Chapter 19: Confessions

Azula awoke to the warm feeling of fabric laying on top of her; still groggy, she lifted her head up and was surprised to find one of the Dai Li uniforms had been placed over her. Gently removing the garments, Azula let out a shallow yawn as she rubbed her eyes to rid them of their haziness.

"Hey, you're up," said a voice close to her, "I was just about to wake you. It's been an hour and a half since you first went to sleep."

Almost automatically, Azula realized the identity of the person who was speaking; she was still quite sluggish from waking up mere moments ago, but the determined Fire princess pushed herself off of the ground as she stood up. She was still on top of the building that she fell asleep on, so thankfully nothing had changed.

"Anything to report?" she inquired with a groggy voice.

"No. It's been quiet this entire time," Accelerator responded, "in other words – I'm bored."

Glancing down from atop the roof at the two other teens below, Azula continued to speak.

"Mai is going to have to leave soon," she said, leaning over the edge, "we need to make sure that the reinforcements are aware of our situation."

The esper was quite impressed with Azula's ability to think ahead and keep her mind focused on one particular thing at a time. Because Accelerator never had to work with other people before, he often found formulating plans to be quite troublesome, especially when it relied on other people. However, over the past couple of days, he found himself becoming more and more interested with thinking of ways to organize future actions.

"What are we going to do if the plan fails?" he asked.

"It won't. It can't," she replied, her face remaining still in thought.

Letting out a quick sigh, as if pushing away any of the concerns in her mind, the young fire bending princess turned to Accelerator.

"What do you think of my father?" she suddenly asked.

"What?" the esper responded, completely unprepared for such a random question.

"My father," she repeated, "what do you think about him? Honestly?"

Accelerator considered the question for a moment.

"He's cool, I guess. Pretty powerful (at least as far as benders go), and he's probably really protective of his nation," the boy said.

"He's a little bit of an Asshole, though," Accelerator concluded.

"What do you mean?" Azula asked in a somewhat defensive tone.

"Well, even though he's the leader of an entire nation, he seems like he believes he's superior to everyone else – It kind of pisses me off. It's as though he believes the power of the Fire Nation is solely due to him; any leader with that kind of personality will pointlessly punish anyone as long as he remains in power, even though it can harm the nation in the end."

Azula's hands twitched at Accelerator's words. Yes, all of those things were probably true, but she never viewed them as anything particularly negative; on the contrary, she believed that doing anything to gain power was admirable. Anyone who was unwilling to compromise their 'morals' for power just seemed like weak people in her eyes. Those who are strong do what they must….right?

Staring intently at the esper as he simply continued to look up at the sky, Azula opened her mouth to speak but was slightly hesitant.

"I see," she said, wondering if she should say what was next on her mind, "Then…what do you think of me?"

Accelerator shifted his entire body around to face the princess; her eyes glanced down in an attempt to avoid his.

"What do I think about you?" he repeated.

"Yes," she said.

"Honestly?"

"Yes."

"Then, 'Honestly', I think you're a lot like me," the esper began, "You desire power as much as I do. But, unlike me, you're definitely better at controlling yourself. You do well in most situations, making the best decisions to lead to any result you want; I know I can't do that. You're smart to; you sometimes plan so far ahead of your opponents that it's actually sort of amazing."

"You're also…..never mind," he said, seemingly regretting the statement as he looked away from the Fire princess.

"I'm also what?" Azula asked, now curious about the esper's unfinished words.

Hiding his face from the princess, Accelerator spoke in an almost hushed tone.

"You're also beautiful," he said.

Azula was taken aback; of course, being the Fire Lord's daughter and all, she was used to compliments, but most of them were from people who had a hidden agenda – none of them were genuine. But now, in front of her, sat someone who obviously didn't care about political gain; here sat a boy who truthfully and meaningfully called her 'beautiful'. Azula felt her face begin to heat up a bit, especially around her cheeks.

"Th-thank you," she said.

"Yeah…sure," he replied.

"I…uhhhh…I should probably go wake Mai up," Azula suggested, diverting her attention from her own nervousness.

"Sure, go ahead," Accelerator said with a wave of his hand.

Leaping from the roof of the building and somersaulting all the way down to the ground, Azula made sure not to make too much noise. Consciously trying to return to her face to its normal state, Azula worked to rid her cheeks of its redness as she approached the sleeping assassin.

"Hey, wake up," she said in her stern voice as she began to shake Mai awake.

The kunai-wielding girl opened her eyes upon the sudden pressure she felt on her body.

"What? What is it?" she asked.

"It's almost time," Azula said coldly.

Letting out a long sigh, Mai sat up as she gingerly rubbed her eyes to rid herself of the haziness she was experiencing. The first thing she mentally noted was the quietness of the night; nobody appeared to be awake at this time – this, of course, was good for her because it meant she could escape the walls of Ba Sing Se without too much trouble.

Glancing around, she noticed that a particular white-haired esper was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Accelerator?" she asked.

Azula's body slightly stiffened at the name but she remained as straight-faced as she could.

"He's up on the roof; he believes it gives him a better vantage point to see if anyone is approaching," she coldly replied.

"Alright," Mai accepted, not willing to question any further.

Catching a glimpse of Azula's face by accident, she saw a small amount of redness on her cheeks.

"Are you sick or something?" she asked, gesturing to the Fire Nation princess' face.

"…Yes, I suppose I am," Azula said, instantly trying to come up with an excuse, "Don't worry. It should be fine by morning."

Mai looked at Azula with a blank expression as she studied her face.

"Ok, whatever you say," the bored assassin finally replied.

For the next few minutes, Azula told Mai the details of what exactly she would tell War Minister Qin once she exited the city. Some of it got a bit complicated, but for the most part, her mission was fairly simple. Finally, the time came for Mai to leave for her mission; quietly saying her goodbyes, the young assassin wandered off into the city. The outline of her body lasted for several blocks before it disappeared into the darkness of the shadows beyond the buildings. Azula's eyes continued to linger on the shapeless shadows that enveloped Mai long after the assassin had left; it had been so long since she last felt so uncertain about a mission. Truth be told, she didn't know where her worry stemmed from; was it the unfamiliar environment? The particular nature of the situation? Or was it something different?

Whatever, it didn't help her any to hold onto these foreign thoughts; after all, she was Azula, daughter of Fire Lord Ozai – there was no reason she had to be worried.

"Did Mai already leave?" a voice suddenly sounded from behind the princess.

Ty Lee had apparently woken up; it was evident given the drowsiness that she displayed on her face.

"Yes, she is gone," Azula responded.

"Oh….where's Accelerator?" the wide-eyed girl wondered, looking around for the esper.

"He's taking his turn for look-out up on the roof. You may have to switch with him soon," Azula said, leaning against a wall.

"Ok, should I go tell him then?" Ty Lee asked with a strange amount of eagerness in her eyes.

"Sure. Do what you want. It makes no difference to me," the Fire Nation princess grumbled.

"Ok!" Ty Lee said.

A small smile spread across the circus girl's face as she finally stood up from where she had awoken. Using her acrobatic skills to jump up the side of the building and climb her way to the top, Ty Lee reached the roof with relative ease. Upon walking towards the quiet esper, who's back was facing her, she couldn't help but feel a bit anxious when approaching him. She felt her heart beat a bit faster than normal, but she tried to contain herself as she walked up to him.

"Uhhhh, Accelerator? I think it's my turn to take watch," she said, doing her best not to sound pushy.

He turned to look up at her, his glowing red eyes met with her brown, innocent ones. Red – what a beautiful color.

"Huh? Did you say something?" he asked.

Quickly shaking herself from his hypnotic stare, Ty Lee continued to speak.

"Ummm…Azula…she told me to…t-take watch…now," the girl said, desperately trying to suppress her own nervousness.

"Sure, that's fine," the esper said, "I mean, I've already gotten enough sleep, so I'll probably just stay up."

"Oh, well, in that case, you can stay on watch with me," Ty Lee said

"Ok, that works, I guess," Accelerator shrugged.

"Great!" the girl said, or rather shouted in a high-pitched manner.

"Keep your voice down," the esper quietly warned, placing a finger on his mouth.

"Sorry," Ty Lee replied sheepishly.

Taking a seat next to the already seated esper, she dangled her legs over the ledge of the roof.

"How long have you been awake?" she asked.

"I don't know. A few hours maybe," he guessed.

"Geez, don't you ever sleep?" she wondered, glancing over at him.

"I require considerably less sleep than most people. I can function for days without needing to rest. I may be a by-product of my abilities," he informed calmly.

Ty Lee stared at his profile; although he wasn't what she would consider to be 'her-type', she would be lying if she said she didn't think he was attractive. His white hair was calming, almost surprisingly so, and his eyes were intense enough to make anyone stop in their tracks. She never thought too much about this, but even his personality was somewhat interesting as well. When she first met him, she thought he was one of those 'cold, unemotional' types, which he kind of was to a certain extent, but yesterday she saw a completely different side of him. When he saw her in distress, he decided to give her some words of encouragement. It was at that moment that she began to look at him in a different way.

"Hey, do you mind if I ask you something?" the young girl said.

"Uh, sure…." Accelerator responded in a strictly 'unsure' tone.

"Why did you help me yesterday? I mean, you could've just ignored me. Then you wouldn't have had to deal with my stupid emotions," she rambled as she lowered her head.

Accelerator looked up at her completely random question. This felt a little like Déjà vu. What was it with people asking him random question today?

The esper straightened his back as he tried to think of an answer.

"I don't know. I don't really know why I did it," he finally confessed, "I guess you were just acting so weird that it made sense to say something. I mean, if nobody said anything to you, it would probably be really bad for you."

Ty Lee nodded her head as he spoke. His words probably didn't mean too much to himself, but to her…they were like gospel. It was a relief to her that someone, even if it was just one person, cared about her well-being.

"Thank you," she said.

.A saddening expression slowly made its way onto her face as she pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

"Do you think I'll ever be able to forget his face. The face of the guy who was killed?" she wondered.

"No." Accelerator said.

Ty Lee pinched her lips together in an effort to avoid crying once more; that wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"You may never forget about him," Accelerator continued, "but you shouldn't want to forget. You should want to remember and grow; this memory is a part of you now, and the only way you can move forward is for you to acknowledge this experience. Believe me, I know…"

Ty Lee's features began to soften. He did it again; somehow he managed to make her feel better again. With a somber chuckle, the young teen wiped at her watering eyes and allowed a small smile to crawl its way back on her face once again. She was fine now. The sorrow had passed; possibly for good this time, but she didn't care too much at the moment. Right now, she felt thankful that he was here with her. A hero by her side.

End of Chapter 19

Author's Note: Hey guys, I just wanted to know, did the character development seem too rushed to you? This chapter was particularly hard for me because I realized it was very difficult to introduce helpful plot devices that led to certain character relationships. I don't know, let me know what you guys thought.

Hey, here's a quick quiz:

Where should you leave your comments?

a) Comment Section (this is the correct answer)

b) your bed

c) a trash can

d) your ass