Visit three

For reasons he could not quite understand, or that he refused to accept, Sokka could not wait to see Azula again. He went to the asylum the next day in the afternoon. He found that he was slightly adjusting to the dreariness of the environment. Although he guessed he would never be truly happy in this place besides when he was speaking to Azula.

Soon he was upon her floor and spoke to the guard

"I am here to see the princess, please unlock her cell door."

"Forgive me sir, she is not in her cell."

Sokka's eyebrow flicked but he did not panic yet "Where is she?"

"We saw her attempting firebending within her cell and took her to a punishment cell she could not bend in." he said

"Take me to her. NOW!" Sokka snarled. The guard took a quick pace to the punishment cells a floor below and quickly fumbled with the keys to open the door.

Sokka's anger only grew when he saw the cell she was in. It was kept at a low temperature since firebenders are much weaker when they are cold. Azula seemed to have been crying as some sreams of water could be seen frozen to her face.

She looked up at him as he stood in the doorway, she tried to speak but her teeth kept chattering which overlapped some words. "I'm...sorry….I tried to become your princess….regain my blue fire….I failed you."

"You will always be my princess no matter what. Come here." Sokka picked her up bridal style which elicited a small shriek from her, but she didn't fight it. She simply nudged her head into the comfort of his shoulder.

Sokka took her back to her old cell, he didn't need to ask the guard to open it "Get me a warm blanket, then tell her mind healer and the head guard I will be speaking with them inside of the next ten minutes so they should be standing in her office."

"Right away sir."

Sokka looked at her face with his hands on her shoulders "Am I allowed to hold you my princess?"

In truth Azula knew she could warm herself with her bending, but… "I'll allow it. Feel fortunate you get to comfort your princess."

"Here is the blanket sir, I will search for those you requested quickly." He rushed away after Sokka snatched it.

Sokka slowly draped it over her shoulders and wrapped her up, then pulled her into a deep hug while stroking her hair "Is this helping Azula?"

"Yes. Thank you Sokka."

He smirked behind her head, she was beginning to sound more like herself and less fearful. "Now just to recount what happened, you were practicing your bending to regain your blue fire since you wanted to be the best princess possible for me?"

He felt her nod slowly

He pulled her back to look her in the eyes, she needed to know he would be a constant in her life. "You will always be my princess regardless of your level of bending. Although I know your bending is important to you, so I'm going to go have a conversation with them about how they should treat a princess." On instinct he kissed her forehead as a show of affection. He felt a sinking feeling in his core. "Apologies. I shouldn't have done that. Forgive me Azula." As he was still on his knees it was rather easy for him to perform a formal bow.

"Go, speak on behalf of your princess. You are forgiven."

Sokka sighed in relief then exited the room.

Azula found it comical, he never even asked if she liked it.

Sokka soon entered the mind healers office. He was beyond livid. "You have twenty seconds to explain why my princess was locked in that torture chamber you call a cell. If I don't have an answer you will both suffer in ways you can't even fathom."

The guard captain spoke up "Those cells are reserved for powerful firebenders."

"Fifteen."

Ming spoke quickly "She was bending in her cell, bending is forbidden here for our safety."

Sokka slammed a fist on the desk causing them to jump "As you both know when the firelord is not present I am his voice. I don't even need to inform him about this. You treat a fragile teenage girl that was abused by Ozai in this fashion? You treat your princess this way? Was she even bending AT anyone?"

"No sir. She was just practicing breathing fire alone in her cell." They said in unison

"Do you even comprehend what her bending means to her? Now I see why she isn't getting any better here, this is a prison not a place of healing. All you all are concerned about is protecting yourselves. I should show you what it is like on the other side of a cell. Although since you think those accommodations and that treatment are fine for a princess I wonder what your cell would be like." After he was done speaking he narrowing his eyes and turned towards them. They immediately fell to their knees.

"Please adviser Sokka give us another chance!" The captain begged

"We can do better! Whatever you want!" Ming said

Sokka made a face as if he was in deep thought "I suppose I could be convinced."

"Name it!" They said in unison again, Sokka had to hold back a laugh to keep up the imposing facade.

"I have a few requests. Yes, lets call them requests. First, if she gets in trouble you will not punish her. You will contact me. Day or night."

"Yes, sire."

"Secondly, when I am present she will no longer be bound."

"She could kill you! From the stories we've heard she has tried to kill you! We cannot..." The guard was cut off by Sokka

"Are you denying my request?"

"….No sir I just don't think."

"If I needed counsel I would ask for it. She is hardly a threat to me, and if she did strike at me I probably did something to deserve it."

They both remained silent in deep bows. Sokka was glad his point had finally gotten across.

"Lastly, she will be unrestrained within her cell for two hours a day to practice her bending.."

The captain didn't even bother speaking his mind, he just stared at Sokka slack jawed.

Ming gained the courage to speak even though she was very afraid "With all due respect sir, won't this give her opportunities to escape? How will we retie her?"

Sokka laughed "Do you REALLY think you could have held her for a year if she didn't want you to? I've seen her slice clean through buildings with her fire. She can also still obviously bend with her feet and mouth. Even not completely in her right mind she is more competent that the majority of the population. She's staying by choice. Where else would she go?"

"Are you sure?"

"Completely. If she wanted you dead you would have been dead within the first week, maybe even the first day."

Both shivered. Then the captain spoke "If there is nothing else sir allow me to escort you back to the princess and...untie her."

Sokka watched as the straitjacket was removed from her at last. Sadly they had her in pants and a short sleeve shirt fit for a peasant. He may have to change that. She needs to feel like a princess, not a...whatever she thinks she is.

The captain seemed to practically run out of the room, as if she was going to instantly kill him the second her hands were free. From personal experience Sokka knew her hands being bound wouldn't do much to keep her from bending, someone as weak as the captain wouldn't stand a chance. That's one of the things he liked about her, she was goal oriented. Aang and Zuko would probably get the best laugh out of that description.

He already knew the answer but he knew the captain was still in earshot and wanted to prove him wrong. "Do you want to hurt me?"

"Why would I hurt you? I have not been told to do so and I'm guessing I would end up dead or in a much more uncomfortable cell." Azula moved her arms around while clenching and unclenching her fist to get the blood circulating. Her arms were free for the first time in months, aside from the baths anyway.

"Wow, and here I thought we were forming a rapport."

"You are also the only person to visit me since I was sent here. I likely wouldn't get more visitors if I killed the first one." She smirked to let him know she was joking. Most of her jokes were either terrible or terrifying, which was not made better by her tone. To her surprise he actually found her funny.

"I wish I got to talk to you during the war….without you trying to kill me anyway. Or me barely restraining myself from choking you."

"Yes, I suppose those things would ruin a civil conversation."

"Was that another joke? I don't get why everyone said you were serious all the time."

Azula raised an eyebrow "You asked about me?"

"Yes. Honestly I kept having dreams about this ruthless but beautiful girl chasing me and us having epic but tactical battles. Or escaping from you. I figured knowing more about you would calm them down."

"You think I'm beautiful?"

"I shouldn't have said that. I'll shutup now. I don't want to make you uncomfortable." Sokka became very interested in the far wall

Azula may have been insane, but she could still read a person. Judging by the fact that he keeps doing things without thinking about it he must like her, a lot. Yet something is holding him back. "To him I must look weak, and frail. He also seems honorable." That's it, he doesn't want to take advantage of her. Likely due to the aforementioned insanity. How cute. In truth she liked the attention but she decided to keep playing with her food. For now anyway.

"It's only natural for you to find a princess beautiful. You were a commoner once after all. You would likely find most highborn women to your liking. With the elegance and flair."

"She must not know much about toph." He thought to himself with a little chuckle. "Does my princess want to talk about her visions today?" He wished he never asked when he saw her face become filled with despair.

"Not today." She said as she turned away

"What can I do to serve you?"

She decided to play with her food. "Well, my hands haven't touched anything in over a year. I wish for you to hold them and massage them."

Sokka backed away instinctively "Y-you want me to hold your hands? Are you serious?"

Azula found his reaction priceless "Am I too repulsive for you to touch? Or do you just not want to do what your princess asks?"

"I-it's fine. Anything for you Azula." Sokka held his hands out palm up

She placed her hands palm down within his. He began massaging the back of her hands and she hummed in contentment. When it felt extremely nice she purred a little. Obviously she could have remained silent, but then she wouldn't get the chance to watch him become progressively more uncomfortable. He would occasionally slow down and just look at her hands then his gaze would wander to her legs, her chest, and eventually her face. She would maintain her focus on his face the entire time so she got to see him become flustered and turn his gaze back to her hands immediately a couple of times. It was so sweet that she almost felt bad for messing with him like this. Almost.

"Hey Azula can you flip your hands over so I can do your palms?"

"How considerate! I didn't even have to ask." She said, he responded by rolling his eyes but he failed to hide his blush from her. "he must be enjoying our close proximity to each other."

"I'm just happy to help in any way I can Azula." He felt so shameful taking advantage of her like this. She didn't even ask for the palm massage, he just wanted to keep touching her hands. He had no idea how they were this soft given all of the combat she had seen. He found his gaze being drawn to her face again. Then he looked into her eyes. They seemed to nearly draw him in like a whirlpool. Without thought he found himself leaning closer...and closer. His trance was only broken when she smiled.

"I-I have to go Azula. I will see you another time." Sokka hastily stood up and turned towards the door

"Why do you have to go Sokka?" She couldn't help but smirk, he wasn't looking at her anyway.

"I, uh, told Zuko I would go into a political meeting with the governor of ember island." He prayed to every spirit he could think of that she did not call him on this.

"Well you should run along then, it must be very important. You don't want to upset firelord zuzu."

Sokka let out a breath he hoped was silent and had one foot out of the door before he turned back to her "Oh, I told them you are allowed to practice your bending with no restraints for at least two hours a day. Let me know if they don't heed my words. I know how important your bending is to you." He made a swift exit before he did something incredibly stupid.

She knew she liked him a bit already, but the way he seemed to have casually threatened them made her wish he went through with kissing her. His restraint was quite admirable, and entertaining.

She figured she had at least another hour before her restraints were placed back on so she activated a flame in her hand. It had flecks of blue. She promised herself she would return it to its former blue glory swiftly. Although she did not know if she was doing it for herself, or for him.

Sokka was completely ashamed of himself. He was sitting in his chambers thinking about his recent visits with Azula. She hadn't opened up about the visions yet but he didn't really care. She seemed happier and was growing closer to her old self. That was not the issue however.

After the third visit he kept telling himself it was wrong. He shouldn't try to kiss her, he shouldn't try to hold her like a partner, etc. He was barely holding on though. He would spend roughly an hour with her then she would ask for some ridiculous request that nearly made him misbehave. Sometimes he thought she was torturing him on purpose, but he decided she probably wasn't in the frame of mind to do that. He was just making excuses for his lack of self control.

Everything she asked for on its own was innocent, he was definitely the problem in this equation. She asked to just look at his face since she hadn't really looked a person in the eye in what she could only assume was close to a year. She obviously didn't have makeup in the prison but she still looked perfect to him. The way her hair fell across her cheeks, her little smirk she had whenever he was there, her catlike eyes, her soft lips, all of it. Every time he looked down at her lips she smiled at him which snapped him out of it. Actually, on second thought, she was torturing him. It still didn't give him the right to take advantage of her. Still if she's back to enjoying the pain of others that's a step in the right direction.

Surprisingly during the fifth visit she started sharing little snippets of her life during their conversation. It was very brief and she glanced over it as if it was unimportant but it did give him a glimpse into her mind. It seemed as if she was born with a very analytical thought pattern and some dulled emotions. When she did display some emotions her father shamed her or acted as if they just didn't matter. Doing that for years likely played no small part in why she cracked. He didn't think he could hate Ozai more than he did during the war, yet hearing about the things he did to Zuko and Azula gave him half a mind to go to his cell and impale him with a sword. Luckily for Ozai his thoughts were broken up by a knock at his door.

Sokka opened his door and saw a royal guard standing in place. Usually he tried to be pleasant but..."It's almost midnight. What reason could you possibly have for disturbing me at this hour?"

The guard bowed his head "I am sorry sire, but we were told by a mind healer that you are needed at the asylum immediately. The princess is in a panic."

"Get my palanquin ready immediately."

Visit seven

Sokka quickly stepped through the hallways of the asylum. Another mind healer was on shift at this hour, he said his name was Lee. Piandao wasn't joking when he said there were a million Lees. "What happened?"

"She woke up and began screaming, anyone who entered the room caused her to enter a deeper panic. Usually we would sedate a patient experiencing these symptoms," He paused when he saw Sokka's eyes fill with rage "but we presumed that you would not be happy that the princess was held down and sedated without attempt to calm her another way."

"You presumed correctly." Sokka sped up when they were two floors above. He could already hear her screaming. The guards already had the door to the hall open and her cell unlocked. They likely assumed he wouldn't be in the mood for waiting. Being the fire lord's right hand held its advantages.

As soon as he entered her cell he saw Azula in tears. She gathered a look of sheer terror upon seeing him, or rather his robe since she never made it to his face.

"Please, no more! I am trying my best father, I do not wish to fail you!"

He decided it best to speak softly "I am not that bastard Azula. It's Sokka." He walked to her slowly and got on his knees so he was at her level. She had backed herself into a corner. He began wiping her tears away, gently. He used slow movements because he did not wish to startle her. "It's okay."

Another tear streaked down her cheek "No punishment for failing you?"

"No Azula. I would never hurt you." His mind was completely on comfort and he didn't bother holding himself back any longer. He kissed her brow and pulled her into a deep hug, letting her cry on his chest. He guessed she wouldn't be able to articulate exactly what was wrong with her so he didn't bother asking. She seemed calm so he began removing her straitjacket himself. As soon as her arms were free they jumped to the back of his neck. He wrapped his arms around the small of her back and pulled her close.

Azula pulled her face to his ear and whispered. "Please Sokka, don't leave me."

Sokka contemplated his options for a moment. Zuko would likely be informed that Sokka was called to the asylum so he wasn't worried about Zuko looking for him in the morning. On the other hand he really didn't trust himself to stay here alone with Azula all night without doing something stupid.

Azula waited for his reply. When she heard nothing she pulled her head back so she could gauge his reaction in his eyes. She hoped he would stay. She needed him to stay. She felt his heart pounding within his chest. Was it fear? Did seeing his princess in this state terrify him?

Spirits help me. He tried to be strong, he really did, but he could not leave her, and if he sat there one more second…"Forgive me Azula."

" For wha...hmph" Azula's eyes widened when she felt Sokka's lips, although soon she adjusted to the surprise. Slowly she closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment.

Sokka wasn't thinking about her sanity. He was not thinking about the rumors that would spread if he was caught in this act. He wasn't even thinking about how Zuko would react to the news that this transpired. All he could think about was her, and how right it felt to have her in his arms. When he finally managed to take hold of himself and pull away he saw her trademark sadistic smirk.

"You were torturing me!"

Azula feigned pain at the accusation "Me? I would never do that."

Azula seemed to be in a better state of mind even if it was at his expense. He decided to try to reach the core of the issue. He gently brushed his thumbs over her hair and ears "So princess, why were you crying? I thought you had to be awake for the visions to bother you."

"This was different." She thought for a split second about keeping the information to herself, but he did rush down in the middle of the night just to comfort her. "I was dreaming about my father."

"I gathered as much. That probably isn't all of it though."

"While I was a prodigious firebender given my age, it wasn't enough for my father. After I pushed myself to gain blue fire he seemed to want more. He scolded and punished me when I could not perform a technique he deemed I was ready for." She waited for Sokka to calm himself before she continued.

Sokka closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His contact with her was the main that helped him remain calm.

"We began training lightningbending when I was eleven. It was a few months after Zuko left so he likely never even heard about it, but when I failed to lightningbend he would have me remove my shirt and forced me to stand against the wall. He would then generate a whip of fire to thrash me." Azula rubbed her hands along his chest because he appeared to be shaking. It really was a strange but pleasant experience to have someone care about anything that happened to her.

"How often do you dream of this?" It came out angrier than intended but it appeared as if she understood what he was feeling.

"Most nights really. Usually I am fine, sometimes it feels more real than others and I lose myself. Apologies for my shameful display. It was unbecoming of a princess." She felt her head being jerked to look him in the eye

"Never apologize for telling me how you feel again Azula."

The commanding tone he used surprised her "My my, telling your princess what to do. How bold."

Realizing his mistake he looked downward, only to receive a kiss on his forehead. He peered upward to see her smirking again and rolled his eyes. He would eventually adjust to her form of jokes.

"How often do the dreams feel real Azula?"

"Usually two to three times a week. They have lessened since your second visit."

His assumption was correct, he was helping. Which means he probably had the best judgment on how to help her in the future. "Azula, I'm going to ask you some things and I need you to be serious. No torture, no jokes."

"Fiiiine." She said with an exaggerated pout.

"Does being in my presence help you heal?"

"It's the only thing helping me heal."

"Do you wish to be by my side?"

"Yes." She said without a second thought.

Sokka stood up and sat her on her bed then screamed for a guard, when they came to the door he ordered them to prepare his palanquin.

Azula's eyes watered "you are leaving me? You are leaving after your princess said she needed you to stay?"

"No Azula," He turned to her and brushed his thumb across her cheek. "we're leaving."