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It seemed that her memories were here to stay, after all.

While in the hospital- bored, with nothing to do- Azula had spent some time contemplating this fact, wondering how it could be possible. She had come up with several theories- that it was an effect of the medication she was on; that being shot, even just in the side, had caused some sort of trauma to the brain (Azula wasn't very familiar with the logistics of rifles and bullets, but this idea didn't seem too far out of the realm of possibility); etcetera. However, now that she was home, she realized that she didn't particularly care how it had happened. The point was that it had, and that she had her memories (good and bad) back- and though she logically knew that things had been much better off after the mindwipe, she couldn't really bring herself to be angry, or even displeased, about their return. Regardless, she would be paying a visit to the one who had agreed to perform the service for her. She had some gold to take back, and punishment (the severity of which she hadn't quite decided) to exact.

Upon her return, she was surprised to find no war reports waiting for her. On one hand, this was good news- no unexpected problems had arisen, and things were going quite smoothly. Still, she expected weekly status reports, and General Sho in particular was quite late with his. Had things really become so lax in her short time away? If so, that problem needed to be dealt with as soon as possible... but not tonight.

In the absence of any "required reading", Azula took a book on Fire Nation royal history to bed with her. It wasn't all that late; she could easily stay up for another hour or so before retiring for the night. And she hadn't done any pleasure reading for a while.
Dimming the lamps (but keeping it light enough to read without straining her eyes), she settled back against the pillows. Really, the beds in those hospitals had been atrocious- all hard mattresses and scratchy sheets and lumpy pillows; she had gotten better rest sleeping on a bedroll in the middle of the wilderness. After that, her own feather blankets and satin sheets were simply heavenly.

It was good to be home.

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Azula arched an eyebrow, but said nothing.

Ty Lee didn't say anything further, but sighed slightly.

Azula looked at her. "Hm?"

"I like it when you do things like that, Azula. It's...nice."

"Hm." She shifted awkwardly again. "You can..."

She swung her legs up onto the bed, moving into a recling position. "I can what?

"You... hm, nothing. It doesn't matter."

She moved slightly closer to Azula. "I want to know...please."

Azula rolled her eyes, still keeping her gaze averted from Ty Lee's. "Look, all I was going to say was that I could... hug you again. If you wished. That was all. It wasn't anything important."

A quick blush rose to Ty Lee's cheeks but receeded quite quickly. "Well...can you, then?"

Azula's face was slightly red too, but she kept it turned away. "... If you come over here."

Ty Lee scooted closer. "Alright, Azula."

Still looking down, and in the opposite direction, Azula reached blindly for Ty Lee. She missed.

Ty Lee scooted even closer, so if Azula tried that again she would have more of a chance to suceed.

This time Azula's hand came into contact with Ty Lee's shoulder. She started to encircle her with her arm, but hesitated.

Ty Lee pressed closer, as if to say "continue". Sometimes Azula needed some prodding.

She finally turned to face Ty Lee, semi-reluctantly sliding both her arms around her.

"... Did it actually upset you that much when I removed you from my memory?"

Trying to avoid the question, she pressed her face close to Azula's neck. Ty Lee's answer was muffled, almost inaudible.

"Yeah."

Azula touched her hair.

She wrapped an arm around Azula's shoulders, pressing her palm to her back.

"... Are you all right now?" Her voice was quiet.

"...Maybe, just don't stop this. Please."

"I wasn't planning on it," Azula murmured, tightening her grip just slightly.

"... Look, if you should ever feel the need to... hm. That is to say, hypothetically, if you weren't all right, for any reason, and you were sad enough about something to feel as if you were going to...

"... I could simply overlook any weakness on your part, should the situation ever arise."