After their long reunion, the trio carried the rest of Teo's bags inside the house. He didn't have much, nor was it difficult, since they stacked the bags on his wheelchair and Azula pushed it while Teo crutched along beside her.

He was a little worried. Azula seemed withdrawn, her face a blank mask. Of course he was used to her hiding her true emotions, but not like this. She just looked sad. Guilty.

"You look tired," she said when they finally reached the house.

"I am. It was a long flight, then I had to tour the facilities. Then the walk," he saw her expression change slightly. "But I just need to sit down for a while. I'll be fine." He smiled, not wanting her to worry. He already noticed her watching him.

"Maybe you should retire for the night," she said quietly.

"No. I came all this way, I'm not going to fall asleep now," he moved into the house and sat down on the couch. He lay his crutches down beside his feet.

Azula was still watching him, hesitating. She came close and pulled the goggles off his face and set them down on the table. "Isn't that better?"

Teo reached out and grabbed Azula's arm and gently pulled her into his lap. "There," he smiled again, "This is better." He tried his best to ignore how thin she was. He'd be hard pressed to guess which one of them weighed more.

He forced himself to sit still as she tensed, seeming to be unsure of what to do now. It wasn't for a minute that he realized she had reached down to feel his leg. "Strip."

"What?"

"Strip," she stood up from his lap and looked down at him. "Ty Lee took the boat to Ember Island for a night off. She's got like, three boyfriends there. It's just us. Take off your clothes." It was an order. Or as close as she could approximate now. He fondly recalled their time in Ba Sing Se when she would return from impersonating a Kiyoshi Warrior and give him similar orders. But that was then, with the disability that they had been familiar with, not now, with that phantom box of legs hanging over his head.

He was afraid, he didn't want her to see. He couldn't stand seeing her guilt. Other people looked at him with pity. Azula never had and he didn't want that to change. "I don't..." he started, then saw the look in her eyes. He sighed and started to pull off his tunic.

Once he started, she helped pull his tunic and undershirt up and over his head, and just tossed them across the room. "Pants!" she demanded, once his torso was bare. It wasn't the same as Ba Sing Se. There was no excitement now. Only fear, dread, apprehension. He'd be hard pressed to guess which one of them was more terrified.

"Azula... please?" He looked up at her, then saw the look she was giving him.

"Teo... I need to see what he did to youn" her voice was barely above a whisper. Even though she wasn't a princess and he wasn't a slave, he couldn't refuse. He had been trying to stall the inevitable. But Azula never could stand to wait.

He grabbed one of his crutches and used it to lever himself up off the couch and into a standing position. He then unbuckled his belt and nodded to Azula.

With shaking hands, she pulled down his trousers, letting them fall down by his ankles. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Leather straps held wooden prosthetics to the remains of his thighs. He leaned on the crutch and picked up his leg, letting her see how the neatly carved knee joint moved. She reached out and touched the oiled wood, then looked up at his face.

"Can you... take them off?" she asked, in a whisper, not trusting her voice any louder.

He carefully sat back down and started unbuckling. She would help, but it all seemed too complex. Much more involved than the braces he used to wear. She doubted her courage now, unsure if she could bear to see how he'd been maimed. Because of her.

"Azula?"

She looked down at him again, sitting in his under wrappings with a nervous expression. The remains of his legs were wrapped in bandages, but he slowly unraveled first the right, then the left, leaving two neat rolls behind. He was always so meticulous.

"Are you still in pain?" She steeled herself to look from his face to his legs. She'd heard that amputated limbs were called "stumps", but it just seemed cruel.

"Sometimes. It isn't the same though."

She sat down beside him and inspected the damage. The jagged scars that had been hastily sewn together flaps of skin. She looked up at his face, which was turned away, his cheeks red. "Are you embarrassed?"

"I'm... yes," he sighed. "They're ugly. Not much of an improvement."

"Teo, I cannot believe you are embarrassed because you are... short," she made an attempt at humor, even though she couldn't bring herself to smile.

He laughed and looked back over at her. He reached up and ran his fingers through her hair. "Short hair looks good on you."

She let out the breath she'd been holding and leaned closer, resting her head against his shoulder. He was alive. "I hate it. I look like a boy. It's... messy."

"It'll grow back," he pressed a kiss into her annoyingly short hair. She felt like a monster complaining about hair. Of course her hair would grow back.

"I should've hidden it better," she said suddenly. She cursed her loose, guilty tongue. Teo was the only one that drew these emotions out of her.

"Hidden what better?" He shifted and turned so he could see her better. A part of her missed the contact.

"Us. Being intimate. Father found out and... and he almost killed you," she couldn't look up at him. She stared at his legs, imagining the dead things she received in that box still attached. Somehow that was much worse.

"Oh. I figured he found out. I thought, maybe someone let it slip. Lo or Li. Someone that was on the tank train after the drill," he said, not seeming too upset.

"We were careless. I was careless," she balled her hands into fists. She could feel her temperature rising. She had control issues since the asylum, but she wasn't going to hurt Teo. Not again.

"They would've found out anyway."

"No! They wouldn't have!" Blue sparks crackled around her and she leapt off the couch, away from him. "They wouldn't have known if I hadn't come home pregnant! But denying it didn't help. Father found out."

"Pregnant?" She couldn't look at him. His face changing to disbelief, then wonder, then sadness when he guessed the fate of their child.

"The evidence was... eliminated. You were sent off so that he could murder you," her fire still burned inside her. She tried to breathe slowly. Calm down. She didn't want to start hearing the people that weren't there.

She left the house, couldn't hold the fire in. She ran to the shore. The small beach that she had all to herself. The water was freezing, but it helped. She ducked her head under the water and stayed there until her lungs burned. She felt like a monster again. She gave something beautiful to him one moment, then snatched the idea away just as fast.

Also, there was a part of her that was intensely satisfied that she'd run out of the house, down a steep hill and onto the beach while he was still stranded on that couch. She gathered that she had some time before he could literally put himself back together and come out all this way.

Control. Control.

She still needed it. Craved it. And Teo continued to let her control him and his feelings.