Chapter Text
It was a strange thing for Azula to wake without pain. As a child, her muscles would ache as she pushed herself further and further in her training. Her hands would burn with every form she failed trying to get it perfect, always more perfect. When she hunted Zuko and the Avatar, she'd get blisters from riding the mongoose lizards, or bruises from deflecting their pitiful attacks. When she lost the Agni Kai, when Zuko froze her in a tiny box to die away from prying eyes, she'd wake with teeth chattering so hard she feared they'd chip away. Always with pain, she'd wake.
Agony was an old friend, but comfort, warmth, waking without any protest from her body, it was all a stranger to her. When Mai and Ty Lee would admit jealousy of her servants or clothes, the softness of her bed, they'd always say how nice it must be to be part of the royal family, and she would smirk and hold it over them like it was some kind of prize destiny had given her, all while the words tasted like ash on her tongue. "Only the best for the Fire Princess."
She wondered, sometimes, if it sounded as fake to Mai and Ty Lee as it did to her.
In recent times, however, the thought of the two traitors who called themselves her friends, sent a new pain through her she could feel despite the suffocating cold. Did they know where she was? The thought would jab at her mind as she tried to fall asleep. Had they truly left her there to rot, without so much as a visit? The answer she'd always come up with was yes.
Only the best for the Fire Princess.
So she'd lay down to sleep once more, thoughts of Mai and Ty Lee drowned with more of Zuko, the Avatar, the earthbender, the swordsman, that waterbender, and the hatred that she felt at each and every one of them would burn within her, making the cold bearable for just one more night. Then she'd wake the next morning in the cold, in pain.
But not this morning.
This morning, her thin blankets had been replaced by a luxurious, monstrously big, comforter, her rough prison cot swapped with a softness she couldn't remember in even her finest fire palace mattress, and the frigid chill was now a gentle warmth. The strangest part of all, was that even twitching her fingers, shifting her legs, breathing through her nose, she couldn't feel the slightest bit of pain. For as long as she could remember, she'd never woken without pain.
Azula kept her eyes shut. She knew what was real and what was fake. She never saw things that weren't there, never heard them, never felt them. She was perfectly sane. She was perfect. She had to be.
This, all the blankets, the bed, the warmth, would all disappear soon enough, and she'd be back with the pain. It was better to wait it out, not engage or hope. She knew better than to play games with spirits.
She heard knocking, but made no response. "Azula?" Zuko's voice, she knew it wasn't him. "Are you still not up yet? We're gonna be late."
She squeezed her eyes shut tighter.
She was sane. She was sane. She was sane.
"If you're not downstairs in five minutes, I'm calling dad," the Zuko imitation pronounced, muffled footsteps signalling his departure.
Azula gritted her teeth. Even if it wasn't real, the thought of displeasing her father made her stomach squirm. Could she really stay still, when after minutes in the warmth and soft, the pain hadn't come?
Maybe, she considered, there were worse madnesses to be trapped in. One eye opened, then the next. Her icy prison was gone, and in its place was something strange.
It was a room, about the size of hers in the palace, but rather than the sight of wood and stone or the insignia of the fire nation on her blankets, on the wall, the ceiling above her and the walls to the side seemed flat, seamless. Instead of browns and greys, it was decorated in burnt orange, with accents in red. The unnaturalness of it all only furthered her suspicion that spirits were involved.
The clothes she found were similar. Strange design, strange material, the colors were thankfully her own, but there wasn't a single shred of armor between them. She wished she could believe that meant there was no one to fight, but she wasn't so naive.
A side room, where the plumbing was kept, it seemed, held a mirror she used to peek at her face for the first time. Her hair was mussy, down and slightly tangled from sleep, but she could tell with only a glance how perfect it was, like before the Agni Kai. She reached up and felt a strand, relishing the feeling. In her prison, the cold would freeze the hair, dry it, ruin it, even if she hadn't done that herself. It was foolish and impractical, but she'd always liked her hair.
Another call from Zuko snapped her from her reflection, and she quickly chose an outfit that didn't look dreadful and put it on, combing and pinning her hair so not a strand was out of place. Her face was older, she considered, but definitely hers. There were no mirrors in her cell, so she hadn't seen herself in ages.
Her eyes strayed to the mirror once again. "Is that what I look like?" But no, there was no sallowness to the cheeks, no bags to the eyes, no blue tinge to her frozen lips. This face was perfect.
She turned away.
Zuko was there when she answered the door, also unarmored, and lacking the Firelord's crown as well. Interesting. "What took you so long? You're usually up earlier than me."
Without any real information to place her, Azula resorted to an old standby: taunting Zuko. "Aw, Zuzu," she cooed, patronizingly. "Were you worried about me?"
He huffed, angering as quickly as he always did. "Stop messing around. I won't have you screw up my perfect attendance because you felt like sleeping in on your first day."
"Then by all means, Zuzu," she waved an arm. "Lead the way."
While her room at least held some similar style to the Fire Palace, the rest of the house it seemed did not follow suit. For the most part, it was white, as boring and plain a color as she could think of, really. Wearing that awful Kyoshi makeup made her want to gag. There were some reds in accents, some blacks in marble tiles on the first floor, but most of it was annoyingly white.
Zuko led outside, and feeling the sun on her face once again felt better than she ever could have imagined. Waking in the warmth was nice, but basking in the sun felt like her veins were finally reignited after all this time.
"Are you coming?" He asked, impatiently, holding open the door of a black vehicle. Azula's first guess was palanquin, but judging by the wheels and shape, it was more likely to be a tank analogy. She climbed in, watching Zuko all the while. "Why are you so weird, today?" He asked, getting in, himself. "Don't tell me you're nervous."
Considering the next time she expected to see him was her execution, 'nervous' seemed an understatement. Still, "you know me, Zuzu." She smirked. "I don't get nervous." Appearances had to be maintained, after all. Even in... wherever this was.
Zuko huffed and turned away, leaving them in silence for the few minutes until the almost-tank slowed to a stop. He departed, so she did the same.
It was different, everything here was, but after years in the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, Azula could recognize a school anywhere. Her lips curled into distaste. Of course the spirits would send her here.
Zuko said something about going to class and for her to follow the signs, before running off. Azula had gotten used to ignoring him by then.
Walking in the sun was truly magnificent. While there were no physical effects of her long isolation to mar her body, the balm of heat and air soothed her mind quite nicely. She left questions of her soul's condition alone.
"Should've figured you'd be out here," the dull tone that could only have been Mai's voice pricked her ears. Turning to see her without her usual robes or knives was more a confirmation than anything.
The fact that, like Zuko, her expression harbored no ill will, or any indication of her betrayal at all did little to quash the bile that rose in Azula's throat when she saw her again, however.
"Where else would I be?" She asked, forcing her own voice to level, not willing to give anything away unnecessarily.
Mai rolled her eyes, softly. "Maybe where any number of signs pointed toward 'Orientation' told you to go?"
"Maybe..." Azula hummed. As much as she enjoyed being outside her cell, bending to the whims of even phantoms of her brother and former friends was growing boring. Her eyes sharpened on Mai. "Say, do you remember the last time we saw each other? When was it?"
Mai crooked an eyebrow. "The beach? Two weeks ago?"
Azula took a step closer, but Mai didn't flinch. "It wasn't... the Boiling Rock?"
Her face didn't flash with anger, or fear, or even defiance; it was confusion. "The what?"
"What do you think of the Avatar?" She asked next, but still Mai's features betrayed nothing.
"Sozin's Comet?" Nothing.
"The Fire Lord?" Nothing.
"The Fire Nation?" When still her features spoke nothing but confusion even of her home, Azula ended the questioning.
"Are you okay?" Mai asked, eyeing her up and down like she'd see a large bump where she'd hit her head.
This was more than a delusion, more than games spirits played; this was real. Which meant no failure to her father, no betrayal of her friends, and no icy prison ready to swallow her whole. No matter how it came about, she was free, from everything.
A dark chuckle wracked her being. "Never better, Mai," she answered with a genuine smile, even if it was tinged slightly by malice. With confident strides, she walked past her, toward where a sign directed her to Orientation. "I'm just perfect."
<><><>
It was amazing how weak the world was. No vast empire, no army flooding the streets. The system of guards they had were stretched thin, allocated poorly, and the system of leadership was mired in endless bureaucracy half its members blatantly ignored.
Azula couldn't have imagined a more perfect place to form a new Fire Nation, and that wasn't even the best part.
Because no matter how much she'd searched in the library, or the virtually endless database linked to it, courtesy of an advanced technology this world had developed, Azula couldn't find any references to Bending. At first, she thought it could have been a mistake, that they simply had a different name for it, but no.
For whatever reason, these people had never discovered Bending.
No Avatar.
No annoying waterbenders.
No defense.
Her fingers sparked with impatient flame, but she breathed deeper, drawing it in. It wouldn't do to give the game away so soon.
"Excuse me? Are you done with that computer?" A voice interrupted her, and Azula blinked, realizing she'd let the screen go dark as she became lost in her thoughts. "It's just, I really need to print this out. I'll be quick, I promise."
Azula's eyes narrowed as she turned. She knew that voice. The all-too familiar blue eyes of the Water Tribe girl met hers.
It took a force of will bred from countless training sessions for her not to reach out and break her on instinct. It would have been so easy, too, but no. Murdering a student in a public library so early on was bound to attract too much attention, too soon. If she used firebending, she might as well call her plans over and done with. Besides, putting her personal vendetta aside, without bending, she was just a child: no threat whatsoever.
She wheeled her chair back, gesturing at the computer with a false smile. "Go right ahead." When the Water Tribe girl turned her back to start working, Azula's eyes narrowed, considering.
It would be easy to discount her, but wasn't that the same mistake she'd made before? She'd underestimated her, her brother, the Avatar, Zuko, everyone, and paid for it with ice and pain.
Even with barely any bending to her name, she managed to evade Zuko, not that that was particularly hard, but he also had a full complement of Fire Nation soldiers with him, and her Uncle.
Iroh...
He was a traitor to the Fire Nation long before, but Zuko changed sides to help the Avatar along the way, or was there more to it? The way he'd thrown himself in front of her lightning to protect the Water Tribe girl definitely spoke of something.
Wasn't she also the only one known to force the Avatar into the Avatar state?
The Avatar, Zuko, even her Water Tribe bendless brother probably went wherever she did, it was amazing just how much of a lynchpin she was for all of her enemies.
Azula's thoughtful frown morphed into a crafty smile. Killing her would only force the Avatar to follow someone else, but if the Avatar and all those others followed this simple Water Tribe girl... what if the Water Tribe girl followed her? Besides, Azula's eyes trailed up and down the girl's slender frame, killing her would be such a waste.
"All done," she pulled away from the computer, fetching a small stack of papers from the printer. "Thanks."
"Of course," the Fire Princess stood, extending a hand, her smile practically cheshire in nature. "Azula."
"Oh, that's a pretty name." She took the hand, smiling affably. "Katara."
Azula nodded, tucking the name away internally. As an enemy, names were largely inconsequential, but as a project, well... "A bit early to be working on assignments, isn't it?" She gestured to the papers in Katara's hands. "Are you a returning student?"
"Oh, no, my brother is," she explained. "This is one of his Summer projects he didn't get printed in time. This is actually my first year, here."
"Mine as well," Azula began moving past, dipping her head so her voice would tickle the girl's ear as she passed. "I hope we can get to know each other better," she whispered, lowly. Without waiting for a response, Azula walked away.
Love, dating, genuine connections like that were something she didn't have any experience with. Trying to be 'herself' when she went to Ember Island with her brother and the girls was a complete bungle, but this? Manipulation? Deceit? She was born to do this.
She walked outside, feeling her energy rise in the sunlight, so glorious against her skin.
She always stole her brother's toys as children, why should his girl be any different?
Katara wouldn't know what hit her.
<><><>
Katara had heard stories, of course, about wild college parties, casual relationships, and more activities of a mature level, but she hadn't expected it to blindside her quite this much.
She definitely hadn't expected it to happen on her first day.
Sokka took the papers from her numb grasp, paging through them for a moment before waving a hand in front of her face. "Katara? You alright? Professor Shi-Tong didn't give you any trouble in the library, did he?"
Katara sat, harshly, on Sokka's bed, the springs bouncing for a moment before settling. "So, I'm pretty sure I just got hit on," she managed to work the words through her daze after a few minutes.
"What?" Sokka cried, scandalized. "Who was it? It was Jet, wasn't it? That slimy piece of-"
"It wasn't Jet," she cut him off, "it was Azula."
"Azula?" His eyebrows furrowed. "That's not a very masculine name. Is he a freshman?"
"She..." Katara hesitated, "is a freshman."
"She?" He asked, confused, before his eyes widened. "Oh." He scratched the back of his neck, uncomfortably. "Are you sure she was-"
"More than a little sure, yeah," Katara confirmed, unable to help the urge to touch her ear where the feeling of Azula's breath still lingered. How was it so warm?
Sokka shrugged, leaning against a dresser. "You gonna go for it?"
"No," she shouted, it was her turn to be scandalized. "Can you imagine what dad would say?" Her tone became a mocking falsetto as she clasped her hands together, "'hey, dad, just checking in. I know I've only been at college one day, but meet my super hot girlfriend, Azula. She picked me up at the library and I know nothing about her, but don't worry. She's just here to make sure you never have grandkids.'" She slumped back onto the bed, groaning.
Sokka nodded, a pensive expression on his face for a moment. "So she's super hot?"
A pillow slammed into his chest. "That's what you got from that?" She shouted.
"What?" He protested, holding his arms up to defend against further pillow attacks. "It's important to clarify. Besides, if you're not gonna do anything about it, maybe I have a shot."
"You can have her," Katara heaved a sigh, moving the pillow under her head and slumping down on it once again. "I wasn't even planning on dating anyone until junior year, and that's gonna be a boy," she asserted.
Sokka shrugged in an, 'if you say so,' manner she didn't appreciate. "Still, you've been on campus for, what? An hour and a half? That's gotta be a record."
Katara rolled her eyes, deliberately changing the subject. "And what about you? Sophomore year and still no girlfriend, huh?"
"I'm working on it," he said, voice a little heated. "I'll have you know, I had a very passionate relationship with the Dairy Queen girl last Summer."
Katara sat up. "The one you kissed once and had to move away?"
Sokka threw his hands up. "Don't say it like that. She didn't move away because I kissed her." He matched Katara's skeptical glance with a glare. "Besides, I didn't say it was a long relationship, just very passionate."
Katara rolled her eyes just as the door to the dorm room clicked open once again. A stocky, tanned boy walked in, lugging a duffel bag behind him while an older man, evidently his father, deposited a mini fridge into the dorm room.
"Hey, Haru," Sokka greeted, grabbing the boy's hand and bumping their chests together. Katara would have called the action a hug if Sokka hadn't objected so strongly the last time she did. "You grew a beard?"
Haru grinned, gesturing to his face and the small but relatively neat beard present there. "What do you think?"
Sokka hummed for a moment. "Very manly," he decided.
Katara decided this was a good moment to slip away, before the testosterone drowned her completely. Exiting into the hallway, however, she immediately slammed into another girl, causing both of them to fall on the floor.
"Oh, I'm so sorry about that-" she started to say, before the girl harshly interrupted her.
"Hey, why don't you watch where you're going?" The angry girl snapped, her eyes squinted shut as she rubbed the part of her head that knocked into Katara's.
"Why don't you?" She shot back, annoyed at being interrupted when she was actively apologizing. "The door was open, couldn't you see me-" The girl opened her eyes and Katara's words froze on her tongue. "Ah."
She was blind.
"Yeah, 'ah,'" the blind girl jeered, standing up and retrieving the cane that had fallen to the floor. "Watch where you're going next time, clumsy." She shoved her shoulder against her as she passed, forcing the stunned Katara against the wall.
"Making all kinds of friends today, aren't you, Katara?" She whispered to herself.
"Who's Katara?" A voice asked, inches from her face.
"Gah," she tripped backwards, falling to the ground for the second time in as many minutes. After cursing gravity for a moment, her eyes blinked up to the extended hand of a pale girl dressed in, wow, not very much clothing. This was move-in day for freshman, too, there were a bunch of parents around. That took a lot of self confidence. She took the hand and the girl helped her to her feet. "Thanks, and I'm Katara, by the way, I was just talking to myself."
"Cool," she answered, enthusiastically. "I'm Ty Lee." She quirked her head at the door. "Have you moved in already?"
"Not yet. This is my brother's room, actually, I'm supposed to be up in 206," she explained, glad for the moment to be engaged in something like a normal conversation.
"No way," Ty Lee gushed. "I'm supposed to be in 206, too. Roommates." She dove forward into a hug, almost making Katara fall again, before she regained her footing. She hopped away a moment after, grinning ear to ear. "I'm just going to meet some friends of mine, do you want to come along?"
Katara blinked, surprised. "But, you don't even know anything about me. Why invite me when we only met, like, thirty seconds ago?" There were an embarrassing number of times Katara had been burned like this, invitations too good to be true from the popular kids. Looking Ty Lee up and down, she definitely seemed like popular kid material, so she found herself distinctly on guard.
"Your aura's the most vibrant shade of blue," she explained, like it made perfect sense. "That means you're responsible and intuitive, even if you have the tendency to be critical and moody." She shrugged, happily. "So, you see. I do know something about you. Why shouldn't we be friends?"
As much as she might have liked to deny it, or pick apart some of Ty Lee's frankly ludicrous logic, her enthusiasm was just a bit too much to resist, and Katara found herself pulled through the halls in short order by the mile a minute conversationalist.
"-and Mai said she's been acting a little weird lately, so I said, 'weird how,' and Mai said, 'outside the norm,' but she said it in that way that, like, she knows she's being difficult about it so she's super smug, so I said, 'is she nervous?' Because it's her first day of college, I mean it's all of our first days, and I know I'm super nervous, but there's no real reason to be nervous because I've already made a new friend, but Mai said, 'Azula doesn't get nervous,' and I said, 'well, yeah, but if she got nervous wouldn't that be 'outside the norm,' like I threw her own words back at her, but Mai said-" Katara interrupted this latter half of Ty Lee's brief history of what appeared to be this afternoon, as one of the words caught her attention.
"Wait, Azula?" A sort of creeping dread began invading her system. Setup, setup, setup, the word repeated in her mind like a pounding beat. "You know Azula?"
"Yeah..." Ty Lee's expression of genuine confusion was the only thing stopping Katara from bolting away from the suspicious encounter. "Have you two met?"
"Earlier today." Katara bit her lip, looking away.
"I hope she didn't say anything too mean," Ty Lee said, hesitantly. "She can be a bit... abrasive."
Katara crooked an eyebrow. "Abrasive?" That's hardly what she'd call what happened earlier.
"Yeah," she admitted. "I've been trying to get her to be nicer, but stubborn doesn't even begin to describe Azula. Once she's got it into her head to do something, there's no stopping her."
For Katara, the words felt like ice sliding down her back. "Hoo, boy." She bit her lip. "How often does that apply to... romantic relationships?"
Ty Lee waved a hand. "Oh, I wouldn't know."
"You wouldn't?" Katara asked.
"Yeah," she shrugged. "Azula's never been interested in anyone like that."
Katara nodded, the squirming in her stomach making her feel distinctly unwell. So, unless she'd managed to keep it a complete secret from her best friends, Azula wasn't some smooth-talking playboy. Playgirl? No, instead she'd seen Katara in the library and somehow fell instantly in love.
Brilliant.
That was so, unimaginably, worse.