Author's Note: I recently discovered that I'm not the only Maiko shipper who was introduced at a young age to the only fictional couple in the past 400+ years who are the major, primary couple of their story and not another cliched rip-off of the awesome Beatrice and Benedick. It made me wonder if there was a connection, if I was drawn to Mai and Zuko because they lack all the contrived, unnecessary drama of most fictional romances just like the couple who indoctrinated me in the ways of fictional romance so long ago...

Three years and sweeping foreign policy changes had done little to thin out the mob of fangirls who surrounded the handsome young Fire Lord's palace. Between those who simply had no interest in politics nor anything better to do, those who disapproved of his new ways but not enough to find him unattractive, and the few who had grown to understand and accept his new approach and were determined to show their support, their ranks were quite vast. They had stayed or they had come back with no discernible change in the sight at all.

Until today. Today, they no longer looked like a crowd of revelers the first night of the Fire Days Festival but like a group of mourners at a funeral – a funeral for victims of a huge bombing that had left a scene of wreckage and devastation too grotesque and horrifying to look upon. What was the bombshell? The news that had swept through Capital City that morning:

"He's marrying her! Would you believe it? He's marrying her!"

In complete fairness, though, they weren't the only ones who were shocked by the announcement of the Fire Lord's engagement. Half the nation initially thought it was a prank. It made no sense. The steely-eyed knife thrower was a familiar presence in the Fire Lord's life by now, of course, but this outcome was something almost no one had expected. In fact, a few of the mourners gathered around the palace still held out hope. It was absurd! The two of them couldn't be in love! What could he see in her?! Romance did not work that way!

They went over details of the story, trying to make sense of it. She was definitely from the Fire Nation, right? Well, then, they couldn't be in love – they weren't on opposite sides of the war! During war, you always fell in love with someone from the enemy's nation. If he'd fallen in love with anyone, it could only have been a girl from the Water Tribe or Earth Kingdom. But the Fire Lord and... this girl, they weren't star-crossed lovers! They'd never been forbidden to be together, had they? It was never a choice between love and loyalty to their people, was it? They had never outraged their country and their family by loving the enemy, had they? No, they were on the same side and simply disagreed about the best way to win the war at one point. How boring!

How had they met, again? After the princess conquered Ba Sing Se? No, in their childhood. They had been playmates and friends, gradually growing closer, developing mutual crushes on each other that evolved into love as they grew older. It was a long, slow process – nothing like falling in love was supposed to be! When you met the right one, you knew it was meant to be the first time you looked into their eyes. True Love was instant, no time needed! But the two of them had been friends for years before it progressed to something more... how slow! How dull!

Lovers didn't start out as friends; they started out as the opposite – you loathed each other from the moment you first met and did nothing but argue and insult each other. All lovers were always aggressive and hostile with each other; the more two people fought, the more in love they were – that was an indisputable fact that could not be questioned. The more you hated someone, the more you loved them; the angrier they made you, the more you loved them. Now, the Fire Lord and her, they argued, of course, but that was never their primary attraction to each other, was it? No – their relationship was not founded on hatred, did not center around arguing, and anger did not turn them on so that they were hitting each other one second and making out the next. That alone was evidence they were not in love!

Of course they weren't! Just look at the way they acted together – always casually touching, kissing, cuddling, leaning against each other with one's arm wrapped around the other, as if it were no big deal to them! Things never happened that easily! Romance was a grave, serious matter that made becoming a couple so nervewracking that you hesitated for years before making the first move, wallowing in denial rather than admit the truth. The two of them had admitted it easily! They were attracted to each other, so they became a couple – that was it! Hesitating, agonizing over that Big Step, or playing hard to get had apparently never occurred to them. They skipped all the anxiety they were supposed to go through before getting together! How fast! How ridiculous!

Had things always remained like that between them? No – he left her behind when he defected on the Day of Black Sun. Now, if he had loved her, he never would have been able to leave her. He'd believed at the time that joining the Avatar and stopping Ozai from burning down the Earth Kingdom was the right thing to do for everybody – his own nation and the others – but if he'd loved her, he would have sacrificed his conscience, his duty, his morals, his values, everything to be with her, no matter what the cost to himself or the world! Being in love made you too blind and powerless to do the right thing like he had!

They met again not long after that, right? Yes – during the prison break at the Boiling Rock. She had betrayed her people and risked her life to save his. How pathetic! She was a disgrace to women everywhere, letting a man influence her like that! A real woman would never let love affect her motivations like that – she would have stood passively aside and let him die without bothering to try to save him! Love should never influence a woman's judgment!

What did he see in her?! Couldn't he see she didn't really care about him? Once she found him, she shouldn't have cared why he left! She shouldn't have argued with him or confronted him about whether what he was doing was right or not; she should have just wanted to be with him and not cared whether it was right or wrong as long as they were together!

She had never treated him right! After the war, when he'd started neglecting her, when it became clear that the man she'd known had changed for the worse, she hadn't tried to fix him – she'd left! It was her job, her duty, to change him back in spite of himself, to heal him, to redeem him, to protect him from himself! To patiently let him treat her badly until she straightened him out! So what if he didn't make her happy? Love was supposed to be painful, not happy! Love was supposed to make you miserable – she just hadn't been strong enough to handle it! She hadn't been talented enough to fix him! Well, clearly, she wasn't good enough for him, then!

She didn't deserve him! There were so many better choices, why did he have to pick her?! It made no sense! How had it started? Well, they'd met when they were children... back to Square One!

They examined and re-examined the evidence over and over again but to no avail. It was inexplicable how it had happened. How could anyone call this love? Did the Fire Lord know what a terrible mistake he was making?

He knew what a terrible mistake everyone thought he was making. He and his new fiancée talked about it that night after a picnic on their favorite hillside as they lay looking up at the stars. "I heard our announcement caused quite a stir today," he said.

"I know," said Mai. "It's quite illuminating, isn't it?"

"Embarrassing – I had no idea we were doing everything so wrong."

"I never was a fan of conformity..." Mai mused aloud.

Zuko reached over and put his arm around her shoulders. "I can't really blame them. I still find it hard to believe myself, sometimes." He sensed the perplexed look on her face before he saw it when she turned to him. "I mean, I'm not exactly your suave, dashing, debonair Prince Charming..."

"You're handsome enough to make up for it."

Zuko smiled at her remark but then sighed. "How did I get so lucky, Mai? How could you ever fall for a screw-up like me?"

Mai shrugged and indulged in one of her rare smiles. "I think it's a warrior-girl thing."

"Things you think are separate and different are actually one and the same... Everything is connected."