InsaneJournal

Something feel wrong about this, Azula.
Who: Ty Lee and Azula and assorted NPCs
What: Being cute together, beating up people together. You know, a date.
Where: Family ‘office’ and then a warehouse
When: march 5th
Status: complete
Rating: PG-13 for fire and gun related violence and goons getting immolated. But it's okay, they're working with Cerberus



Ty Lee smiled as she sat next to Azula’s desk. She was playing a game on her phone, to stop herself from jittering or otherwise disturbing her new boss. She liked Azula. Sure, Azula could be a little harsh, but it was part of her charm, and Azula obviously cared about her, which Ty Lee had not expected, but could appreciate.

All things considered, Ty Lee figured her life was even sweeter now that she was Azula’s bodyguard. Dancing in the club had nothing on capturing Azula’s attention.

Except that Ty Lee had the game's sound on, and every time she scored high, it was like a party went off on the phone. It made Azula twitch, but she seemed to be putting up with it, at least for now. Having Ty Lee at her beck and call was certainly keeping her mood up. Mostly.

Because she finally snapped, "Can you turn the sound off??!"

Ty Lee’s eyes got wide and she blushed with embarrassment. She quickly turned the sound off. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you!” Oops. She felt bad for disturbing Azula, she was probably doing important stuff.

Azula actually had some game on the computer screen and was watching a city burn as she repeatedly hit the ‘earthquake’ button. She eyedarted and tabbed out. “Have you been listening to the gossip? I’d like to know what people are talking about.”

“They say that Iroh’s been visiting everyone on a routine check up under Ozai’s orders.” Ty Lee noted, pausing and exiting her game. “But Ozai’s guards have no idea about that, and they would know.” Which meant either Azula wasn’t to know this was happening, in which case it was being handled poorly, or Iroh was lying, and therefore up to something. “He’s making a lot of changes, and apparently verbally fought with Ozai not too long ago.” It hadn’t been long, according to Ozai’s guard, but it had been violent, and ended with both brothers leaving and fuming.

"Interesting. What sort of changes?" She leaned forward, tilting her head. "Has he visited with you?" Azula thought that Ty Lee was meant to spy on her, and was hoping to trip her up in a lie. She reached over, stroking her fingers along Ty Lee's thigh. She liked it when she could see some thigh.

Ty Lee sighed softly. “No. But he stopped me in the hall once, on the way to the restroom. He asked about you, and I replied that you were doing well. I then asked his forgiveness, because I really needed to use the bathroom. He didn’t seem upset by that.” Azula’s hand felt nice, but she was worried she’d failed somehow during that encounter.

"That's all?" Azula trailed her finger in a circle, unsure how she felt about this. She decided to be happy. It wasn't like her father could get to her here, and she was inclined to trust Iroh for the time being.

Ty Lee nodded, a little breathless already. She’d taken to wearing very short skirts just for Azula’s amusement. “I like him better than Ozai, and so do a lot of other people.”

“He’s a strange old man. And overly fond of tea.” Azula’s fingers slid under the skirt, and she leaned in closer. She didn’t care if they might be caught. She never expected someone to walk in - she had quite explicit orders about being disturbed. “My father, on the other hand, is a bit of...”

She exhaled, and admitted. “I’m enough like him to be scared.”

“If he was much like you, I wouldn’t be afraid of him.” She spread her legs a little, closing her eyes. “You can be hard like him, and maybe cruel, but his bodyguards complain about how they’re treated all the time, and I only wish I could serve you more.”

Azula gazed into Ty Lee's eyes. She had a sudden fear. That Ozai would hurt Ty Lee to get to her, some how. Or that someone else would. But she couldn't stop herself from leaning in and kissing her. "Do you want to have some fun? There's a warehouse with a discipline problem..."

Ty Lee kissed her back, stroking Azula’s face softly. The prospect of a little exercise was a good one, and she nodded eagerly. “Oh, yes.” She nodded, smiling widely. “I haven’t gotten to play around in a couple days.”

"We can show them who's really in charge," Azula said, lazily, envisioning celebratory sex in the car afterwards. Maybe she could burn people. Ty Lee had only seen glimpses of her power thus far, and Azula wanted to see the girl's reaction to her full power unleashed.

"Do you have something easier to fight in?"

“Of course, Azula. I keep my uniform in my locker.” Miniskirts and Hello Kitty shirts weren’t exactly in the employee dress code. Ty Lee got away with it because they were part of her cover.

As nice as watching her in a miniskirt would be, there were practical considerations. Azula got to her feet, shedding her business skirt and shirt, and opening a cabinet. She pulled out a red outfit, simple and elegant looking, and easy to move around in.

Ty Lee stood, turning her phone’s sound completely off. “I’ll go get my things, ma’am, and meet you back here?” She always practiced the proper address for Azula before she left, just to make sure she was using the right words.

Nude, Azula nodded, before she pulled her outfit on. “Lets do well, I have an idea for how I want to reward you.” She walked over to a mirror to fix her hair. It was a compulsion, and one she’d failed to really conquer.

Ty Lee giggled, then slipped out. She bounced to her locker, and then the bathroom, changing quickly into her drab, boring, but entirely sensible uniform. The most time consuming part was getting all her weapons in order, and checking that they were ready.

Once she was certain about her weapons, she bounced back to Azula’s office, a bright smile on her face.

Azula was sliding a pistol into her waist band. Standard issue, and something she rarely used. In fact, she hated the thing. Ty Lee was going to get a show, today. She looked at Ty Lee, and smiled. It was her game smile. Cruel and a little anticipatory. “We’ll take my car. For that personal touch.”

Ty Lee nodded. “Would you like me to drive for you, ma’am?” It wasn’t an entirely innocent suggestion. Azula drove like a possessed woman, and Ty Lee had a hard time keeping calm under those circumstances.

“Yes.” She tossed her the keys. It would let her admire Ty Lee the whole way. She also needed to center herself. She had to put the fear of god into some people.

Ty Lee smiled. “Thank you, ma’am. I’ll bring the car around.” She bowed for Azula, a flourishy, silly thing, then bounced off down the hall.

Azula watched her go, then set out after her after she had locked her office up. She took the stairs instead of the elevator. It afforded her some privacy. She looked down, then jumped over the railing and fell straight down, through several flights before blasts of fire slowed her descent. She was outside and waiting within a few more moments.

Ty Lee was waiting with the car by the entrance. She’d taken a route similar to Azula’s but had bounced from level to level to warm up. She got out of the car and opened the door for Azula, before going back around to the driver’s seat again.

Azula didn’t bother to buckle up, and put a hand on Ty Lee’s leg while she programmed the GPS. She wished she’d had one of these when hunting down Aang. It would have been a lot easier. “This is going to be fun.”

“It is.” Ty Lee said with a nod. “What warehouse, do you know who works there?” She hoped her old mentor wasn’t among them. He was probably retired or dead. At least she hoped he was, he’d been getting up there in age.

"It's our Santa Ana branch," she replied, adjusting the radio. "I don't know who works there, only there have been rumblings of discontent, and laziness. I suppose I could send someone, but I'm so bored."

“Nobody I know, then. All of my friends are hard workers.” And not in Santa Ana. Thank goodness. “I hope this will be fun for you, ma’am.”

“Well, I’d hate to hurt your friends,” Azula said, a little sourly. There was jealousy in her tone. It was patently unfair, but it was there. She thought that she’d have to deal with Ty Lee having friends. If it kept her happy, it would be better in the long run. Azula was deeply worried how things would change if she started to remember.

Ty Lee fussed for a minute, but she didn’t know why Azula was sour, so she couldn’t fix it. Sometimes it was best to let the moodiness go. “If they’re being lazy, they deserve it. Hard work is just part of the job.”

Azula nodded. “I don’t want to kill unless we have to. That gets messy. They need to know we’re serious but they also need to know that if they kiss our feet we’re willing to give them one chance.”

“Ok!” Ty Lee gave her a thumbs up.

They pulled up to the warehouse, and Azula hopped out of the car. She started to stride towards the entrance. Someone came out to greet her, and she smiled when several men came to surround her. “I’m just here to inspect your operations. I don’t need an honor guard. I have my own.”

Ty Lee waved a little. “Hi!” She was good at getting people to lower their guard. She was just too adorable to be taken seriously. Which worked out to her advantage all the time.

The men seemed to relax, but the foreman seemed reluctant to let them enter. She tilted her head, asking, “What’s the mystery? Step aside. I’m your superior.”

Someone laughed. A couple of little girls, their superiors?

Ty Lee drew and threw a knife at the person who’d laughed so quick the person closest to her didn’t have time to react. It was a non-fatal blow (truthfully, throwing knives were terrible for killing people), but it would no doubt hurt. “I believe she gave an order, sir.” Ty Lee’s tone was conversational. She hoped they would be underestimated, those were her favorite kind of fights.

There was a scuffle. Someone drew a gun, and then there was a burst of flame. The gun melted to the man's hand, and he started to scream. Azula moved, dodging the side, throwing a punch, and then another burst of flame.

Someone shot off a gun.

Ty Lee was in motion when the gun was drawn, and had to dodge Azula’s flames. She’d seen some strange stuff, but nothing like that before. Now wasn’t the time to worry. She was moving toward a second man with his gun drawn when an unseen man fired. Her leg went numb, and then was consumed with pain. She yelled as she went down, holding the wound on her calf. It didn’t take long for her to realize it had missed anything important, but it still hurt a lot!

Azula whirled, and her cold eyes lit aflame. She shot forward, her fist out and fire shooting from her hand. The man was consumed, shrieking in pain as he was turned to ash.

She twisted, turning. Lightning shot from her fingers and struck a man square in the chest, killing him instantly.

Each motion was like a step. Each step brought a new burst of flame, or shot of lightning, and through it all there was a cold raging fire on her face. Ten steps, ten seconds, and the only only two left alive were the girls.

Ty Lee stared in shock at the carnage around her. She got to her feet, putting her arms around Azula. “What have you done?” She was glad Azula was safe, but that display was terrifying.

“They hurt you,” she said, though her hands were shaking. Her control had been utterly broken, and she closed her eyes. She actually felt...sick to her stomach. “They also wouldn’t let us inside.”

She supposed that it had been a little over board.

Those points were both true, but Ty Lee was very worried about Azula, now. “We should go inside, so I can fix myself up and you can get something to drink. You must be thirsty after all that. . . fire.” She shook her head, and tried very hard not to freak out. She was supposed to be a hardened yakuza enforcer, not a scared girl.

Azula helped Ty Lee to her feet, and propped her up, careful of her leg. She wanted to see what they were hiding, anyway. She wanted at their shipment records. Perhaps this day could be saved after all. Her voice sounded strained. "How bad is it?"

“I’ll be fine, it just hurts. It barely got the muscle at all, and missed all the major arteries and veins.” It was bleeding pretty hard, but that was probably because she still had to walk on it. “Whoever shot must have been jostled when it happened.” That was going to be her story. It was likely they had been shooting to wound, just as Ty Lee had, but she would never say so.

“He would have died slower,” Azula promised darkly. She sat Ty Lee down on a crate, kneeling and tearing off some fabric from her clothing to wrap around it. It didn’t look like it needed to be cauterized, which she was grateful for. A bullet scar was better than a burn scar. She straightened, wiping her hands on her pants and looking around. There were mostly crates here. She pointed. “I think they’d have their files there.”

Ty Lee was surprised when Azula wrapped her wound. She did a good job at it, too. She gave Azula a wan smile. “I’ll take a look around while you do that, to make sure everything is in order. If they shot at us, they’re hiding something.” Wounding Azula would be the last mistake any guard ever made. If Ty Lee didn’t kill them, their supervisor would, or risk death himself.

Azula nodded, and then jogged towards the office. She kept her ears strained for the sound of anyone who might still be around. Her hand clenched and unclenched into a fist. She'd never admit it, but she didn't like to kill(most of the time), especially when she lost her cool like that.

The manager of the warehouse was in his office, shaking with fear. He’d seen the carnage on their surveillance system, and was quite afraid he’d be next. “M-miss Azula. Hello.”

Azula’s voice was cool. She clasped her hands behind her back arrogantly. “Hello. You are to show me all your files. And I mean everything, even the things you don’t want me to see.”

He shook as he stood, and handed over a small keyring. “Here, that’s the key for everything.”

Ty Lee wandered the warehouse, limping just a little. This was going to cut down on her ability to protect Azula, and that made her angry. Of course, she had a lot of strange emotions right now. She’d just watched a bunch of people get incinerated by her boss, somehow.

“Thank you,” Azula took the key, and then walked over to the cabinets, unlocking them. She started to go through them, her brow furrowing in confusion. What the hell was a Cerberus and why was this warehouse trying to form a link with them?

Ty Lee saw some strange marking on the boxes further back in the warehouse. She started to go through them, focusing on the locked shipping boxes first. They all had the same logo, a dog with three heads. She didn’t know what that was. The first box, and all the others she opened, were stuffed to the brim with weapons. This wasn’t, as far as she knew, a weapons warehouse. Those had a lot more guards, and better ones, too. She took pictures with her phone, and went back to the manager’s office.

Azula folded up many of the documents, and placing them inside her shirt. She clucked her tongue, looking at the manager and shaking her head. There was a dangerous note to her voice. "What am I to do with you? Under who's orders are you smuggling weapons here and why don't I know about it?"

The manager looked up in a panic. There was only one option left for him. Whatever he said he would certainly die. He had a hidden compartment in his watch, which he opened, and popped the contents into his mouth. He fell onto the desk face first a second later.

Azula cursed. She was too slow to stop him. In a rage, she kicked his body away and off the desk and then blew fire out the open window. She didn’t want to damage the evidence, anyway. She called down to Ty Lee. “What did you find? The manager just killed himself.”

“Weapons. A lot of them.” That wasn’t good. She walked carefully into the office. “There’s a symbol on the boxes I don’t recognize. Do you think this warehouse was rogue?” It had to be.

"Has to be,” Azula said, looking back at the body in disgust. “He took a pill before I could stop him.” He’d looked utterly terrified, too, and not entirely of Azula. That was a worrisome thought. She put a hand on Ty Lee’s back, and rubbed lightly. “We need to call in some people to clear this warehouse of any trace of our people.”

“I’ll get on it, boss.” Ty Lee said with a nod. “I’ll get a clean up crew in here immediately.” She had to leave the warehouse to get a cell phone signal. “Please come with me outside. I don’t want to leave you alone in here.”

Azula didn’t want to be with a dead body either. Gathering some more files, she led the way outside. Azula was not a follower. She threw everything into the trunk of her car once they were outside, and slammed it shut. Her gut had a terrible twisting feeling to it.

Ty Lee sat by the door and called for a clean up. She left out the part where Azula had killed all those men. Hopefully nobody would believe it was Azula who’d done that.

There wasn’t much left of the bodies to begin with, and by the time Azula was done disposing of the evidence, the ash was blowing away. She folded her arms, back to Ty Lee and shoulders hunched, and she looked for all the world like a lost soul.

Then she squared her back, and pushed everything away, deep down and locked away, once again Ozai’s daughter, with no hair out of place. “I’m ready to go.”

Ty Lee nodded. She knew how to fight, how to dance, how to pick locks, steal cars, torture people for information, and a variety of other skills. She had no idea how to comfort someone who was hurting. So she just opened the door for Azula and got into the driver’s seat.

“Home first,” Azula said. “I want to put those papers into my own safe.” No one else had the combination. Not even Ty Lee. She didn’t know who to trust right now, until she could find out who was working behind her back, and behind the family’s back.

Assuming it wasn’t a family member.

“Yes ma’am.” She started the car and drove as fast as she dared (far above the speed limit), to get away from the warehouse as quickly as possible. This wasn’t good. She understood most of what had happened, enough to be worried.

Azula rode with her eyes closed. When they got to her Condo, she ran upstairs and threw the papers into the safe, then locked it. She came back outside about two minutes later, with two bottles of water.

Ty Lee waited, resting her forehead on the steering wheel. There was a growing knot in her stomach. This wasn’t going to end well for any of them, she could feel it. Normally these feelings were right.

She sat up again when Azula got back in the car. “Where to now?”

“Back to the office. I suppose we need to send a report to my uncle.” Azula waved a hand, dismissively. It would be fine. There were no more witnesses.

“Okay.” Ty Lee nodded. Azula seemed relaxed, but the feeling didn’t go away. “I’m sure you’re right, ma’am.” Her voice said otherwise, but she started the car again and drove them back to the office.

Once they were parked, she got out of the car, pulling her phone out. “Come. You can put your foot up when we are inside.”

Ty Lee nodded and followed, hoping they would take the elevator. Maybe she could relax in there.

Azula rested her arm around Ty Lee for a moment, and then strode into the building. She headed towards the elevator, then slowed her pace as she remembered that Ty Lee couldn’t keep up.

Ty Lee tried her best, but her leg really hurt, and the muscle protested if she went too fast. She was silently thankful when Azula slowed. “Do you want me to research that symbol while you meet with Iroh?”

“Please.” She sent Iroh a message, and stepped into the elevator. “You can use my computer.” She thought it would be best, if it was all on her own head.

“Okay.” Ty Lee nodded, and pulled her phone out, to look at the picture one last time. “Good luck.” She couldn’t help but worry. She’d just been promoted, and she cared about Azula. She didn’t want things to get bad already.

Azula pressed the button for the floor to her office, and folded her hands behind her back. What’s the worst that could happen when they dug?

Ty Lee leaned on the elevator wall. “Be careful when you go to see Iroh. Something feel wrong about this, Azula.”

"Of course. I'm always careful." She stepped out of the elevator. "I'll see you in a little bit."