Lol, long chapter this time XD
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. I do own this fanfic account tho. Not Fanfiction. Unfortunatly. T.T
"Look! Look; here she comes!"
"Get out of view Ty Lee!"
"Ouch! Don't shove me!
"Shh!"
"Mmpff!"
"Don't let her see you."
"Flet me flow!"
"Shh!"
"Mmmmphfff!"
"Ouch! Don't bite me!"
"You wouldn't let go!"
"Shh! Look! She's turning down the hall!"
"Let me see!"
Ty Lee and Mai stuck their heads around the corner and watched as Vira left her room and headed down the hall. When the coast looked clear they stepped out from their hiding spots and quietly ran over to Azula's room.
"Did she lock it?"
"I'm checking now. Don't be so impatient." Mai turned the knob and the door slowly creaked open.
"Shh! Open it quietly!"
Mai shot her a 'shut-up-or-I'll-kill-you' look, before stepping into Azula's room. Ty Lee followed and quickly shut the door behind her.
"Azula will have our heads if she finds us in here," Mai spoke, crossing her arms and leaning against the door as Ty Lee began shuffling through her drawers.
"Well, we'll just have to work fast," she turned to look at her friend, "Come on, Mai! Help me!"
Mai rolled her eyes and approached Azula's desk, sorting through papers and ruffling through books, "What exactly are we looking for anyway?"
Ty Lee straightened up from her crouch and shrugged, "I don't know. Something, anything, that'll explain her weird behavior. Something had to have happened," Ty Lee scratched her head, "Just make sure to put everything back where it belongs. We do not want her finding out we were snooping around in here."
Mai bent down and looked through the lower drawers in the desk, "She has been acting weird lately; too happy and nice."
"Yeah, way too nice," Ty Lee agreed as she slipped her hand between layers of Azula's clothing, "Check everywhere; she might have hidden it."
"Hidden what?" Mai asked, but didn't let Ty Lee answer, "And what's up with her and Zuko? It's like they have these weird attractions towards one another," she narrowed her brow, "how can he chose his own sister—his own flesh and blood—over me?"
Ty Lee ignored the rest of Mai's speech, and answered her first question, "I'm not sure. Maybe she hid a paper or something? News from Ozai or someone…"
"I mean—his own sister? That's just disturbing! Besides—"
"She had to have gotten something that changed her behavior. I don't know if something happened, or maybe she had an epiphany of some sort—"
"—she only just started being nice to him. I've been nice to him forever and—"
"—which caused her to change herself around for the better? Although that seems highly unlikely—"
"—but still! This is just too wrong and too weird. You think Zuko would assume it was all a well thought-out plan for her to kill him. Wouldn't put it past her—"
"—I just don't understand her anymore. It's only been a few days since she started acting weird, but she just doesn't seem at all like Azula. I can't put my finger on it but—"
"—and she's fooled Zuko so many times he should know not to trust her by now, but he seems to not only trust her, it's like he's fallen in love with her! But that just doesn't make any sense—"
"—but it's almost like she's a whole different person—"
"—does it?"
"—you know?"
They both stopped to stare at the other, realizing neither had been paying attention to what the other one had been saying.
Vira peeked around a tree, gasped, and quickly pulled her head back in. Zuko was sitting on a bench outside in the courtyard, his head in his hands.
"Okay," Vira took a deep breath, "I'm just going to go over there and talk to him. No big deal."
Before she could argue against herself, she stepped out from behind the tree and called out, "Zuko!"
He looked up with a start and spotted her making her way over to him. Confused, and a bit scared, he jumped to his feet and took a step back.
Vira stopped a few feet in front of him and cleared her throat, "Uhh…so…how are you?"
He looked at her strangely, "Fine."
She laughed awkwardly, "We need to talk…about what happened yesterday…" She wanted to know if Zuko was really in love with his sister.
And if he was….
Actually, she hadn't thought it through and really didn't know what she'd do.
Would that give her reason to stay in Azula's body forever? Should she just give up her life at home and live in another world as an evil bitch with serious PMS just so she could be with Zuko?
I don't even know if I'll ever get back home…
"Azula?"
Zuko's voice pulled her back to reality, "Huh?"
"You were saying…?"
"Oh, right," she looked at her feet, "Zuko…are you attracted to your sis—I mean—to me?"
His expression took on a look of shock and fear, before red shaded his face completely.
"Never mind," she regretted asking him such a strange question, "Just forget it. It's too complicated." She turned to run off, to escape her embarrassment, but Zuko spoke before she could.
"…yes."
Oh my god! "Yes?" she asked, turning back to face him.
He took a deep breath and nodded, "Yes. For some strange reason, I'm attracted to you, Azula."
Oh ew ew ew ew! "For how long?" She dreaded the answer to this question.
"Since the war meeting with the Black Hawk and Red Fox."
Vira's stomach leaped; that was the first day she spent as Azula!
"I don't know why," Zuko continued, averting his eyes, "but when I saw you, and heard you that day, you seemed like a whole different person. Someone new who I was just meeting for the first time," he rubbed his head, messing up his hair, "and, I don't know, but you didn't feel like my sister. When you talked to me, it felt as though some girl on the street had come up to me; that I could flirt with her and maybe ask her out. I don't know how to explain it, Azula. And I don't know why I'm telling you all this. I'm so confused. My mind doesn't believe that you're my sister, so my heart is telling me to care for you," he looked into her eyes, "and when I look into your eyes, I see something, someone, different. Someone who's not my sister."
There was a moment of silence while the two of them stared into each other's eyes, before Zuko's brain registered what he had just said to his evil sister. His face changed to fear, and he gulped, "I—I didn't mean to speak like that, Azula. I-I don't know what came over me," he turned, "I-I'm just going to go."
"Wait, Zuko!" Vira reached out and grabbed his hand, "Zuko, I—I like you too!" Vira swallowed her fear and spilled her guts, "I've liked you ever since I first laid eyes on you! Everything you said, about me being a different person and all, I wish I could explain that to you!" But she couldn't; everyone would just think her crazy, "I wish I could tell you why you feel this way and why I'm such a different person! But I can't!"
"Why not?" Zuko asked cautiously.
Vira shook her head, "You wouldn't understand. No one would understand."
"Try me."
She looked into his determined face and her heart sunk, "I'm sorry Zuko. But I can't."
Dropping her hold on his hand, she turned and walked off, her mind and body reeling from what had just happened. She didn't have any idea of what to do.
Zuko watched her walk off as he was enveloped in a wave of confusion.
"Ty Lee, how are we supposed to know we've found what we're looking for, when we don't know what we're looking for?"
Ty Lee frowned, "We'll know when we see it."
"If you say so," Mai rolled her eyes, "but, how do we even know there's something to be looking for?"
"Just keep looking!" Ty Lee bent down over Azula's clothes chest and opened the lid.
"Ty Lee, I could have found it and not even have known I found it," Mai gave up searching Azula's bed and sat down on it, "and maybe it's not even in her room."
Ty Lee shuffled through the chest, bending over so her head was almost inside of it, "Well, if we don't find anything here, we'll search the war room and the library—but this might be our only chance to search her bedroom."
Mai frowned, "Azula could be back any minute, what if she finds us in here?"
Ty Lee shrugged, "She's been really nice so far…"
"Maybe this'll switch her back to evil. We have no reason to believe she'll be okay with us going through all her stuff because we suspect something's up with her." She fell back on Azula's bed, arms behind her, supporting her head and neck, "Plus, she might be faking the niceness because she has a plan or something."
"Are you going to lay there or are you going to help?" Ty Lee frowned, pausing in her search of Azula's chest.
"We've searched her entire room, Ty Lee," she complained, opening her arms wide as if to embrace the room, "if there's nothing in that chest, then we know there's nothing in here."
"Well you could help me look through it," Ty Lee crossed her arms.
"Just finish so we can get out of here before she gets back," Mai placed her hands back under her head, "plus, we don't even know if an object made her like this. She could have just changed."
Ty Lee laughed, "You really think so?"
Mai frowned, "No. But, okay, even if it is an object, letter, something, who's to say it's hidden? Maybe it's just sitting out in the open somewhere."
"No," Ty Lee said triumphantly, "it's hidden, alright."
Mai sighed, "How would you know?"
Ty Lee smiled and turned to Mai, waving two papers and a bottle in the air, "because I just found it."
Mai jumped to her feet and rushed over to Ty Lee. The first thing she saw was the bottle. It was divided in half, with two different spouts. Uncorking the left one would give you access to a purple-blue liquid, while uncorking the right one would give you access to a yellow-green liquid. The next thing she saw was the letter addressed to Princess Azula, from the Oracles on Ember Island. The third thing in Ty Lee's hands was a paper filled with Azula's notes and calculations, including a circled name; Madame Morbida.
Just as they finished reading the letter, the door burst open. They spun around, getting to their feet, and saw Vira, standing in the doorway looking drained of energy, and confused.
Mai narrowed her brow angrily, and stepped forward, pointing at Vira viciously with one hand, the letter held in the other, "The game's up! We know you're not Princess Azula of the Fire Nation!"
Vira gasped.
