Autumn

Day 7: October 17

It may not have been the season of death, but it was the season of dying.

Mai slid the matchstick into the lantern, lighting the wick expertly before blowing out the charred matchstick. The flame flickered, slow and strong, and Mai set it down upon the ground as she sat next to it.

Without a word, she began to reach up her sleeves, pulling her weapons free and setting them down on the ground, admist the scarlet leaves and wavering flame. They glinted in the sunlight more than the candlelight. It was sunset. It was sunset, during autumn, in the Fire Nation.

Mai thought she had seen enough red to last her a life time.

And what wasn't red was gold, yellow, orange, bronze, amber…

She could go on and on. Every single fiery, warm shade that there was to see was spread across almost the entire nation. Almost. Mai knew that in more tropical regions, they didn't have autumns. They only had hot, hot and damp, monsoons, and mild and damp. She thought that at least they had some color variation. Not having to see red, red, red.

It was for that reason that today she wore gray. Light gray, and an sash of dark gray. And that was it. No reds or oranges or golds on her. Gray, and only gray.

Mai closed her eyes, relieved to see only a vague black in front of her sights. It beat the hell of out red, that was for certain. She let the sound of the whispering wind fill her ears, let herself hear only the rustling of all the falling leaves as they scattered.

And then a noticeable, CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH.

"What do you want?" Mai asked him, opening up her eyes again. Please don't let it be red, she thought. But it was futile at best. She saw red, admist brown and orange leaves.

"Just wanted to see you," Zuko responded. Mai could hear the edge to his voice.

"Why?" she asked, turning her head slightly to look at him. She saw him out of the corner of her eyes.

She was relieved to see that he didn't wear red, or dark red, or gold, or anything resembling a Fire Nation color. It was soothing to the eyes to see him dressed in greens and browns and tans. He looked like he did when he was in the Earth Kingdom, hiding in plain sight. His hair was even down. The only revealing thing was that there was no Earth Kingdom symbol anywhere in sight. And if she were to search his clothes, she would find that they were made here in their homeland, most likely.

"You look nice," Mai said quietly, turning her head back to the candle and her weapons.

"Compliments? At this time of day?" Zuko joked, a lightness in her voice that threatened to turn into laughter. "Something must be off." The leaves crunched again as he shifted, sat down, leaned up against a nearby tree to look at her.

He said nothing for a long time, only looked at her.

Mai glared back at him, but in the end she just heaved a sigh and looked down at the sais and knives and throwing darts spread before her. She ran her fingertips lightly over them, feeling the coolness of the metal, teasing the razor sharp edges with gossamer, feather touches.

She looked back at Zuko.

"Let me guess, red is such an awful color?" Zuko asked her.

Mai's lips quirked into an almost-smile. "Yeah, it is," she agreed. She shifted her legs underneath her to get more comfortable. "Not as horrible as orange, but still up there in awful colors."

"I can imagine," Zuko replied. He smiled and leaned forward again, until his lips were brushing up against Mai's. As Mai closed her eyes, leaning into kiss him, all she saw was black.

Their kiss deepened, until they were both laying within the dead leaves, listening to them crunch and rustle beneath them as they kissed. Mai didn't open her eyes the entire time. It was only when Zuko's foot kicked up against her knives that they stopped, and Mai was forced to open her eyes.

She saw that they'd nearly kicked over the lantern, too.

Mai blew out the flame, not wanting to set anything on fire. It'd only add to the nauseating color palette.

"Mai," Zuko said softly, and wiped the ground next to him clean of leaves.

With a glum sigh, she sat down on the vacant ground, closing her eyes again and shutting out the image of her knives bathed in red and gold. She felt Zuko wrap his arms around her, and kiss her on her cheek.

That made her happier than autumn ever would.