Legacy

"And that worked?!"

Her daughter's squeak knocked the memory of Mai's first kiss as a married woman right out of her mind's eye. She looked down where Izumi squirming in her lap. "Madame Changchang pronounced us married, we kissed, and all the craziness stopped. The possessed attackers stopped trying to kick your Grammy in the teeth, the storm stopped trying to drown the capital, and your father and I didn't try to kill each other again for the whole rest of the day. Seems like it worked to me, but if you're being haunted at night-"

Izumi wrinkled her nose. "No, not that. The monster under my bed is different. I don't get what marrying Daddy has to do with ghosts."

Mai silently requested any listening spirits or dragons or whatever to spare her from overly-analytical six-year-olds. "Noriko had possessed both your father and I, and drew her strength from the conflict she created between us. That's why she started with dreams and twisted thoughts before progressing to hurricanes. She was feeding on her own actions."

At Izumi's confused blink, Mai amended, "She got stronger by turning our love into fighting. Your Grammy had already denied her and commanded her to leave - which I guess was a thing she could do because she used to be Noriko, or something - but as long as there was still a separation between me and Daddy, her energy couldn't dissipate. By sealing our love, we removed what was giving her substance."

Izumi looked up with all-too-mature eyes that Mai found uncomfortably familiar. "Mommy, that's really dumb."

Good thing Mai had a strategy ready for confrontations like this. "Well, that's how Grammy and Uncle Aang explained it to me. I think the next time you see one of them, you should tell them that it's dumb and give them all the details why. Write everything down, if you need to. They'll be very impressed by your analysis."

Izumi nodded like a good, dutiful child. "I will." Apparently satisfied that her concerns would be addressed, she relaxed again and smiled. "So then did you and Daddy kiss some more?"

Mai grinned back at her daughter, the kind of grin that was all teeth. "Lots more. But after that, there's one more part that you'll probably like." She was very, very tempted to gross Izumi out with a high-level description of the honeymoon, but instead continued her story with, "It wasn't until later at the palace that all our family and friends found out that they missed the real wedding..."

"I missed the real wedding," Tom-Tom wailed. Then he burst into tears, threw himself at Mai's stomach, and wrapped his arms around her waist.

Mai looked to Mother to take care of the situation, but found that she, too, had started crying. Mai was taken aback by that, as Mother never cried. She reached out a hand and tried to pat Mother on a shoulder. "There, there?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Mai." Mother sniffled loudly and wiped at her tears. "I was just horrified that you got married looking like a drowned squirrel-rat. After all the effort I've put into raising you with beautiful, shining hair, you experienced one of the most important moments of your life with a twig behind your ear. I just feel like a failure."

Mai reached up and found that the twig was still there. She pulled it out and threw it away. "There, there?"

Mother's sobbing just got louder, but Auntie Mura came over and guided her away with an apologetic smile. Mai nodded her gratitude, and couldn't stop from smiling when Auntie whispered, "Congratulations! Marriage is always beautiful, even when it's messy."

Marriage. Mai was married now. She was a wife. Zuko's wife.

Huh.

Uncle came over at that point, his face as blank as Mai's usually was. "Can I see the knife?"

Mai reached around her bawling little brother and retrieved the Earth Kingdom dagger from her belt. The chip in the blade was easily visible in the bright lanterns of the palace, and the whole weapon was still crusted and sticky with Mai and Zuko's blood.

Uncle took the dagger and looked it over. "It's a fine blade. I guess Zuko will make a decent husband, after all."

"Thank you, Uncle. I don't suppose you'd like to make a wedding gift out of prying a little boy off my waist?"

He immediately took a step back. "I'm not good with kids, you know that."

"Are you kidding? You were always my favorite relative, even when I was little."

"Yes, but you didn't cry or get snot on things. You either hid or tried to stab people with chopsticks. Why do you think you were always my favorite little girl?" He walked away in the same direction that Auntie had led Mother, hopefully to assist with that situation.

Which left Mai still with Tom-Tom crying and sniffling all over her clothes. She looked to where Ty Lee was standing and brought her hands together. "You could get him off of me with your Qi-blocking. In return, I could promise to take you with me on my next adventure?"

Ty Lee gave a lazy, very artificial shrug. "Oh, I don't know, it sounds like you do fine when you run off on your own. I didn't even have to come find your body. Besides, I vowed to never again use my powers on children. Not after that one time."

"Traitor."

"Yep."

"You're going to make me pay for getting married without you."

"Yep." Ty Lee winked. "But keep your aura that pink, and I might let you off easy. Maybe." She sauntered off towards the table where the soggy leftovers from the faux-wedding party at the Great Temple had been dumped, presumably to see if rainwater enhanced the taste of dumplings.

With a sigh, Mai dragged the wailing Tom-Tom over to the rest of the gathering, where Zuko held a kind of informal at the center, reclining on a sofa and surrounded by his own family and friends. On the way, Mai noticed Kiyi standing at the edge of the group. The preteen didn't seem to be reacting to anything around her, and had that weird thousand-pace stare that she sometimes got.

Mai poked the kid's shoulder, and found that unfocused stare turned on her. "Yes?"

"Kiyi, since you're my Honor-Sister now, I'm afraid you're the only person who can help me with a certain problem."

At the words 'Honor-Sister,' Kiyi's eyes regained their focus, and a hint of expression returned to her face. "Problem?"

Mai nodded, and motioned to Tom-Tom. "He's been made a bit upset by all this talk of vengeful ghosts. He's not as brave as you are. Since he loves being teased mercilessly by older girls he barely knows, do you think could cheer him up for me?"

Kiyi's eyes lit up. "I can give him a big kiss on the nose!"

Tom-Tom immediately stopped his crying. "No!"

Kiyi reached towards him. "Yes! And then I'll tickle you!"

"Nooooo!" Tom-Tom immediately let go of Mai and ran for his life, pursued by Kiyi.

There. Multiple problems solved with one knife. Metaphorically, this time.

With that done, Mai maneuvered her way around Sokka and Suki, past Toph, dodged Katara's wild gesticulations, and ducked under Aang's pointing arm. She smiled at Ursa - seated on the other side of the sofa with both a blanket and Noren's arms around her - and went right up to the side where Zuko was sprawled bonelessly.

He was saying, "No, Aang, I get it, next time I'll tell you about the body-doubles, but I-"

That's when Mai lowered herself into his lap and curled up against him.

"Um," Zuko said.

Mai could feel everyone's stares on her, but she was long past the point of caring how much affection she showed for her husband and who saw it. They all knew what a wedding meant; there was nothing in her heart left to hide, not anymore. Mai's darkness had been revealed to Zuko by the spirit of the mother he never had, and in turn the light had been revealed to defeat that ghost. Mai had put it all out there.

"Keep arguing," she mumbled as she pressed her face into the side of Zuko's neck. She felt the need for sleep overtaking her, and figured there was no more comfortable place in the world. "I'm good here."

And so she was.

The last thing she said before her fell into dreams was, "Weddings are exhausting."

"Aw," cooed Izumi, as she herself snuggled against Mai with drooping eyes. "You're right, I like that."

END