Story [Avatar: The Last Airbender] Promises of Love and No Regrets (a Zuko/Mai Oneshot)

Title: Promises of Love and No Regrets

Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Author: devilinthedetails

Genre: Romance; Drama; Mush; Hurt/Comfort

Characters: Mai and Zuko

Summary: After Zuko's coronation, Zuko and Mai find they have no regrets.

Author's Note: Written for @WarmNyota_SweetAyesha's Springtime Meadow Event using the prompt: "No Regrets."

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Promises of Love and No Regrets

“Do you regret defying Azula, saving me, and getting yourself imprisoned at Boiling Rock for my sake?” Zuko asked Mai as they stood on a balcony overlooking a row of blossoming cherry blossoms in their beautiful, brief prime. A beautiful, brief prime Mai could have written praising poems of carefully chosen and counted syllables if she had been at all inclined to express herself and her denied emotions through haiku, which she most decidedly wasn’t.

The air around them was hot--though not as hot as at Boiling Rock since probably even a volcano wasn’t as hot as Boiling Rock-- and almost tense. There hadn’t been much time for them to talk before his coronation. Just a chance for her to confirm that she had indeed been released from prison thanks to the political strings her uncle had pulled on her behalf and Zuko granting clemency to her and Ty Lee. A chance for her to help him into his red-and-gold robes. A chance for her to kiss him and tell him she kind of liked him but he should never break up with her again.

Apparently she had still been too subtle for him to understand. That was why they were having this conversation at his coronation feast.

“How could I regret saving you when you’re the new fire lord who helped get me out of prison?” Mai asked, arching an eyebrow, and hoping that her dry question would draw a laugh or at least spark a smile from him.

“I hope you never regret that I’m fire lord.” Zuko’s voice was too serious for Mai’s liking, and there was a furrow in his forehead that made her roll her eyes in exasperation at how grim he always was even in his time of greatest triumph. “I hope that I can rule in such a way that none of my people ever regret that I’m fire lord.”

“That’s a very noble sentiment and all, but”--Mai jabbed a not-so-gentle finger into his chest, forcing him to really listen to her rather than dwelling on his fears and regrets on this glorious day of celebration-- “I was making a joke, and it ruins my joke when I have to explain that I was making one because you’re too obtuse to get it.”

“Sorry.” Now Zuko did crack a smile. Albeit a sheepish, rueful one. “I guess I wasn’t listening very well. It’s hard to hear with all the thoughts and fears whirring around inside my head.”

“Since you’re finally listening to me now, I’ll tell you something else. Something I told your sister after I betrayed her and rescued you.” Mai tilted her head so that it nestled in the groove between his neck and his shoulder.“That I love you more than I fear her.”

No need to tell him more than that, she thought. Surely, he must have heard in her tone how, even when she was chained in a dark cell with no food and water, she hadn’t been able to regret what she had done for love of him. Nor had she even been able to fear Azula. Not when there was nothing left for Azula to take from her. Prison hadn’t broken her as she might have feared before she was locked up at Boiling Rock. Instead, it had proved that she was unbreakable and braver than she had ever known.

He must indeed have heard the love in her words, because he pressed kisses soft and silky as butterfly wings into her hair, her cheeks, her forehead. “I love you too, Mai. More than I’ve ever loved anyone. More than I’ll ever love anyone.”

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha Thank you so much for commenting! I totally understand how poor Zuko would feel apprehensive about carrying out his new role successfully and being the good leader the Fire Nation so desperately needs to take them out of this time of tyranny and repression, and my heart did warm as Mai started giving him her teasing assurances. Then the ending came to me and it really felt like a gut punch of different emotions from sorrow to what Mai and Zuko both went through in terms of trauma to the happiness of them declaring their love for each other and Mai's realization of how deep that love is for her. And it makes me so happy that you found that declaration of love so delicious since your prompt gave me such great inspiration!