IT LIIIIIIIVES. Somehow I got all Avatar feely again and wanted to go back to this fic. I can't promise quicker updates from here on out, but I can try to make sure there's not a 4-year gap between chapters.
The next morning, Zuko was dressed and packed before Iroh and Mai had even woken up. Home. I'm going home, he thought over and over again, trying to drown out the small part of him that knew better. A tiger-leopard couldn't change its stripes, but Azula wasn't a tiger-leopard and neither was Father. Just once, Azula could be telling the truth. Just once.
"Zuko?"
"Oh." He turned around. Mai was still in her underclothes, a blanket wrapped around her. "So, are you coming or not?"
"Something about this still doesn't seem right," she said. "Why send a messenger alone, with no letter? You'd think the Fire Lord would make it more official than by the way, dad wants you to come home."
"It's not important how the message got here," Zuko said. "The important thing is, someone bothered to come give it to me and now we get to go home. Come on, Mai, don't you miss sleeping in a real bed? Eating real food?" Mai rolled her eyes.
"Does it even matter? No matter where we are I'll still think you're being an idiot," she said. "But if you're being an idiot then obviously someone needs to babysit you, and your uncle deserves a rest. So I might as well."
"Good." She could call him an idiot every day for the rest of their lives if she wanted, as long as she was on his side. "Get dressed and get all your things together, the ship will be here soon." He left before she could ask about Uncle, or question him further. Maybe I should just leave her with Uncle, then at least Azula can't...
But if Father wanted him home, maybe Azula would treat him with more respect. Maybe she'd stop trying to take his friends away, burning him, mocking him...maybe she'd act the way a sister should towards her brother.
Quietly, he motioned for Mai to follow him. The ship awaited for him, and so did home.
"Wait!"
A voice caught his attention; he and Mai turned around to see Iroh walking towards them, his bags packed and a smile on his face.
"Uncle." Zuko's face spoke for both of them. "You've changed your mind?"
"Family sticks together." He placed a hand on each of their shoulders, and Zuko couldn't help smiling. I knew you'd see things our way. And even if he hated to admit it, he'd never really wanted to leave his uncle behind.
"Let's go," he said, and they approached the ship. Two columns of royal guards stood before the lowered ramp, Azula at their head; Mai's eyes widened.
"What's she doing here?! You didn't say anything about this, Zuko," she hissed. Zuko bit his lip guiltily, deep down he'd known it was a bad idea to lie when Mai would find out anyway.
"I can explain, the thing is-"
"Well. Such a small world, isn't it?" Azula interrupted, coming to stand between the,. "Mai, my dear friend. You didn't tell me you were traveling with these two!" Mai smiled, and Zuko couldn't tell if it was real or not.
"My apologies, Azula. It slipped my mind."
"That doesn't matter, though, does it?" Zuko said. "We're going home."
"Right." Azula turned to a man standing beside her. "Set a course for the Fire Nation, captain." The man nodded, raising a hand.
"You heard the princess! Raise the anchors! We're taking the prisoners home!" Zuko's heart nearly stopped. Prisoners?! So that's why Azula had come with all those guards, he thought. How stupid could he have been to believe her, Azula always lies.
Mai and Iroh didn't look the least bit surprised, though. Iroh went straight for one column of guards, Mai for the other. That left Zuko alone with his sister, and while his firebending had improved well enough in the last few months, but Azula was still Azula and she was better than him. She even had the blue fire to prove it.
No matter, though, he'd fight as hard as he could. If he managed to beat her, maybe he could still go home after all. Maybe finally beating Azula would give him back at least some of the honor he'd lost back then. Azula would return beaten and disgraced, Zuko would return victorious. Father will love me again...
"Hya!" he shouted, aiming his strongest fire blast at her, hoping to at least knock her off balance. But her balance was just as good as ever and it was a miracle he didn't get knocked down by her retaliation.
"Father never wanted you home! If he ever did it would be to lock you away where you could never embarrass him by existing!"
"Shut up!" Zuko snapped, dodging another blast of her blue fire and fighting back the hurt he felt from those words. Azula always lies and she's lying again, Father still cares! Even if he didn't really want me home...he still cares! He does! He raised his hand to fire again, but she grabbed his wrist.
"You were saying?"
"Zuko!" his uncle shouted, rushing past the unconscious guards; Zuko felt the pressure lifted from his arm, and watched as his uncle easily defeated Azula with a single shot of fire. Azula growled, struggling to her feet and shoving past Iroh.
"See? You still couldn't beat me on your own, Zuzu," she said, lips curling up into a cruel smile. "No wonder Father wishes you'd never been born."
"Liar!" Zuko spat. Azula ignored him and turned to Mai.
"And as for you," she said. "It's not too late to abandon these two rejects and come back with me. You can live the life of a noblewoman again. A real bed, all the finest foods, servants at your beck and call. And of course, your place at my side." She smirked, smoothing her hair back into place, and Zuko's heart sank. Once again, she manages to take something away from me. He bent his head in defeat and waited.
"No." Zuko's head snapped up in surprise.
"What?" he and Azula both asked at the same time, for different reasons.
-x-
From the moment she'd seen Azula, she'd known the girl was up to no good. Even back when they were children Azula had never been a pleasant person. Zuko had been the main reason she'd let her family cozy up to the royal family, she didn't care about status as much as she did about making friends with him. Azula had just dragged her along with her and Ty Lee. Sure, they'd had some good times together but Azula was bossy, and Mai mostly stuck around for Ty Lee's sake.
She, Zuko and Iroh had bonded more than she ever had with Azula over the last three years. She wasn't about to throw that away for the sake of one bossy girl.
"I've spent my whole life doing what other people wanted me to do," she said, looking Azula square in the eye. "My parents, our teachers, you. This time I'm doing what I want, and that's staying with my best friend and his uncle. The only way you'll get me to come along with you is by taking me prisoner, too."
Azula sputtered for a moment, looking as if Mai had just grown another head. She seemed to seriously consider the offer, then finally threw up her hands and marched back on board the ship.
"So it looks like now I have three traitors to punish," she snapped. "This is far from over."
They stood at the door, watching the ship slowly sail away and glaring after Azula until the back of her head was no more than a speck on the horizon. Zuko and Iroh came to her sides, each one putting a hand on her shoulder and smiling in gratitude.
"Thanks, Mai," Zuko said. "Sorry I lied to you. I thought you would choose her over me, but...I shouldn't have doubted you, not after all we've been through." Mai snorted.
"You're right, you shouldn't have. You guys are my family now, and families stick together," she said, then blushed at how sappy that sounded. "Besides, Azula's way too bossy anyway." But the sentiment wasn't lost on either man, and they smiled.
"Well, we should gather our things and get as far away from here as possible," Iroh said. "It's a shame, though, I was getting to like this place."
They packed their things and left as quickly as they could, as if Azula might return for them any moment. When they reached a remote stream surrounded by silence, they knew they were safe. Once they were able to settle down, Zuko turned to Mai and Iroh, swallowing.
"Mai, Uncle..." he began, scratching his head uncomfortably. "I'm sorry I've been such a pain these last few days. Especially to you, Uncle...the things I said, I...well, you were right and I was just being stupid."
"So what else is new?" Mai smiled. "It's not completely your fault anyway, Azula's good at this lying business. You just have to stop taking her seriously."
"She's right," Iroh said. "Furthermore, my nephew, words spoken in the heat of anger or pain are seldom true. And I am sorry for being short with you as well."
Zuko sighed.
"I guess this is it, then. We're fugitives. Outcast from the Fire Nation forever." He drew a knife from the folds of his robe. "There's only one thing left to do," he said. Iroh glanced at the knife, then at Zuko and nodded solemnly.
-x-
The two discarded topknots floated lazily down the river, Mai watching them for several moments before turning back to her now-bald companions.
"So...should I cut my hair, too? Or do enough girls have long black hair that it won't be a problem?" she asked.
"Whatever you want," Zuko said. Mai thought for a moment, then cut the ties holding her hair in its usual buns and let it fall loose around her shoulders. Then, she braided it loosely, tied it with a piece of twine from her pack, piled the braid onto her head and wrapped a scarf around it.
"This should work for now!" she said with a wry smile. Iroh laughed heartily, and even Zuko managed to crack a smile.
The trio stood by the river in contemplation. Once a Prince, a retired general and a noblewoman, they were now simply peasants and even more than that, runaways. It was simultaneously the most liberating and the most terrifying feeling in the world. Now more than ever Mai wondered where they would go from here, and how they would adjust to the hardships that lay ahead.