The Warrior's Betrayal (Azula gxg fanfic)

15

It has been five days since Azula returned from Ember Island. Azula seemed to have taken up Cyra's offer of information, and so far she had visited Cyra every day around noon. Azula did not speak much when she came, and she would no longer enter the cell, but she came nonetheless. Cyra was more or less extremely relieved.

She now had a cot in her cell, and a few scrolls that Azula had brought her to read upon request. It was hard for Cyra to decide what information she could trust Azula with, she really only gave away information from her travels, not yet ready to tell Azula exactly where she came from. She told Azula where she studied, and even revealed that she had been lying previously when she said she wanted to be the avatar. Azula had said it had been a silly lie anyways and that she hardly believed it in the first place.

Cyra was left wondering at this point if Azula knew about the Order of the White Lotus, and whether she could trust Azula to know that Cyra was in fact a member. There was no telling how Azula may react, but Cyra felt it may be key to seeing if she could trust Azula fully.

As for the message from the White Lotus; she had not received another. Cyra was trying her best to remain patient, but she felt anxious to get out of the fire nation. Someone from the order knew she was here and could help her. She wondered if that meant that Iroh knew of her having been sent to the same prison he was in. She could only imagine his disappointment in her.

"You should have been more careful, Cyra! Your destiny awaits you at home, and now you are stuck in a cell where they only serve overcooked rice and muddy tea!" Cyra mocked Iroh's deep booming voice aloud to herself and chuckled. She felt like a lunatic.

It was nearing the time Azula normally came to visit Cyra, and so she did her best to make herself and her cell presentable. Her walls were decorated with more scorched images now; drawings of places she had been before. Whenever Azula's eyes landed on the new images she would stare at them with a frown, and Cyra wondered if it really did upset her that she had been vandalizing the walls. The guards had not said anything though, and neither did Azula, so Cyra wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

She heard quick footsteps approaching and perked up from her spot sitting in the middle of the floor. There were two sets of feet, one probably being a guards and the other little stomps Cyra easily recognized as Azula's. It wasn't long until she saw a guard with a box in his hands and Azula staring down at her scornfully with her hands rested in their usual judgmental spot on her hips.

"You mentioned you liked to play pai sho... so I brought it," Azula said with an unreadable expression as she stared down at a now beaming Cyra, "this doesn't mean I don't still hate you though," Azula spoke quickly.

"Really? Thank you, Azula," Cyra stood and walked over to the cell door, "you're going to come in and play a game, right? It is not exactly the easiest game to play alone," Cyra grinned at Azula, teasing. Cyra wished she could contain the wide smile on her face, but around Azula it was impossible. Especially when she did thoughtful things like this, that you would never expect from someone as coldhearted as her.

Azula nodded her head yes and stared at Cyra a little longer before Cyra got the hint and backed away from the cell door once more so Azula and the guard could slip in. The guard placed the box on the floor and drew out an extravagant pillow for Azula to sit on, and then she dismissed him.

They both sat in the middle of the floor as Azula started laying out the game. She gave Cyra one of the bags full of tiles while silently fumbling around inside her own bag. Cyra just watched the princess, who finally looked up to meet Cyra's gaze and blushed, frowning.

"I hope you are ready to lose. I was able to beat the fire nation's leading pai sho expert by the time I was seven," Azula muttered. Cyra raised her brows and giggled at the trash talk, deciding to play along. It was the first time in awhile Azula was really talking to her, she couldn't resist.