Chapter 43.4- And so the Dragons Danced

XXXXX- NATSU

There was no news from the Homeland. It had been a week since the eclipse, and there was no news. I was getting antsy, but I wasn’t the main problem. The problem was currently pacing her way to wearing a hole in the carpet of the solar I had since claimed as mine. The repairs in the castle were proceeding at a snail’s pace so I didn’t want her causing any unnecessary damage.

“You can sit down, Azula” I told her with a sigh, and her head snapped right up to mine.

“No. No, I can not. If those cowards attacked my father during the eclipse then they could have actually managed to find a way to deal with him. I can’t lose him, Natsu. We can’t lose him” By we, I surely hoped she was referring to someone else in addition to her because a dead Ozai worked well enough in my favour that I was almost tempted to wish for it. Still, I knew it would hurt the girl in front of me so I didn’t allow any trace of those thoughts to show on my face.

Instead, I plastered my most conciliatory expression on my face, and sighed. “Just give it a few more days. We have gone longer than this without receiving word from the Homeland and by my calculations, we still have a day or so until our own messenger crosses the gate of Azulon with news of your uncle’s death.”

“That old coward was no uncle of mine” Azula said with shocking vehemence, suddenly switching from worried girl to pissed off dragon.

“He betrayed the Fire Nation, he betrayed father. He tried to kill you. And he did it like a coward” She said, turning a surprisingly soft expression my way.

“He was a traitor but he was still your uncle” I said, walking up to her and taking her hands in mine. I had to work to head off any possibility of resentment building with Azula. The show told me that they hadn’t ever been close, but I hadn’t come this far by relying only on half-remembered memories of a show I had watched in another life that was almost two decades passed.

“He tried to kill you. It’s a good thing you did because I would have killed him myself for trying to take what is mine” She said, leaning into my grasp. I nodded, enclosing her in a tight hug.

“Jeong-Jeong is mine though,” She suddenly pulled out of my grasp to utter those words. I looked at her and tilted my head.

“Swear it to me, Natsu. Swear to me that Jeong-Jeong will be mine. I must teach a lesson to the rest of the world about touching things that do not belong to them- my things” She said, and I couldn’t even deny that that sounded hot. Would have had me all hot and bothered if those words had come from a different set of lips.

“I swear it Princess” I told her.