Tales of the Tea Shop
Azula and the Fire Lady
Click!
Two slices of bread popped out of the toaster.
"I'm enthralled Karo. You have bought a machine that burns bread." Azula sat at the Zhao's dining room table and read a letter she had received earlier that morning. "You had electricity installed so you could burn bread?"
"Cool isn't it?" Karo sat next to Azula and began to munch on toast. "I have had eight slices so far today."
"I have a problem." Azula held up the formal Fire Nation palace stationary. "Letters from home spell trouble."
"Want some toast." Karo handed Azula a nice fire red glazed plate. Katara came in the kitchen singing an old Water Tribe song she had learned from her father. All Water Tribe songs involved whales and seals or getting lost and seeing the Goddess of the Moon in the moments before you froze to death. This song involved the death of a whale – possibly an evil one – at the barb of a harpoon and then the whole village ate blubber.
"Doesn't this thing seem unnatural to you?" Katara looked into the toaster and examined the shiny metal sides, felt the heat emanating from it and wondered why someone needed a device to burn bread.
"Mai is three months pregnant." Azula made a dour looking face. "That strikes me as unnatural."
"Why does it matter to you?" Karo held toast and a cup of tea.
"She wants to come to Ba Sing Se and visit with Iroh to relax and enjoy a week vacation and reduce her stress." Azula slumped back in her chair. "Apparently the Royal Physician wants her to relax and she has yelled so much at the servants their union has threatened to strike unless they get hazard pay for ducking stuff thrown at them."
"Zuko and Mai will have a baby!?" Katara took this as wonderful news and she beamed with happiness.
"Not if she breathes the air in Ba Sing Se." Azula answered as she tented her fingers.
"I know you don't get along with Mai but she will probably have her own list of things to do." Karo said reassuringly. "Should I make more toast?"
"On the good side she might have raging morning sickness and I can sabotage the plumbing." Azula watched as Karo walked to the toaster and sliced bread and inserted the bread in the toaster. The toaster did not – as expected – return the bread toasted a minute or so later. The shiny new toaster clicked and stubbornly refused to return the slices of bread. Karo went to the drawer next to the sink and found a metal knife, walked back and jammed it in the toaster. The next moment he fell back as a jolt shock him from head to foot. A gentle click and a puff of smoke preceded the surfacing of the toast like a badly planned Chinese fireworks display.
"Don't do that." Azula advised from her seat while Katara rushed to see if Karo needed help.
"Are you hurt?" Katara asked in a panicky voice.
"No." Karo answered with a squeak in his voice. "The Gods of Electricity taught me a lesson – a 230 Volt 50 Cycle lesson about the real and solid fact that I do not want to complete a circuit to ground. If you will excuse me I emptied my bladder and need to change my clothes."
* * *
Lady Mai swept in with two young female attendants and bowed to Iroh and then hugged him while Azula and Karo looked on from their usual table in the tea shop. She wore the full robes of a Fire Lord wife and Azula felt satisfied by the fact that the weather had taken a turn for the hot and humid in the last two days. Mai and her attendants stood before Azula and bowed as they baked in the heat.
"Hello Azula. Greetings Karo – you look well." Mai bowed and Karo stood up and returned the bow but Azula remained sitting and she read a Journeyman's Guide to Plumbing. "I hope we can get along."
"Having morning sickness?" Azula shocked Karo with her lack of charm.
"Of course." Mai answered curtly. "That is why I took the cottage."
"I know." Azula answered back. "The Zhao's offered up their couch for my comfort."
"May I ask how you came to be pregnant?" Karo tried pathetically to break the tension that filled the tea shop. Mai noticed the patrons looking at her and her well dressed attendants.
"Do we have to go over this again?" Azula snickered and put down her book."I will get the mommy and daddy sock puppets."
"I mean did you and Zuko plan to have this child." Karo felt the soft fog of humiliation settle in as he sat down. Azula tossed a blue Pai Sho table at his head.
"We had no plans but Zuko is very happy about it." Mai smiled calmly and serenely and then bowed and her entourage turned and walked out with her taking up the lead.
"I could have had that." Azula sighed after Mai had left out the back door.
"Zuko's child?" Karo placed the Pai Sho tile back on the board and scratched his head. "Wouldn't he have limbs in anatomically odd places? And the illegal nature of such pairings comes to mind."
"Do you have a head or does that Fire Nation hair decoration rest on a big zit?" Azula wore a look of utter frustration. "Sometimes I think you send your brain away on vacation or you trade places with a dead lizard run over by a carriage. I meant the servants, the fancy carriages and the air of arrogance. I could have become Fire Lord and had all those things. She speaks to me as if every second word is followed by 'scum'."
"Come on." Karo motioned to Azula to stand up. "If we keep hanging out here you'll just get depressed. How about some toast?"
Azula and Karo walked down the street to the Zhao's townhouse. The mid afternoon sun had some springtime heat but humidity made it much worse. Azula knew Mai came to Ba Sing Se to spit in her face – as if to say – 'I live in the palace and you live in a cottage or I matter and you don't - loser'. Azula could smell the steam from the laundry that did her clothes. Mai had someone who could do her laundry on demand any time. Azula had to plan her trips and make sure she kept the ticket or her and her uncle would not get their pants returned.
"Do you really think I act stupidly?" Karo sighed as he walked beside Azula.
"No." Azula said flatly. "Mai makes me angry."
"I know." Karo picked up the mail and unlocked the door. "Did you clog your toilet?"
"No." Azula grew a sly grin and began tossing the siphon valve of the toilet. "I made it so it would never stop running."
* * *
Lady Mai woke up and vomited.
She knew she would need a toilet so she had one of her servants repair it so water wouldn't rush through it all the time.
She had trouble sleeping but a chapter of one of Azula's calculus textbooks and a long winded chapter on the Chain Rule did the trick. Mai could not fathom why Azula liked the guest cottage or had so many books on advanced mathematics but it didn't bear pondering now. The cottage had been repaired by the people who had slammed a telegraph pole through it but she disliked it anyway. It had a window by the bed that looked out on a stone wall and it looked plain. Mai had noted that Azula had filled every space with shelves and then filled those shelves with books. The desk had a solid oak desktop showing pits in the varnish from Azula's crazed scratchings and the office chair had almost no padding. Azula had written her name on a spot just above the beat up gray desk blotter. The rich red stained flooring and the teal colors used for the bed created a visual clash that made Mai's head ache even more strongly.
"She has a gay guy friend." Mai washed her face and spoke to one of her attendants. "Why doesn't she have him help decorate this dump?"
Mai felt foul. Zuko had learned to avoid her in the mornings. She woke up cranky and cursing him for bringing this bloating and foulness upon her. She then longed for his company – then both – a state of mind that Zuko took as wishing for his company and simultaneously wanting to rip his small intestines and hang him from the top of the Fire Nation throne. He had learned to hide well. Shipping her off for some rest seemed the kind of solution that could save the marriage. The Royal Physician recommended a stay somewhere relaxing. Lady Ursa offered the Summer Home up as a refuge but in recent weeks Ember Island had a volcanic eruption and showed signs of sinking. Fire Lord Zuko had tried to employ earth benders and they succeeded in making the island sink in a less lopsided way but now the summer house had level floors but the bottom part of the summer house garden lay underwater. Since few people lived there Zuko decided they could not really afford any further efforts so he ordered his voters evacuated. Uncle Iroh offered his 'not sinking' tea shop as a refuge where Mai could relax and yell at servants.
The servants knew Mai planned to yell at them. Fire Lord Zuko offered Danger Pay but only two of her most loyal servants volunteered. One stood knocking at the door.
"Lady Mai?" A small mousy voice came through the door. "Ma'am may I come in?"
"I need to meet Katara at Lady Zhao's at noon." Mai barked out as the servant walked in with a tray of digestible, inoffensive and bland foods. She placed the tray down, bowed and waited with her hands at her sides. Lin Ko the servant had training as a nurse and attended to Mai's health needs. She had the bland looks of a brunette middle aged woman of average height.
"Curse my husband." Mai vomited in the toilet again. "Sitting at home on his butt enjoying good food. Curse Azula and her awful taste in décor – this place depresses me. Curse Ba Sing Se for the raccoon that climbed over the roof last night."
* * *
Katara had inherited the Zhao kitchen and she ruled it with her combination of cooking skills and a neat streak Lady Zhao admired. Katara had begun the preparations for the important Sunday lunch for Lady Mai by the time Karo had fetched the newspaper at eight in the morning. Karo sat at the dining room table reading obituaries in the Sunday newspaper as Lady Zhao and Katara fussed over things of a culinary nature. He left to take a shower and dress and when he returned he found the two women still milling about the kitchen and frustrating his efforts to get any toast. Lady Zhao set out some tea for Karo and then quickly went back to work.
"I smell fish." Azula came down the stairs at around half past nine in the morning. She sat by Karo and poured tea to rev her brain into operation. She had not dressed but had showered and she wore her night robe.
"Will you attend the lunch with Lady Mai?" Karo asked tentatively. This visit mattered a great deal to his mom and he knew Azula could make social occasions awkward in the same way that inviting the eight hundred pound gorilla made things awkward.
"I shaved my legs for this." Azula put her left leg up on the table and gestured at it. "I shaved my pits too. All Fire Nation smooth and clean. Lady Mai should show me proper respect – I don't shave my pits for anything less than a royal visit."
'Thank you for showing me that." Karo had a hint of resignation in his voice. "My mom will throw a major wobbler if she finds your leg on the table."
"Why do women grow hair?" Azula put her leg down. "What evolutionary purpose does it serve?"
"Uh? I have never pondered that." Karo saw Katara enter the dining room with several pieces of Fire Nation Kitsch in her hands.
"We need to prepare the dining room so can you two discuss your body hair somewhere else." Katara placed a strange and elaborate centerpiece on the table. "You have no reason to complain about body hair Azula – you get away with shaving – I have to hire a groundskeeper to keep my leg hairs in check."
"I'm gone." Karo picked up the newspaper and headed upstairs. "I have no desire to discuss this."
"Your mom knows I can't eat fish?" Azula entered Karo's room fully dressed and neatly appointed as a Fire Nation princess. Karo sat at his desk still making progress through the newspaper.
"Katara made Tofu and vegetable wonton soup for you." Karo told Azula reassuringly. "Or I could make some toast if I can get near the toaster. Would you like some toast?"
"I would like to dodge the whole 'lunch with the Fire Lady' affair. Mai makes it her job to make me feel inferior and like scum." Azula sat on Karo's bed. "I see you don't seemed bothered by the fall from grace of your father."
"I never knew him that well and he had a cruel streak according to my mother." Karo swiveled in his chair. "You know my story."
"Most of it." Azula shrugged and opened the window to let the fresh air in. Ba Sing Se lay bathed in sunlight and that yellow gray smog that formed over the city on warm days. "I knew your father and he had indeed proven himself cruel and cunning."
"I hear the sound of ostrich horses." Karo ignored Azula's last comment.
"I don't believe it." Azula muttered as a large red carriage pulled up to the Zhao house. Mai had a royal carriage that moved with the help of four trained ostrich horses. It made no noises as it slowly pulled to a stop. The driver stepped down from his seat and walked to the side door and opened it then lowered the steps. Azula watched two servants climb out dressed in fine red robes. Mai stepped out slowly and deliberately. "Mai has come over early."
"I haven't finished reading the paper." Karo tapped the paper and stood up and watched out the window.
"Kind of like watching the mother ship arrive." Azula spoke sarcastically as she watched Mai walk up to the house and a servant knock on the door. "Mai has a four ostrich horse coach made of the finest materials and a personal driver. Want to egg it?"
"No." Karo heard Katara greet Mai with complete surprise. "Shall we introduce ourselves?"
"I had planned to climb down the side of the window and leave." Azula could make the climb down since the brick house had heavy stone lintels on the windows. "Go to have some tea, buy some books and...."
"Azula Kai and Karo Sozin Zhao!" Lady Zhao shouted. "Please do not be rude and greet our special guests!"
"Busted!" Karo stood up and walked toward the stairs. "Treat this like a dental visit – something you have to do."
"You have met my son Karo and you know Azula." Lady Zhao stood with Katara who had not yet changed into a fancy dress she had bought for the occasion. Lady Zhao gestured at the duo as they came down the stairs. "I hope you feel welcome. How have you been feeling lately. I hope things have gone well for you."
"I have morning sickness but the doctor says the baby will be healthy." Lady Mai all but ignored Azula but smiled and bowed at Karo. "Zuko has his heart set on a daughter."
"Ah! A girl to fill my shoes at the palace." Azula bowed to Mai but remained two steps up the stairs. "A fire bending prodigy?"
"I find you such a beautiful looking woman and at times I have wished to have a daughter with your long flowing hair and gorgeous face – then you speak and remove any such desire from my heart." Lady Mai snickered as she jabbed back at Azula in what Karo and Katara feared might become a verbal cat-fight.
"Let us act as civilized people." Karo interjected.
"Yes. Please." Lady Zhao confirmed as she invited Mai and her servants to sit on the couch. "I have not heard much news out of the Fire Nation lately. How are things going for Fire Lord Zuko."
"He has many responsibilities and not enough time." Mai sat down and shrugged. "The demands of running a nation keeps him busy and he has done a good deal to rebuild the Fire Nation. We face some pretty dire challenges but we have that Fire Nation determination"
Mai had arrived early but Katara and Lady Zhao brought her up to speed on their lives while Mai sat gracefully and had her servants attend to her needs – bringing her tea and the vanilla biscuits Katara had prepared earlier that morning. Azula decided the best strategy to employ amounted to remaining quiet – Lady Zhao did indeed enlighten Mai about her experience while carrying Karo. Karo felt he had nothing to say and decided to quietly enjoy lunch and tea and pretend not to find her mother openly describing his bare bum deeply humiliating. Azula found herself studying the servants as the lunch proceeded. Mai inspired some kind of fear in her servants – not fear of pain and punishment as Azula had inspired – they had fear of Mai suddenly losing her temper and throwing heavy objects at their heads.
"A toast to Fire Lady Mai and Fire Lord Zuko." Katara raised her tea cup politely. "A happy family and long life."
Azula did not have the kind of insincerity to toast Mai – she could lie, con and screw over anyone if she had something to gain but she saw gain and profit as sincere motives. She stirred her soup and pretended her tea cup had grown empty. Mai didn't deserve the title of an enemy but of a glory hog – Azula amounted to nothing more than a clever student. The servants fussed over Mai and tended to her every need as Azula watched. She had friends but Katara had too much of an independent spirit to work as a servant and she had long concluded Karo could never be trained.
Mai, Katara and Lady Zhao formed a trio and talked a good deal about babies, being mothers, mothers and things that made Azula bored. She tapped Karo on the shoulder and gestured for him to stand up. Karo obligingly did so.
"Lady Ursa told me to say she misses you." Mai added as a kind of afterthought as Azula stood up. "She sends her greetings and hopes you plan to visit her."
"You can tell my mom I will visit her sometime this summer." Azula sounded quite civilized and much of the venom left her voice. "How would you like to see the great volcanoes and vast orchards of the Fire Nation?"
"I don't know if I can afford a trip." Karo glanced briefly at his mother. "School costs a lot and I don't have a job."
"Don't give me that crap." Azula walked across the living room. "I bet you that I can get my brother to pick up the tab for us. He owes me a favor or two."
"What did you ever do for Zuko?" Karo followed behind Azula up the stairs and felt a punch to his arm.
"I introduced him to Mai." Azula said as she let Karo pass by her. "I won't mention that because that amounts to more of a burden than merely killing or maiming him."
"I could never figure out why Karo hangs around with Azula." Mai said quietly once she felt they had left earshot. "He has a pleasant personality and seems happy and well adjusted while Azula strives to make herself a pain to get along with."
"He acts like the pin in a grenade. He keeps Azula from going on a destructive crime spree that would dwarf her efforts in the war." Katara speculated.
"By law enforcement officer at two o'clock." Azula leaned out the window in the early afternoon sun. The carriage driver had a box lunch and sat on the carriage drinking his tea. The ostrich horses shuffled about calmly and one yawned.
"On a Sunday?" Karo asked quietly.
"Mai's driver blocked off three of these townhouses." Azula had a gleeful grin. "He has not moved for hours so the cranky old couple next door must have complained."
"Excuse me." The by law officer looked up at the driver. "We have had complaints that you have blocked off several houses. I will have to ask you to move please or you will have to pay a fine."
"My good man I serve Fire Lady Mai and I did not know anyone found her carriage a problem." The driver slowly climbed down and faced the by law enforcement officer. "I can fetch the Fire Lady if you wish to talk to her."
"You blocked a fire hydrant." The by law officer calmly explained. The driver did not really know if admitting he served the Fire Nation would advance his cause with the by law officer. The by law officer had a taciturn look and seemed intent on slapping him with a ticket and sending him packing. The Fire Nation had once oppressed this place and the by law enforcement officer was not above a small act of petty revenge. "If we have a fire the fire brigade can't get close enough."
"I wonder what Mai will do?" Karo and Azula leaned out the window.
"Excuse me do you know the driver?" The by law officer asked Azula and Karo who were leaning out the second story window.
"I am afraid I do not know him." Azula smiled out of the left side of her face – a sign of the pleasure she took in seeing Mai get a ticket. As an added emphasis she closed the window just as the officer had his carbon paper pad out and prepared to issue a ticket to the resigned looking driver. Azula wiped her hands as a sign of a job well done.
"Azula and Karo....I have some wonderful news." Katara tromped up the stairs and knocked on the door. She sounded elated and Azula concluded she had reason to worry.
"Yes?" Azula opened the door.
"Mai has asked me to return to the Fire Nation and I will be her wet nurse when the child is born." Katara smiled broadly.
"So a career in the civil service for you?" Azula raised her eyebrows as she mulled this revolting development over in her mind. Karo looked on over Azula's shoulder uneasily.
"A wet nurse?" Karo asked Katara quietly. "Uh wouldn't she prefer a dry one instead?"
"You have a fast growing brain tumor don't you?" Azula elbowed Karo in the ribs as he spoke.
* * *
"Azula!" Monday morning for Azula came far too soon. Nine in the morning on a Monday came almost instantly after twelve Sunday night and this morning Azula could not focus her brain. She had fallen asleep on the Zhao's couch which gave her a sore back. Katara had a cheerful disposition and she almost sang as she shook Azula's shoulder to rouse her from her sleep.
"Uh mmmh....why trouble me?" Azula mumbled and rolled herself further into her red quilt.
"I need to pick a few things for my trip to the Fire Nation and I need your advice." Katara seated herself on the couch as Azula did her best to assume fetal position.
"Advice on what?" Azula mumbled from under the covers.
"Why would Mai want a wet nurse?" Katara asked quietly. "Did you have a wet nurse?"
"No!" Azula squirmed uncomfortably. "My brother and I had an obstetrician and my mom chose to raise us on her own. She took child raising as a personal calling probably because my dad never took his role as a father seriously. I think she hoped Zuko would become a kind and gentle soul and I would quit devising clever and cruel methods of torturing turtle ducks."
"Do you know anything about your early childhood?" Katara decided to press the point in spite of the squirming Azula.
"I was a baby." Azula propped herself up out of the covers. "I look like my mother – she looks like me – I became my father's favorite."
"So? Why does Mai want a wet nurse?"
"She lacks the confidence to raise the child properly and given our record that seems rational." Azula lay back down just as Karo hit the bottom steps ready for the day. "I do not get along with Mai but she is by no means stupid. You have a tender heart and she trusts you to give good advice."
"Why me?" Katara asked as Karo walked past.
"Water Tribe Sweetness honey." Azula pulled the covers over her head. "Go ask Karo to shop – he loves to shop."
"Karo?" Katara cornered him in the kitchen. "Why do you stay friends with Azula?"
"I don't know. She has called me a Category 5 Moron and once told me I rated a Magnitude 9.0 on the idiot scale." Karo poured another cup of tea and offered it to Katara. "We both are nerds?"
"I see." Karo looked around cautiously. "Is she asleep?"
"I think so." Katara could hear her deep snoring set in.
"Please be kind to her." Karo almost seemed to plead. "She would never admit it but she will miss you very much when you leave. I know you can't feel that way about her but please be kind."
"Karo?"
"Yes?" Karo whispered.
"Hard to believe someone with that kind of snore inspired such fear." Katara stood in front of him and seemed less strong for a moment as she picked at the white fringe on her Water Tribe Jacket. "Take care of her."
"Okay." Karo listened for Azula's snoring.
"I need to help Mai." Katara put her arm around Karo.
"I know" Karo replied quietly as he set toast in the toaster.
"I know she has a thing for me." Katara now whispered. "Keep care of her. I will come back and if she worries tell her I intend to finish my schooling in time."
"I will tell her." Karo grinned kindly. "What made you cut off your therapy session with Azula?"
"I find when I wake her up in the morning that I test her patience and she seldom recalls anything I said very well." Katara now had a low dull whisper even Karo could not make out.
"Could you repeat that?" Karo now turned his head closer to Katara. "I think Azula's snoring drowned it out."
"She has a great mind." Katara squeezed Karo's shoulder. "Don't let her sarcasm wear on you."
"She is my friend and she earned my loyalty so I am happy." Karo puffed up his Fire Nation uniform.
"I know." Katara raised her voice when she saw that Azula had her deaf ear raised. "Want to go shopping for clothes? You got the fashion sense engaged?"
"Heck yeah." Karo said emphatically as the toast bounced out of the toaster..
* * *
"One more lackey for Mai – Katara the Wet Nurse." Azula sat at the desk and munched on some of yesterday's biscuits for comfort. She had taken a liking to a graphic novel about a Fire Nation prisoner of war camp run by an incompetent colonel who could never out think the crafty Earth Kingdom Colonel Ho Gan – a comic known as Ho Gan's Heroes.
"I enjoyed shopping with her." Karo sat on his bed and filled in a 'Have You Got a good Memory Quiz' and kept forgetting how far he had progressed with the quiz.
"Do we have to sit in your room and do nothing all day." Azula folded her book under her arm.
"Want to go lawn bowling?" Karo tossed his newspaper and pencil to one side of his bed. "Clobber me at Pai Sho? You look sadder than a week old take out Komodo Chicken."
"Come on." Azula stood up, opened the window and lobbed a biscuit out the window hoping she could nail the head of the monkey poodle with pink hair. "These biscuits have gone stale. Let's grab some lunch."
"You miss Katara already?" Karo asked as they climbed down the stairs.
"Will you rent out her room?" Azula dodged the question as she hit the bottom of the stairs at full stride. "I keep having to give up my cottage to my uncle's guests and friends so I thought I might rent the room."
"It does have her lilac like smell." Karo opened the front door.
"How far would you roll if I kicked you through the door? Would you roll all the way to the street?" Azula squinted as she walked into the light. Azula had not the single intention of 'missing Katara' but she feared that her Water Tribe friend would leave a gap in her life and she feared as Mai's wet nurse she would achieve a high position in the Fire Nation court. "Would Lady Zhao rent the room to me?"
"I don't see why not." Karo followed Azula down the street and through a maze of alleys into a small but well kept pub that she had discovered served great fries. The interior had the standard dark wooden pub décor and advertisements for a half dozen liver busting ales and lagers cluttered the walls. The pub had the rather odd name of the Red Hedgehog and the wainscoting had cute hedgehogs carved in each panel. Nice orange colored light flooded the interior and Karo could see the pool table in the back tucked away. Several college age students had a rousing game going and the pool balls clanked. They sat at a table close to the dart boards and a waitress took their orders.
"After we have a bite to eat I will take you out in a game of darts." Azula ordered a large fizzy red drink called Fresta which almost glowed. Karo had an iced tea which he made sure contained no alcohol. They both ordered the famous fries. Refreshed and fed, Azula fetched the darts from the dartboard and the game began.
"You will play blue and I will play red." Azula didn't command but handed Karo the blue darts and the game began. Azula held the last two darts in her hands behind her back and Karo picked the blue dart and won the first round.
"I will talk to my mom about the room." Karo aimed and let the dart fly. Thump!
"Very well done." Azula took her stance. "Mai's face!!"
"You scare me sometimes." Karo whistled as Azula struck the middle of the dart board.
* * *
"You take care of yourself Karo." Katara smiled at Karo as she waited for Mai to pick her up. Azula knew they would travel by carriage to the Royal Yacht and sail home in luxurious comfort – she wondered if the tax payers approved of Mai's taste for expensive servants and yachts.
"Bye Katara. I enjoyed our friendship." Karo hugged Katara tightly.
"Lady Zhao? Thank you for being like a mother to me." Katara hugged Lady Zhao and she kissed her gently on the forehead.
"You take care of yourself sweetness." Lady Zhao spoke through tears.
"Azula?" Katara turned to the young princess.
"I could say something sarcastic." Azula raised an eyebrow. "I will save my abuse for Karo and his crappy skills at Pai Sho. He beat me at darts though."
"Uncle Iroh says he hopes you will still play Pai Sho in his tea shop." Katara had said her good byes to Iroh yesterday. "I guess you will want to move all your stuff into my room."
"I have something for you." Azula said calmly and without a hint of emotion. Katara stood before her in her blue Water Tribe clothes and Azula wondered if she would have to wear t he dull red robes servants wore. Azula handed her an envelope and a gold Fire Nation decoration. "I had no idea what to buy you but I give you the hair decoration and hope you will wear it for all the stupid ceremonial functions you will encounter in the Fire Nation."
"What does the envelope contain?" Katara put her arm around Azula.
"When my father died I inherited some land." Azula explained quietly. "If you decide to grow old with someone you will need land and a home. You might not choose to live on there but you can sell it and claim the money."
"Thank you Azula." Katara hugged Azula as she heard the ostrich horses pull up to the house. She kissed the princess on the cheek. "You are the sweetest person I ever hated. Please take care of yourself."
"I do not want to let go of you." Azula seemed almost ready to cry.
"Azula?" Katara held her close. "I am a good friend of Lady Mai so I will help her but this does not mean forever. If you keep the same feelings in your heart that you hold for me then one day you may find true love."
"Did you have to be that sappy?" Azula kissed Katara on her cheek and then spoke insincerely. "I would consider it a great honor if you would do your duty and help Mai."
With those last words Katara took the hands of one of the servants as she left the front door. Azula watched Karo who waved politely and Lady Zhao who bowed as she left and Azula bowed to Katara. Karo put his arm around Azula as she looked on.
* * *
Two weeks passed.
Azula could not sleep. She heard the sound of rain on the roof as a rainstorm passed over Ba Sing Se and the gray morning daylight filtered through her curtains.
Karo sang loudly in the shower. Not a real song but something akin to jazz with a hint of modern twelve tone dissonant film music. He shampooed his hair and sang his wordless song even louder. It seemed to almost have some sort of musical structure and Karo kept toying with it.
"I need to beat him with a stick." Azula murmured as she tried to point her deaf ear in his direction. In the Fire Nation during the war she could have bad singers and joyless composers jailed or beaten with a stick. In the Fire Nation the Fire Lord only wanted to hear joyful and rejoicing music – so he made rejoicing the business of artistic types. If they wrote depressing music they received corporal punishment – a beating with a stick and a stern reminder that their business was rejoicing. Karo's singing penetrated her skull and she sat up in bed looking in vain for a stick.
"Karo!" Azula stomped out of her room.
"Karo!" Azula pounded on the bathroom door. "Maestro Karo!"
"You need the washroom?" Karo asked as he took several squishy steps to the bathroom door.
"You woke me up with your mind pummeling singing." Azula complained loudly through the closed door. "What is that – Ode to Malfunctioning Industrial Machinery?"
"A warm shower and a day to relax?" Karo replied. "My ode to the joy of being alive. Have you never heard 'The Festival Overture' by Xizhen of the Fire Nation?"
"I need some tea." Azula grumbled to him. "Badly in need of something to make me feel more awake."
"Good morning Azula." Lady Zhao greeted the yawning Azula as she entered the kitchen.
"That is a minority opinion." Azula poured herself a cup of tea and sat down in her night robe to read the morning paper. "Karo woke me up with his so called singing."
"He has a very nice tenor voice – he took lessons." Lady Zhao smiled with pride.
"Definitely a minority opinion." Azula asserted. "My mom used to drag me and my brother to concerts where fat tenors sang songs in praise of the Fire Nation. I think making a five year old girl with a small bladder sit through someone singing songs praising Fire Nation rice production for two hours or longer constitutes cruel and unusual punishment."
The telephone rang.
"Hello?" Azula answered the phone as Karo came down the stairs still in his bathrobe and singing a rather tragic sounding wordless song in D Minor. "Karo will you please be quiet. What the hell are you singing funeral music for?"
"Symphony #5 in D Minor by Xizhen." Karo stood next to Azula and sang a harsh sounding ostinato. "A great and dead Fire Nation composer."
"Best kind. Karo quit rehearsing for the Metropolitan Opera! I still have no idea who is on the phone." Azula held up the phone and her brain tried to piece the static and voice into something recognizable."Hello? Who am I talking to?"
"Symphony in D Minor by the guy my grandfather put under house arrest?" The voice on the other end said quietly. "Fire Lord Zuko here."
"You got the wrong number didn't you?" Azula stood with the receiver to her ear and talked into the mouthpiece while Karo tried to listen in. The Fire Nation recently opened a new embassy in the city – a large embassy with a bland three story design faced in somber gray granite bristling with dragons. Azula had seen it brooding behind a tall concrete block fence which local vandals had filled with obscenity on the outside. She had never taken a tour of the insides. "You planned to call the Fire Nation Embassy here in Ba Sing Se."
"I called to warn you." Zuko spoke seriously and with some menace in his voice. "Mother has left for Ba Sing Se and plans to visit you. She will arrive Tuesday at the tea shop – sometime in the afternoon I think."
"That doesn't sound quite as grave as what Karo the thinnest tenor in the world sang this morning." Azula shrugged.
"She wants to talk to you about a young man name of Chang....Chan?." Zuko added. "Lady Ursa wants to discuss the betrothal of him and you. She will bring him to meet you."
"What put that idea in her mind!?" Azula shouted in surprise and astonishment.
"Mai said something to mom but I don't think she gave over all the facts." Zuko spoke in a whisper. "I had to wait until after Mai went to sleep to warn you."
"Okay." Azula looked sternly at Karo. "Mai has officially earned a permanent place on my 'stab in the dark' list."
"What?" Karo looked back and checked his bathrobe and hair. "Something on my face?"
"Oh crap!" Zuko said over the phone. "Mai came in.....bye"
The line went dead.
"Zuko told me my mother wants to make arrangements to have me marry." Azula placed the phone back on the small oak table where it sat like a prize sculpture. "She will talk to me about some jerk of an admiral's son she thinks she can convince me to wed. She wants to discuss my betrothal/"
"What can I say?" Karo raised his eyebrow slightly then a look of terror took over. "Okay panic mode in gear – I am the son of a jerk of an admiral!!"
"Gear down or you'll hurt your pretty voice. It is not you." Azula sat down on the couch in resignation. "I met the guy on a weekend trip to Ember Island I think – no face comes to mind but I know he said he was the son of Admiral Chan."
"Oh thank God!" Karo saw Azula stare up at him and kicked his shin softly.
"You don't have to act so relieved." Azula grumbled.
"I need toast." Karo spoke softly and limped to the kitchen faking his injuries. "Do you want some toast. Toasting makes me feel better. Some people sing – wouldn't you rather see me toasting?"
"Lady Zhao – you have a very odd son." Azula looked up at Lady Zhao in the dining room. She heard the toaster make a loud click.
"You hardly form the standard for normal." Lady Zhao looked at Azula from the comfort of a cup of tea and the fashion section of the paper. Lady Zhao could see a deep unhappiness crossing Azula's face. She had lived long enough as an exile to see the stupidity in some Fire Nation traditions and her socially ambitious parents had her marriage to her husband arranged. The arrangement made for a very unhappy decade in her life until she packed up and left with her young son. "I will speak to Lady Ursa because you do not look like you would make a happy wife."