The closing of the year was a welcoming event for Azula. It did not happen at once, but slowly through the year she had lost it all. First her friends had left her, then her father was sent to jail and her once rich family was now living on budget. A large one, but still a budget.

The housing complex her family possessed was once filled with all kinds of servants. Now only three living souls roamed the halls – herself, her brother and her uncle. The latter two did not live with her until three months ago and they only moved in after her father's departure, and only because of her refusal to move into their rigidly teashop. She detested that teashop, of course, but she detested the two of them more. The point of not moving in that stupid shop was not move in with them.

But they moved in with her.

In the beginning they tried to speak with her, but her cold and abrasive attitude soon discouraged them from it. A month in they only passed each other in the halls, not saying a word, by the second month she had learned their schedule well enough to not encounter a soul. December marked her a full month of solitude.

And this is how she was to welcome Christmas – in her room, reading a book in an abandoned housing complex so big, you can have a party on one side of it, with someone else not even noticing it on the other. In fact most of the house was covered in plastic sheets and had its electricity cut. No point in maintaining stuff no one was using.

As the night progressed and the story got more interesting she found herself completely lost in the book. The chair was soft and comfortable, the electrical heater was blowing in her feet – one of the pleasures she discovered only after her "impoverishment". It was about a horror story set in the Antarctic by a somewhat renowned author, when sudden knock on the door took her away from the story.

Azula's first reaction was to ignore the knocking, she did not have anything to say to neither her brother, nor her uncle. They could go away. Once the knocking intensified she decided to double down on her action. The light of the room should be seen from underneath the door, so whoever it is should take the hint and a hike and just leave her alone. It's not like they could enter anyway, she had locked the door.

The door opened and Azula found herself in a state of shock of what was standing in front of her.

There, in the door way, on the very expensive carpet laying on her floor, stood Zuko covered in flour. His hair was covered in flour, his face was covered in flour, his shirt was covered in flour, his boots were covered in flour, there was flour covered chain clumsily going around his body. He also appeared just as shocked as she was. For one he had never before seen her in wool socks and sweater, for another he had forgotten his lines.

"Azuuulaaaa…" he said trying to imitate a ghost "I am the spirit of your brother…" to which said Azula jumped out of her chair, anger and displeasure on her face.

"You'll be the spirit of Christmas Past when I'm done with you!"

"Wait what have I…"

"You cannot be this stupid – who is going to clean this carpet? You come in dragging this filth into my room, spraying everything – oh God – the whole floor is probably covered in flour. Do you think, before you act, or is it just a reflexive thing for you." Before Zuko could retort Azula past him and looked at the corridor in front of her room "Jesus, it's everywhere!"

Zuko stood there, covered in flour, split between guilt and shock, before deciding that the best course of action was to continue as if nothing has happened and deal with this later. If ever…

"I have come to warn you!"

"And I am to punch you without a warning if you don't get a broom and start cleaning or I'll…" housecleaning was beyond Azula's understanding and it was her ignorance of how hard those things are to remove that were saving Zuko at the moment.

"…you will be visited by three ghosts!"

"Zuzu that's on Christmas." She crossed her arms and looked at him expectingly. Precisely expecting the moment he realizes he was an idiot.

"Tonight is Christmas"

"No, Its not."

Then the Ghost of…something shoved his flour covered hand in the pocket and pulled out a mobile phone. The quick and sudden actions of the "ghost" destabilized the flour covered chain that was dangling on his body which in turn fell and made the mess even messier.

At that point Azula was beyond words. She could only do the sort of face you see in people amazed at someone's stupidity. Zuko who had so far dealt with the previous gaffs by ignoring them, decided he had already found the magic answer and proceeded to pretend his mishandling of the situation wasn't happening.

"No, see, it's the twenty fourth, it's Christmas tonight." He said while mashing his flour covered fingers on the phone.

"Just stop, I think I'm already regretting all of this…" apparently she had forgotten what's tonight, she'd be appalled at herself, if not for the tragedy that was unfolding before her.

"Anyway…" Zuko was trying to save whatever face he could at this point "I've come to warn you about the three ghosts of Christmas!"

At this point Azula had decided not to bother interrupting him – let the fool say what he must.

"At the stroke of midnight they shall visit you, so be prepared." Then Zuko started to move backwards slowly, inch by inch while saying "Ooooh, oooh!" and only then did he bent down to pick up the chain, which he started to rattle, which in turn led to flour flying everywhere.

It is true that she wanted him gone, but before that…

"Zuzu, one thing before you go." Azula was smiling in that fake and threatening way "Who's going the clean the carpet?"

Her brother looked down at the massive amount of flour sprinkled everywhere on the floor. Then at the flour which his shaking of the chain had put in place gravity would not naturally put them. Then at the ceiling above.

And the Ghost of "Marley" sprinted out of the room and down the hall, leaving a massive flour trail in his wake.

Had this happen a few months prior, Azula would have hunted him down. Today? She was glad to be left alone.

It was on the dot of twelve that the door to her room burst open. She was not at the time yet in bed, but rather she was still reading her book, in seclusion from family and society at large. The intruder – who had a well-practiced role and prepared speech, found himself in stupor as before him stood his fully awake target and large amounts of flour everywhere.

Sokka blinked several times.

"The heck is this?" he said pointing at the flour.

"Zuzu decided to cover himself head-to-toe."

"Who's going to clean it?"

"Not the cleaning staff it seems." if she were to force Zuko to do so, she'd need to interact with him more "Guess I'll just have to beat it into him." It was a lie, but she needed to figure out things before she could decide on an action.

"He really didn't think this through, did he?"

"He never does." Azula shifted in her chair and took on her 'I know better pose'. "Now get out!"

"Ach-ach-ach! Dear princess, unfortunetly I am the spirits of Christmas past…"

"Didn't I beat up your girlfriend?"

Sokka tried his best to ignore this, Zuko had asked him to play along "If you come with me, I'll take you on a magical journey through the past!"

"No."

"It'd be magic!"

"Get out, before I thrash you like I thrashed Suki."

For a moment Sokka thought about it. He would argue that there was a nice scenario set out for her. That people tried hard for the sake of her brother. He could argue many things. But Azula was right. She did beat up his girlfriend – even if one could justify such an action there were no excuses and the princess never made any attempts to make such – she was an unpleasant person, she was rude, in general as far as he knew she was irredeemable. He promised he'd play the part, but he had his limits. That level of tolerance was usually pretty high, but not for Azula. Not once her life had this rich girl ever given anyone a none-threatening reason to tolerate her attitude.

So he turned around and left.

The Spirit of Christmas Present was Toph.

The visit occurred at around one in the morning and was done exclusively between Toph and the girl behind the locked door.

"You should go eat lunch with your brother tomorrow."

"Leave me alone."

"There will be turkey, salads, fruits, sweets…"

"No."

"Your uncle and brother have put a lot of effort into making a great dinner."

Silence.

"Christmas movies!" when talking with Zuko about the script, Toph thought about omitting that, since even she thought them nauseating.

Silence.

Well, Toph tried and failed.

And left.

The Ghost of Christmas Future bailed. Whoever the silent visitor was supposed to be decided to not pay her a visit. Azula knew that, because despite her displeasure at this, her curiosity got the better of her and she waited until the stroke of four before going to bed.

What woke her up was not the chirping of the birds. It was not the carols on the streets. It was not the children's laughter echoing throughout the city. No, what woke her up was the sound of a brick flying through her window.

That made her jolt out of my bed and to the window.

Below her, cladded in pink, was Ty Lee's smiling face.

The looked at each other for a while, Azula torned between the rage of her window getting shattered and seeing Ty Lee for the first time in months. Ty Lee expecting the words Azula was supposed to say. After said words did not come out, the pink-cladde window-breaker decided to take charge.

"What's today?"

"WHAT!?"

"What's today?"

"Are…are you serious?"

"It's Christmas!"

"Oh, it's Christmas alright." Azula was aware of the fact that she was shouting. "In fact if you stay there I'll give you a shilling." She disappeared into her room, then just as quickly her head popped up again "You stay absolutely still and I'll give you two!"

Azula stormed through the halls, brick in hand, everything around her a blur. She bursted through the main door into the freezing white cold in nothing, but her pajamas. No one to the left, no one to the right. It seems that Ty Lee knew exactly what was about to happen and bolted.

The cold was…not calming, but refreshing. It cooled her down and her rage subsided. She was angry, but angry in the cold dispassionate way that marked most of her life.

Soon after she ran away from the cold and into the house.

For the first time in awhile, as she was walking through the corridors, she thought about how big that house was. It was also cold, without her father's fortune to pay an absurd electricity bill, they keep the heaters off, thus most of the house – and these corridors in particular – were cold.

Then as she neared her own room she noticed something bizarre. One of the rooms that were supposed to be locked, was not so. Its door while not open ajar, was giving a peek inside the room.

Her curiosity took the better of her, and she found herself floating through the corridor, past the door and into a room that she had never seen before.

Correction, she had seen this room before, but never like this.

There were pictures all over the place – on shelves, on the sole table in the center, glued to the walls. Those were pictures of her family, of her younger self smiling, some more recent ones with Mai and Ty Lee. There were also a few fat albums lying on the table, probably filled to the brim with pictures of days long past.

Azula froze as she realized this was the room of the Ghost of Christmas Past. This is what Sokka meant by "A Magical Journey". Her brother and his friends must have made it for tonight.

Part of her was angry that he'd show them something so private. Part of her was amazed that Zuko would try so hard.

She hadn't thought about it, but Zuko had tried hard for her. Why?

For a moment her eyes fixed themselves on the table and the albums on it.

Should she…?

Her mind started a battle, of should she or should she not, which in turn triggered a defensive mechanism inside her. It made her run into her room, pack herself into the warmest cloths she has and run away from the house.

She hated the past. She hated the present. She hated the future.

In her mind she would become feared and respected. That didn't happen. Now people disliked and ignored her. From top dog to someone no one paid attention to. She would have had friends – on her terms. She did have friends, they abandoned her. Well, all but Zuko it seems, but Zuko wasn't a friend.

Her feet stopped her at Burger King. Her mind did not.

That room must have taken a lot of effort. Toph and Sokka also seemed to have had roles for which they practiced, that was an effort. For what? For her? No, because Zuko asked them. Of course they'd do it for Zuko…

…who asked for her sake.

She never asked him to. This was something that was making her angry. She never asked him for this or for anything. He just stupidly went and did what he wanted anyway. How dare he, who gave him the right, this was on him and not on her and so on. How dare he? Who gave him the right? This was on him and not on her!

She didn't know when exactly it had happened, but for awhile now she was pushing at Burger King's locked door and crying. She never asked for Zuko's pity. She never asked to be pitied by his friends either. She didn't ask to be alone or to be ignored or to be stripped of her influence and power and money. She didn't ask for her life to develop in the way that it did.

But it did develop in that manner.

Whatever she wanted or not.

And she was alone.

With nobody, but Zuko.

And then she remembered how Sokka left when asked, how Toph left when ignored and how the third ghost never bothered to show. Will this relationship end like this as well? She had always antagonized Zuko and in recent times ignored him, but she always relied that he'd come back in one way or another. But what if one day he does not? What if like Sokka he leaves, what if like the Ghost of Christmas Future he does not show up?

It didn't take a Ghost of Christmas Future to tell her how that tale would end.

The cold killed her thoughts. The tears had frozen on her cheeks. The cold was biting and unpleasant.

The walk back home was a hard one, her body felt sickly, her mind was filled with self-loathing and self-pity. She did not know how to deal with those things.

In the end, by the time she reached her room to turn on the heater and wrap herself in blankets and defrost a single thought had nested in her mind, or more precisely Toph's words.

"You should go eat lunch with your brother tomorrow."

That and the fear that if she does not, Zuko will not appear again, just like the Ghost of Christmas Future.

So she went and had lunch with her brother and uncle. How it had happened she did not know, but she spent the rest of the day with them going over albums and pictures and they even dug up old videos. Then they had supper and she even tolerated a Christmas movie.

By the time she went to bed she might not have held Christmas in her spirit each day, but she had resolved to apologize to some people. See where life goes from there.

Author Note: Recently I watched one of the adaptations of Christmas Carol and it was a bad one. It had an interesting premise, but it tried to stick to the plot of the book in a way that actually subtracted to the story. In a way I wanted to try to keep the spirit of the story, without going through the motions of the story, so to say.