A/N: Everything I said about "An Afternoon Alone" applies here as well.

This one-shot follows "An Afternoon Alone," in the sense that I saw them in the same continuing storyline as I wrote.

However, this one-shot would not have happened without the positive feedback from "An Afternoon Alone." For that, I thank those readers who took the time to give me their thoughts and opinions. I write fanfiction to indulge my own random splurges of creativity, but I am encouraged to publish it only because of the community.

Unfortunately, I have not had the inspiration or enthusiasm required to sit down and write a full-blown story with complete, developed characters and plots for years now, and that's not likely to change anytime soon. Still, I hope you enjoy these little dabbles; please let me know if you find any errors in the writing.

Depending on the feedback, I may write a third installment in my little Maiko series, but I have nothing definitive planned right now.

Happy reading.

For the sunrise at the end of the trail, and the safe harbor in the storm.

A Night In Sanctuary

His coronation had been a difficult one, and Zuko was exhausted.

He was happy, of course. He was exhilarated that his father and sister were finally defeated, and determined to restore the glory of the Fire Nation as its leader. Above all else, he was proud – for Aang, his new friends, and all that they had accomplished.

But despite his best intentions, his body needed rest. Recent wounds, bruises and cuts from battles he had faced alongside the Avatar throbbed with a dull ache. Layered over those, pulsing with another level of hurt all its own, was the fresh burn from his duel with Azula.

After days of speeches, public appearances, celebrations and obligatory introductions, most of which he had been rushed through with a few hasty bandages and some makeshift royal robes, Zuko was finally allowed a night to do nothing but sleep. Now that the council had officially accepted his succession to the throne, he could enter the highest level of the Royal Palace, reserved for the Fire Lord's private sanctuary and its satellite rooms.

He pushed open the doors to his new chambers with a flood of relief. He was alone. Finally, blissfully alone.

Zuko paused just inside the doorway, awe overcoming weariness. No one was permitted inside the Fire Lord's sanctuary; even he had never seen these chambers. He had always imagined them to be a dark and sinister lair, but the reality of their beauty was breathtaking.

Embroidered carpets swept across the floor, easily vast enough to accommodate a small dining hall. Fire Nation history was depicted with stunning detail and clarity on every square inch, complete with great heroes and legendary battles frozen in time. Heavy curtains, dark and glossy, fell from the towering ceiling, smooth as water and crimson as blood. The walls were interrupted only by pieces of furniture, each an exquisite work of art inlaid with gold, and large folding screens, presumably leading into other rooms.

In the center of the sanctuary was a bed carved from dark oak in traditional Fire Nation style, except that it was easily four or five times the size of any bed Zuko had ever seen. In place of stern jade-and-cloth pillows, cushions of every size, shape and softness – all in varying shades of red – were piled at the head of the mattress. Decadent layers of silk sheets flowed over the sides, contrasting sharply with the wisps of translucent material, raised by four posts into a canopy, that enshrouded the bed like a wedding veil.

With an effort, Zuko closed his mouth and swallowed. His chest felt tight. This was all his. The dream he had pursued all his life, reached for as a plant reaches for the sun, was reality. He felt light and dizzy with the wave of euphoria that swept over him. This was perfect. Everything was perfect.

Almost.

There was one more thing he wanted. Reluctantly retreating from the dreamlike room, Zuko walked back downstairs until he found a servant standing idly against a wall, having been unlucky enough to draw the night shift for tending these corridors.

"Excuse me," Zuko called out, momentarily forgetting palace etiquette in his eagerness.

The man jumped and spun around at the sound of his voice. Blood drained from his face in a rush, leaving his sunburned complexion as close to white as it would go.

"Fire Lord Zuko," he gasped. "I'm so sorry. I didn't hear you."

Zuko's brow twitched in puzzlement – he had only spoken once – before realization dawned on him.

"No no," he said quickly, suppressing a grimace of exasperation. "I only called once. I just, um, said 'excuse me' out of habit…" if the man looked any more incredulous, his expression might never change back. Zuko quickly cut off his rambling explanation and cleared his throat. "I'd like you to bring Mai here."

The frazzled servant seemed to recover himself at the order. "Ah…yes, of course. Your fiancée. Which guest room should I bring her to?"

Zuko almost laughed at the thought of summoning Mai to a guest room. She would skin him alive. "No, bring her to the sanctuary."

The servant hesitated. "Fire Lord Zuko, perhaps in one of your…other bedrooms? You are the only one allowed in the sanctuary."

"Mai's allowed now," Zuko replied, unable to keep a hint of irritation out of his voice. "Go get her, please."

The man bowed at the waist reluctantly and left. Zuko sighed, shook his head in frustration, and returned to the sanctuary to wait.

He stood by the bed, absently feeling a carved bedpost in his palm as he stared at the untouched sheets. His thoughts wandered, looking vaguely inward without seeing. His other hand unconsciously rose to his chest, where Azula had struck him. Thick bandages around his torso protected the scorched flesh while it healed. He could still feel it burning, little trails of fire following his fingers.

Phantom pain flashed through his memory – shattering, white-hot agony that had raged through every nerve in his body at the lightning's touch.

That pain would fade, but the wound wouldn't. When it healed, the scar would remain, forever reminding him of the Agni Kai that earned him the throne, and the journey that had led him there. Zuko's hand left the burn on his chest to touch his other scar, an older and much more profound one. He felt along his father's mark, tracing the hardened flesh that extended from his hairline to the end of his left cheekbone. Perhaps it was just as well that Katara had not healed him back in Ba Sing Se; some things, he thought he should remember.

He heard the door open quietly and close behind her. He didn't hear her crossing the distance between them, but a moment later familiar arms wrapped around him. Her long, graceful fingers intertwined over his chest, carefully avoiding the lightning burn. Her absence, tight and knotted in his chest, untangled itself and dissolved into warm comfort.

Zuko turned to see Mai looking up at him, a hint of concern on her smooth features. He smiled reassuringly, peacefully, and she smiled back. He cupped her face in his hands, brushing his thumbs affectionately across her high cheekbones.

"Hello," he said softly.

Mai did not pull away. Zuko treasured the moment, the intimacy of contact that they could never have had so casually before. Even in his brief time of false glory and honor upon returning to the Fire Nation as Crown Prince, despite the very real happiness he'd had with her, deeper conflicts had gotten in the way. Now, only the joy of being in her presence remained.

"Hi," Mai replied, a small, teasing smile hovering over her lips. "It's not like you to send me off to bed, then drag me back out. So what does the Fire Lord Zuko want?" There was more than a hint of mocking in the way she said the title, Zuko thought wryly. The most powerful men in the Fire Nation might jump when he said 'frog,' but Mai would never stop deflating his ego when it pleased her.

"I want you, of course." He pulled her into his arms, ignoring the way she squirmed away from his chest, trying to avoid his wounds. It was more than worth the dull flare of pain to hold her. "These new rooms are beautiful, but they're empty without you." As the words left his tongue, Zuko winced. That was far too cheesy for him.

But it was worth being a little cheesy to see the delight that shone in Mai's eyes. She pretended to consider the notion doubtfully. "Well…I suppose you'd be lonely without me."

"Oh yes," Zuko agreed solemnly, playing along. "Very much so. Stay with me tonight, please."

She graced him with a small smile. "Of course I will."

Zuko fought the urge to grin like an idiot. He felt altogether too giddy at the notion of sneaking her into his bedroom at night.

Mai started to pull away. "Well then, I should go get my things…"

Zuko didn't let her go. "No, stay. I'm sure the bathroom is stocked with everything you need. I don't want to let go of you again tonight."

Mai affected a look of mock concern. "But Zuko, I have nothing to wear to bed."

He felt a slow smile spreading across his lips in spite of himself. He loved Mai's strange sense of humor, as infrequently as she showed it. And he loved that she didn't hesitate to drop his title without permission. "Then wear nothing to bed."

Mai laughed quietly, a rare display of happiness. Zuko immediately stored the sound away in his memory. "That could work," she conceded.

Zuko kissed her softly, lingering as much as he could. He kissed her the way he had always wanted to – as a free man, unburdened by shame or secrets, confident in his path and proud of his choices.

She responded easily, her hands resting on his shoulders with a sense of wonder and awe. It felt innocent, and so very different from before, when they had clung to each other with the shadow of desperate lovers whose time together might end at any instant. Now they had all the time in the world.

"You know," Mai murmured between kisses, "you've been so busy recently, what with being the ruler of the nation and all...you really haven't seen me much, have you? I think you owe me."

"Mmm," Zuko agreed, pulling away to smile indulgently at her, "I think I do, too."

The tension and adrenaline that had kept him going since he joined Aang and his friends drained away, and exhaustion rushed in to fill the void. Holding Mai in his arms, her familiar scent surrounding him in the hush of the sanctuary, Zuko suddenly wanted nothing more than to lie down on his big new bed with her and sleep for a week. No, a month.

He sighed dramatically and slumped, letting his head rest on Mai's shoulder. She rolled her eyes at his brief display of childishness and pushed him back up with surprising ease. Zuko was reminded, pleasantly, that she was far stronger than she appeared.

"Come on, Fire Lord," Mai sighed, leading him by the hand. "Let's test out your new bed."

Zuko's mind immediately jumped, taking the far less literal interpretation of her words. His blood seemed to run a little faster. Perhaps he wasn't all that tired…

Mai looked back at him, as though hearing his thoughts. "Don't even. Lie down now; you need some serious rest."

"I need you more." The words slipped from him seemingly of their own accord. Mai stopped, her eyes widening slightly before she remembered herself. Zuko's self-control wasn't nearly so practiced; his eyebrows climbed halfway to his hairline in amazement at the ridiculously uncharacteristic, romantic sentence.

An awkward moment of silence passed.

"Well," Mai said finally, "that was…sweet." She pronounced the word slowly, as though it tasted foreign. "But the bags under your eyes tell me you need sleep, too, even if you won't admit it. And I'm not going anywhere. Come on. We'll break this bed in another night."

Flushing with embarrassment, Zuko let her pull him to the bed. She pushed aside the fine veil without so much as a glance, and Zuko realized abruptly that she had not paid much attention to the room at all. Only to him. That wasn't very Mai-like...

Or, he thought, perhaps she had never cared as much about fineries as she led him to believe.

He felt a sobering pang of gratitude for how much he knew she cared for him under all the indifference and detachment. At the same time, it was oddly exasperating to think that her fascination with the luxuries of his royal status might have been slightly exaggerated for his ego's sake.

Mai pushed him back onto the bed, and Zuko went willingly, sinking into the marvelously soft mattress with an involuntary sigh of relief. His hair, still too long and hanging raggedly around his face and neck – his hairdressers had been quite dismayed that there was no time to address his crisis, yet – fell back from his field of vision, and he smiled and held a hand out to Mai.

However dismissively she had acted towards his chambers, she still hesitated for a split second before climbing into the Fire Lord's bed. Once there, though, she flung herself out next to him and yawned, as instinctive to the art of worthless sloth and relaxation as the most pampered princess. Zuko snickered lightly, and quickly smoothed his face when she scowled at him.

Mimicking her, he stretched out and closed his eyes lazily. A few minutes of content silence passed.

Zuko suddenly frowned, his nose wrinkling in distaste. What was that…smell? It seemed to be everywhere, and was strangely familiar, but when he turned his head to seek out the source it slipped around the corner of recognition and faded away.

He thought of his many days and nights without rest, sweating into bloodstained bandages with no chance to -

"You stink," Mai said calmly.

Zuko blinked, then scowled as his face seemed to burst into flame. "Damn it!" He swore and jumped out of bed. "I do! Ugh, I knew I forgot something. I'm so sorry Mai. I'll go take a bath."

Mai sat up, as unruffled as ever, though her lips did seem to twitch slightly. Or maybe that was Zuko's mortification playing tricks on him.

"Zuko, I hope you're not enough of an idiot to think I'm not used to your smell by now. Three years of wandering didn't exactly make you smell like lotus flowers when you came home after Ba Sing Se, and this is positively fragrant, in comparison." Her lips definitely twitched. "But yes, please, take a bath. Just stop acting like it's such a big deal."

Zuko threw his hands up in frustration and stormed off instead of replying. It was just like Mai to soothe his wounded pride by telling him he had smelled worse before. Girls and their flawless logic, he thought sourly.

He found the bathroom behind the fourth folding screen he tried, after a study, a dining room, and a small library, while Mai perched on the bed bemusedly and watched the spectacle of the Fire Lord rummaging through his own rooms to find a tub. He darted inside with a rush of relief and slid the screen closed behind him.

The bathroom matched the splendor of the bedroom, and Zuko might have appreciated it much more if he hadn't been brimming with embarrassment. Smooth, rare mountain marble laced with pink and silver made up the floor, extending seamlessly to form the walls and ceiling. The sink, tables and bathtub – as disproportionately large as the bed had been – were all marble inlaid with gold. Lava-crystal lamps lit the room with a heavenly glow.

It was luxury upon luxury, but all Zuko could think of at that moment was getting the stink off.

He did, however, stop to marvel at the contraption that had been set up next to the bathtub.

At first glance it looked like the heart of a mountain had been carved out and set up in his bathroom, a kaleidoscope of different – and expensive – stones which climbed and grew up the walls as though alive. From an invisible crevice at the top, a stream of water splashed and tumbled down over the rocks, somehow cleverly twisting to end up in a perfect sheet of liquid shimmers that fell over the edge of one large, flat extension. Below the outcropping was a space, almost a cave, which was the perfect size for a tall man to stand in under the stream. A shallow pond was set in the floor around the structure, its bottom a mosaic of small stones and gems. Somewhere under the whole thing, water drained out, keeping the pond from overflowing.

Zuko shook his head in wonder. His uncle would rant and obsess over an ingenious invention like this for days.

Forgoing the idea of a traditional bath, he quickly stripped out of his clothes and dumped them in an unceremonious pile on the floor. He gingerly peeled off his stained bandages, deciding to leave those in the trash basket. Fully naked, he stretched carefully, relieved to feel his muscles working freely again.

He stepped into the pond cautiously, and found the water lukewarm. There were two smooth knobs of darker stone in the back of the cave, carved with familiar symbols. Both symbols were triggers for fire-bending. Experimentally, Zuko breathed out and flicked a hand toward the first trigger. A small stream of flame erupted and struck the stone, disappearing into it like oil soaking into a cloth. The temperature quickly rose several degrees, until fog rolled out where the water struck the pond.

Zuko took another breath and repeated the motion towards the other trigger. That one released a stronger torrent of water, no longer a stream but a waterfall cascading down over him. It pounded on his wounds, stinging the burns on his chest and arms, but it was bliss.

He exhaled slowly and leaned back, groping for the rock, and found it surprisingly smooth and comfortable. Leaning against the walls, cocooned between the slick coolness of marble and the soothing heat of water, Zuko let himself ease into a semi-asleep state, his eyelids slowly drifting closed…

The snap of a sliding screen and the feel of another presence entering the room made him open his eyes again, fully alert. Mai stood across the room, closing the screen behind her and eyeing him with a considering look. She stood there and said nothing, simply folded her arms.

Zuko felt inexplicably guilty. He was more than annoyed at how easily she could make him feel guilty, even when he had done nothing. She and his uncle had that in common.

"Mai, uh…" for some reason, he had the urge to retreat into the cave and cover himself. "I'll be out soon. Is something wrong?"

Mai lifted an eyebrow. "No, of course not. Although," she said slowly, unfolding her arms and walking towards him, "you have a…personal waterfall. And you didn't invite me?"

Bewildered, Zuko could only stare at her for a moment. Mai stared back at him evenly, as though scolding her naked, Fire Lord boyfriend in his bathroom was the most normal thing in the world.

"But," Zuko ran a hand through his hair in frustration, raising the wet strands into spiky clumps. "Why would you want - I mean - You said I stink."

"Well, that's why you're cleaning up," Mai replied smoothly, her face not changing a twitch.

Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose between his knuckles and prayed for patience. "Mai, be reasonable. You know I wanted to...do more than sleep with you tonight. You can't expect me to focus on resting if you bathe with me."

"Of course I can," Mai scoffed lightly, stopping just a step away from the edge of the pool. "You're the Fire Lord, Zuko. You can do anything." Her voice dropped just slightly on the last word, a hint of something darker and more sensual seeping through.

Zuko felt a phantom shiver pass through him, an involuntary response to the suggestive inflection.

"Mai, would you like to join me in my private waterfall?" He couldn't quite keep a small twinkle of laughter out of his voice.

"I would be delighted, Fire Lord Zuko," Mai replied promptly with a short, mocking bow. Her eyes were nothing but innocent - you would have thought it was all his idea, Zuko thought dryly.

She untied the silk belt at her waist as she straightened, letting it simply fall to the floor. Another rush of anticipation, stronger this time, quickened Zuko's breath.

Mai shrugged out of her clothes easily, expertly, never looking at him as she seemed to focus the whole of her attention on undressing. But the way she moved, the tenseness of her shoulders and the darkness of her pupils, told Zuko that she was more than aware of his eyes on her.

When the last fold of cloth that clung to her fell away, Zuko's gaze followed it down, admiring the caress of silky highlights along every curve and sweep of her slender form. Her pale skin caught the illumination like a softer marble, retaining and releasing it again as a golden glow where the light struck her just right.

She set her clothes aside and straightened, as regal completely nude before him as she was fully clothed. She came to him, and the smooth glide of her feet through the water whispered and rippled through the pond, reaching him before she did.

She touched her fingertips to his chest, feeling the raw, exposed skin of his burn mark. "This is going to scar."

"Yes," Zuko replied quietly, his hand twitching with the reflex to reach up, to touch the scar on his face. "Do you mind?"

"Not at all. It will be a good reminder…" she seemed to consider for a moment. "…Of how you kicked Azula's ass."

Zuko couldn't help but smile. Even this, she could make better. Without his saying anything, Mai had understood the importance of this memoir to him.

"Are you going to be ok?"

He shrugged. "Oh, it's nothing. When I got run over by a wheelbarrow in the street, when we were kids, that hurt worse than this." Wonderful, he was reminiscing now. His feelings for Mai were horrible for his masculinity, Zuko decided, pointedly ignoring the eager tension in his groin.

Mai smiled. "Liar." Still, he could see that she was reassured. She had often said in the past that if he was well enough to act macho, he wasn't hurt badly enough. She generously refrained from saying so now.

Zuko pulled her close and bent his head to hers, catching her lips in a gentle kiss. He led her back into the water, and she let out a soft hum of delight as the stream flowed over her shoulders and enveloped her.

Mai tilted her head up, letting her wet hair fall loosely down her back. She let go of him to stroke her arms, marveling at the warmth.

"This is amazing," she exclaimed, closing her eyes with a sigh of contentment. "Can you make it any hotter?"

Zuko made a slicing motion towards the trigger in the back, sending an arch of flame spiraling into the stone. He made it stronger than his first experimental attempt. Steam rose around them as the water heated.

Mai moaned softly.

The sound, innocent as it was, sent tremors through Zuko's body. Memories flashed through his mind; her skin against his, her arms holding him in the urgency of pleasure, that moan muffled against his neck as he moved against her…

Weariness forgotten, he wrapped his fingers around her upper arms, pulling her back to him for another kiss. He lingered insistently, deepening the angle until her lips parted. Her hands tried to reach for him, but he held her arms firmly, though his grip remained gentle. She didn't resist, but relaxed into him, returning his kiss without reservation.

Surrounded by the melody of water, the glow of light on marble, and the warmth and privacy of the steam, Zuko was acutely aware of their closeness. He found himself suddenly unable to control a flood of emotion, the urge to hold her and never let go again. She had always been the one steadying point in his life, the one thing anchoring to him to a world through which he had fought long and bitter trials. Now, at the end, there was something profoundly comforting about having her in his arms in this moment, in his triumph as the new Fire Lord.

"Mai," he breathed against her lips, breaking the kiss and leaning his forehead against hers with a sense of almost painful vulnerability, "I need you."

Her reply was a hesitant whisper. "I need you too."

Zuko's eyes flew open in shock. Mai looked away, her brows furrowed in a pained expression. For just a moment it was startlingly clear how much she was struggling to rein herself in, to not betray the depth of her feelings for him with emotion, whether they both knew it or not.

"I…" the words caught in her throat, but before she could form them, Zuko kissed her again, harder this time. He felt her muscles tense, felt her trying to pull away to speak.

Zuko pushed forward gently, guiding them out of the direct range of the waterfall, until Mai's back hit the wall of marble. He pressed her carefully against the hard surface, using the leverage to deepen the kiss until their lungs burned for air and she made a muffled sound of protest against his lips.

He pulled away then, and lowered his head, his lips trailing over the curve of her neck. He stopped just above the tilt of her collarbone, teasing the skin there with a soft bite before moving back up to draw the sensitive lobe of her ear between his teeth.

Mai caught her breath sharply and twisted in his grasp, goosebumps breaking out on her arms despite the heat. Zuko tightened his grip and leaned forward, pinning her between his body and the wall. He felt her arousal in the stiffness of her nipples against his chest, a sharp contrast with the soft mounds of her breasts, and the unmistakable warm wetness that had nothing to do with water and everything to do with her when he pressed his knee between her thighs.

Mai made a sound of irritation and yanked herself out of his grasp roughly. Her hand grabbed his jaw and jerked his head to the side with amazing strength, controlling and pulling him down so she could bring her mouth to his neck.

Zuko closed his eyes and shuddered as her tongue flicked over his skin, tantalizing the nerves underneath with its rough texture. Pleasurable as they were, he only tolerated her ministrations for a brief moment. He wanted her lips on him, but he wanted to be inside her more.

As though reading his thoughts, Mai nipped at his shoulder hard enough to send a tiny spike of pain through the hum of pleasure. She reached down, her fingers briefly touching the hardness of his arousal between them.

Zuko pushed her hand away quickly and pressed her back against the wall. He held her thighs and, bracing himself with a knee against the stone, lifted her along the smooth surface until he had her suspended above him, looking down at him with fire in her eyes.

Mai put her hands on his shoulders, forced to forgo her bid for dominance to steady herself. He tilted her hips toward him and breathed out, carefully controlling his temperature to avoid hurting her.

Mai bit back a cry as she felt him push forward, working himself into her, the intrusion slow and difficult. Water was, without a doubt, not a lubricant. Her fingers dug into the muscles of his shoulders, but she held his gaze, watching with a dim sense of fascination the absolute focus that tightened his jaw and the reverence that lit his golden eyes when he looked at her.

Suddenly he reached that point deep inside that made her tighten involuntarily and squirm away from him, only to be stopped by the wall against her back.

"Zuko," she gasped, straining to take her weight off him against the pull of gravity, "don't."

His brows tightened in concentration as he adjusted her hips slightly, forcing her off-balance again. He pressed a little deeper inside her and kissed her shoulder softly when she cried out. "Just a little more," he reassured her.

Mai nodded, her eyes closing as she struggled to endure the waves of sensation. She felt everything with excruciating detail: the marble, slick and cool against her back; Zuko's unyielding weight against her breasts; and his skin burning against hers as his body temperature competed with that of the water. The steam was a veil of heat that surrounded and enveloped them in their own world. Mai could hardly draw a breath past the heat; she didn't want to.

Still, she could not stop a small sound of protest from escaping her throat when he tried to press forward again. As though of its own accord, her body twisted and turned, almost pulling out of his grip.

Zuko exhaled sharply, forcing himself to retreat again. He pulled away from her completely, feeling a jolt of satisfaction when she moaned at the loss, and set her back down on the floor.

Mai swayed for a moment, disorientated by the sudden change. Zuko turned her around carefully, pinning her against the marble when she tried to turn back to face him. He held her wrists against the wall with one hand, bracing himself on his forearm. He took a small step back and hooked his other arm around her waist, angling her hips toward him.

Mai bit her lip hard enough to hurt, muffling her moans as he slid back into her. This time, when he hit the depth that was almost too far, the new angle pressed him against that perfect spot inside her, releasing a blinding jolt of pleasure that lit up every nerve ending in her body.

Mai cried out and arched her back involuntarily, pushing herself harder against him. Zuko quickly took advantage of her distraction to push forward, stretching her body with each short thrust until he could rest completely inside her. When the first wave of pleasure subsided, there was no more space between them.

Zuko began to move with deliberate slowness, pausing at the depth of each thrust to let her adjust before pulling back again. Each slow draw of his skin against hers felt good, so good, but it wasn't enough. Mai wanted to feel him, wanted his desire for her, more than she wanted his restraint.

"Zuko," she moaned, her eyes squeezed shut in concentration as she tried to form the words, "harder."

His voice was tight to the point of cracking. "I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't, it doesn't even hurt a bit right now." That was a gray shade of truth; there was a dim ache, the familiar discomfort of intrusion, but she was accustomed to it. It barely registered on her fragmented thoughts. "Please," she gasped, trying to grind her hips back to meet him.

Zuko muttered something – it sounded like a curse – and leaned forward to press a kiss between her shoulder blades, pausing for a moment.

"You don't know what you do to me," he breathed against her skin.

Suddenly he let go of her hands and stood upright, letting her brace herself against the marble as he took hold of her hips firmly and thrust into her, harder than before. It drove the air from her lungs in a rush, but before she could take another, he had pulled back and slammed back in, harder still.

Mai's legs tried to collapse as wave after wave of rapture seared through her senses. Zuko's hands on her hips kept her upright, and she leaned her forearms against the marble for balance. Her lungs burned for air, and she heard her own ragged screams echoing and dissolving in the heat around them. Pleasure twisted and tightened inside her with every thrust, rushing her at an alarming pace towards that radiant pinnacle.

"Zuko," she cried out, unsure what she was pleading for.

"Let go," he replied, his breathing as harsh and broken as hers, "believe me, I'm ready. Let go, Mai."

She stopped struggling against the torrent and let it carry her, let the pleasure build until the tension broke and the world went white as he pushed her over the edge into ecstasy.

Zuko leaned over to kiss the junction of her neck and shoulders softly, breathlessly, pulling her tightly against him with an odd tenderness that contrasted with the violence of his movements. Over the crashing of the waterfall around them, the thundering pulse of physical release and the sound of her own voice, she heard him groan against her skin and felt him falling over the edge with her, his body a living fire surrounding her.

The water continued to cascade down steadily, casting a warm mist over them. The stream was weaker now, and had cooled again. But around them, where sprays of water hit Zuko's skin, moisture gathered and preserved the heat of their embrace.

Moments passed in silence, except for their heavy breathing, but she had no sense of time. If not for Zuko's weight against her back pinning her to the wall, and his arm around her waist holding her up, Mai was sure she would have collapsed the moment he stopped moving. Right then, she didn't particularly care if she ever stood again.

Zuko finally took a deep breath and straightened, wincing a little as the movement pulled the raw burn wound on his chest. Mai didn't move, simply stood there with her forehead against the wall, her eyes closed as though she were dozing.

"Come on," Zuko said reluctantly. "We're going to get all pruny in here, if we haven't already…" he leaned forward and kissed the back of her neck. "Let me help you."

Mai shot him a scathing look over her shoulder, but it was a half-hearted indignance, the effect ruined by the euphoric glaze of afterglow in her eyes. Her pale skin was flushed with pleasure, her pupils unfocused and dark. Zuko felt a very male thrill of pride as he surveyed the results of his performance.

She didn't protest when he took her in his arms, easily lifting her bridal-style out of the pond and to the door. Zuko pushed the sliding screen aside with his foot and carried Mai back into the bedroom, brushing aside the veils surrounding his bed to lay her on the mattress gently. She purred deep in her throat and rolled over, wiggling deeper into the silk. As adorable as she was, that wouldn't do; his attendants would scold him into insanity if she soaked his bed through.

Zuko mentally kicked himself for his carelessness and darted back into the bathroom. He found a stack of huge, fluffy white towels in a basket and spread them out over the bed. Mai flopped over carelessly onto the makeshift sheets, graciously allowing him to pull away the silk covers now stained with a wet print of her body.

"Why thank you," he murmured teasingly. "I've always wanted to sleep in a wet bed."

Mai stared at him with such an insulted, female expression that Zuko immediately held up his hands in a pacifying gesture. "With you, of course. I'd sleep in any bed, with you." No hint of sarcasm, this time.

"I have full rights to abuse your bed," Mai explained with her characteristic dryness, "after what you just did to me. Now stop flaunting your walking abilities and come over here so I can feel better about myself."

Zuko rolled his eyes. Mai was too tired to harm him physically right then, but her tongue seemed sharp enough, and as ready to prick him as ever.

He went to her and they curled up together on the bed, relaxed in the embrace of silk, warmth, and each others' presence.

Slowly, Mai's eyelids fluttered closed. When he knew she was almost asleep, Zuko touched her cheek lightly and whispered in her ear.

"I love you."

She heard – her eyes flickered for a moment as she tried to shake off the touch of slumber, to reply – but then she was asleep.

Zuko smiled, content, and held her close to him. In the quiet sanctuary of the Fire Lord's chambers, with Mai by his side, he drifted away into pleasant dreams.

End