In her young life, many luxuries were bestowed upon the Princess. She couldn't remember a moment her skin was bathed in anything other than silk. Nor could she recall a time she, rather than a servant, needed to complete a menial task unfit of her title. It was true what they said, Royalty lived lavishly.

Her upbringing instilled her with many ideas. Surrounded by riches only gods could obtain, she came to believe any and everything was within her grasp. Gold, jewelry, and precious fabrics beset her world. Anything that ever held value was at her fingertips. She was taught what mattered and she learned that Princess's were denied none of it.

She received hails of worship as she walked her streets. She watched people collapse before her, as if struck by an overwhelming need to praise her. She watched as they remained prostate until they disappeared from sight. She realized her greatness.

She listened to the whispers of Fire Nation generals. She heard from behind the war room curtains as they declared victory for the Nation in the name of the Fire Lord's second born. They heard him say she was a prodigy the likes he'd always dreamed: a truly worthy successor. She accepted her destiny.

She let him take her as if there had never been a choice. He pulled her from the Fire Nation Academy for Girls, and told her schooling of that sort was unnecessary. She let him train her, mercilessly, and abided to his standards. She met every expectation. It didn't matter how many times she'd burnt herself, or that she'd be whisked away before eating enough to sustain her training. All that existed within those walls were the next sequence of moves. It was irrelevant when she'd twisted her ankle on a bad landing. She'd been up through the night and hadn't taken a break since she'd began. There was certainty no time now. Sunrise was only hours away. Her father would wake then, and she would have the sequence mastered as well. She'd been told to, after all.

She was told these things were all that mattered, things of value, things she would achieve, and the things she could do. All else was below her. Someone of her status, the makings of a god, needed nothing else. This is what she learned, very early on.

Her lessons varied. Some were learned over time, their message so blatant in the world surrounding her that they became basic truths. Others were gained in the quiet voices as people talked about her, so sure of what she must be. These too began to blend into the world she saw, until they were merely reflections of herself and one could ever believe they had once been preconceived notions. More still were branded to her skin, searing so completely into Azula that they became absolutes. These were taught in isolated lessons with her father, laced into secret demands and imbedded too deeply for anyone to see.

Azula, however, was curious about some other things. Things she'd never had the leisure for, unnecessary things. She watched Zuko drown himself in these. His mother, her mother, was one. She sometimes wondered what the warmth of her embrace might feel like, but such things were unimportant.

She watched him and his flirting games with Mai. She wondered what it felt like to blush. It was so silly really. Blushing after all was pointless, but what feeling made it happen?

And then there was the way he sometimes looked at Mai. There was such a quiet wanting behind his eyes. He gazed at her as if she held the answers of his soul. It was a strange to Azula, but in those moments it seemed like to Zuko saw a different world and Azula saw it in him.

Azula on the other hand, had no questions in her soul. Things were acutely clear to her. She had purpose and she had drive. Her destiny forged long ago, simply waiting for someone like her to take it. It was great and it was assured. Why would she ever need someone like Mai to answer any of that?

Sometimes on quiet nights she would wonder. It frustrated her because she could never understand why it happened. At the strangest moments, when everything had been going just as it should, she would lie awake, a single thought lingering in her mind. It was an enormously idiotic question, which served to only frustrate her further. If she didn't have one it was obviously unnecessary, but why did she falter. It was almost as if she just wasn't seeing something, but that was impossible.

Her life was simple really. The only questions she ever had to answer dealt with policy and war strategy. After all, she knew these were things that mattered.

Still, on those nights she lay with red silk draped around the warn edges of her body, asking herself if she even had a soul.

That night, however, was very different. She felt something in a place she'd never felt before. She had been sure she'd felt at least some sort of sensation in every part of her body. Her training made well sure of that. She'd felt every single muscle in her body strained to its limit. She knew because she'd adeptly studied human anatomy to increase the control of her chi, and she could point to every place on a diagram of the human body and say she'd felt something there.

This was entirely different than that. It felt like it was part of her body, and yet outside of it at the same time. It felt both consuming and releasing. Either way it made her feel unstable. Strangely, she also felt more complete than she ever had before. If she had thought the normal question that eluded her was irritating, then no words suited this one.

However it was that night she fell asleep soundly, the last thing passing her mind was the face of Ty Lee.

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