Chapter Text
He waited to see her in the crowded market place of Ba Sing Se, the one that sold everything from kimonos to umbrellas. As always, she was late.
Aang's eyes darted over his shoulder looking several shops back. And there she was, keeping her distance but always managing to stay within eyesight, her presence unmistakable even in disguise. He wondered if she thought her disguise was clever, dressing in green like a normal Earth Nation girl. The dress she wore was meant to appear simple but on her it looked elegant, being honest with himself, Aang didn't know what made something elegant, but after seeing her in that dress, the only word he could use to describe it was elegant.
He shook his head, the Princess Azula didn’t get it, she was worse than Zuko. Raised as royalty, they walked different, talked different, even moved different. She had been following him constantly for almost a week and it troubled him how used he was to her presence. It was a distraction, she was a distraction, but as much as he resisted it at first, he was now letting himself be distracted.
As Avatar he was no stranger to being followed especially by members of the fire nation royal family, but this was something else. He didn't mind her being his shadow, and he knew he should. She is dangerous if not deadly, but Aang couldn't help himself, it was fun to him. Fun, the thought of anything with Azula being fun was a scary one but he couldn't deny that he was enjoying this game they'd been playing. She would follow him, he would try to lose her, and together they did this all without anyone knowing. It was kind of like their secret.
Aang didn't like keeping secrets with Azula even if they were the unspoken kind. He swore he must be going mad, playing games with a girl who has tried to kill him on more then one occasion. To make a bad situation worse, It wasn't the only secret he had with her, there was also that kissing thing. He tried to ignore it, to pretend like it didn't happen and for awhile, when Appa was gone, he did. Now that Appa was back safely, the kissing thing followed him around every corner, much like the fire princess who kissed him. Why did she do it, it was an obvious question but that did not make answering it any easier. Aang thought she hated him, she was his enemy and they were supposed to be at war.
He caught one more glimpse of her as he passed through an intersection. Looking ahead he saw Katara arguing with Sokka over a possible destination, thanks to his secret game with Azula, they had spent the morning walking aimlessly through the never ending market place, the kind that could only be found in a city as large as Ba Sing Se. His friends had been urging Aang to leave the city and find a place where his sifu Toph could continue his earth bending training, but he wouldn’t let them leave just yet. Aang knew this game and his secrets with Azula were going somewhere, where exactly he didn't know, but there was a reason behind it all, there had to be he just had to stick around long enough to find it.
Aang didn’t tell his friends any of this, and it bothered him. As much as it made him uncomfortable to keep secrets with Azula, he hated keeping secrets from his friends especially Katara. But Azula was different, he couldn’t explain why, even to himself. So how could he explain it to them?
He watched as Katara argued with her brother. Normally when Aang had a problem he would come to her, but he felt like he had to keep this thing with Azula to himself. He knew Katara would never approve of his game with Azula, she would never allow Azula to follow them under any circumstances. Then there was that kissing thing again. Aang didn't know how she would react to it, but part of him questioned if it was even something she had to know about. Katara kept Jet and whatever was between them to herself, and he knew they had kissed, so he figured when kissing is involved it's something you get to keep to yourself.
“I don’t care what you say, now I am going this way, follow if you want to”
Aang heard Sokka yell.
Apparently, Sokka lost the argument with his sister and was now stomping his feet as he walked ahead. He was tempted to talk to Sokka about his predicament, the game he was playing and the kiss that caused it. Sokka definitely had more experience with girls. There was Yue, the thought of her still making Aang hang his head low in shame, he considered her sacrifice as one of his many failures as an Avatar.Taking a deep breath and relaxing his mind, he thought about Sokka and Suki. They couldn’t keep their hands or lips off each other the last time they were all together, not that he wanted to think too much about what Sokka and his girlfriend did in their tent when they thought everyone was asleep or at least not listening. He wondered if Sokka would even take his situation seriously or would he laugh at him, even tease him. Worse would he be angry, accuse him of putting their whole group in danger. Watching him pout over his little sister getting her way, Aang came to a conclusion, if it was any other princess from any other nation, he might be able to talk to Sokka, but this wasn't just any princess, it was princess Azula of the fire nation.
Aang looked back again to see if Azula was still following them. He wondered if he was checking too much. Unable to see her, he suddenly felt a pang of disappointment, the fire princess continued to distract him even when she wasn’t in sight. Then his eyes found her and for a moment he felt relieved, until he realized her eyes had also found him. Apparently she too had lost sight of him and in searching the crowded Ba Sing Se street they found each other at the same time, causing their eyes to lock.
He watched her panic at being caught, not an expression one normally sees on the fire princess but this was not his first time. The last time he watched her eyes widen and look skittish for a moment was in battle, now in the middle of the street she looked even more out of sorts. Quickly trying to avert her gaze, Azula walked into the stall of a man selling cabbages. Aang couldn’t help but chuckle at the cabbage man who was now yelling at the princess for knocking over his precious cabbages.
“Hey twinkle toes are you going to talk to your girlfriend or am I going to have to do it for you,”
Toph’s voice took Aang’s attention from Azula.
“Uh what, what are you talking about”
Aang cursed himself mentally, he had been caught, his secret was out, and he was now at the mercy of his earth bending sifu.
“Don’t play dumb with me, princess psycho has been following us for a week and its not me she is after”
Toph’s voice showed her enjoyment, she loved being able to see things that others couldn’t.
Aang didn’t say anything, in his defense he really didn’t have an answer for her.
“I said don’t play dumb twinkle toes, I know you’ve noticed her since the beginning and if I catch you looking back at her one more time I am going to drop the ground out from under you,”
Now trying to shift his focus to Katara, he tried to listen in as the water bender attempted to make her brother see reason, Aang hoped if he just ignored Toph she would let it go. As usual he was wrong.
“Fine, I’ll go talk to her”
Toph then dramatically turned around.
“Wait, Toph, please wait”
Aang didn’t want to sound like he was pleading, but he was.
What am I doing, Aang thought to himself, was he really trying to keep Toph from ruining his game. He should let her handle it, Toph could take Azula, and then he wouldn't have to worry about her distractions anymore. But Aang couldn’t help but feel a rush of nervousness at the idea of Toph going up to her, like she would mess it up for him. Aang just couldn’t figure out what that it was, was it the game, was it that kissing thing, and why, why did any of it matter, Since when did Azula become so important.
“Go on twinkle toes...now”
The young earth bender followed her words up by lifting the ground underneath Aang’s feet, the ground moving and sliding him further towards Azula who had now taken notice of their conversation.
Aang nodded his head, reluctantly accepting that this would be the day where he would find out what the game had been leading to, he then used all his courage as Avatar and walked away from his friends before turning a corner knowing Azula would follow him.
“Hey where is Aang going”
Katara, after finally appeasing her older brother’s fragile ego, had noticed Aang and Toph had drifted further behind their group.
Being raised in a small village, Ba Sing Se made her worry, she worried about her friends getting lost and the idea of one of them wandering the maze of streets alone made her anxious.
Katara felt Toph bend the ground beneath her feet making a little hill just large enough to stop her from following Aang who was now out of sight. She turned to the earth bender and gave her a stern yet concerned look.
“Relax sugar queen, he said he had something to take care of, you know Avatar business,”
The sly smile that followed Toph’s words made Katara very nervous.
“Avatar business,”
She muttered to herself as if saying it out loud would help her trust Toph.
“Yes, Avatar business, as in not yours sweetness”
Toph then used the ground to move Katara further along in the direction of Sokka who had begun complaining about their failure to keep up with him.
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Azula’s eyes moved rapidly as she looked over the alleyway she had followed the Avatar into but he was nowhere to be found. Losing the Avatar was Zuzu’s problem not hers, she thought as she felt her blood start to boil with frustration.
“Up here Princess”
The cheerful voice of the Avatar caught Azula’s attention and she quickly looked up to see him standing on the roof of the shop she was in front of.
Scaling the pole of a torch light, she reached the roof in seconds only to watch as the Avatar used his air bending to seemingly fly up to an even higher roof.
Azula thought to herself as she scaled the building, here she was chasing the Avatar again, but unlike Zuzu, she would catch him this time.
Aang continued to a higher building, always checking to make sure Azula was still following. He really was impressed by her ability to keep up with him as he took her higher and higher into the cityscape of Ba Sing Se.
“Wow Azula, in another life you could have been a air bender”
His comment earned him a shot of blue flames in response which he seamlessly dodged as he continued upwards.
Azula never thought she would have to climb so much, usually she brought her victims down to her size before turning them to ash beneath her feet, but the Avatar was different.
Different, the thought of the Avatar and all the ways he was different made her heart beat at an uncomfortable rate, causing her to shake her head, doing her best to erase the thought and the feelings that it came with.
The air was changing, the warmth that had been trapped between the tall buildings was gone and the crowded street appeared smaller and smaller.
Finally Aang had reached what he believed to be the tallest building in the city. He knew when Azula fire bended she cared little for those around her, and if he wasn’t careful she could burn people or even set the whole city on fire.
Waiting for Azula to reach the rooftop, he sat as if he was meditating, facing away from the ledge she was struggling to climb over. Once atop, she fumed at the sight of the Avatar, looking so calm in his pose.
The heat nearing the back of his bald head told Aang she had arrived, and hopping to his feet he evaded her fire and landed facing her.
Azula was struggling to catch her breath, what had started out as an easy exercise in her physical agility had become a vertical marathon. She had been trying very hard to conceal her fatigue but the more she did the harder she breathed causing her to feel something very unusual, she was embarrassed.
“Av, Va, Tar”
Each breath made even his name hard to say.
“Relax princess, take your time”
Aang said with a smile.