250 word Drabble: So Many Ways

[attackfish]

Written for avatar_500 , prompt #13, Memory.

Summary: There are so many ways for someone to get hurt.

So Many Ways

After the birth, while her thighs were still bloody, the royal physician lay the baby in Mai’s shaking arms.  She slumped against the pillows and tried not to clench her hands and press her new daughter to her, to keep her safe from everything else.

Because she knew that would leave bruises all over her new, red skin.

She clenched her jaw instead, and felt something clench deep inside.

Zuko, face yellow-gray with worry, lowered himself down to perch tentatively beside her on the bed.  Mai’s hand clutched his so hard her nails sank into his flesh and raised up little drops of blood.  She stared at him in desperation.  Her voice was neutral.  Her voice was always neutral.  “Do you want to hold her?”

When he shook his head, he trembled so hard, the movements looked like spasms.  “No.”  She had seen him scared.  She had seen him scared so many times, but not like he was when he looked at the tiny human in her arms, not the wrenching, freezing terror and guilt radiating off him as he tried to tear his eyes away from their daughter.

He wanted to shove her away, send her away.  Far away so that he couldn’t hurt her.  His scar ached, and he felt the air around him crushing in on him.

All they could do was look at each other.  Neither one of them could speak.  They looked at each other instead of their child and tried not to remember anything.

Comments

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

The terror of the new and squishy.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

This is the piece of writing for which I feel worst for Zuko and Mai. I'm not doing anything horrible to them, or showing up close anything horrible what was done to them in canon. I'm just showing their usually hidden reactions, and it's not pretty.