#09: Cat Ears
Prompted By: GuitarBOSS
Today begins with, "I want a pet."
Azula hears it before her eyes even open in the morning. She was peacefully sleeping, ready to train at daybreak as she always does, and then she heard, I want a pet. Not that she did not ever ask her father for a pet, but he always said no.
"I don't," Azula says, yawning. The sun is already up; she is screwed. This is not going to be a pleasant morning. "Pets are a hassle. You can't hire nannies to take care of your pets for you. Let's just have a baby. It sounds easier."
Ty Lee is not deterred. Her protuberant eyes sparkle as she sits with her hands on her knees, making a face like an animal begging for scraps. Well, there is another reason not to get a pet; they beg for food.
"Azula! We would be such loving pet parents! A new pet shop opened in the Shopping District," Ty Lee says, batting her eyes pointedly. Azula can only stare blankly. Usually such tactics work on the clever manipulator, strangely, but she is adamant about not having an animal to care for.
"What part of Princess Azula the Conqueror sounds like loving pet parent to you?" Azula crosses her arms, glancing at the door anxiously. She would do anything to get out of this situation.
"Please just look at the pets." Ty Lee clasps her fingers together. And Azula sighs haughtily.
"If you insist, I'll look at the pet store," Azula says, climbing out of bed. She dresses herself and goes to train.
Being Zuko's ward is most unpleasant. The only true fun Azula gets is playing with lightning and burning things by accident. He dares not protest, in case he is burned by accident. And now she has to worry about a pet.
Her father used to buy her pets. And then, after a week or so, give them away. She would simply come home from the Academy and find her pet missing. He always had some ridiculous excuse for doing it. But Azula knew it was simply to control every aspect of her life, and to display to her that he was the one with the power.
Since then, Azula cannot imagine having a pet.
But despite Azula's wishes, she finds herself spending the afternoon in the Capitol City. It is gross, dirty and always looked much better from behind curtains of a palanquin. But she stifles her unrest and walks into the pet store. It smells disgusting, with perfume over the scent of animal trying to mask the scent. The princess wrinkles her nose as Ty Lee grabs her hand and starts dragging her around.
"How about I just wait outside?" Azula offers, squinting at a squirrel-toad. It looks back at her and she recoils.
"Look, a kitty!" Ty Lee grabs a cat and it willingly enters her arms. Azula may be lucky, but she is sure she would get clawed if she did that. "She's so pretty. What's her name?"
Azula at first thinks Ty Lee is asking her, but then she notices that the pet shop owner is following them around.
"Whatever you want it to be, princess. I've just been calling her Ears," the old woman says, her voice gravelly and overly warm. Azula crosses her arms.
"Why Ears?" Azula asks scathingly and Ty Lee blushes. The acrobat knows she cannot bring the princess in public without some form of humiliation, but she cannot protest if she wants Azula to get her a cat. This is a thousand times worse than asking her parents for things.
"She has fluffy ears," the old woman replies, gesturing at the ears on the fluffy white cat. They are quite furry, Azula must admit. Ty Lee pets them and her eyes light up and sparkle.
"Pet the kitty, Azula. Pet her ears; they're so fluffy," Ty Lee says, grinning like a madwoman. Azula frowns and hesitantly reaches out her hand. She strokes the cat's ears and she supposes it feels nice, but the last cat she had that would sleep in her bed and rub against her leg, her father gave to one of his advisor's sons. She never saw it again.
"Yes, she is fluffy but I don't think─" And the cat is forced into her arms. It feels nice she supposes.
It digs its claws into Azula's shirt as she tries to give it back to her girlfriend. Ty Lee coos.
"Look she has claws like you, Azula! Pwease be my mommy. That's what she's saying!" Ty Lee says in a sing-song voice. This is terrible.
Azula examines her own fingernails briefly. She does have claws, doesn't she?
The princess examines the cat's yellow eyes. She sighs.
"Alright, we'll get the cat," Azula sighs, trying to hand Ears back to Ty Lee and finding the claws dug deeper into her. "This horrible, horrible cat."
"You're gonna love it..." Ty Lee squeals.
And... she is right.
