I didn't know where to start.

Nobody would know where to start with Azula. I mean, I should because I was her best friend and believed in her, but what I saw wasn't too encouraging. She was a wreck and that really scared me. Seeing her like that made me avoid facing her again, which was not the best move for someone who wanted to heal the princess.

The terrifying princess who apparently even Katara tried to help, to no avail.

I was different though. Azula and I had a relationship that was so special. She couldn't have forgotten that, forgotten us. If I could make her remember why she gave me all her attention, her affection sometimes even if it wasn't how most people are affectionate, I could make her take steps towards not just waiting to die in her bedroom.

Last night, I had tossed and turned with the image of her in my mind. She was compared to her old self; the self I was…

No. I had to totally stop thinking about attractiveness. This wasn't about sleeping with her or even kissing her. It was about atoning for what I did. I was not going to think about how she used to be sexy but wasn't anymore.

When I woke up, I went to go see her again. This time I braced myself better, and I didn't need a pep talk in the mirror. They expected me to serve her breakfast. I plotted to serve breakfast her. No, that completely didn't make sense. Whatever. The point was that I was going to get her out of her room.

I grabbed the tray, walked past her room and went to start setting up the patio in the wing of the palace she had somehow claimed despite not leaving her bedroom. It was very empty, but well cleaned. Spotless, which gave me hope that people had hope for her.

There. Sunny, but out of the open and the bugs. It was hot out, a nice dry summer. I missed those a lot.

I walked back to her room and knocked.

"Come to breakfast," I said, but I squeaked it. Yeah, ordering Azula around felt very wrong and I could barely get the words out of my tightened throat. "Please, if you want, I made a really beautiful breakfast for you and there will be no Zuko or your mother or anything. You don't even have to eat with me."

I was planning on being patient, but I quickly lost it and pushed open the door. She was pretending to be asleep, which made me cross my arms. I opened my mouth to tell her off like I would anyone else, but it didn't happen. I couldn't force that out.

Did other people have that problem? Did other people still feel like her slave even if she was the weaker one now? I hoped so, because I felt humiliated by it.

"I am clearly sleeping," Azula said in a soft tone that would scare a lion-bear.

I frowned and then quickly stopped. I couldn't let myself be negative because I bet that it was why everybody else had lost the battle with Azula. They let negativity ruin them and I was the complete opposite of negative.

"Please," I asked and she didn't respond. "I'm trying to do nice stuff for you."

"In order to alleviate your own guilt."

"I'm not guilty!" I lied loudly and she shook her head without bothering to open her eyes. "Fine. I'm a little guilty. But I'm not doing this because I pity you or something; I'm doing it because I love you or something."

Azula sighed carelessly. "You sound like my mother. I don't like it when people sound like my mother."

I knew what I had to do and say but I totally didn't want to. But I did. Ugh, I did.

"I'll do whatever you want," I forced myself to say.

She opened her eyes solely to roll them. "You don't mean that, and I know it. You have no idea what I want you to do and I am certain you are hoping I want to have breakfast with you, when, I could just want to tell you to walk waist deep in water and then—"

"Hit me with lightning, I know. You don't have to be so dramatic," I grumbled shrilly before taking in a huge breath. Positivity was hard right now, but if I didn't do all I could, I would never be able to forgive myself. Worse than before. "What if we play a game? You ask me to do something, I do it, I ask you to do something—"

Azula yawned.

"That sounds like a boring game. You have no imagination. If you want to know what I want, it is for you to leave and stay out of my life. If you loved me, you would respect my wishes."

I sighed and hissed and cleared my throat before stating as sternly as I could, "No. I'm not playing this. I bet everybody tried to get you out of bed first. And you make it more and more hard for people because you figure out what they all do to try to get you to leave your room and do something like go for a walk, or have breakfast."

"Surprisingly astute. Yes, getting me out of bed to go soak up the sunshine is quite cliché at this point." She stood up, balancing one hand on a stack of books, and I took two steps backwards from fright. "What? I've realized that I will have to be more creative to defeat you due to the fact that you are obsessed with me and irrevocably in love with me."

I fought my expression of disbelief and anger over her accusing me of being as dumb as I was at fourteen. I couldn't be mad at her, because she was Azula and she was terrible, broken or whole. She had left her room and I knew she had some ulterior motive behind it. Azula had something to gain that definitely wasn't my trust or affection, and it gave me goosebumps.

But I got up and followed her to the sun-drenched patio. I would play her game, even if I was sure it wasn't a pretty one. She had broken everybody who tried to put her back together and she knew all the tricks, but I wasn't everybody. I could do it.

Because I had played a lot of games with Azula in my lifetime.