Azula looked around as Hakoda slowly led her by the hand to his village, feeling somewhat apprehensive. She didn't know what to expect when they got there. Sure, Hakoda and the rest of his crew eventually warmed up to her, but what about everyone else in their tribe? Not to mention his two kids. What would they think of her? Would they hate her because she was a firebender and from the Fire Nation? And how should she act around them? They weren't high born. A lot of the things that she could discuss with Mai and Ty Lee wouldn't be understood by Hakoda's children. And she didn't exactly want her identity to be revealed either. She didn't even want to think about what would happen if they did find out. She would have to do her best to hide her secret around these people.

Which meant that she couldn't order them around, as hard as that would be for her. Then again, she had gone a few weeks without ordering Hakoda and his crew around, although that may have been because they rescued her from certain death. If everything went well, the people of the Southern Water tribe would be accepting her into their home. She supposed that would be more than enough of a reason for her to not order anyone around and treat them as if they were her servants.

Hakoda looked down at Azula and noticed that the little girl appeared to be nervous, not that he could blame her. The Southern Water tribe was very different from the Fire Nation, after all. He squeezed her hand and smiled reassuringly at her.

"Are you nervous?"

"...A little bit", she responded, glancing at the village with apprehension the closer they got to it. She really hoped that the tribe would be fine with letting her stay with them. Because if not….

She didn't even want to think about what would happen if they didn't allow her to stay. Hakoda would probably take her back to the Earth Kingdom, where she would have to survive on her own and make sure that Fire Nation soldiers didn't find her. She couldn't allow that to happen at any cost.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine. My tribe is afraid of the Fire Nation, and with good reason, but they would never turn away a child, no matter what nation they're from."

For her sake, she hoped that he wasn't wrong.

When they finally reached the village, there were shouts of "Hakoda and the others are back! " and people running up to them. When Azula heard two children scream "DAD!" and saw two kids around her age running towards Hakoda, she quickly hid behind Bato, not wanting them to see her. Azula noticed that Hakoda was crying as he hugged his two children, saying that he was so happy to see them again. As she watched the scene unfold before her, she tried to remember when was the last time she had seen her own father cry, or when was the last time he had hugged her or Zuko. She wasn't the least bit surprised when her mind came up with nothing. After all, if her father was perfectly fine with killing his own child, then that meant that he held no love for either of his children. Coming to terms with that hurt.

She was broken out of her thoughts when Hakoda's son said "Hey dad, who's the kid hiding behind Bato?"

Crap

Hakoda turned around and smiled at Azula, gesturing for her to come forward. She was hesitant to do so at first before she mentally scolded herself. Since when was she shy? She was Princess Azula of the Fire Nation. Princesses weren't supposed to act shy. They were supposed to carry themselves with dignity and demand respect from others. With those thoughts in mind, Azula confidently walked over to Hakoda, who grabbed her hand the moment she was next to him.

"This is Azula. We found her while we were in the Earth Kingdom, unconscious on a crate that had drifted towards our ship. We quickly got her onto our ship and took care of her. When she woke up, she told us that bandits had killed her family and that she had nowhere else to go. I didn't want to leave a child alone, especially after everything she went through, so I decided to bring her back here to live with us."

There were horrified gasps as Hakoda finished his tale. People saying "She went through something like that? Poor girl" and "I wonder if this means she'll be staying with Hakoda and his family?" while they stared at her in wonder. It was almost as if they were trying to figure out if she was really from the Earth Kingdom or not. Azula knew that they couldn't hide that from everyone else, but she was still nervous about revealing that to them.

It can't be any worse than telling them that I'm the princess of the Fire Nation, she thought to herself.

She saw an old woman approach them. She stared at Azula, who stared right back at her. Azula wasn't sure what to make of the old woman. Was she the village elder? Would she be the one to decide whether or not Azula could stay with them?

"Hakoda. This girl isn't really from the Earth Kingdom, is she?" the old woman asked.

Well that was one way to reveal where she was actually from, Azula supposed.

Hakoda sighed before responding "...No. She's from the Fire Nation."

The moment the words left his mouth, some of the villagers immediately started backing up. Azula saw Hakoda's son stand protectively in front of his sister. She heard some people mutter "Why on earth would he bring a child from the Fire Nation here?!" and "She's a child, so she's probably harmless…right?"

"I know that you all have every right to be scared, considering what the Fire Nation has put our tribe through over the years. But I can assure you that Azula means no harm to us. Trust me. We spent a month with her on our ship, and she never tried to hurt us even once. If anything, she was more curious about us than anything else" Hakoda said, chuckling at that last part. Azula looked up at him and glared. He didn't have to mention that part!

"Is she a firebender?" a tiny voice asked.

Azula looked up and noticed that it was Hakoda's daughter who had asked the question.

Hakoda looked at his daughter. He knew that she would ask that. The two of them had been the ones to find Kya's dead body, after all. And she was killed by a firebender. Katara being scared of firebenders was a given.

"Yes, she is. But she's not going to hurt you, Katara. You don't have to worry about that."

The little girl nodded, although she still looked scared of Azula. Hakoda hoped that would change soon, but he wasn't about to push Katara into liking the girl. That was something that she would have to decide on her own.

"Am I correct to assume that you want her to stay with us?" Kanna asked.

"Yes. Would that be ok with you, mother?"

This old woman was Hakoda's mother? Huh. Azula didn't see the resemblance, but Azula had no reason to assume that Hakoda was lying.

Kanna looked at her son and then at Azula before she came to her decision.

"It wouldn't feel right to deny the child a home with us, no matter if she's from the Fire Nation. Welcome to the Southern Water tribe, Azula." Kanna said, before walking back to what Azula assumed was where Hakoda's family lived. She noticed that the other villagers were still staring at her, however.

Azula sighed. The constant staring was something that she would have to get used to.

Sokka stared at the girl - Azula, not knowing what to make of her. On the one hand, she was a firebender, and firebenders were bad people. Firebenders killed his mother. Firebenders are the reason why his sister wakes up screaming and crying sometimes in the middle of the night, having yet another nightmare about their mother's death. On the other hand, she didn't really look as if she was going to attack any of them. She was a child, just like him and Katara were. And his father had said that she was harmless…

Upon closer inspection of the girl, Sokka noticed that she was cute. Really cute. He also noticed that she appeared to be somewhat nervous, most likely due to the fact that she was in an unknown land. The stares that she was getting probably didn't help much either. Although everyone had gone about their business, there were still some people who were staring at Azula and whispering while pointing at her. He began to feel bad for her. He knew that he wouldn't like it very much if people did that to him. Maybe it would help if Azula had a friend. And who was a better candidate for that than him?

Sokka walked up to the girl and smiled "Hi! My name is Sokka. It's nice to meet you, Azula", he said, stretching out his hand for a handshake.

Azula looked at Sokka, looked at his hand, and then looked back at him. He wasn't afraid of her? She assumed that he would be, considering the fact that his sister seemed to be, as well as some of the other villagers. She slowly extended her hand towards Sokka's and grasped it.

"It's nice to meet you too, Sokka."

Spirits, she even sounded cute! Maybe living with Azula wouldn't be such a bad thing after all.

"Come on, I want to show you around the village! And then I can show you our igloo!"

A what?

Living with a firebender was a new experience for Kanna. She was used to seeing her tribe fight against firebenders and watching them take her people onto their ships, never to be seen again. Never in a million years did she ever think that she would actually be living with one.

The child mostly kept to herself, although Kanna noticed that she would stick close to Hakoda whenever he was around. Sokka appeared to be taken with the girl, if the way he had already befriended her was any indication. Kanna chuckled. It appeared that her grandson had his first crush. Perhaps it would be his only crush. Only time would tell. And as for Katara…

Katara made it a point to stay away from Azula at all times. She appeared to be scared of the other girl, not that Kanna could blame her, considering what had happened to her mother. It would take some time for Katara to get used to Azula living with them.

As for the girl in question, Kanna noticed something odd about her. The way she carried herself reminded Kanna of someone who was royalty. The little girl acted as if she was a princess at times, although she tried her best to hide it. And then there was her name: Azula. If Kanna remembered correctly, the name of the current Fire Lord was Azulon. And she doubted that your average Fire Nation citizen would name their child after the Fire Lord. It would probably be seen as disrespectful, knowing those people and how they were. Azula acted as if she were a princess and was named after the current Fire Lord. Kanna rolled that bit of information in her mind for a few minutes before it clicked.

Well shit

She was living with a firebender who was a member of the royal family. Kanna had no idea why the little girl had hidden her actual identity from them and told her son a bogus story, but she supposed that the little girl had her reasons. She would have to ask the girl herself at some point, preferably when nobody else was around.

Katara noticed three things about Azula. The girl kept close to her father (a fact that Katara was not happy about at all. That was her father, not Azula's), she mostly kept to herself unless she was around her father or Sokka (who Katara noticed almost immediately had a crush on Azula. Typical of dumb boys), and she sometimes acted as if she was a princess. Which was weird to Katara. Was that a Fire Nation thing?

She also noticed that Azula woke up really early. When Katara had asked her about it, she had responded with, "Firebenders rise with the sun."

Katara didn't know much about Azula (and she was thankful that the girl didn't seem to have any intentions of harming her or the tribe. She would still keep her distance from her though) but she did know one thing.

This girl was weird.

Sokka sat next to Azula as they were eating breakfast, feeling excited. He wanted to do something to make the girl feel welcomed in their tribe, and he thought of the perfect thing: penguin sledding. He doubted that they did anything like that in the Fire Nation, so it was perfect! She didn't seem to mind being around him either, which was good. She deserved to have at least one friend in the village since Katara and the other children were still somewhat afraid of Azula. It was nice to know that the girl he liked didn't seem to mind being around him and didn't find him annoying (take that, Katara!). He also noticed that she really didn't like talking about her last much, not that he could blame her. He didn't like talking about his mother much either. It hurt to talk about a loved one who was no longer with you.

That was another reason why Sokka wanted to take Azula to go penguin sledding with him. He hadn't seen her smile at all since she arrived at the tribe with his father and the others, and she always seemed to be deep in thought about something. Sokka wanted to see Azula smile more than anything. To hear her laughing because she was having fun. He decided then and there that that would be his mission for as long as Azula stayed with them (which he hoped would be for forever):making sure that she was always happy and smiling. When they were finished eating, Sokka grabbed Azula's hand before she could walk off somewhere, and smiled at her.

"Would you like to go penguin sledding with me?"