Chapter Two

Azula broke her kiss with Ty Lee when her father walked out into the backyard and stood with his arms crossed. It could not be good.

"Why did you not tell me you were married?" he growled, eyes flaring.

"I hoped to hide that longer," she admitted cavalierly.

Ozai furiously growled, "Why did you marry her?"

"Father, look how hot she is. Look how hot she is," Azula said.

Ty Lee sat up and waved, flipping her hair for good measure. Azula almost saw sparkles of sexy when she did that, white bikini slipping slightly on her wet skin. It did successfully draw the eye of the man Ty Lee knew she had to impress.

"I see how hot she is," growled Ozai, clenching his jaw. "That is not a reason to elope."

Azula sighed. "I apologize, father. Perhaps we can hold a fake wedding for the both of us. Or would that still disappoint you?"

"I will consider your request," Ozai said coldly before he walked back inside.

Azula sipped from a huge coffee cup and gazed at the glittering blue water of the pool. Ty Lee scampered up the side of the artificial waterfall and jumped down from the stones. It submerged her for a flicker of a second and then she rose, gasping for breath. Her shirt slipped down and Azula very subtly lowered her sunglasses.

This was not half bad.

Azula missed the heat of home.

That afternoon, Zuko sat on the couch, watching television. He was engrossed in an old western film when Azula sat down beside him, still in a dark red sundress. She snatched the remote, nearly scratching Zuko's face with her sharp rouge nails. Azula shamelessly changed the channel to a modern action movie.

"Give me the remote!" Zuko demanded, reaching out. Azula tossed it to the other side of the room and Zuko made an angry sound at him.

"Give me a reason not to set you on fire!" Azula sharply replied, smirking at her small victory.

Zuko stood, considering picking up the remote off of the floor, but he decided just to go upstairs and watch his movie upstairs with his studying wife.

While the credits of the Western rolled, Zuko threw a football into the air and caught it again repeatedly while Katara sits on her laptop. Never had there been such boredom in a room. She had long stopped paying attention to the graduate work she was studying, and Zuko just wanted to play sports all summer like he did when he was a kid.

"I can't believe she's living here," he said once more for the umpteenth time.

Katara looked up from her internet surfing and said, "Maybe it'll turn out fine and you'll be surprised. Maybe your sister isn't as bad as you think."

"As bad as I think? Katara, her birth was punishment for the sins of man."

Katara shook her head at her boyfriend. "You're being melodramatic again. She's probably not as bad as you always go on and on about."

"Just wait. Spend one week in this house with her and you will know I'm making understatements," Zuko said bitterly. He was disproportionately angry in Katara's opinion; he was in the right in his own.

He tossed the football again.

Katara rolled her eyes.

Azula sighed as she sat at the terra cotta counter and drank even more coffee. It was getting late in the day; the sky was tinged pink. That did not stop her from drinking such strong coffee that it gave her the shakes.

"I still cannot believe this marriage nonsense," Ozai growled, drinking from his own cup.

Azula did not know how else to redeem herself in his eyes. What could she do? The damage was done and she was married to Ty Lee.

"Father," Azula said with a sigh, "are we going to talk about anything other than the lies I told you?"

Mai snickered from the kitchen table. She rubbed her fingertips across her lips and then said, "It is getting extremely boring. It's already old news. Azula eloped. She lied to you. This is like some cliché soap opera plot that would make the dumbest person in the world roll their eyes."

Ozai took a deep breath. Azula just knew he was going to listen to Mai instead of his dear, beloved daughter.

"You know, you will probably divorce her. Your mother and I rushed a marriage and look where that got us," said Ozai, narrowing his eyes. He could pretend to be coming from a place of compassion but Azula was not buying it.

Mai dryly interjected, "Divorce is the third most stressful event a person can face. Do you think you can handle that without needing to be institutionalized again?"

Azula glowered at her stepmother. People were not supposed to mention that.

"Well, marriage is the seventh. It is all bad," Azula said, for she had prepared. She knew Ozai would use his divorce with Ursa as an excuse to criticize and she came with guns loaded for that one.

"Yes, but I think the women in your life always make you suffer," Ozai said, crossing his arms.

"You only lose those people if you intend to do so. And you will lose them, father, and perhaps I will lose Ty Lee. You see, it happens in a pattern," Azula purred, confident as could be at the moment. Or maybe she just found this power at the bottom of her king-sized coffee cup. "First it's your mom, then it's your wife, then it's the daughter you leave all your money to when you die."

"The daughter I leave all my money to when I die?" Ozai asked, snorting.

"You know it to be true. Who else would you make sole benefactor? Zuko? Mai?" Azula asked, leaning forward.

"If you want all of my money, you will stop lying to me, keeping secrets, and you will stage a wedding with Ty Lee of some sort so I will not be humiliated," Ozai growled, his voice as commanding as an emperor. It was a tone even Azula knew she could not soften.

"Yes, father," Azula agreed.

Mai rolled her eyes behind her stepdaughter's back.

Ty Lee pranced into the room, kissed Azula's cheek and bat her eyelashes at Ozai.

Her plan? To make him realize she would be the best daughter-in-law ever. She really did need to impress her wife's dad. Everybody did, even people who did not marry in secret.

"Thank you for making coffee, Mr. Shinohai," Ty Lee chirped, pouring some for herself. She put ice in it. No one could blame her in this weather.

"Azula made it," Ozai said through his teeth. "And if you are trying to impress me, you will have to try harder."

Ty Lee frowned at the fridge but smiled brightly when she turned around to face the room of her wife and in-laws.