Chapter 114

Azula found it easy to smile as Xing stood before her, flashing a playful smirk as he bowed. "Welcome back, my princess."

His princess. Yes, that sounded about right.

"It's good to be back, Xing," Azula replied brightly, ensuring her voice was clear enough to carry to the audience around them. The considerations of their station was something she couldn't forget, especially now. "I'm glad that I can still rely on you, after the…foolishness from my father."

She saw Xing almost roll his eyes. "The Fire Lord tries to kill his own brother to frame me. Along with his other questionable decrees, especially in denouncing you, there is only one path to take."

The blatantly obvious tone he took lifted a huge weight off the princess' mind. Ty Lee had been right. He cared, far more than she could fathom.

Azula blamed her shitty upbringing for not noticing that.

"That doesn't make me any less grateful…my prince." She forced back the worst of her blushing as she said the words, though it was pleasantly surprising how easily she could say them in public. He was her prince, she was his princess.

Xing's smirk turned into a bright grin. "Welcome home, Princess Azula."

As the brief welcoming ceremony was done, walked up beside Xing and led the rest of the procession back into the palace. And obviously (well, obviously now anyway) there wasn't even a drop of disapproval from him. Exiled or not, Xing unconditionally saw her as his equal.

Stupid dysfunctional royal family dynamics almost making her miss such an obvious thing…

As they climbed the great stairs of the palace, Azula tapped her Xing on the arm. "I'd like a moment of your time Xing. A discreet moment."

Her prince gave her a curious and concerned look. "Everything alright, Azula?" he asked softly.

Azula kept herself calm with some effort, a spike of her old fear rising up. "It should be…I think," she honestly answered.

She felt Xing tense up and heard his voice turn cold, and the protectiveness in turn warmed her heart. "Does it require certain operations?"

"No, Xing."

He gave her a subtle, searching look, remaining carefree as he gave an acquiescing nod. "As you wish, my princess."

The relief on his face was gratifying. Her Xing really treasured her. He wasn't the puppetmaster her father accused him of, or the cold, calculative pragmatists that her fear had screamed out that night.

Azula almost sighed with giddy happiness at that. But that was improper, so instead, she held onto Xing's arm a little tighter, humming contentedly at his querying look.

They left the others to end up in one of the deeper hallways, and wound up in a quiet study room. The bodyguards waited outside, giving the couple a moment of true privacy.

"This room is secure, my princess," Xing said as the door was locked behind him. "Did someone hurt you? Do I have to prepare an execution team?"

Azula shook her head as she walked up to him and draped her arms around his neck. "No, no," she muttered into his neck, breathing in his scent. "I just…I just missed you, Xing."

The princess realized just how much she truly meant the words as they shared a minute of comfortable silence in each other's arms. His warmth mingling with hers, his heartbeat pounding lightly against her chest, his strong arms giving her a sense of unparalleled security as they held her close…

Azula finally let out a sigh, and forced herself to get it over with. "Xing…?"

"Yes, my princess?" he playfully replied as they parted from their embrace with reluctant slowness.

She willed herself to look him in the eye. "I…I have something to tell you…"

And Azula forced herself to disgorge everything to him. Her pathetic breakdown. Ty Lee stopping her from falling. The girl's gentle touch and words. The kiss that almost happened. Suki's timely intervention.

How it happened, how it felt. Everything.

To her intense relief, Xing simply listened intently, showing only concern as she explained her surrender to despair.

"I should've been there for you," was the first thing he softly said, his arms still holding onto her. "I'm sorry that I never made it clear how I feel about you… I shouldn't have given you any room to doubt."

Azula rolled her eyes as her Xing decided to be melodramatic about it. "No, it's my fault for not reading the signs, you dummy. I mean…we…" She looked away with embarrassment as she remembered their intimate moments together. "You know what I mean."

"That I do," Xing answered with a nod. Then he had the audacity to bring a hand to her cheek, and slowly turn her to face him again. What sort of cheesy plays has he been watching? "But still, I'm sorry I couldn't be there."

Azula redirected the conversation before they both devolved into a warm, fuzzy mess. "That's alright. But…you're not angry at Ty Lee?"

He finally frowned, though it wasn't a strong one. "You said she was doing it to cheer you up?"

"I had time to think about it, and well, teasing was always her weapon of choice," Azula explained, remembering the roiling in her mind on that sleepless night. There was a temptation to give in to outrage, but instead she ended up rationalizing it, picking apart her childhood friend's behavior and moods right back to when they met. Connecting the dots was easier than figuring out the overlapping intentions of a political maneuver.

Ty Lee had been easy to like, tolerant of insults, and almost never stepped on anyone's toes. Almost, but because her cheeriness, once thought by Azula as a vapid one, occasionally annoyed those she interacted with. She knew the right words to say to keep her out of the worst trouble, making it easy to mistake her attitude as sycophantic if not for how casually she could offer valid critiques (however uncommon that was) from a safe distance, so to speak. Just like courtiers and their propensity to use particular schemes, Ty Lee's methods became clear once Azula put some thought into deciphering them.

"Teasing and unrelenting optimism. Just like how she ribs Mai about Zuko." Or Azula about Xing, she didn't say. "It might be a bit more…extreme of her, but I'm sure she didn't mean anything beyond trying to get me out of my wallowing." She hoped. It might perhaps be the most optimistic Azula has ever been about something.

Xing nodded without a trace of doubt, but the princess felt like she needed to explain herself further.

"I know I should've tried to reject her, but-"

"You were surprised, and your thoughts were not…balanced to begin with," he cut in, sounding as if he'd been in that situation before.

"To say the least," Azula reluctantly admitted with a sigh. It still sat poorly to admit entertaining such…stupid insecurities.

Xing gave a brief, self-deprecating chuckle. "I remember my first interaction with an officer outside those of the 11th. A well-to-do garrison captain whose care I was given to, to be fostered or adopted into a stable family instead of running around with the ragtag regiment."

That wasn't a story Azula had heard before, so she found herself attentively listening.

"He questioned me in his office, and I started to relax." Xing seemed to stare off into space, his body tensing up. "Then he was looming over me. I saw how his expression twisted, saw where his hands were moving to, but I didn't move. Couldn't move. Indecisive and confused, I think." He let out a slow exhale, taking all the tension with it. "Ren interrupted the whole thing… She wanted to give me a farewell present, but recklessly barged in as she does and… Heh, she needed only a second to look at how we were posed, and she immediately dragged me out of the room."

The chuckle returned, and Azula found herself disgusted at how lightly her Xing was retelling the story. The coldness in his gaze kept her from remarking on it.

"That man was the first Fire Nation body that…the first throat I slit."

"I'm sorry you went through that…" What could she say?

Xing shook his head, banishing the dark mood away as if it never existed. "It's…nothing. Hasn't been anything for a while. But yeah, I know how it can be."

A ghost of a smirk suddenly flitted across Xing's lips, and despite the heavy mood lingering Azula immediately felt a sting of annoyance at seeing it. "What?"

"I guess I should be fortunate that you don't have any male childhood friends, my princess."

"Oh, don't start," she groaned. Then, seeing the air between them lighten, the princess decided to risk it. "But…"

Xing's head quickly tilted to one side. "But…?"

Azula tried not to appear too meek or let her gaze waver. "But when Ty Lee got close… I felt…"

Her prince raised an eyebrow at that. "Is this the part where I should be worried about being replaced?"

"No!" Azula blurted out, and then immediately kicked herself in her mind at shouting the words like that. "No. I just…it felt…strange."

"Strange enough that you're bringing it up with me?"

There was a few seconds' pause before she answered honestly. "Yeah."

Xing's response was to hug her again, and another wave of relief flooded out of Azula.. "I'm glad you trust me so, my princess."

"I'm sorry that I-"

"Don't be. You're being honest. I prefer that than worrying over what might be gnawing at your thoughts. And on that note…"

*****​

The long wait was unsettling. Ty Lee fought the urge to fidget as her nerves gnawed at her conscience. Days after that fateful moment, with enough time to herself thanks to Azula insisting on maintaining an awkward not-really-distance between them, the realization of what Ty Lee had done - had almost done - with Azula began to really settle in.

Xing would find it, that went without saying. How he'd react though… That part got Ty Lee worried. Especially if he wanted her to be honest with him.

Would she have stopped herself back then, if Suki hadn't arrived? Truthfully, probably not, unless Azula had forced her off. She'd been too invested, her need to lighten Azula up addled her sensibilities.

Could she be trusted to not do so again? Ty Lee genuinely didn't know. And that scared her, just as much as Xing possibly asking the question did.

The impulsiveness, the habit to respond to the mood of others and turn the dour colors into something brighter, that was something she only now recognized as…not entirely correct. And more troubling still, it took some time for Ty Lee to recognize what drove that urge.

She didn't like seeing people, especially people she knew and liked, to be down. She hated, literally hated, seeing their auras so bleak. Which was why she smiled for them, and laughed with them, and gave her all in comforting them without prompting. Whether they needed it or not. It was the right thing to do as a friend, she once thought. Friends shouldn't let friends cry.

But now she wondered if she was doing it less for them, and more for her own satisfaction, at seeing the colors play out prettily the way she liked.

It almost led to a dangerous mistake. Maybe it led to smaller errors to occur as well?

Could Ty Lee have changed Azula if she had focused less on keeping the princess in the right reds and pinks and oranges, and instead deliver advice that could've brought darker tones into her aura?

Could Mai be brought out of her shell of glumness if Ty Lee had really tried pulling her out of it, instead of being benign and passive, content to just tease out the emotions from her every now and then?

After an eternity of stewing in her thoughts, the door opened, and Xing's head popped out. "Ty Lee, please join us inside."

There were no signs of angry reds around him, but the prince carried a worrying band of steely gray in his aura. Ty Lee kept herself calm as she quietly nodded and entered the office.

Azula radiated a comfortable red, which Xing almost mirrored save for a streak of grays. They both seemed calm enough, but the prince of Ba Sing Se fixed Ty Lee with an unnervingly hard but bland stare.

"Ty Lee."

"Yes, Xing- Uh, Prince Xing?"

"You've been accused of attempting to seduce my fiance."

Ty Lee gulped before she nodded with all seriousness. "I…did." It almost took her a second to remember the words. "B-But it was a reckless action. I got carried away, and I wasn't thinking when I-"

She snapped her mouth shut when Xing raised his hand. His aura flickered, but there were no angry colors spiking out of him. Still, Ty Lee found herself nervous.

Please let Azula be right about this.

The prince squared up before her, and Ty Lee was almost tempted to take a step back before his steely gaze. "You are Azula's friend. A trusted friend. But you almost broke that trust by taking advantage of her."

Ty Lee only nodded silently, grateful to notice Xing addressing her friendship with Azula in present tense.

"You are her friend," he repeated, "and right now, my princess cannot afford to lose her friends. But…" Here it came. Ty Lee watched how he sighed with mild annoyance. "I cannot trust you to be with her alone."

"I understand."

"So, Ty Lee. I'm hereby promoting you to a training instructor. "

Training instructor?

"You'll be responsible for introducing your skills into a select number of the palace staff. Staff who could use your agility in their work."

Azula was nodding to the words, which was a sign enough for Ty Lee. "Um, thank you?"

Xing gave a lop-sided smirk. "I am not going to break up the friendship you two have, but admittedly, with your new role, you might be spending a bit less time with Azula."

"I understand, Xing."

The smirk disappeared, and Xing put on his serious mask again. "Azula assures me that what you attempted was a one-time mistake. Please don't make her a liar."

"I won't," she replied with an earnest nod.