Getting her mother to agree with the dinner plans had been even easier than Azula had hoped it would be. She knew the woman would be going insane having to spend such a long time away from her favorite kid, she had even said as much to her brother, but she had not expected her to nearly instantly accept the idea of a family night now that she knew about their relationship. Iroh was a lot harder to convince, and in any other circumstance Azula would have been happy to not have him around, but her brother would miss their boring uncle so she'd put up with him.

After about a week arguing with the old man, Azula managed to finally break him, and so all she had to do was help her mother... and then lock herself in her room for about three hours to make herself look absolutely, undeniably perfect. She always felt a bit silly getting all dressed up for someone who had seen her growing up and going through puberty with her face covered in pimples, getting disastrous hair-cuts, being forced to wear ridiculously ugly clothes because their mom thought she looked cute, getting sick, and looking exhaust and grumpy. And yet she couldn't help wanting to look her best for him, and nothing was more satisfying than knowing that her brother just couldn't take his eyes off of her.

And indeed, she was the only thing he could look at when he finally walked through the door, wearing his best clothes, a loving, shy smile, and some pretty roses in his hand. It didn't even register to her if anyone was uncomfortable by the situation, which they likely were. All she could think about was the fact that her boyfriend was finally being properly 'introduced' to her family, like she was being 'introduced' as his girlfriend.

He walked up to her with that adorable, goofy grin, and held her tight, kissing her cheek and whispering that he had missed her. Iroh cleared his throat and looked at them in disapproval.

"Oh for God's sake, uncle, relax. It's just a hug" she thought about giving Zuko a quick kiss just to add fuel to the fire, but decided against it. She had promised both Zuko and Ursa that she would behave.

No one bothered with the small talk. They went straight to eating the food like they had all been starving for months. Ursa had spent nearly all day by cooking, clearly wanting to spoil her precious little boy and kept asking him about how he was handling moving out - without even bringing up why he had done so, or how Azula would soon move in with him. Kiyi would sometimes ask about it, but no one would let her get an answer.

Azula once again ignored the urge to act out and force everyone to acknowledge the obvious elephant in the room. She didn't like it, but she knew it was what her brother wanted. And besides, she needed to play nice a little longer if she wanted to get Zuko to talk about whatever it was that was bothering him so much.

So she was the nicest and most polite she could possibly be, and she quickly found that she quite liked having the family all together again. Zuzu had always talked about his silly wish for their relatives to be happy for their relationship and treat it like a normal thing, no drama, no arguments, no disgust. Just the people they loved being happy for them. She had to admit she didn't find the idea quite so silly at that moment.

Once they were finished, Azula begrudgingly went to the kitchen to do the dishes, since that had been one of the conditions Ursa had set for that dinner to happen at all. It took less than a minute for Zuko to sneak behind her, wrapping his arms around her and desperately kissing her neck, making her chuckle. She loved how physically affectionate he was. Even when he chose the worst moments to show said affection.

"I'm busy, dum-dum"

"Let me help you then" he said, but didn't do anything beyond kissing her hair, cheek, neck, and shoulder while she kept trying to do her chore.

"When exactly does the help start?" she asked, trying to sound annoyed, but only barely managing to mask her amusement.

"Already did. I'm cheering you up a bit"

"Don't you guys ever stop?" Lu Ten said as he walked in.

"No" Azula replied as she turned around to face her brother, who was kind enough to let her keep talking to their cousin, even while still focusing on kissing every inch of her exposed skin "Are you interrupting us because you wanted to or did they tell you to?"

"From what I'm saying I'm not interrupting anything" he rolled his eyes "And yeah, they told me to make sure you guys weren't doing anything they wouldn't approve of"

"Poor Lu Ten, having to witness such a gross sight" Azula scoffed before pushing her brother away, making him pout "You, behave. Either help me out or get out of here"

Zuko sighed "Fine, I'll help"

"Good boy"

The rest of the date didn't go quite like the romantic, yet awkward night Azula had envisioned, but it was still pretty good. She spent about two hours playing some video games with her siblings and her cousin. Lu Ten was by far the easiest to beat. Kiyi was the most difficult, and she'd get a little passive-aggressive whenever she lost. But, of course, the most fun to play against was Zuko, since he was so competitive. He simply could not accept defeat, and neither could she, so things got very intense. She lost count of how many times Ursa told them to stop cursing so much, and of how many times everyone looked scared that they were going to kill each other.

It was a bit comforting, having her mom and Iroh finally forget the whole incest drama, even if just for a little while - especially since it meant Zuko wasn't acting as strange as he had when they had last seen each other.

But, of course, her favorite part of them being able to go back to their old habits was when everyone else had falling asleep in the middle of the movie they had all been watching, and Zuko practically dragged her to his room so they could make out. He kissed her over and over again, the two of them rolling around on his bed, hands pulling each other closer and sneaking underneath their clothes - she knew Zuko would have been tearing at hers and then fuck her stupid if it wasn't for the fact that they'd have to look presentable by the time they got back.

"Do you have to try so hard to be control?" she smirked as he kept an iron grip on her wrists and trapped her legs in between his, preventing her from moving.

"Yes" there was just enough hint of something dangerous in his voice to send shivers down Azula's spine "I love making you helpless. And you love it too"

Cocky bastard, she thought to herself before getting yet another passionate kiss and eagerly responding to it.

When they finally went back to the living room, Azula was pretty sure that Ikem had already woken up, but was pretending to still be asleep so he wouldn't have to deal with the situation.

After that, they woke the others up. Kiyi went back to sleep pretty much two seconds after saying goodbye to their brother, but everyone else followed them outside. As usual, Azula was the last one he said goodbye to, and pretty much all of her self-control disappeared as she practically threw herself at her boyfriend, holding him tight, not bothering to hide her possessiveness despite her feeling Zuko's unease, as well as the burning judgmental stares behind her back.

He brother looked at her and hesitated just a little longer before gently cupping her face with both hands and pressing a slow, tender kiss to her lips. It felt like the most innocent thing in the whole world, but she knew her mother and uncle would disagree. When Zuko pulled away, Azula saw his dumb, happy, shy smile and had to fight the urge to do the same. He gave her a hug and kissed the top of her head before finally leaving and her happiness died down a little.

He loves me, he loves me, she silently repeated to herself, trying to ignore her growing unease. Why was he acting so weird? Was he just getting a little scared by all the drama or was there something else going on?

If there was... well, she had ways of making him talk.