Me: You're gonna make me say it, aren't you?

The Lawyers: It would be best.

Me: Seriously?

The Lawyers: Seriously.

Me: Like totally for reals?

The Lawyers: -_-

Me: *SIGH* It is possible that I probably don't own Avatar and it could be owned by Mike and Bryan up the street, 'round the corner, the next state or ninety two over. Happy?

The Lawyers: We're never happy.

Lady Mai stared down at her little brother from the couch on the wall of a sitting room in disbelief that her parents had just left him here and expected her to watch him. Had they lost their Agni-forsaken minds? The drooling bundle on the floor currently trying to fit his foot in his mouth is evidence to the fact that they had.

What ceremony in the city of Omashu in the middle of the night could be so important that would require both of them? It's not as if the people of the city cared whether either one of them attended. They wanted them dead, for crying out loud.

Mai sighed and rolled her eyes. She was bored. She shouldn't have to be here if the maid who usually watched her little brother hadn't gotten sick. But no, that woman had to go and be selfish. With a flick of her wrist, a kunai knife appeared in her hand and she started to twirl it distractedly.

The knife made a light whirring sound that drew Tom-Tom's attention away from his wet foot and he stared with amazement at the pretty, shiny toy his sister was playing with. He wanted it. Rolling onto his stomach, he tried to push himself up to his feet but couldn't get the upper half to cooperate so his bottom was in the air as he tried to find balance. After he made it to his feet, he took two or three steps before he fell on his rear again. He frowned and, apparently deciding that walking was going to work, crawled to his sister who'd been keeping an eye on him. He made it to her much faster and pulled himself up using her skirts then stared at the still spinning knife with wide eyes and mouth hanging open.

Mai arched a brow and stopped spinning the blade. Tom-Tom blinked. She moved it in front of his face and watched amused as he followed the shining metal back and forth with his eyes. Then he squealed and tried to grab it but Mai pulled it back.

"No," she told him firmly with a frown.

He made a whining noise that strangely sounded like he said, 'Aw, come on!'

She tossed the blade in the air and caught it, and Tom-Tom gurgled happily.

"You like that, huh?"

He jabbered a long paragraph of baby babble, and at the end, she thought she heard him say 'pwetty'. She smiled a little at his excitement, but then frowned when she heard a distinct creak outside near the window on her left. She leaned down to pick Tom-Tom up with her right arm and set him on the couch next to her and hid the knife in her flowing sleeve. Pretending to fuss over her brother, she turned her back to the window but watched it from the reflection of the hideous, metal figurine her mother insisted on. It made her wish she was a firebender so she could have an 'accident' and melt the thing; but presently, it had its uses. A figure clothed in black with a mask that only revealed his eyes stepped through the window and landed lightly on the stone floor. Safe to say, the intruder wasn't an earthbender.

Mai tensed as he crept forward and his hand went to a sheath on his hip. Without removing her gaze from the figurine, she watched him silently pull a katana from the sheath, waited for him to raise it above his head before she turned and fired stilettos from her holster on her arm and pinned him to the wall with four blades. His sword clattered to the ground. Tom-Tom clapped his chubby hands with delight. Mai glanced at her brother as she rose to greet their 'guest'.

The intruder struggled against the blades but ceased when Mai held a knife to his throat, a cool, bored expression on her face. She snatched the mask off of his face with her other hand and kicked the sword away. If she was shocked to see that a boy younger than her was her would-be murderer, she didn't show it. His green eyes stared back into her amber, fear and defiance in his features. He still had his baby fat.

As she held the knife to this child's throat, a flick of her wrist the only thing needed to end the life of a boy who was staring death in the face admirably, she thought to ask,

"Aren't you going to beg?"

He looked at her as if she slapped him.

"A soldier surrenders and accepts his fate with honor."

"You should know, I'm not taking prisoners today."

He said nothing, only returned her stare.

Tom-Tom made happy, baby noises behind them.

Mai made her decision, grabbed the blade that pinned his left arm, and backed up a few paces. Hands at her side, she watched the confused expression on his face.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to let you live today. You try this tomorrow and I doubt I'll be so gracious."

He blinked then quickly but unhurriedly pulled the blades out of his clothing without taking his eyes off of her. He glanced pointedly at his sword and Mai shrugged. He went to it, knelt and picked it up, then backed up to the window and hopped up. With one last glance to Mai, the boy dropped down and out of sight.

Mai sighed and flopped back down on the couch, bouncing Tom-Tom and making him giggle. He crawled onto her lap and she ruffled his hair as she stared at the window.

"That is not going to be you," she told her brother and looked down at him. He stared up at her with his thumb in his mouth. He pulled it out and made a frowny face at her and laughed at his own silliness.

"Just stay like this. In your own world where everything is wonderful and exciting. This one's pretty disappointing."

"Pwetty," he repeated the only word he understood.

Mai rolled her eyes. She held her arm straight up and shot a dagger into the ceiling, and Tom-Tom squealed with delight.

"Yeah," she agreed, "That's still pretty cool," a small smile tugging at her lips.

A/N: I had intended to make this funny but then it went that way and now I'm not sure exactly what it is.

Because there aren't enough Mai & Tom-Tom fics. I believe Mai actually loves her brother, likes him at the very least. 'Cause it's impossible to hate a toddler unless you're pure evil. Now a five year old, that's possible because they plot and plan at that age and sometimes, they're the evil ones. But it's better to be nice to the little boogers 'cause they remember when you put them in the trash can(it was clean, she needed it), and they *will* get you later.