Chapter 20: Dance, Dance (Part 1)

In the blink of an eye, final exams were over and the day of the dance had finally arrived. Jet had no idea what the girls were doing to get ready, but he and his housemates were thoroughly engaged in practicing some neutral jing: doing nothing. They were all sprawled out on the couch, un-showered and unshaven, watching the latest episode of 'Attack on Unagi'. However, right in the middle of the episode, all their phones went off simultaneously. It was a group text from Mai.

Mai: SOS

Mai: I royally ducked up

Mai: Ducked

Mai: Sprouts cannot

Mai: SPIRITS DAMN IT

Mai: FUCK

Then she sent a photo, a photo of what looked like fragmented blue glass.

Sokka covered his mouth with his hand. "Oh no, is that…"

"Yeah," Zuko nodded solemnly. "I think it is."

"What is it?" Jet asked.

"You know that orange glass dragon Mom sent me for finals? She sent Azula an identical one but in blue."

"Oh." Jet suddenly realized the gravity of the situation. "Oh."

"It probably meant something to her if she kept it," Zuko mumbled.

Mai: All hands on deck.

Without bothering to groom themselves, the three housemates sprinted out the door to Mai and Azula's room. Katara and Ty Lee were already there by the time they arrived.

"It's okay, it's okay," Ty Lee said soothingly, hugging Mai. "It was an accident."

"What happened?" Sokka asked.

Katara shot him a dirty look. "What does it look like, genius?"

"Okay, okay. Geesh."

"I was practicing throwing my new shuriken knives and one got away from me." Mai shook her head. "I don't know what happened, I'm usually so precise, I-I must have been distracted or something." She took a deep breath. "Azula's going to kill me."

"No she won't," Ty Lee assured.

"Yeah," Zuko agreed, crouching besides his girlfriend and rubbing her back. "She'll understand." The look on his face betrayed his words.

"It's just… not that she'd ever admit it, but I think this thing really meant a lot to her." She lowered her voice. "And I ruined it."

"Maybe we can replace it?" Ty Lee offered.

"I'm already on it," Katara said, browsing on her phone, "and unfortunately we're not going to be able to afford it – this was a really generous and unique gift."

Mai sighed. "What are we going to do?!"

"Hey…" Jet was shocked no one had asked this question already. "Where is Azula anyway?"

"She's at the salon getting her hair done for the dance," Mai explained.

"Yeah, I let her borrow my car," Zuko added.

Mai dropped her head. "She'll probably be back within the hour. I'm so dead."

"Okay, I've got a plan!" Sokka announced, triumphantly sticking his finger up in the air. "Here's what we're gonna do. Katara and Ty Lee, you're gonna go to the salon to get your hair done and keep Azula there as long as possible. The rest of us are gonna stay here and glue this thing back together as best as we can. I've preemptively packed my handy dandy…" He pulled a tube out from his pocket. "…goat gorilla glue!"

"Now there's my genius brother," Katara said with admiration, "the man with the plan."

"Do you really think we can pull this off?" Mai asked.

"For Azula, it's worth a shot," Sokka smiled.

"Whatever it takes," Jet said with determination. While he had his doubts, he was willing to put in as much effort as possible to spare Azula more grief. And also to save Mai from Azula's potential wrath.

"Yeah," Zuko nodded. "Let's do this."

"Okay," Mai exhaled before running to her purse to grab her wallet. She pulled out her debit card and handed it to Ty Lee. "Treat Azula to a mani/pedi. Just do whatever you can to stall her. Got it?"

"Aye aye, captain!" Ty Lee stood up and gave Mai a salute.

"As for the rest of us… let's get gluing."

"Hey…" Azula said, caught off guard by Ty Lee and Katara entering the salon, not that it was a bad surprise. "What are you two doing here?"

"Same thing as you," Katara smiled. "Your hair looks amazing, by the way!"

"Yeah, you look beautiful!" Ty Lee agreed with a wide grin. "Mai said you were at this salon so we thought we'd call and try to book some last-minute appointments and have a girls' day out!"

"Well that's great, but I'm almost done here…"

"Without a mani/pedi?" Ty Lee questioned a bit patronizingly.

"I prefer to do my own nails…"

"Oh come on, treat yourself! It's not every day we have a formal dance to attend." She turned to her roommate. "Don't you think she should treat herself, Katara?"

She looked uncomfortable. "I think it would be great if you could hang out with us while we get our hair done."

"I'd like that, but, well, you know my… financial situation," she murmured.

"Don't worry, I've got you." Ty Lee gave her a playful wink. "It's on me."

"Oh, no," Azula immediately declined. "I can't ask you to do that, it's way too – "

"You're not asking – I'm not giving you a choice."

She was quiet for a moment as she tried to figure out why Ty Lee was being so nice to her. Did she feel sorry for her or something? "What's the catch?"

"There's no catch!" she assured. "What? I can't treat my super hot date to a mani/pedi?"

Azula chuckled. It was true she had agreed to go to the dance with Ty Lee, with the full understanding that it was nothing more than a platonic date. "Well, if you insist…"

"I do! As long as you put out afterward," she teased, winking.

Azula burst out laughing, mostly at the joke but also because Katara looked like she was about to die of secondhand embarrassment. "You know… it has been a while."

"Oh?" Ty Lee arched an eyebrow. "When was the last time you – " She was interrupted by one of the hair stylists asking for Ty Lee and Katara to go to the back to get their hair washed. "To be continued."

Meanwhile, Azula's stylist finished her hair to the no-hair-out-of-place level of perfection Azula had demanded. After being prompted to choose a color for her nails, Azula selected a dark burgundy she thought would go well with her gold dress and then had a seat at the nail station closest to the hair styling chairs.

"So…" Ty Lee grinned mischievously, not wasting any time getting back to the conversation. "…when was the last time you, you know…"

Azula's cheeks reddened. While she wasn't entirely comfortable talking about this in front of the stylists and manicurist, she also figured that this was probably nothing these women hadn't heard before. "Not since high school, sadly."

"Did you have a boyfriend or something?"

"Yeah… Chan," she scowled. "In retrospect, he was kind of an arrogant asshole. A rich kid with a well-connected father."

"Well, was it romantic at least?" Katara asked.

"Hm?"

"The… sex," she whispered.

"Not really."

"Not even your first time?!" Katara looked appalled.

"It was… surprisingly brief. Entirely underwhelming."

"Oh." Katara seemed disappointed. "Did it… hurt?"

That's when it dawned on Azula that Katara had probably never had sex before. She should have figured. "Yeah," she answered without sugarcoating it. "It hurt the first few times, but you get used to it."

"The first few times?!"

"What, were you thinking about losing your v-card tonight?" Ty Lee cut in, sneering at her roommate.

"What?! No!" Katara answered indignantly, her cheeks flushing. "Not tonight anyway…"

"Why not? I'd do it if I were in your shoes. If I were straight that is."

"You would?"

"Yeah," Ty Lee shrugged. "Jet's a cutie."

Katara sighed, smiling softly. "He is really hot…"

Azula didn't even realize she was clenching her jaw until it started to hurt. For some reason, thinking about Katara losing her virginity to Jet was absolutely abhorrent to her. However, she had enough self-awareness to realize how irrational it was for her to be feeling this way. She was the one who wanted Jet to ask Katara to the dance after all. But then why was the thought of them hooking up making her feel sick to her stomach?

"I think Sokka would be more my type," Ty Lee admitted.

"Ew." Katara wrinkled her nose. "I'm glad you're gay then."

She took the words right out of Azula's mouth.

Ty Lee looked offended. "What, why?!"

"It would just be weird for my roommate to date my brother!" Katara explained.

"Welcome to my world," Azula muttered.

"What if I heard you two…" Katara couldn't finish her thought out loud, so instead she stuck out her tongue.

Ty Lee giggled.

"So, what is holding you back tonight?" Azula asked.

"I'm just waiting for the right person," she said softly, "you know, someone I love and who loves me back. Maybe it's Jet, or maybe it's someone else." She got a far-off look in her eye. "I know he's somewhere out there in the universe, my epic romance, my soulmate…"

Azula almost said something about not believing in soulmates but decided to hold her tongue.

"I think that's sweet," Ty Lee smiled. "At this rate, I may as well wait around for my one true love too…"

"Wait… you're still a virgin?" Azula blurted.

"You don't have to sound so surprised!" She sighed dramatically. "It's not because I want to be… it's just tricky because so many people follow my social media accounts. Most of my followers are straight men, who, well, tend to objectify me and make gross, lewd comments about my body, but, ugh, I don't know, I love the attention! I love getting sent free stuff from sponsors and adoring fans! I love getting to feel special and stand out from the crowd."

Azula remembered Ty Lee saying she had six sisters who looked exactly like her.

"And I know I can't model forever…" She grew quiet. "If I were caught with a girl, my career would be over that much faster. It's too great a risk."

"Well that doesn't seem fair, that you should have to sacrifice your love life for your followers," Katara said sympathetically.

"It's the price of fame I suppose. My followers would drop me so quickly if they knew they didn't have a chance with me." She released another dramatic sigh. "If only I could find someone who was more or less off the grid, someone without a social media presence, someone secretive, someone tall…"

"What does height have to do with it?" Katara asked, confused.

"Nothing, I just have a thing for tall girls – " She looked at Azula through her reflection in the mirror. "– no offense."

"What?! I'm not – I'm only slightly shorter than average!"

The girls laughed.

"Anyway," Ty Lee continued, getting the same far-off look in her eye Katara had earlier, "one day my princess will come." She smirked. "Hopefully multiple times."

Azula and Katara groaned.

"What?" Ty Lee snickered. "Hey…" She glanced at her roommate. "Are we the only virgins in the group?!"

"Hmm." Katara looked pensive. "Yeah, I think so. Sokka lost his virginity to his high school girlfriend, Yue – "

"And I know Jet's had several one-night stands," Azula added.

"I assume Mai and Zuko are having sex…"

"Guess it's just us then," Ty Lee pouted. "Two hopeless romantics…"

"We're not hopeless," Katara said assuredly.

"Yeah, you're right," she smiled before her face fell again. "You know… I really wish Mai were coming to the dance tonight. Zuko too," she added quickly.

"Yeah, me too."

"There's still time to convince them," Azula said. "If we hurry back, maybe we can change their – "

"NO!" the roommates shouted simultaneously.

"T-There's no need to hurry," Ty Lee stammered.

Katara looked nervous. "Our hair isn't done – your nails still need to dry…"

"Yeah, I didn't mean we had to leave right this minute…" Azula gave them a weirded out look. She wondered what was going on with them. They had been acting strange when they first arrived at the salon. And now they clearly didn't want her to leave for some reason. What were they trying to cover up? Whatever it was, it couldn't be good. But at least Azula was getting a free mani/pedi out of it.

Well, they had done the impossible. Every last piece was glued back in its proper place. Jet was holding the damn thing together while Mai was using a hairdryer to apply heat, Zuko was firebending around it, and Sokka was alternating between blowing on it and fanning it with his hands. That's when Azula came bursting through the door, with Katara and Ty Lee following shortly after, completely out of breath. Jet assumed Azula hadn't fallen for their stalling techniques and was eager to get back to her room.

Jet, Mai, Zuko, and Sokka, all crouched around the blue dragon, looked straight up at Azula with wide eyes. No one dared to move a muscle. Jet watched Azula's expression completely fall. There was so much sadness in her eyes, he wanted to look away but just couldn't.

"What… what happened?" she whispered.

"I'm so sorry," Mai apologized, her voice wavering, "I didn't mean to."

Azula stood there speechless.

"It was all my fault," she continued. "One of my knives got away from me – it happened because I wasn't paying attention." She slowly stood up. "I can't believe I broke your gift from Ursa."

Everyone waited in silence for Azula to react. Those few seconds felt like an eternity.

"It's okay, Mai," she sighed. "Really. It was just an accident."

"I know I can't change what happened, but we tried to fix it – "

"It still shines like it did before," Sokka chimed in.

" – But I know it's not like it used to be…"

"If you hate it, you can have mine," Zuko offered.

"No," Azula declined, shaking her head. "It's… it's fine. It has a lot more… personality now."

"I'm so sorry," Mai said again.

Azula was quiet for a moment. "I can't believe you all spent so much time putting this back together for me." She smiled softly. "Thank you." She turned to Katara and Ty Lee. "Now I can see why you two were so bent on keeping me at the salon. It was a group effort."

The girls nodded, looking a tad guilty.

"Are you really okay?" Jet asked, getting the sense Azula was just trying to be polite.

She nodded. "I'm appreciative of all your hard work, but let's shift our focus to the dance. We only have an hour before it starts!" She turned her attention to the boys. "And no offense, but, I know you can clean up better than that."

"Yeah," they acknowledged, groaning.

"So stop standing around moping! Let's move it!"