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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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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."

Ty Lee pressed closer, her hand clutching at Azula's robe.

"Alright, Azula. If I...need to, I will. ...just..Can you kiss me?"

Azula blinked in surprise. "I... where? On your forehead, or your mouth, or...?"

"...anywhere. I'm not picky."

After a brief pause, Azula kissed her forehead, then tilted her Ty Lee's head away from her neck and lightly pecked her lips.

She pressed back, trying to keep the kiss going.

Azula reciprocated, shifting downwards slightly so that they were closer to the same level.

She moved her other hand to the back of Azula's head, pressing it towards her. Ty Lee moved slightly, pressing ever closer.

Her hand moved to Ty Lee's face, lightly stroking her cheek.

She moved back slightly, resting her forehead against Azula's. "Thanks."

"Mm-hm." Azula kept her eyes shut; it always felt more than a bit awkward making eye contact after... well. She kept her hand on Ty Lee's cheek.

Ty Lee didn't do anything more, she just stayed as she was.

It was interesting what physiological responses arose from kissing. If the activity lasted for a while, Azula would often become a bit light-headed. This had alarmed her slightly the first time, and caused her to wonder if she was getting enough air- though she doubted that was the problem, because she could breath through her nose perfectly well.

Another reaction that happened quite often was a fluttering, almost swooping feeling in the pit of her stomach; one that, from what she had heard, was often equated with nervousness (though she herself had never experienced it in that context). That made even less sense. She wondered if Ty Lee would know anything about it. If Azula had had absolutely no sense of pride, she would have asked her straight out. However... there were roundabout ways.

"Ty Lee, are you familiar with the phenomenon that is colloquially referred to as 'having dog-butterflies in one's stomach'?"

OOC: ... I love finding excuses to invent Avatar animal name-smooshes. Even crappy ones. :D