Adult-FanFiction.org : Cartoons

Azula's Lost Chapters OR Azula's New Cook	By : DecieverGod Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > Het - Male/Female Views: 13899 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 24
- 25
- 26
Author's Comment: No I'm not dead just yet, but I was starting to wonder myself.

“Come on Azula, come out with us.” Ty Lee pleaded, vainly attempting to convince the princess to spend a day out in the city with her and Mai. How she’d convinced Mai to come with her Azula would never know. “It’s not healthy to spend all your time cooped up inside, even if we are spies.”

Azula sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose lightly. Maybe it was the Earth kingdom, or maybe it was like Ty Lee said and it was because she’d been spending all her time inside, but the princess had been getting headaches fairly frequently ever since she’d come to the city. “No…” She paused for a moment, almost as if she were reconsidering her answer. “No that’s fine Ty Lee, you two go out and have fun. Buy something other than these dreadful uniforms to wear will you?”

The gymnast beamed back at her and nodded. “You got it Azula.” She said with her usual spirit, before turning around and snatching the third member of their friendship from her ornamental place by the door.

Azula sighed lightly and turned toward the large window their logging possessed. She blinked several times attempting to force her eyes to adjust to the uncomfortable twilight that seemed present in every room in this dreadful Kingdome.

She stared out at the city, it was mid day and despite being in the upper ring you could still hear the hustle and bustle of the thousands of people churning about inside the walls. Azula crossed her arms and looked up into the sky, focusing her eyes on the gleaming sun until it hurt.

Azula closed her eyes and sighed quietly. Perhaps it was because she’d been denied Fire Bending while hiding here, or perhaps it was simply because her eyes were sore from living in dusk for the past weeks and feeling something different, even pain, was refreshing, but the quiet burning sensation from staring at the sun felt… good.

Azula sighed again and rubbed her eyes lightly. She’d been sighing a lot more too, and it was starting to annoy her. She was beginning to believe the Earth King had reasons beyond her knowledge to keep ‘the Kyoshi Warriors’ from meeting with the Avatar.

Well of course he had reasons he wasn’t telling her for keeping them from seeing the Avatar. ‘We can’t find him’ was about as unrealistic as the expectation that anyone but the Fire Nation could actually win the war. The princess smirked a little, reminded of what the Captain had once told her. ‘There was no way to win, only survive.’ That’s what the Earth Kingdome was trying to do, survive. Too bad they wouldn’t, she would see to that.

The problem was she had no way of finding out what it was they were keeping from her. She might have investigated herself, except that she was certain someone had been tasked to watch her. She could’ve sent Ty Lee except that she was certain they had someone watching her as well.

Of course it wasn’t like she couldn’t remove their watchers if she wanted to. But they would be missed eventually, and without knowing how often they were required to check in, or with whom by what procedure or even how strong her opponent was, physically or influentially, acting outside the parameters of her role would be folly. She would just have to lay and wait.

Like what the Captain should’ve done.

It may have been only the Serpent’s Pass, but the cold, damp chill the stuck to the air felt just like that of the open sea. He hadn’t been on the open sea in… so long. Not since before he’d met the Princess. He was standing on the stern of the ferry, just watching the fog role by as the ship carried them to the Earth Kingdom Capital. Toward Princess Azula… He wondered how she’d feel about his disobedience…

The Captain shivered lightly, without his armor to guard against the chill, the air was cold.

“You look troubled kid.” It was Xan, and for once, she almost sounded sympathetic, but she didn’t really have a reason to be there, other than to be checking up on him.

“The world is troubled.” Tatsuya didn’t even look back. “Aren’t I allowed my piece of it?”

Xan smirked a little. “Heh, I suppose you are at that.” She walked up next to him, standing beside him as the two of them stared out into the fog. “But cha know, things aren’t all that bad. The Avatar’s back, I hear he just recently stopped the Fire Nation’s latest attempt at entering the city single handed even.” She smiled.

“Is that so?” Tatsuya ground his teeth a little, could the Avatar have defeated Princess Azula and imprisoned her within the city? Or was Xan just referring to that fiasco on the drill?

“Yeah, so buck up.” She slapped him on the back perhaps a little rougher than was necessary. “The world isn’t entirely hopeless yet.”

This time it was Tatsuya’s time to smirk. The Avatar, hope for what? For a world where he would be despised as a traitor to his country? Or perhaps for his death, for the honor of the Fire Nation? No, the Avatar held no hope for him. His future was in the hands of Princess Azula, he could feel it. “I guess you’re right. There is some hope left in the world.”

“Heh, told ya so kid. Now get your things in order. We’ll be landing soon.” Xan smirked, striking him on the back again, pleased that she had lifted his spirits in some manner.

“Right.” But still the question lingered in the back of the Captain’s mind. What was it he was to hope for? A life with the Princess was impossible. As was any rational hope of staying by her side. So what was he to hope for? What was he to dream of?

Tatsuya smiled a little. Was it wrong to dream of the impossible? He chuckled lightly, just quietly enough to keep from being heard. Perhaps he should ask the Princess when he saw her. But for now, he’d best be getting back to his employers. He sighed a little. If it weren’t for the Princess he wouldn’t put up with all their bickering. It was no mystery to him why they hadn’t found another hired sword willing to work for them…

“Why are we doing this?” Mai glanced around the Earth Kingdom shopping corridor.

“What do you mean why?” Ty Lee was clearly less than thrilled with the dower girl’s, well, dower mood. “We’re doing this because if we don’t Azula will be lonely forever!”

Mai rolled her eyes. “Right… so what are we doing?”

The gymnast pouted back at her friend, you’d think she never listened to her or something. “We’re trying to find something that will force Tatsuya to confess his love for Azula when they next see each other.”

“There was a weapons shop a few blocks back…” Mai actually smirked a little, mostly because she’d seen some knives she’d thought about getting at said weapons shop, but also because, despite what most people thought, she thought she was funny.

Ty Lee didn’t find it quite as amusing. “I was actually think of something more like…” She stared off into the sky and got that starry look in her eyes that signified she was floating off to her own little world. “A lavish ball gown.” She sighed a little. “You know the type of things that upon seeing her in, he’ll blush and drop to his knees, and then right there, not caring who’s there to hear, he’ll profess his love for her. And her, swept up in the moment will admit she loves him back…” The gymnast smiled and sighed as she stared of at the little stars sparking in her eyes.

Mai vaguely wondered if her friend had taken too much or not enough of whatever. “Nice story Ty Lee, but it’ll never work…” She shook her head discouragingly as her somber monotone snapped the cheery girl out of her sparkle filled delirium.

“Huh? Well why not?” Ty Lee pouted a little, just generally sounding disappointed in reality for not accepting her view of how life should work.

“For starters when was the last time you saw Azula wear an anything-gown?” Mai crossed her arms lightly over her chest and started counting off reasons why her friend’s happy little view of the world was flawed. “Even when we were kids she’d wear something more like an armored dress than a gown.”

“Ok… well that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible…” Ty Lee remained optimistic.

“I’m not done yet.” Mai remained pessimistic. “There’s also the increasingly likely eventuality that Tatsuya and Azula will never meet again.”

“What? Why? They have to get together! Their practically made for each other!”

“Think about it. Tatsuya’s not in the city, and if the Earth King ever actually lets us meet with the Avatar we’ll be traveling in… higher profile than before. Even if Azula even manages to get him a message before we get back home, it’ll probably just read. ‘Thanks for your help, return to your post.’ After all, it’s not like her father would approve…” Mai actually sighed a little at this. Not her traditional sighs of boredom or doldrums, but one of almost, disappointment. The Fire Lord, had the final say, always.

“Well…” Ty Lee turned and absentmindedly looked over some of the merchant stalls lining the road. “That doesn’t mean we can’t at least try… does it?” She didn’t sound ready to give up, but did look rather discouraged as she poked through the Earth Kingdom shops half heartedly.

Of course, the Captain wasn’t in fact long from entering the city, though technically he already had.

The ferry had docked, and Tatsuya had unloaded his baggage, physical anyway. He hadn’t carried much with him. Just his halberd beside him.

Well his halberd and a rather large amount of rather bipolar tribesmen fussing and bussing over which was the best way to carry their leader’s things, or whether it is better to stack clothing on top of pottery, ‘that it not get ruffled’, or beneath, ‘that it pads the pots and prevents them from cracking.’ The whole argument was giving him a headache. Or maybe that was the people doing the arguing, it was getting hard to tell.

“I’m telling you it won’t matter if your clothes are wrinkled if you don’t have a pot to cook in!” Xan was practically breathing fire down Hakuraman’s neck.

“Pots can be easily mended with a moments spent at a metal worker, but wrinkled clothes can require days of hanging, or worse hours of steaming to be renewed.” Hakuraman wasn’t budging, he just had his arms calmly tucked into his sleeves.

“Which you can’t do, if the pot you were to boil the water in was cracked!” Xan fumed a little before getting an idea. “Tatsuya what’d you think?” She turned to the Captain with a solid glare that definitely warned that he should side with her.

“Yes Tatsuya, do be our mediator.” Hakuraman countered with a half cocked browed and a back tilted head. The type that warned he should side with him if he wanted to keep his job.

“Uhm…” Despite his annoyance at their argument, Tatsuya didn’t actually have a ready solution, and being ordered around all his life, he’d never much been one for decision making. He tried to think, what would Princess Azula do? Well that was easy, threaten them with bodily harm and then tell them to just pack their things. Which while it probably would’ve worked for her, the Captain was neither physically superior to either of them, or in charge, which left him with one alternative. “Well… you could, like, have the Xang tribesmen carry the pots, and the Gan Jin could carry the clothes, that way you could each look after what you want to have looked after?...” Compromise.

The two tribe leaders paused for a moment to consider this new idea. Tatsuya took the moment to back away just a little, just encase they didn’t like his idea.

“Hmm… it would seem a reasonable alternative. We are after all, one tribe.” Hakuraman said, tentatively stroking his beard as he turned toward Xan.

She snorted a little. “Whatever, as long as we don’t end up without any unbroken pots I’m happy.”

The Captain let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding and smirked, happily lending a hand with the dividing of the two tasks. The train ride into the city had been a little more than crowded, and to be perfectly honest reminded Tatsuya a little too much of being shipped to the front lines. That and the Earth Benders powering it made him nervous. Not that he could’ve told you why, but they did just the same.

Though such nervousness were quickly swept away once he beheld the city in its entirety, such a massive town, buildings as far as the eye could see, and there, just on the edge of sight, the great walls of Ba Sing Sei, reaching up to the sky and vanishing there. This was the Capital of the Earth Kingdom; this was the city that had held through one hundred years of war, this was where no Fire Bender aside from the Princess herself had seen in over three generation. This was Ba Sing Sei, and somewhere out there, was Princess Azula.

After the initial shock of the city washed away, the Captain sighed. He’d never imagined the city would be this expansive. He didn’t even know where to being looking for the Princess.

Well, no, that wasn’t true. He knew where to look. He knew of several places to look actually. That was sort of part of the problem. Start in the Upper Ring, where the Princess was likely to be staying, as ‘guests of the Earth King’ most likely, and he’d invite questions that didn’t need to be asked. Start looking for the Avatar and he’d risk finding the boy god, and not have anything to do with him. No way could he capture the greatest bender in the world by himself, let alone deal with the demi-god’s friends.

There was a third option. But it was a good deal more, long term, than Tatsuya really wanted to deal in. Make a name for himself, and seek a meeting with ‘the Kyoshi Warriors.’

The Captain sighed again. And was then struck in the back by a rather rough and powerful paw, or at least what felt like a paw. “Well kid looks like you got away without having to use that oversized fork of yours.” The ‘paw’ belonged to Xan, who was apparently congratulating him on a job well done. They were in the city after all. “So what cha gonna do now?” She looked out over the edge of the raised train station, surveying the epic view of the city. “Big city out there, gonna be hard to find one little girl.”

“Yeah…” Tatsuya was surprised at the sound of his own voice, he found himself sounding more like Mai, than himself. He rubbed his eyes a little; things were getting worse before they were getting better…

“Well if you have no immediate goals, then why don’t you come and see our place of business Tatsuya. It’s quite the nice little inn, or so I am told.” Hakuraman smiled walking up on the other side of the Captain from his counterpart.

“Hey yeah, now there’s an actual good idea for once.” Xan smirked and threw her arm over the Captain, placing him in something the hovered innocently between headlock and hug. “What’d ya say kid? We’ll even give ya a free room for a few nights, the hotels they stick new comers in are little more than rat holes anyway.”

“Well… I don’t suppose I have anyplace else to go…” Despite the awkward headlock hug he was held in, Tatsuya still managed to put the right amount of thought into his response and though that was deliberate, his voice also held perhaps a little too much sorrow. It was to be a long hard road, before he was to be reunited with his Princess.
- 24
- 25
- 26
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Azula's Lost Chapters OR Azula's New Cook