Avatar Chapter 46
I do not own Avatar the Last Air Bender
Mai sat and looked upon the mountain of food laid out in front of her, all of it bizarre Earth Kingdom slop. It was spread out over a large ornate round table, she was impressed at how fast the servants had set up the patio. She led them all here to find the whole area set for lunch, which meant only one thing.
"Mai dear you should eat something, you seem even paler then usual."
Her mother, not only had she set this up in record time she even managed to beat them here, with that snotty, burping parasite in tow.
"Yeah Mai eat Tom-Tom is, who's a hungry boy, that right you are!" Ty Lee had squealed when she saw the baby and even now was totally engrossed as he shovelled some strange green goo into his messy mouth.
Mai scanned the various dishes, using chopsticks she cautiously poked something she hoped was a pastry; she heard rumors of savages eating things that still moved in this backwater of a country.
She hesitantly picked up what turned out to be some sort of dumpling and placed it on her plate, it was very lonely.
At least Azula seemed to be as uncomfortable as she was, normally Azula would sit next to the Lady of house but Ty Lee had taken that spot in order to fawn over the little blob. The Crown Princess had a full plate but seemed more interested in burning symbols into her food, the look on her face was one Mai had trouble placing.
"Is she… jealous? She is!" Azula was actually bitter that Ty Lee was paying so much attention to something other her, even if it was a drooling infant.
"Well I can't imagine Azula being any other kind of girlfriend, I'm surprised she doesn't keep Ty Lee in golden cage… Oh Agni she could actually have a golden cage!" Mai impaled her bun with a chop stick and sliced in half with one of her knives, it was filled with curry.
She calmly put the morsel in her mouth, it didn't kill her so it was acceptable, and tried to imagine what being Azula's consort must be like. " I can see Azula being an obsessive psycho alright, and with Ty Lee being such a tease she may end up actually killing someone, that would be a sight." Mai picked up some sort of meat which could be human flesh for all she knew and took a bite, "Fatty."
Mai thought about asking he colony girl what exactly they were eating, Kori sat and ate silently but seemed to know what was in front her.
There was a sudden belch and Ty Lee squealed, "You are just too adorable." The Princess was fawning, Tom-Tom was giggling and Mai wanted to gouge her own eyes out.
"Mai come take a walk with me." Azula's golden eyes bored into the infants as she stood up.
"Gladly." Mai rose and followed the Princess to the door, noticing her mother had that 'make a good impression' look.
Azula practically threw the doors off their hinges and strode down the hall, Mai patiently followed behind at a safe distance.
When Azula seemed less steamed Mai walked up beside her, "I doubt the little pudge will steal Ty Lee away, she seems found of you."
Azula sneered but said nothing, her pride would not allow her too; instead she crossed her arms and somehow managed to look smug. "I assume that like always you are bored out of your skull."
Mai could not deny that "More or less, the rebels this morning was amusing but now that you're here I doubt they'll last."
"Would you prefer rebels stalking the streets?"
"I would prefer it if they were interesting but most rock-biters are so dull."
"Then traveling the colonies must have been utter torture for you." Azula had a very unfriendly smile on her face.
"I debated if I should run off to the circus like Ty Lee always talked about, then I remembered I hate animals."
"And yet you always took the preliminary riding lessons at the academy so seriously."
"A proper lady must know how to look graceful riding a giant lizard that smells like sweat." Her parent's obsession with good appearances went very deep.
"I see… I am assuming Ty Lee did not have time to let slip the details of our mission."
"No, she was too busy telling me about your floundering attempts at romance."
Azula looked legitimately insulted "What do you mean floundering!"
"She told me you took her to the shipyards on a date."
"Our new battleship was in dry-dock, it will inspire terror and despair in our enemies."
"Battleships and terror are not romantic."
"That's your opinion, and besides Ty Lee has always enjoyed our dates."
"Ty Lee enjoys leaves blowing in the wind."
Azula did the closest thing to a pout she could manage and for the first time in a while Mai felt she had accomplished something.
"Alright let's forget what secrets Ty Lee did or did not blabber out, I came to this rock for the sole purpose of recruiting you for my mission."
"I suppose I should be honored."
"You should, now tell me what you know of my brothers exploits these past few years."
Despite herself Mai felt her heart skip a beat, she could never pin it down but something about Zuko always thrilled her, which was odd since he was often a complete dork.
"We got the wanted posters of him and Iroh." Mai did not mention he had a stack of Zuko's in her room, both to admire and throw sharp objects at.
"Ah, well then you probably know where this is going."
"You're going to capture them with extreme amounts of your famous hospitality."
"Correct, I was going to be cordial with them but we had a… altercation." Azula looked far angrier than she should and did not expand further.
"So you need my help to subdue the two of them."
"Yes, they are likely heading towards Ba Sing Se and the closer they get the more difficult that will become."
Mai thought it over, stay here or do literally anything else. "So when do we leave?"
Azula smiled "Soon, as Crown Princess I must make sure this city does not slip through our fingers after a hundred years of struggle."
"I doubt my father will be able to give you anything resembling a plan by this afternoon."
"I don't expect him too, I expect him to find whoever Lord Xizan sent to take care of the resistance."
"Lord Xizan? The man is supposed to be a degenerate, arrogant, psychopath."
"He's also a genius."
"Of course he is, I'm assuming you two know each other."
"We have an agreement."
"And you think he has someone here to flush out the resistance?"
"I know he does, your father will search for someone to get rid of this problem for him and Lord Xizan's agent will just happen to appear, like a benevolent spirt."
"How clever, the city will be scrubbed of resistance and father will gladly be in debt to that upstart."
"I knew there was a good reason to come all the way out here." Azula had the smug look on her face when she got what she wanted, Mai debated if she really wanted to spend the foreseeable future looking at it but decided it would be worth putting up with that ego if it got her out of this city.
Kori sat and ate silently, careful not to make a fool of herself in front of the Princess and the Governor's wife.
Though neither was paying her much attention, the Princess was enthralled by the infant Tom-Tom and the Lady of the house was being… motherly.
"It's wonderful you get along so well with Tom-Tom Princess, usually he fusses when meeting new people."
"Thanks and, um, you don't have to call me Princess."
"I suppose I don't, I still remember you as the girl who painted by daughters face bright green while she was napping."
The Princess blushed "Oh yeah, she was really mad at me, well Mai mad."
"She was not happy certainly, but at least you got some reaction out of her just as you do now, I haven't seen her so lively since we came to the colonies."
Kori tried to imagine a less lively Lady Mai then the one she saw today.
"I can't tell you how honored we all are that you and Princess Azula came to visit us, it is wonderful to see you two after all these years."
"Thanks, it's good to see you again too, and it's good to meet you little guy." The Princess said the last part in a very high pitched squeak.
"Yes he is the newest addition to our family, we always wanted another child and after all these years the spirts finally sided with us."
"He's adorable."
"Would you like to hold him?"
The Princess had stars in her eyes as the infant was lifted from his mother's lap and into Ty Lee's arms.
Kori continued to quietly eat, she never imagined nobles to be so… normal.
"Now… Kori, was it, I hear that you helped my daughter out of a very serious situation." The Governor's wife was looking right at her and Kori hastily swallowed her food.
"Yes my Lady, I did everything I could to help Lady Mai."
"Excellent it is good to see there are such loyal citizens even out here, consider yourself our guest from now on."
"Thank you my Lady, but I wouldn't want to impose."
"Nonsense, I insist you make yourself comfortable here." Kori got the feeling she did not have a choice in the manner.
"So tell me Kori, being the mayor's daughter you must be quite well known in Yu Dao." The Governor's wife had a very friendly smile on her face.
"I… suppose so."
"Good, even a city of such renown for its metal work should have other avenues for greatness, don't you think?"
"…Yes." Kori had a suspicion she was losing some sort of game.
"It's wonderful you agree, I hope our families can grow closer as this project continues, good connections mean everything in this world, but you know that don't you." Kori was now certain she was missing something important.
Tom-Tom burped loudly and the Princess giggled with glee, "Someone is well fed, you like baby mush don't you little guy."
"He's a growing boy that will put almost anything is mouth these days, though I am sorry Princess, I doubt we will be able to eat this feast you purchased."
"That's okay, Arkrez will eat what's left over."
Both Kori and the Governor's wife scanned the area, wondering if they had missed someone.
"Oh that's right you haven't met him yet, Arky come out."
Kori saw the Governor's wife stifle a gasp while looking wide eyed to Kori right, she turned her head slowly to see a massive feline head attached to a body materializing as if out of thin air.
"Don't scream, don't scream, Agni don't pee yourself." The head was moving closer and suddenly a serpentine tongue lashed out and tickled her face. Kori squealed as the behemoth's eyes widened and started nuzzling her.
"Wow, he really likes you, I knew you were good person."
Kori was trying to stay seated as the fury tiger… snake… thing, rubbed its head all over her.
"Well Ty Lee that is certainly an interesting pet." The Governor's wife had a fan out and was cooling herself of, as if she were the one being overwhelmed by the beast.
"Yeah he was a gift from the Fire Lord, and I've never seen him take to someone so fast, Kori you must love animals!"
"I-I have an owl-cat at ho-." It suddenly hit her, she often gave Speckle some nip and this big brute likely tasted the residue on her. Arkrez let out a loving purr and pushed forward, causing Kori to scream, fall out of the chair onto the floor, the air was knocked out of her as the beast laid its head down on her stomach.
"Are you alright Kori?" The Princess leaned off her chair and was looking at her from underneath the round table.
Kori let out a weak squeak of air as the monster flicked its tongue across of her face. She took back her earlier thought, nobles were not normal, normal people did not have strange lunch conversations or giant pets that crush people through drug induced cuddling.
For full disclosure Kori is not my OC, she is from the Avatar comic series The Promise, as is the city of Yu Dao.