Work Text:
Azula was the one who called them together that afternoon. Not Mai, Azula. Azula was always the one who brought them together. Today it was for nothing in particular—just a spar, so they would all keep sharp. Azula always said they were the only ones who could match each other in the city; they knew each other’s styles best, too. Who better to spar against, then? So she said.
But before any sparring could begin, Mai said it. “Zuko proposed to me last night.”
If it had been anyone but Mai, it might have been blurted out. But from Mai it sounded casual. Ty Lee was the one who acted more stunned, gasping and saying, “Oh my gosh, Mai, really? I knew you two were back together now but…”
“Really?” Azula raised an eyebrow. “This soon? Zuzu’s barely gotten back.” She crossed her arms, rocked on her heels. “So? What did you say?”
Mai looked over at her. Ty Lee bit her lip. It rustled through the air between the three of them—sultry nights during their travels, Azula saying they were the only people out there to really be trusted, Ty Lee leaning a little too close, Mai with her blunt lips, so often the first one to escalate beyond insinuation. I feel at home with you guys, she’d confessed once. I feel like you see me.
“I said yes.”
Azula nodded. “Good for you, then. You’ll be royalty. Probably in just a couple months—Zuko of all people knows life is uncertain.” She clapped her hands briskly. “Today’s not for sparring, then. There are a lot of arrangements to make before someone gets married, and knowing you and knowing Zuko, neither of you gave it a thought before getting all lovey-dovey about it. Ty Lee, I know some of your cousins got married before you ran away. You’ve probably been to the most weddings. What’s typical?”
Ty Lee, put on the spot, listed everything she could think of. It was a little silly, of course. Royal weddings would be taken care of by the palace, not the participants. Royal weddings were unlike commoners’ weddings in every way. But Azula was giving Ty Lee something to talk about, so that Mai wouldn’t say anything more about her engagement for now, so that Azula herself wouldn’t have to venture a further opinion. Ty Lee understood: this was an even more important responsibility, standing between Azula and her feelings, standing between Azula and Mai and an all-out fight. She didn’t want to see the backlash of that either.
“I told Azula,” Mai told Zuko that evening.
Zuko, who had been lounging back on his couch—he was getting more relaxed lately, and honestly, so was she—sat up straight. “How’d she take it?”
“Well. I think, anyways. She’s not so bad as you think, you know.”
Zuko looked at the ground. Azula always lies. Maybe she’d just been pretending. He could remember when Mai had first befriended him. Azula had teased him for it mercilessly. For being friends with someone a year younger than him, for liking Mai too much, for being friends with a girl, for having friends at all. Azula, he thought, didn’t like him having things, and she particularly didn’t like him having things that were hers. She’d never take something like this calmly.
But then. Maybe Mai was right. He tended to cast Azula as a villain, but she’d helped him to come home, and she’d never exactly complained about him and Mai dating. Maybe it would be fine. “I know,” he said to Mai. “I just didn’t expect…”
“That’s why I told her instead of you. But you guys should talk about it.”
“She’ll come to talk to me about it probably, once she’s figured out how to use it against me.”
“Hey. Stop assuming the worst.”
“…fine. We’ll see.” He kissed Mai. “Maybe she really doesn’t care.”
The engagement party was as big a deal as anyone else’s actual wedding. Ozai didn’t favor his son, but he had his pride, and a royal engagement was an important matter. (It spoke to both these traits that he’d had little to say about Zuko’s actual choice of a bride except that she was noble so at least Zuko wasn’t making a fool of himself.) Mountains of food, miles of fabric used up in decorations. And music, and dancing, and speeches from members of the family. All this and it wasn’t even the real wedding.
Azula dragged Ty Lee back to her room at the end of the night. She flopped down on the bed. “I’m so tired. If I have to hear one more person try to praise Mai or Zuko who doesn’t even know them, I’ll go insane.”
“I thought the speeches were nice,” Ty Lee said.
“Sure, sure. Come here.” Azula beckoned. “Let’s forget those two. I’m done with them.” Her hands reached around to the buttons on the back of Ty Lee’s formalwear. “I want to think about you, and me. Let’s just think about us.”
Ty Lee allowed Azula to touch her, then, and to kiss her, though they didn’t go as far as they might have, both a little uneasy, Ty Lee uneasy because she could tell Azula was. Let’s just think about us. It was a romantic thing to say, very sweet. But at the end of the day, she knew this wasn’t about her or Azula or the two of them together. It wasn’t even really about losing Mai. It was about Zuko. Zuko was engaged, to one of Azula’s friends. He’d taken something that should have been Azula’s, that was Azula’s by right. And Ty Lee could taste the fear, the neediness, on Azula’s lips and neck. Azula needed to know Ty Lee was hers and wasn’t going to leave her. She needed to know that even if Zuko was back and Ozai wasn’t mad at him and Mai had chosen to go to him, he wasn’t pulling ahead. Azula still had it together. She was still winning.
Ty Lee wanted to say to her that it was obvious, wasn’t it? Zuko could return to the Fire Nation but he was still the unloved son, would never be crown prince. Azula was the better bender, the better thinker, and—yes—the better lover too. Mai had always liked Zuko. So what? So what?
And she could have said something truer, too, given the chance and the guts. That she was also hurting. That Mai, after getting together with Zuko, had been distant with her, too, and now likely always would be. That Azula wasn’t alone in her pain and jealousy.
But, let’s just think about us. They couldn’t talk about these things.
Azula was smiling when she bid Ty Lee goodbye, though. She looked calm, even smug. Ty Lee didn’t get that, but she supposed it was just a mask. After all, Ty Lee was smiling too, wasn’t she?
“It was a good party tonight,” Azula said.
Zuko started. “Azula! When did you get here?”
Azula, who had just climbed in his bedroom window, sniffed as if she’d been standing there for hours. “You really need to pay more attention, Zuzu. Too full of love dreams to even see someone in your room? Really. I wouldn’t have thought Mai was the sort of girl to turn a guy soft.”
“I’m not soft,” Zuko said indignantly. “It’s the middle of the night; I was trying to sleep.”
Azula sat down on the side of his bed. “I half thought I’d find Mai in here.”
“Why did you come in, then?”
“I just wanted to offer you congratulations again. I know you think I’m angry, but I’m not. Mai’s a good choice for you. Sure, she was in love with me for a while, but I don’t think we’d be a good match, and with Ty Lee I have enough on my hands. No, I couldn’t be happier she’s staying in the family. I wonder, though, if you’re a good match for her.” She reached out to touch Zuko’s hair, and laughed when he batted her away. “Oh, I know you too have a lot in common and get along well, but I just worry. Will you really take care of her, Zuzu? Do you really take this seriously?”
Zuko stared at her. His voice was more gravelly than usual when he spoke. “I do.”
Azula smiled softly. “Good.”
He’s so clueless, she thought as she climbed out the window again. Probably thinks I’m worried about Mai. Not that she wasn’t, but Mai could take care of herself. She didn’t really worry about Mai’s heart, but she hoped Zuko would. Zuko was too wild, always had been. If she could only make him feel like this was a responsibility, maybe he could settle down a little and not do something crazy. She’d had the feeling he was on the verge of doing something crazy the whole time he’d been home, even after all the trouble she’d gone to getting him here.
Mai would be good for Zuko. This engagement would be good for Zuko. After three years of wandering, it would tie him down. Remind him he was Fire Nation royalty. Remind him he was part of the family. Of course any Fire Nation noblewoman could have done the same, but Mai really was ideal, because Mai was Azula’s, so if Zuko was Mai’s, he’d be a little more Azula’s too.
And Mai was steady. Mai could regulate him, and he wouldn’t blow up. Azula felt it, knew it, but somehow—she wasn’t sure. She’d never quite understood Zuko. No, but she had to be right. Zuko had gotten engaged; everything would be fine.
As for Mai, well. They’d had fun together. Azula had never thought it would be more than that, not in a romantic way. But Mai would still come when Azula called, so that, too, was fine.
All perfect, she thought.
She couldn’t get to sleep all night.