A/N: I know there was a TBC on the last chapter, but what I had was boring and didn't contribute at all. I might add to the ending of the last drabble in order to give some more conclusion, but I'm moving on since what I had wasn't good.
Also: this is inspired by EDI in Mass Effect, by semi-request.


(Theme Eighty-One) The First Move

(As Prompted By) n7raincoat

Mai is not sure if she should be concerned or not as she watches Azula.

The princess always does look conniving, or distracted, or some kind of thousand yard stare. Mai is fairly certain that everyone around Azula might as well be furniture. However, right now she is staring at someone, and Mai does not think it is by accident.

Ever since they went on that horrible mandatory vacation, Azula has been even more conniving and detached from this plane of reality than usual. Mai would prefer to just agree with Azula's assertion that she is simply plotting for the Invasion or is tired. But it is so painfully obvious that she is in distress about Ty Lee.

And Mai does not want to do this. Ugh, she does not want to do this. But she kind of thinks she'll just throw up everywhere if she has to watch another agonizing display of sexual tension. So, to save her teeth from erosion, Mai walks over and sits silently beside her best friend since childhood.

"You're deep in thought. Plotting to overthrow another country?" Mai says calmly and Azula does not notice her at first. Mai then taps her on the shoulder and she jumps as if she was just smacked in the face.

"Don't do that!" Azula viciously snarls. "You're going to get yourself killed like that!"

Mai does not react with more than a shrug. "What's going on in your genius head? Does it involve politics? Does it involve war? Does it have soft, luxurious hair and unfairly not uneven tits?"

Azula just hmphs to herself and refuses to continue.

Mai rolls her eyes and wonders why she is doing this. "So, you're fine then and I can leave?"

"No," Azula says and Mai officially wishes she had not initiated this. "You want to know? I'm analyzing her behavior."

"Not that much to analyze..." Mai squints at Ty Lee and then glances back at Azula.

Azula sighs, and decides to make the best of her friend prying. "You have firsthand sexual experience."

"... What?" Mai manages to say, having no idea where that question comes from. "Uh, yeah, I guess..."

No, seriously, why is she even doing this? It's not like a conversation with Azula about her love life could ever go well. This is what Mai gets for trying to be a good friend.

Azula picks at her lips for a moment with her fingernails and then pouts. Perhaps this is how Azula reacts to actually caring about some.

"I believe I am possibly interested in her."

"You just noticed that right now?" Mai asks slowly, baffled by this being so revelatory for Azula.

"Well, a few weeks ago, maybe. I'm not sure, of course. How do I tell if I'm actually interested in her?"

Mai wrings her hands in thought for a second before saying, "Have you actually never had a crush on anyone before? Because that's not exactly surprising but..."

"No, I have never had any need for a crush. I've never even thought about it," Azula admits so casually.

"You are fourteen." One of them has had sex multiple times, and the other has never even had a crush before. And Mai thinks that if an outsider were to guess, they would assume it was the other way around.

"I know, I know. I do admit that I've confirmed that I am attracted to her," Azula says clinically and Mai is, again, unable to believe the fact that Azula had not noticed this even for a second.

"So you are interested in her."

"Yes. While I have become used to people just coming and going and honestly don't care, I have realized that am not numb to the possibility of her abandoning me, and I would like to permanently chain her to myself so she can never leave me."

"Don't say that when you ask her out."

"I'm not asking her out."

"That's what you have to do."

"I have to know if she's interested in me first," Azula snaps, her cold tone gone now and a very slight pink tint on her cheeks that Mai has never seen before once.

"Well, they pay attention to you. Talk to you a lot and stare. Smile at you or get awkward, and try to be close to you as often as possible. They laugh at all of your jokes even when they aren't funny, and touch your arm a lot when they talk to you probably. They're jealous, or try to make you jealous..."

"Yes, alright, all of the above apply. Well now I have to get her to make the move and willingly submit to me."

"Also not a charming pick up line." Mai then sighs. "You have to make the first move. If I waited for Zuko, I'd die of old age. And to be perfectly honest, I think you're the one who rejects Ty Lee's advances nonstop."

"Her advances?"

"Mhm. There have been a lot of them but I don't think you even notice."

Azula rolls her eyes. "Fine. You will ask her out for me."

"Are we twelve?" Mai asks and Azula rolls her eyes in frustration.

"I'll ask my brother to do it then," she declares although that would be utter humiliation and therefore she is completely lying.

"Yeah, he'll pass her a note and ask her to check the box yes or no." Mai has to fight not to laugh for the first time in a long time.

"You shut up." Azula sighs. "I am going to invite her to sleep over, and attempt those things that are traditionally romance, because that is much classier."

Mai shakes her head, mumbling to herself, no, no it isn't...

Then again, it's not like Ty Lee is that good at this anyway.

"Good luck permanently chaining your crush to your side!" Mai calls after her but she gets no reply other than the scuffing of Azula's shoe on the stone floor.