Once Katara woke up she went upstairs and tried to do some work on Azula's shoulder, as well as some more work on her ankle, but only so much could be done. Despite her efforts Azula would still be barely able to move without a crutch. Katara had to stitch up both the wounds and although Azula's bending did return it hardly mattered; she was in too much pain to actually use it.
"Zuko went into town, he said he was going to bring back some new clothes for you." Katara said at an attempt of conversation as she stitched up the wound on her patient's ankle, having already done all she could for her shoulder.
"It'll be interesting to see what he brings back," Azula mumbled and Katara giggled at the comment.
"Don't worry, Suki went with him." She assured the fire bender; apparently a brother's inability to pick out clothes for his sister is a universal thing because the water bender would never trust Sokka to do so for her.
"Oh great," Azula groaned before mentally scolding herself for saying that, her attitude was going to need a lot of work. "Sorry," She apologized and Katara did nothing more but just look at her for a moment; like she couldn't believe that word had just come out of her mouth.
"It's ok," she finally said, clearly not knowing what else to say.
Meanwhile, outside, Toph was helping Aang work on his earth bending. Zuko had told them all this morning that Azula decided that she was going to try and change, and this was something that Toph couldn't quite figure out her feelings about.
"So what do you think about Azula trying to switch sides?" She questioned while chucking some sand balls at Aang, training was also a time for her to practice her sand bending.
"It'd be good to have her on our side, that's for sure." He agreed, destroying the giant balls in midair whilst doing his best not to let the scattering remains blind him, again.
"Yeah, but do you think she'll really change?" The master earth bender skeptically questioned.
"Weren't you the one on Zuko's side when he suddenly decided to change?" Aang asked, sending a wave of sand at his teacher.
Toph manipulated Aang's wave and sent it back at him, effectively sending him flying into the air. He took control of this and cushioned his landing back on the ground with his air bending.
"Zuko had three years not only away from his father but also spent traveling with his uncle, he had time. Azula changing is going to be a lot harder." She pointed out,
"She wants to change, it's a start." Aang responded and Toph shook her head.
"Always the optimist twinkle-toes, well almost always." She said with a smirk before they continued their training session.
When Suki and Zuko returned later that afternoon Suki went upstairs and gave Azula the clothes they had found. Azula found that she didn't completely hate the clothes; they were a pair of dark gray, lightweight, pants, a red skirt, and a matching red turtleneck tank top. They had also bought her a pair of red sandals. Suki asked if she needed any help getting dressed but after insisting that she was fine on her own the Kyoshi Warrior left Azula alone in the room.
Once she had the clothes on Azula found that the tank top both exposed her midriff and covered most of her bandages, both of which she liked. However her hair was still a knotted mess and so, after sneaking off to the bathroom to use the mirror yet again, she tried to do something with it. But yet again such a task was proving to be completely and utterly hopeless! She was almost about to start looking for some scissors to cut it when there was a knock on the door. Her better judgment told her to tell whomever it was to go away, but instead she opened the door and found Sokka standing there.
"Sorry, I didn't know someone was in there." He apologized awkwardly.
"I was just trying to fix my hair," Azula admitted as she walked, well limped considering she had forgotten her crutch, out of the room.
"Why don't you ask Katara for help?" He suggested, he may not know much about doing hair but it was clear to him that neither does Azula.
"What makes you think she'd know anything?" Azula questioned
"Hey we grew up in the south pole where not only do we brush our hair with fish bones; it also freezes, gets coated in snow, salt water, and even sea-prune juice on a daily basis. Plus I'm pretty sure her hair is longer than yours, she should be able to do something." He defended smugly and Azula rolled her eyes.
"Alright fine, you made your point. I'll go talk to her." She said and with that she limped into her room, grabbed her crutch, and limped away towards the stairs.
She could feel Sokka's eyes on her, watching as she attempted to hobble down the wooden steps without losing her balance or misplacing her crutch. But she could do it, after days of breaking down nearly every night no way was she going to give the water tribe peasant the satisfaction of watching her fall flat on her face.
Since returning to the house Zuko had joined Toph and Aang outside, and despite Zuko's attempts to keep going the three were now taking a break.
"I know we're training for the biggest battle of our lives and all, but chill out, you need to let him take a break sometime." Toph lectured has Aang practically fell over on the rocky steps they used for seats.
"Sorry, I just got a lot on my mind." Zuko apologized
"What you need is a distraction, and I think Aang is far past providing one." Toph continued, "Want to go a few rounds with me?" She offered, clearly she was itching for a fight and with Aang's primary focus being on fire bending lately she wasn't getting anything out of that.
But much to her dismay Zuko shook his head and began heading for the door leading back into the house.
"No, I don't think this is the kind of stress you need to get out by fighting." He answered but when he got back into the house the sight that greeted him was something her never, ever, would've expected.
He had walked into the kitchen, where is sister sat in a chair with a rather annoyed and understandably embarrassed look on her face, as Katara stood behind her trying to comb through her hair. Zuko had seen Ty Lee do Azula's hair before, but he never thought much of it because, well, it's Ty Lee. Ty Lee can sometimes seem like she's a six-year-old trapped in the body of a fourteen-year-old, and is still innocent enough to be able to beg to experiment with her friends' hair. But this, this is Katara and Azula. Azula would never, as far as Zuko is concerned, ask someone other than a servant to do her hair; too much pride. As for Katara, well Zuko didn't exactly think she'd ever offer to do such a thing. So yeah, he was completely lost as to how the scene before him had come to be. That aside he knew it would be best not to ruin it, and so he just continued on his way as though he hadn't stood in the doorway with his sister glaring back at him for an uncomfortable amount of time.
The next few days for Azula were… interesting. She was trying her best to fit in as something other than a prisoner, but such things are easier said than done. She was finding that she hated being around Zuko the most, despite him having said to be on her side. She just couldn't help but feel that he was watching and waiting for her to mess up, like this was all some kind of test. Fortunately for her Zuko was normally too busy training the Avatar to worry about what she was doing, however it was obvious that he was constantly listening to make sure that she wasn't getting into trouble. But to be honest she wasn't getting into trouble, she was genuinely trying to trust these people. Trust, it's not something that she had ever been particularly familiar with. Sure she trusted her father, but look where that got her. He's the one who taught her that trust is for fools; that if you trust you are weak. But if she's really going to make him regret trying to kill her, and she will, then she can't do it under his philosophy.
She didn't know it, or maybe she did and just wouldn't say so, but she was taking small steps into trusting. Katara was the most obvious, considering she was the healer of the group Azula had no choice but to trust her. It didn't take long for her to understand why Toph and occasionally Sokka will jokingly refer to the water bender as 'mom'; she clearly was the mother out of the bunch. Due to her injuries Azula was spending most of her time with Katara, trying to get herself healed before the comet; and she still didn't know if she was actually going to partake in that battle or not. Katara was also able to teach Azula how to do her hair on her own, something that Azula was silently grateful for.
Aside from this she also found that it while it did take a few days for her to be comfortable with, talking with the others wasn't as hard as she would've thought. She soon learned that Toph was an easy enough person to get along with; the blind girl was very easy going and enjoyed finding ways to torture her friends. Azula actually thought it was interesting the way Toph could be both aggressive and a nice person at the same time, although when her earth bending attacks started to get a little harsher and Azula's comments became slightly more personal Zuko began to question who the bad influence was in that friendship. Azula also found herself hanging out with Sokka, when he wasn't off with Suki that is. She was having a difficult time understanding the relationship between those two; based on the way Suki had spoken about him when she was put in person, and the way Sokka had been willing to risk everything to find her, she had assumed that the two would've been all over each other now that they've reunited. Not to say that they aren't close, because they are, but they sometimes something just seemed off. However Azula never paid much attention to it, she has far greater things to worry about than the love lives of Zuko's friends.
Her fire bending quickly became one of those things.
A few days after the attack Azula found herself still in pain but healed enough to fire bend, or she thought she was anyway. She awoke at sunrise, the last thing she needed was someone catching her practicing and giving her some kind of lecture. So she was quick to get dressed and do her hair in a half up-half down style, something she was starting to find herself doing everyday now, before sneaking out of her room and into the back courtyard.
She didn't know how long she would have, so she made a small flame quickly. She reveled in the feeling of bending again. Sure she could've been bending during the past few days, but only with one arm it would've barely been worth it. Bending when you can't even do it properly hardly compares to bending at your full potential. So since she had no reason to try bending with just one arm she had opted to let herself heal, and now that she could not only use her other shoulder but also walk with nothing more than a slight limp she was healed enough. She began with a simple, basic, technique. She preformed every motion flawlessly, and yet at the end produced nothing more than a measly spark. Although she was very confused at first she brushed it off and assumed that after being paralyzed for so long and then letting herself heal she was probably just out of practice. So she tried the technique again, and again, and again. But still nothing.
Zuko didn't know what time it was, though he knew it was still very early, when he awoke to the sound of screaming. It wasn't the type of screaming he normally would've expected in the situation they're in. Instead it was a very frustrated sounding set of growls, and when he looked out his window he found the source. Azula was down in the courtyard fire bending, or attempting to anyway. She didn't look like she was having much luck, and her obvious frustration wasn't helping her. With a sigh Zuko got up, although he wasn't really sure why. It's not like there's anything he can do for his sister, her bending was probably only weak because she was still recovering from the attack a few nights ago. But he still got dressed for the day and went down there, when he got there however he was surprised by what he saw.
From his window he hadn't been able to see Azula's face, and now that he could, he saw that she was more than just frustrated. She was scared. She was shouting out in a wild frustration as she angrily threw fire, not that it was anything more than little spurts of flames. Tears were pricking at the edges of her eyes and she was practically shaking as she screamed and lashed out in all directions, she didn't even notice Zuko until he had his arms around her.
"Let me go! Let me go!" She screamed as he restrained her, pinning her arms to her sides so that she couldn't burn him.
"Tell me what's going on," Zuko demanded but Azula acted as though she hadn't heard him and just kept struggling.
"Let go of me! Let go!" She continued as she squirmed and so finally Zuko released her.
She hadn't expected him to let her go, not in this state anyway, so when he did she stumbled forward. Once she caught her balance she turned around to see Zuko standing with his hands raised as if in surrender.
"Alright, now tell me what's going on." He asked of her in as calm a voice as he could manage.
"Believe me Zuzu I'd love to," she said, "but the problem is I have no idea." She explained but Zuko only looked at her to continue, and with a sigh she did. "That pathetic excuse for fire is all I seem to be able to make, it's like I've lost my bending." She admitted fearfully. "And don't try to tell me it's because I'm hurt, I've been hurt before and this has never happened." She quickly said but to her surprise Zuko smiled at her.
"It's not your shoulder, it's because you switched sides." He told her but she only looked at him as though he was insane.
"I'm sorry, come again?" She asked and Zuko chuckled, despite the fact that Azula couldn't see what it was about this situation that he could possibly find humorous.
"After I switched sides my anger dissipated, and I basically lost my ability to fire bend. You're trying to open yourself up, and trying to change. Without your anger consuming you, you don't have the power to fuel your bending." He explained as he took a step closer to her.
"Well if that's it then problem solved, I still have plenty of anger that I can turn back on." She said but Zuko frowned.
"That's not a good idea. I can show you another way to bend, one that doesn't destroy you on the inside." He offered and Azula snorted in response,
"And where did you learn a technique like that?" She asked; Zuko only smiled in response.
"Some old friends of Uncle." He answered and Azula did her best to suppress a laugh.
"It isn't bad enough that were subjected to three years with him? You had to go track down his friends too?" She teased before actually considering the idea, "Alright fine, I'll let you show me; but on one condition." She agreed and Zuko found himself frowning again.
"What is it?" He asked and Azula smirked
"No one outside of this house ever finds out," she sneered and now it was Zuko's turn to suppress a laugh.