He knew what a betrothal was. His teachers explained it to him, and he'd thought it a fine idea. Quite simply, most people were too stupid to make their own decisions. Yet when Mother told him that he was betrothed, she'd had to explain it to him several times until her patience weared thin with him.

She silenced him with a wave of her hand that held a spark of fire. Mother dismissed him and told him he would meet her soon.

He hated being dismissed. And he wasn't stupid.

His betrothed...She was completely everything he expected her to be. Polite and accommodating. Soft-spoken and reverent. Of course, she was pretty. In a way.

After all, even the second prince should have a lovely bride. That is what his uncle sneered to him, Prince Izo, second son of Fire Lord Sozin.

He hated Uncle Izo. He never had anything good to say about anything and smelled like fire whiskey. It made his nose tickle.

Betrothed or not, that didn't mean he had to like the young Lady Ursa. Personally, he didn't think she was at all impressive. Thick, raven hair was pulled into a traditional top knot; scarlet and black silk robes were tailored neatly to her. Big brown eyes, – only those of Sozin's blood truly possessed golden eyes – long lashes, pale skin, pink lips. She looked like one of his mother's dolls.

He hated his mother's dolls. They were always staring at him with their dead, glass eyes. He wanted to set them on fire.

And until she proved herself worthy of anything else, his betrothed held his disdain. Something he showed to her at every, unfortunate opportunity he was forced to bear her presence.

He flicked her hair, teased her looks, mocked her speech. She was from an Eastern island. Her clothes were not as fine as his. Of course, she wasn't a royal. She wasn't anywhere near as smart as him.

In response to every abuse, she'd behaved as she ought, without a word. Oh, she'd frown and scowl, and he believed he'd heard her curse his soul to the Ever Darkness. Otherwise, she behaved. She knew better than to earn the prince's disapproval. Her mother was fond of harping upon this and the consequences.

Once, only once, he burned, more like singed, a few strands of Ursa's hair.

Her face went completely blank. She held the handful of hair three inches from her face and stared for a long time. The smirk on his own face faded at the lack of response.

Why didn't she do anything?

Suddenly, her countenance darkened, and she growled at him. With no more warning than that, Ursa lunged at the young prince, taking him completely by surprise. The young lady proceeded to pummel his chest with her small fists, as he had enough sense to protect his head.

As suddenly at the assault started, it stopped. Ozai peeked through his fingers to see his older brother, Prince Iroh, holding Ursa back by her arm. She squirmed and screeched in his grasp, tyring to get back at Ozai. The older prince scratched at his thick, black sideburns, one half confused, one half amused.

"Prince Ozai," he said to his little brother, "are you all right?"

It was when he heard his name – Prince – when he realized his disgrace. He – a prince –, a son of Sozin, had, for all intents and purposes, been taken down…by a six year old girl. Nevermind he was only older by eleven months; it was the principle of the matter.

Ozai surged to his feet with as much grace as a seven year old boy could ever possess and dove at Ursa. It was only because of Iroh's battlefield reflexes that he was able to catch Ozai mid-launch.

As the two stood Iroh's width and arms' spread apart, they gaped at each other a moment, both breathing hard. Then with twin war cries, they both tried to break from Iroh's grasp to attack each other.

He looked between the two, arms flailing and screaming at each other. Iroh was known as being…favorable of the ladies and considered himself to be well-versed in the art of more tender relations. Still, with all his experience and knowledge, he wasn't certain about these two. He would put money either way on these two killing or being all over each other in a few short years.

"You're as ugly as an earthbending peasant!" Ozai yelled.

"You are a mean, selfish, rude, hog-monkey!" Ursa screamed.

"I hate you!"

"I hate you by Agni's fire!"

"I hate you times infinity!"

"I hate you MORE!"

Truly, it could go either way.

A/N: As you can see, Ursa's priorities have changed over the years. I estimate Iroh to be upwards of twenty years older than Ozai. Near to thirty, maybe.

So the prompt for this was 'Forbidden'….well, you're probably not supposed to attack royalty so it's all good.