Azula walked the short distance from the palace to the nearby market. She had the sudden craving for some ice cream, an unfortunate consequence after spending some time in one of the cooler territories overseas. Summers back in the palace seemed a lot hotter than when she remembered, but three years was a lot of time for someone to grow up in.

Beside her were Zuko and Raizu, and like her dressed in simpler clothes, in the same things children their age wore everyday and not the ceremonial regalia that showed those around them they were of the royal line. It had its uses, she had to admit., especially with the newly appointed orderlies, clerks, and workers after the many new departments were created over the years.

Her shoes clacked against the new pavement, a lattice work of hexagonal stone tiles that had proven sturdier and more reliable than the old rectangular ones. It was an effort of the newly created Department of Public Works and Logistics, of people and benders from all elements all working together to make life easier for everyone. It was just one of the many things that changed in those short three years since grandfather allowed the former prisoners become citizens; part apology to those who no longer had families to return to, and part self-interest because of the value they brought to the nation.

Their new water and earth bender citizens opened up so many possibilities for how to do things better: farms could now be made faster and maintained with less people; docks and shipyards were more efficient, moving shipments in and out of ports faster than ever before; the air was cleaner in the industrial towns because their people weren't as reliant anymore on using steam power for everything.

There was so much to gain from everyone working together that it baffled her why the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom hadn't done so before, she admitted her great grandfather's war was not right, but it also allowed colonies—which Raizu so strongly wanted to be called integrated territories after the War's end—to have access to technology they couldn't have thought of in a hundred years. Literally.

Steam power from burning coal, the very thing that allowed Fire Lord Sozin to wage the war in the first place had been a fixture in the Fire Nation for almost a hundred years already, and it had taken a crazy little prince for their people to start exploring beyond that.

Azula knew that Fire Nation ships had been sunk by the Water Tribes of both the North and South before, ships that were already using steam power and coal for their engines, and where there were sunk ships there was also the possibility of captured ones, which meant the Water Tribe had no excuse for not using the technology that was literally at their doorstep already.

Likewise, the Earth Kingdoms regularly took back and lost the territories around the beaches and rivers because of how valuable they were, which would almost always have ships moored against them. And yet the reports that came back from the airship surveys didn't reveal any telltale plumes of smoke—which meant only one of three things: first, the other nations had some other means of making their lives easier besides steam power technology; second, their bending allowed them to do the same things the Fire Nation needed engines for; and third, they just didn't care.

But if that were true then how did they all lose so much to the war? The Fire Nation's campaigns could only be described as a systematic crawl of control starting from the beaches and rivers, essentially creating the beginnings of stable supply lines to and from the newly established territories. If the other nations were as confident of their means of waging war then surely the Fire Nation wouldn't have taken as much as a third of the land from the Earth Kingdom.

And now Raizu had the beginnings of the next revolution, at least according to him. Electricity, the same power of lightning her brother had asked for so early so long ago, was the next step in after steam power. He was so excited about the first prototype generator of the also newly created Department of Research and Technology that her brother danced and hugged everyone around him, her and Zuko included.

And Raizu was more skittish than a catopus when it came to physical affection, not that she was any better. But at least Zuko was making progress with her. She had to admit, hugging what few friends she made with some of the more bearable daughters of the court was… not bad. Mai and Ty Lee were reliable and amicable breaks from the craziness of what she'd had to put up with growing up.

And that earth girl Toph was also not bad—though she was more impactful with her affection. It should have struck her strange how part of the changes over the years included inviting nobles from the Earth Kingdom to swear fealty to the Crown. Their money was one thing, but their cultural significance was another.

Lao Beifong served as part of a group of representatives for the former Earth Kingdom citizens—who was also under supervision from Raizu's people from the Department of Internal Affairs to make sure Lao was properly listening to his peoples' concerns.

Speaking of, she and her siblings suddenly found themselves at the tail end of a long line to the ice cream shop reaching all the way to the end of the street where she saw the familiar fluttery robe of a not totally blind girl.

Whose head turned to her.

"Oh, hey Zula." Her blind friend simply loved the air of mystery her grasp of earth bending allowed her, a skill she had a surprisingly productive conversation with Raizu about because of its similarities with what he called heat sense. She recognized the way the earth carried vibrations, allowing her to perceive things stood on and within the earth.

What was interesting—and also rather disturbing—was how she was a bit too excited when Raizu asked whether she could perceive the shapes of other people she was holding onto. Because bones carried vibrations as well.

The implications of that were not lost to Azula.

"Hey Toph," she greeted back with a wave. Azula long stopped caring about watching how she acted around the dainty brusque when the girl cracked some five or so blind jokes in a row when they'd first met. Had anyone else from court heard that it would have been a scandal worth at least three days of rumors.

And if her upstart father heard that it might have earned the girl a one-way ticket trip back to Gaoling. She'd heard her stories before of how protective the man was, but there was such a thing as too much.

"Hey Broody, Crazy," Toph greeted her brothers.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" Zuko asked.

Though it can be argued she and her siblings should also be in school making friends and doing normal things kids did. Raizu kind of messed that up. But having to learn at the pace Mai, Ty Lee, and Toph had told her about struck her as horribly inefficient and boring. Not to mention she would also be missing out on the more interesting parts of her appointment—namely the travel.

"Shouldn't you be in the palace?" her friend shot back.

"I'll pay if you get our orders for us?" Raizu said.

"Eh, sure, why not. But I'm getting a triple scoop." Her friend had an unhealthy obsession with that crushed leaf powder tea uncle and Raizu had obsessed over for the greater part of a year to get right. It was apparently a traditional Earth Kingdom flavor enjoyed only in Ba Sing Se because of the difficulty of the process to create it, hence the cost. Royal funding was appropriated for the development of the process and was well received by the former Earth Kingdom citizens—and a few others from the Water Tribes and Fire Nation. The leaf powder was an acquired taste Azula simply couldn't understand.

Zuko elbowed Raizu. "Don't encourage her."

"Eh, its fine, if she can figure out a practical application to earth bending then I'd say she's at least smart enough to skip ahead a few grades."

"Just a few? You wound me Raizu."

"You can only skip so many. Our current educational system only has five years of mandatory education, I'm still working on getting that higher."

Toph shuddered with a look of utter disgust. "Why?"

Unfortunately, her friend had opened the floodgates to another topic her brother felt rather strongly about. He then began laying down the foundation to one of his long winding rants when the girl shoved a hand towards his face.

"No."

If her hand were any closer, Toph would have slapped her brother silly. Azula had eaten her share of affectionate punches before, and the girl really knew to put her weight behind it. Raizu, however, she didn't touch since he didn't like it. For someone so young—not that Azula was any older than the girl her same age—Toph was perceptive like that.

"I don't want to hear it, Crazy." Toph cleaned out her ear. "I already have enough trouble keeping hearing with Ty Lee and her constant chattering. You will not deny me my peace."

Zuko bit back a chuckle.

That earned him a small punch from the girl.