Suyin stood waiting by the door ten minutes earlier than Azula had told her. She'd tried to be reasonable about it and arrive on time, but found that she could not focus on anything. What holes she'd darned in her stockings came out sloppy and much too loose, and she, frustrated, undid all her stitches and then discarded the stocking to the side, opting to work on it another day, when she could actually get some proper work done.

She couldn't stop thinking about Azula. What she'd told her before weighed heavy on her mind, and though she could not pinpoint what it was that alarmed her so - for Ursa had been gone five years now, and what hurt Azula still felt was surely not the cause of her anxiety in this moment - she could not shake her worries. After all, she was meeting with the Fire Lord, not the late Fire Lady. But still, the unease remained weighing on her like the hold of a vice on her heart.

And so she found herself waiting for the princess earlier than they'd established. The ten minutes passed incredibly slowly, but worse yet were the minutes that followed. Azula was always incredibly punctual when it came to her duties, but something like this - that is, meeting with her father - was certainly less of a duty and more of a personal endeavor.

There was no one in this corridor save for her and two guards. Though the servants were still working at this hour, there was no bustle of imperial officers or visiting nobility passing through the main halls of the palace at this time. The two men guarding the doorway did not pay Suyin any mind; they didn't speak at all, but stood erect with a regal solemnity to them, even in this quiet lull of nothing happening. Unlikely as it was - they always had to be prepared for a surprise attack or assassination attempt or anything that could endanger not only the Fire Lord, but his one remaining heir as well.

Minute passed minute, each feeling like it was an eternity longer than the one that came before it, until Suyin finally heard the click of the door opening. She looked up with a start, instinctively almost glad to see Azula, but it was not the princess who left that room. In that eternal second, the Fire Lord's gaze settled on her, intimidating yet impassive, and it, like a bolt of lightning, traveled down her spine and seemed to freeze her very feet to the ground.

She bowed her head as soon as she was able to regain control herself again, and it was only by the sound of his gradually quieting footsteps that she knew he was walking away. That's right - he thought little of servants. There was absolutely nothing he'd want from her, nothing he could ever want from her, Suyin reminded herself. He hadn't said anything; his gaze had remained on her for only a few seconds. Regardless, she hated seeing him, even if only in passing. The novelty of actually seeing the Fire Lord, the leader of their great nation, had quickly worn off - within the first week or so of her work - and had been, instead, replaced with that vague unease at his presence.

She could not imagine spending a whole dinner with him. She did not know how Azula managed. But it was different for the princess, she knew. They were on a near-equal social standing and had blood ties between one another. If anyone felt comfortable in Fire Lord Ozai's presence - it was surely Azula.

Finally, the princess came out of the room after that. She cast Suyin a look, and though it resembled that of the Fire Lord (they were certainly related, judging solely by their expressions) it was much softer, somehow, and didn't fill Suyin with that same sort of dread.

They did not speak as they walked back. The echo of footsteps was their only companion as they walked back to the room, reverberating against those glorious, daunting walls of the palace. Suyin wanted to ask Azula about the dinner, but figured that whatever the answer was, the palace halls were not the place for any such conversation. Empty as they were at this time of evening, there was no telling who might overhear their words. Besides - Suyin doubted it was her place to ask the princess for any such details in the first place…

"Get me out of these clothes." Azula broke the silence as soon as they were back in the room, while Suyin was still locking the door behind them. "They're terribly uncomfortable."

"Of course."

Suyin was by her side as soon as she was able. Azula stood by the foot of the bed without any of the impatience from before, when Suyin had hurried to dress her. The undressing was easier, too, and without a time limit looming over them, it did not cause much stress. While the clothes she usually wore on a day-to-day basis were simple enough that the princess could, if she so wished, dress herself, this formal attire was not so straightforward. There were so many fastenings on the back, in places that she couldn't reach, that it was quite physically impossible for anyone to dress or undress without the help of another person.

Her clothes were not disheveled in the slightest, Suyin noticed, though she didn't quite understand why that realisation filled her with relief. Such formal attire was all incredibly intricate, with dozens upon dozens of hidden bows and tiny buttons to keep it all in place. As for the bows - Suyin recognised them as her own handiwork.

That's right - the dinner had only lasted a little over an hour. There wouldn't have been time for her to undress and then redress, at least not to this degree of perfection. Not without a maid there to help her back into it.

She almost felt bad for even entertaining the notion. She was certainly glad she hadn't voiced it to anyone.

"How was your dinner, princess?" Suyin asked as casually as she could muster, as she worked on undressing her.

"Fine."

Azula's curt reply did not tell her much.

Suyin chewed her lip. "I'm glad." She said. She did not know what else to say.

But at least Azula didn't seem particularly upset. It was that that soothed her worries. For while she remained silent, stewing, curt, this certainly wasn't the first time Suyin had seen her in such a mood. Perhaps it was nothing at all. Perhaps it was simply that she was still upset from what she'd shared with Suyin about her mother, and that those thoughts hung about her like a dark cloud all throughout the royal meal.

"How often do you dine with the Fire Lord?"

"Whenever he has time." Azula responded. She shrugged the juban off of her shoulders before Suyin could grasp it, and it fell to the ground. Suyin could see goosebumps rise on her pale skin under the touch of cool air. "And when he's in a good mood."

So, at his own whims, Suyin guessed. This was the first time she'd seen them dine together, though she remembered Azula had told her about this once, already so long ago. That they dined together, sometimes, though it was much rarer than Azula had first led her to believe. She left the clothes on the ground for now, and helped the princess into her night robe, before she became chilled enough to turn to her firebending for warmth.

"I see."

"Oh, don't look so worried." Azula's expression changed suddenly, to one of amusement, of disbelief. She sat down before the vanity. "I enjoy these dinners. They're very familial. Now it's just me and Father, but back when Mother and Zuko were still here, we'd eat almost every meal together."

Suyin helped her take off all her jewelry, placing it, for now, on the vanity desk. The royal hairpin joined the rest, and Suyin took out all the pins holding her topknot in place, and brushed out her hair until it shone like spilled ink down her back, as she listened to the princess speak.

"That was before he became Fire Lord, of course. Now he's far busier than he once was, and so we don't eat together as much. But I'm just grateful he makes time for us to spend together, outside of war meetings at all. Everyone else left me, but not him. Not Father. Of course I'd do anything for him."

Suyin set the hairbrush down. Wet the washcloth and cupped the princess' face to turn towards her, to wash the makeup off of her face. There was an emptiness in Azula's eyes. No- not an emptiness. A loneliness? She couldn't quite tell, but it left her heart aching at the sight, at her words. She was overcome by an incredible urge to comfort her. To ask what it was that she meant when she said she'd do anything for him. To ask what it was he asked of her at fourteen years of age that she regarded him with such utter devotion.

"I'm not going to leave you, princess." Suyin promised.

She wasn't even sure why she said that. Her leaving was, ultimately, not so much up to her as up to Azula. Of course, she was free to leave her station at any given time, but from what she knew, it was almost always Azula who dismissed the previous handmaids, rather than them choosing to do so on their own. Not to mention - she was only a servant. Her presence surely did not mean anything in comparison to that of her long lost mother or her banished brother. Nor even to that of her friends. Maybe it meant nothing to the princess at all - but she'd been so overcome by the urge to comfort her that the words formed all on their own and spilled from her lips before she'd even thought to catch them.

Azula held her gaze. For a moment, Suyin thought she would laugh, that the ridiculousness of her sentence had stunned her into silence, but she didn't. Her expression softened, somehow. "Good," she stated. "See to it that you don't."

They settled back into an almost comfortable silence, in comparison to the tension from before. Finally, Suyin finished washing her face, and with that, the princess was ready for bed. She climbed in and settled herself under the covers as Suyin began to tidy up the room. She picked the clothes off of the floor to hang them back in the closet, and then set to putting away all the little items spread out on the vanity table-

"Leave them." Azula instructed, waving her off. "You can clean up tomorrow morning. I want to sleep."

"Are you sure, princess?" Suyin furrowed her brows.

It was not like her at all to sleep in a messy room. Nor would it take her long to put everything away. If Azula simply waited for a few minutes, or read in bed for a little while, Suyin would be finished in under ten minutes and then would be well on her way. But Azula knew that well enough - she'd seen it happen every night for the past few months, after all.

"I'm certain. I just want to sleep right now."

Suyin nodded slowly. It was not her place to question her - at least, not any more than she already had - so she left the earrings and hairbrush and dirty washcloth on the vanity table. She'd put them away tomorrow, while the princess was training in the courtyard. She'd have more than enough time to take care of it then.

"Good night, princess."

Azula didn't reply. She always greeted her or thanked her or bid her good-night according to her own whims, so Suyin was not unaccustomed to her words going unresponded to, but she'd shown her such courtesy more often than not over the passing weeks. It left her with a bitter feeling in her chest now that she did not respond. Had Suyin prodded too far? Or was Azula simply in a mood? She couldn't tell, not at all.

Suyin blew out all the lanterns save for one, which she picked up and took to her adjacent room, leaving the princess alone in the dark without another word.