Here's Your Sign
A/N: Happy Valentine's Day! And sicne chocolate has made me obnoxious recently, I'm giving you all a special Harula treat!
Disclaimer: I own Avatar and am not related to it in anyway.
The former Fire Nation princess fell harshly against the stonewall of the small building, taking but little of her frail weight off her sore and blistered feet. She pushed her dirty nails into her lose and mud-caked hair at the roots. A new pain, this one in her back, arose and Azula just wanted to die there. She was a princess, not a peasant, and certainly not one of the Earth Kingdom. This life was too horrible, too painful, too dirty, and so many other terrible, horrific things. The young girl closed her dulling golden eyes and let her head hit the wall out of frustration.
How long had she been banished, again? Seven months, came the dark reminder. Seven long, tiring, gloomy months of never-ending storms filled her banishment. Storms of weather, like the one that surrounded her now, caused her storms of health, making her feel sick and miserable every morning. The dreadful feeling spread from her body to her soul, making each dawn she woke less and less colorful. Her spirit had just about drained fully, forcing her to see gray instead of green, and black instead of gold.
Azula started regretting the things she'd done, knowing they got her in all this trouble. Her greatest heights would be the death of her, and any day that fatality would come. She found that thought welcoming, as depressing and dismal as it seemed, but nothing on earth could compare to the wretched life that was now her's.
Her brother had offered bitterly that she learn from, 'this experience in which you have been bestowed with,' and become a better person. The worst part of the 'suggestion' being that Azula was well known for the treacherous things she'd committed, no one would be open to her and offer to help. Tears began to fill her eyes. Why had she been so stupid to not realize how karma would find it's way around eventually? It came from behind and got her bad. Turning around was worthless now.
I give up! she screamed to the heavens, of course in her mind. Take the pain, I can't bare it! And the spirits did as she begged. With one last strike of stinging hurt, blackness and calm fell over her.
Azula slowly blinked her eyes open, a bright light flooding her vision. The rays made the teenage girl snap her lids back shut and turn away from the brightness. The soft, scratchy feeling of straw beneath her lightly picked at her back and side, and the sensation of warm sunbeams fell over her body, making her feel clean. She let out a soft moan of pain, moving causing her aching muscles to sting again.
Suddenly, the gentle touch of a hand was on Azula's shoulder. The firebender's mind wanted to scream, but she was sure her voice hadn't been used enough recently to allow that kind of strain. Azula tensed, causing more muscle pain, and quickly relaxed. After all, the touch wasn't hard or stern; she couldn't find a reason to fear it.
"Good morning," a tender voice spoke, one of younger sound to her father's.
Was this death? Was her suffering and torment over? Could she be in another world? Azula forced herself to shake away the hand and move to face its owner. Carefully, she opened her eyes, expecting bright light, but it was blocked. A young man sat by her side, a kind smile shown on his tan face.
"Where am I?" her hoarse voice asked, barely audible.
"My family's barn," he answered, "but we sold the animals a couple years ago after my mother and I ran out of money."
So she wasn't dead. Half of Azula was disappointed. She was sure that she'd wasted her second chance at life. "Then what happened?"
"You were a too close to the door of our shop and I swung the door open and accidentally hit you pretty hard," the man explained, "My dad and I took you back here, my mom took instant pity on you and got you cleaned up and everything. You've been out all night and most of the morning."
"Oh…" She leaned on her arm to try and sit up.
The boy instantly reacted and wrapped his arm around Azula's shoulders, helping her sit up. "Be careful," he warned, "you are hurt."
She nodded. He turned away for a second and picked up a small bowl filled with rice. Offering it to the exiled princess, he said, "Please, have something to eat, my mom's worried you're too thin." Azula graciously took the meal and thanked him. "By the way, I'm Haru."
"Well, Haru," she tried the name before debating about her own. Azula was recognizable as Fire Nation, her name was certainly a famous one, would this Haru make the connection? To heck with it, I'm not up for lying. "I'm Azula."
Haru gave a suspicious look as the girl took a small, dignified bite of the rice. Azula as in Princess Azula? he asked himself. She couldn't be, though, the Azula he was thinking of wouldn't have lasted this long in banishment. In fact, that Azula was probably dead or rotting in prison. He smiled to hold back a laugh; that bitch certainly deserved it.
"What's so funny?" came the tired voice of the skinny girl. She sounded sarcastic, but also offended, even though she hadn't looked up from the bowl.
"It's nothing, you just remind me of someone," Haru explained as vaguely as possible.
"Of course," Azula practically snapped, "I get that all the time."
"I'm sorry," he let his smile fade, "does that bother you?"
"No, it doesn't," she complained, "my life just sucks right now."
"Because I hit you with a door?" Haru half-joked. "I'm really sorry about that."
"No," Azula replied, paying zero attention to the joke, "I'm a fifteen-year-old girl living alone in the streets of a coal-mining village, getting hit with a door is the least of my problems."
"Oh, I didn't realize…" But he let his voice trail off. She was living alone in the streets? How in Hei Bi's name was she still alive? "Would you like to stay with my family?"
That got her attention. Obviously the poor guy didn't see who she was, he was being too nice. Azula turned to face him directly and answered with a shocked tone, "Are you serious?"
"Yes," he smiled again, this time it was one of warmth and comfort, "I think you've had enough of street-life."
Azula was completely confused. Why in the world would anyone be this kind to some random girl they hit with a door? Then, like the door, it hit her: his hospitality was the answer to her prayer. Though, when she'd asked to have the pain taken away, she was pretty sure that clearly stated, 'kill me now.' Not to mention, she'd flat out told the spirits she gave up; after all, she'd screwed her second chance at living. Those stupid spirits were trying to tell her something, but there was no way on Earth she would be able to decipher it.
"Thank you," she whispered, setting the half-empty bowl to the side. Something inside her made her lunch at Haru and hug him as tightly as she could. It hurt so much that it brought tears to her eyes, or at least that's why she thought she started crying. "You saved my life," she added.
Haru stopped himself from falling over, after all, she couldn't have weighed more than a bale of hay, and gently wrapped his arms around Azula, "I see that."
Azula's eyes spilled over with tears as she constricted Haru. She didn't let go until Haru pushed her away, either.
"I need to get the rest of my work done," he explained, "Get some rest and I'll wake you for dinner."
"Thank you," she said again, wiping the tears away.
"It's no big deal," he added, standing up, "no one deserves to live that way."
With that, he turned and left. Azula, with a smile, slowly lay back down and closed her eyes, drifting to sleep.
Haru's family couldn't have been kinder to Azula. They treated her as a member of their family, never once questioned about her name and gave her absolute respect. Surrounded by such nice people, and great food, Azula bounced back from her sickness in two weeks time. She made sure to acknowledge the kindness every day, too. She was still a princess, even though they didn't know it, but she wouldn't lose her manners. Especially since these people took her into their home, and as upsetting as it was to her mind on why, she gave them extra credit for it.
Every morning after she started improving, when Haru would open the barn doors shortly after dawn, she got up and helped him with his chores. And every morning, Haru made note of how strong she was. It couldn't have been too long after his mom deemed her healthy before Azula was thankful and ambitious enough to attack him with a hug. She was like a puppy, a very, very strong puppy.
It wasn't a week since she started this that Azula tackled him to the ground, some five or six weeks after he knocked the poor girl out. He decided she needed to get out of the house. Not for good, she just needed something to do during the day…something might as well be helpful too. After all, Azula was as strong and helpful as anyone they could've hired.
"Hey, Azula," Haru said, barely breathing as he pushed the girl off him, "you should come with me to the store today. I have a feeling we're going to need some help."
"That'd be great," she sounded excited as she held out a hand to him, "The village has to be nicer if you're not living in the allies…begging for change."
Haru, taking her hand and letting her help him up, smiled, "It's much nicer."
Walking through the village, Azula found it very strange. The villagers were cleaning the streets and hanging paper lanterns from everywhere possible, like there was going to be some kind of festival. As Haru opened the shop's wooden door for her, she asked, "Am I missing something, or do you guys do this every day?"
"Hold doors open?" He seemed confused. "It's just what I was taught to do."
"No, not that," she held back a small laugh, "thank you, though. I mean the decorating."
"Oh…that. Well, I'm assuming they're decorating for the first anniversary of the end of the war." Carefully, he shut the door behind them. The store was mildly busy, and his mother was sliding coins across the counter faster than he'd seen in quite a while.
"Wait, it's been a year already?" Now Azula was the confused one. She'd kept a pretty good track of time, but it didn't seem like it'd been a whole year.
"Yeah, I figured you knew."
"Apparently I wasn't keeping a good enough track on time."
"Haru!" the strict voice of Haru's mother snapped from behind the counter, "Get to work! There are boxes that need unpacking!"
The two teenagers reluctantly weeded their way through the people in the store to the back room. Several stacks of boxes piled to the low ceiling had yet to be opened. They set to work and continued their conversation.
"I was planning on going tonight," Haru started, carefully taking the lid off a crate of apples. Looking over the top layer of fruit, he sighed. "These are probably all bruised. Great."
Azula picked up the top apple and looked it over a little better. "And what about tonight?" she said to the apple. "They're not that bruised. Besides, it's not like they'll poison you for all eternity."
Haru picked up an apple himself, "I'm wondering if you want to come with me." He added, "They really aren't that bad."
"Haru," Azula looked up, using a girly tone and matching smile, "Are you asking me out?"
"Yeah, I suppose we can sell these," he tossed the one up in the air. As it came speeding down, he missed it and the fruit smashed open on the floor. "Okay, maybe not that one," the earthbender said with a laugh as Azula started to giggle.
"Seriously, Haru," she began again when she could breathe, "Are you asking me out?"
That silenced both of them.
"I…" Haru hadn't thought of that, he just figured she'd enjoy being out of that musty barn for a while. Then he looked up and saw the kind, starry sparkle in her gold eyes. "Yes, I am."
"Then yes, I'd love to go."
"Haru, this is great," Azula said as they walked through the festive streets, arm-in-arm, "Thank you so much."
"Well, you deserve it," he told her.
She considered replying by saying 'I know,' because she did know she deserved it, and Azula had always answered that way before. But now, it just sounded too selfish to say something like that when he'd shown her nothing but kindness. So much kindness…when she was an exiled princess, banished without a way to return. After everything she'd probably caused poor Haru, too, and she hadn't even admitted it to him or apologized. Tears filled her eyes and she bit her lip to keep them back.
Sadly, she'd thought about the wrong thing at the wrong time, for Haru had decided to take a glance down and ask if she wanted dinner or something. Instead, he asked a different question. "Are you okay?" Concern filled his soft green eyes. "What's wrong?"
A lot was wrong; enough to make Azula's tears fall. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, "I don't deserve any of this." With that, she pulled her arm from his and began walking through the crowd, leaving a very confused Haru.
He started to follow her, but she was lost in the people before he could catch up. So, Haru took a deep breath and left the street through the allies and into the woods, taking the only shortcut to a place where he knew he could find her.
"Azula," he gently called through the thick night air from the back of the barn. "Azula, please," his voice rose the tiniest bit as he stepped quietly up to the doors.
The double-doors were open and a soft, blue light was flickering in a corner behind a couple hay bales. Haru took silent paces towards the tiny light, and peered slightly above the top of the hay. There, to his amazement, sat Azula, tearstains on her cheeks and a single flame of blue fire in her open palm. It wasn't too surprising, a few firebenders moved from the Fire Nation to the village at the end of the war, but the fact that he could only think of one female firebender kept creeping into his mind. And her name was Azula…
Haru's first instinct was to shove the hay away and push some giant boulder at her, and he even placed his hands on the straw to do so, but it just didn't seem right. He took a deep breath to try and calm down.
"Azula," he said as kindly as he could at that point, "why didn't you tell me?"
She snapped the flame away and looked up into his eyes that read angry. New tears spilled over. "I needed help," she cried, "I figured you'd turn me away if you knew."
He gripped the top bale hard in his hands and set it on the dusty floor, then rested his arms on the other. "Probably, yes, you're right."
"Everyone hates me now, I don't know why I even bothered," the girl sobbed, leaning back onto the remaining bale. "I could've saved the world so much trouble if I'd just told the truth. You could've just kicked me to the streets and left me to die like my stupid brother did."
The princess started sobbing harder and as much as she probably deserved to be left, Haru didn't dare stand. "I don't hate you," he said after much controversy and thought. "And if it matters, I'm not that big a fan of your brother's rule." Lightly, he placed his hands on her shaking shoulders and continued, "Besides, it's a new era, and everyone gets their second chance."
Neither of them spoke for a little while, as eventually, Azula soaked up what he'd said and calmed down. So this was what the spirits were telling her: you don't earn your second chance, they make you pay for what you did then give it to you, and it's yours to screw or save. She took his hand from her shoulder and held it. "Thank you," Azula softly whispered, "and I'm so sorry for all that I caused you."
"It's alright," he whispered back, "karma's paid you enough trouble."
A/N: Ha, second time in a row where I just had to stop it there! Thanks for reading, make sure to review!
And remember: Any candy in a heart-shaped box probably will not taste as good as it looks.