Sorry bout the wait typed this about 3 months ago, but when I went to copy and paste it I selected it all and then pressed 'y' on accident and I was so pissed that I didn't try again forever. (If there are English readers, by 'pissed' I mean very very angry, not drunk.) So here it is. I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender. Enjoy.
"Who's this?" Azula asked, distaste clear in her voice. Mai stared back, unfazed.
"I found her in one of my classes. She's cool," she stated in a monotone voice. Azula too the opportunity to look the new girl over. She was around Mai's height, if not a bit shorter. She wore a tight pink tank top that might as well have been a sports bra for its length. Accompanying this were a pair of loose red pants and what looked like dancer's shoes. The girl giggled.
"You make me sound like some sort of stray animal!" she squealed, slapping Mai's arm. Zuko raised an eyebrow at that and Mai shrugged. "Hi, I'm Ty Lee!"
"H-hey, um, Ty Lee," a muscular guy stuttered from behind her. "Can we sit here?" Azula looked past him to see a horde of boys almost identical to him, shifting and waiting.
"Well I don't know!" Ty Lee replied in a bubbly voice. "Can they Azula?" Azula smiled. That was a good sign. The girl had just gotten here, but she knew who was in charge of the situation. Azula rewarded her with a signature smirk and a new glint of respect in her eye before turning to the matter at hand.
"Sorry," Azula apologized, her red lips turned up into a sarcastic smile. "This table is full." The boys looked down the table, at the rows upon rows of empty chairs. A few of the chubby boys at the back of the crowd turned to go, but the rest were not so easily deterred.
"There's empty seats all around the table!" the boy in front exclaimed, waving a well-muscled arm to further prove his point. Azula's smile disappeared as if it had never been there to begin with. Zuko stood up suddenly, shoving his chair backwards and causing it to clatter to the tile floor. All eyes were on him as he stood nose to nose with the chief boy.
"Look, just do yourself a favor and fuck off," he said quietly.
"Or what?" the boy in front retorted. The boy was taller and more muscular than Zuko, but Zuko showed no signs of backing down. The kids in the leaned forward in their seats with the same sick curiosity of drivers slowing on a freeway to gawk at an accident. The tension rose as Zuko backed away from the boy and crouched down into a flawless Fire-style stance. The boy followed suit with a slightly shakier stance. Zuko noted all of his weaknesses immediately. His feet were too close; it would be easy to knock him off balance. His guard was also too low: it protected his stomach, but not his face, a lesson that he would learn the hard way today.
"Calm down Zuko," Mai commanded, looking bored with the whole situation Her monotonous voice projected effortlessly around the lunch room. "He's not worth it." Zuko grunted and slammed down into his chair, arms crossed. Ty Lee placed a consoling hand on his shoulder.
"What did you say bitch?" the boy roared, his face getting red with anger. Zuko, in on swift motion, stood up from his chair and swung his fist with his whole body, sending the boy flying.
"Anybody else?" he snarled ferociously. No one stepped up to the plate. He sat down again, slightly disappointed and resumed eating. Mai and Azula, who'd been eating throughout almost the entire ordeal didn't even look up.
"What style of fighting do you practice?" Zuko asked Ty Lee as if nothing had occurred.
"My fighting style is ambiguous!" Ty Lee explained excitedly, also brushing over the fact that there was a knocked out guy laying behind the table. "But I'm affiliated with Fire by choice." Azula finally looked at the girl with a gaze that now contained more respect than contempt. This girl could be useful after all.
"Tell me, who's the strongest here?" Azula demanded, daintily munching on her salad. Mai huffed and rolled her eyes. She'd known that it was only a matter of time until Azula brought this up.
"Mm!" Ty Lee exclaimed over a mouthful of food. Azula watched in distaste as she swallowed and giggled. "I can't believe you don't already know! He's kind of famous! They call him the Avatar. You know how most people master one style of fighting?"
"All people master one style," Mai replied, intrigued now.
"Not the Avatar," Ty Lee practically squealed. "They say that he has the capacity to master all four!" Mai's eyes widened momentarily, but she quickly covered the emotion with a shrug and another bite of her food. Zuko, on the other hand, stood and searched the lunchroom, eyes darting from person to person. "Where is he?" he growled. Azula stayed seated, lost in her own thoughts.
"But the strain on the body," Azula muttered to herself. "It's impossible no?" Ty Lee looked around the table happily, enjoying the commotion that her gossip had created. The attention was diverted from her when Kuzon walked forward and put his tray down, swinging his long legs over the bench to sit down. Zuko sat.
"Who gave you permission to sit here?" Azula asked icily.
"Yeah, yeah beat me up later, but Ty Lee did you tell them about Katara?" Kuzon asked, raising his eyebrows. Ty Lee shook her head and Kuzon took over the story. "The Avatar's girlfriend? She's so smokin' hot! Why, Kuzon? Let me tell you! Okay, like flowing wavy brown hair, and this killer body. You know how some women with muscles are like ripped and nasty? Not Katara! And swear to god, I almost drowned in her eyes once, they're this particular shade of blue. I call it wave crest blue..." He sighed, looking off into the distance. He was brought back to reality by the heated stares from the golden-eyed siblings. "Oh yeah and rumor is... she's a natural."
"A natural?" Zuko exclaimed, standing again.
"Can you calm down?" Mai asked him blandly, looking annoyed. "This is the second time you've knocked over my food."
"Do you understand what this means?" Zuko asked Azula excitedly. "Two of the strongest people in the world are right here at this school! We'll must challenge them!"
"Obviously," Azula said, rolling her eyes. Zuko sat back down, feeling a bit foolish.
"They're like the IT couple," Ty Lee chimed in. "The Avatar is so cute too!"
"Yes, yes but where do they reside?" Azula asked impatiently. Kuzon's eyes widened.
"You guys aren't planning on challenging them are you?" he demanded. "I know you know the general abilities of a natural, but you guys don't know what one can really do. I'm telling you —"
"You're not telling us to do anything," Zuko snarled. "We know what naturals are capable of. In fact -" Azula shot him a sharp glance.
"We knew a natural at our old school," he finished smoothly. Azula gave a barely discernible nod. "Her name was Toph and we often sparred with her. Turns out she wasn't so Toph after all." His eyes widened. Did I just say that?
Azula and Mai's gazes shot to his. Did he seriously just fucking make that joke?
There was a pregnant pause at the table. Then Kuzon and Ty Lee cracked up. Kuzon doubled over clutching his sides. "Dude, like you set it up and everything, but I didn't even see it coming! I love this guy!" Zuko smirked, then looked at the disappointed faces of Azula and Mai. Won the battle, but lost the war, he thought.
"So where are they?" Azula gritted out.
"Um I don't know where they hang at lunch, they like hide so none of their fans stalk them and stuff but I do know that Katara has Leadership next and he always walks her to class so..." Ty Lee trailed off. Azula stood up and left, not bothering to say goodbye to anybody.
"Okay see ya!" Ty Lee yelled cheerfully.
Katara glanced at her phone one last time, ensuring that everything was in place.
Jeans lined up right. Check.
Shirt in the right spot. Check.
Teeth, bright and white. Check.
Hair loopy thingies. Check.
She didn't necessarily enjoy being the center of attention all the time, but if she was going to be, she was going to look good. Sh tucked her phone back into her back pocket and took Aang's outstretched hand. Squeezing his hand, she pulled him through the double doors.
"Hey Katara," a student greeted. Katara smiled warmly and waved back. The greeting caused a chain reaction, becoming a catalyst for attention throughout the hall. Katara repeated the smile and wave combo as student after student said hello to her, then to Aang, a more hesitantly. He responded with a huge grin and a friendly "hey" as per usual. Katara frowned a bit. She would have to work on making people less intimidated by him, though he was doing a great job of it himself. She squeezed his hand slightly with their interlaced fingers and smile at him. He gave her a big, toothy grin that made her laugh.
His classroom was closer, so she forced him to go in first. "Seriously, what's going to happen between here my classroom, which is literally right there?" She pointed to her classroom down the hall. He finally relented and went in while Katara continued her trek down the hallway. She was almost there when she was yanked into an open doorway. A quick glance showed her that it was the textbook room before the door was slammed shut, leaving her in total darkness.
She calmed her breathing and focused on listening for movement around her, ducking just in time to dodge a sharp kick aimed for her head. She stood back up and shifted into her stance, knees slightly bent with her arms by her side, barely lifted. Though it seemed relaxed, the stance was designed for swift, fluid movement. She listened and shifted to her right just as a fist shot past her head, then jumped over the leg sweep from below. She ducked under another punch then pivoted around the follow-up.
The punches and kicks began coming faster now, and what she couldn't dodge she deflected gently, letting the blows flow past her, using the attackers strength against him. But just as Katara was acclimated to the pace and was considering throwing some punches of her own, the blows got impossibly faster and stronger. With that kind of strength the attacker had to be a man. It was time to implement a new strategy. She judged the location of the attacker from the angle of the blows and shifted her stance fluidly and quickly until she was behind him. Her attacker sensed the movement and whirled. Katara simply moved with him until she was behind him again.
Azula huffed in frustration. This is what she hated about the Water Style. Always trying to look graceful while simply running away. And, though she would rather die than admit it, all this shifting and practically dancing was taking its toll on her. It was time to finish this.
She feinted right, spinning on her right foot. When she sensed the waterbender gliding behind her back, she pivoted on her left foot at full speed and hit the girl with a finisher: a roundhouse kick right to the face.
The force speed and angle were all perfect. It was on of those moments where she could just feel it. The fire inside flared and her whole body heated up. She was at her prime now, in this fiery state she could do no wrong. But the feeling dimmed when she head a thud: no out of guilt, but of disappointment. This fight was over.
Then the orangey lights flicker on. Azula squinted. The lights gave the room a warm, scholarly feel, nothing like the danger fraught battle arena it had seemed to the girls while fighting. Azula glanced around the room for the body of the girl. She must have hit the light switch. She was surprised to find the girl standing and... smiling.
"You blocked it," Azula stated incredulously. Katara grinned and blew a hair loopy thingy out of her face.
"Yeah," Katara replied. "But you still sent me flying. I guess it's pretty clear who the winner was here." She smiled and nodded, fully acknowledging the other's skills. Azula smirked and brushed a stray hair from her face. Katara caught the pleased look and for some reason it sparked something in her.
"Then again, you did attack me when I wasn't prepared, in the dark while you knew the surroundings and I didn't," Katara muttered. "Maybe more of a tie..."
"Like hell it was," Azula scoffed, picking up the whisper. "You were on the defensive the entire time."
"We could go again then!" Katara suggested. "I was barely getting warmed up." Am I saying this right now?
Azula's eyes widened, then in a flash she was at Katara's side, the girl's face cupped in her hand. "I had begun to think that you weren't really a natural."
"Your speed," Katara murmured, watching Azula as the girl studied her face. "You're a natural."
"Yes," Azula breathed, leaning closer, all the while inspecting azure eyes. Her face drew closer and closer as Katara took in the flawless skin and amber eyes. She pulled away suddenly.
"I-I'm sorry I'm not..." She tried to gesture her meaning, flicking her finger between her and Azula. "I mean that I'm not into um... We can be friends." She smiled awkwardly.
"Whatever are you talking about?" Azula asked, arching a brow. "We cannot be friends. However, I will allow you to train with me, which means technically we are rivals. As such I'm extending you an invitation to my lunch table tomorrow. I'll be expecting you." Katara blinked stupidly for a second.
"You know, we have an official challenging system here!" she told Azula's receding back. Azula turned, a smirk on her lips.
"I know, I didn't want to mar your spotless record with a loss," she laughed, walking out the door.
"I didn't lose!" Katara yelled at the empty space that was Azula a few seconds ago. The warning bell rang, snapping her back into reality. Did that seriously all just happen in 3 minutes?
She filed the encounter away, saving it to analyze another time. She was going to be late for Leadership.