honey [azula]

escape

.·:*¨ ¨*:·.

you're coming home

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"SO..." Aang said, smiling slyly as Airi led him towards the belly of the ship. "I bet you've never fought an airbender before. I bet I could take you with my hands tied behind my back."

Airi giggled under her breath. "I have no doubt that you could, Avatar Aang. But I'm not interested in fighting you."

"You're not?" Aang asked surprised. Airi nodded. She felt split in half, unsure if she wanted to let the boy go, or restrain him and make sure she could get back to the fire nation as soon as possible. "But... aren't you ponytail's girlfriend, or something?"

Airi scowled, distorting her dainty features. "Watch it, airhead," she warned. "I'm not Prince Zuko's girlfriend, I'm his babysitter." She rolled her eyes.

"Oh," Aang said, sounding sorry. "What do you mean babysitter?"

"I'm only here to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid," she clarified, and for the millionth time, she felt the tug in her chest, as though someone was playing tug of war with her heart. Azula, or her morals. The fire nation, or the life of a little boy. Usually, Airi let Azula win, and she was just about ready to throw the Avatar in the worlds strongest chains and lock him in the most secure prison in the world. However, she remembered Azula's plan, mentioned in the letter from before. And in that moment, she realized that she could get what she wanted in both instances. The boy could walk away, no stain on her conscience, and instead of Airi going to Azula, Avatar in toe, Azula would come to her.

"Does he do stupid stuff often?" Aang asked curiously. Airi made him take a sharp left as she made up her mind, her heart pounding in her ears as she committed hat was probably treason.

"Look at where you are, is that not answer enough?" Airi replied sharply. She reached towards his ties and sliced them off with a blade of fire. He stared at her confused.

"Thanks?" he asked, unsure of what was going on. Airi grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Listen up kid, I need you to knock me out, run upstairs through this hallway, go to the third room on the left, grab your staff, and run," Airi explained, her urgent tone coming off harsher than she meant for it to. She took a deep breath, registering that she had sounded mildly like Zuko in her instructions, and tried again. "You need to get out of here and I'm helping you."

"But no one can know, right?" Aang said with understanding. "I've heard enough about spies to know what's going on. Can do- wait, what's your name?"

"It's Airi," Airi sighed, knowing that the kid probably wouldn't give up until she answered. "Now, hurry. The longer you wait, the closer to fire nation waters you get and the worse this ends up if it fails."

"Okay, sorry in advance then! It was nice  meeting you, Airi!" The boy chirped, before sending a blast of air at Airi, who didn't even have time to blink  before the blast picked her up, and knocked her cleanly against the metal wall of the ship. She heard his footsteps patter away as her head spun and black spots danced in front of her eyes. Her hearing muffled, and then faded to ringing as she was quickly overtaken by unconsciousness.

For Azula, she would do anything.

•| ⊱✿⊰ |•

Airi could feel her heart pounding in the back of the head. She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned as she became more and more aware of the pain. Her hand moved to try and cup the painful area when a hand gripped her arm to stop her.

"Don't touch it."

The hand set her arm down again and she opened her eyes, confused to see Prince Zuko siting next to her in her quarters.

"Where's the avatar?" she croaked, asking, hoping that he had escaped, though nothing in her bicycle gave that away.

"Gone," Zuko replied, scowling. "We're tracking him and his little friends."

"Oh," Airi said, shutting her eyes again.

"What happened when the avatar escaped? You didn't let him get away, did you?" Zuko asked, and it was sad that Airi was impressed that he managed to Lee his anger below the surface. She opened her eyes and stared at him incredulously.

"I got knocked out against a wall by him," she said monotonously. "Does it look like I let him get away?"

"The ends of his ties were burnt," Zuko continued, implying that a fire bender must have cut them. Which, of course, Airi had, but she wasn't about to tell that to Zuko. Besides, she had learned how to lie from Azula. She knew lies and deceit for her own gain like they had raised her. She knew how to twist words to make people do whatever they wanted for her. And she hated it. But for Azula... when it was for Azula, it was different. She would do anything.

"His ties were still attached when he fought me," Airi lied seamlessly. "He might have burned them off himself."

The prince frowned, but seemed satisfied enough with her answer. "Rest," he commanded. "I don't want you to be injured next time we have a fight."

"Yes, Prince Zuko," Airi replied, closing her eyes again. She heard him sigh heavily, then stand and leave. When he was gone, she opened her eyes and slowly moved to sit up, grabbing a piece of parchment and her calligraphy brush, and writing hastily.

Azula,

We found him. He escaped Prince Zuko this time. We will continue to track him until he is captured.

-Airi

Airi moved slowly to the messenger hawk, resting on its perch in her room. "To the Princess," she instructed, and the bird squawked, hopped, and found it's way out the open door- if Airi didn't ache all over, she would have made sure Zuko learned how to close a door properly. She fell back onto the bed, closing her eyes.

She was going to see Azula soon, Avatar or not. It was only a matter of time.

.·:*¨ ¨*:·.

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written: 7/15
edited:-
word count: 1036

an: hello! in case you were confused, airi lets aang go because she knows what the fire nation will do to him, and in her eyes, he's just a little boy. her loyalties are not with the fire nation, they're with azula. and she doesn't care how she gets back to azula, she just needs to.
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