They burned the princess in her wedding dress, laid out on the pyre like a fallen star. It was almost romantic, both of them gone, Mai decided as she could only see the moment they sealed their fate behind her amber eyes. It was not what she would have chosen to be burned in, but Mai found it fitting, as it was the symbol of what had killed her.
Half of Mai expected her to rise up from the ashes, but she did not. They both were gone then, and she was alone. The princess had a funeral that stopped the country. People who knew nothing of her but her speeches and propaganda were crying in hysterics. The Nation lost the person they loved above all else, and it was before she even took the throne.
Irrational. Unlike Azula. It was irrational. But Mai almost envied her for loving someone so much that the idea of living without them was enough to die and abandon the country that thought of her as more of a goddess than a crown princess.
Live without her. Life without her was so unbearable that the princess with an ego the size of the Earth Kingdom decided she would prefer death above life. Given, it was not as if she would have to suffer the carnage she caused with her death when she was removed from the world.
Mai was the only person not in tears. At least from those she saw around her. People were singing and Mai did not even bother to mouth the lyrics.
Azula would have loved to see this, not that her ego needed it.
"I don't know why you won't accept that she's dead," father said and Azula lunged at him with force. He blocked the fire and gestured for her to be seized by guards, by both arms.
"You killed her! You'll regret this. I will kill you." She was crying, a sight Ozai had never even seen when she was a child. The tears streamed from her eyes recklessly and Ozai walked to her slowly. She was not dragged away as her head was bent and her beautiful body wracked with sobs.
"It was a teenage romance, Azula. It didn't mean anything. She committed treason. Would you love someone who could hate their nation?" It was an excuse. It was invented by Ozai, like so many other executions and disappearances. "You saw her die. It's over."
"She is my world," Azula said through tears. Her eyes burned with a golden fervor of hatred and desire for vengeance.
"Don't say that about anyone. Not even me. I know what's best for you." And he waved her away.
She was dragged out of the room, imagining striking her father down in her mind over and over again. Repeating in her mind like a consoling image.
Azula stared out of the window of her room. It was unlike her, but what she experienced was unlike anything she had ever felt. Maybe it would fade. Love was ridiculous and Azula never believed in it for a second. But sometimes things could change in an instant. And the girl who defeated the Earth Kingdom almost singlehandedly had fallen for someone hard.
"This is not a date. We are not dating. Don't get your hopes up," Azula sighed with a roll of her eyes. But Ty Lee only smirked in response; she knew better than that.
"Of course, princess," Ty Lee murmured, touching Azula's arm and kissing her gently beneath the lamps of the city streets. "It's strictly sexual. Feelings would be messy."
"I'm devoid of them. I'm a weapon of mass destruction and ─ stop that," Azula snaps as Ty Lee wraps Azula's arm around her.
"If you don't like this, you can stop me," Ty Lee said softly.
Azula did not stop her.
Azula never told her that she loved her. But it was implied. It had to be implied. It was easier to be a perfect monster than a flawed human. She had one weak spot, one chink in the armor that overpowered her. Azula could defeat anyone, but the opponent of midnight meetings and desperate, shadowy forbidden kisses was one she could not stand against.
She was defeated.
It was at that moment that she made her decision.
"You're getting married." Ty Lee paused, swallowing. Her mother had snapped at her that she was going to wind up as Azula's mistress, but now that was confirmed.
"I don't want to be. You think I want to be?" Azula wanted to marry Ty Lee, not that she was willing to admit it aloud. "We can still be together. He can't stop us. He can't stop us for a second."
Ty Lee did not believe her. But it was a lie Azula told herself, and maybe she was happier believing it.
"Let's do something fun. I'll take you shopping! Getting married is fun anyway, even if being married is not," Ty Lee said with a lopsided grin and a seductive wink. "I always knew I would be somebody's mistress, but I imagined I would cap out at governor or admiral. But I think Fire Lord will do."
"Yes, it's a fine promotion for everyone's favorite homewrecker." Azula smirked. A wicked little smile that relieved Ty Lee.
But their meetings meant nothing. Azula tried on wedding dresses and gave speeches and looked dazzling. The Nation was in love with her, while the man she was engaged to was not. Ty Lee was in love with her in a way that the people of the country could not experience. She was not in love with the idea of Azula, the perfect supernova who conquered cities and enamored the Nation into undying support. She was in love with the flawed, human person.
And Ty Lee knew very well that she had the distinction of being the only person Azula reciprocated feelings with.
Azula escaped the palace with ease. She could fly after all. Perhaps father should not have trained her so obsessively, because now it would be his undoing. She walked as she tried to decide how she would accomplish this. It had never crossed her mind to kill herself. She had to lead the Fire Nation one day, and that was more important than any doubts or sadness or even her world shattering clandestine affair.
She wound up making a necklace of rope. Behind her eyes, she saw the engagement gift she was given. Ty Lee had cried that night in the courtyard and Azula pretended not to hear her. It was a tacky, terrible necklace. Exactly the kind of thing Ty Lee would think was adorable.
But Azula wore it. It felt like defiance.
It was surprisingly fast. She had the guts to do it, after all.
Maybe she was blinded. Her final debate was that her one true love had been the throne, not a person. A person who could die. The throne lived forever.
The throne would not be falsely accused by treason and killed in front of Azula's eyes.
This was, she decided in the end, the only way she could make her father pay for his crimes. Maybe it was about not wanting to live in a world without her, married to a man twice her age... maybe it was unadulterated anger.
It was surprisingly fast. She had the guts to do it, after all.
"You're always testing me," Ty Lee snapped, pulling on her clothes inside out. Azula did not tell her; she was always as angry. "I know you think nobody can love you, but I do. And I'm pretty sure you love me too. So stop it. Stop testing my limits. Or do you just like it? Are you as sadistic as I thought you weren't."
"You should go. And you should remember your place."
Ty Lee looked like she had just been slapped. Azula's words were not purring, seductive whispers. They were regal. A command. But her eyes were shattered.
"I will. I will go," Ty Lee snarled, not caring if she would be banished or killed. But Azula did nothing.
She simply watched Ty Lee walk away.
And now she was tested by Ty Lee.
The final test was whether or not Azula could join her in death.
It was a circus, the death of Azula. Which was hilariously fitting to Mai, because the circus freak was the one who struck the final blow. Azula had been beaten and used and wounded, but she always kept her head on straight. She always saw what she wanted and she took it.
It occurred to Mai as she watched, that Azula wanted one thing most of all.
And when she was told she could never have it, she decided nothing was worth it.
They burned the princess in her wedding dress, laid out on the pyre like a fallen star. It was almost romantic, both of them gone, Mai decided as she could only see the moment they sealed their fate behind her amber eyes. It was not what she would have chosen to be burned in, but Mai found it fitting, as it was the symbol of what had killed her.
Azula would not settle for a marriage and another thirty years of waiting to be handed the crown by her father. To watch him age and live in the shadows. The war was won and Azula basked in the glory of it for some time, but it was fading.
It was vaguely romantic. Mai could see them laughing together, Ty Lee putting candy into Azula's mouth. The kisses. The fact that Azula refused to admit they were a couple up until Ty Lee's dying breath.
Mai consoled Ty Lee at Azula's engagement party. Mai tried to get Azula to try on the wedding dresses, even when she refused and said she would rather be training. She would probably rather be struck by her own lightning than follow through with her wedding.
And she looked at the chaos, looked at the funeral.
It was quite a sunset for the Fire Nation. People mourning day and night as if their own child had been killed. In her last breath, she thought she would demand to have a funeral like Crown Princess Azula.
But stranger things had happened than Azula falling in love.
Stranger things had happened than the Fire Lord forcing Azula to watch the execution of the only person keeping her sane amongst her suffering.
Stranger things had happened than the most egotistical and narcissistic person Mai had ever met taking her own life.
That night she dreamt of them united in death.
She woke up sweating.
And she wondered if that was what Azula's final dream was before she made the decision.
But in her dream, instead of two separate occasions, she saw them holding hands as the life flooded from them.
Mai found herself a cup of tea and stared out of the window. The funeral was still going.
What an affair. Azula sure knew how to defy those who hurt her.
Defiance. It was defiance.
Love maybe. Maybe love.
Defiance. It was defiance.