There was an alcove in the palace that Mai had discovered, three visits ago, that was perfect for her.  It was in a quiet, little-used wing, shadowed so that she could sit in it and look out the sweeping window across the corridor.  Someone could walk right past her and not notice her.  She knew, because it had happened several times.

Not that that was anything new.  Even at eight years old, she knew very well what it was to be invisible.  Sometimes she wondered if all her father's influential friends knew she existed.  They glanced at her sometimes, but they didn't see her.  She was more like an adornment than a girl, like of one of those stupid dolls her mother tried to get her to play with--she was the one being dressed up and having her hair pinned into little curls that did nothing except hurt her head.

She wondered if her parents had realized she was no longer in the stuffy room full of self-important people.  She wondered if they would notice if she didn't come back.  She didn't care if it was a great honor to be in the Firelord's presence.  It wasn't like he was going to notice her.

Mai sighed and stared out the wide window.  The palace grounds were lit red and orange with the glow of the setting sun.  Pretty soon it would be dark and she would fade into that darkness in the corridor just like she faded in the eyes and minds of everyone around her.

Maybe it was just easier that way.  She didn't get in trouble if she wasn't seen.  She was rewarded for being gray and bland, hidden in the shadows.

And maybe if she kept telling herself that, she could believe it was easier.  Maybe she could ignore the part of her that just wanted so desperately for someone to notice.  For someone to really see her.  To just see who she was, and not what she had to be for her father's career.

Footsteps drew her attention to someone approaching.  Mai drew her knees up to her chest to hide her legs deeper in the shadow of the alcove, waiting for whoever it was to pass.  Instead, the footsteps slowed, and then suddenly Zuko's face was peering at her around the side of the alcove.  She jumped a little and stared at him. 

"I thought I saw you come this way."  Zuko frowned at her.  "Why'd you leave the party?"

It took a minute for the words to unstick from Mai's mouth.  "It's boring."  She paused.  "Won't they notice you're gone?"

Zuko leaned against the wall.  "Mom will."  He didn't sound concerned.  "Why are you just sitting here?  Isn't that more boring than the party?"

"I didn't think anyone would bother me here."  Mai realized her voice sounded a bit too irritated; her mother would have told her to calm down and speak like a lady.  Then she would also undoubtedly add something about being respectful to the royal family.  She didn't care.  It was just Zuko.  Crossing her arms, Mai added, "No one ever sees me when I'm sitting here."

Zuko mimicked her posture, folding his arms across his chest, and leaned toward her.  "I saw you."

Those words echoed loudly, resonating through and sinking to a place somewhere deep in her heart.

I saw you.

I saw you.

He sees me.

:--:--:

Years passed, but those words had never left Mai.  They had grown roots in her heart and clung stubbornly through all of the trials, separation, and war.  They refused to let go, something that she held onto--or maybe something that held her up--in her world of silence and invisibility.  One person saw her.  One person paid attention to who she was and not who she had to be.  She wasn't sure if Zuko realized how much he noticed, when other people didn't. 

It was more than that.  He wanted to see her. She knew that more than ever as she stood facing him outside the Fire Nation palace.  On this day, surrounded by friends and strangers who all watched them with excitement and joy, Zuko's eyes never wavered from hers.

It was ironic how life could be flipped upside-down and sideways and still be the same.  She had gone from never being seen to being the object of much attention.  There were always eyes on her, always people watching to see what she would do next.  Yet these people didn't really see her anymore than her father's political friends had seen her when she was a child.  They gossiped, they whispered, they pretended to know her, but there were only a handful that she could say were true friends who bothered to look past the "future Fire Lady" and simply see "Mai."

But there was Zuko.  Always Zuko, the one person who had seen her from the very beginning.  Even when she was throwing mud in his face as a child, or being tackled into fountains with burning apples on her head.  Even, she knew, when he left a scroll on her bed and disappeared.  Sure, he could be a clueless idiot sometimes, but no one was perfect.  She wouldn't want Zuko any other way.  Their relationship may have been full of ups and downs, but it was the imperfections that had made them both grow.  He could make her crazy, his temper might explode, and he was always digging deeper and riling her up to find out what she was really feeling, but he loved her just as fiercely as she loved him.

As Aang finished the marriage rites, Zuko squeezed Mai's fingers and they turned to bow to the applauding crowd.  He finally took his eyes off of her long enough to acknowledge their audience, but then his gaze went right back to her again.

I saw you.

I saw you.

He still sees me.