got your number (i don't know how long i can wait)
“You can still beat him, you know.” Suki takes another swig from her water bottle. “There’s another race.”
Mai glances at the council committee setting up rows of racks with white bags hanging from them, containing the costumes. “That’s just humiliating, though.”
“How bad could they be?” Suki says in regard to the costumes. Mai raises an eyebrow at her statement until Suki herself realizes. “Yeah, they’re all going to be terrible,” she sighs. “But if you want to get out of that date, it’s your only chance.”
So Mai signs herself up for the costume race, along with an amused Zuko.
“Seriously?” she grouses at him.
“I’m dead serious, Mai.” Zuko leans in, whispering into her ear, “I’m going to make you mine.”
She shoves him away, cheeks red with mortification. “What are you doing, you creep?”
He bursts out laughing.
“Hey, why don’t we make this bet more interesting? If I win the race, you give me your number—”
“As if.” Mai glares at him. “Don’t push it. I’m not even getting anything out of this.”
“Hey, I said I’ll leave you alone forever,” he says placatingly. “But alright. If that’s not enough, you win the race… and I’ll do all your after-school cleaning.”
“You are insufferable,” she states after a long pause.
“Is that a yes?” Zuko asks, but she had already turned her back and begun to walk away from him. “Mai! Is that a yes?”
They join the others competing at the track while the commentator explains the rules.
“The game is simple, everyone—make a quick dash to the racks, grab one of the bags and make your way into the tent to change into your chosen costume, then proceed to race to the finish line. Anyone who walks out without their costume on is disqualified. May the best man or woman win!”
Mai’s insides squirm at the thought of changing inside a tent that would be filled with other students, but regrettably, it was too late to change her mind. The commentator calls “ready, set, go!” before the pistol fires off, and the race begins and she has no choice but to push her sore legs to their limit.
She glances back briefly to see that she and Zuko are leading by a considerable distance. They reach the costume selections, and Zuko pulls off a random sack without a second thought before proceeding to jog towards the tent. She figures that the bigger the bag, the better. She grabs a bulky-looking sack and heads off shortly.
“Hey,” Zuko greets her as she drops the tent flap, plunging both of them into darkness.
She opens the bag and feels around to get an idea of what she might be getting into. A garment with way too many ruffles for her tastes makes itself known to her. “Shit.”
Out of all the things I could have picked!
“Something wrong?”
“There is no way I’m going out in a maid costume,” Mai bristles. She takes it out of the bag nonetheless.
He makes a noise of amusement. “Seems like it really is my lucky day.”
“Shut up, pervert.”
Other competitors rush into the tent, and she hastens to change into the outfit, fuming. She’d been right, this was bound to be a humiliating experience—the dress was shorter than she had expected, the hem falling above the middle of her thighs. While she hesitates, Zuko walks out, and a round of cheers and hollers reach her ears. I can’t run like this, she thinks defeatedly. One gust of wind and it would be all over for her dignity. And the movement required to run would expose—
Mai changes back into her track clothes and exits the tent.
“Disqualified!”
She looks at the participants. Some of them wore skimpier, more embarrassing outfits—one of the boys only had on a pair of red swim trunks and a yellow wig. Zuko dons a pair of baggy khaki pants and a hard hat, completely shirtless. Sokka is whooping and laughing louder than anyone else, his phone high in the air while he takes a video. Beside him, Suki is looking at her in concern as she approached.
“Hey, what happened out there?”
“I got a maid’s uniform,” Mai winces.
“What?” Sokka hollers. “Oh, I would pay to see that!”
“Shut up,” Suki sharply elbows him on the side. She turns back to Mai with a sympathetic frown. “Sorry.”
“Ow! Suki!”
Another round of cheers erupt from the crowd, and the commentator shouts, “Zuko takes the win once again!”
When the day’s festivities come to an end, Mai heads towards the girls’ showers in the gym with her things in tow. Walking inside, she spots someone sitting on one of the benches, curled up with her head resting on her knees, arms wrapped around her legs.
“Azula?”
She doesn’t respond.
Mai places her things in the locker before carefully approaching her. “You’ve been missing for a while. You haven’t washed up yet?”
“I will in a bit.”
She frowns. “Are you okay?”
“Just got a little dizzy,” Azula says without lifting her head.
“Give me five minutes, I’ll take you to the nurse’s office.”
“Mm.”
Taking her toiletries, she picks an empty cubicle and turns on the water, quickly washing away the sweat and fatigue from her sore limbs. She wraps her towel around herself when she’s done and makes a beeline for the cubby. She finishes putting on a fresh pair of underwear when it occurs to her that Azula was still in her wet gym clothes.
“Can you stand?” she asks, walking over to the younger girl with her bath essentials in hand.
“I think so.”
“Okay, good.” Mai helps her to her feet. “Come on, you need to wash up.”
Slowly leading Azula to one of the lockers, Mai takes the damp towel from her. She hesitates, and Azula breathes out an uncharacteristically quiet laugh before she strips with Mai averting her eyes respectfully. She takes the toiletries from Mai’s hands before disappearing inside one of the showers. The water starts to run. Mai takes the time to hang the wet towel on one of the metal racks, place Azula's dirty garments in her laundry bag, and finish changing into her spare clothes.
“Doing alright?” she checks in after a few minutes. “Don’t fall and die.”
“Ha. Okay.”
She looks for Azula’s dry towel and waits for the water to turn off before coming to stand outside the stall. The door cracks open and Azula’s slender hand sticks out. Mai gives her the towel.
Azula emerges from the shower, hair still dripping. Mai retrieves her bath items and turns her back to Azula while she gets into her dry clothes, storing them in the cubby.
“You can look now,” Azula says.
Mai takes the towel and starts gently drying her hair. “Are you getting picked up today?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you want to go see the nurse?” she asks. “You pushed yourself pretty hard.”
Azula shakes her head. “I’m feeling fine now.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
She walks Azula to the parking lot outside the school. Mai watches her get into her driver’s sedan and stands looking until the car is out of view. She turns back to head to the train station and is greeted by the sight of Zuko standing by his car a few yards away, watching her. A girl stands in front of him with her head down, staring at the ground, her hands clenched into fists at her side.
That prick, Mai fumes inwardly.
The prick in question waves at her, making his indifference towards the girl even clearer.
“Hey, there she is,” he calls loudly, grinning as she walks closer. The girl’s head snaps up and she looks at Mai’s direction, eyes wide, like a deer in the headlights. She hurriedly darts off.
“You could’ve handled that a lot better.”
“She’ll be fine.”
He gestures to the car and she frowns. “Can’t we just talk here?”
“Yeah, alright.” Zuko sits on the concrete curb by the front of his car, elbows on his knees. He looks up at her.
“Thanks, by the way. For helping out with the whole Ty thing.”
“You’re welcome.” He grins. “That was the most memorable obstacle course I’ve done. You were the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Shut up,” she huffs, arms crossed. “I helped you win.”
“You still could’ve won in the end. Was the costume really too much?” Zuko’s hand slips inside his pocket where a small rectangular outline protruded.
“You can’t smoke on school grounds,” she says crossly. “You get caught, I go down with you.”
“Ah, right. Miss Goody Two-Shoes has a reputation to uphold.”
“How original. You and your sister share insults?” Mai quips. At his amused look, she sighs. “Let’s just get this over with. Where do you want to go?”
“Hey, what’s the rush?” he says with a sleazy grin. “We never agreed on the date having an expiration period.”
“What?” she inhales sharply, glaring daggers at him, wondering what could possibly be going through his pesky brain.
Zuko simply shrugs. “What do you mean what? We didn’t.”
“Fine,” Mai relents irritatedly. She notes how he fidgets with his hands, seemingly itching for a cigarette. “Then when?”
“Ah, I need to get out of here,” he ignores her question, standing up with a groan of effort. He draws out his phone from his pocket, muttering, “I think there’s a park nearby…”
She hums noncommittally.
“You know… you don’t actually have to go on a date with me if you don’t want to,” he says, a pensive look on his face as he studies the screen. “Feels a little unfair, now that I think about it. I’m happy to work on convincing you—”
“I always honor my promises.” Mai abruptly takes the phone from his hand and searches for the contacts app, inputting her number and saving it without a name. She hands it back to him. “Now shut up.”
“Whoa,” he beams excitedly. “Sweet.”
Mai rolls her eyes. “I’m going home. Let me know when you think of something.”
“Hey, wait. Give me your phone.”
“Ugh,” she moans exasperatedly. “Fine.”
His hand lingers for a moment longer when he gives it back to her. She doesn’t return his smile, keeping her face blank before turning her back and walking away.
9:43PM
Zuko
hey beautiful
bring something nice to wear on friday :)
Don't call me that.
Where are we going?
it’s a surprise ;)
She learns of the rumors from Ty Lee the next day after school during their daily walk to the train station. That day, though, Ty Lee invited Suki to join them for a shopping trip.
“Everyone thinks you’re a couple!”
Mai frowns. If people were indeed thinking that, surely the fact that they’re going on a date will only make things worse. “That’s not a good thing, Ty.”
“People are saying they saw you two in the parking lot, and that you fought a girl,” she giggles. “It’s just exciting! Now you’re going on a real date!”
“Okay, I definitely didn’t do that. And it’s not a real date, it’s punishment for me losing the bet.” Mai looks at their auburn-haired friend for support. “Suki?”
“Mmm, I don’t know. It is kind of exciting.”
“What?” Mai raises a skeptical brow. “If I recall correctly, you were really against all this in the first place.”
“Yeah, but… Sokka told me something last night,” Suki admits with a secretive smile. “You gave him your number, huh?”
“What something?”
“I’ll let you find out for yourself! I’m sure Zuko will tell you sooner or later.” Suki changes the topic, avoiding Mai’s scrutinizing stare while they bear towards the appropriate platform. “Ty, where are you taking us again?”
“Harajuku,” Ty Lee says, merrily hopping across the gap as the three of them board the train. “It’s a great place for shopping. I’m a hundred percent sure I’ll find something cute for Mai’s date!”
Suki laughs. “You’ll find something cute?”
“Well, yeah. You think you can find something cuter?” Ty Lee playfully challenges.
“You bet your ass I do,” Suki replies confidently.
“Okay, I bet you ¥1500 I can find the better outfit.”
“Oh, you’re on.”
Mai sighs at her friends’ antics. “You both know ‘better’ is a subjective term in this situation, right?”