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It started with a cuss. Two simple words that Azula had picked in the Earth Kingdom during her travels. She didn’t think about it too much because everyone back there said it, even children. And she thought every nation had some things in the same line.
It happened a few days after she had arrived at the palace. She was feeding the turtleducks by herself, when she felt Zuko and his… friends approached her. And here she thought they’d actually leave her alone after all that talk yesterday.
“What do you want?”
“I just want to talk.”
“We already did that.”
“I know… it’s just…” Zuko sighed. “I understand that you don’t want to talk about…before, but I just like to know how you’re doing right now. Please?”
Azula sighed, loudly, and shifted her weight to turn around without standing. She groaned and deliberately rocked her whole body just to make it clear to him that he was bothering her. They were all there. The Avatar and the waterbender and the fan and the blind girl as well. Zuko flashed her an amused smile. Azula cut him first before he could talk. “Where are Mai and Ty Lee?”
Zuko stared at her for a second, then shared a look with Suki, and then back at her. “Ty Lee’s with the Kyoshi Warriors now, and Mai’s…not here.” Azula raised a brow at his answer. Zuko chuckled. “We…didn’t work out, I guess. I think they didn’t want to stay here without you. They really cared about you, you know.”
Azula didn’t answer, as she replayed what had happened the last day she saw them, as Mai’s last words repeatedly echoed in her mind. I love Zuko more than I fear you. Apparently, not quite enough. But then again…
“Irrelevant.” Azula dismissed Zuko’s last sentence with a flick of her wrist. “You need to get Mai back here right this second. Grovel before her if you must, buy her an island in the middle of nowhere if she wants you to.”
Zuko’s face distorted into that kicked puppy face that was usually effective to gain sympathy from everyone not named Azula. “Thank you for saying that, but I don't think we should pressure her. I mean, she has as much say as I am in this…”
Azula’s mouth hung open without words. She was frowning so hard she was about to get a headache. Of course. Of all the things he could think of, of course he would think that. Azula was done. “Not to fuck, obviously!” There were gasps, and giggles when she said that, but she ignored them. Zuko blankly stared at her, as a blush crept up from his neck. “Mai was brought up as a lady of the court. As a potential candidate for the prince’s consort, she was trained in local governance and diplomatic relations between nations in the academy. She knows the intricacies in the viper’s pit. With uncle in the middle of bumfuck nowhere nowhere, and Ursa being Ursa, she is a powerful ally to have. And most importantly,” she paused, and made sure Zuko was paying attention, “I can trust her that she won’t stab you in the back no matter what happens.” She ended with a huff.
“Oh.” Zuko’s face had turned fully red now. He looked at the ground between them, refusing to meet her eyes, as he scratched the back of his neck. “I… I never thought about that. I’ll send her another letter then.”
Azula exhaled and rolled her eyes and rubbed the area between her brows to relieve the tension there. “Kyoshi’s tits, how are you still alive, much less sitting on that throne?”
Suki snorted. When Katara hissed her name, it turned into a full blown laugh. “I’m sorry, Katara, but, again, she’s funny when she’s not trying to kill us.”
Katara looked at her for a moment, before turning back to Suki. “I guess, but shouldn’t you be mad at her? You, being a Kyoshi Warrior and all, and that… comment seems disrespectful to me.”
Azula sighed. “You can say tits, waterbender, you have them too.”
Katara snapped back at her. “I’m not saying tits! And for the last time, it’s Kat—” she couldn’t finish her words when she realized what she had just said, and the group—Suki and Toph—burst into laughter. Aang gave her a bashful smile, face red, while Zuko refused to meet her eyes. Katara was fuming. Eyes wide, and if she bit her lips any stronger, Azula was sure she’d draw blood.
“Okay… okay. Let’s, let’s all calm down before sparks start flying.” Suki was the one that broke the tension, while Toph never stopped laughing. She smiled at Katara. “Maybe? I mean, I respect her and what she’s done, but it’s not like I personally know her. And let’s be honest, it is a well known fact that Avatar Kyoshi was a… large… woman, if you get my drift.”
Katara gasped. Her jaw hung low as she shifted her eyes between Suki and Azula, again and again, like they both had offended her ancestors or something. They probably did, but Azula didn’t care. She made a show of inspecting her nails like she used to do a lifetime ago, because she knew it grated her. Nobody laughed, but there were snorts. It took a few seconds for Katara to calm back down again. But she gave Azula a side eye and a huff for her trouble. Azula dismissed her with a flick of her wrist. “And besides, if you’ve read what they wrote about her and her wife in the Earth Kingdom, you wouldn’t give a fire ferret’s ass about her tits.”
“RANSHI!”
With how the day was going, Azula expected snorts and giggles again, and maybe gasps and hisses from Katara, but none came. An awkward silence invaded their circle following Suki’s sudden outburst. Everyone was looking at her, including Azula. Suki simply ignored the stares, as she looked deeply into Azula’s eyes. Her eyes glittered with recognition. Her smile wide. She looked…giddy. Like Ty Lee would when she found some cute boys…or girls…or babies.
“You know about Ranshi.”
Azula kept looking for a few more seconds, before she shrugged. “Don’t be surprised. I read everything.”
Azula didn’t know how, but Suki smiled even wider. She was about to say something, when Katara cut her off. “Suki? Little help here? Ranshi?”
Suki looked at Katara for a moment, before her eyes twitched in realisation. “Oh, right. There’s a series of novels that started circulating in the Earth Kingdom around a year ago, I think, about the adventures of Avatar Kyoshi and her wife Rangi during their time. They have these outrageously long titles, so most fans just call them the Ranshi novels one, two, three or something like that. They’re framed as historical fiction, but I think not even half of the things in them actually happened. Make for good reading though.” Suki looked at Azula from the corner of her eyes, with a not-so-subtle smirk on her face. Azula raised an eyebrow in agreement. In truth, the novels were a poorly-disguised excuse to write about two women fucking each other senseless. Half of the things didn’t happen because more than half of those things were of them having sex in increasingly weird and unrealistic positions as new books came out. Not that she was complaining—Azula enjoyed every written word, but it would be nice to have some scenes that were replicable in the real world again…just in case. “Admittedly,” she was broken from her reverie when Suki turned to look at Zuko, “they’re not very popular in the Fire Nation because of, you know…”
“Oh, right.” Zuko seemed to understand the implication, because he then looked at Azula like he had something important he needed to tell her. “It’s been abolished, you know.” When she didn’t react, he continued. “Sozin’s Law? The one that prohibits same sex relationships in the Fire Nation? It’s been abolished. One of the first few reforms I made after the war ended. Now everyone can be with whomever they want. They don’t have to live in secret anymore. It’s going to be hard to shake off three generations worth of stigma, but I think we’ll get there eventually, hopefully in our time if I can help it.” He was smiling, at her, and looked so proud of himself too. And credit where credit was due, he should be. But then again, Azula would rather be caught dead than saying it to his face, so she decided to mess with his head instead, for old time’s sake.
“Let me ask you something. I was the crown princess when you were banished. I could get anything I wanted back then. What makes you think I never dragged some poor maid or a lesser noble lady to my bed and had my way with them?”
Zuko sighed, and rubbed his temples with one hand. “Because you were eleven when I was banished, and you were obsessed with fire bending back then, Ty Lee had to literally throw herself at you just for you to even notice she was there.” That made Azula frowned. Zuko actually smirked at her for once. “You think I didn’t notice? You think you’re so smart, setting me up with Mai, when you’re just as emotionally constipated as me back then.” He laughed, and apparently, that was an invite for the others to laugh as well. Fair enough. “And also,” Zuko hesitated for a moment, “Ozai would beat you half to death if he even heard of a rumour that you dragged some noble noble lady into your bed, much less a lowly servant. And we both were raised not to even question him for anything. You’re talking about breaking a law, about relieving control to surrender to your base desire. There was no way you’d done that. So, if this is the thing you always do to mess with my head, try again.”
I will. “Big talk from someone who never cared about rules and laws when we were kids. Do you even know why Sozin’s Law was even created?”
“Yes, Azula, I do. I had to do a lot of reading when I took the throne.” Azula didn’t miss the sarcastic tone in his answer. And he looked so smug too, like he already figured her gameplan out just because he had read some books written by dead people a hundred years ago. “The most popular theory was that Sozin was preparing for the long game in the expansion. New soldiers would be needed as the war continues, so any relationship that would not produce children to replace the dying soldiers is deemed a waste of resources, and must be outlawed, hence the Sozin’s Law. The other theory was that he had predicted that as the war goes on, his popularity would go down, and the people would question his ability to rule. And some people thought that his sister, Princess Zeisan, might be the more capable leader at the time. She was in a relationship with a woman, so the law was created to discredit her in the eyes of the nation. Given what we know about him, I do think he’s petty enough to do that.”
Oh, Zuzu. You make it so easy sometimes. Azula couldn’t help the rising smirk at the corner of her mouth. “Adequate, but I much prefer the third theory though.”
Zuko frowned. “I never heard of a third one. Are you going to share?”
Azula was about to, when a squeak stopped her. She turned towards the sound, and shared a mutual understanding, and excitement with Suki. She was so excited she had to physically close her mouth with a hand. Azula knew there was a reason why Suki was her favourite prisoner all those years ago, she just didn’t know it yet. “Really, Zuzu?” Azula drawled. “From what I’ve been told, you were researching Fire Lord Sozin and Avatar Roku for a few years now. You cannot tell me you don’t see the tension between them that eventually led to their fight, and the war.” Zuko’s frown grew deeper, but she saw it. The confusion in his face, and the recognition in his eyes, as if he had seen what she saw, but was unable to name it.
Say one thing about Azula, one thing that had never changed from her childhood to adulthood, say she was a master manipulator. She could bring someone to the edge of a cliff, and convince them to take another step towards their death with her words alone, and they would thank her for it. She wouldn’t though, but she would do this. So she leaned in closer, like she was about to spill a state’s secret, this made them leaned closer towards her as well. Zuko and Aang for the obvious reason, and Katara and Toph, even Suki. Azula lowered her voice to above a whisper, “of the sexual variety, I mean.”
In an instant, the world was devoid of all senses; no wind was blowing, no sound to be heard, no light nor heat from the sun, for an instant, they all existed in a void, one where Zuko and Aang opened and closed their mouths a few times, but no words came out, one where Katara and Toph shared a look of confusion, as they traced all the bits and pieces of history and lores, until they all came to the same conclusion Azula and Suki had already knew.
“What is wrong with you?!”
At Zuko’s incredulous tone, time finally moved forward again. With Azula and Suki’s amused laughter, and Toph’s I think I’m in love and Katara’s hissing her name. Aang had both palms on his face, while Zuko looked like he was about to hurl. “I can’t believe you get me to think about them like that. They were our great grandfathers. Both of them!”
Azula dismissed him with a flick of her wrist. “Details. Tell that to the author then. But you cannot deny it is not without merit. As the crown prince, it was his duty to produce an heir. And he was petty enough to deny the one thing he can’t get to everyone as well.”
“But why did I have to get involved? I don’t want to think about Zuko like that. What did I ever do to you to deserve this?” Aang was practically whining at her.
“Why do you need to think about Zuko like that? And no one asked you to listen. As I recall, I did whisper to him, that means in confidence. You chose to eavesdrop. This is a consequence of your own action.”
Before they could escalate further, Suki, who had finally stopped laughing to catch her breath, said “fuck, I haven’t laughed so hard in months.” She was wiping the tears that actually formed in her eyes. “That’s it, we are so doing this. You three,” she pointed to Azula, Katara, and Toph, “my room after dark, dress for sleepovers.”
“I sleep naked.”
“Great. Always wondered what you looked like underneath all those armors. Consider this payback for stripping my uniform from me back then.” Suki smirked, as Azula looked at her with narrowed eyes.
“Fine. Don’t blame me for whatever happens in the morning.”
***
In between the eating and drinking, reading some of their favourite scenes to Toph, and debating with her and Katara about which absurd use of bending in those scenes were even remotely possible to replicate in real life, Azula found herself resting her head on Suki’s arm. All four of them were lying down on the floor, with Toph and Katara already asleep at her left side. Suki had hooked her arm towards her head, brushing her fingers gently through Azula’s hair, as they stared blankly at the ceiling.
“She cried for you, you know,” Suki said. Azula knew exactly who she meant, but she didn’t answer. “When Ozai told us what he did, he made it into a whole spectacle. He made Zuko call everyone he deemed important enough to him, and tell it to our faces, that he had thrown you off a mountain. Ty and your mom were the only ones that cried.” Azula’s whole body went rigid at the mention of Ursa, but relaxed immediately after when she felt Suki’s fingers lightly brushing over her scar. She couldn’t help from leaning into the touch. “He told us about a year after we ended the war, so even if you did survive, we thought there was no way you’d still be alive, but we did look for you. Zuko asked Aang and Toph to try to locate you with their seismic sense, while we scoured the side of the mountain for months. At the very least, we thought if we found your body, we could give you the proper funeral. But it was a thick forest at the side of a mountain, with wild animals roaming about. The implication was there, no matter how much we hated it.”
Azula hummed in understanding. “And here I thought you all would be relieved when you found out I was dead. Means you didn’t have to dirty your hands by killing me yourselves.”
Suki chuckled. “And can you blame us? You were our greatest threat, not Ozai. He was the thing looming in the background. We only knew of him from stories. But you, you were real. So when Zuko couldn’t find you right after we defeated Ozai, we did think that. Everyone except Ty Lee. And for the longest time, I didn’t understand her. Until the night Ozai told us. I think that was when everyone finally understood what Ty Lee had been saying.” She paused, and absentmindedly kissed the top of Azula’s head. Azula did not comment. “You were just a kid, trying to make sense of a war you were born into, the only way you know how. The only way you were thought. You were just like us. After that, it’s really hard to hold a grudge, especially on a dead girl.”
“So what now? Why are you telling me all this?”
Suki sighed. “I guess because I want you to know that no one here hates you, not anymore. And for some reason, you are easy to talk to.” She paused, and hesitated, before she continued, “what you said yesterday, about this place being a tomb, I kinda understand that… maybe. I feel like I’m stuck here. Right after the war, Zuko requested the Kyoshi warriors to act as his personal bodyguards here. Just for a few months, until we could flush out everyone that was loyal to Ozai, and we kinda stayed. I mean, it’s a nice gig, he pays well, but I don’t want to be doing this for the rest of my life, you know.”
“So quit.”
Suki chuckled, but there was a bitterness in it. When Suki pulled her arm, and shifted her body to face her, Azula did the same. Sharing the same pillow, they were facing each other, merely inches away. Azula could still smell the hint of sweet wine in Suki’s breath when she spoke. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
Suki frowned. “I’m the leader of the Kyoshi warriors. They need me.”
“To do what? The war ended eight years ago. Zuzu can take care of himself. At this point, if he still couldn’t take care of the minor rebels without calling for his friends, he didn’t deserve the throne. And if you’ve been doing your job properly these past few years, any one of your fangirls could take care of the role. So tell me, why do you still need to be here?”
Suki opened and closed her mouth a few times, but no words came out. Azula did not miss the drop of tear at the corner of her eyes. “You know, Ty Lee always tells me that whenever she was with you, she felt like she could take over the world for some reason.”
“Part of my charm, I’m sure. And for the record, we did take over Ba Sing Se at one point, with your help too.”
Suki laughed, as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “I guess you did. Thank you, for making me realize that. I really needed to hear that.” Then she let out a content sigh. “You have no idea how much I want to kiss you right now.” Azula raised a brow, then shrugged. She closed the few inches they had between them, and pressed her lips to Suki’s. They were soft, and tasted like sweet wine. She stayed there for a few moments, before breaking away again. Suki was staring at her, and slowly pressed a finger to her lips. “Good kisser. One more time?”