"WHERE IS ZUKO!?" Azula screamed with furious desperation, and her own savage echo was the only response that followed for what felt like the longest time. Sokka had come back, with a slew of people in his company, but no Zuko. The only answer was an obvious one, but she wanted to hear it from his mouth. At least then she would have a legitimate reason to obliterate him, aside from simply wanting to.
Nobody spoke, nobody so much as moved, and it became painfully clear to Sokka that it was his place to answer, despite how much he loathed the idea. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he said with an appropriate amount of melancholy, "He didn't make it. They captured him."
Azula squeezed her eyes shut against his words, but she unfortunately couldn't seal her ears in the same manner. The words infected her with a swell of emotions she could neither identify nor contain, "No… no-no-no-no-no," she repeated the word over and over, clutching the sides of her head in a futile attempt to negate reality, but ultimately, she knew he was doomed, and that knowledge destroyed what remained of her control. Turning on her heel, she did the only thing she could think to in a feeble attempt to cope with the reality she was forced to face. She made fire.
With a feral shriek of rage, Azula unleashed a plume of dazzling azure flames larger than a sky bison that shot across the open chasm, colliding with the opposite wall in an Earth-shattering explosion that blasted rocky debris out like a meteor striking the surface of the Earth. Immediately she sank to her knees, using her palms to support the rest of her as she all but collapsed under the unbearable weight of her grief. Heart-wrenching sobs shook her entire body, and all present could do little more than watch helplessly as the princess of the Fire Nation shattered before their eyes.
Sokka looked to his friends with desperation, "We need to do something, she's losing it!" They attempted to surround her, only to be held at bay by the two girls immediately at her side.
"Stay away from her!" Mai shouted with more fury than anyone had ever heard from the girl before, Ty Lee included. Three knives were already between her fingers, and her arm was raised across her body, tense and waiting for release at a moment's notice. Ty Lee herself was crouched at Azula's side, hands on her shoulders and trying her utmost to whisper words of consolation.
"It'll be okay, Azula, you can make it through this, I know you're strong enough. You're the strongest, smartest, most beautiful girl in the whole world you have to be okay, you just have to."
Shaking her head, Azula only repeated the same words over and over, "I can't, I can't do it, Ty, I can't I-I can't," leaving Ty Lee to hug her tighter, unsure of what else she could do.
With everyone's attention so diverted, Chit Sang took the opportunity to wander off, Sokka only just catching his movement out of the corner of his eye. "Where are you going?"
Chit Sang turned to regard the younger man briefly. "Sorry, man. Thanks for busting me out and all, but I've heard the stories, I know enough about the princess to know when to run. Good luck." With a final wave, the man was gone, leaving Sokka and his friends to deal with a highly distraught, highly volatile Firebending prodigy.
"Aang, what do we do?" Katara whispered from where she stood next to the Airbender, uncertainty plain in her features along with a touch of fear.
The Avatar simply shook his head, "I don't know."
"Did you see that fire blast? She's a danger to everyone here."
Aang's response was a solemn, "I know." Grim determination settled in as he realized it was going to fall on him to either attempt to defuse the situation, or save as many as he could. That's when he noticed Sokka and Katara's father walking forward.
Grabbing his dad's arm, Sokka demanded through clenched teeth, "Dad, what are you doing?"
Hakoda wasn't worried, or at least didn't let it show, as he told his son, "Sokka, don't worry about me, I'm doing what I feel I have to. You saved me from that prison, now I have to return the favor. If things go south, you get your sister and the Avatar out of here." With that, the chief of the Southern Water Tribe turned and took confident, sedate strides, ever mindful to keep the uncertainty he felt from showing on his face. The girl with the knives tensed at his approach, but he gave her a pleading look to show he meant no harm. When he didn't get filled with steel, he assumed he had been given clearance, but even then he maintained a minimum safe distance.
"Princess?" He didn't receive any indication she had heard him, nor had he really expected to. "My name is Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe, Katara and Sokka's father. I just wanted to tell you that what your brother did for us was an act of bravery that I haven't seen from men twice his age, and if it weren't for his selfless sacrifice, none of us might have made it out of there with our lives. It's an honor to have met him."
Vaguely, Azula was aware that someone was talking to her, talking to her about Zuko, no less. She couldn't place the voice, but something about it just sounded so… sincere, and sad. The voice of a man who had known too many hardships for just one lifetime, and yet persevered in spite of them. The voice continued, "The last thing I heard him say was 'tell her I love her'. Last words like those are usually reserved for a man's wife, but I'm betting Prince Zuko wasn't married. If I had to guess, I'd say he intended those words for you."
Azula sniffled, knowing more of the truth to what the man was saying than he himself did, and silencing herself she ceased lamenting in order to listen to the rest of what the voice had to say. "I don't think he would want to see you fall apart like this, not after coming this far. It's only after we lose someone truly dear to us that we find out just how strong we really are. How strong is the princess of the Fire Nation?"
That's when Azula finally took a real, hard look at herself, collapsed on the floor in front of a group of strangers crying her eyes out. Was this her? Was Zuko truly the only crutch she had to lean on for some semblance of stability in her life? Was she doomed without him? Remove someone's crutch, and they either fall flat on their face, or learn how to stand again. With an air of clarity and a reignited resolve, Azula stood.
Her eyes were red and puffy, and though the tears ceased to fall the evidence of their passing still adorned her cheeks. Clearing her throat, and with all the defiance that was so undeniably Azula, she regained her composure as if she hadn't completely lost it only moments before, and said, "Chief Hakoda, you are a rather brave and clever man."
"I have my moments." he replied with an honest grin. "To be called clever by the girl who conquered Ba Sing Se is a rare honor indeed, Princess."
Extending her hand, Azula humbly responded, "You observe etiquette well for a tribesman, but I'm afraid being a traitor has voided my title."
"Very well," Hakoda returned her gesture by clasping a hand about her forearm and taking her by surprise, "but one day, I will call you Fire Lord Azula, and it will be my honor." Grasping the man's forearm in turn, Azula gave him a triumphant, confident smirk that promised pain to all her enemies, and eventually they relinquished their holds.
"There will be a time to grieve over the ones we've lost later, but so long as a war is still being waged, we warriors have to keep fighting. If you can teach the Avatar to be half as good at Firebending as what I just saw, he'll be able to defeat the Fire Lord, and finally end this war once and for all. For now, you kids need to get on Appa and fly away from here as fast as possible. The airship we came in on would be impossible for anyone with eyes to miss, and one way or another, the Fire Nation will figure out where the Avatar's hiding soon enough. The sooner you all get out of here, the better."
"What, Dad, no!" This time it was Katara's voice that rang out in response as she rushed to her father's side. "We just got the family back to together again, how can you say that? The Fire Nation won't split us up again!"
"Katara, I don't want to leave you two either, but it won't be forever, and right now the Avatar needs your help." As understanding filled her features, Katara gave her father a tearful hug before reluctantly returning to Aang's side. That was when a small metal canister trailing smoke came flying over the edge of the temple floor, clattering to a stop just a few yards shy of Hakoda and the three girls.
"Azula, look out!" Ty Lee's scream was her only warning before Azula felt herself being tackled from behind, only seconds before an explosion tore apart the air behind her. All she could hear for the next few heartbeats was a loud ringing while everything else around her seemed muted, and it took a few seconds to realize she had been hauled to her feet and was being led by her hand far away from where the explosion had happened. Recognizing Ty Lee as the person dragging her along, Azula tried to shout something, only to find her own voice was muffled and distorted along with everything else.
With the sound of her own heart hammering against the inside of her head, Azula tried to force her hearing to return, and slowly the noises around her began growing in volume and clarity, until suddenly everything was brought screaming back to normal volume in all its vibrant, audible chaos. She almost missed the quiet as another series of bombs exploded behind her, splitting her eardrums like firewood and planting the seeds of a headache that would later make itself fully realized.
Aang and his friends were hurrying about, tossing only the bare essentials into Appa's saddle, Toph and Mai dealing with the various bombs that were trying desperately to destroy the pillars securing the temple to the cliff face while Hakoda herded the non-essential children of the group towards a hallway to escape. Aang silently thanked the man, knowing Appa would have a hard enough time carrying the ones that he couldn't afford not to take. There was only so much room, and his stomach knotted at the thought of abandoning those who had stood by him so adamantly through all of this.
They finished loading Appa without a second to spare, and with a mighty breath Aang shouted over the din of battle, "Alright guys, let's get out of here!" With a nod to one another, Toph and Mai abandoned their post and sprinted for the bison, while Aang gave people boosts with his Airbending. Hakoda and his group had since disappeared, and with Toph as the last person to board, Aang assumed his position on Appa's neck with the reins clutched in his fists. With a loud "Yip-yip," they were off, soaring into the sky, but not before having to pass directly over a few of the closer war balloons.
Firebenders were already waiting at the tops of the airships to shoot down the bison, but with a few quick knives, the immediate threats were nullified long enough for them to reach a safe distance. An audible group sigh could be heard from the various parties in Appa's saddle as they all finally allowed themselves to relax. It was clear the airships had no desire to chase them, for as futile an effort as it would have been. The moment's adrenaline banished the sourness of loss, if only for the time being.
"So, any ideas on where we should go?" Sokka finally asked, though everyone was thinking about it. It was somewhat unsurprising then, to find out who exactly would have the first answer as to the whereabouts of a safe place in the Fire Nation.
"Head southeast," Azula said with all her usual confidence and assertion, "We're going on vacation."
Ty Lee had been curious ever since Azula had given them directions, but the ride had for so many hours now passed by over ocean that almost never changed, and even when it did, it was with a small rock formation that almost certainly wasn't their destination. She sighed loudly, an exaggerated affair what with half her body hanging over the saddle and entire demeanor deflated. Suddenly, she perked up as she noticed something in the distance up ahead. Sitting up, she squinted, if only briefly, then mused out loud, "Is that… It is! Azula, we're going to Ember Island again!"
"Of course we are, Ty Lee, I have the perfect place in mind for a new base of operations." Of course Azula wouldn't just say "hideout". "My family has a beach house that we haven't used in practically a decade, and I doubt Dad's going to be taking any time off this close to the comet."
An eerie stillness settled over the original members of Team Avatar that, to someone who knew them better, would have spoken volumes to their unnatural apprehension, but Azula didn't pay any notice. They were nearing the island, and her mind had already switched gears. "Alright, we'll need that 'ingenious' cloud disguise you're all so fond of," she stopped to both display a well-deserved smirk and gauge the reactions of her past enemies, which were understandably perplexed, all except maybe Toph.
"I was wondering how long it would take you to figure it out, Sunshine."
"Well you see, here in the Fire Nation," she replied, waving her hand around and finishing with the slightest hint of humor, "our clouds don't talk." The only two who laughed were Toph and Aang, but Azula didn't concern herself with the others. It was endearing to see that the Avatar had so easily become familiar with her particular sense of humor. Damn it all, she had never been taught that she could become friends with the enemy, that they could become actual human beings to her instead of simply obstacles to be removed. Why was she so damn eager for the Avatar's acceptance anyways, what did she care? Still, to be looked at as if you aren't some sort of abnormality or tool was such a rare and unfamiliar feeling for Azula, she secretly craved it, even if her conscious mind had all but blocked it out.
Sokka, always the first to suspicions about any of her plans, pointed an accusing finger. "If she knows about that, how can we be sure the rest of them aren't on to us?"
Even if he was talking over his shoulder to his friends, it was Azula herself who answered him. "Don't worry your head over it, I kept it a secret. It's not like I wanted anybody other than myself to find you, after I found out you were alive. Dad's hardly the type to forgive failure, but lying outright to his face? I'd be lucky to end up the prettier between Zuko and I after that."
Even if he still didn't let himself trust her words, he did believe, at the very least, in her healthy fear of her father's wrath. He was clearly not above burning children's faces off, especially his own. Around them, Aang created a sphere of air large enough to encapsulate Appa, and beyond the rushing gale, clouds began twisting inwards, obeying Katara's silent commands until the entirety of the flying bison was concealed perfectly. Azula silently approved, and in fact, it was an ingenious idea for stealthy air travel through unfriendly territory, though scrutinizing eyes could still pick them out.
"We have to circle around to the southeast side of the island, that's where all the highest nobility estates are. It's also the most sparsely populated area on the beach, and it's all restricted from the public. The chances of being noticed are slim to none."
"I just hope we didn't burn all the furniture last time we were here," Mai's completely neutral tone rose from the back of the saddle where she half-paid attention as she twirled a knife around her finger. The two Water Tribe siblings, the Earthbender, and the Avatar himself, all exchanged completely dubious expressions as to the sanity of their newest additions. They burned their furniture on vacation…?
Aang let himself smile at the memories that suddenly flashed in his head. It's nice to know some things are still the same as a hundred years ago. He could remember summer bonfires with Kuzon on the beach, and the carefree feeling of recklessly abandoning oneself to a patron element. Even as an outsider, he was a kindred spirit who could appreciate the desire to lose oneself in their element so completely that the world itself faded out of thought.
Appa drifted around the outskirts of the island until Azula gave the word, and soon the group found themselves out of the saddle and stretching as they casually inspected their new hideout. The house was a rather proud size for a beach home, and entirely secluded from any and all neighbors. It stood atop a modest hill and overlooked an impressive expanse of shoreline. The jungle still existed in bits and pieces around the estate, but scarcely at the majestic scale it once had so long, long ago. The remains of a fire could be spotted on the beach.
Inside, the house was surprisingly spacious, opening up into a decent-size courtyard. The interior was practically barren of any furniture, but with some snooping, they managed to find some that had survived the other night. Suki was the first one to really break the silence when she asked, "So, doesn't anybody else think it's a little weird to be hiding from the Fire Lord in his own house?"
Azula shrugged it away easily enough, "He hasn't been here in years, since before our family… changed. We used to come here when I was a little girl."
Suki wasn't sure what to think about that mental image. Azula as a sweet little girl…? She snorted to herself, probably more like a depraved little monster. She still wasn't too keen on the group's choice in Firebending teacher, but if the Avatar said it was fine then she would force herself to behave. For the most part, anyways. She still had a bone to pick about stealing clothes, a crime in and of itself against Girl Code. Such matters demanded justice at some point.
"It's also a perfect spot to train for the Avatar, he has plenty of everything here."
Aang couldn't help but give a cheesy grin. "Gee Azula, I had no idea you had thought about me, I really appreciate it."
"No, that's simply an added bonus, we would have come here regardless." She said with a complete lack of care one way or the other for him. Aang deflated, and as Azula turned to inspect more of the house, Mai came up with what probably passed for a grin as far as she was concerned.
"She's pretty great at making friends, isn't she?"
Aang simply shook his head in defeat and sighed, every bit of him but his mouth saying, "This is gonna take a lot of work." Moving on to run her own search of the place, Mai left the Avatar where he was and pretty soon he opted to take a look around himself.
The first room he passed by had a door slightly ajar, and he peaked in to notice Azula with her back to him, head down and clearly examining something in her hand. He took an impossibly quiet step, but her shoulders tensed up and she went rigid anyways. Sometimes, it was unnerving how she seemed to sense people trying to creep up on her. It wasn't a sense normal people should have.
"What is it?" Aang asked, not even seeing the relic from a past forsaken but not forgotten.
She didn't respond right away, but he was a patient person, and after a moment she said, almost as if she were still halfway back there in her mind from the distance of her voice, "A shell that my brother gave me a long, long time ago." The way she was holding it, Aang noticed, was likely the most gentle she had ever done. It was clearly precious to her.
She continued after a brief pause, "I know it's silly considering all the gems and jewelry I had as a princess, but at the time it was worth so much more, because he had found it specifically to give to me."
"Here, Azula, I finally found one!" A much younger, scarless Zuko came bounding up with a silly grin on his face and something clutched in his child-sized hands. Azula was just sitting on the edge of the porch with her feet on the ground a step below. When he approached, Azula rolled her eyes as she stood, hands on her hips and cursing herself for not being on the porch so that she didn't have to try secretly stretching herself up just a little bit to avoid feeling shorter than him.
"Found one what, Zu-Zu?"
He didn't scowl at the nickname, in fact he did the exact opposite, his grin becoming a full-blown ear-to-ear smile. "I found the perfect shell for you, I've been searching all morning!" Youthful vigor and happiness shone brightly through his golden eyes just as the sun does in the sky.
An eyebrow quirk, and then, "What exactly makes you think I even want a shell."
Ignoring any attempts to defeat his optimism, Zuko replied, "It's the perfect one for you, Azula! See, look." He opened his hand, and in it was a black shell perhaps a shade or two smaller than her own palm. It was completely smooth, a somewhat rare occurrence, but what really made this one special was the way it reflected a brilliant, dark blue in the sunlight. It was beautiful, and for a moment Azula let her eyes be entranced, but soon enough she snapped back to reality.
"I guess it's alright for a shell, but why did you even bother looking in the first place?"
Zuko was thoughtful for a moment before answering, "You're my sister, Azula. I wanted to get something just for you to remember this vacation by. I picked that one because it reminded me of you the way I found it. It was just sitting there in a pile of other shells, all of them black, but it was the only one shining."
Her mind wasn't old enough to really understand or appreciate how that was the single nicest thing anybody had ever said about her, but she did feel a twang of emotion that her eyes hadn't yet mastered how to hide as they opened wide. "Thanks, Zuko," was somehow the only response she could muster, a truly heartfelt sentiment that she would know too few of in her life, at her brother thinking that among countless others, she was someone extraordinary.
Zuko brightened like fire itself as he cried, "I'm so glad you like it! I'm gonna go find mom right now and let her know!" he shouted before turning and taking off once more. It was obviously going to be motivating him beyond elation for the remainder of the day, and she smiled as he ran off in an ecstatic sprint only a child can know. She glanced down at the incredibly rare shell in her tiny palm and knew exactly where she would place it.
A much older Azula looked down at the small, black shell, little more than a ray of light from the evening's sun peeking through the window and reflecting off of the coating. She could hardly explain the force that took her straight to this spot the moment she began exploring the estate, much less the instinct of which board to move that revealed the tiny shell protected in some small, dark red wrappings.
Clutching it as if it were more precious than air itself, Azula lowered her hand and raised her head, turning to an otherwise dead silent, enraptured Avatar, Aang having been able to do little more than listen intently to every word she told him. It was such a raw feeling of love, and of good memories, that he knew instantly in his heart that she was so much more than his ex-enemy, so much more than an enemy at all.
With downcast eyes at how ashamed he was, perhaps now more than ever before for his running away all those long, long years ago, Aang finally mustered the breath to say sadly, "I wish that Azula had stuck around." I wonder what she could have been like without the war…
"Me too," she whispered, replacing the floorboard and standing to her feet. Aang had never really appreciated how good of a liar she really was, but when he saw the lack of sadness, the lack of any sign of regret at all for her life, he developed a new respect for her. Even now, she could pretend to be perfectly fine, even so much as keeping her voice entirely level, when the Avatar knew just how badly she was screaming on the inside.
He couldn't help but ask, as she was moving to leave the room, "Do you ever think about what your family could have been like if the war hadn't happened?"
A sharp breath was the only sign Aang caught, before she turned and replied with all the veneer of a veteran soldier, "Let me tell you one of the first things you learn in strategy, Avatar." Looking him directly in the eye, she told him, "All you have is the now. Time spent worrying about what you could have or what you could be working with, is time that could be better spent worrying about what is actually happening, and how to avoid being on the losing end of it."
Well, that's one way to look at it, thought Aang as he perked up a bit himself. He had already made peace with his past, but the far reaching consequences of his actions still haunted him from time to time. Still, the Avatar had to maintain presence of mind at all times, so he practiced exactly that as often as possible. Azula turned on her heel to exit her old room and examine other parts of the house, more mischievous parts of the house, an age old curiosity of all the "forbidden" rooms that she wasn't allowed in as a child suddenly resurfacing. A part of her smirked at the power of time giving her all the "keys" she needed, via swift kicks to locked doors. There was an awful lot of this house I wasn't allowed into back then…
As Azula bounded off like a cat in search of prey and exploration, Aang turned the other way and decided to examine more public sections of the Fire Lord's vacation home. It was still a sufficiently odd feeling to be taking refuge in the literal home of one's greatest enemy, but that odd feeling was freshly sprinkled over with comical curiosity. There were tapestries of babies… presumably the babies of Ozai's family. They were all easily under a year old and lacked every ounce of the viciousness that defined the royal siblings in Aang's eyes. Seeing once mortal enemies in such hilariously harmless depictions caused him to giggle a little bit to himself as he continued down the hall.
There was a formal dining room, or at least formal insomuch as there was a table big enough for several people to sit at during meals. It made a little sense, given all the chairs that the Fire Lord would sit in while at work, that he wouldn't want any on vacation. That, or they were all burned. It didn't really matter, he figured they would probably eat most of their meals in the courtyard so they could be under the sky.
It was still going to take some getting used to, being penned up in a single location like this for an indefinite period of time after all the constant traveling he had been getting used to. Still, it was nice having the security of nobody chancing upon you. When they said restricted access on Ember Island, they meant it, and nobody wanted to risk breaking onto the Fire Lord's property. Or at least, nobody but his daughter.
Aang breathed deeply as he walked out the open front door and faced the ocean, his staff clutched to his chest and a far away smile on his lips as he watched the world get dark around him, and the moon begin to rise into the sky. It would be full shortly, and as it was, it already lit up the sky like a giant lantern, bathing everything in a pale, phosphorescent glow.
Azula exited the house into the courtyard, not out of a particular desire to be there, but rather because that's where everyone else had decided to gather, and she had had enough of being alone for essentially every night since she joined the ridiculous group. By extension, she reminded herself. She only joined because Zuko wanted to, it had hardly been her idea.
She took up a place that seemed socially comfortable to her, which meant it was 10 feet away from the nearest other person, and began immediately glancing at everything that wasn't somebody else's eyes, or even face. Yes, she was blending right in.
Even if everybody else might have missed her arrival, there was always one person you simply couldn't pull such a thing off against, and Toph was quick to shout loudly enough that it got everybody's attention, "Hey Sunshine, nice place you got here."
Azula cringed, hoping to avoid talking to anyone if it were possible, much less the entirety of the group all at once, as indeed, all eyes were now turned in her direction. Never one to be put off by being on the spot, she replied with perfect smoothness, "Yes, our family does have a specific taste that's simply to die for. It will certainly beat sleeping in ancient ruins, at any rate."
Aang cringed at the crude reference to his people, but if Azula noticed her blunder she didn't let it show. Despite her having all the social awkwardness of a three legged komodo-rhino, Toph held the conversation with professional ease, asking, "You think there's enough rooms to put all of us up?"
"Well, I'm sure none of you have any issues with sharing rooms with one another, so I believe we can put Water Tribe up in Uncle Iroh and Lu-Ten's room, Suki can have her pick between the ever classic antics of Ty Lee or Mai's 'sparkling personality', and those two can have my old room." Suki cringed at the thought of having to stay in Azula's room, of all people, but she could appreciate a bed, even if the company was rather unappealing.
"I'll stay in my parent's room, since I doubt any of you would feel very comfortable in the room where Fire Lord Ozai bedded his wife, and Toph and the Avatar can both take Zuko's old room." The way she tossed her brother's name out as if he were as meaningless as a tissue was somewhat unsettling, but it could only be ignored for the time being, due the massive wave of disgust that was brought on by the way she referred to her parents bed. The tap of her finger against something was Azula's way of applauding herself whenever she made an excellent move, and the sound of her nail clicking on the stone step underneath her could be heard just before she added in the most casual of manners, "I'll bet Zu-Zu was conceived in there, actually."
"You too, eh Sunshine?" Toph asked with all the sly curiosity of a cat who already knew the answer. Azula shook her head though.
"No," she said, suddenly dark and worlds away in her features, "I was conceived while mother was being punished for Zuko's weak, sickly state."
She gave the briefest of pauses before shaking her head in mockery of legitimate disdain, smirking but not looking at anything but an empty shadow in particular, her smirk itself a shadow of any real sort of humor.
"I guess that explains a lot," she said, and in the darkness, she saw embers burning, a portrait of her mother's face as the flames consumed it on a moonlit beach.
Everybody looked at Azula, and perhaps for the first time, they all saw a new side. Whether it had been the weeks that had passed with her becoming a constant fixture in the group, or the fact that they had suddenly realized she was so much more human than they usually thought, nobody could say, but after seeing her for so long with her hair down and no armor or attempts (well, serious ones, anyways) at hurting anybody, Azula had slowly become something like a strange, awkward sister to their little group, even if some of her "family" still hated her. She was no longer an outright enemy, and you're allowed to hate your family, you just can't kill them.
There was still something unsettling about how critical she was on herself, as if she were blaming herself for something that happened before she was even born. Did she consider her entire life a punishment for someone else's failings? Even if Azula was more or less sarcastic when she said it, she was still essentially truthful; it did explain a lot.
Sokka, never one to know how to break an awkward, emotional silence or let his stomach go unanswered, took a stab in the dark and asked, "So, uh, got any food in this place? It seems big enough that it would have something stored away."
Azula actually thought about that one, she was too young to really notice where it was stored, only when it was served, back in those days. She remembered that they did have a cellar, even if she was forbidden from going down there as a kid, and supposed that would be the best bet. "Maybe. I'll have to do some digging around. It's been a long time since anyone's actually stayed here."
Getting up, she meandered off into the dark, once again long-forgotten childhood secrets being pried open sweeping away her negative feelings, if only for a moment. Though she claimed it was for food, Azula was far more interested in simply exploring the place, and seeing if she could find anything more interesting.
Another locked door found itself flung open after receiving a kick that shook the nearby foundation of the house, and Azula lit a small blue flame in her hand to light the now practically pitch black cellar. It was mostly empty, but there did appear to be barrels toward the back wall. As she opened them and examined their contents, she found only a single sack of cured and dried meat, but not much variety nor volume. It would serve long enough for a proper trip into the market, so she grabbed the small sack and turned to leave, when something glinted in the dark just out of the corner of her eye.
As she neared the object and her light cast itself more impressively upon its surface, she realized it was a bottle, full and with the seal unbroken. Azula may have been socially deprived, but she wasn't stupid. She knew what was in bottles in cellars, and she also knew she had drank small volumes of alcohol during special meals, and they left a fire inside of her that she was hungry to feel more of, but whenever she asked she was denied. Never one to be told no and leave it at that, she swiftly grabbed the bottle and left the cellar, satisfaction brimming in every inch of her as she made her way back to the courtyard.
Azula found herself being eyed more warily than when she had first joined the group, even from her own two friends. To say who was more interested in the bottle and who in the bag was impossible to do, but Sokka was certainly himself favoring the bag. As if to answer the look in his eyes without waiting to hear his voice, she tossed him the sack and though he at first flinched as if it would explode in his face, he relaxed when no such thing happened. His look couldn't have changed from fear to fascination any faster as he noticed the meat inside, and soon he was eating like a happy fool.
Aside from him, there were many more eager eyes still on the bottle, and Ty Lee was the first to ask, "Azula, is that a bottle of… alcohol?" Her eyes were wide with the curiosity so plainly evident in her voice as she regarded her best friend like an alien specimen.
Shrugging, Azula raised the bottle to better appraise it, but it was as plain as any other bottle one might find just lying about. "I assume so, or at least, I hope so." She pried the cork out with minimal effort and raised the bottle to her lips, not even bothering to sniff the liquid as she took a swig, only to nearly cough it up an instant later. She bore a look that suggested spoiled milk would be a more welcome taste than what she had just suffered. "That, tastes, awful." She smacked her lips a few times in an attempt to somehow erase the taste, but it was a futile effort.
"Uhm, are you really sure you should be doing that? Aren't you a little young to be drinking?" Katara asked with all her usual motherly annoyance, but Azula let it affect her like a summer breeze did a stone wall.
"I'm also a little young to be conquering impenetrable cities and killing Avatars, but life seems to have a different set of rules for me." She took another swig, this time having the luxury of knowing what to expect and bracing herself for it. Then her look turned devious as she held the bottle out. "You know, if you wanted some, all you had to do was ask, Katara."
The Waterbender looked visibly offended at the offering, but it was Toph who responded first with, "I'll take some!"
Katara was clearly about to start chastising her, but she was beaten to the punch when Toph told her, "Hey, you didn't let me try any of that cactus juice, and it sounded like some pretty interesting stuff if half of what Snoozles over there was babbling about is any indication. I'm not passing this one up."
With a that's that sort of dismissal, Toph took the bottle and raised it to her lips, grimacing as she swallowed a mouthful of the harsh, burning liquid. "Ugh, you ain't kiddin', Azula. That stuff's wicked." She handed the bottle back, but it was Sokka's inquisitive hand that raised itself up first from her other side, a silent plea that, for renowned as she was in her ability to perceive all things around her, the blind Earthbending Master couldn't notice.
Azula (strangely, he would later come to realize) had his back, however, and shrugged as she said, "I believe your friend, the Oaf would like some." Despite the eyes that slowly turned to regard him with all manner of inquisitiveness, the young man from the Southern Water Tribe simply held his hand out, a look of utter nonchalance on his face with his eyes closed and mouth drawn up in a pondering manner.
Ignoring everyone, he simply replied, "Hey, I'm not gonna pass up a chance to taste the mystery bottle from the Fire Lord's cellar." His hand was soon met with a glass bottle, noticeably cooler than the outside temperature, but that wasn't saying much.
Following suit, he up-ended the bottle without so much as a sniff, taking a decent swig of the liquid before he lowered it once more. With an animated shake of his head, he made a noise of disgust, commenting, "That tastes like liquid fire, it's eating my tongue!"
"Well, it is a specialty of the Fire Nation, actually. It's called sake." Azula remarked off-handedly, then without any warning switched gears. "Avatar!" she shouted suddenly, and Aang found himself involuntarily shoot up straight and wide-eyed. Every time! he cursed himself. Why can't I break that habit!
She smirked to herself, like she always did, then ordered, "Take that bottle and drink a mouthful, then I have a task for you."
Katara looked as if she had been the one ordered around herself, and with a scowl on her face at having to even address the pyschotic-Firebender, she hollered, "Hey, that's not how it works when you're his teacher, you can't just make him do things he doesn't want to do."
"Excuse me, Miss-I'm-Not-The-Avatar, how do you know he doesn't want to drink it?"
Aang himself was able to answer that question, "Azula, the monks frowned on drinking alcohol…"
Azula scoffed with pure derision, but it seemed more like a reflex than anything else. "When exactly was the last time Air Nomad laws applied to anybody?" When she saw the Avatar look as crestfallen as if he'd been shown his own parent's execution, she quickly amended, "Look, all I'm saying is, it isn't all bad to be the last of your kind. You can pretty much rewrite any laws you want, or at least exempt yourself from the ones you choose. You are technically the oldest Air Bender alive, doesn't that make you in charge?"
Aang was hesitant to answer, "Yeah… I guess. It's not about breaking rules though, the monks told us alcohol was really bad for you. I just don't know…"
"Oh please, we all drank some, and here we are! Our organs haven't disintegrated and expunged themselves from our-"
"Alright!" Aang said, holding his hand up as if to block the next word from reaching him, "I… get the picture." He took the bottle unwillingly, and after holding on to it for an interminable amount of time without drinking anything, he found himself being spurred on by Azula's impatience.
"Fine, you want to stay in my house? Well there's rules in my house, and as guests you are all expected to follow them. The first rule is, when the bottle comes your way, you have to take it, take a drink, and pass it on. No refusing, no stalling, and no excuses otherwise."
One way or another, Azula always seemed to get her way, and even now as Aang tipped the bottle back, she smirked to herself. Still got it. If the feeling of talking the Avatar into drinking with her was good, then the giddy sensation that rippled through her upon seeing the distorted grimace on his face a second later was simply to die for.
Still attempting to get his bearings (and the taste out of his mouth), Aang haphazardly handed the bottle off in a random direction. Anywhere but near him was fine. It was with varying ranges of surprise and curiosity that everybody looked at the person who had taken the bottle from him. Katara of all people held the damnable bottle, inspecting it like there was a very real possibility it could explode in her face if held wrong.
"You're holding up the line, Water Tribe." Azula drawled, impatience causing her foot to tap involuntarily.
Katara turned to her newest pal with a scowl that would send rocks flying away in fear and growled, "Too bad, I'm not following you're stupid rule, and you can't bully me into drinking this stuff."
Azula mimicked looking insulted, replying, "Oh, what's the matter, afraid of a little liquid are we?"
Sokka, having years of practice at it, knew when he is sister was about to let her anger get the best of her, so he decided to diffuse the situation before it became something much worse than teasing. "Hey, Katara, you don't have to drink any if you don't want to, but do you think you could pass the bottle on down? I'm getting kinda thirsty over here and, well, you know how girls can be when they start talking yakkity-yak-yak-"
"Here!" She shouted, knowing full well it was the only way he would ever shut up. With more than appropriate glee on his face, Sokka took the bottle, along with another swig, then promptly passed it to Toph once more, only to have it deftly intercepted by Suki, whom he had almost forgotten was beside him.
When Sokka looked at his girlfriend incredulously, she merely shrugged and commented, "Hey, I just broke out of prison. I'm having a drink."
The bottle soon found itself back in Toph's hands, who wasted no more of the moment before taking her own swig and handing it down to Azula again. The ex-princess was currently contemplating seating arrangements with diluted disdain, and only vaguely acknowledged the bottle's presence.
"This won't do," she mused, mostly to herself, but loud enough to be heard anyways. "Avatar!"
Spine instantly straight, Aang stared with rapt and slightly nervous attention. Azula suppressed the urge to giggle at the reaction that she had grown to enjoy, and told him, "Time for your Firebending lesson. Go into the patch of nearby jungle and find some wood, we need a fire to sit around."
"But, it's really dark out there, and there could be animals, and-"
"That's why it's a Firebending lesson. Learning how to control a small fire in your palm, without burning down everything around you, is one of the simplest exercises there is. And if any big, bad animals attack you, make them think twice."
Aang was still unconvinced though, "But I don't want to burn any of them, I've never hurt an animal in my life!"
With a roll of her eyes and a huff of annoyance, she pointed out, "Avatar, I've watched you sprint 300 feet up a wall and then back down it again. Something tells me that if an animal attacks you, you won't have any trouble getting away."
The real reason Aang wasn't too keen on his new "exercise" wasn't fear. For as trusting and carefree as he tended to be, there was still a logical, rational part of his mind that he couldn't ignore, and deep down, it knew that realistically, the only thing protecting his friends from his Firebending teacher, was himself. Even if she had thus far proven honest in her claim of changing sides, he could never forget just who exactly she was and what she was capable of.
Trust was a two way street though, and someone had to open their side up first, so with a sigh, Aang accepted defeat with a nod of his head. "Okay, I'll go get some firewood."
"Do hurry, Avatar," cooed Azula from her perch at the top of the stairs. "We wouldn't want to drink it all without you."
The seductive tone of her voice followed after him, streaming through him and igniting a new kind of fear in his stomach, only it was an excited fear. It wasn't the same as being afraid for your life, it was more of a fear of the possibilities a tone like that implied. Aang refocused his thoughts as he walked out of the beach house and into the neighboring patch of jungle. With a calm, even breath, he lit a fire in his palm, then set about finding some fallen branches.
Azula took her own shot of sake as she watched the Avatar disappear from view, then handed it off in Ty Lee's general direction. The acrobat understood the gesture immediately, and like a trained pet, she was up and retrieving the bottle. Ty Lee gave the bottle a curious glance herself before tentatively voicing her own misgivings, "I dunno Azula, this bottle is kind of old and there's no telling how long it's been down there or what's in it or-"
"Ty Lee." The girl in pink stopped mid-sentence and gave Azula a wide-eyed look of anticipation. "Take a drink," the other girl ordered, and Ty Lee soon found herself with the bottle upturned and a mouthful of the fiery liquid, cringing as she gulped it down. She almost handed the bottle back to Azula, but Mai's voice coming from behind stayed her hand.
"Don't think for a second that I'm just going to sit here and watch you guys get drunk without me. That sounds about as fun as watching grass grow." Ty Lee didn't need to see the roll of her eyes, as she could easily hear it. She spun on her heel to hand the bottle to her other best friend, who snatched it without a second thought and downed some of the liquid.
The small frown that tugged the corners of her lips down was the only sign Mai gave in reaction to the taste, which admittedly seemed to affect her least. "How delightful," she remarked, with a notable lack of enthusiasm.
When she offered the bottle back to Azula, she was waved off in the other direction, towards the 'miscreants,' as she had come to refer to them when the three girls were in private. "Hand it to the Captain of the Kyoshi Warriors," she said with what she hoped was an honest grin and not a smug smirk, "she's earned it."
Suki wasn't prepared for the flattery, but she accepted it gracefully enough, "Gee, thanks, I didn't know I'd won your approval."
"No, I mean it. Ty Lee tells me you ran up the wall in the yard to the observation deck where you incapacitated several guards before taking the warden hostage. Single-handedly, no less. That's quite impressive."
"Huh," Suki said, not quite sure what to make of the apparent honesty. "Well, I guess when you put it like that, it does sound pretty impressive, doesn't it? Cheers." With that, she up-ended the bottle, taking a generous swig and then handing it to a patiently anxious Sokka.
"Yeah, it was pretty incredible alright. You should have seen the look on Zuko's face!" It was only as he was in mid-drink that he realized his blunder, but it was too late now, and he froze with dreadful anticipation.
"I can break one of his ribs for you if you want there, Sunshine." Toph was helpful enough to suggest. She was pretty handy for defusing a situation, and she managed to illicit a chuckle from Azula, though it was shallow and short-lived.
The silence seemed to stretch on painfully before Aang returned with both arms full of wood, and as he dropped them in the middle of the courtyard he called out proudly, "Think that's enough?"
Gauging the amount of lumber he had brought her with a single raised eyebrow as she stepped lightly towards him, Azula replied, "I suppose that will do for a while. Here's your reward." He soon found himself on the receiving end of a bottle of sake, and having already lost this argument once before, he simply took the bottle this time. A small part of him was secretly anxious for another drink, that first one had made him feel on fire.
As the Avatar took a drink from the community bottle, Azula set about placing logs of wood in a cone-like arrangement until she was satisfied there was enough, then with a single finger, she ignited a small jet of blue fire to set the wood ablaze. Once there was a respectable campfire going, she called everyone over, though the effort was pointless, as everyone was migrating towards the fire of their own accord.
They found themselves soon seated in a circle, Ty Lee on Azula's right, followed by Katara and then Aang. Sokka was seated on Aang's right, with his girlfriend naturally sitting next to him, and Toph serving as a buffer between Suki and Mai, who took her spot at Azula's left hand.
Aang passed the bottle on to Sokka, then asked a question that seemed to cause everyone to ponder, "So… what should we do now?"
Surprisingly enough (or not, depending on how well you knew her), it was Ty Lee who broke the silence with, "Well, I remember one of the first nights after I had joined the circus, they were having a fire and drinking, and I wanted to meet new friends, so I joined them." The revelation that she actually was a "circus freak" was fully appreciated by Katara and her brother, who both shared a snorting giggle, but it didn't affect the acrobat. "We played a game that they called, "ask me a question". It's really easy, actually! We'll start with cutey since he has the bottle."
Sokka stopped mid-swallow and looked to his clearly perturbed girlfriend, then back to Ty Lee, who was grinning like a fox. "You choose one of us, then that person gets to pick any question they want to ask you, and you have to answer honestly."
If eyes were torches, Azula would be a roast duck by now, but lucky for her, they were not. "Oh!" Ty Lee exclaimed, "I almost forgot, you have to pick a different person each time it's your turn. Also, you don't get to take your drink until you answer. And the person you pick is the person who has to go next!" Touching her finger to her lip and closing one eye, she thought about whether or not that was everything, and once satisfied that it was, she said, "Okay, pick someone!"
Sokka thought about it for a moment, humming as he did so, until he came to Suki and his face lit up. "Suki!"
She realized that he probably picked to her expecting that she would go easy on him, which is why her look turned devious as she said, "Okay, you want me to ask you a question, Sokka?" When he nodded eagerly, she asked him, "Where you ever with any other girls after you left Kyoshi?"
His face went white as the moon when he realized the answer, and he choked out with a cheesy grin, "Well, there was Princess Yue?" Sokka shrank back, covering his face with his arms from the rightly anticipated fury of Suki as she lunged towards his face.
"WHAT!?"
"Butifitmakes you feel any better, she's not here anymore!"
"Where is she!?" Suki demanded, one hair away from snapping in anger. All the response that she received was a sole finger pointing up, into the night sky. She looked up in confusion, then back down to him with disbelief evident on her face. "What, she's on the moon?"
"No," he said, returning to a normal poster and his tone becoming curiously serious as he explained, "she is the moon." Now he had everyone's attention, and rightly so. "When Zhao attacked the Northern Water Tribe, he killed the Moon Spirit."
"Ah-Ha!"
"DAMMIT!"
Everybody looked to Azula and Mai as they interrupted Sokka's touching story with their shouting. "I was right, you owe me a new knife, Azula. Any knife I want, regardless of price."
The Firebender was fuming where she sat, arms crossed over her chest and a defiant pout on her lips. "Fine!" she growled, recalling the terms of their agreement.
"Uh, what are you guys talking about?" asked Aang, though he was clearly not the only one interested in the answer.
With a huff, Azula told him, "We made a little bet on what happened that night at the end of last winter. She bet Zhao had done something to the Moon Spirit, I said it was a preposterous notion."
"You bet on what happened to the MOON?! On the night it disappeared?!" Sokka's incredulous accusation was mirrored in the hearts of his sister and the Avatar, but the once-Princess of the Fire Nation merely shrugged.
"It came back."
"Yeah, because Yue sacrificed herself to give it her spirit energy!"
When Azula didn't show any response, Suki decided it was up to her for a little payback. "Alright, fine. Azula."
The other girl looked blankly back at her, eventually asking, "What?"
"Ask me a question," Suki clarified, and suddenly everyone remembered the game once more. The bottle was firmly in her hand after she snatched it from her boyfriend, and she looked ready to take anything Azula could dish out.
"Fine," she drawled, then a devilish smirk pulled the corner of her lip back. "How was prison?"
"Awful. Pick someone." With that, Suki tossed the bottle back and took her drink.
Azula had to think about it for a moment as she reached over for the bottle. Who could she trust to ask her a question that she had to answer truthfully. Well, she could always lie, and get away with it, but that just wasn't in the spirit of the game. "Hmm… how about… Toph."
"Sunshine, you don't want me to ask you any question I want to."
She didn't have to think twice about the implications, so Azula quickly amended herself, "Fine, Avatar." Turning to meet his suddenly apprehensive gaze, she told him, "Ask me a question."
Suddenly finding that the back of his neck itched, Aang stumbled over his own words, "Uh, well… I guess…" He looked up, and that's when he caught Azula's golden eyes, and he saw past the terrifying being that haunted his nightmares. He saw the girl, the human being with feelings, however guarded and repressed. "Did you want to kill me?"
The entire group couldn't have fallen more silent than if she had killed them all, right then and there. A loud snap from the fire shattered the silence, only to have it fill in like an unending void a moment later. She had to answer truthfully, but that was exactly the problem. She didn't know the truth.
Looking at him, looking into his hundred-year old, powerful grey orbs, she remembered that moment beneath the palace of Ba Sing Se, when it seemed almost as if the sun itself had entered the cavernous chamber. She remembered the looks of sheer terror on the face of her brother and all her Dai Li agents. She remembered the stories of the siege up north. Closing her eyes, Azula responded in a small, quiet voice, "I didn't want to die."
Looking as if he had just been stabbed through the heart, Aang started to ask, "What," but he was cut off just as soon.
"I heard the stories of what happened up north. You could have buried me with Zuko and all those agents. I did the only thing I could think of to save our lives. I… I'm sorry, I just," she trailed off as if saying the words were a physical struggle, but finally managed to admit, "I was scared."
Everyone looked at Azula as if she had just morphed into a different animal in front of their eyes. Words they didn't think could ever come from the ex-princess' mouth had just been heard by all, and for the longest time, nobody could think of anything to say in response. Aang finally gave her an honest, forgiving smile, "It's okay, Azula. I don't blame you for what you did. I guess, in your own way, you were just protecting someone you cared about. I can hardly fault anyone for that."
Suki handed the bottle over, "Here, you earned it." With a weak smile, Azula took the bottle, along with her well-deserved drink, then a light breeze picked up, if only momentarily, and swept the negative emotions away into the night. Everyone turned to look at the Avatar now, as he thought about who he would have ask him a question. After some deliberation, he finally decided.
"Toph, ask me a question."
Azula allowed herself a smirk when she saw the cat-like grin on the blind girl's face, and knew that very soon the Avatar would be regretting his choice. "Alright, Twinkletoes, if that's what you really want." Cracking her knuckles high above her head, she asked with perfect casualness, "Who do you think is prettier, Katara or Azula?"
Aang didn't even have time to make sense of the question before there were two very intense sets of eyes trained upon him. One burned golden in the fire light, the other a deep, icy blue. He couldn't remember ever being asked a harder question, and not simply because the two girls were both rather attractive. No, what he really had to decide, was which one would he be safer angering.
"Well, which is it, Avatar?" Azula cooed from across the fire, a predator's eagerness in her face as she stared him down.
"Yeah, Aang, what's taking so long?" Katara demanded, irritation growing in her voice after he failed to answer immediately in her favor.
"Well…" eyes darting back and forth, Aang had to come up with an answer, so he settled on what his heart was telling him, "Katara is."
From across the fire, Azula sat back with a knowing smirk on her face. "Wise choice, Avatar. You should never anger the woman you're going to share your bed with. You'd be surprised how long we girls can hold a grudge," she told him as she handed the bottle over. With a breath of relief, he accepted it and took his drink.
"Alright, I guess it's my turn then," Toph declared, and just as quickly seemed to make up her mind. "And I know just who to ask, too. Hey, Katara!" The girl in question's head suddenly snapped up at the sound of her own name, "If you could ask me anything in the world, what would it be?"
Thinking just as long and hard as such a serious question demanded, Katara finally asked with no small amount of wonderment, "Why did you save Azula's life?"
What sounded like it should have taken days to think about took Toph no more than a fleeting moment as she replied, "Because she deserved it." With nothing more than that she reached her hand out, waiting expectantly for the bottle that soon found it's way to her.
All eyes soon drifted towards Katara as the Waterbender thought about who she would pick. Her eyes met Suki and the two girls shared a grin. "Azula."
"Lucky me," Azula sighed, rolling her eyes appropriately to her words. Deciding she wouldn't let the insipid girl off as easily as the last one, she took a deadlier aim with her question this time, "What happened to your mother?"
For the space of an eye blink, Katara looked almost as mortified as she had under Ba Sing Se, but like that moment itself the look flashed away to reveal guarded anger. "What do you care?"
"I asked you a question, you have to answer the question. You don't get to ask a question back, does she, Ty Lee?" Azula glanced over her shoulder to see the acrobat shaking her head.
"She's right, you have to answer the question."
Gripping herself (and her anger as well), Katara scowled as she replied with no great desire for detail, "The Fire Nation killed her in a raid when I was a child."
"For no good reason whatsoever?" Azula mused from across the fire. She had half a mind to ask if she was fighting with the warriors, the savages having need for anyone who could swing a club probably, but decided against it.
"You only get to ask me one question," Katara reminded her, this time having the leverage of the rules on her side and being sure to rub it in.
Azula merely shrugged in response, however. "It's more of an elaboration really, but I guess if you want to be picky…"
"She told them she was the last Waterbender in the Southern Tribe. She lied to protect me, and they killed her because of it."
Satisfied with the confession, Azula nodded and handed the sake over. "Your mother was a very brave woman," she said before letting go, as the bottle met Katara's hand.
Her only response as she took the bottle was a simple, resolute, "I know."
Taking a breath, Azula hummed out a sigh before saying, "Well, I suppose it's up to me onsce more." She took another moment to deliberate before reluctantly choosing, "I ssuppose I owe it to you, so Mai, go ahead and ask me a queshtion."
Ignoring the unusual slur to her friend's words, Mai let the possibilities sink in before she decided on a question. She could ask Princess Azula anything in the world, and she would get an honest response. Most of these fools don't realize what exactly that entails, but I do. Glancing to her right, she found her friend's eyes and saw the same understanding in them, but she didn't seem worried by the implications.
After a fair enough amount of time, Mai made her choice and asked, "What happened to your mother, Azula?"
Katara hadn't even seen that one coming, and that's when she remembered something Zuko had told her back before he turned on them in Ba Sing Se. He had lost his mother as well, somehow, though he hadn't elaborated. That was her mother as well, the Fire Lord's wife. What did happen to her?
Azula sneered at the question, though it may have just been to cover a flinch that she probably wouldn't ever own up to. "She was banished."
"Banished? For what?" Katara asked before Mai or anyone else even had a chance.
The drunken Firebender looked at her ex-nemesis with crossed-eyed annoyance, but with a shrug she said, "Oh, I suppose. You did elaborate, after all, I suppose I should as well. She assassinated my grandfather, Fire Lord Azulon."
The appropriate amount of gasps were her immediate response, and after letting them pass she continued, "My father asked to replace Iroh as heir to the throne, and my grandfather was furious. He ordered the death of my father's firstborn son. He wanted him to kill Zuko."
"So your mom wouldn't let him." Sokka finished for her.
"Obviously. Dad's Fire Lord and Zuko's still… alive." Azula blundered into that one herself, and for some odd reason, she was having more difficulty than usual suppressing the emotions. Much more, in fact, but she was still able to beat them into submission eventually. "Anyways, she killed him to save Zuko's life, and had to leave forever because of it. She disappeared in the middle of the night, without ever so much as saying 'goodbye' to me."
Silence was the predictable, and only, answer, as everyone could only stare at the firelight flickering off her face. It certainly explains a lot, thought more than one person, though nobody put words to such thoughts.
"You mean, that's what happened to Lady Ursa?" Ty Lee asked, an ages old curiosity finally being satisfied. Azula nodded.
"Yes, she murdered the Fire Lord to save my stupid brother's life, but she couldn't even be bothered to say goodbye to me." That same longing ache from the beach fire weeks ago began to crawl, just underneath Azula's skin, but just the same as last time she squashed the feeling. "As if I care."
Katara passed the bottle with wary reluctance, but Azula was happy enough to snatch it away without any similar reservations. "I can't imagine how awful it must have been to have a mother who treated you like that."
The Firebender only snorted in response though, pausing just shy of taking her drink to bite out, "Like I need her anyways." However obvious of a lie that may have been, nobody was going to call her on it as she took her drink and then directed her attention to Mai.
Not waiting for a prompt from anybody, the sullen knife-thrower picked someone easily enough. "Aang."
The Avatar blinked in obvious confusion, before asking, "Me?"
Mai shrugged, as if the simple gesture itself explained her reasons perfectly, and the bald Airbender began to rattle his brain. He knew next to nothing about her, literally anything was open for question. Then again, maybe that was why she chose him.
Silence stretched on into the darkness, the crackling pops of the fire being the only noise to intrude upon it, until at last the Avatar asked, "How did you ever become friends with Azula?"
"Exsactly what is sthat supposed to mean-"*Hic!*"-Ahfvatar?" Azula demanded with an unfocused glare at the Airbender. The drink was clearly starting to affect her more than she would ever admit, and Aang found himself suddenly dreading the prospect of a drunk Azula. The term 'loose-cannon' would hardly describe it.
Hands raised in the best placating gesture he could muster, Aang replied swiftly, "Nothing! It's just that, well, you guys seem so… different."
"I believe the rules say I'm the one who's supposed to answer." Mai interrupted, to the relief of more than just Aang. "If you really want to know, it was all political. I was my father's only child back then, which originally bothered him, but when he found out Prince Ozai had a daughter, I suddenly became his precious, darling ace in the hole."
As the information sank in, Azula seemed to almost physically deflate from the realization that one of the two people in the entire world she called a friend had an ulterior motive for being such. "So you… never even wanted to be my friend?" she asked, the somber reality granting her a strange, momentary sobriety.
Mai shrugged in typical Mai fashion. "To be honest, I didn't really care one way or the other. At first, I just figured you were another rich, spoiled brat, just like every other girl at the academy. Then I found out you were another rich, spoiled brat." She paused just long enough to give her friend a devious smile before elaborating, "But you turned out to be the most interesting one of the bunch."
"You can say that again, Mai." Ty Lee said with a giggle from where she sat on the other side of Azula.
"Well, I scertainly am int'resting, I'll gif you that one," she commented as she handed the bottle over to Mai, who was more than happy to take it.
"I guess it's my turn to pick now," announced Aang, as he racked his brain for the decision. "Uhhhzula?" He wasn't sure if he had made a wise choice, or doomed himself, but he was certain he would find out as her golden eyes fought valiantly to focus on him from across the fire.
"Do you have the guts to kill my ffather, Ahfvatar?"
Aang felt himself freeze up as soon as the words left her lips, like the speed with which Katara herself could turn water to ice. All this time, he had known what he had to do; defeat the Fire Lord. He just hadn't ever considered, seriously considered, the fact that defeating him, would mean killing him. Was he ready? Could he even do it? He had to answer her question honestly, and there was only one truth he knew when it came to the subject.
"I don't know."
Of all the possible responses he could have given, he knew hadn't picked the best one. He just didn't realize he had picked the worst, either. The camp fire before their faces exploded into a pillar of blue in an instant, and died down just as quickly, to reveal Azula on her (unsteady) feet, glaring death and hatred straight into his soul.
"YOU DON'T KNOW?!" She screeched, sheer anger diffusing the alcohol induced speech impediment and making her words crystal clear and precise once more. "Do you have any idea what I've sacrificed for you, Avatar!? Do you have any idea what my brother has sacrificed? He's probably either dead or being tortured right this very moment, all because he just had to come teach you Firebending, so you could deal with my father once and for all, and now you don't even know if you have the guts to go through with it!?"
Everyone was standing by this point, with the sides clearly taken, though everyone was hoping to avoid an actual fight. "Azula, please calm down, you're going to hurt someone." Ty Lee pleaded from her friend's side, unsure of whether or not grabbing her arm would help calm her, or send her into an even more uncontrollable fit.
Azula, however, was having none of it. "Do you even realize what he'll do to you, ALL of you, once he catches you? What he'll do to me, personally…" and just as suddenly as her rage had appeared, it was wiped away, like dust in the wind, to be replaced by an even more unsettling emotion: fear. Terror was probably more appropriate a description. The realization of exactly what she had done, how badly she had betrayed Ozai, forced a very real, very relentless feeling of absolute dread to race down her spine, contorting the features of her face as if she had just witnessed Agni herself come down from the heavens to erase them all from existence.
"I have to go- I have to run, to find somewhere to hide," she began muttering, looking this way and that for an escape, like an animal in a trap. "I, I have to go, I have to go now!"
"Azula, wait-!" A last, futile cry from Ty Lee, before Azula turned on her heel and bolted. And promptly tripped over the log she had been seated upon. All any of the onlookers could do was flinch back as they watched (and felt) her crash unceremoniously into the hard stone. Ty Lee was at her side just as quickly, and a cursory inspection revealed the princess to be breathing, but otherwise out cold.
"Well, at least that takes care of a potential disaster." Suki commented, and the whole group breathed a collective sigh of relief. "Wonder if she'll even remember when she wakes up, that was some pretty potent stuff."
Various murmurs of consent rippled throughout the group as the tension slowly eased away. Aang eventually gave in to an enormous yawn that had been desperate to escape, then said, "Well, it's pretty late, we should probably get some sleep."
"Sounds good, but we have one problem," Mai told him, then gestured to the prone body on the cold, hard stone. "Who's carrying her?"
While the immediate lack of volunteers wasn't exactly surprising, it was counter-productive to their cause. Katara nudged her brother in the ribs and suggesting in a good-humored fashion, "Why don't you do it, Oh-muscley-man-you."
Sokka, never one to let a challenge against his manliness (or his muscles) slip by with impunity, happily stepped up to the challenge. "Oh please, she's just a girl, how heavy could she be." He stooped down to scoop her into his arms, then grunted as he struggled to fully bring himself up. "Spirits, what do they feed her, metal!? I've carried penguin-seals that didn't weigh this much!"
Mai was only too happy to answer that question for him, "Muscle weighs more than fat, stupid."
"No kidding," he grumbled while trying in vain to keep the strain out of his voice. When he finally stabilized his center of gravity to the point where he could walk without falling, Sokka took off for the interior of the beach-house, praying to the spirits that the Fire Lord's room was close by. As he went, he tried not to pay any attention to the way Azula unconsciously nestled her head against him, or the heat of her breath melting through his shirt. Spirits, she's warm, he thought as beads of sweat formed on his brow.
Eventually, Sokka found a room that looked like it could possibly be the one he was searching for, though at this point, he decided, it didn't matter. Nudging the door aside with his foot, he entered a modest little room with a lone bedroll and a small door leading to a personal patio outside. Too drunk and tired to care anymore, Sokka decided this was the room he was leaving her in, and so he went to the bedroll and carefully lowered Azula down, cradling her head so he didn't cause her any more brain damage. He was pretty sure she had enough of that.
He had almost set her head down when she suddenly stirred, some small part of her waking though her eyes never opened. "Mmm, thank you…" she whispered, taking Sokka by complete surprise with the sincerity of her voice.
"Ahh, sure, no problem, just being… friendly. I guess." He tried to leave, only to have his chin grabbed by one strong, soft hand, and a moment later he felt the brief but loving caress of her lips against his cheek, before she fell back completely to drift into slumber.
His heart raced in time with his feet as he bolted for the door, only to stop dead in his tracks when she hazily spoke once more, as if to a phantom he couldn't see, "Thank you, Zu-Zu."
Author's Note: I give no excuses, only the next installment of the story. Hopefully, the length can make up for the wait, if only marginally so. As always, thanks for taking the time.