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Chapter Text

A Special Lesson

Zuko was a full hour into some edifyingly boring paperwork when his majordomo ran into the office and shouted, "There's a riot at the Academy and Lady Mai is being arrested!"

Zuko put the paperwork down and massaged his head. Not again. And this was only the beginning of the week.

His arrival at the Academy was as swift as it was panicked and undignified, which probably had something to do with each other. It turned out that 'riot' was indeed a good word for it. Nobles from every level of the Caldera were gathered around the Academy's front gate and screaming for someone -- Zuko couldn't quite make out the name but it sounded like it rhymed with "hey" -- to be burned at the stake, hanged, drawn and quartered, burned at the stake again, and fired (in that exact order). Beyond them, members of the Home Guard in their rarely-seen, heavily-padded riot gear were brawling with what looked like uniformed teenage students from the Girls' Academy, and in most cases the girls were winning (although that mostly seemed to be because they weren't averse to biting).

Zuko let his Crimson Guard push him a path through the noble crowd and then stepped lightly around the Home Guard failing to subdue their 'peaceful' protesters, internally dreading how this would feed into the Guard-based rivalry. Behind all that and then the Academy's gate, in the main plaza of the school grounds, Headmistress Shihan was making a last stand against a half-dozen soldiers, trying to fight her way back to her feet and swearing up a storm while her opponents were in turn hanging off her and trying to pull her back to the ground. Behind that, more Homg Guard were gathered in a mass human shield against a small army of little girls in pink lining the courtyard who were pelting them with rocks. Other members of the school's staff were running around supplying baskets full of rocks to the kids.

Well, Zuko had asked the teachers to be supportive of the students' desire to learn and experience new things. He gave the Headmistress a salute as he passed by her and then sprinted through the mass of soldiers as his Crimson Guard fell in a hail of mugearite which would have impressed even a master Earthbender.

He emerged from the press of armored bodies to find a relatively clear space at the center, where one lone Home Guard, the commander of the group judging from the ornamentation on his helmet, was -- of all things -- tying a gag over the mouth of a stunningly beautiful and graceful woman in black, red, and gold. Her wrists were also tried together with some rope, but she seemed to regard everything going on to and around her with bored indifference.

Zuko felt his heart skip a beat. He wasn't sure what childhood trauma had caused it, but he found bored indifference to be incredibly sexy, and he had no desire for a cure even if this particular lady claimed to have no romantic interest in him right now.

Well, time to Fire Lord.

Zuko marched over to the commander, drew himself up regally, and said so that the natural architecture of the courtyard would catch the echo, "What's all this, then?"

Everything stopped. Quiet reigned. Zuko knew this moment well after years of serving as Fire Lord: this was the split second when everyone was judging whether it was better to avoid his attention or get in the first word. It was a moment usually won by the boldest and most aggressive, often people with unsociable violent tendencies who were destined for criminal futures if they weren't already experiencing one.

Naturally, it was his little half-sister Kiyi who jumped down from the ranks of rock-throwers and spoke first: "They're trying to silence Sifu Mai's righteous voice! I rallied all the girls and we agreed we'll never let them take our beloved Sifu!"

"So I see." Zuko looked at the commander who had just tied a gag over his beloved's mouth. "There had better be a good explanation. And, if I can offer a little advice, this had better be an amazing explanation, the greatest explanation of your life. Now, please, Commander: go on."

The commander started with, "Er-"

"Sifu Mai," Kiyi broke in, "went to give a special lesson to the senior class graduating next week but then the guards showed up and were running through the halls like we're not supposed to and they broke into Sifu Mai's class and arrested her but she kept talking as they dragged her out so they bound her and gagged her!"

Zuko looked at Mai. She gave a shrug and a half a nod.

The commander tried again with, "Um-"

Zuko said to Kiyi, "Why were they arresting her?"

"I dunno but probably because she was teaching our nation's true history or modern respect for other nations-slash-cultures or proper reverence for spirits or something totally righteous," Kiyi opined.

Zuko looked at Mai. She tried to sigh, failed because of the gag, rolled her eyes, and shook her head.

Zuko put his hands on his hips and looked at the guard. "I believe you had started with an 'er' followed by an 'um'. Please, continue."

"Yes, your majestic lordship!" The commander snapped to attention. "Um- well, to start with, I think it important to note that your lady-friend, the perpetrator, has not resisted arrest and we did not hurt her as we tied her hands and gagged her. Just so you know. See, we were called upon by Lord Yingyu about a violation of- er, his house's sovereignty."

"So there's been no breach of the law." Zuko frowned. "Which means you've technically assaulted Mai and she is legally obliged to defend herself." As the commander took off a panicked run, Zuko continued, "And where is Lord Yingyu?"

"I am here, your excellency!" A thin, heavily dressed man with a black beard that reached down to his navel trotted forward, giving the various brawling students a wide berth and moving visibly more quickly as he passed through the range of the rock-throwing brigades. "My prized youngest daughter is a student here at the academy, fourteen years old and set to graduate at the top of her class next week, and this Sifu Mai was trying to corrupt her and turn her against my house! If the janitor I bribe to keep an eye on my precious baby hadn't run over and let me know about the depravity going on in that classroom, I shudder to think what permanent damage might have been done to these poor girls! I called the guards and demanded the arrest as a violation of social order and public decency."

"Public decency?" Zuko tried to imagine how Mai could have been publicly indecent and could only get so far as picturing her with her hair down. "But what-"

"I asked her to do it," yelled Headmistress Shihan as she lifted the (now numbering a dozen) guards hanging off her arms and legs and back to stand up on her own feet. "No other member of the staff would do it, and I couldn't let those girls graduate without knowing- ARGHH!!" She toppled as three more guards leaped on her head, disappearing beneath the pile of armored bodies.

Zuko looked around to see if anyone else was going to tell him what was really going on here. No one spoke. Only the students would meet his eyes, and none of them seemed to be as clear about the reason for fighting as they were enthusiastic about it. And it looked like Headmistress Shihan wouldn't be talking until they could find a shovel and dig her out of the pile of bodies she was under.

Mai, oddly, had done nothing to remove her gag or the ropes around her wrists, even though Zuko had spotted the faint impressions of some of the blades beneath her clothes (in a completely platonic and respectable way). Nor was making any attempt to escape even though he had seen her take down a guard force of this size back at the Boiling Rock during an important moment in their shared history. In fact, she seemed to be blushing a little, beneath her gag.

"All right," Zuko said at last, "someone better tell me what this is all about or I'm going to start appointing diplomatic staff to our Water Tribe embassies."

Silence blanketed the courtyard where students weren't still fighting guards. Lord Yingyu finally muttered, "Lady Mai was imparting information that it is a parent's position to either tell or not tell his children."

"I'm going to need something more than that, as your Fire Lord. What are you trying to keep secret?"

Lord Yingyu made several attempts to respond but couldn't quite make the words come out.

Finally, Mai sighed beneath her gag. She still didn't free herself, but she did lift her arms without straining the rope around her wrists and formed her hands into two different shapes.

Then she began applying them together.

Vigorously and very suggestively.

Zuko's jaw dropped. "Mai is being arrested for telling some fourteen-year-old girls where babies come from?!"

Kiyi blinked. "Wait, what do those gestures have to do with the dragon-stork?"

"Dragon-stork?" Zuko tried to picture that. "Is that what we're telling the kids now? I was taught about cabbage patches, which is why cabbages are the most sacred of the world's agriculture."

"Wait, the dragon-stork isn't real? Then what's the truth?" Kiyi looked up at him with curious eyes.

Zuko was starting to see why a riot had broken out. But he was Fire Lord and people kept telling him that social stability was one of his jobs. "Ask Mom. Now, I think there's been a big misunderstanding here. If everyone can just calm down, we can take just the interested parties (and none of the rocks) to my throne room and reach an agreement."

"Thank you, Fire Lord," Lord Yingyu said. "I'm glad we as men of the world could-"

"Oh, you still put the woman I lo- a very respectable woman of society to trouble for spurious reasons." Zuko gave the man a glare and made sure he was leaning so that the scarred side of his face would be most visible. "Now, if we could all-"

He cut himself off and took a reflexive defensive stance at a glimmer of sunlight reflecting off a very sharp blade, as anyone who grew up around Azula would, but then he realized Mai was finally freeing herself, first cutting the rope around her wrists and then putting a slice in the gag the same way he would sometimes flick the last bit of shaving cream off his chin.

She shook the gag off and put her hands on her hips. "Sorry, Zuko. I was willing to not make trouble, but this isn't an issue where there can be any negotiations. The Academy needs to be able to teach its girls that kind of stuff. All schools do."

Zuko blinked. "Why? I didn't even go to an Academy or get the talk from my father, and eventually you were able to correct those misconceptions I had."

"See," Lord Yingyu interjected, "these things sort themselves out, and a father has the right to decide when his daughter-"

"She already has a betrothal at fourteen," Mai interjected in turn. "When were you planning to tell her? On the wedding day? Which she told me will be her sixteenth birthday?"

"That will be up to her husband once they're married. He's an old school chum of mine so I'm sure he'll be able to handle the matter."

"Seriously?!" Mai looked to Zuko. "See what I'm dealing with, here? He's controlling his daughter with ignorance and sending the guards after the Academy (in the form of the person of me) when anything threatens his parental tyranny. And you know how much I dislike parental tyranny."

Zuko wasn't much of a fan, either., for some highly personal reasons "But why does it have to be the Academy? You're a school, not a- place where- people are- told- things?"

Mai stared at him.

"Okay, I didn't quite think that one through before I started talking."

"No kidding." But she smiled at him, so he smiled back. And before his good mood could evaporate, she continued with, "And as for the real reason why, it's because of what I told you when I started working here: I'm going to make sure that none of these girls become another Azula. Part of that is protecting some of them from abusive families, and another part is telling them that the cabbage patch and the dragon-stork are-" She glanced at Kiyi. "-things they can believe for a few more years."

Zuko had to admit, it was a compelling argument. And if there was one thing he found sexier than bored indifference, it was seeing this particular woman getting passionate about something. But there was one thing he wasn't clear on. "What does Azula have to do with this?"

Mai raised an eyebrow.

It took Zuko a minute. "She doesn't know?!"

"Not for lack of trying. It was kind of amusing for a while. Then it just became pathetic. Then I remembered after she ran away to become a terrorist that no one got around to telling her and now I'm kind of worried."

"Seriously?!"

"That's part of the reason Ty Lee is looking so hard for her."

"Ugh." Zuko had to sit down. Fortunately, there was a concussed guard laid on the ground nearby- so Zuko sat on the pile of the man's armor that had been stacked next to him while a medic performed first aid. "Okay, the point has been made. The Royal Fire Academy, and all other schools on the Official Fire Lists of Fire Education Centers, has the authority by word of the Fire Lord to explain the facts of life to its graduating classes. Details of those facts to follow, et cetera and so forth, prepare it for my stamp." He glanced around and realized his majordomo had wisely not come on this trip, so he'd have to repeat it again later. "Well, that's my unofficial word at this point. So I think we can wind things down."

"But- but Fire Lord," began Lord Yingyu.

But Mai pointed at him and said, "And this guy has to stop being a creep."

"Okay, that, too." Zuko shrugged at Yingyu. "I'll have my lawyers get back to you on the specifics of that."

"But- but Fire Lord," re-began Lord Yingyu.

But Zuko was already letting Mai take his hand and lead him out of the Academy. Kiyi started following them until Zuko threw her a look, and she confirmed she was his favorite little sister by giving him a respectful bow and running off to join her cute little friends in cleaning up all the rocks they had been using to attempt to kill law enforcement officers.

"Well that was one of the most humiliating experiences of my life," Mai said as they walked off into the sunset. "But thanks for backing me up."

"It is my duty -- and my pleasure -- to support one of the greatest teachers in the Fire Nation." He smiled at her, but then a thought occurred to him. "So, how did you get involved in all this? It wasn't even your class!"

Mai sighed. "Headmistress Shihan found out about Yingyu's daughter and decided we had to intervene. But she -- and the entire rest of the staff -- were too embarrassed to actually do it. So I got sick of all the stupidity and volunteered. You know I like a well-timed dirty joke, so I figured it would be basically same thing only not funny, and according to Ty Lee, I'm good at not being funny."

"I think you're funny."

"Thanks, Zuko. But neither that nor your support today are going to get me to take you back. Romantically, I mean."

"Oh." Zuko noticed they were still holding hands and decided not to mention that. "Well, I'm glad I helped anyway. You're doing good work."

"Thank you." She looked down at their hands. She looked up at him.

He met her gaze.

She held it for a long moment.

Neither one was thinking about cabbages. Or dragon-storks, whoever came up with that nonsense.

END

Chapter Text

Mai Day

Mai never wore masks to festivals. Despite the popular tradition, she would always show up completely bare-faced. Inevitably, when people asked about her lack of mask, she would point to her own blank expression and say, "I'm wearing it right now."

Most people didn't get it. Azula did, but never thought it was funny no matter how deadpan the delivery.

But today Mai was wearing a mask with the smiling visage of a thorned rose spirit, not something she remembered selecting, but far enough away from her own regular appearance that she had no desire to take it off. It put distance between her and everyone else wandering the festival, a distance that she needed tonight if she was going to stay sane.

Because everyone else was wearing a mask with her face on it.

After all, the festival was for her: Mai Day.

She couldn't remember why Zuko had declared a new holiday dedicated to her, but she supposed it was the thought that counted with this kind of thing. Maybe it had been when he was trying to rekindle their love, although hadn't that had been over a decade ago at this point? Maybe that was it- this was some kind of anniversary celebration. Or he could have also been trying to compete with something ostentatious and stupidly romantic that Aang or Sokka had done for their respective ladies. It was even possible that Zuko had just been in a particularly sappy mood with nothing better to do with his abundant political power. But the reason itself didn't matter. It felt more important that Mai couldn't remember the reason.

But then, the festival itself was pretty distracting.

Mai wandered through the crowds of people all wearing masks fashioned after her typically blank face. She wasn't sure where she had lost Zuko, but she was alone now- and wait, they were supposed to be taking Izumi to a festival, weren't they? But that didn't make sense; Mai wouldn't have wanted to bring her daughter to something as horrifying as Mai Day. It was disturbing enough to see her own face everywhere, never mind how everyone turned to stare at her as she walked past them- almost like they could tell who she was under her own mask. And then there was the heat and the repetitive droning of the same jaunty festival tune over and over and over-

Mai couldn't see where the band was, but their music was inescapable. She made turn after turn, working her way through the winding lanes. She passed stalls selling fire flakes- and only fire flakes, because it was Mai Day and that was her favorite snack. Little girls were lining up to get their hair done up with twin buns and 'charming locks' hanging on either side of her face, because it was Mai Day, after all. She passed a variety of festival games, but everyone single one of them involved throwing knives in some form, because it was Mai Day.

One player at a stall ahead of her threw his knife at a balloon tied to a spinning wheel, but he had no idea how to toss a rubber ball, never mind a deadly weapon, and it went spinning wildly over the stall to land in the heart of a Boiling Rock guard who squawked at the surge of blood from his chest while everyone around him laughed. And through it all, the music kept cycling through the same few notes, lively in a way that wasn't quite a dance and didn't come close to hiding its true nature as a military march.

Not that anyone would want to dance or march or anything in this heat.

There were just too many torches. Sure, a festival needed plenty of its own light after the sun went down, at least before the fireworks, but having a bonfire on top of every single stall seemed excessive, never mind the giant burning pillars lining the walkways. The flames sometimes surged so that people nearby were consumed and reduced to ash instantly, but no one reacted to the death. After all, it was Mai Day, and hadn't she ignored so much death over the years? She felt sweat pouring down her face, but she didn't dare take her mask off. Her robes were even sticking to her, getting all tangled as she ran down the lanes looking for an exit. How big was this festival? She felt like she had walked the length of the Capital Caldera twice over now. Her robes were supposed to have been tailored so that they never impeded her, but tonight for some reason they were too long, too loose, too flowing. They worked their way around her legs and under her bare feet, and she stumbled and tripped and went sprawling on the ground.

She tried to get back up, but her hands slid over the ground like it was made of silk. She fell again and her face was smashed into the ground that was strangely soft and smelled like her own sweat.

Too late, she realized the sensation meant she had lost her mask.

She looked up to find it an impossible distance ahead of her, no longer a rose surrounded by petals and thorns but now another mimicry of her own face staring back at her with eyes of pure nothingness and a smile of sharpened steel.

And everyone had turned to stare at her. Thousands of wooden, painted reflections of herself had locked their gazes on her, all them with dark eyes and knife-grins.

The music had finally stopped.

Then everyone began moving with the chaotic coordination of an ant swarm, closing in on her with chants of, "Mai Day, Mai Day, Mai Day, Mai Day, Mai Day..."

Mai scrambled to her feet, trying to get away, but her robes were twisted around her feet. She thought to get a knife and cut the sweat-soaked fabric away, but for some reason she couldn't find any. Was it because she was back at the academy, teaching again? No, wait, after the first terrorists she'd started going armed again, and anyway this wasn't the academy, this was Mai Day.

She crawled as best she could, finding no grip on the silk ground. Her robes became sweaty hands which grabbed her and yanked her and pulled her down, and now the "Mai Day" chanting had taken on the melody of the Fire Nation's imperial march, getting louder and louder and louder-

The world exploded with the devastating crack of fireworks right above her head.

Mai screamed and sprang up-

-in her bedroom?

Zuko looked up, jolting out of the half-doze he had sunk into, to find his wife sitting up in their bed and panting and she looked around wildly. He got out of his chair and crossed over to her, careful not to trip over any stray blankets in the darkness. "Mai? Are you okay?"

"Zuko?" She snapped her gaze to him and squinted with confusion.

"I'm here." Distantly, he heard the echoes of fireworks. The festival must be winding down, then. He sat down on the bed next to Mai and took her hands. "Are you okay? Did the fireworks wake you? I can have them outlawed."

She usually laughed when he acted tyrannical, but now it was like she wasn't even hearing him. Her focus darted around their darkened bedroom like she didn't recognize it and she mumbled something that sounded like, "Is it still Mai Day?"

"What's Mai Day?"

"My day! The festival! I-" She blinked. "Wasn't it?"

He put a hand on her forehead. Beneath the sweat, she was burning up. "You have a fever. No wonder you weren't feeling well before." At her questioning look, he continued, "Remember? We were going to take Izumi to the solstice festival? But you felt dizzy, so I brought you back here to rest."

She blinked. "And Izumi?"

"Aang and Katara are taking her for us. They're going to feed her so much food she's going to be sick, but you said it would be good for her."

"I did?"

"It's possible you were already delirious."

She didn't laugh like he expected. She gave an all too serious nod and let herself fall back into the bed. "My head hurts and I'm sweaty."

"I know." He put his hand back on her forehead, took a focusing breath, and channeled some of her heat through his palm, into his own energy paths, and out through his other arm with a flick of his hand. He kept the slow pattern up, siphoning away some of her fever.

She closed her eyes. "That feels good."

"Then I'll keep doing it. You rest. You'll need as much as you can get."

"-m'kay." Her lips kept moving after she stopped talking, and he supposed she had gone to sleep again.

He remained by her side, drawing away the excess heat, while the fireworks crackled distantly.

Mai Day.

Not a bad idea, now that he thought about it. But she'd hate it, so he might as well try to forget it. Maybe it was something Izumi's descendants could do, someday. He'd rather Mai get a holiday than himself, but he doubted either one of them would get a choice in the matter.

But he supposed it was the thought that counted, at least with this kind of thing.

END

Chapter Text

Practice Makes Perfect

The first time Yan got the offer, he turned it down cold, saying with a laugh, "I might never get out of here, but I won't sell out for anything less than roast goose-duck."

It was a show of bravado worthy of the Boiling Rock's most notorious prisoner of war, but it was more calculated than Yan let on. The offers had been coming to what had at first seemed like random prisoners here for just over six months now. The first speculation had been the most obvious, that the warden was trying to recruit spies with better food. The next whispers had been that it was a misdirection, that the prisoners getting the offers were the ones you didn't to need to worry about, distractions from the real spies who had sold out their fellow prisoners. But after a few more weeks, a true pattern had emerged, and the more time went on, the more it held true.

Yan knew he matched the criteria, but he also knew he was one of the more troublesome people they had locked up in here. He'd gone to considerable effort to become exactly that and regularly suffered the punishments that came with it. There might be no escape from the Boiling Rock, but Yan was determined that the Fire Nation would come to regret taking him prisoner or have to let him go, and he knew which of those was more likely. His family wasn't so prominent that he was worth any kind of exchange or ransom, and for as good a soldier as he had been, he'd been no great hero in either deed or propaganda. In fact, his status as one of the Boiling Rock's most notorious was the most famous he had ever been. He'd been curious if he was too troublesome to get the unusual offer that had been confounding his fellows, although if the pattern held true, he had to be an irresistible candidate.

So when it did come, he refused it with a humor that delighted the other prisoners and waited to see what would happen.

He had to admit that he had almost been hoping for some kind of drama or retaliation, and he turned out disappointed. A week later, the offer was made to someone else, a guy who had held onto his sword for too long after a Firebender heated it up and lost fingers, and things proceeded in a standard way for another month from there. So he'd forgotten it, letting it fade into the background of surviving the Boiling Rock while his Homeland fought the Fire Nation on the other side of the world.

He had doing a stint in solitary for another of his more exciting antics when the offer had come again.

"Roast goose-duck," the guard had said with more than a little sneer in his voice, "as requested. And all the trimmings."

That had taken Yan aback for a moment. But only a moment. Pretending that he hardly cared, he shrugged and said, "Well, I can't refuse such an accommodation. Tell her yes."

What came next had been more than a little surreal, but he showed no sign of it. The guards set things up like the servants his family had employed before the Fire Nation stole his lands and assets. He examined the fingernails on his good hand while the guards clasped chains on his ankles and locked the other ends to the wall behind him. The food was brought in shortly after that, warm and smelling wonderful, placed atop low tables in a pleasing arrangement.

Once everything was ready and a full dozen guards were lining the walls, they brought the girl in.

The reports from the other prisoners who had accepted the offer said she was pretty, and Yan could see why they'd think that. She was groomed like she had been born in Ba Sing Se's Upper Ring, although her fine red and black clothes wouldn't let anyone actually make that mistake. But beneath the makeup and finery, she wasn't actually pretty, to his eye. Certainly not compared to his daughter and cousins, who always greeted the world with smiles and shining eyes. This Fire Nation girl was probably a little older than them, maybe twelve or thirteen.

As soon as she looked at him, she had the same initial reaction that people always did- the expression of shock, the disgusted turn away from the sight of him. The girl tried to rally, like some did, raising her eyes again and forcing herself not to focus on the glistening scar-flesh, the lack of ears, the missing eye. She swallowed audibly and tried to blank her expression.

Once she had steeled herself, she sat down across from Yan at the main table, looked him in the eyes, and said, "Don't hold back on my account. I already had lunch."

Yan grinned at her with all the teeth he had left. "Don't mind if I do." He used his good hand to grab the bowl of goose-duck. They hadn't given him chopsticks or other utensils, of course; they hadn't for the others, according to the stories, and they certainly wouldn't break the pattern for someone who had assaulted guards in the past. So he made do by bringing the bowl up to his mouth and grabbing a slice with his teeth.

It was undignified, yes, but a person with just one hand had to make do.

Yan didn't hold back from sating his appetite for something other than prison slop, but neither did he make a show of bad manners. The others who had come before him no doubt hadn't been the classiest eaters, never mind those who like Yan didn't have all the bits they'd been born with, and Yan was more interested in learning from this experience than using it to bolster his local legend.

And while she was doing a good job hiding it, the girl was definitely intimidated. Or perhaps it was better to say she was disgusted. Her face had gone even paler that it had been when she walked into the cell, and Yan spotted her giving a rough swallow.

He finished chewing a piece and grinned at her again. "So I guess you aren't fascinated by disfigurement. My buddy Lee is going to lose a bet when tell everyone."

"Hm?" Her eyes met his gaze. "Oh. No, I'm not here for fun."

"Well, at least one us is enjoying this, then. Heh. I have to say, I wasn't expecting to actually get any goose-duck, but this is the best I ever had."

"How nice," she said flatly. "I really had to beg my uncle for this. I'd just been giving the other prisoners the lunches I'd brought with me on my visits. But you wanted goose-duck."

Yan waited for her to turn away as she spoke, but she kept her eyes on him. Specifically, she watched him like he was a museum exhibit, not another human being eating right in front of her.

Well, Yan was used to being stared at. "Seems a fair trade, considering that your people did this to me. I wasn't born like this, you know. Your people did it."

"I know." She gave another swallow.

"It was a broken foot that let them capture me, but that healed well, at least." He lifted his chin and rolled his head around, giving her a good view of all the damage. "This was done after they took me prisoner. Slowly and very deliberately." He lifted his right arm and showed off the stump at his wrist. "This, too. But to be fair, it was after I used that hand to break my interrogator’s nose."

She nodded politely and continued to watch him.

"But you’re not here to interrogate me. So what is this? For real?"

She met his gaze again, took a deep breath, and nodded. "Practice. The meal is compensation. And that’s as far as I care to explain myself."

Well, if nothing else, Yan was getting a great meal out of all this. He took his fill and then some, making sure he at least sampled every dish. At one point, another question occurred to him, so he ventured with, "They say you're related to the warden here. Are you his daughter?"

She didn't say anything. She just continued to watch. Her complexion might have gone a little green, but it was tough to tell in the lighting in here.

When Yan had eaten as much as he could, he put the last bowl down and gave a contented belch. As if that was some kind of sign, the girl stood up, smoothed her robes, and turned to go.

"Hey," he said. "Not going to say goodbye?"

She started moving towards the door with noticeable grace and absolutely no words.

Yan shook his head. He still hadn't figured any of this out. Why did a girl barely in her teens need to practice looking at prisoners covered in burn scars?

No. No, that question wasn't the question. Not why.

Who?

He hadn't realize he'd said the word aloud until she finally turned around, showing a trembling lower lip, and whispered, "The Fire Nation did it to him, too."

Then she was gone. The guards cleared out all signs of the meal and then gave Yan a halfhearted beating before leaving him alone again. As time passed, Yan would sometimes think back to her response and try to figure out the meaning. But he never did.

A year later, Yan died in a riot to a Firebender guard, a contented smile twisting the scarred face that the Fire Nation had created but could not control.

Time passed.

Despite the fall of Ba Sing Se, the death of the Avatar, the arrest of Uncle Iroh, and everything else going on, the first thing to break Zuko free of the haze he'd been in since the night before had been meeting a pair of girls. To be fair to himself, these girls were old friends -- well, friends of Azula, and he had spent enough time with them that he thought they counted as his friends, too -- who he hadn't seen for three years. Not since he was banished. Not since his father had- not since he had been scarred.

Zuko came upon Mai and Ty Lee in the hallway just outside the Earth King's (former) throne room. They had both stopped short in surprise, and of course -- of course -- their gazes had gone directly to his face.

"Oh-" Ty Lee immediately did that familiar flinch, her eyes darting to the ground before she forced them back up to focus on his chin. "H- hi, Zuko." Then she inhaled and met his gaze with obvious effort.

It was a pattern he had seen too many times before.

But Mai-

"Hey, Zuko. Been a while." Mai just looked at him. Her eyes did no dance. She just looked at him, the only change in her expression one of an old familiarity, of a blankness giving way to a subtle interest. She just looked at him like she had before-

Before.

"Mai," he said. "It's good to see you."

She offered him a smile back. "Likewise."

END

Chapter Text

Rock Solid

Despite some snide insinuations from people whose sense of teasing was stuck in their teenage years (Sokka), Toph really did like to spend time with her friends. She truly drew strength and comfort from having them around, even those times Katara was in a morally superior mood. And when Toph was off on a walkabout or actually tolerating her Earthbending students again or completing an epic quest everyone else didn't need to know about, she missed her friends and looked forward to meeting up with them again.

But there were also times when she found some of her friends kind of exhausting.

Like, to name a completely random example, when Zuko was stressing about his love-life in ways that even Toph (with her only two romantic experiences being a passionate kiss on the cheek of a Kyoshi Warrior she thought was someone else and an ill-advised cuddle with badgermole) could tell were completely self-sabotaging.

"Toph!" Zuko shouted as he burst into the stockroom of Uncle Iroh's tea shop. "I need your help!"

"Yeah," she said with a wince, "I could tell by the way your voice hit a higher pitch than mine. Or Sokka's the time he accidentally caught his boomerang with his-"

"Sorry but this is important!" He scrambled over to her, only to stop short at the last moment. "Wh- what are you doing?"

"Remember how at breakfast today Katara said that arguing with me was liking trying to squeeze water out of a stone?"

"That- sounds vaguely familiar?"

"Huh, I'm surprised you were paying even that much attention over the sound of your girlfriend combing her long pretty hair. Well, Katara is going to be surprised when I squeeze this stone in her face later and it explodes with all the water I'm hiding in it!"

"-with Uncle's best, most pure spring water he uses for special tea orders?"

"Come on, I'm not twelve anymore. I've matured. Katara's fussy and I'm not that mad at her, so I don't want to throw dirty water in her face. I'm going to throw nice water in her face. Besides, she's a Waterbender, so she can probably even tell the difference from the stuff here in the city where they have to filter out all the silt, and I don't want to get an earful about it."

"O- kay, then." She could feel Zuko shaking his head, and his stomach roiled in a way that felt like too much stress. He needed to learn how these vacations were supposed to work. "But I need your help for something important."

"When it comes to important, I'm your girl." Toph put her project aside and reached up to pat him comfortingly on the head, something she still hadn't gotten tired of doing since she finally got that fabled growth spurt everyone talked about. "Who do you need to me to kill? Or which killed person do you need me to bury? Or I can kill and bury someone all at once? That's kind of an Earthbending specialty."

"Wha- no! No killing! I need you to make a rock for me! And please stop slapping my head."

Toph frowned. "I know you Firebenders don't like to pay attention to things like this, but if you need a rock, they're all over the place. You can just pick them up off the ground."

"I know that! It needs to be a particular kind of rock! A- a very particular kind- that I need your help with."

"I'm on the tips of my toes here."

"-no, your feet are flat on the ground."

"And yet I can reach the top of your head! Yeah!" She patted his head again. "But it's an expression I'm inventing. It means I am very interested in with you have to say and think you should get mudding on with it already!"

"Oh, right. Well, I need a black rock. And please stop hitting my head."

Toph waited.

Zuko said nothing.

Toph waited some more.

Zuko said nothing.

So it was going to be one of those conversations. She decided to play as dumb as possible: "What's black?"

"It- oh, right! You're- well, it's kind of like- there's no- it-" He started pacing. "Describing color is really hard without talking about other colors."

Well, that was insightful enough that Toph could maybe show some mercy. "Then instead of telling me what it looks like, you could maybe talk about helpful things like what it feels like, where they're supposed to be found, and why you need a special rock in the first place."

"Oh! Right!" His stomach finally calmed down, a sign he was doing his Zuko-thing where he was forgetting how impossible his current impossible task was as he started breaking down the pointless details. "Years ago I had a special rock. It was a lava rock, a small one that could fit in the palm of my hand. It was- well, kind of heavy for the size. Very solid. It was black- but not really; when you examined it up close, there were flecks of lightness. And- and it- it was shaped-"

His heartbeat picked up and he started pacing.

Toph felt a grin coming on at his hesitation and anxiety. "Was it shaped like something dirty?"

"Huh?" He came to a sudden stop. "No!! It wasn't- why would you even think that?! It was shaped like a heart! Very romantic! And innocent!"

Well, okay, that was almost as good. "Nice! So, what, you want to give Mai one in return?"

His heart skipped a beat. "How did you know Mai give it to me?"

She ambled over to give his head a comforting pat. "Because I'm not stupid? You're all worked up and talking about romance, so of course it was Mai. Also, a black heavy rock that comes from the Fire Nation? Totally her style."

Zuko was silent for a long moment. "Stop hitting my head. And you said you don't know what black is."

"I actually did not say any such thing. There you go burning people's feet before you even know who they are again."

"That was-"

Toph continued with, "When Katara described Mai to me, she said her hair was both black and shiny at the same time. So I touched and tasted it when I got the chance, and when Mai stopped hitting me, I figured out that her hair is like polished obsidian. People tell me that's also black. So I get the idea. Anyway, where did you see it last?"

"Huh?"

Toph pushed him out of the way of the door. "You lost your rock, right? And you need me to find it. That's why you're wasting the time of the greatest Earthbender who ever lived."

"N- not, quite," Zuko said, cringing as he followed her into the hallway. "I lost it a while ago. During my exile. In the ocean. If it wasn't destroyed. There's no finding it now."

Toph came to a stop. She was starting to see where this was going, to borrow a phrase she usually claimed to take offense at. "So. You need me to find another very specifically shaped rock of a certain type?"

Zuko didn't say anything.

Toph gasped as loudly as she could. "You want me to counterfeit it? A unique romantic gift with special meaning so that you can fool the woman who loves you?"

Zuko was cringing again. "When you put it like that-"

"I'm in!" Toph swatted his head, grabbed his hand, and yanked him to follow her. Lava rock wasn't common in the Earth Kingdom, but Uncle Iroh had some in his garden and wouldn't miss a piece. She'd have to be careful shaping it, as the kind of rock Zuko was describing was very dense, so it would fight being changed and shatter completely if pushed too hard. And 'heart-shaped' was pretty vague, so she'd have to get more details out of Zuko, and that would be like pulling teeth, which she knew because she had actually pulled bad teeth from badgermoles a few times and enjoyed it more than getting useful information from Zuko.

Yeah, this was going to be fun.

Especially when Mai found out.

"See?" Zuko was saying later that night, "I have it right here. Just like I told you."

Toph didn't think Zuko knew she was nearby, but that was okay; he would do better if he didn't know he had an audience, never mind one who was looking forward to some drama. She was dug in beneath a bush in Iroh's garden that smelled like mint, close enough to where Zuko and Mai were having a little 'private' dinner that she could hear what they were whispering to each other. Sure, this was probably considered to be kind of rude, but 1) she didn't care, 2) she was invested in this matter and deserved to know how it went, and 3) it was probably going be really funny.

Toph could feel Zuko handing something over to Mai, most likely the heart-shaped lava rock she had painstakingly crafted to his specifications earlier that day.

Mai took it her hand, the movement not rattling a single one of the blades beneath her clothes, something Toph could never quite figure out. Actually, there was a lot of things about Mai that Toph could never figure out, but she enjoyed the challenge. Not only did it keep things interesting, but Toph felt like once she figured it out, she'd be able to get cuddle-buddies who weren't bemused Kyoshi Warriors or overly affectionate badgermoles. And that was worth the effort.

"Wow," Mai said, sounding taken aback. "You did keep it. Not that I didn't believe you, but- I am genuinely impressed and flattered, Zuko."

"Yes. I did keep it. Like I said and you've acknowledged." Zuko still couldn't lie to save his life, but if Mai could tell, she wasn't giving any sign of it, not even fingering a blade. He added, "Of course I would keep a gift like this. It's one of the best presents I've ever received." This part didn't sound or feel like a lie from him at all.

"It's not like I put a lot of effort into it." Mai's voice was cool as usual, but lacked the usual steel underneath it. In fact, it was so vulnerable, it was practically dangling over a chasm. "It's just a rock I found on the ground."

"I know, but it- well, you didn't talk much back then." Zuko's heart was hammering almost as much as Mai's. "It spoke for you, and said something I needed to hear at the time. Something special."

"It's a rock, Zuko." Mai was doing something Toph liked a lot: using harsh words that somehow smiled audibly for her. "But I guess I'm glad you-"

The words and the smile and the hammering heart suddenly cut off. Toph was worried that Mai have just keeled over, but then she heard what could have been a little intake of breath, but she wasn't sure; it could have just as easily been a leaf shifting in a breeze.

Then Mai spoke again, her heartbeat back to normal and the steel back in her voice: "What is this?"

"It's- it's the rock. Your rock," Zuko said.

"No. It isn't." Mai stood up, the knives under her clothes once again moving silently with her body like a second skin. "This looks like it, and you got it pretty close, but it's not. What, did you get Toph to make it? You lied to me."

"No!" Now Zuko was standing up as well. "No, I- I really did keep it! I kept it in my hair kit!"

"-you had a hair kit?"

"Of course! You of all people know that hair this luscious doesn't just happen."

"-okay, true."

"I kept it in my hair kit where I knew Azula and servants wouldn't see it, and when I was- when I was exiled, Uncle packed the kit for me with my other stuff while I was brought to the ship! In case I wanted to grow my hair again. He's optimistic like that."

Toph still didn't have the full story of Zuko's exile and all the related drama, but she knew enough for her heart to give a lurch at the sculpture his words were carving. He hadn't just been denied by his father, but hurt and thrown away, too. She could relate.

Mai, however, showed no sign that she was being affected in a similar way. Toph felt her turn away from Zuko as she said, "And I bet you didn't look at it once during the whole time."

"I did! I looked at it! Er, once. Accidentally. But- but it wasn't because of you or the rock! I just- thinking of home too much- it- it-"

"You don't have to say it, Zuko," Mai said, her voice a bit softer. "I understand. So you could have just admitted that you lost it somewhere or threw it away. That's fine. I'm mad that you lied about it."

"Well, I didn't want to give you the wrong impression! I didn't lose it because I was careless or anything! It blew up with everything else on my ship when the pirates came for revenge."

Mai spun to face Zuko again. "Your ship blew up?"

"Yes! And I didn't have time to get my hair kit -- even if I wasn't bald at the time except for a phoenix tail -- because I was all the way on the bridge!"

"You were on your ship when it blew up?"

"Yes! I barely had time to get a fire-shield around myself, never mind run back to my cabin, and then the explosion threw me out the window, so I could hardly go back after that."

"You blew up with your ship?!"

Toph knew Zuko couldn't lie like his sister, so the steadiness of his heart and pulse (well, as steady as Zuko got when he was excited) meant that this story was somehow true. It also fit with the stories people told about him. Toph hadn't personally witnessed such things, mainly because explosions tended to mess with her Earth-sense (and give her headaches), but she'd sensed him doing other wild and stupid things, so it fit.

Speaking of explosions, Mai's heart was feeling unpleasantly erratic and her pulse was going crazy. Toph even thought she could heart a little tinkling of thin metal being jostled as Mai stepped over to Zuko and took him in her arms.

"I'm sorry I lied," Zuko said, putting his arms around her in turn, "but I didn't look at your rock enough and couldn't save it. I didn't want you to think-"

"That you're human," Mai rasped. She leaned her head on Zuko's shoulder and their heartbeats became harder to distinguish. "Zuko, how could I blame you for having other things on your mind after- after everything with your father? And how could I possibly be mad that the rock blew up with you and your ship? I just- I wish you weren't terrified whenever you fail to live up to some impossible concept of perfection that even Azula would think is a bit much."

"Sorry?"

"You're forgiven." Mai sighed and added, "For lying. There's nothing else to forgive. I just-"

"What? Anything to make you happy."

"Zuko, that's exactly what I don't need. Doing thoughtful things for me is fine, but you don't need to worry yourself sick about constantly keeping me happy. That's why I gave you that stone; my heart is black and hard and-"

"Shiny like your hair?"

Mai laughed. "Yes. And also very difficult to break. So don't worry about wrecking my love for you with casual handling. Go ahead and lose a gift I gave you. Stone is strong, and so am I." She pulled away from Zuko and turned-

-towards the bush Toph was hiding under.

"Right, Toph?" she called out.

Toph swallowed a belligerent response and raised a hand out the top of her bush to give a thumb's up.

"Toph?! You little-"

"Don't worry about her," Mai said. "She just wants a show." Then she pulled Zuko close again and kissed him.

No, she kissed Zuko. The word was so stressed that Toph felt her face heating up.

When they finally came up for air, Zuko whispered, "Thank you, Mai. So- how could you tell it wasn't the same rock? I thought we got it right."

Mai chuckled. "I left out part of the story. I didn't just find it and give it to you. There was a solid month in between where I carried it with me everywhere, anxious about whether I should actually let you see it or just throw it a pond. I got to know the feel of that thing by- well, by heart. Sometimes I even dream I'm still holding it. You -- or Toph -- made your counterfeit symmetrical, but the top-left bit is supposed to be a little thicker than on the right."

That's why Toph wasn't bitter about Zuko having Mai; that girl could even tell rocks apart by feel. Zuko needed someone like that in his life. Hopefully, he wouldn't mess it up. Like, for real, not just getting himself into a dumb situation with good intentions. But maybe Mai could handle that, too.

The two of them left hand in hand, and Toph could feel Mai slipping the new rock into one of her blade-pouches. It scraped against the flat of one of the razors, making a non-sound that no one else might have heard; even Toph wasn't sure if she was really hearing it or just detecting its faint echo in the vibrations Mai's body made.

It was a little tell in an otherwise silent exterior.

There was probably a lesson of some kind in that. But before she could think about it, Toph had to get out of her embarrassing bush and make sure no one blabbed about it. She had a reputation to think about, after all, even if her friends probably wouldn't mind. And then she was in the mood to cuddle a badgermole.

END