"So you told her everything?" Sokka asked; it had only been a day since they returned to Republic City but he still felt the need to go and check on Azula while she was working that night, at least just to spite his sister if for no other reason.

"Not everything obviously, but enough. I told about Zuko and my mother and… her other family." Azula admittedly awkwardly while wiping down the bar, it may be a Friday night but it's still early and Lao's only had a small crowd, plus Sokka.

"Stepdad" Sokka said and Azula glanced at him, not understanding. "Ikem. The term for his relation to you is called your stepdad, and Kiyi would be your half sister." He explained.

"Alright fine, I told her about my stepdad and my half sister. I also told her that later this summer we're taking a trip to go see them." Azula said and then she turned back around to wipe down the shelves of the bar so she missed Sokka's look of surprise.

"Wow bold move" he said and she shrugged.

She turned around again and made a scan of the bar. Everything was fine and everyone she could see was taken care of. Mika was nowhere in sight but that wasn't unusual, she was often playing in the back closet. No one would ever understand what was back there that entertained her so much, but there were no chemicals in there and she never moved anything so no one complained. With nothing else to distract her Azula was forced to face Sokka and begin the conversation she really didn't want to have.

"Thanks for coming after me" she said softly

"You're welcome" Sokka said

"Um, why did you come after me?" She asked a little awkwardly

"You were in trouble" He answered but when she opened her mouth to argue he continued, "Azula you told me to get lost then that night you showed up at my apartment dressed as an assassin and left Mika there without telling me where you going. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that means trouble, though I have been told I'm a bit of a genius." He said; Azula rolled her eyes at his last comment.

"That doesn't answer my question," she told him but he only looked at her confused.

"How so? You're my friend and you were in trouble, that's my reason." He explained and this time it was Azula who looked confused.

"So, we're friends?" She asked and Sokka shrugged

"I don't know, aren't we?" He asked and just then Mika came running over and tugged on Sokka's pant leg. Picking up on her request the water tribe man reached down picked up the little girl, sitting her comfortably on his lap.

"Mommy can I have some soda please?" She asked

"No Mika" Azula answered

"Pleaassee" she whined

"I said no" Azula enforced and just then someone at the other end of the bar called for a drink so she went over, hoping it would end the discussion with her daughter.

Crossing her arms Mika pouted, muttering how it was unfair that her mother wouldn't let her have any soda.

"Hey, where have you been? I haven't seen you all night." Sokka questioned with a smile, trying to get the little girl's mind off of soda.

"In my clubhouse, but you can't come in!" She added that last part hurriedly and briefly Sokka wondered where her clubhouse was, but he figured she was probably just talking about some back room and moved on.

"Why not?" He asked, pretending to be hurt.

"Cause it's only for kids" Mika said this as if it was obvious "and Zan" she added after a minute.

"Whose Zan?" Sokka asked and Mika pointed to a man emptying a trash can in the far corner of the room.

"He's mommy's friend who works here. Mommy says he's a grown up but he says he's just a really big kid. I think mommy's right but he likes to play dolls with me so I let him come in." She explained and Sokka chuckled.

At the other end of the bar Azula looked over her shoulder to see Sokka and Mika talking and laughing together and couldn't help but smile herself.

Maybe we are friends she thought to herself.

"I just can't believe he's so willing to trust her after everything she did!" Katara ranted; she had gone out for the night with Toph and Suki and, after confronting Toph for not telling her about Azula, she told them about how she found out.

"Trust me Katara he wasn't so willing at first, he came down to the station practically begging me to slap the cuffs on her." Toph said before taking a sip of her drink.

"Well obviously something changed his mind" Katara said bitterly

"Did you ever think that maybe that something was the fact that she's changed? It has been almost twenty years." Toph reminded

"It's just so crazy to think about, Azula not evil. It just doesn't make sense." Suki put in. She and Sokka had broken up a long time ago as he wanted to settle down and she planned to continue traveling, she would only be in Republic City for a few more weeks, but they remained friends and now she was worried about him.

"Ugh what is wrong with you people?!" Toph demanded, finally losing any patients she had coming into tonight.

"What's wrong with us?" Katara demanded back defensively.

"Yeah what's wrong with you? I mean do you even hear yourselves? You're mad at a woman for something she did when she was fourteen!" The blind woman exclaimed

"Toph she-" Katara started but was cut off

"Did the exact same thing you did" Toph said coldly. Both Katara and Suki looked completely shocked by this statement but unlike Suki, Katara recovered quickly and if Toph weren't blind even she may have been afraid of the death glare her friend was sending her way.

"Excuse me? How in any way are Azula and I similar?!" The infuriated water tribe woman demanded, offended and spitting the other woman's name as if it were a curse.

Toph was fighting a smirk, she really hadn't wanted to play this card but she knew she was right.

"Well, Sugar Queen, last time I checked you both lost your mother at a very young age and as a result you did the exact same thing, followed your father to the ends of the earth." Toph was trying to keep from shouting; they were in public after all.

"My dad wasn't a warlord," Katara said in a defensive voice, unable to believe that Toph would stoop so low as to use her mother's death against her. "Besides Azula didn't lose her mother, she's still alive." She added softly and bitterly.

"Do you think she saw it that way?" Toph questioned and she could actually feel Katara looking at her. "As far as she was concerned the Fire Nation gaining total control over the world would've been a good thing. But the people standing in the way of that were the leaders of the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe, one of which was your father. As for her mother, I understand what you're saying but is it really not losing someone if you just wake up one morning and they're gone, no explanation of what happened? She was a little kid, who was always in trouble, then her mom just vanished and her grandfather ended up dead. She figured her father was the only one she had left, considering she was convinced Zuko hated her and even if she wasn't he was only nine, she needed an adult. She did the exact same thing you did, attached herself as daddy's little girl and when she was old enough joined his fight herself." She explained and when neither Katara nor Suki responded she spoke up again.

"There is one difference though" she admitted, "Your dad loved you and still does to this day, but do you think Ozai ever saw her as anything more than a puppet?" She asked, but again she didn't receive an answer.

It was getting late and Sokka was about to leave the bar. Really he didn't know why he stayed this long, sure he liked talking to Azula when it was slow and he knew she'd rather be talking to him than doing nothing, but he really should've gone home a few hours ago. So he was planning to leave right now, but then Katara walked in. He gulped and looked over his shoulder, Azula was at the other end of the bar so he couldn't warn her. His next thought was to go stop Katara from whatever it was she was about to do, but it was too late. She had already marched over to the end of the bar opposite him and was talking to Azula.

"What do you want?" Azula demanded coldly when Katara approached her, seriously what in the past twenty-four hours could've prompted the woman to come down here and yell at her?

But much to Azula's surprise Katara looked almost sad.

"I want to say I'm sorry," she admitted and that was even more surprising.

"What for?" Azula asked, all hostility gone from her voice.

"For what I said to you last night. I had no right to make a threat like that and I'm sorry." She said, her eyes downcast and refusing to meet Azula's gaze.

"Well apology accepted and if it helps I understand why you said that, I wouldn't have trusted me either." Azula said.

Sokka watched the scene at the other end of the bar in confusion. He couldn't hear what the two women were saying so there was no yelling, thank go there was no bending, and amazingly neither of them even looked angry. After a few minutes Katara left and Azula returned to his end of the bar.

"What just happened?" He asked and Azula shrugged in response.

"We made nice," she said simply and she did so with a completely straight face just because she new it would make Sokka's jaw drop that much more, and she smirked in amusement when it worked.

The next couple weeks were relatively uneventful. Sokka began babysitting Mika most Friday and Saturday nights, and because Azula often wouldn't get out of work until three in the morning that entailed Mika sleeping at his apartment and Azula coming to get her the next morning. Azula was grateful for the help but she made sure Sokka knew if he ever couldn't watch Mika or just didn't want to he could tell her, but most weekends he was happy to look after her. So today was a usual Sunday morning with Azula over at Sokka's apartment bright and early to collect her daughter, who as usual was torn between wanting to leave and wanting to stay.

"Why don't you come in and have some breakfast?" Sokka offered to the woman standing in his doorway.

"The reason I come so early to get her is so you don't have to feed her" Azula commented.

"Yeah but you live a half hour away, that's almost a whole hour with Mika dragging her feet, so by the time you get home it's almost lunch and you've both skipped breakfast." Sokka pointed out, ignoring the protest from Mika that she does not drag her feet. "I have Komodo Sausage," He added in a singsong voice, although he knew it would have no effect.

"Pass" Azula answered flatly

"Please mommy" Mika's voice came whining from inside the apartment and Sokka grinned.

Azula frowned when she heard her daughter's voice, and the fact that it was obscured by something within her mouth. Looking over Sokka's shoulder Azula saw that Mika had sat down at the little table in his kitchenette and was picking at something on a plate.

"Just because Mika's taking your food doesn't mean I'm going to" she said and she had to admit, it was kind of funny to see the growing frustration on Sokka's face.

"You know I'm trying to be nice here and you're making it very difficult" he complained but Azula only smirked.

"Good" she said and Sokka sighed.

"Would you please just come in?" He asked, suddenly realizing that they were having a ridiculous argument, if it even qualified as that, in the hallway of the apartment building.

"Mika come on, we're going!" Azula shouted over Sokka's shoulder, Mika whined and Sokka frowned at this.

"Ok fine" Sokka said, putting his hands up in fake surrender before quickly bending down and grabbing Azula's legs, slinging her over his shoulder and bring her inside before she even knew what happened.

"Mika close the door!" Sokka ordered playfully, trying to ignore Azula's shouts to put her down, her fists pounding on his back, and the rest of her squirming around in his grasp.

Excitedly Mika sprung up from her seat and dashed over to the front door, almost slamming it shut.

"Fine you want down? Here ya go!" Sokka complied before quite literally dumping Azula onto his couch.

A giggling Mika had come to stand almost directly behind Sokka, watching the hilarious scene before her unfold with much interest. Sokka took advantage of the little girl's close proximity and scooped her up in his arms and, just as Azula righted herself, threw her onto her mother. As soon as she landed Mika began tickling her mother to which Sokka gave a cheer.

"Yes! Got her to laugh!" He exclaimed in victory

Azula was still laughing as she sat up and pushed her daughter off her. "You attacked me in order to make me laugh?" She questioned but Sokka just shrugged, a smile still on his own face.

"I wanted to see if it was possible" he excused.

Azula wasn't entirely thrilled about leaving Sokka's apartment almost an hour after she had originally come, but he had already made Mika breakfast so she had to wait for her to finish eating and, in the end, he did convince her to eat a few pieces of sausage. By the time they left Mika was more than ready to go home and ran all the way down the hall the second she got out the door.

"Thanks again" Azula said to Sokka as she left

"No problem, and sorry about attacking you." He said, though the smile on his face gave away that he wasn't really sorry.

"It's ok" Azula said with a slight chuckle

"Mommy let's go!" Mika whined from down the hall

"See ya later" Azula said and with that she left, thinking that maybe, just maybe, things were starting to look up.

Author's Note: Hey guys, first off once again thanks for the great reviews, they are much appreciated! Second, to all of you who have requested for longer chapters: thanks for your input! I am trying to make the chapter longer, i know the last few might have been a little shorter than usual; it was because i made some major changes to my original plan for the story (for example Zuko wasn't going to show up until almost the end) and so as a result chapters 12 and 13 were split into two when i had originally planned for them to be one, but that was just TOO long. After that the same thing ended up happening with 14 and 15, having them as one was just TOO long. I tried to make this chapter a little longer but i realize it might still seem short, i am aware and starting with the next chapter i believe i will be able to make them longer.