Wandering Firebender

Ninety Four: The Patient

Elio maintained a serious expression as he walked into the front office. He had never been here before; he had been trying to schedule a visit for months, but only now was he finally able to discreetly get away from the palace long enough to be here.

"Hi, how can I help you?" The woman at the front held desk asked. She was neatly dressed in formal white clothes with a pink bordering across the edges of the garment. She kept her hands in her lap and smiled politely, seeing that Elio was a man with more authority.

"Uh, I'm here to make a visit. I sent word that I was coming yesterday." He answered.

"Okay. Let me take a look..." She paused to open up a ledger in front of her, "May I have your name?"

"Chinen. Elio Chinen."

"Chinen...ah, here you are, Elio. And you're here to see..." She trailed off as her finger stopped over the name. Elio managed a polite smile and nodded.

"Is she available?"

"Sh...let me go back and make sure." She stood up and quickly shuffled through a door out of Elio's sight, leaving him standing there waiting awkwardly for an answer to his question.

Elio stared down at the open ledger, locating his name written down neatly. His name scanned across the name on the other side of the page. He took in a breath and went over the things he wanted to talk about on this visit.

He had an idea of how this visit was going to go, but truthfully he had to humbly acknowledge that he couldn't predict anything about the conversation he was about to have. He could only try his best to remember everything he wanted to say.

"Elio? A guard will escort you now." The woman peeked her head in through the door she had left through. Elio looked up and nodded.

"Oh okay. Thank you." He replied.

Right on cue, a door to his right opened up and a guard on the other side motioned for Elio to follow him. Elio followed the guard silently through the halls, passing by a few different patients' rooms. He could vaguely hear the sounds of muttering although he couldn't see anyone.

"Wait for a moment," The guard said to him as they stopped by one door in particular. He reached up to slide over a small hatch so he could peer inside of the room.

"Princess, you have a visitor." The guard announced.

"Oh?" A familiar voice chuckled wryly at this unexpected announcement.

The door was opened up and Elio made his way inside the room. The walls were padded around her with one window high up at the top of the wall – it was barred but it at least allowed some natural light to come in.

Then there was her: arms restrained in a straitjacket and only wearing red pants rather than her usual fancy clothing. Her long, dark hair fell freely and spread across her shoulders like twisted strands of blackened silk – more unkempt than he had ever seen it.

But even though she was in a vulnerable state, he still showed respect to the fact that he was in the presence of royalty...

"Elio...did you get a makeover?" She asked with a chuckle, flashing her trademark smooth smile. Elio scoffed at this.

"It's good to see you too, Azula." He said in reply.

"It's been how many months? Long time to wait to come and see me." She pointed out.

"I wanted to come sooner but my work keeps me busy for weeks at a time."

"I noticed the new uniform. I've never seen one like it before." She stated her observation aloud, looking him up and down now.