@idonthatemaiko

Spring Maiko week day 3: Ethereal

Mai really is an Ethereal beauty

(Zuko certainly thinks so)

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Spring Maiko week day 4: Pride

@idonthatemaiko

For Spring Maiko week 2021, the prompt was Closure.

Day 1 - Melting/Rain

For Maiko Week 2022 organized by @idonthatemaiko

Find me on Ao3: head_hedgehog

Mai felt the first drop of rain on her nose. 

She looked up at the sky and swore under her breath. Her mother would kill her if she let her new dress get ruined in the rain. She wasn’t even supposed to be out in the palace gardens; Princess Azula had invited her over for tea, but Mai excused herself and slipped outside. She liked the princess just fine, but sometimes she was just a little…much, far more intense than any ten-year-old had the right to be. 

Mai weighed her options as more raindrops fell on her. She could sprint back to the palace, but she would have to explain her wet hair and soggy dress, and would probably have to change before she was allowed to sit anywhere in Azula’s room. Azula was much smaller than Mai, and the idea of wearing ill-fitting clothes in front of the judgemental princess was not appealing. 

“Hey, over here,” Mai heard from behind her. She turned and saw Prince Zuko standing fifty paces away in an open door she’d never seen before. He motioned to her. “Hurry, you’re going to get soaked!”

Mai ran to the door and found herself in a snug wooden room with a small fire and a messy pile of scrolls. Zuko propped the door open and brushed off the ancient, faded rug that stretched across the dirt floor.

“Here, your clothes won’t get so dirty now,” he said. Mai sat, enjoying the warmth of the flames. “Thank you, Prince Zuko,” she said, glancing shyly at the prince. He was much cuter than she realized. Before this, she’d only seen him at a distance, but up close his face had a charming softness to it.

“You can just call me Zuko,” he said, blushing. “You’re Mai, right?”

Mai nodded. 

“I was reading a play,” Zuko said. “Do you want to read with me?”

“Okay.” 

Mai slid closer to the prince and looked at the writing over his shoulder. Outside, the rain fell harder, but she barely noticed. 

@idonthatemaiko

Spring Maiko week day 2: History

A date in the Catacombs <3

Maiko Fluff Week Day 1

My first contribution to Maiko Week hosted by @idonthatemaiko

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

Chapter 1: Tranquility

—-

Orange is such an awful color.

The thought came unbidden into Mai’s mind. She couldn’t help it. Sunsets were such a disgusting display of garish colors, and she didn’t understand what the fuss was all about.

But Tom Tom liked them, and she was practicing being the kind of big sister that didn’t consider foreign kings more important than younger siblings, and so she was sitting with him at his window watching the sun’s gruesome death once again.

Tom Tom yawned and leaned his head on her shoulder. “What’re we doing next day?”

“You and Mother are going to visit Auntie Mura. I’m going to the palace.”

“To see him?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Fire Lord Zuko? Yes.”

“Why?” he pouted. “Stay with me.”

“Sorry kiddo,” she said. “When the Fire Lord requests your presence, you can’t say no. I’ll spend the day after that with you. Promise.”

He looked only mildly placated but said nothing more. The oranges in the sky deepened to reds and purples - much more tolerable - until at last the sun slipped beneath the horizon.

“Time for bed,” she said, nudging him.

“Okay.” He lifted his arms to her, and she picked him up, carrying him to his bed. He wriggled underneath the covers, and she tucked him up to his chin.

She leaned over and ruffled his hair. “Goodnight.”

She went to her room and sat down at her vanity. She let her hair down and began to brush it, thinking about what she had said to Tom Tom.

Not that she couldn’t say no to the Fire Lord; she did that routinely. No, it was that she saw so little of Zuko these days she wasn’t going to give up any chance she had to see him.

She understood he was busy. The last year had been such a whirlwind of change in the Fire Nation, mostly for the better. Their relationship, on the other hand… well, it was better than it had been when he was training the Avatar. But only barely.

They weren’t fighting, or anything so serious as that. They were very much in love. She turned into a simpering fool every time he looked at her, and he looked so happy when he was with her - and Zuko was rarely happy.

But with him so busy with official Fire Nation business, those times when they could be together had grown fewer and farther between. So when he said he would clear an entire day to spend with her, there had been no question.

He had always been her weak spot.

—-

Zuko stretched out on his bed, groaning. He was so bone tired. Not the feeling that comes from a day of physical exertion, where your muscles ache but you sleep peacefully. No, this was the type of mental fatigue that sucked every bit of energy from your body only to plague you all night while you chased elusive sleep.

There was just so much to think about. The Harmony Restoration Movement, the rebuilding of the homeland, the new education policies. Taxes, military pensions, repurposing factories, international diplomacy, reparations, palace security. Those and dozens of other concerns crowded his brain, each vying for dominance, insisting that he worked through them before the night was through.

He wished he could turn it all off so he could sleep. So he could be at peace. He needed sleep tonight because tomorrow was his day with Mai, and the last thing he wanted was to be too tired to enjoy it. Or worse, to be so tired that Mai didn’t enjoy it.

He frowned. Something needed to be done about their relationship, and soon. He would have proposed to her already, but he couldn’t bring himself to subject her to the assassins who interrupted his life every couple of months. Which was stupid, because she could have them pinned to the wall before his inept guards even knew they were there. But it was so unfair to her to make it her responsibility.

She had already saved his life once and nearly got herself killed in the process. It seemed presumptuous of him to tie her to a lifetime of that, just because he loved her.

He rolled over, hoping that the new position would be more conducive to sleep. It wasn’t.

He hoped she liked the lunch he had planned for her tomorrow. He had spent a good deal of time coming up with the idea, and he thought it was something she would enjoy. But Mai was funny like that; she had a very different notion of romance than most girls.

Not that he had much experience.

And what was he going to do about that pesky rice tax…?

Maiko week 2022 day 5 - highschool

@idonthatemaiko​ (so firstly, I am SO sorry this took so long. I got really busy with school and well… here we are. i mean, geez we are in mid/late june already!! but i made a sketch of this before maiko week even started and i intended this drawing for maiko week from the start so, yeah also, not sure if mai would ever wear this much pink, but admittedly, she does look very cute in it. and yes. zuko has a charizard on his shirt)

Midnight Sun Madness

Too late for May Maiko Week, but just in time for the Solstice (and Midnight sun in our Northern Hemisphere where applicable), my second chapter update.

The Southern Water Tribe hosts the Midnight Sun Festival, and Mai helps - to avoid the boredom. However, Fire Lord is supposed to come, together with other guests of honor, and Mai very much wants to avoid meeting him.

The prompt for the second day is Enemy/Spies

@idonthatemaiko

Maiko Week:

My VERY LATE submissions for maiko week. i didn't know how i was going to put them all in fics so here is an artistic rendition. I just sort of played around with the prompts just because i wanted some cute fanart of these two.

Maiko week Day 7: Free day *very late submission*

sleeping maiko ❤️

@idonthatemaiko

Maiko week 2022 day 4 - vacation

@idonthatemaiko​ (while on their vacation on ember island, there was a fireworks show! they watched it together <3)

Maiko Week 2022, Day 7: Free day

For Maiko Week 2022 hosted by @idonthatemaiko. A day late but hopefully worth the wait!

Mai sat in the Fire Lord’s private garden, impatiently twirling a knife. Zuko told her to meet him here an hour ago and had yet to show up. She supposed he had been waylaid by some minister or another, eager for the Fire Lord’s opinion on some matter. She threw the knife at a tree and blew her bangs out of her eyes.

“Lady Mai?” a servant called from the doorway. “Fire Lord Zuko asked that you come with me.”

Mai stifled her grumbling and stood to follow them. If Zuko was so busy why didn’t he just tell her to go home? 

She followed the servant deep into the palace, past the public reception areas and offices. Finally, the servant stopped in front of an immense wooden door and handed Mai an ancient-looking key.

“The Fire Lord asked that you open the door,  Lady Mai.”

The servant bowed and left. Mai put the key in the lock and pushed on the heavy door.

Inside the enormous room, she found Zuko standing among plush furniture, full bookshelves, and racks of delicately-wrought knives. 

“Zuko, what —?” Mai asked, but lost her words before she could finish.

Zuko stepped forward and took her hands.

“Mai, this is the Fire Lady’s suite,” he said, smiling. “It’s where all of the past Fire Ladies have spent their free time, entertained their guests, escaped from their duties.”

“It’s beautiful,” Mai said, her voice catching.

“I had it renovated recently,” Zuko continued. “In the hope that there would be a new occupant soon.”

Mai stared at him, once again at a loss for words. Zuko took a deep breath.

“Mai, I hope that you will be the new occupant of this room,” he said, looking deeply into her eyes. “If you’re willing, I would like to you be the next Fire Lady.”

“Zuko, are you —?”

“Mai, what I’m really asking is, will you marry me?”

Zuko looked into her eyes and raised her hand to his lips. When Mai caught her breath again, she replied:

“Yes, Zuko. I will.”

Happy last day of Maiko Week 2022!!!

This is both an AU and a free day 😂 please enjoy ♥️

“Honestly why did we think this was a good idea?” Sokka groans

“I’ve been wracking my brain over the same thing” Toph says as she picks her toes “it’s like we’re actually asking to be killed”

“Nobody is going to die” Zuko says angrily

[Image ID: A traditional pen and watercolor drawing of Zuko and Mai from Avatar: The Last Airbender as adults, wearing royal Fire Nation attire and headpieces. They are shown in profile from the waist up facing each other. Zuko cradles Mai’s face in his hand, closes his eyes, and kisses her on the cheek. Mai closes her eyes, rests her hand on Zuko’s neck, and smiles widely. /.End ID]

Keeping It Sweet and Simple for the last day of Maiko Week (Free Day). A big thank you to all my fellow Maiko fans and to @idonthatemaiko for hosting and providing the prompts!