AN: Hope you enjoy. Reviews are always welcome.
We're working on chapter eleven as I post it. Maybe you'll get two chapters in one day? :D

Chapter Ten

Zuko walked slowly, trying to keep his head down. What he had done was wrong. He belonged to Mai.

He liked Mai. She was everything he wanted. She could defend herself and stand on her own. He liked that. She was quiet and didn't ask too many questions. He liked that.

And she was a good kisser. He liked that too.

He came up on the house, and he could immediately tell something was wrong.

It was dark inside. There wasn't too much out- not that there was before, as they had only been there for a few days, but the house didn't look like it had been stayed in.

"Mai?" he called out. No answer.

He looked around in their bedroom. The bed was neatly made, there were no clothes in the dressers, nothing.

He made his way to the kitchen. It was entirely empty, except for a knife and a note.

He recognized the knife as one of Mai's least favorites. She had always complained about it.

Not that she didn't complain about other things.

It was stuck into the table, pinning down a small piece of paper. That was never a good sign.

The note didn't have anything on it except an address, written in Mai's small handwriting.

Zuko frowned. He messed up. Badly. The Fire Lord proceeded to look around the empty house, opening drawers and cabinets, trying to find something, anything. Still nothing.

He sighed, running a frustrated hand through his hair. It wasn't like she didn't have her reason. Still...

The boy sat down in a chair and looked out the window. It was his fault, no doubt about it. His fault. Or Aurora's... The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to blame her.

Stop blaming her for everything! It's not her fault you cheated on Mai.

Right. It was Zuko's decision to kiss her and his decision alone. Aurora even called him on it, which only made it worse.

If he had thought life was complicated during the war, he was sadly mistaken. Life would always be complicated. Always. Again, the Fire Lord sighed. Running a country was difficult. Girls, on the other hand, were on a whole different level.

Mai was probably halfway to the Fire Nation at this point, and Zuko had pretty much no way of contacting her. He could send a messenger hawk... But the last time he left her a note, Zuko had wound up becoming a prisoner at the Boiling Rock. Probably not the best idea to try to apologize through a letter...

He sat down and held his head in his hands.

Somewhere, on a small island in the Fire Nation, several very broken people lived. Though, they didn't actually live; they were imprisoned, for their own goods.

And on that island, in that prison, sat a very angry firebender.

There was one problem with this institute, she mused. It has the potential to heal people, if only they want to be healed. It can change people's fundamental nature, but only if they wanted to be changed.

She had pushed everything back. One thing, and one thing only, kept her alive. Kept her thinking. It was rage.

She hated him. He had taken everything from her: her mother, her father, her friends, her crown, and now her dignity.

The very thought not only filled her with rage, but it also gave her the strength to go on. She would be avenged.

He had taken everything that mattered from her.

And she'd be damned if she didn't do the same to him.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Business was slow. That was no surprise, really. It was probably well after midnight. Everybody was asleep.

Except Ta Min. She very much wished she was asleep, but she was getting paid extra to work so late. She needed the money.

There wasn't much to do except sit and wait for her shift to end. She had organized and reorganized everything she could, eyed all the dresses and rated them in terms of how nice they looked, done everything there was to do.

There was a small ringing as somebody entered the shop. She didn't bother to look up- the people who came by this late were usually weird. The last sort of people she wanted to deal with.

"Wow. This place is boring after dark."

Now Ta Min looked up to see Aurora looking around.

"What are you doing here? It's probably after midnight. Shouldn't you be asleep?"

The golden-haired girl laughed. "Nah, I like the moon."

"I see." That girl truly was a strange one. "But what are you doing here?"

Aurora shrugged. "I dunno. I was just walking around and came in here. Not to mention- Oh! Shiny!"

She ran over to a shelf that held tiaras and hair ornaments, picking up a silver headband and trying it on.

"I get the strange feeling that you're following me," Min said.

Aurora didn't seem to be listening. "How does this look?" She spun around and showed off a small hair clip, beaded to look like some sort of flower.

"It looks nice, Aurora. It goes well with your hair color."

She beamed. "I've always loved Fire Lilies. They're so pretty, don't you think?"

Min agreed, coming to the conclusion that the clip was meant to mimic the Fire Lily.

"I think I'll get it," Aurora added, digging out her purse. "Fire Lilies are my favorite after all. Plus red is such a pretty color!"

Min rolled her eyes as she took the Water Tribe money. "Want me to wrap that?"

"Nope, I'll just wear it." The Water Tribe girl skipped, literally, over to a mirror and began to fix her hair. "It's been so long since I've seen a real Fire Lily..."

"Why haven't you seen one?" Ta Min wondered at how a girl who knew the Fire Lord could not have seen a Fire Lily in that long. Didn't she grow up in the Fire Nation?

Aurora hesitated. "The Fire Nation and I haven't exactly been on the best of terms for the past few years."

"Ah. I understand that."

"I miss it," she said wistfully. "It was always so pretty. The way the sun rose on the beach, the way the cherry blossoms would always bloom in the springtime..."

"Hm." Min thought back to her admittedly limited experience in the Fire Nation. "I suppose."

"You've been there?"

"I've been a lot of places."

"Well I guess that's another thing we have in common, huh?"

"I suppose so."

"You don't seem very eager to talk. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, Aurora, I'm just tired."

"Ah."

"Listen," Min said, "how about this. Nobody's coming by the shop tonight, and that includes my boss. So why don't I just close up early and we can both get some well-needed sleep."

Aurora smiled. "Sounds good to me!" she chirped.

Min quietly turned off each of the lamps and locked up the display cases. Then she and Aurora quietly stepped into the dark streets of Ba Sing Sei.