I WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGIZE FOR THE CHAPTER AS IT WAS ORIGIONALLY POSTED. PART OF IT WAS MESSED UP WITH A LEMON THAT SOMEONE CHALLENGED ME TO WRITE AND IT ENDED UP IN HERE

A THOUSAND APOLOGIES! I HAVE FIXED THIS!

# # # # #

"Well this confirms it," Aang said sometime later as he scanned through the ancient text on bison. A freshly showered Zuko looked over his shoulder at the ancient text.

Azula pouted in the bed next to them; unable to shower yet for fear of ruining her surgical stitches, or stand on her own, the nurses had quite a time hosing the bison vomit off of her in her hospital bed. She swore that she could still smell some of it in her hair.

"Female Bison get morning sickness just like humans do when they're pregnant. Looks like you're going to be a mother, Dominatia!" Aang declared, petting the bison's nose.

Dominatia moaned half-heartedly and pawed at her face to discourage the Avatar from petting it. She wasn't yet prepared to be elated over the news. Truthfully, she was somewhat at odds over it, and the physical discomfort wasn't exactly a positive influence on her opinion. She ducked out of the window to sulk in the courtyard below.

"Don't worry," Aang said, "she'll get used to the idea."

"I'm hoping she'll get used to her stomach sooner," Azula growled. "I can't have her doing this every morning! I have stitches, you know!" And it was true. Azula had a good 6 inch long incision spanning the width of her abdomen which she couldn't yet get wet.

Aang laughed good-naturedly and handed the book back to Azula. "I'm going to go see if any of the other bison are pregnant."

Zuko told Azula to get some rest, and then followed him out the door.

# # # # #

Azula recovered rather quickly from her surgery. She wasn't allowed to stand for the first day, but by the next they had her out of bed and walking a few steps down the hall. By the third day she was going about the palace, hanging onto Kuei's arm with every step.

The gentle King was happy to guide her.

By the end of the week she was in the barn again with her bison, and only her bison.

She looked in the water trough and the corners of the barn for her old tormentors, but they didn't show. It was as Pei Chen promised: Sozin remained imprisoned within the spirit world. The energy Azula had once fed him was cut off, and Pei Chen and her people could hold him again.

Dr Ping and Unarqa continued to work with Azula, although the focus of her treatment shifted from treating an acute schizophrenia exacerbation to the once thought impossible task of humanizing Azula. Needless to say, there was much work left to be done.

Zuko and Aang knew it, which was why, when Azula was physically well enough to travel, Zuko insisted she return to the Fire Nation.

Kuei agreed with the Fire Lord, although he was reluctant to let go of his strange little love.

# # # #

A week and a half after her sugery, Azula stood in the courtyard and Aang and Zuko waited on Appa.

Unarqa and Dr. Ping took up on Rampage; the Earth Kingdom psychiatrist was interested in continuing to work with Azula, and Kuei had granted his request. He had faith that he could help Azula become more human and was fiercely motivated to help her through love of his profession. In addition, he was interested in learning more about animal therapy and bringing the practice back to the Earth Kingdom.

Dominatia and the other female pawed at the ground; they were eager to get flying before their nausea returned.

Azula stood on the ground a few paces from Dominatia as the soft breeze stirred her hair; she was the only one not mounted and completely ready for flight. Strangely she was very reluctant to leave. It was her abdomen that had been torn, but the pain at that moment was sinking and coming from her chest.

Kuei stood next to her.

It always amazed Azula how tall he was. He towered over her by a good 3-4 feet, and he looked at her with the same lovesick gaze he'd had on his face for the past few months. He smiled, it was a small smile, and what struck Azula was how very sad it was. "It seems your brother needs to take you away for a while, Dearest."

There was a beat of silence between them, during which Azula's eyes watered. Zuko thought she was making a visible effort not to cry. "You know the last time I left here, I thought, 'the Fire Nation will seem so small after all of this.' Now, I can't help but focus on how lonely it will be."

Kuei nodded. "I'll write to you at least once a week. I think your brother will get very cross at all the messenger hawk poop that collects on the roof."

One of Azula's signature sadistic smiles brightened up her face. "Maybe one will get lucky and hit him on its way to my room!"

The two shared a maniacal laugh at the thought of that.

Then Kuei pulled her into him, wrapping her fully in his arms. His hand stroked her hair. "Get better," he whispered, "and return to me."

# # # # #

Five months after arriving at the Fire Nation palace, Dominatia and the other female bison gave birth. To everyone's great surprise, Azula assisted with every one of the births. While she did Dr, Ping noted that she didn't once think about her soiled hands or her chipped nails; she only thought about her ladies.

Though in public she did make several comments about how disgusting the process of bison birth was. She also took care of them; though her comments were snarky and somewhat malicious, she physically made sure that every one of the fluffy babies had good care. Soon, they were flying through the air, and Azula did easily teach them how to fetch her slippers, along with Zuzu's underwear and other personal items which went on display in strange corners and vestiges of the palace.

Assassination was proving a more difficult skill for the fluff balls to master, but Azula didn't seem to mind since, to her great surprise, she couldn't' think of anyone she really wanted to assassinate at the time.

They would just have to work on that later.

Meanwhile, the bison worked on Azula more than the other way around. They were very therapeutic little creatures, and Dr. Ping studied their ways along with Unarqa's customs for training therapy animals. He wanted to implement these strategies for psychiatry in the Earth Kingdom.

Azula had never been an easy patient to work with, but Unarqa and the Doctor noticed that she seemed a bit more empathetic after her near death experience, which convinced Dr. Ping beyond all things that she was not a sociopath.

Azula had words with him over that; she was convinced that she was. Despite this inaccuracy, Dr. Ping let her believe the false diagnosis. It was a small price to pay for how incredibly cooperative she became.

Truly, the only person she gave any trouble to was Zuko. But the Fire Lord never complained. "Just keep her from wanting to kill me again," was his only request , and the Doctor was happy to help him with it. Everything else Zuko could deal with, and he did.

Azula got a letter from Kuei about once a week. She always read them alone, and stored them in a place where no one, not her therapists or her doctors or her brother, or even her bison, could find them. Every time she read one she felt a strange ache within her, growing more and more by the day. It felt as though the center of her chest were hollow, and she wasn't sure exactly what could fill it.

One evening she even felt moisture trailing down her cheeks. She wiped it away with the back of her hand, and looked with disbelief at the tears gathered there. She wrote him back of course; her letters started out trite, silly, and slightly sadistic. But as time wore on she confessed more and more to him. Her last one read:

"It amazes me that you love me because I really was evil. Truly, truly, evil. I'm at odds over whether I still am or not. The therapist and I are working on it, although Unarqa and I are thinking it can't be by much since I am in so much pain over being away from you. She says that people who are truly evil have difficulty loving. Is that what this is? Love? It hurts in my chest; the last time I felt like this it was after Zuzu fried my heart to keep me alive. I am working so hard with Unarqa and your doctor because I want to return to you…."

And Azula was working very hard. She was in therapy daily, and she took her medication with clocklike consistency. When she was not with the medical staff, she was with her bison, brother or mother, and Azula, while still Azula, became a much more tolerable and empathetic version of herself.

# # # # #

About eight months after her confrontation with Sozin, Firelord Zuko called Azula into his office in the palace.

Her brother was seated at his desk, a chair was pulled out on the other side. When he heard her enter, he stood and beckoned her to sit. Then he sat down himself, reached into a drawer, and produced a gold tinged envelope.

"The Earth King has asked for your hand in marriage," Zuko announced. He gently plopped the letter with the broken Earth Kingdom seal in front of her.

Azula nervously reached for the letter, and her hands trembled as she opened it. A servant hadn't written this one; Azula recognized his writing from all of the letters he'd written her. She gently ran her hand over the lettering in disbelief. But there It was in gold ink against brown paper. She felt tears sting her eyes.

"What should I tell him?" Zuko asked.

Azula looked at her brother. They had come a long way together. The old Zuzu would have jumped at the chance to be rid of her. He would have responded 'yes,' and put her and Dominatia towards the Earth Kingdom the next morning without the slightest concern for what she wanted. He'd thrown her into an asylum once after all. But he had matured. They both had. Even though they would never be the cuddly fawning siblings that some brothers and sisters were, they had arrived at a place where they could be with each other, support each other, and feel no enmity towards each other. A place where they could even love each other.

"You know," Azula said, clearing her throat, "In the Northern Water Tribe, women don't' have much say in who they marry. The men of the family make all of their decisions for them..."

"You and I aren't Water Tribe," Zuko interrupted. "Kuei only asked me first because he's a gentleman and everyone, Kuei included, knows that father doesn't care for either one of us. You and I are Fire Nation. And if you do this, you will be marrying into the Earth Kingdom. You will be their Queen. This is your life. Is this what you want?"

Azula nodded.

Zuko released a breath, a faint smile on his lips. "Good, then I'll tell Kuei 'yes', but before I do I want your guarantee that you won't try to kill your new husband."

Azula rolled her eyes and chuckled. "Oh, Zuzu, of all the ridiculousness! I haven't been homicidal for quite some time now, three out of four psychiatrists agree…"

"This isn't' a joke, Azula," Zuko declared, his eyes firm. "You have schizophrenia, and you can control and live with it, but it's not going away. Ever. You are going to struggle with your illness your entire life. You will never be able to rule a kingdom by yourself because of it; the stress would kill you and everyone around you." He let out a sigh, running his hand through his hair as he slumped into his chair "The stress of this job has almost killed me on multiple occasions, and I don't have schizophrenia. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"

Azula looked at her brother, and it was as though she were seeing him for the first time. Even though he hadn't yet reached twenty five, he had a few silver strands in his hair, and lines on his face below. His eyes were the eyes of an old man, with a history of wisdom and struggle that betrayed his young age. He was tired, he was stressed, and she saw now that most of that was because he was Firelord. "I understand," she answered, her voice had taken on an uncharacteristic softness.

Zuko nodded. "Kuei is a good man; he doesn't deserve to die at the hand of the woman he loves. In addition, the last thing the world needs, the last thing I need is a power vacuum in the Earth Kingdom." He produced a packet of papers.

"What is that?"

"A prenuptial agreement."

Azula burst into tears.

Zuko quickly corrected her misunderstanding. "It's MY idea, NOT HIS!" He tossed her his handkerchief and waited for her sniffles to die down before he added: "Kuei doesn't even know about this document!"

Azula reached a trembling hand toward the paper. "If he didn't come up with this, then why…"

"Because it's for me! I need this!" Zuko shouted, his hand over his heart, "I need this in order to let you go with a clear conscience, Azula. If you look at it you'll see that there actually aren't a lot of conditions, but I put a lot of thought into the agreement and then had my lawyers draft it."

The princess tentatively looked over the paper, her eyes taking in the words. As important as Zuzu was making this out to be it was relatively simple and straightforward.

Zuko knew she could read but he felt better explaining it to her. "It says that you can't assume the throne by yourself. In the chance that Kuei were to pass away, General Fong would take his place. However, you would retain the title of Dowager Queen and continue to have a say in the affairs of the Kingdom, like an advisor.

"Now if you and Kuei were to have a child before his passing, then that child would assume the throne. You would retain your status as Dowager Queen and be one of your child's advisors until he or she came of age. At that point he or she would become the fully fledged King or Queen of the Earth Kingdom."

Azula was taking a long time to look over the document. Zuko feared she would reject it.

"Well?" he pressed her after some time.

Her lashes lifted. "What about the third possibility?" Azula asked, and she let the paper drift down to the desk.

"Third possibility?"

"What if Kuei doesn't die? What if Kuei and I live a long and happy life together driving you and the Water Tribe dignitaries insane with all kinds of ridiculous treaties, demands, and political posturing?" She leaned back in her chair, her hand on her chin, her eyebrow cocked. "That's actually the one I prefer. What then?"

Zuko stood sharply and spread out his arms, swallowing against his tears of joy, the first he'd cried in a long time.

His reaction surprised Azula, but she came into his arms nonetheless in a rare show of affection. "Nothing would make me happier!" Zuko exclaimed, giving her the largest hug she could ever remember getting from him.

To Zuko's great surprise she signed the agreement after their hug was complete. "You know Kuei will have to agree to this also," Azula said.