I Wanna Contribute At Least One (1) Fic For Maiko Week Or Else I Won't Be Able To Live With Myself

I wanna contribute at least one (1) fic for Maiko Week or else I won't be able to live with myself

You know what I rarely see being touched upon in stories? It’s Azula’s time at the academy which I think has potential to be exploited, since thanks to other official sources we know that the academy was not a normal school like in "the headband" but a brutal one where girls went through survival training and Agni Kai’s happened, some ending with fatalities. I bet the dangerous ladies have some interesting stories to share.

saw some posts saying so long, london and fresh out the slammer are maiko songs. but may I also add... loml

(maiko during their breakup era, to be specific)

These posts are so painful

-Fire ladies are irrelevant asf. They are not leading anything

-Katara could never be the fire lady cuz she loves her CULTURE/IDENTITY

-The fire nation killed her mother, and yes, that's important. She's not gonna live in Sozin's room

-KATARA JUST DOESN'T WANT TO BE FIRE LADY

leave this girl alone if you don't understand her arc/character

Do you ship it?

there is a serious lack of discussion about how mai is zuko’s safe space. we see this in their first appearance together (that’s not a flashback). when mai asks him a simple question, “aren’t you cold?” and zuko, who has a hard time opening up and expressing emotions that aren’t anger or angst, freely and openly starts to tell her his worries about going back to the fire nation. and while people love to chastise mai on her reply, “I just asked if you were cold, I didn’t ask for your whole life story”, I think they misunderstand her approach to this. zuko is worrying and overthinking about something he cannot change, something that will only drive him crazy and she tries to distract him with a joke. and it might fall flat, but she realises this and suddenly she is comforting him with her touch. her hand reaching out so casually towards scar like it’s not a big deal, because it’s not. they’ve known each other for a long time, they’ve grown up together and their relationship was a long time coming. and zuko leans into her hand, and her kiss, without thinking twice about it. because mai is familiar, and mai is comfort and that can be seen when you contrast it to song’s attempting at touch his scar, and how quickly he was to stop her. but it’s not only this moment that showcases mai as his safe space, but also when he’s back in the fire nation. when he’s stressed out and going through a tumultuous time, not knowing what’s right and wrong or what he should do next, it’s mai he goes to. we see this in “nightmares and daydreams” when he spends all day at her house, when he can’t stand being in the palace anymore, mai and her house and her bedroom is his safe space. and here we see her trying to comfort him, trying to say the war meeting is stupid, it would be be boring anyway, and shall we go for a ride around town? it’ll be fun… and even though he’s still sad, he goes back to her house on the day of the war meeting and she’s making him tea. and even when he does get invited to the all day war meeting, she goes to the palace with him and waits for him all day, to see if it went well and to comfort him if it didn’t. when he says that it was everything he thought wanted it to be, she’s immediately happy for him, reaching out to touch him with a smile on her face. mai is who zuko feels safe and comfortable around, even in his vulnerable moments and it’s something we should talk about.