Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Precious Illusions ❯ Miss Independent ( Chapter 3 )

Author Notes: "Are you feet tired, because you've been running through my mind all day long!"

 

Disclaimer: Is not mine, I could never make up something so beautiful and predictable as it, though I do wish I had Zuko (I would lock him in my room and never leave). It belongs to Nickelodeon (I think) and its creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

 

Warnings: language (the f word is used twice in the fic), a bit of violence, emotional turmoil, insanity, yuri (light and far away), shoujo ai, mentions of shounen ai/yaoi. Original characters, made up avatar creatures (that's all the warning I can think of off the top of my head).

 

Miss Independent by Kelly Clarkson

Chapter Three

Miss Independent

 

“Come on Miss Priss, we need to keep going!” shouted Saki, her feet hardly hitting the ground as she observed her new surroundings.

 

“Some of us aren't used to walking through avatar forsaken forest that are so overgrown it's not even close to funny,” said Azula in irritation. “And stop calling me that!”

 

“You were the one that gave me the inspiration. I mean, I need more reason to keep you then simply doing a kind deed to humanity, don't I?” said Saki happily.

 

“You've got to be kidding me,” complained Azula, she could hear Ty Lee's giggle and Mai's humorless laugh. “Shut up!”

 

“No one's laughing,” shouted Saki.

 

“Then how did you know I was yelling at someone who was laughing at me?” demanded Azula.

 

“Transparent,” sang Saki, somewhere in a tree. Azula rested by said tree and looked at dirt crusted nails, and then glared at her dirt crusted nails. This Saki was irritating. She couldn't strike fear into this girl's heart, Saki didn't pity her, and she didn't believe in cutting breaks for insane wanderers. Azula had pushed the Saki down a slope; Saki had called her a child and come up unscathed. Saki was amazingly bendable, but she hit a point when she wouldn't back down -- where she wouldn't take Azula's crap.

 

Azula also had to be careful what she said. This girl had a family that remembered the time the fire benders attacked, Saki resented the fire benders. She had been so isolated from anything outside her mountain; she didn't even know the war was over, that a supposed kind king had become Fire Lord. Azula had to pretend to be skeptical but grateful for the change. Saki had looked at her weird after what she said, but accepted the general gist, only saying that something drastic would have to happen before she trusted fire benders again.

 

“I'm exhausted Saki,” complained Azula, her new angle was to try and guilt Saki into doing things. It didn't work, but maybe if she complained about something that actually bothered her it would make the girl do what she wanted her to. Azula had never walked this much or hard before, when she had traveled by herself she usually had tried to find alternate forms of transportation, or went at a slow pace with a lot of rests. Azula knew it was a slight exaggeration but over the last few days it felt as if she had walked farther than she had in an entire year of seeking revenge.

 

“I can tell, usually you either go all out with the hallucinations or none at all,” said Saki. “It's only when you're starting to tire that you see and hear things while remaining mostly in the present. You are still with me, right?”

 

“For the most part,” sighed Azula. Saki chuckled without humor.

 

“Yeah, you're still here,” said Saki and Azula felt like fire bending her out of her tree. “Well, we'll stop when you really start going off on me, becoming clingy and shit.”

 

Azula felt like banging her head on something hard. She had never had to walk this far in her life. Her feet hurt and she could hardly feel them. Also she kept seeing people from her past all around her, and that damn Saki kept saying they were not there. Either the other girl couldn't see them like they couldn't see her in the past, or Saki meant that they didn't mean anything and to ignore them. Seeing as the girl transferred between Miss Prim and crazy as the ex-princesses pet names, Azula guessed that it was the first option.

 

“That was fun; I scared away someone last time, didn't I?” Azula didn't really remember what happened the day she had completely exhausted herself following this twit. All she knew was that the longer that she was with the girl, the longer that she had to let her guard down, the longer she had to show her vulnerable side or else something bad would happen.

 

“We have to keep going, I know that I just saw a monkey turkey, and those don't live anywhere near where I live, they live a good deal north, which means we're a good deal north!” said Saki happily.

 

“We have a year for you to travel north, and do you only know places by the food you can put in your stomach?” asked Azula with irritation.

 

“It was the only thing I found interesting about my father's stories of his adventures when he'd come and visit us,” said Saki sliding down the tree. “And I only have a year to travel the entire world. There's more then the north to sample food from. The north is just the beginning!”

 

“You think with your stomach, it's completely undignified,” said Azula dryly.

 

“And you have a very large vocabulary,” said Saki.

 

“So do you, for a mountain peasant,” countered Azula.

 

“I was taught by my mom and the scrolls at the small air temple near our home,” said Saki with pride. “You are very superior sounding for a wanderer. What was your home life like?”

 

“That was random,” said Azula, hardly noticing they had set off again.

 

“Not really, I've been meaning to ask. I mean, you obviously had some sort of problem with your mother, but what about your father?” asked Saki.

 

“We got along splendidly,” said Azula with a smile, remembering all her father had done for her, how much they did together. Saki was looking at her oddly. “What?”

 

“It's just that I think you're lying, well, not exactly lying…”

 

“I'm not, my father appreciated me, he could see that I would do great things while my brother would always be second best,” Azula started walking faster to single the conversation was over. Saki seemed to accept this because she started talking about the weather when she caught up to the fire bender.

 

----

 

“So, any other really stupid places we can go?” asked Azula, still fuming at how that peasant had treated her. Saki sighed.

 

“I'm sorry Mai, I had gotten so used to you I forgot that people might not be comfortable with how you look,” said Saki, twirling her staff around as she thought.

 

“What's wrong with the way I look?” demanded Azula turning on the girl. Saki raised an eyebrow.

 

“Well, both of us really need to find a place to wash, for starters. And in your case, well, let's see, your clothes are dirty, threadbare and hanging off you. Your hair is a rat's nest. Your eyes either look superior or are twitching. I think a better question is what looks right?” said Saki coming up and taking a clump of Azula's hair in her grasp. Azula glared at the stupid girl. She was… well, actually her hair had been driving her nuts, since she knew it was still fairly long but clumped near the base of her neck and various things that kept poking her.

 

“You make me sound…”

 

“Crazy, that is because, Miss Prim, that is exactly what you are,” Saki was smiling again. “Come on, let me try and salvage some of your hair, I bet if we at least untangle it, then at a distant you'd pass as sane. We'll worry about your clothes, thin frame, and sunken eyes later.”

 

Azula glared at the girl and turned away. Saki sighed; she shifted her bag around little, a few pots and pans banging against each other. She seemed as content in ignoring Azula as Azula was trying to get her attention.

 

“If you want me to pay attention to you, you could always act nicer,” said Saki only to have Azula glare at her. “Or you know, try to talk to me and engage me in conversation. `Cause really, when you're in this kind of mood I really don't want to talk to you, so ignoring me is only going to make me happier.”

 

“Who says I want to talk to you?” snapped Azula. Saki came from behind her wearing a smile and holding a boned comb in her hand.

 

“Your stance, the way you cling and stay to me even when I don't give you what you want, the way you will brush your hand against mine just to make sure I'm still here, you may say you find most humans weak and beneath you, but the truth is that you need them around you. I think you know it too, otherwise you wouldn't be here you'd be out trying to find someone who would actually help with your revenge against someone who is either your brother or someone who lives in your own head,” said Saki. “And don't give me that look, I'm not going to help you with that and you know it. Even your confused mind can figure that out.”

 

“You'll straighten me out and…”

 

“Don't freak Mai, if you lose focus on what you set out to do originally it's normally for the best. Especially when there's killing and revenge involved. Oh, I hear a river,” Saki seemed to realize she wasn't helping and now was running toward the direction of the river at least in theory that's where she was going.

 

Azula realized that this was what she had been talking about. As much as Saki poked and prodded her to keep going and that she had to take care of her, most of the time Saki left it up to Azula whether she wanted to take the girl up on the offer. Azula fumed a little. If that was what the pain in the ass was doing, then why hadn't she done it in a way that was more obvious so that Azula could have made the choice consciously? She'd get the girl back, the fire princess decided, and followed the direction that Saki had gone.

 

“Took you long enough,” complained Saki coming from filling her canteen in the river. She dragged Azula over to the river's edge and sat her down. “Now, some of this might have to be cut off, because really this hair is in atrocious shape, and I'm not sure it's all cut evenly, but I'll do my best. The comb is spaced well and the water should help untangle some of the mess. You'll also be lucky if you don't have dragon lice because then all this hair will really have to go, and I'll have to buy you a shawl in the next village.”

 

“Nice to know you care,” muttered Azula sarcastically.

 

“I know, isn't it?” Azula could feel her frustration growing, Saki was in such a happy bubble she didn't even know what she was talking about anymore, which meant that she wasn't paying attention to Azula.

 

“Ow!”

 

“Sorry, but your hair is a real mess, then again, with you going crazy I'm sure you at least thought you had more important things to do then take proper care of your hair,” said Saki, still happy, but also focused. Azula bit her tongue and grunted. She'd love to defend herself, tell the girl that she had been pretty sure that her life was more important than her life and that everyone had been her enemy, but that would probably lead to her knowing who Azula was, and Azula couldn't have that. She couldn't have Saki abandon her. Her mother was no longer there to annoy but warn Azula when real danger was coming. Now Saki took care of her and led her safely through dense woods through villages that had a fifty-fifty chance of knowing that the Fire Lord was no more and that there was peace again.

 

“Why do we do have to go so fast anyway?” asked Azula. “I mean, this spirit quest thing is supposed to be finding yourself. What says that you weren't meant to travel the world the rest of your life?” asked Azula, Saki's hands paused on working on her hair and Azula sighed in relief, Saki was not kind on her hair, and it was rather bad to begin with.

 

“Something died in your hair,” said Saki, her voice teasing but disgusted.

 

“Saki,” Azula wanted to hear the girl say this. The redhead had problems just like the princess. Saki had insecurities, and Azula wanted her to back off, the best way to do this was to show how uncomfortable it was to be asked about subjects that she just wanted to be let go.

 

“That is not my destiny, I have my home in the mountains, I'm young, when you're young it's normal to be restless,” the redhead pulled tight on Azula's hair, but the princess wasn't going to back down, not until this girl had learned her lesson.

 

“The only reason you think that way is because your father left you and your mother alone with only your brother as the man and you still haven't gotten over that, even if your mother acts perfectly fine about it,” said Azula, she tried to hold back a few instinctive tears that wanted to fight through because of how hard Saki was pulling at her hair.

 

“What would you know? Or maybe you do, maybe that's why you have problems with your mother,” said Saki slyly. Azula scowled, the girl wasn't supposed to turn her idea against her, that wasn't fair if she got to always ask questions but Azula never got to.

 

“I was happy when my mother - vanished, at least I no longer had to put up with her always looking at me like I was a monster,” said Azula coolly, she flicked her head so that the comb was tossed out of Saki's hand. “You probably admire your father and all he's done around the world, but because you've seen what harm it's done to your mother, you couldn't show it, so you forced yourself not to listen to his stories and to love him but love your mother more and her lifestyle even though you have the spirit of your restless adventurer of your father.”

 

“Mai, you hardly can tell reality from the fantasies, I don't think you're the right one to be lecturing me on subjects such as this,” said Saki, her hands even more gentle then before working on her hair. “Plus, then you'd be saying your father was a delusional, cruel, crazy.”

 

“I'm not ruling out that description of him,” said Azula with a small chuckle remembering what the avatar and his friends had described her father before and after she was in prison.

 

“What do you know?” the comb stopped.

 

“I'm an outsider,” said Azula with a shrug.

 

“Exactly, you don't know the whole situation,” said Saki getting back to her work and her words final, but now that Azula was getting to the girl she just wasn't going to let Saki win.

 

“I meant that I'm a fresh face, that because I'm on the outside I can see some things you can't or you refuse to see,” there was a silence where neither girl moved.

 

“You know, maybe… I'm going, untangle your own hair,” said Saki standing and throwing the comb at Azula. The Fire princess smiled, knowing she had won. Saki didn't look back. There, she could still read people perfectly, and really, Saki should have already figured this out for herself. Saki could be great, while she was a bit of an airhead, Azula could also see a ruler in her. Not as good as Azula, of course, but probably more of a compassionate one, or someone who ran a small band of people.

 

Azula bent over the water, she wanted to see exactly how bad the damage to her hair was. She winced when she noticed that it was still a mess, a few broken strands now free and hanging down like the worst attempt to start a new trend. She sighed and remembered the days when servants would brush her hair, even wash it. It had been silky smooth and perfect, now it was just a mess.

 

“Good job Azula, you drove away another one of your friends,” the voice was clipped and bored. Mai.

 

“What are you talking about?” grouched Azula. “And shouldn't you be with my brother about now? You did say that you loved him more then you feared me, right?”

 

“I meant that you just drove away the one girl willing to hang out with you who wasn't forced or threatened,” Azula glared at the girl leaning on her elbows.

 

“She's not gone, she just went to sulk,” said Azula.

 

“You're losing your grip Azula, you should know people at least well enough that if someone who has no reason to be around you but for charity then pushing them away will only make her disappear, face it, she's gone,” Azula glared at her former friend who just sighed and looked up while shielding her eyes from the sun.

 

“She thinks that I was sent by the spirits to be healed by her, she's not just going to leave me,” snapped Azula. “I mean this spirit journey is important to her.”

 

“You know as well as me that she just came up with that on a whim. She can just as easily make one for why she should leave you, some other important lesson that she's supposed to make about herself that doesn't condemn her and probably condemns you,” said Mai.

 

“Can't you put soul into anything?” demanded Azula. “Oh, I forgot, your parents made sure that you were a heartless, soulless creature.”

 

“Now, now Azula, there's nothing you can hold over her, Mai's just trying to be helpful,” Ty Lee rolled out of hand stand and turned so she was smiling at Azula.

 

“Why don't you back to your…” Azula trailed off and shook her head. “She'll be back.”

 

“Keep telling yourself that Azula, I suppose that even someone like should have something to look forward to, I mean it won't be long before your brother finds you and locks you back in that cell,” said Mai, and then laughed dryly again. “It's kind of ironic, I mean, you wanted us to be locked away so that you would never see us again. Now it's so that either you're locked up or you have us following you everywhere until you turn yourself in.”

 

“Well, we are the closest thing that she has to friends again, so I guess at least she won't be lonely until Zuko finds her,” said Ty Lee, her smile wide. She flipped backwards and stood only on one hand, her brown braid trailing on the ground.

 

“No, even if you are right, which you're not, Saki would still be closer as a friend than you,” spat Azula.

 

“Great, that must be wonderful to know the closest thing to a friend is someone who abandoned you in the middle of nowhere,” said Mai while studying her nails.

 

“Come on Mai, she was our friend,” said Ty Lee and then her eyes which dimmed a little before she bubbled back and took a few hand steps toward her old friend. “Why don't you just give yourself to Zuko, maybe he would be merciful? The only men you've killed were bounty hunters; you even spared that family that tried to hold you. Perhaps they will try to find a way to heal you.”

 

“I don't need healing, I need away to reclaim my honor and my thrown,” said Azula with anger.

 

“I don't think you were going to find it with Saki,” said Ty Lee in confusion.

 

“I didn't plan to; she was only my means to start meeting people. Once I've made a name for myself I will be able be able to get followers and then crush my traitor brother and bring my brother into proper order,” said Azula.

 

“Not even you believe that Azula,” said Mai with a sigh.

 

“What is that supposed to mean?” asked Azula, her face twisting into an angry glare.

 

“I think it's time to leave Ty Lee,” said Mai her sigh now of relief. “I have to meet Zuko, you should be happy to hear this Azula, but I'm breaking up with him.”

 

“You two can't leave!” said Azula, her voice cracking slightly.

 

“Sorry Azula, but I have to go back to the Kyoushi warriors!”

 

“No you can't leave me,” Azula demanded, though some of the venom was lost when her voice cracked.

 

“Good bye until next time Azula,” said Mai, also leaving her.

 

“No, come back, don't you dare leave me alone here. Mai, you're wrong, Saki will be back for me!” Azula shouted, her eyes searched for a sign of anyone, but no one was around, the only sound was wild life and rustling leaves.

 

“Azula, you are my pride, prove it!” her father, Azula looked around.

 

“Father, father where are you,” but nothing, she would just feel his disappointment at her breakdown. “Come back here, face me!”

 

----

 

It was getting dark by the time Saki returned. She had gotten a good ways away before she really realized what she was doing to the girl she found. Mai was insane and obviously hurting. If Saki was going to abandon the other girl she better do it over something more meaningful then the girl pointing out a weakness that she had.

 

The former ghost jumped a little when she heard a muffled choking sound, she must be near. So Mai hadn't moved at all, that meant the other girl had planned on Saki coming back. Saki didn't know whether or not to be relieved or angry that Mai had assumed she'd be back for her. Saki smiled and moved her burden around until it was more comfortable.

 

The scene she walked in made her drop everything. Mai was curled up in a tight and alternating between muttering and sobbing.

 

“Miss Prim, Mai, oh sweetheart, I'm so sorry,” said Saki allowing the girl to curl in her lap.

 

“Don't leave me, please, don't leave me,” begged the girl while her grip tightened on her shirt.

 

“Sh, I should have known better, I'm sorry, I know what it's like to have people leave you alone,” Saki's eyes became reflective and then attentive while the pale hands of the other girl scrapped a little against her skin.

 

“Saki?” came the tentive question, wet and cracked.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Are we friends?” asked Mai in desperation.

 

“Yeah, yeah we are,” said Saki with a smile, trying not to giggle at the question. “Does that mean you'll stop talking to those two girls that keep laughing at you?”

 

“They're not the only ones who laugh,” said Mai, but she sounded ready to crash, Saki didn't blame her, it had been a tiring day for the girl. “Sometimes it's him and his obnoxious friends. But their laughs are always more cruel.”

 

“I'll protect you from them,” promised Saki.

 

“Thank you, and don't tell Saki that I ever said this, I can't be weak, she'll take advantage of it,” said Mai already a sleep by the last word.

 

“Of course not,” Saki shifted the girl and lay her down comfortably on some grass. Breaking down Mai's barriers was hard, and Mai was crazy. Saki could hardly imagine trying to do when her friend was cured. Perhaps that's why Mai had broken down completely; because that's the only way she could start to heal.

 

Saki shook her head and went to get her other burden. It was better if they slept together. She would wake up if anything was about to attack. She fell asleep thinking of her friend crying and looking so lost without anyone around her, and knew that for better or worse she wouldn't abandon Mai like that ever again.