"Won't Lala be mad at you for sending people to check in on her?" Kiyi asked.
"Yes" Zuko answered without even needing to think. He was already preparing for a fight once Azula finally did come home. She'd definitively berate him for being too impulsive and dramatic, and for trying to change her plan. But he'd take making a fool out of himself and arguing with his sister for a few hours over finding out that she had gotten hurt and that he could have prevented it had he acted sooner.
"Even if she's alright, will she still come home?"
"No" he didn't even try to hide his disappointment. He knew there was only so much he could make her accept, and there was no way she'd immediately come back if she was okay. He was still shocked she was trying to come back sooner at all. Azula was never the type to run away from a long, hard job.
Though she was usually better at differentiating a difficult mission from a doomed one.
"Do you really think she could be in danger?" Kiyi looked at him with those big, sad, worried eyes.
"I'm just being careful. And a little paranoid" he said, putting a hand on her shoulder, trying to convince both her and himself.
"Is it an older brother thing or a future husband thing?"
Zuko thought it over for a second "I think it's both. It's almost always both."
"How do you know the difference? What is the difference? You're both my siblings, but you don't treat me like you treat each other, and I don't stare at you for no reason like she does" she paused "I do talk about her a lot, but it's not all the time like you do."
"We, uh..."
How the fuck do I explain that to a kid? How do I explain it to anyone?
"Azula and I are... different from other people."
"Why?"
"I don't know" he answered honestly "Bu that's just the way it's always been for us. Being siblings and being together was always the same for us, but only with each other, and I didn't even realize it because of normal it was to us. I can't imagine, say, Sokka loving Katara like that, and I definitively don't see you that way, but with Azula is just right. Does that make sense?"
"No, but I don't really understand anything anyone says about you two, good or bad. Guess this is one of the things everyone says I won't understand 'till I'm older."
"That, or I'm just bad at explaining things" he chuckled, then grew serious.
"What's wrong?"
"What bad things did people say about my relationship with Azula, and who were these people?"
"Fine, but don't tell Azula! She's scary when she's angry! And don't be too harsh on them!"
"Can't make any promises"