Chapter One
"So," the deep-voiced young man said, leaning back in the heavy wooden chair across from Mai. The overcast day, presaging a stormfront moving in off Yue Bay, sent gray light streaming in through the windows of one of the inn's private dining rooms, painting everyone inside this pale gray light. "We've managed to fix that, at least. When you get back to Crater, do tell your aunt I apologize for the mix-up." He sighed. "With the new joint government in effect, the shipping regulations have become a bit more…uncertain." He slid a piece of paper over to her. "Nevertheless, you will have the address in the town near the border where your shipment is being held. I wish I could help you get all of them out."
Mai reached out and took the paper, seeing an address in the town of Chen's Crossing. "This is more than I expected," Mai said dryly, grabbing her cup and taking a sip of her rice wine. "Thank you."
She couldn't help the annoyed sigh in her voice. Ever since Aang had settled things between Zuko and Kuei regarding the status of what was well on its way to becoming an independent state of its own right. As a matter of geopolitics, it was brilliant and something the rest of the world was just going to have to get used to. On a more practical level, however, import regulations had become somewhat complex for people living in both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom. A straightforward purchase of a shipment of seeds for her aunt's flower shop from one of the main suppliers for customers in both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom had gotten held up for weeks. Eventually her aunt had called her into her backroom office and asked if she could go out and pry them out of the hands of her supplier herself. Evidently, it was going to be easier to just have someone bring it in their luggage as souvenirs instead of trying to have them shipped in via freighter. Which is what led to her being in Republic City, at the Prancing Lizard for three days.
It's not too bad, she thought, trying to suppress putting her hand to her mouth to hide the smile. I met this guy. His name was Nobu. About five years older than her, he worked as a minor partner in his family's import-export business here in the newly rechristened Republic City. She didn't quite know what to make of him. Something about the way he carried himself suggested he had served his mandatory four years upon commissioning and had retired to the colonies. A not at all uncommon end of a military career for a lot of Fire Nation soldiers. There was also an intensity in his eyes that reminded him irresistibly of Zuko. And maybe that blue-eyed Water Tribe boy-stop it!
She forcibly put the thought of both men out of her mind. Zuko was shortly going to be forever out of reach, now in a relationship with the woman she had originally contacted to provide a reliable security detachment for him in one of the universe's periodic bursts of irony. As for Sokka, well, that little crush she had always had on him seemed to be just as out of her reach.
Not for the first time a wave of bitterness and self-loathing flooded over her. Yeah, she thought bitterly. Like he'd ever want anything to do with the pathetic, self-deluded sap who was willing to kill his sister to help Azula and her father to set up our entire world for the slaughter.
"Anytime," he said, a boyish smile that reminded her simply too much of Sokka appearing on his face. He was also clearly too professional to say anything, which caused an uptick in her estimation of him. Especially with the boys who had periodically vied for her attention since the end of her relationships with Zuko and Kei Lo. If nothing else, he clearly appreciated a good-looking woman when he saw one.
She opened her mouth to respond, but whatever she had been going to say had been lost when a rumbling clap of thunder rumbled outside. "I was wondering when that was going to get here. It looks like it'll be here within the-," The pitter-patter of rain began falling on the roof. "Hour," he finished sheepishly.
Mai couldn't help the laugh that cut out of her, driven by her own residual professional embarrassment. She hadn't exactly judged it right, however. "It's been a while since I had to use that in the field?"
Nobu shot her a look of renewed interest. "Oh? You served?"
Mai nodded, a flood of memories, not all of them exactly positive, came flashing back to her. "In a matter of speaking." She had graduated from the Academy for Girls, same as Ty Lee and Azula. But where Ty Lee had found her way into the military career she had more than earned as a graduate of the institution, albeit as a Kyoshi Warrior. She had not. At least not in quite that way.
He stared at her for a moment before she cocked her head, comprehension clearly dawning in his eyes. "You're not the Mai from the Kemiurkage Crisis are you?"
She sighed, her shame and embarrassment over how she had handled certain things coming back at her. "Guilty as charged." She tensed, bracing to get one of the earfuls she occasionally got from people with only the most garbled and biased information about how she had been little better than a coward and a traitor who prolonged the crisis for her own aims. Which apparently involved her being in on her father and Azula's plot from the beginning, knowing where her brother and all those other children Azula and her fake Kemiurkage had stashed away were being held, and deliberately keeping that information to herself so her father could get her revenge on Zuko by proxy. Not that I can justify everything I did. Like those bitchy cheap shots at Zuko. Angry over how our relationship ended or not, worried about Tom-Tom or not, there was no excuse for that. It's one of the reasons I didn't go back to him.
"You helped save my cousin's life," he said. Mai's eyes widened at the non sequitur. "For that, you have my thanks. My father is still one of those who unsure whether or not you're little more than a traitor for not exposing your father immediately, and maybe it was a mistake. But it's a mistake I could very well have made in your position. We've been haggling over this stuff for three days, and nothing I've seen in that time suggests that you're anything remotely like a bad person. So, I'm glad to have met you, and to have the opportunity to thank you for my cousin's life."
Mai stood there, her usual internal emotional cross-current brought to a screeching halt by his earnest honesty. Also, not for the first time, she found herself crossing her legs in an effort to tamp down on the growing tide of arousal. In that moment, she wasn't sure if she wanted to cry, laugh, or drag him off into her bed down the hall right then and there. "Th-thank you," she managed. She winced internally. She hated it when she stuttered over her words when talking to a cute guy. It blew her self-image as the cool, collected aloof woman out of the water.
Bad idea, a voice in her head whispered. Terrible idea. Maybe not as bad as when you let yourself be used by Azula, but bad enough. You barely know this man. He could be married. Or have strange tastes.
Mai's face flushed. Says the woman who's go-to fantasy for months, and occasionally still is, was to be captured by the Avatar and having his tall, handsome Water Tribe warrior with his massive, calloused hands come to you in the night to "interrogate" you. And of course he turns out to be a decent, respectful, kind man who would never do that to you.
Which somehow managed to make her face heat up in both arousal and embarrassment even more.
Now here was this young man, with muscled arms and massive calloused hands sitting across from her. Maybe, if she closed her eyes, she could pretend he was Sokka.
Stop, she thought, bringing the idea up short. Just stop. Your judgement hasn't exactly been the best recently. Don't take this chance. Not now. Not yet. Get out there, pry your aunt's seeds out of the hands of the distributors and get back home. Figure it out from there.
Mai smiled, even as the part of her that enjoyed male attention as much as Ty Lee did started internally kicking her, and stayed silent.
As the hard driving rain poured down on the cozy little inn, on the other side of town, heavy rain fell onto the glass skylight of a cozy house in one of the newly rechristened Republic City's more upscale housing areas. As the rain splashed against the glass, a bolt of lightning, fragmenting into the shape of a forked tongue, flashed across the sky as a young dark-skinned Water Tribe man with piercing blue eyes sat in a richly-upholstered armchair, staring at a crackling fire in its heart, almost numb to the world around him.
That young man took a sip of his own drink, letting the golden fire pour down his throat, as the thought pierced the numbness in his mind of just why he was sitting here drinking his sorrows away. And not even really succeeding at that. He looked up at the portrait on the richly carved mantlepiece, illuminated in the flickering light of the fire. The gilt-framed charcoal drawing of him and Suki, standing in front of North Yue Bay (which was already being shortened to North Bay by the locals).
Sokka's right hand tightened on the glass, pure anger and sadness threatening to have him throw the whiskey bottle across the room, at the painting, watch it smash in his anger and hurt before burning it. Zuko just…did it. Stole my girl away without even really trying. That was the worst part. He had seen the way Zuko looked at her. He knew he had liked her. If he had made a serious push, he would probably have swallowed it. It was, after all, Suki's choice who she was with, or if she wanted to be with anyone. If Zuko truly made her happy, then, intellectually, he knew he should be happy for her. He wanted to be happy for her, because Suki continued to mean a lot to him.
But I thought I made her happy, he thought despairingly. I did make her happy. Until I didn't anymore.
He still remembered when they had both come to him during Zuko's last visit to Republic City. When she had admitted to him that she had developed feelings for Zuko and she needed to explore those feelings.
A fork of lightning flashed overhead, followed in virtually the same second by the heavy rumbling peal of a thunderclap. The rumbling faded when he heard the heavy sound of someone banging their fist against his door. From the sound of it, it was not the first set of knocks whoever it was had slammed against his door.
"Sokka!" A very familiar voice said from outside. "It's wet and I'm freezing out here! You have thirty seconds to open this fucking door or I'm going to make my own door to get myself out of the rain and it's not going to be pretty!"
Sokka's eyes widened, and he bolted out of the chair and ran over to the door, unlatching it and sliding the heavy wooden doon open to see Toph standing there, a pissed off look in her cloudy green eyes. She was in the uniform of the newly-formed Republic City Police, the insignia of her command rank flashing in the light. Quite a feather in the cap of someone who had only just turned seventeen a few months ago. Which, weighed against what they had already accomplished over the last few years, was probably to be expected. "Hi, Toph," Sokka said sheepishly. Toph stood there, continuing to try to crush him alive with her glare. "Would you like to come in?" Please don't kill me.
Toph glared at him for a few more heartbeats and Sokka started to seriously think that she would be the last thing he ever saw before rebar was flying towards his face. Then she sighed and stepped inside the threshold. "Fucker," she bit out, as soon as she slammed the door behind her.
Sokka huffed, even as he internally winced. He had a feeling that he knew why she was here. "Good to see you too, Toph," he said aloud, putting on an air of nonchalance. "Care for a drink?"
Toph sniffed disapprovingly. "No thanks. Besides I think you've had enough."
He shot her an irritated look. "Are you really here for this? I had one drink," he ended pointed out defensively, and more than a little lamely.
"Tonight," Toph countered, clear worry mixed in with anger mixing into her voice. "You had one drink tonight. Don't get me wrong, I love a good drink as much as the next girl, but everything I have been hearing suggests you've been overdoing it. I get it, Suki means a lot to you, she means a lot to all of us, but your relationship with her in it's previous form is over now. You're not doing yourself any favors by sitting here, wallowing in your self-pity and drinking yourself, and the local bars, dry. We've barely seen you in the last three months."
Sokka opened his mouth to angrily retort when the thought occurred to him. "This seems like a Katara thing," he pointed out. "Why isn't she here?"
"She wanted to be," Toph responded. "But she's busy helping Aang with the Air Temple construction and I told her I'd handle it, on the grounds you're more likely to listen to one of your best friends than your sister who has a familial duty to nag you." She sighed, hurt replacing the anger in her eyes. "But if," she said softly. "After all we have been through, you can't talk to me, me, about how you feel? Then why did I even bother coming out here tonight?"
Sokka sighed. "I'm sorry, Toph," he said glumly. "It's just," his voice died with a squelch, his vision wavering with unshed tears as those emotions flooded over him. When he found it again, all he could say was, "I loved her."
"I know," Toph said, all anger gone from her voice now. "I know. But this happens. It sucks believe me." No doubt referring to the passionate affair she had had with Satoru that had ended not that long ago. Though, on the surface at least, there seemed to be no hard feelings on either end. Now he wasn't so sure. "Not everyone can be like Katara and Aang."
Ain't that the truth, he thought sullenly. Not that he begrudged Aang his relationship with his sister at all, not really. He just wished they could have been a little more discreet about it. Especially early on.
"So, what do you think I should do?" Sokka asked aloud after a few moments. "Should I take up meditation? Should I give away all my worldly possessions?"
Toph rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding? If anything, you should get more possessions!" She reached into her pocket. "After you get back from this." She held out a cylindrical object.
He took it and twirled it in his hands, confused as to why she had handed him a heavy iron key.
"What's this for?"
"One of my family's vacation homes in the World's End Mountains," she responded, a teasing smile on her face. "It's a nice, secluded cabin in a mountain valley. A good place to get away from it all, if that's what you want. If it were me, I'd stay there, relaxing and trying to get away from it all. But if I were you, I would explore Chen's Crossing, the local town. Get some new food, maybe have a fling with a village girl or two. It would probably do you a world of good." She shot him a pointed look. "And hopefully you'll be in a better mood when you get back."
Sokka stood there, face flushed in shame as Toph's point hit home Ever since Suki had left, he had been in a bit of a foul mood. It had been all he could do to not yell at anyone who tried to sympathize with them. Or track her, or Zuko, or both, down in Crater City and yell at them about how awful they were and how he never wanted to see or talk to either of them ever again. For a long moment, he stood there, staring at the key in his hand. She was right. He couldn't keep going on like this. He needed to do something at least within shouting distance of being healthy. "You know," he said slowly, his voice strengthening as he warmed up to the notion. "This might actually be a good idea."
Toph shot him one of her characteristic cheeky smiles. "I do have those on occasion."
Sokka couldn't help the genuine laugh, the first one he had in awhile, that came out. "I know. I know."
It was still drizzling as Mai walked down the street, hoping she was going in the right direction. This was her first time in the city that she still had to remind herself wasn't named Cranefish Town anymore since she had passed through her with their parents on the way to Omashu (which after everything that happened, she had no trouble resisting any temptation to call it New Ozai). Most of that had time had been spent in her parents' carriage with her brother. So, she was almost totally unfamiliar with the layout of the streets. She had a map in her pocket she picked up at the docks back in Crater but that was two years old. She set down her valise and pulled the folded piece of parchment paper out of her dress.
Come on, Mai, she thought as she unfolded it, and looked it over, squinting in the early morning overcast light. The layout couldn't have changed that much in two years. She nodded, as her training took over. Okay, she thought. All I have to do is take this road down to the boardwalk and follow it east to the airship dock on the far end of Yue Bay. She nodded to herself, perking up despite herself. Even though she had ended up letting Nobu wait for a ride back home in the rain instead of inviting him to spend the night in her nice warm bed. Okay. This shouldn't be too bad for a trained military scout like-
The carriage coming down the road she hadn't even seen out of her peripheral vision until it was too late cut off her thoughts as its enormous wheels rolled through the puddle left behind by the previous night's downpour. The resultant wave of water was almost her height when it splashed into her and the map, and nearly sent both of them sprawling to the ground.
Mai bit out a curse as she wiped her face and blinked the water out of her eye before she realized she had still had her map out. She picked the soggy thin paper map up off the ground, with its civilian grade ink, and saw the lines and colors of the buildings and the roads begin to run together into an illegible mass. Unlike a Fire Nation or Water Tribe military-grade map which could be rained on all night in an open field and still be able to guide someone to their destination.
You could have asked Ty Lee for a proper map, but no, she thought.
She balled up the now useless piece of paper and threw it off to her left down the alleyway. "Great," she bit out in frustration. "This is just great."
"Excuse me," a harsh angry voice bit out from her left. "You might want to watch where you throw your trash."
She wheeled around to see a huge, imposing figure of a man with brown hair and eyes stalk out of the darkened alleyway, a massive tattoo in the shape of a flame on the side of his thick neck. Her useless former map sticking to his massive shoulders.
"I'm sorry," she said quickly, her hand going down to her waist, where two of her knives were, his face burning with embarrassment. Even as one side hoped that this man, who was clearly one of the local toughs, decided she was more trouble than she was worth and decided to just flip her off and leave. If she had too, one well-placed throw could put him out of her, and, from the looks of him, any other hapless passerby's misery. Even so she'd rather just get out of this without having to hurt anyone and be on her way.
From the eyeroll he gave her, it looks like he had clearly been thinking the same thing before his eyes widened in surprise…and recognition. "Hey, wait a minute," he said, shaking a thick finger at him. "You're that bitch from the Kemiurkage Crisis, aren't you? Don't bother trying to deny it. I was in Crater during that last round of riots. I know who you are. If your issues were with the Firelord then you should have handled them yourself, not dragged my nephew into your games. He was six. He didn't deserve to suffer just because you had a bad breakup with your boyfriend." Her hand drew a large, ugly looking knife from the scabbard around his waist.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said.
"Lying bitch," the man spat, eyes glittering with venom. "You're a weak, cowardly little girl who was so consumed with resentment towards your ex you were willing to commit treason and let children suffer just to hurt him." He drew an ugly looking serrated knife from the sheath on his waist. "Now, I think it's your turn." A cruel smile formed on his face. "Don't worry. This will only hurt a lot."
Mai was already taking a step back to open the range, her right hand moving towards the throwing knife in her left sleeve when a bone-white blur flew out of nowhere from somewhere off to her left. It smashed into the knife, knocking it out of his hand and sending it clattering to the ground before it wheeled about and headed back off to the left. Mai, memories of the last time she had crossed swords with that boomerang's owner wheeled about to see it headed back towards Sokka's hand.
"I'm going to give you a chance," Sokka said, blue eyes blazing. "To get out of here before I tear you apart for threatening my wife. On Ji," he said quickly, apparently grabbing for the first Fire Nation woman's name that he could think of. "Are you all right?"
Mai stood there as though rooted to the spot, before his brain caught up with what the tall, broad-shouldered Water Tribe man was saying. "Better now that you're here." Really? That's the best line you could come up with?
"You're married to this bitch?"
Sokka's stormed right up to stand next to her, shooting him a glare that should have burned him alive right there on the street. "Don't you dare talk to my wife like that," Sokka bit out, his hand drifting to the sword at his waist. Everything about him screamed that he was genuinely outraged, despite the lie about them being married. "This is my wife, On Ji. She may be a dead ringer for her, but she's not the Firelord's former girlfriend who may have made some controversial decisions not that long ago. Even if she was, justice isn't to be dispensed on a street without a trial by some disgruntled drunk with a knife." Now," he said, his voice going much softer. "I'm going to give you one more chance to get out of here, go home and sleep off the booze you've been drinking like water since last night. Now."
His brown eyes, as wide as dinner plates almost, drifted between the two of them before he muttered a particularly pungent oath and wandered off back down the alleyway.
Mai released the breath she didn't even realize she had been holding as he watched her would-be assailant stalk back down the alley. Mai's knees suddenly went wobbly, like they were made of rubber instead of muscle and bone. Even as she was reminded once again of her failure. She had allowed her love for her father to sway her decisions when she arguably shouldn't have. She felt a gentle, but firm hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Sokka standing there, a concerned look in his blue eyes.
"Are you okay, Mai?"
"I-I'm fine, Sokka," she said softly, trying not to think about how warm his hand was on her shoulder. "Thank you. That could have gotten ugly really fast."
"No problem," Sokka said quickly. "It was the minimum I could do, after what you did on the Rock. But what are you doing here, though? Did Zuko send you? Is everything okay?"
"No, Zuko didn't send me," Mai said dryly. "No new geopolitical crisis this week. In fact, I'm actually here on business for my aunt. Though we should probably keep walking as we talk, in case our thickheaded friend decides to recover his courage." As the two of them walked down the road. She launched into an explanation of her negotiations with her aunt's supplier. "So anyway," she said, the better part of five minutes later as they continued to walk towards the boardwalk. "Now I have to go to this town near the border called Chen's Crossing in order to get the seeds myself."
Sokka stopped abruptly, staring at her in disbelief. "You're shitting me," he said pointedly. "Chen's Crossing? Really?"
Mai nodded, confused. "Yeah. Why?"
"That's where I'm actually headed on vacation," he said, pointedly waving a black leather valise of his own. "Toph's family has a cabin up there, and she's loaning me it so I can…clear my head. After everything with Suki."
"Oh," Mai said, face heating as she reminded of her own role in this awkward situation. Great. He thought. Something else he can blame me for. If I hadn't contacted Suki and asked her to take over Zuko's security this probably wouldn't have happened.
"Is this a common occurrence for you? Assholes like that?"
"Not common, but I do occasionally get yelled at. Mostly it's dirty looks and people who suddenly don't want me around their kids."
Sokka pursed his lips, blue eyes glittering darkly. "I see."
Mai opened her mouth, to say something about thanking him for helping her, and how she could take care of herself from now on, only for Sokka to start talking first.
"Hey, listen," he said earnestly. "I know this sounds crazy, but I think we should probably keep up the pretense that we're a married couple. At least until we get to Chen's Crossing. I like to think that our encounter with that asshole was an isolated incident, but neither of us have survived everything we've survived by leaving that to chance."
It was Mai's turn to stand there, gaping like an idiot as Sokka's totally unprecedented offer hit her like one of Toph's boulders. "Are-are you sure?" Mai asked after a moment, even as her throat abruptly went dry. "I mean as a married couple they'll assign us the same cabin. With one bed."
She squelched the voice that said she had turned down a fun night because she would rather have the man in front of her in her bed
"We can figure that out when the time comes," he pointed out earnestly, a tone on her face that suggested he had think about it with a wide smile she wasn't sure if she wanted to slap off or kiss off. "But at least we can keep an eye on each other. Unless you want another encounter with him or someone who thinks like him unsupported. Not that I don't think for a moment that you can't handle it, but it'd be…inconvenient."
Mai made a show of thinking it over. "I suppose this could work."
That dazzling smile of his that never failed to make her knees week appeared on his face again and he gestured for the beach down the hill with his valise…while taking her right hand in his. "After you, milady."
As the two of them walked, hand-in-hand down the hill, something entered the atmosphere. Not one of the meteors that entered the atmosphere of most planets friendly to humans on a regular basis. Not a rock made of nickel or iron. This was cool, gleaming metal, that traveled under its own power. With internal circuitry designed to keep the creatures inside it alive across the vacuum of space. It was gliding under the detection ceiling for the sensor technology they knew they didn't have, but there was no point taking unnecessary risks on a mission of this importance. Once in position it began its own sensor scans. Looking for a specific energy signature.