this was supposed to be posted last night but i didn't publish it since i didn't quite like what i ended up with... so i revised it (whole lot of it) and here's what i came up with... admittedly, it's still lacking the kind of emotion i wanted in it and there's very poor transitioning, but this'll do for now...
there's so much speculation on stuff about the Fire Nation history in this story that if i said something wrong, i'm admitting to it right now...
two more prompts and i'm done with the SMW2011...
here's for History...
The sun was hiding behind thick clouds and the entire afternoon was covered with the cold breeze coming from the open windows of Mai's chambers. Mai decided to spend the afternoon in her room, lazily lounging on the couch with an open scroll on her lap instead of staying in the garden. She gave the neatly written words on the piece of parchment her full attention, while occasionally raising an eyebrow when she read something that piqued her interest. Although she may never admit it to anyone, what she's currently reading had been the least boring piece of literature she'd read since she read an article in the dreary, dull library in Earth Kingdom Palace - which she only happened to visit to get away from Azula and temporarily distance herself from the cheery presence of Ty Lee.
A smirk found its way to her thin, aptly colored lips as she thought of how definitely intriguing royalties were.
Just as she was about to roll the scroll back into place, Zuko came bursting into her room. As soon as he saw that she was seated on the plush couch, he went straight to sit beside Mai and in return, she immediately moved her feet to accommodate Zuko's intrusion to her personal space.
As soon as he was comfortably seated, where his head was cushioned by the pillows neatly placed on the edge of the couch, with Mai positioned in front of him, her head leaning on his broad chest, and his arms around her waist, he eyed the scroll that Mai had just carefully tied with a red ribbon earlier.
"What were you reading?" Zuko asked, pointing at the scroll that was now sitting on top of the table in front of the couch.
"The history of the wives of the Fire Lords before you." Mai answered without looking at Zuko. She pulled his hand from her waist and drew circles with her thumb. "Did you know that almost all of the marriages in the Fire Nation Royalties were arranged?"
Zuko raised an eyebrow and thought about it for a minute. He concentrated on the feel of Mai's on his hand and was at a loss for words for a while. When she turned his hand over and began tracing the lines on his palm, he snapped back to think of his answer to her question.
"Even General Iroh's marriage was arranged." Mai continued when he didn't reply. "But I guess that's because he was supposed to be the next Fire Lord instead of Fire Lord Ozai. Now, Fire Lord Ozai's marriage was different though. He, unlike the other Fire Lords before him, chose Lady Ursa."
"Huh?" Zuko said, his voice laced with skepticism. "What do you mean?"
Mai smiled. Letting go of Zuko's hand, she leaned forward and twisted away from Zuko. She swung her legs to the side of the couch and looked to her side to face Zuko.
"According to the article that I was reading, Fire Lord Ozai, who was then just Prince Ozai, met Lady Ursa at the party for General Iroh. When it was time for him to pick a bride, instead of having Fire Lord Azulon arrange a marriage for him, he insisted that he be married to Lady Ursa."
"Wow!" Zuko blurted out. "That's some story. Considering how he had her banished when I was still 10." Instead of looking at Mai, he decided that boring a hole at the nearby table would have been a better idea. He unconsciously clenched his fist and he wouldn't have noticed it if not for the way Mai ran her hands on his to remind him to calm down.
"Zuko." Mai started. Her eyes were full of worry that she wasn't even sure if she should begin telling him her theories of why Lady Ursa was banished. She had been reading various articles about the history of the Fire Nation Royalties, trying to figure out where the previous fire lord could have taken his wife to. But if she was to help Zuko, she knew she had to let him know what she thought happened.
"Let's say the stories about why Lady Ursa disappeared on the night that your grandfather had died were true, do you think that your father may not really have banished your mother for the sake of keeping her away from you or from the Fire Nation but to keep her safe?" Mai was careful to avoid making any assumptions. Zuko may have accepted the fact that his father had been keeping important details to him but he is still trying to accept that her mother may have really done something so horrible that would cause her to run away."What are you trying to say?" Zuko asked. His eyes widened, screaming in fury and Mai felt that if she didn't explain herself, he might just explode.
"All I'm saying is, wouldn't a crime, such as murder, in the Fire Nation, much more so in the Fire Nation Royalty, be punishable by death?" Mai calmly explained. Despite the gravity of the statement she delivered, she knew that she had to say it.
Back when she was younger, Azula had once bragged about how her mother was sent away by their father because she had done something so horrible that her father couldn't stand to look at her. She then told them that she thinks that her mother may have killed their grandfather after asking him to make their father the next Fire Lord. Mai thought it was a sick story and she couldn't believe it. However, instead of dwelling on some crazy story that the princess had told her, she thought of how she can best help the prince in coping with the loss of his mother. She knew that Prince Zuko was closest to his mother and he must have been devastated at his mother's disappearance. So, she concentrated on him and turned a blind eye on whatever it was that Princess Azula had revealed.
But after reading different information and doing her own kind of research, Lady Ursa may have been saved by Fire Lord Ozai instead of what everyone thought of as her being punished. After all, if she really did kill Fire Lord Azulon to protect her child, wouldn't she have been sentenced to death for the crime she committed?
"Wha...what?" Zuko stuttered. He tried to contain his emotion but it was just too much for him to handle. He felt his eyes well up and he covered his face with his two hands to keep back his tears. Mai scooted closer to Zuko and started rubbing soothing hands on his back.
"That night..." Zuko said in between sobs. "Azula came to me saying that Dad was going to kill me. I kept telling myself that was just one of Azula's lies and even after all that's happened, I just couldn't accept that Mom would kill Grandfather for me. I always thought it was all Dad's fault that she's gone."
"That may be so, Zuko." Mai reasoned. "Do you ever wonder why she hasn't come back even after you were crowned Fire Lord? She knew the consequences of her actions and she couldn't come back. She wanted you to remember her as she was before she left. Your father was just trying to protect her as she did you."
Zuko leaned forward to hug Mai. His arms were trembling that Mai could do nothing to steady him but to keep his as close as possible. She knew nothing she will say would help him calm down and they may never know what really happened that night when she vanished. But she knew that she had to keep her promise to him.
"We'll still look for her, Zuko. We won't stop until we find her." She stated, keeping a relaxing, comforting hand on his back as he buried his face on the hollow of her neck.
The next morning, while Mai was again lounging on the cozy couch in her room, Zuko came bursting in carrying an almost crumpled scroll. When he saw that she was seating on the couch, he quickly strode to the couch and slumped down hard on the empty space near her.
"You're holding that too tightly because..." Mai asked, pointing at the scroll that Zuko was holding.
Zuko snapped back to the scroll he was holding and loosened his grip on it. Finally realizing that he was holding on it to tight, he placed the scroll on the table and ran his hand on his forehead.
"It's a script that the Ember Island Players proposed for their next production." Zuko said not looking at Mai. She noticed from the way his head hang low and how his voice carried so much disappointment that she knew that whatever was in that script was not something that he approved of. She knew from experience that nothing good, ever, was written or shown by the Ember Island Players.
Mai reached out to read the scroll but Zuko stopped her from getting it. Mai raised an eyebrow and Zuko grabbed the scroll and kept it away from her. The way Zuko was so keen on not letting her read it made Mai more curious and she wanted nothing more than to read it. She again tried to grab the scroll from him but Zuko was agile and kept out of her reach.
"It's nothing interesting." Zuko said, deftly stretching his arms to his right, successfully keeping the scroll away from Mai. As she lunged forward to reach it, he immediately hid the scroll behind him so Mai had no way to get it from him. But Mai was persistent and in the process of getting the scroll from him, she ended up on top of him, her arms around him, and his nose less than an inch from hers.
Mai grinned. Zuko felt his heartbeat quicken and felt his ears had just caught fire, along with his face. Zuko had never seen the kind of mischief that he's now seeing in Mai's eyes and any other time he would have celebrated the change in her character.
"Ember Island Players always write the most interesting stuff" Mai drawled, leaving a chaste kiss on his lips, causing him to lose his focus and thereby allowing Mai to successfully seize the object that he had been trying hard to withhold from her.
Zuko could only groan in disapproval as Mai untied the ribbon from the scroll and began reading it. Zuko stood up and walked away from the couch. He was so upset, Mai could only look at him as he walked to the window, trying his best to cool down.
After a few minutes of silence with minor instances of Zuko groaning and Mai slightly giggling, Mai managed to finish reading the script. She carefully rolled the scroll back into place and walked closer to where Zuko decided to settle while she was reading; the tea table.
"Who knew you actually hooked up with that bounty hunter from Earth Kingdom?" Mai teased as she neared Zuko. She picked up one of the teacup and poured herself some tea before sitting down on the empty chair across Zuko.
"We didn't hook up. I hired her. First to track Aang and then to track Uncle." Zuko explained, not looking at Mai.
Mai noticed the blush forming on Zuko's cheek and she couldn't help but smile.
"What about that girl who help you and General Iroh in the woods. She seemed really nice too. You two really connected, huh?" Mai continued, peering at Zuko's reaction through her tea cup.
"Song was scarred. I know how it feels to be scarred for life. She... I betrayed her." Zuko felt ashamed for what he did in the year he was in hiding. He did a lot of mistake and until now he was still trying to make right with the people he wronged.
"I'm sure she understands. You already met with her after the war, right?" She said after realizing that she just opened old wounds. Zuko nodded and smiled at her. She smiled back but she still wasn't done teasing him.
"Oh wait." Mai pretended to have just remembered something. When Zuko looked at her, waiting for her to continue, she smirked and continued. "I just realized that you seem to hang out with a lot of Earth Kingdom girls. I mean, you even kissed one of them."
Zuko face was flushed with embarrassment. They have talked about Jin before, back when they were still in Ba Sing Se, but Mai seemed to enjoy teasing him about it.
"Ugh! Can we stop talking about this, Mai?" Zuko asserted. He picked up his teacup and eagerly drank from it.
"They even have Katara in it too." Mai remarked, eyes glinting with mischief. "Do you think we'd start another war if they found out that you and Katara did hook up?"
Zuko could only drop his head on the table, admitting defeat. He vaguely heard Mai laughing in the background but he couldn't dare lift his head to look at her.
"That play will never see the light of day." Zuko muttered before tilting his head up, resting his chin on the table to spare Mai a look. When he saw her still laughing, with slightly pink cheeks, he couldn't help but smile at how carefree she seemed to be.
He raised his head from the table and extended his hand to hold Mai's hand. When she stopped to look at him, she smiled and Zuko squeezed her hand.
"You know, I'm glad my father broke my family's tradition. I just couldn't imagine being married to anyone else but you." With that, Zuko stood and leaned forward to catch Mai's lips, sealing his confession with a passionate kiss.