Author Note: And the tale continues! Thank you everyone for sticking with me! Hopefully you're still enjoying it as much as I'm enjoying writing it. Feel free to review!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any rights to Avatar the Last Air Bender. I did not create it and I will not profit from it in any way, shape or form.
Ch. 5: Palace Freedom
Everyone sat perfectly still, watching as Sokka stormed out of the great hall. An eerie silence growing throughout the room. Even the servants had stopped doing their tasks.
Azula was the first to break the silence. Looking at a near tearing Katara, she proudly stated, "I think you'll be a perfect addition to the family."
Katara's looked towards Azula. Her face turning from hurt to annoyance quickly. "I am nothing like your family. And I am not an addition to 'your' family at all. Your family was just turned to ash this morning. Your family was a cold killer."
Azula decided not to rise to the bait. Instead she met Katara's hard stare with a smirk. "Killing people, is a mercy. Striking and leaving a person to die, that is so much crueler." She had the satisfaction of seeing Katara's face fall once more.
She turned toward Zuko, "Now brother I do believe it's time for me to retire. Would you like to show me to my room?"
Zuko looked annoyingly at Azula. "Yes I do think it's time you retired. Ming, why don't..."
"I'll take her," Toph interrupted.
Azula turned toward the blind earth bender. "Do you even know where it is?" Azula remarked.
"Yeah I do Prison Princess. It just happens to be my room of choice when the war ended." Toph smiled. "Now let's go," Toph finished getting up from her seat.
Azula refused to react to Toph's nickname. Calmly she rose from her seat and stretched. "Very well. Lead on then," she said walking towards Toph and out of the room. Before they were fully out of the room, Azula heard her uncle say, "Good night Niece. May you sleep well."
Azula continued to follow Toph out. She didn't say anything nor did she make any acknowledgement of her uncle's words.
"You could have said good night you know," Toph commented as they walked down the hall.
Azula looked at the earth bender. Not much had changed. She was still fairly short and her hair was styled the same way Azula remembered from before. Long bangs covering her site less eyes and a short hair style held back by a green headband. Her build was bulkier than before, but in a muscular way.
'Hauling rocks around must be quite the work out apparently.'
Out loud she responded, "He only said it to try to annoy me. It's not like he actually meant it."
"How would you know? Can you read minds now? Things are changing Azula. Even you have changed."
Azula wasn't sure how to respond to that, so she stayed silent.
"I have to say this quieter Azula is rather nice. All that arrogant control was rather annoying. I can actually read you now." Toph continued.
Azula's looked at Toph with a questioning face. "Read me?" She said, "What could you possibly mean by that?"
Toph chuckled quietly. "I can feel people's emotions through the vibration in the floors. Yours used to be none existent. Probably from all that arrogant control you once had. Now, I can read you like a book. And I know just how frightened you were during Iroh's tea time at the table."
Azula wasn't sure whether to be impressed, embarrassed, scared or just annoyed. The idea that anyone could make her feel nervous was one thing. But knowing that someone actually 'knew' how nervous she had felt, was a different feeling all together.
She was not supposed to feel nervous. She was supposed to be in control at all times. Control was power; her father had always taught her. And power was everything.
'Without control Azula we have no power. If we don't have power, we become no better than the peasants who clean our shoes.' Ozai had told her multiple times through her younger years. And she had believed it.
'And now this earth bender is telling me I've lost it. Great.' Azula thought miserably.
Azula sighed and looked around the hallway they were taking to her room. The palace hadn't changed much. The walls were still tall and the pillars colored a deep red. The windows were covered in sheer purple curtains.
However, the portrait room had changed quite a bit. The space where Sozin, Azulon and Ozai's painting was now taken over by a great painting of Zuko along with the Avatar and his friends.
Out with the old in with the new, huh Zuko. Just erase the war like it never was.
"You don't have to be so gloomy you know. It's because I could read you that I decided to agree with Zuko and let you go on this journey. That cell would make anyone wish to get out. No matter what the cost was," Toph commented.
Once again Azula was surprised. "How do you know what my cell looks...looked like?" She corrected herself. She was going to have to stop thinking of that cell as 'hers'. She was done with that place for good.
Toph quietly laughed again. "I built it Crazy Queen. I know exactly what it looks like, well for how I know what things look like, and exactly what it feels like." Toph stopped; they were now at the entrance to Azula's room.
"Before you go in I just want to say one thing." Toph took a deep breath her facial features went from being relaxed into an intense look of intimidation. "If you try to double cross us, if you so much as hurt one hair on Sokka's head, I will stick you in a rock pit and make you my non-moving target. And when you can't stand any more, I will bury you deep within the earth where no animal will ever find your body. Do you understand Crazy Queen?"
'Haven't we become little miss fierce.' Azula thought, her respect for the blind bender increasing slightly. Apparently she wasn't the only one who knew how to effectively threaten another.
Azula took a step into her room and turned towards Toph. She decided to answer Toph honestly. "I promise not to hurt a hair on Sokka's head as long as he doesn't try to hurt a hair on mine. And since you can 'read' me now, you know this is the truth."
"Yeah Crazy Queen I know. Now go to bed, when Sokka says you're leaving at dawn, he means you're leaving at dawn. The man is crazy about his time schedules." She turned around to leave then turned right back.
"Oh almost forgot," Toph stated shutting the door to Azula's room and in Azula's face. Azula heard a loud noise, like a bar was being placed across her door. Toph confirmed that assumption by yelling, "You're going to be locked in from out here. Zuko doesn't want to take the chance of you trying to kill us all in our sleep. Not that you'd succeed, but better to be cautious." There was a pause then Toph continued, "at least the bed is more comfortable than the prison bed! Good night Crazy Queen!"
Azula heard Toph walking away.
"Better bed indeed," Azula whispered quietly as she looked at the big bed in the center of the room. She couldn't wait to jump onto the comfy mattress, tuck herself under the softest sheet known in the nation, and bury herself in the pillows.
But that was for later. Right now she wanted a bath. A long relaxing heated bath. She started walking towards the bathroom attached to her room. There it was, a long deep tub just waiting to be filled with hot water and her.
At the prison there was a washing room, but it was shared and it was timed. And there were always guards posted around the bathing house, which equaled to no privacy. But here, she was alone and she had all the time she could want or need.
As an afterthought, she shut and locked the bathroom door. No need for anyone to slip in while she was bathing.
She started filling the tub with water and slipped out of her clothes. When the tub was full she turned off the spout and stuck her hand in to heat up the water.
"Perfect," she said as the steam started to rise.
Azula climbed into the tub and let out a long moan. It felt so good. She hadn't bathed like this in years. Perfectly heated water was never achieved in the prison due to the fact that fire bending was against the rules.
She leaned her head back against the lip of the tub and closed her eyes. The water was perfect and the tub was long enough to fit Azula's entire body and deep enough to have water coming up to her shoulder blades.
As she relaxed in the water she started to think about the journey ahead. It wasn't going to be easy, she wasn't sure where she was going, but she knew it wasn't going to be in the Fire Nation. And knowing Zuko, she wasn't going to get the luxury convoy she had in the past.
She hoped Zuko would at least give her and Sokka an animal to ride so they didn't have to walk where ever it was they were going. Honestly, she was already going to be sleeping under the stars, probably right on the ground, and taking baths in creeks and ponds versus warm comfortable tubs.
Hmm…I wonder how Sokka would look bathing in a creek, Azula's drifting mind thought. She could see him now, half naked standing in a clean lake washing. His bare chest and ripped abs glistening in the sunlight. Maybe she'd offer to wash his back. Simply walk into the water and rub her hands over his shoulders, down his back towards his tight ass. Maybe slide them around his waist and allow her hands to go just a little lower…..
Azula sat up with a splash of water.
Whoa woman, not going there. He's your traveling partner, nothing more. Peasant, we are NOT attracted to peasants! Azula scolded herself. Worried that she would finish her train of thought, Azula quickly washed herself and got out.
She steamed the water off her body and wrapped herself in a silk robe. Time to jump into that gloriously soft and pillowed bed, she thought running into the bedroom. Before she could talk herself out of it, she jumped towards the bed squealing excitedly.
She landed face down, her face buried in pillows. She rolled around on the big comfortable bed, making happy noises as she did so. Paradise, this was paradise.
"Enjoying yourself, Princess," said a deep male's voice from the doorway.
Azula instantly stopped and looked towards the door.
"Shit," was all she could think to say.
Ending Author Note: Yep, I'm leaving you here :) You probably know who's at the door, but if not, do not fear, the next chapter will be coming soon. May not be tomorrow, but soon I promise!
