Chapter 7
Azula awoke at what she assumed was sunrise. It was impossible to visually tell while she was buried underground in this metal tomb. An icy bite lingered in the air from Kai's most recent attempt to persuade her to talk, but it was much warmer than she thought it'd be. He gave in awfully quick this time.
She was pleased to find it easy to flood her limbs with heat, but Azula couldn't completely shake the deep chill that penetrated her bones. She felt stiff from the so-called "treatment" and when she rolled over to stretch, she suppressed a jerk of surprise in finding herself face to face with a sleeping Ty Lee.
What? Her gold eyes were wide and staring at the woman only a few inches away from her. Ty Lee's breath came in the long, slow intervals indicative of deep sleep. Part of her face was shrouded by loosely fallen bangs. She looked so at ease. Azula didn't know what it was like to sleep so carelessly, so contentedly. For her, nights were often as troubling as days.
Ty Lee's hand was awkwardly positioned between them on the mattress. Azula assumed it had been draped over her freezing body during the night, until she warmed up enough to turn away. She tentatively reached out to touch the slim hand with her own, but stopped, a sick feeling permeating her stomach.
This was the girl who'd so easily brought her down. This was the girl who'd added another link to her insanity chain at the Boiling Rock. A chain that grew so rapidly, she now wore that as a crown instead of a Fire Lord's proper headpiece. This girl had wound her way so deep into Azula's brain that the thought of enacting any sort of revenge here and now did not appear. This was the stupid, ditzy, flirtatious girl that had been her friend since childhood. The closest thing she ever had to a relationship, or whatever their trysts were. And this girl, this friend, discarded her without any hesitation. For Mai of all people.
Azula hated admitting that it hurt so badly.
Her dark eyebrows furrowed as she withdrew her hand. Was she so bad? Was she so unbearable that everyone left her without a second thought? Mother, Zuko, Mai, Ty Lee, and even Father… Ty Lee made her choice years ago, so why was she here? Why did she come back while the others stayed far away?
She knew the answer, of course, but the concept of love was never her strength.
Now she could guess why the room had warmed up so quickly. Ty Lee must have played the sappy friend card and gotten them to end the freezing conditions earlier than they normally would.
Azula rolled closer to the wall and shut her eyes briefly, banishing the despairing thoughts that circled her mind. She took a breath and exhaled slowly, a thin line of smoke trailing from her lips.
This was also the girl who couldn't keep her enormous mouth shut and set these ice sessions in motion.
The princess sat up and quietly moved to the end of the bed, leaving Ty Lee asleep. She requested a tray of food from one of the guards, who knocked on the door to the hallway to be let out of the room, and retreated to the corner to wait. Her back to the wall, she sat pin straight with her eyes closed, for once not thinking of anything.
Within ten minutes, the guard brought back a tray of breakfast foods for Azula. He also informed her that Kai wanted to meet with her once Ty Lee left. Well, that should be fun. Something to fill the wasteland of my calendar.
Azula inspected the food. She wasn't sure why she had been refusing it lately. Although Kai suspected ulterior motives, she just didn't have an appetite. She'd have to change that habit though. If she wanted to get out of here, she'd need her strength. Besides, for being stuck in this awful place, the food was tolerable. Certainly no palace fare, but Azula was sure her brother wouldn't cater special food for his loony sister. She nibbled on some bread and dunked a bite into some rice porridge concoction. There was even a bit of fruit and some not completely disgusting room temperature tea.
When she finished, Azula slid the tray back under the bars to the guards and returned to sit at the end of the room. It was still early and she didn't feel like waking Ty Lee. Not because she was feeling nice, she just didn't particularly want to speak with her at the moment. Ty Lee would be all bubbly and concerned about her wellbeing. Perhaps rightfully so, considering Azula never remembered much while she was passed out during the cooling treatment. But no matter, she still was in no mood for that woman's energy.
Instead Azula just sat, back to the wall. She occasionally ran a hand through her long hair and tried to comb out any snarls that formed. What she wouldn't give for a palace spa day…
After a while, the princess placed her hand on the metal floor and heated it as much as she could. Her legs hid the act from the guards, who she imagined were positively bored of watching her every day. Her fits were less common and they didn't sedate her nearly as much as they used to. A little complacency might serve her well.
The heat from her hand slowly seeped into the metal, glowing an extremely dim orange after several minutes. If she was at full power, closer to ground level, with fewer guards, she could probably manage to manipulate its shape over a prolonged period. Wishful thinking currently. None of those conditions were possible.
Freezing though… A new thought entered her mind while her eyes darted to the bars. Azula wondered if the metal could be weakened by successive periods of freezing and thawing. Such drastic temperature changes were sure to affect its integrity, right? She knew the Fire Nation cruisers were giant metal beasts, resistant to cold damage. A strong alloy of steel, she was sure. This room though, and its bars, were iron. Iron could be much more brittle.
Azula lifted her hand from the floor and waited for the glowing to fade before shifting closer to the bars. Definitely iron. They were certainly strong, but not as strong as the walls of this place. It would be stupid to build an entirely metal building if the walls were only a few inches thick. She had to assume they were at least a foot or more. Hoping the walls would shatter from a little ice was foolish. These bars however, were only about an inch in diameter. Azula could see the bumps along the iron and hoped this only decreased the stability of the barrier holding her here.
She stood and walked to the guards, running her hand along the bars casually. Trying to take in every imperfection, every flaw.
"I would like more tea," she said, "perhaps a little warmer this time?"
She sank to the floor and waited for the guard to return. The other one's helmet watched her closely until his partner came back with a steaming cup of tea. He set it down on the floor and Azula deftly reached through the bars to claim it. Turning her back to them, she smiled and sipped the warm liquid, retreating to the back wall of the room.
There were several glaring issues with this newly formulated idea. First, there certainly was no guarantee that repeated temperature fluctuations would do anything at all to the iron. Second, even if there was, it was impossible to guess how long the weakening would take. Currently the room had only been thoroughly frozen three times. Once after the drowning nightmare, once after she carelessly burned her ankle, and now this time. Azula guessed it would take many more freezes to even be able to make a chip in the bars. And who knew what kind of toll exposing her body to the freezes would take? The third issue was the perpetual presence of the guards. Being watched put a damper on any plan she might make up. Recalculations were needed.
What did she know for sure? She knew where she was. Six floors down in an entirely metal building on a peninsula of the Fire Nation. It was less than half an hour by water from the capital and a fifteen or so minute walk to some northward peasant villages. Two guards watched her during the day, only one at night, but the hallway door was kept locked at all times. The night guard was notorious for dozing on the job. Unfortunately, her bending was weak down here, and a nighttime escape wouldn't help that aspect. She needed to continue eating, stretching, practicing forms that were second nature to her by now, but everything was necessary to build her old strength back.
What she did not know was also important. The layout of the building, how the rooms were arranged, hallway security patrols, or even the extent of the security measures outside. When she was first brought here, Azula was not capable of mentally noting those crucial details. She needed that information and suspected she knew exactly where to get it from.
Azula's eyebrow rose at a tiny groan from the bed. Speak of the devil. The woman stirred gently. She stretched, revealing a sliver of her toned abdomen, and reached across the mattress to where she thought Azula was still sleeping. When she found only empty space, her eyes snapped open and she sat up looking around the room wildly before she saw Azula sitting on the floor.
Ty Lee yawned and shot her a quizzical look, "Is that tea?"
The princess looked at her blankly. Ty Lee's hair was ruffled from sleep and her clothes were askew. She looked absolutely ridiculous. And pretty.
"I find that 'good morning' is a polite way to start a day."
Ty Lee blushed, embarrassed, "Of course, good morning! So, the tea— w-wait a minute!" She bounded off the bed, frizzy braid flying, and kneeled next to Azula. Bubbly and concerned, as predicted.
"Are you alright? How are you feeling? Are you still cold? Spirits, Azula, I thought you were a corpse when I came here yesterday! How long has this been going on? Why didn't you say anything? I have to talk to Zuk—" She reached out to rest a hand on Azula's knee, but the princess's hand shot out and clutched her wrist to stop her. The guards were alert. One unlocked the barred door and they both entered Azula's chamber in case something went south quickly.
Azula sighed, irked that her surprisingly peaceful morning had come to an end. Sipping her tea with her other hand, she looked at the former acrobat, slightly annoyed.
"You'll do no such thing."
Ty Lee was puzzled. At her words and at her wrist in the painfully warm grasp of Azula. At least it was warm and not on the verge of frostbite. That was a plus.
"What? Why not? He could—" Ty Lee stopped at the memory of the doctor's words last night. The Fire Lord suggested this.
"Because if he could do something more to help rehabilitate me, he would have done it by now. His complete lack of interest speaks for itself," her hand heated the cup, keeping the tea warm. "Besides, I've got a wicked little feeling that dear Zuko wouldn't mind the treatment they've instigated."
This thought was confirmed by the look on Ty Lee's face. That all too familiar, how does she know expression. Azula was pleased at the correct guess, but her gut inexplicably sank at the confirmation that her own brother ordered cooling. Maybe he's not quite as soft as I thought. Perhaps he's learning. Well, a bolt of lightning to the chest could do that to a person.
She barely increased the heat in the hand she gripped Ty Lee with. The woman squirmed a bit, but didn't pull away.
"Now, I've got another feeling that somebody in this room leaked some burning information to the doctor of this facility," Azula watched the guards cautiously.
"Azula, I didn't say anything! They must have heard us talking abo—"
"You."
"Huh?"
"They must have heard you talking about it."
Another blush. Ty Lee knew Azula was right. She hadn't exactly let the subject quietly drop the night she saw the bad burn.
"I'm sorry, but how was I supposed to know they'd try to freeze you to death for some burns? I thought they'd treat them and just maybe, I don't know, maybe do something more humane."
Azula laughed, a cold, insincere sound that made Ty Lee wince, "Oh yes, here in the Fire Nation, we're known for our humanity." She channeled all the heat she could muster into her one hand for a brief second, pouring all of that festering hurt this woman caused into it. She was staring at Ty Lee with utter contempt. The former acrobat shouted out and yanked her hand back, a pink splotch spreading over her wrist.
The guards rushed in to lead Ty Lee away, but they slowed at a shake of her head. She clutched her stinging wrist, "I didn't mean for that to happen. You know that, right? I'd never ask for someone to hurt you."
"No, you would just do it yourself," Azula downed the rest of her tea and tossed the cup to a guard, who fumbled it but managed to keep it from dropping. Her eyes stayed focused on Ty Lee, whose head was lowering to look at the floor, but Azula tipped her chin up with a hand. "You don't get to look away."
They stared, hard gold eyes into slowly blinking gray-brown ones. Ty Lee's heart sank. There were so many things she came here with the intention of doing. Talking about the whole Mai thing, updates on her newly cleaned apartment, maybe even asking the guards if they could walk supervised around the floor. But instead Azula had been frozen and her immediate danger overshadowed everything else. Upon waking up, Ty Lee was overjoyed at how the princess had recovered so quickly and so well. And now Azula had sort of admitted for the first time that she was hurt by what Ty Lee had done long ago. So instead of talking about what she'd planned, she crumpled against Azula and cried lightly.
"I'm sorry," a few tears trickled slowly down her cheeks, "I'm sorry. I didn't think all of this would happen, how could I know?"
Ty Lee hugged her around her thin waist, tears staining dark red circles into Azula's clothes.
The princess glanced out of the corner of her eyes at Ty Lee and felt the odd mix of enjoyment tainted with guilt that came when she hit one of Ty Lee's nerves. But, if she wanted things to go her way, she couldn't have Ty Lee hunched against her in a blubbering mess. No matter how many guilt trips she'd like to send this girl on, Azula needed her on her side. For now.
So Azula reluctantly leaned against her. Her hair smelled pleasantly fruity, not clashing with her light perfume. Ty Lee's sniffles were muffled in her shoulder, but they seemed to slow with the new contact. If her snot stains my clothes, so help me…
Azula held back some more decidedly mean spirited responses to her crying, "Don't be so dramatic in the morning. It's usually such a pleasant time."
Ty Lee gave a guilty laugh and smiled, rubbing her eyes of tears. "I was so worried about you yesterday," she clasped Azula's hands in her own, "I thought you might have given up."
"I never give up."
"I know, but I was worried anyways. You-you looked really awful."
"How flattering," Azula stood with a roll of her eyes, hands releasing Ty Lee's soft ones. "I'm clearly doing just fine. With my abilities, that should be no surprise."
Leave it to Azula to brag about herself after almost being on death's door. Ty Lee stood as well, the two were quite close.
"No, I guess it shouldn't," she looked into pools of liquid gold, desperately wishing she could tell what was going on behind them. Instead she pulled Azula into a gentle hug. She whispered, warm breath tickling the princess's ear, "I'm so glad you're okay."
Ty Lee discreetly placed a tiny kiss on Azula's jawline as she pulled back. It was nice not having bars separate them.
The princess stiffened, but didn't object outwardly, so it counted as a win in Ty Lee's book. The guards behind them had relaxed, though they kept a watchful eye on the pair.
Azula spoke, "You should go. I have to meet with Kai soon."
"Oh, okay. Um, can I come back tomorrow? I don't have to work at the store. Oh! I'll have to tell you all about my new job! It's pretty great, I work for this cute little old lady who—" she stopped at the look of utter disinterest on Azula's face and nervously laughed. "I'll save it for later."
Azula pretended to think it over for a minute, enjoying the nervous expression on Ty Lee's face. It was still so easy to pull the right strings.
"I suppose I can clear my schedule."
Ty Lee grinned, happy at the agreement and that Azula was in a good enough mood to joke.
"Okay, then I'll see you tomorrow. Maybe we can have tea together!" Ty Lee was bursting with joy at the thought of partaking in a normal activity with Azula. Given the conditions, she felt that it would be a welcome change in Azula's day-to-day routine. With that pleasant thought, she was let out of the room and walked up the stairs to begin the trip home.
Azula sat on her bed while a guard locked the iron door. She looked at him expectantly.
"Well? Go get Kai."