A/N:

Here's my newest entry! This time it's a sequel to my prompt for day 8 from last year, the Yakuza AU! Feel free to revisit it in Matching Heartbeats before dropping by to read the continuation here, though I have hopes that it will be fairly understandable even without the previous context :)

Hope you enjoy it! :D

Volleys of gunshots echoed across the dark alleys of the city: everyone in the nearby buildings would likely have dropped flat on their apartment's floors, away from the windows, hoping to avoid the stray bullets that might turn them into collateral damage in the dreaded collision between two gangs.

Everyone knew it would come to this, one day. Everyone had suspected the wrath of Ozai Homura wouldn't be placated easily once triggered, let alone could he be expected to muster true loyalty towards his allies when crushing them satisfied his wretched ego far more than anything else could. So, when a simple nighttime outing to check on one of the Kawakami clan's warehouses had been the subject of an ambush by hostile forces, Sokka had made a decision he knew was the right one: he had his fellow Kawakami members detaching from his squad one by one, escaping through narrow alleys, melting among the traffic in packed streets… and all along, the enemy had continued to chase him, and exclusively him. He was their target, the one the hit had been put on…

Ozai Homura wanted him dead.

It was no true surprise, not in the end. The minute Hakoda had entered Sokka's parlor and declared his interest in creating a Kawakami-Homura alliance, Sokka had known this was a possibility. Ozai Homura was an ambitious man, one who saw everyone who didn't bow down to his superiority as worthless worms he had to crush… standing toe-to-toe with a man like him required far more power than the Kawakami had, even after the boost in their growth after the earthquake two years ago, even after their alliance with the Homura had seen them gaining status and reputation beyond their expectations. To him, this was but a game of tug of war, one in which his superior resources and influence would always make him the winner, come what may…

But this violent reaction, this personal persecution, suggested there was more at stake than the satisfaction of Ozai Homura's ego: that the other Kawakami hadn't been chased, that the ten men on motorbikes, shooting in his direction, had chosen to pursue him, made matters clearer yet for the tattoo artist who drove in the most reckless patterns, hoping to dodge bullets while seeking a place to hide…

One way or another, Ozai had found out about Sokka's secret relationship with the Homura boss's daughter, and he was determined to make him pay for it with his life.

Sokka snarled as he turned his bike into another narrow alley. They were in allegedly neutral territory, nobody should be attacking him here… he wondered, briefly, if the bastards in pursuit might have chased him all the way to the Kawakami headquarters if he had been foolish enough to lead them there. With the technological advancements the Homura family had access to, even if all his pursuers were shot dead by Hakoda's forces, they'd likely still learn of the location of their main building and hideout… and he couldn't risk that. He had to lose them somehow, to take them down before they could put his family in further danger, and he managed to shake off some of his pursuers by taking that narrow turn… but others had followed him regardless.

His zigzagging had seen him averting most bullets so far, but he wouldn't be so lucky in an alley as narrow as this one: a bullet eventually found purchase in the tire of his back wheel, and Sokka acutely felt the bike losing control underneath him. He snarled, readying himself to jump off… to aim carefully so the bike would wind up obstructing the way, too.

It was a pity, truly. What a faithful motorcycle it had been… and yet it was either the bike or himself. He hoped to find another one like it, in the future… if he survived the shootout, to begin with.

He finally jumped, knowing he'd be vulnerable once he did: he tried to shrink in his frame as much as possible when the bike finally lost all control, now that he wasn't holding it. It rattled, the screeching sound of metal against pavement grating on everyone's ears, and then Sokka heard the inevitable sound of a crash: one of his pursuers hadn't been able to dodge his bike, and with the chaos caused by the collision, it seemed the bullets had stopped for the time being…

So he pulled out his own gun once he rolled on the ground, turning on his heels and continuing to run backwards towards a building at the corner of the alley: the garbage and recycling containers, kept within a small, partially enclosed space outside the building, would have to serve as means of protection for him if his foes caught up with him. For now, he had an advantage, and he'd ensure to retain it.

He raised his gun, aiming as best he could under the circumstances, and shot three times.

The first bullet veered off-target. The second one found purchase in the hand of one of his pursuers… the third hit the engine of his motorcycle, and the vehicle burst into flames, triggering similar reactions in the bikes of his nearest pursuers. Screams of desperation reached him, but he could show no fear, no hesitation… no sign of surrender for the Homura to take advantage of, and they would do exactly that, if he allowed it. He kept his gun reared up, ready to shoot at any survivors from the group at the now flaming barricade his old motorbike had become, the final service it had provided for him…

The place Sokka hoped to find refuge in, by the recycling bins, stood at the bend in the L-shaped alley: despite he should have known better, Sokka somehow disregarded the second alley entrance until the sounds of other running engines reached him, just when he aimed his gun at the burning chaos of machines and men he had stirred up moments ago…

He snarled, pulling back the gun without firing another shot, and rushing into the trash containers' partially exposed enclosure: a new volley of bullets attempted to get him as he found refuge behind the containers, and his chest heaved while his heart raced. One more second exposed, and the bullet holes in the concrete behind him would be smeared with his blood, too…

He wasn't safe here, not really – the small enclosure was a lackluster defensible position, and shards of wall plaster flew around him as the new arrivals stopped their bikes. Some ran to help the burning ones, but even hiding behind the containers, Sokka dared raise his gun and shoot twice in that direction. They were but warning shots, but they sufficed to force the Homura to give up on their burning comrades.

"Son of a bitch! We're gonna get you for this!"

Sokka snarled, tightening his grip on the gun. If he weren't outnumbered, pinned down as he was, he'd certainly empty whatever ammunition was left in his gun into the skull of the bastard who had chosen that particularly irksome insult…

Again, they opened fire to daunt him into submission, and Sokka shrank in place, hoping to make the most of what little cover he still had, waiting for the opportunity to retaliate…

Suddenly, his grip on his gun weakened and vanished.

That was the first thing he noticed, outright. The first thing he realized, altogether…

The blood came next.

He contained the urge to scream when the pain bloomed in his right shoulder: how? As lackluster as his cover might be, no bullets should have hit him from this angle… unless it was a stray bullet, bouncing off a building, off the metal posts holding the containers' enclosure together before finding purchase in his body.

The ground around Sokka was littered with fired bullets. Shards of glass from shattered windows littered the area, too. Every lightbulb had seemingly been blasted out of the lampposts, and the only light to be found in the scene was that which drifted from stars in the sky, or the few bold people who kept their lights on, in the middle of the shootout. Holes decorated the walls nearby, the simple ceiling that hung above Sokka seemed precarious, ready to drop atop him any moment now… he winced, finding it so difficult to move, reaching down for his gun with his left hand… he was never as good with his left as with his right. The damn bullet felt like a protruding spear inside him, he had lost all control over his arm… the size of the cartridges nearby revealed they weren't simple, small guns, just as their persistent volleys did. The enemies were heavily armed, with who knew how many rounds of ammunition at their disposal…

"Quit hiding, you Kawakami scum! Get out here and get what you deserve, you son of a bitch!"

He couldn't even help it anymore: he had no doubt he wasn't making out of this place alive unless by some sheer miracle a bolt of lightning fell from the skies and electrocuted his foes. He threw his head back, tightening his grip on the gun again… and when the latest round of volleys was interrupted, no doubt for the sake of loading another round of ammunition into their weapons, Sokka dared glance out of his small, enclosed space and fired.

It was pointless, of course it was, vindictive and stupid… his left hand shook over the throes of pain caused by the bullet lodged in the other side of his body. The stray bullet that had surely ricocheted directly towards his body… the bullet that might just end up being one among many, if the Homura henchmen got away with their leader's wretched plans.

Still, if he would die here, he would bring as many of those bastards with him as he could manage. For the sake of his family… for the sake of his clan.

He fired the gun recklessly until he emptied it, failing to aim correctly, before backing up again behind the containers, full of holes as they were now. They wouldn't know he wasn't armed with further weapons, he supposed… once they realized as much, they'd come around those containers and shoot him for good. As if they had any right… if he had to die by Homura hands, he would only accept it if it were hers. If his death helped keep her out of harm's way, he'd give his life gladly… but he doubted that would be the case. If his suspicions were correct, Ozai Homura wanted him dead at once because of his daughter's association with Sokka… and he would consider her a disgrace now, for having carelessly fallen into his bed – or his tattoo chair, if they were to get technical – and dishonored her grand and glorious family in the process…

He shouldn't be such a fool. He knew he mattered to her, and she mattered to him so much he would gladly die for her… but if it came down to it, would she ever choose him over her own clan? Over the safety and security of remaining under the wing of the most powerful yakuza clan of all? If she had any sense in her head, the answer to those questions would be a resounding 'no'. He hoped, in the end, that she'd have sense indeed. It would be so much easier if she could forget about him, if she weren't fazed by his death, if she could carry on with her life and never truly risk her father's rage…

He should resent her… and yet he didn't. He should be furious, begrudging her for whatever mistake she had made – if it were her fault at all – that had gotten Ozai riled up to the point of committing to this mad course of action… and yet he couldn't even fathom it. He laughed like a fool, refusing to look at the bleeding wound in his shoulder, closing his eyes in the middle of another array of fired shots, of screams and shouts that made less and less sense with every passing moment.

What a bad timing to really let himself think he loved her. What a bad moment to reason that every wild encounter they'd had, guided by relentless lust and desire, had wound up building something so much stronger than he had ever felt before… something he should have conveyed to her at some point in those two years of furtive, passionate encounters, but he hadn't. Of course he hadn't, because he was an idiot. A great, colossal idiot…

"I… I love you, Azula…" he dared say, dropping the gun as he raised his hand to his shoulder. "I'm sorry… I love you."

He tried to slow the blood, but it poured down over his arm, streaking down his fingers and palm. He shrank into a small ball, huddled in place, hearing every last sound, the echoes of the final moments he'd spend in this world. A life like the one he'd led would be likely, quite likely, to find a most disappointing conclusion… would the Homura mock him publicly later, for dying like a rat in a dumpster? Would his family ever stop grieving? Would Azula move on…?

He nearly let himself laugh at that final question, realizing he didn't really want to know the answer for it, in the end. That he loved her didn't mean she loved him back… though it was easy to think she did. It was easy to hope, to believe, that she might have come to love him, at some point… and yet it was better if she hadn't. Maybe she shouldn't, if that meant Ozai's fury would be focused on him, and him alone…

Lost in those dark thoughts, the pelting rain of the countless guns nearly went forgotten… and the sound of a newly arriving motorbike almost went completely unnoticed, too.

"About bloody time we got reinforcements…!" huffed one Homura, casting a quick glance back at the bike coming in through their side of the alley. "I'm almost all out of ammo!"

"He's pinned down! We probably hurt the fucker at least once, we just gotta finish the job!"

The second man out of the four remaining pursuers – for the other six had been victims of the chaotic crash in the other alley entrance – shouted the words back to the slowing motorbike, no doubt hoping his new ally would provide the manpower they still required to finally murder the Kawakami heir, just as commanded…

The new arrival, clad in the typical Homura black leather outfit, climbed off the bike once it stopped, pulled out a slick FN Five-seveN handgun, and raised it with a swift motion.

Four timed and quick shots blasted across the starlit night: then, all was silence.

Sokka frowned, shuddering still, crouched into himself. He had nearly disregarded the sound of the new motorbike completely, nearly forsaken it upon assuming it was but another Homura, here to ensure he would meet his end…

But now no more voices, no more insults, reached him.

The new arrival had killed the Homura hounding him?

His ears still rang with the countless rounds of fire that had chased him so far… thus, he only noticed the footsteps when they were close, so close he winced and inched back. His left hand reached for the empty gun instinctively, clutching it clumsily and aiming it towards the source of the sound. A nervous whimpering sound kept spilling from his throat at every labored breath he took, and he knew, of course he did, that a man bleeding to death was the least intimidating sight of all… but perhaps this was the true hitman. The one who would actually get him now that the others had been failures…. it wouldn't be the first time Ozai Homura treated his people as disposable pawns, he knew as much.

"S-stay away, stay…!" he tried to say, his voice hoarse and tense, strained with effort as his trembling hand waved the empty gun awkwardly towards the dark, helmeted figure he couldn't even focus on…

The gasp was almost imperceptible, almost unrecognizable. The body shape was difficult to make out when his eyesight was so blurry, too…

And yet he knew, even though he kept holding his empty weapon so stubbornly, oh, he knew whose face hid behind that helmet. Of course he knew, of course he did… and the strength of his despair only worsened for that. He had been thinking he wanted this, mere moments ago, and now he couldn't stop shrinking away, against the containers full of bullet holes, the floor littered with still-warm cartridges…

"Sokka…"

Her voice. He whimpered and shook his head, tears streaming down his face as he aimed the gun at her still.

"Y-you're not… you're not here. You're not, you…"

"Sokka, it's me," she said, and he could sense the instability in her voice, the way her own nerves were getting to her. "You're… you're wounded. Sokka, you're bleeding badly…!"

"It doesn't matter, just go! Just leave!" Sokka exclaimed, snarling. "Please…! J-just go, I need you to go, because if you stay, if he knows what you've done…!"

"It's too late now, Sokka. It's too late."

Her voice trembled again as she spoke those words, stepping closer to him cautiously. He shook his head, shuddering as he gazed at her dark helmet, wordlessly begging her to take back those words as she moved slowly towards him…

"N-no. You didn't… y-you couldn't have…"

"It's done," she said, firmly, finally halting right beside him… placing a hand on his empty gun. "There's no more pretenses to be had, alright? So just… just let me save your life, you impossibly stubborn fool, will you?"

"Az-…" he tried to call her, but his throat was so choked up: what had she done? Was she utterly mad? Had she truly betrayed her father…? Had she truly turned her back on the Homura clan… for him?

He was too weak to tell her to run back before her father made a mistake he could never take back. Too weak to still hold that empty gun, too weak to stop her from raising her leather jacket and ripping her shirt forcibly, turning it into a long bandage that she quickly strapped over his wounded shoulder. It wasn't enough, though, it couldn't be enough, not when it was such a rudimentary bandage, and she couldn't even risk pulling off his upper body's clothes to do it properly…

"Breathe. Breathe slowly, okay?" she commanded before removing Sokka's own helmet, hoping to make it easier for him to inhale some fresh air that way. She set aside the helmet before placing her hands upon his bloodied shoulder, attempting to slow the hemorrhage with pressure "We… we need help. Now…"

"I… c-can't call anyone, I…" Sokka blurted out.

"I know, you're wounded, but…"

"I only have… our burner phone…" he confessed. She gazed at him mournfully. "N-no other numbers but…"

"But mine. I know, it's… okay, give me a moment," she said, gritting her teeth as she applied pressure to his shoulder with one hand. Sokka winced, letting out a soft cry of helplessness as her other hand rummaged in the contents of his jacket's pocket.

With a single, bloodied hand, she struggled to press the right buttons for the number of yet another burner phone, one she had memorized just as she had memorized Sokka's. It only rang one time before it picked up.

"The shootout. That's where you are?" the voice on the other side spoke quickly, sparing no time with pleasantries.

"Yes. You can make it? We're by the containers," she asked, quickly. "He's wounded. We need to hurry…"

"N-no hospitals…" Sokka grimaced. She gazed at him hopelessly. "N-none of that, I… I can't go anywhere, or he'll find me, and then…"

"We'll get you to safety," she said, gritting her teeth and tightening her grip on the cellphone. "How long?"

"I'm on my way now."

"Good. Help me bring him aboard once you're here."

She handled herself so well in the middle of such a chaotic situation… the mark of having been born and raised in a world of high stakes and constant danger, Sokka surmised, flinching once she pocketed his phone and returned to attempting to contain the flow of blood as best as possible with both hands.

"W-we can't go to…" Sokka said again. She shook her head.

"We won't. The Kawakami have facilities to look after you, don't they?" she asked. Sokka flinched at another burst of pain but nodded. "Then… that's where we'll go."

"W-wha…? Y-you can't. You can't go there, n-not after this…"

"It doesn't matter…"

"But…"

"I said it doesn't matter, damn it," she snapped, finally letting out a burst of emotion she had attempted to contain so far. Had her hands been free, she would have certainly cupped his face, forcing his unfocused eyes to look at her… but she couldn't do that, not when she was doing everything in her power to keep him alive. "You'll survive. Whatever happens beyond that is… it's secondary. You'll survive."

Sokka whimpered, wanting to protest, but the sound of a car approaching forced him to fall silent: the vehicle collided with the corpses Sokka's savior had left in her wake, with the motorbikes parked in the middle of the road, but it continued onwards, disregarding the bloody spectacle it would be sure to leave behind, too. Such sloppy work was so unlike her usual, methodical approach to everything…

But it was what had to be done: her reliable contact leapt off the driver's seat at haste once he parked the car right by the recycling containers. Without waiting for further confirmation, the man opened the backdoor of his car before rushing in to help pick up Sokka. Together, they hoisted him as best they could, ensuring to help him onto the backseats, where she would sit with him, holding him upright against her body, applying pressure on his shoulder wound. The bullet remained lodged within the flesh, and that meant there was only one exit point: containing the hemorrhage was remarkably difficult in his current position, but it would be slightly better than if the bullet had pierced his shoulder completely.

Everything was a blur for Sokka, but that familiar body embraced him, all the same. That was enough to soothe him slightly, for now…

"Where to?" the driver asked, as he wheeled them out of the alley again, this time attempting to go slower so the drive wouldn't trouble his wounded passenger – despite he still had to bump into corpses and vehicles in the process.

"Turn right in this intersection… to Akashi," she said, firmly. Sokka winced. "I'll give you the rest of the directions once we're off the highway. As fast as you can…"

"In that case…"

Sokka was still shaken, still slightly deafened over the gunshots and the bike persecution… and the sound of a police siren did nothing to help matters. He winced and pressed against his lover's chest, and she pressed her helmet gently to the top of his head.

"We're going to make it. You're going to make it. Whatever happens next… you're going to make it"

He wasn't sure she was right. He couldn't say for certain whether she was or wasn't. But he also wasn't sure if, perhaps, she spoke those words to reassure herself every bit as much as she wished to reassure him…

So he said nothing. He focused on breathing, on feeling her hands upon his numb and yet aching shoulder, wanting to survive if only to ensure that she wouldn't have sacrificed everything she had for nothing…

Time either went too fast or too slow, he couldn't tell: before long, her voice cut over the sirens as she told the driver where to go next, giving indications Sokka knew by heart… directions that would take them right to the headquarters of the Kawakami clan.

The siren stopped its rhythmic bleat and the car slowed down when it was reaching the familiar location for Sokka… but now he could hear voices outside the car, angry voices, that instilled even more fear inside him than that which he had felt across the past hour. His family, his clan… would they understand what was happening? He doubted that. Surely they'd take one look at him and jump to the wrong conclusions…

"Oi! You good-for-nothing cop, stop where you are, fucker!"

A familiar voice, that of a young member Sokka himself had trained, filtered through the car's glass. The driver finally stopped the car, unlocking the doors, and the Kawakami wrestled the police officer out of the patrol car. He didn't even put up a fight.

"S-stop… stop…!" Sokka tried to speak out. He felt his lover trembling underneath him, but she didn't let her fear win against her sense of duty to him, against what needed to be done.

When a group of angry Kawakami opened their door violently, she wasted no time before saying:

"Get a stretcher, and medical help, now!"

"W-what are…?! What is…?! Sokka!"

The young member who had pulled the door open to check on the rest of the passengers broke across the noise in the scene upon calling the name of their boss's son. Most the men who had been focusing on the driver suddenly forgot all about the policeman, bloodstained as he was, and rushed to the backseat of the police car.

"Sokka…! He's been shot?!"

"Get help, now!" Sokka's savior shouted, firmly. Some of the men actually listened, while others remained frozen in place, puzzled by every element of this utterly bizarre scene…

To her chagrin, they didn't bring a stretcher but a wheelchair. She snarled, though, guessing it was better than nothing: slowly, the Kawakami men helped her place Sokka on the seat, and they ensured to continue applying pressure to the shoulder wound that still bled profusely…

"Get him inside, and call Katara!" shouted one of the likely younger leaders of the clan…

And then he pulled out a gun, aiming it right at the helmet of the woman whose urgent commands had seen Sokka pulled away, and into safety, as quickly as possible.

"And you… and your cop?" the man said, snarling at her. "You're gonna wait here and you're gonna give us some bloody answers, Homura."

She swallowed hard and closed her eyes. To this moment, her face was hidden… to what avail, she didn't know. It made no difference, not anymore…

She raised her hands defensively, the bloodied hands that had attempted to keep Sokka alive, so far. Trembling hands that barely processed the dreadful events she had only just been part of… trembling hands that had pulled that trigger and committed unforgivable treason, as far as Ozai Homura would see it. How to deny it, though? She had turned against her own men, and she'd do it again if need be… she was a traitor, and she'd be hunted down and killed by the largest yakuza clan in Japan unless the Kawakami got to her, first.

It seemed they would indeed, as they dragged her and her associate off the street, pulling them inside the Kawakami headquarters. As long as they took care of Sokka first, though, she didn't mind whatever they did to her, or where they took her…

It was well past two in the morning, and the hideout was a mess of activity and noise, of nervousness and fear. The wailing sounds of a crying woman pierced through the night too… and Sokka had wanted to appease his mother when she saw him, when her tears streamed down her face, when his sister rushed in with her medical team to sedate him and begin operating to extract the bullet as soon as possible. There was no chance for it, though… no opportunity to say things that needed to be said. Even if the opportunity had come up to do more than lock eyes with his father for one measly moment, Sokka wasn't sure he would have used it to be empathetic, considerate with their pain upon seeing him this way… no, he would have begged them not to hurt her. He would have begged them not to hurt her…

He was begging them not to hurt her. Even when he was injected with the sedative, those were the words that spilled from his lips until everything was oblivion.}

Hakoda had braced himself for the shouting, the outrage, the complaints about his reckless choices as a leader of the Kawakami. Accusations of carelessness, of putting his own son in danger for the sake of a pointless alliance with a dishonorable monster like Ozai Homura, an alliance the bastard would break at the first opportunity… and he had broken it indeed, in the space of two years. Hakoda had said all of it to himself, knowing he was in over his head… but it was worse yet now, worse than ever before, because the one paying the price was Hakoda's son.

And yet no accusations came. No arguments, no fury… there was only sadness, anguish and pain. Kya had wept in his chest, he had held her and reassured her as best he could, Katara was a practiced and remarkably skilled surgeon, she and her team had treated many gunshot wounds for the clan already… but he, as well, was filled with fear. He, as well, couldn't stop trembling until Haka returned, with a prominent scowl, to reveal the two new prisoners were in holding cells, shackled and kept under guard. They were Homura, that much was obvious… and they had come to their hideout, somehow. Not even under threat of death was Sokka likely to share the directions to their headquarters with untrustworthy foes… so either they weren't untrustworthy after all, or his wounded son hadn't been in any condition to give anyone any directions, and the damn Homura had already known where they were, beforehand. In which case… they'd have to leave. They'd have to lay low and gather their forces elsewhere, if they hoped to escape from Ozai Homura's menacing shadow…

But first, he would speak to their prisoners. He would ensure to understand how they'd gotten here at all… and what, exactly, was Ozai's motive to strike, this time.

He had left Kya begrudgingly by the door to the medical facility, although she had claimed she would be fine. He breathed deeply and marched to the first holding cell… and when the door opened, he realized the prisoner they had led him to was a woman. The others might have mentioned as much, but in such a state of panic over Sokka's wound, he hadn't paid any attention to their words until he faced the prisoner directly.

She was sitting on the floor: her hands were stained red with Sokka's blood, even now. Was it, perhaps, poetic in a sense that a Homura had bloodied their hands to keep Sokka alive, rather than doing so in an attempt to kill him? Hakoda breathed deeply, as the guards closed the metal door behind him.

The woman didn't acknowledge him, busy staring at the screen of an also bloodied phone she held in her hands… a quick glance revealed the woman was scrolling through the exchanges between the phone's owner and someone whose contact name was 'My Flame.' Hakoda's eyebrows twitched.

"You saved my son today," Hakoda said, firmly. She stopped scrolling once he spoke. "An unusual display of generosity from a Homura, I'd say… if the Homura hadn't been the ones endangering his life, in the first place. I learned of what was happening merely a few minutes before you arrived, when the others who were riding with Sokka returned on their own, without him."

"Were they safe?" she asked, simply. Hakoda nodded.

"All unharmed… save for my son."

"You have… a good team of doctors here, don't you?" she asked, a tinge of desperation in her voice as she raised her still-helmeted face towards him. "They can take care of him… save him. Can't they? If… if you need anything else, I can try to…"

"To contact the Homura, and give away our location?" Hakoda finished for her. She froze, lowering her head again. "Is that what you intend to do?"

"You already must suspect that's not the case," she answered. "Or else you would have had me killed by now."

"Don't tempt me," Hakoda hissed. "If my son doesn't survive… I won't rest until every last Homura has been bled to death."

"Good," she answered. Hakoda's eyes narrowed.

"Is this your idea of bravado, by any chance?" he asked. She shook her head.

"No sarcasm. I mean it," she whispered. "If he dies… I'll be honored to be the first to follow."

Hakoda's frown strengthened. His eyes flickered back to the phone, irritable.

"You took that from one of our men, didn't you?" he asked. "That phone. Our security system sees to it that…"

"That only the phones with proper security clearance can be functional in the premises of the headquarters," she finished for him. Hakoda nearly balked upon hearing her finishing his sentence. "If any phones that aren't part of the local network are brought inside, all communication methods will be disabled for the device."

"You seem quite knowledgeable on the subject," Hakoda hissed.

"I suppose I am," she said. Hakoda's eyes narrowed: she wasn't about to yield any useful information regarding how she'd come by a functioning phone, clearly, but that wasn't quite so important right now.

"Should we expect an army of Homura to have been following you and your friend, the policeman?" he asked. "As far as everyone understands, your lot have perfect surveillance over the entire city of Kobe, branching out all the way to Akashi… and they will have seen what you did. Whether you did it under their orders or not… you'll bring them right to our doorstep. Whether Sokka survives or not… if Ozai Homura has decided to stab me in the back, he won't stop until he has exterminated my whole clan. And you've doomed us all by bringing him here."

"He didn't want to go to a hospital," she answered, simply… before raising her head. "But beyond that, no. The Homura won't find your base just because I knew where it was."

"Then you knew, all along?" Hakoda asked, scowling.

"I knew. I've known for years," she answered, simply. "I never gave them the information, though. And they won't be able to access the databases and the surveillance system anytime soon. There are no records of what I did tonight."

"And here I thought that was why you hid your face so persistently," Hakoda said, raising an eyebrow. "That's not it, then? You're not afraid of retaliation?"

"My fears are reserved for a lot of things that matter far more than myself," she said, simply. Hakoda frowned. "I hid my face because… because I don't know what will happen, once I don't."

"Nothing will. Not under my watch," Hakoda said, firmly. "We are not Homura."

"And thank the gods for that," she said: there wasn't an ounce of sarcasm in her voice. Hakoda breathed deeply.

"The helmet. Now."

She breathed deeply but complied, setting down the phone and raising her hands to the helmet indeed. Bloodstains marked the smooth black polish as she hoisted it, slowly, over her head…

Her black hair tumbled out of the helmet immediately, in a wild disarray. Her face had always been pale, but it appeared whiter than ever before, whether out of her current anxiety and fear, or over the poor lighting in the small holding cell. Hakoda had already suspected who hid behind that helmet… but seeing it for himself didn't make matters any easier to accept. His lips parted, his fists tightened… and his blue eyes met the fierce gold ones he had only seen with vengeful fire burning in them, in the face of Ozai Homura, before…

The woman who had controlled the surveillance system, the one famed for being the true power behind the Homura clan, these days. The one who hid in the shadows, who didn't even bother to conceal her true role in her organization behind the pretenses of being a perfectly obedient yakuza woman, ever subservient in a world of men… the one with whom Sokka had arranged the alliance with the Homura, just before their clan could become a threat that the Homura might choose to stomp out of existence.

It was her, he knew, despite he had seldom seen her in the past. The woman he had seen, standing near his own son in that meeting to establish the terms of the alliance… the one who had sometimes been seen visiting Sokka in his tattoo parlor, presumably to arrange new tattoos for her clan's members, the one some Kawakami men had confessed had even been present at times during their own tattooing sessions, for no apparent reason…

Hakoda had never dared ask Sokka how he had secured that alliance. He had never truly probed his son about whatever personal relationship he had established with the Homura Princess, despite he had hoped, deeply, that it would be a professional relationship alone… for if it wasn't, the consequences could be nefarious.

Yet the woman stared at him with impassioned eyes, eyes that wouldn't belong to someone who had saved the life of a business associate. That expression, instead, could only suit one thing that came to mind, one thing he didn't even dare let formulate into a proper thought…

Sokka had been begging them not to hurt her. He had barely said anything coherent at all, explained nothing: all he had done was beg them not to hurt 'her'… not to hurt this very woman.

"I don't ask… for anything for myself," she said, her voice trembling. "Starve me here if you wish… bring me no water to wash myself with or drink, I don't care. Kill me if you must… just tell me if he's alright. Just tell me… if he survived."

"I… don't know yet. He's still in treatment, in surgery…" Hakoda said, unsure of how he could utter any words when he still remained shocked, deeply, by the full-blown revelation of the identity of the woman who had saved his son. "It was you, all along. You… Azula Homura."

"Yes… and no," Azula said. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before correcting Hakoda's words. "From this day onwards, I am not a Homura anymore."

She hadn't been briefed. She hadn't been asked to join her father in the making of a decision as crucial as that of turning against the Kawakami. She would have advised against it adamantly: that, naturally, was why she had been left out of the decision-making that day.

It was a long time coming. She had sensed the change in the wind, even if others might have found it imperceptible. Why it had begun, she didn't know. Her frequent visits to the tattoo artist had typically been done under the excuse of watching over whichever Homura member was getting a tattoo done that day or arranging future appointments. Whatever banter they exchanged during those moments had never dived into dangerous waters: no one should have thought much of it, and yet she guessed someone had. Probably someone who, rightfully, had determined that two young people as used to getting their way as she and Sokka were might just have decided they wanted each other. So much as bringing such suspicions to Ozai would be suicide, she thought… but whether Ozai had killed the messenger or not – something he was, indeed, entirely capable of –, the fact remained that he had started acting out about a year into the alliance between both clans. At first, he had behaved with subtlety, tasking her with surveillance missions that kept her confined to her office, or negotiation duties that would carry her all the way across the country. She endured it all without a hitch… until the subtlety had changed in nature when Ozai had decided, apparently, that there were more ways to forge alliances with other clans. Ways Azula had never expected he would take into consideration altogether… and yet he brought up arranging a marriage for her, blunt and simply, with the current young yead of the Tsuchiya clan.

For a year, she had fought him in silence. For a year, she had done her duty to the Homura as best she could… and yet she had constantly warned the Kawakami of dangers, taking advantage of her surveillance system to alert them of potential breaches of the terms of the alliance, all be it to ensure her father stopped underestimating the Akashi-based clan…

And on that dark night, she had found herself standing in her office, alone, with a dreadful feeling of vertigo tugging at every sense of her body, upon identifying a high-speed bike chase in her monitors. Upon identifying the riding posture of a certain man, whose dated bike still could keep up with the luxurious models used by the Homura henchmen pursuing him.

Her heart had nearly collapsed inside her chest. For too long a moment, she stood in front of those screens before making up her mind… before doing the unthinkable. But had it really been the unthinkable, when she had been ready for it when her father's behavior had started to irk her? She had suspected, at least on some level, that her association with Sokka might result in this, one day, if they were ever careless enough to be caught… she didn't think they had been, though. Ozai hadn't confronted her for her treasonous, shameless actions, for dishonoring herself with the Kawakami heir… he didn't know what she had done, not for sure. That alone was an advantage that provided her a golden chance to take action now… to finally do what needed to be done, no matter how much it might pain her.

She left everything behind. She destroyed all of it, before she did. The world she had known and cherished no longer existed by the time she finished dialing Renkai's number, instructing him to be on stand-by before she took off with her personal gun and rushed to pick a random, spare bike in the Homura's basement parking lot, intending to track them down, wherever their high-speed chase might take them.

It had been so fast and sudden… in a matter of thirty minutes or so, she had turned her back on a life she could never return to anymore. She was a traitor, even if her father would never know for sure what she had done… she had abandoned the clan, however. She had turned her back on her life as a Homura, knowing there was a chance she might have no other kind of life to look forward to anymore. Prisoner to the Kawakami now… she couldn't even resent them for it. If they decided to take out their rage against the Homura on her, she'd even welcome it…

Time ticked by in silence after Hakoda took off. The clock of the burner phone indicated three hours had passed when one of the Kawakami men pushed the door open, dropping a plate of food most unceremoniously at her feet. His bitterness wasn't answered altogether, so he stomped off, muttering something about Homura bitches before leaving. Azula didn't even blink.

She knew she shouldn't leave the food to go to waste… but she couldn't eat. The blood on her hands was dry now, and there was no way to wash it off. There were no bathroom facilities connected to this room, no toilet, which might be a problem, for she had felt nauseous a few times merely upon letting herself acknowledge that the blood on her hands belonged to him. Sometimes she could ignore it, but whenever she couldn't… she shuddered and huddled in a small ball, against the wall. Whatever happened to her, all she needed to know was that he was safe and alive, that the procedure had worked…

Five more hours passed. She had been in the holding cell for eight hours. It was already morning. Someone else came to bring more food, and he gasped upon finding the first meal remained untouched.

"Oi… I don't know how you Homura bastards do shit, but we don't poison our prisoners," growled the man. "Eat!"

"Is he…?" she started, but she couldn't finish the question before the man stormed off, leaving the food behind. "Is he alive…?"

She sighed: again, she would ignore the food. Her tense stomach wouldn't accept anything she tried to force into it, anyway.

The only thing she could do, pointless as it was, was pull up Sokka's burner phone and look through the only message thread in it. Her eyes would water eventually, her nausea over the bloodstains upon the device and her hands would never fail to rear its head… but the chance to read through the messages was enough to make her feel alive again, if only slightly. 'My flame', he had named her… the password for the device was her birthday, she had found out a couple of weeks after the alliance had begun, and she had poked no end of fun at him for being such a sentimental man. He realized not long afterwards, of course, that her own password in her burner phone was his birthday, just as well. That phone had been but another casualty in the chaos she had left in her wake, wiped and destroyed completely… so much left behind, and now only this phone remained as testament of the wonderful secret they'd kept, for two years.

"I'll be done with the assignment in two days. See you in Awaji."

"Finally. Feels like a lifetime since you could get away!"

"I know. I'll make it up to you."

"No need to be so formal about it, eh? Not with me. I'll be counting down the seconds until then."

"Really? You'll count to 172800, without losing your focus?"

"I bet I just became ten times more irresistible for you because of that."

"Oh, you have no idea…"

Their joking exchanges shouldn't have brought tears to her eyes. They wouldn't have, under any other circumstances, but they did now. She hadn't been able to fulfill that promise from months ago, in the end… her father had called her for something else, and she'd had to reschedule. No getaway to Awaji, no chances to catch their breath together and forget the dark world they came from, if just for a little while.

She scrolled back, further back, reading every silly exchange, laughing between tears at the strange jokes he often sent her. His clever, charming smirk seemed to be etched into her soul, and she couldn't let herself even fathom the notion that, as she continued to read those texts with trembling hands and tearful eyes, something could have gone wrong, something bad could have happened in the procedure, that maybe the Homura had tracked her down after all and were on their way to massacre everyone in the Kawakami hideout…

Another four hours passed. Another angry henchman stormed in, scolding her for not eating. By then, she couldn't have cared less about his fury: the phone's battery had run out. Maybe it was for the best…

The door swung open less than an hour after the last visitor had come by to retrieve the untouched trays of food. At least, Azula supposed it was less than an hour. She wasn't sure she could have fallen asleep at all, with the dreadful headache that throbbed on and off, as though her brain was being squashed inwards by her skull…

But it wasn't a henchman, this time. Her eyes reacted at last, even if groggily, upon realizing it was the same man as before… accompanied by a young woman who was close to Azula's age. She barely needed to think about it to know it was Sokka's younger sister, standing right beside her father.

"I-is he…?" Azula blurted out, her throat dry and painful. Hakoda's furrowed brow didn't reveal anything, and Azula's whole body trembled because of that. "How is he? Please… j-just tell me, is he…?"

"He's out of danger," Hakoda said, finally.

A loud gasp left her lips, and she nearly collapsed where she sat. She dropped her head, and her shoulders shook with a muffled sob: out of danger. He was alive, then… he was alive. Whatever happened next, she had fulfilled her only goal left. He lived… she would face whatever consequences might come next, as long as he lived.

Hakoda frowned as he watched her crumpling in relief before him. He had heard she had refused food, requested nothing, only ever communicating to ask if Sokka was alright, and no one had given her any answers. Her eyes had changed in that very brief moment before she hunched over to cry: the gold had suddenly come alive, with emotions he knew he had seen in the eyes of very few people in his own clan… the lucky ones whose spouses miraculously survived after near-death experiences, much like the one Sokka had undergone last night.

"He wants to see you," Katara said: Azula shuddered and raised her tearful face again, eyeing them with confusion. "But… you can't see him like this. He's recovering after a very delicate surgery, he shouldn't even be awake yet, but… the minute he was, he just started asking for you."

"Y-you don't need to… don't need to bring me to him yet, if you think it's the wrong choice," Azula said, shaking her head. "Tell him I'm fine… just tell him that, and ensure he recovers. That's what matters…"

"Well, he's probably going to be a pain if we just do that, and he won't recover at all," Katara said, matter-of-factly. "So… whether we like it or not, you have to come see him. But you're cleaning up first and changing into clean clothes: you're not about to enter a patient's recovery room dressed in your biker leathers, covered in blood and filth from the road, alright?"

Azula seemed speechless for a moment. Katara's reasoning was sound and simple and… and far too generous. She had to clean up before seeing Sokka? That was it? She wasn't keeping her from him out of distrust or disdain because she was a Homura…?

"Come," Hakoda said, with a jerk of his head. "He's not likely to settle down until he sees you. The sooner you're all clean, the better."

They had discussed this beforehand, she realized… they had decided to do this, even if it sat badly with them. Did they understand the nature of her relationship with Sokka yet? Maybe not… but they were likely to suspect it already, and even more likely to confirm said suspicions once they were in the same room again.

Whatever they'd think or say by then, what truly mattered was that they were offering her a generous opportunity she wouldn't be so stupid as to reject. Azula breathed deeply and pushed herself to her feet awkwardly, stepping closer to the door: Hakoda kept it open, and Katara stepped out first to guide Azula through the hideout.

Before long, she had wound up in a small bathroom with a proper shower system and a tub. She cleansed her hands first in the sink, then removed her clothes one by one: her torn shirt fell among the leathers she dropped in a basket intended for clothes to be washed… though she suspected her favored attire would find itself incinerated rather than cleaned up. The thought brought back the memory of the burner phone: she fished it out of the clothes and she attempted to wipe the blood off with a damp cloth before starting her shower properly.

The tub went unused: she rinsed everything with the showerhead alone, rubbing soap hurriedly over her body, pouring some unknown shampoo over her hair in an unnaturally reckless manner. Never had she been so dismissive with her hair, but the circumstances allowed none of the vanity she usually could even take pride on. Her hair would be chaotic once it dried up without even attempting to tame it with her usual creams for that purpose, she would wear no make-up… and once Katara returned with a tracksuit for her to wear, it was clear that there would be no sign of the characteristic elegance of Azula Homura once she stepped out of the bathroom. Still, she thanked the other woman quietly before making to dress up in this new attire.

Katara sighed, stepping out of the bathroom with what Hakoda could only identify as resignation. He raised an eyebrow and his daughter grimaced.

"They were totally together, for all this time," she said, bluntly. Hakoda sighed, rubbing his eyebrows with an irritable gesture. "It's not like I was really trying to look, but… she has one of his tattoos all across her body, dad."

"Unsurprisingly," Hakoda said. "Bet she's the one who tested him personally back when the alliance began."

"Surely. But… you saw it too, didn't you?" Katara said, eyeing her father warily. "The look on her face, when you said he was alive…"

"It was the same look as the wives of many men you've saved from the brink of death before, yes," Hakoda said, uneasily. Katara grimaced.

"She's probably sacrificed more than any of us can imagine to come all this way, Dad. I wouldn't usually advise on trusting a Homura, I'd sooner shoot myself in the foot…"

"Please, don't. Bad enough to have a son with a gunshot wound in his shoulder to also have a daughter shooting herself in the foot to make a point…"

"I…! It's a figure of speech, though a bad one, fair enough," Katara grimaced, running a hand over her hair. "I'm just saying, though… those two may have been lying to us for ages, but it doesn't look like their relationship is as shallow as I would have expected it to be, if I'd learned of it in any other way. I know, yes, it's possible she's still here as a Homura spy, they always have tricky and treacherous plans and there's no trusting them altogether, but…"

"We'll see how it goes," Hakoda said, simply, placing his hands on his daughter's shoulders. "None of us can be sure of anything yet. For now…"

The bathroom door opened, and he raised his gaze to find that, even while this was the least flattering outfit and appearance with which she had ever been seen in public, the former Homura Princess carried herself with as much dignity as she could afford. Katara turned quickly, assessing Azula's appearance and confirming she was properly clean now.

"Alright… uh, wait, you need slippers," Katara pointed out, smiling awkwardly before dashing off to find the only missing element in Azula's outfit.

Azula followed her with her gaze before raising her eyes to Hakoda. The man still watched her uneasily, and she didn't blame him for it in the slightest, but even so…

"Could… could the bullet be extracted safely?" she asked. "Or is it still inside…?"

"It came close to hitting vital arteries," Hakoda said, without sugarcoating his words. Azula flinched. "It was a complicated process, and Katara says a single surgery might not be enough to reconstruct everything that was damaged."

"Does she expect it will be possible?" Azula asked, uneasy. "That… he might be able to recover fully? Even if it takes time…?"

"She has hope, but… she also said it's possible his right arm may never be the same," Hakoda said, bitterly. "Which means…"

He didn't need to say it. Azula's hand tightened by her heart, her whole body shivering painfully. Yes, Sokka was a yakuza, Hakoda's heir… but he was a tattoo artist. He had spent years developing the skill, he was so passionate about it too, and now…

Her body still carried, and always would carry, the splendid work he had done with what he had called her soul's dragon. It was a masterpiece… and it was possible he'd never be able to tattoo anyone else, ever again. She clenched her fists, lowering her gaze. Had she gotten there sooner, if she only had reacted faster and taken off without wasting a single moment… but if she'd done that, her father would have had her stopped. He might have been able to follow her through the camera system… he would have confirmed his every suspicion and brought hell upon them all. She had done the right thing, for the sake of the Kawakami clan… and she suspected Sokka would believe so, too. But would she ever truly convince herself of that, if her choices happened to have cost him the use of his right arm, forever?

Katara returned then, setting down the slippers in front of her. Azula moved slowly as she clad her feet in them, still trembling, still uneasy, still fearful of having succeeded and failed on equal measure as Hakoda and Katara led her through their headquarters anew…

Finally, they stopped at another metal door, in one of the building's topmost floors. Katara pushed the door open without hesitation, while Azula stood with uncertainty at the threshold of the bright room: light poured in from the windows, falling upon a spacious room, occupied by bookshelves and some furniture, a low table that surely could serve as a kotatsu in the winter… yet the main element that drew everyone's attention was the large bed, at the side of which were several comfortable chairs. A woman sat on one of them, and she raised her gaze quickly to find her daughter marching back into the room, placing a comforting hand upon her shoulder…

Azula trembled violently as her attention was claimed entirely by the bed, though: sitting upright against numerous cushions, with IVs connected to his left arm, through which a blood transfusion flowed into his body, was the man whose life she had saved last night… the man whose very life had saved hers, just as well.

He seemed to disregard his sister's return entirely when their eyes finally met… and that beautiful, blissful smile spread over his face once again. She couldn't answer with a grin of her own: her chest tightened with the overwhelming emotions she couldn't exteriorize through anything but spilling tears.

"S-Sokka…" she blurted out, shuddering as she marched inside the room, forgetting completely that they weren't alone. He didn't appear to remember it any more than she did, though, smiling in profound relief to see her anew.

"There you are… there you are…" he laughed, though a streak of pain crossed his face as she approached his free bedside, her trembling fingers reaching for his face.

"Don't… d-don't laugh, don't talk too much if it hurts, Sokka, please…" she said, letting her eyes shift towards the heavily bandaged right shoulder… the arm in a sling, kept that way so he wouldn't move it as often as he usually did. His favored arm, damaged so badly by a single, damned bullet…

"C'mon… you should see the… the other guys," he said, with an awkward grimace. "Well… no, never mind that, you probably shouldn't."

"You set a bunch of them on fire, didn't you?" Azula asked, with a weak grin.

"And you… you shot the other ones?" Sokka asked. Azula's smile faded when she nodded in response to his question. "Woah, girl…"

"Don't even… don't worry about any of it right now, okay?" she said: her hands rose to either side of his face, caressing his cheekbones delicately with her thumbs. "It's not important. You're safe now… your family will look after you. They already have, so… you'll be okay, Sokka. You will be…"

"I am… but most of all, because you're here," he said, smiling gently at her. Azula trembled, shutting her eyes tightly in a hopeless bid to contain the tears. Sokka chuckled. "Oh, but I hate this… I want to hug you so bad. Can't we slow down the blood transfusion so…?"

"Don't even think about it," Katara growled, and Sokka's dismissive groan actually brought Azula to do what she didn't expect she would, in years, at least: she laughed, and Sokka smiled warmly at the familiar sound he loved so dearly.

"It's up to me to find an alternative way to appease you, then?" she asked, leaning closer to Sokka.

"I'm afraid so. Doctor's orders," Sokka smirked.

Azula's earnest, sad smile faded when she brought their lips together: it didn't matter one bit that they weren't alone, for once. It didn't matter if his family deserved answers, countless answers… nothing mattered as much as sharing that fragile, heartfelt kiss did. Sokka breathed out in delighted relief once it ended, but he leaned in again, wanting more… and Azula complied, on and on until he was satisfied, though she feared he never might be. She, as well, might never want to stop, at this rate. It was him, and he could still kiss her back, and it seemed it was all he even wanted to do anymore…

His left hand's fingers brushed her elbow suddenly, and Azula pulled back with a start. Sokka groaned, and she shot him a chiding, if still affectionate look, before taking his left hand delicately and lowering it back into position.

"Bad Sokka. Stay put," she said, with an honest smile by then. Sokka chuckled and shrugged.

"Had to try…"

"No, you didn't. Silly," she said, pressing a kiss to his forehead… then another to the side of his head, and then she simply placed her forehead gently upon his uninjured shoulder, feeling his heart beating against her lips. It was much slower than usual… but he would be okay. He would survive, he already had…

"I was… so ready to get out of here and hit everyone with my IV's stand if they'd done anything stupid to you…" Sokka whispered. Azula smiled and shook her head as she rose up again. "I mean it…"

"They didn't do anything wrong. I wouldn't have blamed them for it, even if they had," she confessed, stroking his hair delicately. "For all they knew… I could even be at fault for what happened."

"Were you?"

Hakoda's voice cut across the moment shared between the two lovers. Sokka's calm demeanor shifted, protectiveness surging in his blue glare. He couldn't do anything dangerous right now, confined to his bed as he was… but he would absolutely speak his mind if his father dared say anything untoward about Azula right now.

Azula sighed, pulling away from Sokka… yet clasping his left hand as she took her seat on the edge of the mattress. All three of his family members sat on the other side, watching her intently, with varying degrees of distrust and confusion.

"If you mean… did I outright tell my father I have had a relationship with your son for the past two years? I did not," Azula said, earnestly. Hakoda's eyebrows twitched at her blatant confirmation of their suspicions, despite their spree of kisses had certainly confirmed them too. "But…"

"He thought something was up?" Katara asked. Azula nodded.

"He started by giving me strange assignments he never had before… aimed at keeping me out of Kobe and Akashi for long periods of time. Then… he attempted to arrange marriages for me, with other clans."

Sokka tensed up, tightening his grip around Azula's fingers. She caressed his hand reassuringly, shaking her head in his direction.

"I got out of each deal through different means, every time," she said. "I never told you because…"

"You thought I'd do something stupid?" Sokka asked. "Like… punch whoever your dad wanted you to marry?"

"Or asked him to let you marry me, yourself," Azula said, gritting her teeth. "He had never done anything like this before. I don't know what gave him any reasons to suspect, I really don't, to this moment, but… I did everything in my power to give him the slip. I've seen you so sparsely over the last months because I hoped to prevent things from escalating by keeping you at bay. It didn't work, goes without saying. Yesterday, he sent me on another errand, and I returned to find he'd held a meeting without me. A meeting where…"

"Where he decided the alliance with the Kawakami clan was ripe to be broken, perhaps?" Hakoda asked, scowling. Azula nodded.

"I don't know the full details… I don't know anything for sure. But when I… when I entered my office and saw the camera feeds, Sokka and his men were already being chased. I… I could have gotten there sooner, but…"

"But?" Hakoda asked. Azula breathed deeply… before confessing the ultimate sin upon which she had chosen to stake her abandonment of the Homura clan.

"I wouldn't let him find us. He might not have been half as good as I am with the cameras, but… he could have tracked us down, if I went to save Sokka immediately," Azula said, swallowing hard. "I destroyed everything."

"Everything…?" Sokka repeated. Azula nodded, lowering her head.

"The security, the camera network, every single server… every system I ever developed and improved upon has been deleted with no hope of recovery," she said. Hakoda's eyes widened. Katara gasped, and Kya gazed at her in wonderment… Sokka's hand tightened, and she eased it by touching the back of it gently. "There's no track of my movements… no way for them to know who, exactly, saved Sokka, even if it might be obvious. Every Homura in the scene… was dead."

"Sokka said you shot the ones who wounded him…?" Katara remarked. Azula nodded.

"Then Renkai ran them over… oh, Renkai," Azula said, gritting her teeth. "He's the police officer who…"

"He's in another holding cell. He eats more than you do, at least," Hakoda said. Sokka's eyes narrowed.

"What's that? You haven't eaten?" he asked, nudging her gently. Azula grimaced. "Azula…"

"I wasn't hungry. I can try to eat something later… I couldn't before," she said, shaking her head. "Renkai is… he's been an ally for the Homura for over ten years. But once I took over in charge of security, he's become loyal to me. He was aware of the risks, but he helped anyway…"

"And he's not a spy for the Homura, then? We can let him go free and nothing bad will happen?" Hakoda asked, skeptical.

"To you? Not particularly," she said. "I was his main contact, but I wasn't the only Homura who knew him. Those who know of him will likely lynch him if they find out he had any involvement in the chase last night."

"That sounds… horrific," Katara frowned, glancing at her father in disbelief. "Then we're keeping him safe by keeping him our prisoner?"

"Sounds like it. No real surprise there, though. That's what the Homura tend to be like," Hakoda huffed, shaking his head. "Are there any other allies of yours who could be in any danger? Others we might need to help you protect?"

"They should be safe," Azula said, simply. Hakoda frowned. "Without my database, my father won't be able to track them down. He may attempt to rebuild one from scratch, but he won't have enough information about them to hunt down anyone else."

"You're ridiculously effective, if this is true," Hakoda said, tapping his elbow with a finger as his arms remained crossed before his chest. "Though… it doesn't quite tell us what will happen, from this point on. The alliance is over, that much seems to be the sole truth… it will be worse yet if your father gets to spin matters, as he likely would attempt to, into pathetic lies about how we, the Kawakami, found you and took you captive, to rile up public opinion against the Kawakami…"

"Go public with Sokka's injury well before they can say anything else," Azula said, glancing at Hakoda firmly. "Don't reveal how it happened… play the victim, you can keep my father in check that way. The Kawakami have had far better press and reputation than the Homura ever since the earthquake, and it drives him mad… you're far more believable than he is. Nobody would choose to trust his word over yours, let alone if you speak out first."

"It'd leave him in a chaotic position, wouldn't it?" Sokka said. "The alliance is still official, no matter if he's tossing it away. And… would he even want to go public about your disappearance at all, when you destroyed every Homura system? Maybe pretending we were poaching you from them would let him save face, to a fault…"

"Not the best way to spin things, considering the blood ties involved… he pushed me away himself," Azula said, firmly. "I had no intentions of turning against the Homura until… until I started sensing his intent. That's why I set up the self-destructive mechanism in my servers. I would have stayed loyal to him and the clan if he hadn't decided to destroy you."

"You've been helping the Kawakami for the past years, haven't you?" Kya asked. Azula clenched her jaws and nodded. "All those tips Sokka shared, to prevent conflicts and strengthen our position in certain places… it was your doing, wasn't it?"

"I… wanted the alliance to work," she whispered, lowering her gaze. "I didn't know anything but a life as a Homura, but…"

"But then an annoying tattoo artist stepped into your field of vision in Matsugaoka Park," Sokka said, teasingly. Azula smiled and nodded.

"And then he decided to take up permanent residence in my mind, I suppose, because I could never stop thinking about him," she whispered. "I know it's stupid in many ways, that so much has happened and changed because, well…"

"Because we fell for each other," Sokka finished. Azula sighed and nodded.

"But I can't pretend otherwise anymore. I'm done lying to the world about us," Azula said, lowering her gaze. "It shouldn't have taken something so awful for me to make this choice, but…"

"You shouldn't have had to choose between me and your family," Sokka said. Azula shook her head.

"Maybe not, but I've made that choice. Otherwise… I wouldn't be sitting here now," she said. "I don't know what comes next, but… as long as you're alive and safe, I can face whatever's coming without fear. I can abandon my last name… I can abandon my clan. But I won't turn my back on you."

"Hmm… figuratively, I take it," Sokka grinned. "I do like to see that dragon on your back, after all…"

"Heh… so stuck up of you to say so. It's your own handiwork…" she smiled, and Sokka chuckled mischievously.

"And it's the best tattoo I've ever done, hands down. I think I'm entitled to be proud of it," he said, stroking her fingers with a thumb. Azula smiled warmly at him, no matter how choked up she was upon hearing those words.

"Well, now… the two of you clearly have had a relationship for a fairly long time," Hakoda said, breathing out slowly. "Not sure when it began, but if it really has been going on since the beginning of the alliance…"

"Before it," Sokka clarified. Azula actually blushed, closing her eyes as she hoped, deeply, that Sokka wouldn't recklessly tell his family that his first week spent tattooing a Homura had been as unprofessional as it had been…

"Heh. Either way…" Hakoda sighed, rubbing his forehead with his fingertips, turning to Azula in particular. "The situation we're in is precarious. While your suggestions are sound, I can't say I'm sure it will keep your wretched father at bay forever. Whether he lost his temper because he had suspicions or actual evidence of what was happening between you… this is but an excuse, isn't it? In the end… he just wanted any reason at all to crush the Kawakami. If he had genuine evidence of your relationship, he might have gone public with it in a negative way, perhaps framing things in a twisted way…"

"Pretending I took advantage of his daughter, or so?" Sokka asked, frowning. Azula clenched her jaws.

"It wouldn't be beyond him," she acknowledged. Hakoda sighed. "But… you're right, yes. From the start, he only agreed to the alliance with the Kawakami because I pushed for it. At first, he ordered me to do away with your attempts to reach out to the Homura, and so I did, but after the earthquake…"

"Everything changed by then," Sokka mumbled, closing his eyes as he recalled the beginnings of his complicated, chaotic and delightful relationship with Azula.

"Your clan became too prominent, too famous and notorious to be squashed meaninglessly," Azula said. "Sokka reached out to me, requested a meeting, I acquiesced, and I would have had to shut him down entirely if his proposal with the tebori hadn't been a rather compelling argument. Even then, my father expected, even hoped, that I would conclude there was nothing of value to be found in this association… and yes, he mainly agreed to it for the sake of strengthening our clan's reputation and public perception. He never truly saw you as threats… he thought you were too weak to amount to a problem at first, and right now he must believe you're gaining too much strength on your own, which makes the Kawakami a problem to be rid of. Unfortunately… my relationship with Sokka may have provided him with the perfect excuse, at least as far as the rest of the clan is concerned, to strike. That's why, if you come forward first, you can control the narrative. Make the first move while he's still grappling with the utter destruction of the Homura's every technological system, and you'll have enough room to breathe and make your next choice."

"The next choice, however… is one I think we need to discuss already," Hakoda said, frowning heavily. "Your presence among us is a hazard, Azula Homura… if I should still call you that at all. As long as you're here…"

"She's not going anywhere," Sokka declared, harshly. Hakoda frowned.

"Maybe all of us will have to, not just her," he said, sternly. "I know, Sokka… I know this is, ultimately, my doing. I asked you to secure this alliance, knowing full well that Ozai might decide to betray me, and yet I wanted you to do it all the same. In the end, my choices had consequences that nearly saw me losing you… that could have seen me losing my entire clan if Azula hadn't destroyed her surveillance system as she did. What I'm saying is, though… she's gone now. Ozai will grow aware of her defection sooner than later, if he didn't catch onto it immediately when it happened. He will attempt to find her, for sure… and his only potential lead is us. Therefore…"

"I'll end up bringing him down on your clan, perhaps?" Azula asked, frowning. Sokka grimaced and shook his head, though his shoulder pained him for the gesture.

"We'll fight back. Without you, he's never going to have an advantage over us. Everyone said it: you're the true strength of the Homura," Sokka said, stubbornly. Azula grimaced. "Without your strategic mind and your intelligence…"

"I admit I made my clan efficient, yes," Azula said, closing her eyes. "I planned ahead, I had resources at my disposal that most people could only ever dream of, I strategized for the sake of ensuring we would remain safe and strong at the head of the yakuza underworld. But that doesn't mean I was the entire power of the Homura, Sokka. I know why you see it that way, but…"

"He'll be slower, at least. He won't be as efficient, you've said it just now," Sokka said, firmly. "While he's finding his bearings…"

"You'll be recovering," Katara said, firmly. Sokka flinched at her stern tone. "I'd advise for us to have this big family discussion later, or outside, if it weren't because I know you'll never get a moment's rest if you know you're being kept out of the decision-making. I know this is urgent… but you aren't about to be in the frontlines for this, Sokka. No matter what."

"I… ugh. I'm not going to fight, fine, but I won't have us sending Azula away anywhere else," Sokka growled. "Whatever I have to do… I'm keeping her safe. I'm going to protect her."

"Sokka…" Azula said, eyeing him sadly. "You don't have to protect me. No one does. I… I did what I needed to do. I don't know what's going to happen next, but as long as you're safe…"

"Come on… no more of that," Sokka said, looking at her sternly. "You are the brains of the Homura. I know we're both… shaken and hurt. This shit in my shoulder… I don't even want to think about it, or I'll go insane. So… let's think about what matters, shall we? Let's… let's plan for the future, now. You're the genius of the Homura… so tell me: what will your father do next?"

"He… he'll try to spin this in the media in some way that makes himself look like the victim unless you speak out first," Azula said. Sokka nodded.

"Yeah, and we'll do what you advised. Right, Dad?"

"It's the soundest choice, yes," Hakoda acknowledged.

"What will happen after that?" Sokka glanced at Azula. She grimaced.

"Depending on the public reaction to your declaration, he will continue to chase down the Kawakami either now or in a few months," Azula said, grinding her teeth. "It should give you enough time to strengthen your defenses and prepare yourselves for the likely war this will turn into…"

"What about you? What will he do about you?"

"He… will try to find me. Probably punish me once he does, I suppose he…" she started, but she fell silent then.

She couldn't tell Sokka what she truly expected Ozai might do in retaliation for her betrayal… but everyone knew the Homura's particular brand of punishment wasn't the traditional yakuza finger mutilation: it was fire. If given the chance, her father would certainly take advantage of that tradition of the Homura clan to get rid of the greatest evidence of Azula's crime, evidence that spread all across her body in the shape of a beautiful dark dragon…

"It's not going to happen," Sokka said, reassuringly. Azula swallowed hard and nodded. "Is there… any sort of alibi you could resort to, maybe? You could… pretend to leave the country? Like your uncle did? That story is true, isn't it?"

"It… it is," Azula frowned, glancing at Sokka: her previous apprehension suddenly was replaced with curiosity, with determination… Sokka's heart jolted at the sight of those familiar, beautiful emotions in the eyes of the woman he loved. "I could likely reach out to him… if someone's bound to understand my predicament, it's him. We were never close, but…"

"But he had to flee the nation out of fear of retaliation from the Homura clan after he abandoned it," said Hakoda. "He knows what it's like to be hunted by his brother… by your father."

"I can contact him… I can try, at least. I may be able, perhaps, to find a decoy I can send all the way to Korea in my stead," Azula said, her eyes narrow as she pondered the possibilities. "I do have a few…"

"A few… what? Decoys?" Katara asked, puzzled. Azula shrugged.

"Alter egos, actually," she said, startling the rest of the family. "I… I know this will sound mental to all of you, but it's a matter of safety: hiding behind other identities helped me protect the assets and resources of the Homura. There are some that would inevitably be linked easily to the Homura… but I had a few others that were never used. If I take advantage of one of them, someone else may be able to travel to Korea and then, once there, pretend to be me. I could alter photographs to make it look legitimate, and my father would have very little chances to track me down this way. It might not make him lose interest altogether in finding me… but it should help if he can't pretend the Kawakami have kidnapped me and use that as an excuse to attack your clan."

"Good… good," Hakoda said, nodding firmly. "But you'd stay here… with us?"

Azula froze at the question. She had, somehow, been operating under the understanding that she would, indeed, remain with the Kawakami clan despite not having any genuine reason to think so. They hadn't invited her, though Sokka had clearly decided they weren't sending her elsewhere… and he stared at Hakoda as though the man were stating the obvious, despite Azula only realized it wasn't quite so obvious right now.

"Where else would you even send her?" Sokka huffed. "If that's what you're trying to say, Dad…"

"I'm not sure. I don't know if she'll be in danger with us," Hakoda admitted, with a shrug. "There's a few reasons why it's probably not a great idea, among which stands the fact that the general Kawakami sentiment towards the Homura, right now, is hostility…"

"She abandoned her clan to save my life," Sokka said, frowning heavily. "If anyone is antagonistic towards her after that, then they can go on ahead and tell me they'd rather I was dead, to my face."

"I don't think that's how most of them are thinking of it, Sokka," Hakoda sighed. "The chase yesterday was bad enough, a few of the men are up in arms about it… even if she saved you, it wouldn't be easy for them to trust her. It isn't all that easy for anyone but you, Sokka…"

"Because you don't know her," Sokka declared, stubbornly. "If she goes, I go. Simple as that."

"Sokka…" Azula looked at him pleadingly, and he shook his head.

"You abandoned your clan for my sake: you think I'm not going to have it in me to do the same for you?" he said, clenching her hand tightly, as tightly as he could with his weakened body. "Not a chance. Azula, I…"

"There's no need to be so dramatic, is there…?" Hakoda sighed. Azula's heart churned when Sokka fell silent, irritably so, after his father had cut him off. "I'm not saying I'm kicking her out. I'm saying… if she's going to stay, it won't be easy for her to earn our people's trust. Even after everything she's done for us, and admittedly, it is a lot… even then, some might doubt her."

"And I won't blame them for that," Azula said, breathing deeply. "I have to prove myself, don't I? I'd need to do something so important and significant for the clan so they think I can be invaluable, perhaps…"

"Sounds easy enough," Sokka huffed, and Azula raised an eyebrow. "You're a genius, like I said. You can strengthen the security systems here, right? I mean, without even doing it directly, you already have…"

"The security measures for our headquarters' networks… they're your doing?" Hakoda asked, despite he had already suspected as much after Azula had recited what she had, when he had first spoken to her in her holding cell. Azula nodded.

"I gave Sokka the source code for the programs, helped him refine it at a distance…" she said, simply. "If… if you were wondering why the phone I had still worked, well…"

She pulled it out of her tracksuit's pocket, poorly cleansed from blood: Sokka identified it immediately.

"This is… how Sokka and I communicated for the past two years. We had burner phones, both of us…" Azula explained, swallowing hard. "I left mine in my office, purged it from all information, along with everything else. Everything I owned, it… stayed behind."

"Azula…" Sokka's eyes widened. Azula shook her head.

"When I reached him… I had to call Renkai, though he was already on his way. I found Sokka's own burner phone and used that to call him. Then I kept it afterwards. So… no, I didn't steal it from any of your other boys. Sokka knew I had his phone… and it was registered in the security system because it's his. It's really that simple."

Hakoda frowned but nodded. None of the clan members had claimed to have lost a phone during yesterday's scandalous ordeals, and that Azula's device was still functioning meant it couldn't have been her own phone, indeed…

"I suppose I'll have to hold onto it for now, though," she said, smiling weakly at Sokka as she pocketed the phone again. "I doubt you're in any shape for any phone games."

"Don't underestimate my childishness," Sokka huffed, bringing a genuine smile to Azula's face as his thumb brushed against her knuckles gently. "But anyway… you're saying, Dad, that the others need to trust Azula. That you, as well, need to trust her but you don't yet?"

"I'm afraid so," Hakoda said, nodding. Sokka frowned.

"I know her better than any of you, so… clearly, nobody else can trust her as much as I can," he said. "But… aren't there enough signs that suggest she means us no harm? That she's not some sort of Homura secret agent waiting for us to drop our guard to continue stabbing us in the back?"

"There are several signs that suggest as much, yes, but…" Hakoda sighed, brushing his hair with a hand as he dropped on a chair at last, beside Kya.

"Azula… since when have you known the location of the Kawakami headquarters?" Sokka asked, point-blank. Hakoda, Kya and Katara jumped at the question, and Azula grimaced.

"Sokka…"

"You've known for years, right?" he asked. "You must have. I didn't give you directions to it, and yet you brought me here without a hitch. Meaning… your surveillance system must have at least directed you to where it was, long before this happened. Right?"

Azula sighed but nodded, hanging her head. The other three Kawakami stared at her in silent fear and confusion, as Sokka stroked her hand gently anew.

"In all that time… however long it was," Sokka said, with a careless shrug. "In all that time, Azula could have had our position revealed to Ozai. In all that time, she gave me countless tips whenever something sketchy and dangerous happened in Kawakami territory. Our increased effectiveness… it was in no small part her doing. If she had wanted to stab us in the back… she would have done it ages ago. She could have done it just as easily when the alliance had barely begun. The damage she dealt to the Homura… nobody else could have done that. She shouldn't have done it either, if just because that's her clan… and yet she chose to protect us, instead."

Azula shuddered, clinging to his hand. She didn't know whether she wanted him to go on, or to stop talking at once. Yes, he was right about everything he was saying… and she hadn't ever made any choices that could hurt the Kawakami, instead protecting their clan as best she could… because it was his clan. Because he belonged to them, just as she had belonged to the Homura.

And now, she belonged to nothing and no one. She was a flag, torn from its post, swaying aimlessly in the air, with no set destination, merely basking in that last flight before falling on the ground, to be trampled on carelessly.

"If you need more than that… well, that's your prerogative. But I don't. I trust Azula with my life… literally, as you saw yesterday," Sokka said, earnestly. "And she… she is every bit as much my family as all of you."

"Sokka…?" Katara blinked blankly, staring at him in surprise at those words. Kya, who had been mostly silent so far, also appeared perplexed by her son's sudden declaration.

"What do you mean…?" Kya asked, glancing at the also confused Azula next…

The former Homura Princess stared at Sokka, her heart racing again as his blue eyes, ever so clear and intense, glistened with emotion and determination:

"Let's get married, Azula."

His proposal hung in the air for a moment in which he showed no hesitation, despite Azula didn't respond immediately. She remained frozen, speechless beside him, her hands trembling around his…

"Y-you… did you just propose to her?!" Katara exclaimed, looking at Sokka in disbelief. "In front of…? Okay, don't you think you should've waited to do that when we were all gone? Or told us to leave, or…?!"

"Well, I'm not ashamed of asking her to marry me, so it made no difference to me," Sokka pouted, blushing regardless of his stubborn response, as Katara continued to grapple with reality.

"You're asking Azula Homura to… w-wait. But that way…" Katara frowned.

"That way she won't be a Homura anymore, yes," Sokka said, gazing at Azula intensely. "She won't owe them her allegiance… she won't owe her father anything he might demand of her."

"B-but…" Azula blinked blankly, shivering violently. "Sokka, we're not any random people who can just make up their minds to get married without consequence. I… I don't think I could possibly marry you without their approval."

She cast a wary glance at Hakoda and Kya, to find both appeared utterly speechless right now. Well, better that than outright protest, she supposed…

"If they don't want you to be a Kawakami, then fine, I won't be one either," Sokka declared, pouting stubbornly anew. "Yup, I already said so! You've got to decide: you get either both of us or none, there's no middle ground…!"

"Sokka, she hasn't even said yes yet!" Katara pointed out, and her wounded brother froze in place before glancing warily at Azula… who finally had taken her eyes off him.

"U-uh… okay, I got ahead of myself. Kind of assumed you'd just say yes, but it's true that you haven't yet…" he said, biting his lip. "I… I get it if it's hard to wrap your head around the idea of being a Kawakami, Azula, I really do. It's not something you can take for granted, you have always been a Homura and maybe you'll think you always will be one, so…"

"Y-you're just…" Azula managed to say… before her shoulders shook suddenly, interrupting her words.

She raised a hand to her mouth, and for a moment Sokka's heart sank, once he saw tears in the corners of her eyes… and then he heard a sound that could only be laughter. Her laughter. He blinked blankly.

"A-Azula…?" he called her, dubitative, as she continued to sob and laugh at the same time, shivering in place over the strength of the emotions he inflicted upon her. "Did I say something really stupid…?"

Her laughter only strengthened at his question, and he froze again as he wondered what to do: soon enough, though, he found that his father was smiling… his mother covered her mouth with a hand too, attempting and failing to stifle her own laughter. Katara seemed just as confused and puzzled as he was, but somehow, the mood had shifted quite radically inside his room, until it was now the full opposite of what it had been earlier…

At last, Azula managed to speak again, somehow, between a chaotic mix of laughter and sobs:

"Y-you have to be the only person in this whole planet who… who can take a situation as awful as this one and…" she said, dabbing at her eyes as she laughed still. "And turn it into a sudden marriage proposal. You're utterly mad…"

"Hey, now…" Sokka smiled fondly at her, as Azula covered her mouth and laughed again, far more spiritedly, despite tears continued to pour down her cheeks. "Want me to be honest? I've thought about it for ages. Probably since the minute I laid eyes upon you…! No, wait, even before that! Katara, you were the one who put the idea in my head!"

"What? Hey…! I didn't have anything to do with that!" Katara huffed, looking at her brother with amused disbelief.

"You outright asked me if I wanted to reach out to her to arrange our marriage!" Sokka reminded her, as Katara barked with indignant laughter – all of which only strengthened Azula's own laughter, as well as Hakoda and Kya's. "I hadn't even thought about it, hadn't even met her, but then you said it, and I couldn't just NOT think about it at that point…!"

"Oh, you're impossible," Katara laughed, shaking her head as she wandered the room, hands in her hair. Sokka grinned proudly before glancing at Azula again.

Leaning down over the bed as she was now, she still laughed… and yet her lips brushed gently against the back of his hand, delicately, pressing kisses upon his knuckles and fingers so kindly it felt like the caress of a whisper. Sokka smiled as she raised her head, beautiful golden eyes tearful and emotional and… and alive. Above all things, alive with wonderment, with enthusiasm, with willingness to take the next step he had hoped to present for her.

"I… I don't know if this is really a good idea," she said. Sokka smiled fondly at her and shook his head gently, as though to dissuade her from her fears. "It might be a mess. Your clan might still think I… I'm not good enough for you, or…"

"Not up to them to decide that, as far as I can tell," Sokka grinned. "Maybe it's because of this near-death experience, Azula, I don't know, but… I'm done beating around the bush and waiting for the universe to align for us. I should've asked this question ages ago… we should've talked about it before, yeah. But you saved my life, and now that I get to live on, thanks to you? That's the one thing I know I want to do. I know it'll be hard, but… that's what it boils down to, in the end: so, how about you? What do you want, Azula?"

She trembled for a moment, before her racing heart seemed to finally answer the question for her: Azula's smile strengthened, and a soft laugh left her lips anew.

"What do I want…?" she whispered. "Nobody ever bloody thinks to ask me that question but you, damn it…"

"Is it a good thing or a bad thing?" he asked. Azula laughed and shook her head.

"A terrible thing, clearly," she said, sarcastically. Sokka grinned, as she caressed his knuckles again. "What do I want, then…? I… I guess…"

Why was she even afraid of saying the words out loud, fool that she was? She laughed at herself, shaking her head at her insecurities… at her childish urge to savor the situation as best she could. To take in this strange moment, so distant from ideal, for a myriad of reasons…

And yet it was the happiest moment of disbelieving bliss she had ever experienced. Her eyes glistened as she raised them to Sokka, her trembling grip smooth over his hand as she smiled warmly at him.

"I want… to be Azula Kawakami."

It was his turn to smile slowly, little by little until his grin seemed to light up the room even further. A happy laugh burst from his lips, and he certainly winced because of the pain on his shoulder, but he laughed regardless, watching as Azula leaned in, kissing his hand one more time before hoisting herself further, so she could catch his lips with her own. Yet again, he wanted to hold her so badly… but he contained the urge, unwilling to damage the moment by being impulsive, even if it was a matter of impulsiveness, all around. He kissed her back as powerfully as he possibly could, wounded and bedridden as he remained, basking in her answer… basking in her choice, in the happiness she exhibited as their kiss parted, as she laughed beautifully against his lips.

"Oh, goodness," Hakoda smiled, shaking his head at the young couple before him. "I'm not going to object, alright? But I do have to say… we're going to have to plan this very thoroughly. Still… I'll do as you said, Azula. First, I'll release information about Sokka's attack. We can discuss everything else later… Sokka needs his rest, after all."

"Hmm… how long 'til this transfusion thing is done?" Sokka groaned, looking at Katara helplessly. She rolled her eyes at his childish disregarding of something so crucial and important to ensure his body continued to work well.

"Hugging your fiancée will be possible in about an hour or two, alright?" she said, smiling at him in disbelief. "You're really crazy, asking her that in front of your whole family…"

"Oh, now, I would've done it in front of the whole clan if I hadn't been shot at all," Sokka laughed. "Big firework display, a whole ceremonial procedure first, then I'd have joined a big brawl with the rest of the guys in the clan so that, if I was the last man standing, I'd have the right to ask her to marry me…!"

"What sort of ridiculous nonsense are you even…?!" Katara sputtered out, as Azula broke out in unabashed laughter anew, dropping her head on the pillow beside Sokka as he chuckled proudly, too. "No, Azula, we DON'T do that sort of wacky shit to propose to people in the Kawakami clan! Goodness, Sokka, what sort of ideas are you trying to put into her head…?!"

"Hey, now, she thinks it's funny! I bet she'd have enjoyed it, even," he grinned, glancing at Azula with unabashed amusement.

"Watching you punching the lights out of people might sound fun but… for a marriage proposal, it sounds incredibly stupid," Azula confessed, chuckling still.

Sokka joined her laughter, pressing a quick kiss to the top of her head, wishing yet again that he could hold her properly… but basking in their current happiness, all the same. Life certainly was about to grow incredibly complicated, at this point in time… but now that Azula would join them for good, Sokka couldn't help but disregard sense and caution upon knowing they would no longer hide, no longer meet in secret… they would be together, openly, if only before the Kawakami. No more pretenses, no more scurrying around under Ozai Homura's watchful glare… finally, they were free to be together.

There were many loose ends for them to deal with, final problems that needed to be tied up neatly for their plan to be executed flawlessly. Once Katara convinced Sokka to get proper rest while the transfusion finished, Azula joined Kya and Hakoda in weaving the ideal declaration regarding the chaotic, violent high-speed chase from the previous night, as well as to plan Azula's alibis to misdirect her father… and once every piece of the puzzle was in place, it was only a matter of pushing them delicately until they fit perfectly.

A hotel suite certainly could look as beautiful and glorious on the outside as the Homura headquarters did… but the inside was a much different story. The luxuries were unnecessary, practically a pointless obstacle, when they had no means whatsoever to reestablish the destroyed systems that had shut down the previous day, with no warning and no sign of potential recovery. The sophisticated security system had done more than just deleting itself: it had shut down heavy assault doors on the topmost floors, trapping some of the VIPs of the Homura clan in place, and they had needed to escape through emergency staircases outside their skyscraper. Then, on the next day, there had been no way to open the doors anew, for any of the employees. Every expert Ozai had contacted had been utterly clueless: they were supposed to be skilled at retrieving data fragments and recomposing them into their proper shape… and yet they claimed it was impossible. The wipe had been so thorough it was clear, abundantly, that it had been a deliberate choice, perfectly programmed by someone who not only knew their way around a software of that caliber, but around every system that had been deleted.

Ozai had no doubts nobody wanted to say the truth out loud in fear of his reaction. They were right to be scared: at this rate, he would lose his patience sooner than later and shoot someone just as an outlet for his piling fury. How could she do such a thing? The Homura had been completely off the grid for a whole day, all their communication systems dead, every computer server dead… the only reason they had found a place to stay was because the Homura name still carried enormous prestige, enough that promises of later payment had sufficed for the manager of the Hotel La Suite Kobe Harborland to provide them with their best room.

He wouldn't have been in a good spirits, no matter what happened next… but upon turning on the TV of the suite and flipping through the news channels, his foul mood only worsened further:

"… The high-speed chase through the streets of Kobe spread panic and fear last night. Many citizens, residents of generally peaceful districts, were directly affected by what appears to have been a conflict between an unknown group of assailants who targeted and attacked members of the Kawakami clan. Several casualties have been confirmed: the heir of the Kawakami clan has been wounded and is currently recovering, and several others passed away over their wounds. The Kawakami clan declined to offer further information regarding the chaotic events that shook southwestern Kobe last night, in what is considered Homura territory. The Homura clan and the Kawakami clan established a truce two years ago: experts suspect this violent episode in Kobe history may only be the first out of many in what could escalate into a new all-out gang war–…"

The TV's noise died out in an instant, and Zuko glanced at his father from where he sat, working on setting up a new computer system that, naturally, wouldn't have half the capabilities of the ones in their base. It was a start, though… but he doubted his father would take it well, much as he now seethed over the news report he had just seen.

"The bastards frame themselves as the victims, of course… the media's favorite criminal gang," Ozai hissed, tossing the remote at one of the suite's couches after turning off the TV. Zuko gritted his teeth and continued working, hoping not to be at the receiving end of his father's fury yet. "And that wretched weasel is alive. Injured, but alive…"

"Our people already have retrieved our dead," said Zhao, who stood in the room too, a scowl on his face. "They couldn't inspect the scene in full, but they suspected the other Kawakami bastards fled safely. Yet they're spinning the story into some sort of tragedy where the dead were theirs, the bastards…"

"Indeed… though their lot survived out of sheer luck," Ozai hissed… and yet he knew otherwise.

It wasn't luck that had seen to the damned Kawakami's survival. No, it had been someone else's certain intervention, someone who had gone from his greatest asset to his greatest regret in a matter of hours. To think her loyalty would be so easily bought and sold by some pathetic tattoo artist…

"Any sign of Azula?" he asked, glancing at Zhao. His second-in-command tightened his fists before shaking his head.

"So far, nothing substantial," he confirmed. Ozai groaned and shook his head, running a hand over his long hair. "But we have finally contacted that police officer, Renkai Hinode."

"He was untraceable, wasn't he?" Ozai frowned, turning towards Zhao. "Where is he now?"

"On his way back from Akashi, it seems," Zhao said, and Ozai's eyes narrowed. "He reached out to a relative of one of our clan members, all our personal devices are destroyed, as you know…"

"Make certain he comes here. At once," Ozai hissed. Zhao nodded.

Within another hour, Ozai's demand finally came to fruition: Renkai Hinode strode inside the room, still clad in his police officer uniform that usually looked far more immaculate than it did right now.

"Where were you?" Ozai asked, point-blank. Renkai bowed in his direction.

"I was in Akashi," he confirmed.

"Is that so? So far away from your jurisdiction?" Ozai asked, scowling. "Were you seeking out my daughter, by any chance?

"Not quite," Renkai said, lowering his gaze. "I received a call from her last night, at 1. Something about her tone seemed off, she wanted to know if I was on shift that night, I said I was… she said it was a shame, and then she hung up. When I attempted to call her anew, her number was disconnected, somehow. I received information regarding the shootout then, but I was too far away to get there on time to offer any relief. There were only Homura men left, so I suspect the Kawakami barged into the scene and salvaged their own, leaving the others for dead. The lights were out, so… I didn't quite notice that my car was running over some of the casualties when I entered the alley where the chase ended. I thought, perhaps, that if I hurried, I could follow the Kawakami escapees into their hideout, but it didn't pan out. Lady Azula's strange behavior struck me as odd still, so I continued to search Akashi through the day, unsure if she might have tipped off the Kawakami or if, perhaps, she had nothing to do with any of what happened…"

"She's nowhere to be found, presently," Ozai hissed.

"I see," Renkai frowned. "I couldn't search all of Akashi, naturally… but isn't it possible that, if she's in league with the Kawakami, she might choose to go elsewhere so as to not give away the location of her new allies?"

"New?" Ozai repeated, scowling. "I fear her treacherous ways may have been far more prominent, for far longer, than any of us realized."

"The sooner we track her down, though, the better," Zhao hissed. "She may have destroyed our systems, but surely she took important data with her when she abandoned the clan. I cannot say whether she would have the power to destroy us altogether with it, but she is a hazard that needs to be dealt with, at haste."

Ozai's eyes narrowed, his brow furrowing. That the day had come when his daughter had become a problem to get rid of, rather than the one who helped him get rid of all his troubles, instead…

"You couldn't pinpoint the location of the Kawakami's hideout, then," Ozai asked Renkai, who shook his head.

"I drove all across Akashi, seeking their henchmen anywhere, but they're better hidden than I expected. I couldn't track them down," he said, lowering his head. "If possible, perhaps sending a larger raid to the Kawakami territories will bait them into attacking and revealing their exact position…"

"I can't afford that yet," Ozai said, fists tight. "They… have the advantage, for now. When the time is ripe, we shall strike. What did Azula say, when she called you? She only requested to know your position?"

"I suspect she assumed I would blindly follow her into betraying the Homura, if I had been anywhere nearby…" Renkai said, frowning. "I wouldn't have, of course. My family has served yours for generations."

"Indeed," Ozai hissed, eyeing Renkai warily, as though to weigh for sure that the policeman spoke the truth.

"I suspect she may have contacted someone else to take her away from Homura territories," Renkai said. "I cannot say for certain where she may have gone… but she seems to have wanted backup in her new scheme, backup I wouldn't provide, and she must have realized it right away."

"Wretched girl," Ozai sighed, shaking his head as he paced inside the room. "Very well, then. If there truly is nothing more you can share, return to your duties with the police force, Renkai. If there's any sign at all that the Kawakami are attempting to strike back at us, you will warn us at once."

"Yes, lord Ozai," Renkai said, bowing his head curtly in the Homura boss's direction.

"Give him the number for this room in the hotel," Ozai told Zhao, who nodded quickly. "It will have to do, until we acquire proper cellphones again."

"Of course," Zhao said, marching towards Renkai and guiding him out of the room anew.

Ozai let out another frustrated huff, glancing back at Zuko, who still struggled to set up the computer systems. Had it been the other way around, had his son been the traitor rather than his daughter… if only that had been the case, his position wouldn't be so precarious and dangerous. Zhao wasn't wrong: Azula had more than enough knowledge to destroy the Homura clan for good, if she set her mind to it. If she somehow gained a foothold of power elsewhere… could she truly be so heartless, so harsh, as to annihilate the clan in which she had been raised, the family to whom she had sworn vows to and pledged herself with allegedly absolute devotion?

The answer to the question arrived two days later, when Renkai alerted them of alarming information, outside the boundaries of Japan. A picture had been taken at Incheon National Airport, and Ozai nearly threw up his lunch at the sight of it: his treacherous brother, embracing Azula in South Korea's largest airport.

She had escaped. The damnable girl had abandoned both Homura and Kawakami… and she had followed on the footsteps of that accursed bastard, Iroh, of all things.

Well, so be it. If she was out of the way, it meant she wasn't in the damn tattoo artist's bed, at the very least. His urgency to obliterate the Kawakami wouldn't fade away entirely… but he could play the waiting game anew. When the time was right, he would track down the Kawakami base and he would send droves of Homura men to extinguish the light in their eyes. Never again would those bastards rear their heads and attempt to take what was rightfully his…

The second surgery, a vascular one, this time, had gone well: Katara and her team had successfully patched up the damaged areas of Sokka's blood network, and it seemed his recovery would be far less trying than after the first round of surgery. Hours afterwards, he laid carelessly in bed, his left arm wound warmly, tightly, around the woman who was stretched beside him, caressing his chest with her gentle fingertips.

"I still don't know how they'd buy it…" Sokka said, again, and Azula smiled before shaking her head. "Would take more than a top-tier Photoshop work for me to be stupid enough to mistake someone else for you…"

"You know me and my body far better than anyone else does, you pesky artist, you," Azula whispered, kissing his cheek. Sokka snickered, turning to smile proudly at her. "The girl looked enough like me, the images I altered were from a camera feed, the alterations are nearly imperceptible…"

"For the untrained eye, maybe…"

"And yours, yes, is as trained as can be," Azula smiled, kissing his lips now.

"Is that girl going to be alright, though? And your uncle?" Sokka asked, raising his left hand to caress her jawline gently.

"Oh, she's no cause for concern whatsoever. I'd been in touch with her before, she's a very bitter child of the Kitakaze family… all she really wanted was to join an e-sports team and have nothing else to do with yakuza clans," Azula smiled. "She got out of the country using one of my alter egos, and she'll be changing her legal name soon, too. My uncle says he'll look after her, he's been pretty successful in Korea: he's gone into business by opening teashops and restaurants that will employ and reform ex-cons…"

"Which means he's on their government's good side for helping reform them, and has a sort-of army of his own in case your dad decides to branch out to Korea?" Sokka asked. Azula nodded. "Hmm. Smart choices."

"So… I think everything will be fine. Everything should be fine," Azula said, cuddling up to him. "Both for ourselves, and for my uncle Iroh and his new surrogate daughter, Toph Beifong…"

"Not entirely a Korean-sounding name, but I hope it helps her hide anyway," Sokka grinned. "Seriously… you're amazing. In a matter of what, three days? You've patched up all this mess and saved the Kawakami from certain doom, altogether. How can I ever make it up to you, huh…?"

"Oh, I don't know… eh, never mind, I do know," Azula smiled, raising a hand towards his right shoulder, touching the bandages delicately. "Did… did she have to deal a lot of damage to your work?"

"Eh… yeah, unfortunately it seems like it," Sokka sighed. "I'm not complaining, Katara saved my life with those surgeries, you saved it too by finding me when you did… but yeah, I guess there's going to be a weird splotch of damaged skin in my tattoo in the gunshot's area, at least. Nothing to be done…"

"Well… something, hopefully, can be done, in the future," Azula whispered, kissing his neck softly and pleasantly. Sokka hummed, caressing her cheekbone gently, tipping her face up towards his so he could press their lips together anew.

"What do you have in mind?" he asked. Azula smiled, prodding his nose with hers.

"Teach me how to do it," she said. Sokka's eyes widened. "Once you've recovered, of course… once Katara gives her approval. I can… try to patch it up, if possible? I did say you ought to show me how to do it someday, so I could give you at least a small mark of my own…"

"You did," Sokka smiled, kissing her lips softly again. "It's not the way we intended it, but… you can add more things to my body after you patch that up, too. Maybe you can write something that says 'Azula's property' or so…"

"That's so simple and tacky and… no, I don't need to write it outright," Azula declared, as Sokka snickered against her. "I'll find a way to make it clear with symbols, or so. Maybe… I can just put a dragon among your waves and wolves, huh?"

"Then, when I recover, I'll have to find a gap in your dragon to slip in a wolf, too," Sokka grinned. Azula smiled fondly. "Though… I may have to learn to do it with my left. I don't know if…"

"Don't give up so soon, alright?" Azula said, kissing him softly. "We'll work through your injury, little by little. Yes, it's possible it might never be the same, but… we'll try."

"Mm-hmm. We'll try," Sokka smiled, cupping her face delicately with his left hand and kissing her softly. "But we have some bigger things to worry about, before all that."

"We do?" Azula asked, raising her eyebrows. "Bigger than your recovery and ruining my father's business, and me setting up a brand-new high-tech base in your clan's headquarters…?"

"So much bigger than any of that petty stuff, yes," Sokka confirmed. Azula inevitably smiled at his confidence.

"You're talking about our wedding, aren't you?" she asked. Sokka grinned brightly and nodded. "We'll have to keep it quiet, though. If my father hears you're getting married…"

"You have more of those secondary identities out there, don't you?" Sokka asked. Azula raised an eyebrow. "The one that girl was using when she boarded her plane was one of them, right?"

"Toph, you mean? Yeah, she used one of my recognizable alter-egos," Azula confirmed. "That way my father is more likely to fall for the trick."

"But you said you have more than that, right?" Sokka asked. Azula smiled.

"Yes, I do. Quite a fair share of fake lives I've… uh, not really lived, but created, I suppose," she said, with a shrug.

"Then pick one of them," Sokka grinned. "We can continue to fuck with your dad's head by making it look like I was in a relationship with some nobody… and that I didn't want to go public with it because I'm a big bad yakuza guy, and I had to protect her from my enemies."

"Oh, my, how brittle and fragile I am…" Azula said, batting her eyelashes mockingly as Sokka laughed at her act.

"Now that I nearly died, though? I've decided I'm done playing safe and I've got to marry this girl I love because that close call has made me reexamine my priorities," Sokka said, nodding firmly. "So… uh, Azula?"

Her amusement and playfulness froze as she gazed at him intensely. Slowly, a smile spread over her face anew, and Sokka's own lips imitated hers.

"Did you… realize what you just said?" she asked. Sokka nodded. "Really?"

"I should've done better, eh? Both with the proposal, and confessing something like this," Sokka chuckled, shaking his head. "But… really, Azula. I mean it. No takebacks."

"You'd better not take it back, or I'll jump off this bed in protest for getting my hopes up for nothing," Azula laughed. Sokka chuckled and shook his head. "Then… really? You don't just like me, you…"

"I really, really like you," Sokka said, emphasizing the words with as much energy as he could put into them. Azula laughed still, pressing her face to his shoulder, and he kissed the top of her head. "Yes, Azula: I love you. I… thought about it, you know, when I was getting shot at. Thought I was a dumbass for not saying it sooner. Nothing in my life has been the same ever since you became part of it. Every single tattoo visitor after you has been…"

"Unbearably boring, I bet," Azula smirked. Sokka chuckled and shrugged awkwardly.

"You were impossibly fun, so yes, that sounds about right," he grinned. "Every time you came to see me, whether under the guise of watching over the untrustworthy Kawakami boy or in secret, later on…"

"I'm still sorry we couldn't go back to that cabin in Awaji," Azula said, kissing his shoulder softly. "I… really looked forward to it."

"Me too," Sokka smiled. "Being away from the madness of the city sounded like a perfect idea, especially with your damn dad breathing down our necks…"

"To think I would have killed and died for him, years ago… and now I'll do the same for someone else, while not even thinking about doing it for him anymore," Azula smiled sadly, shaking her head. "He's still my father, but… no one who tries to murder the man I love could ever hope to retain my loyalty."

"The man you love…?" Sokka repeated, smiling knowingly. Azula grinned back, nodding almost shyly.

"The man I really, really like…" she echoed his earlier words, and Sokka laughed softly as she kissed him again. "The man I love. You really didn't doubt it, did you?"

"Not for a second. I hope you didn't doubt me, either," Sokka said, raising his eyebrows. Azula smiled and shook her head.

"How to doubt someone whose contact name for me in his phone was 'my flame', huh?" she asked, teasingly. Sokka laughed and kissed her again.

"I love you," he said, between quick bursts of kisses. "I love you… and I can't wait for your contact name in my phone to say 'my wife', instead."

"I do need a new phone first, though," Azula pointed out, amused. Sokka chuckled. "And… I need to be your wife first, too. In a way, it almost feels like I already am…"

"Everyone's treating you like you are, I hope," Sokka said, caressing her face gently anew. Azula smiled and shrugged.

"One of your henchmen called me 'ane-san' earlier today and almost gave me heart failure out of surprise, right then and there," she laughed, and Sokka chuckled with her. "Your clan's a bit more old-fashioned than mine, but… it's charming in its own way, I can't deny it."

"Hope you'll feel it's great to be old-fashioned by the time you join us for good," Sokka said, sliding his arm lower now, slipping it underneath Azula's body and wrapping her in an embrace that pressed her even more smoothly against him. Azula's breath hitched at the gesture. "We… we should do it as fast as possible."

"We should," Azula agreed. "But with so many things to take care of…"

"It'll help all the more if we do it quickly," Sokka said, kissing her lips warmly, compelling her to surrender to everything he said as long as she could feel those lips doing wonders upon her own. "If your dad thinks I married someone other than you… his fury will ease up slightly, right?"

"Only slightly. And I still don't know how he ever came to the conclusion that we were together," Azula said, frowning. "Maybe he didn't know for sure, but…"

"But that just means, if I'm publicly married to someone else, he'll think he doesn't have to come into Kawakami territory to destroy me. Hopefully," Sokka said, biting his lip. "What do you want to do for the wedding? Something that would require ten months' time for preparations…?"

"Uh… no," Azula smiled, pressing her brow to his. "I never really thought about it, if you want me to be honest. Marriage in yakuza families tend to be… well, the point where a woman's impact on the clan changes entirely, as she has to prioritize her husband first. I never really expected I'd want to marry anyone… so I have no real plans or even a mere wish list in mind. Anything you want will do, Sokka."

"Hmm… so, if we take off to that cabin in Awaji and get married there, you'll be fine with it?" Sokka smirked. Azula hummed, deliberately pressing her body more snugly to his.

"Can we take off tomorrow? No? Too soon?" she asked him playfully, and Sokka laughed in consequence.

"Probably too soon, Katara's not going to discharge me yet," he said, prodding her nose with his. "But as soon as she does…"

"Awaji, then?" Azula asked, amused. Sokka bit his lip.

"Maybe… but another place comes to mind, too," he said. "My mom and dad… they got married there, I think."

"Oh? Family tradition, then?" Azula asked.

"It's not nearly as stuffy as that, but sure," Sokka chuckled. "I don't know how far your reach went, with all your fancy cameras and such… but there's a small town, in northern Hyogo? Kinosaki?"

"Oh… no, that's too far away from Kobe, and not particularly noteworthy, as far as I know. Isn't it a touristic place, above all else?" Azula asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's an onsen town," Sokka grinned. Azula smiled. "They have this whole onsen tour, seven different places with hot springs you can visit and enjoy the medicinal benefits of each onsen…"

"Medicinal? Hmm. That sounds like a good plan, all around," Azula said, eyeing his wounded shoulder again. "Actually… come to think of it, I think I remember Kinosaki was renowned for accepting yakuza in their town, right? But the Homura didn't particularly care for it because…"

"Because the Homura were tattoo-less for a long time, and could go to every onsen they cared to, for a while," Sokka said, with a shrug. "I suppose the idiots who got the silly flame thing on their necks might have managed to get kicked out of a few onsen, in the past, but…"

"I don't even know if the people running an onsen would even notice that stupid thing," Azula sighed, and Sokka chuckled. "But then… they accepted your father, no matter how tattooed he was, back when he married your mother?"

"Him and his whole wedding retinue, however many Kawakami they were," Sokka smiled. "We'll have to take my family, that much is a given… but we could bring other people with us, too. Throw a big party for, I don't know, a whole week or so, as we visit each onsen every day?"

"And we'll get married at some point, in between," Azula asked, amused. Sokka snickered and nodded. "You continue to blow my mind, Sokka. Aren't we supposed to be wicked, terrible people in the Japanese underworld…?"

"Sure…?"

"And now we're planning weddings and onsen visits, right after your worst close-call so far?" Azula asked, eyeing him with compassionate warmth. Sokka chuckled.

"Maybe this is just the way the Kawakami do things," he decided. "Life can be so much more than what we've learned in our clans. We can be much more than that, too. Our clans are supposed to be ruled by conduct codes we should adhere to…"

"The Kawakami do seem to follow the codes far better than the Homura ever did," Azula acknowledged. Sokka smiled fondly at her.

"You did it just fine, though," he said. Azula snorted and shook her head.

"Not really. Not until I met you," she said, caressing his chest gently. "As far as I can tell… the Kawakami are the best clan in Japan, as it is. You look after your own… you don't resort to the kinds of crimes my father seemed to deem perfectly natural, crimes that he only got away with because the police didn't dare touch him. There's bound to be lots of practices I'm not even aware of, branches of the Homura that dealt with the very worst of crimes… whereas the Kawakami are a family. A big one, but a family all the same. You weren't even trying to poach me, I know you weren't, but… I didn't need to know all your clan members to realize that a man like you couldn't have been raised to be as upstanding as you are if you'd lived in the Homura clan. You, your father, your sister, your mother… you're a wonderful family."

"And you'll be part of it. They've all accepted you," Sokka said, kissing her brow softly. A small smile spread over Azula's face.

"I… didn't really think I'd belong anywhere else, once I abandoned the Homura. I thought the Kawakami might… might kill me in retaliation for what had happened to you. I was ready for it," she said. Sokka huffed.

"I wouldn't have allowed it. Ever," he grunted. Azula smiled and nodded.

"It didn't happen. But even then, I… I didn't imagine I'd find a place among you. A place beside you…"

"You'll always have one. And hey… things weren't great with the Homura, I know they weren't, but everyone knows you're the one reason they continued to grow, as of late," Sokka said, gazing into her eyes intensely. "My father knows it… and he will know there's so much of value you can offer everyone here. If there's one thing we can learn from the Homura… it'll be giving you the opportunities to thrive and weave your wonders at the top of our clan, as far as I can tell."

"I… I don't really know if I deserve that, just like that," Azula smiled awkwardly, though her heart jolted upon hearing those words. "I don't expect most the Kawakami will trust me that much…"

"They will, with time," Sokka smiled, kissing her nose next. "I'd say they'll see what I see, but… not entirely, eh? Your soul's dragon is mine, and mine alone…"

"How greedy and possessive of you," Azula chuckled, feeling Sokka's hand spreading over her lower back, the location of the head of the dragon he had tattooed upon her skin. "To be fair, I didn't exactly intend to strip naked and show myself off to your whole clan…"

"Good. Because if you did, I think half of them would die on the spot, shocked over how utterly gorgeous you are… and the surviving half would start plotting my demise to steal you from me," Sokka hissed playfully, as Azula chuckled and shook her head.

"You're a fool," she said. He grinned and kissed her lips promptly.

"Your fool. Always yours," he whispered. She nodded, pressing her brow to his.

"And I'm yours. Always yours," she responded, earnestly. Sokka raised an eyebrow.

"Mine, as in my fool, too? Or…?" he asked, teasingly. Azula snorted and shook her head, poking him gently in the ribs with a fingertip.

"Both, damn you. Clever Kawakami," she whispered. He laughed happily again.

"You'll be a Kawakami soon, too… should be fun to call you that, right back, once you are," he said. Azula smiled and nodded.

"I look forward to it."

Cuddling so snugly together, they were startled when the door opened shortly after that exchange between them. Azula instinctively made to climb off the bed, self-aware upon being caught stretched across the convalescing patient's bed, but Sokka's arm remained looped around her body, keeping her in place. She shot him a meaningful stare, her cheeks flushing, and Sokka smiled fondly at her. For the ruthless yakuza leader she could be, Azula was surprisingly coy in certain ways.

"Oh, don't mind me, I'm just dropping by to check on you, Sokka…" Katara said, noticing the silent exchange between her bold brother and the awkward woman who would be her sister-in-law soon. "Though, just so we're clear, before you get any funny ideas… you're not getting laid for another month, at best, Sokka."

"Wait, WHAT?!" he squeaked, nearly deafening Azula with his outrage. She couldn't help but chuckle against his shoulder – frankly, considering he had been close to death just a few days ago, waiting a month before indulging in physical intimacy seemed a perfectly acceptable sacrifice to make… though he, clearly, disagreed.

"Are you seriously going to protest?" Katara groaned, looking at him skeptically.

"Katara… imagine you're me for a minute, okay?" Sokka said, his eyebrow twitching, his grip around Azula tightening. "Imagine you've been in love with the hottest woman in the world for two years…!"

"Oh, for crying out loud," Katara rolled her eyes, smiling still as she watched Azula blushing, laughing against Sokka's body.

"Then, after you get shot in the shoulder, she finally moves in with you and agrees to marry you, and everyone in the clan knows she's with you, and you're looking forward to rocking her world in…!"

"Okay, that's probably enough of a picture you're painting, Sokka…!" Katara grimaced, raising her hands towards her brother, but he seemed poised to continue.

"And then your stick-in-the-mud sister tells you that you can't do anything for a whole MONTH?!"

"Yeah, the stick-in-the-mud sister whose surgery SAVED YOUR LIFE!" Katara retorted, with a dangerous smile, as she stopped by the free side of his bed. Sokka pouted. "I empathize with you, Sokka, I really do… must be such a tough situation to have been shot in the shoulder and for your one and only priority to be sex, but I'm the doctor here, and you're going to do as I say. Simple as that."

"Ow… what a waste," Sokka pouted, though he glanced at his very flustered fiancée and smiled at her. "Well, no worries. I'll make it up to you at the wedding. Or, uh… at the honeymoon? Thinking about it, won't we have both things at the same time, in a manner of speaking?"

"Wait, what?" Katara raised an eyebrow. "You guys have plans of the sort already?"

"We were just talking about it," Sokka said, his previous irritation gone now as he smiled at Katara. "I told her about what Mom and Dad did with their wedding, you know? The…"

"Kinosaki hot springs?!" Katara gasped, smiling brightly. "Oh, that would be a really great idea! They've been a pretty popular place with the Kawakami clan for a long time…!"

"Right?" Sokka grinned. "So, I thought it'd be cool if we could do it there, but… now you've said what you've said and I'm newly discouraged."

"Don't be silly," Azula smiled, shaking her head. "We can do it in a month, can't we? That way we'll have enough time to prepare for it… I can even strengthen my fake identity even further in that time, if we're going to trick my father with that at all."

"You guys have a lot of ideas in mind, huh?" Katara asked, amused. "It's definitely better if you're thorough, I'll say…"

"We're going to have the best wedding you've ever seen, Katara. You'll be blown away, I promise you will be," Sokka declared, smiling proudly. Katara laughed.

"Well, if I get to go to Kinosaki for the first time, it'll definitely be a great one," she said. "I've always wanted to go. So… yeah, wait a month and you'll be able to enjoy your time there even more than you would otherwise, okay? You have to start your physiotherapy soon too…"

"And I have a few things to handle, as well," Azula mumbled, caressing Sokka's hand gently. "All the new equipment I told your father to purchase, I'll be making use of it to strengthen the Kawakami clan's defenses, so…"

"You're one hell of an asset for any clan you're with, huh?" Katara asked: she was already leaning over Sokka's shoulder, readying herself to remove the bandages and assess his recovery. Azula smiled and shrugged, but Sokka scoffed.

"Not an asset at all: she's an awesome leader. Before you know it, Dad will be asking her to take over in his stead and he'll stop wanting me to be the heir…" Sokka claimed, grinning brightly. Azula laughed and shook her head.

"We'd both lead it, if anything. Unless you'd rather leave your wife to do all the hard work?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in a dangerous manner. Sokka chuckled.

"Perish the thought. I'll have better chances to watch you in action if I'm standing beside you at every moment of every day," Sokka said, teasingly. Azula smiled and pressed her face to his shoulder.

"You're hopeless, Sokka," she whispered, and yet her blissful smile showed she felt just as strongly about being by his side as he did.

It was odd, certainly, that the former Homura could have earned her way into the Kawakami clan as easily as she seemed to have done it, but Katara couldn't help her newfound fondness for the woman who would join her family in a month's time. She knew, too, that other Kawakami members begrudgingly found themselves drawn to Azula, curious even if still wary of who she was… most of them hadn't seen her with Sokka, so far. Most of them had understood, yes, that there was a relationship between them… most of them didn't seem to realize, though, that the ceremony they'd have in a month's time was as good as a formality. Azula hadn't hesitated to turn her back on her clan for Sokka: she had shot her own clan members, all be it to bring Sokka to safety, no matter if that represented a hazard for her own wellbeing. Most of them hadn't seen her despair, her suddenly renewed hopes when Hakoda had told her Sokka still lived…

Most of them hadn't seen the bright smiles she exchanged with the man whose life she'd saved. They hadn't seen the way Sokka cherished her, they hadn't heard him talk about her… but they would. Sooner than later, they would understand.

A month would go by in a blur as they prepared for the wedding, during which Azula spent most her time in Sokka's recovery room, at first, then his actual room, once Katara authorized him to be moved there. Merely a few days after his second surgery, a package arrived for Azula: her brand-new phone was here, and she was quick to set it up outside his recovery room, in front of many Kawakami henchmen and Katara as well, immediately dialing a number to test whether or not the device was up and running within the safe measures of the Kawakami network. After four rings, a familiar voice said:

"Hello?"

Azula smirked, testing the speaker option of the phone quickly before answering him with a mischievous grin.

"Good day! This is Minato Bank, and it is our pleasure to contact you! You were the lucky winner of our latest raffle, and we would like to extend to you a set of options to request loans and open savings accounts…!"

"Right, right! That sounds fantastic! I'm hanging up, Azula!"

Sokka's irritable voice almost rang louder than Azula's laughter, and most the Kawakami men around her couldn't hold back their own chuckles, much as Katara smiled in undeniable amusement – her brother certainly had found himself a girlfriend with a sense of humor about as ridiculous as his own. Still grinning with devious mischief, Azula had saved the contact on her phone with delight: she wasn't sure she'd get used to seeing the contact name 'husband' on her phone, but she certainly was thrilled for it… just as Sokka, still in his room, smiled fondly as he jotted down 'wife' while saving the number, just as well.

Her impact in the Kawakami headquarters seemed to be felt everywhere she went: Hakoda listened to her advice with his dealings, and she offered him a sizable list of possible associates of the Homura who might be willing to barter with his own clan; Kya and Bato, Hakoda's second-in-command, taught her more about the administrative system of the Kawakami clan, sharing just enough for Azula to grasp the broad strokes while keeping the specifics to themselves, still. She also helped Katara with Sokka every day, not only when it came to the changing of the bandages, but with the physiotherapy he had been eager to get started with as soon as possible.

He showed himself so joyful most days, but at nights things could be different: twice, while he was still in the recovery room, he had woken with a start, heart racing with fears he couldn't placate easily. Azula's presence had helped, and her calming words and kisses had soothed him again… but it seemed those sudden panic attacks would be something he'd have to learn to live with, as they happened often afterwards, as well. And in the nights when he seemed to be calm and serene, it was Azula who would be distraught, terrified of shadows of the past, and Sokka who would reassure her by helping her turn her attention to the brightness of the future, instead.

She contacted Renkai, ensuring he was handling his return to duty properly, that Ozai hadn't caught onto his deceit and lies, at least not yet. He had confirmed for her, too, that their ploy to pretend Azula had escaped to Korea had worked perfectly: the Homura had gone back to hiding in their shadows, for now. They were sure to return to action eventually, but for now, it appeared the public declaration that Sokka had decided to marry his secret girlfriend, a completely ordinary waitress from a ramen restaurant by the shores of Akashi, had ensured Ozai would focus on recovering much of what he'd lost when Azula had abandoned the clan. They had lowered their guard, to a fault… and so, they were far too busy to obsessively keep an eye on the Kawakami anymore.

Thus, as soon as Katara gave the say-so, and approved of Sokka returning to his active life, they were ready to get started on their plans: reservations were made, and all was ready for them to head to Kinosaki, soon… but Azula had a surprise in store, one that caught Sokka off guard when she voiced it to him, that afternoon, after his physiotherapy session was finished.

"I… never really thought I'd do this. I didn't think I'd ever feel the urge to, to begin with," she said, clasping his hand nervously. "But I impulsively went and did it, and…"

"What's going on?" Sokka asked: even though his right hand was supposed to be functional again, albeit with some limitations, Sokka still used his left to caress Azula's face delicately. She bit her lip before glancing into his eyes.

"I… may have invited my mother to our wedding."

Sokka blinked blankly. While he hadn't expected her to bear utterly dreadful news, those still weren't the kind of news he had been bracing himself for.

"Your… mother," he repeated. Azula nodded shyly. "Huh. Well, damn. I hadn't thought about that…"

"She abandoned the clan when I was young," Azula explained. "I think… it may have been over my brother's burn. She had always been a staunch advocate for the principles my father has long left behind, her grandfather was the chief advisor of the boss from four generations ago, but she never appeared to want to be part of the clan. For a long time, I… I thought she was weak for leaving, I thought my father deserved a stronger partner, someone who should have stood by his side to make the difficult decisions with him. Now, though… now I see what I couldn't, for a long time. Maybe my mother was right, in a myriad of ways… and maybe my father didn't deserve anything better at all."

"Maybe," Sokka nodded, stroking her hair delicately. "But you still reached out to her? Had you done that before?"

"She had reached out to me. To me and Zuko. My father forbade us from answering," Azula confessed. Sokka grimaced. "From what I've learned, she's made a life in Kyoto over the past years… in the Minamiza Kabuki Theatre, no less."

"Heh… she must be good, then," Sokka grinned, caressing her face delicately. Azula sighed and nodded. "Is it you're not sure she'll come, though…?"

"I'm not even sure it was a good idea to reach out at all. I've done it as carefully as I could… maybe even too carefully. She might not even understand who's the one reaching out to her, to begin with," Azula said, with a sigh. "Anyway… I thought you should know, in case some unexpected stranger shows up at our wedding. She's my only guest, the only one I thought might not be too risky to invite… but even then, maybe my father has some people watching her, I don't know."

"Maybe," Sokka acknowledged, biting his lower lip. "Still, we're not publicizing where we're going or what we're doing. As long as your Mom's careful, she might be able to make it without risking revealing us to your Dad and his goons, eh?"

"Hopefully," Azula said, with a weak smile. Sokka cleared his throat.

"And now… I'm done working out. And Katara says I'm free to start exerting myself a little more often, these days…" Sokka smirked deviously. Azula smiled, shaking her head at his cheeky behavior. "C'mon. We can start slow… shower with me, eh?"

"Hmm… I've been deliberately avoiding all your invitations to do that so far because I knew exactly what that would turn into, eventually," Azula smiled, as Sokka leaned in, nibbling on her neck mischievously. "But I suppose, as long as you don't pick me up and pin me to the wall…"

"Oh, but you want me to do that…"

"I'd love it if you could, but I'd give it another month, at least, before I ask you to do something like that," Azula laughed, as Sokka guided her to the bathroom. He chuckled deviously still, walking backwards, ensuring their eye contact wouldn't break.

"Such a lovely, responsible wife I have… just makes me want to be a very naughty husband all the more, you know?" he smirked: Azula's laughter echoed across the empty bedroom when he shut the bathroom door behind himself.

It was a brief reprieve from their long draught, caused both by Ozai's meddling and by Sokka's recovery, and one they had needed direly. Even just holding each other's naked body proved sufficient to thrill their hearts all over again, and while it was utterly counterproductive to do so after cleaning up so thoroughly, the lovers fell into bed right after their shower, giving themselves to each other as affectionately as they possibly could…

That they should have thought to save some of that passion for their upcoming journey didn't even cross their minds: their enthusiasm only seemed to increase further when they prepared their luggage, and their fellow Kawakami clan members seemed to feel similarly. Bato would stay behind with a large contingent of their forces while Sokka's closest friends and family accompanied them north, to Kinosaki. Hakoda, Katara and Kya would drive a van, in which they carried everyone's luggage: the rest of the group drove bikes to the hot springs' town. One of the clan's spare bikes had been given to Azula for her use, and as Sokka's recovery had yet to be complete, it was up to her to drive him to Kinosaki. Where some yakuza might have found the notion of such a large man being driven anywhere by his girlfriend quite embarrassing, Sokka couldn't even hide the grin on his face as he pressed a kiss to Azula's lips, right before she put on her helmet. He followed with his own, settling back on the motorbike to give Azula enough room to sit comfortably. She hummed teasingly, pressing against his groin suggestively upon taking her seat in front of him, and Sokka snickered before wrapping his arms around her waist.

"These helmets are great and stylish and all, but I hate that I can't kiss you while we wear them," Sokka admitted. Azula laughed, bumping his helmet against her own lightly.

"Save it for our upcoming stops, then," she said, caressing his hand with her leather gloves – she had to purchase many new clothes over the past month, and her leather biking ensemble, this time with a different style from the typical Homura attire, was among the first things she ensured to buy. "I doubt we'll make it to Kinosaki in one go, after all…"

"It'll be about two hours' worth of riding behind you," Sokka grinned, hugging her closely. "We'll end up making this a habit, you know? Riding together this way…"

"I suppose we'll take turns driving, once you're better?" Azula asked, but Sokka scoffed.

"Heck, no. If I'm just a passenger I get to hug and cuddle you the whole way there. Maybe even, uh, grope you, a little bit…" he suggested, playfully. Azula, despite herself, smirked.

"You shouldn't… but I admit, I'll probably be disappointed if you don't," she said, prompting him to laugh as he squeezed her flank gently. "Okay, okay, you can grope, but no tickling!"

"Don't be so loud or everyone will know we're lewd…" Sokka said, playfully, and Azula laughed as she shook her head at his ridiculousness.

"Oh, I love you. You're annoying as hell and I love you for it," she said, patting his hand gently as she waited for the others to be ready, too.

The long journey proved surprisingly amenable, though the many cars they passed along the way surely felt quite differently at the sight of so many tattooed yakuza, driving one after the other, escorting a large van. Strangers shot them wary glances at their every road stop, whenever they had to refill the gas tanks or wanted a snack: whenever any of their group's members declared, most enthusiastically, that they were headed to a wedding, the commonfolk appeared even more puzzled, though slightly less antagonistic. After around three hours, counting the time spent at each stop along the way, they finally reached their destination: the hot springs' town of Kinosaki appeared a blissful fantasy compared to the world they were used to. Traditional houses stood alongside western-inspired ones, and the same was true to the restaurants and cafés in the area. A river marked the center of the town, near which would stand the famous seven hot springs they intended to visit that day. Where the rest of the roads they traveled through were filled with uneasy people, the same couldn't be said for Kinosaki: while a few curious passersby glanced in their general direction, most people appeared perfectly content to ignore the group of enthusiastic bikers, who progressed along the road towards the first of their destinations.

"So, they get to stay in the fanciest ryokan in town, but we don't?" asked Kattan, pouting goofily as they slowed down at Morizuya, a traditional inn: all the members of their group couldn't possibly book enough rooms for themselves in the same inn Sokka, Azula, Hakoda, Kya and Katara would stay at.

"Too bad you're not part of the main family, eh?" Haka sighed, smirking knowingly at his friend.

"Hey! Katara may have rejected me, but she'd reject you too!"

"Yes, she would," said the girl in question, smirking at the two men as she jumped off her van. "You're way too young for me, both of you. Anyway… it looks beautiful! This whole town feels…!"

"Like a whole other world, huh?" Sokka grinned, hugging Azula anew once they had dismounted the bike. "How are you feeling, eh? Tired?"

"Not that much, no," Azula said, removing her helmet and smiling at him. "We've made it safely, huh?"

"We did… and this is where the fun begins," Sokka declared, beaming brightly. "First off… we drop off our things and get our rooms, of course. But after that…!"

"We have to go visit the guardian of the hot springs, of course," Kya said, with a proud grin. Sokka froze cold at her declaration, and Hakoda's booming laughter surprised him.

"W-we've got to do what, now?" he asked, with an awkward smile.

"But we're yakuza. Are we supposed to get approval before we can soak in the hot springs?" asked Yuro, grimacing as he glanced around himself warily. "Even if the people here don't dislike us, we're covered in tattoos, and no guardian would approve of that…"

"Oh, don't you worry, Yuro," Hakoda said, clapping the boy's shoulder. "This is the way of things! We'll ride the cable cars at the far end of town, and visit a temple where the guardian of the hot springs will bestow upon us his permission to bathe in the waters of the seven mystic onsen…"

"That sounds very pretentious. Awesome!" Sokka grinned, proudly. "And after we get permission, we'll go to the first onsen?"

"Well, we do have about ten days…" Kya reasoned, with a gentle smile. "And the wedding ceremony will be happening in three days, right?"

"It's what we established with the priest from Gokurakuji Temple," Hakoda confirmed, with a proud nod. "But even if you want to jump into hot springs right away, Sokka, you don't have to worry: Morizuya has hot springs of its own inside its building, so…"

"Eh?! That's so cool!" Kattan whimpered, and Hakoda patted his shoulder powerfully.

"No need to envy us: Yamatoya inn, the one you're staying at has a private hot spring of its own, too…"

"YES!"

Azula smiled at their enthusiasm, glancing at her proud fiancé: if she hadn't known any better, she wouldn't have even imagined he was a survivor of a gunshot wound, going by his blissful mood. He certainly had been a mischievous bike rider, clinging to her reasonably whenever sharp turns required it… but whenever they moved at a leisurely pace, his hands had rested a lot more dangerously on her waist, even running over her thighs at one point. If only she'd had a chance to return the favor… but she would, soon. They wouldn't use their bikes at all while they were in town, she suspected, so that meant they would walk together everywhere… and that would give her fairly a few chances to touch him inappropriately if she had the guts to do it on their way to that temple. By nighttime, once they came back to their room, though… that was when they would finally let out so much of their pent-up energy, she knew so, and she looked forward to it.

The staff of Morizuya was as gracious as expected in any ryokan: they welcomed the five guests they would be hosting in their inn, guiding them to each of their rooms. Sokka and Azula hadn't so much as bothered pretending their relationship wasn't already inappropriately intimate, so that they would share a room was a given. Katara was particularly relieved to find her parents wouldn't expect her to share a room with them, so the whole group settled in, just as the others did the same in the smaller inn next door.

After taking in the beauty of the many decorations – the vases from ancient Japan, the magnificent ornamental kimono that hung by a wall, the cherry blossom patterns upon the lights on the ceiling, and even a very delicate collection of model cars, kept safely in a display case –, the five guests set out again, meeting up with the rest of their group in the street. The walk to the cable cars was amenable, as Hakoda and Kya told them everything they could remember from their last visit to Kinosaki, sharing numerous anecdotes that saw their many young companions laughing joyfully on their way to their new destination.

The cable car station was but one way to march into Onsenji temple, yet none of the visitors chose to hike through the road when the cable car line wasn't quite that long. After two cable cars took off, full of tourists, they finally had a chance to take the third one, and off they went to the top of the mountain, basking in the scenery excitedly – Kattan, Haka, Yuro and Shoji attempted to pinpoint the location of the seven mystic hot springs from a distance, while the twins Sei and Kei laughed dismissively, claiming none of their guesses could possibly be right. Azula and Sokka took their seat at a single bench of the cable car, where she fussed quietly about his shoulder to no avail – he kept insisting he felt fine, hadn't been better, distracting her by hugging her at random and whispering words in her ears that often made her blush and slap his chest reproachfully, self-aware around her in-laws who did their best to ignore them… yet the amusement on their faces couldn't have made it more obvious that they truly could hear everything Sokka said.

They finally reached the temple, where gracious guides brought them inside, explaining the history of the temple and its traditions. After a round of solemn prayers by ancient statues, Sokka insisted on doing things the right way, and they all purchased the ladles that they should need to enter each of the mystic hot springs, despite they were told they weren't necessary in modern times. After the mystical experience was done, Sokka also made certain to purchase some towels that featured art of the correct manner to wash themselves to honor the gods – Azula was quite amused, suspecting that they'd disregard all such reasonable guidelines once they were in the hot springs – the group continued upwards, again on the cable cars, all the way to the café where they enjoyed their lunch with grand appetite.

There was one more entertaining activity to do at the top of the tall mountain, however, and it wasn't merely admiring the beauty of the remarkable landscape:

"We have to throw these clay discs and, if we hit a target, our wish will come true?" Azula asked Sokka, amused, once he brought her to the wonderful amusement he had discovered, not far from the café. Sokka grinned and nodded. "I suppose the targets are angled so that people won't fling the discs at the hiking trail by mistake, right?"

"Pretty sure they'll be fine," Sokka chuckled. "Besides! It's us. There's no way we're going to miss…! Though, uh, no pressure, but I can't throw the disc myself."

"Oh… right," Azula frowned, eyeing his right arm. Sokka smiled sadly.

"My aim with my left isn't terrible, but I can't say I trust I'll hit a target and I don't want to take any chances. So…! You'll have to make a wish for the both of us," he said, grinning and placing a disc on her hand. "You can do this!"

"I can, of course," Azula smiled, weighing the disc carefully. It wasn't as heavy as it looked, so she'd have to control her strength, if anything. "Alright… let's see how it goes."

Sokka grinned, rooting for her excitedly as Azula prepared herself most ceremoniously. The rest of their group had just exited the café, catching sight of the two lovers and their antics… far too innocent antics for anyone who had ever been deemed a yakuza, it seemed.

"Go! Go! You've got the best arm in the entire prefecture! The best brain! The best ass…!"

"That one's not going to be of much help here, is it?" Azula asked, rolling her eyes but smiling at Sokka, who grinned and shrugged carelessly in her direction.

"I bet it helps you keep your balance right, though," he said. Azula smiled, shaking her head as she aimed the disc again. "You can do this!"

"Of course I can," Azula said, stubbornly…

She wasn't one to believe in these sorts of folktales, truth be told. But if it was for the sake of making a wish, any kind of wish, that might come true… then all she could possibly wish for was to live a long, joyful, healthy life alongside the man who cheered for her with so much enthusiasm.

She flung the disc, and it spun beautifully in a smooth arch before striking one of the targets perfectly.

Azula couldn't contain a slightly more enthusiastic celebration than intended: before she knew it, Sokka's arms were around her, squeezing her tightly, no matter if she warned him to stop exerting so much power with his right arm. The laughing voices of their companions reached them easily, and Azula ventured a quick kiss to Sokka's lips before clasping his hand in hers, forcing him to join the others – a futile choice to make, in the end, for the other young members of their group were soon tossing discs too, and Hakoda even joined them after a while. Unsurprisingly, most of them managed to hit their targets, so the whole group was rather cheerful once they were on their way back to the beautiful town where their fun was set to continue.

As it was already dusk once they were finished with their temple visit, their group retired to their rooms early, intending to make the most of the first mystic onsen on the next day. They cleaned up before dinner, visiting the first of the hot spring waters they'd enjoy in their stay in Kinosaki, in the privacy of their inn rooms. Sokka, to Azula's amusement, insisted on using his new towel to figure out how they had to wash themselves properly with the ladle, showing remarkable restraint when she knew he wanted nothing quite as much as to pin her down and kiss her until they were breathless.

He did that, of course, once they were properly clean and soaking in the waters of the cavernous hot spring. Their naked, tattooed bodies pressed together smoothly, and Azula sat on Sokka's lap, ensuring his shoulder would be submerged in the warm waters of the small, slightly cramped hot springs.

"We'll overdose on hot springs for the next days, huh?" Azula smiled, brushing Sokka's soaked hair with her fingers. Sokka hummed happily, hands traveling far more freely over Azula's body under the warm water.

"You think you'll get bored, do you?" he asked, amused. "C'mon… we can at least buy ourselves an hour or two of privacy in each of them, and…"

"Oh? That's what you're betting on, then?" Azula smirked. Sokka chuckled, kissing her teasingly. "I should've known… I truly am marrying a pervert, aren't I?"

"How many times, Azula? How many times did we have sex on my tattooing chair?" Sokka asked. She couldn't hide the wicked smirk that instinctively spread across her face at that question. "You and I, we're used to desecrating everything sacred by being too horny for our own good. What use is there in denying it now, eh?"

"Oh, fine. Why bother saving face? I'm as bad as you, if not worse" Azula smiled, kissing him willfully again. "Though… as far as I know, these sorts of places usually don't provide mixed baths, just so you know."

"Eh, maybe if we pay the people to keep the place clear for our use for a few hours, it'll work just fine." Sokka grinned. Azula raised an eyebrow at his certainty, but she smiled and shrugged before long.

"I guess we'll see if it'll pay off. At least we have this place, if nothing else, eh?" she said, glancing around herself at the cavernous, private bathing facility in their inn. "We'll be getting married in three days, right? That means we'll have time to visit one of the hot springs tomorrow, then another in two days, and then…"

"Then comes the big day," Sokka grinned. "Are you ready?"

"I hope so," Azula admitted, with a shy smile. "The dress is slightly more cumbersome than anything I'm used to wearing, but…"

"Well, now, traditional outfits will look just as great on you as western ones," Sokka grinned. "You'll look beautiful for sure."

"As will you," Azula grinned. "The most handsome groom…"

"Ehehe, you'll make me blush," Sokka chuckled, and Azula answered his dorky response with another kiss. "It'll be fun for sure, eh?"

"Absolutely," Azula smiled, placing her head on his shoulder.

She wondered, even now, if her mother might have a chance to decipher her message and drop by at all, or not. Kyoto was about as distant from Kinosaki as Akashi, after all… but even if she did decode it, it was possible she might choose not to come at all. Perhaps Azula had wasted her opportunities to preserve her bond with her mother, back when she had abided by Ozai's poisonous orders…

It wasn't something she'd allow to dampen the mood of the wonderful trip they'd made, though: the delicious meal the ryokan's staff prepared for them proved very fulfilling, just as much as the love she and Sokka made in their shared futon, warmly snuggled together underneath the heavy covers. By the time Sokka had fallen asleep soundly, in a proper position that wouldn't strain his shoulder, Azula gazed drowsily at his handsome face, wondering silently if she had ever felt such peace ever before… she didn't really need to wonder, though. She knew she hadn't… and she knew she'd make the most of it for every moment they would share in this wonderful, leisurely journey.

They set out on the next morning with no shortage of enthusiasm: the first of the hot springs awaited them near the cable car station. Sokka's devious excitement only seemed to strengthen further with each passing moment… until, upon arriving in Kounoyu, he learned a most expected and yet frustrating truth:

"T-there's too many tourists for us to do anything about it? We have to split, after all? Man's side and woman's side…?" he asked, eyebrows twitching as his sister snickered proudly beside him.

"Such a shame, isn't it?" she smirked, as Sokka pouted in her direction. "Be a good boy and don't try to peek on your future wife, or you'll end up seeing your relatives, too, and I highly doubt you want to…"

"B-be quiet! There should be a private bathing area for just her and me!" Sokka whimpered, thoroughly disappointed.

Azula wasn't entirely happy with the developments either, but she couldn't hold back her laughter as she followed Kya and Katara into the women's side of the onsen. Sokka pouted, head hung as his father patted his back gently.

"Relax, kid. Some propriety won't hurt you," he smirked. Sokka rose up to his full height, cheeks red despite he seemed to be determined to display absolutely no regret over his shamelessness.

"Heh. I hope the other places aren't as annoying about this," he mumbled bitterly, folding his arms over his chest.

"Come on, now… don't be such a sourpuss even if they are," Hakoda chuckled. "Don't you know each of these hot springs have historical, traditional significance…?"

"I guess?" Sokka pouted, following his father through the curtain of the male side of the onsen. "Why would that make me feel any better?"

"Kounoyu, as far as I can recall…" Hakoda said, glancing at Sokka with a smirk. "Is supposed to be a sacred bath in which you can soak in order to gain happiness in marriage and longevity, too."

Sokka's eyes widened: his previous disappointment faded upon hearing those words. No, he wasn't really that stupid, he didn't think his marriage's happiness would have anything to do with which hot springs he had soaked in… but he still was very thorough about cleaning up before entering the outdoors bath. He wasn't supposed to stay in the water too long, but he was certainly ready to remain in it for hours if that might have any role in guaranteeing as much luck and happiness for their impending marriage…

Azula wasn't much better than him, in truth: Kya told her of the hot springs' properties as well, and she had immediately blushed as she glanced back at the outdoors bath. It was irrational, of course it was… but she wanted to stay in those waters longer than necessary if just to make the most of whatever luck the universe might bestow upon them. Her marriage with Sokka would be as successful as possible, she'd see to that, but a little help from hot springs wouldn't hurt one bit.

It was supposed to be rude to stare at someone in the hot springs, but when Azula finally marched into the water, the other women bathing in them gaped in astonishment at the ornate tattoo that slithered all over her body. Even Katara and Kya, who knew of the tattoo's existence, eyed her without much abashment as they entered the water with her, both sporting much smaller tattoos of their own.

"I really have to say… it's incredible!" Katara smiled, as Azula blushed while they entered the water. "Did Sokka seriously pull this off in a week? With how eager he is to hit the sack with you, I can't believe he could focus long enough to finish such a complicated design that quickly…"

"Well, we didn't exactly do much else in that week," Azula said, blushing as Katara studied the details of the scales all across Azula's back. Kya smiled as she entered the water too, intrigued by Azula's explanations… though up to a certain point.

"Much else aside from…?" Katara asked, and Azula's embarrassed sigh spoke for itself. "Yep, well, that's what I mean, really. I'd have thought you'd just have been up to that, all along…"

"You underestimate your brother's devotion to his clan, then," Azula said, with a weak smile. "It evolved into something else in the end, of course, but… he was doing it for the Kawakami's sake."

"He's a sweet boy, deep down… no matter how much trouble he may get into," Kya laughed. "Sometimes I think our little family wound up in the wrong business altogether, eh?"

"If so, I'm sorry that's the case… but I'm grateful for it, nonetheless," Azula said, with a weak smile. "I don't think I would have made anything useful of myself if… if it weren't for your family."

"Well, you don't have to think about that at all," Katara smiled, bumping Azula lightly with her shoulder. "You're one of us now… or will be, very soon."

"Oh, I think she has been for the last month as it is," Kya laughed. "By now, it's only a formality to hold a wedding ceremony and call you a Kawakami."

Azula smiled and nodded: she had never expected to find this sort of acceptance in the Kawakami family, and she treasured it dearly now that she had. The tension, the distance, the uncomfortable glares, the constant suspicions that her own relatives were conspiring against her, the terrifying mirrors in those who were now gone, whether because they had left or died… none of it existed here. The Kawakami, the whole clan, was a true family… knowing she was welcome among them, enough to take their name, was the greatest honor she had ever experienced.

It was barely midday by the time they were ready to leave Kounoyu – Sokka had finally agreed to leave the hot springs but only upon being reminded that he'd be with Azula again once the girls were ready too. True to form, he rushed in to hug her right away after she and the others exited the women's side of the onsen, and she patted his back while laughing at his childish glee over their reunion.

The rest of the day was then spent sightseeing in the beautiful town – Hakoda jotted down several fun ideas for places to visit while they were in town, whenever they weren't in the hot springs. It was unlikely that they'd get to enjoy every possible activity in Kinosaki and the nearby towns, but for the time being, their group basked in shopping and enjoying snacks and drinks as they paced through the town, dressed up in the classy yukatas their respective inns provided for them.

Katara visited Sokka and Azula in their room that night to check that Sokka's shoulder was still improving steadily. The stain of restored skin in the wound's location chilled Azula to the bone, sometimes… but she looked forward to one day learning how to do tebori from the master himself. Sokka performed his every physiotherapy exercise smoothly, and he even appeared to think his body felt slightly stronger today.

"Heh, maybe by the time this whole trip is done, I'll be able to drive you back to Akashi myself," Sokka told Azula, who smiled and shook her head, especially at Katara's obvious disapproval.

"You're crazy if you think I'll let you. I'd sooner tie you up and toss you into the van," Katara declared, proudly. Sokka pouted as his sister rose to her feet, a slight smile on her face. "Get some rest, then. Two days, eh?"

"Two days," Azula smiled, nodding. Sokka chuckled, throwing his hands out in the air with sheer delight as he dropped on their futon.

"I'm not going to be able to sleep at all, at this rate," he confessed, once Katara was gone. Azula raised her eyebrows.

"Too excited?" she asked, amused. Sokka chuckled. "You're as giddy as a child on the first day of school, then?"

"Something like that," he said, beaming. "I doubt it'll feel that different, huh? But this month has been amazing all by itself, as things stand… I've been with you for a whole month, Azula. We haven't done anything like this since…"

"Since our professional association began," Azula said, leaning over him to kiss his lips softly. "Though it was only a week, back then."

"It'll be a lifetime, this time around," Sokka said, smiling earnestly. She couldn't help but respond in kind before kissing him more passionately.

She wound up tiring him out into falling asleep yet again, for he seemed poised to stay awake all night, vibrating with excitement over their upcoming wedding. By morning, they joined the others in a cycling tour of the town, throughout which they stopped whenever anyone needed a break: Sokka and Azula naturally shared a single bike, and Sokka pedaled while Azula took care of the handlebar. They took but a moment to synch up their motions, delighting themselves with the sights in town while warmly snuggled together on their bicycle.

The experience in the next onsen, Mandarayu, proved similar to the first: by then, Sokka was resigned to accept they'd never be able to buy themselves any privacy, and that he had to abide by the sex-separation in each of the hot spring facilities: Azula looked forward to rejoining him once they were done soaking in the healing waters, and so did he… for the next day would be the most eventful of their whole trip.

On the wedding's morning, Azula was helped in all her preparations by Kya and Katara: her traditional dress was of a pristine white, with all the layers of a traditional bridal kimono, as well as an ornate obi and a large headdress she wasn't used to wearing at all. Sokka's darker outfit was matched with a striped hakama, far more comfortable and easy to move in than Azula's much more restrictive attire. They prepared in different rooms, though, and so, they marched to their chosen temple with their respective companions once they were ready.

It wasn't common for weddings to be held in Buddhist temples, but Hakoda had arranged matters with one of the resident priests in Gokurakuji temple and ensured the temple would be closed off for their group's exclusive use that morning. It was a beautiful place, with countless well-cared for gardens, statues and symbols etched into stones, all outside the pagoda buildings where the ceremony would take place. Even the rowdy and typically loud yakuza members were awed into smooth silence upon arriving, and their assigned priest, clad in his traditional robes, stepped outside the main temple and greeted them graciously.

"Ah, here we are! This is the priest who will officiate the wedding, Sokka!" Hakoda grinned: the bald priest smiled and bowed his head towards the groom.

"It's an honor to have been asked to perform a ceremony for you and your bride," he said. "I'll do my very best!"

"I'll be grateful for that," Sokka grinned. "It's nice to meet you, uh…?"

"Oh, Aang. My name is Aang," the priest said, smiling graciously still.

They spoke briefly about what the wedding would entail, while the others poked their noses everywhere they dared in the temple. It wouldn't be long before Azula arrived, Sokka knew as much, so all he had to do was wait patiently…

A few tourists had been turned away by other priests by the door, who had explained the temple had been booked for private use on that morning and to visit it later. Yet after a few minutes of talking with Aang, the monk appeared puzzled upon realizing someone by the door didn't seem to accept the restriction…

"Is something wrong?" Sokka asked, glancing in the door's direction too…

"… I understand this is a private ceremony, yes, but I'm, uh, somewhat invited? That is, if it's even in this temple at all, I really need to know because I don't want to be late…" a woman's voice spoke hurriedly, nervously.

"I understand that, but I cannot disclose the identities of our current patrons…" said the priest at the door, glancing back at Aang worriedly.

Aang gritted his teeth, marching to the temple door: without hesitating, Sokka followed and so did Hakoda. The woman by the door was difficult to see at first… but she had rolling luggage with her, and Sokka was immediately struck by a strange sensation of familiarity once they came closer…

Her eyes shifted towards the newly arriving men and settled on Hakoda. A light gasp left her lips, just as he yelped in surprise.

"Y-you… Ursa Homura?" Hakoda gasped. Sokka's eyes widened as the woman winced and shook her head.

"I don't go by that name anymore…" she said, with an awkward smile. "But… you're Hakoda Kawakami, aren't you? T-then… I didn't get the wrong place. This is it?"

"You made it," Sokka blinked blankly before smiling broadly. "You actually could make it…"

"Uh… huh?" Hakoda glanced at Sokka with confusion, and Sokka grinned brightly at him. "She was coming all along? Had we known…!"

"Well, we weren't sure she would make it, to be honest," Sokka said. "We didn't say anything because it was possible she wouldn't…"

"I almost missed it," Ursa admitted, with a grimace. "I took too long to figure out the message, it used a different kind of code than what I remembered, and… and once I did, I just left everything to my understudy and came here as fast as I could. The train took forever, feels like, but…"

"But you still did it," Sokka chuckled, beaming. "Azula… she'll be delighted."

Ursa's eyes seemed to gleam brightly upon hearing those words. She hadn't seen her daughter since Azula was a child, Sokka knew so. She had feared Ursa might want nothing to do with any of her past life anymore, that after Azula hadn't answered her attempts to reach out in the past, Ursa might ignore this one… but she hadn't. She was here, ruffled and nervous and exhausted after a long train ride… but she was here, for her daughter's wedding.

"You're the groom, are you?" Ursa asked, smiling at him. "Hakoda Kawakami's son, of all people…?"

"It's a complicated story," Sokka laughed, nodding. "I bet Azula will be thrilled to share it with you."

"I… I can only hope," Ursa laughed, tears of joy blinking in her eyes. "I can only…"

New sets of footsteps, right outside the temple, alerted the many people blocking the door that they weren't alone anymore: Ursa turned around quickly, her long hair whipping around as her heart pounded in her chest…

A beautiful bride stood before her. A beautiful bride, accompanied by two Kawakami women dressed in gorgeous traditional outfits of their own. The Kawakami women were puzzled by her presence… but the bride had frozen solid, eyes as wide as Ursa's, upon seeing her mother again for the first time in well over a decade.

"A… Azula?" Ursa managed to say, smiling slowly.

"Mom," Azula blurted out, immediately, unthinking… as though she couldn't quite process the reality her very eyes were presenting for her. "Mom? Y-you… you made it? You…!"

"Oh, my child…" Ursa laughed, hands reaching up to cover her mouth before she gave in to her impulses. "Oh, my daughter!"

The ornate dress Azula wore certainly wasn't supposed to be crumpled in any way, but it was when her mother rushed in to embrace her. Azula laughed in the woman's embrace, tears spilling down her face, no doubt ruining her makeup as she tightened her grip around Ursa's body.

"Oh, my… good thing we brought the makeup set with us anyway," Kya laughed, watching the reunion between mother and daughter with a fond smile. Katara chuckled too, glancing at her brother to check if he was just as delighted by the situation as they were…

Her eyes fell upon the tall priest standing with her brother, though, and her heart skipped a beat.

"Will there be any more surprise guests?" the priest asked Sokka, who chuckled and shook his head.

"Shouldn't be, anyway. I think this is everyone," he grinned in response. Aang smiled and glanced at the new arrivals.

"Well, then… I think we can take some time before we get started. Please, come inside, everyone," he said, extending a gracious hand towards the temple's buildings.

"Right… right," Katara smiled awkwardly, stepping up to him. "You're the priest who will officiate the ceremony, I take it?"

"Yes! And you… uh, you're the groom's sister?" he asked, blinking blankly as he gaped at her. "Wow. Uh, I mean, it's my pleasure to meet you!"

"It's mine too," Katara's smile widened. Sokka crooked an eyebrow at their exchange before leaning towards his father.

"Are Buddhist priests allowed to get married…?" he asked, quietly. Hakoda chuckled and nodded.

"As far as I know, yes. But it's not what you should be focusing on right now, is it?" Hakoda asked, nudging Sokka's flank with an elbow.

Sokka grinned before raising his gaze to Azula and Ursa: his wife-to-be still wept, clinging to the mother who laughed and cried too, rubbing her daughter's back gently. Yes, Sokka could barely wait to get married… but after a moment like this, he was willing to exercise a little more patience than he expected to have in him: Azula most certainly deserved it.

After about half an hour of incoherent crying, Azula, Ursa and Kya relocated to a room in the temple, where Kya now helped clean up Azula's chaotic, runny makeup. By now, the younger woman couldn't help but laugh at the sorry display she'd made of herself so far, though her mother didn't seem to care, one way or another.

"I'm sorry I took so long… I almost missed the wedding, even!" Ursa said, shaking her head in sheer horror. "I just… I couldn't truly believe this was happening, once I realized it was a coded message. And then I thought maybe I had it wrong…"

"You didn't… you figured it out," Azula smiled, squeezing her mother's hand gently. "I thought… m-maybe you just wouldn't want to come at all, and I understood that, but…"

"Oh, you certainly had nothing to understand, dear," Ursa smiled fondly at her daughter. "I know I stopped sending you messages, after a while… both you and your brother. I feared your father might attempt to harm me, or either of you, if I continued. But there hasn't been a day, a single day, that I didn't think of you both…"

"I'm sorry I doubted you… I know now it was the Homura who failed you, not the other way around," Azula said, gazing at Ursa with repentant eyes. "But for a long time… that's what he wanted us to believe. And for a long time, I was too narrow-minded to accept other possibilities might be true, but…"

"You don't have to apologize at all, dear… I know how hard it is to leave that life behind," Ursa said, smiling and shaking her head. "I was born into it just as you were. At least you finally could break free from the Homura, although…"

"Although I wound up with the Kawakami anyway?" Azula asked, with a knowing grin. Ursa let out a soft laugh as she glanced at Kya remorsefully. Kya smiled and shook her head.

"As far as we can tell, we're nothing like the Homura," Kya said. "Your daughter seems to think so, too."

"They're really not," Azula said, dabbing her eyes again as Kya finished wiping the ruined makeup off. "I know you must have wanted me to find a better life well outside the yakuza lifestyle, but…"

"I would have preferred that, yes… but the Homura themselves are the worse problem, of that I have no doubt," Ursa sighed, shaking her head. "That you've been able to come this far, dear, that you've broken away from your father's control, is what matters most. And if the Kawakami have been a good family for you…"

"The best I could have asked for," Azula said, with a gentle smile. "I… never thought they'd accept me, but…"

"Oh, we never stood a chance," Kya laughed. "Not only is your daughter extraordinary and has proven herself to us from the very first moment, lady Ursa, but my son was ready to walk out on the clan for good if we proved too foolish to understand your daughter's worth."

"Was he, now?" Ursa smiled. "He looks like a good young man, for certain…"

"He's the best man I've ever known," Azula confirmed, with a gentle smile.

"Well, I can't wait to hear all about how you two fell in love, no matter if it's a typical gruesome yakuza tale," Ursa chuckled.

"It's… not entirely that gruesome, I suppose," Azula smiled awkwardly, blushing – she certainly didn't intend to share too many details about how her relationship with Sokka had begun, though.

"Good, then. I never really liked hearing about amputated fingers and burns and whatnot," Ursa smiled awkwardly. "But we'll have to leave that for later! This is your wedding, it's your wedding…!"

"I'm… I'm glad you could make it, Mom," Azula said, with a genuine smile as Ursa reached for the makeup set. "Uh… you'll help too?"

"Oh, I promise you won't look like a kabuki actress when I'm done with you," Ursa reassured her: Azula and Kya laughed at her words. "I can do normal makeup too, Azula, no need to worry."

"I'm not worried. I… thank you, Mom," Azula smiled. Ursa grinned and reached for the first brush.

"I'm the one who thanks you, dear. I truly feared… I truly feared I might never see you or your brother again," she said, with a tearful smile. "Thank you for this chance… I wouldn't have missed your wedding for anything in the world. Ask my understudy, really, it's the first time I've let her work at all…"

Azula laughed as Ursa smiled, tracing the brush delicately upon her visage. Her wedding was sure to be memorable all along… but her mother's presence had made matters even better than she had anticipated. Perhaps she would be Azula's only family member present in this ceremony… but that was more than enough for the girl who, until a short time ago, had assumed none of her relatives would ever witness, let alone approve of, her union with Sokka Kawakami. Even Iroh, in the emails they had exchanged, had been left in the dark about this situation, as Azula doubted he would take kindly to knowing she had skipped from one family to the other. Usually, yakuza were never allowed to do such a thing… but she had been a special case, and as such, her presence with the Kawakami had to be kept a secret.

But she had to try with her mother. She'd suspected it wouldn't go well… but she had to try. Now, as her mother carefully applied makeup on her face, Azula couldn't regret her choice in the least: yet again, she found herself cherishing everything that had happened, every positive change in her life, ever since she had turned her back on the Homura. She had been able to craft new bonds, to strengthen the one she already had established with Sokka… and to reclaim those she had feared were lost beyond repair, such as her renewed relationship with her mother.

Just as Ursa was giving her the finishing touches, Katara appeared anew by the room's threshold, carrying a delicately folded kimono with her. So focused as she was, Ursa barely noticed her until Katara cleared her throat.

"We went into town to get this kimono for you, lady Ursa," Katara grinned. Ursa's eyes widened.

"My…! I knew I wasn't wearing proper clothes for a wedding, but you didn't need to go this far…!" Ursa smiled, gazing at Katara in disbelief. Katara laughed and shook her head.

"Come on, now. Your daughter's marrying my brother: it means we're all family, right?" she said, with a kind grin. Her eyes met Azula's grateful ones moments later, and Katara nodded in her direction. "And you're looking even better than before!"

"My mom has a knack for it, it seems," Azula grinned, as Ursa blushed at their praise.

"No, no, really, it's just a lot of practice…" she smiled, returning to her work on Azula's face. "But all in all, I just really want to make sure you look as best as possible, dear. I'm sure I'll only have this chance once in a lifetime, so…"

"We… can discuss the future, later," Azula smiled. "Evidently, I intend for this to be my only wedding, but… things have changed a lot for me, as you already can tell, Mom."

"They have. And I couldn't be happier about it," Ursa smiled.

"I don't want to put you at risk, though," Azula said, biting her lip. "I'm currently living in hiding because…"

"Oh, I know. Now, no lip biting right now…" Ursa said, and Azula obeyed, letting her mother trail the lipstick carefully over her lower lip. "I've been away for a long time, but… I've followed the news all along. Those strange yakuza magazines… my castmates think I have a strange predilection for yakuza because I've been caught reading them, looking for any sign of you or your brother in those articles. It was published a couple of weeks ago that you had somehow abandoned the country and were living with your uncle Iroh in Korea?"

"It made it that far, then…?" Azula asked, amused. Ursa smiled.

"I had hoped you'd be doing well, upon reading that, but I had no idea how to reach out to you anyway. I can't correspond with Iroh either, for I don't know if they keep him under watch as well, or even myself…"

"Do you think they could have followed you here?" Azula asked. Ursa shook her head.

"I doubt it. I purposefully hid myself well, and… my difficulty in unraveling your message certainly must have helped. I changed trains about three times, to shake off any potential pursuit, at first acting as though I was utterly lost," Ursa said. "Using my professional skills for general life matters is surprisingly fun, I'll say. But… no, I think we're safe. As long as I don't communicate with anyone while I'm here, I don't believe they'll have a chance to track me down at all."

"Your phone…?" Kya asked. Ursa shook her head.

"It's safe and sound in my house, back in Kyoto. How careless of me, traveling without a phone…" Ursa sighed. Azula smiled.

"Maybe… maybe I can get you a burner phone eventually. We could talk safely that way, sometimes, at least," she said. Ursa grinned and nodded.

"We can finish settling all those things after the wedding, if you'd like. For now… you're a bride, my dear, and your groom must begrudge me for keeping you from him," Ursa laughed, before turning to Katara. "Thank you so much for this beautiful kimono, as well. You didn't have to, but…"

"Of course we did," Katara smiled. "Go on, change and we'll get started once everyone's ready. I'll, uh, let the priest know."

"Sure, dear," Kya smiled, before helping Azula to her feet. "Alright, then. This time, for sure…!"

"No more surprises," Azula laughed, and Kya smiled fondly at her.

"What a beautiful bride my son has found. I'd say he should be grateful, but I know he already is," Kya said, clasping Azula's hands gently. "As are the rest of us, too."

Azula smiled and nodded: she wasn't sure if she was more grateful than everyone else, but she certainly felt like she was. Her heart seemed moments away from overflowing with joy… and she'd do best to contain as much as she could, for now. She'd let it all out later, once she and Sokka were behind closed doors.

Ursa dressed up quickly, yet again an ability derived from many years working in theater, and she returned to the main hall where the ceremony would be held, where the men and Katara waited. The young woman appeared most eager to chat with the priest, who responded to her enthusiastic approaches quite politely, no doubt pleased to have her attention, yet intending to focus on his upcoming duty of officiating a wedding, all the same. By the time Azula finally stepped into the hall, Sokka's chest tightened as a blissful smile spread over his face. She smiled warmly right back at him, though her eyes shifted towards her mother upon noticing she had requested something from Hakoda… he yielded his phone to her quickly, just for Ursa to begin snapping pictures of her daughter walking in her wedding gown with undeniable enthusiasm. Azula couldn't hold back a soft laugh upon noticing it – yes, perhaps she should have been the picture of absolute dignity and solemnity, but her mother's antics certainly seemed poised to break any such determination.

"Here we are, then…" Aang smiled, ushering Azula to join Sokka at the altar. Azula breathed deeply, focusing on her soon-to-be husband, whose blue eyes seemed to sparkle with affection. She was moments away from ruining her makeup again by kissing him right away… so she was grateful when Aang asked. "Everyone ready?"

"Yes. We may begin," Azula said, and Sokka nodded.

"Please do," he confirmed, without taking his eyes off her for a second. Azula blushed but smiled, taking his hand in hers.

The ceremony flowed smoothly: Aang recited sutras pertaining the holy occasion they were witnessing, and many of the monks nearby recited them along with him. Then it was time for them to exchange vows, which they did earnestly, pledging to love each other for as long as they might live. A sequence of prayers followed, as did a ring exchange – Hakoda had ordered them back in Akashi, and they fit them perfectly around each other's fingers –, and then, together, they lit traditional incense. Finally, the main tradition followed: the bride and groom poured sake for each other three times, drinking from the same cup. The other monks offered sake to the rest of the guests in the meantime, and by the end, everyone had toasted – far too respectfully, for yakuza standards – to the newlywed couple. Once the last exchange was finished, Sokka laughed with delight: it was done. With this… they were finally married. They had only been officially engaged for a month… but he felt as though he had waited a lifetime for this moment.

He couldn't suppress the urge, despite it wasn't part of the ceremony, to pull Azula in for a kiss once Aang had certified it was over. Azula laughed into his lips, as their many guests clapped at his boldness. They would leave the temple now, and finally the other tourists would be free to visit it… in the meantime, though, they rejoiced and cherished their blissful happiness, thrilled to be in each other's arms in the brightest of moments.

To no one's surprise, Katara somehow persuaded the monk that presided their ceremony to join them in the reception, which they held in the Morizuya inn: the staff were delighted to cook a reception meal for them, offering no end of skillfully crafted dishes, top-tier sake and a joyous ambience all the guests rejoiced in gladly. While there was so much Azula wanted to talk about with her mother, Ursa reassured her that they'd have enough time to talk on the next days, for she would stay in Kinosaki for as long as she and the Kawakami retinue did.

Thus, the whole group celebrated joyfully, joining together in dances and singing, laughing at the stories shared by the group – many of which featured Sokka's family sharing the most embarrassing anecdotes they could recall from him as a child, bringing Azula to tears of laughter with most of them. It was a beautiful day, and as much as Azula wasn't sure any of the days that followed might top it, she expected her current happiness would continue to strengthen until her whole body adapted and adjusted to it… until she learned how to live in the bliss she had thought she'd never experience, especially after the dark moments when she had feared Sokka's life might be extinguished forever.

She cherished him all the more that night, once everyone had taken off to their rooms again – Ursa booked a room for herself in another nearby inn and promised to drop by early in the morning for the next of the group's activities. Sokka hardly could wait to remove Azula's beautiful wedding dress, just as she was eager to strip him off his groom's outfit too: their kisses were long and deep, betraying the same lust they ever shared… mixed so smoothly with the love and affection that all they could do was continue pouring their devotion for each other into every exchange. Into each caress, into each thrust of their bodies, into each smile they shared, into every word they spoke, into each moment their eyes met and sparks of pure delight fizzled between them…

Whether in their futon or in their private hot spring, whether against a wall or the floor, it didn't matter: they consummated their love non-stop through the night, giving themselves to the other completely, always ready to share the unparalleled passion they felt for each other.

They were, naturally, exhausted on the next day, and most of their friends teased them for it. Sokka nearly dozed off in the third hot spring they visited, at which his friends immediately took to teasing him about what he'd been up to with his wife. Azula couldn't quite shake off the drowsiness entirely, but the chance to talk thoroughly with her mother while in the hot springs had certainly seen to keeping her alert… especially once she was immediately flustered when her mother froze cold at the sight of the huge tattoo across Azula's torso and back. As flustered as she was, it meant she'd definitely need to explain her story by then, and even though Azula didn't think her mother would approve of the whirlwind affair she'd started with Sokka, an affair that had quickly become so much more than that, Ursa actually seemed amused by most the story, once she had conveyed it.

Their days in Kinosaki continued to be as fun and blissful as possible from that point onwards, as they spent each day visiting a different hot spring and basking in countless fun activities they could do in the town during the rest of the day – they took Ursa to the mountain temple, and she as well managed to hit a target with a clay disc, albeit it took her a couple of tries to finally pull it off. Katara continued to meet with Aang during their remaining week in the town, to everyone's amusement: the monk appeared to be an upstanding man in most regards, but it was clear he wasn't all that immune to common desire after Kya had walked into Katara's room to find her daughter straddling a half-naked monk, the night before they left.

Of all the hot springs they visited, the last ones thrilled Azula the most: Satonoyu had a beautiful scenery, with even waterfalls in their hot springs pools. While she and Sokka were restricted to abiding by the male and female separation of the hot springs, they still enjoyed their seven mystic springs as best they could… and to Azula's utmost surprise and delight, it did seem as though the waters had done wonders for her husband's recovery. His right arm could move more freely, and he could exert some strength with it already. By the last night, she realized they hadn't woken up over nightmares at all while they were in Kinosaki. The change of scenery, the wonderful days they had spent together, had nearly done away with all their worries…

Nearly, though. None of them were quite as foolish as to assume their leisure days would last forever, no matter how much they wished that were the case.

"I'll see to ordering a phone to this address, then," Azula said, once she was seeing her mother off at her train station. "If anything weird happens to you, anything at all, either call or message me and I'll figure out how to deal with it. I know it's not much of a promise, but…"

"It's more than enough," Ursa said, hugging her daughter warmly. "I wish you wouldn't need to take so many precautions, but that you're willing to try is as heartwarming as can be, my dear. Thank you… for inviting me, and for welcoming me in your life as you have."

"I'm sorry it took this long. But I'll do better, from now on. I promise," Azula said, burying her face in her mother's shoulder. Ursa nodded.

"If I can ask you anything…" Ursa whispered. Azula raised an eyebrow as she pulled back. "Don't go too far out of your way, if it's impossible, but… do you believe you could help your brother, too?"

"Help him…?" Azula repeated. Ursa swallowed hard and nodded.

"He's a good boy, just as you were a good girl, even if I barely had the chance to watch you both grow," Ursa said, shivering. "You've made it out of the Homura clan. Maybe he could too, one day, if…"

"I… I'm not sure he will want to," Azula admitted, eyeing Ursa remorsefully.

It was true that Zuko had wept far more than Azula herself had, when Ursa had left them… but after all these years, and after a month of being the sole heir to Ozai's clan, it wasn't likely her brother would be ready to turn his back on the yakuza life he had been forced to live for as long as he had been born.

"I know, that's why I said you shouldn't go too far if it's impossible…" Ursa said, with sad eyes.

"If I can get in touch with him safely… I'll try to tell him to reach out to you, too," Azula promised. Ursa smiled and nodded.

"That would be perfect," she said. Azula smiled too. "As it is… that you're free is a miracle in itself. I'm grateful, dear… so grateful that I could be here with you at all."

"I am, too. Thank you for coming, going out of your way as you did… for doing it as safely as you could, too," Azula smiled sadly. "I…"

"I'll talk to you soon," Ursa said, caressing her daughter's face gently, but Azula stopped her from pulling away by clasping her wrist.

"I missed you," she said, bluntly, trying to ignore the tears that burned in her eyes upon saying those words. Ursa smiled warmly, though tears did tumble down her cheeks before she hugged her daughter again.

"My beautiful girl…" Ursa whispered, with a blissful sigh. "My wonderful girl. I love you, Azula."

Azula smiled and nodded, hugging Ursa tighter before letting go at last. Tears still blinked in her eyes as she pulled back.

"I love you too, Mom," she said: had she ever said those words to her mother before? The bliss in Ursa's face suggested the answer to that question was a negative one, and the liberating joy in Azula's heart seemed to agree.

She laughed softly, raising a hand as her mother walked backwards to the turnstile. Sokka stepped up to wrap an arm around Azula's shoulders once Ursa was crossing into the train's platform, and the older woman waved one more time before rushing off: her train was already there, and it was time for her to return to Kyoto.

"I can't believe the last ten days were real," Azula confessed, smiling as her mother vanished from view. Sokka chuckled, kissing the top of her head.

"I'm not sure if I should endeavor to ensure you spend the rest of your life thinking you can't believe our happiness is real… or if I should hope that you'll get used to it and stop questioning it. Which is better, eh?" Sokka asked, teasingly. Azula smiled and turned so she'd wind up wrapped warmly in his arms: she kissed him willfully, disregarding the many people who seemed uncomfortable over their blatant display of affection.

"Both sound like a good idea," Azula grinned. Sokka chuckled and kissed her again. She returned the kiss gladly, one arm wrapped around his neck… the other reaching up to his wounded shoulder, caressing it gently.

Sokka's peaceful smile greeted her again once they parted. Her heart raced when he asked his next question, and she knew exactly the answer she'd give him, without needing a single moment to think about it:

"So… ready to go home?"

"With you? Always."

Two years later…

The media was eating up the latest developments with absolute delight, gluttonously: the juiciest of all happenings surrounding the yakuza had only just struck the Japanese underworld, and news about it had poured all over the place…

Ozai Homura, however, was left frozen cold in utter horror at the devastating blow he had been dealt. A blow he hadn't been prepared for, despite he should have seen the signs, all along.

Had he been a self-aware man, had he been capable of self-reflection, perhaps he would have thought it was retribution. He would have reasoned that, perhaps, lashing out at the Kawakami when he had was a terrible mistake, one he should have taken back… but he couldn't possibly think so. He couldn't let himself even elaborate such a thought, for all he could see was disloyalty and treason. So much of it, all over the place, as the strong clan he had prided himself on leading was fractured drastically, brutally, in half.

Zhao had stayed, of course, as had many of his topmost lieutenants. Yet…

"They… will pay. I will make them pay…" Ozai hissed, and yet his words sounded like the final bravado of a dying lion, surrounded by hyenas ready to pounce on his remains.

What was left of the Homura anymore? Now that the largest yakuza clan of the nation had broken in half… what was left for him to do at all? Could he pick up the pieces his damned children had left behind and start over? Could he do so…? He would have his revenge, though, he would most certainly have his revenge one way or another, because if he didn't…

The image on the TV he had just smashed to pieces still haunted him. The wretched Kawakami and their mediatic presence… there they were, welcoming the traitors and announcing the expansion of their clan. Now, their reach had extended all across Kobe after so many of his forces had turned against him…

Guided by none other than his wretched son.

Never before had he longed to burn Zuko so badly as to kill him, but he had that day, upon seeing him shaking hands with…

He couldn't believe it yet. He couldn't. How had she done it?

How had she tricked him, deceived him and his countless advisors and aides, as thoroughly as she had? Who the hell had gone to Korea, if not her? Who the hell was that damn waitress they had confirmed had married Sokka Kawakami…? Was she even real?

No, clearly, she wasn't. The network of deceit Azula had proven capable of weaving had thoroughly shaken him to his core, and he couldn't fathom it, even now.

After everything she had done two years ago, the damn girl wasn't even finished yet. She had already cost the Homura so much, and now she had crippled their forces by half, no less. How had she done it? How had she found enough fools whose loyalty could easily be turned…? He didn't understand it. He couldn't fathom it…

But she had. She had shaken hands with her brother, in front of all those damnable cameras, welcoming him into… into her clan. Into the clan whose heir she had married.

He could still see the two of them, standing side by side, giving declarations about the Kawakami's next steps, about their steady growth… about their clan's future, speaking as though they were the clan's leaders right now, above Hakoda Kawakami himself. The man had taken a backseat, watching his son and daughter-in-law taking care of his family business thoroughly, no doubt trusting they would handle it perfectly in his stead. How could he possibly trust a Homura to that extent…? And yet, after seeing how Azula had rewarded Hakoda for that trust, with a massive boost of manpower, it wasn't so hard to understand it. She had deceived everyone, and now she was married to that wretched tattoo artist, had been for years…!

The man responsible for the starting point of the Homura's downfall was Azula's husband, and he stood staunchly beside her, with that proud smirk across his face… a smirk that had been the last straw for Ozai: he had torn the TV to pieces by then, and his knuckles still bled after the damage they had sustained. The damn boy… he was to blame for it all. Had he just died quietly and properly that night, none of this would have happened…

Had Azula saved him? Azula's plans had been thorough and careful across the past two years, but had she set everything up from the beginning? Was this her revenge against him, for almost killing the man she loved…?

Well, so be it. If that was how she wanted to play this game, Ozai would oblige.

"Zhao…"

"Yes, boss? What will our next move be?" Zhao asked, eagerly. Ozai's eyes glistened with bloodlust when he turned them towards his closest friend:

"We are going to war."

A/N:

So... this could be a bit of a crazy emotional rollercoaster, where we went from the lowest of the low to absolute joy and then to a very ominous conclusion xD a lot of what I wrote here is loosely based on the Yamaguchi-gumi and its own internal conflicts (much as what I wrote last year was loosely based on yakuza response to the Sendai earthquake). I don't even know why I'm pointing this out xD but anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed writing it!