(Theme 78) The Great Outdoors

(As Prompted By) DearLemonLima

Ozai already knows that Azula is up to something dark when she asks for him to join her at a private lunch in the sunny veranda.

While his little princess does enjoy spending time with him, her eagerness was off-putting. In his family, people do not want to spend time together unless they need something.

Azula has just returned from Ember Island, and still has salt embedded in her dark hair, but her eyes are gleaming with whatever she thinks her next step is. He had hoped that the vacation would tire his children out, but perhaps tiring them out only worked when they were finicky toddlers.

"That vacation was truly refreshing, father," Azula says regally with that look she gets only when she wants something. "I was thinking about possibly taking another."

Fire Lord Ozai stares at her in utter doubt. His daughter loathes vacations, and she would rather break bones than take breaks. But here she is, with that glitter that she learned from a very young age. She used to not bother at all with her nannies or mother, but she would start wailing, or dropping things, or widening her eyes, and he wound up doing as she pleased.

"I am supposed to believe that?" Ozai looks at his lemon water and avoids her irresistible, begging gaze. "You have been itching to get back into preparing for my-your invasion plans. And you want to go relax again?"

Azula drums her fingers on the table, her sharp nails making a sound like a waterfall. Ozai takes a sip and prepares for everything she is going to try.

"You see, I know very well that my focus will need to shift to the comet, as soon as the invasion is over, and then the aftermath... I would like to escape before I move on to matters or more importance. Ember Island was just a taste that made me realize how important it is for me to decompress before being your weapon of mass destruction," Azula says sweetly, looking at him with a genuine hope in her eyes.

He is uncertain if he believes her, but he is struggling. Struggling. The conqueror of nations, the most powerful man in the world, struggling to keep his daughter from going on a ridiculous camping trip with her circus slut friend. "This isn't your plan, is it?"

Princess Azula is caught there. She may be a magnificent liar, but she cannot conceal this; her father knows her much too well.

"No. After Ember Island Ty Lee said I had to loosen up more. She invited me to go with her on a trip up outside of the Caldera and into the wild out there. She supposedly found a beautiful place that was more serene than crowded places," Azula admits half-truthfully, her eyelashes fluttering. "It probably had something to do with the fact that I talked exclusively about the war and she said that perhaps I needed a more tranquil place than a crowded beach to clear my mind."

Well, that is a lie. After Ember Island, Ty Lee and Azula have had to confront a variety of feelings. Because on Ember Island, they came very close to sex before Azula pushed away and panicked. Because on Ember Island, after the bonfire, Ty Lee admitted harbored feelings.

Feelings Azula also has, but she refuses to speak of.

They need, in Azula's opinion, to work these out before they are able to move on with conquest. A vacation far away from the poisonous place that shattered their delicate balance was what Ty Lee suggested, and Azula was startled by what a good idea it was.

Azula should just ignore what her body and the raw, base adolescent part of her wants to do. The small but loud piece of her being that wants to act on this before it goes away again. And maybe disappearing would not be so dreadful.

"If you're accompanied by soldiers, I will allow it," Ozai says and Azula chews on her lip.

By soldiers, he of course means spies. And that makes Azula want to fling herself around the table and throttle him. But she calms her breathing and decides that she will just have to work around his demands.

"What if we just bring Mai and Zuko?" Azula suggests, batting her eyelashes again.

"I will bargain, this once. The soldiers will wait for you near wherever you decide to camp, in case anything were to happen. Your brother and Mai will accompany you wherever you go," Ozai says, deciding that sending his son and the one who sighs a lot would put a damper in anything that that girl has planned for Azula.

He has the deep concern that the playful one dressed like a prostitute wants his daughter to loosen up in ways that have nothing to do with stars and hikes.

Because he was her age once, and he wants to raise her to be nothing like that.

"Thank you father." Azula smiles and he watches her walk away with the sudden sensation that he cannot let her do this kind of thing to him again.

[X]

The sun is blazing, and Azula is not sure if she likes the great outdoors. Ty Lee is enthused to be outside in the wild, but Azula thinks she might hate it. The Earth Kingdom was bad enough; this place is just damp but hot and quiet but noisy and Azula hates it.

"You know what I hate?" Mai groans as they move away from their escort of far too many soldiers for this, and start heading down a winding dirt path to the cliff-side campsite they were designated to stay at.

"Everything," Ty Lee grumbles, annoyed, as she grabs Azula and starts walking ahead of the two wet blankets. Ty Lee had meant to get Azula alone, to talk in the peaceful woods, to talk away from where Azula is Princess Azula and Ty Lee is her servant.

Maybe to make love underneath the stars. Ty Lee is quite hungry after their close call.

But, of course, Zuko and Mai.

"Camping. The outdoors. Just generally all of this," Mai says and Azula and Zuko admittedly, completely agree with her on this one. "I told my parents to say no but apparently they think this is a great step towards me becoming Fire Lady."

"I don't understand why my father thinks I'm a good babysitter for Azula." Zuko furrows his brow, they just exchange a glance and shrug and follow Azula and Ty Lee towards their designated spot. It is substantially nicer than everywhere they stayed in the horrible Earth Kingdom.

"Look, there's running water and actual human comforts," Mai says, sounding very mildly glad about it. Their designated spot isn't so bad, after all.

"This isn't where we're staying," Ty Lee says softly and Zuko groans. They clearly will not be staying in their designated spot.

Father is going to murder him, as he cannot move fast enough to stop Azula and Ty Lee from leaping off of the rocks on the cliff with the supposedly gorgeous view of the sunrise and sunset and sliding down into the thick of the forest.

"Are we following them?" Mai asks and Zuko groans again before nodding.

And, so, off they go, chasing those two girls who are absolutely taking this vacation in order to screw each other senseless.

Mai and Zuko also had a necessary conversation about Azula and Ty Lee. Zuko, of course, noticed none of it. Mai, however, had slept in close quarters before, and concealed waking up to one or the other wrapping legs over hips, pressed together without even consciously doing it.

In fact, they both confided their attraction to each other in Mai, and told her not to tell the other because they presumed it was unrequited. Watching them try to prove that they are not in love with each other by attempting to flirt with boys and insisting loudly on sleeping in different beds in Lo and Li's house backfired horribly.

Just try to go to a beach, or a festival, or a party with the person you desperately want, and not have it turn into a romantic fuckup of massive proportions.

Mai explained this to Zuko, and she thinks he now is officially very afraid of what might happen during this trip.

They finish sliding to a stop at the bottom of the hill, in which they find Azula lying on a rock with her clothes half off as Ty Lee carries both of their bags and sets up the campsite alone. It is a beautiful place, the most serene that Mai has ever seen in her life, not that she will say it.

The pool in the middle is gorgeous and the clearest water Mai has ever seen. That is likely because this is the only Fire Nation nature preserve, and everything else is polluted by a century of war. The forest around Caldera is wild, and it is a rare privilege to actually see this.

"How deep is that water?" Mai says softly to Zuko and he rolls his eyes. "Oh, come on. Maybe we can go skinny dipping. Before your father murders us, of course. I'm sure the last thing you want to see before your imminent execution is my tits."

"I guess," Zuko says and Mai walks ahead of him, rolling her amber eyes and tossing her bag onto the dust.

"Well, nice work," Mai suggests dryly before sitting down and leaving Zuko to help Ty Lee set up their camp.

[X]

The great outdoors make Mai, Zuko and Azula very uncomfortable as they shiver. They are damp from swimming. Even Mai joining, and even Azula coming into the water. Azula's feet rested on Ty Lee's knees for a few moments as Azula drifted, and it felt good. Good in ways that Azula thought she was going to be alone to sort out at some point.

But, she is in this horrible forest, just waiting for a platypus-bear. Maybe she should just preemptively burn it down. Rename it Fire Lord Azula Memorial Scorched Remnants of a Nature Preserve.

"I love this kind of thing!" Ty Lee cheers, grinning. "It was so fun in the Earth Kingdom, right?"

Locust-crickets respond to her. Azula glances at the fire that Mai, Ty Lee and Zuko are sitting at, and disappears into the shadows near the water. She wishes that they would realize the fact that they as a group should avoid bonfires at all cost.

She looks at the waves, and her distorted reflection. It captivates her momentarily as she hears Ty Lee blithely laughing, Zuko awkwardly laughing along, and silence from Mai. The moon is bright, the stars really are brilliant out here.

Azula has never experienced such peace. And she hates it. She hates being alone with her thoughts more than anything else. But she is not isolated with them for long, because as the fire flickers, fades and reignites, she suddenly finds someone beside her, smelling strongly of cinnamon.

"You ran off, huh?" Ty Lee says quietly as she sits down by the glassy pool and Azula decides to sit beside her. "I came on this trip to be with you. Uh, but I probably should have expected your dad having a lot of conditions."

"He does have to protect his only heir," Azula says coldly, and wishes she had some kind of better conversation. She wishes that this were as easy to her as everything else is. Ty Lee probably would be happier with the type of people who fawned over her on Ember Island.

"I know we don't talk much," Ty Lee says softly, hoping that this will work out. "But I think we do have to deal with everything between us, right?"

"I suppose," Azula offers coolly, shrugging her shoulders. Ty Lee frowns at that, but she has little else to say on the matter. "Not that there really is anything between us."

Ty Lee furrows her brow. She knows it is inappropriate to protest to anything Azula says but, "We took each other's close off and I'm pretty sure sucking on someone's neck and touching their ─"

"Is hormonal experimentation. Or perhaps simply my desire to do to you what those boys wanted to do," Azula says sharply and Ty Lee never did consider the latter.

Azula truly dislikes how much she is remembering the sensation of touching Ty Lee's...

"Okay, but did you want to do to me what those boys wanted to do because you wanted me, or because you were angry at me," Ty Lee says softly and Azula knows it is in her best interest to say it was the latter, and maintain her reputation.

"Because I was pretty afraid that someone else would do that to you, and I never would," Azula answers, and Ty Lee can see the brief pain in her face over admitting it openly.

Ty Lee cannot stop the smile. "You are the only person I want to do that with."

And she, knowing perhaps she will be pushed into the water and drowned, slides onto Azula's lap and straddles her. The kisses burn like fire, and they do not know what they are doing. Or maybe their bodies just know, because it is the most pleasurable thing Azula has ever done in her life.

Even more than Ba Sing Se, and that is... well...

Azula's glimpses of the stars and trees are so much less interesting than what she is looking at and feeling on the ground.