Snapdragon closes her eyes, leans back, and inhales the vapors. Lilac and firelily are the dominant scents. There is something about them. Something familiar. The way the way the scents intermingle brings her to a place that is both close and distant. She runs the bar of soap over her skin and tries to pull that distant thing closer.
She doesn't dwell much...doesn't dwell at all on the blank spaces in her mind. But there is an itch within those spaces and the scents tickle them. She counts the freckles on her arms after cleaning them of dirt and grime. And this time they seem foregin. Foreign as though she isn't sure if they are supposed to be there.
She shakes her head and reaches for the shampoo. Her hair could use a very good scrub. She wonders if Mai well ask the servants to help her with that. Her hair is such a tangled mess that she isn't sure she will be able to work with it on her own. She dips her head under the water and basks in the warmth it radiates.
She is so very cozy. She wishes that her factory had a hot spring in or near it. She likes hot springs very much, she decides.
She leans her body against the rocks and inhales the lilac. She can't shake the feeling of familiarity. She pushes it to the back of her mind; of course it feels familiar, she has done this once before.
She stares at the hand that rests upon the spring's rocky deck. It is rough and calloused. It is familiar.
One of several serving girls slips back into the room, "Mai would like to know if you're done with your bath yet."
Snapdragon nods and holds out her arm for the towel. The girl hands it over and she pats herself dry. She scampers around for her robe...granted it isn't actually hers. She tugs it on and fusses with the sash. After a few moments of watching her struggle, the serving girl offers her a hand. "Tight enough?" She asks. Snapdragon nods again. "Where is Mai?"
"Waiting for you in the spa."
Her eyes light up, "do I get to use it too?"
The serving girl smiles, "unless you think that you can fix this mess on your own." She ruffles Snapdragon's hair.
She shakes her head, "I wasn't even planin' on tryin' to fix that."
The girl leads her to the spa. With each corner turned, Snapdragon finds herself more daunted, the palace is so huge. It would only take getting distracted and falling behind for her to get lost within its expansive halls. She wonders if the Fire Lord even knows how to navigate it.
"Here we are."
"I finished my bath, Mai!" She declares proudly. A few of the serving girls cringe and she recalls that these folks don't enjoy loud greetings. They don't seem to enjoy loud things in general. She mumbles an apology as walks towards Mai. Mai who doesn't seem particularly bothered by her overly enthusiastic outburst. "I keep forgettin' about the palace rules."
"They aren't official rules." Mai rolls her eyes, "you should here Zuko when he's frustrated." She gestures for Snapdragon to sit. "His father too. That whole family is pretty loud."
"Lean your head back." The serving girl instructs.
"Oh yeah." Snapdragon replies, "I'll do that. Can you use the same shampoo that you used last time? I liked that smell."
"Which ones did we use the last time?"
Snapdragon looks at Mai who gives a little shrug. And then her eyes widen for a flicker. "Firelily and jasmine."
"I dunno how you remembered that." Snapdragon mumbles as the serving girl retreats to fetch the bottles.
"Uh...they used to be Azula's favorites. You smelled like her…"
Snapdragon somehow gets the impression that this isn't a good thing. "Well I can use firelily and…" she taps her chin. "And snapdragon! I am Snapdragon so I can smell like snapdragon!"
"That makes sense." Mai agrees with a slight smile. "You think that you can handle being a lone for a bit, I'm going to go find Zuko and let him know that you'll be spending the night here."
Her tummy flutters once at the notion of being alone with only the servants and twice at the reminder that she will be staying here at the palace with several more hours of time to make both she and Mai look foolish. At least now she won't be dirty and grubby when she does it.
"Okay, I'll stay."
Snapdragon shakes her head. The woman running a comb through her hair sighs and gives her another reminder to keep her head still. Snapdragon mumbles another apology. "It's fine Mai, I can be alone for a bit."
She regrets saying so as soon as Mai leaves the room. There may not be any uppity nobles about this time around, but even the serving girls seem to have more class and poise than she. Everyone is so elegant, they can bury her under as many fine silks and scents as they please but she doesn't think that they will ever truly be able to drive out the scents of Capital City's lower ring smog. "What is this?" The girl with the brush plucks a cluster of pine needles from her hair. But Agni, are they giving it their best shot.
"That must be from when I were trying to reach the bird's nest. I were gonna take it down if there were no eggs in it." Snapdragon explains. "I climbed up all the way to near the top of the tree…"
"The sap is practically gluing your hair together."
That doesn't exactly sound like an easy fix.
The serving girl sighs. "I hope that you're comfy. This is going to take a while and if I can't wash the sap out then I will have to give you another haircut."
Snapdragon swallows. She wishes that she weren't such a burden, if only she had nice, silky hair like Mai's.
"Ami, you're making her uncomfortable."
Snapdragon recognizes this voice. It is the serving girl she had met first. Yora, if she recalls correctly.
"She could use some discomfort if you ask me." Ami mutters. "Look at this." She holds up a clump of her hair. The strands are held together by a decent glob of pine sap.
Yora chuckles. "I'll work with this, you just shampoo her hair." She turns her attention to Snapdragon. "And you just relax, trust me you'll feel much better after this."
Snapdragon can believe that, she already feels better, more respectable now that she smells like firelily. Yora is a lot more careful than Ami, she still snags Snapdragon's locks but she doesn't yank at them. She closes her eyes, she must admit that it is relaxing to have the shampoos massaged into her hair.
Like the spring water, the steams that they pour over her head are kindly hot. She watches tendrils of steam twist and curl towards the ceiling. She thinks that she can nearly see the scents on them; she imagines that the firelily would take on a vivid orange and that the snapdragon would be a flashy red smoke.
"Cherries?" Offers a new serving girl.
With a grin, Snapdragon pops one into her mouth. She may not be able to get used to this, but she certainly enjoys it. She takes a second cherry and a third. And then she loses track of how many cherries she has eaten.
"We're almost done." Yora says. "I'm going to have to give you a bit of a haircut though. I can't seem to get this one clump of sap out."
"Okay." Snapdragon agrees. She takes another cherry from the bowl and bites down. "Ow!" Momentarily forgetting her about her surroundings, she spits the cherry pit out. She hears it ping against one of the decorative vases.
Ami pinches the bridge of her nose, "someone pick that up."
Snapdragon rubs the side of her mouth. She wishes that she hadn't bitten down so hard. She supposes it could have been worse; she could have swallowed it and choked…
The serving girl scrubbing the callouses off of her feet pauses.
The sense of deja vu comes over her again but with more potency. A headpoudning potency. To further spike Ami's irritation, she shifts uncomfortably in the chair. This sense of familiarity itches at the back of her mind. Whatever it is, it is just out of reach. Just out of reach in just the same way that recollections of her time in the jungle are.
"Don't let Ami bother you." Yora leans in and whispers. "She's a stern old flutterbat."
Snapdragon allows the comment to wash away her unease. She gives a little laugh.
"I thought that it was funny." Yora continues. "It would have been even funnier if you spit it out at one of those guards. They're no fun."
Snapdragon laughs again.
Ami inhales through her nose, "please. Sit still."
"Sorry." She mutters again.
She leaves the spa feeling quite refreshed, her head feels so much lighter now that it isn't loaded with sap, pine needles, and twigs. She feels lighter in general. And the aroma of firelily and snapdragon leaves her with the sensation that she could levitate, could drift away on a cloud of their perfume.
She holds her sleeve to her nose. She expects it to smell like the shampoo but she finds that it has a scent of its own; firelily and jasmine with a touch of smoke.
Her head begins to ache again.
.oOo.
"What's wrong, you're not acting like yourself tonight?" Mai frowns.
She doesn't feel much like herself tonight.
"You're all quiet again. Are you still anxious about being surrounded by nobles?"
That must be it. She is still nervous. She nods, "a little." Though she isn't sure that that truly is what is bothering her. She can't think of anything else that it could be though.
"I'm surprised that you aren't shaking with joy. You were really excited for another palace banquet."
And she was. She thinks that she still is. Though, at the same time, she doesn't have much of an appetite at the moment. Mostly she feels queasy? Foggy? Distant? She isn't exactly sure what she is feeling. Other than unwell. "I feel…"
"You look pale." Mai notes.
Snapdragon nods. "I feel sick." That doesn't quite fit either but it is the closest thing that she can think of.
"Do you want to skip dinner and go see the palace physician." The Firelord offers from the head of the table. "They're really good, I promise."
She shakes her head, "I want food first. I came here for the food."
Mai chuckles, "that sounds more like you."
Snapdragon smiles. Maybe she'll feel better after a gourmet meal. Maybe she'll feel more like Snapdragon if she does things that make Snapdragon happy.