Fifteen

That night, Maya found Zuko standing on the deck of his ship, which was odd, considering that they had all paid for rooms at the nearest inn while the ship was being repaired. But the repairs would not be started on until morning, so the ship was deserted. All except for Zuko, standing alone looking out at sea, which he did so often. Soon, Maya joined him, standing beside him quietly, waiting for him to speak first.

When he remained silent, she said quietly, "I was impressed with you today."

"I know. You like to watch me firebend."

"No, I'm not talking about that, although your firebending was also very good. I mean I'm impressed that you restrained yourself and chose to let Commander Zhiao live."

"I only did it so you wouldn't cry and whine to me about it later," Zuko replied, his voice overly defensive.

Maya smiled. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever the reasons you chose, I'm proud of you."

He sighed. "You sound like Uncle."

"I'm going to take that as a compliment."

Zuko snorted and turned back to the sea. They stood in silence for a long while, and then he caught her by surprise. "I'm sorry I threatened to burn you the other day."

Although Maya would have been perfectly willing to just let it go at that, she wanted to see just how genuine he was. "And?" she said.

He sighed again. "I guess I'm sorry for being such a jerk. And for calling you a peasant."

Maya started laughing loudly at that.

Zuko looked at her angrily. "I'm finally being nice to you and all you do is laugh at me?"

"No, Zuko," she said quickly, trying to swallow her laughter. "I really appreciate your apology. And I accept it, by the way. Just… I don't know, something about being called a peasant just makes me laugh." She burst into laughter again, despite trying her hardest not to.

"I could call you a bitch again, and we'd call it even," Zuko said, folding his arms across his chest and raising his only eyebrow at her.

Maya's laughter immediately died. The old Zuko was back already. And then he gave her the tiniest of smiles, and she realized that he was being sarcastic. She gave a tentative smile back, and then the moment ended.

"Come on," he said. "We should get to the inn. It's cold out here."