Disclaimer: I own nothing you might recognise from the series.
Notes: Here's another Aiko-Azula interaction. This remains part of my response to KaliAnn's request for that. I've also been watching way too much YouTube and reading too much in the Doctor Who fandom. Sorry for the delay.
After that first conversation about love, Azula came storming back to Aiko demanding, "Explain this love thing to me. Why should it matter?"
Aiko stared at her blankly and said, "If I were to ask you to just . . . explain anger to a person who was never angry, or sad to someone who'd never been sad, could you? Love is a feeling of caring for others."
"Yes, yes. You said. Like the fact that I like dragonfruit only more." Azula was very impatient. This sounded like that foolish philosophy stuff she'd had to learn as a child.
Her sister looked exasperated. "I can't just wave my hands to bend feelings into existence I'm not sure you've ever had. I'm guessing you at least care about Zuko, otherwise-"
"Enough about Zuzu!" Azula snapped, and stormed off. She needed a different source of information.
It hadn't taken Azula long to figure out that her questions about love and what people really thought about it weren't going over well. For her, that is. Some people reacted to her questions as though she were trying to trick them in some way. Mai certainly had.
Well, it was only to be expected when she was interrogating the other girl after her betrayal at the Boiling Rock. Still, even before then Mai had been suspicious of Azula's motives.
Ty Lee was simply a bubblehead. There was no understanding any of the ridiculous palaver that came out of her mouth, feelings and auras and 'melty insides', whatever in the Koh-benighted Spirit World that meant.
She'd tried some questions of various servants, ministers, priests, scholars and soldiers about. Some thought she was going soft, clearly, and others were as suspicious as Mai.
From there she tried the palace library. Sneaking around at night in order to avoid any unfortunate questions, she read through scholarly treatises on families, philosophy and literature. She read through the poems and stories, the histories and legends. She examined the writings of priests, kings, soldiers and clerks.
Clearly this love thing had something to do with being stupid in relation to another person. Giving your life for that person, buying ridiculous things for them, promising them ridiculous things, doing ridiculous things in order to gain their favour, Azula could see no benefit to any of it.
In the end, her only choice was to speak to her sister again. "Explain this to me," she demanded, thrusting a scroll with the tale of Oma and Shu written on it at her sister.
"Explain what, exactly?" Aiko asked warily.
Eyes narrowed in disbelief that her own blood kin couldn't understand what needed explaining about this, Azula nonetheless went on. "Why would these two idiots choose to betray their people and any chance at winning the war just to laze around kissing each other in a cave? In fact, they could have joined together and conquered both tribes, it's clear they were the superior of the others as the only benders, but they didn't do that. And then, Oma doesn't even get vengeance on those who killed her stupid lover!" Her aggravation with this whole love idea boiled over. "So, it's because of love they're both lazy, it's apparently because of love they betray their tribes instead of trying to win the war, and it's because of love she doesn't get revenge for losing something important?"
A really strange look crossed Aiko's face before she sighed and spoke. "First, Azula, there are different kinds of love. The love you feel for your nation, tribe or people, then there's the love you feel for family or friends, and lastly there's there's the love you feel for a lover, spouse, boyfriend - a romantic partner."
This was something Azula had read in a few of the scholarly and philosophical scrolls in the library, but maybe Aiko could explain it better. Or at least explain it without wandering into silly poetry or scholarly maunderings. "Right, so why does that explain it?"
"So, Shu and Oma loved each other very deeply," Aiko began with a long-suffering look on her face. "When you love a person that much, it makes you sad to see them sad or hurt, and it makes you happy to see them happy. Remember when you came in here and told me you were glad Zuko was settling into his role as prince again so well? Were you just glad that things were working, or did it make you feel good to see him feeling good?"
Azula was about to ask why that mattered, when it occurred to her that Aiko was trying to make the point that feeling good on seeing someone else feeling good was the point. That part of this love thing meant your feelings became dependent on someone else's feelings. So, she ignored her first impulse and really thought about it. Thought about how she felt when she saw her brother smile in pride at his accomplishment, then thought a moment about that first time when she was little that she had gloated over her success in bending, mocking his failure. There was a dim memory of a strange sinking sensation in her chest when his face fell that day, a feeling she'd suppressed. And while it seemed a weakness to be this dependent on someone else for her inner calm, all her teachers had always emphasised self-knowledge. You cannot improve if you forever refuse to see your failings. She couldn't understand this love thing yet, and that meant dealing with her failure to understand.
She felt almost defiant, although what she was defying she didn't yet know, as she said, "I suppose it did."
Aiko nodded. "Okay then. So, imagine that you meet a person from the other side of the war. Perhaps you didn't know they were, perhaps they're imprisoned as I am so you have the chance to talk, and you come to love them. To hold their happiness and wellbeing in as much esteem as you hold your own. Maybe even more."
Thinking of Zuko again, of how it had stung when he'd run away from her and Mai, only to return while in the process of helping enemies of the Fire Nation break out of prison, looking strangely happier while betraying her than he had while working with her, Azula nodded herself. "Alright," she said slowly. "So, because it would make Oma unhappy to have her people attacked Shu wouldn't attack and the same for Shu."
"Exactly," Aiko said. "Because they also loved their respective peoples and families. Making their people happy and their families happy were also important to them."
It became clear. "Stalemate." This was why she had also heard of people calling love a weakness. Clearly it was. "So, love made them both too weak to do what was needed to win the war."
"Or," Aiko said, sounding nettled, "It made them strong enough to do a thing that would hurt their people and families out of a desire to make the other happy." Now Aiko sounded defiant. "Because love can make people strong enough to do things they might otherwise not be able to do."
A memory of a man who had been weak and snivelling, begging and pleading for his life, and yet when he children were threatened he had become suddenly courageous and strong. He had flung himself into the line of fire to protect his children, despite his obvious fear of death. That must have been love that had made him do that, and Azula was once again reminded of Zuko.
It was something she had forgotten. They'd had a terrible bending teacher once as children, a man who had frightened them both, but despite his fear Zuko had stood between her and that man, hurting for her.
The final stupidity of Oma and Shu was explained. "Oma didn't get revenge because the people who would have killed Shu were her family, and what better revenge than to take away their victory in the war anyhow." Azula sat back feeling pleased with herself for starting to understand this strange and powerful feeling.
Aiko gently corrected her, "Because it would have made Shu happy for his family and people to be safe, so it made Oma happy to do this one thing for Shu."
"But he was dead," Azula protested. "What does that matter?"
There was a pause as Aiko seemed about to say something, then also seemed to think better of it. "When they met again, either in the Spirit World, or if reincarnated, don't you think Shu would have been happy to know his people were the better for Oma's actions?"
That made sense.
"And," Aiko continued, "Since Oma cared about her own people, what if there were others like her and Shu, who had loved someone from the other tribe? It would make those people happy as well."
The practical thought that an action like that could affect a lot of people, emotionally, clicked in Azula's head. If she could find the right thing to say to Zuko, it could bring him back. Then, not only would she be happier with him there, it would probably make Mai happier, and Mai might choose to come back too. She'd missed Mai's reliable boredom.
Azula stood suddenly, swiftly leaving the prison Aiko was kept in, and headed to find out where Zuko was. She had to admit now, she did care for her brother. Perhaps it wasn't this love thing, something she'd always dismissed as duty, lust or stupidity, but it seemed like it might be. Zuko had always wanted those mushy feelings from her, so maybe she needed to give him that. Then he'd come back, Mai would be happy and they could take over the world the way they were supposed to.
But that day at the Western Air Temple, facing him again, she wasn't prepared for how much it hurt. She'd remembered so much from their childhoods that she'd lost by her own actions, she missed Mai's steadfast presence and even Ty-Lee's cheer, and she found herself crying in a way she hadn't since she was a toddler and everything she said came out wrong.
When she came back from the battle, bruised and without Zuko, she swore she'd never let this love idiocy control her again.
She also refused to examine why she began keeping her sister within arm's length at all times.