honey [azula]

the prodigy

of course you can. you're my friend, dum-dum

❉ ╤╤╤╤ ✿ ╤╤╤╤ ❉

SERVING the household of the Fire Lord was the only way for a girl to make her way in the world, other than marrying rich and birthing sons. That was what Airi had heard from her mother anytime she complained that she was tired or wished out loud to be able to play with the other children.

And perhaps, for Airi's family, it was true. Her parents were nobodies, fire nation citizens who lived on the main island and blended in with the crowd wherever they went. They worked in the Fire Lord's palace, as had their parents before them. And though they would never directly admit to it, they wanted power, recognition, money, respect. They wanted to be nobles, to be trusted by the Fire Lord with his deepest secrets, to make a name for themselves and escape the nothingness that had plagued the family ever since the beginning of the 100 year war.

So when, as nothing more than an eight year old girl, Airi was assigned to be a part of Princess Azula's household, her parents were ecstatic. Not because it would give their daughter a chance to spend time with someone near her own age rather than the cook she had worked for before, but for their own benefit.

Airi was considered lucky. The princess liked Airi, and Airi liked the princess. Respect for the royal family had been welded into Airi, and she was almost reverent of the younger, though much more fierce-tongued, princess for the first few months. Azula adored the hero worship and praise she received from the girl, but was much more intrigued by the soft-spoken, innocent nature of her handmaiden. The girl reminded Azula of her mother, though Airi worshiped the every ground that Azula walked on.

Where Ursa thought Azula was a monster, Airi thought she was a god.

Miraculously, the two became close friends. It wasn't uncommon for the royals to befriend their servants, though no one had expected the princess to. In fact, most everyone in the palace adored the young girl. Ursa was hopeful that the young girl's soft, sweet, nature, would impact her daughter and turn her away from psychopathy. Iroh, though he was not in the palace often, saw himself as a young boy, before he had become a fearsome war general. Zuko liked the handmaid because unlike the rest of Azula's friends, she didn't tease him. Even Fire Lord Azulon himself, though he was old and weak when Airi and Azula became friends, could see the thoughtful calculating nature of the quiet girl and thought it was wise for both of his grandchildren to learn from the serving girl.

Zuko didn't think before he spoke, he acted rashly with no concern to the impacts of his actions. Azula was conniving, scheming, planning out the execution of her outcomes with no care as to why she was doing it. Airi was purposeful in every breath she took, she understood the consequences of every flap of a butterfly's wings, she always knew why she must do something, even when it was a reason she didn't agree with.

And it was these traits that made her a culpable fighter, as well as a loyal friend.

•| ⊱✿⊰ |•

Sweat coated Airi's forehead as she dodged Azula's blasts of fire. She threw her hands up a shield of flames protecting her from the blast of blue fire that would have taken her head off. Azula simply laughed as Airi panted, trying to maintain her shield. Her fingers started to tingle, then burn, and she released her shield and knelt.

"You have beaten me. Again," Airi said, though she smiled slightly.

"Oh, you're not surprised. I'm the prodigy of the Fire Nation, of course I beat you," Azula scoffed, though she held her hand out to help Airi stand. Where Airi was sweaty and out of breath, Azula had no less than one hair out of place. "To be quite honest, I don't know why you keep accepting these bets. You loose every time."