…
"Master Katara, wait up!"
Katara let out a silently-suffering sigh and turned back toward the Avatar as he ran to catch up with her before she left the training courtyard. She had almost made it to the door before he called her to stop! Katara did her best not to interact with him any more than her teaching required. But the Avatar was insistent, it would seem, to foil her plans.
When he was a few yards away he slowed to a walk, suddenly looking less sure.
Katara hoped he wasn't going to ask her to dinner again. She could hardly fathom what he'd been thinking!? That she was just at liberty to go and do as she pleased? Did he not know that not all foreigners in the Fire Nation were as privileged and free as he was?!
While he wore jewels, she wore chains.
The Avatar stopped a few paces away and held a scroll towards her — a waterbending scroll it would appear from the emblem on the outside. "I brought this for you…" he said with a shy smile.
Katara caught his eye for a moment, before she pointedly looked away. It was a pretty undeniable fact that the Avatar was an attractive man. This fact just added to Katara's irritation at him.
Katara eyed the scroll in his hand to avoid looking at the dimple that emerged when he cocked that half-smile.
"I thought you might be interested to see it," he said.
Katara felt a jolt of surprise when she looked more closely and noticed that the symbol on the outside was the Southern Water Tribe's symbol, not the North's. Instead of a crescent moon and ocean waves, this one had just waves with three swirling crests at the top.
"Is that… a Southern waterbending scroll?" she asked a little incredulously. Katara had never seen a Southern waterbending scroll. All such waterbending artifacts had long since been pilfered or destroyed from her tribe, before she'd even been born.
"Yeah, it is!" the Avatar said enthusiastically. "There are only a few of these in the library; most are Northern Style. But I wondered if… you know, maybe, you'd be… interested…" his enthusiasm gradually gave way to insecurity, like he was second-guessing his decision to bring this to her.
"Interested in what?" his insecurity was giving rise to trepidation in herself as well.
"Well, in reading it. And then maybe we could…" The Avatar's hand rubbed the back of his neck shyly. "…discuss it afterwards? Like just to talk. I don't have a lot of free time, but everyone's got to eat right? Maybe we could talk about it over lunch or something?"
And there it was.
An invitation she wasn't even sure she was free to accept.
Not that she would even if she could…
Katara wasn't stupid; she'd noticed the way he'd blushed and flirted around her. She had valiantly ignored it. She'd gotten used to these kinds of reactions from other men— but the Avatar?! It seemed a very cruel irony.
Katara stole another glance at his face. The uncertain anticipation so obvious in his expression was almost comical. At least she might laugh, if this wasn't who it was. And she didn't hate him.
She looked back at the scroll and felt her hands itch to snatch it greedily from his hand. Her curiosity reared. But she resisted. Worried about the strings attached.
Sensing her hesitation, Avatar Aang held the scroll out closer to her. "You can just take it," he said. "No need to eat with me or anything… that was just, you know," his bashfulness was infuriatingly endearing, "just an idea." The rosy spots on his cheeks made him look much younger than he was.
Katara really did want to read the scroll. Like really wanted to! She glanced back at it in the Avatar's hands.
And she took it from him. "Thank you," she murmured.
The Avatar smiled hugely, "Oh sure! Anytime!" he swung his arms like he was trying to be casual, but the movement just looked a little goofy. "I'd do anything for you, Master Katara!" His face burned even redder. "I mean, not anything anything, like I wouldn't steal you away or anything!"
Her eyes opened wide in surprise at that suggestion. His face froze as though his ears had just now discovered what his mouth had said.
Then the Avatar scrambled rapidly to backpedal. "I mean, not steal you. I don't know why I said that. Not like I could own you. I mean, no one owns you. Besides yourself I mean…" the more he talked the more he blushed and the more he moved away from her, walking backward. "Just forget I said anything!" he finally said rubbing the side of his neck, the blue tattoos on his uplifted forearm putting the red of his ears in stark contrast.
Katara couldn't help it, she laughed out loud. She tried to stifle it, but the Avatar's awkward bumbling was more than she could take. "I'll read this," she said holding up the scroll and suppressing a smile. "And thank you." She then turned and walked the rest of the way out of the arena, shaking her head in wonder at the interaction.
She thought she heard the Avatar smack something. She glanced back to see a red mark emerging over the blue arrow on his forehead.
The Avatar's lack of… smoothness was somewhat… what? Endearing? She didn't know. But rather than explore those thoughts, instead she simply clutched her prize to her chest and hurried through the giant arena doors into the outer vestibule. She could not wait to read it! The hunger she felt to know more about her Southern ancestor's waterbending was almost physical.
As the closure of the giant doors reverberated through the room, Katara blinked, letting her eyes adjust to the dimness from the sunshine outside. The guard with her manacles came forward as always. She extended one hand at a time to be chained, switching the scroll from one hand to another.
"What do you have there?" a familiar arrogant voice drawled. Involuntarily, Katara clutched the scroll closer to her chest, causing the chains at her wrists to clink together.
But she couldn't hide it. And she knew that trying to would be fruitless.
Counselor Zhao's eyes narrowed. "Where did you get that scroll?" he asked suspiciously.
Katara opted for the truth. "Avatar Aang gave it to me," she replied, a tone of defiance in her voice.
Zhao clucked. "Oh no, I don't think so. Exchanging gifts with the Avatar certainly falls outside of 'Protocol'."
He reached for the scroll. Katara turned her shoulder to him, preventing him from taking it. His eyes flared in anger.
"Give. Me. The. Scroll." he commanded.
"It's not a gift," Katara defended. "He just gave it to me to borrow. I'll read it and give it back. No harm done."
"I'll decide what does and doesn't cause harm," Zhao replied. Then he moved forward and snatched the scroll from her fingers. The edge of the scroll cut her finger as it left her hands. A small line of red opened up with a sting.
"Remember your place, water-wench!" Zhao spat.
Katara looked at her empty hands, and the red line where the paper from the scroll had cut her. Tears began to sting in her eyes, but not from pain. From disappointment — she had been more excited to read the scroll than she'd even admitted to herself — and from anger. To be so trapped and powerless!
Zhao turned toward the doors to the arena, ready for the guards to open the hulking doors.
"I wonder what the Avatar will say when I tell him you didn't let me read the scroll…?" Katara said, a lightness in her voice that defied the boiling anger she felt underneath. "I wonder what reason I might tell him for you to take it away? Maybe he would begin to question other things as well…"
Zhao's shoulders stiffened. Katara let the reckless, veiled threat in her words hang between them.
"What other things doesn't the Avatar know?" she asked airily, gambling on the possibility that the Avatar was more sequestered and ignorant than the world assumed. After all, he didn't seem to know about the chains she wore. Katara had a hunch that this man's power was more a tangent to the Avatar's power than anything substantial by itself.
Zhao held a hand up stopping the guards from opening the great doors. Then he turned toward her, his face red with anger.
"You worthless savage! You dare threaten me!?"
Katara let her eyebrows raise in mock surprise. Looks like her hunch was right. "Threat? I didn't threaten anyone."
Zhao's eyes darted to the side and then back to her, belaying his doubt. And she knew that she had hit her mark. He feared.
Composing himself, he turned to face her fully. He stood to his full height and walked toward her. Counselor Zhao was a tall man, and she fell into the shadow of his hulking frame as he approached her slowly. He didn't stop when he ought to, but took one or two steps closer to her than propriety allowed. It was all Katara could do not to step back; but she stood her ground as he glared down at her. She could feel the heat radiating from his body.
With their proximity, the expression on his face changed, an appraising look arching in his eyebrow as he looked her over. She felt dirty. But she didn't step backward.
The scroll was shoved downward into her hands, all the while Zhao kept his own hand fisted on the other end of it.
"On second thought," Zhao drawled lazily, a false lightness in his voice that mimicked the one she'd used. "Perhaps there is no harm in you borrowing this. However," he let his voice drop so that only she could hear; it seemed the temperature in the room dropped with it. "If you think you can threaten me, wench, you will find that you have tangled with the wrong man!"
He glared down at her for a long moment before he finally let go of the scroll and turned back toward the doors. Nodding lightly to the guards they hauled the doors open and he walked confidently through them, not sparing her a backward glance.
But she knew. She knew that she had him. Proximity to the Avatar had made Zhao powerful. But it could give her power too, she now realized. Zhao wasn't the only one who could use the Avatar as a pawn for their own advantage.
Katara knew that being granted close proximity to the Avatar was a singular opportunity, one that granted power just by the potential it provided. It was also a dangerous place to be — one that she knew had cost more than one person their lives. She knew she was playing a deadly game.
But no matter. Deadly games weren't exactly new territory for Katara.
Katara looked down at the scroll in her hand. A flash of guilt fluttered through her as she thought of the guileless boy inside the arena. But she squashed the feeling. Soundly. She hated him after all. And she was being used. Why not use him?
She smiled as all traces of regret left her.
…
He's late. Azula thought irritably as she lounged on the plush red velvet chaise in Aang's room.
"I wonder where Aang is?" Ty Lee gave voice to Azula's own thoughts. Azula glanced at the acrobat who was currently lifting up into a handstand on the bottom rail of the Avatar's bed. "I wonder why he's not back yet?"
Azula sat back into the lounge, careful to look nonchalant, vigilant not to let the impatience she felt show in her demeanor. "Maybe he's visiting that stupid bison of his. Think he fell asleep in the straw again like he used to?" Azula quipped in a mocking tone.
She hid her impatience perfectly, but Azula was irked by how anxious she was to see Aang. Mocking him seemed the best way to mask her feelings. Where was he?
Just then she heard the door handle twist. Without meaning to she sat up expectantly, before commanding her body to recline back again. Mustn't appear too invested.
As Aang walked through the door, Ty Lee flipped over backward off the bed frame to land lightly on her feet and ran to throw her arms around the Avatar with a squeal. "Oh Aangy! It's sooooo good to see you!"
Azula tried not to gag at Ty Lee's pet name. Aangy.
After a moment of surprise at being tackle-hugged unexpectedly in his own room, Aang laughed and hugged Ty Lee back. "Hi, Ty Lee! I didn't know you were back from the Earth Kingdom. When did you get here?"
"Just this afternoon!" Ty Lee bubbled. "This last assignment felt sooooo loooong. It's good to be back in the Fire Nation at last!"
"Well I'm glad you're back!" Aang enthused. "I missed you."
Azula cleared her throat loudly. High time attention was brought to where it belonged: on her. "Did you now? I assume you missed us both?" she asked acerbically.
"Oh! Azula. I didn't see you there." Aang let go of Ty Lee and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly in that annoying quirk of his. "Of course. It's good to see you too."
Azula felt a particular irritation, a new unnamed disquiet. Of course she'd known about Aang and Ty Lee's fling a couple of years ago – they'd been idiots to try to hide it from her. During one of her subsequent assignments abroad she had wheedled the whole story out of Ty Lee. So Azula knew the full extent of their little tête-à-tête, AND that it was a thing of the past. But for some reason the continued warmth between Ty Lee and the Avatar bothered her. There was an easiness between the two of them that, no matter what social strategies Azula implemented, eluded her in her own association with the Avatar.
No matter. Azula had other methods; far more effective at getting what she wanted than simple friendship.
Aang looked around. "Where's Mai?"
Heat flared angrily in Azula's gut at the simple question. But she quickly stamped her temper into submission.
No one had dared speak aloud the name of her treacherous "friend" since the whelp had disappeared during their latest deployment in the Earth Kingdom. Azula's eyes narrowed. Recent rumors alluded that the Rebellion was led by a firebender with a scar over his left eye. Ozai had suspected for some time that his brother and worthless son might be involved in the Rebellion- no doubt in a desperate effort to overthrow his rule and grasp his power for themselves. But a month ago fresh intelligence delivered directly to Azula had finally given her concrete proof on her brother's identity and a lead on his location. She had shared the information with her two friends, and made plans to crush the scarred head of the rebellion in the morning.
However, when morning came, Mai was gone. And every ignition wire in every tank under Azula's command had been carefully slit. By the time repairs could be made and Azula finally arrived at the rumored location, there was no one left.
Mai had betrayed her. And for what? For some trivial crush still harbored over little Zuzu?!
Azula tasted acid in her mouth, but of course she let none of these thoughts show on her face.
"Mai didn't return from the earth kingdom with us." Azula said flippantly walking over to the desk in Aang's room and popping a grape from his waiting dinner plate into her mouth. "But don't worry, I'll be sure to meet up with her the next time I'm back in the Earth Kingdom." It was true. Azula would be sure to find her childhood friend, and return to her a full measure of what she deserved. Let Mai take equal part in the annihilation that awaited Zuzu and her fat uncle.
Ty Lee fidgeted nervously over by Aang, sending apprehensive glances her way. The dolt was sure to reveal more than she should. "Ty Lee," Azula addressed her, "I think you better be running along now. I'm sure you'll want to brush your hair before bed, and we all know how long that takes."
Ty Lee looked at her with wide eyes before recognition that she was being excused dawned. "Oh! Right, Azula. I'll just be… going then." Ty Lee turned back to Aang with an obnoxious smile and a twiddled wave of her fingers, "See you later, Aangy!" before she trotted out of the room, closing the door behind her.
A weighty awkwardness settled in Azula's stomach upon Ty Lee's exit; the closing of the latch feeling oddly loud.
When the Avatar had first been brought to the Fire Nation, she had seen him only once. A deceptively small boy in chains deep in the heart of a prison on the outskirts of Caldera Island. At her own request, Azula had been allowed to accompany her Father to the prison to see the Avatar for himself. The boy had been sedated prior to the Firelord's arrival – with the kind of power he had unleashed at the bay, it simply would not be prudent to take any unnecessary risks. Azula had scoffed at how pitiful and harmless he looked with his bald head lolling heavily on his neck, eyes bleary, his body held up by chains. Azula could scarcely believe he was something to be feared. She could have killed him there herself with the ease of twisting a turtleduckling's head off.
Azula had hardly spared him another thought until Father announced three months later that the Avatar would be moving to the palace. That he would be adopted into the family!
Father had taken time to explain to her, detailing his reasons for treating the Avatar like family. Explaining how the boy was impressionable, and powerful. How he could be taught to have unfailing loyalty to them alone. That if they played their tiles right, the Avatar could both ensure their final and full victory in the war, as well as provide insurance that none could ever challenge their world dominance again.
Azula knew that it was a wise move; strategic and cunning. However, she had to check the resentment that rose in her at the thought of another brother (this one presumably far more talented than Zuzu) infringing on her monopoly of Father's attention.
When Aang was moved to the Palace he was so painfully awkward. All wide eyes in a tiny, almost skeletal frame — time in prison hadn't been good to him apparently. At least he'd grown a short shock of black hair to cover that weird blue line. Despite the fact that his hair was not nearly long enough yet to make a proper topknot, Azula had been relieved that his baldness wasn't some sort of permanent deficiency of his extinct people. The blue mark of his primitive roots was still plainly visible on his forehead, of course, but nothing much could be done about that. Perhaps it was a good reminder of his degraded heritage – a badge of dishonor to remind him, and everyone else, of his inferiority.
Azula didn't know if he had always been so skittish, or if it was due to the time he'd spent in prison, but Aang had been wary and frightened by almost everything.
But then again, he made so many mistakes back then. Mistakes that rightfully had to be punished.
Of course he would need to be punished for breaking etiquette, for asking too many questions, or for dancing to the national anthem! The boy had cried openly too back then - such displays of weakness embarrassing for everyone. He laughed too much and even tried to make friends with the servants! He was a true savage.
But even Azula had to admit that he was a quick study. In mere months, he'd adapted to civilized society enough so that he only occasionally required re-education.
Honestly, Azula was relieved that she had not been around for a good portion of the Avatar's "adjustment period". Not long after the Avatar had come to live at the Palace, the military's drill-tank technology had been perfected enough to finally lay a viable siege on Ba Sing Se, and Father had sent her to oversee the invasion of the Earth Kingdom capitol.
It had taken a year (and an immensely helpful half-hour of Sozin's Comet) to fully conquer the mammoth city. After the fall of Ba Sing Se, the rest of the Earth Kingdom was sure to quickly follow. The Fire Nation had won the war.
When she had returned home triumphant, Father was pleased with her victories. Her service to the nation was unparalleled. She was a hero.
But upon her return home, Azula quickly realized that she was no longer the sole owner of Father's approval. The Avatar, he reported, had made marvelous progress since she had left. His airbending, according to Father, despite being an inferior element, was something to behold, and a bit of a wild card given that no one in a hundred years had ever trained against an Airbender.
Additionally, in the last year while she'd been gone, the Avatar had begun his fire bending training. A true prodigy, Father had praised. The speed of his progress unlike anyone he'd ever seen.
Azula's gut burned hot at the words. Anyone?!
Afterwards Azula had marched to the Avatar's Arena – a building Father had built for him on her old training field – and walked right up to the Avatar. The boy was still half a head shorter than her, and looked light enough to blow over in a stiff breeze. At least he now had enough hair for a proper topknot.
"Fight me," she'd demanded.
It wasn't a request. Her immediate offensive was answered by a blur of spiraling movement and a retreat. Her movements were precise and accurate. The concentrated heat from her blue fire casting a strange joint glow on the Avatar's blue tattoos.
But somehow he managed to counter her on every hand. Azula was both annoyed and exhilarated by the contest. She hadn't felt challenged in a fight since she was eleven. And fighting the Avatar was unlike any fight she'd ever faced before. To her supreme irritation, he did little more than evade her, but the speed and ease with which he dodged was blinding. She was gratified to find that her firebending was still far superior to his. But the way he caught her blue flames, turning them orange in his control before then turning them aside in his bizarre dancing movements, vexed her.
Even more annoying was his apparent disinterest in winning their match. He seemed content to simply flit around, testing and learning from her as much as she did from him. His merry laugh nearly drove her mad.
They fought a long time. In the end Father had called for a cease-fire. In her concentration she had not even noticed that Father had entered the arena. She berated herself for her unacceptable lack of awareness. She and the Avatar were both wet with sweat and breathing hard, although the boy had the gall to laugh and smile at her. Still Azula took a modicum of pleasure at the disarray of the Avatar's hair, while hers remained immaculate.
With a greedy delight, Father declared the match a draw.
Azula's heart dropped.
Father had witnessed her not win. True, she hadn't lost either, but her non-victory filled her with humiliation.
It was then that Aang became her most heated rival, and she sought every opportunity to fight him, as often as Father allowed.
Azula now looked down at Aang's untouched dinner plate and stole another grape. "You're eating dinner in your room like a heathen, I see."
Aang cleared his throat. "I um, just got back from waterbending practice. Counselor Zhao asked the servants to bring my food up here again since I haven't had time to eat yet." Aang looked at her apologetically. "I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting you to be here waiting for me."
"What? You expected some other woman to be waiting for you in your room?" Azula teased. "You haven't taken on a concubine now have you, Aang?"
Aang winced. "No, of course not." Azula watched as he squirmed uncomfortably. Taking concubines was a long-held practice among men of Fire Nation royalty. Although her joke had been intended to needle the Avatar more than anything else, Azula felt an unexplained relief release within her at his answer.
Azula's feelings towards the Avatar had gotten… problematic lately.
In many ways their relationship was like siblings: they shared space, royal privilege, Father's attention, friends. But frankly Azula had never really thought of Aang as a brother. Brothers were incompetent failures. And Aang was not.
It was hard to compare the Avatar to how living with Zuzu had been. Zuzu had been easy to out-shine; to be measure better than. He had been incompetent, and effortless to frazzle and manipulate. Aang had proven to be none of these things.
True, Zuzu and Aang were both soft and stupidly trusting. But otherwise Azula saw very little else they shared in common. Beyond the obvious difference of the Avatar being a skilled and powerful bender, where Zuzu had always been a subpar firebender at best, over the years Azula became acutely acquainted with their many other differences.
Zuzu was ever quick to anger; Aang, on the other hand, was frustratingly difficult to get a rise out of, ever prone to making a joke rather than taking her seriously. She didn't know if he was just ludicrously naive, or if he simply chose not to take offense. But either way it could be quite irritating. Zuzu had been ridiculously easy to manipulate, fighting her all along while she led him to do exactly what she wanted. Azula manipulated Aang too, of course, as she did everyone, but it lacked the same gratification she'd gained with her brother. Like he was fine to let her have her way, his willingness stealing the victory of it. It bothered Azula that Aang seemed to see the same world, but in a completely different way. Like there was something fundamental to Aang that Azula could never fully understand.
Zuzu had also always had Mother on his side. Aang, on the other hand, had never known Mother. For the first time Azula was now forced to share Father's affections. She didn't like sharing.
However, despite how much she resented Aang, she'd become paradoxically drawn to him as well. Which was even more angering than the ways he bothered her. Zuzu had always been bent on competing with her. On the contrary, Aang seemed to see her challenges as little more than a game. It vexed her that the rivalry she felt with him was entirely one-sided. It made her feel trite, which of course only magnified her irritation with him. His complete lack of competition with her had driven her crazy.
But what drove her crazy about him now, hadn't started until more recently.
Azula perched herself, legs crossed, on Aang's desk, helping herself to another of his grapes. "You can eat. I really don't mind."
"Thanks," Aang said with a sigh. "I'm starving!"
Aang sank down heavily in front of his food. Azula was about to steal another of his grapes when Aang offered her the entire bunch of grapes with a tired smile. Azula's stomach did a tiny flip at the gesture (and the smile). It was a small example, but Aang was always doing things like this, willingly giving her what she planned to take anyway. It took all the fun out of it, of course. She was simultaneously irritated with him and begrudgingly charmed by his thoughtfulness.
But Azula knew his kindness to be weakness.
It was probably weakness in her that she had grown to like it.
Over the years, Azula was sent abroad several times to help oversee the war efforts. And each time she returned, it seemed the Avatar had taken great strides in his training. He became more and more powerful, more and more accomplished, and her Father more and more enamored with him.
He'd also grown up. Of course she'd noticed he was growing all along, but Azula doesn't think she really noticed noticed until the summer she'd turned nineteen. She and her friends had just returned from another mission in the Earth Kingdom, and Azula was anxious to spar with the Avatar; a half year of handily beating everyone she fought left her hungry for a challenge. Plus, with all of Aang's practice, she'd worried she might be being left behind.
When she and her friends had arrived at Aang's training arena, he was in the middle of a lesson. An earthbending lesson. That was new.
Last time she'd been home Aang had shot up in height, all lanky and uncoordinated. He was even taller now, but earthbending practice had put some muscle on his body as well. He still looked lean compared to his hulking earthbending teacher, but it was obvious the Avatar had been working hard.
In the summer heat Aang was practicing shirtless. It was the first time Azula didn't find Aang's tattoos completely disgusting. She forced herself to look away from them. But not due to disgust.
Ty Lee, on the other hand, made no effort at all to look away. Her open admiration was irritating. Even Mai smiled wryly, "Looks like your little admirer's grown up, Ty Lee." The dry comment bothered Azula.
It was that summer that Aang and Ty Lee had had their little fling. She didn't care, of course.
But what she did care was that later that summer Aang beaten her for the first time.
Their spar had started as it often did with Azula taking a quick and calculated offensive while Aang flitted away, evading as usual. She had begun to find his airbending defenses predictable, and any offensive with fire he sent her way she could easily deflect.
She was just turning back towards him from extinguishing one of these fire offensives, aiming two fingers ready to shoot a precise hot flame. However, when she turned Aang was gone. On instinct she looked to the sky, to see where he had jumped. So she was taken completely by surprise when she found both her legs suddenly encased in the stone under her feet. A second later, Aang burst from the ground behind her, grabbing one of her arms, then the other, and pinning them both low behind her back. She caught her breath as he held her hands tightly, forcing her to lean backward into him. He'd laughed in her ear. "Tag, Princess!"
She'd struggled for a moment, but she couldn't overpower him with strength alone, not with all of her limbs immobilized. Azula stopped struggling, so he let her go, dropping the rock shackles from her feet with a laugh.
Azula spun on him then, scraping her long nails across his face. Three red cuts opened angrily on his cheek. He looked more startled than anything, his hand darting to his cheek, the smile wiped from his mouth.
"I'm sorry, Azula. Did I hurt you? I didn't mean to…"
Azula had said nothing more, but turned on her heel and stalked away. Anger had made her petty, and she burned with shame. She wasn't sure if she was more shamed at her defeat, or because of her low attack afterward.
Later that night Azula had tossed and turned in her bed, stewing endlessly over her lost fight with Aang. Upon further analysis, she realized that losing the fight was not what bothered her most. True, she had been upset, her loss throwing her usual composure off balance. But what had really flustered her was him. She couldn't stop replaying in her mind how it had felt to be held up against him, to hear his deepened voice in her ear. She had in turn hurt Aang. And yet he'd been the one to apologize. His kindness put into stark contrast her own bad behavior. She couldn't stop the frustration mingled with attraction she felt. And it bothered her immensely.
Azula won three consecutive fights with Aang after that. He didn't seem to mind. But something nagged her that perhaps he'd gone easy on her. Which was absolutely unacceptable. She was beginning to find Aang insufferable! No one ruffled her feathers. And yet somehow Aang managed to, even (especially!) when he wasn't meaning to.
It had been two years since then. And Azula would like to say she had put all those complicated feelings about Aang behind her. But being honest with oneself was essential for clear analysis. And when she was honest, she knew she had not put those feelings for Aang aside. If anything her feelings had gotten more problematic.
The Crown Princess looked down at him from her position seated above him on his desk.
"You look tired."
"I am tired," Aang admitted as he picked up his chopsticks. "Counselor Zhao had me up before dawn for Sunrise Meditation with the Fire Sages. I then had firebending katas, an earthbending spar and three separate waterbending practices today."
"Waterbending?" Azula asked with a raised eyebrow. "So you've finally got another waterbending instructor to teach you." Azula thought briefly of what had happened to his last waterbending master. Pa-kou? Pakku? Was that his name? Well regardless, the old man had deserved what he got.
Aang nodded, his mouth too busy chewing to talk.
"Is he any good?" Azula asked inspecting her nails.
"She, actually. And yeah…" Aang tensed slightly, "she's great."
Azula's eyes narrowed, noting the way Aang looked down at his rice. Deliberately not at her.
There was a moment's awkward pause before Azula sat back leaning on her hands and asked with her usual nonchalant superiority, "Oh, a woman teacher? That's new. I'd heard the Tribers were too backward to teach their women."
Aang shrugged. "Master Katara is a really excellent waterbender."
How very noncontroversial. Azula was used to this from Aang. Not taking any kind of stand, just stating something related, but non-confrontational. Azula admitted that he might make a decent politician if Father ever decided to let him out of the dark.
A decent politician, mind. Not a good leader. Leaders had to be decisive. Like Father. Like her.
She watched him carefully when she said, "Maybe I'll need to come and see for myself sometime."
There it was. Aang stilled again. He was hiding something. She would find out what.
In time. For now, it was late.
Azula stood from the desk and started toward the door. "But not tomorrow I'm afraid," she said. "You'll need the morning tomorrow to spar with me."
"Counselor Zhao has me busy all day tomorrow. You'll have to take that up with him."
Azula rolled her eyes and walked to the door before turning back toward Aang. "Zhao can take it up with me if he so desires. He's not my babysitter, and I do what I want. First thing tomorrow, I'll be waiting at the arena."
Aang laughed and leaned back in his chair. "I won't complain if it gets me out of meditation with the Sages!"
The breath in her chest caught at the crooked smile he sent her way. So Azula quickly opened the door and left.
…..