Chapter Ten: Jitters
Katara steels her jaw and fixates her glare on her captor. She will not give this up, no matter the cost, even if that cost takes her life. She will not be weak, because she is strong. Her head is fuzzy, her vision hazy, her skin coated in a thin layer of sweat.
Her captor is a bespectacled man of at least forty, but he holds himself as if he were a young warrior. Katara gazes at him from her bonds, and he finds her cobalt eyes hypnotizing in the most disturbing of ways.
"Do you know where you are?" he begins, licking his thumb before flipping through meaningless pages of meticulous black characters.
"I'm in the Boiling Rock. And I'm..." Katara is not at all certain where in the prison she is. But she has been very alarmed by the fact that they took her to their harshest jail, and that that might mean they have too much information on her.
"And you are under interrogation for your knowledge of the attack on Summer Dawn Factory," he continues smoothly. "An act of terrorism that you were involved in."
"How do you even know?" Katara spits, refusing to let herself be tricked into giving out a single breath of information. She would rather die than betray her friends.
"Because it is no coincidence that a waterbender was identified in the attack, and a waterbender showed up only a few miles away from the fishing village she destroyed," he says, leaning back. The dim lantern casts shadows on his face.
"I'll give you that," Katara says hoarsely. "I won't bother lying. But I didn't destroy that village, your soldiers destroyed it. The village didn't sink... they burned it to the ground looking for me."
"You and your friends."
"No. It was just me."
"Now, my dear, we both know that isn't true."
"It is unless I put it in writing. Unless I tell you up front."
He taps his fingers together and Katara thinks she may have thrown him off at least slightly.
Her vision is becoming more and more fuzzy, and her head is teetering. She arrived, was imprisoned, and the first thing they did was implement sleep deprivation and starve her for two days. But it did not break Katara; it only gave her more of an incentive to fight back.
"And you have information on the whereabouts of the Painted Lady?" he asks calmly, sipping from his steaming tea.
"No information that I'm telling you," Katara says hoarsely. It is almost funny that the Fire Nation thinks they can intimidate answers out of her, when she would rather die than betray her friends.
She tries to find something to look at other than the man scrutinizing her with a snarl on his lip. The dark room makes her feel more enclosed than she has ever been in her life and her limbs are so numb that they do not feel like a part of her body.
There is nothing here that seems like a weapon or a common form of torture. Just a man who looks like he thinks too highly of himself with files he flips through ominously. Perhaps the Fire Nation is a much stranger place than she thought it would be.
Then again, she never put much thought into what would happen if they captured her.
"Of course, you feel that way currently," the man says, adjusting his pricey robe sleeves. Katara squints at him before her eyes become sore. "But I think you will be more than willing to make the right choice in due time."
"Yeah, I think I will. The right choice is dying for my cause instead of giving it up."
Far away from the Boiling Rock, Ty Lee wakes in the morning to the warmth of the sun on her face and the discomfort of sweat sticking to her sheets. It takes her a moment to remember why she slept so fitfully, and her pulse races when she does. It has been three weeks since the ring ceremony, and tomorrow she is getting married.
Tomorrow she is going to be wed to Princess Azula in front of the entirety of Caldera, and with the scrutinizing eyes and ears of the rebellion on her. Tomorrow she will wear the crown of her enemies. The concept of being decorated and put up for show as a traitor to the people she cared about helping does not help the natural wedding jitters. But her goal, her only goal, is survival.
She wants to live, and she wants to make it through this and step into her new life without fucking up again. Maybe it makes her selfish, but she never wanted to be a political statement. She never wanted to be a rebel or the princess's bride. It was all forced by circumstance.
No one can blame her for that, can they?
Ty Lee drifts out of her bedroom and walks to breakfast. No one is there, but the long dining table is laden with food. She looks at all of the colorful items meant to look irresistibly tempting, but she has no appetite while she chokes on the butterfly-moths in her stomach.
"So," the Fire Lady says and Ty Lee jumps in shock. "So, you're getting married tomorrow?"
"Obviously," Ty Lee snaps and Mai did not think that the bubbly girl could talk in that tone.
"Is it all you ever wanted?" Mai asks and Ty Lee thinks she may have smiled a little.
"Yes," Ty Lee says, hovering somewhere between truth and lies. "Yes, I always wanted a royal wedding like this." But I didn't want to be in an arranged marriage like this.
"Weddings are boring and dumb," Mai says before picking up an orange and then setting it down in distaste. Ty Lee wonders if she likes anything. "The part after the wedding is less boring and dumb."
Ty Lee smiles and it is the most fake yet. She does not want to talk about her wedding night; her feelings about sexual relations with Azula are too uncomfortable.
"Right, so I got you a present or something," Mai says evenly and Ty Lee instantly feels nervous. "It's to help you with how miserable giving up sex with boys forever. I mean, I don't pity you, but I was supposed to get you something."
Ty Lee grimaces at this situation. "Thank you, but I really don't need a..."
Whatever Mai is going to give her that makes her usually passive amber eyes sparkle with mild amusement.
"I don't care. There is no emotion behind this gift. It's just tradition," Mai says with a sigh as she sets the beautiful red gift box on the table.
Ty Lee chews on her lip and decides to reach forward with a muttered thank you.
It is much better than a trophy of her father's death, but that isn't too difficult. It is just awkward and uncomfortable, and Ty Lee has now decided that her mother-in-law seems to hate or be bored by everything but the discomfort and pain of others.
Like by making cryptic comments and giving her daughter-in-law-to-be sex toys as a wedding gift.
[X]
Ozai's betrayal of his daughter was almost three weeks ago, but the princess is still displeased about it. She has received no answers, and he was not bothered at all that she moved on with the wedding rituals. It sickens Azula to have so little control over her situation, but soon she will go through with the wedding and move another step closer to her throne.
And her loyalty to her father does not waver, despite his clear lack of loyalty to her.
They are having tea on the veranda, surrounded by small, paper white trees and bathed in the morning sunlight.
"This is an important moment I think we are supposed to share," he says stiffly and Azula does know it is social convention.
"Of course," Azula says softly after finishing her sip of tea.
"It's not every day your daughter gets married." Pause. Silence."I have something for you," Ozai quickly adds and he slowly opens the box that Azula suspected contained a gift. Probably one that she would never want in a thousand years.
The glint of rubies in the morning light catches Azula's eye before she can register what the present is. It is not something she dislikes; it is far from that. It is a necklace choker of dripping rubies, rubies that look like a thousand drops of blood dripping from a knife.
"This is gorgeous," Azula remarks honestly and he leans back, now more comfortable with the situation. "I'm to wear it tomorrow, I presume?"
"Yes," he replies and she studies the precious gems for a moment before reaching in and picking it up.
They are smooth and ice cold against her hand, and fill her with a thrill.
"Thank you, father."
"It's fitting, since you decided to rip a man's throat out in front of her on the second date," father says and Azula's lips twitch with a small smirk.
"Let's hope I'm not the one with my throat slit this time," Azula murmurs under her breath as she picks it up and moves to put it on herself. Her fingers fumble with the clasp for a few long, awkward moments before Ozai moves to help her.
She usually would not mind him helping her clasp a necklace or gently tear off the painful part of a broken nail, or tie her shoelaces like she is a child. But right now she feels slightly chilled by his hands on a blood red necklace noose.
He pulls too hard and her hand flies up to stop him before he just clasps the old metal chain and walks away.
Jumpy, Azula thinks as he strides away without any reaction, I'm just being jumpy.
She has no knowledge that Ozai did contemplate for a split second pulling it tighter against her, until she bruised.
[X]
Zuko looks up at his father and tries to remain as calm as possible. Ozai had come into Zuko's chambers, and that was troubling enough in itself. But the Fire Lord has a sadistic glint in his eyes and Zuko does not like it one bit.
"We caught one of the rebels." Pause. Zuko does not react. "She's a waterbender," he adds and Zuko inhales sharply in pained shock.
And Ozai's assumption is confirmed that easily; his son is too easy to exploit. She is the girlfriend. What a fortunate catch, even if her little friends got away.
"Katara," Zuko breathes and Ozai nods.
They did not know the girl's name, but now they do. If only every prisoner under Ozai's thumb were this quickly manipulated.
Ozai says, "We have nothing eventful planned for her, but we would like information out of her before anything might happen while she is under our care."
Zuko does not know what to say. He feels the surge in his blood of needing to protect Katara, but he also remembers himself. And he remembers that she can take care of herself fine without him. She is in Caldera, though. She is attainable. The White Lotus... they might not be driven as far underground as Zuko was told.
"How did you catch her?" Zuko demands hastily and Ozai shrugs one shoulder. "Tell me. You came here to taunt me with her; tell me what happened."
"She's obviously even worse at evading capture than you." Ozai looks at his son with mock pity, and Zuko bites down. "She's very strong, I've heard from the warden. She's still fighting, which is more than I could say about you."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Zuko snaps with a fire in his eyes that Ozai feels slightly proud of. "You don't."
"I know that I won't stand for her to be defiant much longer. Of course, I can't deal with her myself until after your sister's wedding. Perhaps you should make some kind of appeal for her life. Not that you haven't proven how disgusting your sense of self preservation is before."
Ozai's last words enrage Zuko, and he forgets about tact or passivity. His fist nearly collides with Ozai's neck, but the Fire Lord seizes his arm and pushes it backwards. Zuko growls at the snapping sound; he is enraged and not hurt.
The Fire Lord looks at his son for a single heartbeat before throwing him to the floor.
Zuko glares after him with a thousand unsaid words on the tip of his tongue.
[X]
"Mai," Ozai says and she instantly knows he wants something.
They haven't spoken in three days, she thinks. "Yeah?"
She is lying down, and she did not think to close her legs or sit up politely when he walked in. His eyes do not linger from afar for long before he walks into the room and claims the seat across from her. Mai looks up, adjusting her posture slightly.
"We've captured an extremely important rebel. One who could threaten the peace I want so much to uphold," Ozai says and Mai nods halfheartedly. "Zuko is the only person who has information on her. I'd like for you to speak with him."
"We don't have much of a relationship," Mai replies as she sits up. She is trying desperately not to think about rebels, and not to remain trapped in rumination about June's stupid tattoo. "I don't know how I could do any better than you."
"You're pretty. He's attracted to you. Do it."
Mai is startled by his request, but she agrees to do it.
After dressing herself to Ozai's standards and demands, and walking across the palace, Mai is beginning to have second thoughts about this ridiculous mission. She is fairly certain that she holds zero power over Zuko, and that she isn't the best choice for this. Even if he were attracted to her, she doubts it would do much for Ozai's cause.
Then again, the Fire Lord clearly thinks that this is an effective route, if the jealous man is willing to ask his wife to flirt with his son in order to get even scraps of information.
"Mai," Zuko says bitterly and she glances up at him, pursing her lips. "It's nice to see you."
"Whatever," Mai replies, crossing her arms and remaining standing. She opens her mouth to give her excuse before realizing he is about to ask her something. "You want something from me. What is it?"
It is her saving grace; he knew what he wanted the moment she walked through that door.
Zuko hesitates, wishing he had the opportunity to think through his words more carefully.
"What even happened with you?" Zuko asks and Mai is perplexed by that. It isn't as if they are more than acquaintances. Once upon an eternity ago, Mai used to have a crush on him, but that was before he became a traitor, and before Mai knew she had to look out for herself.
"You're going to have to be more specific. I'm wearing a slightly different shade of eyeliner today," Mai says sarcastically and Zuko rubs his eyes. She studies him for a moment before sighing pointedly and sitting down across from him. "Really, I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You were going to help the rebellion," Zuko says quietly and Mai shrugs. "Don't just shrug it off like that. Do you honestly not care at all about my father's obsessive plans?"
Mai shrugs again. "I honestly do not care about anything."
"Not the rebellion? Not anybody but yourself? Not starving people, or my father's plans?"
"Have I ever been passionate?" Mai asks, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. "It isn't like you're much better than me. At least I'm not moping in my little gold cage and acting like I didn't let my mother die in exchange for myself. At least I could manipulate this war if I wanted to, and you gave any hope of that up to pretend to be self-righteous."
Zuko clenches his jaw. She begins to leave and he glares.
"You're the worst kind. You're the worst kind of traitor; you have every opportunity to help people, or to take real action with your political power, but you'd rather lie back and think of yourself."
Mai's hand brushes against her pocket and nearly grabs onto a blade before she decides he isn't worth it and walks away.
Zuko wants to feel guilty. But he can't.
[X]
It's an exciting super-fun awesome spa day, and Ty Lee could not be more cheery. She is smiling now as she forgets about how foreboding tomorrow is. She escaped the most discomfiting breakfast of her entire life and now is with the princess, ready to attempt relaxation and beautification.
Azula looks at the bouncy girl, and her thrilled, glimmering eyes at such a simple event. It is strange and intoxicating to the princess who has never seen anyone like that before.
"I'm really excited," Ty Lee says warmly as she surrenders herself into the hands of the girl taking her into a seat.
"Of course," Azula replies and Ty Lee wishes that she had said she was excited to. But the Monster of the West looks calm as could be and impassive about the ceremony.
Ty Lee winces as her knotted braid is tugged open by a profusely apologizing servant.
"Don't make my bride cry, girl," Azula snaps and Ty Lee smiles weakly at what seems to be a kind gesture. Or what she hopes is one.
Katara bites back her scream as her hair is pulled backwards. She is being removed from her dim, grungy cell and they are not gentle as they rip her hair from the remainder of its Water Tribe braid.
"Don't cry, girl," the brusque soldier orders and Katara snarls at him.
Once Ty Lee's hair is combed out and she quietly attempts small talk with a woman who is not very good at small talk, she is very gently moved to put it into the water, and she suddenly panics.
Azula does not snap at the servants; she laughs at Ty Lee's flinch. Her bride really is a colony trash girl who has never been properly groomed.
Katara is not alarmed by being dunked into the cold water without a single word to prepare her. She thinks their methods might not be quite tailored to a waterbender.
After the soldiers pull her up and her gasp is so quick and quiet that her captor does not notice, they finish the job by splashing the ice water over her.
It does not make her flinch, because she is from the Southern Water Tribe, and they will have to do better than that.
Azula looks at her nails as they are sharpened. Ty Lee murmurs something about much preferring hers rounded and Azula smirks again.
"Why do you think this is funny?" Ty Lee wails at Azula playfully and the princess shrugs.
"Because it is. I've never seen a person so frightened of a nail file," Azula replies.
Ty Lee looks at the metal file that makes her feel uncomfortable when it grates against her nails.
Katara is not afraid of the metal they have in front of her as an act of intimidation.
"Do you think this is funny?" snarls her captor and she nods.
"Yup, I do," Katara replies hoarsely, and he seizes her hand in a single motion of rage.
Ty Lee closes her eyes as the woman in charge curses, aggravated at the calluses on Ty Lee's feet. The old woman dips Ty Lee's foot into warm water, and it feels nice until she sees the scissors.
"What are you doing with those?" Ty Lee shouts before blushing bright red.
"Cutting these. Your feet are worse than an earthbender's," grumbles the crone as she snips the scissors and Ty Lee yanks her feet away.
Azula slowly shakes her head, looking at Ty Lee like she is an animal doing people things.
Katara does not cry or complain when suture her wounds. She looks at the set of stitches, and the scissors lifting from them. The scissors move to her hair and begin to cut out the tangled knots in it, and she remembers being a little girl and avoiding brushing her hair for weeks until Gran-Gran had to chop it most of the way off.
Her head does feel lighter when it is done.
"You're not doing this in the most effective way," Katara says to the cold woman with the scarred nose. "Really."
The woman snorts derisively, and declares to the guards behind her, "Oh, listen boys, she thinks she's people. How cute."
Katara's eyebrow twitches.
Azula's fingertips brush against Ty Lee's damp skin as the day somehow comes to an end. Ty Lee feels peaceful and beautiful after her lengthy treatments.
"I feel really smooth, huh?" Ty Lee says with a grin.
"Yes, you do," Azula says softly as she moves her lips towards Ty Lee's damp neck. It makes the girl shiver slightly. "How do you feel?"
"Amazing," Ty Lee replies very honestly as Azula's lips move to Ty Lee's but she reconsiders when Azula's day planner walks in and demands their attention.
"How do you feel?" asks Katara's captor as he pushes her back into her cell.
"Amazing," Katara snarls viciously, and he shakes his head slowly.
She isn't broken yet.
Azula and Ty Lee break apart for the remainder of the night, and Ty Lee feels a slight chill when she realizes that tomorrow is her wedding.
And Azula feels it too.
"Would you like to try... kissing?" Azula suggests awkwardly and Ty Lee has to quickly suck in air to keep from laughing uncontrollably. "Answer me."
"Yeah, okay." Ty Lee smiles and surrenders to the strange touch of their lips.
A bit awkward, but Ty Lee doesn't mind the fact that there are no sparks and rushes of excited heat that she thought there would be. Having a monster in her bed is so much more appealing than having one under her bed.
[X]
Zuko studies Mai in discomfort as she goes to see him again.
It is three in the morning on the day of Azula's wedding, and Mai has not slept.
Neither has Zuko.
Mai does not know why she came here, except for the fact that she is quietly angry about the fact that Zuko dared insult her choices. Dared to question her choosing wisely instead of being a total brash, impulsive hot-headed loser like him.
Okay, maybe Mai is a little more than angry about his accusations.
She is dressed for the wedding in formal clothes that Zuko stares at with a strange, uncanny sensation of looking at her. It does hit him then that his first crush, his first kiss, the first person he left behind when the choice was made for Zuko to escape the palace, is now the Fire Lady.
Zuko feels uncomfortable, but he waits with as much composure as he can muster.
"I have been thinking about what you said," Mai says softly and Zuko breathes in.
"I'm really sorry. I just said that stuff because I was angry. You're..." Zuko rubs his face and wishes he could remedy this.
"Yeah, you're a jerk. But I do have the power to change things if I wanted to. I don't have any reason to. There's no one left I care about," Mai says earnestly and Zuko feels even worse. "Give me a reason and I will. Give me a reason worth losing what I ripped my own arms open and gave up my life for, and I will."
She means it. Mai does. To be honest, she has been thinking about it ever since Azula went to go see the Ruthless Sun. Her mind has been swimming with memories of tattoos from bar bets and the idea June went on and on about; she wanted to go rogue.
But then Mai's mother decided to try to overthrow the fucking empire, and Mai wound up as the Fire Lord's wife.
Going rogue was an exciting idea, but it was implausible even without what happened to Mai.
"You don't even have to do much. Just help me escape. Help me go free her and I can change everything," Zuko says breathlessly, knowing he has reminded Mai of what's really worth fighting for.
But Mai just says, "I'll think about it."
It isn't difficult for Zuko to figure out that she means no when she says that.
Mai doesn't think Zuko could change everything.
No one could.
[X]
Azula is opening her bottle of make-up remover as she gazes into the mirror, making seductive faces at herself. She admires her utter perfection as she prepares for bed so close to sunrise; she will do fine, even if she is being kept up all night by this.
Princess Azula is deserving of dominance, deserving of an empire being handed to her on a plate. And marrying Ty Lee gets her there.
The door opens and Azula looks up to see Mai. The Fire Lady looks slightly perturbed and is sweating, but Azula does not care, nor does she desire to discuss it.
"May I kiss the bride?" her stepmother asks as she invites herself in.
Princess Azula smirks, glad she left the door slightly ajar. Maybe she was hoping for this.
She probably was.
"Maybe," Azula purrs before turning around to face the girl in a loose silk bathrobe.
"Yes. You know that you want to," Mai says and Azula laughs faintly. "I outrank you."
"No, you absolutely do not," Azula replies, screwing the bottle shut again.
"No, I think that I do," Mai continues, shutting the door.
Azula can see a discomfort in Mai's eyes, but if Mai has nothing to say about it, neither does Azula. Feelings, compassion, hugging, and anything else in that genre of nauseating familial behavior are not welcome amongst the royals and never have been.
"Then why do you ask for the privilege of kissing the bride?" Azula bats her eyelashes and Mai rolls her eyes.
Mai does not bother with Azula and her need for her ego to be stroked constantly, and just presses their lips together fiercely. Azula grabs her by the hips.
And Mai slides into Azula's lap with a ferocity that has been vacant from their encounters for a long time. The passionate, hurried grasping, licking and moaning drowns out Azula's thoughts of the political importance of her wedding and allows Mai to forget her conversation with Zuko.
After the burning tryst, Azula removes herself from Mai very slowly, catching her breath. The Fire Lady gazes up at the girl straddling her with calm but satisfied eyes. Azula looks much less contented.
Azula has no comment on the sex, no words of goodnight, and so she slips away after the silence.
"Hey, uh, Azula," Mai says reluctantly, remaining expressionless becoming difficult. "I sometimes care about you."
"I sometimes care about you too."
[X]
Azula wakes up the day of the wedding with a woman other than her fiancee in bed with her and her body purring with afterglow. Mai had stayed, which is unusual for her. But they had been particularly passionate. Azula gets dressed and leaves the crime scene of their tryst as quickly as she can.
It will take the entire morning to prepare she and Ty Lee for their wedding.
And Azula cannot suffer through the entire morning with this unbearable tension in her.
Today is pivotal; today is more important to Azula's career than any of her military battles.
She walks as quickly as she can to her fiancée's bedroom before they will be forced apart for the preparations.
In her room, Ty Lee looks at the crown and bouquet of Tiger's Bride flowers and wonders if she will be killed for that display. The rest of the wedding is all based on the type of wedding she constantly fantasized about and carefully planned in leather-bound journals of parchment. She never told anyone how much she loves weddings, how much she wanted one.
It didn't seem fitting.
But now she looks at what she has and is thrilled, even though that makes her stomach twist with guilt. The flowers, however, make Ty Lee smiles faintly into the mirror despite her fears. She toys with the damp, fresh blossoms and thinks about how everything will be draped in the secret symbol of the Rebellion.
Ty Lee wants to imagine that she can make up for the executions by decorating.
Her door opens and she wonders if she should hide the crown, but that would not do much good. It's Azula anyway. Azula, whom is the life raft Ty Lee is happy to cling onto.
"I know I'm not supposed to see you before the ceremony, but I couldn't help myself," Azula says sweetly and Ty Lee smiles a dreamy smile that the pleases the princess. "I don't care much for following rules; I prefer making them."
"I'm so nervous I'm just going to literally explode everywhere!"
"That sounds messy," Azula replies smoothly and Ty Lee rubs her forehead. She looks cute, kind of like a koala-panda. And flustered.
Azula is so nervous she wants to jump out of the window and run away to go live in the forest amongst the animals. But she has been taught how to properly conceal emotion, and knows that every second of today is going to be vital for her political career.
"I'm just... I hope it goes well," Ty Lee says with a nervous laugh and a plastic smile.
"As do I. My career and your life hinge on our behavior today," Azula purrs and Ty Lee grimaces with wide eyes.
Azula kisses Ty Lee before the acrobat can start screaming uncontrollably and hyperventilating. Ty Lee can feel the princess trembling slightly, and realizes that the nerves are mutual.
The moment the kiss breaks is when the beginning of the end begins.