Chapter Twelve
Azula gulped as a servant took her back to her room.
"It's a pleasure to have you back in the palace, Your Majesty." The young woman said politely, carrying Azula's luggage and opening the door to her room, setting it down next to the bed.
"I'm sure you're tired. I will come and remind you when dinner is to be served." She said. Azula nodded, dismissing the servant silently.
She sat on her bed, looking around her new room. All she'd asked of Zuko was that he not put her in her old room. So for now, she was sleeping in a guest room. It wasn't quite as massive as her old room was. But it was comfortable and much bigger than her room in Ty Lee's home. She closed her eyes briefly, finding that she fell asleep, only waking up when the servant girl came and knocked on the door.
"Your Majesty? May I come in?" She asked.
"Oh… Ayuso… Yes. Come in." Azula said, straightening her clothes out as the servant came in.
"Dinner is ready, if you wish to come down." Ayuso said. Azula nodded, changing into something a little more presentable before heading down to the dining room, where it was much noisier than she was used to. Iroh II and Izumi were making a fuss as Zuko was trying to feed them. Jin was talking animatedly to Aang, Katara, Toph, Sokka and Suki.
Katara was feeding their child while Aang answered Jin's questions as best he could. There was never this kind of noise in the dining room when Ozai was Firelord. They usually ate in silence, or if someone had something of importance to say, they could say it and get a short, usually one or two sentence answer and then stop talking. Usually this only happened once or twice a week at most. Ozai didn't have time to answer a lot of tiresome questions anyway.
Azula sat down and took some food from the center, waiting for Zuko to say it was okay to start eating. That was always the way it was with Ozai.
"Azula, you don't have to wait for permission to eat. Come on, Iroh! Why won't you eat?" Zuko demanded. It was getting frustrating. He tried to get Iroh to swallow the food, but Iroh kept spitting out the food.
Azula chuckled, taking a bite of her food. It was good as always.
"So, Azula… It's good to see you again." Aang said, turning his attention from Jin.
"Don't lie, Avatar. It's unbecoming." Azula said.
"I'm not lying. I'm glad that you're doing so much better and I'm glad that you've come to the palace." Aang said.
"I'm not. I wonder if Ty Lee is doing okay." Azula said. Sokka chuckled. Ty Lee was very self-sufficient. He'd dated her briefly and she'd always been very independent. They didn't last long. Not because of Ty Lee's independence, but because of how she still had some hangups from when she was with Azula.
"Something funny, clown boy?" Azula demanded. Sokka gulped heavily.
"N-nope! Nothing funny at all!" He exclaimed.
"Hey! Don't threaten Sokka!" Katara snapped. Azula sighed. She still tended to take that same tone when she was feeling backed into a corner or feeling vulnerable. That same tone that dared someone to try her. It usually worked to end any argument she was in.
"I'm sorry… I still struggle sometimes to not use that tactic…" Azula said.
"It's-it's okay." Sokka said. Jin smiled. She didn't know Azula very well. But it was nice to know she was at least trying to improve. Azula continued to eat, not really talking much during dinner. She kind of wanted to talk to Aang, but was scared of messing up again and offending someone. Katara had defeated her seemingly with ease on the day of the comet. That meant that when the comet wasn't on her side, she would stand no chance against Katara. Then there was Aang, who defeated Ozai before completely stripping him of his bending. That was a horrifying ability.
She finished her dinner and went straight to her room, not saying anything to anyone.
-0-
About two hours later, there was a knock on her door. Azula hissed in annoyance. She had just gotten undressed to put her pajamas on. She hurried into them and went to the door.
"What!" Azula demanded, stopping when she saw it was Aang.
"Are you alright, Azula?" Aang asked.
"What? Yes. I'm fine. Go be with your wives. It must feel good to have two of them." Azula said.
Aang chuckled.
"Well… I was originally only going to marry Katara. But the fact came up that restoring the Air Nomads is an important task, and Toph was willing to assist me in that. It didn't really start as anything. But I guess you can't make love to someone and not feel something for them." Aang said. Azula rolled her eyes.
"So corny. Well, if you're going to come in, then come in." Azula said.
Aang walked in and sat down with Azula.
"But I came to ask about you. You seemed really upset when you got here earlier today. Did you and Ty Lee have a bad breakup?" Aang asked. Azula's breath hitched.
"I-I'm not sure. I still love her. But I broke up with her because I didn't want to risk hurting her. I'm too damaged. I'm too sick to be with her. I already hurt her by seducing Osak.
"And she deserves better than me." Azula said. Aang smiled. He admired that she cared about Ty Lee so much, especially with how tempestuous the beginning of their relationship had been.
"But Azula… Relationships will always have ups and downs. Anyone can make a mistake. Maybe you are still sick. But did Ty Lee make you feel more together? Did she help you find purpose and stability in your life?" Aang asked.
"Yes! Ty Lee was amazing! She was always there for me. She was better to me than I deserved, especially after I hurt her like I did."
"Azula, people hurt each other sometimes. Katara was hesitant about opening our relationship to Toph. But we talked about it. We worked together to understand each other. If Katara really had been dead set against it, I wouldn't have done it. But she was open to the idea and now we're doing well.
"The same was probably true of you and Ty Lee at first. You struggled sometimes, but you worked together and improved. Just because you made a mistake doesn't mean that you don't deserve Ty Lee." Aang said.
"How did you get so wise? You're only… What? 16?"
"Yeah." Aang said.
"Hmm… A bit young to be having children. But I guess if this is what you want." Azula said.
"You were awfully quiet during dinner. Is everything alright?" Aang asked.
"Yeah, of course. I tried to talk and none of you seemed very receptive. So I stopped talking." Azula shrugged.
"Azula, I'm sure you didn't mean to. You could have just apologized and kept talking." Aang said.
"How did you take my father's bending?"
"Oh… That… I talked to a giant lion turtle, who gave me the secrets of Energybending." Aang said.
"What? So there's a fifth bending style?" Azula asked.
"Well, a bending style that only the Avatar can use." Aang said.
"So what? Do you just strip the bending of anyone that tries to oppose you?" Azula asked.
"What? No! That would be a complete abuse of power!" Aang exclaimed.
"I took Ozai's bending because it was unlikely that prison would hold him if he had his bending and I couldn't bring myself to kill him."
"Are you sure that killing him wouldn't have been kinder than taking away what mattered the most to him? Because I can assure you, he didn't care about me or Zuko. His Firebending and fighting prowess was his great pride. Take them away, what does he have left by to look forward to a life in prison?" Azula asked.
"Exactly. He doesn't deserve to be free after all the people whose freedom he stole, after all the people he harmed and killed." Aang said.
"So… Do you like… Get with Katara and Toph both at the same time? Do you choose one one night and one the next? Do they get with each other when you're not up for it?" Azula asked. Aang raised an eyebrow.
"I don't ask you about what you do with Ty Lee. Our relationship is our business." Aang said.
"Right, right. Sorry." Azula said.
"So… Do you know if your child is an Airbender yet?"
"No. He hasn't shown any bending abilities yet. We'll have to wait and see." Aang said.
"And Toph is pregnant too?" Azula asked.
"Yes." Aang said.
"Well, good. That means there's a pretty good chance you could have at least one Airbender." Azula said.
"Not a bad chance. But I'm hoping to have more kids with both Katara and Toph. I would like to have more than one Airbender. Restore the Air Nomads, train my children in the ways of the Airbenders." Aang said.
"What if your children with Katara are Waterbenders and are Earthbenders with Toph, but they have Airbender children? Will you teach your children the ways of Airbending well enough that they can teach their children Airbending even if they are not themselves Airbenders?" Azula asked.
"That's a good point. Even if our children aren't Airbenders, we need to teach them Airbending abilities." Aang said.
Azula sighed.
"Thanks for chatting with me. I feel weird being back in the palace. I didn't even want to be back in my old room. It just felt too much like things going back to the way they were.
"I think you should at least try talking to Ty Lee. It can't hurt anything to at least talk things over with her." Aang said. Azula sighed.
"I can't… I just… I just can't. I completely dismissed her. I doubt she'll even want to talk to me, much less even entertain taking me back." Azula said.
"So you do want to be with her again?" Aang asked.
"Yes! Of course I do! I'm in love with her! She's been the best thing in the world for me." Azula said.
"Then talk to her. No problem ever got solved by not talking about it." Aang said.
"You're sure it will work?" Azula asked.
"No. I can't be sure of anything. But I can be sure that nothing will get better if you don't talk about it." Aang said. Azula nodded.
"Maybe I'll get a letter from her soon." Azula said, sending Aang on his way and going to bed herself.