opheliac
(xi-before i slip away)
The next evening, Zuko tells her that Uncle, with Toph Bei Fong, will be arriving at the capital tomorrow morning, followed shortly by a regiment of Kyoshi Warriors. She tells a scowling Sokka and a tense Mai to wait for her outside the sewer, with plenty of weapons and enough food to last them at least a few days, until she shows up. This part, she wants to do alone.
In order to make it believable, she must set the fire in several different places, but it must be centered in the waterbender's bedroom. When she slinks in through the secret passage, Katara is waiting for her, dancing nervously on her toes.
"Okay," she says, "how do we do this?"
Azula raises an eyebrow. "You don't do anything," she replies, and slips the waterskin from the girl's waist. "Except play the part, which you're clearly terrible at. You're supposed to be asleep, so dress like you've been in bed," she commands. Katara opens her mouth to argue, but Azula is right, so she changes, albeit not without a few extremely dark looks. While she's doing that, Azula empties the waterskin.
"Hey!" she cries, but Azula glares at her.
"You're a waterbender," she says, like it's obvious. "If you had this much water on-hand, would you really let your suite burn? Now, move, you'll need to escape through the main entrance, but I'll set the one in your room last. Give it a few minutes to catch, and then flee - it has to appear genuine, and if you're running before the fire has even caught, it'll be obvious that you were in on it."
"What if I get burned?"
"You're a healer, deal with it," she replies flippantly, and examines the bathroom. Katara, true to form, follows her.
"I don't like this," she says earnestly. "I really prefer Zuko's idea..."
"I really don't care." Azula smiles when she reaches the linen closet - perfect. Lots of cloth to catch fire, plenty of bath oils and soaps to feed the flame. She steps back and shoots a single ball of fire into the closet, and Katara ducks, wincing. She pauses to watch it for a moment, and make sure that it's caught, and is forced to duck as a bottle of oil explodes. It's beautiful.
They walk into the other rooms of the suite, Azula trailing fire as she goes. Katara yelps and leaps out of the way, clearly afraid that this assassination attempt is actually going to work, but Azula just rolls her eyes - it's not like she hasn't faced fire before. She's probably so worried because they're burning a nice palace suite rather than fighting in an open arena or practicing out in the fields. She lights up the powder room in one glorious movement, watching as the expensive silks and linens curl up on themselves and wither into ash. The whole place is beginning to cloud with acrid smoke; Katara covers her face with an arm and coughs.
"I think that's enough," she cries, and Azula is forced to reluctantly agree. She waltzes back into the bedroom and runs her hand against the wall, setting the beautiful tapestries alight as she does - this room used to belong to her, once upon a time, and there's something both sad and incredibly cathartic about destroying her childhood bedroom.
She bows to Katara and presses the little stone by the wardrobe. "All right, xiao mei," she trills, and she knows how frightening she must look right now - the wind funneling through the tunnels at her back, the firestorm whipping her hair and clothes into a frenzy, the brilliant orange light casting her features into sharp relief. "Time to narrowly and secretly escape with your life. Remember, you don't know about these passages."
"Okay," Katara cries, turning and fleeing through the flames. Azula closes the passage behind her and makes for the exit. Through the walls, she can hear the muffled sounds of panic rippling through the palace, shouts and screaming and the crackling of fire moving quickly through the halls, catching on the carpets and tapestries. It fades as she continues further down, where news of the fire hasn't reached yet, and then she's crawling into the sewers, where Mai and Sokka are waiting.
"Is Katara okay?" Sokka implores, and Azula waves a hand carelessly.
"Of course she is. Her room - or, should I say, my room - isn't, but that's kind of the point, no?" She opens the grate and slips out into the night, glancing back at the palace. The fire is visible from here, raging out of the window of Azula's old room. She feels a moment of near-maternal pride as she watches it lick and writhe against the stone, and then she turns to the street. "Mai, where are we meeting them?"
"Follow me," she says, and they make their way through the streets, which are beginning to arise with the realization that the palace is burning. Panic ripples through the nearest districts to the palace, but as they get farther and farther from the Caldera, the streets grow quieter; that is, until they reach the red-light district, which is just now settling into its liveliest time of night.
Sokka makes for the Staggering Naga, but Mai steers him away, to a slightly nicer pub called the Crimson Lion, whose doors are wide open. A woman dressed in beautiful red silks decorated with little copper coins - who Azula realizes suddenly is Praveena - whistles at them, bending backwards over a table. Mai ducks behind her hood and takes a seat at the nearest empty table to her.
"And what may I do for you this fine evening?" she asks, laying the accent on as thickly as she can, clearly playing up the exotic maiden angle to draw attention. It's certainly worked on Sokka, who can't articulate a response. Praveena notices and smiles, before pulling a silk scarf out of her sleeve and wrapping it around his neck, and falls into his lap with a light tinkling of the coins around her waist and on her top.
"It's done," Azula tells her in a low voice. "If you go to the palace now, you'll find them all trying to put out the fire in the waterbender's suite, which, point of fact, belonged to me when I was a child," she says, raising an eyebrow and making it sound like they owe her for doing this.
"Good, good," Praveena croons, and stretches (Sokka turns an odd color of red). "Upstairs, you will find that I have two apartments. Take one. In the morning, we will leave."
Azula nods, and then waves to one of the waitresses, who glares at Praveena until she shimmies away to distract other men. "Three glasses of shochu with hot water, if you please."
"Make that two," Mai says. "I'm not here to drink."
The waitress slinks away, making sure to catch Sokka's eye as she does. "What is shochu?" he asks quietly.
"It's alcohol," Mai drawls, wrinkling her nose. "It's disgusting."
"No, really?" Sokka says, rolling his eyes. "I never would have guessed that it was alcohol."
"Hush, children," Azula mutters, and then glances at Sokka. "It's just a liquor. It has a lovely nutty taste. It's the only alcohol worth drinking."
"It's horrid," Mai counters.
Azula bites back a scream of frustration - she had forgotten how annoying Mai's constant negativity could be. Really, she's doing her brother a favor by taking Mai off his hands. "Well," she says coolly, "you aren't having any. So be quiet."
Their drinks arrive and Azula almost squeals with glee. It's been too long, really, since she's been able to relax like this. At the table, the waitress sets the half-full glasses of water in front of them (Sokka pokes his curiously), and then uses a little burst of firebending to heat the water in each drink, before pouring the clear alcohol into the glasses with the water. It swirls briefly and then settles, a light steam rising from the drinks, smelling deliciously like hazelnuts. Azula breathes deeply and takes a sip - oh, she'll have to remember this pub in the future.
Sokka, however, isn't as enamored of the drink as she is, coughing hard and making a face as he swallows an overlarge gulp. The waitress giggles.
"You drink it slowly, sir," she offers. He beats his chest a couple of times and blinks hard. "Is this your first alcoholic drink?"
"No, no," he insists, although it's plain to see that it is. "Just... stronger than what I'm used to," he lies, completely without success. The waitress giggles again and whispers something in his ear before walking off, leaving Sokka red-faced.
"Let me guess, she just gave you her address?" Azula guesses, smirking.
"And... when she gets off work."
Azula laughs, "Well, look at that. You can have your very own clandestine one-night-stand. How does it feel?"
Mai raises an eyebrow and fidgets a little, as though she's beginning to wish she had something to do with her hands. "Are you going to go?" she asks, and Sokka yelps.
"What? No, of course not!"
"Why not?" Mai continues. "Most men would jump at the chance to have no-strings-attached sex with a pretty stranger."
"I..." he starts, and blanches, "don't do that."
"One-night-stands," Azula asks, sipping her drink, "or sex?"
"One-night-stands," he answers, glaring at her for the suggestion. "Sex, I do."
"Oh really?" she says, leaning on the table and smirking. "Do you, now?"
"I do," he repeats, and then coughs. "With my girlfriend."
"Aww," Mai says, falling back on familiarity, joining Azula in making fun of him, "a monogamist. How cute."
"Hey," he hisses, "you're one, too. You're all Zuko have my babies Zuko Zuko Zuko. You can't make fun of me."
Mai's eyes narrow at this, but Azula laughs outright. "He's right, you know," she tells Mai, who huffs. "Meanwhile," she says, stretching, "I have no such attachments. Ahh, freedom." She takes another sip of her drink. "You know, back at the palace, they're not having a good night."
"Do you think anyone was hurt?" Sokka asks, all humor vanishing at the thought. Azula shrugs.
"Do I care?" she replies. "Look, you're going to have to give up that 'all life is sacred' thing you've been doing with the Avatar," she tells him in a low voice. "You're on the kill-Zuko side, remember?"
"Yeah, but..." he begins, but she shushes him.
"Just deal with it. You were the one who wanted to go on this mission. I was perfectly content with it being just me and Mai."
"You know why I'm here," he says darkly.
"Right," Mai cuts in, "you're the babysitter, because you don't trust me. We get it. Drink your disgusting alcohol so I can go to bed." Sokka opens his mouth to argue, but decides the better of it, and sips at his drink distastefully.
"How can you enjoy this stuff?" he asks, coughing.
"It's an acquired taste," she replies carelessly.
"It's terrible, isn't it?" Mai asks, folding her hands together and leaning on the table. "Frankly, I think all alcohol is awful, but that swill is beyond disgusting."
"It's not... that bad," Sokka coughs, and Azula shrugs, daintily taking his glass from him.
"More for me, then," she says coolly, but Sokka glares at her and snatches it back. She raises an eyebrow. "Better than you thought?"
"It has a good aftertaste," he replies gruffly, and Azula laughs.
"Thought so. Just you wait, I'll turn you to my side eventually."
"Sure thing, Azula," he says, rolling his eyes. "When badgermoles fly."
"Hmm," she responds, tapping her chin, "I think I could arrange that, actually..."
In spite of himself, Sokka laughs at this. "That's a fantastic mental image," his cries. "A big badgermole with giant fake wings, like Aang's glider or something! That'd be awesome!" He stops laughting suddenly, and begins thinking. "Actually, that might not be so hard..."
"No," Mai says, cutting him off before he can start planning, "you cannot build badgermole wings."
"Why not? Give me one reason why not."
"Because you'll look like a moron, that's why. Not that that's any different for you," she adds, glancing sideways at him, "but I refuse to be associated with men who build wings for badgermoles."
Sokka glares at her, and looks to Azula for support, who hides her laughter behind her glass. "Now, now, Mai," she says lightly, "flying badgermoles could be very useful. They're the original earthbenders, you know."
Mai buries her face in her hands and groans.
A/N: I found myself facing a conundrum with regards to the Sokka/Azula development in the last chapter. Sokka does have something up his sleeve, but the problem is, Azula doesn't know about it, and since this is from her point of view... So, I want you to understand, it didn't just go away. I considered a few options to make this clearer early on but there was no way to segue into it without having Azula find out or making an abrupt narrative shift over to Sokka's point of view which, after ten chapters of solely being from Azula's, would be rather jarring. Also, I enjoy the Mai/Sokka/Azula dynamic kind of a lot. Review!