Hello readers. It's been brought to my attention that the title "Secret Tunnel" inadvertently alludes to an episode in the series where romantic themes between two characters are explored.

I can assure you that this was not my intention. This was purely coincidental, and the name was chosen because the working title "Escape" gave away the ending.

Anyway thank you for reading and don't forget to leave a review.

"Sneaky bitch!" Sokka cursed.

Unbelievable. He thought he knew her. All the time they spent together and she had no trouble pulling this shit on him.

The tunnel Sokka happened to be in was both shorter in length and taller in height than the tunnel Azula was in, which meant that if he moved quickly, he had a chance at beating her out of the palace.

He crawled faster than he'd ever crawled anywhere in his life. By the time he reached the end and emerged into Azula's room, the knees in his trousers had worn through and his own knees were raw from the hard stone.

"Damn damn damn damn damn damn," he muttered, running through the halls to where he was sure the front door was. As long as he didn't spot moving, he could catch her.

After the third time he passed the blue vase with the daisy in it, he threw his hands up in despair. "Who the hell designed this place?"

Time was running out, and Sokka was running out of ideas. Fortunately, he had one idea. Unfortunately, it was a retarded idea.

Fortunately, the broken glass didn't wreck him when he hit the ground from the second story of the Palace. Unfortunately, he would have to figure out a way to explain the broken window to the Fire Lord without mentioning his escaped sister.

All that mattered though was that Sokka was now outside of the Palace, and he had a really good idea where Azula was headed.

Assuming the tunnel went in a straight line, he could roughly estimate its path outside of the Palace grounds. He'd need to get outside of the grounds first, and he needed to go through the front gate for that.

"Where's the fire Sokka?" The funny gate guard yelled at Sokka as he tore by. He was running, yet still found a breath with which to give a disappointed snort. Funny guy.

Sokka visualized the tunnel in his head. He'd studied the the layout of the Capital City extensively before the invasion all those years ago, and to a much lesser extent the Palace itself. He knew the streets and buildings, and knew with little uncertainty where the tunnel pointed.

He ran along the wall, picturing the place in his mind. The tunnel ran under the wall at a flat part, about a hundred yards from him. He could see it now.

A few breathless seconds of running later and Sokka came to a stop at the place where he was sure the tunnel passed under the wall. In fact, he was sure that if he put his ear to the ground and listened carefully, he could hear Azula crawling a meter below. But there was no time for that, and his heart was beating much too loudly for him to hear anything but his own heartbeat.

The tunnel appeared in his head, running under his feet and toward a block of buildings about ten meters from the wall. Sokka broke into a run again to reach the closest building, a tavern.

It was about noon, so the tavern was empty, except for an alcoholic in the corner and a bartender cleaning glasses behind the counter. Both turned to look at Sokka as he burst in. The alcoholic burped.

"Can I get into your basement?" Sokka gasped. The barman shrugged and motioned the door with the glass in his hand.

"Please please please please please..." This had to be it. If the tunnel didn't bend or curve, it would have to terminate here, in this tavern. Sokka rushed to the back wall and began to search for a door or panel that would open.

There was a table positioned at the approximate location of the tunnel. Sokka slapped the wooden paneling above the table, found nothing, and ducked under to check there. To his surprise, the wall slapped back. It was hollow underneath. "Yesss." His heart skipped a beat.

The false wall didn't have a handle or a hinge, but Sokka managed to get a finger hold and yank it out of its place.

Inside, behind the wooden panel, a tunnel. And inside the tunnel, less than a meter from the opening, Azula. Sokka dropped to the ground and stuck his head in.

"Hey, Sokka..." Azula started with a forced grin.

"Shut the hell up Azula. You know, I wasn't going to tell your brother about these tunnels. I wasn't. Then you pulled this escape attempt. I can't just hide that you know."

"Sokka, please-"

"I said shut up. Now turn around, we're going back. And you're going in front this time."

With a loud sight, Azula began to back up down the tunnel. Sokka briefly wondered how he would place the panel back on the wall, then decided to ignore it for now.

He dropped back to the ground and poked into the tunnel just a little bit to find it pitch-black.

"Uh, Azula, I need some light."

A flame flickered to life less than a six inches from Sokka's face. So did Azula's grim face.

"Ah. Dammit, you scared me. Come on."

"Sokka, I'm not going back." The flame brightened. Something upstairs fell over with a clatter.

"What?"

"Sokka, I can't go back. I can't."

"No, we're going back. And whether we do it with you willing or unwilling is completely up to you."

"Sokka, you don't understand. That Palace-"

"That Palace what? That Palace is so horrifying? That Palace is evil? Yeah, it must be hell, a squadron of servants at your beck and call, the best cooks in the country ready to make you anything you want, some of the most comfortable-"

"Sokka, it's fucking boring in there."

Azula rarely swore. Sokka stopped cold to collect himself.

"What?"

"It's boring. It's so boring. Yeah it's luxurious, but..." She glanced around briefly, searching for words. "After six years, even caviar gets old."

"That's... I can't..."

"Do you know what it's like to be locked away for a third of your life?"

"...No, but-"

"I don't even want to take anything over anymore, or set everything on fire. I just want to not be trapped inside my entire life!"

"...I can't just let you walk out because you're bored."

For about two seconds Azula sat there with her mouth closed. "You could... you could come with me."

A beat. "Come with you?"

"...Yeah. Yeah! I mean, I know that you hate all this political crap. Right now, you should be talking to my brother abut those islands in the- with the- Polar Nation- whatever. Instead, you decided to crawl through secret tunnels. And that was before I even tried to escape. That was all you."

Sokka stared wildly at the ground. "I told myself I'd kill myself if I ever heard the phrase "Trade agreement" used three times in the same sentence again," he muttered.

"See? Those are boring as hell. If you come with me, you will never hear the phrase "trade agreement" ever again."

"Really?"

"Well, I can't guarantee that. But it will significantly reduce your likelihood of hearing it."

"I'd like that."

"I know! Let's go!"

"But you can't just leave, even with me with you. Your brother wouldn't-"

"My brother trusts you. He really does. Probably more than anyone but his wife. He'd be okay with you taking me for a walk once in a while."

"Okay, but how do I know you won't make a break for it the second we get out there?"

"Well we both know I can't outrun you."

"How about you braining me with a huge rock and then making a break for it?"

"I can't even lift a huge rock."

"How about you paying someone else to brain me with a rock while you run away?"

Azula laughed. "You'll just have to take that on faith."

Sokka sat still for a moment, mulling it over. On the one hand, adventure. On the other hand- well, he couldn't even think of a downside. Maybe getting brained with a huge rock, but that was unlikely.

"Come on, when was the last time you did anything exciting, had an adventure? While you were with the Avatar?"

It had been about a year since he last did anything like that. "It's been a while."

"What do you say? Let's go away. Just leave the mundane. You have to miss it."

He did miss it.

He looked up at Azula. "Okay. Let's go have an adventure."

She smiled broadly. "Yes! I knew you wanted to."

With great difficulty, Sokka worked his way out of the tunnel. "But two things: The second we get out of the city, I'm writing you brother and telling him you're with me."

"Okay, that's fine." Azula emerged.

"And second: If you do anything funny-" He knelt down to Azula's level and got into her face. "-I'm sending you right back to your brother to deal with."

"What do you mean 'funny'?"

"Just don't- Don't do anything weird, okay?"

"Okay, fine. Thanks."

To Sokka's surprise, Azula leaned forward and grabbed him in a hug. Sokka stood silently for a moment, ultimately deciding that it would be okay for him to complete the hug and put his arms on her back. Azula broke the hug and shrugged his hands off. "No, no please."

"Sorry."

"It's okay. Now let's go before they realize I'm gone."

"Yeah." Sokka replaced the wooden panel and led Azula up the stairs into the tavern. He casually swaggered to the bar and set a coin on the counter. "We weren't here," he said to the bar guy. He took the coin and inspected it.

"Okay."

Sokka and Azula walked out.

"You know there's glass in your hair right?"