Even more Azula and Dadkoda, this time with Dadto! Azula is allowed to go on walks early on in her rehab (for mental illness and all that) but Hakoda is sick and Bato knows that his boyfriend had been looking forward to talking to the princess, (Bato knows how happy Hakoda is about the progress they've made) but he's sick which means bed! While Hakoda is sleeping and under the watchful eyes of Katara, Bato visits Azula. (He isn't entierly sure if he even should be trying this but here goes) Azula is obviously weary about him but she lets him sit with her and watch the stars once night comes. Then in the middle of the silence. "Could- could you tell me what it was like? To grow up in your village?"
Clearing my inbox but also wanted to give this some thought. I think that this takes time. Sure, Bato walks with her that first day, but she's so quiet. It frightens him. And Bato admits that he's scared — scared that this aligns too closely with the descriptions he's heard from Zuko's past, scared that maybe Hakoda was wrong about her. Still, he doesn't let that stop him from standing at her side. War was one thing, but at the end of the day, Azula was still a kid. And if Hakoda could comfort her, in due time he expects himself to do the same.
It's on the third day of Hakoda's illness ("bato I swear I can go, you don't have to" and "you're bedridden, if you even think about moving I'll have Katara turn the cushions into water and then you'll never get out") that Bato feels comfortable enough to ask her questions. "What do you know about this plant?" and "Do you like the weather like this?" Azula is annoyed, she feels like the progress she'd made with Hakoda is crashing down in front of her. She was finally starting to open up to someone — to someone akin to a father figure — and here was this stranger who'd only ever known her as the princess of the fire nation being kind to her. Kindness was so foreign. And deep down, she knew she'd probably prefer his anger. But Bato was undeterred. "Hakoda should be joining you again in a few days" and "Zuko tells me you used to like dolls?" that one makes her huff.
"I'm not sure if "like" is the appropriate word. But that sounds like something my brother would say." Her response comes out in broken pieces, guarded and reserved. But Bato chuckles nonetheless.
"Zuko likes to embellish."
And it's on this third day, when they reach the end of the garden, and are just about to make the steps back inside the palace, that Azula turns to Bato and looks at him, really looks at him. He feels her eyes wash over him, assessing him in a way she's never done before. He hasn't been scared of her today, instead overwhelmed with pain at her condition. No child deserved the childhood she had, and it takes all Hakoda and Bato have to try to steer her in a different direction. But they won't be in the fire nation forever. Hakoda has to return home, they have duties in the South Pole to attend to. But for now, Azula looks at him and asks a question he'd never thought he'd hear. "could you tell me what it was like? to grow up in your village?"
And he sits on the steps, inviting her to join him as he tells his story.