AN: Just for the information of my luvverly and wonderful reviewers: I update infrequently. Just know that there will always be another chapter coming. It may take a while, but I don't abandon something once I start it.
And like I said, I have a whole plotline for this story now. (Which usually means it turns out good. I started my fanfic 'Ugliness' without a plotline in mind, and it's suffering because of it. I must apologize for that.)
This is also going to be very stop-and-go. And what I mean by that is, it'll just be a compilation of scenes. Some of them will be short, some of them will be long. But they will all make the story, and they will all propel the action in some way. Expect it to get more exciting from here on out.
I don't think I could ever be a novelist. Blast.
I also have to thank my beta Taffy, for helping me make this the best that it can be. Luv you darling!
He had always been impulsive.
"Aku, I'm going to take you on a trip with me," Zuko told his nephew one afternoon. The boy turned his head up to face him, the sunlight brightening his pale skin.
"Yay!" he cried excitedly, clapping his hands and bouncing from where he sat on the ground. His voice echoed off of the brick walls of the courtyard; it made Zuko feel quite alone, all of the sudden, for reasons he couldn't understand. "We're gonna leave the palace?"
"Yes," he replied, leaning back against the tree behind him and slinging an arm over his knee. "But it's a secret, all right? You can't tell Mommy, and you can't tell any of the servants. Or any of your friends. Can you do that?" Aku nodded eagerly, biting his lip. Zuko smiled, ruffling the boy's jet-black hair. He ducked with a quiet giggle, and Zuko's smile only widened. "I'm going to come tonight, okay? When everyone else is asleep. Otherwise, they won't let me take you."
"Okay!"
He had always been impulsive.
-x-x-
It had been several days since his return from the North Pole. In those few days, he had rarely left Mai. They were almost always together—more often than not, in comfortable silence. Neither of them liked words very much. (He found no point—she had nothing to say. Both of them were content.)
But that night, although Zuko acted as if it was just another night, Mai knew something was wrong. And it was all too familiar.
Perhaps it was just the way he tended to avert his eyes. Maybe how he tried to avoid certain subjects, like Azula, or upcoming events at the palace. Possibly it was how he had barely touched his dinner, how he had held her hand for a little too long, how he had let that kiss linger like he was desperate to make it last—
—either way, she could play along. Even if just for a little while. Even if just to make him think she had noticed nothing at all, just like he wanted her to.
"I was thinking we could go down to the harbor tomorrow," she began casually. They lay reclined on the couch, watching the last of the sun's rays fade behind the mountains. She felt Zuko's hand tighten slightly against hers.
"Yeah, that sounds nice," he replied, resting his cheek on the top of her head.
He said no more about it, and Mai's suspicions only rose.
"How is Aku?"
He shifted slightly on the couch, before responding: "He's doing very well. His tutor says he's a very bright student."
…Except Mai hadn't been asking about his academics.
And he said no more about it.
With a sigh, she leaned into his chest and laced her fingers through his. "Something must be wrong," she said contentedly. (As she had predicted, his entire body tensed.) "I can't possibly be this happy."
She felt him relax underneath her.
Stroking her hair away from her neck, he replied, "Maybe that just means that nothing is wrong."
"Mmm. Maybe."
-x-x-
It had almost been too easy. He had simply eased himself off the bed, changed swiftly into dark clothes, and wrapped a black cloak around himself. Then he had grabbed his pack (hidden underneath the bed), and left through the servant's door. Mai had never stirred.
His face lay in shadow from the darkness of his hood, although it didn't make much of a difference in the pitch black of midnight. He still felt comforted by it. Even if he did meet someone, they wouldn't be able to recognize his scar.
But that wasn't likely anyway. Who would be outside in the middle of the night?
He crept along the wall, intending to make his way to the side street that would take him to the palace—
—and he nearly collided with a woman who was waiting just around the corner, leaning casually against the bricks, looking at him with a hint of resentment and anger in her eyes.
"Mai?" he whispered in astonishment, throwing back his hood. She raised an eyebrow.
"Where are you going, Zuko?" she asked plainly in that flat voice he knew so well.
He also knew it would be useless to lie to her, since she already seemed to know so much.
"To the palace."
"To the palace…" she repeated quietly. "To do what? Pay your sister a nighttime visit?"
He scowled, now on the defensive. "I was going to see Aku."
"Aku. And your nephew will of course be wide awake in the middle of the night, waiting for you."
"I told him to expect me."
"Of course you did. What are you going to do when you get there, Zuko? Play games with the child?"
There was no use in lying.
"I'm going to take him away, Mai. I'm going to take him away from Azula."
He couldn't tell whether she had been waiting for that response or if it had surprised her. Either way, she did not respond for several long moments.
"When were you going to tell me this?" she asked him at last, in a very, very low, dangerous voice.
Zuko ducked his head slightly, the guilt striking him not for the first time. "I wasn't," he said simply. "I thought it would be better if you didn't know. Then when they asked, you wouldn't have to lie."
"Was that the only reason?"
She knew. And she was pushing.
"No," he sighed. "I also thought you would try to stop me."
She remained silent.
"Mai, I'm going to take him," he stated defiantly, looking up at her. "I can't stand around and watch as Azula hurts him and ignores him. I won't leave him there."
She stepped out from the shadows of the house, walking forward until their faces were inches away. "But you were going to leave me," she said flatly. "You were going to leave me to wander the palace, a wife whose husband left her to kidnap the crown prince, someone who will always be whispered about, always be pitied."
"I thought you would be happier," he protested, although even she could see that he was beginning to sag. "I thought it would be better."
"You said that the last time you left me," she replied bitterly. "You said you didn't want to hurt me."
"And I don't."
"Then why won't you bring me with you? Why won't you tell me that you're leaving?" Her voice had taken on a faint plaintive, pleading tone, one that made his heart ache. It wasn't that evident—anyone who didn't know her wouldn't have heard the change in her voice. To them, it would have seemed as flat as ever. But Zuko heard it. And Agni, it hurt him.
She didn't wait for a reply, instead taking his face in her hands and looking him in the eye. "I'm going with you, Zuko, whether you want me to or not. You aren't leaving me again, not this time."
-x-x-
Two days later…
"Hi."
Mai looked around, her gaze finally falling on the small boy standing beside her. He was looking up at her with wide golden eyes, his head tilted to one side.
"Hi," she replied blankly.
"What's your name?"
"Mai."
"May…May…like the month?"
"Yes."
"That's pretty. I like May. May is nice."
Mai didn't respond. She hadn't talked to Aku at all since they had left the capital. Zuko had carried him from the palace to the harbor, and from the docks to the ship. Zuko was the one who made sure he had enough to eat, Zuko was the one who made sure the boy didn't stray too far. Mai had just lingered off to the side, watching, occasionally wondering why she had wanted to go so badly.
Then Zuko would leave his nephew to stand with her at the ship's railing, and all those worries would be forgotten.
"Are you my aunt?"
"…I think so." After all, Zuko was his uncle by blood. She was married to Zuko. So technically…
"Good. I hoped so."
Then, out of nowhere, with no warning at all, he took her hand in his and turned so that he was watching the ocean with her. She glanced down in surprise; sensing her gaze on him, he looked up and smiled. "Auntie Mai, where are we going? Uncle Zuko wouldn't say."
She flinched inwardly at being called 'Auntie Mai'.
"We're going to the Earth Kingdom," she said. "To Lingsi."
"Lingsi? What's that?"
"It's the new capitol of the 'Free Earth Kingdom'."
"I thought Ba Seng See was the capitol."
"Ba Sing Se. It was." Technically it still is, she thought to herself. But she didn't say it aloud; even she knew it was better not to confuse a child.
After Ba Sing Se fell to the Fire Nation, it was no longer a safe haven for refugees. A city in the southeastern region of the continent was chosen as the capitol for the 'Free Earth Kingdom'. It became the new destination for all Earth Kingdom citizens trying to escape the Fire Nation, and it housed several legions of earthbenders who protected them. They had been gathering most of the earthbenders in the nation for quite some time, and now held the most powerful bending army in the world—aside from the Fire Nation. Lingsi was considered to be the last sanctuary of the Earth Kingdom.
"Why isn't it anymore?"
Mai took her hand from his, leaning her forearms on the railing and looking out to sea. "Because now it belongs to the Fire Nation," she said quietly.
"Oh."
It was shocking how much he seemed to understand.
"Auntie Mai," she flinched again, "can you firebend?"
"No."
"But Uncle Zuko said you were a really good fighter."
She turned to him, the beginnings of a smile tugging at her mouth. "Did he, now? I suppose he was talking about this—"
She swiftly withdrew a stiletto from her sleeve, pitching it at the nearby wall. It struck the metal with a clang, piercing it in the exact center of a small dent. Aku's eyes grew extraordinarily wide.
"Wow," he breathed. "That's so awesome!"
Mai smirked. "Took me a while to figure out how to do it," she said, walking over to pluck the knife from the iron wall. "But if you have a teacher, I suppose you can learn it pretty fast."
"Can you teach me, Auntie Mai?"
This time, the name seemed so natural, she didn't flinch at all.
"Of course. You don't need firebending to be able to kick ass."
"Yeah!"
Zuko was going to kill her.