Azula, it's me, open the door please," Zuko said, lightly knocking on the door of the room that Azula was staying in.
"What is it?" Azula called impatiently.
"I just want to talk to you," Zuko said as he opened the door and walked in. "I..." Whatever Zuko was about to say died on the tip of his tongue. Once inside the room, he saw Azula sitting in a chair, lazily leaning against the backrest with her legs crossed and a cup of tea in one hand as she observed the woman in front of her that was nervously painting, sweat dripping from her forehead.
"I am busy, Zu-Zu," Azula said, glaring at him for interrupting her personal time. "What do you want?" She asked impatiently.
"I...I just wanted to talk to you," Zuko said quietly, ripping his gaze away from the painting. "I just wanted to check in on how you were doing."
"I am perfectly fine, thank you very much," Azula rolled her eyes before taking a sip of her tea.
"Yeah, well I just..." Zuko paused and stared at Azula for a second. "Is that Uncle Iroh's tea?" He asked, recognising the smell.
"Yeah, he gave it to me, said it soothes the mind," She replied.
"Does it work?" Zuko couldn't help but ask.
"Honestly, a little bit," She told him, sounding somewhat annoyed at admitting that.
"Huh," Zuko adopted a thoughtful expression. "I should try it sometime then, he has been telling me to do so for a while. Anyway, I...I guess I'll leave you to it." He added awkwardly.
"Probably best." She nodded.
"Though, um...well...if you ever want to talk or something...I guess what I am trying to say is that I'm here for you if you need me." He added before heading to the door, stopping to take one last look at the large half-finished painting of Harry's face with a green fire background. He shook his head before exiting the room and closing the door behind him, he had barely taken two steps away from the door when he heard Azula's voice as she 'gently encouraged' the painter.
"If you don't get his eyes the right shade of green then I swear on all the fire in the world that I will end your entire bloodline!"
"She loves those eyes," Zuko muttered to himself before walking away.
"What are you doing?" Katara asked Harry who was currently slapping Sokka repeatedly across the face. The young waterbender had decided to go to the nearest town to pick up some essential food items that they had forgotten to buy yesterday before they set up camp. When Katara returned it was to find Aang resting on Appa's head with a goofy smile on his face with a pipe dangling from his mouth. Meanwhile, Sokka had now shifted into the fetal position and was trying to cover up as Harry slapped him on his head, neck and wherever he could reach.
"Give me a moment," Harry barked at her before slapping Sokka hard on the back of his head. "I'm about to kill your brother!" He growled before digging his knuckles hard into an exposed part of Sokka's head.
"I said I'm sorry!" Sokka cried out before rolling away and quickly rushing towards Katara and hiding behind her. "Protect me!" He whispered desperately. "He's really pissed off!"
"I can see that," Katara said dryly as Harry growled and stood up, he tried to circle around Katara to grab Sokka but then Sokka would start moving in the opposite direction, it wasn't too long before the two ended up walking in circles around the young waterbender.
"Sokka, stay still and take your well-deserved beating like a man!" Harry growled at him.
"I didn't mean to!" Sokka protested.
"I know, but rest assured that when I beat you with your own legs it will be entirely on purpose!" Harry snarled.
"Alright, stop!" Katara said in a firm voice, causing both boys to stop moving and look at her. "Now, can one of you please explain to me just what has happened? Calmly please,"
"He got the fucking Avatar high!" Harry yelled angrily, gesturing to Aang.
"Ha, funny lights," Aang snorted, speaking in a sleepy voice, he started sliding down Appa's head and down his face before landing on his lower lip. "I've never felt so relaxed in my life," Aang giggled before falling face-first onto the ground.
"Sokka, what did you do?!" Katara demanded, rounding on her older brother.
"I told you already! He got him high!" Harry shouted.
"I didn't mean to!" Sokka said quickly. "I bought some at the market yesterday,"
"Why?!" Katara blurted out in an exasperated voice. "Why would you do that?!"
"The guy said it would help me relax!" Sokka said defensively. "I'm stressed!"
"I'll stress your neck!" Harry cut in.
"Harry, let me handle this," Katara told a fuming Harry. "So, what happened?" She demanded.
"I had left it in my bag, Aang found it and the next thing I know is that he and Momo are high."
"Wait, what?!" Harry blinked before giving him a penetrating look. "What the fuck do you mean Momo is high? Where is he?"
"Um...well..." Sokka clicked his tongue before walking over to Appa and gesturing for the sky bison to move, Appa grunted before moving himself out of the way to reveal that Momo was lying underneath him in a small hole, lying face down on the ground, just like how Aang currently was lying down.
"Oh, I'm going to kill you," Harry said, glaring at him. "It wasn't bad enough that you got the protector of the world high, you didn't even spare some for me! If anyone needs stress relief, it's me!"
"Really?!" Katara demanded, staring at Harry.
"And to make things even worse, you got his lemur high as well!" Harry continued on as if Katara hadn't spoken at all.
"It was an accident!" Sokka protested. "What do you even want me to do now?!"
"I want you to stay still and get burnt," Harry answered bluntly.
"You will not be burning my brother," Katara told him. "No matter how much he might deserve it." She couldn't help but add.
"Fine, but I'm still hurting him,"
"Fine,"
"What?!" Sokka blurted out.
Later that night, as the gang sat by the campfire, Harry did his best to not smirk as Sokka sullenly rubbed his jaw. The group was quietly sitting, eating their food when suddenly Aang spoke up.
"Guys, I think...I think I had a vision, earlier I mean," Aang told them.
"Wow, you must have given him the really good stuff," Harry said to Sokka.
"I'm serious," Aang replied. "I think it really was a proper vision, like a real one,"
"Weed activates avatar visions?" Harry whispered to himself in a confused voice. "Huh, go figure,"
"What was the vision about?" Katara asked Aang, staring at him curiously.
"There was this girl," Aang began answering. "She was standing on a hill, wearing an expensive-looking dress. There was a winged pig with her as well."
"Well, that's not weird at all," Sokka muttered. "Is the girl pretty?" He asked.
"Huh?" Aang blinked. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Well..." Sokka trailed off when he saw Katara glaring at him. "...Nothing."
"Are you sure it's like a real vision?" Harry asked. "Like, how sure are you that it's not just the weed? You know, the one that a certain prick couldn't be bothered to share." He added, making sure to send a glare to Sokka.
"He wasn't even supposed to have some!" Sokka blurted out, gesturing to Aang.
"Oh, by the way, do you have any more?" Aang asked, somewhat hopefully.
"No," Katara, Sokka and Harry said at the same time.
"Mai, Ty Lee," Zuko said in a solemn voice. "We need to speak about Azula,"
The two non-benders had joined the young Fire Nation prince in his room and had sat down with him to discuss the strongest member of their little group.
"But first," Mai turned to face Ty Lee. "Where did you get that from?" She asked, gesturing to the cup of tea in Ty Lee's hands.
"Oh, General Iroh gave it to me," Ty Lee chirped, sounding quite happy. "It's jasmine tea, do you want some?" She offered with her usual bright smile.
"No," Mai said in a flat voice before Zuko decided to interrupt.
"Hi, I'm sorry, can I continue or what?" The young firebender asked in a sarcastic voice.
"If you want," Mai shrugged, sounding entirely unbothered by the whole thing.
"Glad I have your seal of approval," Zuko said dryly. "Now, I want to talk about Azula. Since my banishment, I haven't spent much time with her."
"Obviously," Mai nodded.
"Obviously," Zuko repeated back. "But lately to me, she seems off, different."
"It's probably because of Harry," Ty Lee guessed.
"It's definitely because of Harry," Zuko confirmed. "She has a painter making a painting of him."
"She's obsessed with him," Mai replied in her usual monotone voice. "She was especially upset once he left, though she didn't hide it half as well as she liked."
"What do you mean?" Zuko asked, the two girls exchanged looks, there was a form of unspoken communication that seemed to happen between them before they turned back to him.
"There was a...incident...shortly after Harry had left," Ty Lee began, speaking in a somewhat careful voice. "She had been barely keeping it together when she had gotten a marriage proposal from the Danika family,"
"I've met them before," Zuko hummed thoughtfully. "Their son is a pretty strong firebender."
"Azula nearly burnt him to ash," Mai told him bluntly, surprising him.
"What? What for?"
"He was quite insistent on her considering his proposal," Ty Lee continued speaking. "And she didn't react well, so she...well..."
"Nearly burnt him to ash," Mai repeated herself.
"Pretty much," Ty Lee nodded. "The Danika family were rather furious with the whole incident, the fact that their son and heir was now all burnt up and barely clinging to life had them become very upset, to say the least. Then your father, Lord Ozai, got involved and after that, nobody is really sure what happened."
"Though there are rumours of the Danika family moving to a Fire Nation colony far away from here," Mai cut in. "Which I take to mean that there's a fifty-fifty per cent chance that your father either bribed them to be quiet or killed them all, could go either way really."
"Azula really misses Harry, the two are soul mates," Ty Lee said in a matter-of-fact voice.
"I'm just worried about her," Zuko sighed. "I hope her plans succeed, but...what if Harry gets hurt? What if she gets hurt?"
"So, just to clarify, we're going somewhere that's like halfway across the world based on a vision that Aang had that may or may not be real, right?" Sokka asked as the group rested on top of Appa while the sky-bison flew through the air.
"That pretty much sums it up, yeah," Harry nodded, sitting opposite Katara in the saddle, sitting closest to Appa's tail while Sokka sat in-between them and Aang sat on Appa's head with Momo sitting on his lap. "Though I don't actually think it's halfway around the world."
"More like a quarter," Aang guessed.
"Besides, this is all your fault," Katara told Sokka.
"How is this my fault?" Sokka rolled his eyes.
"You're the pony-tailed prat that gave him a hit of the good stuff and because of that he's had visions," Harry shrugged. "He's the avatar, it's entirely possible that his vision might be real, we can't discount it without at least trying to find her."
"So, we find this girl and then what?" Sokka asked Aang. "You going to marry her or something?"
"No," Aang said with a small laugh. "I think she's supposed to be my earthbending teacher, I'm going to find her and have her teach me Earthbending."
"Why can't Harry do it?" Sokka couldn't help but ask. "Would save us from another around-the-world trip,"
"I'm hardly an earthbending master," Harry shrugged. "Truth be told, I wouldn't mind learning from this girl either, earthbending is pretty fun."
"You've not really completely mastered waterbending yet," Katara said to Aang before turning her attention to Harry. "Is it really the best idea for him to start learning a new element right now?"
"It'll take him a while to master waterbending but he'll keep practising, he has at least mastered the basics," Harry replied. "He'll need to master the basics of Earth as well, then I can get him started on firebending."
"Cool," Aang grinned. "Hey, your fire is green and your girlfriend's fire is blue, what colour do you think mine will be?"
"Pink," Harry answered straight-faced.
"What?!"
"Hmm," Azula hummed to herself as she stared at the finished painting in front of her. "Harry's eyes aren't perfectly symmetrical, I should burn that painter's hands for that."
"Nonsense," Uncle Iroh said, stepping up next to her and handing her a cup of tea. "The poor woman did her best under the circumstances, not everyone strives under pressure like yourself, Princess Azula. Artists especially need freedom to do their best work, the more you restrict them and control them as they work, the more you damage the art."
"Truly?" Azula asked, staring up at him.
"Of course, it's much like with firebending, you have to be focused and disciplined," He told her before taking a sip of his own tea. "I dare say that this picture is pretty good, as for his eyes, I would just imagine that he had started closing them or that he was squinting slightly."
"I suppose that is just about acceptable," Azula said, scrunching her nose up slightly as she looked at the picture. "It doesn't seem perfect though."
"It shouldn't be," Uncle Iroh smiled patiently at her. "Life is about imperfection, Princess, without that, life becomes meaningless."
"What do you mean?" She frowned at him.
"If you were born perfect then you wouldn't need to train, you wouldn't need to eat or drink or breathe or sleep," He told her. "You'd have no challenges, no excitement and nothing to strive for. Besides, what one person might consider perfect, another might consider horrible. Perfection is not possible, Princess Azula, it's not a goal that one should strive for."
"Then what?" Azula asked quickly. "If not perfection then what should I reach for?"
"Your best," Uncle Iroh answered. "That is all that anyone can ask of you."
"My best wasn't enough," She muttered bitterly, looking at the picture in front of her. "I have my best and he still left."
"He didn't leave because he found a fault with you, Princess," Uncle Iroh said with a sad smile on his face.
"Then why? Why did he leave?!" Azula demanded.
"Harry is much like yourself, talented and smart and powerful, but much like yourself, he is not perfect. Maybe he thought that was his best option, maybe he didn't see a better option or hadn't thought of one. For one reason or the other, he felt like he had to leave. I can't answer why, but I say this with full confidence, Princess Azula, the last thing Harry would ever want is to hurt you." He told her, watching as her gaze drifted from him to the painting. 'I failed you once, Princess,' He thought to himself. 'I shall endeavour to make up for it.'