Azula sat in her usual seat for dinner, scowling like a thunderstorm. Everyone had been eating for some time, everyone except for her. She hadn't touched a thing as her storming eyes were locked on the old man sitting in the other room.
Mr. Chen was helping his wards with their meals. His movements were slower than usual and his expression forlorn. While in the middle of his charitable work, he turned his head slowly to glance into the other room. His eyes found hers.
Her brow lowered just a little bit more.
The old man's frown deepened. He turned back to his wards, his appearance all the more sadder.
She continued to glare daggers at him as the evening meal went on.
Before long, she was receiving puzzled, reticent looks from Mrs. Chen, Meilin and the other workers. Her pointed gaze wasn't making Mr. Chen appear any more guilty and it wasn't doing anything to improve her situation with the yakuza. When the looks she was catching began to feel oppressive, she gave a brief snort of contempt and broke her attention away from the corrupt old man's and turned to her meal.
As her left hand did not allow her to hold a bowl properly, she used a spoon instead of chopsticks to manipulate Katsumi's stir fry. The concoction was bland and thin on vegetables, containing no meat, poultry or fish; only bits of egg. It appeared the charity home's cook had not found all of her groceries.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Later that evening…
"I can't believe this!" Azula growled as she paced the floor of the small room shared between her and her two roommates. Dressed in her loose-fitting nightgown, she kept her arms straight and her back rigid to avoid aggravating her wounds.
Her heart pulsed and her blood ran hot. Despite her exhaustion, the encounter with the criminal leader, and the revelation about her caretaker's origins, infused her with newfound energy. She had lost all desire to escape into the nothingness of sleep.
"I was in the heart of my enemies all that time!" She continued to fume, raising her voice high enough to vent her rage but tempering herself so as not to rudely loud.
"I could have been killed! Or subdued! Or worse!" Her right hand was balled into a tight fist while her left hand remained splayed. She stopped at the wall by her futon, pivoted around carefully and resumed pacing.
Meilin and Katsumi were in the room with her, dressed in their night clothes too. Meilin sat on a floor cushion at the low table in the corner, her eyes on her agitated roommate while Katsumi sat at the room's only vanity, combing her long, black hair.
Azula halted abruptly when she arrived in the middle of the room. "Did you know Mr. Chen had ties to those criminals?!" She asked accusingly.
"No," Meilin answered meekly.
"Yes," Katsumi sighed.
Azula gaped at the young woman. "And you… Condone it?"
"Condone it?" Katsumi repeated in bewilderment. "Of course not! All I know is what Mrs. Chen told me, that he did some things for them a long time ago, like a lot of people have been forced to, and that he's been out of it for years. He's a good person now, Yuki. Not a criminal."
"Pfft! 'Good person'," Azula scoffed. "A 'good person' would never break the laws of the government, never mind the Fire Lord's!"
It would have been her father's, and Fire Lords' prior, laws the old man had broken. Not Zuko's.
"Uh huh," the young woman replied. "Like when you hurt all those people and burned those buildings?"
Azula sneered. "That's completely different!"
"Not according to the 'laws of the government' it's not."
"Whatever!" Azula grumbled. "He still brought me to those people! I bet Mr. Chen knew what they were going to ask me but he didn't expect I'd have so much self-respect!" She turned and gazed out the room's only window. It was propped open, allowing some of the cool night air through.
"What exactly did they want from you?" Katsumi asked puzzledly.
Azula's brow drew low in anger and her upper lip curled while her ears warmed with humiliation. "To be a courtesan in the wealthy districts," she muttered. Yuck!
"Oh… Really?" Katsumi's eyebrows raised a little and her expression softened. "Well that doesn't… That doesn't sound so bad."
Azula's jaw fell. "Excuse me?"
"I mean, I'm just saying," the young woman replied lightly. "They could have asked you for a lot worse. A courtesan is a lot better than… Well, other things. At least you'd be living in luxury and paid well. That's a lot more than this place can offer…"
The young woman's tone had been pleasant and encouraging as she described the seemingly positive aspects of what the criminals' had intended.
Azula's mouth gaped open in speechless shock. A moment later, her face scrunched in anger. "You dolt! I wouldn't be paid anything! I'd be an indentured servant for the rest of my life, only to be released if I'm married off to some rich man who'd pay for me!" She raised her voice louder than ever, all without removing her gaze from the window; she didn't want her eyes to see any part of the exposed mirror's reflection.
"Oh," Katsumi replied softly, running her brush a little bit slower as she realized her error. "Well… That last part doesn't sound so bad." Her tone brightened again and her brushing resumed it's prior pace. "I'd love to marry someone rich."
If her jaw hadn't been attached to her skull, it would have hit the floor. "WHAT?!" Her voice cracked.
Katsumi closed her eyes and breathed a long sigh, shaking her head softly and muttering something unintelligible. Meanwhile, Meilin's green eyes switched back and forth between her arguing roommates, her expression anxious and uncertain. Then, her face hardened with resolve.
"Well, I think you made the right choice, Yuki!" She voiced her side of the argument decisively. "I doubt it's as good as Katsumi thinks it is. Besides, I'm sure they'd find some way of taking advantage of you. I should know since I have some experience with that." She hot her dark-haired roommate a pointed look from across the room. Both of their faces were visible to each other in the mirror. The young woman averted her eyes.
"So what are you going to do, Yuki?" Katsumi pressed for an answer.
"Pfft. Nothing," she scoffed and lowered her voice. "I'll never submit to those fiends…"
Katsumi gave another quiet sigh.
"And just what was that?!" Azula fired hotly.
"I didn't say anything," the eldest roommate replied.
"You sounded disappointed!" She accused, her temper rising.
Katsumi sighed again, this time setting her hair brush down and turning in her chair to face her younger roommate. "Look, Yuki, you have to do something about these yakuza. They aren't just going to go away."
Azula chuckled… Darkly. "What are you talking about? I am going to do something."
Katsumi's brow wrinkled in confusion. "And what's that?"
Azula's eyes narrowed and she smirked at the window. "I'm going to obliterate them from the face of the Earth if they lay a hand on me."
Katsumi groaned and hung her head.
"What, you don't approve?!"
"I don't think it will work," the young woman clarified. "What if you're killed? What if they capture you? What if we get caught up in it?"
"Pfft!" She continued to scoff. "Why would this be any of yours' problem? I'm the one who has to be punished! I'm the one who the universe is laughing at!"
"Well, Miss Dramatic Pants," the young woman taunted. "It became our problem when I told you repeatedly not to fight them, but you did, and when I helped drag you out of the square with your blood on my hands!"
Azula cringed at the memory. "Well…!" She rejected the woman's comment faster than she could prepare a response. Katsumi was right; she hadn't listened to her. "… Well, you sounded like a capitulating coward at the time!" She argued back. "There was no reason for me to listen to you then."
"Coward?!" Katsumi's repeated, sounding completely offended. "Capitu… Capitu-what?" She didn't understand the word. She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Never mind. This is our problem too, Yuki," she took a more measured tone. "It's not just your safety that's in danger, but all of ours."
"So you only care because it effects you and not just me?!"
"No, all of us," the young woman almost grunted as she tried to get her angry, teenage roommate to understand. "You're living here too, remember? What if they come here? Are we all firebenders who can fight like you?" She paused for her point to sink in. "… No? Exactly."
Azula's face didn't soften but her temper cooled. This house was her new home and she had no alternatives. These people were her caretakers too and were supposed to be in charge of; they knew about life in the city, where to go, who to speak to, and who and where to avoid. They also knew how to cook. She did not. She didn't have an answer to the young woman's logic. "… Fine," relented. "What do you suggest I do?"
"Well…" Katsumi began delicately, glancing away. "I think you should… Seriously consider… Doing… What they… Asked… Of you…"
Horror, outrage and shock surged through Azula's veins. Her eyes bulged and her jaw fell again. "WHAT?!" Her voice cracked to its highest level yet. She was so enraged she could have blasted through the roof! Instead, she spun around violently to face her presumptuous roommate, all while forgetting to avoid twisting her back.
Her words of protest died on her lips, replaced by a single, choked grunt of pain from the back of her throat. Her body froze. Tears welled in her eyes.
Katsumi's gaze was averted to avoid the withering glare she expected from the younger, fiery teen. She could only see the newcomer's face out the corner of her eye. For some reason, she had fallen silent. Katsumi sighed. "Look, Yuki, I know you don't want to hear this, but accepting their offer is the safest thing for everybody, including you. If there's one thing everyone knows about the yakuza, it's that they're not going to turn down a chance to make money or get revenge, and no offense to you Meilin—" She glanced at her foreign-born friend. "—But they're not going to treat Yuki like they did you. She's just too valuable. I don't want you, or Yuki, or anybody else hurt by these people." She turned her head to meet her new roommate's eyes, and frowned at what she saw.
Yuki's body was rigid and her right hand was balled into a white-knuckled fist. Her lips quivered and her eyes blinked rapidly as silent tears trickled down her cheeks. Her face was altogether strained and wrung with pain.
"Are you okay?" Katsumi asked tenderly.
After a few silent moments, "… No," Azula croaked, her voice weak and shaky. She inhaled a sharp breath and winced, baring her teeth and screwing her eyelids closed. She whimpered.
Katsumi averted her eyes in shame. "I'm sorry, Yuki," she murmured. "I know this is awful for you. I understand why you see things differently… " Her voice trailed away.
Meilin frowned at Yuki's apparent agony. She rose and stood alongside her new companion. "What's wrong?" She asked softly.
"My… Back," she answered stiffly through her teeth. She was frozen in place.
Meilin moved to the back of her injured roommate and grabbed the bottom of her nightgown. She raised it carefully to expose Yuki's backside and inspect the wounds. "I see some new blood," the Earth Kingdom teen noted delicately, finding bright red trails leaking from the black, crisscrossing threads. "I think you should lay down..."
"I can't!" Azula hissed, her face transforming back into an angry scowl as the worst of the pain began to subside. "I'm too angry!" The pain in her back was like a thousand razor blades slicing her all over and the fire in her heart made her want to explode like a volcano. Neither feelings were going away anytime soon.
Meilin lowered her roommate's nightgown gently. With stiff movements, Azula turned and shuffled her feet gingerly across the floor until she arrived at the wall nearest the window. She leaned forward and rested her forehead against the wall, her face wrought with pain and exhaustion. God, I'm crying in front of these people! AGAIN! She grimaced as another wave of horrendous pain surged through her wounds, like a white-hot rake dragging across her skin. "God!" She gasped sharply. "It hurts so much!"
Meilin frowned deeply as specks of blood began to show through her roommate's thin, white cotton gown. She said nothing about it, though, lest it upset her roommate even more. Instead, she turned her attention to her other native-born companion.
"Come on, Kat!" She chided her older friend. "Can't you be more supportive?! She saved us twice today and stopped our things from being stolen!"
"Yeah, she did…" Katsumi agreed tentatively.
"You should be proud of Yuki! Ever since I've been here, I've been pushed around like what happened in the square! I've seen those jerks push you around and the other wards! And here comes Yuki not even thinking twice about stopping them!"
"But that's the whole point," the eldest roommate argued back. "She should have thought twice. It made things worse."
"So I should have been beaten up and had our things stolen?"
"Of course not but it's always worked out before."
Meilin rolled her eyes. "Well, I know if I could bend, I would have done the exact same thing!"
The young woman sighed. "So you could have your back torn up by a fire whip and be turned into a woman of pleasure again?"
Meilin scowled. "Yes!" She answered stubbornly. "At least I'd have scars I could be proud, instead of all these useless things I have across my body!"
"Don't say that about yourself," Katsumi spoke tenderly.
"Why?! It's true! I'm proud of what Yuki did!" She turned to her new firebending roommate and bestowed a triumphant smile on her backside. "And I think she's right to turn those yakuza down. Let them come after her. I'm sure she'll beat up them again." Her lips curved into a devious smirk.
Azula blinked her half-lidded eyes at the wall. Unbelievable. The non-bending Earth Kingdomer is the only one who is appreciative of me. Absolutely unbelievable.
Katsumi winced puzzledly at her younger, typically meek friend. "Where's this coming from all of a sudden?"
Her question went unanswered as a rap sounded on the door.
"Meilin? Kat? Is Yuki there?" Another girl's muffled voice emanated from outside.
Katsumi sat straight. "Yes." She replied. "Why?"
"Can we come in?" The voice followed.
"Um…" The young woman looked to her injured, and irritable, roommate. "Is that okay, Yuki?"
Azula gave an exasperated sigh. "Sure, why not?" She answered sarcastically. "It's not like I'm going to bed anytime soon!"
Katsumi grimaced at the comment but figured it meant 'yes'. "Yes, you can come in," she instructed the voice at the door.
Azula heard the door swing open and three sets of footsteps shuffle inside. She glowered at the wall. "Come to take your turns chastising me?!" She questioned the unseen newcomers.
"Huh?" The girl sounded absolutely puzzled. "No way! We wanted to hear what happened!" She exclaimed excitedly.
Azula's face softened in puzzlement. "… What?"
The door closed and she heard the three visitors take positions some place behind her. The girl spoke again but, this time, her chipper tone faltered.
"Oh… You have blood on your shirt," she said with dismay.
Azula rolled her eyes. "Gee, I wonder why?"
"So you really were flogged by a fire whip?" An older teenage boy's voice asked.
"Sure was!" She replied in a singsong tone. Ugh! Where is this going?
The teen boy fell silent for a moment. "How are you standing right now?" He asked in utter bewilderment.
Azula peered at the wall in vague confusion, not understanding the line of questions or their fascination with the topic. "By using my own two legs. How else?"
Meilin snickered at her remark.
The teenage boy looked up and down his housemates backside. "Geez…" He replied in a tone of amazement.
"Did you really take down four yakuza all on your own?" A different girl's voice questioned, older and more mature than the first's.
"And did you really stop four people from beating up Meilin, with your bare hands?" The first girl butt in.
"And are you really that powerful of a firebender?"
"And did you really punch Hao in the stomach and break a shopkeeper's nose?"
"And did Mr. Chen really take you to the yakuza but you told them 'no'?"
One after another, the questions flew and her head spun with confusion. A queasy knot began to turn in her belly. 'Powerful firebender'? Beating people up? All on my own? Oh God! I haven't revealed something about myself have I?!
"Wait, wait, wait—hold on," she tried to silence them. "STOP!" She barked.
The three voices fell quiet.
Her jaw worked as she tried to formulate a response. Finally, she took a deep breath and turned around to face the visitors.
It was the three other similar-aged charity workers: the Chen's two granddaughters, Chiyo and Jing, along with the other, older, teenage boy Rong. For some reason, Hao wasn't with them. Probably because he knew the story… Physically.
Azula searched their faces. "Why are you so interested this?" She asked quietly, tensely, masking her suspicion. "You apparently already know what happened."
All three of them appeared amused and smiled at her. "Uh, because what you did was amazing?!" Mr. Chen's youngest granddaughter Chiyo said with a big, bright grin.
Azula's brow lowered in puzzlement.
"Yeah, Yuki," Jing began in her slightly deeper, more mature voice. "I've been out with Meilin and the wards lots of times. I hate it when she gets harassed or the wards get picked on, but I bet you sent a loud message to everyone!"
Azula's head tilted. Her confusion did not abate.
"How did you fight all those people?" Rong asked with curiosity and disbelief. "You only have one arm and—" He cut himself off and shut his mouth quickly. He appeared embarrassed.
Azula's eyes narrowed. "And what?"
Rong rubbed the back of his neck. "And, um… Scrawny…"
She shot the older, male teen a dull, open-mouthed look.
"So how did you get so good at firebending?" The much younger Chiyo inquired.
"And martial arts, too." Jingo added. "You don't look like the kind of person who'd be good at that."
Her gut tensed. I'm supposed to HIDE my abilities!
They resumed asking questions, like how does one propel oneself forward with fire? And how do you break things like glass and wood since isn't fire wispy and soft? And how come her clothes and sandals didn't burn when she produced flames? And does creating fire make you tired? And what colors of fire can she make? And—
Her mind rang every alarm. Get them off this subject now! RIGHT NOW!
"HOW COME NONE OF YOU ARE ANGRY?" She raised her voice above all of theirs.
Their line of questioning ceased and they all peered at her quizzically. She stared at every one of them and lowered her voice to a more conversational volume. "All day people have been scolding me about this, but not any of you… Why?"
The Chens' youngest granddaughter let out a huff of amusement. "Angry?" She chuckled. "No way! What you did was awesome!"
"Yeah!" Chiyo's older sister chimed. "I never thought we'd have someone like you living with us!"
Her suspicion reignited. "And just what kind of person am I?" She forced herself to ask in a pleasant tone, hiding the panic and terror squirming within.
Chiyo smiled. "A fighter."
The tension melted from her face and the knot loosened. "Oh," she said quietly. She wasn't sure how to respond.
"Tell us the story, Yuki!" Chiyo pleaded, smiling expectantly and clenching her fists in anticipation. "Please? I want to hear it from you!"
"Yes!" Jing agreed. "There hasn't been this much excitement around here in… Well, forever!"
"Seriously, though," Rong said. "Did you really have to punch Hao?"
She gulped and remained silent. She started to feel uneasy again. She didn't know how much to tell them or what even to say…
"Okay, come on, guys," Katsumi arrived at her overwhelmed roommate's defense. "It's late and Yuki is in a lot of pain. Can't this wait until tomorrow?"
"Aww, come on, Yuki!" Chiyo moaned. "Please?"
The three of them all had their eyes on her. She stayed quiet, then, after a few moments, she took a deep breath and sighed. "Actually, Kat is right. I am tired and it hurts to breath, let alone out speak."
"Aww…" Chiyo frowned in childish disappointment. "So tomorrow then?"
"Maybe." She didn't want to quash all of their hope.
"When do you get your stitches out?" The younger teen girl asked.
"In a week. Why?"
"Oh, that's pretty soon. Good! That's when we'll celebrate."
"Uh… Celebrate?" Azula's brow wrinkled. "Celebrate what?"
"You standing up to them of course! We'll take you somewhere nice once your stitches are removed and your back is better. It's the least we can do to thank you."
Azula's head tilted again. Celebrate, her mind repeated the word. Me? Something began to glow inside her, something she couldn't describe.
The youngest granddaughter opened the door. "Good night, Yuki!" She said cheerfully. "Can't wait to hear your story! You too Meilin and Kat!"
"Good night," her two roommates replied, as did the two other visitors.
The three charity home workers exited the room as quickly as they had arrived and shut the door behind them. Once more, Azula was in the privacy of her room and company of her two roommates.
Meilin turned to Katsumi. "See? I'm not the only one." She placed her hands on her hips and smirked triumphantly at her older friend.
The young woman did not visibly share her younger friend's sentiment. She shifted her eyes to Yuki's. "How many weeks did you say you have until the yakuza come after you?"
"Three," Azula replied as she continued to gaze at the door. "But that's not your concern. I might as well celebrate before my impending doom, right?"
Meilin giggled at the comment while Katsumi simply rolled her eyes, shook her head and returned to expressing concern about her new roommate's decision to keep handing the yakuza with violence and casual disregard.
Azula stopped listening. She continued to marvel at the exchange that had just occurred between her and her other housemates: their faces, what they had said, how they said it. They didn't criticize her. They didn't tell her she was wrong or how much trouble she was in. They didn't look afraid, or worried, or dismissive…
They were excited about what she had done.
They were smiling at her.
They were…
Happy... Genuinely proud of me… Wanted to be with me…
Her heart glowed as the light of their admiration dawned.
… And they don't know I'm royalty.
For the first time since her heartache began, she felt the tingling, tranquil warmth of a smile.
A real smile.