Azula tried to get up as soon as she heard the alarm, but only managed to turn it off before feeling her big brother pulling her back into his arms.

"Stay here a little more" he asked, kissing her hair and entwining his fingers with hers.

"I have to go, dum-dum. They're gonna wake up any time now" she replied, but didn't move at all, enjoying his warm, loving embrace "Zuzu, come on. Do you really want to deal with a bunch of questions and with Lu Ten calling us irresponsible so early in the morning?"

He groaned in that annoyed way he always did when she was right about something, which was all the time, kissed her shoulders a few times and squeezed her against himself before letting her go.

"Good boy" she said as she ruffled his hair, then gently let her hand trace his scar and caressed his cheek. She dressed up quickly and ran to her room, locking the door and changing into her pajamas in case anyone spotted her while she made her way to the bathroom. She used her firebending to warm up the water and just enjoyed her bath until both Zuko and Lu Ten started knocking on the door telling her to hurry up already. Zuko walked in as soon as she left the bathroom, and by some miracle he didn't take an eternity to get out.

The two of them were chatting in the kitchen while he helped her make some tea. When their younger sister showed up, they both instantly noticed something was off. She looked excited for Christmas, but not as excited as usual. She couldn't tell if she was upset, angry, or confused, but something was definitively on her mind.

"Is anything wrong, Kiyi?"

"Zula, can I ask you a question?"

"You're gonna do it anyway, so yes"

"Why were you kissing Zuzu?"

Azula choked on her tea, then looked at her brother whose eyes were wide and face had gone impossibly pale "What?"

"I saw you two kissing yesterday on the living room" she answered in a confused, but innocent tone that only a kid that didn't understand they were asking about a highly inappropriate situation could use.

"How much did you see?" Zuko asked, quite clearly terrified of finding out just how much they'd have to explain about the previous night.

She gave them a puzzled look "What do you mean? I just saw you guys kissing. What else was going on?"

"Nothing! What were you doing up that late anyway?"

"I woke up and wanted to see if everyone had already gone to bed, I saw the two of you, and just went back to my room. Now answer my question!"

Zuko gave Azula that desperate look he always wore whenever he was in trouble and needed her help. He practically had SOS written on his face.

"Zuzu and I are dating"

"Siblings do that?" she sounded a little disgusted, which bothered Azula more than she thought it would, much like it did when Lu Ten first found out about them. At least she didn't seem angry or disappointed like their cousin had, so that was a relief.

"Usually, no. But it is what makes us happy" she explained, then went straight to the point as she realized Kiyi was either not willing or not quite ready to know more about the situation "And you can't tell anyone"

"Nobody else knows?"

"Just Lu Ten" Zuko answered before she could "He sort of figured it out and, uh... confronted us"

Somehow, Azula managed to control herself enough not to scoff at his words. If Kiyi had seen the same thing that confirmed Lu Ten's suspicions, they would have had to find her a therapist.

Kiyi spent a solid minute just absorbed in her thoughts, trying to make her decision, and Zuko looked like he would have a heart-attack at any moment.

"I won't tell anyone"

Zuko sighed in relief "Thank you"

"If..."

Dammit, she is my sister.

"If what, Kiyi?" Azula didn't bother to mask her anger, which she later realized wasn't very smart and would have probably led to some trouble if her sibling didn't like her as much as she did.

"If you make me pancakes for breakfast"

"Done!"

"And if you wear the sweater mom knitted for you"

"Oh, come on" she complained, and Zuko laughed at her misery, earning himself a punch in the arm "Kiyi, please, can't I do anything else? That thing is hideous"

"But mom is gonna be so happy!" she practically pleaded, grabbing her sleeve and tugging at it.

She looked at her brother, silently begging for support, but was met with a sympathetic, but still very amused face that basically said 'Just do the thing.'

"Fine" she said through gritted teeth, and seriously considered pushing her little sister away when she hugged her tight.

"Your secret is safe with me. Now go change!" she practically demanded, with a huge smile on her face.

Azula went back to her room and put on the abomination that was that sweater. It was exactly the wrong shade of red, with awful green and white details that made it look even uglier, and the reindeer in it looked so bad that getting ran over would have probably helped it look less awful. The second her mother saw her wearing it, she grinned from ear to ear, eyes lighting up, and just gave her a bone-crushing hug.

"Kiyi made me do it!" she said, but her mother didn't care. The hug and the comments on how she cute she looked weren't nearly as embarrassing as having Ursa taking a bunch of pictures of her wearing it.

"I know you hate it, but you look adorable in this. It almost makes the sweater look good" Zuko said, wrapping one arm around her, and then being pushed to the side.

"I make everything look good, dum-dum. And don't think I'm gonna forget this was your fault" she poked his chest twice.

"My fault?" he poked her in the arm "You caused this as much as I did"

"You were the one who started kissing me" she poked him again "And the one who couldn't stop for a minute so we could go to your room" another poke.

"And you were the one who let me" he cupped her face and ended the argument with a kiss "Now go. Make us some pancakes"

"Us? I promised to make some for our sister, not for you."

"Please?"

"No" she retorted, but made him some anyway.

They spent the rest of the day giving their younger sister as much attention as possible, desperate to stay on her good side. Lu Ten eventually picked up on it, asked them what was going on, and spent a few hours silently judging them from a distance. If Iroh, Ursa and Ikem noticed something wasn't right, they chose to pretend they didn't - which was a pretty common thing considering how long she and Zuko had managed to keep their relationship a secret (at least from them).

Zuko went out during the afternoon to buy some stuff their mother wanted, and conveniently came back with a chocolate bar for Kiyi. Ursa made them take a bunch of family photos together, and Zuko was merciful enough to give Azula his coat so there wouldn't be even more evidence of her wearing that hideous sweater.

Dinner was surprisingly pleasant. The food was excellent, Ursa and Ikem were not as clingy as usual, Kiyi behaved well, Lu Ten told some pretty funny jokes, and Iroh even decided not to ruin things by sharing some boring, pointless story, but instead actually managed to keep the conversation interesting. If 'Christmas Magic' was really a thing, then that was definitively a result of it.

However, as it usually happened on occasions like this, Azula started to grow a little sad as her mind forced her to remember the one person that wasn't there with them. She went to her room, not wanting to ruin the night for the others.

She had not seen Ozai for almost an entire decade, and the memories she had of him made him seem like two radically different people. One was the somewhat aloof, but still loving father she had been so close with during the first eight years of her life, and the other was the vile man that burned her brother's face when he was just 10 years old. Even though she knew he was long gone, Azula still found herself desperate wishing the dad she knew would come back some day, instead of making her wonder what happened to him, and what would happen to that stranger wasting away in a cell.

She jumped up when she felt her brother wrapping her arms around her, hugging her from behind and kissing her cheek.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you. Just wanted to make sure you're okay"

"I'm fine, dum-dum" she turned around to face him, lacing her arms around his neck and giving him a quick kiss "Thank you anyway" she rested her head on his shoulder and he held her even tighter.

"I'm always going to be here for you"

"I know" she said with a smile.

She missed what life used to be like, but she wouldn't trade what she managed to find later for anything in the world.