“You- I thought…”
Xing, damn him, grinned at Azula’s stuttering. “What did you think, your highness?”
Azula tore her gaze away from the surprise to glare at him. “I thought you said your attempt destroyed the eggs?”
The boy bowed with mock formality. “I said that the eggs exploded after I channeled my chi into them, your highness. Perhaps I should have added that the explosion was caused by the hatchlings within.”
Words failed the princess, and she could only turn her attention back to the two creatures that shouldn’t exist. Right now they seemed like small serpents with legs and a head that was a cross between a dragon moose and a mongoose lizard. One was colored in scales of vibrant iridescent red, its feline eyes a softly glowing amber. The other was a shimmering shade of midnight blue so dark that it could be mistaken as black, with misty blue eyes.
The baby dragons curled up on their respective cushions inside a crate set sideways. The sackcloth serving as a simple curtain had been fully pulled away to reveal them and allow the hatchlings to fix their wide, keen eyes on Azula as their heads tilted in a most definitely un-cute fashion.
She returned to glaring at Xing. “Why are you hiding them from my father? You sacrificed four eggs for these two?”
“There was no life to sacrifice.”
That made Azula reel back. “Those eggs were duds? You lied to my father? To the whole court?”
“I did not lie, my princess,” he answered smoothly. Too smoothly. “Everything I said was true. I merely…left out some parts. The eggs offered to him were pieced together from the shells I found from the nest. I’d say I did a pretty good job of restoring them to an intact state, all things considered. I never said that they were live eggs, and I did say that the eggs were worthless to me.”
This boy… “Lying by omission, especially to the Fire Lord, is a grave crime, you dolt!”
Surprisingly, Xing bowed his head. “Then drag me to the Fire Lord, your highness. I will not resist.”
Azula’s mind came to a halt for a few confused seconds before she finally managed to whisper out a single word. “Wh-why?”
Xing’s head rose to meet her gaze, fixing the princess with a chilling stare. “If I may be frank, your highness?” After she managed to nod dumbly, he gave a tight, grim smile. “I do not trust in the…abilities of the Fire Lord in tending to dragons. However he rates as a ruler, however capable he is as a…duellist, he is ill-suited to raise dragons.”
He flashed a sneer of utter disdain, startling Azula. “I only need to look at the monstrous treatment of his children as proof.”
She should hit him, burn him for his treacherous words. She should call in her bodyguards to break every bone in Xing’s body before dragging him to her father.
But Azula remained silent and still, transfixed by his unflinching gaze as a disturbing corner of her mind admitted that her colonel was right; That the Fire Lord, in hindsight, was a poor father, and would no doubt ruin the dragons if he got his cold, callous hands on them.
He wasted Zuko’s potential out of some unreasonable hate, oppressing her brother with disapproval and contempt up until his exile.
And when Azula thought about it a little harder, her own upbringing was barely any better. Looking back at his praise, his rare words of advice, and his even rarer guidance, the Fire Lord had treated her more as a…a tool. Something to be molded and…and hammered into a shape of his liking, even long before his ascension.
She was raised to be better than Zuko. That was it. Even before her father’s ascension, her interests were strictly guided towards being better than Zuko in any field he partook in. She received praise and favor only because it could be used to compare against and deride her brother. She was reprimanded only if her abilities were on par with Zuko.
He called her daughter, yet ever since he decided on his disgust of Zuko, father had rarely treated her as such.
Mother feared her, likely even despised her, and found it much easier to care for her softer, more sympathetic brother.
All Azula was, now that she really thought about it, was to be an unachievable measuring stick, a tool to spite her brother.
It was only thanks to her time with the 11th and their plain respect of her, thanks to Ren and Ping’s fearlessly taking her in as their little sister, thanks to Xing’s casual affection… It was all of that that acquainted Azula with a warmth she had been missing out on.
“Princess?” Xing’s concerned voice snapped Azula out of her crashing realizations. “Are you alright?”
“I…” Azula’s cracked, wavering whisper betrayed her state of mind. “I’m-”
She was a princess, not a daughter.
She was a prodigious firebender, and a horrendous sister.
She was…she was…
She was suddenly up against Xing, his body pressing lightly against hers as his hands soothingly patted her back. “No, my princess,” he cooed softly as he leaned back to look her in the eyes. His worried smile felt so comforting for some reason. “You’re not. Not yet. Not ever.”
Azula opened her mouth to say something, anything her jumbled brain could figure out. But instead a strangled sob escaped her, and with that an invisible barrier shattered.
*****
Qi Song exchanged glances with his colleagues and the colonel’s bodyguards as they heard a strange, disturbing noise from the colonel’s office. He and a few others peeked through the window to find the surprising source of it. The colonel was gently embracing the crown princess, soothing her as her shoulders heaved and she sobbed into his shoulders. She grabbed onto his robes as if hanging on for dear life, and it seemed like it was only his arms that kept the young princess up on her feet.
Out of the corner of his vision, Qi Song absently noted how the cloth on one box fluttered, probably whatever was on it falling over from the…scene before him.
One silent glance from Colonel Xing was all the men needed to stop peeking and return to their posts.
Another brief exchange of looks amongst the coalition of bodyguards and they all wordlessly agreed to widen the protective cordon, to give the two young leaders some space. And sweep the area clean of anyone who risked looking into something they most definitely should not.
Everyone also agreed that this incident did not happen.
*****
Azula eventually regained control of herself, enough to quietly appreciate the warmth and reassurance Xing offered. She didn’t know how long she shamefully broke composure, but it must have been a while judging from Xing’s burnt and shredded sleeves, and the visible damp spot on his left shoulder.
“I’m sorry, your highness. My intention was not-”
Azula shook her head, rumpling Xing’s robes as her cheek rubbed against it. “It was a necessary thing,” she said with a sniff. “Better…better now than later, I guess.”
“Thank you,” the princess whispered a little hoarsely.
“There’s nothing to thank, my princess.”
“Not now Xing,” Azula muttered. “Not now.”
“As you say, my princess.”
She pulled back, and Xing’s arms fell away without resistance. “Thank you.” She didn’t need to tell him what for; the look he gave her as he nodded told Azula that he fully understood. The light pressing of his lips against hers for a brief few seconds was all the reply she needed.
“We can talk more about this later, if you’d like. Give yourself more time to think things over.”
Azula nodded. “That…that’s probably the best option.” She then glanced at the obscured crate and forced herself to change subjects. “We have to return back to the main topic.”
Xing didn’t bat an eye and moved to uncover the crate again. The two dragons greeted them with curious gazes, their heads turning together to look between Xing and Azula.
Reining in the last of her composure, the princess nodded at her colonel. “You are right. The Fire Lord can not know about them. Not now, at least.” If they’re going to be weapons, they’ll be her weapons, not his. He’d likely waste the potential of these dragons to further humiliate Zuko.
“Thank you, your highness.”
“Azula.”
Xing froze in confusion.
“You can call me Azula,” she told him plainly. “After everything, you deserve at least that much.”
Despite all that had happened earlier, annoyance wormed into Azula as she saw a smirk creep into his features. “Do you prefer I call you by your name, or if I called you my princess…my princess?”
“Either works,” she answered with a roll of her eyes to cover the lie. She much preferred the latter…so long as they were alone with no one else to listen in.
Thankfully Xing did not waste more time teasing her, and instead had Azula extend a hand towards the still curious, still silent hatchlings. The creatures sniffed at her fingers inquisitively, and then darted out with a soft flap of wings to spiral up her arm. Azula startled a bit from the sudden movement, but the dragons did not seem to mind, and continued to fly up towards her and rest on either side of her shoulder.
There was a delightful tingle down her spine as the dragons pressed their snouts against Azula’s neck and cheek, and nuzzled against the princess. Her hands went up without her thinking, and they carefully stroked the creatures. Out of the box, the princess could pick apart some of the more distinct features on each of the dragons.
The red-scaled one had two pairs of wings, with a series of small bumps at the back of its head that promised to be a crown of horns. On the other hand, the back of the dark-blue one split into multiple tail, each curling and flexing independently, and it only sported two pairs of bumps on its head.
Both were equally…wondrous, in their own way. Not cute.
Well, maybe they were somewhat cute.
Regardless of their differences, both dragons were rumbling contentedly as they continued to rub their heads against the princess, and their tiny claws flexed on her shoulders in a soothing massage.
“You’ll keep them with you?”
Xing shrugged. “I was thinking of leaving one of them with you.” He inclined his head towards the red dragon that was giving out a louder purr. “Probably that one, since she seems to take a liking to you more.”
“She?”
Another shrug. “She told me she’s a she.”
Azula blinked. “You can talk to them?”
Xing raised an open hand and wobbled it. “Sorta. I used my chi to hatch them, so I’m linked to them in some way. I think. That, or dragons and spirits are alike?”
“Right…” With a roll of her eyes, Azula turned her attention to the dragons who shifted away from their perch and began to fly around each other in a spiraling dance.
“I haven’t come up with a name for her, by the way. I’ll leave it up to you?”
Azula found herself blinking dumbly again, raising her arm instinctively as the red hatchling flew to land on her forearm. “Name?”
“Yeah,” the infuriating colonel said as he nodded casually at the other dragon who landed by draping itself on his shoulders like a scarf, the multiple tails flicking about in a hypnotic fashion.
“So you’ve named the other one?”
“Eh, I have a name for him I think, but I’ll wait ‘til you come up with one for her before making it official. So they don’t get jealous.”
“Quite.” Azula locked gazes with the curious eyes of the red-scale on her arm. What’s a good dragon name? It might take some researching…
“Anyway, are you sure you want to leave one with me?”
Xing nodded slowly, ignoring the dark-sapphire snout grazing against the bottom of his jaw. “If you want to. For now they’re small enough to hide in most places. Consider it…well, it’s not kind to call them gifts…” Both dragons snorted audibly and wisps of smoke out their flared nostrils at that. “...so consider it a show of trust? And a sign of our bond?”
Azula narrowed her eyes at that last part. “Our bond, hm?”
“It might be a bit presumptuous of me, but-”
The princess took one long step towards Xing, the dragons wisely flying out of the way to allow her to grab the boy by the shoulders and bring her lips against his. This time, the kiss lasted longer and was far less chaste, as Azula’s tongue darted out to duel with Xing’s. Her hands wandered down to his strong chest, while his remained holding onto her shoulders.
A soft growl from the dragons made Xing pull away and end the moment of passion. Before she could complain about it, she saw the hatchlings fly back into the crate and her colonel flipping the cloth over to hide them.
Footsteps could be heard several seconds later, followed by a polite knock on the door. “Your highness? Colonel?” Lieutenant Koshi inquired a bit too formally. “Is…uh, is everything alright now?”
Now?
Xing didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah, Koshi.”
“Very well, sir. A summons has arrived for the crown princess. Her guards have confirmed that she’s due for a meeting to officiate her new title as Colonial Minister.”
“Thank you, lieutenant,” Azula responded. “I’ll be out shortly.”
She waited for Koshi’s footsteps to fade before turning back to Xing, licking her lips slowly as she savored the lingering taste of him. “You’re not being presumptuous, Xing,” Azula said with a small grin. “We’ll talk later. About…me being…me. And about the dragons. And about our…bond.”
“I will eagerly await your return then, my princess. And congratulations on the new title.”
“Mm…” She leaned in for another, faster kiss, and then headed for the door. She’d have to carefully ponder a lot of things later. For now, Azula had to prepare herself to accept the title they’d been planning for all this while. A major step in establishing herself as a worthy heir to the public’s eyes, and maybe, with recent realizations, a step towards being a princess on her own terms.
Xing’s taste lingered on her tongue, making Azula break into a smile. Ambition was well and good, but the fresh revelations also reminded her that it didn’t hurt to…enjoy the simpler things.
“You- I thought…”
Xing, damn him, grinned at Azula’s stuttering. “What did you think, your highness?”
Azula tore her gaze away from the surprise to glare at him. “I thought you said your attempt destroyed the eggs?”
The boy bowed with mock formality. “I said that the eggs exploded after I channeled my chi into them, your highness. Perhaps I should have added that the explosion was caused by the hatchlings within.”
Words failed the princess, and she could only turn her attention back to the two creatures that shouldn’t exist. Right now they seemed like small serpents with legs and a head that was a cross between a dragon moose and a mongoose lizard. One was colored in scales of vibrant iridescent red, its feline eyes a softly glowing amber. The other was a shimmering shade of midnight blue so dark that it could be mistaken as black, with misty blue eyes.
The baby dragons curled up on their respective cushions inside a crate set sideways. The sackcloth serving as a simple curtain had been fully pulled away to reveal them and allow the hatchlings to fix their wide, keen eyes on Azula as their heads tilted in a most definitely un-cute fashion.
She returned to glaring at Xing. “Why are you hiding them from my father? You sacrificed four eggs for these two?”
“There was no life to sacrifice.”
That made Azula reel back. “Those eggs were duds? You lied to my father? To the whole court?”
“I did not lie, my princess,” he answered smoothly. Too smoothly. “Everything I said was true. I merely…left out some parts. The eggs offered to him were pieced together from the shells I found from the nest. I’d say I did a pretty good job of restoring them to an intact state, all things considered. I never said that they were live eggs, and I did say that the eggs were worthless to me.”
This boy… “Lying by omission, especially to the Fire Lord, is a grave crime, you dolt!”
Surprisingly, Xing bowed his head. “Then drag me to the Fire Lord, your highness. I will not resist.”
Azula’s mind came to a halt for a few confused seconds before she finally managed to whisper out a single word. “Wh-why?”
Xing’s head rose to meet her gaze, fixing the princess with a chilling stare. “If I may be frank, your highness?” After she managed to nod dumbly, he gave a tight, grim smile. “I do not trust in the…abilities of the Fire Lord in tending to dragons. However he rates as a ruler, however capable he is as a…duellist, he is ill-suited to raise dragons.”
He flashed a sneer of utter disdain, startling Azula. “I only need to look at the monstrous treatment of his children as proof.”
She should hit him, burn him for his treacherous words. She should call in her bodyguards to break every bone in Xing’s body before dragging him to her father.
But Azula remained silent and still, transfixed by his unflinching gaze as a disturbing corner of her mind admitted that her colonel was right; That the Fire Lord, in hindsight, was a poor father, and would no doubt ruin the dragons if he got his cold, callous hands on them.
He wasted Zuko’s potential out of some unreasonable hate, oppressing her brother with disapproval and contempt up until his exile.
And when Azula thought about it a little harder, her own upbringing was barely any better. Looking back at his praise, his rare words of advice, and his even rarer guidance, the Fire Lord had treated her more as a…a tool. Something to be molded and…and hammered into a shape of his liking, even long before his ascension.
She was raised to be better than Zuko. That was it. Even before her father’s ascension, her interests were strictly guided towards being better than Zuko in any field he partook in. She received praise and favor only because it could be used to compare against and deride her brother. She was reprimanded only if her abilities were on par with Zuko.
He called her daughter, yet ever since he decided on his disgust of Zuko, father had rarely treated her as such.
Mother feared her, likely even despised her, and found it much easier to care for her softer, more sympathetic brother.
All Azula was, now that she really thought about it, was to be an unachievable measuring stick, a tool to spite her brother.
It was only thanks to her time with the 11th and their plain respect of her, thanks to Ren and Ping’s fearlessly taking her in as their little sister, thanks to Xing’s casual affection… It was all of that that acquainted Azula with a warmth she had been missing out on.
“Princess?” Xing’s concerned voice snapped Azula out of her crashing realizations. “Are you alright?”
“I…” Azula’s cracked, wavering whisper betrayed her state of mind. “I’m-”
She was a princess, not a daughter.
She was a prodigious firebender, and a horrendous sister.
She was…she was…
She was suddenly up against Xing, his body pressing lightly against hers as his hands soothingly patted her back. “No, my princess,” he cooed softly as he leaned back to look her in the eyes. His worried smile felt so comforting for some reason. “You’re not. Not yet. Not ever.”
Azula opened her mouth to say something, anything her jumbled brain could figure out. But instead a strangled sob escaped her, and with that an invisible barrier shattered.
*****
Qi Song exchanged glances with his colleagues and the colonel’s bodyguards as they heard a strange, disturbing noise from the colonel’s office. He and a few others peeked through the window to find the surprising source of it. The colonel was gently embracing the crown princess, soothing her as her shoulders heaved and she sobbed into his shoulders. She grabbed onto his robes as if hanging on for dear life, and it seemed like it was only his arms that kept the young princess up on her feet.
Out of the corner of his vision, Qi Song absently noted how the cloth on one box fluttered, probably whatever was on it falling over from the…scene before him.
One silent glance from Colonel Xing was all the men needed to stop peeking and return to their posts.
Another brief exchange of looks amongst the coalition of bodyguards and they all wordlessly agreed to widen the protective cordon, to give the two young leaders some space. And sweep the area clean of anyone who risked looking into something they most definitely should not.
Everyone also agreed that this incident did not happen.
*****
Azula eventually regained control of herself, enough to quietly appreciate the warmth and reassurance Xing offered. She didn’t know how long she shamefully broke composure, but it must have been a while judging from Xing’s burnt and shredded sleeves, and the visible damp spot on his left shoulder.
“I’m sorry, your highness. My intention was not-”
Azula shook her head, rumpling Xing’s robes as her cheek rubbed against it. “It was a necessary thing,” she said with a sniff. “Better…better now than later, I guess.”
“Thank you,” the princess whispered a little hoarsely.
“There’s nothing to thank, my princess.”
“Not now Xing,” Azula muttered. “Not now.”
“As you say, my princess.”
She pulled back, and Xing’s arms fell away without resistance. “Thank you.” She didn’t need to tell him what for; the look he gave her as he nodded told Azula that he fully understood. The light pressing of his lips against hers for a brief few seconds was all the reply she needed.
“We can talk more about this later, if you’d like. Give yourself more time to think things over.”
Azula nodded. “That…that’s probably the best option.” She then glanced at the obscured crate and forced herself to change subjects. “We have to return back to the main topic.”
Xing didn’t bat an eye and moved to uncover the crate again. The two dragons greeted them with curious gazes, their heads turning together to look between Xing and Azula.
Reining in the last of her composure, the princess nodded at her colonel. “You are right. The Fire Lord can not know about them. Not now, at least.” If they’re going to be weapons, they’ll be her weapons, not his. He’d likely waste the potential of these dragons to further humiliate Zuko.
“Thank you, your highness.”
“Azula.”
Xing froze in confusion.
“You can call me Azula,” she told him plainly. “After everything, you deserve at least that much.”
Despite all that had happened earlier, annoyance wormed into Azula as she saw a smirk creep into his features. “Do you prefer I call you by your name, or if I called you my princess…my princess?”
“Either works,” she answered with a roll of her eyes to cover the lie. She much preferred the latter…so long as they were alone with no one else to listen in.
Thankfully Xing did not waste more time teasing her, and instead had Azula extend a hand towards the still curious, still silent hatchlings. The creatures sniffed at her fingers inquisitively, and then darted out with a soft flap of wings to spiral up her arm. Azula startled a bit from the sudden movement, but the dragons did not seem to mind, and continued to fly up towards her and rest on either side of her shoulder.
There was a delightful tingle down her spine as the dragons pressed their snouts against Azula’s neck and cheek, and nuzzled against the princess. Her hands went up without her thinking, and they carefully stroked the creatures. Out of the box, the princess could pick apart some of the more distinct features on each of the dragons.
The red-scaled one had two pairs of wings, with a series of small bumps at the back of its head that promised to be a crown of horns. On the other hand, the back of the dark-blue one split into multiple tail, each curling and flexing independently, and it only sported two pairs of bumps on its head.
Both were equally…wondrous, in their own way. Not cute.
Well, maybe they were somewhat cute.
Regardless of their differences, both dragons were rumbling contentedly as they continued to rub their heads against the princess, and their tiny claws flexed on her shoulders in a soothing massage.
“You’ll keep them with you?”
Xing shrugged. “I was thinking of leaving one of them with you.” He inclined his head towards the red dragon that was giving out a louder purr. “Probably that one, since she seems to take a liking to you more.”
“She?”
Another shrug. “She told me she’s a she.”
Azula blinked. “You can talk to them?”
Xing raised an open hand and wobbled it. “Sorta. I used my chi to hatch them, so I’m linked to them in some way. I think. That, or dragons and spirits are alike?”
“Right…” With a roll of her eyes, Azula turned her attention to the dragons who shifted away from their perch and began to fly around each other in a spiraling dance.
“I haven’t come up with a name for her, by the way. I’ll leave it up to you?”
Azula found herself blinking dumbly again, raising her arm instinctively as the red hatchling flew to land on her forearm. “Name?”
“Yeah,” the infuriating colonel said as he nodded casually at the other dragon who landed by draping itself on his shoulders like a scarf, the multiple tails flicking about in a hypnotic fashion.
“So you’ve named the other one?”
“Eh, I have a name for him I think, but I’ll wait ‘til you come up with one for her before making it official. So they don’t get jealous.”
“Quite.” Azula locked gazes with the curious eyes of the red-scale on her arm. What’s a good dragon name? It might take some researching…
“Anyway, are you sure you want to leave one with me?”
Xing nodded slowly, ignoring the dark-sapphire snout grazing against the bottom of his jaw. “If you want to. For now they’re small enough to hide in most places. Consider it…well, it’s not kind to call them gifts…” Both dragons snorted audibly and wisps of smoke out their flared nostrils at that. “...so consider it a show of trust? And a sign of our bond?”
Azula narrowed her eyes at that last part. “Our bond, hm?”
“It might be a bit presumptuous of me, but-”
The princess took one long step towards Xing, the dragons wisely flying out of the way to allow her to grab the boy by the shoulders and bring her lips against his. This time, the kiss lasted longer and was far less chaste, as Azula’s tongue darted out to duel with Xing’s. Her hands wandered down to his strong chest, while his remained holding onto her shoulders.
A soft growl from the dragons made Xing pull away and end the moment of passion. Before she could complain about it, she saw the hatchlings fly back into the crate and her colonel flipping the cloth over to hide them.
Footsteps could be heard several seconds later, followed by a polite knock on the door. “Your highness? Colonel?” Lieutenant Koshi inquired a bit too formally. “Is…uh, is everything alright now?”
Now?
Xing didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah, Koshi.”
“Very well, sir. A summons has arrived for the crown princess. Her guards have confirmed that she’s due for a meeting to officiate her new title as Colonial Minister.”
“Thank you, lieutenant,” Azula responded. “I’ll be out shortly.”
She waited for Koshi’s footsteps to fade before turning back to Xing, licking her lips slowly as she savored the lingering taste of him. “You’re not being presumptuous, Xing,” Azula said with a small grin. “We’ll talk later. About…me being…me. And about the dragons. And about our…bond.”
“I will eagerly await your return then, my princess. And congratulations on the new title.”
“Mm…” She leaned in for another, faster kiss, and then headed for the door. She’d have to carefully ponder a lot of things later. For now, Azula had to prepare herself to accept the title they’d been planning for all this while. A major step in establishing herself as a worthy heir to the public’s eyes, and maybe, with recent realizations, a step towards being a princess on her own terms.
Xing’s taste lingered on her tongue, making Azula break into a smile. Ambition was well and good, but the fresh revelations also reminded her that it didn’t hurt to…enjoy the simpler things.
