Azula's Recovery - Avatar: TLA

11.2 - Azula

Azula was miserable. She hated the cold, and despite Zuko having shown her how to regulate the temperature, she found that her emotions were all over the place, making it difficult to control it.

It wasn't too bad in the sled, with Zuko's warmth nearby, but she hated being inferior to anyone. She blamed her mother for her messed up feelings, though she knew that it wasn't entirely Ursa's fault. 

Azula just hated how her mother seemed to micromanage Kiyi, and stop her from doing anything she liked. Kiyi had huge potential as a firebender, and as a Kyoshi Warrior as well? She'd be unstoppable. But Ursa didn't seem to care about any of that. She just wanted Kiyi to stay young and defenseless forever. I really need to speak to Kaya...

Hakoda didn't help either. Everything about him screamed TRAP! As if he was only being nice to his kids, to their loved ones so he could control them. Fathers were bad. They only wanted to use you and discard you, and Azula would never let that happen again.

"Azula? What are you thinking about?" Zuko said quietly, so as not to alert the others. Not that it really mattered, the other three were deeply engrossed in a conversation about prunes or something.

Azula looked up at Zuko, scrutinizing him for a moment. Zuko trusted Hakoda. But she'd never really trusted Zuko's instincts before. Hers had always been right.

"What's his deal?" Azula said, nodding to Hakoda.

"Do you mean, why is he so nice?" Zuko raised his eyebrow.

"Sure. It all seems like a façade. I don't trust him."

Zuko sighed, "It's not. I'll admit I was in the same boat as you when I met him. He seemed too good. Spending more time around him...I came to realise that this is what fathers should actually be like."

He gave her a moment, letting his words sink in. She huffed, "Is that why you brought me along? So I could what? Find a new father?"

"No! No, it's just...I don't know. Meeting him helped me to see that Ozai was just..."

"A terrible person?"

"Yeah." They sat in silence for a moment. Just watching the family before them. Because that's what they were. And Suki and Aang were a part of that too.

Azula couldn't help herself. She let out a giggle, then stopped herself, before laughing again.

Zuko looked at her, almost afraid to ask, "Azula? What's going on?"

She managed to stop the giggles long enough to say, "Oh Zuzu, we really lucked out in the family department. 'Born lucky!' What a fantastic lie."

Zuko seemed to relax a little, "Yeah...lucky us."

Finally, the city came into view – massive buildings of hardpacked ice and snow, wooden structures and colourful fabrics draped around them. The place was beautiful, and Azula's breath caught as she took it in.

Hakoda gave slight commentary as they travelled through it, there were the baths, that was the best restaurant in the city, down that street was the Earth Kingdom quarter, over there was the school... On and on they went until they turned onto the main boulevard and headed towards the huge Town Hall.

As they went, Azula became increasingly aware of how much she stood out in her dark red and black clothing. It singled her out as Fire Nation, and while she'd never been ashamed of that, here it caused many to look at them with disdain. One mother even called her children inside as they rode past.

Azula's first reaction was to be angry, but Zuko placed his hand over hers, "They lost everything to us in the war...This is our chance to show them that we're better than our father."