"How come Azula never steers?" complains the nonbender.
"You want me to control the beast? The one that's preventing you from plummeting to your death?" asks Azula, smirking when the nonbender shudders.
"I'd rather let Toph ste—ow!"
The nonbender rubs his shoulder and glares at Bei Fong.
"Actually Sokka I think you make a good point," says the Avatar.
Everyone looks to the Avatar in various measures of confusion and disbelief, Azula included.
"Azula can airbend and sky bison are a staple of airbenders," adds the Avatar. He directs a "Aren't you buddy?" to the beast and actually starts petting it.
"You must be joking," says Azula, "I'm not an airbender."
"It's only fair that you pull your own weight and steer like everyone else minus Toph," says the waterbender who Azula is certain was in disagreement with the Avatar until Azula voiced her own disapproval.
"He won't bite," claims the Avatar while handing her the reins.
The beast grumbles in disapproval and Azula silently agrees with it. The Avatar soothingly says, "It's okay Appa, she's on our side now."
Well, she may as well make the waterbender regret her decision.
"Can you hold the reins with me?" asks Azula and she sits just a bit too close.
"Sure!"
Too easy. Although, now she was stuck with tedious labor.
"Does this beast have any battle capabilities? Any signals besides left, right, down, and," Azula infects as much disdain as she can into her voice, "'yip-yip'?"
The Avatar begins to prattle about a story of the beast in battle, which Azula admittedly finds herself getting invested in. She asks a few questions here and there to gather intel, of course. The Avatar goes on to tell her other stories about the beast, ones that are less battle heavy and more personal.
The beast would make a good hostage if talking about it makes him smile this much.
The Avatar finishes telling her about the day they bonded when Azula asks, "Are you sure there's only one of them left?"
"I'd think we'd notice a bunch of sky bison flying around," says Zuko and oh does he love setting himself up.
"But Zuko," Azula says in her innocent voice, the one that never fails to put him on edge, "if sky bison are so easy to find, how ever did the Avatar manage to hide from you?"
Zuko grumbles while the other hide their snickers.
Turning back to the Avatar, Azula adds, "There are places where sky bison could still roam. In fact, we're approaching one now. I propose we stop and search."
"That's a great idea!" exclaims the Avatar.
"I don't know Aang," says the waterbender, "we don't really have the time for it."
The Avatar's shoulders slump.
"If I had time to capture Ba Sing Se then we have time now," snaps Azula. She reaches a hand out to pet the beast who gives a warning growl in response. "Besides," she adds, "don't you want to find him a mate?"
The beast is as easy to manipulate as the rest of the group, thinks Azula as it rockets to their destination. She considers voicing this to the Avatar, but he would likely take it as a compliment.
not being able to use strikethroughs is a pain basically imagine Azula messing up and referring to Zuko as Zuzu or her brother.
