bentflame | The Future Fire Lord (Who Never Gets Scared)

Azula was not coming out. She was just going to stay here, possibly forever. She was a princess. She could do that.

She had been under the bed ever since that stupid waterbender had brought her to Ty Lee's other house (which looked exactly the same as the one that had been burned, which was kind of weird), only coming out to do the things that she had to do- things that not even a peasant would be stupid enough to do under a bed. Except for that, though, she hadn't moved- because it was nice and dark and warm and safe and quiet and she liked it that way.

Azula never really got bored easily. She watched things, and listened to things (especially if they were things that she wasn't supposed to watch and listen to; those were always the most interesting), and when there wasn't anything to watch and listen to, she thought about things. Right now she was thinking about how maybe Ty Lee thought she was a kidnapper because she didn't like her anymore, and maybe she didn't like her anymore because she knew that she had hid, and hadn't been quite brave and perfect enough back at the burning palace. She thought about how Mai probably still liked her, but Mai wasn't stupid and annoying and never tried to hug her even when Azula didn't want her to. Plus, Mai was going to want to go be a servant with Zuko when she was Fire Lord. Dumb Mai. If she could just realize how worthless Zuzu was, Azula would probably let her be her Fire Lady (just not her best Fire Lady), too.

... Except not "too", because Ty Lee wasn't going to be her Fire Lady anymore. Fire Ladies were friends, not mean people who called you kidnappers and would probably try to get you to stop hiding under their beds. And if Ty Lee went to join the circus someday like she wanted, Azula would never come visit her. Ha! That would be funny. Ty Lee would wait and wait for her- the Fire Lord- to come and see her, and she never would. She wouldn't visit her even if she wanted to, because she'd be Fire Lord and Fire Lords were even better than princesses because they never missed people, and didn't care if their friends thought they were kidnappers and bad people (princesses weren't supposed to do those things, either, but sometimes it didn't work).

Another thing Azula thought about was her dad, and how he wasn't dead, and how that guy had probably thought he was clever by playing a trick on her and dropping that body that looked like her dad in front of her- except he hadn't known that she was Princess Azula, the cleverest and smartest prodigy in the world, who couldn't be fooled by such things. He had probably thought that he could scare her, which was stupid, because she never got scared- not even by burning buildings and huge walls of water and sick-looking dead people (some of whom hadn't been all the way dead, and had moaned and grabbed at her ankles and pleaded with her to help them). No, not even that scared her.

... But she still wasn't coming out.

OOC: B-because every virus needs a third-person entry! And I enjoy getting inside her head way too much. *runs*

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"I don't remember saying that."

"You said you didn't know-" Azula gave a quick sigh. "Never mind.

"... Are you coming?"

Ty Lee scrambled off the bed. "Yep!"

"Okay." Azula scooted backwards, pressing her back against the wall again and hugging her knees to her chest.

Ty Lee blinked at her before scooting to her side.

She squeezed closer to Ty Lee, just a little bit.

She scooted closer. "Uh, hi, again."

"Hi..." Azula looked down at her feet.

Ty Lee timidly put a hand on her shoulder.

Azula leaned against it, just a little bit.

"You're okay now, right?"

She curled closer. "Of course! I never wasn't okay."

"Right, Azula."

She sniffed. "Are you going to hug me or not?"

Ty Lee responded by hugging Azula as tight as she could from their position.

"... Okay," Azula said quietly. She hesitated, then gingerly hugged back.

After a couple seconds, she remembered something that she had been planning on telling Ty Lee. "Oh, and we can't have a baby to give to Mai. It wouldn't work."

Ty Lee blinked. "Why not, Azula?"

"Because you have to kiss someone first. The person who told me was really dumb, but I think he was actually right about that. It makes sense, because why else would grown-ups kiss?"

"That's right...huh, Azula. Maybe we should kiss. Or something. So we can give the baby to Mai."

"You think we should? Right now?" Azula considers this.

"Why not? I mean...it's worth a shot, right?"

"... Hm. Maybe." Azula pulls away from the hug a little bit, looking Ty Lee in the face. "Have yo ever kissed someone before?"

"Um...no. I mean...maybe on the cheek once or twice.."

"Oh... well, I have. It's easy." She hadn't, but Ty Lee didn't need to know that. "So we could... hey, who have you kissed on the cheek? Mai? Or a boy, even?"

Ty Lee mentally grimaced. "Mei Ren had her boyfriend's friend, a soldier from a good family, kiss me on the cheek. He laughed but did it anyways, he said I should return the favor so I did. I don't know why." Ty Lee paused. "You've kissed someone?"