ooo
'Oh no!' The words stuck in Mai's throat and her stomach clenched in dread. She started to run.
"Zuko!"
"Zuko! Zuko!"
The weather-worn wood creaked under her feet as Mai hastened down the dark path winding through the dunes and toward the crowd at the far end of the half-moon shaped beach. A bonfire cast everything in flickering orange light. Mai, movements fueled by adrenaline, tried to find reassurance in the familiar presence of the darts on her wrists. There were drums and the crowd was chanting and stomping and cheering Zuko on, in what, knowing Zuko, could only be a fight. Her fingers touched the sharpened tips of her darts lightly. She might have to use them soon.
Zuko's name echoed on in the dark and Mai sighed in aggravation, wondering who had managed to goad Zuko into a fight now. Not that that was hard at any given day. If the Fire Lord were handing out medals for being a hot-headed idiot …
"Zuko! Zuko!"
The chanting grew louder with every step and Mai had to elbow her way through the cheering people, ready to defend her idiot, wondering what trouble Zuko's honor had gotten him into this time.
"Zuko! Zuko!"
Fire limbo. Mai stopped dead in her track, eyes widening minutely at the spectacle in front of her. Her arms, ready to shoot sharp darts at whoever was attacking Zuko, dropped to her side in exasperation. She took in the scene, the flaming limbo stick, the cheering onlookers, the black sand glittering like so many diamonds in the firelight and the fact that Zuko was blatantly, obviously not wearing a shirt. Mai wetted her suddenly dry lips, eyes following the golden firelight dancing over his muscles as he moved in rhythm with the music.
Someone was playing the tsungi horn in the distance and the rhythmic chanting and stomping of the cheering onlookers filled the air, mingling with the music, transforming it into an eerie song that made her stomach tighten and her palms sweaty, making her afraid that despite all that had happened that day, that this was after all just a dream, that she would wake from it sad and longing and alone in her rooms in the palace Caldera.
The drums picked up their beat as Zuko inched his way forward under the flaming stick and Mai's eyes were once more drawn to him. Mai swallowed, unable to pull her eyes away from how the flames and shadows danced over his sweaty skin and she felt drawn to him in a way that surpassed desire and lust. She worried her lower lip, taking a step closer. Zuko's top-knot nearly touched the sand. He was bent over backwards and sideways, the burning limbo-stick inches above his chest, making it glisten with fire lit sweat. He did have rather nice abs, she thought, mesmerized by the movement of his pecs, so dangerously, deliciously close to the flaming limbo-stick, and it would be a shame to waste that view. Mai bit down on her bottom-lip.
Maybe fire limbo was not so stupid after all.
With one graceful motion, and the roaring approval of the crowd, Zuko swung his upper body free of the limbo stick, and back-flipped to his feet.
"For HONOR!" Zuko hollered and punched the air with a gust of fire that roared triumphantly high into the night sky, before bowing in all directions with exaggerated flourish. One of the girls broke from the crowd, throwing herself at Zuko, drawing him into an exuberant hug. What by Angi? Mai pursed her lips, and crossed her arms in front of her chest, as Zuko twirled the girl around. She contemplated the merit of one well-placed dart that would put an end to Zuko's misery. The girl was awfully pretty.
Zuko disentangled himself from his fan and his eyes found Mai's in the crowd and, to her annoyance, she blushed as he winked at her. Stupid Zuko. Stupid, stupid fire limbo.
"Mai!" He grinned as he walked over to her, pulling her flush against his chest and into a kiss. Her fingers slid over the still fire warmed skin of his chest up to his cheek, and into his hair, her thumb coming to rest where a scar should be. No. Mai set her jaw, angry at herself for even thinking it. Never should have been.
Zuko tugged a lock of hair behind her ear, looking at her with an intensity that had her knees go weak. He chuckled self-consciously. "You're beautiful when you're annoyed with me."
Mai scowled at that, but Zuko expertly caught her hand as she was about to push him away, twining their fingers. "Come on." He gently pulled her away from the crowd toward where the boulders dropped off into the sea and a smaller, half hidden, more private fire was lit. "Chan and Ruon-Jian are waiting for us." Then he leaned closed, whispering conspiratorially. "They've been saving us the good stuff."
The good stuff? What exactly… And who are - but before she could ask, Zuko whisked her off to the quieter side of the party, where a smaller fire was burning cheerfully in the shelter of a group of boulders.
"That was awesome, man!" A tall guy with an octo-shark tooth dangling from a leather band around his neck got up and clapped Zuko on the shoulder.
"Chan! Dude, you missed one amped up coronation!" Zuko let go of Mai and pulled Chan into a bear-hug. "They had fireworks and, dude, you won't believe how awesome that open bar was!" His arm still around Chan's shoulder, Zuko scanned the beach, obviously looking for someone, then shrugged, and socked Chan in the shoulder. "Best spiky I've smoked in ages. Gotta tell you though, man, pregaming with my sister is just not the same!"
"That'll teach you to go to some stupid coronation instead of hanging with your bros." Chan grinned widely and Mai rolled her eye at him, watching the two of them, feeling oddly happy that this Zuko did have friends.
Chan clapped Zuko on the back again. "You've been missing out on one hell of a party yourself, dude! It's wicked bad luck that your grandpa died the same week as the Fire Lord."
What now? Fire Lord Azulon was still Zuko grandfather, right? That hadn't changed, had it? Hadn't Zuko said earlier that Iroh was Fire Lord now? Mai looked from Chan to Zuko and then back to Chan, searching is face for clues whether this was a joke or not.
"You do know…" Mai started but someone pushed past her, interrupting.
"Sorry about that."
A boy about their age, crouched down by the boulders, a squat flame on his palm, frantically inspecting the pile of sandals people had toed off at one point or another during the evening.
"Have you seen a pair of pink sandals? With little white shells?" He sighed and closed his hand, extinguishing the flame as he turned to them, a sinking look on his face. "It's, like really important."
"Ty Lee lost her sandals again?" Zuko sounded oddly amused and Mai gave him a sidelong look wondering why Ty Lee losing her shoes was even remotely funny.
"Yeah. She said we'd …" The guy gave them a self-conscious little shrug before his eyes went wide and he dropped to his knees, kowtowing. "Your Royal Highness, I meant no disrespect." He pressed his forehead against the sand, panic making his voice tremble.
As he should, Mai thought. At least someone remembered their manners. Chan started snickering and Mai looked from him to an amused looking Zuko and back to the guy frantically apologizing for his rudeness, wondering what was so funny.
"Is that the first one tonight?" Chan chuckled and Mai was starting to feel annoyed at being left out of the joke. No matter how lame it most likely was.
"The first of what?" she snapped, folding her arms in front of her.
Zuko gestured for the boy to get up. "Try over by the palm tree with the swing. I think I saw them there earlier."
"Thank you, sir!" He bowed to Zuko, face flaming, before quickly heading in the direction Zuko had pointed him at. "I'll do that, sir."
"Losers." Chan turned to Mai to answer her question. "You won't believe the number of idiots who mistake him for a prince." He shrugged. "Happens every night."
"Yeah, it takes a special kind of idiot…" Mai started but Zuko interrupted her by pulling her closer to his side. He planted a kiss on the tender spot on her neck and she gasped.
"Be nice Mai," Zuko whispered, "For me. I know he's and idiot, but he's my best friend." Zuko looked at her with those… eyes, and Mai blushed, feeling like her ten year old self again, self-conscious and tongue-tied and helplessly in love. She fought the urge to turn her head away as she had done so many years ago, and then thankfully, finally Zuko pulled her into a kiss.
The waves licked at her feet and Mai took a step back, breaking the kiss. Zuko's hand came to rest at the small of her back and she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. Part of her insisted that she really should not let him manipulate her like that, that she needed to grow some immunity against the butterflies in her belly that he put there by simply looking at her.
The moon shone onto the gentle waves and Mai looked out onto the dark ocean annoyed with herself. Why couldn't she let herself be happy? Wasn't this how it was supposed to be, Zuko happy, at her side, caring about her, wanting her? What, by Agni, was wrong with her?
"Mai?" Zuko's hand slid from her back to her waist, squeezing gently.
"Yes?" Mai shook her head to clear it of the unwanted thoughts.
"Do you want some punch?"
"Not really," Mai murmured, more focused on his fingers pressing into her bare skin than his words.
"Hey, that was only that one time." Zuko grinned apologetically. "They promised me 'no more surprise cactus'."
"I guess." Mai shrugged.
"I'll test it first." Zuko got up and winked at her, before kissing her on the cheek. "And no pink umbrella, I promise."
Mai sat down on one of the boulders and watched Zuko and Chan pouring punch from their oh-so-secret stash into cups, holding a conversation that seemed to consist of nothing but bro-fists, 'awesome' and 'sweet'. Mai rolled her eyes at them and let her attention drifted back to the ocean and the moonlit waves gently rolling onto the beach.
"Good evening." Mai turned, facing a teenager with overlong bangs offering her a cup. He flipped his bangs in what looked way too casual to not be a well practiced motion and leaned casually against the bolder, pointing a finger gun at her. "Mai."
"That's my name." Mai took the cup from him, balancing it on the rock beside her. "Thanks."
"You're welcome." He did that finger gun thing again Mai shuddered when his smile turned into a leer and his eyes lingered on her chest. Suppressing the urge to pull her scarf close, her free hand inched toward her knives, wondering what he was even looking at. It wasn't like she was Ty Lee in the chest department. But before she could make up her mind about what to do to him, Zuko stepped in front of her.
"Cut it out, Ruon-Jian, that's my girlfriend," Zuko growled, pushing him. The other boy stumbled backwards, lost his footing and landed ass first on the sand, glaring up at Zuko.
"Or what?" Ruon-Jian picked himself up from the ground.
"Or," Zuko's hand shot out, meeting Ruon-Jian's mid-air. "AGNI KAI!"
Oh great Agni, Mai scowled, were they seriously going to fight an Agni-Kai right here and now?
She stepped back as they circled each other in the orange glow of the fire, dodging each other's blows and Mai fiddled with the straw in her drink, watching them, wondering if Agni Kais shouldn't contain more actual fire and not just punches and kicks, when, with one swift move Zuko crouched low and kicked out Ruon-Jian's legs from under him. Ruon-Jian went down with a thud and Zuko loomed over him.
"Totally owned you, man!" Zuko crowed, helping him up. "Totally owned you!"
"Drink?" Ruon-Jian brushed the sand off his clothes, fussing with his hair in a way that started to annoy Mai, before slinging an arm around Zuko's shoulders, steering him toward the punch. "Dude you gotta tell me all about that coronation!"
Wait, they're friends? Seriously?! Mai swirled her own drink in her cup, contemplating all that had happened today. This is what a happy Zuko is like? She was happy for him having friends, no really she was. Now that she thought back on it, he'd never had any, not even back before-
"Mai?" Mai turned away from where Zuko and the other two where refilling their cups. A teenage girl with pigtails gave Mai a sad look. "You haven't seen a pair of white sandals with tiny shells on them?"
"Ty Lee's?" Mai asked, more curious by the minute. The girl nodded vigorously and Mai looked her up and down, were they friends, or acquaintances? Why did that girl knew her name?
"No." Mai kept studying her face, wondering if she should care what the other girl's name was. "There was a boy looking for them earlier."
The girl's mouth pinched and she narrowed her eyes. "That was Huo-Ran, wasn't it?"
"Could be." Mai shrugged, this not knowing names game was starting to get boring.
"That bastard." The girl stomped her foot, sending sparks flying into the night. "Did you see where he went?"
Mai pointed toward the dunes, vaguely in the direction he'd gone off to.
"Why?" Mai asked, but the girl was already running, disappearing in the crowd. Then she shrugged. Whatever.
"Thanks for nothing." Mai muttered, taking a sip of her drink. It was sweet, but not sweet enough to completely hide the bite of the alcohol. Mai swirled the contents in her cup, the quickly melting ice-cubes clinking against the side.
She startled and turned when someone put a hand on her shoulder.
"You don't want to drink that swill." Azula took the cup from her, disdainfully emptying it on the sand, refilling it with something fizzy and peach-smelling.
"Hey look what Zuko taught me earlier!" Azula sat down next to Mai, putting the bottle down on the sand beside her. She held out Mai's cup in both hands, staring intently down at it, concentrating. Ice formed on the rim of the cup and Azula pointed two fingers at the sky, breathing hard, letting the heat flow through her and Mai had to lean away from the intense heat rolling off Azula's hand. She glared at Azula. That better not have singed her hair.
Azula handed the cup back to Mai. "Oops."
"Thanks." Mai took the frozen solid drink, putting it on the rock next to her. At least the over-kill part of Azula's personality seemed to be intact. "Much better."
"Hi Sis." Zuko trailed his fingers over Mai's bare shoulder, and she leaned up into a kiss. He picked up Mai's frozen drink and whistled under his breath. "I didn't think you could freeze that. I'm impressed."
"Why, thanks." Azula stuck her tongue out at Zuko. "Want mine?" She picked up her bottle and topped her drink off, before offering her cup to Mai.
"All yours." Mai shook her head, not sure if flammable went well with fizzy peach.
Azula looked at them slyly. "You wouldn't happen to have seen Ty Lee's shoes, would you?"
"Not you too." Zuko face-palmed. "You seriously fell for Ty Lee's crap?"
"Did not!" Azula protested, her eyes widening in comprehension. She picked up a pebble and threw it at the ocean. It hit the water with a hiss. "Why does she have to do this?" Azula's expression settled into a pout. She poked her index-finger at the basalt, leaving red hot indentations, muttering to herself, "I thought we were good."
"Did you fight?" Zuko asked, sympathy in his voice. She nodded.
Mai snuggled into Zuko's arm, leaning her head against his shoulder. "What's this all about?" she whispered.
"The shoes?" Zuko sighed. "Just Ty Lee being Ty Lee. Sometimes I think it would be kinder to just drown them."
Mai snickered. She should have figured. Ty Lee'd pulled stunts for attention ever since they were children. People falling all over themselves to get a chance at getting into Ty Lee's pants, was not exactly a surprise, Azula falling for it, though, that was unexpected.
"Ladies." Chan sidled up to them and bowed, then, noticing Azula, let out a low whistle. "First time here on Ember Island?"
Azula took a swig from her bottle. "No, silly, my family comes here every summer."
Chan plucked the umbrella from his drink and leaned over tucking it behind Azula's ear. "You're too pretty to look that sad."
"You think I'm pretty?"
Mai stood slack-jawed as Azula giggled and twirled a lock of her hair around her index-finger, batting her eyes at a very impressed Chan.
"Did you see that?" And Mai was about to say that she'd wished she hadn't, when Zuko pointed back at Ruon-Jian and proudly puffed up his chest. "I totally owned him."
Mai rolled her eyes at him. "Wow."
"Yeah, totally -" Zuko stopped, scrunching up his face at Chan checking out Azula. "Ew, dude, that's my sister!"
Chan ignored his friend and winked at Azula, pointing a finger-gun at her. "Why, hello there, Zuko's sister!"
"Not cool dude, not cool." Zuko got up and socked Chan in the arm. "Bros before -" He glanced at a glaring Azula and amended, "… sisters."
Mai picked up Azula's abandoned cup and downed the contents. She shuddered at the taste, holding it out to Azula for a refill. She had a feeling she was going to need this.
Later, when Chan and Azula had left to into 'look at the constellations', and Zuko was defending his honor against Ruon-Jian with a keg-stand in front of a cheering crowd, Mai stood alone in the shadows, unable to shake the feeling that, no matter how happy Zuko seemed, how happy she should be, that something was deeply, horribly wrong.