"What do you mean this is normal?" Zuko asked, red in the face with anger and exasperation. Even though she wanted answers too, she had to fight the urge to tell him to calm down and control himself "How can it be normal to see someone else's dream?"

"Because it wasn't the dream of someone unimportant, was it, prince? It was your twin sister's dream" Li retorted.

"So what? This is a twin thing?" Azula said, crossing her arms and giving them a skeptical look.

"Not exactly" the women replied at the same time, and, due to the strange way their combined voices affected her dream, the princess felt a slight unease hearing them speak in unison, even though it had been a completely ordinary thing for her her entire life.

"The bond between the two of you goes beyond what regular people have with their families and their lovers. It's even deeper than the emotional connections dragons form with their masters, and much, much rarer. It's two spirits becoming one" Lo begun "It usually only happens between people who have been in each other's lives for a long time, from the very beginning, but even it's between people who meet later in life, it is still incredibly powerful, and grows even more so if the spiritual bond is tended to properly"

"So these odds rituals you two had us doing were not actually for firebending?" Zuko didn't sound all that angry, but Azula wasn't sure if it was due to his disappointment or due to still not having wrapped his head around concept.

"This training will help you two see into each other's heart and mind" Li explained with a smile on her face, which was creepier and far less reassuring than the woman had probably wanted it to be. Azula couldn't really blame any of the guards and servants that looked at the elderly twins like they were some kind of freakish animal, even though she genuinely liked them "If you two truly become one, if you learn to be two halves of the same person like you've always claimed you were, one will be able to do anything the other does with very little training. Hopefully, if everything goes according to the plan, you will have your flames turning blue, young prince"

The princess saw it as her brother's eye widened and lit up at that revelation. He wanted to have the same abilities she had, and now that they were pretty much being promised that he would, he was obviously happy, and so was she - he had always been her equal after all.

...And yet, a small part of her was disappointed. It wasn't that she didn't want Zuzu to succeed, she just didn't want to lose the thing that made her special so soon. She would still be a prodigy, but would no longer be the one person in the world with the power to create blue flames. If anyone else was ever able to do it, then her dad would no longer treat her like she had done something amazing, it would just be another mundane task she had excelled at, but that wouldn't be enough to make him proud of her.

But Zuko deserves to have father be proud of him too. Why does it have to be either him or me?

"This special bond thing, is that why you two act the way you do?" Zuko asked, and Azula started paying attention to conversation again, if only to distract herself from the unpleasant, confusing, frustrating thoughts plaguing her head.

When the twins nodded, Azula and Zuko shared a look, both clearly wondering if this was how they were going to act by the time they were that old, or perhaps even before that. As much as the princess liked the twins, she wasn't exactly thrilled about that possibility. But being closer to Zuzu, even if just a little more, was a nice thought, despite her reluctance to 'share' her firebending abilities.

"Anything else we should know?" she asked.

"Not just yet" they answered at the same time.

"Let us guess, we'll understand..." Azula said in playful tone, looking at her brother again, and he immediately got the hint.

"...When then the time is right" he finished her sentence, smirking at her.

The elderly women nodded again, and despite the smiles on their faces, Azula could tell they weren't exactly amused. They usually didn't care about being mocked for their weird actions... but perhaps this was more about thinking their teachings and that something that had quite clearly impacted their every-day lives wasn't being taken seriously.

"Any emotional bond needs time to mature"

"Just like the people who share it" without another word, Li bowed to the princess and prince, just like her sister, and the two left, arms entwined.

Azula turned to her brother, taking his hand in hers, and they left the room, going back to his chambers, where they'd impatiently wait for breakfast to be ready. Zuko had a dumb, happy smile on his face, and he kept going from one side of the room to the next, then back, too excited to just sit down and talk to her. In a way, that was good since she didn't really know what to say.

But, since she didn't like being ignored, she made him trip on her foot and smirked as she saw him manage to prevent himself from falling face first on the ground and then giving her an angry glare that made him look silly instead of intimidating.

"What's the matter with you?"

"Hey, it's not my fault. I'm you remember?" she feigned innocence.

"You're not me yet. Right now, you're just a pain"

Azula responded to that by quickly getting up and 'attacking' him, tackling him to the floor. Zuko managed to overpower her, practically growling at her as he switched their positions. This time they wrestled a bit less than usual, and the princess had found herself desperately trying to get away from his grasp as showered her with kisses and tickled her until she could barely breathe. He gave her a tight hug, then immediately started walking through their room with a huge smile again, clearly too excited by the news they had gotten to simply calm down and stay put.

"You know I'm happy for you, right?" she asked, still feeling awkward that she couldn't react the way he did.

He looked at her like she had asked the most obvious question in the world "Of course I do" he then grabbed a firebending scroll, reading it, obviously imagining himself doing every move it was demonstrating.

She just hoped, for his sake, that he wouldn't get discouraged once he found out just how much more demanding their dad had gotten.

Zuko wasn't surprised that his sister immediately started doing some research on spiritual bonds, or that their mother started helping them out after finding out about the strange situation they were dealing with. What did surprise him was how there was literally no information about it on the palace's library - be it on the main one, or on the secret one that Zuko and Azula knew existed, but still had not found to hidden entrance to.

They kept trying to find anything on the subject. There were plenty of fictional stories in which something similar happened to characters, but nothing regarding experiences of real people. Even the well-documented cases of dragons that seemed to have almost telepathic connections to their masters always made clear that both dragon and human were always individuals, not the same 'person' as Li and Lo said was their case.

To their surprise, the closest they got to something that seemed to be a bit more concrete was not talking about something related to their nation. It was a poem about the ocean and moon spirits, Tui and La, who shared a perfect, eternal bond, that was such a core part of their very existence that even their powers, and the world around them, especially waterbenders, were deeply affected by their relationship. Anything either of them did, no matter how small, was reflected on the other - push and pull, as the poem described it - to the point that were two equal parts of the same entity, despite being separate beings.

But even that wasn't as helpful as they had hoped it would be. It was proof that something like that existed, but didn't explain how it came to exist, or how it worked on humans, and after that 'discovery', their luck ran dry. The palace had very few books that told stories from outside the Fire Nation, and they didn't find more on Tui and La, and the only thing that suggested that any spirit related to their element was a line regarding some secret that was taught to the Sun Warriors by, as the book put it, 'two dragons that acted as one'. Considering the Sun Warriors and their knowledge had long been purged off the world, they didn't bother even with wishing to figure out what that secret was or on learning more about those two mysterious dragons.

After three days, the twins gave up and decided to just wait for Li and Lo to finally tell them whatever it was that they were not yet willing to share. Zuko swore to himself that he would patient and do things their way, but words could not describe how annoyed he was during that first 'real spiritual training'. He and his twin had meditated for long periods of time before, but this was just ridiculous. They had spent the entire afternoon there, controlling their flames while trying to clear their minds to the point that they couldn't be distracted from their inner fire by anything around them. The key word being trying. They had been there so long and were so tired and bored that everything was a distraction. The young prince went from wanting to leave and do something fun, to wanting to any other boring task just so he'd something different, to then, finally, just wanting some food and then go to bed. The heat and humidity didn't help make them any less cranky.

Zuko was pretty sure he had never seen Azula being so obviously sick of any training, no matter the kind, and when Li and Lo finally allowed them to leave, she just grabbed him by the shirt and dragged him out, without talking to the women to find out what she did right, what she did wrong, and how she could improve. He knew something was unbearable when his sister couldn't stand it despite her perfectionism. He also knew she was going to be embarrassed once she was less irritated.

But that likely wasn't going to happen for a few days, since the next morning wasn't one Azula seemed to be looking forward to. It was the first day of school. It would be her second year at the Royal Academy For Girls, and she would have to put with all the stupid daughters of noble families, who would still be pretending to be her friends, even though she had - finally - come back to her senses gotten sick of them sucking up to her just because of her blue flames and status as princess.

Zuko wasn't happy about going back to school either. He didn't like that he had to spend so many hours away from his twin, especially since they didn't spend as much time together during summer like they usually did, since their dad was constantly training just Azula.

At least we're going to train together again once I manage to create blue flames, the young prince thought to himself, feeling hopeful.

During dinner, their parents kept asking Li and Lo about the special bond thing and how exactly it worked yet again, but they just continued to insist. that it wasn't the time to let them know, which clearly didn't please Ozai. As soon as they were done eating, the two children asked to be excused, and their mother not only allowed them to, but actively encouraged them to just leave. She didn't like them to be around when their dad was angry, and neither Zuko nor Azula could complain about that. They trusted their father, but he could be a very scary man.

"Why do you think they don't want to explain how this works?" Zuko asked his sister once they were alone at her chambers.

"Isn't it obvious, dum-dum? They're hiding something. Maybe there's something about this spiritual bond thing that could be dangerous and they're not telling us or our parents so we won't stop being trained by them"

"They live with it. Sure, they're weird and all, but I don't think I've ever seen them having any serious problem with each other or anyone. What could possibly be so bad about it?" he was genuinely confused.

She shrugged "I don't know, but what other reason would they have to not tell our parents everything about it?" when he didn't respond, she asked him another question "Did you have the time to try finding out more about it?"

"No. You?" she shook her head no, as disappointed as he was "Well, I suppose we'll find out eventually"

"Yeah" his sister remained lost in her thoughts for a little while, before suddenly cheering up "Want to play a game?"

Zuko nodded and they immediately got to it. It was fun at first, but due to the long day they had, the two of them ended up getting very tired very fast. Since it was too hot that night, they did not get blankets and went to bed wearing just their underwear. Their mother would probably chastise them in the morning if she woke them up herself or if a servant told her, but neither Zuko or Azula knew what was the big deal since they had seen each other naked many times, and Ursa used to not have a problem with that, even giving them both baths at the same time. Whenever they asked her what had changed, she'd only ever say that they were too old to keep doing that, but too young to know why.

Adults are weird. Always keeping secrets for no reason, the young prince thought to himself, drifting in and out of sleep due to the heat.

Of course, there were reasons for both 'secrets' to be kept, and the prince and princess would understand everything eventually. But one realization would be far, far, far more unpleasant than the other.

"Honey, are you there?" Azula heard her mother said from the other side of the door, worry evident in her voice. There was no doubt in her mind on what Ursa wanted to talked to talk about, or who had told her about the incident that took place that afternoon, even after Azula had practically begged him t just let their father deal with it.

Why couldn't Zuzu just keep his mouth shut? Why couldn't he just not be their mom's scared little boy for once? Dad had not meant to hurt her and it hadn't even been that serious - the royal physician and the healers agreed that she would be completely fine and ready to start practicing her firebending again very soon. Many benders had suffered way worse injuries doing the exact same thing. Ozai said that it was pretty much a rite of passage for every great bender due to how common it was.

Ursa knocked on the door and called her again, and Azula decided to just deal with the situation already. She would know eventually anyway, so there was no point on hiding it, and if she was going to lose her mind over what happened, she might as well freak out sooner rather than later.

"Come in. It's unlocked" she replied. She didn't want to try to open the door, since the contact with the handle would probably be painful. Her dum-dum of a twin had been so concerned and in a hurry to get their mom to check on her when he saw that she was hurt, that he didn't even realize that he had basically accidentally locked her inside her own room just by shutting the door.

Ursa walked in and immediately tried to find out how the princess had been hurt, looking visibly confused while noticing that she was standing, there wasn't a single scratch on her face or neck, and that her posture was still perfect, meaning she likely wasn't feeling any pain on her back or stomach. The second she noticed the long sleeves covering her hands, Ursa tried to gently grab ahold of her wrists, but Azula hid them behind her back out of pure instinct.

"Show me your hands" she demanded, and Azula obeyed, feeling ashamed of herself despite knowing that her dad was not planning on hiding what he had done, and that he would not be able to even if he tried. Her mother's eyes widened in horror as she saw the bandages "Sweetie, what happened?" when she didn't answer, Ursa's concerned turned to anger, and the woman repeated her question, her tone becoming ice-cold "What happened?"

"I was training with dad" she answered, feeling guilty for doing so.

Her mom frowned. She wasn't a bender, but she understood enough about firebending to know that benders rarely got their hands burned by flames, especially their own. She had also seen Ozai fighting more than enough times to know that he wouldn't try to teach to Azula to attack opponents in a spot that could lead to them turning her own powers against her, and that even if he tried, he had more than enough control over his own abilities to not actually hurt her...

No. Flames had not caused her to get injured. Nothing could describe the expression on her mother's face as she realized what exactly had happened. Ursa pulled her in for a hug, kissed her forehead, then did the same to hands, so gently that Azula barely even felt it.

"It wasn't his fault. It was an accident" she tried to explain, but her mom didn't say anything, just continuing to hold her tight. She didn't even seem to be listening "I was the one who made mistake, mom. Please don't be mad at him"

Please don't make him get mad at either of us.

"This won't happen again, honey. I'll take care of everything" Ursa said, gently running her fingers through Azula's hair, and that promise helped reassure her much more than her mother could know. While the thought of being able to generate lightning someday was incredibly excited, the princess had not felt ready to do it at that point. Even though she had stopped running to her parents for comfort during storms, the fear of lightning wasn't quite completely gone yet, and she knew that the reason she felt safe enough on those moments was because Zuzu was always by her side, soothing her if she needed some support.

Having the very thing she was afraid of at the palm of her hands, burning at her skin, was terrifying. The numbness and the after-shocks exactly didn't help make it more bearable.

"Let's get these wounds checked"

"Dad alread-" she couldn't even finish her sentence, being gently pushed out the room by Ursa. When they got to the room where the physician was, they saw the man trying and failing to calm Zuko down, explaining that he had already examined her hands and that she would be okay. He was not amused at having to do it a third time, especially not to a woman who seemed like she would either start sobbing or screaming at any second.

Zuko held her tight against himself the entire time, completely unaware of what he had caused. Thanks to him, on top of having had to deal with the stress that was school, and with not being able to bend for a while, she'd also have to deal with their parents being furious at each other.

And Ozai would likely make her train even harder once her hands were okay.

"How could you do this? How could you be so irresponsible?" she could barely hold back from slapping Ozai across the face "Lightning? Are you out of your mind?"

"Don't exaggerate. I wasn't planning on training her on it. I just wanted to see if her gift went beyond just her flames"

"It could have killed her!"

"It was something I decided on the moment" he had the nerve of sounding bored while explaining his actions, almost like he was doing her the kindness of explaining something obvious "I was preparing her for it pretty much the entire summer. It was as safe as if could possibly be to someone her age"

"You should not have done it!"

"Ursa, control yourself" his tone would have scared her into silence in pretty much any other circumstance.

"She's hurt" Ursa's voice cracked and she chocked on her words as the tears wet her face. Ozai's cold demeanor faltered for just a split second before he recomposed himself, and started defending himself once again.

"It wasn't anything serious. Iroh and I both had way worse injuries when we first tried creating lightning" his voice sounded much kinder, but it only made her even more furious - how was it possible that he didn't understand how serious and absurd this was?

"Yes, and you were both nearly four years older than our daughter is now! Yet you still decided to try to teach it to her despite knowing this is incredibly dangerous! Li and Lo said it was nothing short of a miracle that you two could still even move your hands after Azulon first tried to teach it to the two of you"

"Those two are useless idiots" he dismissed the comment, as he often did with anything she said that so much as reminded him of anything he considered as a reminder of a 'failure', or brought up any kind of painful memory "They aren't even firebenders"

And neither are you, was what he wanted to say, and Ursa was well aware of it. Hearing her husband be so baffled and almost outraged that she wanted to have a say on how their daughter was trained, especially if it offered any risks so her safety, made her furious beyond belief.

"Yet somehow even they are saner and more competent than you!" she snapped, and she probably would have said something worse if it weren't for the pure hatred she saw burning on Ozai's cruel eyes. She did not dare to say another word, being almost consumed by dread as she waited for him to defend himself.

Or rather, attack her.

"You seem to have forgotten your place, so let me remind you" not once in the entire decade they had spent together had Ursa ever heard him sound so cold "Your job is to give me heirs and show me respect as my wife. I know what's best for my children, and I will raise and train them as I see fit. If I say they won't be taking lessons from freaks like Li and Lo, then these lessons end that very instant. If I say they won't get the same training as their peers, then they won't get said training. And if I say one or both of them has to learn to generate lightning, then that's what they'll do. Is that clear?"

"I'm just thinking of what's best for them" she somehow forced herself to say. She couldn't cower before him. Not now, not when he was practically demanding her to not be involved in how their kids would learn to deal with such an important part of their lives. Not when he had just admitted that he would endanger not just one, but both of their children. If she backed down, Ozai would lose any respect he ever had for her - if said respect had ever truly existed at all.

"Azula is a prodigy. More than that, actually, at least according to the two lunatics whose judgement you trust more than mine"

Can you blame me? this time, Ursa managed to bite her tongue. Mostly because she knew that, yes, he could and he would.

"They say she's blessed by Agni and that Zuko will soon now everything she knows. If they are that special, why not treat them as such?"

"When you find something special you should protect it. Not push it past every limit until it breaks. If you want them to learn how to create lightning, let them master their flames first, as it should be."

"If you're that worried about Azula, go be with her" he said, and they booth knew it was an order. Reluctantly, Ursa bowed and walked towards the door.

"She might grow to be greater than any firebender someday, Ozai" she said, giving him one last look "But right now she's still a child" Ursa left before the argument could start again.