CW: someone expresses a highly problematic opinion about lack of consent.

Chapter 21

Katara awoke the next morning to the disturbing sounds of a dying seal crying out in distress. Wait, a dying seal in a Ba Sing Se hotel? That can't be right. Katara reared her head from the pillow and listened in once more. There was the disturbing sound again, coming straight from her bathroom. On second thought, it sounded a lot like… retching?

Azula! Memories of last night came back in a flood as Katara jumped out of the bed and ran straight for the bathroom, seeing that Azula's side of the bed was empty. The bathroom was an absolute mess. Azula had done her best trying to get to the sink, but she hadn't made it in time, and so the bathroom floor was covered with foul smelling vomit. Azula herself had collapsed on the floor, but at least the upper part of her body was in the shower cabin, and she had made most of the mess in there. Her clothes were all filthy, covered with puke. She was an absolute, miserable mess.

"Good grief!" Katara exclaimed. She wanted to approach Azula to check up on her, but there was just so much puke everywhere, it was making her queasy. "Are you even alive there?" she asked. Azula responded with a weak groan. Well, that was a good sign. "Hang on, I'll try to make my way over to you," Katara said. In the absence of a proper mop and a bucket, Katara's only option was to sacrifice a few of the bath towels, soaking them in the sink and then wiping up most of the mess Azula had made on the floor. This allowed Katara to walk up to Azula and crouch next to her without making a complete mess of her own clothes.

"Okay, this is probably a stupid question, but how do you feel?" Katara asked. Azula groaned again. She was gesturing vaguely towards her head, which could mean only one thing. She was having a mother of all headaches. "I'll go get the Tylenol, be right back." Katara returned a moment later, carrying two pills and an empty glass which she filled with water from the tap. "I'll need you to swallow these pills, Azula," she said, crouching next to the suffering girl in the shower cabin.

"Just going to… puke them… straight out," Azula managed, wincing at every word.

"I doubt you have anything left in you to vomit out," Katara sighed. She literally had to push the pills past Azula's lips. Fortunately, when she pressed the glass of water against Azula's mouth, she drank eagerly, swallowing the painkillers. "Alright, I guess… you better lay there for a while until the pills kick in. I'll just clean up some more in the meantime," she sighed, sacrificing another towel to finish cleaning up in the bathroom.

Katara soon encountered another problem. Azula had thrown up all over herself, which meant that the floor under her was also a complete mess, not to mention that she continued to spread this mess with every movement she made. "Azula, I'll need you to get all the way into the shower cabin," Katara said. "I can just rinse that clean later, no problem. Can you do that for me?"

Groaning and moaning like a dying walrus, Azula tried her best to crawl all the way inside the shower cabin. Despite her monumental effort, she probably wouldn't have made it if Katara hadn't pushed her on the bum in order to help. Once inside the shower cabin, Azula collapsed again, looking exhausted. She had always been of a rather pale complexion, but right now, the Fire Nation girl looked worryingly white as a sheet of paper.

Katara decided to just let Azula rest for a while until Tylenol started to kick in. Instead, Katara focused on finishing cleaning the bathroom, ruining the last of the towels and then dumping them all in a bin. She didn't envy the unfortunate member of the cleaning staff who would have to deal with all that filth.

Now there was another problem, and that was Azula's clothes. Katara eventually managed to find a plastic bag where they could discard the ruined clothes, as she doubted that Azula would ever want to touch them again. Seeing that Azula was still a little too out of it to do anything about her clothes, Katara poured some orange juice into a glass and brought it over to the suffering girl. "Here, drink some of this," she urged a reluctant looking Azula.

"Hate orange juice," Azula was not intent on cooperating.

"Even if it makes you feel better?" Katara asked. "Come now, Azula. Down the hatch it goes," she pressed the glass more firmly against Azula's mouth, and the other girl finally parted her lips, swallowing the juice with large mouthfuls. "I guess we just have to wait a little longer for the meds to kick in, huh?"

"I do feel a little bit better," Azula managed weakly. "Feel so gross, though."

"We'll need to get rid of your clothes," Katara nodded. "And you'll want to shower. But let's not rush it."

"What time is it?" Azula asked. She was starting to slowly pull herself up to her feet, despite Katara questioning the wisdom of it.

"I've no idea," Katara confessed. She poked her head outside of the bathroom to check the wall clock. "Quarter past nine. So we have a bit of time. Not too much, though."

"I'm literally going to kill myself unless I can take a shower right now," Azula groaned. Somehow, she had managed to propel herself upwards, leaning against the tile covered wall. "I'm so sticky it's fucking gross," she said. "Right… where can I dump these clothes?"

"I have a bag right here," Katara said, quickly retrieving the plastic bag. "Do you, uh, need any help with that?"

"I should be able to undress myself just fine." A little bit of bite was coming back into Azula's voice now, indicating that she was feeling slightly better. She was still unsteady as she began to slowly undress and dump the ruined clothes into the plastic bag that Katara held out for her. Katara hadn't exactly thought through the logistics of it all to the tiniest detail, so she wasn't sure how Azula would handle the part with her underwear. Katara was quite shocked and assumed that Azula was still highly intoxicated when the other girl stripped down fully naked in front of her and threw her underwear into the bag along with the rest of her clothing. Despite doing her best not to stare, Katara still ended up turning completely red in the face as the doors of the shower cabin closed in her face.

Azula ran the shower for a few seconds, then stopping the water right away. "Wait a moment," she spoke up just as Katara was about to leave to get rid of the bag with filthy clothes. "I don't actually have a spare set of clothing with me."

"Yeah, I was thinking of giving you one of my dresses so that you can at least get back to your penthouse suite," Katara replied. "But I hadn't considered that you'd throw away your underwear as well."

"I can't be seen wearing your peasant clothes. Not even to get back to my rooms," Azula replied. Well, she's saying stupid shit again, so yep, she's definitely recovering, Katara concluded.

"Well, in that case we have a problem," Katara sighed. "Oh, and also, there's another issue. I'm out of bathroom towels. They're all covered in your puke."

"Sorry," Azula said quietly. She sounded like she truly meant that.

"It's not your fault," Katara replied.

"It really is, though," Azula argued back. "But I can fix it. You could just go up to my penthouse suite and fetch all the stuff I need, a set of clothes and some towels. The key should be in my purse."

"Right, I think I saw your purse by the bed," Katara said. "Alright then, I'll leave you to shower and go pick up the stuff. You're going to be alright in there?"

"Of course I'll be alright," Azula snapped, almost sounding irritated. "Thank you, Katara," she added a moment later. Now she sounded guilty.

"Don't mention it," Katara replied. "I'll be right back." She walked out of her room, locking the door behind her. Katara then turned and walked up to the elevator. Unfortunately, while she was waiting for the elevator, Sokka and Yue came up to her from behind.

"Morning, Kat!" Yue exclaimed, greeting her with a hug. "It seems like we're not the only ones late for breakfast."

"I just hope there's some food left," Sokka lamented, as always having his priorities straight.

"I am definitely going to join you for breakfast, but not right away," Katara replied. "I need to... take care of something else first," she added as the elevator doors opened with a cheerful jingle. Katara got in ahead of the others, pressing the button for the penthouse suite without much thinking.

"Uh, sis, why are we going to the penthouse?" Sokka gave her a confused stare.

"This probably isn't the best time to drop in unexpected on Azula Nakamura," Yue added. "If there even is a good time for such a thing."

Katara knew that she had to quickly make up some story. She couldn't tell Sokka and Yue that Azula Nakamura was currently in her shower, naked, and she was going to retrieve some clothes and towels for Azula. "Azula is currently in my shower and I'm going to retrieve some spare clothes for her," Katara's mouth opened and words just came out. She literally was the worst liar in the whole world.

Sokka and Yue exchanged shocked and disbelieving stares. "I would suspect this being some kind of a joke if I didn't know that my sister doesn't have a sense of humor," Sokka blinked as the elevator stopped at the penthouse floor. Katara quickly got out and stopped the others when they tried to follow her.

"Please, just let me take care of this, I promise to tell you everything later, alright?" she uttered quickly, reaching back into the elevator cabin and hitting the button to bring Sokka and Yue down to the cafeteria floor. Her brother and her best friend exchanged stares and shrugged, but fortunately did not protest, leaving Katara alone to do what she had come for. She wasted no time to grab a set of clothing for Azula, trying to stave off a blush while searching the drawer of Azula's underwear, and finally grabbing a pair of bathroom towels, one for Azula, and another one for her own shower later. It all took her a few minutes, and soon she was on her way back to her room, arriving to find Azula still busy in the shower. Apparently, her Fire Nation friend enjoyed lengthy showers, which was something they both definitely had in common.

"Azula? I'm putting your clothes down by the sink, on top of the towel," Katara called out over the sound of running water. "I'm going to leave you alone to finish up." Azula didn't reply, continuing to scrub herself clean, so Katara returned to her room and sat down on the bed, trying her best to compartmentalize everything that had happened since the previous evening. Also, she was desperately trying not to think about having seen Azula naked, or about the really cute looking heart-shaped birthmark just below Azula's left breast.

Eventually, the shower stopped running and a few minutes later, Azula reappeared, fully dressed. Her hair was still moist and messy, and she looked strangely genuine and vulnerable without her makeup on. For some reason, seeing Azula like this was making Katara's heart flutter slightly. "You do realize that this skirt doesn't match the top at all, right?" Azula asked sharply, breaking the spell.

"What?" Katara blinked. She had no idea what Azula was talking about. As far as she was concerned, the other girl looked cute in the flaring red skirt and the striped sleeveless tunic. "I'm sure it's good enough to get you back to your room, Azula," she pointed out.

"You're probably right," Azula nodded. She picked up her purse from the table where Katara had left it, looking around the room and spotting her red cuissarde boots. "Ugh, could you throw those away too, please? I don't feel like wearing them again."

"If you're sure," Katara said. Azula nodded again. "Do you remember anything at all from last night?" she asked.

Azula frowned, then glancing at the wall clock. It was almost a quarter to ten and the tournament play began at 11am. "There's no time to go over that now," Azula said decisively. "I should get ready to play… somehow. Damn it, I can't even remember who I'm supposed to be playing today."

"Uh… you're playing me," Katara said, blushing slightly.

"Seriously?" Azula's reaction was a hollow laugh. "Well, that fucking figures." She sank into the nearby chair. "At least you're going to have an easy time of it for once. I'm obviously in no state to play today."

"Yeah, I can see that," Katara sighed. She already knew that beating Azula on top of everything else that had happened to the other girl would bring her no satisfaction at all. "Listen, Azula. You probably don't know how you ended up in my room, right?" Azula shook her head at that. "Let's try and put the pieces of the puzzle together, shall we? How much do you remember from last night?"

Azula let out a deep sigh before she replied. "I remember going to this club, not far from the hotel. I remember arguing with the bartender. The asshole didn't want to pour me drinks. Then Chan and Ruon-Jian showed up, slipped a bit of cash to the bartender, and then the booze started flowing. The rest kind of blurs together and into a mist, honestly," Azula finished, then giving Katara a curious stare. "So, how did I end up in your care?" she asked.

"I was coming back to my room after hanging out with my friends, when by pure chance I came across Ruon and Chan. They were about to drag you off to Ruon's room," Katara explained. She instantly became horrified by the completely blank look on Azula's face at that statement. "Surely you have an idea of what they intended to do with you if they had succeeded, right?" Katara asked. The very thought of what could have happened was making her dizzy with disgust and anger, and Azula's non-reaction was bothering her a great deal.

"I can imagine, yes," Azula nodded simply.

"Does that not mean anything to you?" Katara was almost shouting by now. "I think we should report those two assholes. They need to be thrown out of the tournament!"

"No, we can't do that," Azula shook her head. She suddenly looked a little panicked for reasons that Katara couldn't immediately guess. "I shouldn't have been at that club in the first place. If my father finds out that I was there and lied about my age…"

"I was afraid you would say something like that," Katara sighed. "Fine, I don't want to get you into even more trouble with your father. But it's just not right that Ruon and Chan should get away with something like that! I mean, what they intended was r-… ugh, I can't even say it, it's too horrible!"

"I think you are being overly dramatic about it all," Azula replied calmly. It only served to further outrage Katara.

"How am I being overly dramatic?" she shouted. "What would you call it then?"

"I don't know," Azula shrugged. "But I kind of showed up at that club because I was looking for something like that to happen. So I can't even blame them too much. It's quite possible that I was leading them on."

Katara couldn't quite believe what she was hearing. "Azula, I… I'm genuinely horrified by your words," she gasped. "You're a minor and you were in no state to reasonably give your consent. You can't put this on yourself. Why would you? And why did you want something like that to happen? It's horrible!" Azula swallowed heavily and looked away, unable to hold Katara's intense stare. "Does it have anything to do with the way you've been playing? Is this… I don't know, your way of rebelling against your father?"

"No, I'm not rebelling," Azula rolled her eyes. "You wouldn't understand, Katara."

"Try me," Katara insisted. "I deserve that much after helping you out."

Azula seemed to consider her words, eventually agreeing with a nod. "Fair enough," she said. "You know that I've had a terrible start to the tournament. It's the talk of the town. My father is going to be livid when he arrives in a few days. Since I'm in all sorts of trouble already, well… I thought I might as well go all out with the stupid things I'm normally not allowed to do. That's all there really was to it."

"I'm… trying to be understanding here, Azula, but you nearly got yourself r-" Katara paused. Once again, she felt too disgusted to actually say the word. "Abused by two absolute scumbags," she said instead. She was having a hard time accepting that Azula could explain these things away so casually. "You couldn't have wanted for that to happen, Azula, that's crazy!"

"Why are you so upset about it all?" Azula looked confused.

"Why am I upset?" Katara's voice rose without thinking. "Because I don't want horrible things to happen to you! I thought we were supposed to be friends! That means I care about what happens to you, you idiot!"

Azula's eyes widened at Katara's outburst. For a moment, she appeared lost for words. "I'm sorry," she mumbled forlornly. "I don't know how to react to someone telling me things like that. Somebody caring about what I'm going through? How am I supposed to deal with something like that?"

"Oh for the love of-" Katara buried her head in her hands. Much to her dismay and embarrassment, she began to cry.

"I'm sorry, I keep saying stupid shit, I guess. I should just leave," Azula rose to walk away, looking uncomfortable.

"No! No, damn it, stay! Sit down!" Katara exclaimed loudly. Azula looked surprised, sitting right back down again. "I'm not crying because you offended me. I'm crying because no human being should ever be made to feel like nobody cares about what they're going through," Katara tried to explain. "Perhaps you have been raised to feel that way, Azula, but that is not right. It's really not."

Azula looked thoughtful and uncertain. "You may be right. The thought of someone caring about what I'm dealing with is… I don't know, nice?" she tried.

"Well, I care! I really, really do!" Katara insisted tearfully. "I really hoped that we could be friends, Azula. I was hoping so much that you would call me, but you never did. I could have been there for you. I wanted to be there for you."

Azula winced, a shadow of guilt passing across her face. "I wanted to call. And I did," she said quietly. "But someone else picked up the phone. I think it was your father. I lost my nerve and didn't try again."

"Can we please try again?" Katara asked desperately. Azula gave her a relieved nod. "Thank you. When does your father arrive in Ba Sing Se?"

Azula looked at the calendar on the wall. "Today is Wednesday. I think Zhao said that my father will arrive on Sunday," she said.

"That means we have four days," Katara spoke decisively. "So here's what's going to happen. Instead of sneaking into some sleazy nightclubs and doing crazy, dangerous shit, you're going to hang out with me and my friends. We're going to have a lot of fun together, you'll see. It's exactly what you need."

"I'm pretty sure your friends hate me, Katara," Azula said, looking dubious. "I'm fine with spending time just with you, though."

Katara blushed slightly. "Well, I'm flattered to hear that, but I can assure you that my friends don't hate you. In fact, they want to hang out with you. I know this for a fact because I have already asked them about it," Katara finished decisively.

"Has anyone ever told you that you can be very forceful and pushy?" Azula asked. She seemed a little amused.

"It might have come up in some conversations in the past," Katara admitted, blushing again. "Do we have an agreement, then?" she asked.

"Do I have a choice?" Azula asked with an exaggerated sigh.

"You'll always have a choice with me, as much as I'd like to press you into doing this because I'm so firmly convinced that it'll be good for you," Katara said.

"Alright, fine, I agree," Azula gave in, much to the other girl's delight.

"You're also going to tell me why you are so off your game," Katara insisted. "This isn't like you at all, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it."

Azula sighed, glancing at the clock. It was a few minutes past ten and they really had to start getting ready and make themselves presentable. "I don't see why you have to know everything about my life," Azula complained. "Besides, there's no time for that story now. I should be getting ready for my next defeat."

Katara's heart sank at Azula's words. She really didn't want to take advantage of the other girl's shaky mental state, but it wasn't as if their game could be postponed, the tournament officials would not stand for it. "Well, we'll see what happens, but Azula, I know that afterwards hanging out with my friends will put you in a better frame of mind for your next games," Katara promised, walking Azula up to the doors to let her out. "Oh, and another thing I just remembered… Yue and Sokka spotted me going up to the penthouse. They kind of know that you were in my room and they'll want to know what happened. What are you comfortable with me telling them?"

Azula thought for a moment. "Just tell them that you came across me drunk and passed out last night," Azula said. "Please leave Chan and Ruon-Jian out of the story. I don't want to deal with more drama right now. If I'll feel like it, I'll find a way to give them some much deserved comeuppance."

"Alright, as you wish," Katara frowned, obviously not happy about letting Chan and Ruon off the hook. Though perhaps it wasn't a story to share with her younger friends in particular, but Katara still thought that they should have gone to the police. Then again, Azula didn't need more trouble with her violent father. Perhaps this was for the best… for now.

"And Katara?" she looked up to see Azula staring at her with rare sincerity in her amber eyes. "Thank you. I really mean it."

"Think nothing of it," Katara replied, turning around before the heated blush managed to hit her cheeks.

Less than an hour later, Katara was facing Azula again, this time at the Pai Sho board. Azula had used the half an hour of time well and appeared almost like her usual confident self, even if Katara knew that it was just a mask which on this occasion Azula wasn't even wearing particularly well. Indeed, soon after the game had began, the mask came off very quickly and Azula's lack of confidence and compromised mental state began to tell as she made several key mistakes early on and her position quickly became indefensible.

This was where Katara began to hesitate. Azula had made it plain and clear that her father would be punishing her severely for her poor play. If Katara were to defeat Azula here and now, she would be contributing to the beating that Azula ended up receiving from her father. Katara wasn't sure she could bear contributing to Azula's suffering, even in this indirect way, so she began to purposefully choose poor moves to worsen her own position. Azula immediately realized what Katara was doing, and she was not happy.

"What do you think you're doing?" Azula hissed angrily. "Are you trying to throw the game on purpose?" Katara tried to ignore Azula's anger and made another intentionally bad move, sacrificing one of her Rose tiles. "Stop that immediately, Katara, I'm warning you!" Azula was livid by now. "If you don't stop it, I'm telling the referees!"

Katara gave the other girl a pleading stare, but Azula was having none of it. In fact, she looked really offended. Katara let out a deep sigh. She should have known that Azula would be too proud to accept this sort of unsportsmanlike help. "Sorry, I just-" she began, only to be interrupted as a referee stopped by their table. It appeared that what she had been trying to do was so obvious that Katara ended up receiving a verbal warning from the referee for not trying hard enough and not playing to her best.

She finished the game on the twenty-fifth move, her cheeks covered by an intense blush of embarrassment from her actions. As they rose from the table, Katara was worried that Azula would be so annoyed with her that she would no longer want to hang out together. Fortunately, Azula made no attempt to flee and allowed Katara to catch up with her as they both headed towards the exit.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Katara spoke up, feeling the need to explain herself. "I probably shouldn't have done that, I agree. But Pai Sho is just a game, Azula. What's happening to you is much more important."

"Pai Sho is not just a game, I don't ever want to hear you saying that again," Azula replied, still a little irately. "It's far more than that for me. My father does not allow me many ways to express myself. Pai Sho is pretty much the only thing I have. It's vitally important to me, so please, never disrespect or minimize its importance again."

"Of… of course," Katara stuttered. She hadn't considered this angle at all, but it made sense. Still, the thought that Azula had so little else in her life just made her depressed again. "Once again, I'm very sorry, I did not mean to disrespect you, Azula," she sighed. "I hope we can still hang out."

"We can do that," Azula nodded magnanimously.

"And you still owe me the story about what has caused such a drop in your level of play," Katara reminded the other girl. "But I think we should go somewhere private for that conversation. How about we go back to my room?"

"You're not going to drop this, are you?" Azula sighed. Katara grinned and shook her head. "Ugh. Well, in that case, I insist that we go to the penthouse suite. Might as well make ourselves comfortable because this isn't a conversation I'm looking forward to."

Katara was only too happy to agree.

Next chapter: Azula hangs out with Katara and the Gaang, while Sokka meets a mysterious new friend.