Chapter 26

Back at their hotel room following the matches of the sixth round, Yue was not at all happy with herself. She'd just played yet another nervous game, as a consequence losing to Aang. With Toph prevailing against On Ji, she and Aang were now really pulling ahead, leaving Yue and the rest of the competition in the dust. Even worse, both Zhao and Jeong-Jeong appeared to have recovered from their terrible starts, and they had by now caught up with Yue, tying her on points. This was threatening to become Yue's worst tournament since her return to the competition.

No games would be played tomorrow, and the participants would be free to enjoy one of their days off from the competition. After the little break, Yue's next couple of games were scheduled against two of the local masters, so relatively quick and easy wins were expected. Still, with the way she was playing, Yue was not surprised that both Azula and Katara were in agreement that they needed to intensify their prep in order to avoid further embarrassment. Even now, as Azula was on the phone back to Ba Sing Se, Katara was already setting up the Pai Sho board nearby in preparation.

Something that Yue had been avoiding to tell her wives was that she hadn't actually felt off form and her losses weren't down to a lack of prep. It was just that by now Yue was feeling increasingly unnerved and feeling like she was being followed everywhere she went. The men she had noticed during the first few days of the tournament were still around, popping up everywhere, even when they were at a shopping center or coming out of a movie theater. It was becoming very disturbing and distracting, and while Yue hadn't wanted to worry Katara and Azula with it, she supposed that it was finally time to tell her wives about this pressing concern. Or she would do so, once Azula finally stopped hogging the phone, speaking loud enough for her and Katara to hear every word.

"You did? Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that, Kiyi," Azula spoke. "That's terrible news."

"What do you suppose happened to Kiyi?" Katara asked, looking worried.

"I've no idea," Yue shrugged. "I really hope she didn't get fired." Kiyi had been embraced warmly at Madame Macmu-Ling's academy, even in her limited role, at least for now. Yue was full of confidence that given the opportunity, Kiyi would seize it and become a regular member of the staff.

"We'll be sure to do something nice together once we get back to Ba Sing Se, do you hear?" Azula continued. "We'll take you out to the nicest restaurants. We can even go clubbing, if you want. We'll do whatever it takes until you've picked yourself back up, Kiyi. That's a promise."

"Ugh, I have a bad feeling that you might be right, Yue," Katara sighed. "Sounds like Kiyi might be out of a job."

"Yes, I can't imagine what else it could be," Yue admitted. The assumption made sense to her because this was supposed to be just a brief phone call to check in with Kiyi, but they had been at it for almost fifteen minutes. Azula was never on the phone for longer than five minutes, ten at the most.

"Well, I guess we'll find out in a moment," Katara said as they listened in on Azula eventually ending the conversation with more words of support before hanging up the phone. Oddly enough, when Azula returned to the room, she was all smiles, doing an excited fist pump and a little cheer. "Uh, what's going on with Kiyi, Azula?" Katara asked quickly.

"Amazing news!" Azula beamed. "She dumped that loser's sorry ass! Yes, my stepsister has finally seen the truth about her lousy ex-boyfriend being nowhere near good enough for her. Another one bites the dust. And another one gone, and another gone, another one bites the dust," Azula added in a singsong voice.

"That's the third one in a row that you've completely disapproved of," Yue laughed, shaking her head. "Is there even a theoretical dream boyfriend for Kiyi that you would approve of?"

"I really doubt that, Yue," Katara laughed. "Nobody's going to be good enough in Azula's eyes, not for her little stepsister."

"I'm sure there's a good enough guy out there, but it certainly wasn't one of these three losers," Azula frowned. "Anyway, it's the prerogative of the big sister to be protective and judgmental. You wouldn't understand."

"I guess we wouldn't," Yue admitted with a smile. It was endearing to see Azula at her protective best when it came to Kiyi. Yue still felt as if hiring private investigators to learn all about the skeletons in the closets of Kiyi's potential boyfriends came close to crossing a line, but on the other hand, Kiyi's mental health struggles and the long time she'd spent in therapy justified the need to shield her at least a little.

"Anyway, don't think that this talk about Kiyi will distract me from what we should be focusing on, namely your performance," Azula said, pointing an accusing finger at Yue. "Let's get cracking," she added, urging them to sit down at the Pai Sho board.

"Wait, before we do that, I have something to tell you," Yue spoke up reluctantly. "I didn't want to speak up about this, because there's a chance that I'm just being paranoid and there's nothing to worry about. But ever since our first day here, I've been convinced that we're being followed. And it's been driving me absolutely crazy, not allowing me to focus. Honestly, the bad results of the past few rounds are because of this reason and nothing else. My focus has been all over the place because sometimes I will see the faces of those men in the crowd and I start freaking out."

"Oh… oh my, and I thought I was just imagining things, but you've noticed them too?" Katara gasped. "Damn it, now I wish I had mentioned it earlier, then we could have done something about it! But I also thought I might just be paranoid, and I didn't want to stress you out, so…"

"Ugh, yes, now I wish I had spoken up right away," Yue groaned in frustration, but then something odd occurred to her. "Azula? You're usually the one who's by far the most observant from the three of us? How come we have noticed these men following us and you haven't?" she asked, looking up at Azula and noticing that her Fire Nation wife had a strange, rather nervous look on her face. "Azula?" Yue asked worriedly.

"I, uh…" Azula began, her eyes darting around the room nervously. "Damn it," she swore, frantically rubbing her temples. "I'm going to kill them, I swear."

"Azula?" Katara asked, her voice low and insistent. "Is there something you want to tell us?"

"Yes, I… may have committed a tactical oversight," Azula sighed. "After what happened back in Caldera, I was worried about Zhao possibly hiring some thugs again. In order to keep us safe, I made sure to hire a security detail for the three of us. And they promised to be completely discreet as well. Of course, I saw right away that they were being incredibly obvious, but let's be honest here, you two can be totally oblivious to your surroundings, so when neither of you said anything, I figured that even with their lack of subtlety, you hadn't noticed a thing."

"Let me just get this straight," Yue said, rising from her seat and walking up to face Azula. "The men I've been stressing about for days were actually hired by you?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes, I… should have told you?" Azula tried miserably. "I didn't want to worry you with the possibility that Zhao might have thugs on the island that we needed protection from. But I should have told you."

"You're damn right," Yue hissed, for once giving free reign to her frustrations and even a little bit of anger. "Damn it, Azula! And you wanted me to do extra hard prep, when these two losses aren't even on me? I lost to On Ji and Aang because of you!"

"Yue, maybe that's not-" Katara spoke up in a placating voice, but she needn't have bothered. As soon as Yue saw the expression on Azula's face change, she instantly wished she could take those words back. This wasn't going down the usual path of one of their very rare arguments. This was so much worse as Yue watched Azula's lower lip starting to tremble and soon enough both Yue and Katara were treated to the very rare sight of Azula breaking down in an earnest stream of freely flowing tears.

"Hey… hey, I didn't really mean that," Yue tried soothingly, reaching out to Azula, but Azula took a step back. "I'm sorry for saying that, Azula. It's obviously not true."

"But it is," Azula managed, her lip still quivering as she turned away, greatly upset. "I made you lose."

"You're overreacting to something Yue said in anger and without thinking. It really is not true, Azula," Katara said, coming up to Azula and attempting to embrace her. Azula tried to sidestep Katara, but Katara would have none of it, pulling Azula close. "Yue and I also didn't speak up when we should have, so if we want to cast blame there's plenty of it to go around. But I don't think we should even do that. It was just a misunderstanding. You tried to protect us, Zula, and we appreciate it. Don't we, Yue?"

"Of course," Yue said quickly, joining in on the three-way hug to comfort Azula. "We'll just do better as we move forward. There's no reason to be so upset, Azula."

"No reason? How can you say that?" Azula said, still struggling to stop the sobs. "I wouldn't be upset if I had accidentally run someone over. Letting you and Katara down is literally the worst thing that I could ever possibly do."

"But you haven't let us down, far from it," Yue said as encouragingly as she could. "First of all, this isn't a crucial tournament, we're just using it to keep me match fit and try some new tactics. If we were going to make mistakes, this was the exact right time to do so."

"Yue is right," Katara echoed the sentiment. "It's important that we all learn something important from this for the upcoming finals, not just Yue."

"Yes, I suppose I have received a reminder to not hold back anything from you because you are just too smart and observant," Azula sighed. "I swear, it's a lesson I was supposed to have already learned. "

"Don't worry too much, Zula," Yue smiled. "Even the best of us can do with a reminder now and then. Once again, I'm sorry for my harsh words. Truly, no damage has been done. And now that we've cleared it up, I'm going to bounce right back in the tournament, you'll see." Azula looked a little less downcast at those words.

"Do you honestly think that we need a security detail like that, Zula?" Katara asked, still looking a little concerned.

"I didn't really think that we would need them here on Kyoshi Island," Azula explained, looking a great deal calmer. "But I think considering Zhao's history with some of these gangs, we should probably have a security detail like this during the finals, because I suspect that Zhao will try to get his thugs to Yu Dao. My people in the Fire Nation are keeping an eye on the gang leaders Zhao has been in contact with, so if there's any movement, we'll know about it ahead of time."

"I had no idea that my return to Pai Sho would lead to some kind of gang warfare," Yue sighed.

"That's the reason why I struggled to decide how much to tell you," Azula admitted with a sigh. "I want you to focus on Pai Sho and leave all the other stuff to me and Katara. Do you think you can do this?"

"Yes, I think I can," Yue said, uncertain if she was telling the truth. She doubted she could really avoid thinking about Zhao Sakamoto bringing in some thugs to do her harm during the world championship finals, but she needed Azula to believe that it would not bother her. Azula would only maintain her promise of transparency if she had a reason to believe that the truth was not stressing Yue out. "It's not going to be a problem for me, Azula," Yue added confidently. "And I'm going to prove it by winning all of my remaining games in this tournament."


It was around lunchtime in Yu Dao and Jet Patel was sitting at the bar counter of The Last Straw pub, enjoying a grilled cheese sandwich with strong black coffee while browsing the morning newspaper. The pub would not be open for several more hours, but Jet had gotten into the habit of showing up early to help the others tidy up the place before they opened the doors for the public. Also, being able to take advantage of Pipsqueak's excellent cooking was an added incentive.

As always, Jet began to browse the morning newspaper by checking the sports section and the Pai Sho results from Kyoshi Island. Kori was doing very well, but it was a surprise only for the pundits, not for Kori herself. By now, she'd been away for almost two weeks and despite insisting on the opposite, Jet was starting to miss her a great deal. It seemed as if Kori was being serious about forging a Pai Sho career and forgetting about a potential return to politics. It would mean that Kori would often be gone for several weeks if not more, but Jet tried to tell himself that he wouldn't be bothered by that. He was still trying to convince himself that they worked together so well because they didn't try to be each other's keeper.

Having checked out the latest scores, Jet flipped the newspaper back to the front page and began to browse the headlines, starting to read the article about the latest protests. The new governor of Yu Dao was starting to show his true corporate colors by introducing legislation that cut some of the benefits for the war veterans. It had led to a mass protest of at least fifteen thousand people marching through the streets, many of them in their old uniforms. The governor had quickly backpedaled, especially when the crowd had begun to chant Kori's name. Still, Jet was sure that the asshole in charge would try to pull off something similar again in a few months.

"Mail is here," Duke interrupted his reading by dumping several letters on the bar counter. Jet did not expect that any of these letters would be for him, deciding to ignore them, so he was rather surprised when Duke passed one of the letters over to him. "Looks like a lady's handwriting to me," he chuckled, waggling his eyebrows.

Jet took the letter and examined the handwriting, realizing that it belonged to Kori. He briefly wondered why she would have sent a letter to the pub, then figuring that Kori probably hadn't bothered to memorize his home address. "Aren't you going to open it?" Smellerbee leaned closer to him over the bar counter, a teasing grin on her face. "Inquiring minds want to know all the latest gossip. Is there perchance a new lady?"

"You know damn well there isn't," Jet glared. Bee had never dropped her dislike for Kori, although she had mostly turned it into a big joke and Jet could never quite tell how serious Bee was about not liking his girlfriend.

"Well, aren't you going to open it?" Bee prodded him. "Come on, you want to know what's in there. I know you're pining for her."

"It's just a postcard from Kyoshi Island, chill," Jet sighed. Of course, he was tempted to open the letter and it seemed like Bee wasn't going to give him the option to leave it for later, handing Jet a knife to open the letter with. "See, it's just a postcard, like I told you," Jet said, having removed the card from the envelope. Unfortunately for him, Jet hadn't noticed that together with the postcard, he had withdrawn something else from the envelope and it now landed on the bar counter for everyone to see, a very candid photo of Kori Morishita not wearing much at all while posing on an impressive bearskin rug. Wide eyed, Jet quickly snatched the photo and stashed it away, but it was way too late to stop the others from getting an eyeful.

"That's a very nice rug," Longshot signed.

"Yes, I wouldn't mind wrapping myself up in that one," Duke nodded, grinning.

"Very nice melons," Pipsqueak added.

"Hey!" Jet protested. "That's very disrespectful, Pipsqueak. You can't say that about my girlfriend!"

"I wasn't talking about your girlfriend," Pipsqueak said, hauling a crate of melons onto the bar counter. "I got these just for you. You wanted to mix Melon Sunrises for our customers, remember?"

"Oh yes, that's right," Jet slapped his forehead. "Sorry, sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy."

"That's okay, my friend," Pipsqueak said. "Also, your girlfriend has really nice tits," he added, turning to walk away and leaving Longshot and Duke in stitches.

"Eh, she's nothing special," Smellerbee frowned. "It's a pass from me."

"I wonder what she'd have to do to meet with your approval, Bee," Jet rolled his eyes.

"Ignore Bee, she's just jealous," Duke laughed. Bee growled and lunged at him, but Duke ducked skillfully. "Anyway, Jet, you said her ex-husband is such a wimp that he can't even bear to play the same tournament as she does, right?" Jet nodded at the question. "That means you could have gone with her and nobody would have felt uncomfortable, right?" Duke asked.

"Out of the question," Jet shook his head. "I've seen the way you guys immediately fall apart without me. You need me here, so I'm not leaving. I wouldn't want to come back to the smoldering remains of a pub I've invested so much in."

"What a crock of shit," Bee laughed. "Get the fuck out of here, Jet. We wouldn't fall apart without you for a couple of weeks."

"Well, regardless, I'm not leaving," Jet grinned. "I love you guys too much to abandon you." Of course, the real reason why Jet was not keen to accompany Kori wasn't that he was worried about making things uncomfortable with Kori's ex-husband. Jet would have loved to rub it in Haru's face, and he was sure that Kori was savage enough to do the same. No, the real reason why Jet was happy to stay away from the professional Pai Sho circuit was that his own ex, Suki, was still actively covering the events, and Jet just wasn't feeling very confident that after seeing him with Kori, Jet would leave the meeting with Suki with his face intact.


Yue's promise to win all of her remaining games of the tournament did not quite pan out, but Azula was still impressed by her effort. Yue had rebounded with three straight wins, but she had then come a little unstuck against Jeong-Jeong. Despite dominating the game, Yue had failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough, and very late in the endgame, Jeong-Jeong had managed to trick Yue into an exchange of tiles that eventually led to a draw.

Still, Yue's hot streak hadn't really improved her tournament position all that much, because all of the other favorites hadn't slowed down either. Ahead of the final round, Toph and Aang were sharing the tournament lead, both of them on whopping nine points. A few rounds prior, their match had ended in a draw, but it hadn't been one of those prearranged peace agreements. Instead, the two of them had endured a hard-fought slog that had reached ninety moves before the exhausted opponents agreed on a truce. Now, with Toph facing Yue and Aang battling Kori Morishita, these games of the final round would decide the tournament winner.

Kori had continued her strong play throughout the event and surprisingly, she was the closest follower to Toph and Aang, but with 7,5 points to her name, she no longer had even a theoretical chance to win the tournament. Yue and On Ji followed on seven points, their dreams of finishing on the podium well and truly alive. On Ji was also enjoying a good tournament, bouncing back from the Agna Qel'a disaster. Winning against Yue was her proudest moment of the tournament, but she was looking to add to the list of defeated favorites with a win over Jeong-Jeong in the final round.

Jeong-Jeong had failed to bounce back from his poor start to the tournament, as losing his first two games had left him in too deep of a hole. The old grandmaster would not be making another trip to the finals, that much was clear now with Aang set to finish well ahead of him. Zhao Sakamoto was also heading into the finals, despite having an unimpressive tournament and finishing in the middle of the pack. Azula had to concede that despite her quietly hoping for it, Zhao was never going to finish rock bottom of the standings, which was pretty much the only way in which his qualification for the finals could have been put in jeopardy.

The games of the final round were unfolding with all sorts of fascinating twists. Toph and Aang both knew that a victory would give them the tournament win, shared or not. This meant that they were both motivated to play aggressively, which wasn't exactly a strength for either of them, but Toph in particular was out of her element while trying to attack Yue's position. Yue was a brilliant defensive player when she needed to be, and now that she was no longer stressing about some skeevy characters shadowing her, Yue was playing free and relaxed, easily beating back all of Toph's efforts at attacking her fortified position. Azula in particular loved seeing Yue's patience on display. Yue did not go on the counterattack at the first opportunity, because she rightfully realized that Toph would be able to regroup and put up a stiff resistance. Instead, Yue allowed Toph to continue exhausting herself on more fruitless attacks. Only when Toph was well and truly worn out, did Yue go on the counter offense, finding immediate success.

Aang was enjoying slightly more success against Kori, mostly because Kori herself preferred to attack. Azula thought that Kori would have been better advised to just let Aang come at her, but instead she was trying to counterpunch every time Aang made an attacking move. Aang had made some progress in assaulting Kori's defenses, but Azula didn't think it was enough to give him a win. Still, with Toph's position collapsing against Yue, it looked like a draw would be enough to give the tournament win to Aang.

Some twenty minutes later, the games of the final round were coming to an end. Toph looked understandably frustrated when she was forced to surrender to Yue or face the ignoble fate of the Harmony Ring. Seeing that, Aang was quick to offer Kori a draw, even if he was in the superior position. Kori once again confirmed her intelligence as she accepted the draw without any hesitation. Aang looked genuinely happy and almost tearful as he was left to accept congratulations on his first top tier tournament win in more than three years. Elsewhere, On Ji managed to defeat Jeong-Jeong, further compounding his misery. This placed On Ji, Yue and Kori all on eight points, leaving Katara and Azula both doing some quick mental calculations as to whether their wife had managed to claim a podium spot or not.

"Let me see," Katara mused. "Yue drew with Kori, but then she lost to On Ji. And On Ji lost to Kori. That means Kori should be third, right?"

"Yes, that's right," Azula nodded. "Kori, then On Ji, and Yue will be placed fifth." In the end, the final tournament before the world championships had finished with Yue's worst placing since her comeback, but Azula did not feel concerned about that. The miscommunication about the security detail was to blame for some of the poor results. Also, their preparation hadn't been particularly intense, and also, they had encouraged Yue to experiment with some slightly unconventional openings, many of whom had produced encouraging results. All in all, Azula was willing to consider the tournament a limited success.

"I don't think we need to feel concerned or disappointed about this," Katara said, echoing Azula's earlier thoughts. "Also, as an added benefit, for once we don't have to wait until Yue is done with all the formalities. She'll be able to join us shortly and then we can be on our way. We still have a full day on Kyoshi Island to enjoy."

"That we do," Azula nodded as they both rose to be on their way and catch up with Yue. With the tournament officials escorting Aang, Toph and Kori away, Yue was already on her way to the exit, having exchanged a few words with On Ji.

A few hours later, the three of them were back at their hotel room, drying themselves out and relaxing. Having enjoyed a meal in one of the local restaurants, the trio had gone for a lengthy walk along the beach, but then a heavy monsoon had suddenly swept in, quickly leaving them drenched and sending them running back to the hotel where they had arrived soaked down to their very undergarments. Fresh out of a hot shower and wrapped in towels, Katara and Yue were now busy watching Remington Steele, a detective show Azula found both insulting and annoying. Azula herself was busy doing some further calculations involving the Pai Sho season end rankings and the implications for the upcoming finals in the fall.

"Can you turn the volume down a bit? Or just switch the channels to something less annoying?" Azula complained bitterly at the irritating voice of the show's male lead. "Seriously, even Knight Rider would be preferable to this."

"How can you not like Remington Steele?" Yue gasped. "It's just a harmless bit of detective fun!"

"Ugh, it's still so misogynistic at heart," Azula scoffed. "A female detective has to pretend that she has a male superior who actually runs the business just so that she can get cases? How is that not gross?"

"Well, yes, but it's also probably sadly accurate," Katara pointed out. "And sure, it is a little gross, but I think it's still empowering because she finds a way to work the system and succeed against the odds. There's a clever message underneath the premise, trust me."

"There's nothing clever about it," Azula sighed. "And it's distracting me from my calculations."

"What are you doing there, anyway?" Yue asked.

"Well, I'm trying to figure out the final rankings of the season," Azula replied. "As you probably know, they actually determine the schedule of play at the finals. Aren't you curious who you're going to play first?"

"Fair enough, that does sound more important than an episode of Remington Steele," Yue said, looking at Katara. Katara nodded without hesitation, and Yue grabbed the remote to switch off the TV. "Does that help?" Yue asked.

"Yes, thank you, I should be done in a moment," Azula replied, returning to her calculations.

"So, how is it looking?" Katara asked impatiently a while later.

"Are we there yet?" Yue added, giggling.

"Yes, we've arrived," Azula sighed at her adorable, if frustrating wives. "Oddly enough, Toph has ended up on top of the rankings."

"Really?" Katara looked surprised. "I thought Yue had it for sure. Yue is the only one who won two tournaments, while Toph only won in Gaoling, and that didn't even have a great lineup."

"Well, Toph also has a lot of second place finishes, so she just about squeezes ahead of our girl," Azula shrugged. "But I actually like that. Let Toph have that target of being a pre-tournament favorite painted on her back."

"I guess, but it's not like there won't be pressure on me just because I'm ranked second," Yue shrugged. "Also, surely Zuko is ranked third."

"Not quite, he's fourth, behind Piandao," Azula replied. She knew that Zuko's ranking was deceptive, though. Once Zuko had ensured qualification, he hadn't really put in any further effort, preferring to rest and save his strength for the finals. Azula still viewed Zuko as Yue's main rival for the title, but the entire lineup of competitors was very evenly matched. She believed in Yue all the way, but it was also clear that Yue wasn't head and shoulders above the others and would not be able to dominate the rest of the field. "Also, by winning here, Aang has slipped ahead of Zhao. Which means that your first game in the finals will be against Aang."

"That's actually perfect," Yue looked relieved. "Aang is my favorite victim, I mean, opponent. Not that I would dream of underestimating him."

"Azula and I will make sure that you don't," Katara smiled. She then turned to look at Azula. "Can you figure out the whole order of play for Yue?"

"Yes, after Aang it would be Zuko, Piandao, Zhao and finally Toph in the last round," Azula said. She then spent a brief while considering the schedule, starting to like it more and more. "I think it's close to ideal for us. The important thing is not having Zuko and Toph back-to-back." Azula firmly believed that Zuko and Toph posed the greatest danger to Yue. A situation where Yue lost subsequent games to both of her biggest rivals could carry severe psychological ramifications and affect Yue's tournament. This schedule reduced said dangerous possibility.

"I agree," Yue nodded, looking pleased as she fell back on the bed with a satisfied sigh. "So, from now on, it's nothing but prep. Five long months to go before the finals."

"Well, we know that Azula has some crazy detailed plans for us," Katara chuckled. "And she keeps adding to those plans. Whatever she has in store for us, I'm pretty sure will be fun and will also keep us very busy."

"You can be certain of that," Azula nodded. "We won't be sitting idle."

"Do you think we could somehow force Azula to tell us more about her plans for the summer?" Yue asked, turning to look at Katara.

"Not a chance," Katara laughed. "Azula probably considers us a security risk. We might blurt out something about our plans to your rivals, and we absolutely can't have Zuko know that we're prepping four hours every day."

"Stop being ridiculous," Azula sighed. "There's just no need to bog you two down with boring minutia. You already know the general gist of our plans. We're spending most of the summer in Cape Kuruk. Outside of that, I've already entered you in several speed Pai Sho tournaments in Ba Sing Se."

"But I hate speed Pai Sho," Yue whined.

"It is a very good way to retain match fitness, though. You really want to do this, love," Katara told her pouting wife.

"Anticipating your reaction, I have also entered myself and Katara in these very same speed Pai Sho tournaments, just to make it more fun for all of us," Azula grinned.

"You did what?" Katara gasped in astonishment. "I did not consent to that!"

"Well, I consented for you, so you'll just have to live with it," Azula shrugged. "Also, I want to go to Yu Dao a few more times to scope the place out some more. I'm intrigued by Kori's suggestion that she'd be willing to help us out. Maybe she'd agree to put us up at her place during the tournament. That would definitely beat staying at a hotel." Azula declined to mention that her interest was stirred further because as the former governor of Yu Dao, Kori had retained her security detail, and staying at a well-protected estate would undoubtedly be safer than in a public place like a hotel. Still, her wives didn't need to know just how much security was a concern for Azula.

"Her family estate is pretty impressive, but I would hate to impose," Yue said.

"She seemed very welcoming when we spoke with her, though," Katara replied.

"I think it's definitely something to look into," Azula said. "And I would like you two to come with me to Yu Dao and see everything for yourselves. I want all three of us to be happy and comfortable with the arrangements. Having everything set up perfectly is key to good performance in the finals. I refuse to leave anything to chance."

"We know and love you for it," Katara smiled at Azula.

"We certainly do," Yue said, shifting on the bed slightly so that she could reach out and pull Azula down next to her. "Unless you are planning some crazy ten-hour prep sessions for us. Then we might rebel," she added with a wink.

"Well, I certainly plan to make our prep a lot more intense a few weeks before the finals," Azula began, stopping when she was met with Yue's skeptical stare. "But definitely no ten-hour long practice sessions," she chuckled. "I promise not to turn our preparations into wife abuse…"