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
- 30
- 31
- 32
Azula pouted, rapping her nails rhythmically on the vanity as she stared at herself in the mirror. She’d long since gotten the last traces of the makeup off, but the truth of it was she had no other place to be.

She had no grand scheme that required her to be somewhere, no appointments with people older and less important than her, no boys to deny going out with. All she had to do was, sit there, tapping her nails rhythmically against the treated wood surface of the vanity, and waiting for Ju Dee to show up and tell them they’d found the Avatar for her, which from the looks of it was going to take longer than her uncle’s failed siege.

Azula pinched the bridge of her nose, she didn’t know if she could handle six hundred days of this city. She certainly didn’t want to spend two years in this accursed city. She didn’t want to spend six more days here.

The princess sighed and rubbed her temples lightly. She needed something to clear her head before she gave herself an ever worse headache. Maybe if she actually spent some time in the city, experienced Earth Kingdom life a little, she’d have an easier time living it.

“I’m going out.” Azula said, just off handedly as she strode past her friends, Mai was sitting in her chosen spot, the windowsill, doing something with her knives as usual, and Ty Lee was puttering about in front of the front door for some reason.

Mai just sort of glanced at the princess as acknowledgment; Ty Lee however, needed details. “Where’re you off to?” She smiled and blinked at the princess, leaning over the side of the small railing that separated the dining area from the entrance hall.

Azula shrugged a little, opening the front door. “I haven’t really decided yet… Why care to join me?” It wasn’t so much that she wanted company, as it was that it was just polite to ask if someone wanted to come with you when you were heading out for parts unknown.

Lucky for the princess, Mai was just naturally antisocial, and Ty Lee had already made plans. “Nawh, I’ve got to stick around. Lang’s supposed to come over once his friend gets out of surgery.”

“Right…” Azula rolled an uninteresting hand around a lock of her hair. “Well, let me know how that goes…” Before she stepped outside and into the bright sun of the Upper Ring.

She sighed again and just sort of started walking. No particular place in mind the Princess decided to take the time to just sort of map out the area, get a feeling for the Earth Capital. That and, though she hated to admit it, sometimes she did need breaks from her friends.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like them. After all the two of the were, for the most part, the only friends the Princess had ever had. It was simply that one person, even Azula, could only take so much of being around the eternally cheerful and the eternally grim before requiring a moment to take a step back and breathe.

And so she took that moment, strolling down the side of Ba Sing Sei’s cobblestone road, hands neatly folded behind her back.

It wasn’t a horribly city. And though admittedly they were in the Upper Ring, but there were several things that ran familiar about the city. People were people, regardless of where they had grown up after all.

There were the young children of noble families playing in each other’s yards as an excuse for their mothers to get together and gossip about this or about that. There were the stoic noblemen, strolling down the street discussing something which the clearly felt was important while on their way from one place to another.

There were the rebellious teenagers, spoiled to the core, socializing in the splendid, overly done parks or outside opulent tea shops, each completely convinced of their importance to the workings of the universe.

The Princess sighed, choosing to lean against the railing of a small stone bridge as she watched a particular pair of noble teens below her. There was a boy, older than Azula, though not more than three, maybe four years, and a girl, equal to him in age, or perhaps a year or two younger.

He had her hand in his and took her away to the river’s edge, not far from where Azula watched. The girl snatched her hand back, though not out of distaste for the boy. She looked worried, likely her parents didn’t approve, and the two had stolen away for a moment together.

She said something, and the boy struck a heroic pose, smirking and saying something before the two of them leapt into each other’s arms and kiss passionately.

Azula rolled her eyes and kept walking.

It wasn’t that she disapproved. It was just that it was such a played out tale, two lovers, forbidden from each other, steal away to be together, defying both their families for their love. Even in the stories, it never ended well.

One of the two, most likely the boy, would die from something or another, possibly at the hands of her family, and then the survivor would be left heartbroken, give a tear felt speech about love or acceptance of something of that nature, and then everyone would hug and everything would be all better.

Except the boy would still be dead, and the girl would still be heartbroken. The stories tended to ignore that rather critical detail.

Sure the world would be better off, everyone would hug, the rivalry or war or whatever would be over, peace and equality would reign over the land forever and so on. Just, the survivor would have to keep going without their lover.

Now maybe they would move on, find someone else, start a new life and leave the tragedy of their old behind. Or maybe they would never get over their lost love, shut down, and become the tragic old woman that lived on the edge of town, the one who children would ask about, the one who would remind their people of the past.

Or maybe they’d give up on living without their lost lover, take their own life to be with each other again, and everyone would have a happy reunion in the Spirit World.

All of was dreadfully stupid as far as the Princess was concerned. The thought of dying for love, it was just… too irrational.

What was the purpose in dying for something that was unique to you and you alone? People who died for a cause could see the cause live on after them. People who died for a dream could see the dream become reality after their deaths. But people, who died for love, they couldn’t see their love continue after their deaths. That was it, it was the end.

There were stories, stories about a love so strong that it bound its owners to each other in this world and the next. They generally didn’t end well either. A tragic death, a more tragic fate, a promise of vengeance. It was really all rather droll. Nothing like that happened in the real world.

In the real world you went to school. You did what you were told, and you dreamed of adventure in your youth. Then you grew up, you perfected a trade, and found a spouse, perhaps you had some children of your own, encouraged them to dream of adventure as you hurried them off the school.

And then when they were grown they would perfect a trade, find a spouse, and the whole story would begin again.

Not that there wasn’t drama in the world, what with the war and all, but one would be hard pressed to find a child, a normal child, who cared. Sure they understood that daddy was going off to fight the villainous others, be them Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom the feelings toward one’s enemy was the same.

And certainly the children would be sad if their parent came back in a box or an urn, and perhaps they’d swear vengeance upon their enemies and join the various military to do honor to their father’s name, but vengeance was a young person’s game, and war had a strange way of making men old before their time.

Take the Captain for example. He was eighteen perhaps nineteen now, Ty Lee had mentioned something about him being born in the spring, but he by no means acted like it. His brow was heavy, his heart was sore, his body had more scars than the Princess could remember, he by no means searched for storybook drama in his life.

Truth be told Azula couldn’t help but feel that the Captain wasn’t the type of man for war. He held vengeance in his heart to be sure, but vengeance alone cannot make a warrior, and he had no real talent for battle, neither with his halberd no his bending could he be called anything resembling a master. Quite probably if he ever were to encounter a master like the Avatar or his instructors things would end badly for the Captain.

Though what really concerned her, although don’t be mistaken, Azula would under no circumstances admit to being concerned for another living thing, but just because she wouldn’t admit it, didn’t mean it wasn’t there. What concerned her was that the Captain didn’t care.

He didn’t care if he met that master on the battle field, he didn’t care if things ended badly for him. He didn’t care if he died, he didn’t care if he lived…

Azula paused, leaning her back against some blooming tree somewhere in the Upper Ring as she stared up at the glimmering sun through its shaking branches.

If the Captain stayed with her, it was very likely he would die.

He wasn’t an elite soldier. He wasn’t an acrobat with a mastery of pressure points. He wasn’t a self taught knife throwing genius or a Fire Bending prodigy. He was a cook, and if it came right down to it, if he was put in a position where it was win or die, he would very likely die.

“Hey.”

Azula looked down. The speaker was a boy, noble by his dress, and rather full of himself by his posture. “Hey.”

He smirked a little and scratched at the edge of his nose. “Ya know that tree you’re under… it’s kinda famous around here.”

“Is that so?” The princess sounded almost like Mai. She didn’t want to be talking to this boy, and she didn’t want to be in this city. She turned her head to one side just sort of staring out at the buildings around her.

“Yeah it’s a confession tree…” He smirked a little more and took a step closer. “They, uh say if you confess you love to someone underneath this tree, it’ll last for a hundred years.”

“And your point is?”

“Well, I guess I was just sort of wondering if you were thinking of anyone in particular.” He shrugged a little, rubbing the back of his neck and trying to look particularly handsome. “Cause uh, ya know if you’re free…”

“I have a boyfriend.” Azula paused for a second after she spoke, blinking for a moment before actually turning to deal with the new annoyance that was trying to hit on her.

“Oh…” It sounded disappointed. “Well uh, where is he?”

“Not here.”

The noble boy chuckled lightly, but wasn’t going to give up that easily. “Well I can see that. Where is he? Not a very good boyfriend if he stood you up.” He smirked a little trying to move in closer.

Azula took a half step around the tree and away from the noble. “He’s in the military.”

“Ahh…” He nodded like that meant something and for the first time since he’d shown up the princess was actually interested in what he had to say. “That explains it, lemme guess you haven’t heard from him in a while right?” Azula raised an eyebrow. “Yeah I see this all the time, can’t admit it to yourself yet huh?”

“Admit what?” And Azula was back to just being annoyed with him. Of course now it wasn’t because he was a prideful noble boy trying to hit on her, now it was because he thought he knew what she was thinking.

“Admit that he’s either, forgotten about you, moved on and found someone else, or isn’t coming back.” He smirked a little shrugging, acting like he had seen the same scene a million times before. Which given the Earth Kingdom’s current record for winning fights, he very well may have.

Even still, the princess of the Fire Nation was not at all happy with the implication. “He’s coming back.” She glared at the noble, clenching her fists together lightly. “And he hasn’t forgotten about me.” This was what she hated about the city, everyone in it lived in their own little world, they judged things based upon what They knew, and never even entertained the possibility that things could be different.

“Sure, sure… I’ll bet he’ll even come back a big hero, and when the war’s over he’ll sweep you off your feet and carry you off into the sunset with him.” The noble shrugged a little shaking his head as he walked, strolled really, around the princess. “That’s why he hasn’t written you, he’s been too busy planning his grand entrance.” He laughed a little.

Azula made a note to murder his family after she captured the city. “Well he’s clearly busy with something. He has his orders after all.” Of course the fact that those orders were from her, and were to quite explicitly, sit still and be quiet, did beg the question of what the Captain was doing with his time.

“Right, ‘busy.’” He raised his hands to either side, shrugging as he sort of shook his head. “No way would he forget about you… After all he’s only fighting for his life against some of the most ruthless people in the world. No way he’d slip up, miss that one step…” He leaned in, a hand on the tree as he nearly whispered in the princess’s ear. “Come on, you know that he isn’t coming back… and if he does, he’s not going to for you… You know you should just move on… let ‘im go and find someone better…” He smirked a little lightly brushing his finger tips across Azula’s cheek as he removed a lock of hair form her eyes.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” The princess stood away from him, crossing her arms over her chest as she turned her back to the noble. “Tatsuya’s not like that… He’s loyal and brave and smart. He always does what I tell him, never questions my orders. He’s resourceful and intelligent, enduring and would never even think of going against me… He always has my best interests at heart and isn’t capable of lying to me…”

“Tsk…” The boy scoffed. “Sounds more like a whipping boy than a lover…” He grinned a little more and leaned over the princess’s shoulder, wrapping his arms around her a little. “Come on, you know a girl like you deserves a real man…” He purred into her ear. Azula planted an elbow in his gut, broke one of his feet in two, and sent him twisting into the ground all in a single motion.

She smirked down at him as he curled nursing his broken foot. “Clearly, you’ve never even met a real man.” The princess glared down at the groaning boy. “I’ll thank you for the talk, but I’m afraid you’re just not my type.” She smirked a little more as she turned to head back; waving absentmindedly to the young boy she’d left with a broken foot. “Have a nice day.”

A walk had been just what she’d needed to lift her spirits.

Unfortunately her spirits went right back down again the moment she returned to the apartment.

Ju Dee was there waiting for her, still wearing the same smile she had been sporting the last time the ‘Kyoshi Warriors’ had encountered the Earth King’s go between.

“I don’t suppose you’re here to tell us you’ve found the Avatar and we can see him whenever we want.” Azula brushed passed the eternally grinning woman without as much as a glance. Whatever her purpose there, the princess knew it wasn’t going to be helpful.

“No, and though we are looking, and we have located several promising leads as to your friend’s location within the city, I am actually here on an unrelated matter…” It was somewhat amazing, and, mildly unnerving, how well the woman was able to maintain her unnatural grin even while speaking.

“Of course you are…” The disguised princess sighed a little, strolling over to between her mutually uninterested friend, and her rather interested in taking smile lessens friend. “And just what might that ‘unrelated matter’ be?” Azula reached up and took her hair down, simply for the fact that it was more comfortable to have her hair down, and she was ‘home’ as it were.

“It has come to our attention that a member of your group may or may not have been involved in the events leading up to the unfortunate mauling of an influential member of the Zang family by an armadillo-lion.” Azula smirked. So did Mai actually but Ty Lee just sort of winced.

“He tried to kiss me.” Azula said, completely innocently, a hand artfully laid across her collar, just to really sell that innocent victim look. “I pushed him back to prevent him, and he tripped, and fell into the beast’s cage. I don’t see how it could be my fault that the creature attacked him.” She smirked a little more. “He shouldn’t try to kiss girl outside the pens of dangerous animals is all…”

“We understand that it was not your intention to get the boy mauled…” Ju Dee bowed a little. “And we have already conveyed your sympathies to his family, they will not be moving forward with any legal action…” She rose, still wearing the painful smile. “However, should any such events occur in the future we would appreciate it if you were to inform us personally.”

“Oh well then, you might want to know that I broke some boy’s foot just recently.” The princess didn’t even look up from her nails. She was well used to people taking care of the fallout from any injuries she passed about the noble boys, although seeing how her father wasn’t actually in charge of this government, it might be a good idea to pull it back a little. Two boys in one day was a little much for her anyway.

“Azula!” Although Ty Lee was the only one who verbally complained. “Geeze, it’s no wonder you can’t get a boy to like you… getting them mauled, breaking their feet…” She pouted a little, leaning over the railing and tucking her head into her arms as she muttered to herself about the bleak outlook of her friend’s love life.

“We’ll it’s not my fault… If boys weren’t such total idiots I wouldn’t have to hurt them.” She put her hands on her hips, completely convinced that if more women took her approach to boys’ behavior than more boys would behave correctly.

Ju Dee’s face didn’t even twitch; she was growing uncomfortable to look at. “I understand.” She bowed again. “We’ll see to it that as well.”

It was at this point that the normally silent Mai raised an inquisitive brow and spoke. “Who’s this ‘we’ you keep taking about anyway?”

Now this was actually an intriguing question. Azula had long sense been accustomed to various organizations scurrying about to brush over her activities when it came to injuring the ‘rougher’ sex, but this was Ba Sing Sei, and whatever organization Ju Dee worked for had little incentive to keep Azula out of prison, beyond the fact that perhaps they didn’t want to imprison her.

The princess turned back to the uncomfortably happy messenger. “Yes, just who is it that you work for anyway?”

And it was then, just for a moment, just for a second that, Ju Dee didn’t smile. “W-well I work for the Earth King of course…” And then the smile was back…

“Well yes, but what organization do your report too? Who pays you? Just what is it that you do other than popping up inconveniently and smiling?” Azula wasn’t about to let a conversation that actually caused the walking smile of a woman that was Ju Dee to stop smiling stop without a satisfactory answer.

“W-well… I report to Master Long Feng and his lieutenant within the Dai Lee.” Again, just for a moment, Ju Dee’s smile was stopped.

“And just who are the Dai Lee?” Now the Princess was truly interested. She remembered hearing about the Dai Lee before, though she couldn’t remember where, and though she was kicking herself for not thinking of it earlier, there were only so many types of organizations that could have a use for a woman like Ju Dee.

“Well the Dai Lee are the cultural protectors of Ba Sing Sei.” She was back to smiling, and though it was hard to notice, which of course meant Azula was particularly keen to notice, her speech sounded a little rehearsed. “The Dai Lee were founded some years ago by the Avatar himself, though at the time he was a woman. Kyoshi I believe, the same Avatar for whom your home island is named.”

She smiled and bowed taking a half step back toward the door. “If you’d like I could arrange a full tour of Ba Sing Sei’s many museums for you, and perhaps you could attend one of the classes on our national history at the university, but for now you’ll have to excuse me.” She bowed again. “I have other matters to attend to elsewhere in the city.” She stepped out of apartment. “Goodbye, and please, do refrain from breaking the feet of anyone important for at least the next few days.” And she shut the door.

Azula raised an eyebrow at where the programmed woman once stood. “Well, that was interesting…” She smirked a little, curling a lock of her hair around her fingers. Asking about the Dai Lee had stuck a cord somewhere within that empty smile, and there were only so many kinds of organizations that could find a use for someone like Ju Dee, and none of them, to the princess’s knowledge, could be accurately described as ‘cultural protectors.’

“That was weird.” Mai had the same impression, though perhaps different intentions for the information acquired.

“Did you really break someone’s foot Azula?” Ty Lee had more pressing matters on her mind.

“Yes Ty Lee, I did, but I had a good reason for it.” Azula walked off towards her room, she needed to find out more about these ‘Dai Lee.’

Ty Lee pursued her. “Would you like to share your reason with me?” She had to find out more about this foot breaking incident.
- 30
- 31
- 32
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