FOR GOOD.

A STUDY IN : mental health, icarus, mommy issues, abandonment, prodigy, childhood trauma, murder, familial bonds, isolation, self - worth, daddy issues, loss of reality, manipulation, learning kindness, infamy, fear as motivation, friendship, what is love, and loyalty.

affiliated with : @kakiaktok, @kakushiha.

prompts currently accepting !

azula had learned to keep to herself. unlike before, when she enjoyed the feeling of her presence being welcomed and feared. now, she walked around the palace without so much indignation. she had found places in the palace she'd never ventured to before and spoke to people within the walls that she knew her younger self never would have dared. she liked the idea of being able to slip between the palace and the walls beyond without so much fuss. it was her insistence on being quieter, more in control, more aware of the people around her that had lead to her observance of the other.

she hadn't seen katara since the agni kai that caused her downfall. her rock bottom. and while a different version of azula wanted to settle the score now that she had full control of her faculties, this version did not. instead, she watched the water tribe girl attend meetings meant for fire nation royals. she watched her infiltrate galas as an ambassador with the avatar on her arm. and she watched as the cloak of night protected her from the truth of where her loyalties truly lied. azula watched as katara danced with the flames of the fire nation when she thought no one would notice or care. but azula had heard the whispers. she had heard the fights. and before it reached the fire nation gossip news, azula would handle it.

ember eyes watch the other as she speaks and she can almost taste the venom in her words. fingers dig into the apple she had been eating, her nails easily pierce the skin and allow the trickle of juice to follow the length of her fingers. she focuses on what she can feel. what she can see. her instincts tell her to flee. to yell in mai's direction to forget any semblance of apology that was uttered from her lips but there's a small voice inside her that tells her to stay. this is what she's been working on for years. plant your feet, feel your feelings, breathe.

❛ i was a child, mai. ❜ she stays finally. placing the apple on the counter in front of her and wiping her hand on her pants dismissively. ❛ i know it doesn't excuse what i did to you or ty lee but... ❜ her brows knit as she tries to find the right words to convey what she's feeling. she's not sad but she does feel something stir in her gut that perhaps her modes of survival left some people burned in her wake that did not deserve it. they were all children, were they not ? she exhales softly, collecting herself before squaring her shoulders. ❛ my father was not someone i could disappoint and i know now that my need to survive lead to more casualties than even i was aware of. you and ty lee were some of those. ❜ her lips press into a thin line as her teeth bite at the inside of her cheek. she can feel the healed scar tissue from countless bites before break and her tongue tastes the blood quickly.

she writes to zuko frequently while away on her travels.

while traveling, she makes the conscious decision to not rely on her bending and to keep any use of it to a necessity. she lives under an alias.

she meets her best friend and platonic soulmate, akuma ( @kakushiha ), on ember island while attending a play there.

my portrayal will be canon until the end of the war and that is where the similarities end. nothing post canon will be followed on this blog and will be heavily thought out and plotted.

after the war ends and zuko is crowned fire lord, he seeks to help azula rather than jail her with his father. this is where her healing begins. she is fourteen.

azula spends the next three years with experienced healers and therapists. under zuko's protection and reign, she bounces from the fire nation to the northern water tribe. her first year is heavily guarded both for her protection and others. she is under watchful care and escorted to every place she needs to be. the next two years, the protections are still in place but are less rigid and her freedoms have increased as she's gotten better. she opts to spend most of her time in the northern water tribe with their healers in their facilities. this is where she meets yuka.

yuka is a northern water tribe woman that has been sick since she was a child. the healers of the north aid her in delaying the inevitable and easing the pain she's in for as long as they can. old enough to be her mother, the pair form an unlikely bond that teaches azula about love and kindness that she's never experienced before unconditionally and uncorrupted. yuka's eventual death sends azula into a bought of grief she's never experienced before and is crucial in her understanding of love, grief, and life.

on her seventeenth birthday, she leaves the confines of the facilities and goes on her own. promising to continue the work she's been doing since her breakdown at fourteen, azula travels throughout the world to gain a better understanding outside of her protection. she spends the next five years traveling under an alias connecting with people, experiencing the world, writing to zuko, and learning about herself.