The mumbling of the council and his sister's shouts were lost to the blood rushing in Zuko's ears and his father's words ringing incessantly in his head. He was the heir to the throne. And this wasn't like before, where he was only named the heir because he was the firstborn. It was no longer only on paper, and Azula was no longer the one true heiress.

No. Zuko was the heir apparent. Through and through.

Now Ozai sneered at him while his council members leaned into a kowtow all around him.

"Long may he reign!" Their words thundered in the throne room.

Tradition demanded Zuko make a speech of his promises to the nation as the future Fire Lord, but all he could do was turn to face his sister. She was staring at their father, at the kowtowing generals and nobles, utterly defeated and so, so fragile.

Zuko's heart clenched at the tears glistening in her eyes. He wanted to hold her in his arms like he'd used to, tell her everything would be all right, but all he could manage was a meek, "Azula."

It was his voice that broke her out of her own daze. She slowly turned her head, eyes coming to his. She then looked at their father again, heartbreak written all over her face, before storming off to the passage at the side of the dais that was exclusively for the use of the reigning family.

"Azula!" Zuko bolted from his seat and ran after his sister. Their father didn't stir, only indifferently watched them leave the throne room through the curtain-door of the passage. "'Zula, wait!"

He flung flaps of the curtain open and sprinted into the empty, long hall. "Azula!"

His sister stopped dead only a few steps away and spun around. "What did you do."

"I didn't—"

"DON'T BULLSHIT ME!" She charged up to him, inferno raging in her teary eyes. "How'd you do it? Did you suck his dick? Huh? Let him fuck you? WHAT DID YOU DO THAT I COULDN'T!"

Zuko stared at her in disbelief, appalled that she'd even suggest he'd sleep with his father for personal gain.

"I. Didn't. Do. Anything!" He flung his hands to the side. "I don't even want to be the Fire Lord!"

"Sure you don't," Azula hissed.

Her eyes narrowed, fists smoldering at her sides.

"Dad doesn't love you," she spat through clenched teeth. "He doesn't even like you. Never has, never will. You only matter because Mom squirted you out first. But me… Everyone adores me. They fear me." Azula stepped toward him, face scrunched up in fury. She lifted her chin and bared her teeth in a snarl. "Mark my words, brother. You'll regret crossing me. You're gonna wish I let Dad kill you that night. I'm the true ruler this nation deserves, and I will take what is mine."

Searching his face for a few moments, she whirled around and marched down the hallway, each of her footsteps like lightning blazing through him. Zuko tipped his head back, eyes sliding closed, and muttered a curse under his breath.

Ozai had sentenced him to death.

-o-

Zuko scratched his arm absentmindedly, laying on his bed and staring up at the canopy above. He'd been mulling over his father's decision all day, trying to make sense of it all. Eating breakfast alone—his sister notably absent—and standing on a podium for hours with nothing to do while the royal tailor put together his Fire Lord regalia had given him plenty of time to ponder. And when he really thought about it, it didn't sound so outlandish.

First thing he'd realized was that this turn of events changed remarkably little for his plans, despite how everything might seem on the surface. The same couldn't be said for his sister, unfortunately, but for him, all he really needed was for her to wait until after the eclipse to strike, and not mess anything up in the meantime. He'd long be gone by then—from the Fire Nation and the mortal world alike.

And the second thing was that Zuko was, in his father's eyes, a feeble-minded weakling—seemingly valiant on the outside, but one who could be puppeteered from half a world away no problem. It was who he had been for most of his life, and he'd pretty much proven that when he'd gotten his life back together in an instant, so to speak, after a single threat from Ozai. Meanwhile, his sister was cunning, formidable in every sense of the word, and, most importantly, ambitious.

Azula was loyal to their father, yes, but how far would that loyalty really go when she herself saw that Fire Lords could create themselves more powerful titles on a whim? What if, one day, envy got the better of her and she started looking for something more? What if she wanted not only the Fire throne but the one Ozai would be sitting on, too?

Was that not precisely why countless siblings have slain each other in the past? Why countless rulers have ordered their children executed? Because they had eyes on something that they believed was rightfully theirs?

Ozai's options had been between a gullible wimp and an unyielding force. An unyielding, but greedy force. Choosing the former option had been the safer alternative.

Or, perhaps, he just wanted to get rid of his embarrassment of a son without having to get his hands dirty—either by putting him on the throne to showcase his incompetence to the entire world, knowing for certain that it wouldn't take long for some brave soul to drag his corpse down the steps of that very throne, or simply by giving him what his sister had been striving for her whole life on a silver platter.

Whatever his father's intentions were, Zuko would never know for sure. What he did know was that he needed to be more careful from now on. Azula's eyes were on him. There was no room for error.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.

He huffed a breath. If this was another servant asking him to partake in meaningless preparation for a coronation that would never happen, Zuko would seriously start resorting to manslaughter from now on.

"What?" he yelled across his room.

"Lady Mai is outside, sir," came a guard's voice. "She said Your Highness was expecting her?"

Zuko jolted upright on the bed. Mai was here? Why? Was it an emergency? No, that didn't make sense. Why would she come to him if it was urgent? Why not go to Azula?

Maybe she was here to settle her long-overdue score with him for moving on from her so quickly.

Shaking his head, he dismissed the questions. Whatever it was, he could handle it. He would have to, if he was truly brave enough to escape the Fire Nation.

"Yes, I was expecting her," he told the guard, sliding off the bed to stand up and squaring his shoulders in a false sense of confidence. "Send her in."

The doors opened a moment later to reveal the lady in question, looking as noble and stoic as ever with her chin raised and eyes locked on him. She moved inside while the guards outside pulled the doors closed behind her.

It was arduous work not to cower under her stare. The tension of all that'd happened between them, how catastrophically their relationship had ended in addition to all of their fights before that, hung in the air between them—charged it up to the point it was almost physically intolerable.

Zuko was the one to break eye contact first. He racked his brains to find the right way to ask why she was here. Or should he apologize first? Yeah, that would probably be the wiser choice.

He licked his lips nervously and stared at his shoes. "Mai, look, I'm so sorry for everything I said in our last fight. I didn't mean any of it. You're a wonderful person. I was just really angry and I got ahead of myself and—"

"Relax," Mai cut in flatly. "I'm not here to fight. I just wanna talk."

Zuko stood straighter. At least she'd spared him from that conversation.

He hesitantly raised his gaze. "Does that mean you forgive me?"

She shrugged a shoulder. "You were a major ass for saying all those things to me, but yes, I do forgive you."

A feeling of solace pooled in Zuko's stomach and branched out to the rest of his organs, spreading warmth and life to his cold, dead heart.

"Thank you," he muttered quietly, inclining his head in a bow.

"Don't thank me—Ty Lee's the one that convinced me holding a grudge won't solve anything." She crossed her arms. "Now that that's over, are you gonna invite me in, or are we gonna stand here forever?"

"Oh. Yeah. Of course." Zuko held out a hand to his bed for her to sit.

"So," Mai started as she crossed the room toward him, "I hear you've been making good use of your harem recently."

Zuko's whole body went rigid. He'd been right. She was here to tell him off.

Did she also want to get back with him? How would that even work, with him seeking his way out of the Fire Nation while she was fully devoted to it? Not to mention, he didn't have feelings for her anymore. He never really did, if he was honest with himself. He'd always valued her company, but his feelings for her had never gone beyond basic friendship—even when they'd been dating, even when he'd told himself he reciprocated her feelings.

And, frankly, he wasn't sure if he wanted to go back to the days of fighting over any and everything with her, either. He already had enough on his plate as it was.

"Mai…" He rubbed the back of his head, mind whirling to find a way to reject her without hurting her. Agni, he'd just made up with her, and now he was going to break her heart agai—

"Zuko, stop," Mai cut through his thoughts, walking up the stairs before his bed. "I wasn't berating you. We broke up. You're free to date, or do, whoever you want."

A weight lifted from Zuko's shoulders.

Mai sat down at the edge of the mattress. "It's… actually what I came here to talk about."

She lowered head, pale hands twisting together. Zuko frowned. It wasn't like her to avoid eye contact, or to act nervous at all.

"What's going on, Mai?"

She stared at him, looking like a timid cat-deer beneath her disinterested exterior, so unlike the uncompromising girl she was. "Before I start, I need you to promise that whatever I say never leaves this room."

Zuko sat next to her. "I promise." And he meant it.

Mai stared straight ahead. She seemed paler than usual, and she swallowed hard, like she was gathering courage. "I'm seeing someone."

"Okay…" Zuko trailed off in an invitation for her to go on. What was so important that it got Mai keyed up?

She released a shuddering breath and finally looked at him. "It's Ty Lee."

"Oh."

Well. He hadn't expected that.

"I was in a really bad place after our breakup," Mai went on before he could gather his thoughts, "not because I regretted it, but because I felt… relieved, like I was free to do whatever I wished for the first time in my life. I knew it wasn't the same for you—Azula told us how bad your drinking got—and that made everything that much worse. So, one night, while Ty Lee and I were alone at mine together, I wanted to get a little drunk. We drank, and drank, and…" She looked away, a shy smile blossoming on her lips—one Zuko had never seen on her. "Well, one thing led to another, and I woke up next to her the following morning. We've been living together since."

"That's why there weren't any guards and servants at your house," Zuko mused, "you dismissed them so they wouldn't see you two together."

She huffed a brisk laugh. "Yeah. My parents would have a heart attack if they heard I'm with a girl and we use their bed. Ty's would, too. And let's not forget that two highborn girls dating each other would be the scandal of the decade and illegal, thanks to your dear great-grandfather. I think you can see why we wanted to keep it a secret."

Ty Lee and Mai had always been close—closer than either of them were with Azula—but Zuko had never thought they would actually like each other romantically. The possibility that they might fancy girls hadn't crossed his mind once.

It certainly explained a lot of things, though—like why there'd been no real compassion behind their kisses, their touches. Why he'd never gotten her to climax. Why the only measly reactions he did get from her were when his head was between her thighs or he was taking her from behind, when she didn't have to see his face.

For so long, he'd blamed himself for everything, for her being dry and him having difficulty getting hard—that it was his scar that turned her off and that he was incompetent and a disappointment. But now he understood that there was nobody to blame. It was just not him that she wanted to be with.

"So why are you telling me?" he asked.

"Ty and I had a long talk about you after your 'visit' the other night. You're the only person we know that wouldn't shame or hate us for being who we are. We thought you deserved to know."

Zuko found himself returning her smile. Then a terrifying thought occurred to him.

"Wait. Did… Did I make you gay?!" Had he been that bad of a boyfriend?!

Mai let out the most profound laugh he'd heard from her yet, almost as loud as normal laughter.

"No, you idiot. I've never liked boys."

Zuko blinked. "But… you kissed me first."

"No offense, Zuko, but you're the only boy I was ever allowed to talk to, and my parents have been conditioning me to marry you since the moment I was born. I didn't even know I could like girls until a few years ago. But you did help me realize it, so I guess I should be thanking you for that."

From there, their conversation gradually shifted into catching up on what they'd been up to since their separation—Mai doing most of the talking while Zuko patiently listened—and reminiscing about their childhood, even cracking a few jokes about their disastrous sex life and all the fights they'd had while dating. A welcome release from the intensity of the last few months.

Zuko let his chuckle at one of Mai's jokes ebb away, his smile remaining caught on his lips. Watching his old friend talk about how boring living in Omashu had been, the future didn't seem as bleak as it used to. Against all the odds, he'd made up with the only friends he'd ever had, convinced the Water Tribe girl to escape with him, and had a plan to rescue Uncle as well.

He could do this. Despite his sister's vow of vengeance, Zuko could get everyone out of here in one piece—maybe even Mai and Ty Lee, too, if they showed any hints of wanting to leave the Fire Nation.

There was hope for a better tomorrow.

A/N

Another reason for Ozai declaring Zuko as his heir could be that he wants to keep Azula close wherever he went and serve him in bed and continue to be a toy for his fantasies. I didn't include this in the text because Zuko is too naive to even consider this possibility.

I wish I could punch Ozai through the screen. Preferably with brass knuckles. With rusty nails sticking out of them. He deserves it.

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