Dragon and Sheep
II
Kya.
Ozai blinked. That was her name. Kya. He didn't understand why he remembered her while his daughter spoke. But all of a sudden, he saw her oval face and blue eyes. He could smell her.
Besides Zuko, it was his daughter who visited every week, even though pretended she didn't exist.
Azula said lots of things on this visit, but he didn't need to hear her. If the rumors were not true, she'd do anything to convince him otherwise!
But no, the filthy whore had the audacity to sit in front of him and tell him that she was leaving for Ba Sing Se after her wedding. She had nothing to offer him but that!
That half cast daughter of his wife stood aside near the gates in traditional navy uniform, dressed in black and gold armor. The tea on the table gave hot smoke and warm jasmine. "I have one question for you: how come you've battled a hundred soldiers under your command and not her?"
"Kiyi, don't!"
Azula's hand shot up. Ozai smirked when the soldier glared, arms now standing at her sides. Perhaps Azula would have been a better daughter if he had three children! Competition worked wonders.
But no, Azula now sat across from him in garbs Ursa would have worn if they were younger. Her topknot headdress gleamed, its ruby specks blinking. Ozai felt a knife dig into his chest. He felt he was fed water from the gutter. He lost his daughter to the thief who stole his bending.
He was able to play with the women again, until he noticed a flicker. Behind his daughter stood the demon, who stood next to the half cast. This time, he had a dazed look about his eyes, as though he was drunk. His father drunk never was a good thing. Ozai learned this hard fact at the age of six.
"What do you want?!" Azula jumped. The figure still had the smug look with a growing grin that angered Ozai. Azula looked behind her and shared a confused stare with Kiyi.
"Father, there's no one there."
"Get out!" Ozai snarled. Azulon began skipping around the visiting section. He played with the soldier's hair but she didn't budge. He hopped over to claw at Azula's shoulders, leaning down to plant a kiss on her lips.
"Out!"
Ozai lunged forward – but could not touch Azula when a force propelled him back. He howled as hot tea spilled over his face. There were shouts and sounds of gates wrenched open. Steps thundered inside, reverberating in his ears. He could hear his father's explosive cackles amid his daughter's screams for the ten guards to stop dragging him.
When they threw him in the cooler, the noises stopped.
Again, Ozai listened to his soft pants, now out in cloudy puffs. He shivered. He heard light footsteps.
He chuckled, "Is it going to be like this? You torturing your son till his last breath?" He looked up, expecting to find his father studying him again.
But he saw something else. A woman, shivering in a red robe too large to fit her. In the grayish dark, he could not see her face. Chestnut hair ran down her back. Ozai felt a stirring he thought was long dead. He pictured the women he's had, warm and writhing underneath his body. They used to bow to him, naked, with their knees on expensive rug and tongues stroking him.
And there was one he liked the best.
I've wrong you.
Suddenly, he blinked and saw his father, arms folded and head bent on the ground. Ozai knew why his father dressed this way.
Ozai saw the way the robe did not touch the ground. This was a traveling garb. At celebrations, his father wore ones that dragged on floors. His father's topknot looked finely combed. He smelled like the remnants of firewhiskey.
"Don't remember, do you?" Azulon asked. "I've always wondered what the problem with you was. Gave you all of Fire Nation's finest courtesans and you turned them away! Iroh didn't hesitate the way you did. I worried that you'd gone cold or worst, had no feeling for women. Then I ordered the killing of the last waterbender…"
Ozai panicked. "…you seemed so upset when Yon Rha killed her!
"Then I had him drunk and he spilled! He said that you took a liking to her on a trip I sent you to oversee trading with them. Kept her on the ship for yourself each time you went! Yon Rha suspected you but couldn't believe that you, a noble prince of the Fire Nation, could stoop so low until he happened to spot both of you in your room with her on all fours!" Azulon laughed.
Ozai sneered.
"All smitten! Convincing her that you love her."
Ozai lunged after him, yelling when his body hit the walls. His father had side stepped or simply disappeared. But Ozai kept hearing his laugh, clenching fists over his ears as the demon said the next words.
"You surprised us! Illah could not believe it! And I never pegged you for someone with a fetish for Water Tribe women!"