Sometimes when it was really late and he was too tired to sleep, Zuko got out of bed and went to walk through the palace gardens. It was really late, and the moon was almost halfway full.

Millions of stars speckled the sky. Crickets cricketted. Zuko stopped to look at a moon lily when her heard a creak from around the corner. Mainly just out of boredom and curiosity, he drifted around the corner.

He instantly went into attack mode. Someone was climbing the trellis on the wall!

"Hey!" He launched a fireball at the intruder, who made a weird scream as he fell three meters to the ground. "Who the hell are you?"

To his surprise, the intruder neither ran off nor charged the Firelord. Rather he stood up groaning. Wait...

"Sokka?" The man froze staring at Zuko.

"Shit," he muttered, after a long silence. Then, "Did you see badgermole? The giraffes are loose tonight. I thought you caught the rest of the power men."

Zuko tilted his head forward, unable to process what was happening. "What did you say?"

Sokka straightened up and shook his head. "Nothing, I was trying to make you think you were still dreaming." He twisted his spine to the side.

The Fire Lord was tired and morbidly curious. "What? Why- wait, what are you even doing here?"

Sokka glanced up at the window above the trellis, then back at Zuko, then kicked the grass idly. "Um... security."

"What do you mean? Why are you climbing the trellis?"

Sokka's brain found a hole and dove through it. "I was patrolling the grounds. I'm simply trying to make sure that the palace is safe for you and your family." He stood straight up with his arms at his side, trying to look professional.

Zuko rubbed his face. "I have guards for that. In fact, if they had seen you before I did, they most likely would have wasted you."

Sokka remained perfectly still. He realized that Zuko had a point and couldn't figure out how to continue.

"Is this about Suki?"

Ah ha, Sokka's brain said. "Y-yes, it is. I'm just still so torn up- I don't- If it were me, I would excuse my strange behavior."

It was Zuko's turn to not be able to know what to say. He scratched at his head. He was tired and it was late, and the wind was picking up, chilling him under his light robe. "Uh... okay," he sighed.

Sokka remained still, waiting for Zuko to go away. "Alright?"

Zuko scratched at his head and he took a step back. If he asked one more question his head was going to explode, so he decide to leave it. "Ok, whatever. Be careful. Don't wake up Azula." He motioned vaguely at the window above the trellis and turned to go back inside.

An owl hooted as Sokka waited eagerly for Zuko to get out of earshot before he went at the trellis again. The window opened as soon as his head was above the sill.

"That was close, and hard to listen to," Azula scolded as Sokka pulled himself through her window.

"Yeah, whatever. At least he left." He stood up and Azula moved in flirtatiously.

"So, now we're hiding from people?" She said quietly to his chin.

"Your brother scares the shit out of me, and I've known him for years. I don't even want to joke about telling him."

"Ha. Stop talking about my brother. It's going to make this that much harder for me."

Walking past in the hallway, Zuko paused cautiously as he heard a thump and a groan coming from Azula's bedroom. He shook his head and kept walking.