Chapter 25: Progress With The Princess

Lu Chen awoke the next day to a hand hitting his face.

He looked to the side and saw Toph sleeping next to him, sprawled on the floor with her limbs stretched out.

'Sheesh, I dread the day we have to share a bed. At this rate, she'll be kicking me off the mattress in her sleep.' Lu Chen thought as he got into a sitting position and stretched.

Lu Chen looked down at his right hand, deep in thought.

'... What's done is done. No point of dwelling on what I did.' Lu Chen thought as he clenched his hand into a fist.

Lu Chen stood up and went into the kitchen area. He looked through the icebox and pulled out a price of meat to eat for breakfast. Lu Chen set the meat onto the stove and used some spark rocks to light it.

'I'm not exactly a five-star chef, but cooking a bit of meat using salt and pepper should be simple enough. Sauteing some vegetables for Aang also shouldn't be a problem.' Lu Chen thought.

After a few minutes of cooking, Sokka walks in and sniffs the air.

"Ah... The delicious smell of meat. Hey, Lu, you feeling alright? You sure you're good to walk around?" Sokka asked, patting my shoulder.

"Yeah, I feel just fine. I'm not often sick, and when I do get sick, it never lasts long." Lu Chen explained.

"Okay, if you say so. You sure look fine, anyway. So, what's for breakfast?" Sokka asked, rubbing his hands together.

Lu Chen just looked at the prices of meat in the pan, unsure of what animal it came from.

"...Just some meat from... one of the pig types...?" Lu Chen said.

Lu Chen and Sokka look at each other.

They both shrug at the same time.

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After Lu Chen finished cooking breakfast, the rest of Team Avatar walks into the dining area. They were still concerned for Lu Chen, but seeing him be full of energy calmed their worries.

"Thanks for the breakfast, Lu. Didn't know you could cook." Aang said.

"Well, I never really had a chance to. And I'm not that good. I wouldn't be confident in cooking on a fire pit while we camp out." Lu Chen said.

"Is Toph still sleeping? Should we wake her?" Sokka asked, picking his teeth with a toothpick.

"I'll go get her." Katara said. "You guys just clean up." She continued.

"So, what's the plan for today? Sokka?" Aang asked, turning his attention to his friend.

"Uh... well... Nothing, really. We have plenty of free time. I'd say we should just do whatever we want to within the city. I'll probably just go over my invasion plans and then just walk around the city later." Sokka explained.

"Oh, yeah, that reminds me. Sokka, since Azula was being held by the Dai Li, she might've tried using Long Feng to inform the Fire Lord about what she overheard about the plan. You should probably adjust the plan based on that." Lu Chen advised.

"Wait, how would Azula know about the plan?" Sokka asked, confused.

"When you said it out loud when we had custody over her..." Lu Chen said.

"...Oh." Sokka sighed, hanging his head.

The boys then headed to the living room and hung around. A few seconds later, they could hear Katara complain to Toph about her appearance.

"Toph, I think you should take better care of yourself. You're covered in dust." Katara suggested.

"Katara, I'm fine. And it's not dust, I call it a healthy coating of earth." Toph refuted, still drowsy.

"Oh, come on, Toph. At least take care of your appearance. Don't you want to look good in front of Lu?" Katara said.

"...Well, I can't exactly see how I look like." Toph reminded her.

"Oh... yeah." Katara said, remembering that Toph is blind. "Even so, I think we should pretty you up. You know what we need? A girl's day out!" Katara suggested.

The two girls exited the room and informed the three boys that they are heading out while Katara changes into her usual blue outfit.

Toph lazily moves closer to Lu Chen and hugs him tight.

"Glad that you're feeling alright, LuLu." Toph said softly, rubbing her cheeks on his chest.

"Yeah. Sorry for worrying you. Better grab some breakfast before you go out." Lu Chen said.

"Sure. Thanks." Toph said, letting go of her grip on Lu Chen and heading to the dining room.

Lu Chen goes to his room, passing by Aang, who is playing around with Momo, and Sokka, who is going over some papers about his plans.

Lu Chen changes into his clothes and grabs a small bag of his money.

'I think I should see if I could find Zuko and Iroh. But before that, I should see how Azula is doing.' Lu Chen thought.

Lu Chen felt Katara and Toph exit the house. He then exited the room and informed Sokka and Aang that he is going out for some tea.

"I'll be back later, I also want to walk around, see some stuff." Lu Chen explained.

"Okay. Have a good day." Aang responded. Sokka just grunted in response, too immersed in his planning.

Lu Chen left the house and went to the main street. He could feel a couple of Dai Li agents observing him.

"Dai Li. Get me a carriage to the Palace prison. I will be visiting the princess." Lu Chen called out.

One of the agents' presence left and after only a few minutes, came back with a carriage making its way to Lu Chen.

He silently hopped on and the carriage turned around and drove to the King's Palace.

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"Hey, Azula. How you holding up?" Lu Chen asked gently, holding a plate of fresh food and water.

Azula's face has been cleaned of makeup, making her look more beautiful. Though her face looks depressed.

(A/N: It's my opinion that Azula looks much better without her lipstick.)

"..." Azula didn't respond. Her arms are still restrained.

Lu Chen sat down next to her and set down the plate on the floor, picking up a pair of chopsticks. He began to hand feed Azula.

"Come on, open up. You gotta eat." Lu Chen said as he prodded the rice onto her lips.

Azula continued to look down, but she slowly opened her mouth and took the rice into her mouth, and started chewing slowly.

"...Sorry for not coming yesterday. I got kinda sick. I'm sure you were aware I... 'dealt'... with Long Feng. Have you killed anyone before, Azula?" Lu Chen said as he continued to feed her.

"..." Azula did not respond.

'The show certainly didn't show that she did, but at the same time, after she got betrayed by Mai and Ty Lee, she was certainly willing to kill Zuko. Actually, I completely forgot. She DID kill Aang with that lightning bolt to his back.' Lu Chen thought.

"Hmm... knowing how your father treated you, you probably didn't think much of killing people. I wouldn't be surprised if Ozai sent you to be executed for your failure." Lu Chen said.

'Knowing Ozai, he'd probably just kill her via Agni-Kai, like he almost did to Zuko.' Lu Chen said.

"...Tch..." Azula clicked her tongue. Lu Chen observed her face. She still looked strong, but there was a tinge of pain in her eyes.

"... I see you're still caught up on trying to gain your father's love. You won't find any love from a tyrant. I bet he's thinking 'Oh, what's 15 more years. I can always make another kid.' Face it, he doesn't and never has loved you." Lu Chen said.

Azula stopped accepting the rice from Lu Chen and just closed her eyes tight, small tears lining the corners of her eyes as she shook her head slowly.

Lu Chen stayed silent and caressed her back.

"It's okay to cry. Just let it all out..." Lu Chen said. He looked to his hand that stabbed Long Feng. His eyes watered, but he did not allow his tears to flow.

Lu Chen was not crying out of sadness, nor for killing Long Feng, of course. He was simply crying because he took a life for the first time.

He may take more in the future, he knew that. But his first time was painful. Taking a life is easy, but dealing with the emotions, the adrenaline, was harder.

Lu Chen resolved in his heart. He will think harder about the choices he has. If he has to kill, he will. He will not make the same mistake with Long Feng.

'I could've at least just taken his eyesight, or disabled him in some way that'll make him useless enough for the Dai Li to take orders from... Sigh... No point of looking at it in hindsight.' Lu Chen thought.

He looked back to Azula, who finished crying, and proper her head up softly.

"Come on. You have to finish eating. I'll give you some water after." Lu Chen spoke gently.

As Lu Chen fed her, Azula slowly glanced over him, her face emotionless.

Finishing with the food, Lu Chen gave Azula her water, some spilling onto her chin.

"Sorry, I'll clean you up." Lu Chen said. He took a small towel that came with the food tray and wiped Azula's mouth. Lu Chen made eye contact with her for a split second before Azula looked away.

Lu Chen took the tray and water pouch and cleaned the area around Azula, with her observing him the whole time.

"Well, I got to go. I'll try to come back around tomorrow. See ya." Lu Chen said his goodbyes as he patted Azula's head. He turned around to leave, not before hearing Azula say something.

"...Thank you..." Azula said in an almost inaudible voice. However, due to Lu Chen's ability to listen to vibrations and his hearing training he did when training with Toph, he heard those words and smiled.

'She is changing faster than I expected. That's good. Hopefully, she can turn into a normal girl her age soon.' Lu Chen mused as he walked out of her cell.

'I think it's time I see how Zuko and Iroh are doing in their shop.' Lu Chen thought.

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I will take a small break from writing this fanfic. It will be relatively short, maybe 2-3 weeks (maybe longer, but I hope not).

I'll be doing this in order to bulk up on chapters (I wrote this chapter today, during school, so it may be a little rough, that's also why it's an hour late) and to get back in the groove of writing this fanfic. I'm not necessarily burnt out, it's just that I've slowed down with my writing and I'm not comfortable with that.

I may end up changing my schedule again, after the break. I don't know, it depends on where exactly life will kick me in. The balls, or my ass? Who knows.

Also, this isn't an airport.