"Here. I meant to give you this days ago, but…"
"Oh," Ruon Jian said as he held up his fresh-smelling, neatly washed clothes.
They were seated at Azula's "private/not so private because Ruon Jian kept coming there" lunch spot. She rolled her eyes at the over gratuitous sniff he took of his clothes. He blushed when he realized she'd seen him.
"Y-You didn't have to return them," he spluttered in embarrassment. "A missing pair of sweats and a t-shirt would've hardly set off my radar."
"You're so very generous," Azula jeered sarcastically.
She readjusted her gaze to her pitiful lunch. She picked at small pieces of her sandwich, hardly feeling up to eating anything at the moment. She was still sore about disappointing her father the other day. She'd never been so reckless before. Since when did Azula allow miscreants like Chan to allow her to lose her temper?! She was supposed to be cool, calm, and collected at all times. How did the deviant get under her skin so easily?
"Is there something wrong?" Ruon Jian's voice broke through her wandering thoughts.
Azula could see the genuine concern in his eyes. She smirked inwardly. The boy wore his heart on his sleeve. He was just asking to be manipulated.
"It's nothing," she shook her head.
She made sure to make the right intonations in her voice as she morphed her face into one of a girl thoroughly stricken by sadness. She watched as he took the bait. He was going to be putty in her hands.
"No, really, Azula? If there's something wrong let me know."
Azula turned her head, avoiding his worried gaze. She felt a little bad doing this. Ruon Jian was genuinely sweet and wanted to help her with her problem. He just didn't know what her actual problem was.
She faced him again, the right amount of sadness shown on her face. He moved closer to her on the bench, his arm looming dangerously close to hers. She moved her arm to rest in her lap.
"Do you want me to buy you lunch? They have chocolate taiyaki today," he offered.
Azula, against her own wishes, giggled at his enthusiasm. She quickly stopped herself, but it was too late. Ruon Jian had seen it and smiled the most charming smile she'd ever seen before. She felt her cheeks burn. Maybe she really was as evil as Zuko said she was if she could still find it in herself to manipulate him.
Oh well.
"Let's talk about something else," she exclaimed, fighting the heat that rose to her cheeks.
What the hell was wrong with her today?
"I saw you and Chan at volleyball practice the other day. I would've never pegged you as a setter."
"Yeah," Ruon Jian said, his goofy grin in place. "I've been one since middle school. Me and Chan have a dynamite combination attack that always throws our opponents for a loop. You should see how they scramble whenever we play a set together." He was standing on top of the rickety table by the end of his sentence.
Azula hid a smirk behind her hand. She'd never been around someone so animated. Not even Ty Lee could compare.
"Is that so?" she responded half-nervous as she held her hand out to help him back down. "Is he really that good or are you just putting on airs for your good friend?"
"Of course he is!" he shouted as he happily took her hand and jumped back down to the ground. "He's my friend, but I wouldn't lie about his skill. It'd be pointless since it would make the team suffer if he didn't know that he was bad."
Azula wrapped her arms around her body, feeling self-conscious all of a sudden. Is that what Kyoshi thought of her? Some dead weight who didn't even know she had been holding everyone else back.
Ruon Jian, with all his simpleness, noticed her change in demeanor. He sat on the bench and slid closer to her. He hesitated to touch her. She didn't really seem like the type to like any kind of affection. He'd never seen her initiate physical contact first.
"Azula?" he called out warily.
That seemed to bring her back to reality. She shook herself awake and turned to face him again. "Sorry, I was just thinking. What were you saying about Chan?"
She wasn't ok. Ruon Jian figured that if she wouldn't tell him what was wrong, he could lighten the mood with something funny.
"Y'know…even though Chan is really good. We only just perfected our combo attack. Over the summer, he said he found this towel from Kiyoko – y'know, that girl from your team."
"Who?"
"Kiyoko. Don't you know her?"
"No. I've never heard of her."
"Really? Isn't she the team captain? She's always wearing pigtails."
So that was who Silly Pigtails was. Azula wouldn't be referring to her by name at any time, but it was nice to hear that she did actually have one. Azula nodded, not wanting to upset the pouting Ruon Jian any further.
"Anyway. He must've found one of her sweaty towels while we were at that summer camp together and now he carries it with him at every match as a good luck charm," Ruon Jian said, barely able to hold in his laughter.
Azula smirked before laughing along with him. She didn't even need to manipulate Ruon Jian. It looked like he was willing to give up information at any time for a good laugh.
….
Halfway into practice, Kyoshi finally blew the whistle for a break. Azula wiped the sweat from her brow.
If Kyoshi wouldn't say it, she would. The volleyball team was a horribly uncoordinated mess. Try as she might, even when Azula did adjust her sets to a better position for her obviously inept teammates, the spikers just sucked. They flailed around in the air aimlessly, unable to hit any ball coming their way.
It wouldn't be so glaringly obvious if their receivers weren't also so terribly shitty. It was like they were scared to touch the ball. They shrieked in fear and constantly called 'outs' for balls that were well within scoring range.
To make matters worse, their first match was coming up in the next few weeks. How could all Azula's talent show if she was stuck with such an inadequate team? Maybe she'd have been better off at Taqquiq Prep.
Kyoshi's handclap brought Azula out of her negative stream of thoughts. The coach's eyes moved around to observe all of the girls on the team.
"As you all know, we have our first competition in a few weeks," the statuesque woman stated matter-of-factly.
Azula huffed under her breath, "Tell me about it."
Kyoshi's gaze flickered to her's for a moment. Azula stared at her head on, un-phased by the woman's trite display of dominance. Azula had never been one to back down from a fight. No matter how petty.
"The dynamics of this team are still out of whack. You're all still getting used to each other, but there is a disconnect in all of you all's movements…"
Azula tuned out the rest of the speech. She wasn't interested in hearing the dull droning of a woman who refused to listen to her criticisms early on. Making Azula captain would've allowed her to bypass all of this strife. Now she was flitting around like a chicken with her head cut off trying to find a decent team out of the misfits she'd thrown together.
It was hard to stop herself from laughing out loud. If only more people listened to her, most of their problems wouldn't exist. Instead, she had to stand behind silly pigtails girl, burning holes into the back of her head as her idiotic coach explained how utterly useless her volleyball team is.
Who was this girl anyway? She had no merit to be a captain other than the fact that she had seniority over her. She was one of the many who flinched when the ball came her way. Plus, she had a slight limp in her left leg that showed whenever she went to serve the ball. She was a laughably terrible setter, but the "all-knowing" Kyoshi just had to make her one.
Azula was growing tired of all this horseshit. Why did she constantly have to suffer for the ineptitude of others?
"-and Azula will be our libero!"
A record scratch went off in her head. There had to be a mistake. A libero? A fucking libero?! This only made her assumption clearer. Kyoshi was clearly antagonizing her. Disguising it as some bullshit lesson in humility wouldn't cut it.
"A libero?!" Azula shouted incredulously. "You want me to be a libero? They can't hit the sets I give them no matter how much I modify them for their skill range. What point is there in having me as a libero when this team can't even properly make receives?!"
All eyes turned towards her. Some in astonishment at her outburst while others, namely Silly Pigtails, glared daggers. Kyoshi's eyes narrowed. Azula returned the stare. She was tired of being undermined by this bitch.
"Excuse me girls," she said without losing an ounce of composure. "Ms. Fujiwara and I will be outside for a moment."
Azula followed behind a completely calm Kyoshi. She could hear the other girls behind her back whispering and chanting school girl taunts. No matter. None of them were her friends anyway. If they couldn't advance her in one form or another, there was no point in forming companionship.
Azula and Kyoshi stood outside the doors of the gymnasium. The corridors were empty, so you could hear the sound of the door slowly creaking closed from halfway around the school. Kyoshi waited until the door closed completely, then dived into her attack.
"I don't think I've ever met anyone more arrogant than you," her coach said, all the while none of her facial muscles moving. The woman was as composed as they came. "I told you before that this is a team. Nothing can be done by the efforts of a single person. If that is something that you cannot understand, then I suggest you leave right now."
"Is it really arrogance if there is such an obvious skill difference?" Azula asked, a snarky grin set in place. She folded her hands behind her back as she paced back and forth. "As hard as I know it is for you to admit, I am the best player here. I've got the most experience, the most skill, the best stats, and the most competitive wins. I've led teams to victory before because of my wit and skill. Me leaving would be the worst thing that could happen to your little team. Especially at such a critical moment with competition season rolling around the corner."
For the first time, Kyoshi's face broke into a wide, cheshire smile. It was weird to see her face move into an expression other than apathy.
"You pride yourself so much on your 'wit' and 'skill' that you still can't see that it is you who is the problem."
Azula recoiled in shock. Why did she decide now to start spreading lies? Kyoshi stepped forward until she was about an inch apart from Azula's face.
"You're an impossible setter. Nothing you set can be hit because you don't calculate accurately enough to see what your teammates are able to hit. But now, I can see that it's nothing but your selfishness that makes you such a monster to work with. Every time somebody else tries to get an idea in to make an effective play, you foil it by doing what you want and destroying plays that could've led to more points. This is your last straw Azula. I won't have any more of this defiance. You will either play as this team's libero or you can find a new after school club to join. I heard astronomy is always taking new applicants."
Azula glared at her coach for a moment, breathing heavily as she registered all of what was said to her. She didn't bother with this petty staring contest. She stomped back into the gym avoiding everyone's eyes as she fell into her new role.
….
FROM AZULA: NEW MESSAGE
To: Zuko: Father says to stop leaving your junk in the dryer
FROM ZUKO: NEW MESSAGE
To: Azula: k
Azula flopped back down onto her bed. She hadn't expected him to answer at all. She had gotten used to their lack of communication over the years. It didn't matter how important or urgent her messages were, Zuko usually didn't respond or gave one word answers.
Part of that was her fault since she did make his life a living hell sometimes. But she was his little sister. She was supposed to annoy him.
She laid her head onto her Egyptian cotton pillows. This house had always been so lonely. It only got worse as Zuko spent less time there in favor of his mother's house. Sometimes, Azula missed the way things used to be.
"Azula! Open the door!"
"We need to speak with you."
Azula opened her bedroom door to two pairs of creepily smiling faces. Lo and Li were just as mysterious as they were zany. She wondered how they ever came to work for her father.
They bowed shallowly as they entered her room. She couldn't find it in her to give a smart remark about them welcoming themselves in her room. She was just glad someone wanted to be around her right now. Azula trudged back over to her bed and plopped down, un-phased by the expressions the elderly twins wore.
"Your mother requested your presence again."
Azula couldn't keep her eyes from rolling. She knew her mother was doing it out of courtesy. She'd asked once weeks ago and was trying to keep up the illusion of persistence. Ursa wasn't fooling anyone but herself.
"I'm still not going," the teenaged girl deadpanned.
Lo and Li wore the same defeated expressions, "But why, Azula?"
Azula buried herself under her covers as she turned her back to her caretakers. She felt silly even having this conversation. Why did she have to keep rehashing this topic? Whatever possibility of a relationship there was for her and her mother had weathered and dried up in the years of her absence.
No one that could go that long without checking up on their children was to be taken seriously. Besides, she only really came to see Zuko. Ursa had enough of her favorite child to appease the guilt and fill the hollow holes of her questionable motherhood.
"I don't want to speak about this."
"Azula, you're being brash," they said in unison.
That made Azula see red. Who were they to speak of a childhood they never had to live through?!
"I'm far from being brash! I'm actually on my best behavior. I should be at her house cursing her and her family for the rest of their days! What lousy excuse of a mother disappears without a word to her children for years on end, comes back, and expects everyone to just gloss over her absence!"
Azula shouted. In her fury, she had risen to stand on her bed. Lo and Li looked up at her with worried eyes.
"And to add insult to injury, she comes here gallivanting about with her new, perfect little family. No regard for her older children's feelings. Only thinking of herself and her luck to be able to steal away from a man as…as…A man like my father. I will never forgive her. Never."
