*Disclaimer- I own nothing of Avatar: The Last Airbender*

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Chapter 2

"So, how was it?" Toph asked. She slowly sipped at a cup of hot tea.

"How was what?"

"The anniversary, Sugar Queen," she rolled her eyes. "How was the anniversary? You haven't talked about it at all, it must have had not gone too well..."

I shrugged and followed her suit, sipping at my own hot cup of tea. "It was ok. The food was great."

She nodded at me. "How was Mai?"

"Great."

"Zuko?"

"Ok," my voice barely breaking to frustrated tone. "You should've come, there were many men there that you would have loved to meet. Prince's, generals, advisors, they were all there."

She pointed to her tongue and grunted. "My love life doesn't matter right now. Besides, if I want a handsome prince, I could easily set myself up with one." She gulped down the rest of her tea and smirked at me.

I frowned. "You don't need to brag, Toph."

"I wasn't," she stated simply. "Did you hang out with Zuko a lot?"

"He's a married man now."

"Oh, right, because you definitely care about him and Mai." She narrowed her eyes at me, but I stayed quit. "Fine. Let's pretend you don't fantasize about him taking you on one of the palace beds."

"I don't."

Toph rolled her eyes and stood up. Shaking her head slowly she said, "You know, Katara, you really need to take some lying lessons. You suck at it a lot. I'm sure you could go down to the mental facility and Azula good give you some tips. I could never tell if that girl was lying."

"Thanks for the advice, Toph. I'll make sure to book myself an appointment."

"I'm serious, Katara. You know how overprotective Mai is about Zuko when it comes down to him hanging out with girls," she told me. "She didn't even want me around him, and the guy is practically a brother to me."

I grunted. "Whatever, it doesn't matter to me."

"Ok," she said slowly. But before actually walking out of the room, she turned around, "Oh, and by the way...Aang's here, and he's desperate to see you."

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Still no words seemed to form. This was usually our typical dinner routine. We were simply enjoying each other's company; Sokka, Suki, Aang, Toph...they didn't need words. It was my favorite time of day: dinner time.

But he was acting so different. I felt his emotions shift slightly. He wanted to talk and he didn't know what to say. I raised an eyebrow at him. It was not like Aang to beat around the bush. I huffed into my tea. "What?"

Aang, completely startled that I had called him out, swallowed his food and placed his fork on his plate. "It's nothing."

"Then why do you keep staring at me like that," I pointed my fork at him, completely unaware at the tone my voice was in.

"I haven't seen you in a long time, Katara. You've changed..."

I scoffed loudly. "Well, it has been a while since you've seen me, Aang, what do you think has happened? I know good and well I haven't gotten any younger." I could hear Toph snickering from where she was sitting.

"Katara, calm down," my brother said. "Give the guy a break."

"Oh, because he hasn't already had enough of that," I continued to stare at the bald headed monk I used to call my boyfriend. Picking up my napkin from off my lap, I placed it on my plate and stood up. "I've suddenly lost my appetite to eat. Excuse me." I walked away from the table and headed back to my room.

"Good job, Aang," I could hear Toph say.

"What did I do?" he stated calmly.

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"I really wish Aang hadn't come back," I mumbled softly. With a sigh I fell back against the pillows of my bed. "I don't think he understands what he did, or if he knows what he did." It had been a very late night, or a very early morning depending on how you looked at things. I couldn't sleep at all. "I really wish things weren't so awkward around us."

"And that's where I come in, right? To help you fall asleep?"

I lazily glanced over at the young man that I had invited into my room. "Yeah, something like that. I guess..."

The guy, whose name was Kang, rolled his eyes and lied next to me, placing his arms behind his head. "Katara, this has been the second time this week you've invited me into your room to help you 'fall asleep', and the—"

"...Yeah, yeah, I know seventh time you came into my room and we haven't done anything. I get it. You don't have to rub it in my face, Kang," I could hear him laugh beside me. "What? I know that's what you were thinking."

"I wasn't," He had rolled his eyes at that and heaved a long suffering sigh. "But I mean, if you wanted to..."

"Can't you just support me emotionally without the whole sex part in this relationship?" I asked him.

He rubbed at his chin and grunted. "I could, but that wouldn't be any fun." He smiled at the expressionless frown I gave him. "Kidding, you know if you really wanted to talk about feelings or whatever, I'm sure Suki would love to listen."

"True," I turned away from him and lied back flat on my back, staring up at the high ceiling, "but talking about my feelings with you is just so much more exhilarating, you know?" He shook his head. "I guess I just get more of an excitement talking with you, seeing how our relationship is."

"What would you call this relationship, Katara?" he said without a moment of hesitation.

I shrugged as best as I could on the bed. "I don't know. I've known you for about a year now...I can honestly say you're like a best friend to me."

"With benefits," he added.

"At times," I corrected.

"Like now..." He commented, sitting up in my bed. "Let's actually do something while I'm here."

"You could help me clean up," I said, a little bit oblivious to what he actually meant. He tilted his head back and laughed heartily. I placed a hand over his mouth and shh'd him, "Will you quiet down?! I don't want the whole palace to hear you in my room, especially my brother."

"Sure," he accepted, giving me a small suggestive smirk. "Let's have sex, Katara."

"Get the hell outta here, Kang," the command was nonchalant, but he knew I was being serious. I wouldn't say that I was startled, because it wasn't the first time Kang had mentioned this to me.

Kang was introduced to me by Sokka; apparently they became best buddies during the post war drama. Yet, I couldn't lie, Kang was an attractive guy. At 21, 6'2, he was handsome, that was obvious, with his lean frame, a shade of brown curly hair and brown eyes, and a smile that would honestly melt you if you didn't know how to contain yourself.

"Come on. I'm serious."

"So am I. The door is that a way." I sat up with him and gave him a confused look. "Besides, I thought we talked about this. I'm attracted to you, but I don't like you like that, at least not like that."

"That's why it's perfect," he reasoned.

"Do you even find me attractive?"

"Honestly?"

"Duh."

"I like your eyes. I'd never thought I would see big beautiful blue eyes," I was caught off guard, "that compliments your mocha skin." He was serious. "What about for me? What do you find on me that's just so attractive."

"Your lips." I said. "When I first saw you with Sokka you were smirking a little bit and you looked like you might be a good kisser."

"I am," he said with a suggestive wink.

"You swear you don't want anything more from me than sex?"

"Why are you asking me that? You know how you girls get. All attached and whatever," he joked. "We'll still be friends, Katara, you don't need to worry about that," he said before leaning in.

I raised my eyebrow at him and pushed him away. "Who was worried?"

"No one," he said hastily, leaning back into me.

I pushed him away again. "Hold up."

He dramatically sighed, "ok, what?"

I held up one of my fingers. "My brother, Aang, the group, my dad...Zuko—cannot find out about this," I said firmly, gesturing between the small gap between our chests. I paused; distracted by the fact he was still half holding me. "This is just...our little secret, okay?" He nodded. "This will not get passed along to your guy buddy friends no matter how bad they want to know, excluding Toph—"

"Why exclude her?"

"She knows everything that goes around here in the palace." I tried thinking of some more rules, but was quickly cut off when Kang leaned into kiss me. "I can't believe we're doing this."

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So it was hot, like, his shirt was already off, and she was just lounging around in it. Well, at least that's how their heartbeats were making it seem like, and it's not like she couldn't pick up the vibrations, and it's not like she meant to find out what was going on. The young earth bender was just casually minding her own business, calmly walking by the room when suddenly her ears picked up on a certain familiar scream. Yes, they were loud, mainly Sugar Queen (She was lucky Toph was the only person in the palace at this time). This had been the 4th time this week. Weren't they tired of each other all ready?

Toph laughed evilly as a plan formed in her mind. She skipped down the hallway and stopped suddenly, knocking on a door. "Knock, knock!" She said grinning. She heard moving and rustling of blankets along with some groans.

Katara's voice was heard first. "Yes?"

The earth bender smirked. "Katara, I was wondering if I could come in and talk to you about something. It's really important."

"I'm kind of busy..." a hint of irritation was heard in her voice. Toph could hear the faint sound of another voice that wasn't Katara's. She had company. "If you're purposely trying to annoy me, please leave, Toph."

"I had a question," she pursued.

"What do you want, Toph?" Kang yelled, clearly annoyed with her interrupting what he was doing with Katara.

Toph crossed her arms over her chest and pouted, disappointed that the couple didn't play along as she had wanted them to. "Fine, never mind then." But she stood her ground, waiting for one of the two to give in to her. She heard the familiar dramatic sigh Katara breathed out. Success.

"Toph wait...Kang, could you...give us a minute?" The blind earth bender could practically feel the young boy roll his eyes. She laughed to herself, Sugar Queen was too gullible.

Hiding her smirk, Kang came out of the door shirtless. Holding his pants high on his waist he frowned at the cunning young girl. "This had better been something important, Beifong."

"Move it, pretty boy! I wouldn't have interrupted you guys for nothing," Toph pushed her way through into the room. "Oh, but I believe you would," she heard him mumble. She responded by slamming the door in his face and turning around to face Katara. "We need to talk."

"About?"

"You're wearing his shirt aren't you?"

"Maybe, why do you ask?"

Toph roughly punched her in the shoulder. "Why are you with this guy? First it was Aang, then it was Zuko, then it was Aang again, and now it's Kang? Will you pick who you wanna be with?!"

"Ow." She rubbed her arm. "Aang was a little kid when we started dating, that's why I started messing with Zuko, but when Zuko got back with Mai, I had to move on. When Aang left me, I moved on. Kang and I aren't in a relationship!"

"Then what are you guys?"

She shrugged. "I don't' know! Why does it matter to you?"

"I think I know that, Katara," The earthbender crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes at her friend, "but the Katara I used to know, wouldn't just flaunt her body at just anyone."

"What the hell! Kang isn't just anyone, and I'm not flaunting anything! He came to me!" Katara placed her hands on her hips and huffed, "and don't get me started on flaunting body's at anyone, Ms. 'if I want a handsome prince, I could easily set myself up with one'."

Toph waved her hand around, dismissing the topic. "But you went with it! Why are you with him? Do you miss Aang that much that you have to have a guy with a similar first name?" the waterbender opened her mouth to speak, but Toph continued to talk, "and similarly he also is a master firebender, like someone else we know," she tapped her forehead, "I wonder who we know that is a master firebender."

"Geez, Toph, get a grip, were you freaking stalking the guy? These just happen to be coincidences, and so what? Maybe this is how I move on."

"Please. Save that lie for the priest," she scoffed. "When you and Aang broke up, you got angry at almost everyone. When Zuko went back for Mai, you practically bawled your eyes out and ate creamed ice all day, so don't go telling me this stupid lie, Katara." A small knock interrupted the earthbender train of speech. "What?!"

He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Um...I was just wondering if you guys were ok."

Toph frowned and turned to Katara who was blushing profusely. "Yeah, Zuko, everything's going great. I was just talking to Sweetness about of couple things that had been on my mind lately. Would you want to come in?"

Wide eyed, Katara hastily got up off of her bed and locked the door, giving Toph a threatening, knowing look. "Sorry, Zuko, but we're kinda in the middle of something...can we talk later?"

There was a slight hesitation before he spoke. "Um...sure, Katara, I was actually going to ask you if I could talk to you..."

Toph rolled her eyes. "You guys are pathetic. I'm leaving, Zuko, Katara here just needs to get dress. Come back in 10 minutes, she'll be ready for you," she turned to look at her friend and winked.

"Very well." The young prince walked away from the bedroom door.

When they were sure he was gone, the waterbender spoke up. "Are you crazy? Do you know I've been actually trying to avoid him?" She put her hand on her forehead and paced around the room. "Shit! You just had to go and ruin our little no talking phase."

"You act like you hate me, but I know that you secretly enjoyed what I just did." Toph held a mischievous smirk on her face.

Katara narrowed her eyes at her cunning friend. "Shut up." She pointed towards the door. "The door's that way by the way."

Toph started to walk towards the door. "Don't worry, I won't tell Kang." She slowly opened the door and went out.

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"What are you doing here? You know that this is a private facility, Firelord Zuko wouldn't approve of this." The guard blocking the way of the entrance stood her ground firmly, tightly grasping her staff that was in her right hand. The young man stepped into the light and pulled off his hood. The woman gasped, clearly surprised at who he was. She immediately dropped her staff and opened the door. "I'm sorry General Sokka; I didn't know it was you."

The young man smiled. "It's fine, you were just following orders."

She led him down a long hallway. "I never knew the Firelord would ever send you down here. I always thought it would have been the avatar, or maybe your sister. No offense, sir, they just seem like people who would be more..."

"Helpful? Yeah, I know." Sokka chewed on his lip. "Apparently, they were all too 'busy' to come down here, and I was just the last resort, but it's whatever. There must have been a good reason Zuko choose me and not himself."

The pair continued to walk down the well-lit hallway, then making a right turn down another long hallway. "He probably didn't want to do it himself. He did beat her you know." The water tribe boy nodded his head.

"I'm sure Azula would somehow figure out how to firebend again if she saw Zuko around here," they both chuckled softly.

They continued to walk in silence until they reached the door. It was a cold, solid, silver door with a big black lock on its right side. Sokka placed his hand on it, but then pulling it off quickly. "It feels like an icicle!"

"We keep her room cold...just in case." The guard seemed very startled by the comment. "Don't worry, it doesn't harm her. It just keeps her in check if her firebending decides to come back anytime soon."

"Aang took away her bending, I'm sure it won't be coming back," Sokka grimaced at the cold door, almost feeling a sort of sympathy for the girl. Almost. He sighed. "Alright, I'll be in and out. Keep the guards close."

The woman nodded her head and opened the door, allowing Sokka to step in. Giving him a small smile, she slowly closed the door behind him, leaving him in the cold, damp, cell room.

He looked around. He had never been in a cell room before, except the one at the Boiling Rock Fire Nation Prison. But this was nothing compared to that. The room was terrifyingly and big. Besides the cold, the room had very little lighting, except for two medium sized windows that allowed for sunlight to creep inside when it was midday or the moonlight during the night. In the silence you could hear the small droplets of water that would splash onto the ground. Looking down at his feet, he saw small mice roaming throughout the area, stopping to sniff at the new person that had entered their habitat. This was nothing like Sokka had ever seen. This was gruesome, even for the ex-fire princess.

"What are you doing here?" the voice he heard was soft, but as deadly as a viper's venom.

"Azula." The water tribe boy broke out of his thoughts and made his way towards her cell, though not too close. He watched as she slowly turned to face him, but letting out a small groan of pain as she shifted her torso. Sleeping on the floor had made her sore, and the coldness of the room wasn't making it any better. "You're hurt."

"Like you care, peasant." The words came out cold and heartless.

He almost laughed. "I think you should be the last person calling me peasant." As he said the words he dropped himself on the cold, hard floor and leaned against the wall facing Azula's cell. His eyes surveyed her critically from top to bottom, as if searching for something. She began to feel slightly amused at this.

"See something you like," she was smirking, but her words were very serious.

"Yeah, seeing you here in this cell."

"What do you want?" She inquired bluntly, narrowing daggers at him.

"To help."

She tilted her head back and laughed. "Help?" the boy nodded his head. "You aren't here to help me. Zuzu most likely sent you here to check up on me, because he couldn't do it himself. That coward." She held a deep frown on her face. "You don't need to help me."

He sighed. "I could help you, Azula."

She turned towards him, her face full of disgust. "You couldn't help me even if I asked for it. The firenation wants me dead, you all want me dead. What do I need help for?! The best thing that could happen to me is death. I bet your little water witch of a sister would love that, wouldn't she?"

"I'm not talking about her right now." Sokka tried to stay calm, but the girl just wouldn't cooperate with him, "I'm not here to hurt you, Azula. Maybe if you'd just cooperate with—"

"Cooperate?" She breathed out a small laugh, but her face quickly returned back to all seriousness. "You're pathetic, you're all pathetic! You don't know anything about me!"

"I do."

"No, you don't," she said, rejecting him. "The next time Zuzu wants some peasant to come do his work for him, don't come back here. He needs to send himself. Now leave, you've overstayed your stay," she calmly turned her back towards him.

"Azula," he reached.

"I said leave."

"You think I'm gonna listen to y—?"

"Leave!" The ex-fire princess quickly turned around and picked up a stone and threw it at him, hitting him square on his shoulder.

Sokka took a step back, surprised that the princess had attacked him...with a rock. He stared at her. This was not the Azula he remembered, this was not the crazy manipulative villain he had faced before during the war. He actually sensed true emotion from this girl, emotion hidden by rage and anger. Giving the girl one last look, he turned around and made his way out of the door. He would come back, he would help her.

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*Please Read and Review. Yeah, so I decided to post two chapters instead of one. I wanted to give you guys a little more to chew on besides just the first chapter. But there you go, chapter two. And the POV (point of view) will possibly change. Though, I might just keep the POV in 3rd person instead of first, just to give you a view of how everyone is thinking. Please give me any advice on what you think I should change or do or if you like it for that matter. If you read, please review lol.*