"Lady Mai, the Fire Nation princess requires your attendance in the royal antechamber

"Lady Mai, the Fire Nation princess requires your attendance in the royal antechamber. She says you need to come immediately," the palace servant announced, bowing as he entered the doorway.

Mai sighed as she got up from the couch in the living room of her elegant-looking home. "What about this time?" she asked.

"Uh, she didn't say," replied the servant rather meekly.

Mai took her time rearranging the cushions and taking some extra stilettos from her room.

The servant looked nervously at her and then at a shadow-clock and led the way through the palace gates. "I think the princess wants to tell the Lady something urgent. The delay of m'Lady coming might –"

Mai rolled her eyes. "Don't worry. I'll take the blame," she said, while unconsciously touching the surface of one of the knives she kept up her sleeve. She had been in a bad mood lately, with Zuko not around for the whole day. They reached the room where Azula supposedly was. The palace servant opened the door for her and Mai stepped inside. The room was lit by the usual burning torches in their golden posts, which were draped with fiery red cloths lined with gold. Ornaments were lined against the walls and, curiously, royal chairs were brought into the room. On one of them sat, cross-legged, the princess of the Fire Nation. And on another, was a ditzy pink-clad girl.

"Hello, Mai," Azula welcomed, as she stood up. "We were just wondering when you'd arrive."

Mai bowed. "I'm sorry I was late," she said simply.

"Hmm," Azula raised her eyebrow. "Maybe it's not your fault. Perhaps it's the palace servants around here –" she eyed one standing at the doorway, "– that are too slow to deliver the message."

"No," said Mai, "it was me."

"Well, it seems as if since my brother had started to, er, go out with you, you'd been quite insensitive to our little gatherings," Azula returned her gaze back to Mai.

Mai remained quiet. Ty Lee giggled.

"Take a seat," Azula said, waving a hand toward the gold chairs. Mai sat down next to Ty Lee.

"I'm very sure we all know what the big event this month is, am I correct?" Azula asked coolly.

Mai nodded, but Ty Lee looked puzzled. "You mean the big palace party? Or the huge war meeting? Our girls' day out?" she cheerfully ended, obviously planning out the whole day in her head. Azula and Mai stared at her. "Oh," Ty Lee realized, "The Day of Darkness."

"Yes, that," said Azula, inwardly rolling her eyes. "Father is very much aware of the planned attack on our country, thanks to our inside information. I know that he will not be pleased if we have kept secrets from him." Mai saw Azula shift her gaze slightly back to her. "If you two have found anything – any fact, theory, treacherous plots… report it directly to me."

The two agreed silently.

"That is all," said Azula waving them away, standing up and turning her back on them. Ty Lee bounded out of her chair and out the door. Mai made to get up when –

"Mai." Azula was still facing the wall opposite the door.

"Yes, Azula?" Mai said inquiringly, stopping on her way to the door.

"I know you're intimately close to my brother, and I expect he's been able to tell you things he doesn't want me to know."

Mai held her breath.

Azula went over to where Mai stood and placed a hand on her shoulder with an intense glare in her eyes. Mai understood and turned to leave. In turn, Azula smiled coldly.

"Oh, and Mai," she called when Mai reached the doorway, "I'll be needing one of your little weapons."

Mai reached for her sleeve where her stilettos hid. She touched one of the larger ones, thinking. She had used them for pinning enemies down, never to kill. She'd dread what Azula would do with even one.

She sighed and tossed one to the Fire Nation princess, who caught it with lilting fingers.

"You may go."

It was the Day of Darkness.

A boring one, Mai thought impatiently. Beside her stood Ty Lee in one of her acrobatic stances, obviously having nothing to do but that.

"I don't know why we had to hide," Mai said, crossing her arms and leaning against one of the pillars. "We could be part of restraining the Avatar's group and instead we were shut in here." She looked coldly at the underground room where they were kept.

"Oh, I'm sure Azula has her reasons!" chirped Ty Lee encouragingly, doing another flexible pose. "Why are you so worked up about all this? I mean, we could have fun in here! There's plenty of room to cartwheel, the walls are all soundproof so no one can hear us sing, and the echoes are cool! Why are you such in a bad mood?"

Mai shut her eyes as Ty Lee spoke. "I do not want to skip around and sing songs. It's just that…"

Ty Lee guessed. "You haven't seen Zuko in a while, have you?"

"In a while? He's been gone for three whole days. I don't even know where he is," Mai said, frowning. "Doesn't he even know that I ca – " she stopped, and looked away.

Ty Lee smiled smugly. "You care? Oh, Mai!" she cried, hugging her friend.

"Ugh, Ty Lee, I didn't say that."

"Yes, you did!"

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did!"

"I am not going on a yes-no argument with you."

"Aw, c'mon! You do care! You're his girlfriend, right?"

"Whatever."

"It's okay to show emotion, Mai. And besides, you're my friend! You can tell me anything!"

Mai sighed. "Fine. I do like Zuko –"

"Like?" interrupted Ty Lee.

"Yes, like," answered Mai, although a rare blush that crept up her pale cheeks gave her away.

"Mai, you're blushing!" Ty Lee squealed. "You really do love – er, like him! The only time I've ever seen you blush was when he was around!"

Mai rolled her eyes and turned away. But then, she smiled.

"Thank goodness it's over."

Mai immediately strode into her room to freshen up. Her conversation with Ty Lee had continued to become a monologue, with her friend blabbering on from stuff about love to turtleducks. However, she did realize the situation between her and Zuko. She didn't just like him. It was nothing like that.

A blush appeared again.

Looking into the mirror, Mai observed how she looked. She wondered how Zuko saw her. From her raven black hair, neatly done, to the dainty tip of her chin, she saw nothing special. "All too common," she whispered to herself. She undid the clips holding back her elegant hair and let them fall. Getting ready for bed, she slipped into a robe and once again took a good long look at her appearance.

She suddenly eyed the reflection of her bed. A small rolled-up parchment lay on her pillow.

A tear fell down onto the parchment, blotting the spot signed "Zuko".

A/N: I know Avatar's done, and MAIKO IS CANON, but I couldn't help writing this. Actually, I started this after I've seen the Boiling Rock, but school work and procrastination got hold.

About Azula borrowing Mai's weapon: When I saw what she whipped out after saying, "Come and get it,", I automatically thought, "Hey! That was Mai's!" So… -shrug- I just included it here.

And yes, it is a cliffhanger.