suppose it's alright. I'll have someone bring him the ink and parchment tomorrow."
Mai got up from her chair and walked over to her husband. Sitting on his lap, she wrapped her arms around him and placed a passionate kiss on his lips.
"What was that for," Zuko asked, slightly dazed.
"No reason," Mai replied mysteriously. "I'm going to see about some tea."
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