Disclaimer: Don't own.

A/N: I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. This actually comes out of my head canon because I don't hate Mai, I just don't like how the series ends for her. Thanks to everyone who has done all the favoriting and reviewing and alerting! Half way done!

Mai was the last person Katara would have thought would accept her as Zuko's girlfriend. In fact she had purposely avoided the woman on the basis of seeing your boyfriend's knife wielding ex might be bad for your health. So Katara was surprised when she received a very formal looking invitation to Mai's for tea. Tea. Katara wondered if Mai had knowledge of poisons and if she would use them. Oh it was silly to think that but still, Katara knew that Zuko had been Mai's childhood sweetheart and the same went for Zuko.

Begrudgingly Katara accepted (not without the insistence of Zuko who seemed to know about the invitation). The day arrived and Katara almost cancelled on account of feeling sick. She knew it was possibly just nerves but how could throwing up on someone be considered polite? Really she was just saving Mai from having to clean up after her.

Katara braced herself, remembering that she had faced this woman in hand to water combat and survived, how could tea be any worse? This didn't mean that Katara didn't choose one of her better dresses (light blue in the style of the Earth Kingdom) and did her hair for about an hour before leaving for Mai's.

The walk to Mai's house was too short for Katara's liking. She stared at the door for about a minute before deciding that knocking was best (she couldn't find anything that looked like a rope pull for a bell). The large door opened to revel, not Mai, but what looked like her butler. "Ah, you must be Master Katara. Lady Mai is expecting you." Katara was immensely pleased that, even in the Fire Nation, she had the title of Master. The man led her to a parlor with an impressive view of the palace.

"I'm glad you could make it Katara," Mai seemed to materialize from nowhere at Katara's side. "Can you please bring the tea in?" The butler nodded as Mai waved her hand to direct Katara to sit at the small table. She took her seat and looked at everything in the room but Mai. She really wasn't nervous.

Katara watched the tea being set down and was relieved to smell ginseng and just ginseng. After being served Katara brought the steaming cup to her mouth, discreetly cooled it, and stiffed it once again just to be sure.

"It's not poisoned, you know," Katara flushed at the accusation. "You're also probably wondering why I even invited you here."

"Pretty much yes. I really didn't think you would even want to talk to me." She took a sip of her tea as soon as she saw Mai had taken a sip as well.

"I'm not really the jealous type. That was more Zuko in our relationship."

"He's trying to get better about it."

"I think," Mai paused to take a sip of her tea while Katara tried to relax, "that his jealously might have something to do with growing up with Azula. She likes having people look up to her and envy her. Therefore, he protects what is, as he thinks it, his. We've talked about it a few times actually." Katara had to squash her own burst of jealousy. She and Zuko talked about a lot of things, a lot of private things, but they hadn't talked about that.

"I guess," was the best reply she could come up with.

"For saying you're not the jealous one you're kind of acting like you are," Mai drawled in her slightly bored tone.

"Is there something for me to be jealous of?" Katara snapped.

Mai sighed. "No, not at all. Look I know you might not believe this but I'm still Zuko's friend. If you haven't noticed he doesn't have many friends here or even people he would consider even trying to become friends with.

"We've known each other since we were kids. We dated, we broke up. But after awhile we both realized we could work as friends. I'm not going to lie and say it was easy at first but I have realized we are better as friends. Being lovers made neither of us truly happy. You," at this Katara finally looked at the knife thrower who was staring at her intently, "make him happy. Honestly happy. Which is why I have a proposition for you."

Katara had to bite back "so you're not going to kill me?" and instead she said, "Which is?"

"The Fire Nation court is full of some pretty horrible people. Not the 'I'm going to burn your eyes out because you don't support the Fire Nation enough' kind of horrible but the 'let me backhandedly insult you while subtly pointing out every single one of your flaws.' They're horrible but I can help you deal with them in ways that don't involve freezing them to a wall."

"And how are you going to do that? Teach me how to insult them?"

"No that's boring. Not to mention you're too nice."

"I am not! I can be just as vindictive as you can!" She huffed.

"I'm sure you can," Mai continued in her slightly bored tone, "I just don't think you'd be good at it the way you would need to be. You're too forgiving at times and would rather see the best in everyone. I can, however, help you win over a select group of ladies who can help deflect most of the snide comments thrown at you."

Katara stared at Mai. She was, well, speechless. Mai was offering to help her fit in. To help her find a place in the Fire Nation. "Why are you even bothering to help me?"

"Beside the fact that Zuko asked me?" Katara tightened her jaw while she scowled. "I'm helping because hopefully it will make me less bored. Not to mention I'm sure you already have some choice words about some of the ladies you've met. I think I'd like listening to you rant about them."

"I'm always happy to complain about some of these women. As far as I'm concerned I have no idea how some of their husbands don't burn them in their sleep."

"I like how you think."

"You really are just friends with Zuko?" Katara asked.

"You've got nothing to worry about. By the end there were too many times I was fingering my knives and wondering where best to throw them."

"Good because I think I might really be in love with him."

"Which is great because for as much as he talks about you he has to be at least on his way to being in love with you. Can you ask him to stop talking about you? Its more annoying than cute at this point."

Katara smiled into her tea, very happy it wasn't poisoned, that she didn't really have to worry about Mai wanting Zuko back, that he might really be in love with her, and that she might have just made her first friend in the Fire Nation nobility.