Okay since piandan seems to have taught everyone, I'm headcanonning he taught at the palace so Mai technically learned from him too, in a here's how you properly hold a blade sorta way. Zuko and Sokka absolutely fights over who is piandan's favorite student and piandan is like, "ah, my favorite pupil" and in walks Mai, piandan thinks she made throwing sharp things an art but sokkas all like??? She doesn't even use a real sword??? Where's her drawing?? What did she forge????
AHH OH MY GOD I’M OBSESSED WITH THIS
so piandao comes to the palace and he’s there to teach this prince and piandao is pretty much like “i’m only doing this because i’m terrified of that family”, which valid. keep in mind that at this point iroh is still actively committing war crimes, ya know?
so he comes to the palace and when he was told he would be teaching the prince, he assumed that it would be lu ten and not zuko. so when it’s time for the first lesson and this scrawny little 9 year old comes into the training room holding swords piandao is like cute, where is the prince.
he’s appalled when he learns that he’ll actually be teaching this 9 yr old. but again- terrified of the royal family.
but like also, this 9 year old is pretty talented? and is such a hard worker.
piandao thinks about adopting him
so they start their lessons and then one day, about a week into their lessons, piandao comes to the training area and sees this girl there.
he looks at the prince who looks at him and says that this is mai and she’s good with knives.
piandao is about to lose his mind because this is like who is letting these kids wield deadly weapons? i mean they’re not even in the double digits.
and he doesn’t quiet know how to react and then mai sighs and throws a knife and she hits the target perfectly.
piandao is impressed. he’s never been impressed by an 8 yr old before. so he agrees. partly because he’s intrigued. partly because of the natural skill that girl has.
azula is really jealous of this actually. but she gets over it because she is still a better firebender than zuko is.
but mai and zuko bond a lot during their lessons with piandao. and zuko starts to see mai as her own person and not just as azula’s friend.
and piandao has a soft spot for mai though. getting details about her personal life out of her is hard but when he does he’s basically like- is anyone going to care for you and love for you or should i? and doesn’t wait for an answer.
piandao is the only adults in mai’s life that genuinely cares about her as her own person. so yeah- they bond.
also, she’s really great about the knives and is a joy to teach. she accepts criticism and takes it to heart to get better. zuko does too, but he’s a little bit more emotionally charged and can be frustrating at times.
piandao tears up when it is decided that zuko’s lessons are over and gives them both a massive hug.
he also gifts mai her first set of throwing knives.
so one day in the days leading up to zuko’s coronation, sokka and zuko are talking about which one of them is piandao’s favorite student and mai just looks at them.
and when mai and piandao finally reunite he gives her a massive hug and she actually hugs him back and both zuko and sokka are like????? what???
dailybridgerton
annaxmalina
theartofmadeline
romaincrisis
andulkaphoto
stormborns
