Chapter 2: Lessons and Memories
-Yu Dao Colony, Earth Kingdom-
In the home of Touya and his family, the colony doctor was examining the currently bed ridden and amnesiac Azula. The man examined her eye with a sort of specialized magnifying instrument.
"Yep." The man sighed as he stood up as he backed away after examining the girl's head injury and the dilation of her pupils. "She's suffered a serious concussion, it's a miracle that she didn't suffer any worse brain damage than a slightly hairline fractured skull…" He added as he examined a new piece of medical technology: X-Rays.
"Yes, it seems that the helmet cushioned most of the blow." Enji nodded.
"Good. If she hadn't worn it, things would've taken a very different turn." The doctor stated. "Also, do I have permission to know who this is?" He inquired. Touya then turned to the girl next to him.
"Go ahead." He prompted her.
"I… Remember that my name is Azula." The former princess explained before she tilted her head to the side a bit. "Does that help?" She asked.
"Erm… yes, actually." The doctor nodded, hiding his shock. "Should I…?" He asked the family as they nodded, knowing it would come up sooner or later.
"What?" Azula asked in confusion.
"This may be a bit of a shock, but you've just confirmed my suspicions that you are the crowned princess of the Fire Nation." The Doctor explained. This caused the girl to be visibly confused.
"Here." Enji said as he showed her a picture that was posted as a sort of announcement during her coronation at the end of the war.
Azula looked at the picture before looking at herself in a nearby mirror and back again… As what little she could remember allowed her to somewhat connect the dots in the form of brief memory flashes and a couple voices.
Namely that she was indeed a princess, a fire bending prodigy and also has a brother named Zuko. Though everything else was still blank.
"I… remember…" She uttered as she held her head.
"How much?" Touya asked.
"Just that I was a prodigy, and that… Zuko is my brother." She replied, trying to focus on those details for the moment.
"Well at least it's something." The boy's mother said.
"I still have so much to learn." Azula sighed.
"We'll help with that." Enji told her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.
(Elsewhere)
-Fire Nation Palace, several days later-
Aang and the others sat in Zuko's war room as the fire lord paced around the room while his Air Nomad friend sat sagely next to Katara, oddly calm in comparison to the rest of the team.
"Zuko, sit down, with how fast you're pacing you'll give yourself an ulcer." Mai told him.
"Yeah, I can't hear myself think with all that vibration." Toph added.
"I can't help it. I'm… beyond nervous." Zuko replied, his tone conveying how he felt.
"Worrying doesn't solve a problem, it only serves to make ourselves less sure of our decisions and cause more problems." Aang said.
"Right… right." The scarred Fire Lord sighed as he tried to calm his nerves. "At any rate, finding Azula and recapturing her must be our top priority. Because with her current mental state, she could jeopardize any attempt we may make to plead our case of fully integrating the older colonies into the Earth Kingdom." He continued as he sat down next to Mai.
"Right. None of us like having a psychopathic firebender on the loose." Sokka commented, Though He never removed his gaze from the piece of paper he was working on.
"Do we at least know where she is?" Katara asked, ignoring her brother's comment.
"That's what we're trying to figure out." Mai stated before she looked at Sokka. "What're you doing?" She questioned.
"Oh, well I thought since we need to know where Azula is, I thought why not put her face on a wanted poster?" The resident ideas guy said as he held up a poster with a crude drawing of Azula on it.
"... I think we'll stick with the ones made by the post office." Aang decided, causing the boomerang boy to pout.
"Come on! My drawings are great!" He complained.
"They are getting better." Katara noted as she looked at the fairly drawn likeness of Azula.
"Let's not use it though, it could end up setting her off." Zuko said.
"Which is the last thing we want." Aang nodded.
"I'll go have the posters made." Mai said as she twirled a knife. She then got up and left.
(Elsewhere)
Azula sighed as she sat on the back porch of the Katsuya family's house, where a small pond sat in the yard. As she sat, a small family of turtle ducks entered the pool. A mother and three babies.
As she looked at them, she had a flash of memory of how she used to feed them came to her… she was not amused by what she saw. Instead of doing what she did back then, she proceeded to do what everyone did and ripped the bread apart for the animals in the water.
The ducklings and their mother looked at the bread and then proceeded to eat it. And as they did, one of the little turtle shelled balls of downy fluff swam towards the shore and then started waddling towards her, before it rubbed its tiny head on her leg.
Azula couldn't help the small smile that formed on her face as she gently ran a finger along the baby's head. The mother saw this and swam ashore before walking up to her baby. Deciding to give the mother some assurance, the amnesiac princess gently ran a finger along her head, too. This had the unexpected but welcome effect of the mother deciding to sit in Azula's lap.
The rest of the babies seemed to follow their mother's example, huddling in the girl's lap. Azula smiled sadly as she petted the animals as a flash of Ursa's voice saying how she had something wrong with her. Though she didn't recognize it off the bat.
'I don't know… Maybe she was right.' The girl thought idly before shaking her head.
(Later)
Later on that day, Azula decided to take time to get herself some new clothes in the local market with some money lent to her by Temari. The things she got were very similar to her clothes that she wore on Ember island, but it was missing the golden necklace. She also decided to get her hair fixed where it was different enough to where she wouldn't be recognized.
After all this was done, she then decided to try and look outside of the village walls, where she saw Touya who was trying—and failing—to practice his fire bending.
"Urgh! Damnit!" He cursed in frustration as he got barely a spark out of his practice session.
"You're doing it wrong." The former princess told him matter of factly as she walked towards him, her hips swaying with every step as she walked, hands behind her back.
"And what am I supposed to be doing, then?" Touya questioned as he dropped his stance. Azula then walked up behind him and ran her hands up his sides and twisted him slightly before she used her legs to position his own and then ran her hands along his arms and moved them into the correct position before patting his cheek and stepping away.
"Now, instead of throwing punches like a little baby, take a deep breath and throw a punch with effort this time." She instructed. "Fire bending's true power comes from the breath, a source of internal balance. Not anger."
"Are you speaking from experience?" The boy asked, still holding his new stance.
"More like an experience I learned the hard way." She clarified as she recalled the flashes of her last Agni Kai.
Deciding to at least test it, Touya took a deep breath before he put effort into his first punch in this impromptu lesson and was surprised when he managed to shoot out a fireball. What caught Azula's eye was that it was much stronger fire than normal.
'I wonder…' She thought as she nodded and walked up to him again. "Okay. Now I want you to take a deeper breath and try to blast another burst of fire, but stronger this time." The girl told him.
Touya sighed before he took a much deeper breath and let out a yell as he shot out an even larger fire blast out of his hand that stretched out several meters. Azula couldn't stop herself from grinning at the sight despite herself, she was really impressed, though she couldn't figure out why.
"Okay, now push it even further." The girl encouraged him.
"Okay…" The boy nodded as he started blasting more fire and pushing its strength again.
"Again." Azula prompted. Touya did so, generating an even stronger flame. "Again." She repeated, getting the same result. "You're doing great, now deep breath, with feeling, again!" She said.
Touya yelled as he pushed himself to his limits and when he felt his strength wane, he looked back at the girl behind him and then decided to try and impress her further by pushing past his limits. With one last yell he boosted his power again… And his fire suddenly exploded from orange to a bright blue!
"What the-!" Azula shouted in shock as she loomed at the azure flames before they ceased. She then loomed at Touya, who was clutching the hand his flames came from in pain.
"Damn it!" He cursed in pain. Feeling a bit of concern for the boy who she spurred into this, Azula ran to him and took his hand in hers.
"Are you okay, Touya?" She asked as she started wrapping up his hand in a cool compress wrapped in gauze before it could start to blister.
"I'll live." The boy groaned as he got back up. As Azula finished tending to the boy's wound, she started to think of reasons for why he would be hurting himself like this.
"You must have a low constitution." She noted.
"And little to no fire resistance." The boy added with a wince. "The side effect of being the child of an Earthbender and Firebender." He added. "Imperfect and flawed, I bet that's what you're thinking right now." Azula didn't answer at first, instead she took his hand into hers and decided to try something she saw Temari do with Sho when he burned his hand—she gave the redhead's hand a soft kiss.
"I don't see anything wrong with this hand." She noted after a moment before looking at his blushing face. "So why would you think I thought you were flawed?" She questioned.
"Because I doubt anyone outside of my family would care about someone with flaws like mine." Touya said in self-doubt. The former princess looked at him for a few seconds and the sight of his saddened face made her have flashes of the times that both she and Zuko would huddle alone as children, when the neglect of their mother and father respectively became too much for them.
Without a word further, the brunette took the boy into her arms and hugged his head into her chest, allowing him to listen to the slow and soothing sound of her heartbeat.
"Shut up with that self-doubt." Azula muttered as she rubbed his hair. Touya, despite his blushing face, couldn't help but relax in her embrace. The two stayed like that for a while before she finally spoke up again. "Come on, let's go back to the house." She said, finally letting him go.
"R-Right." The boy nodded as they got up. As the two walked back into the city, they soon noticed that people were gathered around the main square, where one of the Fire Nation royal announcers was standing—a wanted poster in hand.
"This is an official announcement from the Fire Lord! If anyone has any information on this person's whereabouts, report it immediately!" He exclaimed as he held up a wanted poster of Azula.
This made the two freeze in place as they turned to look at the poster as it was posted in the square, before looking at Azula again and noticing that her appearance was different enough that they probably had nothing to worry about.
"Let's go." Touya whispered, getting a slight nod of agreement before they walked away at a normal pace to avoid drawing attention. Thankfully, they went unnoticed. As they ducked back into the police cheif's son's house, they both let out a sigh of relief as they sank onto the living room couch.
Azula soon let herself relax, which made her head rest on Touya's shoulder, a peaceful expression on her face. "Touya." She said, getting the boy's attention.
"What's up?" He responded, the princess then got into his lap and rested herself against his chest, making him hold her close to him.
"Today's been a very long day and I'm very tired." The girl told him. "Hold me." She added.
"... Alright." The redhead sighed as he held Azula close. As he did, though, he couldn't help but feel at peace… like he'd found something he didn't even know was missing.
Azula meanwhile had smaller happier memory flashes of Ursa holding her like Touya was when she was little, that ended on a bittersweet note when she recalled the last time Ursa came to see her before she disappeared. Kissing her forehead and holding her one last time before she left.
'I love you Azula, and I always will.' Ursa's voice echoed in her head, making the girl shiver in Touya's embrace. She still wasn't sure how she should think of this nagging feeling in the back of her mind and the pit in her stomach.
It made her wonder, what was keeping her from knowing love and being able to give and receive it? Or understand people emotionally as other people? What was holding her back?
Dragon Emperor0: Well, I'd say today was a very productive day for Azula's recovery and rediscovery. Wouldn't you say?
ThermalsniperN7: Yep, and she discovered just how much firepower (yes, I said that) Touya has… along with its drawbacks.
Dragon Emperor0: Yeah, and it really is sweet of Touya to hold Azula like that when she was feeling tired. It really shows that he's definitely a lot nicer than most of the other people Azula's met during her life.
ThermalsniperN7: No kidding. But keeping Azula's secrecy is gonna be hard now that wanted posters of her are being spread around.
Dragon Emperor0: Hopefully that won't be too soon, we've still got two or three more chapters of development to go through. Anyway guys, see you next time.