gemsofformenos: They are getting a few very important pieces. But as you said, the picture is rather grim. They do have two motives in mind but with one taking priority over the other. "to find a way to restore Ozai's bending. The Dai Li is also an option. Long Feng and the Dai Li surly have no sympathy for Azula and are always searching for ways no matter how cruel they are to gain more power." Both are very possible options. "And I was right, Yion was suspicious. She was involved in this and now she's gone." Yeah, you got that one right. As for if there are more people involved and her motives, that is to be seen. "But for now it seems that Zuko and probably a lot of the others will come to face this enemy together." Yes, Zuko will be supporting her. "Thank you again for all your best wishes, sadfully they are still needed." You're welcome, hopefully they won't be soon! Still keeping you and your family in my thoughts!

RadioDog77: Thank you :D I do my best to keep Azula in character, which is quite tricky with memory loss situations lol. But yeah she's still very intelligent and to the point. The way I see it, she lost her memories, not her personality. Though the memory loss gives her more room for compassion because she doesn't remember all of the prejudices that Ozai ingrained within her. Thank you again, pacing is something that I've been working on, instead of just rushing into the action parts. This is still a Sokkla fic, so there's gotta be elements of that sprinkled in.

At some point in the night he had managed to wrap himself around Azula. The princess, he finds, is a surprisingly heavy sleeper when sleep finally does find her. For the better part of the night she had kept him up with her tossing and turning and blanket yanking. Eventually he had given up and let her steal the whole blanket, he couldn't exactly argue with, "I'm a firebender, I require more warmth."

And when she finally did get comfortable enough to sink into slumber, she had found a new way to keep him up. He wouldn't have taken her for a sleep talker if she hadn't started doing it. Her sleepy babble mostly consisted of incoherent chatter with a sprinkle of words like 'dragon' and 'you fool.'

At one point she had rolled over, her hand flopping clumsily onto his face. He recalls having grumbled a, "hey, watch it." To which she replied, "no, you."

"But you're the one who dropped your hand on my face!"

"Your face attached itself to my…" and then what he guessed was 'hand'.

"That doesn't make any sense." Even while it was happening, he knew that it was ridiculous to argue with someone who wasn't even awake. With morning flooding through the windows, he realizes just how truly correct that was. Because after that she had responded to him with something akin to, "your hand can't even hand correctly…" incoherent muttering, "...and waterbenders are just wet firebenders anyways."

He goes to untangle himself from her but she only grips him tighter as though he is some sort of stuffed animal. She rubs her face against his chest and gives another sleepy mutter. Sokka sighs and resigns himself to letting her hold him while he prepares himself for a truly awkward conversation.

He pats her back a few times before trying to will himself back to sleep until she wakes up. But he finds that he can't. Not when she has her head resting on his chest; however innocent it is, he can't help but feel...strange about it.

And yet, he thinks that he might enjoy it. She isn't so intimidating when she's asleep.

At last she seems to stir more deliberately and her eyes open. He expects her to jerk away with a reddened face. He is half right; her face flushes some but she doesn't rush to put distance between the two of them. With the grace and poise that he is used to seeing from her, she unwraps herself from around him.

"You slept well." He remarks.

Now she jolts. "You're already awake?"

"I've been awake for about an hour."

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Because you were finally sleeping peacefully. And I kind of wanted to hear more about intellectual hippo-cows."

She scrunches her brows, "what?"

"You talk in your sleep." He shrugs.

"I do not."

"You had a…" he wouldn't exactly call it 'whole', "you hand an argument with me."

"Did I win it?"

He thinks for a moment. "You did get the last word in."

"Perhaps I do talk in my sleep."

Sokka watches her rise from the bed and stretch her arms. Overall, she seems to be in better spirits now that she is well rested and with her chi fully unblocked. She sits back down on the bed.

"I'm assuming that I shouldn't mention this morning to Zuko?"

Azula tilts her head. "You're making a big deal over nothing. You were helping me get to sleep and I…" she thinks for a minute, "am capable of doing many things even while I am sleeping."

He finds it more impressive that she can so expertly make things sound less awkward than they were.

But for as awkward as it had been, he can't help but decide that it had also been rather pleasant. "I'm glad that you're not mad at me anymore. For a while I thought that I ruined everything."

.oOo.

"Yes, I'm glad too." She pauses. "This would be a lot harder to manage without you here." She admits. "I didn't think that I was going to get much support…" She didn't think that she would get any at all. But she is thankful for it, much more than she has said. She had been alone and in pain for so long and for the most part he has given her nothing but company and soothing. She likes to think that the worst of it is over now. "I was hoping to do some firebending today, if you'd like to join me."

"I'm a nonbender."

She rolls her eyes. "I know that. You can still come out with me."

"I can do that." He agrees.

It is nice to find herself outside once again with the sun beating on her skin. Azula lets it seep into her until she can feel it pulsating in her fire chakra. She thinks that she should start with a stance and a deep breath. So she finds a comfortable one, though she isn't quite sure if it is proper form, and inhales.

She glances over at Sokka who gives her a thumbs up.

Azula lets the first flame burst into her palm, a test run. For a while she only stares at the fire dancing in her grasp, mesmerized by its sapphire brilliance. She has never seen a fire with such an eerie cool hue. And yet it feels most appropriate. To think that they have managed to cut her off from it…

She lets the flame dance until Sokka speaks, "you okay over there?"

She nods. "Perfectly fine." Better than fine, really, she is absolutely exhilarated. She moves into her first kata and second and then her third. It is a slow beginning, one where she is content to just watch the arc of her fire as it hangs blue in the air before turning orange and dissipating in a trail of smoke.

Her next few moves are a more rapid repetitions of her first three. She finds that she is alarmingly fast, much faster than she had anticipated, much faster than she had been when she had tried to flee the palace. Breathing and agility seem to come much easier now. She supposes that unblocked chi, three meals a day, and a full night's rest are helpful things.

Feeling much bolder about her abilities, having success thus far, Azula decides that she will try something new. She takes something of a running start and propels herself up and into a windmill of fire. She lands it with only the slightest stumble, she hopes that Sokka hadn't noticed.

She isn't quite sure if she is just making it all up as she goes along or if it is muscle memory at work.

She takes a moment of rest, not particularly because she is tired but because she is curious as to what Sokka makes of her display.

"Wow…" Sokka trails off. "Looks like you still remember how to firebend."

She takes a seat next to him. "Not exactly, I…" she trails off as she tries to make sense of it for herself. "It's more like an instinct, I think."

He shrugs, "Zuko mentioned that you are a prodigy, several times, in the form of a complaint."

"I wish I knew that when I was trying to get away from you."

"I'm glad that you didn't." Sokka disagrees. "If you did you'd probably be in the Earth Kingdom right now, cleaning docks."

"I was going to be a tradesman." Azula folds her arms over her chest. "And then work my way up to being a soldier of sorts."

At this, Sokka seems to cringe. She sighs, she truly is dreadful at telling jokes.

"I think that you've seen enough war."

"But I haven't seen any at all." She points out.

This time his smile is a sad one. "Sometimes I think that you're the lucky one here. I told you that you were a killer, but I don't think I mentioned that I killed someone too."

Azula reflexively tenses up.

"Your brother sent him to kill Aang."

She laughs, her stomach flutters upon recalling that laughing is highly out of place. But she can't quite help it. "Isn't Aang the one I killed."

After cringing, Sokka replies, "yeah."

"Guess it's a family hobby." This time she is sure that her tone is light but Sokka still seems to wince.

"You have no idea…"

Azula falls silent and looks at her hands. He doesn't resume his story and her stomach sinks further. When the silence becomes intolerable she prompts, "you were telling me about the man you killed…"

He flinches again and this time Azula nearly does too. She supposes that she should work on when to be blunt and when to be subtle.

"Nevermind." He replies glumly.

"Okay." She gets to her feet.

And to think that the day had begun so well.

She looks to the Fire Lake main building, at least she has a team of therapists about.