Zuko was pleasantly surprised by how well Azula was behaving during her first two weeks back home. He had seen first-hand how she had been resisting his advances and defying him less and less, but he had still not expected things to be going so smoothly with her moving back into the palace. Azula was much nicer to the servants - despite being a little too rude for his liking every now and again - and she was obeying most of his orders.

And the way she continued to tease and fight him only made him enjoy it even more when he finally managed to make her submit to him at the end of each day, especially since she didn't even bother to pretend she didn't like it anymore, eagerly going along with everything he asked of her. His heart would melt every time she'd embrace him and fall asleep in his arms after they spent hours up, with him taking her in every possible way.

But, of course, it didn't take long for these peaceful days to end. He knew that he'd had to tell his family and friends that he was in love with his sister, but there was no way they would just leave them be. Worst of all, they were likely to ask too many questions, and while he had been finding ways to avoid saying too much, he wasn't fully confident in his lies - especially not around Toph.

Luckly, his sister was a much, much, much better liar than he was. She had always been an expert on making up a convincing story, telling half-truths, omitting certain facts, deflecting, and on straight up lying right in people's faces. But above all, she knew very well how to make people doubt what they knew - he could have asked for not better proof of it than just seeing her tell the servants about how they 'became lovers'. She'd say every word with such conviction, yet seemingly so disinterested on whether they believed on her or not that Zuko almost forgot it wasn't truth.

However, judging by the reactions his sister would have when the two of them were alone, the young Fire Lord could tell she had not forgotten the pain he had (and sometimes still would) inflict upon her. He could see that strange mix of horror and amusement in her eyes whenever she was thinking about the absurdity of her situation, lying to protect her insane brother, covering up her own abuse.

It didn't matter. As long as she stayed by his side long enough for him to convince her to never want to leave and managed to convince everyone that nothing was wrong, these little moments of insecurity and clarity were insignificant.

And he had to admit, there was something satisfying about how proud she was to be standing next to him, dressed up as a proper princess again, holding onto his arm as if he belonged to her. Especially when she saw their mother. He would have made Azula fulfill that little fantasy of his about them pretending to be their parents a lot earlier if he had known it would make her so jealous and possessive of him.

They bowed to their guests and welcomed them respectfully - or rather, Zuko did.

"Mother, uncle, peasants, it is a pleasure to have you have here" her voice was pure poison, and Aang was the only one of his friends who didn't seem offended. Ursa and Iroh seemed more worried than anything, they had been very clear about their concern that he had brought his sister home far too early.

Zuko sighed and took a seat "I apologize for that. And for anything else she may do"

"Am I causing you trouble, brother?" she asked in a shamelessly flirty way and putting her hand on his, fingers entwining. These simple actions made Zuko forget his anger and all of his worries for a brief moment... and made everybody else in the room visibly uncomfortable, except for Toph who seemed more amused than anything.

I hope the enjoyment she'll get out this will be enough to distract her, Zuko thought to himself, already feeling his heart-beat accelerating.

"It's good to see you, Azula" their mother said, offering her a kind smile, which Azula ignored.

"Zuzu and I have a very important announcement to make" his sister said, giving him a malicious look as she played with his hair "Don't we, darling?"

Zuko smirked, then took a deep breath as he saw the absolute horror in the eyes of (most of) his guests "Azula and I are getting married"

"WHAT?" they all said at the same time, Toph laughing like she had heard the funniest joke in the whole world, while Aang was just confused and Suki seemed to be regretting leaving her island to see what he was up to - Zuko was getting used to getting such a reaction from her whenever he did literally anything.

"You cannot be serious" Ursa was looking at them like she didn't even recognize them. Zuko felt a little ashamed for just a second as he imagined how much more horrified she would be if she knew of everything he had done to Azula. How even his uncle would not be able to forgive him if knew how much of a monster he had become. How none of his friends would ever want to have anything to do with him ever again.

It's too late for that. There's no turning back for what I've done. There's no point on back down now, he told himself as he often did whenever what was left of his morals and sanity tried to tell him to just leave his sister alone.

"I have never been more serious about anything in my entire life. I love my sister and I want to be with her. I am going to marry her. It's already decided."

Azula chuckled "Trust me, he won't allow anyone to tell him he can't do that"

Not even me, was what she wanted to say, and they both knew it.

"How did this even happen?" his uncle sounded both completely exasperated and worried, but somehow also too tired to care. He had been dealing with Zuko's constant bad decisions for nearly four years after all.

Azula explained the story just like he had told her to - how he was frustrated by her constantly acting out against the doctors that were just trying to help her and forcing him to take her from hospital to hospital, until he got sick of it and 'lashed out' but also 'admitted to loving her'. He could almost hear his sister mentally repeating to herself not to say a word as she left out everything they knew very well that that would make them take her away from him and lock him away either in prison or in one of the hospitals Azula had spent some time at.

For a few moments he actually believed nothing would go wrong; he had been vague enough about what exactly he had done to his sister so Toph didn't really notice he was lying, and they all trusted and loved him, so they'd never think that maybe they'd have to protect Azula from him. But he could also see his sister silently struggling to keep quiet as his friends kept trying to find out if Azula had seduced him.

"Look, I know you guys are worried, but it's not like that. Azula is the best thing that ever happened to me. She has my full trust" he took her hand again, but this time his sister didn't show any reaction.

Katara looked at him with both pity and horror "How do you know she's not manipulating you? Zuko, after everything she did, you can't possibly think she wouldn't try to hurt you"

"She won't"

"How do you know?" Sokka asked, exasperated "It's only been a little over two months since she started cooperating with the doctors. Even if she is trying to change, she could still have relapses. How can you be so sure you'll know how to handle it if she starts hating you again?"

Hearing those words, Azula immediately started laughing. At first, she seemed almost embarrassed and scared, but it quickly turned into that shameless, deranged, cruel laugh that would escape her when she was succumbing to her insanity. Zuko called her name, but she just ignored him, so he had to force to look at him. His horror and concern seemed to become the most hilarious thing in the world to her, even more than the obvious panic their guests were feeling, which angered him. Which, of course, only made her laugh more.

"You really do have these idiots wrapped around your finger, don't you, Zuzu?" her mocking tone made him want to slap her, but he held back since they weren't alone "Should I tell them what our relationship is really like? What you do to me when I'm bad?" she asked, her pale, slender fingers tugging on his robe.

"I'll have to talk to you guys some other day" he said, never taking his eyes off his sister, who leaned back on her chair, giving him a playful look as if she either didn't understand or didn't care about what questions her words could bring up and about the inevitable punishment he'd give her for it "As you can see, I need to care of Azula"

"Oh? Am I in trouble, My Lord?" her malicious smile made his blood boil with lust.

Grabbing her by the arm, Zuko dragged his sister out of the room, ignoring as Ursa and Iroh ran after them, calling his name. He told the guards to 'lead' them and the others to the gates as he was walking through the halls with his sister that was still laughing and teasing him.

"Eager to have your way with me, Zuzu?" she purred, nipping at his ear and running her hands across his torso as he tried to open the door to their room, hands shaking as the sound of her voice was sending shivers up and down his spine. All of the guards around rushed to ask him what was wrong after the chaos his sister had started and that was likely spreading through the entire palace. Before he could tell them to leave them alone, Azula answered for him "This wing of the palace has to be empty until we say otherwise. My loving brother wants to discipline me" she hugged him and kissed his cheek "And I can tell it's going to take a long time today."

Groaning, Zuko dragged her into the room by her hair and locked the door, slamming her against it kissing her furiously.