She sees him standing at the edge of the garden. She thinks that he has probably been there for quite some time. She can't say just when he'd gotten there having been so absurdly invested in this one stubborn turnip. She has gotten this far without getting so much as a smudge on her face and she would like to keep it that way, for once. She huffs and, without taking her eyes off of Hajime, gives it one more sturdy pull. It gives way with more force than she had anticipated and she is thrown back. She lands in the dirt with a soft thud and a wince.

She hears Hajime stifle a snorting laugh before leaping over the fence and holding out his hand. She ignores it, stands herself up, and brushes off her pants.

"You alright?"

"Perfect." She mutters. "Where's Atsu." The boy would have been howling with laughter.

"With Caihong and her father."

"Wong-Fin is supposed to be here. Helping me." She frowns.

"He said that you told him last night that you didn't need his help and that you are more than capable of harvesting this whole damn garden yourself."

Azula slightly purses her lips. "Yes, I said was capable, not that I wanted to."

Hajime quirks a brow. "Well, 'I don't need your help', sure is a funny way of saying that you don't want to work alone." He leans back against the fence.

She presses her lips together and wraps her fingers around the leaves of another turnip. It is a hot day. Her stomach gives a little flutter; since when has she ever thought the Earth Kingdom to be hot place. The turnip leaves nearly slip from her fingers. She gives it a pluck and it comes up roots and all.

Roots.

She is losing hers.

She chucks the vegetable into the wheelbarrow without turning around.

"Nice throw." Hajime comments.

She absently reaches for the next turnip. She wonders doesn't know why she is so upset, isn't that what she has been wanting? To slowly shed her roots until there is nothing left of them? But now that the first signs of them browning and curling have shown up, she isn't so certain.

"You alright?" Hajime asks.

She shakes her head. "Fine. I'm just…"

"Overworking yourself?" He asks.

"Perhaps a little."

"Here, let me."

"Ojihara will…"

"Just be happy to know that the job is getting done. Actually, he doesn't have to pay me so he'll probably love this."

"Yes, if you do it right."

"How hard can plucking a turnip be?"

What an innocent man he is. "Take a basket." She gestures to them. "And once we finish with the turnips we have to get the radishes and the carrots and…" she sighs. "My hands are going to be so rough by the time I'm done."

He takes one of her grimy hands and runs a finger over her palm. "They're still pretty soft."

"Yes. I said that they won't be when I'm through with this garden."

He tilts his head. She can sense him observing her as she fusses with the next few turnips. After a fifth comes free she tosses a glance over her shoulder. "What?"

He shrugs. "Just trying to figure out where you come from. I don't know many people who have ever had the luxury of worrying about having soft hands."

Said hands tense around the turnip. She curses herself inwardly for another careless slip up.

"It's fine, you don't have to tell me. It's probably bad enough having Atsu constantly digging for answers."

"He's fine."

"That's not what you said when we first met."

"I didn't say that he wasn't fine. I said that he is unruly and undisciplined and I stand by that." She shrugs. "But he also believes me when I tell him that I was born in the woods and fought four sabertooth moose-lions at once."

"In his defense, I feel like you very well could have taken on at least two." He pauses. "I guess that explains why he's been begging me to ask you to take him moose-lion hunting."

"I already told him no."

"He's very persistent."

"Undisciplined." She corrects.

Hajime rolls his eyes and she wonders if she is pressing her luck. She wishes that she could shake this habit of antagonizing people who mean her no harm at all. People who, she looks at a fully harvested turnip garden, only help her. "I'm not good at this."

"Not good at this? You've only been here for about an hour and we have the turnips completely harvested."

She shakes her head. "I'm not good at being…" sociable, friendly, warm, lovable. "A nice person."

"What are you talking about?"

He has been here this whole time and she can't even swallow her pride enough to truly thank him for his help. "You're tired of me telling you how to raise your son."

He slightly purses his lips and tilts his head as if to indicate 'so-so', "eh, a little bit, yes."

She makes her way towards the radishes and he follows along.

"You know what's good about being a dad?" He asks when she doesn't reply. "It teaches you patience."

"Are you...comparing me to a child?"

He laughs, "I guess, sort of. Yeah. Children also don't really regard how others feel, they just say what they think." He shifts his weight. "For all of your secrets, you're very forthright."

She doesn't think that this is a compliment. "I'm not a child. I know how to curb my tongue."

"But you don't know which things to curb."

He isn't exactly wrong.

"I guess it's more like, I don't know...sometimes you just say things that are…" he looks upwards. "Offhanded."

"Yes." She agrees. "As I said, I am not good at this. And that is why I like being alone." She yanks a radish free. "That's why I should be alone. I don't like it."

"You shouldn't be alone." He says. "You should talk to more people until it starts coming easier." He smiles.

"You're the first person who's willing to put up with it."

"The first, maybe. But not the only person. He might not seem it, but old man Oji will. He'll fuss and argue. He might tell you not to come back on his doorstep ever again but when you knock the next time, he'll let you in."

Her fingers curl around the pendant hanging from her neck.

"What's that?"

"Ojihara gave it to me. An apology present." She stoops back down and the necklace falls forward, glinting in the light as it swings about.

Hajime smiles. "See my point?"

She rises from her crouch and releases the radish. "I might." She gives a soft pant and wipes her forehead. She thinks that she has only added dirt to the mix.

He stares at her for some time. She fidgets with the necklace before turning back to her work.

"You're pretty."

Her face colors some.

"And your son didn't come from nowhere."

"You might not be nice but I know that you're not a bad person." He remarks. "I wouldn't be flirting with other women if his mother was still around."

Her face colors further. It would seem as though she hasn't been reading things to deeply, over analyzing them to the point her head hurt. And by Agni, she wishes that she were.

"Oh, man." He rubs the back of his head. "I came on a bit strong, didn't I?"

She shakes her head. No stronger than she would have came on, anyhow. But that doesn't mean she is comfortable with it. It doesn't mean that she is entirely off put either.

"I know that you've only been around for a few weeks and that we spent the first one bickering…"

He thinks that she is pretty. With sweat slicked at her brow and mud caked on her face and clinging in clumps to her disheveled hair. He thinks that she is pretty. That she is worth being patient for.

"Thank you." She mutters before she loses the compulsion to say it.

"For making you hate this village for the first week?"

She rolls her eyes. For making her feel like she has a chance. For making her feel hopeful for the first time in a long time. For not writing her off after a whole week of snubbing, judging, and resenting. For patience. "For helping me with the turnips."

He laughs, "that's what you want to thank me for?"

She opens her mouth but only nods. She thinks that he knows that it is more than that. Somehow he knows.

"I know that you're busy with the harvest. But, once it's over, I'd like spend more time with you. Atsu does too. We can attend the harvest festival."

She swallows. He is getting much too close and in such a short span of time. She still has to get to Chin. She shouldn't let herself get tethered down and attached to someone like him. Someone with a genuinely kind soul. The sort that hers isn't compatible with for any other reason than corrupting it. She has acquired more than enough coin to last her through the year, she ought to leave in the morning. "I've never been to a harvest festival…"

She hasn't said yes but his face lights up and she can't bring herself to steal it away after sowing it, however unwittingly. "I suppose this one would be a good place to start."

"You'll love it." He promises. His hand wraps around her and he squeezes. "It'll be a chance for you to socialize some more."

"If you say so."

She's never really been hugged before. Not in a long while. Not like this. If only Ojihara hadn't clamored down the porch steps, demanding that she start giving the radishes that much attention.

"I'll see you at the festival."

She nods.

And now it is a promise.

That day she learns what it means to be gracious.

.oOo.

At first she thinks that it is just her. But it isn't, Capital City is larger. There are walkways that weren't there before and stores that she has never shopped at. Granted she has never done much shopping for herself before fleeing, but she doesn't recognize these ones.

"It's different, Sokka."

"You like it?"

"Not at all."

The world has moved on without her. Somehow she always imagined that the world would come to a standstill for her. Afterall, how could a nation function without its princess. She supposes she isn't nearly as important as she had imagined.

She had been important to someone. Several someones. She was for a short blissful burst. She is once again important to no one.

"Are you okay?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I don't know you just…" He trails off. "Your eyes."

"What about them?"

"They always look so sad. You used to be…"

Powerful, bold, lucky. She used to have a promising future. At the very least she had an illusion of potential. She isn't so sure that her luck was ever genuine. How could it have been when so much was missing. How could it be when those things are missing again.

"Are you sure that you don't want to talk about it?"

She nods quite vigorously, as though she can shake the blood soaked memories from her head. "Let's just…" she gestures to a food cart. "What do you want?"

"I'll have whatever you're having."

She sets a few coins on the wooden countertop. "Two servings of rice balls, extra spice."

"Okay, take some spice off of one of those!" Sokka calls to the cook.

Azula rolls her eyes. "You really can't handle a little spice?"

"I can't handle extra spice."

Azula shrugs. "Most people can't." Hajime could.

The cook comes back with their rice balls. She takes a bit and closes her eyes, they water some as the spices tickle her nose. How she has missed that burning tingle in the back of her throat. She will have to build her tolerance up again.

"They're too spicy for you too!" Sokka jabs.

"Are not." She grumbles. She damn near shoves the rest of the rice balls into her mouth just to prove a point. She might have were she still in the Earth Kingdom. In the Fire Nation she has more dignity than that. "They're spiced perfectly to my liking."

"Then why is your face red?"

"Because you are aggravating and it's making me angry."

He cringes and her stomach plummets. There is a new burning tickle in her throat. She misses when people can tell when she is only jesting. "You're still afraid of me."

"N-no." His stutter doesn't help his lie. "Maybe a little." He confesses. "It's just hard for me to…"

"Tell when I'm actually unhappy."

"Yeah." He rubs the back of his head.

"I'll make it easy for you. I am unhappy more often than not." She is almost never happy.

"Well if you ever want to get it off of your chest…"

She almost does. The story and its memories runs circles in her mind. The words are always there waiting at the very edge of her tongue. But the fact remains that he is still one of several people that she has tormented in the past. And yet his eyes offer nothing but earnest warmth.

She has learned to forgive and be forgiven. She doesn't understand why she is afraid to put this lesson to use.

And then she does understand; she has learned another more profound lesson and it has led her to a darkness like no other.

"Thanks for the offer."

"But you're declining?"

"I am."

"Alright."

"You're not going to push it?"

"I'm just glad that you're giving me a chance at all, even if I ask too many questions." He laughs. "To be honest, I don't know what made you decide to do that."

She doesn't tell him that it's because he didn't leave her. Agni knows what she would have done if he left her alone that night. She shrugs, "I need someone to talk to and you're willing."

She hears a chuckle from behind. "You're willing." He repeats. She thinks that she recognizes him. She has seen him at several war meetings in the past. He is older now, his hair greyer. "Can you repeat what you just said?"

"For what?"

"Just humor me, princess."

She crinkles her nose. "I'm your princess, not an entertainer."

The general chuckles again. "Yer. Yer princess." He repeats again. "It's always a shame when culture slips away. And from such an embodiment of our nation. What happened to you, princess?"

"Nothing that I can't make happen to you, if I so please."

"Nothin'..." The man's mouth is caught between a sneer and a grin. "Nothin'..." he tsks. "I did hear it going around that you have spent much time in the Earth Kingdom. Welcome home princess, you should probably work on -re-assimilating."

"I can have you cast to the lowest rings of the Earth Kingdom. I can name several slums suitable for you."

"Have you lived in them, princess? Groveled in them?"

She gives a haunty sniff. "My lodgings were comfortable." Very comfortable. Perhaps warmer and cozier than anything she has ever found here. "And, by all means, I have taken well to living in luxury again." She sweeps a generous curtain of expertly groomed hair over her shoulders. A waft of citrus ebbs from her tresses. She wishes that she truly has readjusted as well as she boasts. "The palace does fit me, wouldn't you say?" She crosses one leg over the other and fixes him with a smirk that doesn't breach any further than the surface. And that might just be exactly why he takes a step back with a stumbled, "of course, princess."

She waves him off with a lazy flick of her wrist.

"You uh...haven't lost your touch."

Part of her wishes that she has.

.oOo.

"I suppose that, that's agreeable." Sokka hears her conclude.

Mostly, the conversation seems to be going well for her, minus a rather stiff manner of speaking.

"You're talking to your friends, Azula." Zuko laughs. "You don't have to be so formal."

Azula rubs her hands over her face. When she brings them down again it reveals a face riddled with confusion. It is almost endearing. Sokka can't remember her ever being so expressive. "But they aren't. We just agreed that we aren't friends yet."

This time it is TyLee who laughs. "Maybe we should show her some mercy, Mai?"

"You can." Mai grumbles. "Friendship is earned and it's going to take more than a few bewildered expressions. A lot more."

Azula shifts in her chair.

"Mai." TyLee says as the woman stands.

"It's fine, TyLee." She shifts again. "I understand. I think."

"Well it's progress, right?" Zuko asks.

"Yeah...yes, sure, progress."

And then it strikes him. It strikes him that it isn't just a stiffness in her voice…

He waits for Zuko and TyLee to stand up and leave; TyLee to fetch some pajamas and Zuko to spend some quiet time with Mai. Azula rises from her chair. "Did you enjoy the performance, you can't get entertainment like that from the Ember Island Players."

"Not really, Azula." He is well aware that it is only a rather dry joke but it falls short, swept away by the distress that birthed it. "It's hard to watch someone force something."

"It wasn't forced." Azula frowns. "I meant all of those things."

He gives a sad laugh. "I know. That's not what I'm talking about. I was expecting that to be all kinds of awkward. I didn't expect you to care so much about that general."

She furrows her brows.

"You don't have to force it, I'm sure that after you've been here and around it for a while you'll have your old accent back." He pauses. "But until then, I kind of like your new one. I don't think I've ever heard a blend of Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation nobility speak before." It's unique. It's her. A more authentic her. He'd wager that Zuko no longer hears his father in her voice. "If you ask me, it's like keeping a little piece of...of everything. Of where you've been and who you've talked to." Of change. He thinks that maybe, just listening to her speak has reassured him. That, that might be, at least in part, why he has been so quick to open up to her.

A muscle in her jaw works. "A piece of everything, huh?"

He nods.

"Maybe yer right. I'll think about it, Sokka."

He doesn't think that she will. Even if she doesn't know it, he thinks that she has already decided.