Maiko Month prompt Day 31: Rage [2 days late]
Continuation of Apathy
Summary: Part two of BlueSpirit!Zuko x Mai shenanigans.
AN: I cut it short, so it doesn't feel as completed as I wanted, I might just…iono I might write more on it later. And I cut out Jet, which makes me sad, so I'll have to def write more.
It happened differently the next time. He was able to sit, and watch and observe. She'd sit vigil, read a book lazily, and he couldn't help but wonder what she was straying away from. Literature was always her escape, next to knives, (which he now knows she had continued to practice during his leave). It was easy to ask when he was thirteen, they were close then, but now she wasn't even capable of putting a name to his face.
Distance, as it was, apparently shattered them both. Zuko had to throw away his name sake, and Mai lost all ability to be herself. They were the same in that way, lack of identity, or at least they had buried those things within themselves.
She didn't know she could find him so easily behind a streak of blue, and he wasn't even aware she missed him. Oblivious insight into the other's thoughts, and Zuko could only guess how it would play out had he revealed himself.
His mind wandered too far the last night, and she found him again, perched on the edge of a rooftop, his elbows resting on his knees.
"Are you going to tell me why you've been watching me?" No fear, and no shock laced her tone, just as before.
Zuko jumped then, being pulled back into reality, and reaching to run his fingers along the curves of his mask. Being sure, he was maintaining his masquerade. "No reason."
"Oh, I'm sure, because everyone just picks a girl to stalk in Ba Sing Se."
"Stop calling me a stalker!"
A smirk tugged at her lips then, "—stalker."
Zuko growled, resisting every urge to leap downward, and force another altercation as before. A soft breath breath from his lips, and let himself calm down. "I just—I come here every night, it's not my fault that you do, too."
"So what's with the mask?"
"I'm not everyone's favorite person."
"It's no reason to hide your face."
"It's more complicated than that."
"Then at least have the decency to give me a name."
His own played at the tip of his tongue. He wanted to tell her, and remove the mask, and see what she thought of the man he had become, but instead, his breath hitched before it could even start to annunciate the first letter.
"Lee."
"Well, Lee. It's nice to meet you."
"—and yours."
"Good try, but no." Her face fell into a deadpan, and she reached up into her sleeves. Reflexively he tensed getting ready to move as soon as her wrist flicked.
Of course as he expected, she threw, and he dodged (albeit a little narrowly.) They stayed that way, Mai throwing, and Zuko not being able to make any ground. He bobbed and weaved fluidly, and Mai almost wanted to applaud his persistance before throwing her last stiletto, and watching it graze the size of his mask. It cut straight through, and he paused breathing hard as the shallow gash in his cheek spilled red over the blue.
"Dammit, Mai." He growled, running his fingers up his fingesr across the rim of the crack of his mask.
"—-wh-what'd you just call me?"
It clicked then, and her brow furrowed, trying to put together pieces. He—knew her. She knew she hadn't given her name, so how could he possibly have derived such a thing without any former influence on the thought.
Zuko panicked, sprinting in the opposite direction, his breathe sloppy and ragged, and his heart throbbed in his chest. He could her steps behind, quiet and precise, and he attempted to take back to the roof. Before he could even gather his weight he was slammed into the wall.
She tripped him, it was pathetic. She used his panic and sloppiness and tripped him. "Who—are you?" Her voice held a quizzical tone, laced with more question than he was capable of answering. Zuko shifted awkwardly, trying to find his footing and a way to get her out of the way. She noted that, and pressed a knife into his chest, the point balancing perfectly over his pulse.
"Don't move.." she almost whispered it, and her free hand slipped behind his head, pulling back his hood, and revealing hair, and then she went for the sashes.
"Mai, stop.." he closed his eyes, there was no used hiding that fact now, he knew her name, and within seconds she'd know his.
She pulled at the last knot, letting the painted wood fall to the floor. At first, she just examined her handiwork, the blood of the gash, and the trail of crimson down his cheek. Then the left, rough, marred flesh, dark and healed over and she could tell it must've stole some sight. He breath had caught, and her expression almost faltered, showing something had he seen, would likely be considered pain.
He opened then, revealing gold, and meeting the softer shade of her own, and instantaneously looked down. "—so I take you remember me.." he could feel the pressure of the knife removed from his chest, and he started to push himself from the wall. Instead, he was met with a weak, forced hit in the face.
"Remember you, Zuko?" Mai's eyes narrowed, and he could see her anger, she was seething, and she should. He left her alone for three years, for nothing but a childish mistake. "Tch, of course I remember you, idiot. You left—and you…you never came back!"
He closed his eyes again, having seen tears starting to glaze over the gold. "You know I never wanted—"
"Look at me!"
He opened his eyes just slightly meeting her gaze once more.
"How long have you been here."
"A few months."
"When did you find me?"
"A couple weeks."
"Why didn't you—ugh! Agni-dammit Zuko!" He hit him then, repeatedly, each blow getting weaker and her eyes starting to grow more clouded with tears through her rage. She had dropped her emotionless visage, and he took her hits as they came, until she stopped, and she was only left with a weak beating on his chest.
He took her hands then, holding them in his own, before trailing them up and wiping her tears. "I don't remember you ever crying."
"Because I never have, not in front of you."
He was panting, his breath shaking lightly, and now the wound on his cheek bled more. She collapsed into him then, clinging to his shirt, and burying her face into his chest.
"You're so stupid—" Mai's words came out muffled, just above a whisper, and instinctively she wrapped her arms around his waist.
He didn't need a forced out, broken, 'i've missed you', he knew. Careful finger trailed up her back, and rested on her head, pressing her there, his face buried into her hair. "I know, and I—never meant to leave you alone."
