The Archer [Zuko]

➳ 12 ➳

I have no idea what to wear to Zuko's room. Do I wear my nightgown? Do I wear my regular clothes? Do I wear just my cape to see how he would react? I probably shouldn't do that; he would probably kick me out of the palace if I did that to him. I guess I should play it safe and wear my regular clothes without my cape. I don't need that tonight. At least, not in the future I see. I still sling my bow around my chest with my quiver full of arrows. I might need that tonight.

Slowly pushing my door open, I step out into the corridor. It's not too late that I'm breaking any sort of rules or anything, but I do feel that I need to sneak around. Not many people are able to go to Zuko's room, let alone me. He does have a girlfriend, after all. But we're just friends. Technically, we're just friends who kissed while he's dating someone else, but that doesn't matter much right now. Or does it? I'm not sure.

"Heiza."

I slowly turn around and see Azula standing at the end of the hallway, just outside Ty Lee's room. She must have been in there or is just about to go in there when she saw me. She takes a few steps closer to me so we're not so far away from each other.

"Yes?" I ask her. I really don't want her to talk to me right now because I'm afraid of what she's going to say to me. Hopefully, she can't see through my facade.

"Where are you going?" she asks me.

"I usually wander around the palace at night because I can't sleep." That's not a full lie. I do wander most nights, but it's because I'm trying to find the jeweled bow, not because I can't sleep. "What are you doing up now?"

"I can't sleep either." She fidgets with her hands for a second, which is weird. It's like she's nervous about something, but Azula is never nervous. If anything, she's calculating, but never nervous. She cracks a small grin, saying, "We're both lying, aren't we?"

"How could you tell?"

"If you lied your whole life, then you know when someone else is lying." 

I nod once, watching as she composes herself in front of me. Her hair isn't in it's usual topknot; instead, it's hanging down, brushing against her waist. She looks like a different person right now, one that isn't sure of what she's doing. I realize that she's still fourteen and that she's still that little girl at heart, the one who was always worried about pleasing her father. She shouldn't have been brought up this way. Not just her, though. Zuko, Mai, Ty Lee, me. We're all still kids, trying to find our way in this world. 

"Don't you just . . . want to get away sometimes?" I ask her after a few moments of silence. "Doesn't this life become too much?"

And then it's like a candle blazes in her eyes. She's back to the person I know, the cold, smooth, and slightly crazy Princess Azula. "What do you mean? This life is better than what we could have hoped for."

"Right," I say, shrugging. "Maybe I'm a little different than you."

Azula's eyes close for a second, and then she's wrapping her arms around my neck. I stiffen in her embrace, worried that she might have caught on to my charade. "There have been times in my life where I wanted to run away from it all," she whispers to me, and for once, I believe her. "But everyone in the real world thinks I'm a monster, and if you're treated like a monster for long enough, you become one."

Her voice shakes on the last word. I hug her tightly, suddenly becoming worried about her. Azula has been treated like a monster for her whole life, being the most skilled firebender in the whole Fire Nation. Her father has wanted for her to be like this and now that she's achieved it, what's next? 

There's a small seed of doubt in my brain at her words, though. I'm afraid that she's lying to me. I'm afraid that I am falling into her trap, just like I did when I was a child. I'm afraid that I actually kind of like her and that this is all a game to her. But Azula would never show this vulnerable side to anyone, right? So, this has to be true.