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She knows what they say about her. Sometimes well-meaning and sometimes resentful: Mai really should try to smile a little more. Act more like the Fire Lord's girlfriend should. She needs to meet people, play nicely, and look as though she's pleased to see this carnival of politicians. As though she is here for Zuko and not for her own part in the recovery.
She's had that all of her life. "Mai, your father needs you to behave. Be polite. Make conversation. Smile, please, darling. You're part of this family. Try to act like it." (Try not to be yourself.)
No one says it to her face any more. Not after the first government advisor ended up pinned to the wall, her blades through his robes. Zuko had been smiling underneath his, "Mai? Could you get Counsellor Gorou down please?" She had obliged, after a momentary glare. Zuko is not surprised, she notes. She had never played nicely when they were children either.
She has become the odd one, another strange habit the young prince picked up on his road to Lordship. Zuko is permitted to be peculiar, and that lends her some grace. But they don't remember that she took on Azula for his sake, or that he left her behind; they remember only that he came back. Zuko she has forgiven – they understand each other now. For everyone else… she will not pretend to simper and swoon. She will not pretend a lightness she does not feel. She is happy; she holds that knowledge close; she does not let these others in. So they would perhaps be surprised to see her now.
Zuko is pacing the lawns, waving papers in front of him and talking to them. It's something to do with education policy, and ancient tradition, and he's upset by it. He runs his hands through his hair and it spikes up untidily. He takes everything so seriously.
Mai stands from her sunbather and walks towards him. He blinks, not completely here with her. She cups his face and stands up a little taller to kiss him. The gardens are warm, and if her kiss is sweet instead of biting, there is no one else to see. When she breaks away he is flushing, surprised as he always is by tenderness. It's lucky he has her to be the smart one.
He says, "What was that for?"
"You looked like you needed it." She grants him a smile because he doesn't think he's entitled to them. He loved her in the depths of winter.
Their work is not finished. Diplomats' smiles will solve nothing without other people's toil. Mai takes half the papers from him. "Sit with me," she says. "We'll work it out together." Her father did not teach her the things he meant to, but she picked up other skills along the way.
Zuko sits alongside her in the sunshine and they frown and read the memos and argue. When someone comes to interrupt them, Mai betrays no expression. Zuko smiles. He says, "We're busy right now," and when the man leaves, Zuko finally remembers to kiss her back.
Mai asks, "What was that for?"
Zuko looks at her over the papers and maps – the new kingdom they hold in their hands. He says, "Because it makes you happy."
It's a secret between them both, she thinks: she loves him just as much.