This story is cross-posted here from AO3 where it was an exchange gift for purimgifts 2015. It is the third of three parts of a series entitled 'Bloodlust.' It is set in the aftermath of the fall of Ba Sing Se at the end of Book 2. If you want to see an image made to accompany it, you may view it in its original format on AO3. My AO3 is linked from my profile! Reading and feedback are appreciated.
Victory settles in quietly, which suits Azula just fine. Out on the streets, there is very little reaction. The citizens of Ba Sing Se were frightened long before she'd arrived. The upper ring is silent, and if the people in the lower ring riot, let them riot. Let them burn their city to the ground. It hardly matters now, and she has been hilariously merciful.
She feels a little warm inside.
"There is no war in Ba Sing Se," she says, airy and clear as she comes across her brother. She toes his thigh with her shoe. She chuckles, since he doesn't, at her amusing bit of local color. "It's true," she adds, explaining the joke in case it will help. "We ended it. We won."
Zuko is sitting by some tiny babbling pool encircled almost entirely by Earth Kingdom flora. Somehow, it seems very their uncle of him. He persists in his dullness when she sits beside him, on his scarred side. Her hand falls upon his shoulder. He flinches. It pushes the tightrope of a tendon up against her hand. He's so tense, she's nearly offended.
"Oh, Zuzu, have you forgotten already? You're not an exile anymore. I thought we'd been through this, but I wouldn't blame you if you'd forgotten again. It's been such a long time."
"Don't you..." Zuko splutters, "have matters of state to... deal with, or something?"
"No," she hums. She's got nothing to worry about yet, and she knows it. A fundamental difference between them. "Oh, Zuko, that almost sounds like insolence." She presses her thumb against the tendon until it gives, then uses his shoulder to brace her standing. "It's a little adorable."
She looks back at him just before slipping out the door.
"You know, I'd find something... for all that unspent fire of yours. If I were you."
Ty Lee laughs so much, so loudly. She can't help it. Warm, spicy berry bursts on her tongue.
"I still can't believe it," she says, mostly apropos of nothing, "about the bear."
"Oh, will you shut up about the bear?" Mai complains. She drops unwanted crust back onto the plate.
Ty Lee rolls over onto her belly and props herself upon her elbow against the cushions surrounding the low table in Azula's new room. It's really big, kind of dark, and mostly green. She lifts her eyebrows a little, gazing across the remains of a plateful of fruit tarts.
"You know what I think?" she asks sweetly.
"Don't," Mai says.
"You should go see Zuko."
"Stop," Mai says. There's a hint of a laugh, derisive but there no less.
"Tell her," Ty Lee pleads, tilting her head toward Azula.
"Really," Azula replies. She looks at Ty Lee, absently stretching back one finger after another. "It could be good for you. It's just the chance you've been waiting for. In spite of your ennui."
Mai looks back and forth between them, catching Ty Lee's eye. She straightens her posture abruptly and starts climbing to her feet.
"Ugh," she says. "Fine. I see what this is. Now would you stop about Zuko?" She looks right through Ty Lee before she leaves. "Have fun."
When she looks back around, she sees that Azula has never looked away. Instead, her eyelids have just barely lowered. She isn't sure why, but for some reason Ty Lee feels like she's been left alone with a badgermole.
Only, Azula doesn't look like a badgermole. Her focus never shifts, and she definitely isn't blind. Her flexed fingers reach up and loose her hair, combing through.
"Let you go to bed?" Ty Lee guesses. She's upright now, smoothing her hands over the puffy fabric of her pants.
"No. Stay."
Her skin comes alive with thousands of tiny bumps, probably the opposite reaction to what she is supposed to have to the Fire Princess. The Fire Princess, freshly victorious, asking her to stay. Sometimes, Ty Lee gets the impression people don't think she's very bright, but there are some things she absolutely understands. She is half-bowed, half-crouched, and Azula lounges there like she sees no unease.
"There's no reason for everyone to be uncomfortable tonight," Azula says, and she smiles. She is up with a much harder footing than Ty Lee's, and her hand beckons her back straight. Azula's hair is a lot longer than she lets on, falling in heavy, neat sections to either side of her face. Ty Lee considers it while she feels four neat, precise fingertips test her jaw, neck, heartbeat. She swallows and barely breathes, chin tilted up toward her princess.
An unexpected, carefully rhythmic knocking sounds at the door, demanding Azula's attention. The touch lingers while she looks over Ty Lee's head. She sighs and drops her hand.
"What is it?" The door falls shut.
She doesn't understand what happened. She hasn't moved from her knees, perched to her full height upon them. She looks straight ahead, eyes falling upon the bed. It is shrouded in golden, sheer linen. She doesn't understand much, but her heart is in her throat. She rises and sits down on the bed.
o o o
The palace walls seem smaller than they did when Ty Lee was little.
Another rinse of her mouth and she's tidying and tying her braid. She shakes her head so it swishes and whips, tickling at a bare spot along her spine.
She makes sure she's sure of her step before she slips out into the hallway to find the slow-dying light of day. She makes her way out to the courtyard, ready to tumble and stretch alone.
"Zuko," she greets when she finds that she isn't. He is looking over the low wall at the edge, at his hands like he doesn't understand what they have done. She hops up, legs dangling toward grass. She squirms at her hips. "Where's Mai?"
"Home, I think." He smirks. His aura is like a dull ember. He frowns a little. "Where's Azula?"
Ty Lee nods toward the palace, doesn't answer.