She watched him turn away slowly and walk away. This hurt. More than it should. She supposed that she could have kept him. After all, he was clearly hurting as much from her act as she was. But it wouldn't be fair to him. There was so much that proved she wasn't worth his love. Anyone's love for that matter, but his most of all. Hurting him now would be better. Now he could move on. After he got over her, he could meet up with the Kyoshi Warrior, or someone like her. Someone who hadn't done so much wrong. Someone who would be able to give him the perfect life he deserved.
Throughout her life, she had only proved to hurt those she should love. She'd laughed at her mother's and cousin's deaths, her uncle's pain. She'd hunted her brother for over a year. And assisted in the killing of her father. No matter how justified, everyone she should have loved had somehow been hurt. No, she wouldn't do that to him. She would hurt him now, let him go, and let him live the life he should live. With the picture-perfect wife, family, job, the works. She would let him go now, when he would be able to heal, and she wouldn't hurt him beyond repair later.
Now he turned to look at her once more. She hadn't told him what was wrong. She'd simply said that she thought they should end this.
"Azula." He said. The voice cut through her like a knife. It was pleading with her, to explain, or change her mind. She fought with the emotions stirring and looked just below his eyes. So he would think she was looking him in the eye, but she didn't have to face the blue eyes begging her. She wouldn't be able to hold her resolve.
"No Sokka." He turned once more, but not before she saw his face crumple. Once he was out of sight, she let her steady face drop and cried.
When she returned, red-eyed and grim, her friends didn't even glance twice. Mai and Ty Lee ran up and wrapped her in a tight hug. It had taken such a long time for her to think of them as friends. For so long they had been her tools, bodyguards. Then once, when they were fighting the avatar, the blind earthbender had sent a large boulder to where Mai and Ty Lee were standing. Azula had become more angry then she could remember feeling. She had let out a scream and shot out blue fire surrounding the three of them. The avatar and companions left quickly, and Mai and Ty Lee had looked at her in total shock.
Later, when she wondered why that had affected her so, when she had grinned at her brother's Agni Kai, had teased him about the disappearance of their mother, when some small inner voice whispered, "Because they're your friends."
"It'll be all right Azula" Ty Lee murmured. They had spent the day before trying to talk her out of his, but she had known what she had to do, and now he would have the picture-perfect life that he deserved. The one that wouldn't hurt him. The one that didn't include her.
It was three years later, and now he had the life she had chosen for him. She saw the melancholy stares he gave her when they met, and the scathing ones from the Kyoshi warrior, but it was better than it would have been, if she were in the warrior's place. He was finally settled down with someone so much better than her, and she was happy because she wouldn't hurt him now. It was better this way, she knew. But it still hurt.