A/N: This chapter is a bit shorter than previous. After not writing for a while, I'm a bit rusty too. This chapter was also written in different chunks with long periods of time in between them, so once again sorry if it appears choppy in certain areas. It felt good to continue after this long while, continuing this story has been bugging me in the back of mind for a while and it'll feel great to push out another chapter finally. School has been relatively stressful in an online-learning sense of things, and work has picked up as well so my time is not as free as it was in the summer, but I will stick with this story! This chapter is a base to set up the next few. More genuine moments ahead, stay tuned. Now without further rambling, Ch12.

Ch12

Suki turned to face the direction from which the commotion sounded from. Rocks came tumbling down the steep, near vertical, embankment. The boulders and following earth poured from the campsite's edge, a waterfall of stone and earth, leaving Sokka dangling for his life over the edge. Suki's eyes widened. She heard his cries of fear and anguish; not words but rather screams and grunts.

"Sokka!" she shouted, spinning on her heel and bolting back up the pathway. By the time the clang of the metal water containers rang out from hitting the ground, Suki was already several yards away.

"Well," Azula struggled. "Take your sweet and merry time! It's not like I'm inconvenienced by this or anything!" Azula grunted through gritted teeth.

Sokka found himself captivated by her two bangs that typically framed her face as they swayed gently in the breeze. Her face as usual was clean and delicate in appearance, the rouge of her lips stood out against her pale face. Her eyes however, instead of the narrow and zeroed-in, predatory, eyes of a hawk, were widened of concern for him despite her eyebrows being furrowed in inconvenience.

He still didn't think her assertion that "boys in the firenaton practically fell at her feet wherever she went" was true in any light, but he couldn't deny. She was pretty.

The face, whose golden eyes ensnared him, winced in pain as her head cocked to the side suddenly. Her injuries tore at her from within, the sudden extreme movement and exertion of strength flared the previously dulled and manageable pain. Sokka quickly snapped out of his trance, realizing he was now actively inflicting harm on her. With his free hand he tried to grasp at the cliffside, trying to get a point to brace himself and grapple with the wall. Taking hold of a partially exposed stone he tried to pull himself up and relieve much of the strain being put on Azula. His success was short lived and so was the relief, however. The stone broke free suddenly, letting Sokka mass drop suddenly.

"Ahh-!" Azula yiped as her arm was suddenly yanked.

"Sorry," Sokka groaned, guiltily.

"Quit," she exhaled, "taking your sweet time, peasant! And pull yourself up!" Her eyes were clamped shut on her pained face. "..this is hurting me."

Sokka quickly gained footing on the wall and desperately pushed himself up. Finally he was able to grasp the ledge and pull himself up onto solid ground. Azula pulled as well while Sokka clambered over the edge, slouching back only when he was finally safe. She clutched her side, trying to cradle the pain. She kept her breathing controlled and calm, rarely did she gasp for air, as if she did not need air like other ordinary peasants. Her head was beginning to spin and ache.

By comparison, Sokka was a ghastly wreck. Behind his shut eyes, in addition to appreciating the feel of the solid earth against his back, he could only see the concerned and reactive face of his prisoner ingrained in the darkness behind his eyelids. The sight of her bangs blowing in the light in the wind and her locked and determined eye contact. Her focus was undeniable, the same locked gaze he had grown accustomed to and associated with her, but he was still surprised, seeing how it looked in a context opposite of trying to destroy a target.

"T-Thanks, Azula," he wheezed.

The former princess rose to her feet, patting down her tunic and skirt of the dust that soiled it. "You needn't mention it, peasant," she coughed, "though, I think I am deserving of you bowing before me. That was very generous of me after all. Especially for the likes of you."

She fixed her hair, masking the physical pain she endured.

"It's not like you'd do the same," she said below her breath.

"You're wrong."

Azula's head quickly turned to Sokka. Liar. You, along with the rest of the world would rather me gone. Don't keep acting like you care.

She stood over the water tribesman, menacingly. "I'm never wrong. I know what you'd really do. It's what anyone would do, really. You don't need to pretend to care about me."

"No," he said firmly with a more powerful tone of voice, "You're wrong. If the situations were reversed, I would have done the exact same thing. Suki too, likely."

She snapped. Grabbing onto him by the collar forcefully, and pulling him close. Their faces inches away, her golden eyes burned a war path through his blue ones. For Sokka it was like staring down the face of a demon in fury. "You dare lie? To me!?" Her voice was raised to a fuller volume as well, a sharper one at that. Each sentence pierces at Sokka's ear drums like daggers. "All of you, just love to torment me, don't you?! Watch the monstrous and murderous princess wince and writhe internally. You all enjoy this, don't you?!"

"Azula, settled down," Sokka pleaded.

"I'll let you-"

Azula was pulled from Sokka forcefully, a powerful shove launched her from her waist while she was simultaneously tripped. The former princess fell onto her rear, just as the sharp blade-like sound of an iron war fan reverberated in her ears. "Get away from him!"

Azula looked up to see Suki, standing between her and Sokka, separating the two.

"You tried to push him over didn't you?" she accused harshly. "I left you two because I thought I could trust you. I was wrong."

"You just love, rudely interrupting other people's conversations," Azula coughed. "I believe this is between me and ponytail over there and involves you in no manner. Now if you'll excuse me, we have unsettled-"

She was shoved back to the ground when trying to get up.

Suki's fan clicked shut as she tucked the weapon back into her belt.

"I warned you didn't I? If you so much as even thought of hurting Sokka," she began menacingly closing in on the downed opponent. "Things would become personal." Her gloved hand clenched into a tight fist as she grabbed onto the princess's collar.

"Suki,wait!" Sokka called out.

Her eyes widened and her head whipped around to face Sokka. A single tear had welled up in her eye, a culmination of stress, worry, anger, and everything else that had added to the immense internal pressure she accumulated on her dash back up the trail. It ran down her cheek, smoothly gliding over her generously applied and waterproof makeup.

"If Azula didn't act the way she did I would be dead right now," he reported. "She saved me!"

Suki looked to Azula's face in disbelief. She was met by a snarl from the princess, giving her affirmation of his statement since it was so obvious that the Kyoshi Warrior was unable to comprehend basic vocabulary.

"Please, just lay off her for a sec!" His tone took Suki aback slightly. It sounded like he was scolding her. A tone she was not familiar with as he never had anything of grievance to shoot at her before. It was usually the other way around. His words stung at her heart, she may have crossed a line without knowing it. She let go of Azula and separated from her, just as he asked.

"I'm..sorry," Suki weakly said, realizing that she may have acted hastily and overreacted. She was ready to inflict pain in a direct manner, something she had never done before. Her training ever since the beginning, and what she subsequently taught her warriors, was to use an opponent's force against them, and to subdue. Rather than damage. It was so unlike her, how she was just now.

"Sokka, I was out of turn there, I'm-"

Sokka silently motioned to Azula with his eyes. He was noticeably irritated. Suki pushed her fans further into her belt, fidgeting, while she turned to face the princess.

"I'm sorry I rushed into things and overreacted," she apologized sincerely. "My past with you has been putting me on edge, but that's no excuse for how I acted, just now. It goes against everything I've trained and against my own core values, and for that I'm sorry, Azula."

Azula, although she did not show any hint of it externally, was absorbing the sincere apology. It was the first time that she'd ever received one and did not know what it felt like to have someone try and right their wrongs to her. She seemed to forget that she was ready to incinerate this life-sized warrior doll of a person. The princess, who had always been taken advantage of but never apologized to was at a loss for words. Genuinely she didn't know what to do in this situation, or how to feel.

Without moving her confused, blank, face she looked to Sokka in the corner of her eye. He was gesturing to Suki. Finally, he gave his hint and silently mouthed the words to her.

"I…" Azula paused, "forgive you.." She took Suki's extended hand. "All- or..most, feelings of bitterness between us, can be considered settled," she smirked awkwardly.

Sokka was happy to see the two finally making up for once. Yeah...she's an awkward one when not trying to destroy someone, he thought.