AN: Azula and Ty Lee are 10, Mai is 11. Why is this suddenly relevant? No reason, ssh, don't worry 'bout it...

Chapter Eighteen: Day 2, Sisters Unite

Zuko woke to an iguana-parrot using him as a heat rock. It was curled up on his belly, wings tucked against its sides and the feathers on its chest foofed out in perfect contentment.

Uncle chuckled. "I think it likes your inner fire, nephew."

Its eyes were half-lidded, and it looked sleepy and happy, which meant that Zuko was never allowed to move again. This was a problem, because Uncle had apparently been awake long enough to have breakfast sent up, which meant he'd been staring at a tray of food he couldn't eat.

"Why didn't you—!" Too loud; the parrot chirped reproachfully. "...Why didn't you wake me up?"

"And disturb your guest?" Uncle's eyes were doing that twinkle thing they did right before he ruined Zuko's day. "Speaking of guests, did you remember to invite the Lady Waterbender to eat with us?"

Zuko huffed (the parrot stirred). "I was going to do it this morning."

"I see."

"I was!"

"I believe you, nephew."

"After I help you," Zuko clarified. And did not move. Because the parrot was preening under a wing now and moving might make it stop.

Uncle smiled his gentle I will remember this moment, and regal all the guests at your eventual wedding smile. Zuko scowled, and sat up. Slowly. The parrot stared at him in betrayal, gripping his shirt harder as he got more and more vertical until finally it clawed its way up to his shoulder and flapped back to the top of Iroh's dresser with a hiss.

He went to the table, and sat at Uncle's side, and picked up Uncle's chopsticks for him. Then they both pretended the next fifteen minutes didn't happen.

"Are you sure you don't want more?" Zuko asked. Uncle had been (mostly) able to eat the soup on his own, but he needed Zuko's help with the fish and he'd only wanted half of it because there was literally only so much the old general's pride could stomach.

"I am quite full, nephew. Thank you."

"Tea?"

"I am also quite hydrated. Perhaps it is time for you to stop stalling? I would knock on her door myself, but..." Uncle said. "If you are worried about her yelling again, I believe your gift will endear her to you quite nicely."

The fixed necklace sat on Uncle's table, wrapped in a piece of the gold fabric he'd used during his Agni Kai against the Avatar, because Uncle insisted that presents should always be wrapped. Which was stupid, since she wasn't going to think it was a present when she assumed he'd stolen it.

"I'm not worried!" Zuko shouted. And stomped off to invite the waterbender to breakfast.

Firebenders. Woke up. Too early.

Katara flailed her way out of her blankets. It took her a moment to realize that horrible racket was someone pounding on her door. Pink still tinged the sky outside her room's porthole.

"Whozza whazzit?" she slurred. For just a moment, she understood exactly how Sokka felt every morning.

Then she remembered where she was. And woke up very fast. She straightened her clothes, tottered until her sea legs woke back up, and inched the door open.

It was Zuko. Of course it was.

"What do you want?"

The little prince's clothes were looking just as rumpled and slept-in as hers, but he stood up straight and crossed his arms and addressed some point over her shoulder in a rehearsed monotone. "My uncle and I cordially invite you to breakfast."

"Cordially."

"Yes."

The prince's tone was anything but cordial. And there was still a guard on her door, not that Katara could tell if it was the same one from yesterday or not.

"Is this the kind of invite I can refuse?" she asked.

"If you don't want to eat."

Well that wasn't a threat at all. Katara still had the loaf of bread in her room from yesterday… but she was not awake enough to get in another fight with the prince. She shut the door, and locked it behind her, and followed Zuko (and was followed by her guard) down the hall.

Zuko's uncle had already eaten before she came, and Zuko only picked at his food, and they all had separate plates from the start instead of a communal bowl. ...But that fish did smell good. Katara decided she wasn't awake enough to worry about poison, either. Or table manners. Not like the two royals weren't going to judge her no matter what she did.

"Do you like tea, Miss Katara?" the old man asked, right as she picked up her cup.

"...Yes?"

"Then you might not wish to drink that." He winked. Katara set her tea down, very quickly.

"Uncle," the prince's face was red, like he'd just been caught in the middle of a diabolical little scheme. Katara scowled at him.

Which was the point where an iguana-parrot flew low over her head, landed on the prince's shoulder, and starting hissing at her.

Katara straightened up from her totally-not-overreacting duck. "I thought you were going to poison it."

"He doesn't drink tea."

"Zuko!" the old man gasped. "Don't make such jokes about tea."

"You just did!"

"There is a difference between undrinkable and poisonous, nephew. Well, usually. But we will continue working on your technique!"

Katara would not be fooled by endearing banter between relatives. Fortunately, a soldier delivered Sokka's latest reply just then. All urges to smile abruptly ceased.

Prince Can't-Even-Think-Up-New-Insults (Which-Being-Water-Tribe-Is-Not),

Stop being redundant. My sister, and what else?

Sokka, son of Kya and Hakoda, Not-Crowned Son of the Chief, Seahorse-Serpent of the South, Does It Make the Fire Nation Feel Economically Superior to Waste Paper Like This

"Wait. If that's his reply, what did you send him?"

She flipped the paper over before Zuko could stop her.

Water Tribe,

You can also have a komodo-rhino.

Zuko, son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai, Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, Dragon of the Wani, Bearer of Real Titles and Not Stupid Fake Ones

"I'm going to murder him. Both of you, but mostly him," the peasant said. And wrote. Zuko had hastily cleared the leftovers out of the way as she stole paper off Uncle's desk without even asking and slammed it down on the table and now she was hunched and growling like a feral raccoon-rat. The iguana-parrot, picking at their abandoned plates, seemed very civilized in comparison.

"You can't just write that!" Zuko tried to grab the quill from her but she held it out of his reach, thus proving her continued state of taller-than-him. "He won't want you back if you're going to kill him!"

There was a pause, and then she looked down at him the same way she had last night, like he was something slimy in her shoe. "I wasn't being serious!"

"...Oh."

"What is wrong with your country? Sokka said you have a sister. Do you really think she'd kill you just because she said so?"

Zuko thought about this, and finally nodded. "You're right. She wouldn't tell me first."

This was the wrong thing to say. Again. Her growling intensified, and many murder threats were written. Zuko thought about stealing the letter and burning it, but he owed it to Sokka as one brother to another to allow him advanced warning. When she was done, she shoved the letter towards him. He pushed it back to her.

"You take it to the hawker. I'm sure you'll find him; just open every door."

Her eyes narrowed. "And what will you be doing?"

"Business," Zuko said. "Important business."

"Nephew," Uncle started. "Don't you have something to give—"

But she was already out the door. Which was fine, she was the one who'd lost the stupid necklace anyway.

Uncle sighed. "You can try again at lunch. What was this business…?"

"This is an order, Engineer Hanako," Zuko said. "I know you have them!"

"Don't know what you're talking about, sir."

"Uncle gave them to you! In front of everyone!"

"Oh," she said, drawing the sound out. "You mean my Extra-Good Shirts. Yeah, I don't lend those out. But maybe if you got the stains out of one of my duty shirts, I'd let you borrow that..."

Zuko stomped off. Hanako counted that both as a win and someone else's problem.

Katara vaguely remembered the messenger hawks being with the rhinos, which was… that door?

A mop handle hit her in the face. There was snickering behind her, which stopped abruptly when she glared back at her guard.

Maybe… that door?

Katara eventually found the rhinos. And the hawks. But not the Hawker. When she finally stormed back to her room, Zuko was crouched in front of her door, picking the lock.

"What are you doing?"

"I need a shirt!"

"Too bad." She slammed the door behind her. And re-locked it. And stomped over to his clothes chest to get changed, just to see the look on his face (...and also because she'd been wearing these clothes for three days, with pirate blood for two.)

"...You're invited to lunch!" came through the door. It was the least inviting invitation she'd ever heard.

"I decline!"

(These sleeveless vest-tunics-things fit her surprisingly well. Pants were short, but her boots mostly hid it.)

Lunch time. Or midnight snack time, for third shift. Pikeman Kazuto had crashed on a table, his spear tucked in the crook of his arm. He was trying to work up the energy to go to bed. Lieutenant Jee had denied his request to be on Waterbender Watch, which meant he'd spent all night not knowing where she was. And he'd seen the way Jee looked at him (how they all looked at him, sometimes), but drifting at sea hadn't turned him into some kind of crazy child murderer, thank you. He wasn't going to hurt her; he just wanted to make sure she didn't hurt them.

He didn't know where she was this morning, either. Until she walked into the mess hall wearing the prince's clothes, with a gaudy had-to-have-come-from-that-pirate-ship dagger tucked in one boot and a folded letter sticking out of the other.

He raised his head off the table just high enough to send an accusing stare over the girl's shoulder. "Teruko. You told me this would start making sense."

"Go to bed, Kazuto." That was always her answer to him.

The soldiers shot her looks, and the one who'd almost sleep-stabbed her yesterday was talking over her head like she wasn't even here. At least most of them didn't pull on helmets at the mere sight of her. Katara stalked to the counter, grabbed a tray, stalked to one of the emptier tables, and slammed it down.

Helmsman Kyo sat very very still with a bowl of miso soup cupped in his hands and a waterbender right across from him—

"What?" she snapped, and he sloshed soup all over his hands.

Hawker Genji took pity, and came to his rescue. "Were you trying to mail that?" He pointed with his chopsticks, down at the letter in her boot.

Her eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Because I'm the one that mails 'em." Genji smiled, like there weren't innumerable sources of water in just this very room. And then he upped the ante, the maniac. "Was that you slamming all the doors in the hold this morning? You weren't looking for me, were you?"

"Yes," she bit out. "I was."

"Any clue why your brother's giving you the runaround?" Genji asked, revealing his latent suicidal tendencies to the whole of the mess hall.

"Have you been reading my mail?"

"To be fair, you guys have been writing on both sides of the paper. Hard not to pick up a few words. So?"

The waterbender started to rage-eat her rice. And rage-drink her miso. And then she slammed her chopsticks on the table and just sort of raged, in a general way. "Because he's a big stupid jerk and I'm going to kill him!"

"Literally or figuratively?" Genji had apparently had enough of this life, and wanted to know what came next. " 'Cause if it was my sister saying that, then figuratively, but you royals—"

"I'm not a royal!"

"Then why's your brother signing everything 'son of the chief'?"

At the next table over, Kazuto started to hyperventilate. Kyo set down his spilled miso and delicately whipped his hands off on his pants and wondered how quickly he could get under this table if water and/or spears started flying.

The girl shot a glance at Kazuto. "What's wrong with him?"

"I dunno," Genji scratched at the back of his head, because he was turning assisted suicide into an art. "Someone's dad killed his whole crew in front of him?"

It took her a second to get it, bless her savage heart. "My dad didn't—!"

"Let's go get your letter mailed, my lady. Sooner you're off our ship, the better for everyone." And Genji actually touched her shoulder and hustled her out, the crazy bastard. But then, his idea of cuddly was two-ton temperamental war steeds.

"You okay, Kazuto?" Kyo asked, when they were gone.

"...I'm going to bed."

Kyo made sure he got there.

...right NOW.

Katara underlined it seven times. And didn't write herself any stupid titles, because this wasn't a game. She rolled up the letter, and shoved it at the soldier, and didn't make eye contact as he tied it shut with a ribbon and pushed it into a carrier tube.

"Did my dad really…?"

"If your dad's Chief Hakoda? Then yeah." He distracted Fire Flake with a fish treat, and slipped the carrier onto her back. "It's war. Kazuto's ship was a valid military target. And you weren't the one that did it. Anything else?"

"What?"

"We've got two hawks. Maybe that jerk brother of yours just needs to get dive-bombed more often."

"Like that would help. Brothers."

"Heh. My sister would probably say the same."

Sisters, Katara thought. And had an idea.

The Hawker shifted very uneasily when he heard her idea. "I'll… need to check with the prince on that one."

They didn't have to search hard. When they opened the door, Zuko was there. It looked like he'd been pacing.

"Here to read my mail?" Katara crossed her arms, and glanced down at the gold-wrapped package in his hands. "Or are you bribing Sokka to take me back?"

"No! I… Are you wearing my clothes?"

"Sir," the Hawker said. "She wants to send a letter to—"

"Or were you trying to send a komodo-rhino by hawk?" Katara interrupted.

Zuko had already been turning a little red, but now he flushed.

"Send her letter wherever, I don't care!" He shoved the package into a pocket in his ever-more-rumpled clothes. "You're ordered to come to dinner with Uncle and I!"

"How very cordial!" Katara shouted after him, as he stomped off.

The letter arrived as Mai was packing her room. Of course Mai wasn't packing, but she was supervising the servants. They looked extremely nervous; Azula danced a flame over her fingertips, and couldn't imagine why.

Ty Lee bounced over to get it, even though that's what servants were for. "Azula, it's for you!"

Her flame briefly flickered, blue to red and back again. "Very well, bring it—"

This order was interrupted by Ty Lee already shoving the letter into hands. Her on fire hands, did they really need to have the fire safety talk again? Ty Lee hadn't enjoyed it much last time, as Azula recalled. Fortunately, she was (almost) a master, and snuffed the flames before they burned paper or flesh or pretty pink clothes, what a shame that would be. "...Thank you, Ty Lee."

The over-excited girl blithely ignored this dismissal, and remained inside her personal space. The things Azula tolerated in the name of friendship.

"Open it open it open it!"

"So, Mai," Azula returned to their earlier conversation. "How are you looking forward to Omashu? Sorry, New Ozai."

Mai was sitting in a windowseat, somehow slumping with perfect posture. "Maybe we'll be attacked by rebels."

"Such a romantic."

"—open it open it—"

"Perhaps you'll be saved by a dashing mailboy, hmm?"

"If your brother is stupid enough to still be there, I'll stab him myself."

"—open it open it open—"

"That's all I ask." Azula looked down at the letter in her hands. Oh yes, this, read her expression. Ty Lee rose up on the tips of her toes. And slumped, as Azula lowered her hand. "What do you suppose is for dinner?"

"Assuming they haven't packed up the kitchen?"

When ten consecutive seconds free of Ty Lee's babbling had passed, Azula opened the letter. (She might not know how to train lizard-dogs, but Azula was getting quite good with people.)

The message tube had carried the name of her brother's ship. And though her brother had not deigned to remember her these past two months (even though Father, who didn't even want his letters, got one nearly every day) (not that she cared, but she would have at least read them for the entertainment value—) regardless, Azula had formed certain assumptions when she was handed this letter.

These assumptions went up in flames, rather quickly. (Non-literal flames, it was worth specifying.)

Zuko's Sister,

(The letter impertinently started, and since when was her importance measured in relation to Zuko?)

Suffice it to say, things went spiraling into a volcano from there. Azula felt a little numb and tingly inside, like she'd been practicing her lightning too long. Her expression must have matched, because Ty Lee's eyes were wide and Mai had raised an eyebrow.

"I…" Azula began. "I… think I have been presumed upon. By a peasant."

It was an incredibly novel feeling. She didn't even protest when Ty Lee slipped the letter out of her hand, or when Mai rallied the energy to stand up and go read it with her.

"Eee!" Ty Lee made a noise most small animals reserved for when they were on fire. "There's a girl in Zuko's bedroom! Oh, I'm so sorry Mai—"

"He wouldn't know what to do with a girl," the eleven-year-old stated.

"Oh my gosh and he saved her from pirates—"

"That's the opposite of what she wrote," Mai said.

"Sssh, you need to read between the lines, silly. Oh! And she wants… she wants…"

"Advice on how to deal with my brother," Azula said.

And smiled.

She didn't know it was possible to be so pleased by someone else. By someone else asking something of her, no less. She felt magnanimous and queenly, and wondered if this was how Father felt every time he approved a request from his generals.

"Ty Lee," she ordered. "You write."

"...Me?"

"I shall dictate. Translate the words into," she wiggled her fingers vaguely, "peasant appropriate language. And draw those little hearts and things at the sides."

She began composing the key phrases in her head, as Ty Lee squealed and begged the servants to go fetch the most colorful inks they could, particularly in shades between magenta and coral.

...as a child, Mother had to stop him from throwing rocks at the poor turtleducks...

...even Father was horrified by the things Zuko suggested in that war meeting...

...I only hope that his travels will help him build appropriate empathy for the people who will one day be part of our empire…

...Mai sends her love, and hopes he will have time to visit her when next Kuzon the Mailboy is in New Ozai…

("If you write that, Ty Lee, sleep with one eye open."

"I wasn't going to sleep at all! Did you know there's a circus in town?")

...and remind him not to forget his dear sister in his next letter, he knows exactly how much I miss him...

Ty Lee added extra hearts and flowers and even a fuzzy little turtleduckling with a bump on its head. It was masterfully done, in its own… unique way.

Later, she wrote the letter to Zhao herself. The commander was Father's minion, which made him hers by extension.

Sokka's sister didn't come to dinner. Zuko shoved her necklace in a drawer and slammed it shut.

AN: Guesty replies—

spring, chapter 17: Zuko isn't trying to appease anyone, he's just, ah, learning a valuable life skill! Who knows when else he'll need to… repair jewelry. *shifty eyes* Glad you liked the crew POVs. ;)