Movin' Up Moving Now

I figured it would make sense to start upstairs, since Azula had seen most of the ground floor, including living room and kitchen. Leading her silently - once more - up the stairs I started with the master bedroom.

"Well you've seen pretty much all there is to this. Door right here leads to the ensuite, not much to see there." In my opinion that was really anything there was to a typical bedroom. Azula took her time to look around, apparently looking for anything, but never letting her gaze rest on anything particular. I used the time to quickly slip into a sweatpants and a shirt. Finally she turned back to me, visually satisfied.

I raised an eyebrow at her but she just waved her hand at me to continue. This continued in the same manner in the guest rooms and the study. I only briefly explained her my laptop as a "device which lets you interact over large distances" to which Azula only nodded. Her attitude changed drastically when I showed her the guest bathroom.

"Where is the water?" A valid question, from her point of view.

"Ah, it get's delivered here by a system of pipes." I explained as I walked to the sink and turned on the faucet moving my hand a bit under the running water.

"Civilian plumbing." To me it seemed like the most ordinary thing possible but Azula seemed fascinated by the idea.

"You don't have that in the fire nation?"

She continued to stare at the faucet and shower while slowly responding, as if she carefully weighted her words to not give away one bit of information too much. "We do have the technology. But it's only used in... military applications."

Our tour continued to the ground floor, where I briefly showed her through the rooms we had already been to this morning and only briefly mentioning the door to the garage. I suspected that the thought of automobiles in civilian hands would be a bit too much for her right now. The basement brought more comments from her, especially after seeing the laundry room.

"Really? Machines to do the laundry for you? Is the earth kingdom that short on labor ****?"

"Is the fire nation that behind in technology?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow. "That you would think such simple machines are worth mentioning."

She gave the briefest smile at my taunt accompanied once more by a spark in her ember eyes. "We prefer to advance our military technology."

Finally I led her to my rarely used home gym. In contrast to the other rooms she stopped immediately at the door, obviously creeped out by the view.

"You have a **** chamber?" I wish I would have managed to only hear the surprise and not the excitement in her voice when she asked that, apparently in total disbelieve. In any case that statement had me bursting out laughing, much to her annoyance.

"Well," I answered after I had calmed down, "I certainly like to call it that but it's actually meant for exercising." Since my explanation only strengthened her look of confusion I elaborated a bit. "Here for example. You push against these pads and strengthen your arm muscles with it." I demonstrated. Azula was still completely motionless, looking at me like I was a ghost.

"Eh, it's quite common to have here. I don't use it much anymore, though."

"I can see that." She responded, a smile showing on her face while she turned towards the stairs leading up.

"Because of the dust on the tools I presume." I deadpanned, turning off the light while following her up.

"Of course." I could already imagine her feigned innocent smile while following her up the stairway.