Princess Azula looks like she is at a funeral.
But who doesn't on their wedding day? Most people, actually. Most people are happy, even though most to all marriages are arranged. It is not usually because the bond is exciting, but because the event is thrilling and everyone is radiating joy for the couple.
No one, however, is very happy about the wedding coming this afternoon.
Azula has requested for Ty Lee to help her get ready, after snapping while being cared for by servants. They were too much, too overwhelming, and Azula cannot bear to have her underlings see how weak she feels right now.
Ty Lee, on the other hand, has seen Azula at her worst, and tends to be somewhat soothing.
"Please try to look kind of happy. It's flattering," says the equally sad girl grooming Azula. "I mean, this is the best day of your life, right?"
Azula just keeps staring at the mirror. Because Ty Lee does not feel the same way, and Azula has no idea why she is even still around. It is not that she has no appreciation for Ty Lee not bolting out of the door and changing her name once she found out about Zuko. It is that… she hoped for a more evident reaction.
The wedding has been so rushed that Azula has heard whispers asking if she is showing or not. She thought Fire Lord Ozai would have drawn it out for as long as possible in order to coerce Azula into changing her mind and begging him for mercy.
She has made up her mind, and she is going to follow through. It is not as if no one in her family hasn't ever wed their brother before. Sozin's parents were siblings, as were several beforehand, a handful of cousins...
There was once the belief that the fire in the royal blood was only carried through female heirs, since the legend was that the first person to control the dragons was a woman, and the royals all are descended from her.
Apparently the first waterbender after the moon was also a woman, which explains a certain natural phenomenon of the female body. Azula has no idea if the Water Tribes have ever faced this, but she has no desire to base her life on those of savages.
Ty Lee tugs at her hair too hard and she is torn from her pulsating thoughts.
"You know that it's way, way better than marrying some strange old guy, right?" Ty Lee says sweetly and Azula has no response. She still looks as grim as ever. "You know Zuko. You've... slept with him. He understands you."
Azula shakes her head. "No, no, he will never understand me. And he has never tried."
Ty Lee hesitates. "But he has been through so much that you have. You two have shared so much that... that maybe it won't be so bad after all."
"Be my mistress." Azula is blunt about that thought, overly blunt about it because she has had the thought on her mind for the past two weeks of preparation for a rushed wedding.
Of course is the answer Azula was expecting. But Ty Lee looks very stunned by it. She does not drop Azula's hair as she stares into the mirror, her eyes glimmering.
"I would like that," Ty Lee says quietly and Azula thinks she might be lying. Azula thinks she might not have a choice. "For the right price, of course." Those words are teasing and playful, but they are also honest. Azula can tell.
"I'll see what I can do," Azula responds in the same tone, and with the same guised truthfulness.
Ty Lee goes back to Azula's hair and thinking intently about something to make her feel better about marrying Zuko. She is definitely coming up short.
"You both will run the country?" Ty Lee asks, hoping the answer is yes.
"Of course. But mostly me," Azula replies, and it is not consoling because she knew that she would have the throne eventually. She did not need to marry Zuko in order to get it.
"But you'll have some extra time if Zuko is helping you," Ty Lee chimes too loudly, too hopefully.
Azula is unimpressed. "I know. There are just not enough hours in the day for all of the incest, genocide orders and clandestine murders."
"I will always be here, you know?"
"Because you're crazy. I have no idea how you can look at my relationship with him and not quickly look away and make an excuse to leave," Azula says bitterly and Ty Lee furrows her brow.
"Because you and Zuko are both my friends. And you are more than my friend." Ty Lee does hesitate, revealing that, yes, she has felt the disgust as well.
And Azula wants so desperately to regret what she did. She wants to feel genuine remorse for deciding to take pity on Zuko and spend time with him after the return from his exile. She wants to revoke the fact that she started to enjoy his company. She wants to blame herself for the fact that she took him to bed out of her own pain and tried to use him to heal it like a haphazard bandage.
But she has no regrets. Not a single one.
Regrets are beneath her, yes. She was trained to be cold, calculated and clinical. Regrets are for lesser souls.
However, it would be very nice to attribute this horrible situation to a mistake that she wishes she had not made.
"I really love you, and I think you love your brother," Ty Lee says warmly.
Azula just scoffs and continues staring blankly into the shiny mirror.
Ty Lee frowns and closes her eyes, realizing that she is completely unable to help Azula. So she just finishes beautifying her, and hopes that Azula will maybe smile while walking down the aisle. Likely however, she will not, and Ty Lee has accepted that.
It is time now, for a wedding that feels like a funeral march.