"Would you like some company, princess?" Yisha asked in that overtly polite, unnecessarily nice, obviously fake way she always said anything. Aiyra was right next to her, trying to look friendly, but doing an even worse job.

"Yes" Azula lied. She couldn't stand these two or any of the traitors that were surrounding her, but she couldn't risk stay away from them for too long or they could start suspecting how she really felt about them. She had the privilege of having much more privacy than any of the others, but she was already spending too much time alone, especially in the morning, and it would raise suspicions if she didn't at the very least pretend she had some kind of respect of even attachment to some of them.

And, somehow, these two idiots were among the most bearable ones.

The princess invited the two girls to spend that night with her, which they happily accepted, following Azula to her room. She laughed at their jokes, made some of her own, asked personal question she didn't actually care about getting answers to, praised their (admittedly) impressive fighting skills... and kept acting like she actually missed her father and wanted him to be on the throne.

She hated how easy it all came back to her. Saying all the right words that would please her father, acting like a loyal soldier, basing her every action on what people would expect of Ozai's perfect daughter. She knew she was more than that, but she couldn't stand the fact that she would never be anything else in the eyes of many. All these traitors instantly believed she was still loyal to him, regular people and nobility alike saw her as Ozai's puppet, and even her real allies and her own family were afraid she would betray her brother. Zuko was the only one who fully trusted her.

And she missed him terribly. Longed to be in his arms, to fall asleep to the sound of his heartbeat again. She'd get anxious and excited trying to predict his reaction once he knew she was pregnant, imagining what their wedding and the years they'd spend ruling their nation together would be like. There was nothing she wanted more than to see her dum-dum again.

Yet she had to keep pretending she despised him. Which was getting increasingly hard to do.

"Are you alright, your highness?" Aiyra asked, gently grabbing her shoulder.

"Yes, I'm just a little tired today and" Azula paused for a second as she had an idea. There was something she could do to get away with praising her brother "And I'm also stressed. After all, we didn't get any news on what my brother has been doing to find me and the men who deserted his army."

"He probably doesn't have a plan. I'm sure you had him wrapped around your finger, your highness. And even if he is planning something, there's no need to worry. No one can outsmart you, especially not a fool like him" Yisha's annoying voice made her blatant attempts at getting Azula's sympathy only made the princess more irritated, and Aiyra's laugh wasn't helping "He wouldn't even be Fire Lord right now if he had not had stronger people doing all the work for him. He's lucky that those idiots seem to like protecting dead-weight like him."

"Zuko doesn't need luck and unfortunately he isn't dependent on his stupid friends either" Azula said, choosing her words carefully and keeping her tone bitter, trying to create the impression that she resented having to say anything positive about him "He might be the weak link in the family, but he is still my father's son. He has both Sozin's and Roku's blood running through his veins. He is my brother, and he defeated me because I made the mistake of underestimating him. I won't make that mistake again, and I won't let any over-confident idiot get me killed because they think it's fun to act like this isn't a real war and that we already won. Understood?"

Both girls nodded solemnly, giving her apologetic looks.

"Your highness, if you don't mind, may I ask what it was like to see your brother rule? Do you think he could make another drastic mistake like the one he did by trusting you, or do you think he'd be more careful now that you betrayed him?" Aiyra asked, and for once it seemed like she was actually saying what she wanted to say instead of just spewing out empty flattery disguised as a casual conversation.

"I think he isn't going to be as naive after this. Zuko is a proud, angry man. He's still too emotional for his own good, but he has gotten much, much better at dealing with it. I saw how he ruled the palace - everyone there respected him. Even when the Avatar or any other powerful figures were around, he was still the one making every decision, and he was being listened to. People would stop supporting him for Ozai , of course, but my brother is the one who is actually there. He could definitively get enough support to put up a good fight. And it might have taken him years to do it, but he is just as strong as my father was before he had his bending taken from him. If we are not careful, he could do some serious damage before going down. Maybe he could even win."

The girls went completely silent after that. Even as Azula started up the conversation again, they weren't as responsive as they had been before. She couldn't blame them, after all, the traitor's main trick to delude themselves into believing they could win this was repeating to everyone that Zuko was just a puppet, with no will or strength of his own.

And she knew very well that soon they would find out just how much he could endure, and how strong he was.

But he better save some of that stamina for me after he is done crushing them like insects.

Oh, how she wanted to be with him.