I don't own ATLA.

III.

"They did… what?"

Ty Lee was silenced by Azula's hand, pressing harshly against Ty Lee's lips. The small girl looked at Azula with fear in her big, puppy-dog eyes, as she tried to speak, but failed.

"What are you, crazy?" Azula hissed, though she was overreacting. The courtyard of the Royal Fire Academy was full of children, and they made so much noise it hid their conversation perfectly.

Nevertheless, Azula reduced her best friend to silence. She didn't want anyone to hear them, not even accidentally.

"But this is…" said Ty Lee, when Azula finally let her. "How could your father let it happen! This is humiliating!"

"Yes, it is…" replied Azula absentmindedly.

She thought about the previous day, when the Fire Lord ordered her to the throne room. She had been supposed to take part in a dispute with Zhen Huangniu, leader of the Royal Council.

When she had arrived, it had turned out that the main topic of the discussion would be her person.

"May you please undress yourself" the veteran general had said, after a polite bow of the head. "Princess."

Azula stared calmly, but with curious concern at the weather-beaten old man, who'd been told to have been going through hell during the war in the Earth Kingdom. Ha had been waiting patiently, without any sign of excitement or physical affection towards the young girl.

Azula had taken a look at her father, and had seen Ozai nodding slowly. So, hadn't having any other option, she had let her dressing gown fall to the floor.

Given she hadn't wore any underwear, she had been standing before her future father-in-law stark naked.

"Would you please stand still, Princess?" the old man had said, and he had started to observe the girl from different angles.

If she hadn't been to the library of Wan Shi Tong, she wouldn't have been able to hear what Huangniu had been murmuring, his words had been so silent. But since the visit in the desert, her hearing had become extremely sharp.

"She's tall enough considering her age… But her hips are too narrow… She seems to be likely to get sick…"

He had been practically measuring her, as if he had wanted to buy livestock, or a slave. Surprisingly, Azula hadn't been upset about this. She hadn't even blushed, hearing the remarks upon her body. And she wasn't ashamed now, while summing up the situation to Ty Lee.

"I want to pay Huangniu a visit" Azula told Ty Lee. "I need someone to accompany me… just in case."

"Are you up to something, Azula?" inquired Ty Lee suspiciously.

"When the old man asked me to get naked, I'd run away" lied Azula nonchalantly, without even a single wince or a blink of an eye. "Father told me I have to walk over to his house and apologize."

Azula stared at her naïve friend, and she nearly regretted tricking her. Tears were welling in Ty Lee's big, brown eyes, and said poor girl looked like she would burst out crying at any second. Nevertheless, Azula decided to continue with her playacting, thus she made the most terrified expression she could, and said:

"I'm afraid, Ty Lee… Maybe they'll force me to do something I don't want to. I need someone, who I can trust, to come with me."

"Of course!" exclaimed Ty Lee, and she grasped Azula by the hand. Ty Lee was quite strong, thanks to all the acrobatics she was doing, and apparently excelling at them. "Of course I'll go with you! This is what friends are for, after all…"

"Thank you, Ty Lee! I know you could never leave my side!" said Azula, and she quickly tore Ty Lee's hand off hers. "Let go, here comes Mai! And don't forget: what I've told you must remain our little secret…"

And then they started to chat about their new classmate from the colonies in fake casualness, earning suspicious looks from their pale friend.

The girl was climbing the stairs slowly. The stairway was quite new and well-built, thus it didn't make any noise at all. Azula was pleased: everything went perfectly well so far.

She walked past the thangkas hanging on the wall of the cloister, which surrounded the quadrangle. There was a light trace of sulfur in the air, thanks to the steams of a hot spring in the middle of the garden, illuminated by the silvery moonlight.

Azula remembered that the wife of Huangniu was complaining to Ursa about that steam killing all the greenery she tried to plant in the atrium, back when her mother used to be… around.

I do hope Ty Lee arrived home safely, she thought, stopping for a second, and looking towards the direction of the main gate. Ty Lee did her best distracting the guards, providing the opportunity for Azula to sneak in.

The girl was quite upset, of course when she'd found out Azula lied to her, but nevertheless she helped. Ty Lee was not someone to carry a grudge, she indeed liked, on the other hand, to have fun. And what could be more fun then doing a prank?

Ty Lee was, however, unaware of Azula's real intentions.

Azula thought if she would have to kill Zhijou, son of the old Huangniu, she would drag his body here somehow, and throw him into the fountain. The pest would be literally cooked by the morning. It would be much more effective then just leaving the corpse in the bed.

Exiting the cloister, she found herself in a small entry hall, and stopped dead in her tracks. She wasn't alone.

"Mother!"

Ursa was standing motionless at the door leading to the bedrooms, glaring at her daughter.

Azula rubbed her eyes violently, and let out a pleased sigh, given the vision was gone. Only a coat stand was waiting there silently, with a single silk cloak hanging from it. It was only the cursed moonlight that made it look like a woman.

Nevertheless, cold sweat gathered on the girl's forehead. If only this would have been the first time…

No matter how effective it is to have two minds working in my head instead of one, the side effects are very disturbing…

It was quite logical, after all. She shared her body with something which's habitat was the Spirit World, therefore she'd become more sensible to similar creatures. Creatures which were invisible to others were all too visible to her.

And still, her most frequent visitor was not exactly a spirit, but her mother. And what was most unnerving, that Ursa never talked to her. She was only staring…

Azula shook her head, to make the thoughts go away. She had to focus, after all…

This is not it, she thought, opening the door of the first room in the hallway. I can feel the scent of old people in there.

It must've been the next one, so she opened up the door, and looked at the objects hiding in the darkness. Entering the room, she nearly fell over a pile of dirty clothing. The one slumbering in bed and snoring softly was without doubt Zhijou: his untidiness was legendary.

Not to mention his alcoholism. The strong smell of baijiu was impossible to be hidden, not even with a dozen sandalwood incenses.

"It's a good thing he's drunk. This way they will believe everything to come was his doing" she thought.

Azula looked at the door with slight confusion, before shrugging, and sending vast balls of blue fire onto the dry wood. It has become ablaze in a mere second. The door had no lock, and she had to prevent the inevitable intervention of the young man's family. They would hear Zhijou's painful cries, no doubt.

Azula roughly estimated that the whole room would be on fire in five minutes, but it didn't really matter. It was part of her plan to burn down the house, after all.

She stood beside the sleeping man, and slapped him across the face, in order to wake him up.

But it was not so easy, given Zhijou was practically unconscious, thanks to all the booze. He merely swore under his breath, and rolled onto his side.

Azula knitted her brow at this, and she grabbed the lapel of his dressing gown. She started to shake him with all her might, which was not an easy task, because Zhijou was quite overweighed. Finally, the man sat up with a moan, and started to rub sleepiness out of his eyes.

"Whoryou" he asked Azula with a dull expression on his face. He tried to fix his sight on the adorable looking child, but failed, and a moment later he discovered the room was on fire.

He tried to get out of bed, but Azula prevented him from doing so by gripping his hairy arm with her palms, which were hot as molten.

"Stay still!" Azula hissed at the man, and she cooled her hands down, so Zhijou's yelling slowly receded. She leaned closer to Zhijou, ignoring the stench of burnt hair and of his mouth. She wanted to let him take a good glance at her face.

"You…!" exclaimed the chubby man, his tearful eyes staring at Azula's face.

"Yes, it's me" said Azula. "Now listen carefully, if you want me to let you go!"

Zhijou, whose father was Zhen Huangniu, the man who examined the naked Azula shamelessly in the morning, nodded sheepishly, and waited for his bride to continue.

"You will ask for an audience in the Palace. You can bring your father with you, if he'd survive the fire, I don't care" said Azula calmly and coldly, and she seemed not even a bit worried about the flames slowly engulfing the whole building around them. "You'll announce you had changed your mind, and you don't wish to marry me any longer. Understood?"

Zhijou failed to reply. Azula saw his masculine pride resurrecting, when looking in his eyes. It was still there somewhere, no matter how drunk and terrified he was. So she grabbed on his reddening, burnt forearm once more.

"Will you do what I just told you?" she inquired.

The young man finally begun to nod rapidly, and he shouted, while tears of pain were running down his cheeks like white water.

Azula allowed herself a victorious smile.

"See? It wasn't so hard. I wish you more luck with women for the future, my dear ex-bridegroom" Azula said, not even looking at the other person in the room while she walked to the window. "Anyway, I strongly recommend not telling anyone about the little… conversation we just had. You'd only make a fool of yourself."

She opened up the window, and took a deep breath, inhaling the relatively fresh outside air. Long black snakes escaped through the open window: acrid trails of smoke.

So much for my first date, Azula thought. I hope my father will give up soon enough. It would be quite exhausting to do this all over and over again on several occasions.

Darnit, it took me sooo long! But yeah, here's the last part to the three-shot. Hopefully I did not mess up Ty Lee's character.

Please tell me, what you think, Dear Readers :)