"That one!" Atsu shouts. "I want that one!"

"It's not for sale, Atsu. You're going to have to win it." Hajime says.

"But...but I'm no good at tossing games."

Hajime ruffles his hair, "you're great at it."

He shakes his head. "Nu-uh, last year Caihong said that I'd do it better if I turned around and threw it backwards."

"New year, new skills! Give it a try." He gives Atsu a pat on the shoulders and a few coins.

"You aren't going to teach him how to do it?" Azula asks.

"You just throw a bag full of beans into a hole, he just has to practice."

She watches the boy chuck the bag with all of his might, overshooting the hole by several feet. His next throw is weak to compensate and the bag doesn't fall too far from where he stands. His third shot is too far to the right and so his fourth throw is significantly left. He stops his foot and carelessly throws the last bag.

The straw-stuffed badger-mole still hangs on the hook.

"Dad! You do it!" Before Hajime can answer he changes direction. Azula is none to pleased with this change. He stares at her with that gap toothed grin. "Rikka can do it!"

"I don't want to play a silly game." Azula folds her arms over her chest.

Hajime laughs, "you're at a festival. Festivals are all about silly and rigged games."

"Just because you can't win, doesn't mean that they are rigged." She holds a pointer up as if to accent her point.

He nudges her, "if it's not rigged, go win."

Atsu tugs on her sleeve. "Please Rikka, please! I'll...I'll…" He lightly knocks his head with his fist, "Caihong and I'll make you a pie!"

"A pie? What flavor?"

"Uhhh. Chocolate?"

"You're going to get the chocolate from the garden, aren't you?"

"A flower pot actually…" He mumbles.

"I don't eat dirt."

"I do! It's not that bad if you get it from the flower pots especially if you find those teeny rolly bugs that get all...rolly when you poke at them like this!" He jabs her in the side with his tiny, pudgy finger.

"I'll pass." She grumbles as she watches Hajime fail to land any of the bags into the hole.

"Please win it for me, please, please, please, please phu-leeese…"

"These games are for children. I am not a child."

"What? Are there better uses for your talents?" Hajime quirks a brow.

"Yes! Yes, exactly. I am glad that you understand…" she glances at him and realizes that he, in fact, does not understand at all. She very nearly pouts.

"Com'on Rikka!" Atsu whines. "Com'on, com'on, com'on!" He pleads until the words blend into one steady stream.

"No."

"Look at his face, Rikka."

She has. It is gap-toothed, bug-eyed, and pudgy. The same as every child she ever set her eyes upon.

"How can you say no to that face?"

"Cooooommmme ooooon, Riiikaaaa."

"Not a chance." She folds her arms tighter.

"You're his only hope, Rikka. He gets his hand-eye coordination from his dad."

"Yes," she agrees, "you're both awful at this."

"Well why don't you grace all of us with your fantastic bean toss skills, master."

Azula gives a haughty sniff. "Fine. But only so the both of you know that it isn't so hard."

.oOo.

He hasn't put it down since she'd won it for him. Day to day the badger-mole has a different name. At first it was 'Duster' and then it was 'Mud Muncher' and after that it was, 'Caihong the Second'. She isn't sure which name has been bestowed upon the toy today but she has a sinking feeling that it has something to do with her name and is doubly glad that she is using a false one.

The boy comes prancing up to her. "I'm going to show Misa and Min, Dáxiyi!"

"Dáxiyi?"

Atsu nods, "your mongoose-lizard."

"You named my mongoose-lizard?"

"You said that you didn't!"

Azula rolls her eyes, "and who are Misa and Min?"

"Neighbor's kids." Hajime says as the boy rushes outside. "How are things going at Ojihara's?"

"Well enough." Azula replies. Nevermind that Caihong's father has been tirelessly pestering her for details of her past to the point she is considering calling off their dinner date. "Seukhyung asks too many questions."

"You do realize that going out to dinner is all about questions and getting to know someone, right?"

Azula frowns, her stomach tying itself in knots. "Why would he want to do that?" She wonders if she is being pursued. Surely she has been in this village long enough to have attracted attention. Golden eyes stand starkly out amid shades of green.

"Because he likes you. And his daughter does too. And his old man…"

"In other words, I should tell him that dinner is cancelled and that he will not be interrogating me over lukewarm miso soup and mochi."

Hajime laughs. "In other words, give him a chance. Just let him do all of the talking if you don't want to." He tilts his head. "You do realize what this dinner is, right?"

"Why do you think that I wouldn't?"

"You did imply, the other day, that you have trouble understanding people."

"I understand people perfectly. I just don't know how to connect with them. I know that he…"

"Loves you?"

She nods. "I think."

"Well then, take him to dinner and see how it goes."

"I will."

He nods, "I figured that you would."

"You sound disappointed."

"No!" He says too quickly. "I told you that I wanted to help you socialize more. I just didn't expect you to... catch on so quickly."

But she truly hasn't. "And?"

"And what?"

"There's something you aren't saying. What else didn't you expect?"

He rubs his hands over his face.

"Why would you think that there's something else?"

"Because I understand people perfectly."

.oOo.

Seukhyung takes her hand and leads her into the eatery, a fine place really. Small but fine, with walls of bamboo sticks and a burbling fountain at the very center. All about the place are hanging ivys and pots that spill colorful leaves and petals. "Here." He helps her into her seat. "I'll have the waiter light these," he gestures to the candles.

Azula quirks a brow.

He laughs, "right, I'm used to dating Earth Kingdom women."

"Clearly." Azula cups the lotus shaped candle in her palms and lights it up. She waits for the flame to warm into a shade of orange before putting it back in place.

"So uh…" he clears his throat. "So, what was life like back in the Fire Nation? Is everyone as competitive and passionate as you are?"

She shakes her head. "In the Fire Nation you either have the spark or you don't. You're either bold or useless."

"Sounds harsh."

She shrugs.

"No wonder you left." He rubs the back of his head. "I wouldn't want to deal with that sort of pressure. It's like, no wonder Fire Nation soldiers are so ruthless and cruel."

Azula swallows. The waiter finally makes his appearance. "Miso soup add some spice to it."

"And I'll have the roast duck and pau buns." He pauses and turns to her, "you said spicy right? Have you ever tried spicy pickled kelp?"

She shakes her head.

"A real delicacy!" Seukhyun exclaims. "I'll split one with you, if you'd like."

"That sounds just fine." If she doesn't like it he can eat the whole thing, she supposes.

"Anyways, what was I saying?"

"That firebenders are monsters?"

"N-no! That's not what I meant. Just the military types and the rich folk."

Azula gazes into the candle's flickering flame. "Right…"

"But you're not like that. I can tell." He smiles. "I was able to see it when you gave Caihong that turnip."

She rolls her eyes. She isn't quite sure if her laugh is resentful or genuinely humored. "You're still on about that? It was one, little, scrap of a turnip."

"It's the small deeds that show a person's true nature. That's what my old man told me. That little turnip had Caihong smiling for days, you know. It was the best turnip she ever ate."

This time she is certain that her little laugh is genuine. "Well of course. It was touched by my hand, afterall."

He chuckles, "you're something else."

"A good something?"

He cups his hand over hers, "I wouldn't have asked you for a date if I thought that you were a bad something. I'm so glad that my old man took Caihong off of my hands tonight."

"Why's that?"

He laughs, "it's a little less romantic to have her yanking on my sleeve all night, don't you think?"

She shrugs, Hajime seems to manage just fine.

"I haven't had a date since I lost Cai's mother."

"What happened to her?" She asks.

"Same thing that happened to a lot of wives here. Bunch of Earth Kingdom soldiers came up here and when we refused to let them turn Wu Jing into a military camp...people died, Rikka, a lot of people." He pauses. "Fire Nation soldiers aren't the only brutal ones. I haven't met any soldier who was pleasant for conversation."

Her stomach sinks. She can't help but wonder how far she would have gone, had her pre-destined path not been so rudely blocked. She doesn't have to wonder for long at all, not knowing full and well that she had told her father to charr the entirety of the Earth Kingdom. Knowing that she took pride in her suggestion. She pictures Wu Jing under a wave of fire streaming from her father's hand. Ojihara, Seukhyung, Caihong, Atsu, Hajime, all of them burning to ash. "Yes, you're probably right about that."

She takes the first taste of the spicy pickled kelp. It isn't spicy at all.

"Well, what do you think?"

"It's fine."

Azula was almost certain that she would never know the feeling...

She hates it.

She resents it.

It leaves her stomach queasy, but that night she learns what it is to feel shame, regret.

.oOo.

Her voice is strangely soothing. A bizarre patchwork of Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom and he almost ravenously enjoys how pleasantly it plays through his ears. She isn't talking about anything in particular. Mostly it is small talk with a sprinkle every now and again about how she is surprised to be receiving such a generally positive welcome home.

"You're their princess." He says. "Of course they're happy to have you back."

"But did I really do them any favors while I was here?"

He nods. "I think that you did, or you did at the time." He tries to get his thoughts together. "And I think that they agree. The problem isn't that you didn't do any favors it's that those things aren't considered good deeds anymore. Times change, what seemed like a helping the Fire Nation at the time isn't so helpful after all."

She fixes him with the dullest stare he has seen in a while.

"But I think that they know that you meant well, right? You're not the only Fire National who has been doing some reflection. This whole nation is…"

"Doing some horrifying introspection." Azula mutters. "Some things can't be fixed, Sokka. Maybe some cultures are worse than others..."

"Where is this coming from?"

"Thinking too much. I suppose."

"Firebenders aren't evil." He smiles. "You aren't."

She quirks a skeptical brow.

"Do evil people carry around stuffed badger-moles?"

Azula's face flushes as she snatches it back. "Apparently, yes."

.oOo.

Azula buries her nose in the badger-mole's fabric. It smells faintly of turnip of dirt and of home. It smells of affection and care. If she inhales deeply enough she swears that she is whisked to that place for some time.

Whisked back to a home where the scent of freshly baked bread was a morning starter and vegetable stew closed the night.

She holds her hand to her belly. She feels cold to her core.

Things could have been fine. They could have been fulfilling, whole. Instead she finds the hollowness of a spoiled harvest, lush and flourishing on the surface but rotting beneath.

She gives a small jerk when she feels hands on her soldiers. "Hey. Are you still with me."

Azula nods, "mostly."

"You were…"

"Thinking." She replies. "Just thinking."

He nods and she isn't sure that he believes her.

"I'm not crazy."

"I didn't say that you were." He promises. "But 'not crazy' doesn't rule 'not okay' out."

She swallows.

"I think that you can use…" He wiggles his brows and pulls out a mahjong set, "a distraction!"

"Sokka…"

"Come on, it'll be fun. A game night! Me, you, Zuko, Mai, and TyLee." He beams. "I happen to be a mahjong master."

"Is that right?"

"It sure is!"

"I'll pass."

"Oh come on, you'll have fun."

"It's a silly game, Sokka."

"I get it, you have to save your brainpower for something more important."

Her throat runs dry. "What did you say?"

Sokka tenses, only briefly, but long enough. "I was just saying that you just don't want to play because I am a mahjong master and you don't want to lose in front of ever."

Azula sniffs. "Invite the entire palace staff, I'll win."

.oOo.

She was smiling. It had reached her eyes at multiple points during their game-mostly when she was near victory-but he can't say that she is unbothered. Raava's tendrils he wishes that she would just tell him what is wrong. What happened to her, who she lost, and how.

And Raava's light he doesn't know why or when he started to care so much. He has a suspicion that, knowingly or not, it had been the moment she stumbled back into the palace with a story and a collection of scars.

He supposes that it is a compulsion to understand to know just what could have sparked such a stark change. No, he realizes, it isn't so stark at all. Everything that made Azula, Azula is still there. He thinks that it is more of an addition; a newfound capacity for empathy and care.

He sighs to himself, his impulse decisions usually lead him to distress and disarray. But when he hears that small laugh, he isn't quite so sure that, that will be the case this time. He is almost entirely sure when the game is packed away and she mutters, "I suppose that your ideas aren't so awful after all. Tonight reminded me of...special moments. It almost felt the same."

He isn't so sure if that is melancholic or pleasent. "Special moments?"

She nods.

"You ever going to talk about those?"

She strokes the head of the badger-mole as she considers. "I went to a festival once."

Her voice is so soft. Soothing. The very prospect of finally hearing a story where he can savor every syllable, every annunciation, is enticing. So much so that he finds it startling. He hadn't expected to be so intensely and suddenly enthralled by the princess. But he supposes that he does have a history of falling intensely and abruptly. Quite frankly, it scares him. Truly, he only meant to reach out a comforting hand, to pursue a friendship and nothing more.

Changed or not, she is still Azula. Azula with all of her history and baggage. Azula with a steeper mountain of secrets.

"Are you listening, because I'm not going to repeat myself?"

"You went to a festival once, with a boy and his father…"

She nods.

But maybe it won't be so hard to uncover those secrets. Maybe he only had to ask her to share the pleasant memories. It seems to almost comfort her to talk about this boy and his father.

The name Hajime comes back to him and he wonders if this story is about that man.

"Can we do this again?" He asks when she is finished.

She furrows her brows. "A story a night! You tell me about a special moment and I'll tell you about one."

She considers. "Alright, a story a night. But you don't get to ask any questions."