Author’s Notes: Yes, let me jump on the bandwagon—let me write a What Zuko’s Love Letter to Mai Said fic.

30 Kisses Theme: #2 news, letter

Premise:If you had asked me to stay I would have stayed, if you had asked me to take you with me I would not have refused, if you had kissed me I would have never left your side. Anything you wish is my command, and that is exactly why I can only write you this letter.

Disclaimer:Avatar doesn’t belong to me. Zuko and Mai belong with each other. Physical separation is no barrier to true love, and these two continued to love each other across a distance of three years. To wait until the summer’s end and fight in a world-changing war in the meantime isn’t going to tear them apart.

Lucky Star

Dearest Mai,

There are things I must tell you, even if I do not have the courage to say them face-to-face. That too I must explain, why I cannot face you. If you had asked me to stay I would have stayed, if you had asked me to take you with me I would not have refused, if you had kissed me I would have never left your side. Anything you wish is my command, and that is exactly why I can only write you this letter.

I decided that I must leave the Fire Nation. I decided this all on my own, without Uncle, or Azula, or my father. I cannot bear to stay there and live my life as a prince after seeing the world outside the palace-city’s walls. As a child, I have taken great pride in being a prince of the greatest nation of the world. But all such illusions have been proven false: I have seen for myself what our country, our people, do to the rest of the world. We are destroying everything with this war. Peace and balance must be restored before it is too late. So, I will help the Avatar. This is my destiny.

And your destiny? I cannot claim to know. But I look at you and I see a young lady of the Fire Nation aristocracy, born into privilege and bred with misinformation and sheltered from the realities of the world beyond, and I know that whatever your destiny is, it is apart from mine. For now. The truths about the great empire fill me with such disgust, yet you belong to that world, and though I leave it, I do so that I may come back and transform it into the kind of world that you deserve to live in. A world wherein the failures of your exiled prince lover do not jeopardize your position, wherein you no longer have to live by the manipulations of a spiteful princess, wherein you will never have to be afraid to talk or care or believe.

So remains the truth that I love you. I love you. I loved you when I was a boy trying to save you from flaming apples. I loved you when you let me hug you, even though proper young ladies weren’t supposed to let young men touch them, because you sympathized with my mother’s disappearance. I loved you when I became crown prince and every other girl suddenly paid attention to me, yet you still threw mud at me when I tugged at your pigtails. I loved you that time I pinned you against a tree and kissed you, and you slapped me because I took it without asking and you would have given it if I had just asked. I loved you after my first Agni Kai and you looked at me the same way even with the scar on my face. I loved you as a banished prince and I loved you as a fugitive. I loved you as a newly reinstated prince and you were the only part of my old life that felt right. I love you now, even if I am forsaking this prince identity that does not fit me anymore. I have changed, but not everything about me has changed, I still love you.

War tears people apart and brings out the worst in them. Us too, have been forced apart by this war, and the next time we meet you will be by my sister’s side and I will be with the Avatar, and maybe we will have to fight. Yet I can still believe that after all this, we will be reunited. You will still be everything I have ever longed for, and I will have become the kind of man worthy of you.

All my life I have been told that I was lucky to be born, but you make me feel like I was born under a lucky star.

I have always been yours and will continue to be, wherever I am, no matter how far.

Zuko

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“How sweet,” Azula sneered, glaring at her brother’s syrupy thoughts and fancy calligraphy, carefully composed and sealed with a kiss.

Her reddened cheek still stung from their father’s reproof. Zuko had no business growing a mind and ruining her plans.

“Well, two can play that game, Zuzu.” The roll of parchment burst to blue flames in her hand and withered to ash.

“Azula?” Mai entered her room, interestingly enough, looking perturbed. Ty Lee followed right behind, and shot forward to throw her arms around Azula.

“Oh Azula, it’s so good to see you!” The pink girl cried. “We left the bunker as soon as the guards gave the signal, but when we went to the palace you weren’t there, and Mai looks for Zuko because he promised to come for her after the Invasion, and Zuko wasn’t there, and there’s a commotion going on.” She patted along the princess’ arms and sides. “Are you okay? Did you manage to hold them off? Did anyone hurt you—“

“I’m fine, Ty Lee,” Azula assured her, catching her hands. The girl finally released her. Azula turned to Mai. She stood beside her bed, looking collected, but with just the slightest hint of disquiet in her pale gold eyes. Azula discreetly shook the ashes off her hand.

“I’m sorry to be the one to bring you terrible news, Mai…”

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Author’s Notes (again): Zuko’s letter—I can imagine him being a lot more eloquent in letters than he is at talking-face-to-face, that’s why this is rather long and sounds much more… composed than normal Zuko.

If you're been following this, then you might have noticed that the title changed, from 30 Kisses to 15 Kisses. Originally, I planned to do all 30 themes as fanfics and then again as fanart. But I changed my mind, I'll do 15 as fanfics and 15 as fanart. I do love Maiko and I think I've become a bigger Avatard than I am as a Narutard... but the Avatar fandom has become... tiresome. I'm thinking of just enjoying the show and not doing too many fannish things.

Anyway, now review--and that means you silent readers too.