Just so you know, there's a significant reason as to why the title is 'Stiletto'. I'll let you guys figure it out, though.
Zuko must have only slept for a few hours, because when he woke up the sun was just rising. Grunting, he got out of bed and opened the door.
"Ah, Prince Zuko. Up so early?" A royal butler was waiting outside his door.
He glared at him, the dark circles under his eyes frightening the poor man.
"Er, should I draw your b-bath?" The butler spluttered.
"Quickly," Zuko snapped, sending the scared servant off.
He undressed to his robe, awaiting for the return of the servant. Eventually, the butler returned, bowing as Zuko swiftly strode to the bathing room.
Soaking himself in the soapy water, Zuko used the time to think. He sunk deeper into the warm water, his chin barely touching the top.
He should have let Mai sleep.
-
Her eyes shot open as someone knocked on her door.
"Lady Mai, you should get up now- it's almost midday."
"I never want to hear that word again!" She snarled, turning and closing her eyes.
"Okay," The maid said, exasperated.
It wasn't until another hour passed did the maid come back to drag Mai out of bed.
"Your parents were worried about you last night. You didn't come home until well after they went to bed." The maid said, cleaning around Mai as she got dressed.
"Were they?" Mai asked, not even bothering to look up.
"Yes, they were. I take it you were at the palace with Prince Zuko?"
"Of course."
"That late?" The maid stopped dusting the window sills, and looked at Mai.
"Yes." Mai replied irritably. She purposely dropped a stiletto so as to show the maid what she was capable of.
Seeing the fallen dagger, the maid straightened up and returned to her work, gasping slightly as she did so.
"Oh, Lady Mai, before you leave," The maid started right as Mai was about to go out her door, "your perfume has come in from the Colonies."
Mai sighed, nodding in confirmation. She hated how her mother made her wear perfume, despite the fact that she was of age and technically did not have to listen to her. She was quite content with smelling like plain soap, rather than some fancy flower.
Retreating to the courtyard after retrieving her perfume, Mai sat beneath a tree as she read a scroll telling the tale of the first Fire Bender. The story was quite boring in her opinion, though, it was much better than being in a room with an easily intimidated maid who thought that she was sleeping with the prince.
She laughed silently at the thought of the next party she would be obligated to attend, and whether the wives of the noblemen- the friends of her own mother- would asked if she and Zuko were going to get married. Mai could now give them an answer: he proposed. She, however, declined.
Supposedly.
Throwing the scroll beside, thoroughly bored with the dim-witted Fire Bender, Mai walked back inside where she found her mother holding a squirming Tom-Tom waiting by the door.
"I was talking to the maid, just a few minutes ago." Her mother said.
"Really?"
"Yes, and she told me you were at the palace last night after the Fire Lord's party."
"I was,"
"And that you didn't return until well after your father and I went to bed."
"No, I didn't,"
Her mother was grinning wildly, setting Tom-Tom on the ground to run around. She cleared her throat, expecting Mai to say something. Obviously, she wasn't.
"Well …"
"Well what?" Mai asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, aren't you to going to get married now? We've all be waiting for it to happen!"
"I turned him down." She said simply, turning on her heel and silently walking up the staircase to her room.
Supposedly.
-
The mid-afternoon sun blazing in the sky, Zuko lay on his bed, sleep engulfing him more by the second. Regret creped up on him, catching up to the sleep. If he had let Mai sleep, she would be here next to him, and he wouldn't be as tired.
Turning over to his stomach, Zuko buried his head in the pillow, Mai's scent filling up his nostrils. He lay like that for a few moments, until he turned his head over and looked up.
Her stiletto was still stuck in his wall, he Fire Nation insignia still behind it.
-
"Mai, are sleeping?" Her mother asked as she knocked on the door.
"Attempting to, yes." Mai replied, lying on top of her bed, the breeze from her open window blowing her hair into her face.
"Are you feeling alright? It's not even dusk and you haven't eaten supper yet."
"I'm perfectly fine." Mai sighed. "Supposedly." She added when she knew her mother had left.
Closing her eyes, she tried to do the one thing that Zuko didn't let her. Though, it became quite difficult after a few minutes, when something shot through her window, puncturing her wall. Her eye's shot open, and she immediately got out her bed to take a closer look at what came through her window.
Scowling, Mai saw the stiletto that she had thrown at the Insignia when Zuko had proposed.
Sorry, I know this one was short.