Azula regretted asking to see that movie. She had been really excited to see it, and get to spend time with her friends now that she had officially made up with both of them. Watching horror movies with them was always fun since Mai's dry, dark humor did genuinely make her laugh, and Ty Lee's terrified reactions were very amusing, especially because she always insisted on continuing to watch it.

Unfortunately however, her brother had essentially forced her to let him come along. Usually she would have been happy to let him join - hell, she would have invited him herself - but only if it were just the two of them. Ty Lee was too kind, too pretty, too comfortable hugging everyone, and her personality was far, far too flirty for Azula to trust her around Zuko.

But she still preferred dealing with her bubbly friend joking around with her brother than seeing Zuko talking to Mai. At least Ty Lee wasn't his ex.

Mai's crush on Zuko had been the first thing that started turning their friendship sour, but seeing them actually getting together made Azula extremely bitter, and she still had not quite forgiven Mai for it, even though the relationship was short-lived and neither of them seemed to be interested in the other anymore...

...And even though the girl had done nothing wrong. In theory at least.

Azula knew she wasn't supposed to be bothered by the fact that girls were attracted to her brother, and that he could feel the same. She knew siblings were not supposed to love each other the way she loved Zuko. In theory, she knew she had no right to be mad and that Mai had not wrong her in any way.

In practice she was furious that anyone would ever try to deny the simple reality that Zuko was hers. She was sick of having to justify why she was always possessive of him, even when they weren't getting along. All the stupid, pointless fights they had did not change the fact that they belonged together, and Zuko would have probably noticed that too if people had just gotten out of the way.

Azula was literally the only logical option for him. She knew him long before any of these girls did, and no one of them would ever love him as much as she did. Mai at least put in the effort of understanding who he was a person before even getting interested in him, but most girls seemed to think of him as just an attractive, 'mysterious' guy, and Azula couldn't stand it.

I know him. They don't understand who he is or how he thinks. They could never make him happy.

And none of them ever did - there was a reason Zuko was often alone before he met his friends. He'd get crushes, go on a few dates, then never see those girls again. Mai was the only one he had something a bit more real and stable with, but even that only lasted one single summer.

Meanwhile, Azula had literally been by Zuko's side since she was born - their mother had told them many times that she had decided to have another kid so Zuko would have a life-long companion. When they were little, they used to do everything together, and would even ignore the other children to play solely with each other. Their father eventually turned them into rivals, but there was a time when even he could see they were a perfect team. And after her breakdown, Zuko was the one who was there for her through all of her good days and bad days. Their reconciliation had already lasted an entire year - that was more than the entirety of all of his other 'relationships' combined.

So why didn't people understand that he should be with her? Why didn't he understand that he should be with her?

And why, oh God, why did he have to sit right next to his ex and laugh at all of her jokes? If Ty Lee had sat next to him as well Azula have snapped and dragged him back home. Instead, she forced herself to control her rage and tried to focus on watching the movie.

Until she got an idea.

First she jumped up and grabbed her brother's arm after a somewhat scary monster appeared on screen. Zuko immediately started paying close attention to her, asking her if she was okay, and looking concerned as she meekly answered that she was fine. She held on to him for about ten minutes, her grip tightening as anything mildly scary happened. When a character finally died, Azula whispered in his ear that she needed some air and left the room, her brother following her right away.

"Azula, what happened?"

"Nothing" she didn't try to make her lie sound convincing at all "I just have to leave for a little while, I promise I'll come back"

"Come on, it's just us now. Tell me the truth" his tone was kind, but it was very clear he wouldn't leave without knowing what had upset her.

She pretended to think it over "Promise you won't make fun of me?" when he nodded, she went on, giving him an innocent look "God, this is so silly! This stupid movie isn't even that scary, but I just can't watch it without getting terrified."

"Hey, fears don't always make sense. And if it affects you that much, you don't have to watch it" he smiled and took her hand "Want me to stay here with you?"

"Oh no, I'd hate for you to miss the rest of movie just because of me. I'll be fine" she said in that sweet, childlike voice that never failed to make him melt and do anything she wanted him to.

"I'll just tell Mai and Ty Lee we're leaving early" he argued "I wasn't enjoying it that much anyway, and I only insisted on coming along because I wanted to spend the day with you."

Her brother smirked as she started blushing furiously, earning himself as punch in the arm.

Without another word, Zuko went back in, and walked out alone, just like she had expected - Ty Lee was too curious for her own good, and Mai was really into that type of movie. He put one arm around her and they started walking back home together.