Since you people seemed interested I decided to continue this… I don't know how fast I'll be, though, since college is a needy bitch.

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Chapter 2

Kiyi's tears were a long time coming. She'd been trying to show herself how strong she was ever since she left home, but now after letting everything out, she seemed to see everything more clearly.

Azula actually did her a huge favor. She left her with money and a place to stay. This had to be enough for her to finally start taking care of herself. Kiyi stopped crying, as she repeated Azula's two rules in her head. Don't brag to people about the things you have and, of course, don't trust anyone.

Don't count on anyone… That must feel lonely after a while. It was unimaginable to her how someone could live disconnected like that for years. But maybe she'd learn it by the time she was Azula's age.

Don't count on anyone, you don't need anyone…

Then the door opened slowly, and Azula walked in casually, carrying yet another bag of groceries.

"You don't look like you're getting ready to leave." the Princess said from the door.

"Azula? Yeah, I… I will. Soon." Kiyi was glad she didn't catch her crying, "I thought you'd left, for good."

"You're such a child…" Azula shook her head, "So you were preparing to leave?"

"Yes, definitely."

"Too bad then… Just seeing how it's pouring outside, I thought you could stay a while." her words made Kiyi's whole face light up, "provided you pull your own weight around here. I'm not going to serve you."

"Yes, ma'am!" the girl stood up delightedly and took Azula's bag to the kitchen for her.

"Does that mean you're going to teach me?" Kiyi asked from the kitchen.

"It means I won't throw you out on your spoiled behind. Yet. Isn't that enough?" Azula yelled from the living room, "Make us some tea for a start!"

Kiyi immediately obeyed, trying desperately to seem indifferent to the situation, while she felt like jumping with joy. She had a purpose now, not disappointing her sister. Showing her that she had potential.

She unpacked the bag and noticed it was nothing but tea inside. Kind of a weird shopping list for someone who already had so much tea in her kitchen.

"Do you put the tea in before you boil the water or after?" Kiyi asked reluctantly.

"How did you grow up in the palace with my uncle and not learn that?" Azula got no answer, "Boil first, then wait a while then pour it over the leaves. You want me to come there and-"

"No, no… I got it!"

"Suit yourself, but you break something you're paying for it!"

While the girl was working Azula tried to relax on the sofa and not think about the clashing of porcelain she was hearing from time to time coming from the kitchen. She had to learn sometime… Finally, in about ten minutes, Kiyi emerged carrying a tray with cups and a teapot.

She was still beaming like it was the happiest day of her life, while she poured the two of them a cup each.

"How is it?" she asked excitedly, before Azula even had a chance to taste it.

"It leaves room for improvement." the Princess lied. Somehow amongst all the fiddling around in the kitchen, the girl made the perfect tea. But she couldn't go ahead and tell her that…

After a few moments it was clear Azula wanted to drink her tea in peace, but there was no way Kiyi would let her. After so many year of hearing stories about her older sister, she was finally there, in the same room as her.

"So how long's it been since you've seen Zuko? And Mom? Oh, and Mai?" Kiyi ended the silence.

"It's hard to say…"

"And what kind of places did you see? Were you in the Fire Nation the whole time? Or did you travel the world… I bet you did." the girl seemed to speak quicker and quicker with every sentence.

"Let's not dwell on the past." Azula sipped her tea carefully, already rethinking her decision to let the girl stay.

"Oh, I get it. Let's not. Can you tell me what else we'll do today? Like, could we duel maybe? Just for fun, I mean… Oh, I want to do that!"

"You ask a lot of questions."

"You can ask me questions too. After all, we're s-"

"Don't. Don't say it."

"Can I just do one more and then I'll be quiet?"

"I doubt it, but alright…" Azula sighed.

"Do you ever think about coming back?" Kiyi asked and fixated her look on her sister.

"No." at least it was an easy question.

"Never? Not even if they all missed you and wanted you back?"

"No one's missing me…" Azula said like it was the end of the conversation, but Kiyi couldn't just leave it at that.

"They are, you know. Especially, Mom."

Azula snickered dismissively.

"I'm telling the truth." Kiyi insisted, "She stays in her room some days, looking at old portraits that were taken down and crying... She never said anything, but I always knew it was about you. Not that anyone wanted to talk to me about you."

"But why do you care… I though you hated her." Azula really didn't want to think about her mother missing her. It was a lie, a ruse, for sure. "Don't you think she's crying for you right now?"

"Let her." Kiyi said in a tone Azula hadn't really heard from her until then, "Ever since my father died a few years ago, she's been insufferable. I had no choice."

She stopped and waited for some kind of reaction from her sister, but got none.

"I mean," she continued, "I had to have a security detail following me everywhere. She went through my stuff all the time, she always had to know what I was reading… And spirits forbid I'd fall down in training or something, because it's straight to the physicians…"

"Sounds dreadful…"

"It really was. But I knew you'd understand… Since we're not that different."

"How do you figure?" Azula had to hold back a laugh there. It was beyond obvious this child and her had less in common than… Well, her and Zuko.

"You know, Mom mistreated both of us. So we left and now we're better off." As Kiyi talked she could see Azula's usually indifferent face expression turn angry. And she didn't like it one bit.

"You don't know what you're talking about…"

"I… I just meant we both deserve better-" Kiyi shut up as Azula suddenly stood up.

"You think our childhoods were the same?! You really think that?!"

"Not the same, of course…" Kiyi felt the urge to stand up as well, since she didn't feel safe sitting down anymore. She could swear Azula's eyes glowed with rage at that moment…

"Tell me, did Mother ever tell you there was something wrong with you?" Azula pushed over the chair Kiyi had been sitting in, "Or even better, tell you there is something wrong with you over and over and over again, without ever saying what?!"

"Azula, I'm sorr-"

"No, no… You said you wanted to duel. Well, let's do that now!" Azula sent a stream of blue fire in Kiyi's direction. The girl diverted it easily, but she was downright terrified.

"And tell me, were you ever thrown in solitary?! That could lead even the sanest person into insanity…" Azula hit Kiyi's leg and the girl fell to the floor. Then she kneeled next to her and held her face down on the floor.

"Did your father ever hold your face into the ground and tell you he'll let you choke if you ever fall like that again?! No?" Azula let go of her sister and took a few steps away, still breathing heavily, "Then you have no right comparing us."

Kiyi stood up as soon as she could, still in shock at how quickly the situation turned. As she looked at Azula pacing around angrily, everything she said hit her at once. Her eyes started filling with tears. She hoped her sister wouldn't notice, but it was clear she did.

"That's it! Cry! Cry like the sniveling child you are…" Azula come face to face with her again.

"Hey, I'm not the one having a tantrum!" The words left Kiyi's lips before she could think. Now she could only hope Azula wouldn't give her a matching scar to Zuko's. Despite all the fear Kiyi kept eye contact for a few moments, when Azula finally turned around and closed herself off in her room.

"Don't you dare set foot outside this house! I'm not going out there looking for you if you get yourself into something again!" Azula ordered from the room after a while, like she could hear Kiyi's thoughts.

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And the house was mostly quiet for the next ten hours while the rain continued.

Both of them were masters of being stubborn, but one of them had more years of experience. Kiyi finally buckled and gently knocked on her sister's door.

"I figured you must be hungry by now, so I made soup." Kiyi didn't really know how to act, but this was what her father used to do when she was mad, "Can I bring it in? Please."

"The door is unlocked." she heard from inside and entered slowly. She found Azula sitting on her bed, reading a book.

Kiyi wanted to mention this was her third attempt at making soup that day, but decided against it. She tasted her dish before bringing it and it tasted decently souplike…

"If you want some more time to yourself, I can just leave it somewhere," Kiyi couldn't find the appropriate place on the cluttered desk, "Or I could just give it to you. Here-"

Kiyi's hand slipped and she dropped the entire plate, spilling the scorching hot soup all over the bed and Azula's shirt.

"Sorry, sorry! Let me- Sorry…" Kiyi hovered around, while Azula jumped off the bed and quickly removed her shirt. This left her standing there in just her breast bindings and gave Kiyi a good look of her considerable collection of scars.

Azula's hands were completely covered with tiny burn marks, while her stomach and back were filled by all sizes of cuts, all distinctly old, but quite deep.

"It's not nice to stare." Azula said, rather calmly, and Kiyi immediately diverted her gaze to the celling while her sister changed shirts.

"I'm really sorry…" she repeated, but got nothing back.

There was more soup left in the kitchen, so while Kiyi cleaned up the mess, Azula finally had dinner. The entire time she changed the sheets, Kiyi thought about her sister's scars, or rather, how they got there. Then after she was done, she slowly made her way into the living room and quietly sat beside Azula.

"What happened to you?" Kiyi asked, careful not to cause her anger again.

"Thank Zuzu and his damn bounty…"

"No... He specifically asked for you to be taken alive, because he didn't want you to be hurt." Kiyi remembered asking their brother about it.

"There is room for a lot of creativity between hurt and kill. And a lot of bounty hunters wanted to make sure I couldn't run… But for most of them it was the last thing they ever did."

"Is that why you knew about Dragon Snare?"

"Yes, they all bring it if they're hunting a firebender…"

"Is that how… Your hands?" Kiyi was really never taught how to ask or talk about difficult topics. In her home they just avoided talking about them, but that solved nothing…

"No." Azula pulled up one of her sleeves, revealing the burn marks, "I used to do it to calm myself back when I was locked up."

Kiyi was completely quiet while listening to her sister speak. She tried to keep her face indifferent, but Azula could read pity on her.

"What's the matter, kid? I'm not what you expected?"

"I'm sorry you were alone. No one deserves that. No one…" Kiyi briefly considered holding her sister's hand, but then the broken chair from earlier caught her attention. Maybe it was safer to just use words.

"Thank you for still not kicking me out." she added.

"So what did our dearest mother do to send you running to me? Did she get mad? Lose her temper and slap you?" Azula asked, but got no answer, "You said I could ask you questions."

"It seems stupid now."

"And I'm sure it is. Out with it."

"Alright, so that day I was talking to my security detail, nice girls both friends of mine, and they both said they were my age when they started working there. And they tell me they weren't half as good as I am when they started. So the head of security hears us talking in the halls and he comes over and offers me a job defending the palace and Zuko. And I'm so happy, I can't even believe it, but then Mom comes out of nowhere, freaking out as always… And I swear I'm not exaggerating, she starts telling me off in front of everyone, how I'm just a child, how I can't decide for myself and she drags me to my room by my hand, like I'm five… And she reassigned my friends because of that. What a bitch…"

"Sounds very-"

"And when we're in my room she just keeps going on and on about how I'm a child… And then I mentioned, once, all the things you were doing when you were fourteen and, you know, she always reacts to your name like it's a cuss word… And she grounded me for the millionth time when it dawned upon me that she'd never let me live my life."

"But you get why she does it, right? She was barely a mother to Zuzu and never anything to me… That's why she wanted to make up for it-"

"It's not my life's purpose to make her feel better. I don't know what it is yet, but it's not that…"

"I mean," she continued, "Maybe the idea to find work did come out of nowhere for her and maybe I should have apologized for mentionin-"

"Never apologize for who you are. Never. That's why I'm never coming back there…" Azula paused, "You put it well last night. I'm done playing dolls in that house."

"Well, you know, time for bed…" Azula said after a long silence and they stared at each other for a few moments before Kiyi stood up to go get her sheets, "Wait. I'm joking…"

The Princess smirked, "Do whatever you want…"

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That night Azula didn't sleep at all. She paced around the house a lot, occasionally sitting down to think.

At one point, thinking she finally had it, she packed a suitcase. She also returned all Kiyi's things to her little bag. She was an inch from waking the little troublemaker when she gave up.

Azula was beginning to feel comfortable and that was never good.

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Thank you everyone for the comments and likes, you made me feel so sorry I stayed away from my account for a while.

Thanks, I actually did mean over-attentive, protective… just your typical helicopter mom wanting to keep her baby a baby forever and taking it too far.

You'll have to forgive me for Azula's outburst, but emotionally neglected kids tend to not handle their emotions very well.

That is all for a few days…

I'd love to hear everything and anything you have to say… :)

I do apologize for any mistakes I make, but I am so sleep-deprived it's criminal.