A/N: I actually had this ready to post a wekk ago, but I decided to wait until the story stats finally got fixed.


Zuko was at a loss for words as he beheld the extensive damage done to the front hall. There were gouge marks on the floor, upended tables and shards of pottery from shattered decorative urns, wedges hacked out of the columns, and even one column that had collapsed entirely. Oh, and of course, one couldn't forget the massive piles of manure that had been tracked throughout the hall. No matter how thorough the cleaners were, Zuko was certain that the stench would linger for weeks.

"You wanted to speak with me, brother?" came Azula's voice in his ear. He practically jumped out of his skin. Yes, he had summoned her, but of course she had approached him from the side of his bad eye and ear, so he'd had no warning of her presence. At least he'd managed not to cry out.

"Explain," he said as sternly as he possibly could while gesturing at the wreckage.

"I'm confused, Zuzu," Azula replied. "What is it that you wanted me to explain, exactly? You were fully aware that Mai, Ty Lee, Shiza, Mizuki, and I decided to get together and have a sleepover, since we were all here to testify at Ozai's trial anyway. It was Ty Lee who introduced me to the idea, and it proved to be a tremendous success, if I do say so myself."

Zuko sighed. His hand dug itself into his hair, and he very nearly ripped his five-pronged hairpiece out before he caught himself. "Don't play dumb, Azula. Yes, I knew you were having a sleepover. But I was under the assumption that this would mean painting each other's nails and eating snacks and staying up late gossiping. Things like that."

"And we did all of those. Your point is?"

Was she really going to make him say it out loud? It appeared so.

"What I was not expecting," he began tersely, "Was for you and your friends to sneak komodo rhinos into the palace, take several washtubs from the laundry room, attach them to the komodo rhinos, and then sit in the tubs and race each other down the front hall."

Azula tossed her hair, which wasn't in its topknot yet and only loosely pulled back. "And why did you not anticipate that? Because we're women and should thus restrict ourselves to feminine pastimes? Stop being so sexist, Zuko. Four of us agreed, uncoerced, of our own free will, and almost completely sober, that we had always wanted to do that. Mai decided to sit it out, and no one attempted to pressure her into joining."

Well, that was mostly consistent with what Mai had told him, except for one part.

"I think that you were a little less than almost completely sober," he informed her.

Azula shrugged. "Perhaps. But when the subject of Ozai comes up, what is there for one to do except drink? At least then we can laugh about it."

As angry at her as he was, Zuko felt a little tug at his heart. All five of these women had had large swathes of their childhood and adolescence stolen from them in one way or another, which they'd be forced to relive at the trial. Deep down, he couldn't blame them for wanting to relive those lost years. But he had to remain firm.

"Do you not see all this damage?" he asked while pointing at it again, more emphatically than he'd done previously.

"I admit that it didn't look so bad while not in broad daylight," Azula admitted in a somewhat surprise concession. "But if it's money you're worried about, that is finally no longer a concern for the Crown; not after you seized the estates of Ozai's disgraced followers. Which was something I recommended that you do, I may add."

"No. It's not the money. Not entirely, at least," Zuko said. "My main concern is that any of you could have been seriously injured. Did you even stop to think about that?"

That actually gave Azula pause.

"I…I didn't," she confessed in almost a whisper while looking down at the floor. Zuko thought that maybe he was actually getting somewhere with her for once. But no sooner had that idea crossed his mind than Azula resumed her usual proud posture and haughty gaze.

"But that didn't happen, so there's no use speculating about it, is there?" she asked crisply. "If that was all you wanted to say to me, I must return to my slumbermates. We have yet to complete our planned pillow fight. That was an activity that Ty Lee highly recommended." She stalked off.

Well, at least it was highly unlikely that anyone was going to be hurt by that. Zuko decided to go ahead and count this conversation as progress. Hopefully, that wasn't just the manure fumes getting to his head.