Peacetime

Chapter 1: Siblings

"Well, this is unexpected," Azula mused as she eyed the thin wisps of steam trailing off the top of her tea cup. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company, brother?"

Zuko chuckled, but the trace of melancholy in it didn't pass his sister by unmarked.

"You make it sound like it's not normal for us to spend time together," the prince replied, picking up a piece of pan-fried pork with his chopsticks and taking a bite out of it. Azula shrugged.

"It never used to be," the princess said at last, doing what she thought was a far better job than her brother at hiding her lingering pang of regret behind a veil of practiced indifference. "And nowadays, every scrap of free time you have gets spent with Katara."

Zuko sighed, toying with the half-eaten piece of pork for a moment before pushing it out of reach.

"I wanted," he spoke up after a moment, "to apologize to you."

Azula couldn't stop her eyebrow from arching at that, nor could she keep the surprise out of her voice as she replied to the unexpected answer.

"Apologize? For what?"

Zuko's face creased with lines of intense concentration, and his sister could tell that he was working up the courage to say something that had been weighing him down for quite a while. It was a few heartbeats more before the dam finally broke open, and when it did Zuko sounded guiltier than Azula had heard him be in a long time.

"For hating you," he said. "For being jealous of you, because you had father's eye all the time. Because you were always the better Firebender, and it was so obvious. I should have seen what you were going through, and been there for you… but I couldn't get over myself enough to see what you were hiding. I was a terrible brother, and I'm sorry."

Zuko's eyes were screwed shut by the time he finished, his hands clenched in fists down at his sides. Azula sat in silence for a few moments, both to give her brother time and to let his words fully sink in. It was a more overt apology than her mother had ever given her—than anyone had ever given her. She'd known that the other members of her family had always held her at arm's length, except maybe her cousin, but this was the first time Azula had heard any of them take responsibility for it.

She would have smiled, but she didn't want to ruin the moment. Reaching over instead, the princess took one of her brother's hands gently in her own and uncurled its tense fist.

"Zuko," Azula said with quiet insistence, "look at me."

The prince's eyes opened slowly, and even in the muted light of the room it wasn't hard to see the glimmer of unshed tears.

"You're not a terrible brother," she assured him. "I did as much to push you away as you did to stay away from me. If it's any consolation, you weren't missing out on much by having Ozai ignore you. I envy you for that, actually."

Her brother blinked away his tears, squeezing her hand lightly in a gesture of unspoken thanks. When he looked at her again, there was nothing but concern in his eyes.

"How are you feeling?" Zuko asked. "About… that."

Azula pulled her hand back and shrugged again, taking a sip of her tea to calm the tremble out of her voice. Thinking about Ozai always made her think about the nightmares that his pompous, grinning face would show up in, laughing at her.

At times, she wondered if they'd ever stop... even though Hanzo had promised her over and over again that no nightmare lingered forever.

"I'll be fine," she told him, before promptly switching the subject. "Lu Ten and I were talking," the princess continued, "back when we were in the Earth Kingdom. He made it sound like you'd fought in an Agni Kai— did you?"

"I did," Zuko answered, after he'd finished off the rest of his piece of pork and chased it with some tea. When he said nothing else, however, his sister couldn't keep her curiosity at bay.

"And?" she pressed him. "What was it fought over? It must have been something serious, to make you go that far." Azula thought for a moment, and then smiled as her amber eyes lit up with satisfaction when she'd thought she'd solved the riddle. "Someone insulted our mother, didn't they?"

Zuko shook his head. A small, embarrassed smile accompanied the gesture.

"Not exactly," he said. "But close. Someone insulted you."

The revelation took Azula aback again, and for a few heartbeats she was completely at a loss for what to say.

"Me?" she echoed, surprised. "You fought an Agni Kai over my reputation?"

Her brother nodded, his smile widening at the memory.

"It was on one of the missions I ran with Lu Ten and some other soldiers, in the Earth Kingdom," Zuko explained. "One of the troops called you an 'Overbearing, know-it-all, domineering little bitch', and I told him that an insult to one person in our family was an insult to all of us. I challenged him to an Agni Kai, and wound up breaking both of his legs and three of his ribs.

"Lu Ten told me I got a little carried away," the prince finished with a short laugh, "but I think he would've liked to have done it himself."

Azula was quiet at that, giving the confession some time to breathe.

"But what I don't understand is, why?" she asked at last. "Why did you do it?"

Zuko had a little more to drink while he thought of his answer, but in the end nothing seemed more fitting to him than just saying the brutal truth.

"Because it was a way I could do something nice for you without actually looking you in the eye, I guess," the prince said at last. "I was still a bit of a coward, back then."

Azula smiled, reaching her hand back out and ruffling her brother's unbound, slightly-shaggy hair.

"You're definitely not a terrible brother, Zuzu," she replied, putting the teasing lilt on his nickname that she knew would always get to him. "I'll miss you, when I'm out east," the princess finished, letting her hand drop. Zuko caught it halfway between them, giving it another affectionate squeeze.

"I'll miss you, too, Azula," he said, before letting her hand go and returning to his lunch.

His sister did the same, and the silence that settled between them was the most content any of their shared silences had ever been.

…

…

A/N: So there it is, the first of the post- 'Twist of Fate' short stories! My apologies for this taking so long to post, but life has been insane for me lately, and will continue to be so throughout the rest of the summer. I might be able to squeeze in a little writing time in July and August, but I can't make any promises.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this one! I've grown quite attached to my versions of these characters, and writing them again makes me sad all over again that they're dead in 'Korra'. Especially Azula. Feel free to let me know what you thought of this chapter while I go cry in a corner.

See you next chapter for a Zutara one-shot!

- Jazz