009 Evergreen
"Azula."
Kazumi pauses. Ty Lee's eyes are half-lidded, tears streaming from the sides. Her hold becomes tighter as the girl bucks their hips closer together.
"Azula…" The moan is more distinguishable and the name more articulate. Ty Lee trails her lips once more to her neck, pecking through spots previously untouched. Kazumi curls a fist on the blankets. Why? Why?
Why does this feel so right?
….
"The Avatar is here."
"And the best waterbender in the world."
"Did you see her? The blind one? I heard stories."
"Yeah." Riko is slumped to her post, watching as the sun shines brightly in the eternal snowfield. She squints and Kazumi thinks the girl she thought she loved can smell her, the pungent scent of her betrayal, of her passionate night with their target's most loyal knight. "What do you think of it, Kazumi?"
"I do not think it's time yet. Let us wait for our chance."
There is no argument raised.
But their eyes are on her like they know something.
…
.
"I think we should talk about what happened—"
"I'm sorry to cut you in, Commander but I have duties and you have yours. I need to go."
Dismissal.
She does not know why saying it feels familiar.
…
Evergreen keeps its foliage through the windiest of autumn, through the harshest of winter. But Riko is so irritable and cranky today that even the taciturn, nonchalant girlfriend Sakura could not stand her anymore. Kazumi thinks that at this rate, these two are going to break up soon, if the spoiled, demanding Riko does not get what she wants.
'I know you have reservations against this plan too." Sakura confides to her when the other girl finally decided to grace them with her absence for one shift. "Zuko… Fire Lord Zuko is not that bad of a man, isn't he?"
"Hm."
"It's just hard to believe he's the one controlling Hanabi, that's all. You're smart, Kazumi. I am sure you can tell."
Nod. Love quarrels can make the most uninspired person talkative.
Sakura sulkily goes on. "I just don't understand her sometimes."
"Riko bears the worst of grudges." Kazumi notes. Offering consolation is not her best suit. Even Ty Lee said so. You remind me of Azula, she did say. The supposedly heartless Princess. No wonder she is a good enough substitute for a good fuck.
"I don't think that's it. I know her. She just likes the challenge." Sakura scratches her black head, messing on her hair loops. Golden eyes narrow. "To kill the Fire Lord. To start another war. To do things that Princess Azula never did."
This strikes Kazumi like a splash of a water whip. Azula… Azula… Why does everything seems to be about that missing, most likely dead princess? "What's with-?"
"Oh, you don't know?" Sakura looks confused. She raises her eyebrow in total askance. "Riko used to be a servant in the palace."
This… this is new to her.
"And Princess Azula was her first love."
…
.
She finds Riko trying to do her job.
That is, to watch the Fire Lord's every move and find an opening.
Considering that Zuko is still conversing with a bald man with a bad paintjob, she is not doing as good as she would prefer.
"She interests me." Kazumi pauses. "This Princess Azula."
"She is a wonderful person. Perfect. The most beautiful creature I ever met." Riko's eyes flash in a way that Kazumi never saw before, even around the quiet girl with gold eyes that she claims to love so much.
First love falls and dissolves like red, autumn leaves in the wake of the summer haze. Then winter comes to chill the bleak days and it never quite ends. The tree becomes all wood, its green fading in the white snow. It is beautiful but cold. It is silent but deadly. And Kazumi kisses Riko like there is no tomorrow after hearing so much about the Princess the two women her heart palpitates to loved, even though she cannot feel anything anymore.
"Oh…"
Kazumi ignores Ty Lee and her wide eyes and her tears.
But Riko, to her astonishment does not. "Commander!" She exclaims but it is all for naught.
Running steps.
Even after the kiss, even after she finally let it out, Kazumi still feels empty.
Perhaps, because Ty Lee looks so hurt, so heartbroken.
And Kazumi does not understand why.
.
The two of them—Kazumi and Riko- talk that night and it leads into a confession. "I love you." Kazumi says the words that had haunted her for so long and she does not regret it one bit even though it does not sound as sincere as she expected it would be.
But Riko, despite everything loves Sakura. And it comes to the inevitable rejection. "But you haven't moved on, haven't you?" Kazumi accuses with a hiss. "You haven't moved on from this Azula."
Ty Lee had not too, mindlessly moaning her name when they coupled. You remind me so much of her, she had told her as the snow raged outside and they huddled in each other's warmth. You remind me so much of Azula. Gold eyes. Dark hair. The Princess looked like Sakura. Perhaps this is why Riko chose her too. Perhaps this is why Riko rejected her.
"I guess I haven't." is her response. "I used to do her hair. I was ready to give everything for her.
"Ty Lee was her lover."
"Don't think I wouldn't know that." She is angry, her eyes flashing. The usually happy Riko gives her a dark, withering look,
"Is that the reason you wanted her dead?"
"I don't want her dead. I wanted her to move on, like I can't seem to be. But if that is what I have to do to get even with Zuko, so be it. I don't mind."
The plan.
Remember the plan.
"You saw how bad the Fire Nation is doing too Kazumi." She goes on, eyeing her directly with orbs that implore, that convinces. "We don't need a weakling like that on the throne."
It had been personal to Riko all along.
…
.
Zuko gives her a cool nod when they pass each other by. But he avoids her eyes and Kazumi thinks he indeed, is weak.
Kazumi promises herself, that she would kill him with her two hands.
.
.
Kazumi tries that night.
Zuko sleeps on. Nobody else notices.
But Kazumi, for some reason that she cannot fathom is too tremulous to push the dagger to his throat.
.
.
"I'll kill him." She promises Riko with so much anger, with so much aggression. She is not sure where this is directed. She is not sure what she is so upset about.
Maybe she feels so weak too, even though she knows she is strong enough to kill him, to forget the look on Ty Lee's face.
But like a cure, her heart soars when Riko smiles, when she looks at her in a way that she never looked at Sakura before.
"Thanks Kazumi." And their lips meet again.
(TBC)
