Zuko
"Mai?" I call down the dimly lit hall of the Fire Lord's palace. I feel my way through the shroud of darkness. Mai has found this hallway of the estate to be of her own dominion. Maybe it is due to the eternal gloominess of the windowless rooms, or the fact that no one ever travels down the hall. I know the real reason.
I trace my pale fingers around the melted metal that runs vertically down the walls, made from an angry fire bender's fingers raking across it while aflame. Suddenly, it feels as if Toph has launched a rock down my throat and then pushed it into my lungs. The memories come flooding back to me. "Azula." I mutter under my breath. I can feel hot tears roll down my cheeks, evaporating before they reach his mouth in a puff of smoke. "How long has it been since I saw you? Four years?" She has been in the asylum for years. I sigh as I push the thought away, and past the ash colored curtain and into my sister's old room.

Her back is to me. I study her; black hair slopes down asemetricly hitting the tops of her bare pale shoulders. My fiance. She has grown a foot taller since the war, and all the more quiet. I silently observe the way she stands, the way her kimodo drapes of one shoulder haphasardly. One more day until you are my wife. Warm feelings flood me. I remember the first time she admitted these feelings. I don't hate you either. We're not the most romantic creatures, but we are happy together. I keep telling myself this the closer the day arrives... Mai doesn't look happy. I realize, watching her fiddle with something in her hands. "Hey." I say smoothly.

Mai jumps suddenly, the picture she was holding shatters against the crimson floor. "Zuko." She gasps; her face wrinkles in shock but then sinks back into its normal emotionless self. She looks at the tapestry on the wall, which is a silk Fire Nation tapestry from the war-time, and then to her feet.

"What's going on here?" I step forward, confused. I grab her hand, but she drops it and bends down to pick up the pieces of the frame. The air is so still and heavy that it seems as if she is moving in slow motion. I can see her hands trembling, I must have startled her more than I thought.

"Oh! Ow!" She says suddenly. "Damn it." The glass has sliced right through the palm of her hand. Her blood runs all over the photograph and onto the floor.

"Here." I take the photograph from her hand while pulling out a snow-white handkerchief. Carefully, I wrap it around her palm. "Calm down." I try to soothe her by petting her hair, but she dodges my hand swiftly. "What has got you so upset?" First, I notice the bags stacked in the far corner of the room. Then, the closet door is standing wide open, with nothing left inside but a crimson dress with an ash colored train and "Why did you pack? It's not like we are vacationing after the coronation."

"Zuko. I can't be Fire Lady." She pauses, staring at me for the longest time, like she was trying to find the words. "I can't be your wife." She pulls the gold ring from her finger and sits it on top of the picture frame. My vision blurs as I stare at the flame shaped trail of rubies on the ring. "Zuko, a lot of things have happened since the end of the war, and since you asked me to marry you. It's been three years. Three years for me to think. You weren't ever here. You were off rebuilding the Nation, which is what you are meant to do. You don't need me. It's just not what I need to do."

"What is it that you need, Mai?" My voice raises, and I can feel my body boiling. I'm not sad, I'm angry and embarrassed. How can she do this? Why now?

"I don't know yet. Since I was a child, I have been expected to have this life. To follow what everyone told me to do! Did you know that our fathers planned, since our birth, that we were going to get married? Azula and I were to be friends throughout our lives, and I was to then be close to you. The inter-marring of our families would bring the further strength and control of the prison system, which you know your father wanted."

"Who cares what Ozai wanted?" He screams. "What about what we want?"

"You mean you want! You have always been selfish! Now it is my turn to have my own life! The reason I'm like this," she gestures at her blank face, "Is because this is what everyone else wanted! I don't want this! I can't." She regains composure, and she moves away quickly, toward the door.

"Mai. Stop." She freezes by the door. "Listen, we don't have to get married tomorrow. We can wait if you want to. Just don't leave me."

"Do you love me Zuko?"

I am taken aback. "What? Of course I do! Mai-?"

"Can you honestly say that you love me, and only me? Be honest!"

"Mai." I begin but something wont let me finish. The rest of my words catch in my dry throat.

"Goodbye Zuko." She disappears through the curtain.

I stand there, numb, clutching the broken, bloody photograph and my mothers betrothal ring. I slip the ring in my robe pocket. I stare at the picture. Mai's blood covers her own face, and most of the royal engagement party. The only two faces spared are my own, and Katara's, who had been at my right.

"No!" I scream, my anger getting the better of me. My knees buckle causing me to collapse on the wooden floor, and fire comes out of my mouth and burns from my palms. I feel the hot tears streaming off my face. Then I watch as the photo crumples until it turns into a puff of smoke.