#maiko's fruitart headcanons

[fruittarts-with-rosepetals]

mai doesnt like big parties and zuko knows that but everytime the royal sages insist on making into a big celebration, since like they havent had a firelady in ages.

so after each draining, noisy and intraction with many fake people, just before it turns 12, zuko brings a muffin and lights the candle and he sings happy birthday even if she insists he doesnt and they celebrate her birthday.

after mai's death, on her birthday he would light a candle and blows it out after singing happy birthday in a low voice and just stares at her empty space in their bed

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toddler izumi loved her mother's elegant eyeliner and her bold lipstick so she tried an attempt on recreating that look at the ripe age of 5 when her parents were busy with something. Mai and zuko returned to find their toddler daughter stepping on mai's vanity chair and applying (smearing) bright lipstick on her small baby lips (and cheek) and panda like eyeliner on her upper eye and under eyes.

"zumi why did you do this" mai asked as she gently rubbed a wet cloth through her daughter delicate face, "I wanted to look pretty like you mommy" izumi grinned widely (oh how much she looked like her father' when she smiled) out of all the things mai was called during her life: 'gloomy' 'cold' 'angry' her daughter's reply melted mai's 'stonic' heart

On izumi's wedding day, she wore the same shade of lipstick that baby izumi smeared on, a happy pain ran through mai's chest as she realized her baby who called her mommy and followed her around and tried to look her was all grown up and was never going to cuddle between mai and zuko or beg them to re-read love amongst the dragons for the 20th time this week

[fruittarts-with-rosepetals]

mai has very long hair reaching upto her waist and after she became firelady, she let her hair down and adopted the former princess ursa's hairstyle and zuko loves twisting the strands of her beautiful black hair in his fingers during meetings.

so after any meeting,you can find the firelady scolding her dorky husband who's just blushing and smiling from ear to ear as she tried to get his fingers out of her hair which by the way in stuck in her hair

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when they were dating,zuko would jump at any opportunity to appear at mai's window. she forgot her hairtie? no worries the blue spirit will return it

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mai and zuko went to the south pole for some diplomatic meeting and usually mai stays back in fire nation, but this time she decided to come. Zuko knew that mai hated the cold so why come to the most coldest place in the world?

anyways, they get there and mai obviously starts to feel cold and shivers, to everyone else, she is fine, taking the cold nicely despite not being a fire-bender and not being close to the fire place,zuko however takes notice of his slightly shivering wife and her uncomfortable shifts

He removes his glove and takes her hands and warm it up and he moves on as he grabs her pink flushed face and warms them up.

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mai needs glasses but she doesnt wear them in public so zuko reads the things far away for her

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zuko and mai had a crib installed in their respective offices when izumi was a baby

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Mai peppers zuko's face with kisses when he's feeling down

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Zuko adopted/was given druk 2 year after he and mai broke up, when he was still not over it and still had their portrait in his bedroom.

So whenever he got slightly depressed/sentimental or even a bit drunk, he would show druk he and mai's portraits and a few of her single person portraits and tell him 'this was supposed to be your mom you know?'

after they got back together he introduced druk to mai as 'his mom' and mai said she hated it to no end but she actually enjoyed it and saw druk as her child before and after izumi's arrival

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Sometimes when zuko stays late in his office after his ministers dump their work on him (again) usually mai falls asleep before zuko and she realizes that he’s not there in their bed. She goes to his office with jasmine tea. And stays company so he doesnt feel alone.

They continued with this until mai's death, zuko doesn't stay back in the office anymore cuz it reminds him of the days he spend with mai in that office

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Mai cared to zuko even after they broke up, if suki mentioned that zuko caught a fever, she would send a flask of komodo chicken soup through suki and made suki tell zuko she bought it.

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mai is the typa person to feed stray cats and have names for all of them and zuko is the type to bring cats home

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zuko has chapped rough hands,from the scars he has on his hands from his training days to the recents ones and cuz firebenders has rough hands from training.

So mai always carry moisturizer for him in the pockets in her royal uniform and her normal clothes during when they were dating.

anyways so whenever she sees zuko, she notices his chapped hands and applies the moisturizer and massage the excess out and presses a kiss on his knuckles once she's done, even after zuko's hands got better, she still continued this practice with little moisturizer than she used.

So after mai's death, zuko's hands got rougher due to age and lack of care,whenever he noticed this his mind will travel back to mai's actions as he would smile bittersweetly, wondering when he will join his beloved in afterlife.

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Zuko send mai letter's everyday after his banishment till he and his uncle became fugitives and the only thing in their mind was to surive.

They had a messenger hawk which would deliver letters to mai in a fake name, cuz no way her family would let it slide that their daughter was writing to the banished prince.

He would tell her that the all mighty avatar was a little boy, how much of a bitch zhao was, the moon spirit, the pirates everything.

Mai would keep all his letters safe away from azula whenever she came over.

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Izumi is a daddy's girl.Even though her first words were 'mama' she was inseperable from zuko, she would not sleep unless zuko was present whenever it came time to tuck her to sleep.

She would stop crying and squeal happily with the sight of her father walking by and she would try to jump out her mother's arm as soon as zuko came close enough and the affection was returned in thousands, zuko would put away any pieces of important work if izumi shed a few tears or showed her puppy doll eyes.

Mai would sarcastically say she didnt like that her daughter was so close to her father than her mother but she was in cloud 9 seeing that her daughter had a close bond with her father compared to mai's distant relation with her own father with whom she didnt even share a meal with most of her life

[fruittarts-with-rosepetals]

after mai became the new firelady, she had a lot of rules that needed to be added to the fire nation constitution and now. She wanted to raise the age of marriage and provide more education for women and this wasnt easy at all, she became stuck at her office more than zuko.

And izumi came along soon and she needed to take a very long break to avoid any complications, so she had to put a pause on her projects but still was present in court (cuz she didnt want to be stuck in the bedchambers,bored, ugh). A year after izumi's birth, she restarted her projects and this needed more work and time out of life than when she started.

So zuko had become the one who tucked izumi to bed and he was more than happy to spend time with his little girl. He loved reading izumi bedtime stories and hear izumi's babbling with often mentions of 'mama' or 'dada'

One evening just around izumi's bedtime, mai was able to get off early, so she decided to join in on tucking izumi to bed. She walked to the princess's room just to stop by the door as she heard zuko's voice.

"and that is the story on how your mama saved me,she defeated the army of bad guys and she once again captured my heart" zuko told izumi who was busy chewing on her turtleduck doll (gifted by her coolest aunt suki and uncle sokka) he finished chuckled as he pressed a kiss against her hair.

Turns out izumi got bored of her bedtime stories and became far more interested in hearing about her mama.

It took zuko 10mins to realize the presence of his wife(who was smiling) as he was too busy talking with his daughter in his baby-voice (after he once sweared he would never in a million years talk like that to children) while izumi was babbling and grabbing his hair to chew on