ext_229764 ([identity profile] knifeurrib.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] trans_92011-10-19 12:36 pm

You Can't Go Home [Open]

When she wasn't with Zuko, Mai needed to find something to do that wasn't throwing knives at the wall. Even that got boring after a while. You could only practice so much before your muscles decided you needed to do something else. So, she'd taken up simply wandering through the city. It was decent exercise and she was less likely to run into people who wanted to ask her stupid questions. Or any of the Avatar's group, for that matter. After Ozai, she'd been avoiding them. Not out of any hatred toward them, but simply because she would rather not have to explain herself if any of them wanted to know why.

So, the city had its appeal. Until she found her old family home, anyway. It was her family's manor from the Fire Nation capital, but here, it stood on a side street, in between a walled manor made of adobe, with curving, elegant archways and a squat, steely, sullen looking building that looked more like a bunker than anything else. It was also empty. She wandered the hallways and for the first time, she realized how omnipresent the servants actually had been. She had been so used to seeing them out of the corner of her eye or just passing by on some chore that they'd become part of the scenery. PArt of the house.

Without them, it was strangely empty and quiet.

The garden was there, of course. As immaculate and well-trimmed as the last time she remembered seeing it (who or what kept it from overgrowing and becoming a disaster area was a mystery). The furniture was there, too. A bit dusty, but otherwise in perfect condition. She slowly settled onto a couch on a balcony that overlooked the street. Back home, the Fire Nation Palace was just across the street - she could see it in her mind's eye - and it had been a point of pride for her family that they had a town-house that close to the Fire Lord. It showed royal favor, her mother had told her once. Which was why her father had become governor of New Ozai, of course.

She slumped back against the cushions, feeling oddly homesick for the first time in a long, long while.

"Figures. I can't escape my parents, even when they're in slimy pods..."

[identity profile] kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com 2011-10-20 07:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"No, of course not," Kaya said, rolling her eyes right back. "You went and killed Ozai because Zuko the FIREBENDER needed protection, but if sadistic prodigy Azula finds out, you'll be all right. You really are going to explain this logic of yours one day."

Because somehow, Kaya didn't think flying knives would do the trick.

I totally thought I replied to this WTH....

[identity profile] kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com 2011-10-22 05:31 am (UTC)(link)
Kaya her head to her temple a moment,shaking her head. "I wonder why you find it so hard to just let people help you. You definitely didn't mind having us take down Ozai so you could kill him, but actually making sure you're ok is apparently a big deal. Tell me something: if Zuko were to say through all of your efforts to make sure to stay alive, 'leave me alone, I can do this myself,' would you actually listen to him?"
Edited 2011-10-22 05:32 (UTC)

[identity profile] kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com 2011-10-22 06:07 am (UTC)(link)
"In case you missed it, he shares that with somebody," Kaya said. "And that is why I'm here in the first place. If you really want to lie and say you could take down Azula by yourself, have fun in crazy land, you can say hi to her there! But I don't live in crazy town, I'm here with everyone else, and I'm not about to let someone from our world make reckless decisions that might get her killed. For goodness sake, you keep saying you look after Zuko but you keep doing crazy stuff like this, killing Ozai and wandering into the city alone! What good is saving him if you were to get killed for that? Can you imagine what that would do to him?"