Seven Steps to Heaven
By Nikkel
(c) to Nickelodeon, Michael Dante DiMartino, and Bryan Konietzko
Water
He brought me food – spiced roast duck, steamed rice, and hot-and-sour soup. He treats me like I'm royalty again.
"No thanks." My stomach pangs, but I turn away. I know he's poisoned it. No one else would treat me so decently without a cruel intention.
"Suit yourself."
For a moment, I think he is going to eat the entire dish himself. But instead he sets it aside, where it is just out of my reach.
"I thought I'd bring you some food to entice your chakra. . . It's much better than gruel, I'm told. Your uncle made it for you."
"My uncle is a pot-bellied idiot."
"Either way, today we focus on the pleasure chakra."
"How exciting."
"It's blocked by guilt."
"Because you know how much of that I have."
His eyes could have pierced my soul had I not been prepared for it. They were hard, grey, and steely. "You're just as human as everyone else."
Human. . . Compared to "monster", "criminal", "prisoner", "princess", and an assortment of other names, I realized that I hadn't been called human in. . . a long time. Something clenched in my chest, and for a moment, it was difficult to breathe. It felt heavy and made of steel. The feeling weighed down into the pit of my stomach, and then I realized I was saying something.
". . . and he asked me what had happened and where she was and. . . I lied to him. I lied."
"Do you know where she is?"
My mouth went dry. I closed my eyes, and there she was, standing by the open window, face pale in the moonlight and robes the color of blood. . . It was the color of it that kept me at a distance, my hands clenching hot embers that I had been throwing at the guards earlier that evening, and were now reduced to ashes. They seeped through my fingers, like the memory I was losing.
I glanced at the Avatar. "Can I. . . May I have some food?"
He smiled graciously and wordlessly, handing it to me.
The weight inside me . . . lifted.
Author's Note: Oh, one more thing. Watch out for OOC!Azula. It's bound to happen.