Recovery: Modern Azulaang AU

A Friend?

Azula

"How's home life right now?" Dr. Lim asks. It's been two weeks since the party and everything's a bit more chilled out. The wretched voice in my head has been making less and less appearances since the party.

In a way, I did take Aang up on his offer. I pretend I'm back in his alcove when I'm distressed. Like a form of meditation. It's calming.

"Home life's fine. Zuko's been busy but we usually eat dinner together. It's nice." I say, feeling a smile tug on my face.

"That's good, Azula. No need to rush anything. Healing and mending relationships take time." she says, smiling softly at me.

"Will I ever be able to heal fully? To redeem myself to all the people I've hurt?" I ask shyly.

"Of course. Like you said, you and your brother seem to be getting along better."

"I guess..."

"And what about friends? Have you been able to make any new ones lately?"

New?

"Well, I don't have any. My old friends probably don't wanna talk to me. Zuko's my only friend and he kinda has to be, being my brother and all." I say, choking on my words a little.

Wow, I'm pathetic...

"What about Suki? The one that's been bringing you here every session?"

"I guess? I don't really know if we're friends..."

"Well, why don't we ask her to come inside? She's outside right now isn't she?"

Having Suki in one of my therapy sessions was weird at first. I was very unsettled, hearing Dr. Lim tell her about all my fears and whatnot. But the end of the session went extremely well if I say so myself. I was ecstatic to hear Suki think of me as her friend.

We were now at the Jasmine Dragon, drinking some boba, talking about random things.

"Sokka wasn't very happy about it. Said I betrayed him in more ways than one," as Suki finishes her story, I can barely breathe from laughter,

"Wait, really? Because you went shopping without him??" I say inbetween laughter,

"Mhmm, the boy loves his shopping," Suki chuckles, sipping her boba.

"That's... unexpected," I reply, finally containing my laughter. Suki and I have barely stopped laughing since we got here, and it's earned us some nasty looks from other patrons, but we could hardly care.

A few minutes later, the bell at the front door jingles, signalling someone's come inside. I turn around to see who it is when I notice Suki's eyes light up as she waves them over. When I see who it is, my breath catches in my throat.

Aang.

"Hey, guys," he says, his voice unusually glum,

"Why so glum, chum?" I ask, earning a giggle out of Suki.

Aang looks towards me, smiling ever so slightly before putting down his backpack,

"I need to get some peach boba in me before I can get into it," he says, taking his wallet out of his backpack and walking to the cashier.

He returns with his drink moments later and sighs dramatically before laying his forehead down on the table, groaning as he lightly bangs his head repeatedly on the hard wood.

"You'll lose what's left of your brain cells, doing that," I say, looking towards Suki to see her smiling amusedly as she catches Aang's head before he can hit it on the table any more.

"Come on, young one. Tell auntie Suki and auntie Azula what's got you down,"

"Fucking school..." he says, sipping his drink,

I hear Suki gasp and I look at her, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"Aang, did you just curse?"

Aww, sweet little cupcake doesn't curse.

"Fucking yes! School's kicking my ass! I failed my goddamn midterm and.... and top of all my other fucking work, I have to do extra fucking credit for this class! Why couldn't the break last longer?"

Suki and I look at each other with wide eyes,

"Whoa..." Suki says,

"Yeah, I know, that was a lot. Sorry..." Aang says shyly, scratching his head in frustration.

He looks kinda cute doing that... like and exasperated five year old.
Did I just call Aang cute?

"Hey, chin up. You'll get through it." Suki says supportively.

"Yeah, it'll be fine. Either that or it won't and you'll fail out of school and be a bum for the rest of your life," I think my first attempt at being supportive didn't go so well as Suki looks at me with scolding eyes.

Oops...

Aang looks at me, his face dead serious and I mentally kick myself for most likely ruining a potential friendship. I'm broken out of my inner panic when Aang starts to chuckle. I blush as he goes from chuckling to laughing extremly loudly.

"What is happening?" I confusedly ask Suki, and she just shrugs, her face similarly contorted in confusion.

Aang laughs for a good minute before finally calming down and putting a hand on my shoulder, making me blush once more,

"Thanks, Azula. I think I really needed that,"

Yay!
Did I just say yay? I've never said that before. Not even mentally.

"Well... I'm glad I could help...?" I ask more than say.

"You guys wanna go to the arcade?" he asks, all of a sudden cheerful again.

"Didn't you just say you had extra credit to do? Shouldn't you get started on that?" Suki says, giving him a pointed look.

Aang groans again, leaning his head on the backrest of the chair he was on,

"But I don't wanna..." he says, childishly, and I'm barely able to keep a grin off my face.

"That's life," I pat his shoulder.

Who knew mac and cheese would be extremely hard to make?? It's nighttime now, and after a lot of convincing from Aang, Suki and I reluctantly went with him to the arcade. When I got home, Zuko had been holed up in his room, working. So, I decided I'd cook dinner for us. But it's not exactly going as planned. After expertly burning mac and cheese, I result to just ordering a pizza. When it arrives, I call Zuko for dinner.

"Zuko! Dinner!" I yell at the top of my lungs. He comes out moments later,

"I forgot how loud you could be."

"Well, brother, learn to get used to it because I won't be walking all the way from the living room to your room just to let you know dinner is ready," I say, obnoxiously checking my nails,

"You coulda just texted me,"

"Why would I text you? We live in the same house," I say, confused,

"Right, I forgot that you were an 80 year-old in a 20 year-old body," he chuckles,

Excuse me??

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest,

"Nevermind. Pizza?"

"Yes. Do you not eat pizza anymore, brother?"

"No, it's fine, I just thought I could smell you cooking,"

"Well, I attempted to... I burnt the mac and cheese...." I say shyly as Zuko just chuckles and smiles at me,

"I appreciate the effort. Come on, let's eat, I'm starving!"