The Legend of Percy: Book 2 - Through Grief

5. The Princess Lies Once More (Why Does She Keep Doing It?)

A/N: Once again, **TW** Scene depicting an anxiety attack in this chapter. (Bracketed by **AA**)

Mai sat on Zuko's bed with him laid around her. In comparison to traveling around with his sister, it was rather blissful. She was quite enjoying seeing the battle of her boyfriend's conscience. The pain wasn't great, but it was quite clear that the path Ty Lee, Percy and her were trying to give Azula, was something the prince had found too. And with how much he spoke about Iroh, either mumbling it to himself or outright saying it, Mai figured he was the one to show him that path.

Over the past few days, Mai had been subtly attempting to convince the Fire Prince to go see his uncle in his cell. She found a certain similarity in comparing that to Azula with Percy on the tank train. And finally, FINALLY, her idiotic boyfriend had seemed to get the hint.

Mai was going to go see Ty Lee in the evening before coming back to his room, and Zuko had told her to 'not wait up' for him. She'd rolled her eyes then, and rolled her eyes now just thinking about it. Zuko wasn't known for his subtlety, and she liked him even more for it.

He hadn't spoken much of his time in Ba Sing Se, and that was curious to her. Whether or not he was afraid of admitting what happened because of some things the Fire Lord wouldn't approve of, she wasn't sure.

She'd also noticed the very distinct difference in his scar. The deep red that once surrounded his eye was many shades lighter. She loved her boyfriend either way of course, but moving towards healing wounds from the Fire Lord was something Mai was very okay with. He didn't deserve to live with a reminder of his father's terribleness, but it would hopefully push him away from what he thought his destiny was. She'd seen too many times now the effect the Fire Lord had had on his children.

Annoyingly, all he'd told her about his trip was that he was a refugee and his uncle had owned a tea shop at some point. She was always amusingly frustrated by Iroh's fascination and enthusiasm over tea. It... endearingly got on her nerves. So being a refugee and making his way up to owning a tea place just seemed very in character for the old man.

In speaking with Percy below Ba Sing Se, he'd clearly had some interaction with her firebending boyfriend. Mai was curious as to what that was, and what happened.

Leaving those thoughts out of her mind, she got up from the admittedly comfortable hug that she'd been receiving to place a kiss on her boyfriend's cheek.

"I'm going to see Ty Lee." She said, startling herself with how soft her voice was.

It wasn't this usually, and she didn't know how to feel about it. The dagger-thrower was becoming more okay with... feeling stuff. She hadn't lost her signature dry sarcastic wit, but around a few people, Mai was feeling a lot more open and comfortable.

"I'll see you later then."

That was all she got from an obviously distracted Zuko.

Good, hopefully he'll finally see his uncle.

Mai moved leisurely down the hallways of the palace, before coming upon Ty Lee's room. The poor girl had been worried out of her mind about what was happening with Percy. It was even worse as Mai was the only person she could talk to about it and, admittedly, she'd been spending a bit too much of her time with her boyfriend.

There was some progress on the Azula front though. She'd shown compassion.

Or, what Azula would think is overwhelmingly compassionate and probably some kind of weakness.

The princess had seen Mai's want to stay with her boyfriend and allowed her friend to be put before herself. It really was the first time Mai had experienced that with Azula and it felt good. She was doing something she wanted, and not a pawn of someone else.