"Is there a reason you fallowed me?" Azula asked as she straightened up everything behind the bar. She had gotten to work on time; in fact she made it a few minutes early. But Sokka had fallowed her and, much to her distain, Lao didn't kick him out despite the fact that there was still another hour until they opened. That had been twenty minutes ago and by now Azula was tired of going about her business in silence as if her childhood enemy weren't sitting right there watching her.

"Fallowed you? You grabbed my wrist and dragged me for a block and a half!" Sokka exclaimed incredulously.

"So you fallowed me on your own for half a block, besides I only dragged you because you were running TOWARDS the man with a knife." Azula defended, watching seriousness overtake Sokka's face as he began to study her every move again.

Rolling her eyes she grabbed her rag and moved out from behind the bar and began to wipe off the tables. She hated how he looked at her, like she was a puzzle he was trying to piece together, or a map he was trying to read. She hated it and yet… Yet the more she told herself she hated it the more she felt as though she was lying.

No, not again she warned herself, though she wasn't sure what exactly she was warning herself against.

"Your hands are still shaking" Sokka finally said, causing Azula to look up with a glare. "We've been in here for almost a half hour and your hands are still shaking" he continued.

"I'm also holding my breath" she admitted and returned to her work. "An old friend of mine just pinned me against a brick wall and held a knife to my throat, would you be calm?" She questioned rhetorically but of course Sokka still gave her an answer.

"With the amount of times I've nearly been killed throughout my life, I'm not sure. But you know the guy?" He questioned, somehow not totally surprised that the attack wasn't random.

"Don't you have a job or somewhere else you need to be?" Azula snapped

"Hey I'm just trying to help you" Sokka said, putting his hands up as if in surrender and Azula scoffed.

"I don't need your help," she argued, of course that was a lie. Right now Azula knew that whatever Jong's up to he's found her and will come after her again, she needs all the help she can get. But she can't trust Sokka, after everything she did he probably wants revenge on her, she can't trust him.

She wouldn't admit it but deep down she knew that was a lie too.

"Fine" Sokka gave in as he stood from his seat, "but if you change your mind you know where to find me" then he finally left the bar.

It was a long day. One of the longest days Azula had been through in a long, long time. But despite that fact her mind was never really focused on anything that she was doing. Her mind wandered the whole day, wandered into her past and into possible, horrible, scenario's of what could become her future. She thought someone from her time as "the Fire Nation princess" finding her here was bad enough, but at least that she had come prepared for. When she moved to Republic City she knew what she was risking, she knew that most of her enemies from that point in her life, if not all of them, lived in the city and there was an increased chance of running into them. But she had changed since then and she knew that it was worth the risk.

But Jong and his gang are another story.

"Sorry, I've never been much of a healer" Azula apologized as she gently applied a damp cloth to Hariko's injured eye and he tensed up with pain.

"You're fine" he assured then let out his breath as the cold water began to take away some of the pain. "It was my own stupid fault" he chuckled, then cringed again as a droplet of water entered his eye. "You should be practicing," he advised but Azula shook her head.

"Jong's benching me again," she admitted and although Hariko was grinning Azula gave him a frown.

"I hate it. He treats me like I'm one of you but then he never lets me fight" she complained and Hariko only chuckled again.

"What you want to end up with a black eye like I do every other night?" He joked but Azula didn't laugh.

Not long after meeting Jong, Azula had become friends with him and been introduced to Hariko, his brother. She also met their friends Lee, Zhang, and Xiao. She got along with all of them and frankly was happy to have found some friends her own age, life with a thirteen year old and an eight year old as her only actual friends was starting to wear thin. Jong was the oldest in their little gang, being twenty-two. Then came Xiao at twenty and Hariko and herself at nineteen. Next was Lee who had just turned seventeen and Zhang at sixteen. The guys and Azula all had one thing in common, history's they wanted to forget. Jong and Hariko had lost their father towards the end of the war; their father was a solider killed in battle, their mother died of childbirth when Hariko was born. Xiao was abandoned as a newborn, as was Lee. Zhang still has a home but stays away when he can, as does his father; Azula pity's his mother because she knows how it feels to be crazy. The six of them fight in an underground arena for money; at least one of them is fighting every night.

But Azula never fights.

Jong says she's not ready, that she still has a long way to go in recovering her bending. Her time in Forgetful Valley destroyed her. There was something about the forest, she didn't know what but she knew there was something, because her first night there when she tried to light a fire she found that she couldn't. The forest somehow stripped her of her bending. At least she thought that at the time, a week later she did manage a small flame and slowly grew stronger after that, but even now her bending is nowhere near the level it used to be at. So Jong benched her, she trains hard every day but she never improves, she was beginning to think that where she is now, which is roughly Zuko's level, is as good as she's ever going to get. After almost a year she was tired of sitting on the sidelines every night, so she made a deal with Jong. If she could beat him then he would let her fight.

I never did beat him Azula thought to herself as she walked out of the bar that evening, the fear of what tonight could possibly bring haunting every step she took.

It was just past five, which meant Mika was at the after school bending class, which would be out in less than an hour. Normally Azula never worried about not getting to the school on time, she almost always made it with a few minutes to spare. But tonight she was worried she might not get there at all. She was almost there, and was just starting to calm herself and forget about the incident earlier in the morning, when a deep and slightly scratchy voice came from the alley she had just passed by.

"Don't tell me I need to get the knife again?" It asked and Azula turned around, not even surprised when she saw Jong emerging out of the shadows.

"Get lost Jong, I've got enough problems." She spat

"It's been what, five years? How about a 'how are you'?" He asked, pretending to be hurt by her coldness.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded, unfazed by his comment.

With a grin and a chuckle Jong began to twirl his knife casually in his hand as he leaned up against the side of the apartment building they were currently in front of.

"I need some extra muscle on a job," he proposed

"Funny, you never came to me for muscle before." Azula snapped at him, putting one hand on her hip and glaring at him with utter hatred.

"You were better for stealth" he said with a shrug "but this job requires both."

"Forget it Jong, I've worked too hard to pull myself out of that hole you threw me into. Besides I don't do favors for scum like you," she told him while crossing her arms; Jong never once took his eyes off the knife.

"Funny thing is princess, you don't have a choice. You see I'll use this knife on you if I have to, but you'll get a warning first." Finally he stopped twirling the knife and looked at her, "that kid of yours will be the first victim" he threatened and Azula prayed to any god listening that he couldn't sense the panic behind her straight face.

"Funny thing is Jong, you're out of luck. The baby died right after birth, guess it runs in your family." She lied, fully aware that the comment about Jong's mother was a low blow. She also mentally prayed for forgiveness in telling such a cruel lie, but it was the only way she could think to protect Mika.

She expected Jong to be enraged by the comment aimed at his mother, but he only smirked.

"Really? Then who was that little girl you dropped off at the school this morning? She looked about the right age, and just like my brother." He commented, he knew. He had been watching her, and he knew she was lying.

"You would kill your own niece wouldn't you?" She asked and he smirked

"This coming from the girl who tried to kill her own mother" he commented and Azula gritted her teeth, oh how she hated Jong. "Look princess I'm a reasonable guy, I understand that the gang was all you had and we bailed when you needed us, or at least Hariko, the most. So I don't expect you to come back. One job and then we'll never bother you again, if you refuse then fine, live your life. But you'll live it alone." He threatened; Azula narrowed her eyes at him and balled her fists.

"What do you need me to do?"