trans_9 | 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..."

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"My parents probably would've found a husband for me," Mai rolled her eyes, "It's not like I ever expected to see Zuko again, let alone talk to him."

She forced herself to relax, even if her knuckles were turning white from gripping a throwing knife inside of her sleeve.

"I would've loved him, even if you hadn't brought us together. I don't believe in that destiny stuff, but the emotion was still there."

Even if she didn't show it.

"Sometimes, I wonder Azula. Do you ever consider trying not to be a psychopath?"

"An eternally unrequited love. How utterly pathetic." She shook her head, "Even now when you're thinking of how best to kill me I can't stand the idea of your tiny little heart festering while some fool of a noble acts like he owns you." She waved a hand dismissing the thought, "I'm too soft sometimes."

Though one couldn't help but wonder how much of it she meant.

"It's harder then you'd imagine." She countered.

"You're too kind, Azula. Really."

Although it was gratifying to know that other people thought her time would be wasted as just another political wife. She would've hated it. Just like she hated almost everything else in her too-perfect life.

"Enlighten me."

"I only wonder how long it would have taken before either your spirit broke, or you murdered him." She mused idly as if she were discussing something mundane like last nights dinner.

But when asked to elaborate on being insane she started laughing, "Come now Mai, you're not Ty Lee. You're smart enough to know these sorts of things can't simply be switched off!" Then in a deadly serious voice with her eyes blazing a cold fire, "I am sick, very sick. And if something can't be done about it..."

And just like that the tension in her voice was gone again and she was lighthearted once more. "Well I suppose I'll be put down like a rabid animal. Maybe even by you. Probably in fact. You're the only one from our world with a spine after all."

"Five minutes," Mai droned (this was a joke, really), "Give or take."

For a moment it was like they were back at school again. But just for that one moment.

"I don't enjoy it," Mai replied slowly, "But you have to admit, it's a relief when the person who wants you dead is gone, don't you agree?"

Ah, the familiar bite of sarcasm.

Azula seemed to actually consider this, "Sometimes I like to keep them around to remind them why they should have never thought to betray me." She mostly meant the guards and servants and that she had crushed the spirits of over the years.

"But if you weren't worrying about me murdering your only reason for living what would you do with yourself. Have you actually managed to make friends on this ship of fools? Some sort of purpose for being here?" It wasn't so much cruel as genuine curiosity. Despite all the yelling she had done the last few times they were in contact she hadn't really found out anything about Mai's life after she had been locked away.

"Azula, in all the time you've known me, do I make friends?" Mai asked. It was more of a rhetorical question. The answer was 'no', of course.

"I hate it here. It's too moist and humid and no one here knows anything. They're all... idiots," Mai sighs, "Just like everywhere else."

Azula smirked, "Some things never do change. Well then for your sanity you better convince me to leave Zuko alone. If you killed me that'd be one less interesting person." She allowed herself the pleasure of imagining Mai going insane. It was much less horrible then what she herself was feeling every so often.

"At least the Fire Nation's war effort was organized."

Mai folded her arms again. On the off-chance that it might work (and because, really, sarcasm was her thing), Mai had to ask. Besides, she couldn't let Azula know she was getting to her.

"Would it help if I said 'please'?"

Azula looked puzzled and then burst out laughing, it was a long exhausting laugh that had her shaking where she sat before she wiped a tear from her eye. "You always were a smarter sort of funny then Ty Lee." She complimented, "Mostly black humor but still more humor then most people think you have."

"Maybe people don't know me as well as you do, Princess," Mai replied with just the slightest hint of a smirk on her face. Even if Azula was crazy, she still knew how to give out backhanded compliments.

"I guess I'm honored you think so highly of me."

"When the world was united under The Fire Nation, and all were at peace, as Firelord there were only two people I wanted by my side." She nodded but frowned dismayed, "Pity." But that's all she would say on the matter.

If she hadn't brought Zuko and Mai together...

If she hadn't let Zuko escape...

If she hadn't tried to kill him when he did escape...

"And here we are, in a place you hated, inside another place you hate, You can almost hear your little brother squealing for attention and your parents giving out orders can't you?"

"I'm ignoring them," Mai retorts. It's easy to play this game. It's also easy to just soak up the hatred, the temper tantrums and ignore it all. She did it with her parents. She can do it with Azula.

"We're probably never going home again, anyway."

Azula rose to her feet, "You're probably right. So if you try to marry Zuko while we're here and I haven't killed him by then I expect to be invited." It was hard to tell where that sat between a joke and a threat.

"As long as you only set the annoying wedding guests on fire," Mai arched a brow. Serious? Maybe.

She was walking towards the building now keeping her eyes on Mai. "And will you be starting a family? Should I just give up now and prepare to be Crazy Auntie Azula?" While it had a ring to it she simply thought it comical to imagine Mai with childen. In her head each one looked exactly like Mai down to her deadpan stare.

Mai carefully began to draw a knife, but kept it hidden in her sleeve. If Azula wanted a fight, she'd get one.

"It's what's expected of us," she remarked flippantly, "But then again, neither of us really do what's expected of us, do we?"

"Oh I don't know." Azula mused putting a finger to her chin in thought, "Your parents might expect it but anyone who knows you even a little bit more then them would expect no."

She paused to apparently check her nails, "So really it's about what you want. Not doing what others do or do not expect of you." Another moment and she added, "Oh and I suppose it's about what Zuko wants."

You Can't Go Home [Open]

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