iknowucan | Friends in Need; RL with Azula

She turned her head to the side, determined not to look at him straight-on. "Random people don't count."

He laughed. "Oh, come on, Azula! I'm not some random guy. I mean, I do random stuff like singing, I guess, which is still really weird - but I mean, I'm not just randomly around to bother you. I'm trying to be your friend."

"You're random enough. What would you do if I just grabbed your mother, threw and acquaintance at you, and told you that that was supposed to be good enough?" If questioned about the "mother" thing, she'd come up with an excuse; no matter how she actually felt about Dr. Cuddy, calling her something like "mother" full-out seemed kind of weird, unless she was doing it to tease or test somebody (especially given her own issues with Ursa, who she still always insisted on referring to as her former mother). But it was a good enough comparison, and that was what mattered.

Ryan really wasn't offended or upset by that - he was more... surprised. He blinked. "Whoa, what? I'm not - I didn't mean to act like I'm good enough or something, I just..."

Man. He frowned and tilted his head towards a wall. "I just want to try and help you as best I can. I don't really get a chance to do really good things a lot so I wanted to... try." He looked back at her after a minute. "...You really care about her that much? Like, as a mom?"

Azula's face stayed blank. "What does it matter now?"

He furrowed his brow. "...What do you mean, what does it matter? It matters a lot! If you really care about someone and then they leave, it hurts. I really, really am sorry." And it was definitely obvious in his voice that he really meant that. He couldn't imagine losing someone in his family, or one of his friends, or... well, anybody, really. Actually, he couldn't really figure how he'd lose them, anyway. But that didn't matter. "I figured you cared a lot about her, but I didn't know it was like that."

She made a frustrated noise. "It doesn't matter because she's gone."

"It does matter, because gone or not, you still feel really close to her! If it didn't matter, you wouldn't be in an empty version of her house."

Azula didn't say anything. Her lip trembled just a little, so she bit it-- hard.

Ryan wasn't exactly good at reading emotions, so he wasn't sure if she was about to... kill him or something - would she do that? He wanted to think not, but...

She looked honestly more upset and he felt even worse. He wasn't actually good at being nice, he was failing really hard at it - "...Azula, please - um, at least trust me when I say I really, really just want to be here for you. I don't know if, like, you think I have some kind of creepy motive or something but I seriously don't. To be honest," and honesty was always key, and he really hadn't been doing the two-way street thing, maybe that was what Azula wanted? "You remind me a lot of my sister, and you kind of get upset like her, but I can just take her to the spa or buy her a smoothie and she feels better. I really don't know what I'm doing here, but I'm trying really hard. So - at least don't think I'm trying to hurt you more than you're already hurt or make you mad or something."

"I don't get upset," she insisted. "I get angry. This place is pathetic." Though at the moment, she certainly looked more upset than mad.

He couldn't help but laugh a little. "Like I said, you're like my sister. I've gotten tons of shoes thrown at me - though I guess you'd probably just punch me." Yeah, Azula didn't strike him as a shoe-thrower. "What do you mean, though, this place? This house, or the community, or...?"

"The community. And I don't punch." She bent fire. "... I like this house."

"Okay, no punching. But definitely not a shoe-thrower." He looked around the room. "It's a nice house. And the community isn't really pathetic - it's just full of people who... are kind of weird, is all."

"It's pathetic. It causes all kinds of trouble." The people were idiots, but the community itself was the cause of it all.

"Well, yeah... Like zombies, and these shadow-people, and what's going on with you right now. It does cause trouble." He bit his lip and then shrugged. "But the thing is, and you're going to hate me, I bet," he laughed, "Because this is more of me being optimistic, but... like, most people are strong enough to handle it. I honestly think that's why most everyone on the community is there - because we're strong enough to deal with whatever it throws at us." He shrugged, "I mean, maybe we'll get hurt or sad or angry, but we won't... you know, be like that forever. Does that make sense?" He honestly wasn't sure any more.

"I'm stronger than all of you," she said. "None of the rest of you could do what I do."

Ryan smiled at Azula and really meant it when he said, "I think you're right. Really. I don't know anyone else on the community who could run a country and deal with all the weird viruses and handle this and handle it all at once."

Not that he really tried to think of anyone. He was starting to think he might understand Azula a bit - she liked being in charge and in control, and this was seriously not something she could handle alone, but she wanted to do it that way. Being a yes-man was pretty easy and it helped Sharpay a lot, so it'd probably help Azula a little too, to hear someone agree with her. Especially since so many people on the community tried to shut her down.

"Anyone who thinks I'm a bad ruler is a fool. They don't know." Not that this was really about all the people who thought she couldn't handle leadership, but if she was ranting about one thing, why not rant about everything?

That was a little left field, but whatever. He could handle it. "They don't. People like to criticize leaders, is all. It's like... natural."

"My citizens are more well-behaved." She turned to face the wall, so that he couldn't see her face.

Well-behaved to her face, at least. But whatever, he didn't know her nation at all and he wasn't going to pretend to. He made a noise of agreement, since saying anything would be easily rendered as false, then fell quiet for a short period.

Finally, he grinned. "You know that it's been more than five minutes, right?"

"Whatever," she muttered. Eventually, he'd start to feel bored, or uncomfortable, or awkward-- and then he'd leave, and he wouldn't come back.

Strangely enough, no matter how annoying she found Ryan, she wasn't sure whether she would be relieved or disappointed when that happened.

He kept grinning, shifting to lie flat on his back with his arms crossed under his head. After a period of silence, though, he frowned in thought. "Azula, why do you think you're a monster?"

She gave him a quick glance. "Because it's who I am."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject