Wanted

By: Agent-Ayu

Prologue

Summary: After being released from the asylum, Azula had nowhere to go. The Fire Nation didn't want their "crazy princess", the Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom didn't want her. Finding her way to a small Earth Kingdom village, Azula befriends someone unexpected.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, except all the characters that were not in the series and this story.

Notes: This is one of my Post-War Azula head canons.


The little girl snuck out of her room and down the hall to her father's patient room. She didn't know why, but her father's current patient sparked an interest to her. There have been patients in the past that didn't belong to her village, but she never cared to get to know them while they recovered. Jing walked into the room and climbed onto the bed and watches her father's patient sleep.

Earlier that day while Jing and her father were out picking herbs, this woman collapsed in front of the young girl. Jing already knew the sleeping woman was a firebender. She knew because she saw the firebender's golden eyes before she collapsed. Jing has gold eyes too and is a firebender.

"Jing, what are you doing up?" Her father walked into the patient room to check on his patient.

"I… uh… I was just curious about her. She's a firebender, daddy!"

"Really?" Yu picked up his daughter before setting her down on his seat. "I wonder which island in the Fire Nation she came from then. Or which colony."

"But I thought the colonies were removed from the Earth Kingdom after the war. That's what you and mommy told me."

"Yes, Fire Lord Zuko did remove all colonies from the Earth Kingdom a several years ago, but that doesn't mean she wasn't born there. The Fire Nation had occupied parts of the Earth Kingdom for a hundred years. Look at you, honey, even though you were born here, you're a firebender too." Yu filled a bowl with water and brought it up to his patient's lips to keep her hydrated.

"When do you think she'll wake up? Do you think she'll teach me some firebending?"

"I don't want you asking my patient a lot of questions when she wakes up. She's on the path of recovery and she can't recover comfortably if you ask her a lot of questions and try to pressure her into teaching you firebending." Yu unwrapped the bandages around his patient's arms to inspect the burn she had. "Do you understand, Jing?"

"Yes, daddy. Do you think she'll enjoy it if I read to her? Even if she's asleep."

Yu paused what he was doing and thought about his daughter's question. "Yes, I think she would enjoy that."

Jing leaned in a little closer to look at the patient's face as her father replaced the bandages on the woman's arm. "She kind of looks like mommy."

"Yeah, she kind of does. Come on, Jing, time for you to go to bed. Just because mommy is away for the next month doesn't mean you're allowed to stay up way past your bedtime. You can read to my patient in the morning after your chores."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Four years. Four years in the asylum until she was released and declared sane again. But no one in the Fire Nation, no one in the whole world believes that to be true except for one person. Zuko. Zuko believed his sister had recovered and changed. And she had changed, a little. Azula wasn't the power hungry firebending princess she was during the war. Instead she ignored the world around her. She was numb. No one knows how or when it happened, but after years of various doctors trying to heal the princess she suddenly became lucid.

There was a slight uproar in the Fire Nation when they heard their 'crazy princess' was returning to the palace. They feared their princess would betray their Fire Lord's trust and usurp him. Even Mai didn't want her at the palace, in fear for her husband and her daughter.

Two years had passed since she was released from the asylum and no plans of usurping her brother ever crossed her mind. Instead the princess preferred to be left alone and ignored most of the time. However, if it wasn't her brother that was occasionally checking in on her, it was her niece who had some kind of fascination for her. A few weeks after returning to the palace, she bummed into her niece after the younger princess somehow managed to escape from her caretaker's supervision. Azula did nothing with her niece except keep an eye on her until one of the servants spotted the two Fire Nation princesses. When the servants tried apologizing not keeping a better eye on the young princess, Azula just brushed them off and told them if they wanted to apologize to someone they should apologize to either their Fire Lord or Fire Lady.

Ever since their first encounter, the younger Fire Nation princess had always found a way to find her aunt. After several months of this happening, the servants learned that if they found Azula, they would find the Fire Lord's daughter. It was seldom did Azula have any actual interactions with her niece, but when she did there was always a genuine smile on both of their faces.