The reason this came so soon, well soon compared to how I normally update, was because my grandfather died last night. I haven't stopped writing since. I don't know if I'm writing this for him, but I do know that this does have some of my sadness in it. Regardless I will not burden you with my sorrows.

Dbananad- yeah looks like life isn't going to improve for me anytime soon, but hey, that's nothing for you guys to worry about, so how about an update instead yeah?

RJCA27- I will keep going! Thanks for the comment, and yeah Azula is hopeless when it comes to Ty Lee. I like it when I can torment characters a little with things they love. Does that make me messed up?

I'm a Lover not a Hater- Angst just seems to ooze out of my head, if you look at my one-shots that should tell you the kind of things I dream up. But I agree Angst and Dark seems to go hand in hand, and that's a good thing… I think.

Anyway here is the chapter enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the last airbender. IF I DID OWN IT, Azula and Ty Lee would so be in complete and total love with each other in every episode, with angst, lots and lots of angst.

Grind. She needed to stop doing that.

Grind. This was getting ludicrous.

Grind. WHY WON'T YOU BOIL!

She hated this, utterly and truly loathed it. Yet here she was, again, doing something she hated for reasons she didn't fully understand. Each and every day she had returned to the tea shop and each and every day she left it and returned to the palace. Why? It was the question she had asked herself the moment she had entered her room the first night after working at the tea shop. Why had she come back to the palace when she could have fled and been away from it all? She couldn't come up with a convincing answer.

It couldn't be the people. That would be idiotic. Iroh was a pain under any circumstances, and Yumi was… touchy. The pale girl was far too fond of invading her personal space and giving her hugs, to quote "Cheer her up because she looked so miserable." The first time it had happened she had been so shocked by the action she had seized the girl and literally thrown her off. This caused the rather shocked tea server to land in a groaning heap on the far side of the tiled kitchen. Azula had not apologized for the action but apparently that meant that Yumi could keep attempting to hug her. Despite her angry protests each and every time the girl seemed to not understand when she was being annoying. Most certainly not the customers; she avoided them like they all possessed the ability to steal her soul.

So what was it? Something made her stay, something made her give out small replies to some of Yumi's prodding and Iroh's requests, and something made her give a small smile at every little antic she witnessed in the small tea shop. In her short time here she had started to feel almost normal. It was an interesting thought, being accepted somewhere and not having to parade about enforcing fear to keep her position. Here she was treated like… like a human.

It was her second week working at the tea shop and she still felt as tense as ever. It was during some of their free time and Azula had deemed it a good idea to simply sit and brood at one of the empty tables.

"Hey Lin?"

Azula let out a small grunt to show that she was listening.

"Do you hate me?" Yumi asked.

At this the former princess looked up with slight confusion, apparently the look on her face spoke before she did. "Huh?"

"So you don't hate me?" Yumi asked again in confusion.

It took a moment before Azula realized that if this was to be resolved so that it would not arise again, she would actually have to give the girl a response. However the problem was that she herself didn't really have an answer. When she had first started working, she had been convinced she hated each and every person who stepped into the shop. For with them came the sounds and smells of outside to her quiet little domain. It disturbed her to the point of rage. It hadn't been an issue on the first day; she was too worried about other things to think about people. Namely imaging reflection made of blood. Yet as time went on she found that she despised the people who came in less and less, perhaps because they simply became routine, she didn't know. But see soon found that she just ignored their presence entirely. However the problem in front of her actively engaged her in conversation.

"I… I don't hate you, no." Azula began slowly. The look on Yumi's face telling her that she was expected to continue. "But I don't know if I like you.'

She could tell that this saddened the girl and for some reason she felt compelled to alleviate the girls sudden sadness.

"That's not to say I don't think I can't like you, it's just that I don't know how." Azula said, working the words over in her head before continuing. "I have never had to make… friends with, well with anyone really, except maybe one. I tend to avoid people."

Yumi looked at her for a moment, almost observing her face before she spoke. "Why? Why do you find it so hard to be around people, I mean I know what old man Iroh told me, but I mean what happened?"

This was territory that the golden eyed woman was none too keen to enter. "I have… bad experiences with letting people get to close, and I got hurt as a result. Let's leave it at that."

Yumi nodded her head apparently thinking something before she spoke again. "Well if it makes any difference, I consider you a friend Lin."

Yumi had called her a friend that day, and a small part of Azula had liked that.

Azula's mind focused back to her task and hand and she wished that more than ever she had her bending back, for this infernal kettle almost certainly was mocking her with its refusal to boil. Staring at the black metal as it sat atop the stove did little to soothe her mind because if she stopped doing something to occupy herself, even for a moment, her mind wandered again back to her memories. It wandered to her dreams, dreams that so often were nightmares, and to thoughts of others, to thoughts of… her. As much as the black haired woman wished it, she couldn't banish thoughts of Ty Lee from her mind. Aspects of the girl would invade her senses when she least wanted it. She remembered her silky hair, such a luscious color of brown with its soft tresses that Azula could spend days running her hands through it. More memories came unbidden at her daydreaming, her eyes so joyful and full of life, her lips that were so soft on her own, her- Azula was ripped from her fantasy as the kettle let out a shrill whistle of steam.

'Cretin' she thought dully. She had stopped grinding her teeth, what a relief. Azula glared at the pot of tea standing before her as it boiled on the metal stove. She turned to her now thankfully orderly shelf of teas and selected one to brew. This was how her days went, and even though it was nearing closing time people would still trickle in for their leafy swill.

The kitchen that had become the former princess' domain, and she detested being intruded upon, yet she had begun to be able to tolerate people walking in on her. As long as they didn't touch anything that is. For after her first day the former princess had concluded she would kill anyone who made such a disorderly mess again. Spending hours shelving, alphabetizing and glaring at the tea, she had gotten it to satisfactory levels of tidiness. The entire room had undergone something of a transformation as well, with the pots and pans being hung from the hooks over the stoves for the rare occasions one would actually cook with them. The kettles- damn their very existence- had been arranged neatly on the left side of room near one of the water spouts. Everything had finally come to order under her careful rule of the kitchen. It was progress, or at least that is what Zuko had called it. Progress to what she didn't know, but apparently acting like sane individuals included organizing things so that you could actually find what you were looking for. But all in all it had gained her some peace and quiet.

Almost as if on cue to ruin her moment of serenity Iroh strode in. As soon as the man started to open his mouth her teeth began grinding. 'And I had just stopped that.' Azula thought bitterly.

"Yes yes yes, tea I know, go away." Azula grumbled at the man before returning to her glaring match with the kettle.

"Actually Azula I didn't come in here for tea," Azula looked back at him as he continued. "I came in here to say that am very pleased with your work." Golden eyes stared at him blankly.

"Azula I know that having to work here isn't easy but I do appreciate the help that you have been giving to Yumi and I." Iroh continued even as he received only another blank stare. "What I mean to say is thank you."

"Why?" Azula asked. No one had thanked her for much of anything, not even her father. The idea that someone was genuinely pleased with her and was willing to tell her as much without any strings attached was a foreign concept.

Iroh let out a chuckle, "You could have sat in a corner and sulked until the moon was above our heads, but instead you helped us with our work and that is why I wanted to thank you."

Golden eyes widened slightly as this, but for the most part Azula kept her face neutral. "W-well yes, I had to help, how else was I supposed to convince those idiots that want me dead that I am perfectly fine." Azula stuttered out as she felt her face flush slightly.

"Well, either way, thank you." Iroh said happily before bustling off to take more orders.

Azula waited until she was certain he was gone before she let a small smile play over her face. It wasn't the mocking smile or the indifferent sneer she normally wore, instead it was one she had only had a sparse few time. It was a hopeful smile.

"How far the mighty have fallen, hmm?"

Azula paled, gripping the edges of the counter she leaned against with a white knuckled grip.

"Here we are playing tea house with the old bastard and his little whore assistant, and here you are, going along with it. Disgusting, no wonder your father never loved you. If he could see the state you had fallen too…"

Azula remained silent.

"Not going to defend yourself? Not going to say no? Is it the truth or not? TELL ME!"The final words were screamed in her mind causing a sharp pain to shoot through her head making her wince.

'I hate you.'

Her sudden response was met with only silence as the room once more filled with sound Azula hadn't noticed leave. She let out a shaky breath. Something about that voice drove her to the point of panic, as though she didn't want to hear what it said, yet often times she let it ramble on as it pleased.

She hadn't heard anything other than her own thoughts for weeks; she had hoped it would stay that way. Clearly her hopes had been for naught. Yet even as she turned back to the stove she could not help but wonder if there had been something to words spawned from her dementia. She had fallen, and she had fallen far. She who had once led armies was now brewing tea in a small shop owned by her uncle. How did all of this happen? What had led her to this?

Some small part of her whispered it was her own fault, yet a much larger part screamed it was not. How could it be her fault, she who was one of the most powerful bender of an age, who had nearly destroyed the avatar, how could it be her fault?

'Because I'm weak and I let my guard down. I trusted her, I let her get close, I-I… ' Golden eyes stung as tears threatened her features. 'NO, don't say it, don't let yourself be weak. I don't… I don't…'

"I love you." Azula whispered. Why did she have to feel, why did she have to think, why did she have to suffer any of this? It would be so much easier if she could just push it all away and never think of it again, yet she could not. It haunted her day in and day out. Her incapability to forget all the pain in her life, it was her wakeful torment. Her dreams haunting her at night, she never could escape it.

The ringing of the entrance bell tore her from her moment of almost tears. Quickly wiping her eyes Azula turned away from the stove, breathing hard in order to calm herself. Voices spoke out quietly in nearly empty shop, and she recognized one as Yumi's the other, which was notably quieter was also soft and feminine. Desperate to rid herself of her current thoughts and slightly curious as to who had stopped in every day near closing to see Yumi, Azula decided to risk a glance. She had refrained from doing so most of the time due mainly to not wanting to be seen and recognized or even worse, be forced to talk to someone.

Peeking around the corner, Azula spotted Yumi standing in front of someone, a girl most likely judging from the flashes of hair and clothing. Yumi laughed before saying something in a cheerful tone.

"Hang on let me just tell Lin goodnight, she's still as reclusive as ever." She sang happily before turning and spotting Azula peeking out of the door way.

"Oh good, there you are Lin! Oh, I guess I should introduce you to my girlfriend." Yumi said smiling at the golden eyed woman in the doorway before stepping to the side. "Lin this is-"

"Ty Lee." Azula said softly face draining of all color.

Standing next to Yumi frozen in shock, face mirroring's the former princess' face, stood Ty Lee. Everything about her was exactly as Azula remembered from the brief moment she had seen her at the palace.

"Azula?" She asked in disbelief.

No one moved, no one spoke, and silence filled the room. Iroh's eyes darted back and forth concern evident on his face, Yumi simply glanced between the two confused, and Ty Lee and Azula couldn't look away from each other.

Ty Lee was the first to react, surprising everyone else out of their frozen stupor.

"Umm Yumi, babe I uhh, I need you to go on ahead of me."

Azula felt her blood boil and an unbridled rage flood her veins at the word "Babe" being uttered from Ty Lee's mouth for another person.

"What why? Do you know Lin?" Yumi asked suddenly, very confused by the turn of events that had suddenly befallen them.

Ty Lee managed to look away from Azula and focused on the blue eyed girl next to her. Leaning upward slightly she placed a small kiss on Yumi's lips. "Please just trust me." Azula's rage grew at this, nails digging bloody furrows into her clenched palms.

Yumi stood still for a moment indecision written all over her before nodding hesitantly and heading for the door. "I'll be waiting at the home, ok?" the black haired woman said softly before heading out the door with one last glance at Azula.

Ty Lee turned back to Azula, fully unprepared to face whatever it was that she was about to say. However she was taken completely by surprise when she was seized by the former princess and slammed into the wall. Yet what was more shocking than the sudden impact, were the tears streaming from golden eyes. Azula's entire body shook as she cried, still pining Ty Lee to the wall.

"Why?" Azula chocked out. "Why did you leave me?"

Ok so yeah, I know I know… cliffhanger. Let me guess the general consensus will be "OMG Drac you F***ING jerk! How dare you leave this as a cliffhanger? With your updating record it won't be updated till the universe ends. To this I say MEH, but I am gunna try and update cause now I get to write the big talk that Azula and Ty Lee get to have. OH JOY. By for now,

Draconian Calocor