Katara has been given a bedroom.
It somehow feels more uncomfortable in it than in the cage. She sits in it and inside of her head relives the princess sobbing. That was not playing. That was not mockery. That was someone who was genuinely hurt and Katara cannot blame her for feeling that way.
Katara knows it must be hard for her.
Katara knows that royals bleed too, and royals hurt too.
Katara knows that Ozai has told her that she will die if Azula dies, and that she wants to live whether Azula wants to live or not.
She wonders if she would do it. If Azula reached a point where Katara could not help her, and maybe she should just… do it. It might be enjoyable to kill her tormentor. On the other hand, Katara enjoys being alive whether she is being tortured as a slave or not.
Understanding Azula does not mean justifying her actions, Katara reminds herself. It just feels pretty nasty that Azula's obsession with power comes from how powerless she feels due to her broken body. It would be easier to just call her some wicked Fire Nation beast and be done with it.
After she settles into her new, prettier cell, Ozai calls for her and she kneels before him in the throne room. The flames are so hot that Katara sweats. She wonders if he will see that as weakness. She wonders if she could make something deadly out of it, but that thought fades.
She needs to play along for now. Hama always told her to strike when they are weakest.
"I am not doing this to you senselessly, as you seem to think," he says. "I am a man who loves his daughter. When they told me she wouldn't live, I set out to prove them wrong. I am the most powerful man in the world and I will not let the only person I care about die."
He steps down from the throne and walks to her. Her heart starts to pound even though she keeps telling herself not to be scared.
She has no idea why he made that vulnerable statement. She feels wary; it must be manipulation of some sort, but she cannot think with the flames and the man in front of her.
"I am no stranger to loss," Ozai continues. "But she is different, just like you are different from the hundreds of people I asked to heal her somehow. I am not afraid of admitting that I love someone, I am not afraid of looking weak because I know how strong I am. You're shaking." He grabs her hand and examines how it trembles before pulling her to her feet. "See. I loved her before she was even conceived. I stole her from her mother and didn't care what that woman thought of me. None of the healers and magicians and scholars have done much more than maintaining her breathing. You are a waterbender. You are the last of your kind, maybe. I am not afraid to say that I need you."
"Yes?" Katara whispers.
"The healing power of the Water Tribes is legendary but forgotten."
"I don't know enough to save her," Katara honestly blurts out.
He examines her. "You can if you try to learn. You have done well with her so far. Yet, you clearly are not afraid of the chains of a slave. That concerns me. So, you see, you are threat to the only person I love. So I am binding you to her in another way. Perhaps you would rather have a marriage bed than a kennel."
Katara steps back without meaning to, and but he seizes her wrist and pulls her back.
"You give her whatever she wants, your highness?" Katara asks quietly.
"Of course," Ozai growls.
"She wants to die."
The only response Katara gets is the sharp and agonizing pain of the back of his hand colliding with her face.
Katara cannot help but feel afraid sometimes, even if she wants to be brave. She wants to pretend to be fearless, powerful and she wants to defy Ozai. Yet, she does not think she can. She thinks she will fall into the trap of belonging to Princess Azula and assimilating into this royal court.
If they want it, fine, they can take it. They can have every shred of Katara and do whatever they want with her, but they will never be able to take away her thoughts. That should count for something. Even just something small.
She should not have said what she did about Azula's wishes, but they are true. Katara hardly can bear to see a girl kept alive against her will.
But… Katara does not think she could kill her. Because Katara is scared.
She lies awake in her new bed and stares at the ceiling. If they want her life, they can just take it. She should have just offered her up and not even bothered with trying to heal Azula. Instead, she tried to hide from the truth, hide from the dangers here, hide from the disgusting and terrible people the royals are.
And, most of all, she should have never let herself witness a human side of Azula. The human side that bleeds and dies, perhaps, but not the side that cries. Katara does not think her heart will ever stop hurting from the scene she saw.
Katara stands up and starts pacing around in her luxurious prison. She cannot pretend to have hope inside of her anymore. All she has is bitterness and resentment for the world.
They broke her spirit.
She knows Azula will die and she will die for it, but she has already died alive.
Princess Azula killed Katara, she just has not stopped breathing yet.
"I know," says Ozai to Azula at lunch, "that I know better than to believe a prisoner, but I do wonder if there is any truth to her words."
Azula immediately thinks of how she foolishly let Katara see her in a moment of weakness. She clenches her fists and hopes she does not hear concern from her father about the tears. How dare that grating slave go off and spread such slander.
Is it slander if it is true?
"What did she say, father," Azula replies, keeping her tone polite and calm. He looks at her and sees weakness and she wants to scream.
"She said you wanted to die," states Ozai, now fixing his gaze with his daughter's. That rarely happens, and so it gives Azula chills.
"Oh did she?" Azula says nothing else.
He does not know what to make of that, but he does not press her for fear of damaging her fragile little self. He does not want to ever live without his daughter, so he gives her liberties no one else ever would receive.
Bitterly and in total silence, Azula eats her lunch, even if she feels sick at the thought of Katara telling someone that, especially Fire Lord Ozai.
Azula knows she should confront Ty Lee about this absurd jealousy. It is, admittedly, quite sexy coming from a girl who tries to be friends with everyone (an impossible feat that Azula never has even bothered trying to accomplish). Yet, she does not want to deal with any emotions anymore. Never again.
"I hate her. Why are you so jealous?" Azula asks of Ty Lee, sitting down beside her. "How many people have I toyed around with who – of course – meant nothing to me?"
Ty Lee sighs and her eyes sparkle. She speaks softly but from her heart when she says, "You don't need me anymore."
"Of course I need you," Azula purrs, although it is a lie. She rubs Ty Lee's arms as she spins her proverbial web. "I need people to live for as much as I need people to keep me alive."
Azula hopes it works. It does.
"I shouldn't doubt you like that," Ty Lee says. Azula kisses her and can feel the dampness of Ty Lee's eyelashes. Ty Lee kisses her back and murmurs, "I trust you."
"You shouldn't," Azula whispers into the ear of her first love. "I'm not a very trustworthy girl."
That was honest of her, at least. Azula has slowly stopped caring what other people think or about the repercussions of lies over the years. She has been dying for so long that she no longer remembers what expecting a future feels like. Her only future aspiration was the throne, and she knows that she is not getting that.
She is not getting that. She is not getting that. She is not getting that.
"That's one of the million things I love about you," says Ty Lee, a smiling sneaking its way onto her face. She cannot help it. Azula wishes she could. It tires her to be around someone so blind to the cruel and repulsive world.
"Just forget she exists," says Azula, which Ty Lee knows is impossible, but Ty Lee nods and lies down.
They do not touch each other. They do not need to.
Still, Ty Lee wonders if she should try. No, she should not. She then wonders why Azula does not because her Azula is perfect and they are in love and this is how it always used to be before that waterbender started trying to heal her.
All Princess Ty Lee can do is stare up at the ceiling and let her anxious thoughts race.
Ty Lee has always been under Azula's spell. She cannot remember a time when she has not known that Azula is infinitely better than she would ever do. Ty Lee is a shallow pond compared to the majestic ocean her princess always was. So Ty Lee fears losing her.
How could she not?
Ty Lee never could do better, and never could break free of being enraptured by her wife.
And, so, now that she cannot stop thinking about how she is threatened by the stupid girl who can heal Azula—who can heal her like Ty Lee cannot—she thinks she might as well pitch herself over the side of a bridge of Azula ever begins to love Katara.
Katara might be Water Tribe, but she might be good enough to Azula.
Ty Lee does not think she will ever be good enough.
Azula does not want to go to sleep yet. She does not want to ever sleep, for that matter, since she hates losing any of the precious little time she has left. It does not take her a very long time to accidentally stumble upon her enslaved healer.
She is not in her room, for some absurd reason. Azula does not care to ask about it.
Katara looks bitterly at Azula. "I don't want to hear you lie tonight. And I don't want you to try to get in my head either. There's too much in there for you to manipulate it like you do with that empty-headed girl with the braid."
Azula purrs the complicated words, "You know I know you know her name. And I do not often lie to you. At least, surprisingly little when it comes to me." Katara frowns. "Something is bothering you, is it not? You look oh so worried. I need to know."
"You don't need anything from me," Katara snarls. Azula's eyebrows shoot up, because she thinks she might have unknowingly pressed a sore spot. There is something satisfying about that. "And I don't even know what you want from me if you don't want to get better."
"I want you to do what my father asks of you," Azula says, which is fairly honest. She does not care to honor Katara's requests, but she does not know if the waterbender will truly hear her lie tonight, in this late, dark, soul-sucking hour.
"Do you really?" asks Katara, standing. Azula prepares herself to smash Katara's face into the wall and burn her neck, but she stands in place for a few moments, curious about what her waterbender is about to do.
Katara realizes in this exact moment who she really is, and who she probably always was. She is the kind of person who wants to make the world drown. She is the kind of person who knows she will give in to these demands and so she will make them into her own desires.
Even if she used to think she was the kind of person who would simply not take it.
She presses her lips against Azula's. This is the moment in which she decides she will not resist curiosity and let this unfold, because she does not think she will have a choice soon. She will end up marrying this sick, terrible bitch and she does not know how to sort the thoughts out in her jumbled mess of a mind.
They do not dare move for a moment. Then Katara kisses her again and Azula still stands there, which infuriates the waterbender. She begins to walk away, but Azula takes her by the wrist and pulls her into another kiss.
Katara takes this opportunity to display her reckless disregard for all of the royal finery and shoves everything off of the top of a dusty display case. Azula leans back against it and Katara quickly moves two fingers beneath the silky gown of the other girl and to her entrance, teasing only slightly before burying her fingers in wet heat.
Neither lets herself moan because neither knows if this is really something they ought to be doing when they…
Slowly, Katara withdraws her fingers and begins to build a steady rhythm pumping in and out. It does not take very long to bring the princess over the brink and Katara decides that, no, Azula does not always have all of the power, and, yes, Katara would do better to keep her friends—of which there are none—close and her enemies—of which there is one more prevalent than the rest—closer.
She watches the other girl reach her climax and feels a rush of power for the first time since she ended up enslaved here. Maybe since she became enslaved in the first place. Katara forces her mind to be blank, avoids thinking, because she knows what a fool she is tonight.
Azula rolls her eyes, probably mockingly maybe playfully at kindest, and pulls Katara towards her by the bare, fawn waist. They avoid looking into each other's eyes for fear of seeing too much before their lips meet again. It is a short one because Azula is still breathless.
Katara reaches to take off her own clothes but Azula grabs her by the wrists. It takes every ounce of self-control in Katara's body not to shake her away and shove her.
"We should probably stop here," Azula purrs, which is certainly selfish and partially cruel and altogether unsurprising. "I do not think you meant to do this. I think you prefer hating everything that stands for what tore away all you love."
"I'm allowed to have lapses in judgment," Katara says.
Azula smirks at her and slinks away into the night.
Katara sits down and decides she probably hates herself a little over half as much as she hates Azula.
Fire Lord Ozai's fifteenth audience of the day is his daughter-in-law. He is curious as to why when she kneels before the flames.
"Fire Lord Ozai, may I ask you something?" she says. The formality of her words is something he so rarely hears.
"You may," he says.
Ty Lee blushes, and not just from the heat.
"I want to have a baby. A royal baby. It's what I wed Azula for, isn't it?" she says. "I want it so much. I have a lot of good reasons like—"
He holds up a hand to silence her. The Fire Lord does not have the patience to listen to this.
"I see no reason not to grant that request," he says.
Ty Lee glows. He wonders about her sometimes – wonders if she is a concealed threat – but she is very loyal to Azula.
Yet, he doubts she has spoken to his daughter about this request.
Katara does not know what to do about Ozai's demand. She would rather be Azula's slave than Azula's bride. The princess already has two of those; she has no need for a third.
She does know her beliefs about their relationship haven't been entirely true. She figured that out when she accidentally walked in on Mai and Ty Lee making out. They certainly were heated and into each other without Azula anywhere near them.
Is there really a love like that? Love cannot exist between more than two people, in Katara's opinion.
It simply cannot.
That must be some kind of law of nature, right?
Azula is tired. Ty Lee braids her hair as Azula tries to figure out why Ty Lee is so happy. While Ty Lee is always cheery, she seems more so than usual. Mai has a book balanced on her knee across the room, paying them no mind.
Ty Lee cannot mask her feelings about Azula.
She does not want to; she never has wanted to hide how much she loves the woman who might as well be the sun in the sky.
That beautiful, cold, crisp night, she runs her fingers under Azula's robe, gently untying it with one motion. The princess has such beautiful skin, despite the bruises and thin layer of sweat. Ty Lee kisses her right breast and takes her nipple in her mouth. Azula does not react as much as Ty Lee had hoped, but she does smile faintly.
Ty Lee rises slightly and kisses her wife on the lips. She then kisses her neck, her collarbone, her chin, her lips…
Azula holds one breathless kiss with her nails digging into the back of Ty Lee's neck, before guiding Ty Lee down. Ty Lee kisses her navel, causing a very slight buck of her hips that inspires Ty Lee to continue. Ty Lee kisses lower until her lips are somewhere that makes Azula's toes curl.
Ty Lee is all that matters to Azula for several long minutes.