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31_days2008-01-08 09:45 am
praiseofshadows.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2008-01-08 09:45 am
[January 8th] [Avatar] the secret history of courtship
Title: the secret history of courtship
Day/Theme: Jan 8 - beyond the sphere of human vision, we met and embraced
Series: Avatar
Character/Pairing: Zuko/Mai
Rating: PG-13ish (to be on the safe side)
When he was twelve, and Mai a worldly thirteen, he had the (stupid) idea to give her a flower. And she had blushed, and Azula (damn her) had been there, and he had said (loudly and lying through his teeth) that it didn’t mean anything. At all. And that she was just a stupid girl. And Mai had thrown mud at him, and it was something like a beginning.
(Of course, one could always say the beginning was further back, when he was ten and she was eleven, and Azula decided to tease them with a game of apples and flames.)
When he was thirteen and Mai was fourteen, they kissed behind the azalea bushes. It was awkward and clumsy, and Zuko didn’t trust himself to speak because he was afraid his voice would crack. And Mai wouldn’t look at him for the rest of the day, but the memory of her lips (wet and open) against his made all the embarrassment (wonderful) acceptable.
(It had been an azalea flower he had tried to give her that day; after all, they were her favourite: he had learned that when he was eleven and she was twelve.)
When he was three weeks shy of fourteen, he was banished. Mai was fifteen then, and so very grown-up that he despaired of ever reaching her, now that he was disgraced, and it was something like an ending.
(She visited him, one last time – in secret, of course, because her father’s career was teetering – and her hair smelled like apples and azaleas. And as he buried his face in it, he almost was able to forget the way his flesh had smelled as his father burned it off.)
Day/Theme: Jan 8 - beyond the sphere of human vision, we met and embraced
Series: Avatar
Character/Pairing: Zuko/Mai
Rating: PG-13ish (to be on the safe side)
When he was twelve, and Mai a worldly thirteen, he had the (stupid) idea to give her a flower. And she had blushed, and Azula (damn her) had been there, and he had said (loudly and lying through his teeth) that it didn’t mean anything. At all. And that she was just a stupid girl. And Mai had thrown mud at him, and it was something like a beginning.
(Of course, one could always say the beginning was further back, when he was ten and she was eleven, and Azula decided to tease them with a game of apples and flames.)
When he was thirteen and Mai was fourteen, they kissed behind the azalea bushes. It was awkward and clumsy, and Zuko didn’t trust himself to speak because he was afraid his voice would crack. And Mai wouldn’t look at him for the rest of the day, but the memory of her lips (wet and open) against his made all the embarrassment (wonderful) acceptable.
(It had been an azalea flower he had tried to give her that day; after all, they were her favourite: he had learned that when he was eleven and she was twelve.)
When he was three weeks shy of fourteen, he was banished. Mai was fifteen then, and so very grown-up that he despaired of ever reaching her, now that he was disgraced, and it was something like an ending.
(She visited him, one last time – in secret, of course, because her father’s career was teetering – and her hair smelled like apples and azaleas. And as he buried his face in it, he almost was able to forget the way his flesh had smelled as his father burned it off.)