The garden was abuzz with life, the vernal equinox in full effect. A soft breeze carried the sent of lilac and wisteria, reminding Aang very much of home in the Air Temples. With a cheerful smile, he found himself a seat under the most potent smelling lilac bush. He carefully plucked four clusters of them and set them at the four corners of his picnic blanket. He crafted it himself specifically for the occasion, of course it had taken a few tedious sewing lessons that had him putting all of the calming meditation exercises that the monks had taught him to use. In the end he had a simple blanket of white silk and a few carefully sewn embroidered purple lilacs to show for it. He very nearly sewed in a few waves, but figured that doing so would take away from the original point. He would have plenty of time to sew another later on. Aang re-adjusted the flowers a second and third time before deciding that they were placed exactly right. He couldn't dwell too much on it though, because Azula would be there any minute now and he wanted to make things truly special. He wouldn't be able if he continued to spend a ridiculous amount of time fussing with the lilac bunches. So he moved on, setting an incense holder at the very center of the blanket. The pungent garden smells were lovely enough, but he wanted something a bit more sensual. So he quickly struck a match and lit the incense stick before turning to his picnic basket. He made sure to only accept the finest chopsticks, cups, and plates. He set them upon the blanket with extraordinary care and then took to unboxing their meal to be. He set out a few moon peaches and a pastry or two and then a bowl of donburi. Though he would only pick the vegetables out of it.
The waterfalls of wisteria fluttered as another cool gust of wind brushed by. He was a little nervous, Azula liked things perfect. Even though he thought that this was pretty close to it, he figured that the princess might say different. He had no time to make any further adjustments because the woman in question brushed a particularly low-drooping set of wisteria branches aside.
"What's all of this?" Azula asked.
"Just a little birthday surprise." He smiled. He plucked a strand of wisteria and tucked it into her hair.
Azula took a seat and picked the flowers out of her hair. "Nice try, Avatar. I'm not the type who likes flowers."
Aang frowned. Not a flower type and he had chosen to have their lunch in a garden full of them. It was their first real date and he was already messing things up. "Well are you an incense and moon peach person?"
"I might be." She replied. "We'll see how this afternoon goes."
That did little to ease the fluttering in his chest. Zuko did warn him that his sister wasn't an easy person to love. Though Aang was certain that it was because no one ever tried, not their best anyways. He thought that Azula had taken so well to him because he had been so willing to talk to her like a human being when no one else wanted anything to do with her.
He tossed her a moon peach, studying her face as she bit into it. With any luck, she'd like the taste of it, and that would be one thing he got right. But she was as impassive as ever, even over something so trivial. "Well?"
"Well what?" Azula asked.
"Did you like it?"
"It was alright."
She wasn't making things easy, that was for sure. Azula wasn't much for conversation, not small talk anyways. Small talk was almost more important to Aang as big talk. Yet he didn't know how to keep her engaged in a pointless conversation. Not when she was so fond of only talking about topics of importance. He was going to try anyways. "It's nice out here, isn't it?"
Azula shrugged. "I suppose it is." He could see that her mind was elsewhere.
He sighed, "what's on your mind this time?" He just wanted a nice lunch, and hoped with all of his heart that she wouldn't bring up a wildly heavy topic. The kind she usually thought of.
Momentarily, her brows crinkled. "I've been thinking about it a lot…" she trailed off. "I killed you. Why do you like me?"
Aang took the princess' hand. "I love you."
"That's a strong word, Avatar. Use it carefully."
"I am." He insisted. "I love you because you're you. You're powerful, you're intelligent, and you're kinder and more caring then you think you are."
"And you're a dreadful liar." Azula rolled her eyes.
Without another word, Aang leaned in and pressed his lips to her forehead and then to the bridge of her nose.
She cracked a warm smile, the one he had been hoping for. The one that suited her so well. The one that old him that she had love in her heart, regardless of what others liked to say about her. "What are you trying to do?"
"Oh, nothing really." Aang replied, "just trying to prove a point."
"And how is this going to achieve that?"
He kissed her cheeks, first the left and then the right. She lifted her hands to brush her thumbs over his own cheeks with a very pleasant tentativeness. Soon, her hands fell upon her back. And soon he felt her hands rubbing up and down his back as he pressed his lips against hers. He'd kissed her before many times. At first she had been rather awkward and very uncertain, and—if he wasn't mistaken—afraid even. She had let him do all of the work from holding her close to actually locking lips. She barely returned it the first two times. Her face was flushed, he didn't think he'd ever seen her flustered before then. But that was also when he had first seen her softer smile and the first time he'd seen a glimmer of hope in eyes that had once been so hurt and haunted.
Each time he kissed Azula, she seemed to grow in confidence, until the act no longer left her face a shade of pink and she finally returned the gesture. Until she pressed herself closer and held him tighter.
This time, she was the one to deepen the kiss. He could feel her bangs tickling his neck. He tucked them behind her ear as a few lilac petals broke free from their stems. It smelled divine. Her lips were on his neck and then she pulled them away entirely. But her body remained close, her arms tossed over his shoulders.
Kissing her on the forehead one more time he replied, "If you weren't at least a little caring, then I don't think you'd be kissing me like that or holding me like this."
Azula hummed to herself, "you do realize that I don't like being proven wrong, yes?"
"I've known that for a while." Aang replied. "But I think that this is something you should be happy to be wrong about. You're a good person, Azula, even if everyone else tells you that you aren't."
She dropped her hands into her lap and peered at them for a brief moment.
"I promise that you're actually really easy to love." He pushed her bangs back again. "And you're not as bad at it as you think you are."
"I would like to think that you're right." There was still a solemnness about the look in her eyes and her overall demeanor. So he pulled her into another hug, savoring the warmth she naturally gave off. He always found it to be rather pleasant and tremendously comforting, even if she didn't realize it. He stroked her hair.
"You need to lighten up!"
Azula rolled her eyes. Maybe it was true though, maybe she did need to release her hold on the past. It would do her well to stop contemplating it so much. It would do her better to stop dwelling on how readily…or unreadily people were accepting her relationship with Aang. She took the bowl of donburi and a glass of apple juice.
"Here, I like to add a pinch of lavender." Aang sprinkled some into her drink.
She supposed that trying something new would help her to, 'lighten up' as the Avatar so requested, so she didn't protest the addition. She brought the glass to her lips. "It's alright." She commented.
"Is everything just 'alright'?" He asked.
"No." Azula answered. "This day has been better than alright. I enjoyed all of this."
Aang grinned, "so would you want to do it again?"
To his delight, the princess nodded. "Yes, I would like that very much, Avatar." She would more than like that, but feared she'd make a fool of herself if she tried to express it anymore than she did. Perhaps one day it would come more naturally to her, to express the more pleasant of her emotions. Even if she couldn't do it just then, Aang seemed to have a sense for that kind of thing. Maybe that was why he was so fast to see and accept things that others didn't. Perhaps that's why he found it so easy to love her.
Under clouds of wisteria, the Avatar made her feel loved and cared for.