"Bite down on this."
The Water Tribe girl shoves a plain blue cloth at Azula, and she'd either laugh or burn her, if she weren't the only person around who's not running about like a turtleduck with its head cut off.
"Why should I?" She still asks, with as much attitude as she can muster given the situation. The waterbender appears distinctly unimpressed, and merely crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow in response to Azula's pitiful attempt at spite.
"Because your leg's broken and setting it is going to hurt pretty badly. I think you'd rather not embarrass yourself further by screaming in front of everyone when I fix it, or am I wrong, your Highness?" Is the waterbender's plain retort.
Azula prides herself on her pain tolerance, among many other things. No cut or burn can make her so much as hitch her breath; but, considering the things that she's already gone through today, she suspects that that tolerance has nearly reached its limits. Azula may be proud, but she isn't stupid; she bites down on the stupid cloth.
The waterbender nods, and says nothing else, just gets to work on Azula's bloodied leg. It's twisted up and bent wrong in three places, including at an odd angle right in the middle between her ankle and her knee. She loathes to admit it, but if she were left to Fire Nation doctors, she'd probably never walk again, or at the very least, not without a significant limp. Water benders, at least, can heal using their bending, to treat things other than hypothermia.
When the girl first sets her ankle, she doesn't make a sound; she wraps it tightly and efficiently, then sets the break below her knee. That earns a grunt, soft enough that nobody makes any sign of hearing it, and that break is set and wrapped quickly too.
It's only when the girl sets her knee that she's secretly grateful for the cloth. She screams into it, but that doesn't mean she can't hear the popping and cracking of what must be a dozen tiny bones shifting around as the bone is put back to where it should be, and wrapped up so nothing in the area can move.
She calms her stuttered breathing quickly, and waits for her heart to catch up to the fact that it's all fine now, before she rips the cloth out of her mouth. The waterbender is doing her water bending thing, pushing glowing water into Azula's leg while Azula tries not to kick her away with prejudice.
"Why are you helping me?" She spits, and the waterbender glares at her without stopping her motions.
"You're just like your brother, aren't you?" The girl snips back in return, and Azula pauses for a moment before allowing herself to become visibly angry. There's no reason to imply to anyone, least of all this waterbender, that there's any way to get on her nerves. Especially if that way is by comparing her to Zuko.
"You didn't answer my question. Does it not make sense for me to be at least a little suspicious of your motives, considering that you've been traveling with the Avatar for these past few months? There's no way that you don't know who I am by now, unless you're exceptionally stupid." Azula's not making a lucky guess on the Avatar thing, either, because she's seen this exact Water Tribe girl before- there's no mistaking her, even with how little she actually saw the girl's face, her memory is just as perfect as the rest of her. Azula isn't wrong, and the girl's minute flinch at the mention of it proves it.
The girl huffs, and finally pauses in her ministrations to sit up and glare at Azula's face, despite Azula's open suspicion and hostility. Good, she's not a coward; Azula's opinion of her just increased a little bit more.
"I do. You're the great Fire Princess Azula, how wonderful for you. You've also got a busted-up leg that won't work correctly ever again if I leave you to your Fire Nation doctors, but I think you already knew that- unless, of course, you are exceptionally stupid." The waterbender throws Azula's words back at her in a mockery of her admittedly haughty tone- but then again, why should she be anything but dismissive of anyone who isn't Fire Nation, and isn't an ally? Of course, considering her current usefulness, Azula really should work on making nice, but she's far too exhausted to put in the effort that she usually would on that front. Azula doesn't like playing nice, no matter how well it serves her.
"Stop deflecting, water bender. I know that's kind of your whole thing, but please try to be direct. My uncle keeps saying it's good to diversify yourself and try different things every now and then." She's quite sure that Iroh had meant something very different from what she's implying, but Iroh had also been behind bars in the palace dungeon at the time, so she should be excused for taking his phrasing a bit out of context.
"It's Katara," And here the water bender- Katara- pauses, seemingly realizing how dumb of a move it was to give Azula her name, but she forges ahead, "and it's because I owe you."
... She owes Azula? Not once in their interactions have they ever exchanged a thing, and Katara certainly wasn't freely given anything besides a burn. Still, she won't look at a gift sideways, so she accepts it with the grace and decorum that her royal upbringing has taught her to all her life.
"Of course. Then consider your debt settled once you're done with that healing." Azula says magnanimously, and Katara does not continue healing her.
They stare at each other for a long moment, before Katara finally says, "You don't know why I owe you." It's not a question, but a statement said with total confidence in its correctness. Azula can either pretend that she does know why she's being given this favor, and save herself the little pride she has left, but that would fall apart the moment Katara asks to hear confirmation of this- and she will ask for confirmation, she doesn't seem the type that's easily fooled- and it might provoke some hostility and halt the rest of the healing that she's pretty sure is supposed to still be happening. Or, on the other hand, she can throw away the last of her pride and admit that she has no idea what Katara's talking about- not the most appealing, but really, what does she have to lose? She's being healed by a Water Tribe girl, one who hasn't been taken hostage and isn't going to be taken hostage in the immediate future, on top of the injury itself, so what more face does she have to save?
"I'm not one to turn down a favor freely given." Azula admits, and Katara sighs and closes her eyes in apparent frustration. Azula's more surprised that she's willing to close her eyes in front of an enemy, no matter how immobile and compliant the enemy in question is at the moment. What if Azula suddenly decided that she was healed enough and the palace could take care of the rest? How short-sighted and stupid of her to lower her defenses like this.
"You and I both know that if you really wanted the Avatar dead, he would be dead. You might be able to trick everyone else, but I don't believe that the lightning you hit him with just so happened to avoid his heart, without anyone having taught him a thing about reflecting or redirecting it. You chose to spare his life. I owe you for that." Katara says plainly, as she finally resumes her motions with the glowing water surrounding Azula's injured leg.
She's right, unfortunately. The invasion at Ba Sing Se was a resounding failure from all sides, her own included; she can't even pretend that it was a mistake or an accident, not really. Certainly her family will believe her, and with her family comes the rest of the Fire Nation, but she can't hide it from herself. She knows exactly what thoughts crossed her mind, and she knows exactly what she did with those thoughts.
"Zuzu's been hunting him for the past three years. It's only right that he decides what to do with the Avatar before I get a say." Azula deflects, using the same "dibs" logic that decides everything else in the world. Zuko was born first, so he's the heir to the throne; Zuko was hunting the Avatar first, so he gets to decide his fate. Azula was second to both, but she's second in very little else, and certainly nothing else that matters; besides, she's the Crown Princess again now that her dear brother has shown his treasonous colors, so she may as well allow him this one thing that he's rightfully earned.
"That's not the entire reason, is it?" Katara asks, and doesn't elaborate. She doesn't even look up from her work, instead letting the silence grow between them, pressuring Azula to fill it with answers, either a denial or an admittance. Not answering at all would be as good as admitting defeat, and Azula does not admit defeat. Azula does not get defeated.
"Of course it is. Zuzu was first, so he gets first say. I'm first in everything else, I decided to have mercy." Azula doubles down, smirking, and Katara is silent for long enough that she thinks that she might believe it.
"... Who taught you to use blue fire? Was it Ozai?" Katara switches to a seemingly inane line of questioning, as though she's trying to scope out the enemy, all while disregarding the Firelord's proper title. Fine; she'd disrespect the title of the Water Tribe Lord- if that's what it is- and Azula doesn't see the harm in giving tiny answers and boasting her own genius, especially if she gives nothing else away. The Avatar and his friends have all seen the Firelord in a fight before, anyway, so they already have an advantage from that.
"No. He applies pure power, and taught me to do the same; I simply concentrated it in a small enough area that it became so hot it turned blue. It wasn't hard to use it more after that; I suppose I could even make a blue fireball twice the size of your head if I tried." It would be completely useless for combat considering the lack of control, she doesn't say, since that would take away from the intimidation factor that she just set out with the assessment of her own abilities.
Katara hums in thought, and grabs at a strange-looking salve that she applies around Azula's casts. It seems that she's almost done with her healing, which is a great shame; Azula would have liked to keep talking to her like this, as though she were merely another one of Mai and Ty Lee's friends brought around from somewhere or other.
"I've seen you both in combat, Princess Azula. In my opinion, I think you'd beat him in a... what do you call it? Ah. An Agni Kai." Katara muses, and Azula doesn't miss the sudden addition of her title when addressing her. She doesn't miss the sudden sign of respect. Is she trying to butter her up? Is she trying to incite even more unrest in the Royal Family? There's enough of that already, the Water Tribe girl doesn't need to push even more. The notion of an Agni Kai between herself and the Firelord is a concept that Katara throws at her with seemingly little thought, as though it were simply another word for a fight, and not the fight to the death that it undoubtedly would be.
If she challenged her father to an Agni Kai, one of them would not be walking out alive. Neither would yield, and with stakes that high? It wouldn't be to first burn. Azula can't risk it, no matter how large her ego may grow, no matter how much more talented in bending she becomes.
Azula would quite like to survive past the age of fourteen, thank you.
"Your opinion has been noted. Thank you for the compliment, Miss Katara, but I won't be doing any sort of fighting for the throne in the immediate future. I do hope that it wasn't empty words thrown at me in an attempt to get one of us to annihilate the other." Azula was, at least, raised in a palace instead of a barn like Zuzu acts like he was. She knows how to be polite. She also knows how to be funny.
Katara finishes with her salve, and begins putting her things away. "No, of course not. I do think that you're better at combat, and combat strategy, than Firelord Ozai. I also think that you've known that for a little while now."
Azula knows how to read between the lines. Is this why she changed the subject like that? To go all the way back around to accusing her of the truth?
She loves her father, truly, and she can't wait to succeed him and carry on his legacy for as long as she can. Firelord Ozai does not seem to agree; he seems to be of the opinion that he must hurry everything along. He seems to think that the war must end with his reign, instead of at a time when the Fire Nation has been globally present, with fingers in every nation's pies, that its complete takeover would feel completely natural. He wishes to rush things along and leave her to deal with the inevitable riots and unrest.
"... General Iroh waited at the walls of Ba Sing Se for six hundred days. Firelord Ozai would not have done the same." Azula hedges around her treasonous thoughts, does not give voice to anything that could possibly anger her father or further alienate the Dai Li. It is never safe to assume that she is not being listened to.
Katara stands, and offers a hand to Azula to take. She hesitates, for a moment, before deciding that putting too much weight on this leg would be a very bad idea.
"I'll walk you to the nearest medical tent. I'll be sure to stay away from any witnesses so you don't get caught fraternizing with a Water Tribe girl." Katara says, and Azula hums for lack of breath to manage proper words. It is much more difficult to walk on a broken limb than she had expected.
Neither of them say another word about Ozai. She thinks that she composed her message aptly enough for Katara to read between her lines.
