Flowers of Mai

Mai was raised as the daughter of a high ranking lord and lady in the court, she knows the most intimate secrets of the court but most importantly, she remembers a young Azula. An Azula who at one time had wept after her brother was banished. A one-shot companion piece for my story Change the World.

Mai wasn't stupid, she was very intelligent and she knew it. So when Azula appeared at her door that day she knew that everything was about to change. Her assumptions were only supported when she saw Ty Lee standing beside the princess. Ty Lee, Azula and Mai herself had been raised together. Ty Lee had been selected to be the princess's playmate, Mai however had been forced to spend time around the castle for the sole purpose of meeting her future husband. The very day Mai had been born her father and the Fire Lord had created an arranged marriage between the noble and the crown prince. It wasn't uncommon and Mai had been raised knowing that one day Zuko would be her husband. Judging from the way that he looked at her, Zuko knew too and wasn't quite sure what to do with the information.

"Please say you're here to kill me." She stated in a monotone voice, bowing formally to the two girls. She peered upwards to see Azula smile. For an instant she thought her friend was finally back.

"It's good to see you too Mai." Azula said, stepping forward to pull her into an embrace, laughing at the familiar joke.

"Mai!" Ty Lee cried, unable to stop herself from running to her friend and hugging her.

"Ty Lee?" She asked in pretend shock, "What are you doing here? I thought you had ran off and joined some circus. You said it was your calling." Ty Lee, ever the physical one of the group bounced forward and hugged her older friend.

"I did, but Azula called louder." Mai knew right away what that meant. Azula had terrorized Ty Lee into joining her, threatening the acrobat in a way that only Azula or her father could have conceived of. It made Mai wonder what would have happened if Azula hadn't ever started bending the blue fire, the sign of a true prodigy. In an instant Fire Lord Ozai had snapped his daughter up, pulling her out of the private tutelage from some of the best fire bending teachers in the nation and taking her under his own wing. Azula had only been eight years old. Just like that Azula had begun to change. Sure she had been cold, proud and manipulative before but under her father's private teachings that part of Azula grew stronger and the girl Mai knew had changed before her very eyes. Despite Azula's manipulative nature she had a kinder side, she was brutally honest to what she believed no matter who it hurt and she didn't care what others thought of her. Two potential strengths that had been changed dramatically by her father. Azula had changed, she began to strive for perfection, not even a speck of dust could ever touch her clothes. Her manipulation techniques began to take a sinister feel, as if she didn't care who got hurt and who didn't and she began to lie.

The last time Mai had ever seen the real Azula was after Zuko was banished. Mai had been expressly forbidden by her father to see the Agni Kai between the prince and his father but she learned about it soon enough. Azula had come to her house, her eyes full of emotions that Mai had not seen in almost a year. Sadness, distress, frustration. All of them were there in plain view. Mae had listened in growing horror as Azula relayed what had occurred, how Zuko was too weak to fight. Azula had tried to sound like she didn't care but it was clear that she was lost. She even admitted to hiring a boat and crew for Zuko and uncle Iroh from her allowance that she had been raising for some time. Mai didn't know what Azula had been saving up for but she was sure it wasn't a boat and crew. She had watched Azula's face carefully as the young girl tried to hide behind the guise of giving her brother a false hope. She even laughed when she said that the boat would make him believe that he had a chance of catching the avatar. Yet as Azula turned away Mae had no doubt in her mind that the shine on her friend's face was from a tear.

"I have a mission," Azula stated, tearing Mai from her thoughts, "And I need you both." Mai smiled, she was truly bored of this place. All the green was giving her a headache. Besides she had never been one who was willing to live a monotonous life.

"Count me in, I'll do anything to get out of this place." She paused and gestured at the stairs leading her her father's new manner.

"Would you care to come in?" Azula nodded and the three of them walked up the stairs. Ty Lee, unable to resist back flipped onto the railing and began walking there.

Mai couldn't help but flinch when Azula looked down at her parents. She wasn't to worried though, no one expected her to have emotions with the way she dressed and acted and people tended to only see what they wanted to. She had been trained as a little girl to be quiet and pretty, besides that nothing else really mattered. After some debate with her parents she had managed to convince her father that she needed to learn how to protect herself, after all the palace guards wouldn't always be around and with her as the future fire lady that made her a prime target for those who wished to do their nation harm. Her father had finally agreed, giving her permission to find someone to teach her how to defend herself. That had been his first mistake. With the free reign he had given her Mai found someone who would teach her the art of knife throwing. A skill usually taught only to assassins, a skill that no noble woman had any right knowing. By the time her parents had discovered what had happened Mai had already mastered three types of knives and was well on her way to a fourth. It turned out that she was an incredible marksman, one that the Yu Yan archers would have been interested in if she hadn't been a high ranking noble.

"I apologize," Her father stated softly, kneeling on a cushion far below Azula's feet, showing the princess to be far superior to them.

"You've come to Omashu at a terrible time." He continued, "At noon we are meeting the resistance to get Tom-tom back." Mai would never admit it out loud but Tom-tom had really been her saving grace. After Zuko had been banished her parents had become desperate to find her a husband. However many of the potential suitors had been nervous, even terrified to approach her. Her fashion, emotionless tone and expression coupled with the fact that she should have been the next fire lady made her less than desirable and the few men who did pursue her did so for vulgar purposes. She was quick to show those particular men her skill. The truth was, she had been the Prince's betrothed and only the court itself knew that Zuko had been banished. Besides that small population people believed that the prince had gone away to be taught privately. The other nobles feared that if they tried to marry her the general public would clue into the banishment which in turn could cause problems for them with the Fire Lord. It was much easier just to pretend that she was still engaged. However her parents were now aware that they needed to keep the family name and to do so they needed to marry her to a son of a lesser noble so that he would take on her name and their lineage would continue on. Her parents would have become even more insistent, even eventually forcing her into a marriage if it hadn't been for the birth of her brother. With Tom-tom her family's name would live on. Once again she was a child that didn't matter, which she discovered she actually preferred. Her parents ignoring her allowed Mai to live almost exclusively as she wanted as long as they didn't hear about it.

"Yes, I'm so sorry to hear about your son." Judging from the dull, uninterested tone in Azula's voice she really didn't care. She was going through the motions of sympathy but clearly wasn't fully engaged in it.

"But really," the fourteen year old princess continued, "what did you expect allowing all the citizens to leave?" Mai could feel the atmosphere crackle with energy, gaining a strange scent which she associated to lightning.

"My father trusted you with this city and you're making a mess of things!" Mai looked blankly at Azula, her stomach churning worriedly. She knew that she didn't have the best family and that they didn't think much of her but they were her family, even if they didn't care. Besides, she wouldn't wish Azula's wrath on anyone except her enemies and those few suitors. In those cases having Azula around was extremely helpful. Her father practically kissed the ground.

"Forgive me princess." Mai felt an emotion well up inside of her that she hadn't felt for a long time. Pity. Her father was scared, devastated at the loss of his son and worried that he would lose the position that he had worked so hard to gain. Her father wasn't a bad man, he had treated the people well, making sure to separate those with the plague and run them out of town. There had been no way to know that it was a trick, the fear that followed the word plague stopped any questions in their tracks. A plague could completely destroy an entire city in a matter of days, there had been no way he could have known. Azula though, didn't seem to be capable of empathy anymore and she looked down at Mai's father with the cool, calculative gaze of one counting bags of grain for the winter months.

"You stay here. Mai will handle the hostage trade so you don't have a chance to mess it up." Mai looked at Azula blankly. She had a suspicion that there was another reason that Azula was doing this herself. She had a plan, ever since she had begun private training with her father Azula always had a plan.

"And there is no more 'Omashu'. I'm renaming this city in honour of my father, the City of New Ozai." Mae felt dread well up inside her. Azula was defiantly planning something. The question was what was it?

As they approached Mai took her chance to really look at the others who had come to make the trade with them. To her surprise they were four teenagers, close to the same age as Azula and herself. Two boys and two girls. The first boy, the one in the front was wearing orange and yellow, unusual colours for someone of earth kingdom birth. His skin was very pale and he wore an orange turban and held a wooden staff. He had to be the youngest of the group there. The next boy looked to be older than the former he had dark skin, blue clothes and held Tom-tom in his arms. Mai felt herself relax every so slightly to see her brother safe from harm. The first girl looked like the boy who held Tom-tom. She too wore blue clothes and had dark hair and skin. The last girl though intrigued Mai. She wore a green dress, supported by thick leather armour around her arms, chest and legs. Her hair was pulled into a short braid that flipped over her shoulder and choppy bangs fell unevenly around her face. She was the only one who carried obvious weapons as well, a bow and slung over her right shoulder and a quiver of arrows peeked above her left shoulder. She was also clearly the oldest in the group, a woman instead of a girl.

Mai ignored the insane king as he was lowered down in his metal prison, keeping her eyes on the ones who held her brother.

"We're ready to trade!" The boy with the turban called, stepping forward with a sense of power that most kids his age didn't have. A creeping suspicion that something wasn't quite what it seemed to be came to Mai causing her to peer more closely at those across the platform from them.

"I'm sorry but a thought just occurred to me, do you mind?" Mai felt dread drop into her stomach like a stone but she kept her voice light and airy.

"Of course not princess Azula." She hoped Azula hadn't noticed how false that sentence sounded.

"We're trading a two year old for a king. A powerful, earthbending king." The dread was growing slowly larger as Mai realized exactly what her plan was. Fine, she would play Azula's little game but she was also going to do everything she could to get her brother back as well.

"It just doesn't sound like a fair trade, does it?" Azula was testing her, testing her loyalty to the princess, Mai knew it. At one time Azula would have never felt the need to test Ty Lee and Mai for loyalty but that had changed, Mai hadn't seen Azula in over two years, not since her brother left. Not since the day she cried. This was a different Azula and it wasn't one she liked. Still, she had to go with it.

"You're right," Mai replied stepping forward to call out when she noticed something. The positions of the group in front of them had changed. She could tell that something had happened while they had talked. The question was, what was it that had changed?

"The deal's off!" She called, projecting her voice and deciding to ignore the change for now. She shouldn't have. Mai had barely finished the words when they sprang into action. The pale boy came tearing straight at the old king and the boy with Mai's brother took off in the opposite direction. Mai stared in shock, how could anyone have expected this enough to react that quickly? It shouldn't have been possible, not even she had known what Azula was about to do. She threw herself into battle, long distance being her forte, however they also had someone who had a long distance weapon. Mai raised her hand to throw one of her daggers when an arrow slid by, nicking her finger. The stranger had missed but it had been a close call if she had been aiming for Mai's hand. Mai was distracted from the archer by the girl in blue waterbending at her.

The battle was over as quickly as it had begun by the second boy returning and calling his sister and friend up onto a giant bison with an arrow marking on its fur.

Mai stood there, ridged as they flew off. Ty Lee came to stand beside her, frowning up at the flying bison vanishing into the clouds. The avatar's bison. The boy with the turban had been the avatar. Mia's mind though was focused on the strange girl.

"She knew." Ty Lee murmured, causing Mai to look at her in surprise.

"Knew what?" Mai asked, unsure of where her friend was going with this. Ty Lee looked at her, a serious expression in her eyes.

"She knew that I could attack her pressure points and she knew I was going to attack the waterbender from behind. Mai, no one knows how we fight, no one except Azula. This girl did." Mai frowned, deep in thought. Who was that girl?

As they walked away from New Ozai Mai couldn't help but clarify who they were going to chase. Iroh and Zuko had been named traitors and were wanted alive inside the capitol.

"So, we're tracking down your brother and Uncle?" She asked. Ty Lee grinned turning to look at Mai.

"It'll be interesting seeing Zuko again, won't it Mai?" Mai hid her true feelings under a fake smile. Yes it would have been nice to see Zuko but she didn't want to see him in chains.

"It's not just Zuko and Iroh anymore." Azula corrected, "We have another target." Mai didn't have to ask Azula who it was. No one crossed Azula and got away with it. Not even the avatar and a earth kingdom archer.

"I'll never see him again Mai, not that I care. Who needs an older brother who fails at everything? Still, getting that boat for him was great. False hope of course, he'll never have a shot at catching the avatar." eleven year old Azula told her friend. Twelve year old Mai frowned, was that a tear running down Azula's cheek? Was the unbreakable princess actually crying for her brother? Mai allowed her eyes to leave her friend, deciding that she would never know if she had truly seen tears from Azula. Outside the window, soft cherry flowers blossomed signifying that spring had arrived.

Mai sighed softly, thinking of those old times hurt far more than she cared to admit. But if there had been one thing she could have changed, she wished she could have changed Azula and allowed her best friend to remain the same person she had been before. What would have happened if Azula had never bent blue fire? What would have happened if she had never been taken under her father's private tutelage. Would she have been any different at all?